Although… color had started to return to his pallid skin and his bleeding had definitely slowed down some. Jupiter, originally from the planet Jupiter, was almost as proficient at healing as we were.
He waved me on with a limp hand. “Go.” When I didn’t move, he opened his eyes and glared at me. “He’s not going to wait around forever, Stella. Go find him!”
My mom walked casually inside and dropped her purse as soon as she saw Jupiter bleeding out in front of me. “What happened?” she demanded sounding almost exactly like me not moments ago.
“Seth stabbed him!” I told her quickly. “And he’s still out there.”
“Go,” she shouted at me. “What are you waiting for?”
I glanced down uselessly at Jupiter. Clearly, she wasn’t as worried for his life as I was.
I took off for the door when she yelled at me to stop again. “Your weapons,” she reminded me. “You can’t meet him without them.”
I nodded, even though the entire idea of needing my katanas to meet up with Seth repulsed me. He wouldn’t hurt me.
Okay, he would totally hurt me. He had hurt me and I had no doubt that he wouldn’t hesitate to end me if he got the chance.
I sprinted up to my bedroom, grabbed my matching katanas and raced back downstairs.
“On the south side of the property,” Jupiter told me. “He can’t cross the property line because of the blessing.”
I pushed through the kitchen door and took off. I lit up into a burning ball of Light and flew to the property line. It only took seconds to reach him and with each passing mile I could feel the strength of our connection building.
I had an innate link to his emotions, or I was supposed to have one. But when he’d sold his soul to Aliah, that connection had been all but severed. I could usually feel him when we were near each other, but those moments happened so rarely now that I didn’t know if that was intact or not.
As of this moment, I did have some vague sense of him, but it wasn’t anything promising. Nothing but Darkness and hatred swirled in the emotional vortex I linked into. He felt so very lost that my heart ached for him. If my insight was only a glimpse into what was left of his soul, I could only imagine the despair that he faced every moment of every day.
I landed just on my side of the property line and dimmed to my normal human form. He leaned against a tree, casual as could be. He seemed to be waiting for me. A scowl made his brows dip and his lips turn down.
“You got my message,” he greeted me.
“You could have just told Jupiter you wanted to talk to me.” I held my swords firmly in my hands and poised myself for a fight. As elated as I was to see him, I could not ever put my guard down around him. Everything inside of me wanted me to throw down my weapons and jump into his arms. Everything but common sense; no, that urged me to stay right where I was.
“I wanted to make sure you got the message.”
I shook my head at him. Jupiter would be fine. Seth hadn’t killed him.
This time.
Seth stalked forward, so that we were just a foot apart. His swords were strapped to his back and his hands free. They looked out of place with his tailored charcoal pants and white oxford.
This was Aliah’s dress code. The Seth I knew, preferred t-shirts and jeans. He liked flip-flops, not shiny shoes I could see my reflection in. And he looked more boy than grown man.
The man in front of me was of someone else’s making.
He was a stranger.
He wasn’t mine.
“Come here,” he ordered me.
“Why?”
“Because I want you to.” He took one step toward me. “Because I can’t go to you.” His words were marked with the strongest tones of rage and frustration. “Because you won’t let me come to you.”
That last statement tore through my chest. “Have you been trying?” My voice was a whisper of repressed hope.
He closed his eyes and seemed to fight some internal battle before giving me the smallest nod. “I can’t… I can’t cross this line. It won’t let me. And then I can’t see you and that makes me angry. I didn’t mean to… Jupiter came out of nowhere and I was so mad. He shouldn’t have said anything. He should have taken down the charm and let me in like I wanted him to. He should have listened. I just needed to see you. I just… I’ve been trying-”
“Ssh,” I hushed him. I shifted my swords to one hand and lifted my free hand to cup his jaw. He was so close now, just a few inches away from me. My hand crossed the blessing line and I held his face with gentle fingers. “I miss you, too.”
He leaned into my touch and his eyes fluttered closed. His entire body relaxed with our skin to skin contact. I watched all his sizable muscles settle and the tension in his body drain immediately. I stared in amazement as a borrowed peace washed over his face and he let me ease his suffering with this small connection.
“This is harder than I thought it would be,” he whispered to me. “I didn’t know it would hurt this much.”
Tears heated the backs of my eyes. “Me either,” I told him. “I didn’t know it would hurt so very much to have you away from me.”
“Let me hold you,” he pleaded with his eyes still closed.
“Are you going to hurt me?” I asked pragmatically. I wanted nothing more than for him to wrap his arms around me and kiss me until the world tilted and I floated off the ground.
But he had just stabbed Jupiter.
I could not afford to let my guard down now.
I felt his jaw tick beneath my hand. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“That’s not what I asked you.” I hated how I had to talk to him, how I had to treat him. When the madness truly took over, I felt like I had to treat him like a child. A very dangerous, deadly, volatile child. He didn’t reason logically anymore, he let his feelings completely rule his thought process and actions. And his feelings were not guided by a soul or his Light. They floated on clouds of Darkness and turned with the most insignificant whisper.
