Getting ready in Kimber's bedroom, I was almost consumed by my excitement and anxiousness to go to the club.
My long, golden-brown hair was styled in big, sexy curls, and my make-up was to die for, thanks to Kimber. She had complimented all of my features, especially my eyes, accentuating them with black eyeliner and smoky eyeshadow, making the greens and ambers pop in contrast.
I had to hide my dress, a strapless, hot pink, leopard print number, from my dad in my overnight bag. It only grazed the middle of my thigh, which was definitely not house party attire, and would have blown my cover.
Kimber, in a stunning, teal, backless dress, was putting the finishing touches on her lip gloss. “Ready?” she asked me, fluffing her long, blonde hair one last time.
“Yes!” I exclaimed, super excited. For some reason, I had a strange amount of energy and I felt like I could run for miles, even though I hated to exercise. I attributed it to my nerves and excitement from the whole day.
Once we arrived at the harbor, I became nervous. What if the boat crashes? It was dark out, and I had never driven at night. What if I flip it? Death by boating accident was not how I wanted to celebrate my eighteenth birthday.
Kimber sensed my anxiety, and suggested, “I can drive if it will make you feel better.”
“Yeah, that would probably be best,” I agreed.
Kimber's parents also had a boat, and they let her drive it all of the time, so it made more sense since she was a more experienced driver. Plus, if my dad happened to come down to the docks, he wouldn't find mine missing.
The cool, night air helped calm my nerves, the ocean breeze soothing me like it always did. I tried to enjoy the ride over, finally able to obtain the freedom I had always wanted, but had never been allowed.
Stepping foot onto the Long Beach dock caused a liberating feeling to swell inside me. I was free, at least for a night, and I was going to take advantage of every second.
We took a taxi from the harbor to the club since our shoes were not conducive to walking. Thanks to Kimber's remarkable power of persuasion, we skipped the line, much to the dismay of all of the people waiting in it. They marked our hands with a gaudy, black “X” in permanent marker, informing everyone that we were minors.
It was already a little past eleven, and the club was packed wall-to-wall with people. The room was hued in shades of red, gold, and yellow, with modern white and red couches lining the walls, indicating VIP areas.
Kimber pulled me onto the dance floor in the center of the room, as Usher's “Scream” played in the background. As we danced, I caught sight of a guy watching us with a look that caused me to be uncomfortable.
Kimber noticed my discomfort, and followed my gaze to the creepy man. Her eyes slightly widened for a split second, so fast that I was sure that I had imagined it because they immediately set in a hard frown.
She spoke loudly in my ear, flipping the guy her middle finger, “Let's go get something to drink at the bar.”
I nodded my agreement and followed her to the bar, holding her hand so we wouldn't get separated. Getting lost in the club was the last thing I needed if there were more assholes like him, looking at me like I was their next conquest.
When we made our way back to the dance floor, I didn't see the guy anymore, and I let out a sigh of relief. Kimber and I were dancing to LMFAO's “Shots”, when a large commotion of cheering from the VIP section closest to us caught my attention. When I turned my head to follow the noise, I was wholly unprepared for what I saw.
It was him, the guy from my dreams, and he was even more smoldering hot in person. He wore a fitted, black V-neck shirt that impeccably accentuated his muscles, paired with dark blue jeans that had to be tailored for him because they fit his ass perfectly. He was at least six feet tall, and his eyes didn’t blaze orange like in my dream, they were more like the color of roasted almonds, warm and comforting.
He had a short, black faux-hawk, the ends tipped in red, and his goatee matched his base hair color. I imagined pulling it to bring his lips to mine and had to pinch myself because I had to be dreaming. There was no possible way he could be in the real world. Could I really be that lucky? No fucking way.
Kimber noticed that I had stopped dancing and yelled over the music, “Hey, I brought you here to dance your ass off, not stand there all hypnotized! What are you—oh...” she trailed off, catching sight of my dream guy, who stared back at me with a shocked expression that must have mirrored my own.
