Ascension - Laura Hall (books for 20 year olds TXT) 📗
- Author: Laura Hall
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Book online «Ascension - Laura Hall (books for 20 year olds TXT) 📗». Author Laura Hall
“Don’t you mean his protection?”
Adam stared at me for a considering beat, then nodded sharply. Gone was the unassuming youth—here was the Opal Mage. Sparkling power formed a pale corona around his shoulders and head. The sight of it was actually comforting; at least I hadn’t lost the ability to see magic.
“I don’t know you, Fiona Sullivan,” he said flatly. “You have a tremendous and dangerous power, and very little discipline. Must I remind you that in a fit of temper you threw a lightning bolt at the Western Prime?”
I bristled further, teeth clenching around the words, “I only did what he wanted! And what about him? He almost bit me. You want to tell me that was part of the test?”
Brown irises bled to white and I recoiled against the headboard. “That is exactly the problem,” he said darkly. “The Prime has not drunk from a human vein in more than a hundred years. Because of you, he nearly broke his most sacred vow.”
I almost bit my tongue in half. “Wait—he was going to bite me for real? Not in a dream but in real life?”
“Yes,” he snapped. “And I wouldn’t have been able to stop him. You have zero understanding of your own power. Are you even aware of the physics of a lightning strike? The massive particle disruption that occurs prior to and because of it?”
A soft voice spoke from the doorway, “Leave her be, Adam.”
The Omega glared at me another moment, grunted in disgust, then stalked across the room. He brushed past the Prime like the vampire, too, was intolerable.
“Don’t take his words too much to heart. He’s worried.”
I looked anywhere but at the man leaning in the doorway. Possibly the oldest vamp in the world, who’d almost broken a century-long fast on my jugular.
“It’s not a fast so much as a test of endurance.”
I shook my head helplessly. “How do you sound so amused? This isn’t funny. Any of it.”
“No, it’s not,” said the Prime in a grave tone, for once devoid of humor. “I would like to try teaching you discipline, Fiona, if you’ll let me.”
I said nothing, overwhelmed by the way my life had been upended, and still reeling from the back-to-back confrontations. First with the Prime in the Colosseum, and now with the Omega.
Two of the scariest fuckers out there.
Curling into myself, I lifted my knees and hugged them to my chest. I wasn’t too proud to admit I was a million miles outside my comfort zone. I was scared, worried about my dad and Mal, and still partly convinced I was going to end up in a mad scientist’s laboratory. And without my lightning I was now a null, completely at the mercy of supernaturals.
The Prime took a step into the bedroom. “I promised your uncle I would keep you safe, and I will.”
“Stop reading my mind,” I whispered. “Please, stop. I can’t take it anymore.”
The events of the last forty-eight hours hit like a freight train, the impact forcing a whimper from my chest. I’d been cut up, slammed into a wall, almost bitten, bespelled, drugged, threatened, and power-neutered.
And my dad was missing. Maybe hurt, or worse.
I was helpless to stop the first strangled sob, or the second. All at once the floodgates opened, and I was crying in front of the Western Prime. Not a contained, feminine sniffling, either. No—I was slave to a full-blown, horrendously loud sob-fest.
When arms came around me, lifted me, and settled me against a solid chest, I was too far gone to care who they belonged to. It had been so long since I’d been held. So damned long.
“Hush, mo spréach. All will be well. I will keep you safe.”
Against my better judgement, I believed him.
Reality crashed my pity-party fast. Before the Prime’s shirt could absorb more than a few of my tears, I jumped from his arms and raced into the bathroom. Locking the door behind me, I cranked on the water in a massive, glass-enclosed shower, tore off my smelly clothes, and inserted myself into the scalding flow.
I let the water rinse the final tears from my face, breathing in short bursts until the wall around my emotions was rebuilt—a familiar exercise that didn’t take long.
Growing up with a single male parent, a police detective to boot, hadn’t afforded me much leeway for feminine hysterics. From a young age, I’d recognized the deep sadness my stalwart father concealed and modified my behavior accordingly.
