“You should go,” he whispered. “Ben’s probably waiting.”
Claire’s footsteps moved toward my brother’s door, and I felt the urge to jump up and block her path. Naturally, I remained in bed. What good would it do if I prevented her from seeing him? It would only make me appear in a worse light than I already did. No one had to know about my raging jealousy and angst over the possibility of losing Claire to my brother.
“Come in,” Ben called long before Claire was close enough to knock on the door. He had supernatural hearing just as I did…just as everyone else in this house.
Hesitantly, her footsteps made their way in toward his bed. I saw the room before my inner eye, the countless times I had been there, playing as children and talking about our problems when we’d been older. His taste was a lot more elaborate than my puritan style. While I chose clean colors and straight lines, he had picked a carved wooden bed and had hung a green brocade curtain to split the long room into two smaller areas. One containing his desk and his utensils for drawing and painting, and one with his bed and dresser. Claire must be close to the curtain when she greeted Ben with a low voice.
There was a long pause, a couple more footsteps, before she said, “you’re a hero.”
“Maybe,” Ben replied with little enthusiasm. “But aren’t heroes supposed to sacrifice themselves for others?”
“Which is exactly what you did,” Claire objected, and I silently agreed.
The rustling of paper filled an awkward silence.
“It’s nice you think that highly of me,” Ben replied. “I didn’t sacrifice myself for anyone else, though. I did it for myself.”
“Ben, you took a hit for me. If that’s not a noble thing to do—” Claire corrected but before she could finish, Ben cut her off.
“It’s a selfish thing. I didn’t do it to save you, I did it to save myself from a life without you.”
And there it was. A profound silence. It wasn’t just Claire who had to process this, it was me, too. Had I thought of Ben as a potential rival before, now I knew he wasn’t just that. He was a worthy opponent. He loved her so much that a life without her wasn’t an option any longer. He felt about her as strongly as I did.
“I just wanted you to know the reason,” he explained, maybe just to fill the gap when Claire didn’t speak.
“You’re still a hero to me,” she stated as if his words had meant nothing. At least that was what I was trying to convince myself was the case.
“Maybe—” Ben’s tone was even more serious now, bitter almost. “You know how much I disapproved of you for being an ill-fated attachment to my brother, but I also hated myself for disliking you. And after Adam’s death, I thought I could never forgive you,” as he spoke, I remembered it all, how he used to glare at Claire with hostile eyes, how he had felt attracted to her from the beginning. The strange ambivalence in the way he viewed her, “but then, when I got to know you better,” his voice grew much warmer, tender, “I found that my feelings for you are so much stronger than my dislike could ever be—”
Ben paused, giving Claire space to speak, to voice her own perspective, but she remained silent.
“—I know Adam has returned,” he continued. “And I know that you love him. Just don’t forget that things have changed.” His voice turned into a whisper, almost as if he knew I was listening, and he wanted to shut me out. “He has changed... Now Adam is the ill-fated attachment… You’re pure. He is danger... I won’t lose you.”
Both their heartbeats quickened at his words, and the jealousy I had felt before peaked. I was just about to get to my feet and teleport into Ben’s room to stop them from whatever they were about to do, when Claire changed the topic, saving them and me from a huge embarrassment.
“Are you in pain?”
“Nah—nothing that I can’t handle. I might even come downstairs for dinner.”
“That’s good to hear.”
The tension I had felt through solid walls was gone, and I could breathe—even if I didn’t need to, but I inhaled deeply anyway, a reflex from my human life that would never disappear.
“Rest, if you can,” Claire suggested and it sounded as if there was a smile decorating her beautiful face. How I longed for that smile.
When she got to her feet and left the room, there was another movement in the hallway.
“You look like you could use some fresh air,” Jaden greeted her as she headed toward the stairs.
His footsteps joined hers and together they crossed the entrance hall and walked out the back door. The sounds from outside, which I had been tuning out until now, blew through my perception. The leaves on the swaying branches, the breeze as it rushed around the corners and through the bushes, the birds, and bees, and bugs.
“You still owe me an answer from last night,” Jaden reminded Claire after a while.
“What do you mean?” she asked before I could wonder what he had in mind.
“What happened after Adam got you out of the graveyard?”
To her, his voice must sound calm, composed, the way a guardian angel should be, but to the more sensitive ear, impatience and worry shimmered through. Their conversation was the perfect background noise to getting out of bed and getting dressed. The guardian angel’s discomfort was even a bit entertaining.
“He carried me to a field. I can’t tell where—”
“Did he hurt you?” Jaden dropped the act and all the emotions I had just perceived hidden in his voice, broke through. I could vividly imagine his face as she told him how close she had been to me.
“He didn’t,” she fiercely negated.
“What were you embarrassed about earlier?” Jaden didn’t let it go. He demanded all the details. Everything. Of course he did. Her safety was his priority, and I was a variable he couldn’t control. Attempting to understand me was all he had left.
“It can’t be that bad...” he pushed when Claire didn’t respond immediately.
“He kissed me,” she almost whispered, awkward.
An image of her lips on mine flashed through my mind, and I was there, in the past, wallowing in that moment of desire.
“He kissed you—that’s all?” Jaden asked, unbelieving. “You know that I need to know. I don’t trust him—not yet.”
There was another silence, which gave me time to pull out of the memory before I felt the urge to devour Claire’s soul. It was the exact reason why Jaden was right to distrust me.
“You are uncomfortable,” he noted and Claire sighed.
“There was a moment where he was hungry for my soul—” she hesitantly spoke the rest of the truth.
