by JL Weil
Taking the rickety concrete stairs down into an abandoned cellar, I felt the familiar tingles. Even though the circumstances were grim, it didn’t stop the excitement from fluttering inside my belly or the hope I might get a glimpse of the girl I loved.
Chapter 2
{Chase}
My heart stopped.
Curled in a corner, her dark hair curtained her face. She didn’t move at my approach, yet I knew she felt my presence. I heard her heart kick up, beating in an identical rhythm to mine. It was the same each time. Our separation, whether it was hours or days, caused amplified reactions between us.
I paused at the bottom of the steps. If I closed my eyes, I could see Angel coming out of her house, the sunlight streaming through her hair and picking up the red highlights. And she’d be wearing those little shorts she loved. I might have loved them more. They did crazy things to her sun-kissed legs, which did crazy things to me. There were a number of things about her that caused my belly to turn inside out.
Her scent. Her smile. Her laugh. Her sharp tongue.
The usual icy guilt drenched my insides. I had to fight every basic instinct to zap across the room, throw open the door, swoop her up in my arms, and take her far, far away from here. My fists balled at my sides and a shudder rolled through me.
Then her head lifted. Letting out a shaky breath, I walked toward the bars of her confinement, careful not to get too close. “You’re awake.”
She stared right through me.
No life glittered in her eyes. She was just an empty shell with no one home.
My stomach knotted.
I’d come to expect the crimson glares, so to see her blue eyes made me a little dizzy. “Angel,” I called softly.
“Chase?” Her voice was hoarse and confusion clouded in her expression. Slowly, her eyes traveled over the room, and I felt her blood pressure rise.
This was only the second time I’d seen the clarity in her eyes since that night she’d killed her father. I was suddenly afraid this moment was going to slip away before I had the chance to savor it, because who knew how long it would be until the next time? I could only hope it would be sooner rather than later.
My thrill at seeing her overrode my common sense. Before I processed what I was doing, I moved, shutting myself inside with Angel. It was only a blink, and the only reasonable explanation for my stupidity was she made me do stupid things. “I can’t believe it’s you,” I said, framing her pale face.
“Who else would it be?” The hoarseness in her voice caused a twinge in my chest, for I knew it was from screaming.
Her beauty struck me hard, like a bolt of lightning. She was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen. As soon as I touched her face, I knew I was in trouble. My heart hammered inside my chest. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. It felt as if it had been a lifetime since I’d been able to feel her skin. It was still as soft as I remembered.
Then I was kissing her.
My lips were fastened to hers in a hard, desperate kiss. I pulled her close, not thinking. In seconds we were wrapped up in each other, the gloomy room disappearing, which tended to happen when we kissed. Her arms secured around me, fingers running along the back of my neck and leaving scorching tingles trailing from her touch.
Deep down, I knew everything wasn’t hunky-dory. She wasn’t magically better, but how convenient the mind worked to get what it really wanted.
And oh, I wanted her.
There was no denying that every fiber of my body wanted this. It had been weeks since my lips had touched hers, and the hunger came on swift and strong. I ached inside. Ached for the physical touch of her skin, of her soft, berry-flavored lips.
Using my tongue, I parted her lips and plunged, deepening the kiss. A thousand fires ignited inside me, joining into one flame I couldn’t contain. I was drowning in the sweetest fire. My hands inched under her shirt, splaying over her lower back. The world didn’t seem so screwed up when Angel was kissing my brains out. It was the greatest buzz.
She pulled back just slightly, her eyes capturing mine, and then she cupped the back of my neck, reclaiming the distance. Damn. She kissed me in a way that put all others to shame. It would have made the Angel I loved blush. There was nothing innocent or sweet as she nipped my lower lip, and I swore I tasted blood.
Her breathy moan nearly undid me, yet it was the wiggling of her hips that sent me over the edge. Our hearts sped up. I totally took the kiss there, throwing every worry and fear into it. It was then I felt the sudden change in her, but I was powerless to pull away. My demon was screaming, “Yes, yes, yes!” He loved the darker side of Angel, and it was tearing me in two. The struggle between my demon and me was the hardest I’d ever had to deal with.
