by Anna Santos
“I’m not leaving,” he assured me, clearing away the tears from my eyes with the tips of his fingers. “Calm down. You’re scared and hurt. You didn’t heal. Why didn’t you heal?”
“The angel is trapped,” I whispered, breathing deep and realizing that she wasn’t screaming anymore. She‘d been silenced and was waiting patiently for someone to release her from the trap she was in.
“What’s wrong, Aria?” Philippe asked, noticing my blank stare.
“Look. She’s trapped,” I whispered, showing him the symbol that was drawn on my cleavage.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t have any powers.”
Abruptly, everything was illuminated by a bright light that shone inside the building I’d been in. The light erupted and escaped from the closed windows, which incinerated at its touch. Shreds of dying ghosts making painful noises tried to escape. I gazed at it, emotionless and quiet. I wasn’t sure what it was and who was doing it, but it was something powerful.
“Cedric,” a woman’s voice said his name. She was walking towards the building, intending to go in, but Jacob stopped her. I didn’t know the woman. Why was she calling his name? She was pretty and looked worried.
“He’s fine,” I told her to reassure her.
She stared at me and then at Philippe.
“I’m glad you’re both safe. I was worried,” she said, coming our way and touching Philippe.
I pulled Philippe away from her and hugged him possessively.
“That’s not good,” she said, staring at us.
“She’s been acting strange since I found her,” Philippe said, but he made no effort to get away from me.
“Do you want to start a war?” She was speaking to Philippe.
“Who are you?” I asked. “You have no right to talk to him like that.”
Frowning, she said in a cheerful voice, “I’m Josephine. Pleased to meet you, Aria.”
“She’s my maker,” Philippe clarified.
Arching an eyebrow, I asked, “Like a mom?”
“Like that,” she agreed with a kind smile.
I burst into tears. The word “mom” reminded me of my own mother, unconscious, in the car. Probably dead.
“What’s wrong, dear?” she asked.
“What’s wrong, Aria?” Philippe put his hands on my face. “Stop crying, sweetie.”
“You’re not helping, Philippe,” Josephine complained. “Cedric isn’t going to be happy.”
“Fuck Cedric. She’s terrified.”
“My mom and dad,” I said to Philippe. “They were in the car with me.”
“They’re safe in the hospital. Your mom is alive. Your dad is also fine.”
“You promise?”
“Yes.” He kissed my forehead, making me feel much better. “Do you want to see them?”
“Yes.”
“What the hell is happening here?”
It was Cedric’s voice.
I trembled, afraid of what he would do to Philippe after touching me.
Cedric’s first action was to pull Philippe away from me.
“They were just talking,” Josephine said, trying to push Cedric away from Philippe.
I got out of the car, barely standing up, and I fell inside Cedric’s arms.
“Don’t move. You’re tired,” he said to me.
I glared at him. “If you touch him again, if you harm him, I’ll hate you for it. You know that, don’t you?”
He looked puzzled for a while. “Do you have any idea what you’re saying?”
“I know what I’m saying. And I want to see my parents. So just try and stop me,” I dared him as I pushed him away. I wasn’t going to be trapped again.
“I’m not going to stop you from doing anything,” he said. “Hold on to her for a moment.” He passed me to Josephine, who held me as he walked away.
“Give her to me,” Philippe ordered her.
“Stay away from her. You aren’t helping,” she muttered as she prevented him from reaching out to me.
I didn’t have time to protest because Cedric arrived with a wet cloth and grabbed me from Josephine’s hands.
“This is going to hurt a bit,” he said as I held on to my dress. “I need to clean the sigil from your skin, Aria. Let me.”
Reluctantly, I stepped forward and let him wash and erase the symbol. But he’d lied. It didn’t hurt a bit. It hurt a lot. I cried out in pain, feeling a wave of heat coming from the inside out. My eyes glowed, I was sure they did, because I felt the angel stretch inside of me and take possession of my mind and my mortality. There was an itching sensation taking over my skin as my heartbeat increased.
