“Were you going to leave without saying hi?” she asks.
I open my mouth to say something, explain myself maybe, but nothing comes out.
Emma climbs out her window and lands on the dirt outside, just a couple feet below. I watch as she walks over to the base of the black bark tree. Her damn relatives are still screaming at each other. They’ll probably be at it all night. The sun has almost set, and most people are beginning to settle down for the night, but not those two. I don’t know that they ever do.
Emma squints at me, probably trying to see me better in the dying light. “It really is you,” she says. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”
“That makes two of us,” I reply.
“Are you going to stay in that tree all night?”
I smirk. “Did you have something else in mind?”
“My meadow. It’s quieter,” she says. A little smile graces her lips and she clasps her hands behind her back. “You’ve never seen it in the summer.”
I hop down from the tree with hardly a sound. I land on my feet, only inches away from her. She doesn’t even flinch at my sudden movement, like she’s used to me. She’s beaming as she looks up at me. She catches my hand without any hesitation and tugs, but I don’t budge. She looks back at me with an eyebrow raised.
“It’ll be faster if I carry you,” I comment.
Without waiting for her to speak or give her permission, I sweep her up into my arms and run. It’s been months since I’ve been to Emma’s meadow, but I remember the way as if I had just been there yesterday. Emma clasps her hands behind my neck as she holds on. Feeling her pressed against me does strange things to my beast. It blazes inside of my chest with a contentedness I’ve never felt before.
I move quickly down back roads until we’ve reached an area of trees near the Salem River. Inside these trees is a clearing, a meadow, Emma’s meadow. The sun has set by now, but I can see clearly in the dark. Her meadow has as many flowers in as many colors as she told me it does in the summer. There are so many, you can’t even see any blades of grass between them.
I set Emma down onto her bare feet. She lets out a sigh as she extends her arms and twirls, falling onto her back as the flowers catch her.
“Aren’t they beautiful?” she asks.
The way she fell left her dress disheveled, giving me a clear view of her right upper thigh and a little farther down the left side of her chest. She’s definitely filled out more since I last saw her. Maybe she’s been eating more. Maybe she isn’t as skinny as I remember at all. A simmering heat lights at the base of my stomach, my beast stirring. Despite the grime, her skin is far too enticing.
“I’ve seen better,” I say, finally answering her question.
She sticks her tongue out at me. “If you say so, Mr. Demon.” She pats the flowers at her side and then draws her arms in. “Come here.”
My logician tells me to stay right where I am. Lying down beside her will give my beast ideas, and we don’t want to give it any, do we? My beast urges me forward anyway, and I listen. I plant myself beside her on the flowers, lying on my back.
“I’m here,” I say, my head turned to look at her. “Now what?”
She points directly overhead. As much as I don’t want to tear my eyes away from her gorgeous face, I follow her finger up to the sky. The stars glitter across the sky, growing brighter as the night grows darker. It’s quite a sight. Being able to see the night sky this clearly in the mortal world is something I happen to appreciate about this place. I hardly ever get a clear view of the sky in the Dregs. The lucidity of the moon brings a newfound energy to my body regardless of the strange disconnect the mortal world makes me feel to the elements and magic itself.
I shiver when Emma’s hand brushes against my arm. My heart lurches in my chest when she rolls onto her side to face me. I’m only seeing her out of my peripheral, but my beast is already reacting so strongly.
“I missed you, Arsen,” she whispers.
The way she says my name, like it’s something important, makes my beast thrum incessantly inside of my chest. It wills me to face her, so I do. I turn onto my side so I’m face to face with her. We’re barely inches apart.
“I missed you, too,” I say.
My beast guides my actions as I catch Emma by the small of her back, bridging the gap between us as I bring her flush against me.
She nestles into my chest and says, “You’re so warm, and your heartbeat is like a song.”
I laugh. “What are you talking about?”
She laughs with me. “I don’t know.”
She nuzzles my heart space and lets out a pleased sigh. She can’t possibly know what she’s doing to me, but it’s agonizing. Ever since I first met Emma, she’s turned my world upside down. No one has ever made me feel the way she makes me feel. I’ve had sex with many demons, and I’ve enjoyed it every time. Some are more satisfying than others of course, but it’s always been good. The problem is that good feeling has always been a fleeting sensation, good only in the moment; it never lasts. Yuki is the only demon I’ve had time and time again, and I even thought I could be satisfied with her alone—but then I met Emma.
Something inside of me changed that day. Yuki wasn’t enough anymore, so I went back to what I did before, trying to fill this void inside of me with anyone that was willing, but no one has been able to really satisfy me. My beast wants something more. It wants Emma, who isn’t afraid of me. It wants the girl who has never heard of Maelstrom and doesn’t care about my tie to him. My beast wants the beauty who has never lusted after my power. It wants the human next to me, and it wants her in more ways than one.
I don’t have a name for this sensation, but it’s the most powerful thing I’ve ever felt.
“You should tell me what you’ve been up to,” Emma says, but her words are jumbled. She’s getting tired.
“Another time,” I say.
“There might not be another time. You said you never usually stay in a city for more than one day. I don’t even know how you got here today. Start with that.”
