Masquerade (42 page)

“
Are all hellhounds being
offered these jobs
?” I asked.

“
Not all,” Airis replied.
“Some are indeed what they were
originally
twisted to
be; they have turned their back
on God and have chosen darkness. They will not be
welcome.”

Sam was quiet for so long that I began
to worry. I could feel that he was intrigued by the idea of being
something better than what he thought he was. I already thought he
was wonderful. This could be good for him, giving him something to
be proud of. It didn’t take long, though, for doubt to creep into
my head. Selfish doubt. If he was off guarding some Supernatural
Treasure, then when would I see him? We couldn’t be together. The
thought made panic begin to build in my chest. I couldn’t live
without him.

“
I can’t do it.”

Did my ears deceive me? Did he just
refuse this?

“
Sam.” I tugged on his
hand.

“
Can I ask why you would
refuse?” Airis asked calmly.

He looked down at me. Love swelled in
my heart for him. He was doing this for me. I turned my back on
Airis and faced only him. “You can’t refuse.”

“
I already did.” His chin
jutted out and he had a stubborn glint in his eyes.

“
You cannot refuse God to
be
with me!” I hissed, even though I
wished he could.

“
I was meant for Hell
anyway. I’m staying with you. Besides, who else is going to stop
China?”

“
You are not meant for
Hell. You have a good heart, Sam. You need to do this; your
eternity depends on it.” As much as it hurt, I knew I was right. I
would give him up if it meant saving his soul so that when he
—
gulp
— died, he
would spend his eternity in peace.

“
I want you. To hell with
my soul.”

I gasped.

From behind me Airis spoke. “Perhaps
you would like to know about this Supernatural Treasure that you
would be guarding?”

Sam shook his head, but I turned
around to say, “Please. Is it something that he can take with him
and keep where he lives?” Then he could still be with
me.

“
It must stay with him, and
he must go wherever it goes.”

“
Oh.”

“
What is it, anyway?” Sam
asked.

“
It’s actually a ‘who,’”
Airis replied.

“
A ‘who?’” I didn’t like
the sound of that. What if it was a girl? A beautiful girl without
scars and a crazy mother…

Cut it out.
Sam’s words cut through my thoughts.
No one could compare to you, and I am not doing
this.

“
It’s why you were given
your life back, Heven.” Sam and I both looked over at her. “The
Supernatural Treasure
is
you
.”

“
I’ll do it.”

“
You’ve changed your mind
then?” Airis asked.

“
I wouldn’t have said ‘no’
at all if I’d known it involved Heven.”

“
I was hoping you would
agree before you knew.”

“
Guess I’m not as pure of
heart as you think.”

I heard the exchange, but I was
scarcely paying attention. Did no one seem concerned that Airis
just announced that I was some kind of treasure? It was ridiculous.
I was hardly a treasure; my own mother thinks I’m evil, and I’m
dating a hellhound. Admittedly, he is a hellhound who has a moral
soul, but still, he was a hellhound.

“
Heven?” I looked up at
Sam. “You okay?”

I shook my head.

“
Could you explain to us
exactly what a Supernatural Treasure is and what that means for
Heven?” Sam asked Airis.

“
A Supernatural Treasure is
a person who has been gifted supernatural powers. The ones that
discover their powers are generally guided by us to accomplish good
things in the world
.
We use them as tools
.
The noble, extraordinary deeds you witness are
usually the work of Supernatural Treasures.”

“
I don’t have any
powers.” I said, confused. There was no reason
that I should be considered a Supernatural Treasure. “And I haven’t
done any noble deeds unless you count not kicking the crap outta
Jenna a noble deed.”

Airis smiled at me like I was a
two-year-old, then she turned to Sam. “So you agree to be the
guardian, the protector of Heven, a Supernatural Treasure? You
choose to denounce sin and accept virtue?”

“
Yes.”

“
Why me? What makes me a
Supernatural Treasure?” I asked, suddenly.

Airis regarded me with
patience. “Because of who you are, for reasons you have yet to
understand.”

“
Explain them to
me.”

“
You will learn in your own
time. For now, I would like to awaken the gifts that slumber within
you.”

“
Slumber within me?” I
murmured.

“
Many
Supernatural Treasures live their entire lives without realizing
what and who they are. Many of them never know of their abilities.
That knowledge isn’t always necessary, but sometimes it
is.
You, Heven, have a path to
walk. I pray that you will be strong enough to take what I awaken
within you and use it for Glory.”

“
I don’t
under
–
” I
began but Airis turned to Sam.

“
Step aside
please, Sam.” As we watched a giant ball of light
swelled in her palm. It grew until I thought the weight of it must
be unbearable, but she never seemed to struggle. It shimmered and
glittered turning so bright that I had to squint, yet I couldn’t
look away.

“
What are
doing?” Sam asked, his muscles
tensing.

“
Step aside,” she
repeated.

“
I can’t. You have asked me
to protect Heven, and I agreed. While you have given me no reason
to think you mean us harm I cannot just let you do whatever it is
you are about to do to her, I have to know that she will not be
hurt.” Even as he said the words he angled his body in front of
mine.

Airis, still holding the swirling ball
of light, inclined her head. “Your loyalty is commendable. I give
you my word that I will not harm her. I am only doing what I said,
awakening her abilities.”

Sam turned to me, his body completely
blocking Airis from my view. He cupped the side of my face in his
palm, his eyes lingering on me. “Your face,” he
murmured.

