The Vaga (20 page)

Julian’s energy expands. ‘Yes, sir.’

Uncle Jo nods and then heads out the door, back towards campus. I send Magi a signal to follow him and to keep him safe. She hesitates for a second before I reassure her that I’m safe here. She takes one last look at Julian and runs after Uncle Jo.

A small smile lifts the corners of my mouth, knowing that for Uncle Jo to even acknowledge Julian means that he has at least come around to the idea that he could possibly be in my life for a while. Unless of course he just plans to keep him close until he can find a way to dispose of his body? Knowing Uncle Jo that’s always a possibility.

‘What else do you need, Ellie?’ Aunt Lily asks.

‘Nothing. I’m fine, really.’

She looks like she wants to say something but then decides against it. ‘Okay, well I’ll just be in the study if you need me.’ She pats me on the shoulder as she walks past.

Julian moves around to sit in front of me, his eyes moving over my face with concern. ‘Are you
really
okay?’

I nod. ‘Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks for…what you did back there,’ I say, a little embarrassed.

He shakes his head. ‘Don’t ever thank me, Elena. I owe you more than you know.’

A moment of silence follows, but it’s a nice silence, one that wraps you up and comforts you.

‘Do you feel up to talking about what happened?’

Weariness leaks out of me, but before I can say anything someone comes running up the back stairs and barges into the kitchen, the screen door banging against the outside wall.

Julian is in front of me so fast that it startles me.

‘Calm down
King Kong
it’s only me,’ Phoebe says, her loud voice reverberating around the room.

Bloody Phoebe
! I let out a sigh of relief.

Sam comes in behind her, his eyes fall to Julian, and in a second he is across the room, smashing his fist right into Julian’s face. Julian goes crumbling to the floor. The sound of him hitting the deck shocks me and I unleash a spell that immobolises Sam before he can do any further damage.

Phoebe obviously told him about what Julian did to her
.

Julian groans in pain while holding his bleeding nose. I bend down. ‘Let me see?’

‘E, you can’t just freeze my boyfriend like that!’ Phoebe cries out as she stands in front of Sam’s still body.

‘He’s okay, Phoebs.’

‘But his eyes are still moving. It’s totally weird,’ she says, standing on her toes, her face all up in his grill.

‘He can still see and hear. I’ll undo it in a sec.’

I pry Julian’s hands away gently and know that his nose is busted, the end tilting to the left at an awkward angle. ‘It’s broken. I have to fix it but it’s going to hurt a little.’

He closes his eyes and I cast the regeneration spell. His bones click back into place and he stifles another groan, pressing his lips together in a tight grimace.

I help him to his feet when he’s recovered. ‘Are you okay?’

He rubs the bridge of his nose. ‘Yeah, thanks.’ His eyes glance quickly at Sam before he says, ‘I’ll just go and wash up.’ He avoids the others and moves around the table, heading towards the bathroom.

I turn on Sam, raising myself on my tippy toes to meet his eyes. ‘You listen to me, Sam Martin. I don’t want that to happen again, do you understand?’

His cougar eyes flare back at me.

‘Don’t even go there. Enough is going on without you going all macho and beating up my—’ I swallow the words that were about to escape. ‘Julian. I understand you were upset over what happened to Phoebs, but it’s done now. He apologised. I’ll let you go if you promise to behave, otherwise I’ll teleport you to your grandfather and you can find your own way back.’

His eyes twinkle with slight amusement before he blinks in agreement.

I flick my hand, releasing the spell, and he falls forward.

‘Are you okay, babe?’ Phoebe asks grabbing his arm tenderly.

Babe
!? Since when did it move to babe? She must be bonkers over him to call him that. Usually her endearments consist of sarcastic names and insults.

Phoebe gushes over him for defending her honour, telling him how strong and brave he is. I roll my eyes and go about making some coffee for everyone, needing something to do to distract me from their sickening, but cute, love fest.

By the time I bring them a coffee Julian has returned and he leans against the door frame with his arms folded across his taut chest.

‘Are we done now?’ he asks Sam, one eyebrow lifting.

Sam’s eyes narrow slightly, but then he nods in response, Phoebe looking at him like a love-struck school girl.

The two men eye each other for a few seconds and then Julian steps forward. ‘Good.’ He reaches out his hand to Sam. ‘Then I’m Julian.’

