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  “As I said, this was different than the other times.” My father also glanced at me and frowned. I knew he disapproved of my method.

  “This one looks more painful. So, Miranda has no ties to me anymore?” Wesley asked. I could see his pulse throbbing in his neck.

  “No ties, no connections. All she will know is the location of the Claim. That was why I chose the air. This way, she will be nowhere near Harrisville when she comes to look for you.” My father seemed somewhat pleased with his plan.

  “You think it’s going to work?” I asked, running my fingers through Krista’s hair. She had to wake up at some point.

  “How the hell am I supposed to know? Twenty years ago, Claiming was nothing more than a simple handshake and a debonair smile.” His lips twitched, and I knew he was lying.

  “What’s done is done, Dawn. Let’s see how everything pans out before we jump to conclusions,” Wesley said, taking a seat back where he was initially.

  “I agree,” I mumbled.

  Watching Krista take the Claim had been probably the most frightening moment of my life. However, the Claim and been completed, there was no turning back.

  The plane landed an hour and a half later. We were ushered from the jet to the helicopter by several of my father’s staff. It took a whole ten minutes as we lugged everything from one to the other. I heaved a heavy sigh as I buckled myself up and looked at my parents standing on the tarmac.

  “We have a few things to do while we are here. You three need to get back to the house. Do not tell anyone where Marshall came from. I do not want people losing their minds over this,” my mother instructed, glancing at the five of us.

  “We will be back at the house shortly after dark,” my father interjected.

  “Marshall can take Adam’s old room,” my mother said, wringing her hands together.

  “Where’s Adam?” I asked. Nobody had told me anything about him other than he remembered everything.

  “He moved to the second barn last week. He couldn’t stand being next to your room anymore.” My father stumbled over his words, knowing they would hit me hard.

  “Oh,” I said, hurt. I had apparently caused more damage than I had anticipated.

  It didn’t take long for the helicopter to drop us at the house. I admit it felt weird being there. After spending the time in the camp, I had grown accustomed to my bed in my lavish tent. Not to mention the parties every night. Was my new gift going to be welcomed here? Were the others going to be even remotely happy to see me?

  Rose and Helen were standing at the door when we entered, with their arms crossed over their chests. Oh, how I had not missed them. However, Nick had gotten to them, which might explain why they thought so little of me. I wished at that point I knew how to reverse the damage. I was still no different than them. No more powerful, no less popular.

  “Did you have fun?” Rose asked as I put my bag down on the floor inside the doorway to look at them.

  “Why would I have fun? I watched a woman get shot in the head,” I said scornfully — the urge to punch both of them seared through me.

  “Good riddance,” Rose said, looking at Marshall. “Who’s this? Get yourself another toy while you were in New Mexico?”

  Her tone pissed me off beyond belief. I knew I apparently had some male problems and some very odd codependency issues, but I wasn’t a slut.

  “This is Marshall. He’s my friend,” I said, trying to keep my cool.

  “And this?” Helen asked, purring, as she looked at Wesley.

  “That’s Wesley,” I said sourly, still trying to control my emotions.

  “Oh, this is Wesley, huh.” Helen shot toward him and put on a smile. “I’m Helen. Earth Warden.”

  Wesley glanced at me, and his eyes changed to a pale green. “Wesley. Bonafide anomaly,” he said, and she giggled. “This must be Rose. Assuming you’re the Water Warden?”

  Rose rolled her eyes but put on a smile.

  “Rose is Mona’s daughter,” I said softly as Krista walked through the door.

  “Oh.” He looked impressed. “I should have seen it. You get your beauty from her.”

  Rose blushed.

  “Anything happen while we were gone?” Krista asked, placing her bag next to mine.

  “Nada,” Helen said, hugging her. Nice to see they had made amends for all the crap that had happened before I left.

  “That’s good,” Krista smiled. “I think Dawn and I would like to get some rest. It’s been a long day.” Krista grabbed my arm and started pulling me toward the stairs. “Marshall and Wesley, do you mind grabbing our bags? We will get you settled.”

