I heard someone say, “Sir, I think that’s the last of the darken. The immortals aren’t dead, just immobilized.”
Finn lightly squeezed me in his arms. “Good. Take them to the basement. I’ll deal with them in a second. Also, have someone grab Hannah and carry her to the infirmary.”
Then I heard Trev say, “You know this is just the beginning. They will not stop.”
“Shut the hell up!” Finn shouted as he carried me through the hall. “I won’t lose her again.”
Trev said, “What if you already have?”
Finn stopped walking. For a second there, I thought he was going to put me down to pummel Trev into the ground, but when I let out a whimper, he got his feet moving again.
“Rest, Maka.”
I closed my eyelids, knowing that I was safe in his arms.
I awoke to the sound of a machine beeping. Finn was sitting in a chair beside where I lay. Blood was spattered all over him. Whether it was mine, someone else’s, or both, I didn’t know.
A smile lit his face when he saw me staring at him. “Hey, you.”
“Hannah?” My voice was hoarse.
“Thanks to you, her wounds are almost non-existent. She is asleep in your dorm room with Remy. I figured, between Remy and the wolf watching her, she’d be pretty safe.”
I nodded. His emotions were so heavy that they were slapping up against the wall I was trying to build mentally. Then, trying to make a joke, I said, “Well, it looks like I’m still alive.”
“You’re immortal now. The only thing that can kill you is inside of you.” He sounded so gruff that I sat up in bed and started detaching the wires from me.
I looked over at him. “None of this is your fault.”
He didn’t acknowledge me.
“I’m fine. I’ve already healed. I don’t need all this.”
He nodded. “I know. But I’m still trying to keep up appearances.”
I winced. “I think it’s too late for that. I think … I know I killed Zack with my powers.”
He ran a hand over his face. When he didn’t say anything, I grew nervous.
Shifting the hospital gown to cover more of me, I asked, “Why were those kids attacked?”
“There were eleven kids in that hall, alone, who would be turning immortal soon. I don’t think the darken were supposed to attack. Maybe they were trying to prove their worth to the Empowered Academy? I’m not sure,” he said tiredly.
“Did you know that there were darken supporters in the academy?”
His green eyes met mine. “My darker side recognized them for what they were. I knew they were heavily blessed by the darken. They came before you were here, so I wanted to give them a chance to do the right thing, to choose the right side. I didn’t know they had already chosen their side. They think I know where the Flaming Sword is and that I’ll lead them right to it.”
“Who? The darken?” I asked.
“More specifically, my father.” He stretched his long legs out in front of him. “The angel I was born from. My father wasn’t part of the fifteen, but he was still an angel. One of the many differences between us is he abandoned my mother and me after he sired me. He didn’t show interest in me until he realized how powerful I am.”
As I stared into his green eyes, it hit me. Those piercing green eyes. Smoldering good looks. I had seen them in my dreams. “You are Lucifer’s son.”
He clenched his jaw. “Not my proudest admission.”
I got up from the bed, making sure to keep my gown closed behind me as I knelt at his feet. I placed one hand on his knee. “It doesn’t matter who you come from. A wise person once told me that we all had a choice. We could choose who we want to be.”
He smiled. Then he snagged my waist and pulled me onto his lap. He ran his hands softly over my face before his lips met mine. He kissed me as if he had kissed me a thousand times before. He knew exactly when to be tender and when to manipulate my lips into giving him more.
The tug that I had always felt when he was near raged inside of me as if it were a cheetah that had been caged too long. As he deepened the kiss, I felt the beast inside of me flick its tail along the bars of my heart. It wanted out of its small confinement, and it wanted to let the commander in.
When he pulled back from me, ending the kiss, I couldn’t help but sway into him.
He chuckled. “I have to go take care of something. Come with me?”
I couldn’t speak. Not yet. Instead, I just nodded as he grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet. He then waited for me to change clothes before ushering me out of the medical building.
We set off through the courtyard, my senses so hyper-aware that it was almost sensory overload.
