Текст книги "Apollyon"

Автор книги: Jennifer L. Armentrout

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Текущая страница: 8 (всего у книги 22 страниц)

CHAPTER 14

Over the next three days, our little band fell into a rhythm of sorts. Things had settled down in the world. There’d been no more natural disasters, and Mount St. Helens seemed to have quieted. Apollo was still a no-show and the cabin out in the middle of nowhere had become a god-free zone. A good thing, but I figured one would just pop in, most likely in Deacon’s bed or something, where we’d least expect them. But even though there’d been no godly interference, it was like watching the countdown clock on a time bomb. We all were just waiting.

Each day had been filled with training, training, and more training. Parts were worse than any days at the Covenant, because everyonestopped and watched when it came time for me to break out the akasha.

Marcus and Solos had lined up several large rocks they’d found scattered about, and my job was to make itty, bitty pebbles out of them. And that worked—up close. Say, like a few feet away. But the further away I got, the worse my aim became.

Sweating under Aiden’s loose thermal, I grunted as I pulled from where akasha rested just below my ribcage. The power of the gods mark tingled as the fifth element crackled across my knuckles.

Under the canopy of trees, Aiden and Olivia stopped their sparring to watch.

Focusing on the element, I felt my senses sharpen. Using akasha was like being connected directly with the Earth—like run-and-hug-a-tree connected. I could feel the vibrations of the grass and soil under my feet, as well as the dozens of scents carried on the low moan of the wind, and I could feelthe air gliding over my skin with ghostly fingers.

Akasha crackled over my right arm as I threw my hand out. A bolt of lightning erupted from my palm, shooting across the ten feet and smacking into the right edge of the boulder. With a loud crack, the thing splintered.

Luke darted out of the way, but he was still pelted with rubble. He doubled over, about to kiss the ground.

“Whoops.” I winced. “Sorry?”

Rubbing his back, he waved it off and limped toward where Deacon was trying to hide his laughter. “Shut up,” he grumbled.

“You should’ve known better than to be that close,” Deacon replied.

I sighed and turned to Solos. “I have terrible aim.”

Solos nodded. “It’s slightly off.”

“Slightly?” My brows lifted.

“You’re hitting the target, and I suppose that’s all that matters.”

Peeking at Aiden, I found that his attention was now on the sparring Lea and Olivia. The two girls were marvelous fighters and equally matched, and Aiden was in full Instructor mode, calling out commands in his deep, oddly musical voice. I found myself missing that one-on-one attention.

Heck, I was missing a lot of attention.

One thing had been certain over the last three days—something was definitely up with Aiden. It wasn’t that he avoided me. Every night he joined me in bed, pulled me close, and held me. Nothing progressed further than that, even though I could sense he wanted more. He just didn’t make a move, and I had no idea why. I was pretty sure the way I ended up curling all around him was evidence I was down for some happy times.

I bit my lip as I turned to the last boulder, shaking out my shoulders. There hadn’t been another nightmare of Seth, thank the gods. Part of me suspected it had something to do with the fact that I didn’t go to sleep until after Aiden did. Maybe just knowing that he was there helped, but he didn’t go to sleep until late, which usually meant it took another couple of hours for me to drift off, and when he awoke at the crack of freaking dawn, so did I. Since I was tapping into akasha daily, I was drained like a daimon victim.

But I pushed away the fatigue. Like Marcus had once said, I was a lot of things, but not stupid. I knew why Apollo wanted me working with akasha. He was preparing me to fight Seth. And I would need everything in my arsenal to avoid the power transfer that would end everything.

There was an inherent problem with training for a faceoff with Seth. How was I supposed to fight him when all it would take from him was a touch and a few whispered words in Greek?

Yeah, we were doomed to failure.

Panic hammered me in the chest as my gaze drifted over those around me. If anything went wrong, which it most likely would, all of them were at risk. Lea could end up like her sister, Olivia like Caleb, Luke and Solos like every Sentinel that had been slaughtered by Lucian and his army. Marcus could end up like my mom.

