The Pull of Destiny (Undying Love, Book 2)

by Felicity Kross

  Arsen finishes draining another demon. He drops the lifeless body onto the cold street.

  “What now?” he asks. His eyes are glowing bright, and blood is trailing down his mouth. He wipes the liquid away with his hand, and then he licks it off. The sight makes me feel sicker. How can he do stuff like that? How can he enjoy it?

  I press my hand to my forehead. I started getting a headache when he killed that gargoyle, but it’s just gotten worse since then. This is a waste of our time. Other than Arsen obeying my every word, this has been pointless. We need to find the root of the problem. We can take care of the little monsters once the big players are out. We need to find Uden. There’s got to be some way to pick up his trail at least. Arsen has to know or have some idea of where he went, but he won’t say anything. He’ll kill for me, but he won’t tell me the truth?

  “How about we call it a night?” Arsen suggests as he steps toward me.

  “No,” I say. “Are there more monsters around?”

  “We have all day tomorrow to go on another hunt,” he assures. “I’m sure we could find a trail of monsters for days on end. You plan on staying awake for weeks at a time?”

  I shake my head, but it makes my head hurt worse and I stagger. I don’t feel well at all. I feel like I’m going to fall over.

  “You’re pushing yourself too hard,” he says softly.

  I take a step forward to show I’m fine, but I trip over my own feet. He catches me effortlessly in his sturdy arms. I try to push away from his iron chest, but I don’t even have the strength to do that. This isn’t some headache. This is a full on migraine.

  “Let me carry you,” he says, his voice husky. “You’re in no condition to walk. You’re exhausted.”

  I want to tell him no, but I can’t find the words as my head pounds again. Arsen doesn’t wait for my permission as he lifts me off my feet. I curl up inside of myself as well as I can to avoid touching him. I can’t escape the feeling of his firm chest against my side, and his arms as a support for my back and legs. And I—

  Don’t think about it.

  “So we staying in a hotel?” he asks.

  “I brought money,” I mutter. “Hotel’s good.”

  I expect him to start moving, but he doesn’t. I force myself to look up at him. He’s gazing at me with his too bright green eyes. I wish he wouldn’t look at me like that. I don’t understand what it means. Before, that look made me feel things I shouldn’t. Now, it just makes me mad.

  Arsen finally starts walking. There’s no one on the streets this late at night, so it feels like we’re alone. When he makes it to the hotel entrance, the same one we found the gargoyle at, I push against his chest. I’m not going to let him walk in there holding me.

  He gets what I’m trying to do and puts me down gently. My migraine is still raging, but I’m mostly able to walk on my own. Arsen places his hand at my back when I stagger. I want to tell him to stop touching me, but I still don’t have the strength to fight him right now. I need to sleep.

  “Room for two,” Arsen says.

  The receptionist replies, “Decided to stay here too, huh?”

  “Yeah, it’s a nice place,” Arsen replies with his effortless smile. “We’ll only be staying for a night. That cool?”

  “Of course. We have an opening.” The lady smiles at him and bats her eyelashes. She’s totally taken by him!

  Then she eyes me behind him, her face suddenly dark, like a jealous girlfriend. “What did you say your relationship was again?” she asks.

  Arsen moves closer to me and wraps an arm around my waist. Before I can say anything he replies, “My girlfriend.”

  “She looks pretty young,” the woman replies.

  “She’s eighteen.” Arsen shrugs.

  “Can I see some ID?”

  He looks into the woman’s eyes and I swear I can feel the air in the room drop 20 degrees.

  “You don’t need to see our IDs, and we don’t need to pay, everything is taken care of.”

  “Here’s your room key card,” the woman says as she pulls a key card out from the cubby behind her.

  “Thanks,” Arsen replies with his arm still around my waist.

  He guides me up the stairs, and I don’t even react until we get to the top because I’m so slow and in pain at the moment.

  “Why did you do that? We have the money to pay her,” I say as I push away from him.