He gave my hand a squeeze. “You’ll learn to control your powers.”
Finally, we stopped when we saw Dan patrolling the borders.
“Did he escape?” Finn asked.
Dan nodded. “Sorry, sir.”
Finn clenched his jaw as he turned on his heel, pulling me behind him as he led me toward my dorm.
“Who escaped?”
“Trev.”
“I don’t understand. Why would Trev escape?”
“Because he knows that you’re not just a demi. He knows that we’re hiding something.” Anger rolled off Finn. “I should have handled him right then, but I needed to see about your injuries. If he’s escaped, then it’s a matter of time before demons show up here.”
We went up the steps to my dorm so fast that I wasn’t entirely sure my feet touched the ground. We turned down the hall and all but bumped into Richard.
He looked down at our clasped hands and gave me a wink. “Sir, I’ve made sure that the dorms are secure. I believe we should take to the skies and get an aerial view.”
Finn looked at me and hesitated.
I put my hands on his chest. “Remember, you said that some things need to be kept a secret. I can’t go with you.”
Whether Trev knew that I was different or not wasn’t as big of a concern as him knowing that I was different enough to have red wings.
Finn nodded. “You’re right. Do not leave your room.”
“I won’t.”
“Hannah has been deposited in your room, along with Champ. Between them and Remy, you should be safe.” He distractedly kissed the top of my head before he left with Richard by his side.
Remy gave me a wide-eyed look as she floated next to me. “What in the ever-loving hell is going on?”
I rubbed my arms. The chill was seeping into me, and I couldn’t seem to stop shaking. “The short version is Lucifer is Finn’s dad. He sent darken here to spy on the academy.” I looked over to see a sleeping Hannah. She looked peaceful. I said a silent prayer, thanking the heavens that my friend was still alive.
Remy became corporal in front of my eyes before she threw herself at me. “Oh, girl, I was so scared. Hannah was bleeding, you were bleeding, and there were dead kids laying in the halls. I know I’m dead, but that really messed with me.”
“Me, too.” I had a feeling I wouldn’t be able to close my eyes without seeing the lifeless form of Angelina, Marlie-Beth, Zack, and that other kid for a while.
“Everything is becoming super intense,” Remy said. “Do you think the commander is going to be able to keep you safe here? I mean, we are talking about the devil.”
“Trev saw me, Remy,” I heard myself saying. “And apparently, he is batting for the other team.”
One perfect eyebrow arched. “Oh yeah? Well, I didn’t see that one coming.”
“None of us did.” I paced the small dorm. My gut has never failed me. Not once had I viewed Trev as a threat. What was I missing? “Honestly, I still don’t want to believe that Trev isn’t my friend. He actually killed Angelina. Why would he do that if he was in their league?”
“I don’t know, babe.” She sat next to the sleeping Hannah. “We just need to be careful.”
I loved how Remy said “we.” It made me feel like I was part of a team. I wasn’t alone
in this.
I watched Remy curl up next to Hannah and doze off. My emotions were catching up with me. I had never witnessed someone dying, much less be the cause of them dying. No one had ever tried to murder me before, either.
I took a quick shower to try to erase the last couple of hours. Of course it didn’t work. Then, after checking on my friends one more time and petting Champ, I crawled into bed and cried myself to sleep.
I searched for him in my dreams, calling his name like it was a lifeline. One moment, I was walking barefoot in a tunnel that I had never seen before, and the next, I was standing in Finn’s bedroom. He lay there with his hands crossed over his chest, his eyes twitching behind his closed lids. Whatever demons he faced were in his dreams.
I walked to the end of the bed and perched so close to him that I could have reached out and touched him. A familiar heat swirled in my belly. This was dream walking? What was I to do now?
I reached out to stroke the hair that had fallen over his eyebrows of its own volition. Before I touched his face though, he snagged my hand.
He didn’t open his eyes as he asked, “You sought me out, Maka?” A smile lit his sleepy face.
