by Lisa Swallow
“Arrive and do what?”
She smelt the blood and sweat on him, mingled with the spicy Keir scent from before. Trembling, she fought the sensation of his body pressing into hers.
“To help us.”
Ava struggled against him. “I’m not going to help you.”
“The others before you. They got to me quicker - and died just as fast. You haven’t tried to kill me. Why?”
Ava closed her eyes, ignoring the electricity fizzing between them. Her body betrayed her, shaking. Because of him. “You haven’t killed me,” she hissed.
“I didn’t kill you because I see something in you I once saw in myself, that made me turn away from what I was being forced to do.”
Her head spun from her labored breathing and the unwanted desire coursing through her body. “No.”
“Something inside you is the same as me. You can feel it. I can feel it.” The intensity of Keir’s gaze grew, eyes darkening as he curled her pink hair around his hand, pulling her face towards him, “Otherwise one of us would be dead by now.”
Lips brushed her cheek, sending electrical charges through her weakening body. His mouth moved across her face as Ava closed her eyes, in anticipation of the kiss she didn’t want. She opened her eyes and met his, the intensity of his look drowning her. Time paused, the same imperceptible connection between the two enemies forged again.
Keir’s mouth assaulted hers, catching Ava off-guard and she struggled against him, anticipating the knife digging into her. As his kisses deepened she stopped fighting, weakness magnetically pulling her into him, mouth searching his as their bodies melded together. Ava’s mind shouted at her to stop; the Nephilim was doing this to take her soul, the precious angel soul which stood between her and mortality. She ignored the thoughts, allowing Keir to crush her tightly against his broad chest, body igniting into flames and skin burning where they touched. Ava snaked her hands around his back, pushing her arms under Keir’s T-shirt feeling the hard muscles of his back.
No. She couldn’t do this. Ava raked her fingers into him, scratching her frustration and anger into his skin. They had to stop.
Keir wrenched his head away and stood back, breathing heavily, as Ava leaned against the tree, convinced her legs would give way now he’d let her go.
Something caught Ava’s eye and the dagger glinted in his hand. He’d had hold of his weapon the whole time, close to her. Weakened by Keir’s assault on her senses, she’d made herself an easy victim. Ava banged her head on the rough bark, furious with herself for falling for the seductive trick she used.
“What the fuck?” she growled at him.
Ava attempted to regain control of her breathing, mouth still tingling from Keir’s harsh lips, face smarting from the scratch of his stubble.
“So, do you want to kill me or not?” he said darkly, stepping toward her. He stopped short of touching her again and raised his arm, resting his hand against the tree behind her.
She stared at him wide-eyed, out of her depth, trembling from the sensations he’d awakened inside her. Aching for him to touch her again. She had no idea what he wanted her to say, confused by the situation. His hot breath against her face came in quick bursts.
Keir pulled himself back, confusion crossing his face. “I’m not sure what games you’re playing with me, where you’re finding the power to do this to me, make me want you, but you won’t win.”
Ava opened her mouth to respond but he’d turned, half-stumbling away, rubbing his injured head. As she watched him, Ava touched her mouth, confused. As soon as Keir put his hands on her she should’ve kicked him to the other side of campus. Not enthusiastically taken part. Apparently, logic didn’t belong in her dealings with Keir, on any level.
Keir wasn’t a true Nephilim so was he a true enemy? They’d stepped further into the unknown. Ava battled with herself not to run after him. Because if she did, she had no idea what she’d do.
Chapter 9
Keir slammed the door closed behind him and paced his room, chest still tight. What was he doing? He crossed into the bathroom and peered at himself in the mirror, gingerly touching the side of his head. Turning on the tap, he grabbed a towel. There was blood on his T-shirt. Keir yanked the T-shirt over his head and as he did, he caught her scent. Vanilla, citrus. Ava. Arousal streamed back into him. Fuck. He didn’t want reminding. Reminding every time he saw Ava, he ached to touch her skin. His surreptitious touches of her face when they met drove him wild, stirring something in him that shouldn’t be there.
