Torn: A young adult paranormal romance (Breath of Fate Book 1)

  Torn

  Angelina J. Steffort

  Torn

  First published 2020

  Copyright © by Angelina J. Steffort 2020

  All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead,

  is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  Ebook: ASIN B08LJPY3S1

  Print: ISBN 978-3-903357-05-1

  MK

  www.ajsteffort.com

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  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Also by Angelina J. Steffort

  Chapter One

  Cas

  Darkness arrived before me. And how I adored the shadows that traveled alongside me. My safe haven.

  I leaned against the wall while darkness slowly dissolved and observed the struggle of the woman in red who was writhing on the artsy carpet at my feet. Her dress was short, exposing long legs in tasteless tights. How I despised the fashion of the current era. The tight pants and short skirts left so little to my imagination that sometimes it wasn’t even worth dreaming about what lay beneath.

  My eyes fell on a photograph on the wall above where the woman was fighting her fate. It was her face, maybe fifteen years younger. Pretty, eyes sparkling with anticipation of a future that lay ahead, and I wondered what that future had been … what her life had been like since that picture had been taken.

  With a gentle push, I straightened away from the wall, eyes following the arrangement of pictures.

  The woman on the floor gurgled as she fought for air, her hands clutching her throat.

  I lifted my leg and stepped over her, making my way toward the artifacts of her past. There were several of her, in a prom dress, her holding a trophy, her surrounded by other women, equally pretty and equally smiling, their faces empty despite their grinning lips.

  None of them nearly interesting enough that I’d have considered courting them… not that I ever could. My existence was bound to go unnoticed, and that meant no rendezvous, no proms, no courting… I’d long gotten used to the fact that I would never feel a woman again—at least not the way I had a long, long time ago. Too long to think.

  The woman rolled onto her back, and I tore my attention away from my own thoughts to focus on her instead. Her eyes were already growing distant, body too weak to struggle much longer. I didn’t know exactly what the cause had been—poison maybe or an overdose of drugs. The only thing that was relevant to me was that she wouldn’t be going anywhere after tonight. Once I had done my job, she would have arrived where her entire life had been leading her.

  “Hello, Cynthia.” I bent down and ran a finger over the woman’s cheek as she gasped for her last breath. Of course, she couldn’t see me or hear me. That was the beauty of it. When the moment came for me to give them a lift, they had no idea what was coming for them—or who.

  Cynthia’s lips were turning blue, and she exhaled a last painful gust of air before her heart gave out. I studied her fine features. Not older than forty. Lines of laughter spread from her eyes, allowing me to believe she’d had her happy moments in life—more than a fair share. Something in my stomach twisted, and I decided not to look too closely. After all, this body of hers was no longer her home.

  “There is someone waiting for you at the place I’m taking you,” I whispered. She couldn’t hear.

  Sometimes I wondered if I should be grateful they didn’t know it was me who delivered them to hell or if I should be upset that no one ever knew what a great job I was doing.

  I made their transition swift, painless. There was enough pain waiting for them down there; I didn’t need to add to it.

  “Come now.” With a motion so familiar after ages of executing it, I bent forward, lowered my mouth over the woman’s face, appreciating that she must have led a life of mostly bad choices. I told myself that that must have been her life or they wouldn’t have sent me to pick her up.

  As I blew a breath of death upon her, her soul split from her body, floating out of her as if it were to evaporate. But my breath caught it and bound it. I sucked it in, letting it settle within the hollow chambers of my chest.

  “Let’s go.”

  Chapter Two

  Laney

  As I flipped the pages of our English textbook and sighed audibly, from his desk across the aisle, Leon shot me a look.

  I was doing it again.

  “Sorry,” I mouthed.

  To my luck, no one else had paid attention, and while my mind was drifting elsewhere—anywhere—the others were studying intently the content of the pages.

  I gave an apologetic smile, allowing my eyes a moment of rest from the tedious material I was supposed to study and read Leon’s familiar features instead.

  After a long school day, my body was ready to sprawl on my bed with no other task than reading a good book—not a textbook. But the week wasn’t over yet, and I needed to get up to speed with things before Mom and I left for the weekend. One of the trips on which Leon didn’t come.