My eyes settled on Aiden.

Deacon had gotten up and was standing next to his older brother. Under the sunlight, his blond curls were a pale platinum. The brothers shared the same striking eye color, but that was all. They were like yin and yang, night and day, standing side by side.

Deacon’s hands were cupped around something, and as he lifted his head, a genuine smile spread across his lips and those gray eyes glittered. Aiden laughed at whatever Deacon had said.

They could end up like their parents.

Fear made my skin tight as it replaced the panic. I rubbed at my temple, forcing my breath to saw in and out evenly. No one was going to die. There would be no more deaths. There couldn’t be. Everyonehad suffered enough already.

But there was Fate. There was no such thing as paying dues when it came to Fate. It simply did not care, or recognize past experience.

Knowing that made me want to plop down in the cold, damp grass and cry like an angry, fat baby.

“Alex?” Solos’ soft voice drew me out of my troublesome thoughts.

I nodded and focused on the last rock. What I didn’t like about using akasha was the fact that the buzzing in my head was always the strongest then, like tapping into the most powerful element somehow affected the bond. None of the Apollyons had ever thought or discussed that in the past, so I had no idea if that was true.

Calling upon akasha, I let it go. The bolt of blue lightning was incredibly intense, shattering in its power. Silence and then another loud crackfollowed. This time it hit the rock in the middle and the thing didn’t explode, but was reduced to a pile of dust.

Solos let out a low whistle as he stared at the dust and the scorched soil below. “Remind me to never piss you off.”

I cracked a smile as I backed off, letting the buzz of akasha settle back down. Bending at the waist, I snatched up my water. Over the rim, I watched Olivia deliver a spin kick that knocked Lea back several feet.

Aiden clapped. “Perfect, Olivia.” And then to Lea, “You hesitated. If you hadn’t, you would’ve blocked that kick.”

Nodding, Lea stood up and dusted herself off. She quickly fell back into stance and went at it again.

A low, annoying ache blossomed in my temple, making my right eye all twitchy. I tossed the bottle back down and turned to Solos. Out of rocks to destroy, I was handed off to Marcus to work on elements.

Off a little from the main group, he raised his hands. A gust of wind picked up. Branches rattled, and fresh, tiny leaves swirled in the air as the wind barreled toward me.

I raised my hands, and unlike before I’d Awakened, I met the air element with my own. His sputtered out weakly under the force of mine. Amazing how the air element had been my greatest enemy before, but now was only a mild annoyance.

Deacon and Laadan even got involved in the later part of the day. Laadan worked with the air element and Deacon set about creating small fires and controlling them. I couldn’t picture those two fighting, but at this point, everyone had become a warrior.

Aiden watched his brother with narrowed eyes and a tight jaw, so tight I wondered if he had any molars left. Finally, he left the halfs and stalked over to where Deacon had several piles of twigs burning.

“What are you doing?” Aiden demanded.

Deacon looked up from under the mop of curls. “I’m becoming a fire bug.”

The humor was lost on Aiden. “I know what you’re thinking.”

“Ah, hell, well if that’s the case, then that’s embarrassing.”

Aiden’s back went rigid. “Unless you’re practicing starting campfires, you’re wasting your time.”

“But—”

“You don’t need to do this.” Aiden waved his hand over the piles of burning twigs and the flames fizzled out. “I don’t want you involved in any of this.”

Deacon drew himself up to his full height, which meant he only came to Aiden’s shoulders. “You can’t stop me, Aiden.”

Ah, wrong thing to say.

“You want to bet on that?” Aiden growled, his head dropping so that he was eye level with his brother.

Undaunted, Deacon held his ground but dropped his voice. “Do you expect me to sit back and play card games while everyone else is doing something important?”

“Yes, I do, actually.”

Deacon laughed humorlessly. “I can help.”