He should want to kill her, not possess her. What new trick did this soul-hunter have that she could confuse him, so his mind and body turned to this? The first time he saw Ava he’d planned to kill her. The most arrogant soul-hunter he’d met so far. And so fucking rude to Dahlia. Then he’d stood close to her by the fountain, her pale green eyes looking into his in confusion. There was no malice. No trick. He couldn’t take Ava; kill her. He wanted her. From the moment he touched her face and saw the desire returned, he was lost.
The night in the alley. Keir closed his eyes against the memory of her pressed against him, the images pushing the arousal back into him. Noticing the softness of Ava’s hands and her curves pushing into him wasn’t normal. Snapping a soul-hunters neck was. In that strange moment something else took over, something more than the power surging between them. He saw himself in Ava’s eyes. Not just his reflection. Himself.
She’ll never know how close death came.
Now this. Angry Zach had jumped him, furious she’d interfered again, and frustrated as hell with himself for wanting her, he’d tested her. Taken a risk and opened himself up for her attack. Relief flooded him when she didn’t respond to his taunting, proved he didn’t need to kill her. But he wasn’t sure. The fear in her eyes no longer existed, but was replaced with the fire of frustrated anger. Anger aimed at him?
Ava was a mind worm who ate at his thoughts and distracted him from his task. He wanted Ava gone, but craved her in equal measures. Outside, by the tree, he’d given in, let go of the physical need for her bubbling below the surface. Convinced she’d fight his kisses, and her revulsion would push them back toward animosity. His plan backfired. Ava reciprocated. Now he was in deeper, falling harder. Having to hope she was feeling the same, or he’d already lost.
A knock. Shit. He’d forgotten about meeting Dahlia. Holding a wet towel against the cut on his head, Keir opened the door.
Immediately her arm shot out in alarm, touching his face. “What the hell, Keir?”
Keir pulled Dahlia inside and shut the door.
“Was it that soul-hunter bitch? Why didn’t you kill her?” Dahlia peeled the towel from his head and examined the wound.
“No. Zach,” Keir muttered.
Dahlia wiped at his head with a towel and he winced. “When? How did you get away?”
Chewing the inside of his mouth, Keir looked past Dahlia. “Ava.”
“Ava, what?”
“She saw. She knows more now.”
“You told her more? About you?”
“No, she knows about Zach wanting me dead.”
Dahlia snorted. “Did she tell him to join the queue? Help him maybe?”
“No, she helped me.”
Dahlia sat on the bed. There was something more. Keir’s guarded manner around her was odd. “What exactly happened, Keir?” she said slowly.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” He turned to find another T-shirt.
“Keir!” yelled Dahlia.
He turned to see Dahlia’s palm connect with his face. “What the…?” He grabbed her hand.
“What have you done?” Dahlia’s face paled, voice hoarse.
Keir touched his face, staring in horror as tears spilt from Dahlia’s eyes.
“You…she’s still alive and you…I’ve been sat waiting for you all night and…” she began
“What? I’ve been fighting Zach!”
“Your back! How could you be so fucking stupid? She could’ve
killed you.”
He touched his shoulder, the stinging of the broken skin unnoticed over the pain in his chest and head. Ava’s scratches. He’d forgotten. “No, Dahlia. No, I didn’t. Calm down.”
“Well, I’m sure it wasn’t Zach!”
Keir’s head and chest hurt, brain a mess of confusion, pain and desire. He didn’t need this.
“I didn’t. And even if I did, it’s nothing to do with you. It wouldn’t be the first time, would it?”
“Yeah, and it ended so well last time you screwed a soul-hunter.”
Keir’s eyes darkened. “She’s not like that.”
“Keir, listen to yourself. She’s got you by the balls. Literally it would seem.”
Keir grabbed his jacket. “I can’t do this. I know you’re my friend, and you’re looking out for me but it’s not wanted.” He held his hand out. “Did you get the location?”