“Come here,” he ordered and grabbed my wrist. He yanked me across the line before I could put up any real fight and crushed me against his chest.
Fear and anxiety started to layer on top of each other in my blood, one right after the other. His arms wrapped around me, but it wasn’t the fantasy I had been dreaming about. His tight hug was punishing and cruel.
“Seth,” I pleaded. “You’re hurting me.”
My words seemed to affect him in some way and he pulled back just the slightest. His nose trailed down my hairline and nuzzled against my earlobe.
“My Light,” he whispered brokenly. “My anchor.”
I threw whatever caution I had left away, and wrapped my arms around his waist. I sagged against him and let my heart press right up against his overly warm body.
“I miss you,” I sobbed against his chest. “I miss you so much.”
He didn’t respond; he just kept holding me. One of his hands rubbed slow circles across my shoulder blades and his other hand simply imprisoned my waist and held me against him.
“Take down the blessing.” He lifted his head and glared at the invisible fence that kept him and any other person, intending harm to my family or me, out. “Let me see you whenever I want.”
“You can,” I promised. “It only keeps out those that would mean my family pain.”
He clutched me tighter. “I just attacked Jupiter, Stella. I don’t think I’m going to be allowed across any time soon.”
I snorted a laugh at his matter-of-fact tone. “How’s life on the other side?”
He buried his face in the curve of my neck instead of answering. “You smell disgusting.”
“Oh!” I pushed away a little so I could look up at him. “I got into a fight with a Shadow earlier. He kind of exploded on me. I was just about to take a shower.”
Seth’s lips curved into a mischievous smile that instantly drew out my burn. “Tell me more about that?”
Purposefully playing dumb,
I asked, “About the Shadow? It was just a little thing. I killed it with my butterfly-”
His lips crashed down on mine before I could say another meaningless thing. They were rough and insistent. His fingers dug into my back and pulled me against him, his tongue tangled with mine in a frenzied battle for control.
He won.
Easily.
I gave him the kiss and let him bruise me. Mark me.
Claim me.
I knew this was dangerous. I knew that this kiss could turn in an instant to something deadly and dark. But right now he was mine and he wanted me.
My depression melted away, my insecurities fled. This was how Seth and I were supposed to be. This was the bind that brought us together, the unrelenting connection, the eternal bond.
This would be what kept me from madness and saved Seth’s soul.
His mouth moved over mine, across my jaw and down my neck. His lips burned a trail as they traveled, while his body heated slowly with his luminescent glow. He burned through this atmosphere like a spark on carbon paper. He was too much for this world, too much for the contract that kept him away from me.
He would persevere because Seth was the most skilled Warrior of our generation and the greatest man I knew. He would beat Aliah and his soullessness because he was born to save this world.
And to save me.
My heart thundered in my chest as he continued to kiss me everywhere that he could. He bent down and his lips blazed a trail over my collarbone and to the place where my heart beat so erratically. His lips stilled just over my left breast and it was as though he was trying to inhale every beat of that frantic organ into his lungs, into his own soul. I cupped his jaw when his eyes closed reverently. He inhaled deeply and I knew that it was me he was breathing in, me that was giving him strength and life and hope.
When he finally lifted his head it was with bright, amber eyes that glowed against his already lit skin. This was the fullness of his Angel form. Skin that was searing to the touch. Eyes that transformed into blazing orbs of Light. Muscles so tightly packed that they felt like granite beneath my hands. He was beautiful and terrifying. Good and bad. Light and Darkness.
“I have to remember you,” he rasped out. “If I don’t remember you, I forget myself.”
I rubbed my fingertips against his jawline. “If you forget yourself, I’ll help you remember.” My words were a sacred promise that I meant with everything that made me.
He leaned into my touch like he had before. “I don’t know if you’ll be able to. Sometimes… sometimes it’s too much to fight. Sometimes it’s stronger than me.”
“No,” I told him. “You are always the strongest. And when you’re not, I’ll help you be strong. We can fight this together. We can overcome this together.”
He closed his eyes again and nodded.
Wrapping me up again in his powerful arms, he held me against him until our hearts were aligned. They beat together in their own rhythm, not exactly in tandem but not at war either. I could feel him in my chest, echoing in my insides, ringing through my blood. After several long moments, he let out a shuddering breath and pulled back.
“I should go back,” he said. “Aliah will be wondering where I am.”
“It’s none of his business,” I argued.
He looked down at me seriously again and the Light noticeably dimmed from his features. I was losing him. I watched it happen. He was disappearing before my eyes.
“I don’t want you to go tomorrow,” he said suddenly.
Knowing I needed to tread carefully, I asked, “Go where?”
He made an annoyed sound in the back of his throat. “To the Council meeting, obviously. I don’t want you to go. It’s too dangerous.”
“How did you find out? How does everyone know?” I felt exasperated by this. I knew they had a spy but honestly, couldn’t a girl just make weekend plans without every evil person that could benefit from her absence finding out?
Clearly, not.
Seth’s hackles rose at my flippant attitude and he held me by the shoulders and shook me a little. “It doesn’t matter how I found out. And don’t act so pissy. You’re not going. End of discussion.”
