Book of Love (26 page)

I felt her body heat rise, her mind
struggling to decide if I was a liar or if my story was true. She
eyed the forest outside the door, considering her options. I knew
she was terrified by what I was telling her, but in my defense, we
both had a terrifying secret—mine just happened to be bigger.

I touched her arm, causing
her to freeze. I hastily grabbed her face, feeling I was losing
her. I forcing her to look at me. “Erik is my
younger brother
, Jane,” I
reiterated, my eyes searching hers, my hands pulsing honesty into
her blood. “He’s been touched by a Sheol magick that does not
prevent his aging, as it does to me. Erik grew old, and I did
not.”

Jane did not try to pull
away from me. “Then…” She started speaking before she let it sink
in. “Wait,
what?
Prevent aging? You have Sheol magick?” She jerked out of my
grasp, struggling between breaths. “What kind?” There was an
appalled twang in her voice.

I bit my lip, leaning back into the seat and
letting go of the wheel. I felt the jeans under my hand—they were
cold. I avoided her question, saying anything I could to distract
her, but at the same time calm her down. “Erik is like you. He was
touched by death because of that fire. He has been inflicted with a
lust for it, not unlike your own.”

She froze. “Lust for death?” The term had
done just what I’d wanted it to; it had hooked her.

“
A lust for death, because
he should have died with my parents, in 1928, but—”

She finished my sentence, whispering, “But
he was spared…” She drew in a sharp breath of air, her eyes wide
and accepting. I could sense the pieces of the puzzle were falling
into place in her mind. There was a distinct veil of clarity
filling the space between us.

I felt the anxiety in my chest release. She
was accepting this. I put a hand on her shoulder out of
instinct.

At first she did not seem to notice, but as
her thoughts slowed, she jerked away.

“
What are you?” she
snapped, her face now a deepening shade of red. Her thoughts
floated around the idea of what I was, but her mind refused to
accept it.

“
Something else, something
much deeper,” I uttered. Wincing, I clasped my hands in my lap. I’d
left her only one option of what I was.

“
What.
Are. You?”
She demanded for a
second time. “You know what
I
am. So, tell me.”

I pressed my back against the seat even
harder, the butt of my palm pressing against the steering wheel.
“I, well…” I didn’t want to say it. I knew the words were there,
waiting like a tidal wave that was about to crash to shore, but I
was afraid she would never talk to me again. This was the moment
I’d been waiting for all these years, waiting for her to come of
age so that she could understand, so that we could fall in love as
I’d hoped.

I saw her become overwhelmed, and her
thoughts compressed as though she’d shoved them away to a place
where they were no longer real. My heart rate quickened. I’d lost
her understanding.

“
You know what, Max? Forget
it. I don’t think I want to know what you are.” She put her hand up
to silence me, looking away with disgust. “Just take me home, Max.”
Contempt lingered in her wavering voice.

Her thoughts screamed at me through the wall
of her mind.

A lie.

She thought it was all a lie.

I felt it. I knew it. My heart shattered. I
was in no position to question her, or force more information on
her already brimming mind, especially when I wasn’t ready for her
to know why we’re here now, and why we’re connected. I took a deep
breath and put both hands on the wheel, wishing I could rip it
apart in my frustration. I started the car, skidding from the
shoulder as I whipped it around toward home.

I was angry; but most of all, I felt like a
failure.

^{* * *}

She was running through the woods, the twigs
below her feet snapping. The breath in her lungs twisted and stung
its way up her throat. She was sweating, but her arms felt
cold.

The Black Angel swung down through the
canopy, large branches the size of small trees crashing to the
ground behind him, shaking the Earth. His eyes glowed with the
flames of Hell, his chest bared, exposing the unmistakable sign of
the Black Knights on his skin.

She knew this was finally it; he had found
her. She knew they would come one day, but she tried to hide, tried
to fit in. He was faster than her. There was no use. She stopped,
turning to face the Black Angel, her fists tight at her sides. She
was prepared to die now; what other choice did she have?

