An Eternity of Eclipse (17 page)

This time he was dressed in a brand new outfit. He wore a dark red dress shirt, black pants, and a perfectly lit cigarette that dangled in between his fingertips. Though he looked utterly refreshed, it was overtly clear that he was exhausted from the day he had.

“And where did you run off to?” I asked briskly, already knowing that he disappeared because he had to shower the itching powder away. From the soft red tint illuminating on the smooth skin of his chest, I could only imagine how much effort he had to exert to wash the cursed powder off of him.

“Today’s been an awfully bad day for me,” he whispered unenthusiastically, helping me categorize the books. He picked up a hard cover book and placed it in its orderly spot. “This is about the thirteenth time I’ve changed today.”

I thought about the awful day he had gifted to me the other day. I grinned secretly at his statement, proud that I was able to garner revenge from the one who singlehandedly made my life so unpleasant. The misery gushing from him was like music to my sensibilities—I loved it. I should pick on Demons more often and make good use of this sadistic tendency of mine. Apparently it didn’t discriminate against race. Misery was misery, and no matter the source—animal, human, or Demon—it was all still sustenance to my sadistic heart.

I feigned a look of naiveté while I grabbed a book. “You have been a bit clumsy today, haven’t you?”

He took a few more books to categorize and smiled wearily. “Every dog has his day and unfortunately, I think today is mine.”

Yes,
I thought in agreement, ready to continue with my plan now that he had returned to my side. I was ready to put the Demon through another wringer.
Today is definitely your day.

I reached above myself and grabbed the biggest encyclopedia book I could find. I wasted no time in holding it up in midair, just above his head. All the while, he continued to help me categorize the books in the lower shelf, unaware of the gigantic book hanging over his head.

With a fake gasp of shock, I loosened my grip on it and allowed it to fall under the mercy of gravity.

Thump!

“What the fu—!”

The heavy book fell onto Eclipse’s head like a boulder, triggering a cloud of dust and a roar of expletives to stream from the Demon. Stunned with pain, he dropped the books he was holding and brought his hands up to cradle the top of his head. After taking in a sharp breath to control the throbbing, Eclipse turned his gaze upwards. Shock and accusation glittered in his darkened eyes.

I blinked harmlessly at him. “Oops. Sorry. The book was too big for my hand to hold.” I blinked at him again and meekly asked, “Are you okay?”

He rubbed his head, the accusatory glare flitting from his eyes upon seeing me regard him with such innocence. He forced a smile, wiping the dust from the book off of his shirt.

“Yeah, I’m fine. It’ll take more than a book to knock me out. Don’t worry about it, Gracie.”

The forced smile on his face abruptly evolved into an uneasy one as he continued to sweep the dust off his clothes. All of a sudden, instead of just sweeping dust away, he started to scratch himself behind his neck. Horror entered his eyes when he realized how itchy he was getting for the second time that day.

I smiled inwardly at the sight of this. I knew that sticking itching powder in the book and making it appear like it was dust would be a good tactic. Swallowing back my laughter, I carefully stepped down from the ladder and reached for the books at the bottom of the rolling cart. Once I stacked them on top of one another, I held them to my chest. I straightened up and looked at him, peeking through the tower of books in front of me.

“Do you want to help me carry these old books down to the basement to archive?”

His eyes bloomed at my question. He stopped scratching at once. It was apparent that he hadn’t anticipated for me to ask him for any type of assistance. “You actually want my help?”

I shrugged carelessly, making a move to walk away with the books pressed against my chest. “If you don’t want to, then that’s fine—”

“I didn’t say that,” he hastily responded, bringing me to a halt. The stack of books in my grasp shifted for a few violent seconds when he did this. “It’s just that you haven’t exactly been receptive of my presence. I figured with the silent treatment you gave me this morning, you’re still extremely pissed off with me.”

“Angry or not, you’re still here. And since you’re here, I might as well put you to good use, right?”

