by Lan Chan
My lips quivered. Raphael squeezed my hand.
“It’s okay. I’ll be fine.” He raised a brow at me. We both knew I was lying. I sniffed. “How many people do you know find their soul mate in high school anyway?”
I would bet plenty. But right now, time was my lifeline. Chances were my life would end violently and shortly. But I hoped time would heal enough that Kai could be happy one day.
I almost shrieked when Raphael moved to gather me in his arms. It was like being enveloped by a big teddy-bear. I dug my fingernails into my palm to stop myself from bursting into tears. The soothing glow of Raphael’s power settled over me. It manifested in a dark, forest green that softened the edges of my grief. “You are Lucifer’s worst mistake,” Raphael spoke against my hair. “One day soon, he will regret it.” And then, when I glanced up: “I do not fear the veil.”
That was okay. I had enough fear for the both of us. His eyes flicked to the door. “Tell him.”
I had a feeling his power had been the only thing keeping Kai from the room. “Why don’t you?”
We both knew the answer. It was bad enough that I knew the secret of the interconnectedness between Kai and Raphael. I hadn’t breathed a word to anyone, and it would stay that way. To tell Kai would be like cutting his wings and asking him to fly. It wasn’t knowledge anyone should be privy to. I just didn’t know how else I could justify to that idiot that we couldn’t work.
“I’ll figure something out,” I pressed. Raphael gave me a disbelieving nod. He disappeared at the same time the door burst open. Two bodies rolled into the room. I saw Sophie for the briefest second before Kai flicked the tip of her nose and she disappeared.
“Hey!” she shouted from outside the room. Kai slammed the door shut. Green light chased around the outline of the door, sealing it.
Before I had a chance to protest, Kai was all up in my face. Would it have killed him not to be so heart-stoppingly gorgeous? I wasn’t asking for much. A zit. A bad hair day. A scar...no! Not a scar. Don’t focus on the scar above his left brow.
Kai’s dark blond hair was tipped golden like he’d been drenched in sunlight. What set my teeth on edge was that I didn’t have to guess why he was almost glowing. Thanks to this stupid half-bond of his, for two weeks, whenever I closed my eyes at night, I scented coconut and lime on sun-kissed skin. I heard the low rumble of his chuckle that masked the simmering determination of a patient hunter. While I’d been trying unsuccessfully to break the bond, that jackass had been on a vacation.
I tried to draw a circle but that proved futile. My magic wouldn’t manifest at all. That settled it. No more Angelical for me.
Kai sat down heavily beside me. He reached out a hand that I promptly slapped away as I scuttled back. “What do you think you’re doing?”
He just grinned at me. The bed dipped as he uncurled and stalked me. My back was suddenly pressed up against the headboard. Kai folded his ridiculously big body around me, hemming me in with his palms splayed on the wall either side of my head. The black T-shirt he wore inched up his bicep, exposing just the slightest hint of the tattoo on his shoulder. I breathed through my mouth in an effort not to inhale his scent. His gaze flicked to my parted lips.
A smile threatened to tip the corner of his mouth. “What were you doing at the hospital?” he asked.
I tried to count nymphs in my head to keep my temper in check. One nymph. Two nymphs. Three. He smirked. “Get out of my way,” I snapped.
His head dipped down to block out the light. It cast shadows over his masculine features. For a second, the charming mask he wore gave way. Something dark lurked beneath his unrelenting gaze. The green of the bond sparked inside me, attempting to break my resolve and force me to accept an intimate connection that would surely kill me. Or at least I would wish I was dead. My bottom lip trembled.
He studied my face as though drinking in the small details. “I missed you,” he murmured, giving life to the unspoken tension between us. The air felt supercharged. Every inch of my skin was oversensitive. Like he was rubbing me raw with just a look.
It occurred to me that I was trapped. The worst part was that I didn’t appear to be in any hurry to escape. The complacency snapped me out of his hypnotic pull.