  Leon winked, and I rolled my eyes toward the ceiling, sending a short request to whatever lay above—miles and miles and miles above, where the stars sat, watching over us, I hoped—that the day would be over soon. The response was our teacher’s grumbling stomach. The sound tugged on the corners of my mouth, and yet again, when I glanced to the side, I found Leon’s eyes on me, his own lips mimicking my smile. His eyes seemed to say ‘just a couple more minutes’.

  So I dipped my nose back into my book and absorbed the paragraphs before me until the merciful sound of the bell announced our freedom.

  Leon was on his feet and beside me before I could even close the book.

  “I’ll drive you?” he offered.

  Behind me, Avery said something about what a waste of Leon’s time I was, and the boy turned just enough to put her out of his field of vision before he draped his arm over me, half-pulling me out
of my chair.

  It was easier not to question Leon’s devotion. After basically growing up together, he had taken a special interest in me after last summer when … I didn’t want to even think of it.

  He was there for me. Just there. Even if I had nothing to give back to him. Yet, he spent his days by my side and his nights… I had no idea how he spent his nights. And I was inclined to not think about it too much.

  I let Leon pull me through the rows of desks until we found more room to breathe in the hallway. Most students were already filing out the orange front doors, and with the weight of Leon’s arm on my shoulders, I felt more comfortable to linger while the others made their escape.

  “What’s different today?” Leon eyed me through his white-blond hair, his face lowered just enough to make me feel that he was ready for any answer… as long as it was the truth.

  I looked around. The people looked the same as every day. The walls were the same boring hue of beige. Even the sounds, laughter and chattering interwoven with some cursing and shouts, were the same as every day. “Nothing.” I glanced up at him, finding his eyes sparkling with interest. “I think,” I added.

  There was something about the way he kept looking at me, not just today but every day; as if he was waiting for something. And that alone made the day more the same than anything else. “I think,” I added for his sake, and his lips curled in a smile I couldn’t fully read.

  “You want to talk about it?” he offered and tucked me a tad tighter, the fabric of his shirt scratching over my neck under my ponytail.

  There was nothing to talk about, really. And even if there was…

  Leon stopped us right before the door, waiting for a group of giggling girls to pass by, then said, “Whenever you’re ready.”

  “That may be never,” I responded, flashes of faces going through my mind—faces I should have never been able to see.

  He only smiled—“Never it is.”—and led me through the front door and across the parking lot, aiming for his truck.

  As we passed our classmates, most of them weren’t even paying attention. Leon and I had become such a familiar sight that their teasing and guessing had stopped. Except, of course, for the girls who had been hoping Leon’s attention would eventually move on and find them. The only girl who waved at us was my friend Jo, who was also the only girl who still talked to me like a normal person. I lifted a hand and waved back.

  We had reached the white truck when Leon tensed, his body stiffening beside me as if he had turned into solid rock.

  I glanced at him to find his eyes distant.

  “Everything all right?”

  He didn’t react.

  I tugged on his sleeve. “Leon?”

  It took half a second for him to return to normal, a slightly distant look in his dark eyes the only thing that gave away he’d had one of his moments.

  He smiled. “Let’s go.”

  As he slid his arm off my shoulders and reached for the passenger door, he rubbed his face with his free hand as if he was trying to wipe away a memory.

  I didn’t push him. It was as much part of our silent pact that I didn’t ask too many questions as it was that he didn’t push me about… I shoved down the memory of the faces. Too many of them. All hovering above the street…

  With a deep breath and long exhale, I sent those memories flying and got into the car, letting Leon shut the door behind me—behind them.

  On the way home, we stopped by the small nursing home which lay on the outskirts of the small town. Gran would be expecting me as she did every day. And every visit represented a challenge in itself. I knew I didn’t need to be afraid of the building, of the people who lived there, spending their final years in good care. But my fear wasn’t from them. It was from the people whose last hour had arrived. A fear which had not been there a year ago but now manifested whenever I was confronted with death—

  Leon eyed me with a frown as he pulled into the parking spot in silence, and when the door clicked loudly as I opened it to wordlessly get out, he leaned forward to study my face through the open door. He knew the expression there too well. Fortunately, he refrained from commenting. Part of our silent pact. A pact which we had established almost exactly a year ago…

  “Should I come with you today?”

