Set In Sparks (Morningstars Book 2) (6 page)

It was a quiet night. The stars were shining bright above them and Jaden paused to look up. Kaden couldn’t help but do the same. It was up there that fate was decided. He wondered if you could see exactly the star behind which the Creator had planned out his brutal game of Twins and Queen. After all, didn’t it take two to tango? He had never heard of a saying about threes belonging together. No, in fact, he knew only negative quotes, like the famous third wheel, or two’s company, three’s a crowd.

“You’re brooding again, brother,” Jaden remarked, watching him now instead of the sparkling lights above. “It used to be my position.”

Kaden smiled. He wouldn’t lie; when Jaden had announced he’d be on the hunt with him that night, he had been annoyed. Kaden had easily gotten used to the solitude in the dark. It was weird having someone else with him now, even if it was his brother.

Surprisingly, it was still nice.

“Well, now you have Maya and it seems like she’s sucking the black out of your dark moods and putting light where the sadness used to be,” he mumbled and the thought of Maya made his stomach turn though it reminded him of something he had meant to ask Jaden.

“How does it feel to share everything with a person? I mean you two are now basically one. She feels what you feel and even that, what doesn’t go through the bond, you know it’s there. Do you feel annoyed or completed by that?”

If you would have asked him that six months back and Jaden would have stared at him as if he had offered to sleep with a shrimp or a cow. Feelings weren’t something guys talked about, ever.

“It feels like coming home. Whatever happens, you have a rope securing you. No matter how deep you fall, your Origin is the safety net keeping you from hitting the ground. Whatever I am, I am because of her. It’s not possible to put in words how that makes you feel. I know I was fucking terrified of sharing everything with a small girl like her. Truth is, your Origin will be so damn big for you and she’ll be able to hold your life in the palm of her hand.” His twin shrugged, scratching his head in embarrassment. So
something
of the old Jaden was left in the new, improved version.

“You practice that a lot?” Kaden mocked playfully and Jaden picked up a brow.

“What’s that?”

“Being a woman,” Kaden grinned and Jaden stood by his side in the blink of an eye, punching his shoulder. Kaden held it in pretended pain. “Ouch, you tapped my shoulder,” he whined and then the twins burst out laughing.

Kaden’s mood lifted and he felt lighter than he had in weeks. Something sinister was eating away at him and as much as he hated to admit it, every night alone made it worse. He wouldn’t ever ask anyone for help, but it worried him. He had blackouts that no one could fill. He’d start walking down one street, all intent on finding a bar, then he’d suddenly find himself half across town, his hands bloody and his shirts torn. Sometimes an hour had passed and all that tethered him to sanity right now was the fact that, thanks to the curse that was the bonding with Maya, he couldn’t bite anyone else. Whatever he did, he didn’t drain humans of their life-saving grace, and that was all that mattered to him.

In fact, he checked the papers every day on his cell. Online news was something Matt had introduced him to and Kaden was more than glad about it. The original plan had been that one person always checked if the Hellraise invasion was bleeding into human society, but so far there wasn’t any spikes in the death rates. No surprise really, Kaden thought. The Hellraise were coming for Maya, and before they ever got a chance to settle for something less, the warriors got to them.

“Do you miss it? The fighting?” Kaden then inquired. His brother used to live for the fights, but now it seemed he was barely ever out on the streets anymore.

“I do. A lot. I miss the exercise, the adrenaline, the excitement, but I can’t exactly lie; there’s something intensely satisfying about being the one to protect your woman,” Jaden shrugged and Kaden just wanted to say something when he realized that his hands were tingling.

“No,” he whispered over and over again, gritting his teeth as if that would make any difference in what was coming.

Jaden stared at his twin. It was as if he had just checked out. There was a vacant look in his eyes, as if he wasn’t really
in
his body any longer. “Kade?” Jaden asked carefully, watching how his twin freed his daggers from the holster under his jacket and then just stalked off.

Jaden got out his phone, dialing Ryder. “You need to be with Maya all the time, Ryder. Do not, I repeat, do not let her out of your sight,” Jaden instructed without preamble then he slipped the cell back into his jeans pocket, walking after his brother.

He had expected Kaden to move somehow funny, maybe a little stiffer, or weird since it seemed like he didn’t inhabit his own body anymore, but his twin was as stealthy as ever, hurrying along street corners and building entrances until vanishing in an ally. Jaden had no idea what was up, but just a second later, a fighting noise came and he closed the gap between him and his twin. He froze the moment he had a clear visual and saw that Kaden stood between three Hellraise. They stared at him as if he had interrupted them and by the blood dripping from their chins, it most likely was true.

Without a warning or even a sound Kaden stepped forward, his leg swinging to take down the one right in front of him. The guy went down, obviously too surprised and too dazed from the blood to react properly, and Kaden was on him instantly.

The other two woke from their stupor and a vampire with a dirty trench coat jumped onto Kaden’s back. Jaden wanted to interfere, but a hand held him back. He turned, finding a woman in blindingly white clothes holding him back.  The color of her skin was the total contrast to the white material covering her body; it looked like melted chocolate, smooth and velvet. Her hair was black as a panther, and just as shiny, but it didn’t reach past her ears. Her eyes though were her most striking feature: They were ice blue.

