by Alicia Rades
“Who are you?” he demanded.
“I asked you first.”
He hesitated. “James Marek. Most people call me Marek.”
“Well, thanks for the help, but I think I can take it from here.” All I wanted was to escape this place. Even the prospect of learning more about this guy couldn’t make me stay.
I turned, but he caught me be before I could get out of reach.
“Aren’t you going to answer my question? I’ve never seen you around before,” he said.
I jerked my arm away from him. “Of course not. I just moved here.”
He stared at me like he expected me to say more. “What’s your name?”
I wasn’t sure I should answer, but I caved under the weight of his heavy stare. “I’m Ryn. And I’m leaving.”
“Wait!”
The urgency in his tone made me stop.
“It’s not like Davina drop out of the sky every day,” he said. “I think I recognize essence when I see it.”
I backed away from him. The cool metal of the car touched my skin.
“Are you insane?” My voice shook. No, Ryn. You’re the crazy one.
“This is serious.” Marek spoke through clenched teeth. “Do you know how much trouble you could get in for something like this?”
My pulse quickened, and my face grew hot. This had to be a dream or something. Maybe I drank more than I thought and had passed out.
“I think I can defend myself just fine,” I said.
I started around the back of the vehicle toward the driver’s side, but a second voice caught my attention.
“Maybe you should listen to your boyfriend.”
I turned around, expecting Tad to be back. Instead, I found two cloaked figures approaching us. Their faces were hidden beneath the shadows of their hoods. My first instinct was to ignore them like I had my entire life. But when I glanced around and found no one else nearby, I realized the voice must’ve come from one of the dark figures.
That couldn’t be right. They hadn’t spoken to me in years.
Marek took a defensive stance.
“You can’t see them, can you?” I asked him accusingly.
“Of course I can,” he said, not taking his eyes off the men. Marek’s tone shifted as he addressed them. “You don’t want to try anything. Believe me.”
The taller figure spoke first. “Little Angel looks fun to play with. How can we resist?”
The other man chuckled. “What do you think, Dorian? You take the guy, I’ll take the girl?”
A muscle popped in Marek’s jaw. “You shouldn’t be here. You know you’ll get yourself killed before you make it out of town.”
“But it’s so much fun when all you young angels gather together with no protection,” the taller one said. “Your kind aren’t the only ones who have fun killing. The fewer there are of you in the world, the better.”
I inched away slowly, my hands shaking. Now would be a really good time to wake up.
“I wouldn’t bet on that,” Marek said.
Before I could process what was happening, a white light erupted from Marek’s palm and hit the first man in the shoulder. He crumbled to the ground and lay on his back breathlessly.
“Oh my God! What did you do?” I tried to push past Marek to check Dorian’s pulse, but he grabbed my wrist and pulled me behind him.
The second man crossed in front of Dorian.
Marek faced him and spoke in a strong voice. “I wouldn’t try anything if I were you, unless you want to end up like your friend.”
A second ball of energy formed in Marek’s palm. It glowed intensely like some sort of magical fireball.
“You think you’re better than me?” the man challenged. He extended a hand out from underneath his cloak. A similar object appeared to grow from out of nowhere. His fireball had a dark black center outlined in a reddish white glow that contrasted against the darkness of the night. “What do you say we do this hand-to-hand? No essence.”
“Only if you don’t want to survive,” Marek said confidently.
An icy laugh erupted from the man’s chest. “Have it your way.” He swung his hand around, sending the dark fireball flying in our direction.
I couldn’t think fast enough to duck out of the way. Luckily, Marek spun around and tackled me to the ground. The black ball disappeared behind us.
Marek shuffled to his feet and lunged toward the figure. His fist connected with the guy’s jaw. Before the second punch could reach him, the man caught Marek’s fist and twisted his arm around. A loud thud came when he shoved Marek onto the hood of the car.
“Stop!” I cried, but my throat closed up around my words. My knees shook as I rose to my feet.
Marek gasped for breath. The man stood over him and squeezed his fingers around Marek’s throat.
“Stop!” I pleaded again. “You’re going to kill him.” Fear stalled me from making a move.
The man only laughed.
Anger instantly replaced my fear. Blood rose to the surface of my skin, and a warm sensation spread to my fingertips. Another white fireball settled in my palm. My mind instantly flickered back to what Marek had done just moments ago when he threw something similar at the last guy. I drew my arm back and heaved the object at the man choking Marek.
The next few moments passed by in slow motion. The man glanced up at me. Surprised, he loosened his grip on Marek’s throat and shifted to fight back.
Somewhere on its course to him, the white ball of energy transformed into a dark purple. He made a move to dodge the object, but before he could get out of the way, the purple ball of energy hit him in the chest. His cloak crumbled to the ground in a heap as his body vanished in a puff of black smoke.
This is not happening to me again.
I’d been so preoccupied with saving Marek that I hadn’t realized Dorian had sat up. He glanced between where his friend had vanished and me.
Marek coughed and sucked in several breaths.
Another white fireball formed in my hand.