  I turned and watched as Wesley gave them a sexy smile before picking up my bag and flinging it over his shoulder. Helen and Rose swooned in unison at the spectacle. This made me wonder if his superhuman powers were what made him so irresistible, or if it was the fact the boy suddenly had an ego that reached right past Heaven. Marshall was less accommodating as he grabbed Krista’s and followed us up the stairs to my room. Neither girl seemed to notice the shifter as he pushed passed Wesley, taking stairs two at a time.

  My room looked untouched, and Krista smiled awkwardly as Wesley threw my bags on my bed.

  “Kelly spent most of her nights in the field. I don’t think anyone knew what she was doing, honestly.” Krista went into my closet and pulled out a clean set of sheets for me. “Marshall, your room is through the adjacent door. Adam already moved his stuff out, so it’s good for whatever you brought with you.”

  “I really don’t have anything anymore.” Marshall hung his head.

  “We will have to remedy that.” I gave the boy a pat on the back.

  He looked extremely uncomfortable. What did I expect? The boy had been on the run for Lord knows how long. He probably never had a safe place to sleep or a bed all to himself. In fact, he had spent all his time sleeping in my tent. This had been at my request as soon as he was introduced as my assistant. I wasn’t going to let some poor guy sleep on the ground outside Miranda’s tent while I laid on a luxurious bed.

  “Wesley, we have you on the other side of Dawn. That’s my old room,” she smiled. “I made sure to make it more masculine when I left.”

  “Where are you staying now?” So many petty changes had happened while I was away.

  “Adam’s dad went home a few days ago, and your mom said I could have that room. It has a bathroom attached,” she shrugged. “They originally wanted to put Wesley in Adam’s old room, but your mother was against it due to the adjoining door.”

  “That sounds like my mother,” I said flatly as a hiss of a laugh escaped Wesley’s lips.

  “I don’t think her mother has anything to worry about. Dawn would never cheat on Aaron,” Wesley said snidely.

  “He is not my boyfriend!” I exclaimed. “How many times do I have to tell you that?”

  “Again, it sure looked that way.” He looked at Krista and smiled. “So, Keeper of my Soul, care to show me around the rest of the place?”

  Krista looked at me, puzzled. They didn’t understand there was still a wedge between Wesley and me. We were going to have issues for a while. Until the familiarity of having him around became a regular occurrence.

  “Yeah, sure,” she said, motioning for him to follow her out of the room.

  “Don’t miss me too much while I’m gone.” He winked at me and looked at Marshall. “She’s a man-eater, dude, guard your soul with your life.”

  Marshall waited for Wesley to be out of earshot before speaking. When he did speak, he spoke cautiously.

  “You are actually in love with that man?” Marshall took a seat on the edge of the bed as I plopped down next to him and put my head on his shoulder.

  “At one time, yes. I mean, I can’t say at one time. I love him. Just not so sure that the ‘in love’ is accurate at this time.” Marshall’s arm slid around my waist.

  “I don’t know what happened. When I got back to camp, there was blood everywhere — men dress
ed in all black, just slaughtering Lilly’s people. Wesley was lying in the middle of her tent with four or five dark creatures around him. I had never seen them before.” He shook his head. “I had no idea that she was pimping him out to the other Army heads. In exchange for information, Wesley received one more mark.”

  “It’s ok. I know you don’t know everything that happened in that camp.” I felt my eyes getting heavy. I was tired.

  “I know a lot, and I’m going to tell your parents everything I know.” He reached over and put my pillow in place. “You should rest, Dawn.”

  “Marshall?” I asked yawning.

  “Yeah?” he asked as I laid down, and he covered me with a thin blanket.

  “Will you stay with me? I don’t think I could handle being alone.” I reached for his hand and held it softly in mine, pleading with my eyes.

  “Of course.” He smiled that cruel smile as warmly as he could. Some people were just born to look deceiving, but instead, become some of the most treasured parts of your life.