“I said, get out of my way.”
Kai accepted my hostility and raised me a side of arrogance. His finger grazed my cheek. I jumped a mile and smacked my head onto his chest. His arms circled around me. Oh hell no!
Without thinking, I smashed my elbow into his gut. Ow! A jarring pain spiralled up my arm. I was getting really sick of being at a physical disadvantage. His laugh made it all the more abrasive. Kai reached out and tipped my chin up to meet his gaze. His hand splayed on my rib cage. The heat seeped through my thin cotton shirt and settled into the bond, reinforcing it. Angelfire spiralled through me, bathing the bond in comfort and a heady sense of belonging. It took away the remnants of nausea that coated my throat. The magic revelled in his presence. Despite my best efforts at resistance, I might have sighed audibly.
I couldn’t help studying his broad hands. They looked so strong and capable. Yet he was always so gentle with me. There was a small bubbled scar that ran from the knuckle of his thumb to the base of his nail. I frowned, sure it hadn’t been there before summer.
“How did you get that?” The question slipped out. My mind couldn’t reconcile the idea that anything could leave a scar on Malachi Pendragon.
“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” he said. “Even after you passed out, you wouldn’t let go of the circle around part of the hospital. Why?”
Mayday! I tried to jerk away but he held firm.
A serpentine smile danced across his lips as he cupped my face in both hands. And then, in a feat that shot pure excited terror through me, I heard his voice in my mind. I told you I would come for you, Blue.
I slapped his hands off me as alarm bells rang in my head. For him to be able to speak to me telepathically meant that yet another piece of the bond had slotted into place. Panic sharpened my tongue.
“Only until I can figure out how to eject you,” I growled. “If you had done your job properly, the demon wouldn’t have been at the hospital in the first place.”
Even for me it was a new level of bitchy. Without the bond, the sentiment could have been devastating. I had few talents but half my lifetime on the streets had taught me to lie convincingly. Duty was his kryptonite. For me to question his ability to protect was like somebody questioning my loyalty: unforgiveable.
The damn bond negated everything.
Safety was an illusion that I couldn’t afford but being near Kai came frighteningly close. Kai latched on to my hip and yanked me forward. The whole world faded as he curled one arm around my waist. The light stubble on his chin grazed my ear as his lowered his head. “One of these days,” he rasped, sparking electricity in every nerve in my body, “that mouth of yours is going to get you into trouble.”
I just couldn’t be around him too long. We were like sandpaper rubbing against each other. Eventually the sharp bits would be filed away. It would only take so long before the snark wore itself out and I was terrified of what might happen afterwards.
The way Kai’s green eyes sparkled made me think that was exactly what he was angling for. My throat locked up. Nope. This wasn’t happening. I squirmed and ducked under his arm, then hopped out of the bed.
“If you’re not leaving then I am!”
He chuckled. “Okay, relax. Wouldn’t want you to get your panties in a bunch.” The flare of green in my chest furnished me with a series of images that told me he’d been thinking other things about my panties. I was going to punch him for real. If I had magic at my disposal right now, he would be on the ground. Kai seemed to find the whole thing highly amusing.
“Could you please leave?” I asked, the last of my bravado seeping away.
He raked his gaze over me one last time. I curled my toes to stop from shivering. “You can’t run forever, Blue
.”
I blinked and he was gone. Collapsing back on the bed, I felt more worn out from that interaction than from my battle with the demon. With him went the magical lock on the door. It flew open and Sophie staggered inside like she’d been banging on it this whole time. She took one look at my face and blew out a breath. “You’re screwed,” she said. “Pun intended.”
“Don’t even go there.”
We’d had this conversation a thousand times in the last few weeks. It never ended satisfactorily. Sophie knelt on the bed and hugged me.
“Come on,” she said. “Let’s get out of here.”
I grabbed Gabriel’s Key from my back pocket and slipped it onto my finger. A single thought and we were transported from the recovery wing in Seraphina to Basil’s living room. I heard the sound of puppies barking before we fully materialised.
