UnGuarded (29 page)

His dark, bottomless eyes locked onto me as
his thin lips curled into a grin. “Perfect timing, sweet angel of
light,” his voice rumbled, deep and sadistic.

I lowered my arms and slowly closed my
mouth, which had been hanging open in shock. “Typhon”—my words
barely audible, but his grin widened so I knew he had heard.

His laughter erupted from the depths of his
body and rumbled throughout the room. Everything in me wanted to
turn around and run, but I could sense that Caitlyn was close. I
cast a quick glance around but didn’t see her. Ezariah stroked his
beard, his eyes widening with excitement. “Where is she?” I
screamed as waves of energy throbbed on my fingertips. Suddenly, my
hands burst with swirls of brilliant white light, and the glow over
my body increased too.

Typhon swung his gaze toward Ezariah. “Now!”
the master demon ordered.

That’s when two things happened at once.
Ezariah started chanting something in a language I couldn’t
understand. And the scrolls tucked in my bosom burst into flames.
In a panic I grabbed them, burning my hand as I threw them across
the room. A sharp sting lingered on my fingers, and that’s when I
noticed my light had gone out. Ezariah was still babbling that
incantation, but his voice became distant background noise when I
glanced down at my body. My dress wasn’t white anymore. It was an
ashy gray color now with the torn, muddy edge draped over my bare
feet. I felt my eyes widen as a paralyzing fear spread through me.
My chest was sore from where the scrolls had been ablaze, and I
delicately rubbed it with my fingertips, gasping when I felt an
indentation on my skin. I looked closer and my breath caught again.
There was some kind of symbol I’d never seen before etched into my
flesh like a tattoo, and that’s when I felt my angel form flicker
to my human body—still wearing the gray-colored dress.

“The process is almost complete,” a cool
voice said.

I glanced up to see Typhon with a huge grin
on his face, exposing yellowish teeth and fangs. “What have you
done?” I asked, disgust in my tone.

“Soon, you will be mine. And the light will
no longer reside in you,” Typhon replied as he took a few lumbering
steps my way.

I looked down at myself, then over at
Ezariah, who was still chanting. His eyes were rolled in the back
of his head, exposing just the white parts, and his hands were held
open in front of him with the palms facing up. “You can’t force me
out of the light!” I exclaimed, feeling overwhelmed with
desperation. “It is not your choice!”

“That’s where you’re wrong, sweet little
angel.” Typhon roared with laughter, and once he’d settled down he
went on. “By using the sea scrolls to rescue your human, you
unleashed the darkness inside you, which began the deterioration of
your precious light. Of course, I needed your human unguarded to
set the plan in motion. My minions were ready to strike once the
deal was made with Moros. And your confidant only made things
easier with his willingness to tell you about the ancient sea
scrolls. He knew you’d be all too eager to retrieve them and use
their power to save your human. And, of course, he would be more
believable than any of my demons informing you of the same.”

“Beck,” I mumbled as anger flushed me with
the thought of how involved he’d really been. Then I returned my
attention to the master demon, realizing he was still babbling.

“…my advantage, you vanished with the
scrolls, giving my servant more time to complete the process. And
only to add to my convenience, Luke sent word to the Underworld
that he was searching for you, and I knew it was just a matter of
time before he’d find you because of his alliance with Huron. So
instead of using other resources to help locate you, I sent shadow
sliders to relay the message of having your human and then I sat
back and waited for you to come straight to me.” He lumbered
closer, now just a few feet away from me. “You see, you may not be
fallen yet…” He rubbed his chin, an eerie grin stretching across
his face. “But you will be fallen before you leave this lair.”

“No,” I replied grimly, shaking my head, the
impact of everything the master demon just said throbbing inside my
mind. He’d played me from the beginning, using Luke and Huron as
pawns in his little game.

Suddenly Typhon roared with laughter again,
while Ezariah stopped chanting and thrust both hands up. I sensed
invisible waves of power surging right for me, could feel them
getting closer as pressure built inside my head and my chest
compressed until I thought I’d explode. At the instant I thought
the dark energy would overtake me, it suddenly weakened and faded.
Yet I could still sense it all around me—like a noxious gas
hovering around an unseen force field sheathing my body. The dark
magic couldn’t touch me.
Thank you, Huron
, I thought with
relief. I released a deep breath, regaining some confidence. “You
cannot touch me!” I screamed, releasing all the light inside me.
But nothing happened. No light, no glow, and my dress was still
gray. So I did the next best thing I could think of—act like
nothing was wrong.