  Marshall laid down next to me. We faced each other, our foreheads touching. I let out a long yawn.

  “I am so lucky to have met you.”

  My eyes were getting heavy. I could hardly keep them open any longer.

  “No. It is I who is lucky to have met you.” I felt his hand on my shoulder for a second before my body took me away into a blissful world full of dreamless wonder.

  Chapter Six

  Codependence

  I woke up at half-past seven that evening. Marshall had managed to slip away sometime after I had fallen asleep. I didn’t feel rested, but I felt better. It was odd waking up as myself and not as Prudence, but as people say, all good things must come to an end.

  I crawled out of bed and padded from my room to the bathroom, not paying any attention to anyone who I may have passed. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway; the three other people on this floor, besides Marshall, had an issue with me one way or another. I took about four minutes to do my business and exited the room. The hall was empty at first, then I saw him.

  Adam stared at me, wide-eyed as a smile spread across my face. My palms were sweating, and my heart was pounding. I couldn’t handle it if he yelled at me now for the wrongs I had caused him.

  “You’re back,” he muttered as I sauntered toward him.

  “I wasn’t gone long.” I wanted to hug him, but I was too scared to make the advance.

  “You were gone a while,” he grumbled, placing his hands in his pants pockets, and glaring at me. It was apparent he was still angry with me.

  “Then yeah, I’m back,” I mumbled softly.

  “I suppose you and Wesley have made amends.” His voice sounded almost cruel. I knew he had issues with Wesley, but I wasn’t aware they were that deep.

  “No,” I said slowly, eyeing him.

  “Well, I suppose that is good. Please excuse me; I have laundry to do somewhere.” He pushed past me and walked away. I watched him go, but his head did not turn once in my direction as it used to do.

  “He’s better than he was last week,” Shawn said, coming up behind me.

  I jumped at the sound of his voice.

  “How bad was it?” I asked, placing my hand to my erratic heart.

  “Pretty bad. He was head over heels for you. She was just a distraction; she never changed how he felt about you. This situation, however, yes, this did some damage.” Shawn shrugged. “Human love is something I don’t understand.”

  We stood there for a moment, just staring at one another. I didn’t know what to say.

  “I think I’m going to go outside and get some air,” I remarked as I turned and walked away.

  I wandered out the back door and into the left-field of the pasture. I figured if I went out there, people would leave me alone. It was familiar, with the feel of the air and the smells of the trees. To me, it was a piece of Heaven placed on Earth. By the time I got there, I had realized I was wrong about being alone. There was a dark shadow ahead of me as I walked up on my father, looking up at the sky. He was in jeans and a white t-shirt – abnormal attire for him.

  “Hey, honey,” he said as I got closer.

  “Hey, Dad. When did you guys get here?” I stopped next to him and tried to follow his gaze.

  “A few hours ago. Your mother has already headed to bed; she’s worn out.” He smelled the air, and a satisfied smile spread across his face.

  “What are you doing out here?” I asked, noticing his eyes were red-rimmed.

  “Seemed a bit stuffy in there tonight.” He gave me an odd smile and put his arm around my shoulders.

  “Yeah, that it did,” I mumbled in response.

  The stars were bright without city lights to obscure their luster. Still, it didn’t beat the nights in the mountains, where it looked as if you could reach out your hands and touch them.

  “We decided it was time to bring Nick in for questioning,” my father stated, glancing down at me.

  “Oh, well, that’s good.” I nodded my head. Finally, I felt like we would get some justice for all the damage he caused.

  “Your mother set up the court-martial for tomorrow afternoon. We don’t think you girls need to be there.” He squeezed my shoulder, and I stiffened.

  “Why?” I asked slowly.

  It didn’t make any sense to me. We were the Wardens, wasn’t something like this in our wheelhouse? Weren’t we supposed to pass judgment on those who wronged good people?

