Torn(Demon Kissed Series)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

When we cracked open Eric’s book, I never expected to find what was inside. Last time I’d seen it, I thought I recognized some of it even though I remembered some of the writing was weird. But now looking at it—I had no idea why I thought we’d be able to read it. Letters from an ancient language were scrawled across page after page of detailed notes. Collin was as perplexed as I was.

“The letters aren’t even going in the one direction,” I said, pushing my hair out of my face and wrapping it with a rubber band. When I leaned over the book again, I shook my head. We’d returned to the boathouse to examine the pages before anything else happened. When we opened it, I thought the book would be in English, but it wasn’t. There were odd squiggles and they covered every inch of every page. I shook my head, looking up at Collin, “Do you recognize any of it?”

His mouth was hanging open slightly, as his finger dragged across the page. He’d been doing this for the better part of an hour, not saying much. He shook his head, “No. This is like Greek—they are Greek characters—well, for the most part. But, periodically there is something else thrown in. And it isn’t written left to right. I tried right to left like some languages, and up to down like others, but there is no continuity.” He looked up at me, and locked eyes with me with complete seriousness on his face. “I can’t read it.” The bond stirred. The words of his confession might have seemed straight-forward, but the bond translated that statement for me. He meant I can’t help you. The realization hit him hard.

“Collin…” My fingers brushed the top of his hand to get his attention and break his thoughts before they turned dark. The icy hot spark of skin on skin instantly caught his attention, and had the desired effect. “We’ll figure it out.”

And I thought we could, but as we sat there for the rest of the night trying to decipher Eric’s writing it became more and more obvious that we couldn’t. Collin used his phone to look some things up online, but that didn’t help at all. It led us back to our initial impression—this was some derivative of ancient Greek. As he researched, I looked for the page that Eric had showed me before. I saw the scrawling handwriting in black-brown ink that was written with an ancient pen. It was neat, like the old Eric, with everything grouped into rows. Some rows seemed to be grouped in circles, while others seemed like squares.

I had no idea what it meant, but when I found the page I was looking for, I froze. My fingers touched the yellowed parchment gently, as if I couldn’t believe the drawing was there—Apryl’s necklace. The drawing showed a black and white disc, exactly like mine. There were words around it. What did Eric say this was called? He told me once, and I wanted to know about it. I wanted to know how my sister came into possession of something that belonged to the demon realm while she was alive and well, having nothing to do with demons. The answers were right in front of me, but I couldn’t understand what it said.

I pointed to the book and asked Collin, “I saw this page, before when Eric showed me this book. He didn’t tell me what was on it at the time, but later, when we were coming to find you—he mentioned my necklace. He said he knew it was brimstone, and that it was called the…” it sounded like Kreturus. I rolled the word in mouth until I recognized it, “The Kreturic Pendant! Do you think we could use that information as a starting place, and see if we can try to see what words say that on this page?”

Collin looked at my necklace and back down at the drawing in the book. “It’s worth a try. This is a Kappa,” his finger pointed to something that looked like a K and then an N, followed by an E. “This looks like the beginning of Kreturus or Kreturuic, but the word just stops.” His fingers trailed quickly over every letter surrounding the drawing, while he spoke softly sounding out each possibility. He did it quickly, and his finger dashed across the page and in several different directions before he sighed and looked up at me. Shaking his head, he said, “It’s not here. Whatever language this is, it isn’t close enough to Greek to read any of it. It was a good idea Ivy. If it was close enough, it might have worked.” He slumped and leaned back against the wall, gripping his forehead in his hands. “Is it spreading?” The question took me by surprise because he never asked me about it.

I looked up at him, while leaving my fingers on the book. “What?”

His face turned up to look at me. There was a weariness there that was growing harder to ignore. “Is the poison from the fang spreading inside of you? Can you tell?”

Without thinking, I pressed my hand to my chest and shook my head. The searing pain of the poison traveling through my body was burned into my memory forever. “No, it’s not moving. At least it isn’t right now. I’d feel it if it was. The sapphire serum seems to be isolated to this one spot.” I pressed my fingers to the top of my left breast, grateful that Lorren crystalized it. But I knew it was slowly leaking into me because effonating had done something to it. I suspected that the heat of effoanting messed with Lorren’s crystallization of the serum, but I didn’t know for sure. And, I didn’t know how much time I had before the poison would kill me. I was hoping that I’d be able to tell before it became critical, since I’d experienced the full brunt of the sapphire serum before.

Collin tilted his head back against the wall. “That’s unusual.” He let the words hang in the air, and when I didn’t reply he added, “Normally the poison would travel through the victim—it spiders out away from the original wound like mold. But yours isn’t?” I shook my head. Where was this going? Why was he looking at me like that? Collin stared at me for a few moments. I couldn’t sense what he was thinking through the bond, although I reached out for it. He scolded as he felt me intrude into his thoughts, “Ask me, if you want to know. Don’t try and press into my mind and steal what I’m thinking.”


Feeling sheepish, I looked away and said, “You seem leery of something. I just wanted to know what it was. That’s all. I didn’t mean to…” I looked up at him. “I’ll try not to do it again, but it’s difficult to shut out your thoughts and feelings. Sometimes I can’t no matter how hard I try.”

“Yeah, but right now that isn’t what happened. You felt scared and went digging through my mind. Not the same.” His words were warning, but I didn’t back down so fast.