  “She was asking too many questions,” he replies.

  “And what was that?” I demand. “Some sort of Jedi mind trick?”

  Arsen places his hand on my back again as he guides me farther down the hall. I try to struggle away from him again, but it makes my headache worse so I stop. Once we reach a certain door, I don’t look at the number, Arsen stops shoving me forward, and he unlocks the door with the key card. He urges me inside, and then he locks the door behind him.

  “That, Tasia, is what happens when you don’t have any mental defenses. That was me playing with that woman’s soul,” he says, answering my question.

  I feel rage boiling up inside of me and my head pounds harder. “What did you do to her?”

  “Nothing permanent. She’s fine. A Jedi mind trick is actually a great analogy for what I just did.”

  “I’m surprised you even know what Star Wars is,” I say.

  “I’m a demon who’s been trapped in your world for the past eighty-one years,” he says. “Of course I know what Star Wars is.”

  “Just how old are you?” I ask.

  “One hundred and four,” he replies.

  I rub my temples, trying to soothe the pain. “Must be nice being immortal,” I comment. “You guys are the fountain of youth that so many humans have searched for.”

  “You’re way too young to be saying something like that,” he remarks.

  I decide standing a moment longer is more than I can take. I look at the one huge bed in the hotel room, and climb into it. The smell of clean sheets and the warmth enveloping me as I crawl under the covers feels great. I brought clothes more suitable for sleeping in, but there’s no way I’m thinking about changing now that I’m already this comfortable. Besides, I think I’m too tired to make Arsen leave the room if I wanted to change.

  I close my eyes and they stay shut a little longer than I intend. My eyelids are heavy.

  I fish my phone out of my pocket so it doesn’t jab against my thigh all night. I quickly check to see if I have any missed messages. I don’t. I check the time. It’s three in the morning. We’ve been out hunting monsters longer than I thought.

  I place my phone on the headboard. Then I glance at Arsen. He hasn’t moved from his standing position by the door. I move my face a little farther under the blankets.

  “Are you just going to stand there all night?” I ask in a muffled voice.

  “What else am I supposed to do, girl?” he asks. “You haven’t exactly allowed me much freedom.”

  Does that mean he’s going to be watching me? I could give an order, but will he follow it when I’m asleep? Cassius said I’m the one in control. I know it’s true, but Arsen is still a wildcard. I wonder if certain orders are strong enough when I’m asleep. I saw what happened with Uden, and I was right there. Cassius tamed my white diamond to help me with all of this anxiety, but here I am doubting everything.

  I don’t trust Arsen, and I doubt myself.

  I don’t know how I’m going to do this by myself.

  I move my blankets down and pull my crystals out from under my shirt, so I can feel them in my hands. That’s when I remember I’m not alone. I have the support of the most powerful angel behind me. He believes in me. There’s no room for fear or doubt. I’m okay. Everything is going to be okay. The panic attack that was just about to send me into a fit leaves so suddenly I wonder if it ever even happened.

  Thank you, Cassius.

  “Now that was interesting,” Arsen says. He’s still standing by the door with his arms folded, but he’s looking at me with bright eyes. />
  “What are you talking about?” I ask.

  “Your heart was beating a million miles a second. I thought it would beat right out of your chest because it was pounding so hard. Then, as soon as you touched those crystals of yours, your heartbeat went back to its regular pace. What are your crystals for?”

  “They’re a good luck charm,” I mutter. I don’t know why I’m even answering him at all. It doesn’t matter. I don’t owe him anything.

  “Where did you get them?” he asks.

  “Rynne gave me the white one.”

  “What about the black one?”

  “What does it matter?” I ask as my chest grows tight. “Why are you so curious about them?”

  He steps forward and places his hands on the edge of the bed as he leans over, getting close to me without actually sitting on the bed.

  “Do you ever consider taking them off?” he asks.

