by Anna Santos
“You know nothing about how we are together. We love each other. Everything was fine until Philippe came into our lives.”
“If you love her, you need to be ready to let her go.”
“You’re only saying that because you want Philippe to be with her.”
“Don’t be a fool. I really don’t want you to die.”
“Why not?”
“Because you can be an idiot sometimes, but you think about what’s best for your people. They need you as their leader.”
“I’m not much of a leader if I’m not an angel, and I have a duty to my family line to leave descendants.”
She smiled tenderly. “Cedric, you won’t have a family if you’re turned into stone, will you?”
“I guess not.”
She became solemn. “Don’t let her have your death on her conscience. She wouldn’t survive for long. The guilt would consume her.”
“I don’t even know if she’s going to survive now.” I took comfort in the fact that someone was here with me and was concerned about me. “Why do you even care about me?”
“Why wouldn’t I care? You’re a nice person. You’re a strong leader, and we are kind of friends, aren’t we?” She smiled.
I nodded with a faint smile. “I guess we are kind of friends. And I have to thank you for helping me tonight.”
She let go of my hands. “You’re welcome. Besides, I had nothing better to do with the last days of my life.”
“That’s a nice way to make me feel less guilty about wanting your help for a bit longer.” I ran my fingers through my hair.
“You should feel guilty. I could be having wild sex with some hot stranger in my bedroom. Instead, I’m here, helping you find some crazy lunatic who gets off on killing vampires and kidnapping angel girls.”
“Wild sex,” I mumbled with wide eyes, finding her choice of activity odd for the final days of her existence.
“What else would you want to do if you knew you had two more days to live?”
I wasn’t sure about what to say in reply. “I guess experiencing physical love with my mate wouldn’t be a bad choice. But a random stranger?”
She shrugged and looked around. She looked tired. “So, where’s Aria’s bedroom?”
“I’ll take you there.”
“No. Tell me where it is, and I’ll leave you alone.”
“I’ll show you,” I insisted, holding on to her hand and walking upstairs with her.
After leaving her there, I went to my own bedroom. I took off my clothes and hit the shower. I was tired and upset at the turn of events. I was glad that I’d saved Aria, but I was worried that I hadn’t done enough. She’d been drugged, she was in a coma, and I was trapped in a spiral of revenge to find the person who was responsible. They were targeting me. They were using my mate to hurt me and undermine my power. I wasn’t going to let them. They were going to have payback, and I was going to find them and stop them.
Chapter TWENTY-THREE
PHILIPPE
I fell asleep with my head on Aria’s bed and my hand on hers. It was still day when I woke up; I could feel it in my bones. Thankfully, no one had opened the shades, and I hadn’t toasted to death. I had enthralled the nurses to keep them shut and wake me up if Aria’s state had changed. Not that they needed to. All my senses were focused on her heartbeat even when I was asleep. That was the reason I’d woken up—Aria’s hand had moved. Opening my eyes, I saw her, staring at me, awake.
“Aria,” I called to her softly, raising my head and holding on tighter to her hand. “I’m so glad you’re awake.” I smiled at her, trying to figure out why she was so quiet.
She looked around and then back at me. “Where’s Cedric?”
“He went home to change clothes,” I lied. I didn’t want her to get upset.
“Mom and Dad?”
“They must be landing in the U.S. by now. They were on the plane when you got sick. Do you want me to call and explain to them what happened to you?”
“No, I don’t want to upset them,” she mumbled, closing her eyes for a moment. She moved her hand away from mine.
“Are you feeling okay? Do you want me to call a nurse?”
“I need to talk to Cedric. Can you call him?”
“I can text him, telling him you’re awake.”
“Please do that.”
I grabbed my phone and did what she’d asked. I hoped he would come, even if he was in some meeting, planning some reckless attack on the specters and witches.
“Camille was here for a while. She had to go home, but she’ll come back,” I said after sending the text.
“She’s a good friend. I’d like to talk to her after I speak with Cedric.”
I nodded, confused by her monotonous tone of voice. “Do you remember what happened last night?”
“Where?”
“In the hospital.”
“I do.”
“Are you feeling better now?”
“I’m not sure. I’m feeling…tired and different, somehow.”
“Are you hungry? It’s been a while since you’ve eaten.”
“I’m not hungry. I’m just restless.”
“Why?”
“Where’s Cedric? Please tell him to come here,” she demanded again, looking around. “I want to see him.”
Suddenly, she began to shake and her eyes turned solidly white while the machines beeped relentlessly. I got up in a panic, focusing on her erratic heartbeat and heavy breathing. It was starting again. Before I could call for help, everything stopped. Aria opened her eyes and grabbed my hand tightly.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Talk to me,” she asked in a weak voice.
“What do you want me to talk about?” I sat down and noticed her steady heartbeat.
“What did you want to be when you were little?”
Her question caught me off guard. “A pirate,” I answered with a smile.
“I wasn’t expecting that answer,” she said, breaking into a smile. “Why?”
“I wanted to travel the world, see new things. I wanted to get away from here.”
“So why did you stay?”
