AIDAN

I was already thinking up things to do to him as I reached for Jackson's throat. Unfortunately, he was faster. Jackson pressed his lips against mine. From the moment we touched, everything around me flew from my mind. Nadia, Sophia, the chaos in the background; everything faded away, and my mind opened to a vision. The face I had been seeing while asleep, and could never remember, finally came to me and stayed.

Images raced through my head with my dreams rushing back, except now with the detail of Jackson in them. The scenes went all of the way back to the night the Nexus Stone had shown up. I had blacked out coming down the stairs after seeing a news report about Jackson’s company opening offices in New Orleans.

My cheeks were wet from his tears and my ear was warm from his breath. “My promise to stay till morning's light.” My eyes opened to the sun rising behind him and realized I had reverted to my normal appearance.

“You’re the one I’ve been seeing in my dreams.” My sharp tone cut into Jackson, but he didn’t say anything. “You knew this whole time. Who I was. How we were together in my past life.”

Jackson leaned forward, and I took a step back. He gently placed his hand on my face and another vision flooded my mind. It was a memory I already knew, but from a different perspective than my own. It was of Jackson at the park under the stone archway. He was power-washing the blood-splattered platform. As Jackson cleaned up Sebastian's blood, he looked out onto the pond and repeated the poem I had heard in my dream. It didn't seem like the Jackson in the vision could see it, but the area over his heart was glowing. A glittering line of white energy shot from his heart and flew out of view. After some time, Jackson finished cleaning the blood, still oblivious to the glowing energy connecting him to an approaching car. My car.

The silver sedan had just parked when Jackson noticed the car. He ducked out of sight behind some bushes while I walked towards the stone archway. Jackson narrowed his gaze to get a closer look. Registering my face, his eyes widened with tears and his mouth fell open. The glittering white line connecting Jackson to me brightened for a moment and then winked out.

Jackson’s sad face changed to horror. His eyes shot down to his body expanding, changing into the Asuwang I had seen. An internal struggle erupted on his face. His expression shifted from feral to scared until the animalistic side won and he let out a roar.

Jackson withdrew his hand and sent me reeling back to reality.

His sad eyes moved from me to Sophia. “Let’s go, Sophia. It's over.”

Sophia was faced off at a standstill with Nadia. “Absolutely not. I haven’t finished the ritual and I’m not leaving while this backwoods bayou bitch still breathes."

Jackson roared, his eyes turning blood red. "I said it's over. Tomas is already dead with Ava soon to join him. If we don't leave now, we may be next."

Sophia unwillingly moved toward Jackson and raised her hand, opening a vortex behind them. Sebastian and Dominick, who survived my worms better than his brother, were the first to leap through the opening.

“I will find you,” I telepathed to Jackson once out of the trance he had left me in.

“With every breath I have, I pray you do.” An image of our kiss appeared in my mind before Jackson jumped through the portal followed by Sophia. She stuck her middle finger back out towards Nadia and disappeared.

After the portal closed, an important detail came back to me. “Oh crap! I left Lana inside with Ava.” And right on cue, we heard an awful scream come from inside. I grabbed hold of Nadia and teleported us inside. Reappearing on the dance floor, we found Lana standing above an unmoving Ava. Lana’s spear was stuck straight through Ava's chest. With an abrupt pull, Lana ripped it out. The armor on Lana’s body melted into her skin and her original clothing resurfaced. In a flash of light, the glittering spear gleamed away and Ava exploded into a cloud of ash.

Lana was a little too perky when she caught sight of us. “Hey, guys.”

Nadia hid behind me. “Hey, girl, uh, you didn't, by chance, get any of that bloodlust stuff like Aidan, did you?”

I was getting closer to the unease Nadia felt. “You realize she's the only one of us to actually kill one of the generals, right?” Directly in the center of us, Mr. Serious landed from out of nowhere and I manifested my claws while Nadia caught on fire.

Nadia let out a frustrated yell and put out her flames. “No more! I have had my fill of people dropping from the sky.”

“Ditto,” Lana and I said in unison.

Mr. Serious sheathed his sword and gave the three of us a genuine smile. “The three of you have done well by forcing the generals into retreat and stopping the completion of the ritual, but as the morning has arrived, so too shall the police. You must not be present upon their arrival.”

I gestured to the empty ballroom. “Okay, but what about everyone that was here?”

“I have seen to the escape of any survivors, and will make sure the truth of this night is covered up.”

My head tilted to the side contemplatively. “How are you gonna do--you know what, I don’t wanna know. Let’s just take the win and get out of here.” I grabbed Nadia’s hand and moved for the exit.

Nadia allowed me to lead her away. “Can we stop somewhere and get food?”

Lana was giddy moving towards the exit with Nadia and me. “Oh my god, I want some bacon and cheese fries.”

I couldn't help but smile at them. “Let’s worry about food once we’re gone."

We ran out of the manor, piled into Lana’s car, and managed to make it far enough away before passing any cops coming in the opposite direction. The talk about food continued until we finally decided to stop at a diner on our way home.

We sat at the furthest end of the booths and remained quiet until the waitress finally came over with our food.

