UnGuarded (33 page)
Authors: Ashley Robertson
Terror seeped back up, but I shook it off
and kept my mind open to the ankh. I could feel its power rippling
along my skin like tiny electric currents. After that, there was an
image in my mind—crystal clear—and I knew what I needed to do. With
all the strength I could muster, I pushed my foot against the vapor
floor, straining and forcing it through the cloud’s thick barrier.
Slowly, I moved half inch by half inch until the toe of my boot was
free—and just barely under the water’s surface. And that’s when I
thrust all my energy outward.
Electrifying shockwaves jolted through the
vapor demon, rapidly intensifying with the connection to the water.
The vapor demon’s whole body trembled, it howled and hissed…and
then it pulled away. Once my body was free, I shimmered into my
human form and fell to the water with a splash, everything
submerged but my head. The ankh was still burning, so I clenched
that fist as tightly as I could as I swam the few feet to where the
demon hovered. In a rush, I kicked up and thrust the top half of my
body above the water, then jabbed my hand into the vaporous cloud,
releasing the full amount of my power into it. An explosion rocked
me backward, and plunged me deep beneath the surface. Water
surrounded me as I desperately treaded upward. Only I never made
it. Darkness came, and I was swallowed into the sea’s abyss.
My lashes fluttered open and I saw a
middle-aged man with graying brown hair, chiseled, squared facial
features, and beaming red eyes. “Darius!” I gasped, sitting up in a
rush. I sat on a black sheet that had been laid on the ground, and
beyond the guide standing before me was the training field.
“You did good” was his response, even though
I’d expected him to explain what had happened instead.
When he didn’t elaborate, I stood up,
asking, “What happened to me?!”—sounding more like a demand than a
curious question.
He gave me a look that made me feel like he
was the proud parent—and I was the child. The thin line of his lips
curved into a slight smile. “You’ve mastered the use of your inner
power.” He paused a moment as if considering his next choice of
words carefully. “And you are much stronger than I thought you
would be.”
“But I…but…,” I stammered, getting
frustrated that my mind was moving faster than my mouth. “After I
threw my energy into that horrible demon…” My words trailed off,
flashbacks racing through my head like fast-forwarding a video.
Darius nodded, a suggestive look expressed
on his face, and anger sparked alive inside me.
“You were there the whole time.” My voice
low and accusatory. “Watching me.” I shook my head with
frustration, vaguely registering we were both in our solid, more
human-like forms. “Well,” I scoffed, “did I put on a good enough
show?”
His brows furrowed, and his lips arched into
a frown. “I was observing you, yes,” was all he said.
“I called for you”—my voice seething with
anger. Then I said in barely a whisper, “I called for you and you
never came.”
His features softened. “I came when you
truly needed me. Not a moment before that.” He stepped closer,
placing his hands on my shoulders. “Selene…”
My chest tightened at the sound of my name.
He’d never called me that before. I swallowed hard, slowly raising
my face to meet his eyes, and as I did, a tear slid down my
cheek.
“Your power is great, but you still have
much to learn of this new life. When you destroyed the vaporous
demon, you were plunged several hundred feet into the sea, and your
bearings were lost. Instead of swimming for the surface, you
treaded parallel with it. You panicked. Your nerves got the best of
you and then you lost consciousness.” He released me, stepping
back. “You can’t drown. You can’t suffocate. Selene, you simply
cannot die. Next time, do not let your fear control you. Let your
confidence reenergize and strengthen you.”
“Are you saying I blacked out because my
mind couldn’t handle the situation?”
He nodded by way of an answer. Then he
added, “If ever you lose a battle, it will not be because you lack
strength and power.”
Good to know
, I thought, feeling less
upset and a little more secure in myself.
Darius knelt down on the sheet, folding his
legs together in front of him and resting his hands—palms face
up—on his knees.
“What are you doing?” I asked, staring
curiously at him.
With his head, he gestured for me to sit
next to him. “We’re learning better control of our minds through
prayer.”
I snorted in disbelief. “You pray?”
“Of course I pray.” Sounding more like
“Duh!”
Hesitantly, I sat down, mimicking Darius’
position.
“After all,” he went on. “Who is it, do you
think, that requires our existence in keeping the balance between
good and evil?”
“I guess that means I’m not a demon, even
though all other fallen angels are?”
Darius flashed a knowing smile. “As I told
you, you are not like any other fallen one before you…or after
you.”
“Well, what am I then?”
“We are many things.” Another vague,
uninformative answer.
“Fine,” I replied curtly, sitting up
straight and squaring my shoulders. “Let’s pray.”
EVEN THOUGH IT WAS NIGHTTIME the light from
the half moon glimmered between tree branches, creating mysterious
shadows with their dying leaves. I floated over a few darkened snow
patches, the dim light illuminating them into silvery smears on the
ground. The thickness of the trees fanned out into a more open
terrain with shorter, stick-like bushes scattered here and there.
Even though I was in my diaphanous form, I could feel the chill of
the wind out here as it rustled more urgently without the
protection of the forest. It blew through my body, yet my shape
remained solid and untouched like a vent with air blowing through
it. Other than the breeze, the night was eerily quiet, and I
wondered if all the wildlife had already migrated or had taken
refuge for the fast approaching winter.
A
snap, pop, crunch
came from
directly in front of me. My body froze and something tight
constricted in my gut. It was probably him but I needed to be sure,
so I got moving in that direction. It wasn’t long before I could
make out a silhouette of a man just on the other side of the bend.
My heart started racing. I really hoped he’d be receptive to me.
And I prayed with every ounce of my being that when I asked him the
important question, his answer wouldn’t be the one I feared.