“Finish it now!” Typhon roared to Ezariah.
“Or I will finish you!”

Ezariah attempted to blast me with that
black magic again, and even though I felt its weight all over my
body, it still couldn’t penetrate Huron’s protection spell. “It’s
not…it’s not…working,” Ezariah mumbled in disbelief.

“But you said if she performed the ritual
with the blood of a vampire in her system, she’d be mine!” was
Typhon’s thunderous response.

Ezariah took a few steps back, cowering from
the demon. “It should work!” he wailed in a panic. “Look at
her”—his finger pointing at me—“her gown is changing. The ritual
worked, but something is stopping it.”

“Fix it now!” Typhon ordered with
impatience. Then he charged me and grabbed my neck with his massive
hand. “Maybe you need more vampire blood in you,” he wondered as he
raised me off the ground.

My hands flung over his, trying to pry him
off my neck. But he was too strong and I couldn’t budge him.
“Please,” my voice wheezing.

“Bring me a vampire!” Typhon demanded as he
flung me down like a rag doll. I skidded across the ground, then
rolled over and stood up as fast as I could.

As if perfectly timed, about a dozen soldier
demons marched into the room with three beaten, restrained
vampires. My heart sunk as I watched a demon bash Cole in the side,
while another smashed his fist in the back of Luke’s head. Annabel
was shoved forward, rattling the chains that held her arms against
her body.

“It was that one,” Ezariah said, gesturing a
finger toward Luke.

Meaning the master demon didn’t know which
vampire had given me blood, but somehow the former guardian did.
Typhon trotted over and grabbed Luke by the shoulder. “How much did
she take from you?” he asked, digging his claws into Luke’s
flesh.

Luke turned away, spitting out blood. When
he didn’t say anything, Typhon squeezed him harder. Crimson trails
slicked out, then smoke rose from the wound. Luke screamed out in
agony but Typhon didn’t loosen his hold on him.

“Stop it!” I screamed, my heart crumbling.
“Please! He gave me blood four times. Maybe about two or three
pints worth.”

“Then that’s not the problem,” Typhon stated
with a grimace. Then, he plunged his clawed hand inside Luke’s
chest, and with a jerk of his wrist, shredded my vampire ally’s
heart. Luke cried out, his voice fading from garbled grunts to
silence as Typhon removed his crimson-soaked hand and tossed Luke
to the floor, my friend’s torso resembling bloody, raw meat.

“No!” I screamed, rushing to my vampire ally
and kneeling down beside his lifeless body. “Why…would you kill
him?” I demanded, casting my glare on the red monstrous demon.

Typhon half laughed, raking me with an
expectant gaze. “Do you want to save him?”—his voice taunting.

I nodded, saying “Yes” while cradling Luke
in my arms.

“Selene! No! Don’t!” Cole shouted, his
chains clinking with his movement.

I glanced at Cole and then at Typhon, who
was still eagerly watching me. “What do I have to do?” I asked, my
eyes settling on the demon.

“He needs the blood of an angel, and then he
will be saved,” Typhon coaxed by way of explanation.

“No, Selene! Don’t do it!” Cole begged.
“He’s gone. Let him go. That’s what he would’ve wanted.”

I gazed at my lover, wanting nothing more
than to listen to him, to prove that my heart only belonged to him,
and that I could walk away from Luke forever. Cole’s brows furrowed
as his eyes continued to beg me not to give Luke my blood. Tears
welled in my eyes, and I choked them back as I silently mouthed
“I’m sorry” to Cole. Then I looked back down at Luke, ready to do
whatever I could to save his life.

Cole started to scream and plead, bringing
my attention to him once more. A few more soldier demons rushed
over to hold him back. His voice became muffled when a demon placed
his hand on top of Cole’s mouth. I watched helplessly. There was
nothing I could do at the moment to help him anyway.

“You’ll need this.” I glanced up to find
Ezariah kneeling beside me with a dagger in his hand. Without a
second thought, I took the dagger and sliced it through my
wrist.

