want to move. It wouldn’t. It wanted to go back with my father. I bit down on my lip, and I thrust into my own power. It would help me, just like my siblings. I was choosing, and I was choosing Kellan.
“Move!”
Slowly, so agonizingly slow, it began churning. It began circling around, almost sluggishly, but the more it circled, the more it began to pick up speed. It was a steady pace, like the beginning of a hurricane. It was moving faster, just a bit, and it kept going...faster, faster, more and more. It was starting to whip around, now like a full force hurricane and I was keeping it restrained inside me.
“Shay.” I heard Kellan’s concern. “What are you doing?”
“Helping.” I couldn’t say more. I was using what strength I had to keep it under control. It was beginning to be too much.
I opened my eyes. The twister was rising in me, but I needed to see if Gus was helping. She was. Her hand was on Kellan’s shoulder and her eyes were closed. Her head hung down. I felt her power slip past me, merging with Aumae’s and Damien’s, too. Vespar still wasn’t helping, but he was watching. His forehead wrinkled in fear.
Fine. Forget him.
I was almost ready.
“Shay,” Kellan said. “I don’t know if this is a good idea.”
“Shut up.” My hands lifted out to my side. I was getting ready. “Just be prepared. This is going to be fast.”
“What are you do—?”
A burst of light exploded from me. It was like a nuclear bomb. It hit against my father like a speeding bullet, slamming him back and cutting him off from us. The rest of my power shot out, disintegrating the barrier, and it blasted against the other messengers. It flung them miles away from us. I felt each of them crash into the ground and all of them except one fell unconscious.
I formed pockets of protection, covering Kellan, Aumae, Damien, Gus, and even Vespar. Everyone else was obliterated.
My power reached out further, traveling farther than even I wanted it, and suddenly, it flung back into me. It was like another bomb that went off, but in me. Pain sliced me as my power smashed back into me. I gasped. A rush of blood filled my mouth and my head fell back like it was yanked from behind. I heard a cracking sound and then—nothing.
The world went to black.
I woke up feeling warm and safe, with an arm over my waist. It was nighttime, and Kellan was sleeping with me, his eyes closed and face turned toward me while he held me. I melted. He looked beautiful. There was no sign of the demon in him, and he looked angelic. His strong jawline, his perfect lips, his eyelashes that any girl would yearn for, and his cheekbones—I couldn’t help myself. My hand rose, and I rested my fingers over them, trailing down to touch the rest of his face. If he woke, he’d be startled, but I didn’t care. I almost wanted that.
I wanted to stop thinking and worrying about what was going to happen. I just wanted to be, and Kellan was in my bed with me. I wanted to just be with him.
As my fingers moved to his lips, it was caught.
His hand moved like lightning. He caught my wrist, but his hold didn’t hurt. It was a gentle, but firm grip and then his eyelids opened.
“You caught me.”
His eyes darkened, and he said softly, sending shivers down my spine, “So I did.” They were the good kind of shivers, the kind that made me want to forget all reason and logic and roll underneath him. Even thinking of that, my legs parted, and I licked my lips. My body began to grow warm.
Kellan noticed the changes, and his hand that was resting over my leg curved into my side. He applied pressure, bringing me forward, turning so we were lying face to face. Both of us were on our sides, and we were close, too close, and I couldn’t stop it. I didn’t want to stop it. His hand ran down my side, sweeping over my leg, and he applied the tiniest bit of pressure. My leg followed willingly, sliding in between his. My hips shifted, moving closer to him. Our waists were almost touching, and his hand, the one still on my hand, didn’t move. It was burning its hold on me, permanently scarring me.
He waited, his eyes darting from mine to my lips, lingering there.
A small groan slipped out. Hearing it, I felt more heat rush to my face and knew I was blushing.
“Are you okay with this?”
“With you sleeping with me?” God yes.
“No.” He shook his head, his voice a caress in itself. “This.” His hand skimmed over my thigh, rising up to my arm and where the bed sheet was covering me.
I wore pajamas. Someone had changed my clothes, but I felt naked. I felt like it was just us, both naked, and the bed sheet, that flimsy little material was the only barrier between us. My breathing grew more rapid, and my heart sped up. I was sure Kellan knew the effect he was having on me. He knew everything about me.
“You’re right,” he murmured. His hand left the bed sheet and curved around my face, cupping the side of me. His thumb rested on my cheek, a tender touch. “I know a lot, but not everything. I wish I did. Things would be...easier.”
“What don’t you know?”
“What you hold closest to you.” He pressed his hand to where my heart was. “I don’t know what you have in there.”
I grinned. “A heart?”
“You know what I mean.”
He was asking how I felt about him. I nodded, biting down on my lip.