  I swear his eyes keep getting brighter. I don’t like this. I cover my crystals, hiding them back in my shirt, and then I pull my covers up under my nose.

  “Don’t touch me or my crystals,” I say. “If you try to take my crystals, I will make your life a living hell. I’ll make you as miserable as I possibly can.”

  He smirks at me. “Have you been feeling like yourself lately?”

  “Stop asking weird questions,” I say as I shut my eyes. “You’re the one who said I need to get some sleep. So let me sleep.”

  “I’ve seen the difference,” he informs. He shoves his hands into his pockets and stands up tall, but he continues staring at me as he hovers. “You do realize Cassius is using you, don’t you? He doesn’t care about you. He’s been influencing you for his own benefits. He’s been doing everything in his power to get you on his side, and then he’s been using whatever magic at his disposal to make you compliant. More than compliant. He’s turned you into a little clone of him. I think it has something to do with those crystals.”

  I narrow my eyes at him.

  “So if I stole your crystals away, would you hate me for it or would you thank me?”

  Before I can remind him about my threat, he moves. Fast. He grabs my blankets, throws them off of me, and goes straight for my crystals. He’s on the bed and his hand is at my shirt collar, forcing it down to grab my crystals.

  I scream, “Stop!”

  He stops, but it isn’t enough. He’s still by me, his hand is still on my skin, sitting dangerously far down my chest.

  “Get away from me. Let go of my crystals. I’m not joking around,” I say as calmly and clearly as I can manage.

  I feel an intense anger, a heat enveloping my body. I don’t feel any anxiety or fear.

  Arsen draws back from me and hisses, shaking his hand, as if I burned him in my anger. He shimmies back on his knees as he holds his head with his hands. He’s still on the bed, but at least he’s not hovering over me.

  “Please,” he says. “I’m only trying to help you.”

  “Yeah, right,” I snap. “You’re only trying to help yourself.”

  “By helping you I would be helping myself. It’s a win-win situation. It’s good for both of us.”

  “You’re such a liar,” I accuse.

  He shudders and pleads again, “Please. There’s something inside of you that resonates with me. Don’t you feel it? I know you felt it before. You think you hate me because you think I killed your parents. You accused me of that when we first met, but back then you felt something else for me other than your anger. You fell into my embrace on our second meeting. You let me kiss you on our third and you liked it. I know you did.”

  “All of that was when I didn’t know how to control my side of this bond we share. If anyone’s been controlling me, it’s been you, Arsen. I never would’ve done any of that stuff if it wasn’t for you messing with my emotions. I never would’ve let you hug me, and I certainly never would’ve let you kiss me.”

  “Do you even understand what bonds are?” He asks, trembling slightly. He locks his eyes on mine, but they don’t seem as bright as before.

  “Heart magic? I know what it is,” I say. “Cassius told me all about it.”

  “Then you know that relationships are the basis of heart magic, a tie one individual creates with another. There are many kinds of bonds, but they always involve two people. There are bonds that enslave one party to the other, a one-sided bond. That is the sort of bond where an individual has given themselves to another without asking or getting anything in return from the other. It is imprisoning, far from equal. There are other bonds where both individuals nurture their relationship in harmony. That is a mutual bond. It is the kind of bond where both parties will suffer or experience joy together, as a team.

  “Then there is our bond. It’s something similar to both a one-sided and a mutual bond, and yet it can’t be either. It could be similar to a give and take sort of bond, where one individual expects certain things from a relationship and the other expects other things. The list goes on with the different kinds of relationships. Still, if I had to pick one, I’d say our bond is most like a mutual bond. The nature and strength of a mutual bond can grow, bend, change, with everything the two individuals who make it up create between each other. That bond could be based on a variety of feelings including hate and love. Hate and love are the most intense. The strengths in a mutual bond varies between every pair.