Suddenly, a deafening explosion blasted
through the room, shaking the ground with enough force to rock me
backward. I tried to crawl to Luke, but the energy held me down and
I couldn’t budge. My skin crawled with the invisible force like
tiny ants scattering along my flesh. The pressure increased, my
insides expanding beyond what I could handle. My heart thundered so
hard, I could feel it all the way in my head. The tears I’d fought
to contain slicked down my face with a freedom I wished I had. Then
everything started warping around me until finally the pressure and
energy faded.

Realizing I could move, I crawled to Luke’s
side, then glanced around the room. The blast had taken everyone
down, and a subtle luminescent blue glow hovered over the room like
fog, keeping all the dark ones cowered to the floor with their arms
shielding their faces. In the center of the room, there were swirls
of twinkling white light, and then Raphael appeared. His snow-white
cloak was flung back, fully exposing his sculpted upper body
shimmering with a golden tan. He moved closer, his white pants
flowing with each step.

“You are not welcome here!” Typhon called up
while keeping his arm over his face.

“You have no rule over me, demon,” Raphael
spat. Then he looked at me, his expression grim. “Selene, get away
from that dark one!”

I sniffled as tears streamed down my face.
“I can’t let him die.”

“Whether one lives or dies is not up to you.
If you give that creature of darkness your blood,” Raphael warned,
“then you will forever be lost to the light.”

“But I’ve shared my blood before,” I
admitted, my chest tightening as a pit formed in my stomach.

Raphael’s brows furrowed with bitter
acceptance of what I’d just said. He shook his head slowly,
releasing a disappointed sigh. “Regardless of what you’ve done, for
which there are consequences, you are now marked by darkness. Now,
anything you do against what I’ve told you will strike you from the
light without a single shred of mercy.”

Swallowing to moisten a throat gone dry, I
slowly stared down at Luke’s face. A few tears dripped off my chin
and splashed on his cheek, and I rubbed my fingers through the
wetness, smearing dirt with his blood. “What about Caitlyn?” I
asked, glancing at my severed wrist. The bleeding had slowed, and
thick dark clots were forming on the edges of the cut.

“She does not belong here,” Raphael answered
at once.

“Did the ritual work?” My gaze drifted
upward, meeting Raphael’s eyes.

His frown told me the answer, but then he
shook his head, saying, “You never completed the ritual. Your
breath for your charge’s.” He closed his eyes, and as he opened
them, Caitlyn materialized in his arms. Even though I could sense
my charge was still alive, she hung lifeless in my archangel’s
arms. A wave of helplessness and sorrow flooded me all at once. My
charge would soon be moving on to the light, and I would never see
her again. And my friend, and vampire ally, whom I’d grown to feel
so strongly for, would be lost forever too. All of this was all
because of me. Caitlyn shouldn’t be moving on yet; it just wasn’t
her time. Nor should Luke be fully dead by Typhon crushing his
heart. Everything I’d done up to this moment was all for
nothing.

Still, Raphael was here to give me another
chance. Maybe I could get it right this time around? Even though I
was marked by darkness, there was still a way out. Hope for a new
tomorrow. And Cole would be there with me—once I’d fulfilled
whatever my punishment was. Unless my new lease on life, so to
speak, came with the terms of leaving Cole forever. But at least he
wouldn’t be dead, and I could move on knowing that he was somewhere
out there. Unlike Caitlyn or Luke.

“Selene,” Raphael called out. “Come now. We
must go.”

I looked at my archangel with love and
admiration. He’d dealt with so much from me, and he was still
willing to fight for me. Unconditional love. Something humans
weren’t able to give. Nor were dark ones supposed to even know what
love was, and yet, that had been proven wrong by two vampires. At
that moment, my decision became crystal clear. I silently mouthed
“I’m sorry” to Raphael, then grabbed the dagger lying about a foot
away from me and slid its blade over my existing cut. My archangel
screamed my name as I brought my bloody wrist over Luke’s mouth.
Then I recited the ritual of breath and plunged the blade through
my heart. The last thing I heard was Raphael weeping for me, and
Typhon shouting something I couldn’t understand as a diaphanous
wave of energy thrust through my body and a sea of blackness
engulfed me.