Текст книги "Sunburst"

Автор книги: Rachel Higginson

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Текущая страница: 13 (всего у книги 22 страниц)

Chapter Sixteen

I felt Seth stir next to me and my eyes shot open. The early morning sun was burning my room with a haze of gray light. I lay as still as I could, trying very hard not to change anything about me.

I was afraid to wake him up. I had no idea which version of him I would meet this morning. He could kiss me just as easily as he could put a knife to my throat.

It was too late though. I felt him yawn against my back and snuggle in closer. And then he seemed to remember where he was. His arms tensed before he abruptly flipped me over so that I was on my back looking up at him.

His sleep-mussed hair was wild and curlier than usual. His eyes were still just a bit confused and his jaw had a healthy overnight growth across it.

He looked amazing.

I didn’t even want to analyze what I looked like in the morning with my frizzed out hair and missing makeup. It wasn’t something I could even think about.

But truthfully, I couldn’t think about anything with him staring so intently at me.

He was trying to see something or find something in me. I just didn’t know what it was.

“I haven’t slept that well…. in a while,” he finally admitted.

We were silent for a minute before I finally asked, “Are you still having nightmares?” I couldn’t feel him anymore. There wasn’t a connection left for me to know what he was going through or feeling.

A cruel smile tilted his lips and he murmured in a deceptively seductive voice, “No, now I’m living them.”

Sadness overrode every other emotion and I lifted my hand to cup his jaw. “I’m going to find a way to get you out of this.”

He laughed bitterly, “Are you? You’re going to save me? Come rescue me?” His tone was biting and acerbic. I shrunk back from him with a battered heart and tears pooling in the corner of my eyes. “It’s a little late for that, don’t you think?”

I shook my head, hating that I was so sensitive around Seth. If any other person taunted me like this, I would kick their ass and enjoy watching them suffer. But this was Seth. Just a few weeks ago he was the sweetest, most caring person I had ever known. He got frustrated with me, but he was never cruel or purposefully hurtful.

He took in my pained expression and seemed to make an effort to get a better hold of himself. His eyes scrunched shut and I watched the muscles in his throat work hard to swallow. He shook out his tussled hair and then slowly opened his eyes to look at me again.

“I should go.”

I just nodded because he was right. Even though I didn’t want him to. Even though I couldn’t stand to be apart from him like this.

“I have work to do,” he reiterated.

And this time it felt like he was convincing himself.

“And I have school,” I offered.

He nodded.

“Will you come back tonight?” I was almost afraid to ask, but I was desperate for him to say that he was.

“I can’t.” His voice was ragged and he couldn’t look at me. “This was just…. this was a moment of weakness.”

“Oh.”

He pulled his arm out from underneath me and pressed up on his hands. He hovered over me and suddenly dragged his nose from my navel up my stomach and then to the hollow of my throat. I sucked in a sharp breath as he seemed to hover over my chest, making some complex internal decision.

I couldn’t have guessed the thoughts in his head if I had thought about it for the rest of my life. And I didn’t think I wanted to know them anyway.

I just lay perfectly, absolutely still, until finally he bent his head down and pressed the sweetest, gentles kiss on my exposed skin, right where my heart beat frantically against my chest.

And then he was gone– off my bed, out my window, and into the sky before I could even resume breathing.

When my lungs finally worked again they were panting overtime. I flung an arm over my face and groaned. That boy was going to kill me from the emotional rollercoaster he put me on. One minute we were climbing the highest incline ever, slowly, carefully, feeling safe and self-assured, and then the next we had bypassed the peak and were flying down the steepest drop known to man, free-falling, crazily out of control, blinded by fear and uncertainty.

It was too much.

And this was only the beginning.

My alarm went off next to my bed and I tossed an arm over to shut it off. Eventually I crawled from my bed and forced my body into the movements it took to get ready. I was up earlier than usual and felt more rested than I had in a very long time.

Some of that had to do with the fact that I actually got more than three or four hours of sleep last night. But I knew most of it had to do with Seth and his strong arms wrapped around me.

Still, it was hard to find the motivation to look nice for school. I was a little depressed.

Ok, I was a lot depressed.

So I forced myself into my daily routine, even taking care with my makeup. I wasn’t going to let this low feeling hold me prisoner. I was fighting back.

Starting today.

I grabbed breakfast on the way out the door, shouted goodbye to my mom, waved at my dad who was already climbing onto his combine, a sight that would forever shock me, and sped off to school.

I had always loved school; loved the human experience. But it was starting to feel like such a huge waste of time. I had bigger things to worry about these days than maintaining my grade point average and playing soccer.

