Page 2 of This Blood that Bonds Us

He seemed different than I remembered. When did the haziness of my memory start? We’d gone through Ascension, then went to the bar and . . . that must have been it. Ascension was the answer.

“She wants to look in his head and see what he’s been up to.” Zach looked at me with a stern, unmoving expression, but I knew the fear in his voice.

“She wants to see me!”

Presley moved toward the cathedral again, and Zach and I both stopped him.

“Pres, listen. When She looks into your head, what is She going to see? I need you to tell me all of it right now.”

“Why?”

“Because we need to know so we can protect you.”

“She won’t hurt me.”

I should have agreed. A part of me did. Everything She’d done and we went through was for a reason. We’d run away. We’d deserved the punishment. Things were different with him. It confirmed the prophecy. We were on The Divine Path.

Yet I was still afraid for my little brother.

“I know. Just tell us so we know everything about why you’re here.”

I already knew. The prophecy. Fate. The Divine Path.

“If I tell you, you’ll take me to Her?”

Zach and I shared a look, then we nodded. A little of that dull ache in my chest dissipated. Just enough. I’d protect him till my heart stopped beating. We would be a family again. It’s how it was meant to be. The one true path.

One

Kimberly

*Three months earlier*

Keep your eyes on me.

Reciting Aaron’s words in my head, I studied the wood grain of the bar. My foot tapped on the barstool beneath me, and I picked the dirt from under my nails for what had to be the fifth time in ten minutes. Aaron sat at the front of the bar, with Presley in the only window seat. The streetlight from outside and the glowing blue neon above them illuminated the tops of their heads. I couldn’t see Aaron’s face or his eyes, only the shadow shielding him from me.

Dive bars were the easiest to sneak into. Mostly because Presley and Aaron were naturals at distracting the ID checker. As I sipped my beer, I hoped I’d be able to tolerate the smell of mildew and smoke for longer than an hour.

“Well, hello.” A group of guys, who couldn’t have been much older than me, made their way to sit. They shed their large puffycoats and scarves and dropped them to the ground and over their stools.

“Were you waiting on someone?”

The guy was forward. That would make it easy. His dark hair and eyes reminded me of William. Only, he didn’t have the same charm William possessed in our first meeting.

“No.” I smiled, tucking my hair behind my ear. “No one.”

He smiled a toothy, wicked smile and leaned back to whisper something to one of his friends. I glanced over at Aaron, but all I could make out were his clenched hands on the table and Presley tucking his head to say something. I wasn’t any good at any of it yet. Focusing on the sound and using my improved vision was an overload on my already taxed brain.

“What’s your name?”

“Chelsea.” I picked the first name that came to mind.

My old life was gone. But I often thought of Chelsea and wondered how everything had played out for her. I’d sent my letter and hoped she’d gotten it. It was strange being dead to the world I’d once called home. I could never return.

“I’m Jared,” he said.

Jared was a talker. He couldn’t pull himself from me all night. The more shots he and his friends took, the more handsy he got. It started with a soft brush of his hand and turned into an arm around my shoulder. Every minute felt like an eternity. It was too loud. The voices were a throbbing jumble in my skull with the music coming from the jukebox, and that didn’t count the noise of normal human function. Like laughing, chewing, or dropping glasses. The roar of cars driving by or the crash of balls on the pool table set me on edge. I had to grip the trim of the bar to stop from flinching—and that was just one sense. The stench of cigarettes ate away at the last bit of sanity I had, and the karaoke machine had lights that constantly flickered.