by Anna Santos
“I told him to do it.” William placed himself in front of Cedric. “We need to talk privately,” he added with a calm voice and tormented eyes. He looked troubled by everything that was happening as if it was his fault.
“What do you want to do?” Philippe studied me.
Pursing my lips, I looked at William, again.
“Aria, we can explain everything,” William assured.
“Can we use your office?” I asked Philippe.
“Only if I can listen to what he has to say. I don’t trust Cedric.”
I nodded. I had no intention of being in the same room with Cedric without Philippe.
“Fine by me,” Cedric said immediately. “I just want Aria to listen to William.”
“Jo,” Philippe was going to say something to his maker, but she stormed up the stairs and disappeared behind a door, probably her bedroom.
“I want to talk to Josephine,” Cedric said, following her with his eyes.
“I don’t think she wants to talk to you,” I muttered as I climbed upstairs to listen to what William had to say.
Moments after, the four of us were in Philippe’s office. Cedric sat on one of the chairs, letting William do the talking. He looked pensive, and it intrigued me. He looked sad, too. But I wasn’t going to fall for his sadness anymore. I was mad at him. Mad by his attitude, his words, and the things he said and did to me.
“Aria needed to be furious in order to feel the need to reconnect with her powers,” William blurted out.
I snapped, “Why, so Cedric could control me again?”
“No. That wasn’t our intention,” William countered.
I aimed my eyes at the prince. “Wasn’t it, Cedric?”
“I have to confess that I thought it would bring you back to your senses,” he replied. His eyes were on me, but it didn’t seem as if he was paying much attention.
“Back to my senses,” I mused. “We have different opinions about that, don’t we?” I was being sarcastic. I had every right to be.
“Okay, let me explain,” William demanded, gesturing his hands to get our attention. “I told Cedric to make you angry. I don’t know what he told you. The goal was to do something terrible, so you would want to awaken your powers.”
“So, you told him to arrest Philippe and Jo,” I said coldly, finding their plan to be evil.
“That was my idea,” Cedric said. “It worked perfectly. You are glowing again.”
I narrowed my eyes at him as I rose from my seat. “Have you some death wish that I don’t know about.” His plain face rattled me. I looked at William instead. “I’m still waiting for an explanation.”
“It was necessary to save you,” he explained. “Just sit down, Aria, and let me tell you why we had to make you evoke your angel.” William’s politeness and tenderness calmed me down.
“I’m fine like this,” I said.
Philippe grabbed my hand and slightly tugged on it, so I sat down next to him. “Listen to what they have to say.”
I nodded. Philippe’s arm surrounded my waist, and I leaned closer to him. He was acting protective. I couldn’t blame him after what Cedric did.
Philippe broke the silence. “The fact is that Cedric committed a critical error by sending me to his dungeons. I get why you wanted to get rid of me, but you shouldn’t have dragged Josephine into this whole situation.”
“I have my reasons for keeping Jo there,” Cedric muttered.
“I don’t give a damn about your reasons!” Philippe yelled at him, startling everybody with his outburst. “She is the kindest person I know. You didn’t need to treat her like that. Not after what she did to help you.”
“I’ll properly explain myself to your…mom,” Cedric said, annoyed and sarcastic at the end. “Now, can we focus on what we came here to talk about? Or don’t you care about Aria’s survival anymore?”
Philippe recoiled in his seat and looked at him as if trying to decide if Cedric was lying or not.
“I don’t know what you are implying,” Philippe said. “However, I’m here to listen to you. Aria wants to let you explain, so you can do so. But do not think for a moment that I’m going to forget what you did to me.”
“I did what I had to do to save Aria,” he claimed, disdain for Philippe reflected in his eyes. “I don’t like you, but it was never my intention to leave you there until dawn. I just wanted to scare you a little and make Aria think that you were in danger. She…”
“She was rejecting her angel,” William stepped in. “But the angel is a part of her. Aria, if you reject her completely because you are afraid of her, then when you become human again, you will have a shattered soul—a wounded soul that can kill you. The angel is a part of you. It isn’t a foreign being that possessed you. It’s a part of your personality that surfaced and got stronger. If you reject that, you are rejecting a part of who you are and, therefore, you are wounding your soul.”
