Ascension by Laura Hall (best novels to read for students txt) đź“–
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Bouncing lightly, he gave me a come-hither gesture. “I’m ready, Fiona.”
I shifted my weight, wondering what I was supposed to do. Did he seriously want me to zap him? I wasn’t sure I could. For the first time in recent memory, I didn’t feel a charge trying to escape my skin. Maybe it was because I wasn’t physically here.
“Stop dallying.”
His voice came from behind me. Right behind me. I yelped and spun, backpedaling away from him. My heart pounded in my chest, sending furious Flight! Flight! messages to my legs. My muscles bunched.
“Do. Not. Run.”
The words froze me where I stood, my body poised on the brink of launching into a sprint. It wasn’t the authority in his voice that got me—it was the hunger.
The sun rained down its sweltering heat. Sweat beaded on my face and chest. Fear prickled across my scalp as I realized that, pseudo-dream-state or not, I was alone with a predator.
The predator.
Top of the fucking food chain.
“Shit,” I whispered, turning slowly to face him.
Pearly fangs glinted as he smiled slightly. “Good girl,” he murmured.
Then, like the prey I was, I made the mistake of looking into his eyes. They weren’t beautiful anymore, the irises no longer green but glistening obsidian. The sight was too much. Talons of fear pierced my brain. Adrenaline surged in my limbs.
I ran.
I made it maybe five feet before fingers seized my shoulders. My back slammed against a hard chest and my head was wrenched to the side. I screamed and thrashed and swung my legs, none of which did anything except invite a thickly muscled arm around me, trapping my arms to my waist. I was lifted from the ground, all five-foot-seven inches of me. Like I was a doll. Or dinner.
Cool lips traced my jugular, unfazed by the storm of tiny electrical currents erupting from my skin. His strength was inviolable. Barring a miracle, I was going to be bitten by a vampire.
I stilled, quivering, and cursed Fate, the bitch who’d decided that the first lips to touch me in fourteen years would belong to a bloodsucking fiend.
The sudden absence of his grip had me falling forward. My knees slammed into dense sand. Momentum carried me onto my hands, where I stayed, heaving, until the urge to vomit passed.
“Please accept my apologies, Ms. Sullivan.”
I almost didn’t hear him over the rush of blood in my ears. When the words registered, and I understood that he had been privy to my thought—and released me like a leper because of it—a rush of shame overtook me.
“Screw you,” I said and shoved to my feet.
Dark brows rose in surprise over eyes that were green again, though darker than their usual shade. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
Anger was accomplishing what fear had failed to. My arms pulsed with heat, the snaking ribbons of scar tissue writhing with silver luminosity. For once, I didn’t try to dampen the rise of power. There was no need to ground the charge, only direct it.
At him.
“Do it,” he said.
“With pleasure.”
I lifted my hands and lightning erupted, arching brilliant white across the sand and striking the Western Prime in the center of his chest.
Heat.
Light.
Darkness.
And in the darkness, low voices murmured.
“…never seen anything quite like it.”
“That was supremely foolish, Connor. What if it had happened in truth?”
A low chuckle, full of genuine mirth. “I might risk it. Such an extraordinary feeling…” The sound of footsteps moving away, then, “And the spell we talked about?”
“Almost done.”
When I next opened my eyes, I was in my own bed. I sat up fast, then flopped back down as nausea gripped me. A strange pulse of heat in my body was followed by a wave of cold that made my teeth chatter. Groaning, I lifted a hand to my face, which was flushed and damp with sweat.
“Hey, kiddo.”
“Mal,” I whispered. The bed depressed by my hip and something cool and wet covered my forehead. It was such a relief that tears stung my eyes. “What’s happening to me?”
“You have a fever, but it’s passing. You did well. You held your own against two of the scariest fuckers out there. Proud of you.”
My chest squeezed with mingled pride and humiliation. “Couldn’t stop him.”