“I didn’t know that I could. I was upset before I went to sleep, and then I found myself here.”
Green eyes flashed to mine as his grip tightened on me. “Dream walking uses a lot of power. I don’t want you to draw more attention to yourself. Normally, I’d say no one could pick up on it while at the academy, but with Trev still missing …”
I swallowed nervously. “You think he knows I’m Nephilim?”
“I want to say no, but I’m no longer sure.”
I sighed. “Why couldn’t I have just been average?”
He smiled sleepily while he ran his thumb over my hand that he still held. “Nothing about you is average. He saw you take down Zack, but he has no clue who you really are. I’m scared we just whet his appetite. Hopefully, he doesn’t know that Zack had just come into his powers and was immortal. That’s what worries me the most. He would know exactly where the Flaming Sword is.” He pulled me down on his chest. “Maka, I can feel the energy you are using from here. You need to return. I’ll get dressed and come check on you.”
“You don’t have to do that.” He looked so tired.
“It’d be my honor.”
I gave a quick kiss and stood. Before I left though, I said, “I have one question, and then I’ll go.”
He put both hands behind his head. His muscles flexing made my mouth water. “Of course you do.”
“I get that you can read my thoughts when I’m broadcasting really loud, and I get that we are tied to each other’s emotions now because of the bonding, but there has always been this feeling in the pit of my stomach. It’s familiar, yet I can’t label it. Do you know what it is?”
“That signature heat you feel in the pit of your stomach goes both ways. I feel it, too. I know when you are near, because you belong to me. You are my soulmate.”
I was speechless for a second, letting my hands slowly fall to my sides. “Soulmate?”
He kicked the covers from him and stood slowly, revealing that he was in nothing other than a tight pair of black boxers. “Maka,” he whispered, grabbing my arm and tugging me toward him, closing the distance between us. Then his lips crushed mine. This kiss was a kiss of a thousand stars that shone in the night sky. It was blinding and beautiful. Something to be treasured forever.
He gently pushed me away with a heavy sigh. “I need you to remember us, Maka.” He gave me a tiny shove and, before I knew it, he was casting me out of his space.
I blinked and was back in the black tunnel, water rushing over my ankles. I should have been cold, but in my dream state, I found myself completely relaxed and comfortable. I knew the way back to my room, where I lay asleep, but I wanted answers. I was tired of living in a world where nothing made sense. I needed to put the pieces together before Camaella found her way to the academy, before Trev sold me out to whoever he was working for, and before more demons showed up.
All I had to do in my dream state was think of her, and I unfortunately found myself walking toward a scene that looked like a page from a horror film. I wasn’t sure what state I was in, but the city was almost completely burned to the ground. One woman stood in the middle of the chaos, her red hair billowing behind her. With just a point of her finger, demons scrambled to do her bidding, killing everything in their path. Innocents were dying right in front of me. The carnage was like nothing I had ever seen.
The leader turned her head in my direction, giving me a smile that made me shake to the bone.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here, little dream walker?”
I gulped. “I, uh, I …”
She snapped her pearly white teeth together. “Cat got your tongue?” She started walking toward me.
This was a horrible idea. I needed to get back.
“Tell me, lovely, are you from the academy?”
“Um … no.”
She stopped walking and cocked her head to the side. “Lies, but nice try.”
Her red eyebrows rose. “You look just like Gabriel, you know. She always was such a beauty. A total bore, but she was blessed with unfathomable exquisiteness.” She shook her head. “And now it’s all coming back to me.” She laughed crazily as I watched her tap a finger to her chin. “Those cheeky little archangels, always trying to pull a fast one on everybody. So, you didn’t die that day, then?”
I had no clue what to say. I held my hands out to my side. “Well, I look alive, don’t I?”
One side of her mouth lifted in a smirk. “That you do.” She slipped her hands into the pockets of her sleek pantsuit. “You know I took no great joy in stabbing you on your wedding day.”
I schooled my expression so that she wouldn’t know that I was clueless. However, rage ran through me. So, this was the bitch that robbed me of a future.