As soon as I turned solid, one chocolate and two tan-coloured Labrador puppies converged on me. “What the hell?” I screamed. Wet noses sniffed in private places.
Nanna was only a second behind them. She had a black puppy under each armpit. “They’re everywhere!” she screeched.
Sophie nudged a tan puppy away from the base of Basil’s prized leather armchair.
“What’s going on?” I shouted back at Nanna. But then I finally noticed the roses. Hundreds of blood-red roses in all kinds of vases on almost every surface in the room. It was like a florist and a pet shop threw up in here.
“I’ll give you one guess,” Nanna wailed.
I was going to kill Kai for real.
4
“This is too much!” Nanna said, when we finally rounded all five puppies into the living room and confined them with the door closed. “It has to stop.”
“What do you suggest I do?” I asked. “He won’t listen!”
Nanna arched a brow at me. “For starters, you can forget about keeping any of them!”
“C’mon, Nan!”
She raised a finger in the air in front of her. Classic Nanna. We’d had the same argument about me getting a pet my whole childhood before she was institutionalised. “For another, you can get that smitten look off your face if you’re going to have a chance at rebuffing his advances.”
I scowled. “I don’t have any look on my face.”
From her spot on the couch, I saw Sophie bite her bottom lip and turn away so I couldn’t see her laughing. It occurred to me then that I was sitting on the floor with puppies crawling all over me. They were just so small and soft and cute....
I got up abruptly and tried not to melt as the puppies tumbled away comically. “You were saying?” Sophie asked.
I tapped my foot as I counted to ten. “How do I get rid of them?”
“Beats me,” Nanna said. “I don’t understand how they’re here in the first place. Mortal animals shouldn’t be able to get past the wards of the Reserve. At least that’s what Shayla told me. Maybe we can ask –”
Something struck me in the middle of her speech. I marched to the mirror by the front door with puppies trailing behind me. They nipped playfully at my heels. I slapped my hand on the mirror. “Yolanda Egan, please.”
I didn’t know why I was always polite to the MirrorNet personality. It wasn’t like it understood. The mirror swirled and Yolanda appeared on the other side. She was holding her cub and swaying from side to side. I saw right through it.
“This isn’t funny,” I told her.
“What isn’t, dear?”
“Yolanda!”
“Alessia!”
“What’s all the yelling?” Durin’s voice rumbled from the other room. He came into view looking rumpled and scratching at his beard. Oh great. If he was in residence, then it meant he was in on it too.
I pointed a finger at the mirror. “Cut it out!” It didn’t matter that I was giving orders to the alpha of the shifters. I was in no mood to observe social niceties.
“Ah,” Durin said. “I see you got your present.”
“I mean it!”
“Of course you do, dear,” Yolanda cooed.
I wanted to kick something but managed to restrain myself. “Listen, I’m having a hard enough time getting Kai to back off as it is. I don’t need you piling on as well. This isn’t some shifter mating ritual.”
Both of them stared back at me with innocent expressions before they broke out into laughter. I was going to pick up the mirror and smash it over their heads.
“Sweetheart,” Yolanda said, “if we don’t help him, don’t you think he’d push ahead regardless? At least this way we have some control.”
“What the hell are you even saying?” I seethed. “I don’t want to be with him. End of story. And get somebody over here to clean up this mess.”
I cut the connection before their grinning faces could raise my blood pressure higher. They took their damn sweet time sending reinforcements. It was almost dinner time before the cleanup crew arrived. The party included some of the human mates, one of them being Trey’s mum, Laila.
“Lex, honey,” she said. “You’re going to have to let go of the puppy if you want me to take him away.”
I didn’t notice until she said it that I was clutching the puppy tight to my chest while she was attempting to pull him away. I dropped my arms. She reached out and patted my cheek before stealing my puppy.
The house felt morbidly silent without them. Nanna deflated onto the couch. “What about the roses?” she asked.