I gripped her hips and pushed back. Her eyes. They were dark in the shadowy light, but the glimmer of red was undeniable.
They were wrong. So very wrong.
My stomach sunk in what felt like a swift kick to the gonads. Having my emotions plunge from one extreme to another left me slightly off-kilter, and after the intimacy we’d shared, I was torn in half. Remorse ate away at me.
It was a splash of cold water thrown in my face. Shell-shocked, some part of my brain thought I’d been struck by lightning. It only took a moment of sanity to bring me back to Earth. I flashed to the other side of the bars, slamming the door shut with a clatter of metal. So many things could have gone wrong. What had I’d been thinking, and that was the problem. I hadn’t been thinking. Too much time had gone by without seeing her blue eyes that I lost it, which could have led to a catastrophe. I couldn’t allow for mistakes or let my emotions get the best of me.
I released a long, deep sigh, instead of thumping my forehead on the nearest wall like I wanted.
Control. It had always been a struggle, and I spent my life exercising power over my demon. All it had taken was one look from Angel to shatter a lifetime of discipline.
I scowled darkly over my shoulder, and she gave a sultry, devious laugh. “If you let me out of here, we can go for round two.”
My face remained motionless. “Do you still want to open a portal to between Hell and Earth?”
Silence.
“That’s what I thought.”
“Are you sure?” She tucked her hair back. “Because your body definitely wants more.”
I took a step forward, a storm swirling inside me. “Maybe. But I’ve spent my life battling my demon. I think I can handle other parts of my body.”
She choked out a laugh. “The notorious Chase Winters. Heartbroken. She’s never coming back, you know.”
Folding my arms, I showed no emotion. Perhaps I’d grown used to her intimidations over the last week. “Guess what? I won’t give up. And you know when I want something, I don’t stop.”
Frustration rolled off her. “God, you’re such a sucker. I twitch my ass and bat my eyes, and you’re drooling all over me. Typical male.”
I exhaled roughly, sparing her a brief glance. “You and I both know there is nothing typical about me.”
She lowered her head. “I’ve accepted that, accepted you for who you are”—emotion clogged her vocal cords—“but why is it so hard for you to accept me? That I’ve changed?” Her long lashes blinked back tears.
A muscle popped along my jawline. Her high and low tactics wreaked havoc on my sanity. My body went rigid.
Her lower lip quivered. “Why are you treating me like this? How can you claim to love me? This isn’t love.” Her eyes were shining with dampness.
Like a hamster wheel, this topic of conversation was going nowhere and was a waste. The fact she could doubt my love only reinforced how much of a hold the darkness had on Angel. Our bond made it impossible to question the depth of my feelings. “Here.” I tossed one of her favorite gamer shirts and a pair of lounge pants through the bars. “I brought you some clean clothes.”
She caught them midair, causing her rumpled shirt to inch up. My eyes were drawn to the exposed skin. It was still a rush, s
eeing my marks on her. They trailed up her side, identical to mine, a reminder of our connection. Soul. Heart. Body.
Every second. Every minute. Every goddamn hour that ticked by with her sealed away drove my insane, because I was no closer to finding a way to cure her. If she could be cured.
It wasn’t like she was ill. This wasn’t a cold or the flu. I couldn’t give her a pill or a dose of medicine and expect her to be fine in twenty-four hours.
“I’ve got to go,” I said. If my calculations were correct, she was about to activate her rage tactic. I’d rather avoid that today. She’d already gotten to me.
{Angel}
I felt sorry for the lab rats. Being caged sucked. Being tormented by Chase’s forlorn eyes and grim scowls was downright depressing.
I was a menace. Dangerous. The darkness Hell trapped inside me was pissed, and it was time Chase saw me for who I was. If I had accepted his demon, then why couldn’t he accept mine? “You’re a hypocrite, you know that?” I yelled at his back. “When I get out of here, I’m going to rip the flesh from your bones.”