“I’m sure,” I seethed.
She took a couple of steps toward me. “How is that gorgeous commander?” She gave me a wink. “You have to be careful of guys like him. You know, the ones who have a touch of the devil in them.” She laughed at me before shooing me along. “Go tell your Finn that I said I can’t wait to see him again.”
I turned to go.
“Oh, and lovely? You tell him that I said it will be really soon.”
I fell into the tunnel, and the next thing I knew, Remy was shaking me awake. I was still in the same pajamas I went to sleep in, but my feet were wet from the tunnel. How could that be?
I couldn’t breathe. Finn was going to be so mad when he realized what I had done.
When the wolf started growling at the door, Remy gave me a look before she willed herself to become invisible. She shouted a warning at me to be careful before I opened it. Trev stood there with a backpack slung over his shoulders.
“We’ve got to go,” he said, “and we have to go now.”
I took a step back from him. “No, Trev, I’m not going anywhere with you.”
As panic began to wrap its way around my heart, I felt the ball of yarn tighten. Finn would feel my panic and be here any second. I just had to stall.
Hannah sat up on the bed. “What’s happening?”
“Some of Camaella’s demon army has found the academy,” Trev said. “There is a war going on.”
I looked at my friends. “Shit. I think I alerted them. I saw Camaella in a dream.”
Trev grabbed my arm. “Hurry.”
I jerked away from him. “We need to stay and fight,” I said as I threw on clothes over my pajamas and laced up my boots.
“No, we don’t.”
I watched in horror as Trev brought up a gun. He fired off a shot at Hannah, who didn’t even see it coming, and then he shot my beloved wolf.
Before I could turn, he placed the gun up to my neck and pulled the trigger.
“Relax, beautiful. It’s just a tranquilizer dart. It will paralyze you, but it won’t kill you.” He
swooped me up into his arms and began to jog down the hall.
Remy floated over to us. “I don’t want him to know about me.”
I tried to nod, but I couldn’t get my head to move.
Trev stepped outside then ran through the courtyard, heading toward the woods when I realized something. There was no noise. None. Where was all the mayhem? Shouldn’t there be demons running around, chasing terrified demis and the blessed? Obviously, Trev had lied about Camaella.
The trees surrounding us were blowing slightly in the night.
Trev smiled down at me as I lay limp in his arms. “You see that? Even with a dart in your system, you’re still powerful. You’re not a demi, Gabriella, and if you are not a demi, you are so much more. We have to get out of here.”
Remy floated over to me. “What can I do?”
My eyes rolled over to her. It was the only way that I could let her know that I heard her.
“You have to be totally out of it before I bring you over,” Trev said.
Over to where? my mind screamed.
I watched as Trev supported me with one arm. My legs hit the ground with a thud as he pulled out the dart gun and injected me again. My head lolled onto his shoulder.
So many things happened at once. Remy screamed, the binding around my heart tightened with rage, and Trev scooped me back up into his arms as he ran.
“Please know that I never meant to hurt you, Gabriella. In fact, just the opposite. From the bottom of my heart, I’m truly sorry.”
I tried to scream but nothing came out. Instead, drool slipped past my lips and trailed down my chin. My head flopped as he picked up the pace, running through the woods.
Trev was crazy. I was in the arms of a madman. Whatever his agenda was, it was going to get us both killed.
The last image I had before I blacked out was one of Finn. He was going to be so mad at me when he found me. If he found me.
Maybe because I was tranquilized, or maybe because my heart knew what I needed, the archangels didn’t come to me while I slept. In their place came a dream from a happier time. The day I was to be married.
My mother helped me dress in the most beautiful wedding dress that I had ever seen. All my aunts and uncles were coming for the big day. Aunt Ariel had given my future husband a ring just for me. It had been blessed, and I was currently wearing the engagement ring now. The emerald caught the rising light from the window just right and made me smile.
Blessed: Academy of the Seraph Page 19