Synergy (38 page)

I felt something warm drip onto my hands, an
d I looked down and saw them
covered in blood. It was coming from Madison; her wound was back. Life was escaping her body, and she was seconds from death. I screamed, not knowing what to do.

Madison collapsed, and Drake caught her in his powerful arms. I could see terror in her green eyes, and I wanted to take it away. I took the ring off my finger and pushed it onto hers, h
oping against all hope that if it numbed her
emotions
it
would take some, if not all of the pain away. As I screamed her name over and over, embracing her as tightly as I could, I felt someo
ne pull me from her dying
body
. It was Landen, and he was
wide-awake
.
When he saw Madison’s body in Drake’s arms, he said, “Who is this?” as he looked between her and Drake.

“Madison -
Madison!” Willow yelled. “Heal
her! When this happened before
Dad said she punctured a lung. S
he’s drowning in her own blood!”

I reached for Madison’s head, feeling every emotion from terror to grief, every emotion
I’d been shielded from in The R
ealm. I couldn't stop the tears, the grief. I’d led her here. I just let my best friend die, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I kept saying, “Don't leave me
! Don’t leave me!” B
ut she wouldn't open her eyes for me. I felt Aden’s arms come around me. He was trying to calm me down and do whatever he could to help Madison, but we were both powerless. I kept thinking about the music, the energy, and rushed my hands across her
bloodstained
skin, wanting to give her whatever light I had, whatever life I had. I couldn't live without her. She was more than a best friend; she was a part of me.

Landen reached for Madison’s waist as Drake urged us out of the way;
Drake was fiercely protective of her body. He cradled her gently, whispering something I could not hear into her ear. He gave Landen a demanding look and together they focused their powerful essence on healing her. Drake didn’t have Landen’s powers, but I knew deep, deep, deep down he had her heart. And clearly she had his.

  A light beamed from under Landen’s hands, and he held them in place so long that her body began to glow. The blood, every ounce of it, vanished; it was as if it had never happened, as if it were nothing but a cruel illusion.

Madison opened her eyes and took
in
a gasping breath. Drake gently reached for her face and turned her so she would have no choice but to gaze into his magnetic dark eyes.
Carefully he caressed he
r long dark hair out of her face
. A ghostly smile echoed on his lips as his
captivating
gaze took in every part of her. Absentmindedly I tried to reach for the ring, so she would have her emotions and not be shielded from this moment, but Drake would not let anyone touch her.

Aden was carefully running his hands across my back, whispering, “She’s OK
. No more tears. S
he’s OK.”  Sanity was coming back to me, and when it did I realized that Draven was
nowhere
near me. His brother was playing the role he was supposed to, and that infuriated me.
I needed him and he was coldly standing as far
away
as he could from us.

Madison broke her gaze with Drake and looked
at Willow. I knew then that
was what Perodine and Jason were telling her, that was why they said to wake Landen first; they knew she wasn’t healed, and they knew that if she even tried to wake Drake, she would die without Landen. I was furious - not at them, at Madison; she knew and still came, still woke him.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for dying for love, but lets be serious. Let’s not basically commit suicide because our pride was too boastful to bow out. She could have waited until Landen was awake.

Internally I kicked myself. I wouldn’t have waited if that was Draven, but then again Draven had always been real to me. Words have been spoken between us. Life was between us.

A
nger engulfed Willow’s expression. “Tell me, who should I be mad at? Did they talk you out of this, or into it? Who decided that you would be a sacrifice? What would have happened if I didn’t wake Landen in time? What would have happened if this wasn’t him?!”

Madison lean
ed away from Drake. “My choice. M
y promise to keep,” she said as she stood from Drake’s embrace.

We all stood slowly, not sure where this was going to go. I still didn’t trust Willow to be stable. I was starting to believe that she saw Madison as an object, and not a person. I don’t mean a sacrifice;
I mean like a gift for Drake. A
girl that looked just
like
her.

“I ne
ver asked you to be a sacrifice!
I asked you to help. I asked if you could bear to see him!” Willow yelled. “How cruel would it have been if he woke up to fi
nd you dead? After all this time. A
fter everything - I deliver him a dead girl?!”

Deliver him? Was she serious? I felt my heart rac
ing - not with panic; with rage
. My best friend wasn’t going to be ‘delive
red’ to anyone. Aden put his hand
around my mouth to stop whatever sarcastic remark
that
was bound to come out. I elbowed him, and he furrowed his eyebrows as he let his hand fall. “She didn’t mean it that way,” he whispered
harshly
.
He nodded for Draven to come over to us, but didn’t budge.

I looked up at Aden
, and he let me see what he’d seen in Willow: a constant plea with Drake, one that said over and over that his soul mate was another girl who needed him as much as he needed her. I knew Madison didn’t need anyone, but those images made me change my perspective on Willow, at least for the moment.

Madison looked over Willow once. “You’re welcome.” She turned to walk away, but Drake reached for her arm and turned her to face him. They locked stares. Madison’s chest rose and fell rapidly as her skin blushed with what could only be desire. “I’m not her,” Madison said firmly just before she vanished.

Denial. Typical. And that ring was not helping matters.