She grit her teeth as he took her, his
vengeful laughter echoing in her ears as he crushed her bones, her
body disintegrating in a cloud of dust and ashes.

* * *

Wes:

I woke with a start, sitting up in bed. I
heard a delicate moan beside me, and I looked down, seeing Emily
was still asleep. I looked under the covers. I had my clothes
on—that was a good sign. The last thing I wanted was to take
advantage of Emily when I was loaded on the hormones of my
condition, not to mention the adrenaline of the night.

I calmed my frantic breathing, bringing my
arm across my body and touching my hand to Emily’s face. I brushed
her long auburn hair back and behind her ear, trailing my hand down
her neck and across the soft skin of her chest. She moved, but
still, she did not wake.

There had been a scream in my head, but I
couldn’t be sure. I’d never felt or heard anything like it before,
and I began to wonder if it wasn’t the resonating memory of Alexis’
intoxicated scream of laughter. The air in my room was cold, the
window coated with a dewy film.

I saw the light in Jane’s room turn on. She
had shut her blinds on me, and a part of me was hurt by it. She had
been my best friend—a part of my life for as long as I could
remember. Never would I think that it would crumble over love.

My feelings for Emily were growing fast, in
a way I never would have thought before, but that didn’t mean I no
longer carried a torch for Jane. I cared about her because for ten
years, she had been my best friend, but the truth was that she
didn’t love me the way I’d always loved her. Our relationship had
climaxed to a point where it could no longer progress. It had
become volatile, and the ease of happiness we once shared had
disappeared.

I had to let go.

Emily twisted beside me, her brows creased.
I lay down, wrapping my arms around her stomach and pulling her
close, cupping her inside the curve of my body. I didn’t know if
she had heard my thoughts, but I hoped that in her sleep, she would
forget—or at the very least, think of it as nothing but a dream. I
nuzzled my nose into her hair, breathing deep.

She was beautiful.

Emily:

In the morning, I snuck out from under the
covers, trying hard to be silent. I watched Wes as he breathed, his
chest rising and falling, his arms sprawled across the pillows. His
skin was a pale grey in the dull morning light, and smooth like gun
metal. I shivered as I grabbed my coat off the back of his desk
chair, delicately fishing my arms into the sleeves and fastening
the buttons. I tiptoed to the door where I snuck out, leaving it
slightly ajar behind me.

Downstairs, I found the house was still
sleeping. His foster parents were more like grandparents, so they
slept late. As hard as they had tried to be trendy parents, they
weren’t always quick enough to keep up, or understanding of their
teenage son whose interests were decades ahead of their own. I know
they tried to understand Wes, but it was almost comical to watch,
as though they’d adopted him in an attempt to stay young.

I’d met them a handful of
times over the years, but tried my best to avoid them, not really
knowing what to say. They had loved my father, talked with him
everyday over a cup of coffee. Though I tried to pretend his death
didn’t bother me, it did, and their attempts at comforting me
always grew ironically
un
comfortable.

I walked out the front door, shoving my
hands in the pocket of my plaid coat as the faux fur around the
hood tickled my cheeks. The grass under my feet gave as I crossed
the lawn, walking around the large evergreen trunk that shaded our
front porch.

“
It’s a little early to be
sneaking around, isn’t it?”

I froze in place, the voice chilling as it
rolled down my spine. I watched as the steam from my breath rose
around me, hiding me in a cloud.

Greg appeared from around the evergreen, his
skin even paler than Wes’s had been. He looked striking in a
well-tailored black coat and casual jeans. “You’re quite an
inventive girl, Emily. I admire that in you.”

“
What are you doing here?”
I demanded. I watched his pupils wavering, feeling drawn to them.
Greg walked up to me, touching my cheek. His hand was so cold, but
soft like cotton.

