The Celestial Kiss (10 page)

“You can’t!”  I yelled.  When he turned back, the fury in his eyes was acute.  The solid blue of his irises, which I had once found endearing, now looked like the center of a hurricane.  “If you do that they will attack,” I swallowed, recognizing that provocation.  He didn’t take kindly to being told what to do and what not to do.  “It will mean war.”

“That’s what I intend.”  Xian snapped.  “Clearly they’ve grown too comfortable, coming here making demands.  Kidnapping you was their last move ...It’s time we set them straight.”

“No, it’s not!” I insisted.  I didn’t know why I was defending them, other than that I didn’t want to be at the center of this.  My mind kept turning back to the painting James had shown me the previous night…in the werewolves’ absence, the vampires ran amok.  “No good can come of it.  Just drop it, please!”

“Drop it?”  He repeated, as if he’d never heard the expression before. I suppose it
was
kind of a foreign concept for him to relent.  “After what he did to you?”

“You’ve done far worse.”  I was desperate and would have said anything to stop him from waging war.  It just so happened the first thing to come to mind was the truth.

Xian’s response for that was what I should have anticipated, if past experience were relevant now; the quick slap across the face hurt more than I had remembered it to.  My cheek seared where his hand most likely had left a stinging red print, but I recovered immediately, turning back to him.  I’d long ago perfected my stone face.  I might have even hit him back, if my hands weren’t chained at the wrist.

Something like satisfaction radiated from him briefly, before he moved closer and pressed his lips to the burning spot on my cheek.  That kiss wasn’t to make it feel better, or even to make me feel better.  It was a prelude to the bigger kiss: his lips moving against mine.  His actions were so reliable I could have set a clock by them.  I pulled away from him, tearing from the hollow familiarity, and caught a little glimpse of the shock on his face before Julius seized our attention.

“Sorry to interrupt, Romeo,” His voice dripped with unveiled sarcasm.  “Time to go.”  His hand closed around my arm again, a little tighter than necessary.  James watched over his shoulder with cold, hard eyes.  He did not look pleased.               

“You’re not taking her anywhere!”  Xian said.  It was a sound of danger to me, but James looked unaffected.

“We will return her to you when our terms have been satisfied.” He appraised Xian with a relative lack of interest.  No doubt, he was wondering who Xian thought he was, making those kinds of demands.

“I’m not letting her leave again!”  Xian growled, jerking me in his direction, pulling against Julius’ hold on me.  A gasp of pain tore past my lips, and Julius released me only to make better use of his hands…he lunged at Xian and wrapped them around that pale neck, squeezing tight.  He could have collapsed Xian’s throat in those two seconds, but the fact that he hadn’t told me he was holding back. 

“Julius!”  James growled.  But Julius had no mind for anything other than Xian at the moment, and he squeezed him so tight I expected he would behead him right there.  Instead, he threw Xian across the room with ease, sending him skittering into a pile at my father’s feet.  Perhaps I’d have laughed if the action hadn’t been so shocking and simultaneously frightening.  Fury was written on his face.  Xian stood, jaw clenched, and tried to advance but one of father’s hands upon his shoulder stopped him from coming after us.

Julius found his hold on me again, dragging me toward the door.

This couldn’t be real.  My father may have been angry with me, and he may have wanted me dead.  But why would he let them take me?  I had expected at the very worst that he would kill me in front of them to set an example.  Was he letting me go with them because it made a better example, advertised ramifications worse than death? 

Father turned away, leaving me to stare questioningly at the receding form of his stiff black blazer.  Xian’s murderous gaze latched upon my shoulders; I couldn’t suppress the shudder that wracked me as James and Julius pulled me into the crisp morning light. 

“You don’t know what you’ve done!”  Xian’s voice trailed after us.  “You’ve just turned a fruitless battle into a war!”             

Despite the yelling James remained calm, as though he hadn’t heard a thing.  “I will come for her,” Xian yelled.  “And I will kill you all!”