These thoughts were completely foreign to me and I had no idea what to make of them, but the truth was Seth came before all of these things.

Even my friends.

I had to do something to help him. I had to get him away from Aliah and his deranged sister.

I parked my dad’s truck in the middle of the student lot and grabbed my backpack. I was determined to focus on school today, but as soon as it was over I was blowing off practice and heading out with Nate and Serena. They were constantly fighting these days. I knew they’d be able to help me find Seth, and at least occupy his time to keep him from doing anything with lifelong consequences. My new plan included fighting him or bothering him as often as possible so that he didn’t do something that would haunt him the rest of his life, long after his soul was returned to him.

I slammed my truck door, not bothering taking the keys out of the ignition or locking the door. This was the country, every car in this parking lot had the keys still in the ignition.

“Morning, Stella,” Aliah’s smooth, silky voice caught me completely off guard.

He was leaning against the back of my truck, his arm resting casually on the truck bed. He was especially casual this morning in designer jeans and a light blue oxford with the sleeves rolled up. His dark hair was expertly styled and his shoes were shiny loafers even though he was wearing jeans.

I didn’t respond. I just opened my truck door again and reached under the seat for one of my emergency katanas. I pulled it out, and rested it, tip down, against my leg. I left the door open so nobody between the hood of my truck and the school could see I was wielding a deadly weapon. Then I mimicked his casual pose.

“What do you want, Aliah?” I used my iciest voice and waited for him to announce his purpose.

He tilted his head back and let out a short stream of genuine laughter. “What do I want? What a question.”

I stopped myself from rolling my eyes and waited. He would tell me why he was here soon enough or he would attack me.

I was kind of hoping for him to attack me. Then at least Seth was allowed to kill him.

If I didn’t kill him first.

After he was adequately amused, he tilted his head back down and narrowed his eyes on me. “I want you to stay away from Seth.”

“Sure, no problem,” I quickly agreed. “Are we done?”

“Don’t patronize me, Stella,” he snapped. His patience was gone and even though he stood perfectly unmoving, he seemed like a swirling tornado of Dark energy. He was terrifying in his composed stillness. “I want you nowhere near him.”

“If only we always got what we wanted,” I taunted.

He took three steps toward me and seemed to catch himself. He stopped and clenched his fists at his side, visibly trying to calm down.

“You’re disrespectful, Child, and it will only hurt you in the end.” His accent was thicker with his emotion and his malicious green eyes were alight with fury.

I was going to go with some kind of spanking joke, but thought better of it. I was trying to be a smartass, not take us into super weirdville. So instead I said, “Doesn’t Seth live with you now? Isn’t the entire point of his life now to officially stay away from me? Why are you here, Aliah?”

He glared at me but remained silent.

“Why are you here, Aliah?” I repeated.

“I want you to stay away from Seth,” he bit out.

“You are the one that owns his soul. Maybe you should be having this conversation with him.”

“I do own his soul, which means I want him nowhere near you. There are very specific requirements in the contract. You had better be very careful lest you get your soulless Counterpart killed.”

“A contract that I did not read, agree to, or sign. Nothing I do can be held against the contract. I’m not a party to it. And I’m not worried about Seth’s life in your hands.”

A malicious smirk tilted the corner of his full lips. “You’re saying you trust me with Seth?”

“I’m saying you have been searching for the better part of ten years for him and one mistake isn’t going to send you over the edge. Obviously you have ridiculous patience. And on top of that I don’t need to trust you, because I trust Seth to be able to take care of himself.”

“But do you trust him to take care of you?” He was mocking me. And what I couldn’t tell him was that I did. Even if it was stupid and pathetically naïve, I trusted him.

The sword handle itched in my palm and I gripped it tighter, desperate to plunge it into the empty cavity of his chest where I would find no heart. “Leave,” I growled. “It’s time for you to go.”

“Hey boss,” Jude drawled while coming to stand next to the dusty Honda Civic, next to my huge truck. “Finally going after that GED I keep bugging you about?”

I would have laughed at Jude had I not been so completely pissed off. He sounded like he was reciting lines from a sitcom, and his acting skills were atrocious. He leaned back on the Civic and crossed his ankles and arms, and then just waited casually to be included in our altercation.

“Jude,” Aliah sighed. “Obviously, if I’m here you haven’t been holding up your end of the contract.”

“I’m missing something,” Jude pointed out. He looked back and forth between Aliah and me and finally ended on Aliah.

“She’s not allowed near him, Jude. That was the deal. You keep her away from him or you will be replaced.” Aliah was back to his cool confident coldness.