He laughed. “Tell me… Why
is a girl like you with a boy like Wes? You deserve someone
better.”
He was
arrogant.

I shook my head away from Greg’s touch,
controlling my thoughts as his screams tried to drown them out.

He smirked, leaning so
close to my ear that I felt his lips move. “It’s cute that you
think you can fit into his life as you have, especially when he’s
still not over your
sister.
It’s funny to think, you’re just second best.” He
made a clicking noise with his tongue. “You’ll never be Jane.” He
laughed mockingly.

The words stung, and I tried to deny them,
but something inside me felt it was true. I was consumed by the
feeling that there was still something between them, something Wes
would never be able to put in the past. Did I really want to spend
a lifetime worrying about his faithfulness? Always scanning his
thoughts like an obsessed girlfriend? Wes would forever see Jane as
the girl that got away. That was just the way it worked.

“
Leave me alone,” I finally
muttered. I tried to push past him, but he gently blocked my
way.

Greg’s expression changed from one of
trickery to one of understanding. “You and I are very much alike.
We love someone we can’t have.”

I scanned his face, my lips parted and
confused. “Who can’t you have?”

He brushed a piece of hair from my face, his
finger lingering against my skin longer than it should. “You.”

I knew he was dangerous,
but something about that suddenly appealed to me. Maybe this was
what Jane felt for his brother. Perhaps now I saw that Greg wasn’t
dangerous at all. In fact, he was
right.
Wes
did
love Jane.

Greg continued to pet my
cheek. “You deserve to be with someone that
loves
you, Emily.” Inflection was
added on all the right words.

I shook my head slowly, but his touch on my
face was filled with a new kind of poison. I felt my mouth go
dry.

“
Just
think about it, Emily. You’ll see soon enough. Wes does not love
you.” Every time Greg said it, I found myself doubting Wes even
more. “I can show you how to be stronger than you already are,
Emily. I can show you how to prove your validity to the world. Jane
thinks she is so special, but in fact, it is
you
that deserves the
praise. It is
you
that has the true gift.” He laughed.

Greg leaned close to me,
and though I wanted to get away, I allowed him to kiss me on the
forehead. His lips were like a breath of cold air as they touched
my skin. He was delicate—
sexy.
The screams had disappeared, and I found myself
feeling at ease. My eyes fluttered closed as he traced my jaw line
with his finger, wrapping me in his seduction.

“
You’re gorgeous, Emily,”
he whispered, tilting my chin up. His lips found mine. At first I
did nothing, but as he continued to kiss me, I found myself kissing
him back. His lips tasted like frosted sugar. I wanted
more.

Greg pulled away as I tried to lean in after
him. I reached out for him, feeling nothing but air. I opened my
eyes, only to find that he was gone.

Jane:

I grabbed a carton of milk and a bagel off
the cart in the lunchroom. I felt drained, my weekend a blur of
needless conversation with Liz, and strange phenomenons I refused
to process. I’d tried to avoid Emily all together, too frightened
by the concept that she could read my thoughts. For the brief
moments when I did see her it was no more than a glance. I’d taken
a position of ignorance, as though nothing had happened. I refused
to let my life take a turn for what I now saw as the worst.

I entered the courtyard as a gust of wind
blew across my face. I shivered, the cold milk in my hand making my
skin sting, adding to the discomfort. I spotted an empty table
across the courtyard and made my way to it, hoping the wind would
soon stop. I didn’t want to sit inside. I was tired of the staring
and whispered comments the whole student body seemed to put upon
me, especially after the fiasco of the party on Friday night.

What had really happened? What was it that
was going on with Greg and Max? For the last ten years, I’d
convinced myself that I was alone, grown apart from my entire
family under the belief that they could never know or understand.
My father and I had had a strong connection, so why hadn’t he told
me about who he was? If he were in danger, he should let me know.
At the very least caution me that something was after us. And
Emily—of all the people who should have been able to confide in me,
she should have been the first.