Fate Forgotten (3 page)

“What were you talking about?” Hanna asked.

Casey analyzed her freshly manicured nails. “Glen, of course. She always has that frumpy, depressed look when he’s mentioned.”

Dianne placed her feet on the coffee table beside Hanna. “Break it off yet?”

Valerie shook her head.

“What are you waiting for? The guy’s obviously not interested.”

Hanna reached over and kicked Dianne’s feet off the table.

“Ouch! I didn’t mean it in a bad way.”

Her words stung, but Valerie didn’t take it to heart. One of the reasons she loved Dianne: she could always depend on her to spit out the truth without sugarcoating it.

Shari cleared her throat. “Then perhaps you should rephrase.”

Dianne’s charcoal gaze darted toward Valerie. “I’m sorry. What I meant was he…ignores you and…you shouldn’t be ignored.” She glanced at Shari, then Hanna as if asking whether she’d come across less harsh.

“I thought you guys thought we made the perfect pair.”

Casey smiled. “He’s a warlock. You’re a witch. He’s handsome. You’re gorgeous—”

“You have similar backgrounds, and you make a cute couple, but if he doesn’t treat you right, then what’s the use in wasting your time?” Hanna explained.

“I thought you guys wanted me to gain experience with men and…”

Dianne shrugged. “You should test the waters, explore, but if the guy doesn’t rock your boat, throw him out on his ass.”

“Date several guys at a time, not just one,” Casey added nonchalantly.

Hanna sighed and waved her hand in dismissal. “What they mean to say is if the guy doesn’t give you the attention you deserve, like if he cancels plans on a whim, let him go. You deserve better.”

She nodded, then mouthed, “Right.”

“Let’s have some drinks and watch a movie,” Shari said. “Get your mind off that warlock.”

Dianne jumped off her seat. “Oh, I’ll order pizza. I’m starved! What will it be, ladies?”

“When aren’t you?” Casey flipped her long blonde hair. “And why do you ask if you’ll only get what you want anyway?”

“Cheese and pepperoni it is then.” Dianne grinned and fished her phone out of her pocket.

Valerie couldn’t help but smile. She was glad Glen had cancelled. On a Friday night, there was nowhere else she’d rather be.

After the movie, everyone scattered, heading for bed. Valerie couldn’t sleep, not just yet. Since talking with her coven, she knew she had to end things with Glen, but her nerves were already getting the best of her.

Sighing heavily, she promised herself she’d have a talk with Glen soon. To get her mind off it, she picked up a book and read until she drifted to sleep.

****

An explosion shattered the windows of the coven’s home in New Jersey, the impact shooting shards of glass throughout, piercing Valerie’s skin and jarring her awake. She screamed. Her instincts forcing her to move, ducking behind the couch, she gasped when pain radiated through her leg.

Oh God, her sisters. Her pulse raced. Fear clogged her throat. Frantic, she scanned the room filling quickly with smoke. Debris lay scattered around her.

“Shari! Hanna!” Her voice shrill. “Maggie!”

She coughed, then on shaky hands, she tried to slide away from the scattered fires. Pain radiating up and down her leg, she glanced down, noticing a large piece of glass protruding from her thigh. Pulling it out quickly, she flinched and muffled a groan.

Another explosion sounded, nearly shattering her eardrums. Debris flew around her. More flames sparked to life. Smoke thickened around her, quickly filling the room anew until she could barely see. With each passing second, her heart pounded harder, faster. Adrenaline coursed through her.

“Dianne! Amy!” She coughed, attempting to drag herself farther inside the home.

Nothing. No voices. No sounds but those of the raging fire.

Then another explosion rocked the house, louder and much more powerful than the last. The force of it threw her against the fireplace. Her back and head slammed against the stones. The air in her lungs whooshed out. Pain exploded, every inch of her in agony. Too much to bear.

“Save them.” She meant to scream it, but her voice came out muffled and hoarse.

She couldn’t fight it anymore, the pain, so much of it, overwhelming her. Her eyes drifted closed.

Chapter 3

Valerie stirred hours later, groggy and aching. The events of hours before hit her in a rush, making her lose her breath. Her eyes snapped open. She shot to a sitting position in an unfamiliar bed. Breathing deeply, still she smelled the stench of smoke. Coughing, she warily scanned her surroundings.

