“They’re called hounds, and they come from our world, a part of it that is wrought with chaos and savagery. The fact that they’re here, and sent after you specifically, makes things a lot different than they were. Your mother will see that as well.”
“Why me?” She asked.
“I would rather your father explain that.”
She huffed, looking away. “I don’t understand. I haven’t done anything. Why would anyone want to hurt me?”
“Let’s just say you are,” he searched for the right word. “Important.”
“Important?”
“He will explain it better.”
She stood, her little hands curling into fists at her side. “Fine. When?”
He bit back a smile. “When you speak to your mother. For now, I’ll look into things, and we’ll try to figure out who is behind this attack so we can stop them. In the meantime, I want you to keep your senses open and alert.”
“Promise me you will let me know if you find anything out. I don’t want to be kept in the dark, Cillian. I’ve had enough of it.”
His name on her lips hit him like a smack in the face. Taking a step back, he kept his features schooled.
“Promise me,” she pressed.
“I promise,” he finally answered.
She nodded, reaching out a hand. “Partners?”
Ah, Gods, she was adorable. Wrapping his hand around hers, completely dwarfing her slender, fragile bones, he lifted it to his mouth, lowering his face so that his lips just brushed her skin as he kept his eyes on hers. “Partners,” he said.
I spent most of Sunday curled up on the couch in my pyjamas, dozing on and off as I watched the Big Bang Theory marathon. It felt like the safest, least scary of the shows I could watch. I had gotten ten minutes into a Vampire Diaries marathon when I realized I needed comedy right now. Mom called around two, and had sounded so happy that I didn’t have the heart to bring anything up over the phone.
It was so rare that she did anything for herself. In fact, she had never gone off on her own, and now I was finally beginning to realize why. Everything about me, physically, emotionally, mentally, was numb. I didn’t know what to think anymore. While part of me wanted to understand my mom’s motives and reasoning, a big part was still hurt that she had kept my own father away from me.
And not just that, had lied and told me he was dead. Dead. I’d mourned for him, this person that was so much a part of me, but whom I’d never gotten to know.
I understood that the situation wasn’t like any normal one where maybe one parent didn’t get along with another. I mean, I didn’t think there were many kids out there that could say their father was a demon, but that still didn’t erase the pain. I wasn’t looking forward to having the inevitable confrontation that would need to happen with my mom. We never fought, and I wasn’t quite sure how it would play out when I finally did confront her.
By six, I felt like a complete bum. Even though I had showered when Cillian was here, the whole couch potato thing had left me feeling icky again. I headed upstairs and washed up, taking my time to dry my hair, thankful to do something that didn’t take much thought.
I hadn’t heard from Cillian since he’d left around four in the morning. I wasn’t quite sure how he was going to get a hold of me, or when that would even be. I glanced outside, my eyes seeing nothing but the usual trees, wondering if he was out there keeping an eye on me and I just couldn’t see him.
Pulling on some sweats and a tank top, I dragged myself back down to the kitchen, wondering how I was going to manage to go to school tomorrow when it felt like I hadn’t slept in weeks. Would it feel strange to go back to acting like a normal teenage girl after just finding out I was part...demon? I scrunched up my nose as I popped some frozen pizzas in the microwave. If anyone should have been part demon, it should have been Emily. She would have loved all this, her entire style fitting in perfectly. I smiled at the thought.
A loud knock at the front door had me instantly on alert. Would someone coming to kill me knock first? Seemed a bit proper for a murderer. Of course, I had no idea how evil creatures I’d never known really existed worked. Grabbing a rolling pin off the counter, I edged my way down the hallway. Glancing out the side light, I let out a breath, before opening the door.
“Hey,” I said, blowing a piece a hair off my face.
Gabe stood on the porch, his hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans, an army green jacket stretched across his broad shoulders, accentuating the gold of his hair. The boy was too perfect for his own good. “Hey,” he said, his eyes going to my hand. “Whatcha doing?”
“Just making some pizza,” I said, praying my smile didn’t look as dopey as it felt.
His brows slowly rose. “From scratch?”
“No,” I laughed. His eyes went back to my hand and I realized I was still holding the rolling pin. “Oh! This,” I laughed again. “I was just...protecting myself...”
He chuckled. “With that?”
I shrugged. “Yeah, well, you know...”
He raised his brows higher.
“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” I muttered, my cheeks burning.
“Don’t worry, Hope. If there’s anyone around that wants to hurt you, I’ll take care of them.”
He wouldn’t be offering if he knew just what kind of things were coming my way. I offered a shaky smile, stepping back so he could come in.
“I hope I’m not intruding,” he said as I led the way to the kitchen. “I just figured I’d stop in since I knew you were alone, and see how you were after last night?”