“Honey, there’s a good reason why you’ve been kept unconscious all day. Now, I need you to listen carefully. I’m going to find your father, but in order to do that, I need to know you’ll be safe. I made a deal with the Prime. My help for your safety.”
“No,” I breathed out. “Staying with you.”
Mal lifted the washcloth and gently wiped my face. “I’d never forgive myself if something happened to you, Fiona. This isn’t a negotiation. You’re leaving for Seattle with the Prime.”
My skin prickled all over. Fever or fear, it was hard to tell. “Not going.”
“I’m sorry,” whispered Mal, and then more loudly, “Go ahead, Adam.” I jerked, but Mal’s hand pressed against my chest, holding me down. “It’s for the flight, kiddo. Just relax.”
“Wha—”
Something sharp pierced my arm.
Darkness.
Crossing the bridge from sleep to waking, I first noticed the scent of flowers. Gardenia, if I wasn’t mistaken. Another minute and my heavy eyelids parted on a new ceiling, this one white and vaulted with a thick, rustic beam down its center. A cool breeze caressed my face, diluting the sweet floral with air that smelled of rain and earth.
Definitely not Los Angeles.
“You’re awake,” said the Omega.
I turned my head on the pillow, blinking groggily. “Déjà vu.”
Adam looked every inch an All-American college boy in jeans and a dark, hooded sweatshirt. His eyes, however, showed his age, and more than that, his deep fatigue. Thinking of the needle he’d stabbed me in the arm with, I hoped he was tired because of me.
“How are you feeling, Fiona?”
I sat up carefully but to my surprise, I felt fine, if hungry and weak. “Okay, I guess.”
The newest bedroom in my twisted game of musical beds was by far the largest. Done in tones of pale blue, dove gray, and white, it was hands down the most beautiful living space I’d ever seen, and easily the square footage of my entire apartment.
Before an elegant stone fireplace was a cozy seating area that begged for lazy afternoons reading and drinking tea. Plush cream rugs were strewn in intervals over dark, rustic wood floors, and huge bay windows displayed a dim, overcast sky with a canopy of green forest in the distance.
“Is it morning or evening?” I asked, turning back to the Omega.
“Evening,” he said haltingly.
Now fully awake, my mind churned. “Is it still Saturday?”
“No, Sunday.”
Which meant I’d been unconscious for the better part of two days.
“Wow,” I whispered, pressing the heels of my hands into my eyes to subdue a sudden urge to cry. Or scream. Potentially both. But since neither was an option, I used the classic standby, “I need to use the bathroom.”
Adam stood immediately and gestured to an open doorway not far from the bed. “Of course. It’s through there. You’ll find the bag your uncle packed for you inside.”
“Thanks,” I muttered.
“You might feel a little light-headed, perhaps experience some blurred vision. It will fade as your body acclimates to my spell, but you should take it easy for a few hours.”
I swallowed the sudden pulse in my throat. At the sight of my face, Adam’s eyes narrowed.
“Your uncle didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
His gaze flickered to my arms, and mine followed. At first, I didn’t see anything amiss. Glistening, narrow ribbons of scarring—Check. Then it hit me. No longer did black script obscure the scars. Mal’s spells were gone. Instead, encircling my wrists were delicate woven bracelets. Tight enough to not slip off, and with no visible catches for removal. One was white, the other black.
Breathing a little faster, I lifted my hands and clenched them. Nothing. No electricity at all.
“The bracelets are positive and negative,” said the Omega. “To equalize your charge.”
I took a deep, slow breath. Logically, I should be relieved, even grateful. Shouldn’t I be grateful? It was extraordinary magic, a true testament to Adam’s skill.
But I wasn’t relieved. I felt like the most vital piece of me had been sawed off, the wound cauterized.
“You neutered me,” I said through numb lips.
“For your protection,” he countered firmly.
I touched the bracelet on my left wrist, the black one, then looked up at him.
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