He was ecstatic that he would meet Nate and Serena. And by ecstatic, I really meant he just said, “Yes.” But it was the fastest he had ever replied positively to me.
He called Serena and found out that they were taking care of a problem in Budapest. Jupiter and I met up immediately, and off we went. Anticipation bubbled through me like lava over rocks. Instinctively I knew I would run into Seth. I just knew he would be out there, wherever there was the most damage or destruction, or the biggest opportunity for a threat. That was part of his old personality; when he was fighting against all of that, somehow I knew this would also be a part of his new personality.
The worst part about knowing I would see him was that I couldn’t decide if I was dreading it or longing for it.
Flying was a little weird for me. Maybe if I had grown up anywhere but Earth, it would have seemed more natural. But honestly I felt very Superman meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer whenever I flew. It was obviously the fastest way to travel and the cold and wind didn’t bother me since I had the whole glowing thing going on. Plus, as an Angel I had this incredible inner GPS thing happening, and I could find any place on the planet whenever I needed to. That came in handy.
I could also find Seth if he wanted me to.
Which he didn’t.
Jupiter and I landed in a shadowy alley in the middle of the Buda side of Budapest. The city was divided by the Danube River and rose up into two great halves on either side. The architecture was all antiquated European with buildings on every corner that were older than the United States had been a country. Everything was gothic and beautiful, even in the darkness of night.
Lights from windows cast long, luminescent shadows onto the cobblestone walks. Laughter from nearby pubs created a rowdy soundtrack to the cool night. The speech was in a language I couldn’t understand, but, or maybe because of that, it felt musical and melodic sound.
At the same time I could feel the evil around us. Frost shone on the walls of the antique buildings and the faint scent of sulfur hung in the air.
We had landed in kind of an epicenter of Shadow activity, and we came out ready to fight. We’d followed Nate and Serena’s lights from our sky-high vantage but now, on the ground and with buildings in between, they were nowhere to be seen.
I pulled my two katanas from my crisscrossing back straps and readied myself to engage.
I had never fought in the middle of a city like this before. So far my field experience had been limited to actual fields, but I was excited to see how interesting this would get.
I followed Jupiter around a corner into a darker alley, across the road and further into the bowels of the Hungarian city. We ignored the Shadows that slithered along every surface around us. We remained intent on finding Nate and Serena; engaging the Shadows was only going to slow us down. But it just didn’t feel right, especially after today when I had been nearly choked to death by the world’s largest Shadow colony.
As we moved through the city the sound of swords crashing together could be heard clearly over the raucous city sounds. We could see an alley way that seemed to be….. glowing, of course.
We could also hear voices shouting or arguing, even laughing at times, coming from the same alley. We immediately converged. Jupiter gripped his sword tighter, the huge long sword that was honestly a struggle for me to hold.
There they were, with Shadows covering the building walls boxing them in on three sides and confining their space. Nate and Serena stood head to head with Seth, Seven and two Fallen that I didn’t recognize. The Fallen were deceptively exotic with their dark beauty and rugged features. One had chin length hair and seemed smaller than most of the other Fallen I’d seen, except for Jude. He was the skinniest man I’d ever met, yet somehow one of the most muscularly, too. One had a military style flat top that only highlighted his harsh bone structure and shining gold eyes.
They weren’t fighting now, so I didn’t know why we heard swords clanging before. But one of the henchmen did have a long gash down his exposed bicep. Now all weapons were held tensed at their sides and the only murdering happening was from the killer stares, and just figuratively doing the damage. When Jupiter talked to Serena earlier, they were heading out to investigate a threat. Apparently they found it.
Seth looked up when we entered the alleyway and our gazes clashed together and held. He became immediately on edge as soon as I walked into the alley.
But it wasn’t Seth that spoke first.
“What are you doing here?” Seven demanded. “Where’s Jude?”
I shrugged, not trusting myself enough to answer her with anything other than loud curse words and swinging swords. I rolled my wrists around my sides, moving my swords about in a smooth and relaxed way.
I remembered when these felt heavy and awkward in my hands. After countless hours of practice they were extensions of my body; they breathed with me, they bled with me, they fought with me.
“You’re not here to fight,” Seth specified coldly. It wasn’t a question, it was a bold statement.
So out of his split personalities, I was not meeting the one that wanted to make out with me. Shoot.
“I am here to fight,” I countered defiantly. Serena shot me a quick grin over her shoulder. At least she was proud of me.
“You can’t,” Seth argued. “It’s in the contract.”
That irked me more than it probably should have, but it also prompted me to say, “Sorry, I didn’t sign a contract.”
“Be that as it may,” Seven butted in, sounding more like an adult than I had ever heard her. “The contract includes you. You’re not allowed to kill any of us.” She flipped her long, golden brown hair over her shoulder with the tip of her sword, somehow managing it effortlessly without cutting even a strand of hair off.
“I didn’t sign the contract.” I took a step forward, proving I wasn’t afraid of them. “I’m not responsible to it.”
“Fine, you’re responsible to my brother, then.” Seven rolled her eyes, back to being the child.