“You had to accept your angel, so you could feel whole again. You don’t need to be afraid of her. You aren’t now, are you?” Cedric asked.
I pondered their words.
“You were suffering. Are you in pain, Aria?” William asked.
I shook my head.
“I examined your blood. Your defenses were fighting the angelic essence like a virus. It would eventually shut down your heart again and kill you. It was all in your head as I didn’t find any type of drug that was capable of doing that. It was your brain, your soul, your will that was rejecting your angel because you saw her as an enemy. But she isn’t the enemy. She is a part of who you are. There is a warrior in all of us, a strong personality that kicks in when we are in danger, or something is putting us down. There are many characteristics in us,” William said with a smile.
I understood him perfectly. “Cedric said all those things on purpose.” I looked at Cedric. “Or did you mean everything you said?”
“Some,” he replied. “I’m not perfect. You hurt me. But I didn’t wish you any harm. I wanted you to wake up your angel and stop fighting her. Do you want me to lie and tell you that I wasn’t hoping that you would realize that you love me and don’t want to leave? I wanted that. It’s natural since I’m not coldhearted, and I waited for you for a long time. But if you want to be free, I’m not going to force you to stay with me. It would be useless.”
“You were mean,” I told him as my body tensed again with the memories of his actions. “You shouldn’t have locked up Philippe and Jo. You shouldn’t be so biased to their intentions to help you. I understand that you think you are protecting your people and me, but there are other ways to find the person who kidnapped me and created the Clarity drug.”
“I know,” he said softly. “Still, Aria, if your love for me didn’t work to wake up your angel, then I hoped that your love for Philippe would.”
I got red from head to toe and stole a peek at Philippe sideways. “Seriously?” I asked, annoyed by Cedric’s capacity to keep embarrassing me in front of Philippe.
“I’m not judging you,” Cedric said.
“You already judged me,” I muttered, narrowing my eyes at him. He may have done that to help me, but it didn’t erase everything he had said to me. Some of his accusations were what he was really thinking and feeling.
“I don’t approve of your choice,” he said mildly. “Yet there’s nothing I can do, is there?”
I stared at him for a long, quiet minute, trying to calm myself down.
“We are on the same side. Stop looking at me like that,” he said.
“You were going to kill them.”
“I wasn’t going to harm Jo. I’ll explain myself to her. It’s something personal.”
I leaned forward with my eyes ablaze with anger. “There isn’t any plausible excuse for what you did to her. She trusted you. Guess you tend to let everybody down.”
“I had my reasons. You may think I was being selfish, maybe I was, but don’t think for a second that Philippe is better than me.”
�
��I don’t. He’s a vampire. What’s your excuse?”
“I thought I was protecting you from yourself,” he answered. “And I don’t trust Philippe.”
“You can kill me if I do something bad to Aria,” Philippe intervened, talking before I could. “But if I’m willing to trust you, then the least you can do is return that trust and initiate negotiations instead of attacking the graveyard.”
“Before we leave, I want to talk to Jo,” Cedric said, getting up.
“Before you leave for where? We need to talk about the attack,” I reminded him.
“We are all late for a meeting,” he clarified.
“Jo will talk to you if she wants to. You need to work for it. If you think you are stubborn, she’s two times worse,” Philippe said, getting up and offering me his hand. “What meeting are we attending?”
“If you are on my side, for once, then it is time to prove it.” Cedric faced Philippe. “I’ve arranged a meeting with the representatives of the graveyard in your church. We need to get going.”
Philippe and I stood still, next to each other, looking at Cedric. We were probably thinking the same thing.