Aden yelled her name and vanished from my side. I’m sure he assumed we’d all wake instantly, but I had a burning
wrath
inside of me. I couldn’t believe that Draven had abandoned me, all of us; he just watched all of this at a distance. The strongest one of all of us, the one person that could calm me down with a touch, just stood by and watched me cry every
tear I had for Madison. He
let his brother hold me - how could he do that?!

I caught his stare and saw
an angry hunger. I was sick of seeing that in his eyes. I kept hear
ing Madison’s words in my head: “Next time, make him mad. W
hen he knows he can get mad and still have control, this curse will be broken.” I was about to make him mad. I was about to put everything on the line. If he wasn’t going to be there for me, I needed to know that now - not the next time one of us was fighting for our lives.

I stepped toward him, ignoring the others as they’d figured out where they were and what had happened. Draven began to take steps back as if I were some kind of plague, as if I were the last person he wanted to see right now, which made my skin boil.

“I can’t do this,” I said to him. He knew what I meant. I couldn’t pretend to be someone I wasn’t around him, hide my happiness,
and analyze
every mood he was in. I was over it, and he knew it.

He clenched his jaw as anger surfaced on his face.

“Our best friend!” I yelled. “She was dy
ing, fading faster than before --
and you did nothing!”

“What do you want me to do, Charlie?!” Draven said in a tone that reflected his misery.

“You could have held me, you could have told me it wa
s going to be alright --
but no. Y
ou
let Aden do that. You left us. L
ong before this moment, you left. You are so caught up in this
freaking
R
ealm th
at you’ve forgotten who you are. W
ho I fell in love with. You’re becoming
exactly
what you promised me you would never be!”

Draven stepped forward aggressively but halted and balled his fist. “I’m fighting to not become that
.
W
hy can’t you see that?! Why do you have to push me?
!
Why do you tempt me?! If I touch you, if I even think about it, Silas will kill me -
-
is that what you want? You want to see us fight to the death?!”

Rage ripped through me. Was that what he really thought? “Seriously?!” I said coldly. “Since when do
es he tell you when to touch me?
How
to touch me? Since when would you let any man have that kind of control over me?!”

“It’s not control, Charlie -
-
it’s protection,” Draven said through gritted teeth. “You can’t even conceive the amount of self control I h
ave to have around you in this R
ealm, in our world. I crave your light, and the temptation is too much!” He looked at Willow and the others, then back to
me. “I led you to your Chara. Y
our Willow. I helped, just like I promised you I would.”

I saw the goodbye in his eyes again, but I refused to let tears surface. “What was your motive behind that?” I asked, calling out what I could see in his eyes.

“To make sure you were wit
h your kind, that you were safe. T
hat you have people with no alternative motives to guide you.”

“So you plan
was
to just drop us off in another dimension? Your brot
her – Madison. You’re just going to
leave us? Walk away like nothing mattered?!”

“Everything matters!” he yelled back at me as he stepped forward. He was about turn the emotion of rage into passion like he always did, but before he could take another step, Silas appeared between us.

Draven ti
lted his head and slyly said, “S
how
yourself.
”

Instantly, the dormant whispers turned into dark images all around us. As Draven dodged around Silas and grabbed me, the room we were in vanished and he and I were all alone
in a different part of The R
ealm, a deep, thick forest.

Draven’s eyes were full of anger and pain. “Wha
t do you want from me?!” he raged
as his eyes peered into mine.

“Everything!” I yelled. He turned away from me, but I pulled him to turn and face me. “I want the passion, the seductive touch. I want to hear the love in your voice when you sing to me, when you say my name. I want to feel the power of
your soul every second of every
day. I want the boy I fell in love with, the man I saved thousands of years ago, the man you are today. I want to stand with you in the moments of your deepest despair, and I want to stand with you when you embrace the taste of victory. I want to give you every single part of me -
-
and I expect the same in return. I’m not your part-time girlfriend. I refuse to hide a part of me from you. No more, Draven - this is me pushing
every
button you have!” My eyes raced over his face. “Tell me the man I love still exists.”

He pulled his arm away from me and reached his hands for my face. “I should have left you long ago.”

A sick feeling washed all the color from my face. I was beginning to think that pushing this was the wrong way to go; I’d rather turn the anger into passion.

“I couldn’t,” he said as his thumb rapidly traced the outline of my temple. “I’m not strong enough to tell you goodbye, even though I know that’s what I should do, even though I know being next to you is fatal. When you aren’t near me, I can’t breathe, I can’t think - and when you are with me, all I can think is that moment will be our last. My soul is tethered to yours; you are my life, and I am your death.”

I could see that I was breaking through to him, that the anger was gone. This was the thin line before passion came, and if I kept him on that line, he would see that he was strong enough to
fearlessly
love me.

Before I could say a word, I heard, “That’s all I needed to hear.”

I turned defensively to see Silas. Draven charged forward, and the two of them fell to the ground in the most aggressive fight I’d ever seen. Daggers and swords appeared in their hands; this was going to be a fight to the death, and I had no idea how to stop it. I screamed their names over and over again, focusing on the weapons, making them disappear as soon they manifested them. My defensive
emotions made the glowing butterflies appear
all around us. I wanted to stop them from appearing, knowing that with the rage Draven had, I was making him weak, hungry; my light was making this worse.