“I don’t know either. It was just a fluke. My team was sent here on a mission again.”
“See? So there might not be ‘another time,’” she insists.
She moves so that we’re face to face again. The way she’s looking at me… what is that look? Desperation? Longing? I try to figure it out, but the longer she looks into my eyes without breaking contact, the more the answer slips away. All I feel is warmth, and that warmth grows hotter and hotter the longer we look and don’t say a word.
“If you keep looking at me like that, I’m going to kiss you,” I say before I even realize what I’m saying.
“Maybe I want you to kiss me.”
I can’t stop myself now. I gently plant my lips on hers, reeling in the wildness that usually follows when I’m kissing someone. I don’t want to kiss Emma like that just yet. This is a simple kiss without any action other than our lips touching, but I’ve never had a kiss this good. Her lips on mine has my beast howling for joy inside of my chest. I catch Emma’s upper lip and suck, still gentle, as my teeth barely graze her sensitive skin. She lets out a little moan as she catches my bottom lip, giving me the same treatment I just gave her. Damn, she’s beautiful.
I have the urge to nip at her, but I’m worried about getting too intense. This is the first time I’ve kissed her, and she isn’t a demon. I’ve never kissed a human before. I don’t know what she’s into.
She stops kissing me and places her hand in my hair as she combs her fingers through. She gazes at me with soft eyes.
She says, “You kind of stopped. Is something bothering you?”
I can’t meet her gaze. “No, it’s nothing.”
“I know when you’re lying.”
She brushes her fingers across my lips. I close my eyes, focusing only on her touch. Then it’s her lips on mine again. This time my beast can’t hold back, I nip at her lower lip, allowing some of my wildness to sho
w through. She bites back, but not without laughing. I open my eyes to see the happiness shining in her eyes as they reflect the stars in the night. My Emma. She only looks at me like this. Only me.
“Did you hate that?” I ask, grinning in return.
“Do it again,” she replies.
I let out a growl as we kiss again. This time I hold back only my strength. I bite her lower lip again. Then I force my tongue past her teeth, and tangle my tongue in hers. Damn does she taste good. She learns fast too. I can tell she’s never done this before, but that makes it better. She’s mine. All mine.
When she lets out a little groan, I have to stop myself before I…
“How was that?” I ask, distracting myself.
“Amazing, wonderful. The best thing I’ve ever experienced,” she says with a soft smile on her face.
She snuggles back into my chest.
“Tell me what you’ve been up to,” she says, going back to what she was saying before. “Or just tell me a story. Stay with me until I fall asleep. If I don’t get to see you again, at least I’ll have today.”
I trace her spine and she giggles, squirming against me as she tries to get away from the tickling sensation. I stop, though I really wouldn’t mind her moving against me like that some more.
“What if I don’t have any good stories to tell?” I ask, grinning.
“You can say anything. I just want to hear you talk. I love hearing you talk.”
I hum.
“Arsen?”
“Emma?” I reply in a teasing tone.
“Are you going to forget me someday? The day you said goodbye… I thought you already had, but then you came back today. You didn’t forget.”
“I will never forget you,” I vow as I kiss her on the nose. “I couldn’t even if I wanted to.”
I open my eyes.
At first, I feel disoriented. The white ceiling overhead is familiar and yet it’s not at the same time. The bed I’m lying on feels the same way. I sit up and catch sight of movement to my left. I’m ready to jump into action, but I calm down when I realize it’s only Yuki.
“You’re awake,” she says as she glides over to me, seating herself on the edge of the bed as she tosses her long dark hair over her shoulder.
“How long was I sleeping?” I ask. A glance out the window tells me it’s early morning. It’s still dark, but the night has ended.
She replies, “A few hours.”
Everything is a little fuzzy, but it’s coming back. Tasia, a team of angels, a hunter base almost destroyed. That’s the present. That is reality. Emma is dead. I was only reliving a memory. A fond memory.
Emma.
Yuki places her hand on my arm, but I move away from her and jump off of the bed before she can touch me again. I glare at her and bare my teeth.
“I want you to leave,” I say with a growl. “For good, Yuki. I never want to see your face again.”
She scowls. “You don’t me—”
“I do mean it.” I extend my claws. “You have thirty seconds to get out of my sight.”
I heat up my aggression, bare my teeth and growl, giving her no room to think I’m not being completely serious. I am. I want her to leave, and she can feel it. She isn’t happy about it, but she can feel it. She lets out a frustrated scream as she stomps over to the window, opens it, and slips out into the rest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
I stay still, observing her soul’s unique resonance as she disappears into the distance. I relax only when I’m sure she isn’t coming back. I’ve used Yuki for many years. She wanted to come with me the night Emma died. I let her. She gave everything to me that day, and I’ve repaid her with nothing but hostility. Any “kindness” I may have had inside of me died along with Emma. And I am sorry, Yuki. I won’t let you be my shield and anchor anymore, because I’m marching to almost certain death, and I don’t want you to follow me there.
ANGELS EXIST.