Sam hesitates for a split second before grabbing his hand and saying, ‘Sam.’

Phoebe rolls her eyes. ‘Finally that’s out of the way. It got a bit awkies there for a second.’

I shake my head, relieved that they can call it a truce.

‘Thanks for looking after Phoebe earlier,’ Sam says, shifting uncomfortably.

Julian sits down beside me and gives me one of his lopsided smiles. My heart sings at the sight of it.

‘Yeah, well thanks for saving our lives at the museum.’

I look around at the four of us—a hunter, a shapeshifter, a witch, and a love-struck comedian—and shake my head at the absurdity of it, while also silently thanking the universe for having them in my life.

Phoebe looks over at me. ‘So are
you
okay after the library fiasco?’

‘I’m fine. Wait, how did you know?’

‘As soon as I heard the siren go off, and the words
earthquake
and
library
, I knew it had to be you.’

‘Is everyone okay?’ I ask. We got out of there so fast I didn’t even have time to assess the damage.

‘Yeah, no one was hurt,’ she says. ‘Although smoke rings were coming out of The Dictator’s ass when we passed by.’

We all choke out a laugh, and just like that the tension surrounding us is broken.

‘So what happened?’ Phoebe asks.

‘Elena was just about to tell me that when you barged in,’ Julian responds.

Phoebe flicks him an annoyed glance. ‘Thank you
Goliath
. I was talking to Ellie.’

Julian smirks, raising his coffee cup in Phoebe’s direction. Phoebe holds back a smile. Maybe all of us together can actually work?

I take a deep breath before telling them about what Uncle Jo had to say, backing it up with Taqôq Wiyon’s message and the vision. Opening up to them feels scary, but at the same time cathartic. I need to break through my fear of feeling weak or vulnerable and start trusting the people around me.

As I explain Uncle Jo’s interpretation of the information the tension in the air rapidly accelerates until I fear Julian will explode. Luckily Phoebe beats him to it.

‘WTF?” she screeches. ‘Are you saying that this guy…thing…beast wants to kidnap you so he can make a demonic baby that leashes hell onto our planet?’ She gives a wide-eyed glance to both Sam and Julian, disbelief strewn across her cherubic face.

I nod. ‘Apparently.’

A numbness settles over me. I should be ranting and raving and losing my cool over what I now know, but I just feel numb. It disturbs me.

Julian pushes his chair back from the table roughly, the scraping sound echoing throughout the kitchen.

‘This is worse than I thought,’ he says, his accent shining through. He starts to pace across the wooden floor, deep in thought.

Sam leans forward, his shoulders tense and face alert. ‘Did grandfather say anything else?’

Shaking my head I say, ‘No. Nothing else. Although…’

‘What?’ he presses.

My fingers curl around the mug’s handle. ‘When I left him, I just felt that he wasn’t telling me something.’ I shrug. ‘Might be nothing, but I got the feeling he was… planning something.’

I meet Sam’s gaze and the amber eyes of his cougar show through.

‘But how is all this even possible?’ Phoebe asks, exasperated.

We all flash her a knowing look.

Her face turns pink and her hands go up. ‘I get it, alright. Supernatural world and all that. No need for you all to stare at me like I’m some sort of unevolved human.’ She folds her arms in contempt.

Sam pulls her into him. ‘No one thinks that.’ He kisses her forehead and she smiles, calming almost instantly.

He’s good for her
.

‘How sure are you that the information is right?’ Julian asks, his steely gaze penetrating my senses.

‘I know it is, trust me.’ Isis’ reaction back in the library tells me it’s true.

Julian moves closer, his face serious and hunter-like. ‘The tetrad appears ten days from now, so we have until then to figure this out.’

‘And if we can’t?’ Sam says.

‘If we can’t, then it could only be ten days until the end of the world as we know it,’ I say, bringing the mug to my lips, the coffee now lukewarm and bitter to the taste.

I wake up panting, my hand on my chest, fingers
tightly clasping my locket. As my eyes adjust to the darkness my body tenses at the sight of bodies around the room, but then I remember that everyone slept over last night after refusing to leave me. Phoebe is next to me, snoring away; Sam is sleeping on the floor next to the window with Magi beside him; and Julian is stretched out on the sofa.