When the pain was over, I breathed deeper and opened my eyes. I was in Cedric’s arms. He looked worried, and Philippe looked troubled. I blinked several times, trying to understand what was wrong with me. I still felt tired, but I wasn’t feeling any pain.
“What did you do to her?” Philippe asked. I had the same question.
“I freed her angel.”
“I want to see my parents,” I told Cedric. I didn’t want my angel to numb my feelings and stop me from going to the hospital.
“Okay. I just need to take care of a few problems before we go.”
“I can take her,” Philippe said.
“You still have to tell me who’s behind Aria’s kidnapping. And Aria needs to tell us everything she saw inside and what she remembers,” Cedric said.
“After she sees her parents and rests. Look at her. She’s exhausted,” Philippe pointed out.
I wanted to run to his arms again. I was glad that someone understood and was defending me. I was afraid that Cedric wouldn’t comprehend and would want to trap me in his home again.
“Maribel, Olav,” Cedric called to his gargoyles, who landed next to us. “Follow them to the hospital and secure the premises. We don’t want Aria to get kidnapped again, do we?” He looked at Philippe.
“We don’t,” he agreed.
“I’m going to trust you, Philippe. If you betray me, or you have some hidden agenda, I’m going to hunt you down and kill you,” he threatened before handing me to Philippe.
“I’ll stay here with you,” Josephine said to Cedric.
“We’ll interrogate the prisoners,” he said to her. Then looking at me, he said as he leaned down and kissed my cheek, “I’ll head to the hospital afterwards.”
I nodded.
Seconds later, we disappeared in a swift movement as Philippe took me away to the hospital. I held on tight to him, musing about the day, the rescue, and my reactions to Philippe without my angel clouding my mind. Not that she was clouding much right then. She was quiet and weak. More than that, she wasn’t seeing him as a threat. He had saved us. Cedric and he had saved us. But the fact was that when I’d needed help, Philippe had come. He could have ignored me and let Cedric handle it alone. I had told him to stay away, that we weren’t going to happen, and that I loved Cedric. Yet I didn’t have to be a genius to understand why he’d come to save me and joined forces with Cedric.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CEDRIC
The questioning of the prisoners took longer than I’d expected. Even if the night had been long, at least, I’d made progress. Josephine had proven herself useful by controlling the vampires who’d been left behind and had wanted to take revenge on the wolves and possessed humans that were keeping and distributing the drug.
It had been a huge victory. All that was left to do was to find the creator of the drug and finish him off. I was hoping that Philippe could give me useful information about that. I wasn’t going to let him fool me again. By then, Aria should have come around. I knew that her angel would make her remember all the reasons why we were in love and why she shouldn’t have trusted Philippe. But I was too busy to worry about that while dealing with the prisoners.
Close to dawn, I arrived at the hospital with Josephine on my tail. She wanted to know how Aria was doing and to check on Philippe. She also needed to debrief him o
n what we’d found out.
I saw Camille at the end of the corridor. “Where’s Aria?”
If that bastard had taken Aria to his house, I was going to catch him and stake his ass.
“Cedric,” she whispered, getting up and running to me, tears in her eyes.
My breath got stuck in my lungs. “What happened?”
“She had a stroke after her parents left for the airport. She started having convulsions and lost consciousness. It was fortunate that William was here. He took care of her and now she’s in recovery.”
“What? How can that be? She was okay when she came here. A bit tired but okay. She has her angel with her. She…”
“He said that they’d drugged her. She had drugs in her system. He also said that she could have died. I’m so worried!” Camille said, her voice laced with sadness.
I was too nervous to hug and comfort her, though. My mind went blank and my head started to spin. Aria could have died. “Where is she?”