“I only came back to Paris twenty years ago. I guess that the place where we were born carries a lot of weight in our lives. It feels like home here.”
“Don’t you want me to tell you what I wanted to be when I grew up?”
“That’s easy. You want to be an oncologist.”
“That wasn’t my first choice,” she said.
“Then what was your first choice?”
“You have to promise you won’t tell anyone,” she whispered so no one else could hear.
“I promise,” I whispered back with a smile.
“I love dragons. I always wanted one,” she blurted out.
I couldn’t help but to chuckle at her words. “I thought you were more of a unicorn kind of girl,” I teased.
“No! I wanted to be a dragon rider when I was younger. I used to read a lot of fantasy books about it.”
“You used to?”
“I grew up. I started to read more plausible stuff.”
Arching an eyebrow, I joked, “Like what? Romance novels?”
“No, of course not! Well, maybe one or two, but I started to read science news articles, philosophical books… Stuff like that.”
“That’s nice, too. But you can read about dragons even if you get older. I love Tolkien.” I didn’t share that with many people.
For a few moments, she gazed at the ceiling. She looked so sad that it was breaking my heart into little pieces.
“What’s wrong, Aria? Why are you acting so strange? Why are you rejecting your angel?”
She looked at me with wide eyes. “How do you know that?”
“I called a witch to check on you.”
“Is that why I’m sick?”
“I think so, yes. Tell me, why are you rejecting your angel?”
“You wouldn’t understand my reasons,” she wh
ispered, almost inaudible.
“Try me.”
Her eyes shone with unshed tears. “They called me a monster.”
“Who?”
“The men who kidnapped me. They called me a monster, the destroyer of the world, the unmerciful judge. They said that I would kill entire families if I was allowed to survive. They needed to get rid of me.”
“That’s nonsense,” I said, upset by their accusations and the tears that were falling down her cheeks. “You’re the sweetest thing.”
“I don’t want to destroy worlds, people… I don’t want to kill.”
“Aria, you can’t believe what they told you. They were finding an excuse to kill you. How is that fair? Kill you and judge you even when you didn’t do anything they said you would?”
“But I could do that. I…could become different. I’m different. I’m not the same person I was when I arrived here.”
“You are.”
“I’m not,” she said, certainty tainting her voice and eyes. “You’re different, too.”
“How am I different?”
“When we first met, you were dark, empty, and cold. You were…not you.”
“I lived for centuries. I’m a vampire. I had to change. I had to…kill and become cold.”
“Maybe, but if I let her take control, she’ll turn me into something I don’t want to be.”
“Then, just be you. Don’t let her take control.”
“It’s not that easy. She…thinks I’m weak and stupid. She… It’s different. I can’t explain. I don’t want to give up everything that makes me what I am to become an angel. Only because that can save me from Hell. Why would I want to accept a god who believes I can’t go to Heaven just because I’m incomplete? Why should I even decide something as permanent as whom I want to love for eternity in thirty days? Why is God so cruel?”
“I don’t know, Aria.” I moved closer, holding her hands and drowning in her brown, emotional eyes. “But, sweetie, I used to blame God for all my misery. I understand now that God has nothing to do with it. It’s people’s fault. God doesn’t have a twisted sense of humor or want to make us suffer. Other people make us suffer. They get satisfaction from spreading chaos and misery.”
“I don’t want Cedric to die,” she wept as new tears fell down her eyes.
“Why would he die?”
“It’s too much to handle. I want to go home and be human. I don’t want any of these responsibilities. I don’t want to destroy anything. I don’t want…to feel this.” She kept crying.
I didn’t know what to say to make her feel better.
“All I want is for you to be happy,” I assured, sweetly, cleaning her tears away with my thumbs.
“I can’t blame you for rejecting me. You were right. I’m not strong enough for this world of vampires and angels and scary ghosts and…”
“Hush, don’t say that. I had no right to judge you without even knowing you. I was stupid, and you almost died because of me.”
“Maybe dying wouldn’t be such a bad thing, after all.”
“Stop saying nonsense,” I raised my voice. Her depression was making me vulnerable and all I wanted was to hug her and take her out of there. Run. Run with her to somewhere where no one could hurt her, judge her, or expect anything from her. She was too young to deal with suicidal thoughts like these.
“Whether I live or die, either way, I’ll die of remorse if I’m the reason he’s gone.”
“Aria, what are you talking about?”
“I tried,” she said, holding on to my hands. “I swear I did. I tried.”
“What?”
“I tried to please him. I tried to be what he wanted me to be. But…he doesn’t get me. It’s so much easier to talk to you. You don’t ask anything in return. You don’t want me to be something I’m not. Even if you were a total jerk when we first met.”
“What are you trying to say?” I asked, out of breath, my heart beating fast and stinging inside my chest. The feelings and the expectation were too much to bear. I loved her. I wanted her to be happy. She wasn’t.
“I want them to take out my angel and give her to someone else,” she mumbled and closed her eyes in pain. “I want Cedric to be happy. Even if I die, tell him to take my angel and find someone else to love.”
“It doesn’t work like that, Aria.”
It was Cedric who said those words. I felt Aria’s body trembling and her eyes opened in fear.