  Leon asked this every day, an offer of comfort, and every day, I shook my head. The time with Gran was sacred to me. I didn’t want or need to be under observation when I was with her. But today, something in Leon’s eyes was different. An urgency, an almost burning depth that made me change my mind. I nodded.

  Leon’s eyes widened in surprise. “You sure?”

  Again, I nodded and started walking. He was beside me within seconds, jogging around the car and linking his arm with mine. I didn’t pull away.

  “She knows about me.” He more assumed than asked.

  Again, I nodded. Even if I hadn’t told Gran about the kind boy who continued keeping me company, Glyndon was a small town, and there was hardly any news that didn’t travel more than one route.

  The path up the ramp to the entrance door was easy compared to the corridors that lay behind.

  “Good afternoon, Miss Dawson,” a young nurse greeted as we entered the neon-lit foyer which spread into three hallways.

  I gave a smile and asked if Gran was in her room.

  “She’s in the garden,” the nurse informed me and eyed Leon with shuttering eyes. “I see you brought company today. She’ll be happy to see both of you.”

  Something about the nurse’s expression made me wonder if everything was all right with her.

  Leon just grinned and tugged on my arm as I thanked the nurse. He led me right toward the glass doors at the end of the middle hallway, which made me wonder for a moment how he knew where to go, if he’d been here before. Then, I noticed the sign on the eggshell-colored wall, pointing toward the garden.

  Most doors to the residents’ rooms were left open during the day, and I caught a glimpse of some of them as they chatted with visitors, played cards with their neighbors… But some of them were alone, every day, all year, whenever I visited.

  And some rooms, which had been occupied the day before, were empty today, the name beside the door removed.

  I swallowed.

  “You look nauseous.” Leon tightened his arm around mine.

  I shook my head. Now was not the time to go there…

  “Another time,” I answered, aware that it didn’t make sense.

  He nodded anyway, his gaze following mine as it lingered on the empty bed in the room we were passing by.

  Gran’s room was just by the garden door, and as we walked past, in the room across the hall, Mr. Frank waved at us.

  “Hi, Mr. Frank.” I returned his wave and popped my head inside the room, Leon letting go of my arm and standing aside for once. “You’re looking better,” I noted as his face was less pale than yesterday.

  “I’m recovering.” He shrugged, his frail shoulders moving awkwardly. “Or it’s the body’s final push against death…” He smiled at me, reaching for the control panel to get himself more upright.

  I flinched at his joke but put on a brave face and returned his smile.

  “I’m indestructible, Laney,” he winked as he noticed he’d made me uncomfortable.

  But his body, weak from old age, just having overcome another broken hip…

  “Tell your grandmother to come visit me later,” he said and waved.

  Grateful to be released from the conversation, I waved back and dipped my chin.

  Leon stood beside the threshold, watching me the entire time, face unreadable.

  “Mr. Frank is Gran’s neighbor,” I explained and pointed at Gran’s room just across the hall.

  Leon pulled in his lower lip as if he was keeping in words he was dying to say.

  “Are they close?” he eventually got out, and we continued walking.

  “They’ve been spending a lot of time together in here.” I glanced at
him, trying to figure out the meaning of his suddenly glum tone.

  Instead of meeting my gaze, he surveilled the garden as we stepped outside.

  The fauna was lush around this time of the year. Hortensia blossoming in all colors of the rainbow, and the neatly trimmed hedge, which enclosed the small outside area, was deep green by now. Gran sat in a wheelchair near the patio, face turned toward the sun, her white hair tinted in soft hues of pink and orange by the afternoon light.

  She didn’t notice us until I stood beside her, eyes on the flowerbed before us.

  “Lovely, aren’t they?” Gran looked up at me first, and then her eyes twinkled.

  I nodded and hugged her by way of greeting.

  “Hello there,” Gran hugged me back with one fragile arm, her head turning enough so she spotted Leon behind me. “And who is your friend?”

  Leon reached out one hand to greet her, acting very little like the casual Leon I experienced on a daily basis, and I had to stifle a laugh as he sounded as if he were convincing a girl’s father he’d return her safe and unharmed after prom-night.

  “So you’re the one who keeps my granddaughter company when I can’t.” Gran winked at Leo, who shrugged stiffly, his white shirt wrinkling on his collarbones and blond hair dancing on his forehead.