Exaltation (Insight #11)(88)
Raven dropped her dinner all over the floor as she charged her dad and gave him the biggest hug ever.
He patted her back. “Yeah, that was the response I got from the twins, too.”
“Tell them they can call you dad and it will be twice as awesome,” Raven said as absolute bliss filled her. It was like a dream come true.
“We’ll get to that,” Jamison said as he rocked Raven back and forth, wishing he and Emery had done this long ago. The girls were nearly women now.
They’d be off fighting their own battles before long.
Chapter Twenty-Five
When Rydell got home he found Dagen and Kade in the garage looking over the new paint job on the boy’s ride. They’d hoped having him build this from the ground up, having him focus on experience off the track would stop his curse.
Rydell wasn’t worried about River as much anymore. Kade had barely seen her. Rydell even heard him tell Dagen to give it a shot one night, that he didn’t have time for girls. He said they were too distracting to his racing focus.
“Smooth ride,” Rydell said as he ran his hand over the body. “But you know she’ll only preform the right way if she knows her driver respects her, adores her.”
Kade blushed.
They needed him to see this car as more than an object. Speaking about it like it was a woman seemed to get his attention.
“Get home,” Dagen said. “We’ll do a run through tomorrow after school.”
Kade gawked at the car a second more before he finally strolled away.
Rydell had lost interest. He felt company, company he didn’t invite.
Dagen gave him a wary look as they pulled the garage door down then they both manifested in the living room of the house.
There he was. Britain. He wasn’t in his suit but he still looked out of place in his nice jeans and button up.
He was relaxed into their couch, staring at the odd design in the pattern of it.
“I really need to teach you boys how to set up a household. What decade is this from?”
No answer.
Britain glanced up at Rydell. “You look like hell. Feeling a little low?”
“Never felt better.” Not entirely a lie. He was having a hard time keeping himself satisfied, finding a surge of energy he could devour and be sure that he was not leaving a curse in his wake.
“Noticed you and your boys have not been in The Realm since I pulled you out of that pit.”
“Laying low.”
“Not as low as you think, that is if rumors have the barest of truths.”
“What do you want?” Rydell asked bluntly.
“It’s not what I want. It’s what you need. You have a war coming at you. You need energy to fight it.”
“I told you once I was not climbing out of one cage just to get in another.”
“And I told you I didn’t want you in my cage. And I told you why I wanted you to win.”
Rydell sat down on the coffee table before him.
“The only thing I want from you is information.”
“Open book,” Britain said with a cunning smile as he extended his arms.
“Do you know Jamison BellaRose?”
“So many names,” he said squinting his eyes for effect.
“I’m not in the mood. He knows about us. I want to know how he knows. How a coven is so well-versed on our kind? Why a coven uses our methods at times?”
Britain leaned forward. “The question is what came first, the witch or the Escort.”
“He was one at one time?” Rydell asked.
“A very long time ago.”
“I’ve never seen him. My rank states I should have.”
Britain tilted his head. “Does it now,” he said with a raised chin.
The Exaltation line was the youngest, that and being considered the party line made them pretty low on some Escorts’ respect level, not usually the line of obsession, but there was a first time for everything. Britain was saying something happened before they came around, or so Rydell assumed.
“Whose line did he come from?”
“Yours of course,” Britain said with an easy smile.
“Then why do I not know him?” Rydell snapped back.
A wave of sheer exaltation hit the room. It was coming from Britain, which made it powerful. Even if Dagen and Rydell didn’t want to take anything from him they were helpless as raw power assaulted their souls and made Rydell a million times stronger all at once.
Why Britain felt the emotion was a mystery. Rydell could only assume he was holding on to a big secret. Must have been yearning to see the look on Rydell’s face.
“Many boast about the creation of their line, how and why it was needed, why it’s more powerful or remarkable. Yet the sovereigns will never debate the first line that was created,” Britain said with a sly smile.
“Anger,” Rydell said, knowing that Vade was the favored king, that his emotion to some degree was in all of them.
Britain moved his head side to side. “Exaltation.”
Dagen and Rydell glanced at one another then to him.
“You heard me right. You see rapture was a real issue in the beginning. It was hard for souls to stand in the presence of the Creator, therefore the emotions had to be managed.”
“Why would I believe this?” Rydell asked not liking where this was going.