I shrugged again.
“I would have stopped for a pint if I knew we were just going to talk all night,” Nate taunted.
“She can’t fight,” Seven glared us all down. “We’re not allowed to engage her. How is that fair?”
“Not my problem,” Serena growled. I had a sudden feeling that Serena was a huge fan of this contract. It was somewhat of an advantage.
“Alright, but what about my brother? If any of us dies at her hands, he dies at Aliah’s.” She crossed her arms, her hands still full of her two swords that were similar to mine, but more Samuri-ish.
“What about your brother?” Serena bit out. “From where I’m standing he looks every bit as Fallen as the rest of you.”
Which was very true, but I was also hoping she was bluffing some.
“I have a solution,” I gloated. Seth quirked an eyebrow at me. “We’ll play man to man tonight. Seth and I can fight each other.”
He let out a bark of laughter and shook his head at me. “That’s hardly a fair fight.”
“You’re scared of me?’
“Terrified.” He smirked.
“I can tell.”
Seven turned to face Seth then and leaned into whisper in his ear. She reached up with one hand and held her palm caressingly against his face. The hilt of her sword sat awkwardly in her grasp with the blade extending out at an extreme angle. She looked careless and irresponsible at that angle, but her fingers moved deftly across his cheekbone, so it was hard to tell if she was in control of herself or not.
“What are we waiting for?” I asked, genuinely wondering what we were waiting for, but also in an attempt to get Seven’s poison out of Seth’s head.
Serena laughed a little and then teased, “I’m not sure. Everyone is so very chatty down here.”
“Are you saying you don’t stand around staring at each other like imbiciles off planet?” Jupiter asked dully.
“No,” Nate laughed. “We do that, too.”
Then Serena raised her sword and brought it gracefully but skillfully down, slashing a line of destruction against the stone wall next to her. Shadows dissipated immediately at the contact and her ominous battle cry called us all to attention. And in a half a second we were engaged.
The Shadows swarmed around us like a tornado of death. The force of our Lights burned through the darkness, illuminating everything into a blinding shade of white. Our swords clashed through the brilliancy; the silver seeming dull against the pure color of raw Light.
And on the opposite side of the spectrum, the Fallen fought with their black auras that sucked our Light into their black hole of evil. Shadows fought alongside them, moving effortlessly- and able to stay out of the path of a flinging sword but still weave around the Light in an effort to cause pain. Seven was the only Fallen to still fight with her Light fully intact. She glowed brighter than even me. And for as crazy as she was, she fought with staggering talent.
But then so did Seth, so maybe it was a genetic thing.
Jupiter was the only one to escape letting off some kind of color effect. Except for his eyes. The dull red world-weary and exhausted eyes were now sparking a brilliant red. He could have been a vampire from the Twilight movies. I had the strongest urge to suggest a vegetarian diet.
But I refrained.
Mostly, because I was fighting for my life.
Jupiter stayed skillfully close to the Fallen and out of the burning rays of our Light. He was more resilient to the heat and power than humans, but we could easily still burn him. The mixture of Light and Dark mixed together to make a conducive atmosphere for his battle skills.
I hadn’t initially engaged with Seth, although that was the plan. But because of how quickly Serena initiated the fight and how we were standing, I was paired with one of the Fallen I hadn’t met before.
And damn, he was good.
I matched each of his blows with my two beloved katanas. These weren’t the practice swords I used with Jupiter; these weapons could cause some serious damage.
If only I could quit playing defense and get one of my own hits in.
“Play nice,” I mocked him. “Pretty sure your friend over there will cut your head off himself if you hurt me.”
The man leered at me. “But it would be worth it.”
He swung around with his broadsword- or whatever it was. It was heavy and made from some kind of metal not native to Earth. I heard a faint accent in his voice when he spoke.
He was old.
Bummer.
Warriors seemed to get stronger with age. And he was already kicking my ass in the brute force department. I had fifteen months before I received the fullness of my strength and while I was currently much stronger than the average human, I wasn’t exactly measuring up to Hulk Hogan standards when fighting my own kind.
It was in stupid moments like these where I understood Seth’s decision. I didn’t like it or agree with it, but I could understand it.
The good thing about the zealot giant I was fighting was that he wasn’t exactly a refined fighter. He relied too heavily on his brute strength and didn’t pay enough attention to his foot work or smaller movements.
I whispered a prayer of thanksgiving for Jupiter’s anal, over-the-top training and slid under one of his crashing blows using part instinct, part years of volleyball training. I looked like I was getting ready to dive low for a hard hit.
When I came to standing again I was at the Fallen’s back, my swords waiting to cross his neck like chopsticks with a difficult piece of broccoli. I was eerily resolved to cutting his head off, the only true way to kill a Warrior or Star. My blades pricked his skin to let him know I was there and give him an idea of what I intended to do. I would have to pull my swords back to give my body some momentum to cut all the way through his neck, but I had this really practiced, dramatic speech to give first.
It was my first Fallen kill after all.
He stilled under the touch of my blades, knowing he was caught. A string of curse words flew out of his mouth, realizing he wasn’t just facing death, but death by a Starling at that.