He halted, placing a palm on the wall.
“They’re coming for me,” I informed. I was stalling, because even though his smirks and frowns were irritating, it beat being alone. There was something almost fun about mincing words with him and making him suffer.
“They’ll never find you.” His voice was low.
It was cocky conviction in his tone that pushed me to my boiling point. “Shut up,” I spat.
He finally spun around and faced me. “But I’ll find them. In fact, I met one of your groupies on the way here.”
The knowledge of what he said sparked, caught fire, and spread through my veins. “Shut up!”
His nostrils flared, sexy if you were into that kind of thing and apparently I was. “He sends his regards. I think his last words were I’ll be back. Cheesy, if you ask me, embodying Arnold Schwarzenegger.”
“Shut. Shut. Shut!” Kill him. The words whispered through my mind. I couldn’t have cared less where the voice came from. Off with his head.
Caution crept into his eyes. “Whoa. I think someone needs a tranq or some happy pills.”
Anger gnawed at me. Red flames moved through my blood, and it felt as if I would spontaneously combust if I didn’t hurl the fire building inside me.
It gave me a high, and I wanted more. I wanted to hurt him. But mostly, I wanted out of this prison. There was this deep yearning in the pit of my stomach, a calling from Hell. It was time for drastic measures.
I clenched the titanium bars, and even as my skin sizzled, the pain making my eyes water, I hung on. The metal might neutralize my newly discovered abilities, but it didn’t stop me from harming myself. One way or another, I was getting out of this hellhole.
“No!” he shouted, moving so fast he startled me. His hands shot through the bars, clasping my wrists and physically removing them from the bars.
I wasn’t a match for his strength, especially after the amount of agony radiating down my arms. I went still, suddenly feeling weird, and backed away from Chase. My back hit the wall.
“Angel,” he called, frantic.
Time seemed to slow, and the world around me began to darken until a sheet of blackness engulfed me. Sound faded from my ears. Well, that might have been a bad idea.
Chapter 3
{Angel}
I blinked my eyes open and realized I couldn’t breathe. Why couldn’t I catch my breath? There was air. My lungs were working, yet I felt like I was suffocating. Unfortunately, this was a feeling I was quite familiar with. As ridiculous as it sounded, I’d thought these new abilities that had awakened inside me would make me…I don’t know…invincible to such fears.
Rising to my feet, I swayed unnaturally to the left and my hand flew out to steady myself on the wall. It was then I noticed my pitiful attire. My clothes were torn and I had dark black spots on the front of my shirt that looked eerily like blood.
Oh God.
I was betting it was my blood…or so I hoped, because the alternative meant I’d hurt someone. In shock, my entire body was trembling as if I’d run a marathon—uphill.
I bit my lip and—
Sweet baby Jesus.
My lips were swollen, but that wasn’t what made my knees buckle. I could taste Chase. His brand of flavor was one I’d never forget. It was permanently etched into my taste buds.
He’d been here.
And he’d left me.
In a cage!
Why?
Dust bunnies lingered, floating in the stale and musky air. Snapshots of images flashed behind my eyes, making my brain hurt. Everything was so foggy. I winced, fingers pressing into my temples. It felt like my head was splitting in two, and there was a golf ball-sized lump on the back of my scalp.
Eyes cast downward, a pop of blue caught my gaze. A pair of yoga pants and one of my favorite T-shirts lay on the cold, concrete floor. At the sight of clean clothes, I forgot about my fuzzy head and quickly stripped, slipping on the soft fabric. Burrowing my nose into the material at my shoulder, I inhaled.
It smelled of laundry detergent and faintly of a woodsy scent. It smelled of home.
Pangs twanged around my heart.
I wanted to go home. I wanted to see my mom. I desperately wanted to see Chase.
My hands dropped to my sides, horror rolling through me as I realized I might never leave this place. This might be it. These titanium bars and the windowless room might be the last things I see before I leave this earth. Depressing and utterly messed up.