“Kellan,” I murmured, but I didn’t know what I was going to say. So, instead, I only asked, “What happened?”
“You mean before?”
I nodded again.
“You protected us.”
“No,” I said. “You protected us.”
“I protected you, Shay.” His hand lifted to the corner of my mouth, touching my lips in a soft graze. “You protected everyone.”
“Kellan, don’t act like that. Like you don’t care.”
“I care about you.”
“That’s not true. You care about Vespar and Giuseppa.” I hated to say it, but… “You cared about Leah.”
“Maybe.”
He was lying, but I realized he wasn’t lying to me. He was lying to himself. “You love so hard and hate so cold.”
“Shay.” He sighed, rolling to his back. The bed sheet slipped down past his waist. He was wearing gym shorts, but I could see his chest, all the dips and valleys of his muscles as he lay there, breathing in and out. “I’m a demon. I’m more than half-demon, and that means I can only love one person.” He watched me from his pillow. “You. Only you.”
“Then why’d you save Vespar and Giuseppa?”
“Because they knew too much about you. I didn’t want your father to get his hands on them.”
“That was the only reason?”
I remembered him in that house, fighting Dylan, yelling at me to save Vespar. He cared. I knew he did. I lay back, too, mirroring him, and I rotated my head on my pillow to look at him. “You’re not a normal demon, Kellan, and I know a part of you cares.”
“You’re lying to yourself.”
He believed that. There was no uncertainty inside him. I felt it, as real as if I was feeling my own emotions. I could feel him. That should’ve alarmed me, or alarmed my messenger, but it didn’t. Somehow, it felt right to feel all of him. I started to ask, my mouth opened, and he answered before a word slipped out. “Yes. I feel you how you feel me.”
“So, you know that I know you’re lying?”
“I’m not lying.”
“To yourself, you are.”
“I’m not doing that. You’re searching for goodness in me.” His eyes were bleak, but a flash of anger sparked in there, just a flicker in the background. “The only good thing in me, is you. If you die, there’s no redemption for me. I’ll become a full demon.”
I frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“I told you I’m not like normal demons. I’m not. The only spark of humanity in me is from you, because I love you. If you die, so do I. The only difference is that you’ll become a full messenger, and I’ll become a full demon. You
go up. I go down.”
“Like heaven and hell?”
“Maybe,” he said softly, eyeing my mouth. “I’ll probably stay on Earth, working for my father. You’ll probably... I don’t know what will happen to you, but you’ll be my enemy. That’s all I know.”
“So if the human side of me dies, then…”
“...then everything is over. That’s the end of us.” His hand found mine. My heart skipped a beat at his words. I watched as he lifted our hands in the air, lacing our fingers together. We were together. We were holding on to one another, but I felt the heaviness from what he said. He wasn’t lying. He wasn’t lying to himself even. I could feel the truth emanating from him and my throat swelled up. A deep sadness pressed down on me, pushing me further into the bed.
“I love you, Kellan.”
It was a quiet testament from me, heard perfectly in that quiet room.
“I love you, too, Shay.”
He held me for the rest of the night, waiting for the others to wake. I knew two things. One was that I loved Kellan with all of my being, and two, nothing was going to happen to us.
Nothing.
We were hiding. We drove that night for hours, eventually finding a home set deep in the woods somewhere. It was clean with fresh laundry folded in piles on the kitchen table. Everything inside the house was modern and chic. Outside the glass patio doors, right by the kitchen, let out to a patio overlooking a large lake. Trees wrapped around both sides of the patio, giving the house a treehouse feel to it.
“Do I want to ask if there was an owner here when we arrived or not?”
Vespar and Giuseppa were sitting on stools at the bar-end of the island. They shared a look, both grinning to the other.
“Never mind.” I changed my mind. “I don’t want to know.”
“He’s not dead,” Vespar offered. “If that helps.”
“Only because Damien wouldn’t allow that.” Gus sneered at the messenger as he walked into the kitchen behind me. “Speak of the devil.”
Damien grabbed an apple and paused, shooting her a look. “Don’t start, half child. I can eviscerate you with a thought.”
“No, you can’t.” She raised her chin, challenging him.
“You don’t think I can?” He stepped next to me, stepping toward her. I felt the anger radiating out of him. His entire body tensed up and he was ready for a fight.
“Gus,” I said, shaking my head. “Maybe not this fight, not today.”
She snorted, rolling her eyes. “I meant it when I said he really can’t, because he can’t. Kellan did a spell. No messenger-on-demon action going on in this house.” Her nose wrinkled, and her top lip lifted in a sneer. “I don’t think he wanted to get up this morning and find half his backup obliterated by the other half.”
“Yeah.” Damien grunted. “You guys.”