I knew I probably looked horrible from
the accident and I laid my hand over his. “I know, I…”

“
It’s beautiful.” He said,
smiling. “She will not hurt you.” He told me, he said the words
like he knew them to be true. “Trust me?”

I nodded.
“Always.”

He backed away from me,
never once looking away. I got lost in those honey-colored eyes,
and I barely noticed when Airis sent the ball of light at me. Only
when Sam looked away did I look up. I braced
myself for the impact, for the searing heat, but there was
none. The ball of light hit me and spread out, enclosing me in a
bubble. The bubble floated up off the ground and hovered high above
Sam and
Airis. Sam stood below watching. I
didn’t want him to worry, because I didn’t feel afraid at
all.

“
I’m okay,” I called down
to him. I wasn’t in pain and for several moments I floated in the
bubble of light, and it was almost peaceful. But then something
changed. The air around me became electric and charged. I could
feel it vibrating, making my skin tingle. “Sam,” I croaked, but my
voice caught in my throat. The pain was sharp and quick, and if I
hadn’t been floating, I would have fallen to my knees. My whole
body jolted as if I was being electrocuted, and I couldn’t breathe.
Over and over again I felt the jolts until I was
so exhausted I yearned for sleep.
A loud ‘pop’ sounded, and it jerked me back to
reality. The electric jolts stopped, and my body was left shaking.
I crumpled forward only realize there was no floor to catch me; my
heart seized, panic assailing me once more as I barreled from the
sky toward the ground.

The feeling that I was free falling
lasted only a second before my body was lowered to the ground with
ease with deliberate care, and Sam reached out to catch me, holding
me close to his chest.

I let my head rest against
his shoulder, my body feeling drained
.

Sam stiffened and looked at Airis.
“That didn’t look pain-free.”

“
She is just fine. She only
needs rest.”

Sam relaxed as he shifted my weight
higher into his arms.

“
I will
transport you home now
.”

“
You
haven’t told us anything about her abilities, or what she
needs
protection from.”

“
She will soon learn of her
gift, and she needs protecting from anything that may cause her
harm.”

“
But,” Sam began, only to
have Airis cut him off. “You have been through enough today.
Everything else you will figure out. I will be there if you truly
need me.”

Just like that she dismissed us.
Seconds later, we were standing in the rain on the side of the road
where my wrecked car lay smoking. I was still in Sam’s arms, and I
looked up at him through the falling rain. “What in the world do we
do now?”

The Hate

The bitch was alive. I
stalked her all day for nothing
.
Finding her alone was more than I could have
hoped for – the perfect opportunity. I was sure that my final
attack would have finished her off. But then he showed up and
ruined it. How did he know where to find her? I had escaped,
fleeing the scene, but I couldn’t help but come back to watch Sam
grieve. The draw of that kind of hell was just too great. But when
I got close I saw that they weren’t there. Where had he taken
her?

My body was damaged, and I was in
immense pain; I sat down to rest. As I lay there, licking my
considerable wounds they reappeared. Now she stands in the rain
looking whole and healthy. By the stark relief written all over
lover boy’s face and the way he is hunched over her in the rain,
protecting her still, I would say that she was nowhere near
dying.

How did she manage to defy death? He
couldn’t possibly have saved her from what I did to her? But seeing
her now, it looks like I never even touched her. I felt
satisfaction knowing that her scars from this encounter might be
invisible, but the ones I inflicted before were
permanent.

I watched in smug satisfaction as she
came to stand over the wreckage that used to be her car, her face
twisted in pain. He called out to her and she lifted her face and
turned. Pain screamed through me with my sharp intake of breath. It
couldn’t be!

There was only one way that she could
have survived my attack and have this ‘miracle’ occur. The rumors
I’d heard down below were true. The scrambling for power, the plan
to upset the balance of Glory and evil, was not going unnoticed by
those who wanted things to remain as they were.

But what did she have to do
with it? What did
he
have to do with it?

Pain, sharp and pungent, ripped
through me. I had to get out of there before I passed out; he would
smell me and come to finish me off. I was lucky he was so busy
mooning over her and calling the police to catch my scent now. This
wasn’t over, not by a long shot. It didn’t matter how they were
involved because I would take them out of the game before they even
got a chance to play.

Chapter
Twenty-Three

Heven

Hospitals suck. I swore
after my accident that I would never go back to one, yet here I
was. Sam sat over by the wall, his hair wet and mussed from the
rain with an unreadable expression on
his
face as he watched the nurses poke and prod me. He was lucky they
weren’t torturing him this way, too. Sure, he hadn’t been in the
accident, but the clothes he was wearing (the shorts Airis seemed
to conjure right on his body and the shirt he got from his truck)
were ill fitting, ripped and covered in
blood. He looked like he needed medical attention, even if I
knew he didn’t.

Just as I thought it, a new
nurse came into the room with what I thought of as a blood bucket
(a kit to draw blood) in her hands and an intent look on her face
as she headed for Sam. “We would like to
check you out as a precaution.”

His face stayed the same,
but I felt his panic like a slap to my face. Having his blood down
in the lab would raise all sorts of questions. As a hellhound, Sam
has an extremely high white blood cell count, which he believes is
the reason that he heals quickly and rarely gets sick. If his blood
went down to the lab and they saw how unusually high his count was,
they would want to study his blood further which would lead to the
discovery that he has an extra chromosome (which is what I learned
enables him to change into a hellhound). These kinds of discoveries
would only lead to more questions…questions that Sam (and I) didn’t
want to answer.