“You’re not trained.” His hands formed into fists at his sides. “And before you say it, you’re not everyone else.”

“I know I’m not trained, but I’m not freaking useless, Aiden. I canhelp.” They were in an epic staredown I hadn’t seen before, especially not from easy-going Deacon. “And asking me to sit back and watch everyone else—people that I care about, people like you—prepare to risk their lives while I do nothing isn’t fair.”

Aiden opened his mouth, but his brother rushed on. “I know your over-controlling behavior comes from a good place, bro, but you can’t protect me forever and you can’t continue babying me. It’s a waste of time, because even if you forbid me to get involved, it won’t matter. You can’t stop me.” Deacon took a deep breath. “I need to help, Aiden.”

Something in what Deacon said caused Aiden to string together an atrocity of f-bombs. My brows flew up. Aiden rarely cussed or lost his cool, but boy, he was a grenade whose pin had just been pulled.

He took a step back, placing his hands on his hips. I almost expected him to drag Deacon into the cabin and lock him in there, but instead, he jerked his head in a curt nod. “Okay. If this is what you… need, then okay.”

I was stunned into silence. So was Deacon. Without another word, Aiden returned to where the halfs waited.

Deacon’s eyes met mine and he shrugged.

Shocked that Aiden had given in—and somewhat pleased that he was seeing Deacon as something more than his little brother who partied too much—I followed Marcus over to the rest of the group.

We practiced at that for the rest of the day and even went as far as to use the air element against the rest of the halfs, forcing them to break my hold. I hated doing that, because I knew how helpless I’d felt when the air element used to pin me down, but air users were the most common, which meant over half of the daimons used air. It was one of the reasons so many halfs died in battle against them.

So we had to deal with it.

Fire and earth were rare among pures. Aiden and Deacon were the only two I knew who wielded fire, and I hadn’t met a pure who controlled earth, although I’d seen it used once, in the New York Covenant. The water element came in handy if the user was near water or in the rain. Some thought they had gotten the crappy element, but I knew it wasn’t true. They could pull water from pipes—from anything.

I was squared off against Lea. Not that long ago, I would’ve experienced a twisted sort of satisfaction at taking her down, but things… things were so different now.

We stared at each other for a few seconds, and then she nodded.

Slowly, reluctantly, I raised my hands and drew the air around me. A vicious stream of wind formed just behind my fingers, and then slid through them. Like with akasha, my aim wasn’t great, but it struck Lea below the chest, knocking her right on her back.

I moved forward, my arms shaking as I forced the element on her. It was hard to look at her, hard to not see myself struggling and thrashing on the ground, unable to gain footing.

Aiden crouched behind her, barking out orders in his own soft way, but the best she could do was draw her legs up and that was all.

Her body trembled as her lips pulled back in a snarl. She fought to just sit up, and I wanted her to, because from there, it was easier to break the hold, but the element pinned her shoulders down to the grass.

Wave after wave of air beat down on her, and she threw her head back and screamed as she raised one hand, her fingers clawing at the invisible enemy.

“Lea, come on. Use your core muscles,” Aiden said, lifting his lashes to pierce me with concrete eyes. “Push through it…”

I hated this, hated this so much. My entire body shook.

Another scream as she slammed her hands down into the short blades of grass. Her fingers dug in, tearing through dirt. Clumps came up as she pushed up into a sitting position. I started to smile, but Lea powered up quickly and rushed me.

She cut through the element, arms wrapping around my waist as she smashed into me. We went down, a tangle of arms and legs. The back of my head smacked off the ground. Starbursts exploded behind my eyelids. Air rushed from my lungs in a painful grasp.

The sound of applause was thundering, and I think Deacon yelled, “Girl fight!”

And then there was silence. No one moved. I like to think everyone was preparing for a massive Apollyon bitch-smack from my end.

“Damn,” I grunted, blinking several times. Through Lea’s coppery hair, the sky was a light color of blue.