I spun around. “Last night? Why, what did you hear?”
He stopped, giving me a perplexed looked as if I’d lost my mind. “At the party? With Lila and Aaron?”
“Oh! That,” I waved it off, laughing. “I’m fine. Those two are always jerks. It doesn’t bother me.”
Gabe stopped on the other side of the island as I took the pizza out of the microwave. I could feel those bronze eyes watching me.
“What did you think I meant?”
I shrugged, praying my face wasn’t red as a tomato. “Want some pizza?” I offered, holding out the plate.
He looked down at the soggy looking food with an amused smirk. “That’s pathetic.” We both laughed. “Come on,” he said, jerking his head. “I’ll treat you to some real food.”
***
Tonight, his little sports car had no roof on it, and as we drove along the coast, the setting sun caused hues of pink and purple to streak across the sky, their colours mirrored in the endless waves below. It was more beautiful and vibrant than any painting, and I couldn’t help but lean my head back and smile, letting the cooling breeze whip my hair around my face.
It was exactly the kind of break from realty I needed after the night before. We didn’t speak as he drove to a rundown looking shack just off the beach, the blue paint chipped away in more places than it wasn’t. There was only a window along the side, with a bar and several stools sitting beneath it. Today’s Catch was painted in white above it, with a fish jumping over the words. Gabe parked the car, turning it off and looking at me with a grin that lit up his eyes, and had me returning one of my own. The first genuine one I’d had in a while.
“Get ready to be amazed,” he said, wiggling his brows.
“Consider me ready,” I said with a laugh.
We walked side by side, the gravel crunching beneath our feet, our bodies close but not touching. I knew in my head that this wasn’t a date or anything, but the smell of his spicy cologne and his nearness had my heart racing anyway. Gabe pulled out a stool for me, taking the one next to it as he slapped a hand on the counter.
“Two baskets, Mary,” he shouted to a middle-aged woman in the back, who smiled broadly when she saw him.
“You got it, hunny. Give me a sec.”
I looked around at the beach on the other side of the road, enjoying the view as we waited
for the food. “This is a really cool place.”
He nodded, humming his agreement.
“How did you find it?”
“I used to surf just down the beach, and Mary always had some food waiting for me when I was beat and needed to refuel.”
“That I did, angel boy,” she said, placing two red baskets in front of us. Inside was a mound of fries and a crispy looking fish, the oils already soaking into the newspaper beneath them. The smell wafted up and my stomach growled in anticipation. “Who’s this you’ve brought today?”
“This is Hope.” The way he’d said my name and looked down at me had me tucking a piece of hair nervously behind my ear, my cheeks heating as I met her warm gaze.
“Hope, huh? Ain’t that fitting. You sure are a pretty thing.” She reached over and patted Gabe’s arm. “Don’t you be treating this one badly, hunny.”
“Never,” he said, placing a hand over his heart, grinning widely at her. She turned with a hum, and he winked at me, holding my wide-eyed stare, completely at ease with her teasing. I, on the other hand, felt like I was about to burst into flames.
“Angel boy over here has never brought anyone by this old place,” Mary was saying as I looked away from Gabe to see her watching me over her shoulder. “You must be special indeed.”
“Uh,” I managed, earning a chuckle from her as she hummed again, moving to the back.
Gabe leaned into me, bumping me with his arm. “Don’t let her get to you, Mary just loves to tease.”
“Sure,” I said, trying for a carefree laugh. “Why does she call you angel boy?”
“Because he always comes here at sundown, and the setting sun always creates a halo around that golden hair of his,” she shouted from the back. I had no idea how she’d even heard me.
I leaned forward on the counter so I could look at him from her angle. He turned his head from left to right, his lips twitching.
“Well?” He asked.
I laughed. Sure enough, it did. His golden hair looked even more golden in this light, a haze of it around his head just like a - halo. “Very angelic,” I said.
He shrugged, grinning as he bit a fry. “What can I say?”
I sat back and started to eat, my eyes rolling at the first taste of the perfectly fried and salted fries. “So good,” I said around a mouthful. “So, if you’ve always lived around here, how come you’re going to our school this year?”
He let out a short, humourless laugh. “Let’s just say, I had a few issues at my last school.”
“Sorry,” I said, kicking myself for bringing it up.
He shrugged. “It’s no biggie. I’m happy for the change. The other place was full of people I’d rather stay away from anyway.”
We ate in silence for a moment, mostly because I was enjoying the fish too much to stop eating it long enough to make conversation.
“So,” he finally said, turning his body more toward me. “You and your mom live there by yourselves?”
I nodded, my mouth full.
“What about your dad? Where’s he?”
“He’s not around, never has been,” I said, after swallowing.
“I’m sorry, did he walk out on you two?”