Dahlia’s tear-streaked face tugged at him but he’d had enough tonight. She slammed a piece of paper into his palm.
“You’re a fucking idiot, Keir. You’re going to die.”
Keir strode across campus. Fired up and angry, he wanted to find a demon and rip its head off. He looked at the location Dahlia had scrawled on the paper and stormed in the direction. Past Ava’s bench.
Had he done that subconsciously? Ava was still there, sitting motionless with her hands trapped beneath her knees. Her pink hair mussed like candy floss. He slipped between the trees before she could see him. Desire to feel her soft, warm lips on his and hold her trembling body to him poured through him. The sugar spun girl, tasting as sweet as her hair. Without her harsh exterior, she looked vulnerable. Ava’s hidden vulnerability was one of the problems - one of the things which forced him to her. He couldn’t pull back, couldn’t rationalize why.
He’d tell her everything. Tell her what he did and why. If his suspicions were right, it’d move her world so far off balance she’d have to reveal her true self. Soon. Once he was sure.
Chapter 10
Keir followed Ava around campus. She spotted him several times throughout each day, sometimes speaking, often watching from across a room. His intense eyes held onto his half-hinted secrets, spreading unease through her whenever she met them. Their fight and the mutual desire flowing between her and Keir filled Ava with unease. Not knowing his reaction to the encounter the other night made things worse. And Dahlia’s avoidance of her now included turning and walking in the opposite direction whenever she saw Ava.
Keir oscillated between flirting with and ignoring Ava; following her and avoiding her. Some days she caught him looking at her with eyes full of anger and a cold fear crept though her, convinced he planned to kill her. Other days he cornered her, acted as if he was going to kiss her again. Then walked away. Mind games. Her games.
Scarf wrapped around her nose, Ava waited on her bench. Sometimes Keir and Dahlia passed her, sometimes not. Ava avoided sitting on the bench the days his look held aggression; she held no doubt about his strength and refused to become an easy victim. But she had a strength too and an unknown power over him which kept her alive. The cold of the oncoming winter bit, a painful reminder of her failure. This couldn’t go on. She would talk to Keir one last time then make her decision. Before Darius made it for her.
So on days like today, when he’d acted as if he might talk to her, she waited. He had to talk to her eventually.
Keir rounded the corner alone, his tall figure wrapped in a leather jacket and jeans. Ava straightened, two weeks was a long time to leave things without acknowledging the change that night made. Zach. The kiss. He didn’t register her and kept walking. She sank back against the bench. Maybe tomorrow. No way was she running after him.
Keir paused, turned and walked across to Ava, eyes on hers the whole time.
“Ava.”
His face betrayed nothing, impossible to tell which Keir he would be tonight. His hand shifted in the pocket of his leather jacket and she stiffened. He furrowed his brow and realization spread across his face.
“Oh, I haven’t got a weapon.” He took his hands out of his pockets and held them up. “Empty.”
Ava’s chest tightened. His figure silhouetted by the light from the dorm room behind him, his face half-shadowed, he could be frightening to a girl sitting on her own. Not her, fear wasn’t the reaction her body had to this guy. Did he realize he exuded sexuality the way he did - not only to her but to the soft-eyed girls gazing at him as he moved around campus. Sexuality he’d blasted at her and then weakened her with.
“You shouldn’t have kissed me,” she blurted.
Ava widened her eyes in horror. How was that the first thing to come out of her mouth?
Keir smiled. “Why? Did I do it wrong?”
“That’s not what I meant to say.”
Shoving his hands in his pockets, Keir sat next to her on the bench, shuffling up to her. The air crackled in the tiny space between them.
“What did you mean to say?” he asked.
How did Keir turn her soul-hunter self into the lost frightened girl who’d left the Fated? She ducked her head, she’d changed her mind, she wanted to go.
“Fuck off, Keir.”
“Nice. Not surprised you have so few friends.”
Ava shifted away from him.
“I don’t need friends.”
“Dahlia’s your friend?”