A doubtful spark played on his expression while he scrutinized my answer. Almost immediately, the suspicion withered away when I blinked at him in silence, my big brown eyes challenging him without showing any bluff. I was so good of an actress that even a Demon couldn’t see through me.

Relinquishing any distrust he had for me, he smiled brightly and extended his hands out. “I’d be more than happy to help you, Gracie.”

“Good.”

I roughly threw the books against him, earning a gasp of pain from Eclipse when the thick spines assaulted his chest. The books that blocked my vision barely blocked his, yet when I got on the ladder to stack on several more books, Eclipse was rendered blind behind the large tower of hardcovers.

“You good?” I asked, concealing my amusement at how silly he looked, struggling to hold onto a building of books that would put the Leaning Tower of Pisa to shame. “Or do you want me to help carry some as well?”

He gave me a forced, reassuring smile that was cloaked with masculine pride. “I’m good.”

A twitch of a grin tugged at my lips before I directed him to follow me.

Let the games begin.

I ran to the entrance of the basement, opened the door, and went down the stairs, carefully carrying my own five books. As I walked down, my eyes peered upwards. Eclipse was walking carefully behind me, unaware of the cruel plans I had waiting for him.

I counted every step we took.

First step . . . fifth step . . . eighth step . . . tenth step . . .

When my vigilant eyes spotted what was coming up ahead of us, I carefully jumped off the remaining set of steps to avoid it. As soon as my feet hit the ground, what I had been waiting for all day finally took place.

“Holy shi—!”

The sounds that followed were strong enough to rival thunderstorms.

With a rough jolt, the books that Eclipse was carrying flew out of his hands, falling to the ground with loud thuds. Shortly after, the Demon himself followed suit.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Crashing down like a bowling ball, the bone crunching echoes that sang through the basement became music to my ears. Eclipse came to a violent stop when he reached the ground floor. To add to his misery, once he hit the ground, his head accidentally hit a bucket of dirty janitorial mopping water.

Clank.

The contents within the container knocked over, completely soaking Eclipse.

“Holy father of Hell, what the fuck is this?” he uttered. His agonized breath heaved for air after he rolled back and realized he was drenched in dirty water.

Muttering a curse, he glumly splashed the dirty water off of him. Eclipse propelled himself into a sitting position and allowed his observant eyes to gaze up at the stairs. His eyes gradually found its way onto his shoes. Realization igniting on his face, he reached his hand out. An index finger grazed across the sole of his right shoe. He lifted his hand up, examined the residual vegetable oil present on his finger, and then glanced at the stairs once more. I followed his gaze and I deduced that he could see that one of the steps was glistening with vegetable oil.

Knowingness dawned on his face before he laid his gaze on me.

I hugged my books to my chest, my quiet eyes meeting his. I manufactured a shocked expression. “That was a really bad fall. Are you okay?”

“Gracie,” he started tentatively, his voice soft yet filled with knowledge. He stood up and dusted himself off. His stern gaze was on me the entire time. “You didn’t have anything to do with this, did you?”

I blinked at him and conjured up another shocked expression. “Do I look like someone who has time to plan for your downfall?”

He smiled, nodding as if this statement sounded ridiculous to him as well—or at least that was what he led me to believe before he suddenly raised his hand towards me and performed a beckoning motion with it.

On command, I felt my body fly towards him like a fish caught in a hook line.

Uh oh.

“Ahhhh!”

He caught me in midair and ripped off my white coat, revealing the strapless pink empire dress I was wearing. He suddenly pulled me into a tight embrace and allowed me to feel every inch of the hard muscles on his body. There was only one of two reasons why he did this: he either wanted to get some action or he wanted to rub the itching powder all over me as well. When I felt the godforsaken powder entrench itself onto my own skin, I was betting on the latter.

Crap!

“Get off me, you abomination!” I bellowed, already feeling the itching powder take its effect.