I was surprised that Jude seemed able to appear just as unaffected, though. If Aliah was threatening my life so directly, I would have had to say something. I wouldn’t be able to let it roll off my back.

I would have opened my mouth and said something that got me into trouble.

“I’m doing my job,” Jude shrugged. “The contract would tell you if I weren’t.”

That gave me pause. Living contracts were an extreme rarity. That also meant this one was bound by the signers blood. It was one thing to say Seth had sold his soul, even to see the evidence of it. But knowing they used a living contract meant the soul was actually trapped inside the contract. This was both good news and bad news. The good news meant that because the soul hadn’t been imprisoned in hell during the duration of the contract, Seth would actually have a chance of getting his back. The bad news was that just because Seth got his soul back didn’t mean he wouldn’t already have changed into the Fallen he was pretending to be. It also didn’t mean that his soul was going to be held apart from the evil that surrounded it. But the worst piece of news this brought was that the contract was extremely all-seeing. Where a simple paper contract was left to the signer’s honor system, this particular contract would know if there was deceit or malpractice.

It also meant I wasn’t told the entire story. If anything, living contracts were extremely wordy to ensure that all of the parties got exactly what they wanted, since they bonded the contract by blood both sides of the deal were carried out without any of the signer’s wishes. They just… happened.

Some people believed there was an entirely secret sect that was devoted only to living contracts. A mixture of Fallen and Warriors that carried out the contracts until they were satisfied.

“The contract will tell me when you fail,” Aliah reminded Jude, turning around so that they were face to face. “The contract will not tell me if you are on your way to failing.”

Jude’s face became a mask of unemotional placidness. His gray eyes were shuttered and his body remained relaxed against the car. He was too easy-going for me to fully believe him, and I suddenly felt nervous for him. Aliah would see through his façade easily and then Jude would die.

It was going to be simple and quick.

I just hated that; I actually felt bad for Jude. I should know better. I should be glad to get rid of him.

Finally Jude let out a long sigh, “Are you finished boss? I have to get to class.”

“I’m finished,” Aliah finally answered.

But Jude didn’t move. Instead, he just looked at me and waited.

“Stay away from him Stella.” Aliah’s words were steel and titanium, both unbreakable and unbending.

“Or what, Aliah? You can’t hurt me. You can’t touch me. Stop with the threats. They mean nothing to me.”

“I can’t hurt you, but I can hurt him, Stella. Understand me when I say that I own him now. I know very well that you’re looking toward the day he gets his soul back. Well, it won’t be any good to him if it’s blacker than he is. You better pray I take it easy on him while he’s in my care or can you imagine what that would be like for you? You’d have to kill your own Counterpart.” He paused for dramatic effect and then said, “That might be fun.”

And then he was gone. We stood watching him disappear down the line of cars and climb into a midnight blue Porshe. He peeled out of the parking lot in record time. Jude and I just stared after him while the first bell rang in the background.

“You’re a crazy person, Stella!” Jude exclaimed in a high-pitched laugh. I couldn’t determine if I should agree with him or be extremely offended. “You can’t talk to Aliah like that! Hell, you can’t even talk about Aliah like that!”

This was the most worked up I’d ever seen Jude, and it was almost amusing. Almost.

“Jude, we are enemies. I can talk about him however I want.”

“You don’t understand what he will do to make you suffer,” Jude shook his head, all traces of humor gone. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it before sucking in a long drag. His eyes went a bit unfocused; he dropped his tone as if he were afraid of being overheard. “Aliah wants complete obedience. It doesn’t matter who you are or what side of the war you’re on. You defied him, Stella. He will punish you for that.”

“I defy him every time I see him,” I pointed out. “I defy them all.”

“And look at what he did to you!” Jude threw up his hands in exasperation. “Look at how he’s making his point!”

“Seth made his own decision. He chose this to protect me.”

He let out a cackle of bitter laughter. “And you think he just came up with this plan all on his own? You think he wanted to sell his soul?”

No. I didn’t think that. But I thought he chose this. I assumed this was ultimately his decision.

“What are you talking about?” I demanded.

Instead of answering my question he just continued smoking and looking down at his worn-out Chuck Taylors.

“Jude, tell me what you’re talking about.” He looked up at me from under his full lashes and just stared. His eyes were bleak and dark, his jaw tight and his lips pressed firmly around his cigarette. He wasn’t going to give anything away. “Please, Jude. I need to understand this.”

He let out a whoosh of white smoke, nothing like his usually careful exhales that came out in “O’s” or concentrated streams. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“Please.” I sounded pathetic, but if this tactic didn’t work I was taking my sword and gutting him with it. He would eventually heal. And I would have some satisfaction.

