Fated Truth (The True Witch Saga) (28 page)

Gavin looked
down at the floor and I noticed that he was holding his neck. Blood was dripping down his arm. I threw back the covers and crawled out of bed. Once my feet hit the cold wood floor, I strode over to Gavin. I pulled his arm away from the deep laceration that was cut deeply into his neck. He looked like he’d been mauled by a wild animal.
Jesus. I would be pissy too.
I put my palm to the wound and pushed my power into it. I felt a tingling warmth that radiated from the center of my hand. I watched as Gavin’s wound slowly knit itself back together. “Why didn’t she use her saliva to close the wound herself?” I asked.

“
I’m sure she would have if she was in her right mind. The elders weren’t joking when they said she was feral. If Sebastian hadn’t pulled her off of me she would have drained me,” he huffed a deep breath. “I’m going out for a while. Call me when you get that she bitch under control,” he snarled as he left the room.

I look
ed back at Jaxx reclining on the bed without a stitch of clothing on. He was a variable buffet for the eyes. I shook my head to get my mind out of the gutter. “How long have I been out?” I asked Jaxx as I threw a blanket over his manly bits.

“Not l
ong. Just about six hours or so,” Jaxx laughed at me for avoiding the bed with my eyes. The blanket I covered him with hit me in the side of the head. “Come back to bed, little raven. I have a present all ready and waiting for you.” His voice was low and growly. When he sounded like that, it always made me melt in my panties.

“You know I can’t.
I need to check on Jessa.” I shook my head regretting that I had to leave my man in bed hard and waiting for me. I turned and headed for the door. I was still wearing the clothing that I’d worn earlier that morning. I guessed I looked presentable. Just a little wrinkled. What I wandered into when I made my way down stairs was like war of the blood suckers. The front room was completely destroyed. Furniture was busted, tables were turned over, and pictures were smashed on the floor. Jessa and Seb were in opposite corners of the room just staring daggers at each other.

“What the fuck?” I shout
ed. “We are guests in this home. You are both too old for this shit!”

Jessa turned
and looked at me when she heard my voice. The shock on her face was almost funny. I guess she didn’t expect to see me there.

“She cannot be controlled. When I
try to help her, she acts like someone belonging in bedlam,” Seb snarled at me while staring daggers at Jessa.

I stop
ped cold. No one talked about my bestie like that. That shit got Moira boiled and gutted. I might like Seb well enough, but I loved that furious girl in the corner with every inch of my soul. “Get out, Seb. Go for a walk. Just leave.” My voice left no room for argument.

“It’
s your funeral little niece,” he hissed through clenched teeth as he slammed out the front door.

I turn
ed to Jessa. She hadn’t moved from her space in the corner, but now she huddled and burrowed like she was trying to find a place to hide. “Jessa. You are safe.” When I got no reaction out of her, I approached her with my palms outward.

When she registered
that someone was getting closer to her, she whirled around, hair flying, fangs punched out, and hissing. She crouched down, getting ready to spring for me. I didn’t want to use my gifts against her, but I might not have any choice. I didn’t want her to hurt anyone else. Especially Jaxx, I could hear him moving around upstairs. It wouldn’t be long until he made his way down. I flung my palm outward and froze her mid pounce. I waved my hand toward the sofa and sat her down as gently as I was able. The truth was that I basically flung her onto it. I needed more practice for finesse. I still had her body in stasis so I moved her into a sitting position. Her eyes were about to pop out of their sockets.

“Yes
, Jessa, there is quite a bit that we both need to confess and catch up on,” I told her gently. “You know me, though. I would never hurt you.” I shook my head sadly at her. I didn’t know what to do to help her. Obviously, judging by her physical appearance, she was healed. Her curves were back, her hair was wavy and shiny, and she didn’t look like a shriveled husk of herself anymore.

The tiny voice in the back of my head
was muttering something. Sometimes I tried to block it out. It could get fucking annoying, but I chose to listen to it this time. I needed to feed her it said. She wasn’t fully healed. On the outside maybe, but the inside of her mind was still damaged. My life blood should finish healing her fully, poor Seb. He probably thought he got stuck with a bat shit crazy mate. I reached for my mother’s jeweled dagger that was still sitting where the coffee table used to be. Once I had it, I sliced vertically down my wrist, just like I was told to do earlier.

Jessa’s stare
was rapt. She couldn’t pull her eyes away from my blood that was dripping from the wound. I walked to her, carful to keep her in stasis. I forced my wrist into her mouth and let my blood run freely.

“This
is my gift to give. Take freely with no artifice.” I pulled back on the stasis spell a bit so that she could drink. I felt her fangs slash into my raw wound and bit back a curse. With every pull of blood she ingested I could see sanity returning to her eyes. When she’d had her fill, she gently pulled back from my wrist and ran her tongue over my wound. It closed almost instantly.

“Where are we
, Ells?” Jessa looked around the room in confusion. She still seemed weak, slouching into the sofa as if she didn’t have the energy to make herself sit up straight.

“We are a
t Gavin’s cabin.” When she looked at me blankly I explained. “Gavin is my twin. I told you about him over the phone right before your accident.”

“That’s right,” she sighed.
“Why am I so bloody tired?”

“You have been through a lot. I think it would better for Sebastian to explain everything to you though.”

She smiled a dreamy smile at the mention of Seb. “Where is Sebastian? The last thing I remember is traveling with him to a safe house. He was going to teach me about what I am now.” She looked at me with a question in her eyes.

“
Jessa I know all about what you are. I’m not afraid of you, as I told you a minute ago. We have a lot of catching up to do.” I sat on the sofa and grasped her hand. I smiled gently at her. “I have missed you!” She still wasn’t up to snuff. My snarky best friend was tired. She looked so drained by everything she had been through.