“Burn them,” I told her.
“I think you mean compost,” Nanna interjected.
I shook my head emphatically. “Who knows what other spells are in them?”
Nanna got up and placed her hands on her hips. “It’s such a shame. They’re stunning.” I gave her a pinched look and she lifted her hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay. I get it. Before I forget, two dozen or so other merchants have tried calling. The messages are in the mirror.”
Screaming into a pillow was no longer cathartic. I did it anyway.
It incensed me that my nearest and dearest were a bunch of disloyal, MirrorNet gossips. Less than an hour after I’d opened Kai’s Christmas present, the news had spread like a plague through supernatural society. Since then, I’d been receiving calls and drop-ins from every wedding vendor in all the supernatural towns. Any time I set foot in Seraphina, some stick-up-their-ass lackey managed to intercept me and try to verse me in Nephilim custom. Apparently, no did not mean no where a Nephilim bond was concerned. “From now on, just delete them all.”
“Are you sur –”
“Deadly.”
“You can’t blame them for trying,” Sophie reasoned.
“I know who I do blame, though!”
While Nanna got rid of the evidence, Sophie and I trudged up to my bedroom. Once the door was shut, Sophie rounded on me. “Which question do you want to answer first?” she said.
“Soph, I’m really tired.” I extricated myself from her and made a show of flopping limply onto the bed.
Sophie crossed her arms over her chest. “Don’t give me that crap. You’ve spent half the summer moping about and the other half chucking up in the bathroom. What were you doing at Terran General?”
“You sound just like Kai!”
“With good reason.” She stalked up to the base of the bed. “The Angelical is backfiring, isn’t it?”
I sat bolt upright at the half-truth she had guessed. She shot me a smug smile. “How bad?” she asked.
I scrubbed my palm over my face. “Bad. As in catastrophic.” Maybe it was an overstatement but losing control of my magic was just about the worst thing I could think of happening. Sophie sank down onto the bed beside me.
“Mama has been in a Council meeting all night,” Sophie divulged. “I think there were some complications with cleaning up the scene in the hospital. When I left, the elite guard had just arrived.”
I groaned. “This is all I need right now.”
“Why else were you at the hospital?”
Why in the world had I chose
n to make friends with all these nosy people? “Lex?”
All I did was scowl at her. She crossed her arms over her chest. “You can make that face all you like. But we’re back at school in two days and I’ll be around all the time. I’ll find out sooner or later.”
It was less threatening than she had intended. She’d gone back to Zambia for a few weeks with her parents and I’d missed her like crazy. They’d asked me to come but I’d declined because I wanted to hit the books. Being a nerd was really cramping my style.
The prospect of living together again made me insanely happy. So why was I reluctant to tell her the truth?
I curled into a ball at the base of the bed. “If I tell you, you can’t make any comments, okay?”
She nodded. I swallowed down the apprehension. Each word as I explained what I had been doing was like carving out runes on a stone. When I was done, I couldn’t decipher the expression on her face. It made me jittery. I was about to try and cover up my vulnerability with sarcasm when Sophie grabbed me in a hug that threatened to crush my lungs.
“You have absolutely no reason to be embarrassed,” she said, hitting the truth of my feelings in the centre of the target. “There’s no shame in hoping things might work out.”
She pulled away and punched me lightly on the shoulder. “That’s for not telling me to begin with and not letting me go with you.”
I pretended to rub my arm. There were other words on the tip of my tongue that I wanted so badly to share with her, but I bit them back. No matter how difficult it got, I would never tell anyone about what would happen to Raphael if Kai died.
Sophie squeezed my hand. “I want to know everything about what’s wrong with your powers.”
I ran my hand through my hair. “It’s really hard to explain. It’s like it’s fluctuating or something. One minute it’s there and the next it isn’t.”
“When did it start happening?”
“A couple of weeks after Christmas.”
“And the seraphim can’t find anything physically wrong with you?”