“Sit down, Jaden,” she complained about a reaction I could only guess. It must upset him how stubborn she was when it came to putting her faith in my self-control. Even I found it a bit disturbing. “He got it under control all by himself—he didn’t hurt me. Not even a little bit.”
I couldn’t stay in my room any longer. I had to be there, to explain. Jaden would use the opportunity to try and talk Claire out of loving me—and a part of me wanted that. If she didn’t love me, I wouldn’t get tempted to hurt her. If she didn’t throw her emotions at me every time she saw me, I would much more easily stay away from her. But her soul kept calling me—my love and my hunger.
“He compensated, right?” Jaden asked, more rhetoric than a real question and I teleported to the garden, unwilling to give him the opportunity to torpedo my chance to prove myself to everyone.
They were sitting on the wooden bench near the door, facing the red-blossoming bush in the center of the garden. Jaden was outraged by what she had shared with him, and she was fidgeting uncomfortably under his rage.
“I did,” I let them know I was there and they both froze on the bench.
“Who did you kill instead?” Jaden asked with an accusing undertone.
I had to involuntarily smile at his reaction. It was more than justified he would ask that.
“No one.” Instead of explaining in the hope h
e’d believe me, I walked over toward the wild bush and placed my palm on top of the leaves. “I found a way—let me show you.”
Jenna wouldn’t be happy that I was carbonizing one of her favorite plants, but it was just too perfect, just in front of the distrusting guardian angel’s face. I absorbed the light as it collected in my hand, ignoring the aesthetics of the act of killing as sparks were wandering upwards in straight lines. My smile stayed there on my lips, victorious this time. Deliberate.
“You can live off plants?” Jaden asked and his mouth stayed open. He was clearly doubting what he had suggested the other night when I was half-conscious. And had I imagined his words, I was sure the guard, Liz had told them of the possibility. Didn’t she know everything? There must have been a demon who’d fed off of flora before.
“I guess I can,” I said, keeping a calm face, and hoping it was true, that I could as the weak energy of the bush spread through my body. “This way it’s safe for me to be around all of you.” And I would try to make it work, no matter how repulsive the taste of plant energy compared to human life energy.
As I looked at them, their souls were still bright and appealing, but not triggering the immediate urge to kill them. Claire’s eyes mirrored my hope, and Jaden’s my doubt. Both were right to feel the way they did. It was a fifty-fifty chance this would work out and I would do all I could to make it.
“Mom and Dad won’t be happy about the bush,” I winked at Claire, giving her a sign I was still the Adam she’d fallen in love with. My fight with Ben would come soon enough, but for now, all I wanted was to see her look at me the way she had before I had died. The response came immediately, a wave of emotions, love and attraction, deep and fulfilling. I enjoyed it for a fraction of a second, memorizing her radiating beauty, before I returned to the house.
“You love him,” I heard Jaden behind me. He didn’t lower his voice this time.
“More than is healthy,” Claire’s words were soothing to my torn being.
“Despite the fact that he is a demon.”
I didn’t wait for her response but teleported to the forest where I had first taken Claire to go flying.
All I could do was hope her love was enough to seal together the two struggling halves in my chest—one trying to push me over the edge and give in to my demonic urges, the other one bravely fighting to keep me on the path of good. For now, she would have to be my soul, until I knew which of the two halves I could sacrifice.
Epilogue
Maureen
How could I have been so foolish to believe anything would change? How?
I watched them from a safe distance, as they were reuniting, Adam’s dark void next to her sparkling soul… It was sickening. Volpert’s wrath would hit me eventually. I had failed him. The small task he had given me: find the hybrid, trigger his demon-side before anyone can catalyze his angel-heritage. It could have been easy. He had wanted me to do it because he’d trusted me. I had been like a daughter to him…at least before Claire had come into play. She had changed everything.
Her innocent, naive behavior had done what my lace and satin hadn’t been able to do. It had seduced Adam—on a more fundamental level than any fling could ever do. It had seduced his soul. No wonder Volpert was so upset with me. I had lost his hope for an addition to our clan to the other side. A strong demonic heritage. Abigail’s son. She had been like a mother to Volpert. And he didn’t have any parents—not ever since that abomination of an angel had killed his father two-hundred years ago. It was only natural he’d want Adam on our side. Safe with us, and not with our enemy. And it was only natural that he wouldn’t have any use for me soon, now that Adam had turned on him again.
As I dragged what was left of him back into the caves, I considered running instead, but what good would that do me? I would be on my own with Blackbird, Nora, and Jin chasing after me for my betrayal. I wouldn’t be any better than Adam.
I had failed a second time. My only task had been to make sure Adam was happy staying with us, but I hadn’t been able to deliver either. Volpert had asked me to kill him if he didn’t strike Claire down this time, but I had been too weak to aim at him and had chosen the girl instead. My own feelings for the hybrid had gotten in the way. How could I kill him? I’d loved him before he’d turned into an angel and I’d loved him after it. I’d loved him as a demon and I still loved him, now that he had betrayed us. I loved him so much that I almost granted him his happiness with the human. But, Volpert had been right. She wasn’t just an ordinary human, she was James Albert Thompson’s descendant, and that meant she had to die.
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Angelina J. Steffort
About the Author
“Chocolate fanatic, milk-foam enthusiast and huge friend of the southern sting-ray. Writing is an unexpected career-path for me.”
Angelina J. Steffort was born in 1984. She has multiple educational backgrounds, including engineering, business, music and acting. Angelina writes YA fantasy and paranormal with a strong romance component, and is the author of The Wings Trilogy. Angelina lives in Vienna, Austria, with her husband and her son.
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Also by Angelina J. Steffort
The Wings Trilogy: Claire
The Wings Trilogy: Adam
Fire Page 31