As my lower lip started to tremble, I tipped my chin up, refusing to let Hell break me. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. It was bad enough there were gapping black spots in my memory, but to travel down the lonely road of self-pity wasn’t going to help me survive. And I was damn determined to live.
Mom needed me. But Chase needed me more. Our lives were intertwined. If anything happened to me, he would be doomed. My last breath would be his last breath. That thought alone was enough to make my spine a little straighter. Hell was not going to use me. Whatever mutations were going on inside me, I needed to find a way to stay me, a way to stop the darkness. I wasn’t utterly clueless. I knew something was very wrong with me. The blackouts, they weren’t normal, not even by Divisa standards. I was close to freaking out.
This wasn’t the first time I’d been held captive. How many eighteen-year-olds could say that? Not that I was bragging, just the opposite. It was completely messed up, just like my life.
So I made myself concentrate on the small things, like clean clothes. It was little, but when you’d been wearing the same clothes for a week, it was an indulgence taken for granted. The only thing that would top clean clothes would be a foaming bubble bath. All I had was a lukewarm shower in a refrigerator-sized box.
Dear God, I would give my left boob for a hot bath and a bubble bar from Lush.
I sighed.
Chase forbad me even the simplest luxury. It was a flitting thought, but like a twig, something inside me snapped. Gone was the confusion and murkiness, and in its place was a fire that crackled and popped. Everything became clear again, my purpose, who my real enemies were. Chase Winters was going to regret ever sticking me behind bars.
{Chase}
I woke up alone and drenched in sweat and ready to kick some serious ass. My body was tight, prepared for a fight, but unless I was going to be duking it out with my shadow, there was no need for my demon to be on edge. Yet he was.
Sitting up, I ran a hand through a very bad case of bedhead and looked toward the window. I blinked. I didn’t have a normal sleep schedule, not like the rest of the world. Nowadays, it was hard for me to tell whether it was night or day without peering outside or at my phone.
My vision didn’t need to adjust to the dark room, a demon perk. There were many perks—treacherous demon DNA—but none of my abilities could help Angel. As unearthly as my skills were, I didn’t have the power to sever the cursed c
onnection Hell had over her.
So, of course, I acted like a class act jerk and taunted her, because God knows that was totally going to cure her. In my self-defense, that dirty and sensual stunt she pulled scrambled my logic and control.
If I was being real, Angel and I thrived on riling each other in what was a twisted form of foreplay. It was how we met, how we fell in love, how we ended up here.
Control.
I was beginning to hate the word.
Gazing up at the ceiling, I secured my arm behind my head and stared at the water spot that stood out against the stark white paint. My thoughts turned, mulling over an absurd plan I’d formulated during my run back to campus. The ludicrousness of it was what I liked. In my head, the less likely my survival rate, the greater my chances of success.
An inside look at just how warped my mind really was.
I listened to the wind whistling outside the slightly cracked window, to the crickets rubbing their wings together, and to all the other little critters that prowled at night. The breeze that blew through the room was neither too hot nor too cold. I imagined this would be my last moment of calmness for some time.
Leave it to Lexi to ruin my last five minutes of peace and solitude.
“I need to see her!” she demanded for the millionth time as she burst through my door. Her ivory skin was flushed, and unless I was mistaken, she was trying to kill me with a dirty look.
Shaking my head, I scrubbed my hands over my eyes. “Privacy? Is that too much to ask for?”
Lexi drifted right into the center of the room, not giving a second thought to my state of attire or possible lack of. “This is college. There is no such thing.”
I groaned, closing my eyes and hoping she would disappear.
“Did you hear me?” she added coolly.
I opened one eye, gazing up. Ugh. She was still here, hovering over my bed and glaring down at me with impatient, bright aqua eyes. Her wheat-colored hair was pulled back into a ponytail, emphasizing the dark shadows under her eyes and the gauntness of her cheeks. She was worrying herself sick. Pressing my lips together, I asked, “Shouldn’t you be at class or studying something? Don’t you have a boyfriend?”