  “Although whatever ties us together is powerful, most bonds, no matter the type, are negligible. We make connections all the time when we interact with other individuals, but they usually never amount to more than a link created in a few shared memories. Someone may hurt you. You may be infatuated with someone. These feelings and ties of emotion are something you as a human should know very well. What you may not know is that bonds can grow to the point of being debilitating. I’m sure you’ve heard stories about people who have died of a broken heart. When someone gives so much of themselves to someone else, they are no longer the one in control. They’ve extended their individual identity, and in some cases have given it away completely.”

  He sighs. “It’s complicated and not something anyone can exactly measure. But it is powerful, this so-called heart magic.”

  Arsen is still kneeling on the bed, but both of his hands are splayed out in front of him now. He isn’t touching me, but he’s very close to doing it.

  “Cassius told me that our bond was created so that humans could be saved from demons. It’s the work of God, so none of what you said is applicable to us at all,” I say. “We’re locked in a power struggle. We’re locked in a fight for control.”

  “Cassius is using God as an excuse,” Arsen says severely. “Whatever ties us together, it doesn’t come from any God. It’s Cassius. He must’ve found a way to tie two souls together. Though, I don’t know how that’s possible, especially since he’s never seen my soul. All I can guess is it has something to do with your crystals. Crystals have always had a base magic and energy that has never allied with angels or demons—at least in the immortal world. I never had much of an opportunity to learn about them, but I remember that much, and your crystals feel different somehow. They have a power, though it manifests as a more subtle energy that I’m not accustomed to seeking out or even recognizing. You’re also awfully protective of them, like they are your lifeline.”

  “Maybe my crystals are helping me, or maybe I’m just sentimental,” I say, not willing to give him a straight answer. “All you can know for sure is that I’m not affected by your side of our connection anymore. You’re at my mercy.”

  “That goes without saying,” he replies quietly. “Even without Cassius’s interference, cutting my influence off like he has, I was lost to you as soon as I met you.”

  Is he trying to flatter me? He’s still playing games with me.

  I ask, “Why do you think Cassius could create a bond like this when you said bonds, the basis of heart magic, comes from two individuals? And how do you know so much about all of this anyway? It was like you were
lecturing me just then. It’s not like you.”

  Arsen purses his lips. “I don’t understand how you can hold so much of me. That’s all. There’s only so much of a soul to give.”

  “There’s only so much to give? Have you given your soul to someone? That doesn’t sound very demon-like. And it certainly doesn’t sound like you.”

  Arsen shudders, but he doesn’t answer. That alone makes me want to pry, but we’ve already wasted so much time talking, and I’m extremely tired. My head is pounding still. None of this even matters. He’s just trying to pull me away. This whole conversation was pointless. He’s trying to turn me against Cassius, but I’m not going to fall for it. He can’t sway me.

  Arsen slides off the bed, walks to the door to turn off the light, and then he walks past the bed for the windowsill. He pulls up the blinds and sits, taking up the entire windowsill as he presses his back against one end, and brings one of his legs up, pulling his knee into his chest. The lights outside bathe his silhouette in a beautiful light, and his eyes sparkle even brighter. He is handsome, beautiful in a way no human could ever be. Even though he shouldn’t be. Even though he doesn’t deserve to be. Looking at him like this, it’s hard to think he’s some kind of demon. I feel a strange twinge in my chest, but it goes away. Arsen’s only attractive because he is a demon. He lures people in. That’s what he does. But he can’t do that to me now. Not anymore.

  I STARE OUT THE window and into the night as I try to keep my breathing in check. My beast is wound up. My heart is pounding in my chest, and I’m frustrated. I couldn’t talk to Tasia, not really. I talked to her more than I ever have, and she listened, but she didn’t believe a word of it. I don’t know what’s up with those crystals that she’s always so attached to, but my beast tells me to remove them. I’ve never heard of a crystal having the kind of power to do something like create or alter a bond. Then again, I’ve been away from Ilenima for some time. There’s been plenty of time for Cassius to learn new tricks, and there’s much about the immortal world I never learned.