I shook my head. “No, he was dead.”
“Was?”
“Is,” I said quickly, letting out a short laugh. “Is dead.”
He frowned. “That really sucks, I’m sorry.”
I shrugged. “It is what it is. My mom, she’s my best friend. I couldn’t have asked for a better person to have raised me. Our home has always been the warmest, happiest place I’ve known.”
His lips turned up into a small smile as he looked down at his food. “That’s good,” he said, looking back up. “It sounds like your mom is really great.”
“She’s the best,” I said. “What about you?”
He cleared his throat, rubbing his palms on his jeans. “What about me?” He said slowly, he eyebrows drawing together. “I guess I can’t really say our home was warm or happy. I was only ever with my parents for the first few years and then they sent me away. The last school I was at is more of a boarding school, so my teachers raised me more than they did.” He shrugged. “I haven’t seen them much since.”
My hands fell into my lap, the food in my stomach suddenly feeling like lead. “That sounds - awful.”
He chuckled. “It wasn’t so bad. Maybe not as nice as what you grew up with, but I turned out okay. We all do.”
I couldn’t imagine living at school since I was little, never seeing my mom or sleeping in my own home.
“Don’t look so sad,” he said, hitting his knees into mine. “It really isn’t as bad as it sounds. The school itself, it’s the most beautiful place you’ve ever seen.”
“Better than Hogwarts?” I asked, trying to regain the easy going feeling from before.
“Definitely a rival,” he said, those eyes brighter than ever as laughter floated through them while he watched me.
“Our school must look like a shack then,” I said, looking away before I got snagged in that gaze.
“Like I said, it’s a nice change. Sometimes, any change is a nice change.”
“What about next year? Have you picked colleges to go to?”
“Nah,” he said, pushing away his empty basket. “I can figure that out next semester. What about you? Any grand plans for after your senior year?”
My mind went back to everything I’d just recently learned, and I realized right then that I really didn’t know what was going to happen in my future anymore. My intuition told me everything was about to change, and maybe I didn’t even realize just how drastically.
“Hope?”
I blinked, meeting Gabe’s curious gaze.
“Sorry,” I said. “No, I don’t have anything planned for after senior year,” I answered. “Nothing set in stone, at least.”
We paid, well Gabe did, for dinner and headed back home. Night had covered the sky by the time we’d reached the house. The forest that had once been comforting to me, now seemed threatening in the dark.
“Thanks for dinner,” I said, as he pulled up around the circle of the driveway, right up to the porch steps. “It was definitely better than the microwave pizza.”
He smiled. “I should hope so. Thanks for coming last minute. This was - fun.”
“It was,” I said. “See you tomorrow at school.”
He said goodbye and I headed inside, a stupid grin on my face now that he couldn’t see it. I stopped at the door and waved as he drove back down the driveway.
“Wow,” I whispered, shaking my head. I had just gone out for dinner with, literally, the hottest guy to ever walk the halls of our school. Me. The social outcast. The girl who everyone shunned. Giddy, I turned to open the door, my face hurting from splitting in two, when I stopped just inside the doorway.
And screamed.
Nine
The Mansion
“Jesus Christ!” I shouted, grabbing my heart before it flew out of my chest.
“Cillian Black,” he corrected.
I swatted his arm. “I know what your friggin name is.”
Two dark brows raised in question.
“You scared the bejusus outta me.”
“Do you ever hear the way you talk?”
I slammed the front door shut, scooting by him, trying my best not to brush up against his bare chest as he shifted only slightly out of the way. As usual, shadows clung to him, making him almost impossible to see when I’d first opened the door. One would think those wings would be conspicuous, but not for him.
“What are you doing here?” I asked as I turned on the hall light and entered the kitchen.
“We’re going out,” he said, causing me to spin around and look at him. His eyes roamed down the front of me. “You should probably change first.”
I looked down at my Pink sweats and tank. “Why? Where are we going?”
“
Somewhere where I’d like you to look a little - older, if possible.”
Was “older” code for sexy? From the gleam in his eye, I thought, yes it was.
“I have school tomorrow,” I pointed out.
He shrugged before folding his arms over his chest. I did my best to keep my eyes on his face. “You’re the one who wanted to be kept in the loop. I can go alone if you’d like.”
He gave me a challenging look and I knew there was no way I could back down. Not after I’d made such a big deal about us being partners and all. Sighing, I said, “Give me five minutes.” I brushed past him to head upstairs. He didn’t move again, his eyes tracking my every movement. This time my skin met his, a spark shooting up my arm with the contact. I gave him a narrowed glare as I passed. He bared his teeth at me, not something I’d necessarily call a smile. When I hit the stairs, he yelled out after me.
The Dark Princess (The Balance Series Book 3) Page 10