Shattered Promises 02 - Fractured Souls by Jessica Sorensen (motivational books for students TXT) 📕

“I don’t get it.” I shake the crystal ball like a magic eight ball and on the inside the rubies swirl in a funnel. “I’ve gone into a crystal ball completely by accident, but this feels impossible.”

Aislin flips the page of the book she has opened up on her lap and tucks a strand of her golden brown hair behind her ear. “You know, there’s a lot more marks that I’m sure a lot of people would want to remove. However, there’s nothing on this mysterious triangular symbol.”

“I know,” Laylen agrees. “I can’t even think of one off the top of my head. Usually they appear later in life or something happens and they…” He drifts off, stretching his arm out on his lap and staring down at the Mark of Immortality.

Aislin glances up from the book and gives a fleeting glance at the mark. Then, looking guilty, she quickly sets the book down on the table between the three of us. “I’m going to go up to the library and get another book.” She stands to her feet. “This one’s getting me nowhere.”

“Adessa has a library?” I ask after Aislin leaves.

Laylen bends his arm back and wraps it around his stomach so his mark is hidden. “Yeah, it’s up in the attic. Nothing too fancy, but there’s a lot of books. The problem is that most of them stick strictly to the Wiccan history and there’s not much about other marks in there.”

“What kind of book do you think you’d need for something like that?”

“Honestly, I’d go with a Keeper’s book, since Stephan’s a Keeper and a lot of the Keepers’ history is mixed with other marks. In fact, there was once a mark of evil. It had a different name, but that’s pretty much what it stood for. It was directly related to the Keepers’ blood. I think the man who had it, though, died or something and it killed all the bloodlines linked to it.”

“So you think it’s extinct?” I ask.

He nods. “Yeah, from what I’ve been taught it is.”

I set the crystal ball down on the apothecary table and give it a good spin, causing the rubies to clink against the glass. “I can’t even feel any energy from it.”

Laylen reaches for the crystal ball. “Did Nicholas say anything while he was training you?” He scoops it up and turns it in his hand. “Like maybe there’s some magic words,” he teases, but he looks sullen, which is exactly how I feel. The more time we’re up here messing around with this thing, the more time everyone stays trapped. It’s also more time that the star remains inside me, which means the more time the Death Walkers and Stephan remain at our heels.

“When he was training me with the regular Foreseer crystal ball, he said something about channeling emotions,” I say. “That it would help.”

Laylen encounters my gaze and we exchange a penetrating look before our concentration focuses on the crystal in his hand.

“It doesn’t hurt to try, right?” he asks, peering up at me.

I waver because it might not hurt to try, but it could hurt for me to channel up certain emotions around him. Sure, things have been okay lately, but I’m still concerned that the tie I felt with him will surface.

He pats the sofa. “Come sit down by me. Let’s see if we can try something.”

I’m nervous, but I still get up and meander around the table to the couch, dropping down beside him. “What emotion should we aim for?”

I tuck my hands underneath my legs and shrug, anxious over how many ideas pop into my mind, ranging from an orgasmic feeling to an idyllic state of rapture. “You pick one.”

He dithers, his eyes all over me, then ultimately he sweeps my hair off my shoulder. “We could go for calm because I really do think you need it, but I don’t think that’s going to channel up much energy.”

I tense as he inclines inward toward me until his chin lightly grazes my shoulder. “I agree…” I lose my voice as his lips gently caress my skin.

“I really tried,” he whispers hoarsely. “I know I should stay away… and there’s Aislin… and so many other reason, but God you smell so good… I haven’t been able to stop thinking about your scent since I tasted your blood.” He breathes a path up my shoulder, heading toward my neck.

My head falls to the side. All this time I’ve been so curious to know what it feels like to be bit and now, well, I sort of regret it. Yet I can’t go back from what’s already happened.

I slip my hands out from under my legs and grip onto his legs as his lips move across my skin, hardly touching yet it’s enough to send flutters throughout my body. It feels so wonderful, to the point that it steals my breath away, and I end up gasping for air.

He groans and then drops the crystal ball onto my lap so his fingers can find my waist. “We should stop…” he trails off as he presses his nose into the arch of my neck.

My eyes slip shut and I start to helplessly fall into his arms. “We should….” I agree, telling my body to move away, but I feel the prickle poke at the back and I know I need to let whatever’s emerging make an appearance.

I hold my breath and wait as Laylen’s fingers reach my rib cage.

I wait as his mouth heads for my lips.

I wait until a vile sensation builds inside my stomach.

I wait until I can feel it, the heavy weight crashing upon my chest, pressing me down—the weight of my guilt.

I gasp, realizing just how wrong this is and that I shouldn’t be doing this, not when I have feelings for Alex and Aislin has feelings for Laylen.

“This is wrong,” I say and start to lean away when I feel the hot energy surging through my