Using her arms, Lea lifted up and grinned at me. “Let’s just call that a little bit of payback.” She rolled off and sprang to her feet, still grinning broadly. “Well, that was fun.”

I remained sprawled on the ground, the throbbing in my right temple now spreading to the back of my skull. Quite possible she’d knocked something loose—hopefully nothing important.

A strong, tan-colored hand appeared in my vision. “Up?”

Placing my hand in Aiden’s, I let him haul me to my feet and stood there while he brushed clumps of dirt off my aching shoulders. On second thought, my whole body ached. A small smile played over his full lips. Our eyes met, and while everyone milled around about us, in that moment, it was just him and me.

Aiden leaned over me, his breath warm against the curve of my neck. A fine shiver scuttled over my skin, and the ache in my right temple eased off. I inhaled deeply, surrounding myself in his masculine, earthy scent. Everyone around us disappeared.

“I know what you did,” he whispered.

I jerked back, eyes narrowing. Not the sweet nothings I’d been hoping he’d whisper. “What?”

Arching a brow, he then turned and swaggered off to join the congratulatory group forming around Lea. I popped my hands on my hips, shaking my head. There was no way he could know. No way at all.

CHAPTER 15

Later that night, I was on the hunt and Aiden was my prey. After training, he’d disappeared. After dinner, he’d disappearedagain, and hours had gone by since then. It was a few minutes past midnight, and I knew he wasn’t on rounds. Solos was, and the niggling suspicion that Aiden was avoiding me was turning into full-blown paranoia.

Prowling through the lower floor, I hoped to burn off most of the nervous energy and stave off the beginnings of a headache. Right now, it was just a dull ache behind my eyes, but I had a feeling it was going to turn into a head-splitter.

There was another long night ahead, made worse by where my thoughts were. Of all things I should’ve been worried about at the moment, I knew this wasn’t it, but I hated that there was this wall that had come out of nowhere. And it was a weird wall that…

I weathered a sudden, terrible memory of Aiden staring at the bottle of Elixir I’d held in the kitchen after my first dinner back in the land of the sane. Had seeing that Elixir reminded him of what he’d taken part in? He couldn’t be… feeling guilty over placing me on the Elixir, could he? I’m pretty sure everyone in the world would agree that had been necessary.

“You look pissy.” Lea’s voice rattled me out of my thoughts.

I stood outside a small study that held only a couch and a desk. Bookcases lined the wall, but most of the shelves were empty. The only light came from the little lamp peeking over the back of the couch.

“I’m not pissy.” I was confused, frustrated and paranoid, tired and… okay, I was a tiny bit pissy.

She tucked a stray strand of hair back. A moment of silence passed and then, “I know what you did.”

That was the second time someone had said that to me in a few hours, and honestly, neither of them could really know. Could they? Wasn’t like I wore a sign on my forehead.

I stared at Lea blankly. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

She made a show of slowly closing her book and putting it aside. Biting back a groan, I walked into the room and leaned against the desk. “What?” I demanded, folding my arms.

My arch-nemesis stared back at me unflinchingly. Whatever I’d dished out at her over the years, she’d always returned. In some ways, we were a lot alike. We were two alpha females, constantly at one another’s throats.

But it was more than that.

In a flash of disturbing insight, I knew why we’d become sandbox enemies so very long ago. When I was younger, before Mom had yanked my butt out of the Covenant, before Lea and I hated each other, we used to be decent. That is, until one day, I’d said something terrible to her.

Even at the age of ten, Lea had loved her pure-blooded stepmother and half-sister—to the point that the rest of us halfs thought something was wrong with her. Most of the pures ignored their half-blood children, especially the ones who hadn’t birthed or sired the half-bloods. Stepparents in our world were truly step-monsters. But in Lea’s world, her pure-blooded stepmother must’ve loved her dearly. Every Monday, after spending the weekend with her stepmother, Lea would talk about all the wonderful things they’d done together—shopping, watching movies, and getting ice cream. None of us had that with our step-monsters. Lucian used to lock me in my bedroom when Mom wasn’t home.

