Chapter 25 JERICHO
JERICHO
The following day, Evan and I sleep past ten. When we get downstairs, everyone is outside.
Evan immediately pads into the kitchen. “What’s going on?”
“No idea.”
He snags a muffin from the bowl along with a banana and a couple of pieces of leftover bacon. Jasmine must have set them aside for him—bacon and sausage rarely get saved in this house.
We walk to the window. Forest, Neal, and Grant are stringing up aluminum targets between the poles normally used for a volleyball net.
On the opposite side of the yard, Sage, Rowen, and Ivy are assembling a semicircle of various objects: trash cans and wheelbarrows and tin cans and watering jugs, all of them with red targets on the side.
“It looks like a training course,” Evan says, whipping his head around. “For you?”
I don’t have the words.
He grins widely. “That’s awesome.”
While Evan goes outside, I hang back to collect my thoughts. I didn’t expect the pack to go out of their way like this, and it touches me deeply.
The only problem is, even with a training course, I still don’t know how to use my gift.
Everything that happened during my fight with Rip had been pure luck.
Even the portal. I only produced it because I had seen him do it.
But how? No fucking idea. Obviously, it’s inside me, but…
how do I bring it out? And how can I control it?
I don’t want to hurt someone just because I don’t know what I’m doing.
The front door opens, and Evelyn comes inside, pulling her coat a little tighter around her shoulders. She makes a sound with her lips as she shudders.
“Brrr, it’s cold!” She pauses when she sees me. “Oh, good morning!”
My returning smile falls flat. “Hey.”
Her brows furrow. “You okay?”
I’m not sure how to answer, so I tip my head out the window. “Whose idea was this?”
She walks over to me. “I don’t know. By the time I came downstairs, everyone was already outside. Forest even called the other pack to help.”
I turn to her. “Hollow Cliff is here?”
“A few of them, yeah. And William is still here too. He decided to stay a couple more days. If things get worse, he might call his pack in. Jasmine said we have room here.” She turns to the window.
“Anyway, they’re all out there nailing things like there’s no tomorrow.
Sage found the metal targets in the shed, and Taren and I, well, and little Aster too, painted the targets on everything else.
It’s been kinda fun, actually. But man, I’m hungry.
I think we’re all just about ready for lunch. ”
I look out at the group scattered across the property.
At this pack that accepted me like one of their own.
And it's not missing the targets that scares me, or even not being able to summon my power. It’s the thought of disappointing them.
“I don’t know if it’ll do any good. I don’t know shit about my gift yet. ”
She steps closer, squeezing my bicep. “They know that, Jericho. They aren’t expecting miracles.
But this is their way of helping, of celebrating you.
Doing what they can to help.” She turns back to the window, her voice lowering.
“You should hear the way they talk about you. You and Evan. They genuinely care about you guys. They’re good people. ”
I swallow hard. They really are.
“Grant was thinking Evan and I could use the targets for shooting practice too, while you sort out your phoenix stuff. So it’s not only for you.”
That gets my attention. “What?”
She shrugs. “He asked if I have any experience with guns. I told him it’s been a while, but—”
“You’ve used a gun?”
She smiles. “Before Evan was born, I was pretty deep into this world. Even dated some shifters back in the day.”
I crack a smile. “For real?”
“Yup. When I lived in Los Angeles, I hung out with all kinds of shifters. Never went anywhere, of course, but I enjoyed the supernatural world quite a bit.”
The news stuns me. “Evan never told me that.”
“That’s because I never really talked about it with him.
I don’t like thinking about it. It reminds me too much of Evan’s father.
” She waves the air, annoyed at the thought.
“That man was a drunk who couldn’t keep his pants on around a woman, which is why I cut ties with him and moved away.
But it was the right choice. I loved Spokane, it ended up being a much safer place to raise a child.
” After a moment, she turns to me. “Did Evan tell you I had a best friend who was a vampire?”
I blink at her. “No?”
She presses her lips together. “She was my best friend for nearly twenty years. She was turned just before her fortieth birthday, by her boyfriend. They wanted a life together that was longer than hers allowed, so he turned her.”
“But it’s illegal,” I say.
Evelyn nods. “And he was jailed for it. I don’t know, though. I think they were hoping Brandy would transition easily and no one would ever know. But she didn’t. In fact, she killed a few people, so it caught up to her.”