He had two hot, blonde girls on either side of him, giggling and talking, even though he wasn't paying attention to them anymore. They rubbed their hands all over the muscles of his arms, sending a flare of jealously through me. I wanted to walk over there and pull them off of him by their hair, yet I stood there frozen. I felt just like I had in my dream, shocked and unsure of what to do.
Do I go talk to him?What do I say?Hey, I've been dreaming of you for as long as I can remember.Yeah, right, he would think I'msome lunatic. He looked at me like he recognized me, but that wasn't possible since we had never met. Could he be having the same dreams as me? I was lost in thoughts about him, and the world began to drown out from around me.
Kimber snapped me out of my thoughts by saying, “Damn, Brie! Do you know who that guy is?”
I shook my head, unable to speak, when she answered, “That's Jace Vasquez, the UFC fighter! And, it looks like he's undressing you with his eyes! Why don't you go talk to him?”
Before I could answer, someone grabbed me by the waist and started pulling me backwards, catching me off guard since I was absorbed in the guy from my dreams.
My eyes locked on Jace’s as his expression turned from shock to rage in a split second. I could have sworn they had started glowing orange, like in my dream, when he shoved the bimbos away and rushed after me.
Kimber also wore a furious expression. Her blue eyes shined a luminous turquoise that I had never noticed before as she pushed people out of the way to try to catch up to whoever dragged me away.
I screamed, but the sound of the music drowned it out as I tried to free myself from my attacker's grip. My attempts amounted to nothing compared to his strength, but I wouldn’t give up. I pried at his arms and kicked as he continued to haul me away.
My assailant turned me around so that I lost sight of Kimber and Jace. In their place was a large door with a red “EXIT” sign over it. I was sure it led to a dark, creepy alley, where my attacker planned to rape and murder me, but that plan seemed flawed with two people tailing him.
He pushed me out the door, and I tripped in my high heels from the force, causing me to fall to the dirty asphalt. As I stumbled to stand up, he barricaded the door with a dumpster, moving it as if it weighed next to nothing before he turned to face me.
I began to back away as banging from the other side of the door sounded, but there was no way Kimber or Jace would be able to move the dumpster from inside.
As he walked towards me, I recognized him as the asshole who had been staring at me inside the club. I didn’t remember his eyes glowing white like they were, but his face was the same. He quickened his pace, raising his arm in front of him as he came closer, as if he meant to grab me again.
I felt like I was being pushed backwards, even though he wasn't touching me. I instinctively put my arms out in front of me in defense, and as soon as I did, he flew backwards about twenty feet. Perplexed, I wondered how that could have happened since he had been standing several feet away from me a second before.
He also looked confused as he yelled, “Luke! Ryan! Get your asses out here, and help me!”
A few seconds later, two men appeared at the end of the alley. They stalked towards us, their eyes fixated on me as they approached. I turned to run, knowing I wouldn't be able to fight off three grown men.
One of them, Luke or Ryan, I didn't know which, teased my initial attacker. “Couldn't handle an Elemental that doesn't know how to use her powers, Kyle?”
Their talk halted my escape. Elemental? What the hell is that? It's definitely not me. I don't have any special powers, let alone talents, for that matter. They must be experimenting with drugs or something.
My attacker, Kyle, answered, “She does know how! She just threw me back twenty feet without even trying!”
“That wasn't me! What are you lunatics talking about?” I exclaimed, thinking they were all psychotic if they believed the crazy things they were saying.
“See, she doesn't even know about her powers. Her daddy probably never told her anything about the Elementals or the Prophecy,” one of the others answered.
“What do you know about my father? How dare you talk about him?” I spat with anger.
I seethed with rage. First, I had been dragged out of a club on my eighteenth birthday by some jerk, after just finding out that my dream guy was actually real. Then, I was trapped in an alley with three assholes who were talking about Elewhatevers and my dad.
I glared at them as they looked back at me with a mixture of astonishment and fear on their faces. I didn't know why they seemed afraid, but I planned to use it to my advantage. I stretched my arm out, palm outward, mimicking what I had seen Kyle do when I had felt myself being pushed backwards. I thought about lifting the three of them off the ground, and to my amazement, they rose off the asphalt. I was certain that I was in a different nightmare for me to be able to do such things.