“We need to have a serious conversation,” he said in a cold voice.
I wanted to punch him. He was always cocky and stern, but listening to him talking to Aria like that was making me have homicidal thoughts.
“So how does it work, Cedric?” I asked, annoyance in my voice. I got up to face him. He was the reason why Aria was having suicidal thoughts. “Why don’t you enlighten us and tell us how Aria can go back to being her former self?”
“This is between Aria and me,” he said. “Please leave.”
I stared at him with menacing eyes and a clenched jaw. Then I looked back at Aria. I wanted to make sure that she wanted to talk to him. If she didn’t, there was no way in hell I would leave.
“I’ll be fine. You can leave. I want to talk to him.”
“I’ll be right outside if you need me,” I told her, walking towards the door.
“You need a bodyguard now?” he asked Aria.
I glared back at him. Aria said nothing. She was staring at her hands. She looked scared or nervous.
I got out of the room and closed the door.
One of the nurses appeared in front of me. “Mr. Duchamps, there’s a man downstairs who wants to talk to you.”
I frowned at her words. Only Sean knew I was there. “What’s his name?”
“He didn’t say, just that it was extremely urgent.”
I looked back at the closed door. I didn’t want to leave Aria alone. “Can you stay here and call me if the girl inside asks for me?” I asked her, looking into her eyes and enthralling her.
She nodded.
“Now, about the man downstairs, what does he look like?”
“I can’t say, sir. I don’t remember his face.”
That was odd. “Where did you say he was waiting?”
“In the lobby.”
“Thanks. I’ll be right back,” I told her as I made my way there.
Chapter TWENTY-FOUR
PHILIPPE
There was no one waiting for me in the lobby. I was going to walk away when a small child grabbed my hand and guided me to an empty and dark waiting room. In a corner, there was a specter in his tunic, half-concealed by the darkness. It was Kayden, the evil necromancer who was surely behind Aria’s kidnapping. I had Mara and Margaret working on that angle and, seeing him there, told me that they could be in danger. Or maybe, he wanted something from me. After all, I supposedly owed him a favor.
“You have a lot of nerve coming here,” I said, following him.
I looked back since the kid had closed the door behind us and had disappeared. Using a kid to guide me there was creepy, especially because the child had had white eyes and a scary expression. It had probably been a specter hosting the corpse of some dead child. Kayden had some twisted sense of humor.
“And why is that?” he asked in the dark, guttural voice of necromancer.
“Are you going to deny that you’re the one behind Aria’s kidnapping?”
“I honestly have no idea why you’re so upset,” the dark creature said nonchalantly. “Everything I did made it possible for you to have what you wanted.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, confused about his reasoning. “I didn’t ask you to kidnap Aria, and I certainly didn’t want anything bad to happen to her!”
“You said that you wanted a way to make her fall in love with you. Well, you’ve got your wish,” he said, coming closer to the light from the window. I saw his scary face distorted by what seemed to be a smile. “Now, now, before you demonstrate your lack of understandi
ng and ask me how I managed to do that, let me speak. I know you’re in love, and love makes us do stupid things like you wishing I were dead or trying to kill me yourself, but we’ve already talked about that, haven’t we?”
“You’re getting on my nerves,” I warned him, disliking his sarcasm.
“You got to play the hero in the shining armor, didn’t you? You saved her. Isn’t she in your debt or, at least, thankful for it? Doesn’t she see you differently now? You’ve put your life at stake for hers. I think I rather deserve a thank you instead of your wrath.”
“As much as I’m following your reasoning, you’re neglecting the fact that I know all too well that you didn’t kidnap her to help me. In fact, I’m aware that you manipulated Gerard into betraying me. He also tried to kill me. So I’m sorry if I don’t believe a single one of your excuses.” I crossed my arms.
I was upset, but I was using that unforeseen visit to know more about his plans.
“Gerard was a fool. I didn’t tell him to kill you. In fact, it didn’t take much to make him want to betray you. He had already had his plan set before I made him my minion. I delayed his plan to kill you since I’d rather have your support than have an idiot like Gerard ruling over the vampires. He’s reckless and stupid. Speaking of the man, where is he?”
“Dead, as you might know by now. Didn’t Margaret tell you?”
“I don’t like witches. She was his mistress, but she had her own agenda. I’m glad to see you’ve found her sister, and she doesn’t want to kill you anymore. You’re collecting enemies, aren’t you, Philippe?”
“What else is new?” I asked, sighing with impatience as I sunk my hands into my pockets. “What do you want from me? I have to confess that I’m intrigued by your visit since you’ve tried to kill me and hurt my mate. Unless you came here to apologize… But it wouldn’t make any difference. I’m set on destroying you…”
He interrupted me, raising his skinny hand. “Stop right there. You’re normally more cunning than that. You’re bluntly telling me that you want me dead. That’s not good for our alliance.”
I glared at him, unsure if he was stupid or if he was being ironic. Either way, the damn creature was out of his mind if he thought I was going to be his ally. I wouldn’t join forces with evil creatures like him, and I was planning to kill him since he’d tried to hurt Aria.