So naturally, we’d been jealous.

We’d dogged her constantly about her love of her stepmother. Destroyed the dress she had bought Lea by spilling cranberry juice on it. Hid the tiny photo album Lea carried with her all the time. It had been polka-dotted with pink stripes, full of these pictures of her and Dawn, her pure-blooded half-sister. Once I’d found a card Lea’s stepmother had written to Lea, tucked away in one of her textbooks.

I had ripped it to shreds in front of Lea, laughing as she cried.

Then one day, while we were all running laps, Lea had stopped to stare at a visiting pure-blood Council member. Her face had taken on this glow that none of us understood. It looked like respect and wonder. But that couldn’t be right. Because, as halfs, we didn’t stare at pures in open admiration, like we’d cut off our left arm to be like them.

After class, I had found Lea sitting in the courtyard with her friends. Followed by Caleb and a few others, I’d stormed their circle and stood in the middle. And I’d said the biggest, meanest thing I could ever say to another half-blood.

“You have more pure-blood in you than half.”

The same thing Seth had said to me once before.

Come to think of it, I think I may have spit on her, too.

Lea pretty much hated me after that, and honestly, I don’t know how I had forgotten that. Then again, I probably chose to forget what’d started our sandbox hate. I always chalked Lea’s animosity toward me as a product of her general bitchiness, when in reality I had been nothing more than a bully.

It seemed too late to apologize now, and knowing Lea, it wouldn’t change anything, not that I expected it would.

Lea watched me now, head tilted to the side as if she knew where my thoughts had gone. She smiled tightly. “You let up on the air element while we were fighting.”

My mouth dropped opened, but she rushed on.

“I wouldn’t have broken your hold if you hadn’t let up. I felt it lessen—the pressure—and I didn’t realize right away that you did it, but I figured it out,” she said, as if she wanted to prove that she’d been smart enough to see through it. “What I don’t get is why you did it. You could’ve pushed me straight through the ground. Gods know you never had a problem coming after me before. What’s so different now?”

Unfolding my arms, I gripped the edge of the desk. I had no idea what to say. Lea was right. I hadlet up on the air element, and that wasn’t the only thing she called me out on. A few months ago, if I’d had control over the element then, I would’ve tossed her around the forest for the fun of it, maybe even thrown another apple at her face. Anything was possible.

I tugged on my hair, pulling the thick braid over one shoulder. Lea waited for my explanation and I felt my cheeks redden.

Her amethyst eyes narrowed.

Blowing out a low breath, I rolled my eyes and tossed my hair back over my shoulder. “Okay. You got me. I did let up, and I did it because I remember how much it sucked to be held down like that and be helpless. I hatedit when Seth did it to me.”

She paled under her ever-present tan. “He… he did that to you?”

“In training,” I said, dismissing where her mind was obviously going with that. “Anyway, I just couldn’t do that to someone else, even if that person isa stuck-up, tan-as-leather hooch.”

Lea watched me a moment, then cracked a smile. “And that’s coming from Alex, Covenant dropout extraordinaire and psycho Apollyon.”

My lips twitched. “Ow. Burn.”

Turning her head, she hid her grin but quickly sobered as she faced me. “You’ve changed so much, Alex.”

Part of me wanted to deny it, but it was true. As I stared back at the copper-haired girl, I realized we’d both irrevocably changed. There was no going back to the girls we’d been over the past summer.

Lea sighed and her nose wrinkled. “So… this is awkward.”

I laughed. “Yeah, it is. I feel like I need to insult you some more.”

She leaned back in an arrogant sprawl as she raised her hands. “Do your best.”