I realized I was still holding my sword, in broad daylight, surrounded by high school students and without any explanation that would make sense to my teachers. I kept my eyes locked with Jude’s and returned the katana to its hiding place. I slid up sideways onto my driver’s seat and rested my elbow on the steering wheel. I was late for class, but this was more important.

“The day you were… attacked,” Jude looked around and then moved closer to me. He was still smoking and the strong scent of tobacco filled my car and filtered into my clothes. But I let him get away with it so he would talk. “You weren’t the only one. Your boyfriend was attacked too. Seven, she can…. She has this way of affecting the atmosphere, making it seem like there’s no trouble.”

“I knew that,” I said confidently. Only, I didn’t exactly know that but I suspected it.

“Sure, but it doesn’t always work with you and Seth. Or, that’s what I figured out. Because you have that…. bond. Anyway, so they planned this whole thing. They knew you would be separated that day. And they knew you would be unarmed. When Saul took you out to that desert…. There’s no way they would have been able to find you. And Aliah knew he would never be able to convince Seth to change sides without killing him first. So he gave him the…. opportunity to save your life.”

“My location for his soul,” I filled in the blanks.

“Seth added a few of his own provisos. But the deal was made before Saul lost his head.”

“Aliah sacrificed his own man to get Seth to sign?”

“Aliah would have sacrificed all of his men to get Seth. He has this…. obsession with it, with him and his sister. You were collateral. A means to an end.”

“Seth had already signed the contract before he saved me?”

“And then he was given the weekend to say goodbye. His stipulation, not Aliah’s.”

“What else did Seth add?”

“Small stuff. The majority of the contract was not up for negotiation.”

“Tell me.”

“It was mostly little stuff. Your human friends are safe, but not your family. He’s allowed to see you whenever he wants. You get Sundays off.”

I get Sunday’s off. I mouthed.

Jude smirked. “I think he was just reaching to put in as much as he could. It really got kind of ridiculous.”

“And Aliah gave him everything he wanted?”

“No, but then Aliah didn’t get everything he wanted either. And it had to happen really fast because, you know…. your life was hanging in the balance.” Jude finished his cigarette and stomped it out under his toe. Then he popped in a mint Mento. He held the pack out to me, but I declined.

“The protection until I’m eighteen thing, Aliah or Seth’s idea?” I asked carefully.

“Aliah’s. That was the whole incentive.”

“More than just my life?”

“More than your life. But it’s not exactly fool proof.”

“What does that mean?” My hand subconsciously went to my throat.

“You’re protected from Aliah and all of his Fallen. But at the time the contract was signed…. Seth wasn’t technically considered…”

“Fallen,” I finished. “So the only person allowed to kill me right now is Seth.”

At one point in my life that would have seemed absurd. Now…. it was actually a possibility.

“Exactly.”

“So why does Aliah want me to stay away from him then? It seems in his best interest to let us spend as much time together as we want until I end up headless and Seth becomes unredeemable.”

“Yeah, I don’t get that either.” I shot him a disbelieving look and a smirk tilted his lips. “Hey, listen, I’m just a lowly foot soldier. I don’t get to hear the big plans.”

“I find that hard to believe,” I groaned. I hopped down from my truck and adjusted my green cotton gypsy skirt. It fell in billowy folds to my feet. It was way more bohemian than I was used to, but in case of emergency it had a hidden slit and I could easily hide my dagger underneath. I paired it with a tight gray Mead Raiders t-shirt and felt more like Piper than myself. But desperate times and all.

“I know,” he sighed. He moved out of my way so I could grab my backpack and close my door. “I look important.”

I snorted. “That is not what I meant. I just thought this job… your third-party job was kind of a big deal.”

“I fit the demographic: age, looks, not overly aggressive, not completely bat shit. All the important stuff. Before this I was mostly forgotten about.” He sounded almost proud of that.

“You? With all your diabolical evil-ness?” I pretended to be shocked. “That’s very hard for me to believe.”

He shoved my shoulder and tried to hide a smile. We started walking toward the school in what could be considered a comfortable silence.

Right before we reached the office where we would have to face the wrath of the secretaries and try to explain away our extreme tardiness he said, “Just give Aliah what he wants, Stella. He gets to win because you can never compete with his inhumanity. He’s not bluffing. He will ruin Seth.”

I didn’t respond because I didn’t know how. Because I believed Jude. But I also knew, without a shadow of a doubt that I couldn’t leave Seth alone. I was fighting with my life to protect this boy that I loved, this boy I wanted to come back to me. And if Aliah was demanding I stay away from him then I was doing something right.

Finally.