As the thought that I was dreaming crossed my mind, the dumpster blocking the door flew against the wall of the alley, startling me and making me drop the men to the ground. Jace and Kimber ran out, stumbling over the three men beneath their feet. They looked down at them, then at me, with a questioning expression on their faces.
Kimber was the first to speak. “What did you do, Brie?”
“I…I don't know. First, I think I threw that guy like twenty feet, and then I lifted all three off the ground by just raising my arm and thinking it. I think I'm losing my mind. Someone must have put something in my drink.”
To my astonishment, Kimber laughed. “You're not losing your mind, Brie. You've just been in the dark about our history.”
“Our history? You know what they're talking about?” I asked incredulously.
“Yes, and I will explain all of it to you back at your house, along with your dad. He is going to be furious at me when he finds out what happened,” Kimber somberly stated.
“I think someone slipped all of you some drugs, because you're all trippin'! What the fuck is going on? How did I just do that?” I angrily questioned.
“Calm down, Brie. Getting upset isn't going to help the situation. Take a deep breath,” Kimber instructed.
“I don't need to calm down, I need fucking answers! Like now! What the fuck is going on?”
“I'd like to know the same thing. I think we have our own things to talk about,” Jace said, his eyes locking on mine when I looked at him. They no longer burned orange, but had changed back to beautiful mahogany-brown.
I blushed at the intensity of his gaze. “All I know is that I need some answers. For one, who are these guys?” I asked as I pointed in the direction of the men on the asphalt.
“Don't worry, I'll take care of them,” he said.
He proceeded to grab Kyle, who immediately screamed in pain. Smoke billowed up from where Jace's glowing hands touched him.
He yelled, “If you ever come near Brielle or her family again, I will kill you! That goes for you two, as well. Got it?”
“Yes, yes! Please let me go!” Kyle begged as he struggled to free himself of Jace's grasp.
Jace shoved him to the ground next to Luke and Ryan. They immediately stood, helped Kyle up, turned, and ran down the alley.
They didn't get far before Jace raised his hand, palm outward, and a fireball shot out of it. The fiery sphere hit Luke in the legs, causing him to fall, bringing Ryan and Kyle down with him. The fire spread, covering all three of them, as they writhed in agony on the alley floor.
I stared in horror as Jace, whose eyes faded from orange back to their normal, earthy color, turned to Kimber, and said, “Go ahead and put them out, will you? I think they got the message.”
Kimber nodded. She looked at me, her eyes glowing turquoise again, then she turned and walked to where the men burned on the ground. She raised her arms out over the men, palms downward. Water gushed out, drenching them and extinguishing the flames.
“Next time, I won't put it out, so I would listen to what Jace told you. Stay away from my best friend,” she firmly stated as she walked back towards Jace and me.
The trio slowly stood up and hobbled the rest of the way down the alley, disappearing from sight as they turned left around a corner.
Jace closed the distance between us, causing my heart to beat erratically. He had set those men on fire, and it didn't seem like he felt any remorse. It just seemed so cruel to me that he did that to them, even though he had been protecting me. My emotions were all jumbled and frenetic. I was scared of what Jace had done, yet I was excited that he was real, not just a dream that my subconscious had conjured up. Above all else, I was extremely mystified by the events that had taken place.
I had no idea what was going on, and that caused some panic to rise in me. My best friend had made water stream from her hands. I thought I knew everything about Kimber. We had been inseparable since preschool, and there she was, manipulating elements.
Apparently I could too, and I didn't even know how I had done it. To top it off, my dream guy was standing not five feet from me, real, in the flesh. The pull to him was unbelievable. I just wanted to throw myself in his arms and hide from the new world that I had been thrust into, even though we had just met. It bewildered me, almost too much to comprehend, and my thoughts were all over the place.
I looked at Jace as my defenses took over. “How could you do that to them? You set them on fire!”
“They deserved it, Brielle. They were trying to hurt you, and do God knows what to you!” he countered, his toned jaw flexing.
“What you did doesn't bother you? You could have killed them!” I yelled.