The room was large and impeccably decorated. The walls a lovely pale violet matching the comforter draped over her and the curtains.

A thin brunette appeared at the threshold of the room. Valerie tensed. When their eyes met, a sympathetic expression flashed across her face.

“I’m Ashley. I’m an Elemental.”

A figure appeared behind her, a male with dark disheveled hair and piercing blue eyes. “I’m Clyde, a warrior angel. You’ve met my soulmate, Ashley. You’ve heard of the Guardians?”

She had overheard her sisters speaking of them before. Not just of the Guardians, a league of immortal warriors who battled Malum Inmortalis, rogue immortals, but of the war brewing between the Malums, immortal breeds, and mankind. Wanting to know more, she’d asked, but her sisters refused to answer, telling her she was too young to worry.

Valerie tried to speak, but couldn’t. Her throat on fire, instead, she nodded.

“We are part of that league. We hunt rogue immortals, Malum Inmortalis. The Malums attacked your coven last night. We found you and brought you to New York.”

The Malums? The rogues her sisters told her she shouldn’t concern herself with had done this? “W-where—” she croaked.

Ashley neared. “Try to save your voice. We’ll explain everything we can. First, just know you’re safe at the demon compound, the home of the demon king who founded the Guardian league centuries ago.”

Her chest tightened. “My c-coven—”

The male shook his head. “I’m sorry. You are the lone survivor.”

For some reason, she glanced at the brunette whose eyes welled with tears.

An ache filled Valerie even as she tried to deny what she felt inside as true. She no longer sensed the magical presence of her sisters.

“N-no.” She shook her head. Denial yet, instantly, tears welled in her eyes and fell.

“I’m so sorry,” Ashley whispered, her voice broke.

“No!” she tried to scream, but her throat hurt so much it sounded like a growl.

They couldn’t be gone. She couldn’t lose her family, the ones who’d raised and sheltered her for more than twenty years after her parents abandoned her.

Tears fell, streaming like a river down her face. “Shari and Hanna and Dianne…a-all of them?”

Ashley nodded. “I’m so sorry.” Her own tears spilled over. Quickly, she wiped them away. The male wrapped his arm around her.

Valerie’s ache deepened, searing a hole in her chest. “But they were just with me! I couldn’t be the only one. I…I have to see them. I have to make s-sure!” Her voice rose and broke, sounding hysterical. “Take me back, please!”

“You know they’re gone. You feel their magic inside you.”

The angel was right, and yet she didn’t want to believe. She stilled, placing her hand over her chest. Like a flicker, the magic of her sisters welled and pulsed inside her where their presence had once been. So much magic and yet she felt hollow. Grief slicing through her, her breaths grew shallow.

She knew then, despite her attempts at denial.

Her sisters were gone. She lost everyone she’d ever cared for in a split second.

She cried out, hating the magic running through her veins.

“I am terribly sorry for your loss.” The angel’s compassionate eyes held hers. “There was nothing you could’ve done to save them—nothing at all.”

I should’ve died with them, with my family!
She clutched her chest, that emptiness filling with agony.

“You lived for a purpose. Don’t let this tragedy determine the rest of your life.”

Her grief spilled out of her. She sobbed loudly, not caring who heard, who witnessed.

The angel took a step in her direction. Before she could move away, he placed his hand over her head. “Rest now.”

Her lids heavy, she grew weak. When darkness claimed her, she welcomed it. The pain finally faded.

Chapter 4

Jacob watched. Sometimes, it seemed like that’s all he did—watch Annie. Right then, he watched her play with the dolls Jenna bought her. Sensing no grief in her, he sighed.

It had been three days since her life turned upside down. Every night, she awoke in tears, burdened with reality—her parents were gone. Her sorrow wedged deep inside him, superseding his own.

Her grief was natural. He just wished there was more he could do to console her. He wanted to erase her pain, so for the first time in his life, he found himself wishing he wasn’t a demon, but an angel, who he’d seen had the power to do so. Bearing the pain for her was the least he could do, and yet, he didn’t have the power to do that either.