Dorian stood, and a black ball of energy rose from his own fingers. Marek placed his feet firmly between us. Dorian hesitated for a moment and then closed his fist. The orb in his hand disappeared.
The light emanating from Marek’s hand illuminated Dorian’s face just enough that I could see his black irises. My gut twisted at the sight.
Dorian narrowed his inhuman eyes at me. “You shouldn’t have done that, Little Angel. Now I know what you are, and—”
“You’ll never get close to her,” Marek said with conviction. “Not as long as I’m around.”
Dorian scoffed. “You won’t be around forever.”
Marek’s face twisted in anger. In one quick motion, he hurled his fireball at Dorian. Dorian spun out of the way, and the fireball exploded like a firecracker against the ground. Dorian snatched up his friend’s cloak and rushed away from us, escaping into the darkness.
“Shit,” Marek muttered under his breath. “He’s going to be back. And it’s going to be ugly.”
3
Exhaustion sent me tumbling to my knees. Marek rushed to steady me and slowly lowered me to the ground. I closed my eyes and pressed my head against the cool metal of the car door.
I’m hallucinating again.
Why, then, did it feel so real?
I opened my eyes. Marek sat beside me with his elbows rested on his knees, breathing in deeply.
He must be part of the hallucination, I thought. It’s not like sexy hunks showed up every day to rescue me from figments of my imagination.
“Are you okay?” Marek asked.
Physically? Yeah.
Mentally? Maybe it was time to check in with a therapist again.
I wasn’t worried about myself, though. My main priority was getting Allie home safely.
“I’m fine, but I have to get my friend home.” I rose to my feet. “I’ll see you around.”
“Wait.”
I didn’t. I slipped into the driver’s seat and grabbed Al
lie’s keys from the floor where she’d left them. My hand shook as I stuck the key in the ignition.
It felt strange being in the driver’s seat again. Mom wouldn’t let me drive after what happened the last time I got behind the wheel.
Marek grabbed my door before I could shut it. “You can’t just leave.”
“I can.” I ripped the door from his grasp and narrowly missed squashing his fingers. Allie shifted slightly in the back seat at the sound of the slamming door.
“Seriously. This is a big deal.” He knocked on the window.
I sighed and rolled it down. “Seriously, I have to get Allie home. Maybe we can talk about this later.”
Marek gaped at me. “Let me come with you. You shouldn’t be alone.”
“I’m not. Allie’s with me.” Even if she wasn’t exactly conscious.
“At least let me know how I can get in touch with you,” he insisted.
I sighed. If I didn’t give him something, he wasn’t going to let me leave. I was too freaked out to stay.
“I’m staying at Allie’s house.”
“I can meet you there in the morning,” he offered.
My brows shot up. “And you just happen to know where she lives?”
He nodded. “Yeah, we go to school together.”
“Okay, I’ll see you in the morning.” I rolled up the window and shifted into drive. I had no intention of ever seeing Marek again.
I woke the following morning with a pounding headache and momentarily wondered where I was.
The first thing I noticed was the white vanity to my left, and then I spotted Allie’s pink comforter hanging off the edge of her bed to my right. Allie’s shoes were strewn at the floor near my feet. I’d taken them off for her last night and never bothered to put them away nicely. I still wore the same clothes I’d gone to the party in.
Allie stirred from the bed above me and cleared her throat. “How do you feel?”
“I’m fine,” I lied. “You?”
“Like shit,” she admitted. She attempted to sit up but immediately fell back onto her bed. “How’d we get home?”
“I drove you back and snuck you in.”
“Thanks. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you there. I’m so thirsty.”
I climbed out of my sleeping bag and stood. “I’ll get you some water.”
“No,” she insisted kindly. “I can do it.”
“Relax,” I told her. “You have a pretty bad hangover.”
I walked out of the room before she could argue further. In the bathroom, I filled the glass next to the sink with water. My eyes landed on my hand as I twisted the faucet. I remembered the white orb forming in my palm so vividly. I’d never forget the deep purple it transformed into.
But things like this didn’t happen in real life. There had to be another explanation. Had Kyle slipped something in my drink? It would explain my headache.
The cool water hit my skin as it spilled over the edges of the glass, pulling me from my thoughts. I immediately twisted the faucet off and returned to Allie’s bedroom.
“Here you go.” I handed her the glass.
She rolled over and thanked me.
“Hey, Allie. Kyle’s cool, right?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” She sat up and sipped her water.
“I mean, he can be trusted, can’t he? He wouldn’t mess with someone’s drink?”
“God, no. He’d never do that.” Allie’s eyes widened. “You think you were drugged? Because that douchebag—”
“No,” I answered quickly.
Tad certainly seemed like a viable suspect, but he never got close enough to my drink to slip something in it.
“Do you know someone named Marek?” I asked.
She took another sip of water. “Yeah. We’re in the same class at Galen. Why?”
“I met him last night.”
Which meant everything had been real.
Holy shit. My knees shook so badly I had to sit in the chair next to her vanity to steady them. This changed everything I knew about my childhood.