“It’s too easy,” I said, letting go of the desk, feeling the blood rush back into my fingertips. “I’ll just wait for you to do something to tick me off. I’m sure it won’t take long.”

“Probably not,” she replied. “I’m surprised you’re not all up Olivia’s butt.”

I arched a brow. “Trying to tick me off so soon? I’m surprised.”

Lea shrugged and then there was a pause. “Olivia told me that you saw Caleb twice. Was that… was that true?”

I nodded. “I saw him when I went to the Underworld, and he visited me right before I escaped.”

Her thick lashes swept down. “Was he okay?”

And then it hit me. It wasn’t concern for Caleb or anything, but the reason she was asking had to do with her half-sister. “Yeah, he was more than okay. He was happier than he was before he passed.” A lump formed in my throat and I focused on the empty bookshelves. “He said my mom was there, too, so I’m sure your parents and Dawn are there… and they’re okay.”

She drew in a choked breath, and like me, she suddenly became focused on the frayed edges of the couch arm. All half-bloods had been trained to show no pain, and gods forbid we cried. The whole show-no-weakness mantra was hard to leave behind.

I dropped down on the cushion beside Lea and picked up the book she’d been reading. Turning the book over, my brows flew up as I got an eyeful of the hottie on the cover. “Wait. Is this book about aliens?”

She snatched it back from me. “Yes.”

“Really?”

“But they’re hot aliens.” She tapped on the guy’s face with one thin finger. “And he can be my ET any day.”

I laughed outright, and it did feel a little odd to be laughing with Lea of all people, but she smiled a little. Lea and I would never be BFF’s, but I wondered if, one day, we’d actually consider each other friends.

A sharp slice of pain shot from behind my eyes and across my temples. Wincing, I stood and took a deep breath. “Do we have any Tylenol around?” Another shot of pain, like fire streaking through the vessels in my brain, caused nausea to rise in my throat. “Or a sledge hammer? Something?”

“I’m sure there’s something—hey– hey—are you okay?” Lea’s voice suddenly sounded so, so far away, but her hand was on my arm.

“Yeah, I’m… okay.” I took a step and felt a tremble in my legs. Muscles twitched, gave way.

An explosion flashed white in the dimly lit room, blinding me temporarily. I thought I screamed a warning. I thought I turned to move in front of Lea, but when the intense white light receded, I wasn’t in the little room anymore.

The circular chamber was made of sandstone and lined with marble pillars. Strange glyphs covered the walls, runes that matched the ones gliding over my skin. There was nothing in the room—no couch or bookshelves or Lea—but I wasn’t alone.

“What the hell?” I demanded.

Standing before me was a god, one who looked like he wasn’t much older than me. The winged cap he wore hid most of his hair, but light brown wisps poked out from underneath. He wore a white chlamys cloak.

The god gave a little smile. “Don’t kill the messenger.”

And then he blinked out.

“What the fu—”

Then I saw him. He leaned against one of the pillars, his back to me. The familiar black garb, the wave of blond hair—now slightly longer… Recognition sent a terrible, icy Shockwave of disbelief through me.

“Seth?” I whispered.

A heartbeat passed and he turned his head to the side. “I am not very happy with you, Alex.”

Horror rose quickly and I took an involuntarily step back. Before, I never would’ve feared him—would’ve laughed at the thought. But now I was terrified—not of him, but what he could do.

Seth turned to me and his face was as I remembered—strong jaw and expressive lips, eyes like liquid amber and a beauty that was too perfect. It always reminded me of sculptures done in the images of the gods.

He arched a mocking brow. “What? Are you struck speechless? That would be a first.”

“How?” I croaked, heart racing painfully.

“We’re still connected, and I’ve been waiting for the right moment to… how should I say this? ‘Make a long-distance call via our bond’?” He smiled that smug half-grin. “Shield or not, I can still reach you… with a little help from friends in high places.”

The god…“Hermes?”