I was embarrassed for him.
And then I was flying through the air, but not by my own free will. I smashed into a stone wall. Bits of rock flew everywhere and Shadows scurried out of the rays of my Light. I had a sword to my throat, just the tip of a curved sword that looked like it belonged to a pirate.
“Ah, ah, ah,” Seth taunted. “You’ll make me jealous if you keep this up.”
My swords dangled limply at my sides. I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. I knew that. But his eyes were so lifeless and cold that I needed to remind myself of that, on a loop that ran constantly in my head.
Trying to play the wounded girlfriend card I said, “I was just trying to get your attention.”
“You have it.” He stepped forward and let his sword fall to my waist. The point dragged across my t-shirt, snagging it before jumping down to the next catch in the fabric.
“We could get out of here?” I smirked at him. I had no idea what I was doing, but he seemed to respond to physical touch last time we were together.
“Are you trying to seduce me?” He laughed, but he sounded gentler.
“Is it working?” I deflected because it was kind of depressing that Seth found my efforts humorous.
“More than you realize.” He took another step forward and this time his sword dropped to his side too. We were close again, his chest heaving against mine. “I don’t know how to control this,” he whispered.
My battered heart plummeted to my stomach and I forgot how to breathe for a moment. “Why did you do this?”
Something like pain flashed in those dead eyes and his jaw ticked before he answered me, “So we could be together.”
“But will you come back to me?”
He was silent for so long, while a battle raged around us, and Shadows slithered along the wall near my head, that I thought I had lost him to the hundreds of distractions that called for his attention. Finally, he growled in a voice so low and hoarse I could barely understand him, “Hold on to me, Stella, so that I don’t have to come back to you. Hold on to me so that I never leave you.”
My soul splintered into a million pieces and tears pricked at my eyes. He displayed a dichotomy of extremes- on one side he was this vulnerable, broken man that I loved, and on the other he was quickly becoming a ruthless killer that wouldn’t recognize me anymore.
I felt myself nodding and all I wanted to do was finally confess how much I loved him, how desperately I was in love with him.
How I chose him.
But it was too late. I had chosen too late.
“Seth!” Seven called out. “We’re done here.”
Seth’s eyes took on more emotion than I had seen since before he joined the dark side and he let his free hand trail a line up my forearm. I shivered under the tenderness of his touch before he leaned in and pressed the briefest kiss to my lips. My eyes fluttered closed on instinct. Our contact was short and feather light but I breathed in the hot warmth of his soft lips for as long as I could. After only a second I opened my eyes but he was gone.
He had disappeared back into the night that he’d come out of.
I looked over at Serena and Nate who were standing there a little battered and a lot bloody. Jupiter was leaning over the dead body of the only Fallen I hadn’t dealt with tonight. His body lay at an awkward angle and his head had rolled a little ways off to the side.
It was pretty gross. But it made me breathe a little easier knowing at least one of them died tonight.
Serena looked at me and let out a whoosh of disbelief. Finally she said, “Out of everything that happened tonight, that wins the award for Most Tense Moment.” She shot me a sympathetic smile and I realized that she was referring to Seth and me.
“Is that why they left?” I ignored her insinuation and nodded at the dead body.
“No,” Nate shook his head. “You’re why they left. I don’
t know how you’re going to manage it, Stella. But if anyone can bring Seth back, it’s you.”
If only I could be that confident.
Chapter Fourteen
A week later I was still reeling from my confrontation with Seth. I hadn’t seen him since, but I definitely had not stopped thinking about him. I couldn’t get the desperation of his words out of my head or the isolated indifference of his eyes flashing at me every time I closed mine.
It was like he was this shell of a being and I didn’t know which side of him to accept. Trust the words that I wanted to believe? Or the eyes that told me everything he uttered was a complete lie.
But always I would go back to those moments before he disappeared, to when he asked me, made me promise, not to give up on him.
He knew what he was doing then and how it would change him. But he had believed that whatever we had was stronger than all that.
And I hadn’t even told him I loved him.
But even without saying the words out loud, they were true.
Tristan and I had been spending a large amount of time together, just like we used to. I had scaled back with him when Seth started having such a huge issue with him. But we didn’t have that barrier anymore.
Except it wasn’t like it was before. I wondered if Tristan really had only been infatuated with me because of Seth, like his turf was being threatened or something. Now that I was technically a free, er, free-ish woman, I wasn’t as exciting anymore?
I didn’t know.
But with all my recent developments in the feelings department for Seth I had to assume this was a good thing. Life seemed less complicated at the same time it was infinitely more so.
And then there was Jude. The bane of my existence. He was miserable and intrusive. And always there.
Always.
Like right now, while I was trying to eat lunch, he was hovering. “What?” I finally shrieked in irritation.
“Just making sure you don’t choke,” he smirked. “You’re taking really big bites. Are you starving? Do you have a tape worm? Why are you eating like that?”
“Oh, my gosh,” I hissed. I felt my face start to glow from embarrassment and I stamped the instinct down- way down. “I’m hungry, geez.”
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