“We’ll see about that.”  Julius said, and as a ray of sunlight flashed upon his face I saw the smile.

“I’ll come for you!”  Xian called after us as we disappeared through the gates, about to be swallowed by the forest.  Whether it was a threat or a promise, I wasn’t sure, but I didn’t like either. 

“What’s going on?”  I demanded.  James was silent as we pushed onward.  I half-expected to see Father issue from the dark shape of the house and put a stop to this.  But nobody moved behind us and Julius dragged me forward still.  When we had cleared the property without any indication that we had a tail, I tore my arm from his grip and rounded on him, livid.  James walked by, undaunted, and carried on a few paces before turning back to face me.  I took in the fist clenched at his side and his squared jaw, but I couldn’t bring myself to care that he was mad.  “He denied the proposal.”  His voice was irritated.  “He wasn’t interested in negotiation at all.”

“What do you mean ‘he wasn’t interested’?”

“He denied our terms.”  Julius explained.  “Every offer we suggested, he turned down.”

“Every offer?”  I repeated, though he clearly was telling the truth, based upon the fact that I was here with him instead of locked in that dark old attic room at Xian’s mercy.  “What did you ask of him?”

“Only to move off this land.”  James explained.  “I know of accommodations thirty miles outside of this city’s limits that would be better suited to his wicked lifestyle.”

“And in exchange?  What did you offer him?”  I knew the answer of course, but I wanted to hear it aloud.  What did he have now to offer that he didn’t have two years or even seven days ago? 

“You.”  He was unashamed of divulging that, even though the admission sent a blow through me that hurt worse than Xian’s hand crossing my face.  “And continued peace.  An extra night of hunting each month...” He shook his head, bitter.  “The man is stubborn.  He wanted nothing that I offered him and even when I proposed that he create his own terms since I’d oblige most anything, still he refused me.”

“That’s not true.”  Even I could hear the denial in my voice, petulant and wavering.  I knew it full well, but rejecting that truth as falsity gave me a sense of hope, no matter how small, that my father cared.  He was my
father
after all, how could he turn me away so resolutely? “There must have been something he desired.”

James shook his head.  “Nothing I could offer was to his satisfaction.”

“You’re lying!”  I was dangerously close to crying; my throat felt thick with unshed tears. 
Don’t let them see you cry.
  “You were never going to let me return home.  You only needed me to get you in the door alive.”

“I haven’t lied to you.”  James said with a shake of his head.  He looked at me pitifully and began walking again.

“You have!  And I have a right to know, what are you keeping me for?”

“Because he didn’t want you!”  James whipped back around just in time to see my denial falter as the pain of reality hit me.  His face was still a mask of anger, but when he saw my reaction, it began to mellow.   “If it were up to your boyfriend, I’m sure you would have stayed, but since he’s not in charge you’re stuck with us.”

“Don’t talk about things you know nothing about.” My voice was dangerously low, possessing a venom I didn’t know I had in me.  The mention of Xian as my boyfriend was jarring, and I wasn’t about to take that from somebody who hadn’t the slightest idea what sort of monster he was.

“Oh,” Julius chimed in.  “Is Prince Charming a touchy subject?”  The threatening look I shot his way did nothing to quell his sarcasm.  In fact, it seemed a direct line to his anger.  “His kiss didn’t save you from all of this, Lilith.  You’re stuck here and things aren’t going to change.  This is your reality now.  Accept it.”

I tried to cling to the tatters of my patience and my dignity but the tears sprang to my eyes anyways.  Biting my lip staved off the onslaught enough for me to mutter, “You don’t know anything.”

“Maybe I don’t know your love story or how much being away from him kills you, but I do know this: your father told us to take you.  He didn’t want you.”

In an instant any sense of sorrow in my body was replaced with rage.  I loathed him and his brother and the situation they had put me in, and I was going to show him just how much. He was just as surprised as I was when my head collided with his jaw.  The act caused me more pain than him, but it succeeded in catching him off guard.  The instant became an opportunity to escape. 

