We had officially been bound by blood; there was no turning back.
His skin transitioned from colorless nothingness back into the Ashford trademark smooth pale opaqueness, and his horribly cut and beaten face healed itself back to amazing perfection. His eyelids moved in quick little tremors as he slowly started to come to.
The warm beaming light disappeared just a moment before his dark blue eyes groggily opened and looked directly into mine. He was perfect once again and more handsome than I had ever noticed him to be.
“My angel,” he whispered.
Brushing a damp strand of dark brown hair to the side that had fallen over his eye, I kissed his forehead, hugging him tightly. “And out of the ashes arose the phoenix.”
CHAPTER SIX
That night I dreamt that I was back home in Colorado during a gorgeous hot summer day, my favorite time of the year. My face was soothingly warm from the sun that beat down graciously on it. Xander, Kat and I were together again on a small rinky-dink white boat in the middle of a crystal-clear lake, laughing and soaking up the afternoon's comforting heat that wasn’t around for more than four months out of the year.
The water was smooth as glass without even the slightest ripple moving through it. No one was around for miles, and the only sound that was heard, besides our constant laughter, were a few chirps from nearby birds chasing each other over the water. Everything was exactly how it should be; the way it always was.
Our cooler of Coronas was dwindling down to nothing, but that wasn’t going to pull us away from our perfect spot on the secluded lake.
“You’ll never let anything ever break us apart, right Adelay?” Xander asked after he finished off the last gulp of his beer.
“That’s a silly question, Xander. She wouldn’t turn her back on us, not for a vampire.” Kat smiled after she said it.
I shook my head at them both. “No, never.”
Uneasiness stirred in my stomach after I spoke those words. Something I couldn’t quite place my finger on yet. How did they know who Davin was?
Instantly, dark gray clouds started moving in from out of nowhere, quickly rolling across the sky and completely covering the sun up behind them. The air turned frigid cold, blasting a huge gust of wind through my hair, throwing it up off my shoulders. Our perfectly calm and serene lake was now a sea of crashing waves.
I turned toward where Kat and Xander should have been standing, but they were no longer present with me on the boat. I was all by myself and the storm was moving in fierce, stealing away all traces of brightness.
Kat’s screams emanated from somewhere off in the distance, and Xander’s voice echoed through the air. “You have already turned your back against us, Adelay! You lied, and that will never be forgiven! You have killed us! Our death is on you!”
“No, I didn’t Xander! I promise!”
A bigger whoosh of wind slammed into my chest, sending me over the edge of the boat and into the freezing cold water. The frigid water pricked my skin like thousands of tiny needles. I flailed my arms helplessly, trying to keep my head above the deadly waves that kept pounding hard against my defenseless body.
My eyes instinctively squeezed shut to avoid the rushing wave that struck my face like a baseball bat, and when I opened my eyes again, both Davin and Sully were now leaning over the edge of the boat, each reaching out for me to grab hold of their pale hands; except one was on one end of the boat and the other was on the opposite end.
I heard Davin yell out to me over the loud storm that was upon us. “One of us can save you, Adelay! But, whomever you choose, the other shall be sent to his grave. You know in your heart that it is us who belong together. Hurry and grab my hand, we haven’t much time!”
I spit out mouthfuls of water every time my head popped up above the waves that were threatening to drown me in them if I didn’t choose fast.
“No, Adelay grab mine! I loved you first, and vow to always protect you! He will never be there in your time of need; he wasn’t there in your time of need.”
Something unexpectedly grabbed hold of my legs tightly, trying to pull me underneath the water to it. Davin and Sully froze in place like mannequins on display, doing nothing to help me escape from its grasp, except continue to hold their hands out for me to choose which one to go to. If I didn’t make a choice, I was sure to die, but no matter whom I chose the other would die instead.
“He can’t have you, as long as you choose one of us to be with forever.” Davin’s lips moved but his body didn’t.
I couldn’t bear to grant Davin’s request. My love for both of them was too strong to end one of their lives to save my own. So, I stopped fighting against whatever was wrapped around my legs, letting myself succumb to the force that was tugging relentlessly from underneath me. Cold water covered my nose, hindering me from taking another breath without inhaling water. It inched up my face until I was completely submerged in the murkiness and was pulled down, down, down into the dark abyss.
