A Monster and a Gentleman (22 page)

“What…” The shirt Oren was holding dropped from his fingers.

Maeve smiled at him—a happy, mischievous smile. In that moment, Oren felt this strange certainty that he was meant for her, and she was meant for him.

“String theory.” She stepped into the oval and disappeared. The oval winked out of existence.

“Fucking
science.
” Oren scrambled to find his jacket and the cell phone in the pocket. “As soon as this is over, I’m going back to college.”

With trembling fingers, he dialed while digging his keys out of another pocket. He was nowhere near the set, but he wasn’t going to just sit here while his girl headed into danger.
 

“Lena, it’s Oren. We have a problem.”

Chapter Fourteen

Cali and Seling

“Seling, Seling.” Cali fought back tears as she shook him, trying to keep her voice down. “Baby, you’ve got to wake up.”

They were coming. Seling may have disabled the elevator and stairs, but she could hear clatters and occasional hushed voices. It sounded like they were constructing something to get themselves up here, and with each minute they got closer. Seling had stopped talking and his eyes were closed, though he was still breathing. She’d finally found a pulse point in his neck. She wasn’t sure, but his heartbeat seemed to be coming erratically, as if it were missing beats.

“Seling, don’t you dare die. I finally decide to give love a chance, and you’re going to die on me? That’s fucked up.”

“You love me?” The words were faint, but she could hear a note of teasing, and his face twitched as if he were trying to smile.

A wave of relief washed over her that he wasn’t totally passed out. “Seling, Seling, baby, you have to get up. They’re coming and I can’t move you. I need you to fly away. Can you do that?”

“Can’t. Snipers.”

Cali had assumed as much, when she heard the shots and he’d dropped, almost rolling off the edge, but the word made her blood run cold.

“Well, then we need to hide.”

“So you love me?”

“I said was going to give love a chance. Don’t get ahead of yourself. Also, you refusing to
get up
is seriously making me not love you.”

“You love me.” The smile was there in his voice, as weak as it was.

“You are so irritating. If we survive, I’m going to dump you and go fuck the entire USC starting offensive line.”

“No. You love me. And I’d kill them if they touched you.”

“That is the sweetest…okay, focus. We need to hide. I’m going to move away from you, but I won’t leave. Okay?”

“No.” He tried to grab her but was too weak. “I’ll protect you.”

“You’ve been shot.”

“Only five times.”

“I love you,” Cali whispered fiercely as she lifted his head from her lap and moved away.

There was a shimmering not far from them. An oval of light formed in midair. Cali stopped short, hands curling into fists, ready to deal with whatever fresh hell this was.

Maeve stepped out. It took Cali a moment to realize who it was, because the tall, naked woman was as foreign to Cali as a fish to a bicycle. Her skin seemed to glow and pulse, and not in a friendly way. Her hands had long, clawed fingers and her hair was a tangled mass that moved of its own free will, like black snakes. Her ears were pointed, her eyes terrifyingly bright.

“I’m dying,” Seling whispered.

“No, you’re not. See, Maeve’s here, we’re going to be okay.”

“The banshee senses death.” There was a note of finality in his voice that chilled Cali to the bone. “Cali, come here.”

“No.” Cali looked at Maeve. “No.” She ran to Seling. “I won’t let her take you.”

“Listen to me.” Seling opened his eyes, which seemed too bright. “I love you. I love you because you’re smart and interesting and you say exactly what you mean.”

“Don’t do this, please don’t do this.”

“Maeve is here because I’m dying. There’s nothing we can do.”

Cali turned to Maeve. “Do something.”

Maeve bared her teeth, which had turned into fangs. She said something, but Cali didn’t understand her.

“What? What did she say?”

Seling looked confused or worried. “She said she did, and she is.”

There was a whoosh and a wall of shimmering ice formed around the three of them. It cracked as it grew, going from a sheet as thin and transparent as glass to a thick, white wall.

“Help is coming.” Maeve said. “Oren will tell them.”

“They can’t come, the snipers would pick them off.” Seling’s words were clipped. “It’s Blackwolf. I saw the uniforms. I took out some of them, but not enough. I guess I didn’t escape from them after all.”

“Hold him,” Maeve said to Cali.
 

Not sure what her weight could do if Seling decided to move, she pressed down on one shoulder. Maeve grabbed Seling’s wrist. They both hissed. Maeve let go.
 

“The bullet ripped through one of your hearts.”

Cali looked at Seling, then back to Maeve. “One of?” No wonder his pulse had sounded off.

“Okay.” Seling sounded resigned.

“No, not okay. What does that mean? Can he survive with one heart?”

“No,” Maeve said bluntly.
 

“Then do something.”

“There’s nothing more for me to do. I’ve protected us for now.”

“You see the future—look at his future! How long is it? How long does he have?”

“I cannot see the future of those closest to me. All I have is the keening.”

“What?”

“I feel death’s approach. I feel it and I must cry for it, because death is both terrible and beautiful.”

“Fuck that, and fuck you.” Cali snarled at Maeve. The other woman…er…female thing, bared her teeth. Cali didn’t care. Seling was dying.

“If you can freeze people, then go kill the guys with the guns, then we can get Michael here to do his angel shit and Seling lives.”

“I cannot fight men with guns, not that way. I can protect us, no more.”

“No, no, it’s not enough.”

Cali was vaguely aware that she hadn’t been keeping her voice down. While the clanging had stopped for a moment, now it was back and much louder. They were closer…and didn’t seem to care how much noise they made.

“We can hope that the others come, that they find a way to us without being shot by the humans and their guns.” Maeve’s weird hair floated around her, obscuring her.