Nadia was, of course, the first to break the silence. “I gotta confess right now, I thought for sure Lana was gonna die,” Nadia whispered with a grin. There was a pause followed by my eyes widening at Nadia. “What's with the face? What did I miss?”

I avoided both of their faces. “Uh, you know, it's the funniest thing.”

Lana cut in taking a massive bite out of her bacon burger. "I did die."

Nadia whipped her head back and forth between Lana and I. “What? When? And how are you alive?”

“It was Ava and I don’t know. All I heard was the crack of my neck and then I blacked out. The only thing I remember after that was waking up and a rush of adrenaline running through my body. Also, there was this sort of clarity. It was like these ideas kept popping into my head telling me what to do and how to finally kill Ava. Since she didn't have an army to destroy like the night of the Blood Moon, I was able to kill her, instead, this time.” Lana’s mouth was overflowing with food from speaking.

I managed to stop gawking at her primitive eating. “Okay, that makes sense. Obviously, on the night of the Blood Moon, it was more important to decimate the Xtabay. But where did the spear come from? And your powers? What about your past life memories?”

“Don't remember seeing any visions and I didn't notice I had the spear until I landed in front of you and Ava.”

“So, what you’re saying is--” Nadia made a mischievous smile. “You died.”

I dropped my head, pulled out a twenty, and handed it to Nadia. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. You win,” I said before Nadia snatched it up.

Lana tried to keep her voice at a whisper. “You guys suck!”

“So, Aid, wanna explain what happened back there with Jackson?” Nadia went wide-eyed emphasizing his name.

Lana was a beast devouring her loaded French fries. “What do you mean? What happened?”

Nadia popped her tongue for dramatic effect. “While I was wailing on Sophia, Aidan and Jackson were making out.”

I ignored the way my throat tightened at the thought of it. “It's not like that in the slightest. Turns out that Jackson has been dream guy this whole time. And since we found out Enoch, or me, had a boyfriend named Eric that Amara supposedly killed, the dreams are obviously memories of Eric and Enoch together. Except now Eric goes by Jackson.”

Nadia spilled some of her drink slamming the cup onto the table. "Shut up. So, Jackson is actually your past-life boo thing."

I gave her a tight-lipped nod. "He is. What's weird is that he looks exactly the same as in my memories. So, I don't know if he was reincarnated and just looks the same or if he's hundreds of years old."

Nadia pulled a flask out from her cleavage and poured the contents into each of our drinks. “Wow. I thought my guy issues were bad. That is messed up.”

Lana gestured for Nadia to pour a little more into her cup. “Why is Jackson being dream guy bad?”

Nadia shook her head and pursed her lips. “Because Jackson is also the Asuwang on team evil, which includes our dance partners.”

“Yeah, what is up with that anyway? Why were you all snuggly with Dominick? And more importantly, why were you trying to protect him?” I asked taking a bite from my BLT.

Nadia emptied her flask and stuck it back in her cleavage. “How can you even say that? Did you look at him? I was not about to let that blessing from on high die.”

I swallowed down the sandwich and nodded in agreement. “So, basically, you were blinded by horniness.”

Nadia looked at me like I was an idiot. “That's what I said, isn't it?”

After we finished our meals, Lana was ever so ladylike pulling out money from her cleavage to pay the check. I slowly shook my head while Nadia, of course, looked at her with pride.

“What? Where else was I gonna put my money? Have you seen my dress?”

Once the bill was paid, we piled back into Lana’s car and headed home.

Nadia tapped Lana and I's shoulders from the backseat. “Listen y’all, when I get home, I’m going straight to bed. So, nobody better bother me for the next week."

I leaned my chair back to relax. “Same goes for me.”

Lana took a turn so sharp, that my head bashed into the window. She sucked at her teeth. "Sorry. It was a reflex."

For a second, I thought there was brain damage because of the beeping I heard, until realizing it was coming from somewhere in the car. “What is that?” I asked looking around.

Nadia responded from the backseat as she lied down. “Oh, that’s just my phone. I left it in here so I wouldn’t lose it at the party. It’s in the glove compartment.”

I pulled the phone out, handed it to her, and watched her listen to countless voice mails.

Nadia quickly became agitated. “Ugh, she done filled up my inbox.”

I turned to her, invested. "Who?"

“Noelle.” Ten minutes later, Nadia was finally done checking her messages, looking less agitated and more unnerved.

My tone mirrored Nadia’s grim expression. “So, what did she say?”

Nadia hit the speaker button, and I heard a very familiar yet not so pleasant Noelle. “I cannot believe this. You had better get home right now and explain all of this. I am never leaving you alone in my house ever again. First, you come home early from Italy and then you wreck my house? What is wrong with you? And where the hell is my wedding album?!” Nadia tapped the call end button and my mouth hit the floor.

Nadia sounded less nervous and more amused. “And that’s the nicest one.”

“Noelle is pissed.” Lana drew out the last word.

“Whatever, she can get over it. I’m too tired to deal with her right now,” Nadia said lying back down.

I gave her a thumbs up. “Nice sense of responsibility.”

Nadia put her middle finger a few inches from my face. “I got your sense of responsibility right here, buddy.”