I was fast, but surely not any match for a werewolf, which is why I was hoping the element of surprise would give me an advantage.  My own breathing grew so loud it was like a beacon, alerting them to my location, and I focused on remaining quiet through my carefully placed footfalls.  The ground would catch me if I tripped, and they’d be upon me in the next instant.

This time was no half-hearted attempt.  On top of my father rejecting them, my violent escape had probably contributed to Julius’ anger; I didn’t ever want to witness the full extent of it.  If I could only outrun them a little while further, a call for help ought to send someone in my direction. 
Just get into human territory...they can’t attack you in front of a human without risking exposure.

  Once again, I was off without a plan.  Last time that hadn’t seemed like such a problem what with the adrenaline of escape coursing through my veins, but last time hadn’t worked out so well.  Of course, this time things would be different.  I needed to go farther than I had been before. 

A sudden sound issuing from nearby underbrush caught my attention, causing me to turn in spite of my good sense.  I did not trip on a fallen branch and twist my ankle or tumble into a concealed pit, but I did the next most awful thing and ran directly into someone.  A pair of strong arms wrapped tightly around me and though I didn’t look up to see who was holding me, I fought to get loose.  The grip that fastened me in place tightened and the movement caused me to catch a drift of a familiar, earthy scent.  I looked up into the face I’d hoped to never see again.  “Where do you think you’re going?”  Julius crooned, mocking me. 

I struggled against him, desperate to get away.  But Julius was not to be tested; he wrenched me close, his hands like vices on my arms, and for a moment I thought him capable of murder. That was the moment it took for a gigantic wolf to pounce, knocking me to the ground.  I rolled, covering my face, and willed the ground to swallow me whole.  Anything to escape this fury.

But instead of seeping into the ground, I was practically lifted into the air.  Julius grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and dragged me up to my full, unimpressive height.  His image was blurry from where a few tears had dotted my vision at the pain erupting in my shoulder.  “Do you really think you stand any chance against us?”

I looked away.  It had seemed like no answer was the best answer, but he did not seem to appreciate my silence.  He gave me a little shake, rattling my chain, which felt so heavy they might tear my arms from their sockets.

As if summoned by my hatred, my instincts began to make themselves remembered.  I wasn’t merely a helpless girl, a naïve captive.  I was descended from a twisted, yet powerful lineage, and though I was no hunter, I possessed the skills of one.  Another swift head-butt in the nose forced Julius to release me.  Within seconds I was behind him, my mouth just over his throbbing carotid artery, fixing James with a dangerous look of warning.

In moments of intensity, clear thought often evades people, quite simply because logic pales in comparison to emotion.  That’s why I didn’t realize that I would get myself nowhere with this threat.  I was not a full vampire, and as such I did not possess all the same abilities as a full-fledged vampire; Biting Julius would not turn him.  Of course, James may not have known that.  No matter how knowledgeable he may be, I was a novelty in the modern world.  He could not have known everything about me.

Julius, realizing the peril of his position, attempted to move, trying to loose himself from my grip, but I clutched him tighter, pushing every bit of effort in my body into holding him still.  So close to his artery, with all that blood just an inch of skin away, a primordial longing coursed through me.  Julius felt my warm breath on his flesh and jerked away.  I had put no pressure to his skin before, but now I touched my teeth gently into his skin enough to leave two white indents—but nowhere near close to piercing the flesh. 

I looked up to gauge James’ reaction, but he was leaping through the air.  There was barely any delay between noticing his action and falling to the ground, knocked down by his weight, my head nesting atop a knotted tree trunk emerging from the ground.  The taste of copper seemed to flood my mouth, and through my darkening vision, I saw that he stood above me, the face of a wolf pulled into a growl, two paws pinning me against the hard ground.  He stared at me as if trying to say something, which obviously couldn’t be done in his current form.  Taken over by stubborn indignation, I refused to look away from him—until a second wolf relieved him.  Julius’ weight made breathing more difficult, and his paws threatened to cave my chest in.  But it didn’t matter.  What did I have that was worth living for anyways?