The older I grew, the more my role evolved. As soon as I arrived home from school, I started cooking a healthy dinner for the two of us. I did the laundry, cleaned the house, and made sure his favorite magazines were stocked beside his recliner. I was too busy for teenaged tantrums, moping, or lovesickness. By self-appointment, I was his rock.
When the time arrived for me to fill out college applications, my dad had expressly forbidden me from applying to schools in Los Angeles. I’d been shocked by the pronouncement. Hurt and betrayed. He’d decided he didn’t need me anymore—didn’t want me anymore.
It took a few years for me to understand that, in his stoic way, he’d given me a gift. I’d gone north to Berkeley and had the best four years of my life. The most important lesson I’d learned was that sometimes the greatest act of love was letting someone go.
God, I really hoped he was okay.
It had been a long time since I’d showered minus sparks. So long that at first, the lack of electricity was disconcerting. Eventually, though, I resigned myself to somatic pleasure. I’d never experienced a waterfall showerhead before.
When my skin was red and puckered, I turned my attention to the row of bath products displayed on a cutout shelf. I scrubbed my body until it was raw, shaved my legs, and washed and conditioned my hair until it was a silky sheet down my back. When there was nothing else to do except wait for the water to go cold, I regretfully turned off the flow.
The largest, fluffiest towels I’d ever seen waited on a heated rack. I wrapped one around my head and the other around my body, then unzipped the overnight bag left by the door.
“Jesus, Mal,” I muttered as I pulled out the third sports bra.
Clearly, my uncle hadn’t been able to bring himself to open my actual underwear drawer, as there were no panties or regular bras. There were two tank tops, two pairs of leggings I ran in, and three long-sleeved shirts. Tennis shoes but no socks. A pair of flip-flops. No jacket or sweatshirt for the cooler climate. At least he’d packed deodorant, though that was the limit of personal hygiene products.
Thanks a bunch, Mal.
I settled on black leggings and a long-sleeved black shirt. The color suited my frame of mind. Dark and determined.
Sometime between shaving my legs and conditioning my hair, I’d come to a conclusion. I wanted my lightning back. As far as I saw it, the only way that was going to happen was if I let the Prime teach me discipline. Whatever that entailed. I wasn’t convinced he could or that it was even possible, but after weighing my options, it was the only chance I had of getting what I wanted.
For starters, my life back.
By the time I finished dressing, I had barely enough energy to towel-dry my hair. Two days in a magical coma probably had something to do with it; either that, or I was experiencing the side effects Adam had mentioned.
Slipping my feet into flip-flops, I unlocked the bathroom door and peeked out, immediately heaving a sigh of relief at the sight of an empty room. No alluring, mind-reading vamps or white-eyed mages in the vicinity.
Every step toward the closed bedroom door ratcheted up my anxiety. From a quick survey out the windows at a heavily forested, twilit terrain, I was relatively certain I was at the Prime’s compound outside Seattle. If so, and if the gossip rags were correct, I was surrounded by not only vamps and mages, but the third spoke of the Prime’s triumvirate, the Alpha, and his pack of werewolves.
I considered crawling back into bed and waiting for someone to make sure I was still alive, but gnawing hunger pains won out.
With a deep breath for courage, I swung open the bedroom door and abruptly loosed an undignified yelp. An unfamiliar, scowling man stood directly opposite me, his fist raised to knock. He was built like a lumberjack, with unkempt dark hair, a trimmed beard, and piercing, pale blue eyes. Power leaked from him in a continuous stream, thick and pulsing like a heartbeat.
Icy eyes surveyed me from head to toe, stalling a few moments on my messy, wet hair before settling on my face. The scowl never faltered as he growled, “I’m Declan.”
Declan Thomas, the Western Alpha.
I sighed. “I really can’t catch a break, can I?”
To my everlasting shock, the scowl melted from Declan’s features. A wide grin looked much more at home on his face. It also radically altered my first impression of him, as well as his overall attractiveness.
I stuck out my hand, figuring I might as well take advantage of being able to touch people. “I’m Fiona Sullivan. Nice to meet you.”
He looked at my hand, then glanced up with a wicked glint in
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