“In the last hospital room down this corridor. Philippe is there with her, but she’s in some sort of a coma. I don’t know how to explain it, but William had to leave. It’ll be day soon enough, and he’ll turn into rock.”
“Okay, okay. Calm down.” I put my hands on her shoulders. “I’m here now. Everything will be fine. We need to call some healing angels to fix her.”
“We tried that, Cedric. Nothing worked.” She sobbed, tears rushing to her eyes again.
“Then we…” I stopped talking, unsure of what to say. I had run out of ideas. I didn’t know what to do. I felt Josephine’s hand on my shoulder. I stared at her, noticing her empathy for our pain.
“Maybe vampire’s blood can help,” she whispered.
“Philippe has already tried that,” Camille informed us, clearing her eyes with her fingers. “He also contacted the witches, some girl called Mara. She came here. She analyzed Aria and said something disturbing. But I can’t believe it. She said that her soul was…wounded. That she was rejecting her angel.”
“That’s not possible,” I said to her.
“Her being sick isn’t possible, either,” Camille retorted.
“Why would she reject her angel?” Josephine asked the key question.
“I have no idea,” I said. “I have to see her.”
I headed down the hallway looking for her bedroom and found Philippe sitting on a chair next to Aria’s bed. He looked apprehensive and drained. Aria was surrounded by machines that were helping her breathe and were monitoring her heartbeat. She looked pale and sick. I moved closer, and Philippe stared at me, silent. I touched her hand. It was cold.
“What else can I do?” I asked him, not sure why I did. He’d been there next to her. Maybe he knew what I could do to help her. Perhaps, I was just lost and feeling guilty for letting her be kidnapped.
“Be here for her. She needs someone to be next to her. She’s been having nightmares.”
“I can’t. I have meetings to attend today. We need to find the people who did this to her. They must have put something in the drugs they gave her to destroy her angel. It’s the only plausible explanation for all this.”
“William thought about that, too. He ran some blood tests and, once he wakes up again, he’ll come here to share his findings. Meanwhile, he said that she should be monitored in case she has another convulsion and her heart stops.”
“What?” I asked, losing my voice and looking at her pale face. “Her heart stopped?”
“For thirty seconds.”
“That’s not possible!”
“Apparently, it is. The witch thinks that it’s a spiritual thing that’s interfering with her body. Her mind is fighting her angel.”
“That’s bullshit. Aria is perfectly fine with her angel. Besides, her angel wouldn’t let her body get sick unless something is stopping her from having control.”
“Exactly,” Philippe said.
I glared at him. “It’s the drug. We need to find who did this and see if they have an antidote.”
“You need to calm down,” Philippe said.
“Don’t tell me what to do!” I yelled at him, catching Josephine’s gaze out of the corner of my eye.
She was in the entrance of the room, staring at us. Her face was gloomy as her eyes looked from me to Aria.
“What do you think I should do?” I asked her.
“I’m sorry.” She came in. “But you’re not going to drag me into this conversation.”
“You agreed with me. We need to find out who did this. We need to get…”
Josephine tried to complete my sentence. “Revenge?”
“Justice,” I said.
“Cedric, I agree with Philippe. You need to rest. It’s been a long night.”
“I’ll sleep after I find the people who did this to Aria. You of all people should agree with me,” I said to Philippe.
“We’ll get them. I promise we will, but Aria comes first. She needs someone to be with her. You need to be here for her when she wakes up.”
“And if she doesn’t wake up?” I asked. “Thank you for your advice, but I’d rather find them and deal with this in my own way,” I said, leaving the room. “Come. We have a meeting to attend,” I said to Josephine, who was staring at me from the middle of the room. “Are you coming or not?”
“It’s daylight,” she informed me.
“I know. Are you coming or not?”
“But…”
“We aren’t going to fly. We’re teleporting. Also, I can protect you from the sun. So stop delaying me.” I offered my hand for her to hold.