I was just getting used to my world being bombarded with monsters and demons, and now there are angels too. I was just getting used to a world where it seemed darkness was the strongest force there is, and now I learn there might actually be an equally powerful light. I met hunters, people who’ve been fighting to protect our world. These humans have been the ones protecting everyone, including all the people out there who don’t know just how real monsters and demons are. These hunters are simple, ordinary people—not angels.
No god was anywhere to be seen. No divine being saved my parents. No divine being saved these hunters who have been fighting for years. I didn’t have any hope in a god when the PA Branch of the EEA was under attack by monsters and demons. I thought that was the end, but things didn’t end. They went crazy.
The boy I’m in love with showed his true nature as a shifter and almost died protecting me. I’m still not entirely sure he’s alive. Arsen showed up and killed his own kind; he protected me. Then he kissed me. That’s when the angels came. The base was in flames, but they came, cleared out the rest of the monsters in the base, and stayed to help clean up the mess left behind.
They also took Rynne away.
After all this time it seems a god, or perhaps the God, has finally sent angels. And they’re still here, helping us clean and fix up the base. The beautiful, and kind of terrifying, female angel in charge, Valor, made a speech yesterday. She said the day of reckoning has come. She said that they’re here to help us reclaim our world.
That sounds good and everything, but what were any of us supposed to say to that? How are you supposed to talk to an angel? We’ve just been beaten and many hunters have been killed, so we’ve been keeping our heads low. No one’s really said much of anything to the angels, but there have been a lot of whispers among us about them. Then again, the angels have been warm and receptive any time one of us has worked up the courage to ask them a question as we work side by side in fixing up the base. More than anything, I think it’s that warm feeling that makes us humans feel uneasy around them. It’s too easy to let your guard down, and hunters don’t survive long unless they’re skeptical. Or something like that.
I have a lot of questions, but I haven’t tried asking them again. After the gorgeous angel’s speech yesterday, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. About Rynne and about Arsen. Rynne isn’t just a shifter. He’s an angel, too. That light I always felt from him, that warmth that brought me in is all because he’s an angel. I think it might be impossible to hate an angel just because of how they make you feel. I hate that I even have this thought, but I wonder if Rynne has been influencing and playing with my feelings just like Arsen has. I tell myself that can’t be true. Rynne’s been nothing but good to me, so placing him and Arsen even remotely close together is just… wrong.
Arsen killed my parents. He claims he didn’t, but he did. I saw the blood. I saw what he did. He’s been screwing with my mind. Saving me and that kiss was all just a part of his game. It has to be. There’s nothing good about a demon. The only explanation for his actions is that he must get high off of playing with my emotions. It’s the most perverted, disgusting thing I’ve ever felt to think I could have feelings other than hate for a monster like that. It’s wrong. I know it’s wrong.
I don’t get it.
Glancing down the hall, I see that same girl I saw Rynne kiss back in Reverie when we were both going to school like normal teenagers. She’s obviously an angel. I’ve seen her a couple times now. She’s pretty. She’s short with accentuated curves and doesn’t seem intimidating from a distance, unlike that other angel called Valor, but she has the same weird warm feeling all the other angels have.
I wonder why she kissed Rynne that day. He said it was a mistake. Was that a lie too?
I continue watching her as she ties up her white blond hair to get it out of her face. She passes without ever making eye contact with me.
I have so many questions, but I don’t even know how to begin to ask them or who I should ask them to.
“Tasia, not that I’m comp
laining, but you’ve been standing there leaning against your broom for a while. If you’re too tired to help, you should get some rest,” Fiona says as she puts a hand on my shoulder.
I stare at the stitches above her right eye and then down at the debris underfoot. Smashed stone, glass, dust—just a small part of the aftermath. Others are already rebuilding parts of the base with the angels’ help. They’re insanely strong. A single angel can lift a steel beam with relative ease.
“How did I get stuck on cleaning duty?” Donovan complains. He, like everyone else, has a few cuts and bruises, but he ended up luckier than some other hunters since he didn’t break anything. I agree it’d make sense to have the big guy do heavy lifting—if it wasn’t for the super powerful angels around that can outdo him easily.
“You’ll have your turn,” Fiona snaps. “Quit complaining.”
“Miguel is helping rebuild and so is Sherri. She’s just a wisp of a thing!”
“Donovan, seriously.” Fiona rubs her forehead like she’s trying to get rid of a headache. She leaves a smudge of light dust where she touched her forehead. It’s a conspicuous spot because of her dark skin, but we’re all covered in dust anyway. No reason to tell her to wipe it off, I guess.
I look up at the damaged ceiling and remember Reverie, the town I spent nearly my whole life in. I remember when my life was way simpler. I remember my parents when they were alive, happy and smiling. I remember my best friends, Didi and Connor. I wonder how they’re doing, and I wonder if I’ll ever see them again. I wonder if I’ll ever see anyone from Reverie again. Everything in my life flipped upside down in just a few months, but it feels like a much longer time period than that. This kind of change is something that should take place over an entire lifespan—not a few short months.
Donovan and Fiona are still going at it when Divya walks over to me. I don’t have a good grip on my broom, so she takes it from me easily. I stumble as I catch my balance and end up leaning against the wall.
The Pull of Destiny (Undying Love, Book 2) Page 2