“Let’s take this up outside where it’s not charm-free, buddy.” Gus swung her long and tanned legs off the stool, standing in a sensual fashion. She was dressed, but barely. A white top clung to her, fitting around her breasts and resting a few inches above her waist. She was showing off her stomach muscles and how fit her body was. Sticking her hands in the pockets of her white shorts, which stopped at the top of her thighs, she struck an alluring and cocky pose at the same time. She could’ve been in a yachting magazine. She looked him up and down, noting how his hand had a tight grip on the apple. “Imaging that thing is my neck?”
And on cue, the apple exploded, but a cold smile told me it wasn’t by accident. Damien retorted, “How’d you know?”
Gus cooled, just a bit. A tiny amount of caution entered her gaze and she glanced to Vespar, seeing that he had a bored look on his face. “What? The thought of me fighting a messenger is putting you to sleep?”
“Fuck off, sister. You’re not going to do shit and you know it.”
“Yeah?” Anger sparked in her eyes once again. The little bit of fight that had left her, returned and it was doubled. “You don’t think so?”
“No, because he’ll wipe the floor with you. If by some miracle he doesn’t, Kellan will wipe the floor with you right afterwards. This guy has juice. Kellan’s smart. He knows we need him around.” Vespar had slowly risen to his feet as he talked. He wasn’t dressed in the nice clothes Gus was, but he looked every bit as dangerous. He had pulled on a torn black shirt over jeans. Standing next to his sister, the two were striking together. Both blond. Both gorgeous and both deadly, but Damien didn’t seem disturbed. He came around the island, regarding both of them. All three were locked on each other. Damien skirted between the two, but he didn’t look scared. He said, “So, you think I’ll wipe the floor with your sister, huh?”
“Yeah. Alone.” A warning was there. Vespar rolled his shoulders back and held his chin up, slightly higher than Gus’. It was obvious who the alpha was of the two. “But there’s two of us and one of you. You don’t stand a chance, messenger.” The last word was spoken with such disdain, my own messenger stirred inside. She didn’t like that, not one bit, and my eyes cooled.
“Watch it, brother.” I used the same disdain he had. “You’re forgetting he’s not the only messenger around.”
I’d just declared war, or at least threatened it when Kellan swept into the room. I felt him coming, like a dark cloud that slowly filled the room. His presence was felt long before he appeared from the stairs where I had come from a few minutes earlier. Without breaking stride, he went past Gus and Vespar, placing a hand on both of their shoulders and physically sitting them both back down. Then, he was around the island and he tugged me with him, pulling me away from Damien before he let me go and he went to the patio doors. He pulled the shades and ordered, “Messenger, close the rest of the windows.”
It was an insult and command all rolled into one.
Damien seemed ready to protest, but his shoulders lowered, and he went off to do as Kellan said. One by one, all the windows were closed, and all the shades were pulled. I didn’t know the reason, but I waited until Damien was done. Kellan was leaning against the counter next to me. His arm brushed against mine, and I knew the contact was on purpose.
Damien saw it, too, gritting his teeth, before he stopped at the other side of the kitchen.
“Aumae?” I asked.
“Here.” She sailed in, coming from down a first floor hallway. A long white dress billowed behind her, and her eyes were dancing. She smiled at me, her face almost glowing. “You look so well rested, Shay. That’s wonderful. A good night’s sleep must’ve done the trick, hmmm.” She cast a sideways look to Kellan at the last part, with the sides of her mouth turning inward like she was trying to hold back a grin.
“Matt.” I chose to ignore whatever innuendo my aunt said. “We brought him with us. Where is he?”
“Tied up in the shed outside.”
Giuseppa added to Vespar’s statement, “Along with the owner of this place.”
“Who put them there?”
“I did.” Kellan answered him, his eyes hard on me, almost daring me to say something against him.
I frowned at that. “Okay.”
“Did you charm that place, too?” Vespar asked Kellan.
He nodded. “They won’t be able to find us, for now. We have a few days to come up with a plan before Shay’s father finds us again.”
“And speaking of my dad,” I told them about my encounter with him.
“Huh?” That was all Gus said.
Vespar seemed confused.
Damien was quiet, his face unreadable and closed off.
Kellan didn’t say anything either, out loud. He said to me in my head, “He said you didn’t have enough power?”
The backs of our fingers were resting against each other. I moved mine, just barely, to brush against his. “He was disappointed. I don’t know why he fought for me. Before that, it felt like he was going to send me back to you. He wanted us to bond.” I kept the part where Damien suggested the same sentiment to me. Things were tense enough. Kellan coul
d use that as an excuse to kill Damien and for some reason, I didn’t want him to do that. I snuck a look across the kitchen to the male messenger. His eyebrows were bunched together, lost in thought. A nervous feeling trickled through me, but I wasn’t sure where it came from. I had no reason