He hadn’t grieved. All he did—worry about Annie. The reason he watched her so closely. He worried how much she grieved, worried whether the simplest decisions he made were the right ones. Constantly, he wondered whether his sister would have made the same ones. He wanted to honor her memory by raising Annie like she would have, but he would never know.

His biggest fear: the thought Annie would become like him—a fraction of the person he’d once been because of loss. He hoped, despite the odds, he could teach her to move forward, look past what happened even if he never had.

Ashley sat beside him, interrupting his disheartening thoughts. “Hi.”

“Hey.”

“I see she’s enjoying her new toys.”

“Yeah, she is.”

She folded her hands into each other. “Can I tell you something without you taking offense?”

He nodded, wondering how she could say anything to offend him. Anyone else, he’d probably bite their head off, but not Ashley. She was timid, sweet, and his friend.

“I think you should try to bring some of her stuff from home just to provide some familiarity. I think it could help her adjust better. I mean…what she’s been through…the change would be difficult for any child. If she had something to remind her of the life she had before…especially pictures…”

Originally, he’d thought it better to start fresh with no reminders of the past, but Ashley had a point. His niece would remember regardless. There were things she needed to remember, especially the fact she had loving parents, who’d never wanted to leave her.

He nodded.

Ashley placed her hand on his shoulder. “You’re doing a great job, Jake.”

He released a breath in frustration. If he’d been doing a good job, he would have thought of her suggestion first. He was way out of his league, a man with one foot off a ledge, but he wouldn’t give his niece up—never. The blood that ran through him coursed through her, too. The only remaining reminder he’d once had a vivacious and curious sister. If it meant tearing himself in half, he’d learn to raise her daughter, his precious niece. He had faith, only in that.

“I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“It doesn’t look like it, Jake—not to me or Clyde or Jenna or anyone else…and no parent knows what they’re doing the first time around.”

A parent—exactly what he was, yet the word had never crossed his mind. Maybe because he didn’t want to admit what the word implied, his niece’s parents were gone. About time he did. He needed to come to terms with the fact his sister wasn’t coming back, so he could move on and help Annie do the same.

****

It had been days since Val’s life changed forever.

The deep gash on her leg, numerous bumps, bruises, and a series of smaller cuts had healed. As a witch, her skin was tougher, stronger than a mortal’s and healed quicker, too, though not as quickly as other immortal breeds. She could’ve concocted a potion to heal just as fast, but she didn’t have the will.

A deep and searing pain too terrifying to seem real clung to her. She lost everyone she’d ever loved—her family, her coven—the sisters who’d raised her. Nothing she could do to erase the ache.

She slept and slept. When she woke, she tortured herself remembering the last moments she’d shared with them. Her gift of foresight had failed her at the moment she’d needed it the most. And so, she’d lost her faith in magic and especially, in herself.

What would she do now? Where would she go?

“Valerie.”

She shifted her attention away from her depressing thoughts and met Clyde’s stare.

“I brought someone to meet you.” He stood aside allowing a petite brunette resembling Ashley to step forward.

“Hi, I’m Jenna, Ashley’s sister.” She neared. Her hand went to her chest. “I’m very sorry for your loss. I can’t imagine what you’re going through.”

“Thank you…and thank you for letting me stay here. Ashley told me this is your home.”

Ashley, at her side for days, brought her breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and often sat by her and talked, sharing all sorts of things about her own sisters and her mate.

Valerie listened half-heartedly, grateful for the genuine concern and attempt to get her mind off her grief. At times, it proved a great distraction. Other times, it reminded her of the family she had and lost.

“You’re more than welcome to stay here, Valerie.”

She shook her head. “No, I’ll leave—”

“I wouldn’t recommend it,” Clyde interrupted. “You were spared for a reason. You have a gift not many witches possess—foresight. It’s the reason the Malums targeted your coven.”

“But…I could’ve been killed. I—”

“Your home was protected with spells. Those powerful spells wouldn’t have allowed anyone to enter who meant any of you harm. It’s why they used explosives. If they’d wanted to kill all of you, they would have blown up the entire house.” He paused. “I believe, as do the other Guardians, the Malums’ intent was to kill off your coven so you’d inherit their abilities. Then they’d take you, a witch with the combined strength of eleven and the gift of not only psyche-sight, but foresight.”