Sins of the Immortal

by Jamie McGuire

  Levi took a step back, and I mirrored his every move until we were standing at the edge of the bed. The wetness on his cheeks mixed with mine. It wasn’t until that moment I realized we were both crying, for Petra, for each other, for the inescapable end and the inevitable forever after.

  I let darkness undress me in the middle of the day, letting his love soak through my skin as he kissed my collarbone and shoulder as the fabric of my clothes slipped down my arms. He slowly turned me around, as if we were dancing to the song of the universe only we could hear. Everything had led us to that moment, and I succumbed to being slowly lowered to the mattress and feeling the soft sheets on my back and the heat of his skin against the skin of my chest, middle, and between my thighs.

  He kissed me again, hovering just inches above me.

  His hesitation only made me want him more. “This isn’t the first time.”

  “It is in this life, in these bodies,” he whispered. His lips grazed my ear.

  I pulled him into me, and we both held our breath. I wasn’t sure what it was like for humans or hybrids, but returning to a love affair that had started an eternity before set off a million tiny fireworks just beneath every inch of my skin. My memories of him filled me as he did in the present; thoughts of his soul touching me deep within combined with him moving against me in the moment. My senses and thoughts were overwhelmed, and the minutes that passed were endless and yet moving too quickly.

  Levi began to tremble, and the soft moans coming from his throat sent me over the edge. He followed seconds after, holding me tight, shivering with every euphoric spasm that ensued. Our bodies tensed and then relaxed together, and I fell in love with the way the weight of him held me to the bed.

  He breathed hard against me. “What lacked in creativity…”

  “Don’t. This is perfect. Everything was perfect, don’t ruin it with unnecessary vacillation.”

  He breathed out a laugh. “Okay, then.” He planted a hard kiss on my lips. “The deity has spoken.”

  “Did you do that? The memories?” I asked.

  He relaxed at my side, grazing the curve of my bare hip with his fingertips. “I couldn’t help it. Just touching you brings it all back. It’s all I’ve thought about for so long, holding you like this. Being this way with you again.”

  “More than a distraction?”

  He kissed my temple. “Much more.” He pushed up from the bed and began to get dressed. I didn’t have to ask why. Morgan had arrived with Bex and Allison.

  Levi smiled at me while I dressed, seeing me in a new way. The grin plastering my lips into an upward curve wouldn’t go away, either, and I worried that everyone downstairs would know. Bex absolutely would. “Oh, God,” I said.

  “What?” Levi asked pausing.

  I covered my eyes. “Bex. You’re his Taleh. He knows. He knew… He probably… Oh, God.”

  Levi cringed, unable to come up with any words of comfort.

  “Let’s just get this over with,” I said, slipping on my shoes.

  Levi followed me downstairs. Bex and Allison were in the dining room, sitting with Morgan, watching him eagerly consume an entire charcuterie board by himself.

  “Eden!” Morgan said with a bright smile.

  “He has news,” Bex said, failing at every attempt to make eye contact with me.

  “Sorry. I’m so sorry,” I blurted out.

  “For what?” Morgan said, wrinkling his nose.

  “She’s talking to Bex,” Allison said, trying to maintain a straight face.

  Bex looked ill, the third most miserable I’d ever seen him, only losing to my death and his loss of Allison. “I don’t suppose you can not do that again?”

  Levi tried to answer, but only came up with a few unfinished words. He finished with a sigh and an apologetic smile.

  “The news?” Allison said, prodding Morgan.

  “I scored a scholarship. Full ride.”

  I beamed as I took the seat in front of him. “Really? That’s incredible Congratulations!”

  “Well. It was a Titan scholarship. I don’t know how much I earned.”

  “Morgan, you’re an exceptional student. All of it was earned,” I said.

  “Congratulations,” Levi said, stuffing his hands in his pocket.

  The movement caught Bex’s eye, and once he caught a glimpse of Levi’s hand, he cringed, likely remembering where it had just been.