Once I confirmed his identity, I stealthily
came up behind him and paused. A few doubts swirled in my mind,
mostly about what Darius would do to me if he found out what I was
about to do. But I shook them off and materialized. Then I reached
out my hand, gently gripping his shoulder from behind.
“What the hell?” The vampire swung around,
fangs extended.
I smiled nervously. “Hi, Croix.”
“Who’s asking?” he replied icily, narrowing
his gaze.
“It’s me…Selene.”
He cocked his head to the side, and his
auburn hair spilled in luscious waves over the shoulder of his
black button-up shirt. The moonlight seemed to create yellowy
highlights, though I didn’t remember him having those before. His
eyes deepened as they slid up and down my body, most likely taking
in my new combat attire. “Selene? What the hell are you wearing?”
he asked with a raised right eyebrow.
“Um, I can get into all of that later,” I
explained in a rush. “I need to know if you’ve seen Cole at all in
the past month.”
He considered me a moment, then shook his
head. “No, I ain’t seen him. But I just figured he’d gone off
somewhere with you.”
A chill spread through my body and my knees
felt weak. I threw out my arms to steady myself as I wobbled to one
side, but it wasn’t balance that was taking me down. My emotions
roiled, charged with the heaviest anguish just as my legs gave out.
Everything swam in slow motion as I dropped, and I barely
registered that Croix was holding me up by my arm.
“Selene, what is it?” he asked, concern
spilling over his features.
I barely tilted my head to stare at his
smooth, perfect face, since he wasn’t that much taller than me. His
lips were pressed in a thin line and his brows arched just enough
to make one small wrinkle crease on his otherwise flawless
forehead. As I met his eyes, they seemed to swirl with a bottomless
depth. “Don’t,” I managed to say once I realized that if I didn’t
start talking, he’d try to roll me with his eyes. And my deepest
thoughts were none of his damn business.
He shook his head, a faint smile tugging the
corners of those thin, pale lips. “Sorry. I didn’t mean it. You
just…you just got me all worried.” He shrugged his decent-sized
shoulders—not too broad, but not too narrow either—still keeping a
firm grip on my arm, and I realized he was still holding me up.
“I’m sorry…I’m sorry too,” I stammered as I
kept staring at his face, only I wasn’t really looking at him.
Everything was blank, my body numb.
Croix let me go and I managed to stay on my
feet. He stepped back, running a hand through his long, voluminous
hair. I remembered how I’d thought, the first time I met him, that
any human girl I knew would’ve killed to have his hair. Croix
frequented one of Cole’s favorite lounges to pass time at. I’d been
introduced as Cole’s girlfriend, and as I’d spent more time with
Croix, eventually I had told him my secret of being an angel. I’d
mostly told him because he could smell something different about me
and he pestered me until I finally caved and confirmed it. He’d
left me alone about it ever since. Goody for him. When I hadn’t
seen Croix at the lounge earlier, luckily I’d overheard another
vamp mentioning Croix’s whereabouts, which led me out here in the
middle of nowhere.
My head lowered as the current situation
expanded in my chest, leaving it difficult to breathe. “You haven’t
seen Cole and no one else has mentioned seeing him?” My voice came
out strained and I stared harder at the ground.
“You ain’t been with him.” It didn’t sound
like a question, more an acceptance of the fact Cole was
missing.
I didn’t look up because now my eyes were
welling up with tears. This entire day had been somewhat
productive, but very painfully so. Since the ankh hadn’t flared
since my rendezvous with the siren and vapor demon, I’d gone to
Huron’s bar. It had taken me three long, drawn-out hours to finally
learn that Luke, and Annabel for that matter, hadn’t been seen
since Rhea. I’d hovered against the wall on the far right side,
mostly hidden in shadows while waiting to overhear the information
I sought. No one had paid me any attention whatsoever. Cloaking my
aura seemed to be a sure thing around every species I’d encountered
so far except guardians, and fortunately for me they could only
sense there was a presence, nothing more. The jackpot hit once an
old vamp friend of the voodoo Indian’s had come in and thankfully
asked just the right questions. Even though Huron’s answers had
been vague, I’d still been able to make out what I needed. And now
Croix had pretty much confirmed my biggest fear: Cole hadn’t been
seen either. Whether or not Luke was alive still couldn’t be
answered, but my heart told me going to Rhea would be the only way
to find out—and get Cole back to Earth. Annabel’s fate would be
decided when I saw her. If she pissed me off, she was definitely
staying behind.
Croix firmly grabbed my shoulder and gave me
a small shake, bringing me out of my thoughts, and I finally raised
my eyes to meet his. A lone tear streamed out of the corner of my
eye and he gently wiped it away with his finger, mostly smearing it
into my skin. “Do you know where he is?” Croix asked, his tone
sincere.
I took a deep, confident breath as I nodded.
“I’ve got to get going.”
“Well don’t hurt him too bad when you find
him,” was Croix’s nervous response.
“What do you m...?” I started to ask but
then realization sparked in my mind. I bet Croix thought Cole was
with another woman, and that made me curious and I just had to
know. “Has he ever mentioned someone else?”
“No,” he answered right away. And the way he
looked at me with unflinching eyes made it believable.
I swallowed the lump that had moved up my
throat, then told him, “Thank you,” as I turned on my heel and
started walking. After a few minutes, when I was certain Croix
hadn’t followed, I closed my eyes and focused on my next
destination.
Moments later, I was sitting on the black
sheet laid across the grass in the middle of the vast meadow where
Darius had helped me after my accident in Anthemusa. I really
needed to talk to him before I did anything stupid, and I was
hoping to keep a more honest relationship with him than I’d had
with Raphael—well, sort of. I definitely wasn’t telling him that
I’d revealed myself to an old vampire acquaintance. But there were
several questions looping in my head, and Darius was the only one
who could answer them.