“I would have if it meant keeping you safe!” Jace screamed back at me, the conviction in his voice taking me by surprise.
“Why?” I softly asked him.
“You know why,” he calmly replied.
I did know why. It was for the exact reason I would do the same for him, even though I had known him for less than an hour. I would probably have done anything for him, which terrified me. How could I feel this way about him when we just met?
“You have the dreams, too?” I asked, secretly fearing his denial.
He stepped closer, only a couple of feet away from me, and I caught his heavenly scent, like rain and citrus. “Every night I've been trying to figure out a way to find you, to save you, and here you are. So close all this time, and I never knew,” he sadly said.
Taking my own step towards him, tears pooled in my eyes as I said, “I didn't think you existed. I hoped that you did, but I thought I was crazy to believe that I could find you.”
Reaching out my hand, I touched his face. When I did, a jolt of electricity sparked between us, spreading what felt like burning honey throughout every inch of my body. Whatever was happening to me, I didn't want it to stop. On the verge of addictive, it was one of those pains that felt amazingly good.
Jace's eyes widened as an astonished smile spread across his face. “Unbelievable,” he said as he grabbed a handful of my curls at the back of my head, pulling my face to his to crush his lips to mine.
His kiss was desperate, just like his gaze had been in my nightmares, only multiplied. I opened his mouth, and my tongue tangled with his as our passion increased. I had never had a kiss come close to that one, and it had just started.
He tasted exotic, a subtle sweetness present as he caressed my tongue with his. I clutched his shirt, twisting it in my hands as I tried to pull his body to become one with mine. Heat rushed in-between my thighs and pooled there, sending tendrils of burning warmth up my stomach. I never wanted the moment to end. The world could have stopped turning right then, and I would have been oblivious, deliriously happy in Jace's lips.
“Ummm, I hate to break this up, but we better get going before more Elementals find Brie. I'm starting to sense some,” Kimber said awkwardly.
I broke the kiss, breathless and immediately longing for Jace's lips when I did. His expression told me that he regretted the abrupt ending, as well. I blushed; embarrassed that Kimber had witnessed my steaming make-out session with a stranger. Well, a stranger to her, at least.
“Kimber's right. We need to get you back to Avalon, where you are protected,” Jace declared.
“Will you come with us?” I pleaded, not wanting to leave Jace since I had finally found him. My intense need for him frightened me, but the desire to hold onto him trumped my fear. I didn't understand what was going on, but I was damn sure that I didn't want to let Jace go.
“Of course, I will. I basically have to now, whether you want me to or not,” he replied, a small smile playing on his full lips.
“What do you mean?” I asked, not understanding why he would have to come with me.
“You're his twin flame— the other half to his soul, Brie. We will explain it all when we get you home, but basically, you can't live without each other now,” Kimber stated.
I looked at Jace, who nodded, “It's true. That spark and burning sensation you felt when we touched was our souls recognizing each other as their other half and rejoining as one. We won't be able to be apart for more than a day, maybe less, or else we will both become painfully ill. We need each other to survive now.”
“There is much more, but we really need to get you back home. I promise I will answer all of your questions, and explain everything once we get there, okay?” he asked, taking my hand in his.
A pleasurable tingling spread where his hand held mine, and I hoped it never went away. “Okay,” I answered, believing what Jace had said.
I had no clue why, but everything felt so right; Jace's hand holding mine, the idea that our souls were one, and even all the crazy talk about Elementals. I should have been scared out of my mind, but I wasn't even close to feeling that. Being with Jace made me feel complete, as if I had been missing a part of me my whole life, but never really realized it. I was probably in shock, delusional from the events of the night. I thought that it might all sink in later, and I'd finally cross the threshold over into insanity.
We took a taxi back to the harbor, where we boarded Kimber's boat to head back to Avalon. Jace still held my hand, stroking the back of it with his thumb. I stared at him, still in disbelief that he was there with me. He caught me looking at him, and I turned away, blushing profusely. He raised my hand to his mouth, tenderly kissing where his thumb had caressed.
Whatever was going to happen didn't matter since I finally had Jace, and nothing was going to take him away from me, even if my nightmares portrayed otherwise.