  “He’s already warped, Helen and Rose. We don’t want to give him the opportunity to turn them on us completely.” My father’s statement made sense.

  We weren’t sure what power Nick had over the other two Wardens. It was apparent he was feeding false information to them. Still, the full-on effects of his lies were genuinely unknown.

  “When are you going to tell them?” I asked quietly. I felt Rose and Helen both deserved to know the truth. They had been misinformed on so many levels.

  “I’m not sure it will fix anything. Maybe without him feeding them lies, they will revert back to how they were when you met them,” he said, dropping his arm. He shook his head from side to side and changed the subject of our conversation. “It’s nice to have Wesley back, isn’t it? I have him working with some of my top men. He’s on a monitor so I can assess his location and skills. The boy has amazing power. Just wish we knew all the blood that is in his veins.”

  “He’s not the same, Daddy,” I muttered, my voice catching in my throat.

  “He won’t be, darling. However, I have seen the boy’s artwork. His visions, for the most part, are right on.” He turned to walk away from me.

  “How do you know?” I asked over my shoulder.

  “A Harbinger gives a glimpse into the future. Wesley has the ability also to provide information from the past.” He sighed. “Don’t stay out here too late, honey. Mona will have dinner ready around nine, I’m sure.”

  “I won’t. I promise,” I said as he walked away from me.

  I stood there for another five minutes looking at the sky before heading back toward the house. At first, it seemed a blob was standing at the corner of the back porch. When I got closer, I saw it was Adam. He was upset, worried, or just extremely pissed off.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked, stuffing my hands in my jean’s pockets. The air was still warm, but a chill had set over my body. I was nervous about being near him.

  “Needed a little time to think, that’s all.” Adam looked at me and forced a crooked smile.

  “I just needed to get away — all this talk of invading enemy camps. I’m not sure if I can follow their tactical vernacular,” I laughed nervously.

  “You know you did a pretty shitty thing,” he said out of the blue, ignoring my last comment completely. I looked at him, rapidly blinking, trying to catch up.

  “I’m sorry, Adam, I didn’t know what else to do.” My voice cracked, and my heart was pounding.

  “So, you tell your brother to make me forget what ha
ppened. Did you ever wonder, or even think, that I had everything under control?” His eyes were glistening. My actions had only brought him pain.

  “I only wanted to make it easier on you,” I said softly.

  “By hijacking my brain!” he exclaimed. “Let’s get this straight between us, all right? I was there when the ashes cleared. I was there each time your heart broke because of them. I accepted a gift from God to protect you with my life. I put myself in front to save you. And what do you give me? Amnesia! I was going crazy because I couldn’t remember anything about you.” He put his face in his hands and sighed. “Maybe I should ask your father to erase all my memories of you and go back to Midvale. Then I can try to lead a normal life. One where there’s no magic and no paranormal beings. Where I simply have my faith to guide me. I have given up so much for you. In response, you pine for Wesley, lust for Aaron, and make me forget.” He looked at the moon, his hands firmly stuffed in his back pockets.

  “I understand.” I felt a tear roll down my cheek.

  “No, you don’t. I used to think you were nothing like Miranda.” He took a long breath and threw his hands in the air. “I was incredibly wrong. You are just like her. Now excuse me, I need to get inside before Rose comes looking for me.” He pushed past me and into the darkness of the trees.

  I stood there, dumbfounded, watching him walk away. My actions were meant to be positive, not negative. I just wanted him to be happy. As long as he thought of me romantically, he would never be satisfied. I never thought it would reverse. I didn’t bring happiness to Adam; I brought pain. Wesley was right; anyone else would be stupid to wind up with me.

  “Bravo,” a voice said behind me, and I turned around.

  “How much of that did you hear?” I asked as Wesley approached me.

  “I heard every last sentence,” he smiled.

  “Great,” I muttered, crossing my arms. “I thought you were being monitored.”

  He lifted his wrist. Fastened tightly around his small frame was a bracelet equipped with a blinking red light.