  Bex stood up quickly. “I… I’m going to get some air.”

  “I really am so, so sorry,” I said, calling after him.

  Allison covered her giggles with her hand and then wiped away her smile. “It’s not funny at all, oh my God.” She cleared her throat. “Congratulations, Morgan.”

  Levi shrugged one shoulder. “It’s a little funny.”

  Allison burst into laughter, and Morgan stared at me, confused yet again by our strange family.

  I forced a smile. “When do you leave? Need help packing?”

  “Nope. Titan is covering all that. They connected us with a company that helps military families move. They come in two weeks to box up almost everything except the essentials. My mom is so relieved.”

  “Wow. A company who not only pays for college but for moving and transportation. Who knew that was a thing?” Levi asked.

  I glared at him. “I’ve heard of it.” I smiled at Morgan sweetly. “That’s truly amazing, Morg. So happy for you.”

  Morgan peeked at Levi before speaking to me. “We should, you know, hang out before I go.”

  “Absolutely,” I said. “The usual?”

  “Yep.”

  “It’s a date,” I said, feeling Levi’s uneasiness. He knew better than to be jealous, but he worried this wasn’t the time to be giving into foolish human proclivities.

  “I know,” I said in Levi’s general direction.

  “You know what?” Morgan asked.

  “Nothing,” Levi and I said in unison.

  “Okay,” he said, standing. “One last hurrah to celebrate. I thought I’d be nervous to go without you, but … I mean, no offense, but I’m not.”

  “None taken, Morgan, it’s great. It really is.”

  “You’re not going to college?” Allison asked.

  I pressed my lips together in a hard line.

  “Why is that?” Morgan asked, suddenly realizing how strange that was.

  Allison immediately realized her mistake. “That’s right,” she said, snapping. “Gap year.”

  I nodded. “I know. My parents aren’t happy, either.”

  “Did I know about this?” Morgan asked.

  “Yes.” I nodded.

  He seemed confused. “Things are still fuzzy from around the time I was, you know, comatose.”

  I shook my head. “No worries. When do you leave again?”

  “Two weeks. Let’s plan for the weekend before, but we should hang out before then.”

  “Definitely,” I said.

  He stood. “Okay, I have a lot to do. Write a thank you letter to Titan for one. Text me,” he said, jogging around the table to give me a hug.

  “Eden,” Levi said.

  I turned my back to Morgan the moment he reached for a hug, forcing him to squeeze me from behind. He froze and then pulled his hands back.

  “What?” I said, turning to him.

  He stared at me for a moment with horror on his face.

  “Morgan?” I asked.

  He shook his head, seeming to come out of it. “Nothing. I don’t know. Whoa.”

  “You okay?” I asked, touching his arm.

  Morgan winced and then relaxed under my fingers. I searched his mind and came up empty. Whatever had happened, it was something I couldn’t see, or it was just there for a moment; an echo.

  “Yeah. Yeah, I’m good. We’ll talk later,” he said.

  I went in for a hug, and he leaned back, patting my shoulder. “Talk soon.”

  Morgan left in a hur
ry, leaving Levi, Allison, and me to trade glances.

  “I left something behind,” I said.

  Levi shook his head. “No, something was close.”

  “Agreed,” Bex said, rounding the corner. “It was decent-sized, too. Nothing small like a Druden. Something I could tangle with.”

  I frowned. So did Allison.

  “What?” Bex said, side hugging her. He kissed her cheek.

  She was clearly disturbed, her expression unchanging even as her head tilted from the kiss. “It’s not something I enjoy thinking about, you fighting dem—”

  “Babe,” Bex said, interrupting her. He shook his head, and she nodded.

  He’d already educated her about humans and their acknowledgment of demons. For us, they hovered out of duty or to antagonize. For the most part, they left humans alone unless they were noticed or acknowledged, and that made them curious. Even Allison, who was being protected by a known demon killer like Bex could fly under the radar if she played the game right.

