After ending up in the nurse’s office again, this time selecting a stylish blue cold pack for my wrist, Brooke and I headed to the last class of the day, grateful that the end was nigh. Luckily, Foods and
Nutrition was usually a very low-stress class. Even so, a part of me was hoping Ms. Phipps would have another hangover. Sadly, she wasn’t quite the lush we’d hoped she would be. Instead, she gave us a quiz on the video we saw the day before. If I’d actually paid attention, I might have passed it.
But Brooke, dang her, knew every single answer. It was at that moment, at that pivotal turning point in our relationship, that I realized she’d sold her soul to the devil. No way could she have aced that quiz when neither of us paid any attention.
“It’s an absorption thing,” she said. We’d stayed behind to clean the kitchen for extra credit, so the halls were almost empty when we left class. “I just absorb information. I’m like a sponge.”
“You’re like a sphincter.” I said it before I thought. And yet, didn’t regret it. Clearly, I needed to work on a few issues. Resentment was never the answer.
She raised a superior brow, mocking my insolence, but her gaze quickly slid past me. “Jared’s coming.”
I whirled around. Fast. Too fast. So fast, I lost my balance and had to grab on to Brooke’s jacket.
And the world was depending on me.
We were in so much trouble.
Jared smiled as he walked toward us, but it was different—he was different, harder. His gaze was cavalier. His walk was more arrogant than confident. His gait almost taunting.
He strolled up to me. “I’ve actually stumbled upon you without your bodyguard. That’s not an easy thing to do.”
I glanced around, looking for Cameron. He was always right outside my classroom or waiting just down the hall. Brooke stepped to the side to check her phone. Mine beeped too. I ignored it.
“Is there a reason you wanted to catch me without Cameron around?”
The grin that slid across his handsome face was more like a leer. He hooked his thumbs on the pockets of his jeans and leaned against the wall. Most of the students had vacated the premises. We were alone except for a couple of stragglers at the lockers down the hall.
Brooklyn tapped on my arm. “You should check your phone,” she said. When I looked at her, she’d placed a wary expression on Jared, her brows crinkled in distrust.
Jared noticed. His mouth tilted as I took out my phone. Just as it lit up, I heard a clicking of heels and turned to see Tabitha walking toward us, her blond head bouncing, her white teeth visible from a hundred yards.
Then I felt Jared tug at my shirt. I backed away. He’d pulled my neckline and, I could’ve sworn, looked down my shirt. I clasped it to me with one hand. “Did you just look down my shirt?” I couldn’t decide if I should be flattered or offended.
“Ever the good girl.” His grin was gone and he stood eyeing me from underneath hooded lids. No expression on his face. No emotion. “Did you know there were seraphim, sons of God, who came to Earth to marry the daughters of man?”
I blinked at the abrupt change in subject and glanced at my phone. It had a text from Cameron. One word.
“Well, yes,” I said, frowning in confusion. Run? Run where? “They had children who were called nephilim, right? Like what Cameron is.”
His gaze traveled down again, paused on my hips.
I stuffed my phone back into my bag. “Jared, I don’t understand—”
“You don’t understand what I am,” he said, his voice as sharp as steel with a razor’s edge. He tilted his head, his eyes sparkling darkly underneath his lashes. “Did you know that I took the firstborn from ten thousand families in a single night, because one man, one human man, refused to submit to a power greater than his own?”
I tried to step back, but he curled the tail of my shirt into his fingers and held me to him. “The Pharaoh of Egypt,” I said. I’d heard the story dozens of times, of how Moses had warned him. Of how he lost his own son that night.
“I have killed princes and paupers, kings and slaves, all upon a word. An order. And I could kill every person in this town without a second thought.” He leaned closer and whispered in my ear. “I’ve done it.
So many times, I lost count.”
I really should have run. I could see that now.
“And in all that time, I never understood the allure. The desire inside my brethren to give up everything to be with a human.” His expression hardened. “Until you.” His hand slid around to the small of my back and he pulled me even closer.
I placed my hands on his chest and tried to speak with calm authority. “Jared, let me go.”
He looked up as Tabitha walked past. “Then again, maybe any human will do.”
Tabitha, seeing our position, had turned up her nose and clearly had every intention of walking on. He looked back at me, the smirk on his face cruel, punishing. Without taking his eyes off me, he whispered, “Come here.”
And she obeyed. Tabitha stopped, turned toward us, and walked forward until she was on his other side.
“Maybe even this human will do.”
He took hold of her jaw and dipped his head to place his mouth on hers.
And the world fell out from under my feet.
I couldn’t believe what I saw. Not that I could blame him. He was stunning. And I was … well, I was not.
If I defined any adjective in the English language, it would not be “stunning.” I wasn’t tall or gorgeous or a blonde or brunette. I was a short, redheaded pixie stick with curly hair and freckles. Truth be told, Jared deserved someone just as stunning as he.
But to see that. To have reality slap me in the face with the truth was a bit much to bear at the moment.
Was he just doing it to be cruel? If so, why? What had I done?
I tried to tear my eyes away when his mouth slanted onto hers. Tried to disengage myself when she melted against him. Against us. Tears burned the backs of my eyes. I pushed against his rock-solid hold in vain.
“Going dark side on us, Azrael?”
I stopped and turned to Cameron, my humiliation complete.
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” he asked.
Before I could blink, Cameron crashed into the wall opposite us. I didn’t even see Jared move. The
Sheetrock cracked as the two-by-fours holding the wall up bent beneath the force. The moment Cameron started to catch himself, Jared was in front of him, a hand around his throat. He slammed Cameron into the wall again, his head making an indentation.
But Cameron was just as fast and just as strong. In a movement too quick for my mind to register, he broke Jared’s hold, grabbed him by the throat, and smashed him to the ground. It shook the floor and rattled the windows. I heard a scream from Tabitha as she stumbled back, and I realized I had fallen as well. Then I felt Brooklyn by my side, tugging me to my feet, trying to pull me out of harm’s way.
I had seen them fight before. I had seen the devastation left in the wake of their aggression. And the trauma of it had sent me into a state of shock. This time, I was already in shock. I was confused and hurt and frustrated.
Then a male voice, loud and threatening, boomed from down the hall. “What is going on?”
I looked over and saw Mr. Davis rushing forward. If he saw them, if he saw how fierce they were, how inhuman, he would have one more piece to add to his puzzle. One more link that would place Jared in his past.
“Lusk!” he yelled when Cameron picked Jared up and slammed him to the ground again.
A part of me began to worry for Jared. He wasn’t himself, and beating him to death would not right it. I started forward, but something stopped me. Something dark. That’s when I saw it. The grin on Jared’s face. The smirk of satisfaction.