“Watch,” she ordered, pointing back. Jaden turned to find his twin already free of trench coat guy. He lay incapacitated to Kaden’s feet while the warrior pummeled his fists into the face of the guy he had gotten on the floor. The third Hellraise, a dude who easily could belong to any fraternity in town, seemed to debate on whether he should run or fight.

“Kill them, Kaden! Fuck, stop playing around!” Jaden snapped, taking another step forward, but again the woman stopped him. Jaden turned back to her, growling, but she seemed unimpressed. As it was, even though she barely squeezed his shoulder, her grip was rock solid and he couldn’t shake her off. It frustrated him more than he could say.

“Watch,” she just repeated as a gurgling sound made Jaden focus back. Kaden had cut trench coat’s throat and the guy was chocking on his own blood while being unable to run. His kneecaps were busted and even though vampires healed faster than any human ever could, Kaden seemed to be well aware of the moment the process was almost completed because without even looking up he plummeted his daggers through Trench Coat’s knees again, making the Hellraise howl in pain. Frat Boy finally decided to run, but before he had taken two steps, Kaden’s long fingers wrapped around one ankle, making Frat Boy meet the concrete face down. The nose broke in the process, blood smearing across the dirt, as Kaden pulled him back with one hand while chocking the vampire beneath him with the other.

“End it already,” Jaden whispered, realizing that not too long ago he would have enjoyed the obvious brutality Kaden displayed, but now it worried him. His twin had always favored swift kills and would usually leave the torturing to others, but this, at the end of the alley, Kaden wasn’t acting like his twin at all.

To Jaden’s utter horror, Kaden released Frat Boy and then tore off the head from the guy he was kneeling above with his bare hands in less than the blink of an eye. He then got up, clenching his daggers.

Frat Boy and Trench Coat staggered to their feet as well, trying to run in the process. Kaden caught up with them in just a few strides, forcing the daggers from behind through their heads.

The screams that fell from their lips were more animalistic than human, tortured souls finally being freed in the most brutal way possible.

Kaden stood over the bloody puddles, picking up his beloved daggers and then stared down at the mess he had created. Through it all, not one word had left his lips. While he wasn’t known to necessarily taunt his victims, he usually wasn’t silent, either. A curse or a prayer sometimes accompanied him fighting hard. Then again, this had appeared like nothing bigger than a practice fight.

It made Jaden shiver while his twin stalked towards and then straight past him. Numbly, Jaden made his feet move too and the woman followed, which Jaden had fully forgotten.

“I’m Varovanie,” the stranger said gravely and he only shrugged. She could have been Madonna and he wouldn’t have cared. “I’m here because you need to understand that there are only two ways this goes: utter destruction of eternal salvation.”

Jaden snorted. Wasn’t that always the way? He decided to not comment though.

“You don’t know me at all, do you?” she asked while Jaden had to watch how his twin marched around street corner after street corner. He shook his head, his eyes not leaving the brother he knew better than anyone and yet didn’t recognize at all.

“I belong to the Circle of Seven.” That made Jaden’s steps falter, yet since his twin didn’t stop, he forced himself to move on. He had wished for a chance to talk to one of them just so he’d get absolution for being with Maya fulltime, yet now wasn’t the time for it. It made him grit his teeth, but Kaden needed him more now. Maya and he would do what they wanted anyway.

“I’ve hoped for months that I could see one of you, but now is really not the time,” he growled, trying to still sound somewhat polite. He
needed
the approval if he wanted Maya to gain their support.

“I’m here because of your twin, not your Queen,” Varovanie gave back quietly.

“I can’t follow,” Jaden admitted, realizing how exhausted he sounded. Why couldn’t those people ever pop up, say ‘hey, doom is coming in the form of ten vampires and seventeen guns’ and then they leave again? No, that would be too easy, right?

“I have visions, actually it’s not even visions, but I get presented possibilities. It’s either the darkest of the dark or the brightest of the bright. Trust me, you don’t want to have
him
go down the dark path.”

Jaden snorted another time. He had known that beforehand – having Kaden go dark side was not an option, even if the dark side would have cookies, or blood in their case.

“How do I stop him?” He actually felt himself smirk. As if this woman would tell him anything.

“You need to trust Maya and him. If you don’t, we all are doomed.” Jaden growled, finally stopping after all. He turned to the woman, only to find he was alone again. If it wasn’t for the fact that he knew for certain vampires couldn’t teleport, he’d think Varovanie had done just that. Instead, he chalked it up to her being probably very old and well trained.

He trusted them both, so that wasn’t anything new. Just then he remembered his original mission here and he picked up his pace, almost running until he realized where they were going – The Queen’s Mansion.

Fear pierced Jaden like a thousand needlepoints, but his twin, or the shadow of him, passed through the gate without any problems. He wasn’t there to hurt Maya. Of course he wasn’t and Jaden hated himself for even doubting that.