“It’s not a trick,” Cedric said, rolling his eyes as if we were overreacting.
“It’s not,” William confirmed. “Philippe is safe.”
I held on to his wrist. “He isn’t going anywhere without me.”
“You shouldn’t be at this meeting. They might feel threatened by you,” Cedric said.
“Aria isn’t staying by herself in my house or yours. She’s not leaving my side, either,” Philippe replied.
I looked at him and witnessed how serious he was.
“Fine. Can I talk to Aria in private before we leave?” Cedric didn’t look pleased, and I couldn’t care less. There was no way in hell that he was going to leave me behind, without knowing what was going to happen at that meeting.
“I’ll be fine,” I mumbled to Philippe before he could protest.
“I’ll go talk to my men and Sean. Meet us downstairs,” he said, squeezing my hand. He left with William trailing behind him.
“Tell Jo to join us at the meeting,” Cedric said as Philippe was about to close the door.
I crossed my arms. “What do you want to tell me?” He could have explained himself. Still, I didn’t trust him.
Ruffling his hair, he spoke, “I want to ask you for forgiveness.”
“For what exactly?”
“For lying to you and for being too possessive and paranoid. I understand that I should have been more…understanding and shouldn’t have blamed you for everything. It’s partially my fault. I’m still learning how to deal with my emotions. It’s not a good excuse but…I don’t want you to hate me. If you truly want to be human again, I’ll accept your decision. Right now, you need time to think about your decision. Let your anger toward me calm down. We were in love. Maybe we still are and can save this.” He reached for me, but I evaded his touch. Cedric pursed his lips and heaved a sigh. Putting his hand inside his pocket, he proceeded to say, “I know that I’ve hurt you. You’ve hurt me, too. I care about you and want you to be safe. You are a beautiful person with a beautiful soul. Giving up our bond because I omitted a detail about my curse…would be a mistake.”
“A detail…” I squinted to soothe my rage. “Why weren’t you honest with me?”
Cedric half-shrugged. “It was a calculated risk. I thought that I had more chances to make you fall in love with me if I didn’t tell you that you could leave and reject me. If we had more time to get to know each other, we would see that we matched. Wouldn’t you leave immediately if I had told you that you had that choice?”
“Probably, yes,” I agreed. “But it was my choice. If you couldn’t trust me to choose you, you shouldn’t trust me with your life in a trial that can turn you into stone and kill you. Not just kill you, make you disappear forever.”
“I’m sorry. I was tired of being alone. I wanted someone to love and someone to love me. A family.”
His words made me sad. It was hard to stay mad at him when he opened up his heart.
Cedric stepped closer but didn’t try to touch me. “You don’t need to tell me anything right now. I don’t want to pressure you anymore. We are going to the meeting, and I’m going to do my best to prevent a war and stop being stubborn. I promise.”
I nodded. “Good.”
“But you have to promise me that you are going to think about us. If you give up our angel, you are giving up on us. You’ll go back to being human…”
“What’s wrong with being human?”
“Nothing. But you’ve accepted your angel, didn’t you?”
“I did.”
“She isn’t influencing your decisions. Your feelings and hers are the same now. Even if you want to give up everything, that’s okay. I just want you to be sure about that.”
“It’s not because of Philippe.”
Cedric put his hands on my shoulders. “It’s partially because of him. You shouldn’t lie to yourself. Lying is useless, and it will make you suffer longer. Even if it’s because of him, you should love whoever makes you happier.”
I frowned. “Are you trying to manipulate me again?”
“No.” He smiled gently. “I’m beginning to understand that we can’t rule over our hearts. He was stupid for rejecting you. Maybe he had a plausible reason. I don’t know. I hate his guts.”
I shook my head. “Philippe…”
Cedric interrupted me. “I don’t regret saving you and having you as my mate. Far from that. I loved every bit of time we’ve spent together. I’m glad I met you. Even if I did a huge favor to that jerk and fished you out of the river for you to go back to him.”