She hesitated for a moment. Then she walked towards me and grabbed my hand. Her hand felt hot in mine. I looked at it and held it tighter, noticing how she became flustered.
“We need to find out who the creator of Clarity is. We have a graveyard to attack.”
“What?” Philippe asked, listening to our conversation. I noticed the look of surprise on his face, as if I’d found out something he hadn’t been expecting me to. It intrigued me.
“If you want to find out more about this, you should attend the meeting, don’t you think?” I teleported out of there with his sire.
I was infuriated by Philippe’s lack of assistance. I needed him to convince the other vampires and help me with the attack. He could pretend to care about Aria later, when things were over, and she was cured.
I teleported to my house, letting Josephine go once we got there.
“Why are we here?” She looked around. “Where are we?”
“At my place. I need a shower and clean clothes. You can freshen up in Aria’s room and pick some new clothes to wear. There are plenty of dresses that she never wore in the closet. You are taller, but you look the same size.” I observed how she looked troubled by my words. She was quite delectable when she was confused by my actions. “Aren’t you tired?”
“Yes, I am. But…Aria is in the hospital, sick, and I should be there with Philippe. He must be beside himself. I thought we were going back to the dungeons.”
“My men can handle the interrogations. They already gave us a location where we can find their master.”
“Then I should be with Philippe.”
“You can’t be worried about Philippe all the time. You’re not his mom.”
“Actually, I sort of am his mom. I’m his creator. I love him like a son.”
“You look too young to be his mom,” I said, hoping to elicit a smile.
“Aren’t you worried about Aria?” she asked.
Philippe was already there with her, and I would prove more helpful in the field, looking for the person who’d drugged her. I needed to find her a cure. I needed to find the people who’d kidnapped her and tried to steal her angel. I’d go insane sitting in one place doing nothing.
“I’m extremely worried about her. But I can’t sit around and wait for a miracle to happen. I have to do everything in my power to fix this.”
“Cedric.” She stepped closer and placed her hand on
my cheek.
Her gesture made me gulp as I gazed at her. She had gorgeous eyes and a stunning face. She was pleasant too and quite smart for a vampire. Her concern for me was disconcerting. She was extremely empathetic with everybody. I’d thought vampires were cold and heartless.
“I don’t need you to lecture me.” I clenched my teeth. I couldn’t handle anyone else telling me that I was wrong. Philippe had done that already. I couldn’t stay there and witness Aria dying. I needed to do something.
Her voice was soft and sweet. “I’m not going to lecture you. I think…you should calm yourself down and realize that you should be in the hospital next to Aria. She needs you there beside her.”
I stepped back and briefly closed my eyes. “She doesn’t need me there. She has Philippe. Didn’t you listen to what he said? Her soul is wounded, and she’s rejecting her angel. She’s rejecting me.”
“I don’t think he meant that.”
“She was behaving differently when she saw me tonight. She didn’t want me near her.”
“All I saw was a scared girl who’d been kidnapped and didn’t want to be left alone. She was also worried about her parents. You can’t blame her for that.”
“She…acted cold towards me.”
She closed her hand around my arm. “Her angel was trapped. You should be with her.”
“William will help Aria.” My body relaxed at her touch. The constriction on my chest lessened as my voice softened. “You need to believe that. We need to find the people who are behind this, and I need to find an antidote to whatever drug is powerful enough to kill the angel inside of her.”
Josephine sighed as her eyes focused on my chest. “You are so stubborn.”
I watched how her teeth nibbled her lower lip. “I’m trying to be rational about what’s happening.”
Facing me, Jo put her hands on my shoulders. I had no other option than to lower my face to focus on her words. “Cedric, you need to stop wanting to save the world on your own. You also need to learn how to relax and how to grieve. It’s important to deal with pain.”
“I know how to deal with pain.”
“No, you don’t, darling. You shut down your feelings and make yourself busy to find a way to forget it. But we need pain to make us stronger. It’s what makes us human.”