  “Sorry,” Allison said.

  Bex smiled. “You’re doing great. Nothing to be sorry about.”

  “It took my mother years,” I said.

  “Years,” Allison said, the innocence leaving her eyes.

  Bex’s brows pulled together, and he pulled her closer. “Hey. I’ll never let anything happen to you, I promise.”

  Allison managed a small grin and nodded, but Bex wasn’t fooled. He took her hand and guided her down the hall and to the courtyard.

  “She’s tough,” Levi said. “She’ll figure it out.”

  “I don’t know. She loves Bex, but some people can’t handle it like my mother did. So funny to think about the stories she told me, and how she described herself as weak and ridiculous in the beginning. She’s too hard on herself.”

  Levi reached for me and pulled me close. I breathed him in, relaxing until I heard Bex scream at us from the courtyard.

  “Enough for one day!”

  Levi released me, letting his arms slap to his sides.

  I chuckled. “We’ll figure it out, too.”

  “Promise?”

  “Somehow…” I said, frowning as any ideas eluded me.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Levi

  Eden sat up the same time as I did, her fingers pressed against my sweat-soaked arm.

  I stared at her door, breathing hard, trying to catch my breath and figure out a way to tell her what I knew.

  “Was it a nightmare, or did you venture to your old stomping grounds?” she asked, squeezing my arm. “Levi?”

  “Give me a sec,” I said, coughing.

  That was the thing about breathing in Hell. Even if it was just a few minutes, the sulphur and heat made your throat and lungs feel seared, irritated, and scratchy. Swallowing made it that much worse. It used to annoy me that the feeling carried over, but now it came with the territory of bouncing planes.

  “You went under,” she said, concerned. “It seems to affect you more than it used to. And you’re still not healed completely.”

  I coughed again, and for a moment I had to suck in a few wheezing breaths to cough again, but my lungs finally settled down enough for me to form words. “I feel weaker every day. It’s alarming how much power my father gave me. Maybe I’m just Cambion after all.” That theory wasn’t something I wanted to share with my girlfriend, one of the most powerful beings in the universe, but it was proving to be right.

  “Why did you go without me? You’re not in any shape to—”

  “It wasn’t a choice.”

  She frowned, confused. “What do you mean?”

  “I was summoned.”

  “I don’t suppose you can tell me who,” she said, pulling me to the mattress with her and holding me to her chest. Her skin was so soft and warm, her fingers so strong and delicate at the same time, her lips against my temple plush, tender whispers on my skin. It was such a contradiction of where I’d just been and what I’d seen.

  “Not here,” I said.

  She nodded and squeezed me tight, as if she already knew what I wasn’t saying. We needed to prepare, but my body wasn’t ready for a return. As much as I hated it, I needed to rest.

  “I wonder…” she said, sitting up. “I changed Morgan’s memories, his brain. I wonder if I can manipulate your healing process?”

  I shrugged. “You can try.”

  She held her hand against my stomach and closed her eyes. She was silent for a full minute, then grinned. “I think I…”

  The pain from my wounds began to subside. Eden’s heart rate rose, her eyes flickering beneath her closed lids.

  “It’s…” she began again, instead concentrating. Her eyes popped open, and she lifted her hand and pulled back the dressings to find flawless skin where my wounds were. “Holy sh…”

  “Don’t…!” I raised my voice, then quieted. “Press your luck.”

  Her eyes widened. “How do you feel? Do you think I just messed with The Balance?”

  “I don’t think you could’ve done it if you did.”

  “Right. Sit up.” She patted me. “Sit up! Stretch, move around,” she said, excited.

  I did as she commanded. The pain and stiffness were gone. “Whoa. I feel better than better. It’s like it never happened.”

  She covered her smile and giggled. “It was like doing surgery in my brain. I could feel your skin, your muscles, your facia, your blood individually; even your cells!”