With his hands raised up in surrender, he finally let me go. An innocent smile adorned his face while he placed an already lit cigarette between his lips. He comfortably took a seat on the stairs. Smoke curled around him as he scratched his neck. His amused eyes were on me as I staggered backwards, appalled with the transference of itching powder and dirty janitor water that was now stuck to my skin.

I pointed at him accusingly, scratching my arms and collarbone in disbelief. I realized at that moment that perhaps Eclipse wasn’t as stupid and gullible as I deemed him to be.

“Y-you knew that I’ve been purposely torturing you all along, didn’t you?”

He smirked, scratching his arms and his collarbone. He blew a bitter puff of smoke out from his lips. “Knew it as soon as you started to ignore me this morning.”

I glared at him, stunned at his admission. “Why didn’t you protect yourself then?”

Powerful shoulders shrugged before he stood up. “You wanted to torture me, to get me back for what I did, and I decided to let you.” He continued to approach me, rubbing the spot on his head where one of the encyclopedia books fell onto him. “Not exactly a nice way to spend my break away from my throne, but I figured I’ll suffer through it for you.” He flashed me a tranquil grin upon reaching me. “So can we make peace now? Are we even now?”

“We’re not even close to being even!” I shouted indignantly, restraining the impulse to kick him in the leg when I was reminded of my declining grades, my humiliation, and my sudden craving for all things sweet. I twisted to the side to scratch my lower leg. My fingernails left red scratch marks all over my skin. I had never wanted to rip my own skin off more. Damn it! Why was this itching powder so effective?

He tilted his head with lethargy. “What do you need to do to get even?”

I glared and scratched the skin around my gold bangles. “Torture you like you’ve tortured me.”

“And you haven’t been doing that all day?” he asked critically. He gestured with his hand for me to look at the state he was in: red scratch marks from the itching powder, disheveled hair from the violent fall, drenched clothes from the immersion of dirty janitorial water, and overall shitty looking appearance.

“The definition of torture is ‘the infliction of intense pain,’” I told him stiffly. “A Demon
voluntarily
suffering through my antics isn’t torture on his part—it’s tolerance.”

“Unbelievable,” he griped to himself, closing his eyes while rubbing his injured head. Another string of odorless smoke flowed away from his lips. “I willingly let this girl torture me and she still isn’t satisfied.”

I wanted to respond to that. Sadly, I couldn’t find the will to when all I wanted to do at that moment was to rip my skin off. With my feet unexpectedly feeling itchy as well, I disregarded the existence of Eclipse for a distracted second. I took off my heels and relieved the itch on each foot. Too exhausted to wear my heels, I looked up at him while standing there barefooted.

Eclipse still had his eyes closed, rubbing his head in pain. When he opened them, he stared forward at the point where I was once standing. Perplexity met his eyes before he lowered his gaze five inches and gaped at me in confusion. A disbelieving grin took over his face. That jerk was in no way shy about making fun of something I had always felt self-conscious about.

“Whoa, where did five inches of you go?” he asked without filter, staring down at me in surprise. “Why are you suddenly a leprechaun?”

A
leprechaun
?!

Two pink circles embellished my cheeks. I held on tightly to my heels, debating about whether or not I should smack him with it. People rarely saw me standing without my heels. When these rare instances occurred, I always found myself feeling extremely insecure.

“I’m . . . I’m not that short,” I responded quietly, feeling like a midget while standing next to his tall frame.

He smiled teasingly, noting the blushes that found a home on my cheeks. “I could put you in my pocket, Teacup. I think that proves how adorably small and delicate you are.”

“Te-Teacup?” I spluttered, offended by the labeling. My immaturity and offended ego got the best of me, so much so that I went crazy with my next words. “You chain-smoking jerk. You dare call me a ‘Teacup’ when you’re like a frigging assh—” I stopped, tripping over my words. I wanted to call him an “a
s
shole,” but I didn’t want that atrocious and dirty word to come out of my mouth. Instead, I settled for, “
Ash
tray!”