“What’d you think of him?” Allie wiggled her eyebrows. “He’s cute, right?”
“Huh?” My face flushed. “Yeah, he’s cute. We didn’t really talk much.”
Allie wrinkled her nose. “Probably for the best.”
I straightened. “What do you mean by that?”
Allie sighed and rested her drink in her lap. “He’s just… a little too serious at times.”
“Oh?”
“We’re always in groups together in class,” she explained. “I mean, we get along, but he can be kind of controlling. He thinks he’s better than everyone else. Anyway, you don’t want to get involved with anyone at Galen High. Dating someone from a different school is hard.”
“I didn’t say I wanted to date him!”
She giggled.
“I was just curious what his deal was and all.”
Memories from last night flashed through my mind. Marek saw the cloaked figures. I wasn’t alone.
Not to mention I can shoot freaking fireballs out of my hands.
I stood quickly. “I have to go.”
“What? Why?” She asked in surprise.
I have to test out this fireball thing and confirm I’m not insane.
“I have chores.” That wasn’t exactly a lie.
“Okay.” She relaxed. “See you later.”
I grabbed my overnight bag from the floor. “Bye.”
I left the house wondering how I was going to test what I’d experienced last night. Perhaps my anger at the time had something to do with it.
As soon as I stepped out of Allie’s front door, my heart soared in my chest. At the end of her driveway stood the one thing that was sure to help me make sense of it all.
Marek leaned against a sleek black motorcycle looking even sexier than the first time I met him. He wore the same tight pants he had on last night, and his brown hair was tousled in the same manner. He’d draped his leather jacket over the handlebars of the motorcycle. Without it on, I had a great view of his thick biceps.
Heaven help me. I was undressing him with my eyes again.
Marek smiled at me, but it didn’t quite reach his tired eyes. Had he slept at all? He stood there waiting for me like he’d camped out in Allie’s yard last night.
“We need to talk,” I stated as soon as I reached him.
He straightened. “Agreed.”
“What the hell happened last night?” I demanded.
Marek gazed at me from under long lashes. “You really don’t know?”
My brows shot up. “I really don’t know. I mean… was it… real?”
A shocked expression crossed his face. “Of course it was real. What, you don’t fight demons on a daily basis?”
My eyes widened. “You do that all the time?”
Marek chuckled. “No. We get idiots like that coming into town every now and then trying to show how tough they are.”
“So, they’re like… actually demons? From Hell?”
“No, that’s just what we call them. Maybe we should go somewhere private to talk about it.”
I glanced down the quiet residential street. It was completely deserted.
“It’s private enough here. So, you can see them, too? I’m not the only one?”
He eyed me curiously for at least five seconds.
Say something already, dammit!
“You really have no idea?” he asked.
My mouth hung open, but nothing came out. Uh, duh!
Marek took my silence as an answer. “You’re lucky I was there. I almost didn’t come, but Kyle made me.” He paused and pressed his lips together in thought. “I think I should introduce you to Fletcher.”
My eyebrows pressed together. “Who’s Fletcher?”
“He’s the guy who can answer your questions. Should we get going?” Marek grabbed the helmet off his seat and shoved it into my hands.
“On that thing?” I squeake
d.
“Why not?” he asked. “There’s enough room for two.”
“But there’s only one helmet.” I held it up to prove my point.
He slipped on his jacket and swung a leg over the bike. “That’s why I gave it to you. Put it on.”
I bit my lip nervously. I’d never ridden on a motorcycle before.
“Well?” Marek prodded. “Do you want answers or not?”
Mom didn’t expect me home for hours, and I’d only ditched Allie so I could figure this all out. The answer was obvious.
But how did I know I could trust him?
Because he saved my life.
And there was nothing I wanted more than answers right now.
I shoved the helmet back into his hands. “Give me a second.”
I hurried up my porch steps and dropped my overnight bag inside the front door. When I returned to the bike, Marek had his phone up to his ear.
“Okay,” he said into it. “We’ll see you soon.”
He hung up and slid the phone into his back pocket.
“Here,” he said, handing me the helmet.
“I don’t need it.” I pushed it back toward him.
“Yes, you do. I’d rather you wear it than me.”
I was about to protest again, but then he reached for my hand. His touch was warm and electric.
Marek placed the helmet in my palm. “Put it on, Ryn.”
If I knew hearing him say my name would melt my insides the way it did, I would’ve asked him to say it sooner.
I put the helmet on and swung my leg over the bike behind him. Not quite sure where to place my hands, I settled them on his shoulders. They shook in laughter.
“What?” I asked sharply. “Let’s go.”
“You’ve never ridden a bike before, have you?”
“No shit, Sherlock.”
“Usually your arms go around my waist.” He took my hands and pulled them around him.
My breath caught in my throat, and my entire body tensed. Shouldn’t we at least go on a date before we got this close? I wouldn’t know.
I could feel Marek’s strong muscles under his shirt. My heart hammered so hard I was sure he could feel it against his back.
Lovely. I was going to die of a heart attack.
The engine roared to life, and before I knew it, we were speeding down the street.