Seth nodded. “He’s always been a fav of mine. Bringing you to me will surely piss off some of the other gods, which was all it took to convince Hermes to do it. And before you jump to the wrong conclusion, Hermes is not the god responsible for me.”

The fact that Seth had gotten Hermes to swoop in ticked me off, but it didn’t make sense. How had Hermes found me? Confusion swamped me, but there was something that tasted like blood behind it. “I don’t understand. Where am I?”

“You’re where I want you to be.” He took a calculated step forward.

I inched backward. “That’s not much of an answer.”

Seth cocked his head to the side, eyes narrowing as he kept coming forward. “Do you think you deserve an answer?”

Now I knew what tasted like metal in the back of my throat. Anger. “Am I dreaming, Seth?”

He laughed; while we’d been connected, he had laughed a lot, but now I realized there was a difference between real Seth and the ghost version of him. His presence was potent; his voice held a husky, musical quality to it with the slightest accent. And his laugh… his laugh was deep and smug.

“You’re not dreaming, Alex. Like I said, I used our connection, and Hermes helped. This…” He spread his arms out, and the golden skin was covered in moving symbols. “This is in here.” He tapped a finger off his skull. “It’s like Skyping.”

My hand itched to knock that smile off his face. “So this isn’t real?”

“Oh, it’s real to a certain extent.”

I found that I’d kept backing up and now my back was against the warm sandstone wall. “This can’t be real.”

Seth stopped in front of me and leaned in, coming so close that I turned my head, my fingers curling helplessly at my sides. His breath danced over my cheek. “If you’re worried that I can transfer your power in this state, I can’t. Neither can I really get anything out of our bond. Your shields—” he rolled his eyes “—are still intact. I probably shouldn’t have taught you how to do that, but anyway, you’re not really here. Hermes rode our connection to your subconscious and pulled you into mine.”

Gods, that sounded so entirely messed up.

“I missed you. So relax.”

Relax? I was supposed to relax when I was here, wherever here was, with crazy-pants Seth? My head jerked toward him. Our faces were mere inches apart. “You missed me?”

“I miss the Alex who lived to make me happy.” He laughed at what I was sure was a I’m going to murder youlook that crossed my face. “Okay. I wanted to see if this would work and it did.”

“So if I touch you, then nothing will happen?”

“Correct.” His amber eyes flared. “Wait. You want to touch me? I like where this is going.”

I smiled, and then a second later I planted my fist in his stomach with everything I had in me. Doubling over, Seth grunted and let out a low curse. Moving forward, I brought my knee up, slamming into the same spot my fist had connected with seconds before.

“Dammit, Alex, I can feelthat.” Seth straightened, rubbing his stomach.

Sweet satisfaction tasted like sugar on my tongue. “Good! Because there’s more where that came from, you psychotic douchebag!” I swung again.

Seth reacted quickly, capturing my hand in his. He pushed back, snatching my other wrist, which was heading for his face. Less than a second later, he had both my wrists pinned above my head.

Smiling like I hadn’t just kicked the air out of his stomach, which totally ticked me off, he pressed in. “How many times have I told you, Alex? Hitting isn’t nice.”

I pushed off the wall, but all that succeeded in doing was bringing our bodies flush. Anger deepened the hue of his eyes, as did something else—interest and lust. And even though that made my skin crawl, I realized something important. The cord wasn’t snapping alive like it usually did when I was around him, especially when he was practically on top of me. It rested dormant in the pit of my stomach.

This was real… but it wasn’t real. Still, I wasn’t thrilled with what was happening.

“You’re in my personal space.” My jaw ached from how hard I was grinding my molars. “Let go.”

“No.” His eyes widened. “You might hit me again.”

“You can count on it!” Rage boiled inside me, swallowing the confusion and terror that had held such a tight grip on me. “How could you do that to me?” I kicked off the wall, but Seth pushed back. “You promised you wouldn’t use our bond against me, and you did! You turned me into the president of the Seth Fan Club.”