Jessa looked
around the room in wonder. Cataloging every bit of the mess she and Seb made during their confrontation. “Did I make this mess?”

“Yeah
, but you were pretty pissed at the time. So it’s okay. I can clean it up in a snap,” I snapped my fingers and sent the books lying on the floor sailing back into their rightful places.

Jessa gasped. She looked at me and nodded
. “Bitch we do have a lot of catching up to do, but first answer a question for me. Is there a cunt by the name of Moira staying around here?” She was snarling and her fangs had pushed out by the end of her question.

“Moira’
s dead,” I said frankly.

“What? How? She’s so fucking strong
, Ells. You have to stay away from her. She almost killed me on more than one occasion.”

I had
never seen Jessa whisper in fear. It was like she didn’t ever register what I had just told her. Before I could explain further, Sebastian walked back through the front door. He was walking into the room slowly, as if he were preparing for the worst. His jaw literally dropped when he saw Jessa sitting calmly on the sofa holding my hand. Jessa jumped a little in excitement when she noticed Seb standing there. She looked at him with full on eye contact. She seemed to be waiting for him to make the first move.

Seb
walked quickly across the room stopping directly in front of us. The strong man dropped to his knees and buried his face in Jessa’s lap. His shoulders started to shake with sobs as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

I quickly extract
ed myself from them and moved across the room.

“
I’m so...so very sorry, my dove. Please, tell me you forgive me,” Seb said in a choked whisper.

I quickly make for the door and let myself out of the
room. After everything they had been through they deserved some alone time.

Chapter Twenty-one

Doubts

I quickly mad
e my way up the stairs. The events of late were getting to me. I was starting to feel really worn down. It was like someone was taking sand paper and slowly rubbing away at everything that I thought I was. This new person that stared at me in the mirror each morning wasn’t the person I once saw. In some ways I loved the new me. She was stronger, bolder, and less inclined to take people’s shit. I could protect the people that I loved, but at what cost? One day was I going to buckle and lose everything I once thought I wanted and loved?

Jessa
was back in my life now. I had my sister back, but there was still so much up in the air. There was a war looming on the horizon. A war I was supposed to lead, prevent, or even win for the side of the light. I was only eighteen. Until two weeks ago I was just a regular girl. Sure, I’d had a shitty home life. My parents hated me, despised everything that I did, everything that made me the person that I was.

Now I had
a destined mate, a Goddess for a mother, a vampire best friend, and lies that hid my new reality from the rest of my family. I knew it was to keep them safe, but it galled me to lie to those closest to me, even if it did protect them from a fate that could be far worse than death.

I fou
nd Jaxx still in our room rummaging around in his luggage looking for something to wear for the day. He had been my rock in the never ending storm. I was starting to doubt my path in this life of chaos. I knew I was supposed to be stronger than that. On the outside someone might see me as some badass with super powers unlike anyone else, but inside I was still the same girl. Scared of being alone and left behind, even though he had been with me through everything that life had thrown at me these past weeks. There were still things about even him that I didn’t know.

I could
feel my eyes filling even as I watched the man that loved me with his whole being fumble with a T-shirt. I wanted to wall up the tears that were going to start to fall at any moment. I wanted to lock them away and be the person everyone wanted and expected me to be, but I couldn’t. I just wanted to lock myself away from the world, for just a few minutes and wish for peace. So many wonderful things had come with this new life that was handed to me. I was looking at one of them right now.

Jaxx stiffened and I knew that he could
feel my turbulent emotions through our shared bond. He turned and looked at me with confusion in his eyes.

I
walked over to our bed and sat on the corner.

“What has you so troubled
, my Ella?” Jaxx asked as he slowly and cautiously moved closer to the bed. He knelt in front of me so that he could look directly into my eyes.

I shook
my head in denial. “Nothing and everything all at once, I feel like I can’t breathe with everything weighing down on me. I have been trying to handle everything. I really have.” I looked at him with pleading eyes. “But sometimes this destiny that Fate has mapped out for me scares me shitless.”

“I would think that after everything anyone would be having such thoughts
, but you can’t let them control you. I am here to help you through anything you need me to. You know this.”

“Do I?”

Jaxx reared back as if I had just struck him.

“No wait! You don’t understand me. I was just a regul
ar girl until a few weeks ago, a regular girl with a really fucked life, but still a normal girl. Then I met this impossibly incredible person and he becomes everything to me in the blink of an eye. I feel secure in you. With you!” I reached out and grabbed his hands. Letting him see the love I have for him in my eyes, trying to ease the hurt look that haunted his eyes. “But Jaxx the things I’m trying to talk about are the little things, the little things that make life worth living. I don’t even know your favorite color.”

“Emerald. See easy,” Jaxx smirked
at me.

I fe
lt like slapping him. I was not in the mood to be placated. “I know we are connected on a soul deep level, Jaxx. I know that we were meant for each other since our births, but would you still love me without the destined bond. Would you love
me
, the person, not just because we were fated for each other?” I could feel the tears gathering again. I didn’t know why I was trying to pick at Jaxx. I was just feeling really insecure with everything that had happened and was supposed to be happening soon.

Jaxx abruptly pulled
me up by my hands until we were standing toe to toe. He took my face in his hands and looked deeply into my eyes. “I love every breath you take. I love every beat of your heart. I love the fact that you would rather die than let someone you care about be hurt physically or emotionally. I love that you have the capacity to love at all when you haven’t been shown it enough.” Jaxx pressed his lips together and took a shuddering breath.