“Seling,” Cali said, turning to him, hoping he could force Maeve to do something.

His eyes were closed.

“No.” Cali put on hand on his massive chest, the other probing his neck for the pulse point. “No.”
 

Maeve bowed her head, pressing her hands to her face as an unearthly wail rent the night.
 

“Is someone going to let me in?”

Cali and Maeve both looked up, the latter’s unearthly sounds of sorrow cutting off mid-scream.

Maeve jumped to her feet and pressed her hands against the wall of ice. There was a hiss as one section melted away. Waiting on the other side of the wall was Michael. He was in his true body, complete with feathered white wings, silvery hair and eyes full of lightning.

“Save him,” Cali demanded.

Maeve jumped out of the way as Michael dropped to his knees at Seling’s side.
 

“Uriel, please,” Maeve said, a note of hope in her voice.

He didn’t answer. Hands hovering over Seling, Michael’s skin glowed and pulsed.
 

“Is it working?” Cali asked.

Maeve put a hand on her shoulder. “If Seling’s time has come, Michael cannot save him.”

“Why not?”

“Michael can speed the healing as long as the wound is one that would heal on its own.”

“No, no.” Cali ripped free of Maeve. “Michael, tell me you can do this. Fix him.”

“The bullet nicked his heart and is in his chest cavity. If he moves, it will do more damage. The heart would never heal on its own, not here.” Michael’s eyes opened. “He’s still alive, but it’s only a matter of minutes.”

Cali refused to accept it. “The bullet’s the problem? Then take it out.”

“Take it out? How?” The banging resumed and Michael looked over his shoulder. “I don’t think they’ll make it up here, but we should go.”

“Not without Seling.” Cali wanted to scream at them, hit them, but they were just staring at her with this resigned looks of pity. “Hold him down.” Cali braced her left hand on his chest. “I’m going to take the bullet out, you’re going to heal him and then we’re leaving.”

Before she could give in to the voice in her head screaming
what are you doing?,
Cali dug her finger into the bullet hole in his chest. She gagged—his flesh was warm and sticky with blood. It felt just like touching raw meat, which made sense, but was so disgusting a thought that she had to block it from her mind.

Seling grunted. This probably hurt like hell, but at least he was alive to make any noise. She dug her finger in until her knuckles pressed against his chest.
 

She didn’t feel the bullet.

Panic clawed at her throat. “I can’t reach the bullet.”

Maeve moved next to her. “I’ll do it.”

Cali withdrew her finger, gagging at the feeling of his torn flesh clinging to hers. She went to Seling’s head. Taking it in her lap, she bent and pressed her lips to his. She’d failed to save him.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “So sorry.”

Maeve hissed out a breath, then said, “Michael.” As she pulled away, she showed Cali the mangled piece of metal she held between two long, bloody nails.

Hope blossomed within Cali.
 

Michael pressed one large silver hand to Seling’s chest and closed his eyes. There was a moment of painful silence before Seling’s eyes popped open. He roared in pain, his head pressing hard into Cali’s lap. She clapped her hands to his cheeks to hold him still.

There was a clatter of metal, and the sound was close. They were running out of time. Maeve stood, her tangled hair forming a cloak around her as she went to the half-melted wall of ice and started to rebuild it.

Seling thrashed against the ground while Michael knelt beside him, hands pressed hard into his chest.
 

Seling’s claws dug in to the concrete, gouging huge furrows. The sound of cracking concrete combined with Seling’s grunts of pain made Cali’s stomach turn.
 

Slowly, Seling’s body stilled. When he stopped moving, Michael sat back, chin on his chest as he breathed heavily.

“Seling?” There was no reply. “Seling!” Cali jiggled his head.

“Ouch.”

A laugh of relief burst from her and Cali bent and pressed her lips to his. In this form, his mouth was bigger than hers, so she kissed the long seam of his lips.
 

“You’re okay. You’re alive.”

“I…think so.” He lifted his head from her lap. “Uriel? Michael?”

“Without the bullet stuck in you, your heart muscle was able to heal. So yeah, you’re alive.”

“I’m very glad,” Maeve said. “Because we are being attacked.”

They turned to Maeve. She stood with her hand against the wall of ice. A network of white frost spread from her hand, turning the otherwise clear ice snow white. She dropped her hand and immediately the ice cleared, the inner surface shiny as the ice began to melt.

Cali opened her mouth to ask what was happening when she noticed the faint orange glow visible through the rapidly melting ice.

“They’re using a flamethrower,” Michael said.

“I cannot keep freezing the water forever,” Maeve said, even as she put her hand back on the wall and did exactly that.
 

Seling started to stand, but Cali held his head, keeping him down. “What are you doing?”

“We have to fight. I’m not going to come back from being nearly dead and then let them hurt you.”

“Well, I don’t want you to come back from nearly dead only to end up
really
dead.”

“This is touching, really.” Michael was on his feet, wings tucked close to his back. “But we have shit to do. Get up, Seling.”

Seling slowly rose to his feet, pausing several times and panting as his newly healed heart pumped blood through his massive body. Cali put her arm around his waist (which was at the height of her shoulder), aware of how useless she would be if he actually lost his balance.

“Does it hurt?” she asked, sotto voce.

“Would you believe me if I said no?”

“No.”

“Then yes, it hurts—not my heart, but the other ones.”

Cali looked at the other bullet holes, which had stopped seeping blood but were still visible holes, unlike the one in the middle of his chest.

“Michael, you didn’t heal him!”

“Those aren’t life threatening, and the bullets need to come out.”