  “I’m glad you enjoyed it. Not getting hurt again, though.”

  She shook her head. “Understandable. But if you do, know I’m here for it.”

  I chuckled and wrapped my arms around her shoulders, nuzzling her nose with mine. “Thank you, my love.”

  She sighed, at total ease. “Any time.”

  Eden’s phone pinged. It was Bex, and the text message simply read, “Stop.”

  Her laughter chimed across the room. She was the happiest I’d seen her since she’d come back. I couldn’t tell her that my brothers were planning an attack that night. Not yet, anyway. I didn’t want to spoil the moment.

  “What?” she asked, her smile fading.

  “Not a thing,” I said, tackling her to the bed.

  I swept back the nearly white strands that had fallen into her face, her ice blue eyes staring into mine, her bottom lip full and glistening from her biting it the second before.

  “Except that I love you. I love you, Eden. Whatever happens next, it’s us. You and me.”

  She nodded and then touched my cheek.

  “I know.”

  “You know?”

  She nodded and then giggled when I grabbed her side. She laughed out loud, not trying at all to escape my grip. I could tell she was holding back. I wasn’t even sure if I was actually tickling her. But what I had to say next would put all this to an end, so her pretending was fine. More than fine. My black heart needed the white lie, and she likely knew it.

  When I stopped, she relaxed, but the content smile I expected wasn’t there.

  “We’ll make it, one way or another.”

  “I’m limited,” she said, biting her lip again as she fell deep into thought. “What if … what if I can’t help you? What if I can’t help my family?”

  “What-ifs don’t exist, Eden. We’ll handle what comes along.”

  “If it doesn’t, though,” she said, her gaze rising to meet mine. She squeezed my shoulders with her fingers. “If it doesn’t, we still have Gehenna, to use it for what it was created for.”

  “No,” I said. “I’m not going to let that happen.”

  Her eyes filled with tears. “Don’t you remember what it was like apart? Every thought of you was painful. I felt sick. And I thought about you nearly every moment. When you were in the Oubliette it was worse.” She looked at the pastel painting the sunset outside had cast on her windows and bit on her perfect oval thumbnail. “Humans know death. They know injury, but they don’t know
pain.”

  I frowned. “No?”

  She looked at me. “You don’t know pain until you’ve been on your hands and knees begging God to heal your heart.”

  “Pretty sure humans know that pain.”

  “Not the kind that spans lifetimes.”

  I leaned down and kissed her forehead, then the wet line that spanned from the outside corner of her eye to her hairline. “We won’t need Gehenna. I promise.”

  “I feel it. They’ve decided,” Eden said.

  I sighed, hoping our moment of peace could last a bit longer. “We need to bounce.”

  She nodded, crawling out from under me then standing next to the bed. I sat on the edge of the mattress, my elbows perched on my knees, looking up at her. “We don’t have to do it now.”

  “Yes, we do,” she said, reaching out for me.

  The second I stood, we phased, and those same platinum strands that I had combed back were now blowing wildly against her face.

  Eden stood two feet away from me in her short silk baby blue nightgown, lace straps curving over her shoulders and bordering the bottom hem. Her exquisiteness was the opposite of anything I’d ever seen in Hell. It felt wrong for her to be standing there, and it also felt wrong that I was home.

  “No, you’re not,” she said, reaching her hand out to mine.

  “You’re reading minds now? What was the point in bouncing planes?” I asked, taking her hand.

  Her bare feet navigated the dirt ground riddled with glass, broken cement, and burning refuse as if she were taking a stroll on a white sand beach.

  “Not reading minds, just feelings, and that expression on your face made it pretty obvious.” She glanced over her shoulder. “We should keep moving.”

  “I feel it, too.” Something big had already picked up on our presence.

  “Were you here earlier with Ramiel?”

  “Yes. There are traitors on both sides. In Hell and in Heaven.”

  Eden’s thoughts scrolled across her face. “There are two now?”