“You’re not in charge of me,” I reminded him as gently as I could- so not gently at all. “And I am going. I’ve been summoned.”
“You’ve been summoned by a traitor that wants you dead! You’re walking into a trap.”
“We’re going to the Lower Realm, Seth. It doesn’t matter how many traitors are up there, they can’t touch me. But I hope you’re right. I hope they do try something. It would be so much easier to catch them if they tried something stupid.”
“Don’t be naïve,” he scoffed at me. His grip tightened and I recognized how truly dangerous this situation was becoming.
I tried to take a step back but Seth followed me. If I could just cross the property line, I would be fine. But somehow during our hot-and-heavy make-out session, he’d managed to move me a significant distance away from safety.
“You know what would help? If you just told me who the traitor was. Then I would know who to look out for.” I smiled up at him.
He didn’t take the bait.
“How about you ignore the fickle will of that insipid Council and listen to me. Then it doesn’t matter who the traitor is because you’ll be alive no matter what.”
“I’m going to the meeting. And if all else fails, I have your ridiculous contract to fall back on.”
He looked away but finally released me from his tight grasp. “It nullifies off planet.” His words were soft but packed with angered frustration.
“What do you mean it nullifies off planet?”
He spun back to me and glared with the full force of those honey-colored eyes. “You were never supposed to leave Earth, Stella! That was the whole deal. You and I were here for life no matter what, till death do us part. I didn’t think I had to be specific and get the entire universe spelled out in my blood.”
“Wait.” I shook my head, desperately trying to comprehend this. “This whole thing is a setup?”
He nodded once. “Your traitor found a loophole.”
“And you’re still not going to tell me who he is?”
“I can’t,” he said helplessly. “I can’t tell you anything else, but to stay home.”
“Is the entire Council bad? Are they all Fallen?”
He shook his head. “Not all of them.”
Well, that answer wasn’t exactly the confidence-booster I was hoping for. “I have to go.”
“You have to stay home. I’m trying to help you! Can you imagine what this is like for me? Right now my body is screaming that I end you, that I pull your pretty little head from your pretty little body! But look at me! I’m risking everything to warn you to stay home. Listen to me. Do what I say for once in your goddamn life!”
He lunged for me and I raised my swords just in time. They touched his Adam’s apple with serious warning.
His hands flopped down to his sides but they didn’t stay limp. His body vibrated with the coiled energy inside him. He was not happy with me and with every ounce of negative emotion pumping through his body; the Darkness claimed more and more control over him. I could feel his entire aura shifting, the air around us crackled and sparked with the force of him. “You’re not thinking right,” I told him. “This is the Darkness. This isn’t you.”
“There’s not a whole lot of difference, Stella. We’re pretty much a packaged deal these days.”
“Step back, Seth,” I warned him. “I will hurt you if I have to.”
“Hurt me, but not kill me. I can live with that.”
I saw the intent in his eyes so I gave up the brave façade and spun around to leap over the property line. He was faster than me though.
Hell, he had always been faster than me.
And I should have taken flight instead of trying to make it on my feet.
Seth flipped over my head with lightning fast speed and landed ju
st on this side of safe. He blocked my retreat with his hulking body and I knew that I’d just majorly screwed myself.
If I had to, I could probably call for my mom. But I didn’t know the state Jupiter was in and there was a very stubborn part of me that seriously believed I could handle Seth.
Sure, he was bad. Sure, he was operating without a soul and no moral compass whatsoever to guide him. Sure he hated me as much as he loved me.
But this was Seth.
And he hated me a lot, which meant he loved me a lot, too.
I raised my swords again and assumed a battle-ready stance. “Move out of my way.”
“No,” he growled.
“What exactly is the plan here? Are you going to drag me back to your cave and keep me captive for the next forty-eight hours? Or take me home to meet Aliah and your sister? You can’t stop me from going, Seth. You might as well give up now.”
“And what would be so bad about my cave?” His grin was wicked while he pulled his sword from over his back. He prepared to fight me, with his stance wide and his sword lowered to hip-level in front of him. “We could have a lot of fun there, just the two of us.”
Even though I was so ready to stab him if I needed to, my stomach flipped with his insinuation. “Is that before or after you fillet me for the fun of it?”
“All you have to do is keep my Darkness distracted.” He took a step forward and ran the length of his blade against one of mine. “Something tells me that if I got you alone, you could manage to do that.”
I pulled the sword back and let it clang against his. This wasn’t him. This wasn’t Seth coming on to me and flirting with me. This was the soulless version of him.
This was the part that didn’t actually care about me or our relationship. This was the part that wanted to use me or abuse me and would do both at the same time happily.
“I’m going to go home now.” I gave him another just barely aggressive clash of our swords and let the vibrations sink into my fingers and wrist bones.
“You can try,” he taunted.
I swung out again with most of strength, just to let him know that I had grown tired of his game.
He immediately retaliated with just a pinch more force. I met his blow and readied myself for another. He pushed forward, forcing me back. I held my ground as best as I could, but the truth was he was stronger.