I pointed at him, “You did the same thing just now!” Smugness rolled off of me. “That’s how you knew I felt scared.”

He laughed, “No, that wasn’t it.” Leaning forward, he asked, “Damn, Ivy. Don’t you use any of your senses anymore? I looked at you, okay? I see fear in your eyes. Something I said spooked you, so I asked what it was and you responded by diving into my thoughts.” Well, that would explain it too. I looked back down at the book, as if it interested me amazingly so.

I shouldn’t have pressed into his mind. Privacy was something we both valued, but I wanted it because I was hiding so many secrets. I was beginning to wonder if he was doing the same thing. “You’re right,” I muttered softly, not wanting to fight with him.

Collin walked over to me, and hovered over the book. Glancing out of the corner of my eye, I saw a smile spread across his face, “What was that, Ivy? Could you speak up? I didn’t quite catch those last words.”

My smugness evaporated. I shouldn’t have pried and he knew it. I had no idea how he was controlling himself and not taking a mind dive when I didn’t answer him, but he didn’t. I hated admitting I was wrong, and he knew it. “Fine,” I said, not taking my eyes off the book, “you deserve to gloat. You were right. I was wrong.”

His fingers wrapped around my waist as he came up behind me. “What’s that? I can’t hear you!” The instant he said those words, he started tickling me. I jerked away from the book, swatting at his hands.

I tried to pull away from him to turn around, but he wouldn’t let me. His fingers gently touched my waist and spots around my ribcage that were so ticklish that I couldn’t stand up. Laughing so hard I thought I’d pee, I leaned into him and tickled him back.

“I’m always right!” I laughed, “And you’re always wrong!” With that his fingers dug in mercilessly and I laughed so hard tears formed in my eyes.

Collin pushed me back onto the floor, as I swatted his advances and attempted a counterattack, but he wasn’t as ticklish as I was. I kicked and wiggled, repeating myself and teasing him—basically taunting him to continue tickling me until I passed out. I made one last attempt to bring ticklish tears to his eyes, but before I knew it, he grabbed my wrists and pinned me to the floor. Breathless and laughing, he hovered over me. Joy was radiating off of him so intense that I couldn’t ignore it. His eyes had crinkles in the corners, as his rich laughter filled the boathouse. His hair hung in his eyes as he looked down at me, and I smiled back up at him, still giggling. I was on the verge of having uncontrollable giggles and noticed that I hadn’t felt like this in years. Laughter wasn’t something I’d had in large quantities lately.  There’d been so many months of despair and sorrow. All of that misery was burnt up in the hysterical giggles in a matter of seconds.

Smile on my face, I teased, “You like it when I’m right.”

Blue eyes blazing, he replied, “I LOVE it when you’re right. The smirk you get on your face is priceless. And then you try not to say anything,” he laughed, “as if you could possibly be humble! Take credit where credit’s due, Ivy. Everyone can see it on your face anyway.” He smiled down at me, inches from my face. “Take what’s yours.”

“Hmmmm,” was the only thing I said, as I agreed with him. My tickling fingers stopped jabbing and poking, and threaded through his soft brown hair as I pulled him closer to me. The smile on his face faltered and softened, as he neared my lips. I released his hair and ran my fingers down the side of his face, enjoying the sensation of his warm breath on my skin.

Smiling softly I said, “You’re mine,” and leaned up and pressed my lips against his.

It was strange how everything went from being light and playful to hot and heavy in a matter of seconds. His words had almost sounded like a dare to me, as if he were telling me to kiss him. Up until now, he kissed me. I’d never initiated a kiss, other than the first time when he turned me down. His silky lips pressed against my mouth, as he lowered himself on top of me. The button on my jeans dug into my skin at an odd angle, but I didn’t want to stop or ask him to move. Apparently, he was thought-peeking, because he shifted his weight and the brass button no longer hurt. His hands ran up and down my sides, sliding onto the small of my back as he pulled me closer to him and the kiss deepened. My pulse shot up higher and higher the longer he touched me.

Collin was breathless in my arms, as I slid my hands under his shirt. The warmth of his skin slid beneath my fingers. Collin’s body arched slightly at the touch, as if I’d surprised him, and he suddenly pulled away from me. It felt like I couldn’t breathe when his lips left mine. I’d hoped his mouth would have lingered and moved to my neck, and his hands would… I was so euphoric that I didn’t see the worry on his face.

After he pulled back, he gently whispered, “I don’t want to hurt you.”

Breathless, I asked, “What? You won’t,” but he continued to pull away from me and sat up. “Collin…?”

His hands shook, as he pushed the hair out of his face. Something frazzled him. Not looking at me for a moment, he cleared his throat, and stood up. When his gaze returned to me, I had sat up and was feeling badly about him not wanting me. “It’s not like that, and you know it.” He said gently. “Damn, Ivy,” he smiled wickedly at me, while extending his hand, “you make me totally crazy. I’ve never wanted anything in my entire life as much as I want you right now.”

Taking his offered hand, I let him pull me up. I still felt uncertain, because he pulled away from me so fast, but I tried to bury the feelings. Collin said he was reading my face, but I knew he could read my thoughts. He could read my emotions too if he touched me, and his hands were just all over me. He had to know that his actions made me feel rejected. I didn’t really understand why he kept pulling away. Part of me wanted to be with him. The other part of me thought that was terrifying and slightly insane.