So he was that Keir. Smart, snarky Keir. Not the Keir who held her to trees and kissed her so she couldn’t breathe.
“Ha fucking ha. She doesn’t like me. Won’t even talk to me.”
“I don’t like you and I’m a talking to you.”
Again. He’d silenced her again. “Oh…”
“I probably could like you, once you stop plotting to kill me.”
“I’m not plotting to kill you.”
“No?” He dug his hands deeper into his pockets and tucked his chin into the top of his coat.
“No. I did. Not anymore. Too hard.” She dug her nails into her palm. Shut up. Her hands trembled, he had to leave.
“Then why are you still here?” he asked.
She couldn’t answer a question she had no clear idea of herself.
“Why is Dahlia still here?” she countered.
Keir puffed out a breath. “She can answer that one for you.”
“Why is she helping you?”
“Ask her that too.”
Ava stood, looking round at him. “I don’t want to play words games with you. Just go.”
Keir rose and faced Ava, too close for her comfort. His warmth and familiar scent fogged her brain, hateful body screaming at her to kiss him again.
“We can fight instead, if you like?” he asked, in a low voice, “I always find that very stimulating.”
Ava looked at her feet, not wanting him to see her cheeks flushing red. “No!”
“Because you’ll lose?”
“Stop being such a smart-ass. What did you come up to me for? To talk? Fight? Kill me? I want to talk to you but I don’t know what to say, I don’t know what you want. If it’s to fuck with my head, congratulations - you win.”
“Sometimes I want to talk to you. But I have trust issues around soul-hunters, I’m sure you understand why.”
“Apart from Dahlia,” she said pointedly.
“She’s not a soul-hunter anymore. And I never knew her when she was.”
Ava made a noise of exasperation and looked into the sky. She couldn’t keep doing this. “You want to talk? Talk. I’ll start. You’re not a normal Nephilim, I got that the day I saw you killing the demon. Then Zach. Why? If you aren’t sided with the other Nephilim and the Demon Lords, why aren’t you siding with the Caelestia?”
Keir sat back on the bench. Stretching his legs in front of him, he burrowed his hands back into his pockets. “What happens to your collected souls? Your Fated and your Free? Where do they come from?”
“I don’t question what I do, I have to do it or face the consequences,” she said stiff
ly.
“But you are questioning it. You’ve been questioning it since you decided not to kill me, since your curiosity got in the way of your duty. I can hear you questioning it now.”
His eyes shone at her in the dim light.
“No. Nephilim and demons steal souls, I kill them and take them back to where they belong. End of.”
“Where they belong? Is that what they tell you?” asked Keir, a note of derision to his tone.
Ava bristled. “Well, they don’t belong trapped in demons.”
“But I still have mine. I’m a demon. Partly. And you haven’t killed me. Where does mine belong?”
Ava rubbed her face. “The Caelestia, they’re doing what’s right, getting back the lost souls.”
“For their war,” pressed Keir, “trapping them and putting them in bodies to use as an army against the demons. Exactly what the demons are doing too. Making an army to use against the Caelestia. What makes it right either side take them?”
“Demons steal them! They kill!”
Keir looked down, watching the leaves blow across the ground toward Ava’s feet. Maybe he was wrong and Ava wasn’t who he wanted her to be. He needed to find out. But telling her? If she attempted to run back to Darius, with the secret held back from the Caelestia, Ava would die at his hands.
“Souls should be free, Ava,” he said softly.
“What?”
“That’s what I do. That’s the secret you’re so desperate to know. I free souls. Every soul I release from a demon is truly free. That is the ultimate freedom - not inside a body with a good or evil label. Not being used by someone else for their own ends. Just being.”
“Being where?”
Mind games. Tricks. She’d know if any of this was true. Something this big couldn’t be hidden from her.
“Where they want to go, I don’t know. Sometimes they come back, choose another body. Not often.”
Keir’s eyes shone fervently. He believed his actions were right. He wasn’t lying.
“That’s so wrong, Keir. It’s evil…”