Asleep *FINISHED!/COMPLETE*

*Chapter 22

Chapter 22

“WHAT IN THE ACTUAL LIVING HELL IS GOING ON?!?!? WHAT IS WRONG WITH HER?!?”

I screamed. I raged. I punched and fought and grasped at anything nearby. I’d already thrown two vases against the wall and was about to rip the curtains off the windows before Kai’s unreasonably strong arms encapsulated mine, pinning them at my side.

“Let me GO!!!!” I screamed to no avail.

I grit my teeth as my eyes bulged in frustration while trying to shake loose the Warrior at my back, his illumine aiding his strength in supernatural ways making it nearly impossible.

“Calm DOWN, JASE!” Kai roared at me, but it only fueled me more.

I managed to wriggle free enough to elbow him in the middle of his wicked scar, the place I knew it would hurt the most. He let me go then, and held his side while trying to regain his balance and composure after my cowardly blow. My dad said something, yelled something, but I was seeing red.

All I could think about was my angel lying unconscious upstairs and my inability to do a damn thing about it. Not to mention the fact that my mind couldn’t, wouldn’t, stop replaying over and over again the way she’d reacted to my touch and my comfort. Mingled with images of her lifeless body splayed across my arms when she had left me entirely. My body unconsciously racked with a torrent of fear and anguish at the fresh wave of pain the memories brought about.

My father said something again, though I still didn’t know what. But I could feel and sense the lacing and weaving of his Commander Illumine wrapping around my mind and body. I dropped to my knees in defeat. Not from his Illumine ability, but from the sheer helplessness I felt.

I should have been thankful that she was alive, and the depths of my soul were grateful, but in those moments I feared my own death would have been more welcoming and peaceful than the torment of having your Soulbound flinch at your touch… It went against the very core of my being, the very laws put in place by the Creator himself for those few who were blessed, or cursed, enough to find the one who had been bound to their soul since before the foundations of the earth.

“Dad…” I whispered, fully submitting to defeat now.

“I’m here son.” My father leaned down and wrapped strong arms around me and I sobbed into his shoulder. Something I hadn’t done since I was a small child.

Kai awkwardly stood closeby, wondering what to say or do and no doubt confused by the myriad of behaviors he had witnessed from me since finding Ellie.

“It will be ok, Jase. She will be ok…”

“How do you know that?”

“Can’t you see it, son?”

I leaned back, letting my dad free of holding me together, and sat slumped on the floor leaning against the glass windows of the courtyard.

“I can’t see anything right now, dad. Only images of her… her… she…”

I choked back fresh sobs.

“She died.” I looked up at him with glossy, red rimmed eyes.

A brief image flashed through my mind of the state I’d now be in if she hadn’t come back. If she hadn’t returned to me. I can’t imagine a force on earth powerful enough to stop me from whatever torrent would have ensued if I had truly and completely lost her on this side of heaven.

“Sight may not be my illumine, Jase, but it doesn’t take one to see that she is a key component in this war. There is something about her, something special. And she crossed paths with you, with us, for a reason. And if she truly did cross over as you say, well, then there must be a reason that she stayed. You have to hold onto that.”

“But what is wrong with her, dad? She’s sick. There’s something… something dark swirling inside of her. I can feel it and I can almost see it, but just as the images start to become clearer, it’s like something forces me out, shuts me out… and she wouldn’t even let me touch her earlier. Why is she pushing me away?”

I paused and swallowed down my rising emotions. I felt like a young teenager dealing with waves of unwarranted and unchecked emotions, though I knew these were in fact well warranted, even if no one else truly understood it.

“Jase you have to cut her some slack. She has been through a lot over the last few days, not to mention whatever she had been through since before finding us.”

“But she’s…” I dropped my head into my hands, my elbows finding their base on my knees. “She’s my Soulbound.” I whispered quietly, more to myself than to anyone in particular.

“She’s your WHAT??” Kai half shouted, unable to control or conceal the utter shock at my words. “No way. There’s no way.”

I had an empath bright, but it didn’t take a genius to sense the tinge of jealousy that laced his doubtful words.

“Actually there is a way, Kai. Though it’s incredibly rare, especially for them to be so young.” My dad rubbed his stubbled chin in thought.

“No. There’s no way. You’ve known her for like, what? Three days?? That’s insane.” Kai crossed his arms and shook his head, his feet nearly tapping as I knew he was itching to pace the floor. But those with a Warrior Illumine almost never revealed their weaknesses through body language. It was an inherent fail safe, a protection code of their DNA.

I knew where his insecurities were coming from though, and the broken parts of me in those moments wanted to jab at him and say something about his doubt stemming from whatever thing he had going on with Maven, but I was too weak. Too drained. I didn’t care that he didn’t understand or believe the truth in that moment. All I cared about was her.

“Seriously, dad! Tell him he has truly lost it. This is all too insane, even for me!”

He threw his arms out and pleaded with our father to say something rational to ease whatever it was he was feeling then. My Empath bright must have been extra active given the torrent of my own emotions crashing down on me so hard with all that had transpired.

“Enough, Kai,” my father said. “Take a walk. Go check on Ellie and then loop Maven in on what is going on.”

“What? No. I’m not leaving. Not until one of you tells me what’s really going on.” Kai said sternly, crossing his arms as if he wouldn’t be moved.

“Mordekai,” my father warned in his leader and commander tone. Although it wasn’t laced with his Illumine, someone as experienced as my father could have the same effect without it. He simply emanated Alpha.

Without another word, Kai stormed off down the hallway.

“Dad, please help her.” I whispered, still having trouble finding my voice in this new state of vulnerability I’d yet to experience before.

“I will, son,” he promised. “I’ve already put in a few calls and one of our top healers is on their way here as we speak. We will figure this out.”

He paused briefly in thought and I could almost feel his hesitation to continue before he muttered his inner thoughts aloud.

“Something is definitely off about all of this. I have my suspicions, but I think it’s safe to say there’s some Shade ability at work in all of this… I can’t say how or what… but I can feel it. We all can.”

A new wave of worry washed over me before I steeled myself. Nothing and no one was going to take her from me. I silently swore that to myself as I rose to my feet, a new sense of determination washing over me.

There wasn’t a Shade in existence that I wouldn’t question or fight to find a way to get my Elliana back, no matter the cost.

“Let me know as soon as the healer gets here,” I stated firmly before leaving the room and using my Sight to hone in on my Soulbound, and silently followed the thread that led me to her without thought or question.