I swallow hard, thinking about the people I’ve killed. They’re the entire reason I haven’t gone to the police about Foxx. Too afraid I would be arrested even though I was turned against my will.
Turns out, that was the right thing to do, since Foxx is wiping the police’s memory. I would have been locked away if they knew I was a newborn. Some of them never get out.
“Look at him,” Evelyn says, smiling at Aster as he runs across the field holding a paintbrush. His hair and face are splattered in red paint. “Looks like he ran through a candy cane machine.”
I grin.
“Reminds me so much of Evan at that age.”
“Oh, yeah?”
She laughs. “Oh, hon. I have so many pictures from when—” She trails off, her smile fading. “Anyway, I’m supposed to be making lunch.”
The front door opens and Evan waves at me. “Jer, come here! You need to see this.”
I drag my feet as I follow him outside, guilt weighing heavy on my chest. Evelyn might never get those photos back, and it’s entirely my fault. Her home was destroyed because of me. So they could find me.
But at least now we know why.
I need to learn this gift so I can use it. Evan’s right. It’s our only chance to stop Foxx once and for all.
“Check it out,” Evan says, pointing at the trees.
“They’re building platforms for you to jump onto.
And Rowen and Ivy have come up with a point system for each target.
They’re working on an obstacle course so you can learn how to jump and throw fireballs at the same time.
Pretty cool, huh? Red was thinking we can work on portals too.
Really help you zero in on your landing zones. ”
I wish I could share his enthusiasm, but honestly, it just feels pretty damn crushing. I have so much to learn, and not enough time. “Yeah, I guess.”
He furrows his brows. “What do you mean, you guess? I think it’s awesome.”
“It would be if I knew what I was doing. But I don’t. I don’t have a clue where to start.”
He turns to me. “You’ll figure it out.”
“How will I figure it out when I don’t even know how to start the fire?”
“I don’t know. How did you do it last night?”
I hold my hands out. “Last night was pure luck. I literally don’t know how to do any of this.”
Red approaches us, arms crossed. “I might be able to help.”
I close my eyes, already exhausted. “I don’t see how. You’re not a phoenix.”
“No, but I am a mage,” he says. “Give me your hand.”
I turn it over, then Red points a finger at the center of my palm. “Think of this like an outlet. In order for your energy—or fire, in your case—to come out of you, you need to open the outlet.”
“That’s what I’m saying,” I growl. “I don’t know how.”
“Relax,” he says. “It’s the only way I can describe it. You need to relax to let it flow from you. Like this.” He turns his hand over, and a moment later, a white light illuminates his palm, like a flashlight had been lit from the other side.
Evan and I both stare at him in disbelief. He runs around here as a wolf so often, it’s easy to forget he has mage powers.
“Try it. See if you can connect with the fire inside, then channel it. Or pull it, if you will. If you can guide it to one spot”—he taps my palm—“it should work.”
“You make it sound easy,” I say.
He huffs out a laugh. “Oh, no, I know it’s not.
It took me eight years to do my first spell, Jericho.
I know how hard this is. But it’s also quite different for a mage.
We have to bind with our magic first to be able to use it.
Your gift is simply a part of you, as are all vamp gifts.
Once you have them, they’re just there.”
“We still have to learn them.”
“Yes, but not in the same way we do. Our magic has to trust us to let us use it. It’s a relationship. Your gift is just a part of you. I believe once you pull at the source, you’ll be able to use it. I wish I could explain it better than that.”
Evan bumps me. “Just try. You said you can feel it, right?”
I nod. It was impossible to ignore the heat under my skin the last few days, to the point of wearing less clothes because of all the sweat.
“So try,” he encourages.
I sigh. I hate feeling like I’m going to let him down, let everyone down, if I don’t figure this out.
So like an idiot, I close my eyes and try to focus all my attention on the heat.
It’s easy to do since it’s constantly there now, like a fever waiting to break.
But what am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to control it?
The source is heavier in my chest, just above my heart.
I open my hand and imagine a faucet, dripping the heat into my hand.
To my surprise, it begins to move, rippling under my skin like velvet magma.
It makes me shudder and shake, uncomfortable with the new sensation. Yet it’s not all that terrible either.
I try again, focusing on my palm until the heat intensifies.
“Hey! You did it,” Evan says.