My eyes are pulled towards Julian again and his steel grey eyes shine out through the darkness. He quietly moves off the sofa and comes to sit on the bed, his feet making no sound. The heat from his warm body throws off comforting waves in my direction and I let it flow over me.

‘Are you okay?’ he whispers.

I nod.

He searches my face, pausing over my lips just long enough for me to notice. My heart flutters.

‘Did you have a bad dream?’

‘You could say that,’ I say, remembering the dream where I was walking through a graveyard, trying to find Mum’s name amongst the tombstones. I haven’t had a dream about Mum for a while, and it leaves me unsettled.

Magi is watching us and I let her know I’m okay. She lowers her head again, shuffling a little bit closer to Sam as she does. She must really care about him, animal instinct and all that. Or maybe it’s because they are kindred spirits, both connected to Taqôq Wiyon? Either way, it warms me to know she has someone else she can turn to.

‘Elena?’

‘Huh? Sorry, what did you say?’

His lip curls upwards. ‘I said, do you want to get a coffee?’

‘Ah…what time is it?’ I feel like I’ve only been asleep for a couple of hours.

‘It’s about four o’clock, I think?’ he says looking towards the window where all is quiet.

‘Sure, okay.’

He moves off the bed and I unravel myself from the blankets. Phoebe’s arm flops over me like a limp jellyfish and we both look at each other, stifling a laugh.

I gently move her arm away and she grunts before settling again.

Grabbing my shawl, we make our way out into the kitchen, keeping as quiet as possible. I flick the lamp on, then the kettle, and we take a seat at the table, Julian’s eyes trailing my every move.

He leans his arms against the table. ‘I wanted to talk to you about what happened yesterday,’ he says.

I bite my lip. ‘Okay…’

He takes a quick breath. ‘A lot has happened recently…between us I mean. And I know it’s all still new and a little rocky, but this new information changes things.’

He’s changed his mind about us. The phone call?
Could it have been from a woman
? My pulse quickens.
Why did you get your hopes up you idiot
? The call was from someone pretty important by his reaction. I presumed it was the Dominus, but maybe it was from someone he’s been dating? No, he proved how much he cares about me when he let me fiddle around inside his memories.

Still, he is male. It would be understandable. An ache forms in my stomach, niggling away at my insides at the thought that there could be someone else.

His hand wraps around mine. ‘Stop thinking for a second and listen. I had a phone call yesterday that—’

I withdraw my hand from his. ‘I know. It’s okay. I understand that you’d be seeing someone else and I don’t blame you for—’

His eyes widen. ‘What? Hold up a sec.’ He shakes his head. ‘You’ve got that all wrong. I wasn’t talking to a girl.’

‘You weren’t?’

‘No.’ He exhales. ‘What do you think I am? Why would I reveal my feelings for you if there was someone else?’

‘I don’t know. I just thought that maybe—’

‘Listen to me. There
is
no one else. There has only ever been you since…well, you know when.’

My heart leaps for joy and I swear I can feel it pounding throughout my whole body.

‘I don’t want you to ever think that, alright? Why would I be here right now if there was someone else, or if I didn’t feel this way about you?’

I look upon his face, the soft glow of the lamp highlighting the strong curves of his features and the tenderness in his eyes. I may not be completely convinced of his feelings for me, but I know for damn sure how I feel about him. His face is permanently etched into my brain, like a classic oil painting that will never fade.

‘Okay,’ I whisper.

His shoulders relax. ‘Good. Now, what I was going to say was that I had a phone call from—’

‘Your father?’ I interrupt.

‘Who?’

I fiddle with the tassels on my shawl. ‘Your father. The man who raised you. That’s who the Dominus is isn’t it?’ I lift my face to his and a range of emotions reveal themselves. ‘I saw it in your memories. I mean, I don’t know who he
is
exactly, but I know he raised you after your…after your parents died.’

Pain etches its way into his body—hands clenching, jaw twitching. Maybe I pushed it too far? I shouldn’t have said anything.

‘I’m sorry, Julian. I shouldn’t have blurted that out like that.’

He shakes his head. ‘It’s not your fault.’

Now it’s my turn to reach out to him. ‘I’m sorry about your parents.’

He lifts his eyes and the pain of losing them shines out like a beacon, hitting me squarely in the chest.