I sighed deeply. Why does everybody think that I’m going back to Philippe? It was becoming annoying.
“Jo says he loves you. Maybe she’s right, and I’m overreacting, and my fear for your life is unfounded. But you need to understand that Philippe isn’t a normal wounded person who you can cure. He’s an old vampire, someone who hurt a lot of people. He may be damaged beyond repair. He may damage you and destroy everything that makes you beautiful.”
“I know that,” I said to him. “I’m not as naïve as you may think. You aren’t in a better shape yourself. Something hurt you, and you have to deal with that. Your hate for vampires isn’t healthy. Your fear of abandonment isn’t healthy, either. You need to listen to other people’s opinions.”
“I’ll try to work on that next time. If there’s a next time after you reject me.” I ignored his pleading eyes. “You are sexy when you get mad,” he whispered with a smirk.
“Are you being serious?” I rolled my eyes when he nodded. “You need a shrink.”
“Probably,” he teased. “It’s difficult to explain, but I need someone to tell me to my face when I’m being a jerk or stubborn. Someone who can handle me.”
“Then I’m not it,” I assured him as I folded my arms.
“You are. You are strong and have your heart in the right place.”
“Are you ready to go or not?” Philippe asked, opening the door and stepping inside. His eyes narrowed at the sight of Cedric and I being close to each other.
“We are ready,” I said, walking towards the door.
Philippe looked at me intensely.
“I’m okay,” I whispered, so he would relax.
“I’m taking Aria with me,” Cedric said, following behind us.
“Aria is coming with me, and that’s not even opened to discussion,” Philippe said, holding on to my hand.
“She can decide for herself,” Cedric snapped at him, teleporting to the end of the stairs and waiting for us to arrive there.
“And you just figured that out for yourself, did you?” Philippe mocked.
“Are you two going to act like kids the entire night?” I asked, stopping in the middle of the stairs. “We have an important matter to resolve, and you need to stop competing for my attention. It’s embarrassing.”
“So, with whom do you want to go?” Cedric asked, folding his arms and waiting for my decision.
My words were useless because, apparently, I had to decide. I looked from Philippe to Cedric and then back to Philippe.
“Since you didn’t want me at that meeting in the first place,” I said to Cedric. “I’m going with Philippe.”
Cedric said nothing. He was distracted and looking upstairs. I followed his eyes. Jo was coming down in a new blue dress and looking gorgeous but fierce.
“I’ll wait for you two in the car,” she said to us, completely ignoring Cedric and leaving a trail of sensual perfume behind.
Cedric’s behavior was intriguing. I looked at Philippe. I probably imagined things, but Philippe was looking at Cedric with narrowed eyes that confirmed my gut-feeling.
Philippe lifted me into his arms and pressed me against his chest. It sent waves of heat straight to my face. “My mom is off limits to you,” he told Cedric before we sped out of there to the car.
I was able to breathe again when he placed me in the car next to Jo.
Philippe is jealous of Cedric or is it my impression?
The driver started the car, and we were on our way to the church. The silence bothered me. So, I decided to be straightforward about my doubts.
“Are you two lovers?” I had to know what I was getting myself into. Cedric had implied it, but I didn’t want to believe him. Maybe he was right, and I was genuinely naïve and stupid.
“Of course not. Cedric and I aren’t lovers,” Jo denied promptly.
“What?” I gestured my hands in denial. “No, you and Philippe,” I explained. Why would she even think I was talking about Cedric? Philippe was right. I didn't imagine things.
“No,” she replied with a serious face without blinking. “We are not.”
I looked at Philippe to see his expression. He was quiet.
“We aren’t.” Looking at Jo, he probed, “Yet, I would like to know what is going on between Cedric and you. He keeps saying that he wants to talk to you, and you two were overly friendly the past few days.”
Jo folded her hands in her lap and looked at me. “We shouldn’t be having this conversation in front of Aria.”
