Page 70 of Their Promise

“Then I’ll deal with it.”

“To extract it, you have to focus on the darkness in them, and the darkness in you, and pull theirs back into you. Imagine it drifting like smoke to you,” Nana Jolie explained.

“Okay, let’s try,” I said and turned to Kayden.

“What if we don’t want it extracted?” Mason asked. “What if we’re fine holding it?”

Taking a deep, cleansing breath, I closed my eyes and focused on the darkness within me. Opening my eyes, I saw my hair was glowing and casting rainbows around the room. Eyes focused on Kayden’s aura, I imagined his darkness drifting from him to me, to join the rest of it in my center.

His darkness swirled higher and higher, moving until all of it was near his head. His eyes glowed a deep purple and his pupils became slitted, like snake eyes.

“Don’t do it, Lily,” he whispered. “I can feel how much it is. It’s only going to hurt you to take on more.”

“It was mine to begin with,” I whispered back and imagined the smoke turning into a rope so I could pull it into me. Immediately, it all zipped out of him and into me, making me gasp and my back arch as it filled me. His darkness merged with mine and it swirled higher within me.

“How do you feel?” Nana Jolie asked Kayden.

He leaned back on the couch, staring up at the ceiling. “Lighter and also like I’m missing something at the same time.” Clutching at his chest, he said, “Much calmer than I’ve felt in a long time.”

“See,” I whispered as I grit my teeth, “it changed you. You’re not supposed to have it.” Focusing on Trey, I said, “Your turn.”

“Are you sure?” he asked with a scowl.

Instead of answering, I started the extraction process. When I pulled his from him, he moaned as he fell back against the couch. “So much lighter, but … I feel like Kayden, that I’m missing something.”

My teeth ground together and I had to close my eyes against the darkness surging within me, begging for an outlet already.

“Don’t do it, Lily,” Mason whispered and stood off the couch. “You’re already glowing super bright and I can see you straining against it. I’m known as a loose cannon. Just let me keep mine. I don’t care if it’s altered my personality. I am who I am.”

Opening my eyes, I looked at him and said, “You have the most of the three. At least double what the others had. You deserve to be who you are truly supposed to be. Who you should have been had I not infected you.”

He knelt in front of me, took my face in his hands, and said, “I am who you need, and who you need is someone to help you deal with the darkness.”

Setting my hands on top of his, I said, “I need you to be who you’re supposed to be, Mason.” Before he could pull out of my hold, I began extracting the darkness.

“No,” he whispered as it slipped out of him. “Lily, stop. Please.”

“Almost done,” I whispered and grunted at the strain I felt trying to get his. There was so much in him and as I merged it with my own, I felt full of darkness. There was so much I didn’t think I would be able to suppress it.

He whimpered as I released him.

Standing, I headed out of the house through the backdoor. “Stay back!” I ordered everyone as I stumbled across the grass towards the field. I wanted blood, noneededblood. The more the better. Rivers of blood. A deep pulse thrummed within me, growing louder and louder by the second.

“Nana, shield around me!” I screamed.

“Lily, what’s wrong?” Great Aunt Leona asked.

“It’s going to explode,” I gasped and clutched at my chest, trying to keep it inside of me, but I knew it was in vain. “Nana! Shield!” If she didn’t put a shield around me, I wasn’t sure what would happen to anyone who got hit with the blast.

“Give it back!” Mason shouted. “Give it back to us so we can help you!”

I shook my head and continued to stumble away from them, trying to get farther away.

Mason tried to follow me, but Great Aunt Leona grabbed his arm, stopping him.

Nana Jolie put the shield around me, a translucent bubble that would keep others from getting to me and would contain the power. “Are you sure, Lily? Are you sure you don’t need something else? What if it hurts you?”

It was possible the power exploding out of me would hurt me, I knew that, but there was no other way.

---