An Eternity of Dead Sun (An Eternity of Eclipse Novel Book 2) (24 page)

I could see the anger immerse his eyes when I told him what Tony did to me—that he was close to ripping my head off. Eclipse only tempered his fury when I told him that the wounds from the talons healed immediately.

For a fraction of a second, I was certain that if Tony hadn’t just helped him, Eclipse would have gone back to kill his own brother for laying his hands on me. I didn’t catalog that as him having any romantic feelings towards me though. Eclipse was a business-minded Demon. He did not sacrifice a portion of his powers to save me only to have someone else lay their hands on me. As he said, we were “soul mates.” I was
literally
an extension of him. Someone hurting me would equate to someone hurting him. And no one ever said that Eclipse was good at taking beatings without fighting back with quadruple the strength.

When I concluded my narration, a twitch of a smile tugged at his lips. His disdain for his Elder’s behavior may have bothered him immensely, but Eclipse was a composed Demon and an easily entertained one at that.

Exhibiting extreme amusement, he randomly said, “I can’t believe you pulled a pocketknife out on Lyna.” His melodic laughter bounced throughout the empty bus. It was just the female bus driver and us. From her profile, I could tell she enjoyed listening to Eclipse’s laughter as well. “I’m so pissed I missed that.”

“I can’t control my sadism when I’m mad.” It wasn’t a behavior I was proud of. I was lucky Lyna didn’t lose control and kill me for my idiocy.

“I’ve noticed.” He laughed again. In that moment, I was relieved that I withheld the story about bit
c
h-slapping Phix. Hurting people, even Demons, wasn’t something I was proud of.

“How are you holding up from our trip?” he asked after his laughter died down.

“Scared,” I admitted, thankful that we were finally able to talk about this.

I had been so busy with everything else that I hadn’t even had time to properly mull over what we discovered on our trip.

“I mean, my mother was pregnant with me six months before she had a miscarriage. Then, thirteen weeks later she was pregnant again, and then thirteen days after that, she gave birth to me? How do you make sense of something like this?”

“It is baffling,” he agreed quietly.

“That frozen blood we found under my family’s estate,” I prompted, my memories catapulting back to what we discovered when we dug up the earth. “Do you think it’s all over the land?”

“Yes.” His expression rippled with certainty. “That’s why, even after fifteen years of neglect, the world around your home is frozen in its beauty and perfection. It is because there is immortal blood frozen beneath it, giving it eternal life.”

My convoluted thoughts journeyed back to the narration by Father Baek. I hadn’t forgotten the look on Eclipse’s face. He appeared unnerved and taken aback when the tale of my birth was told.

“Why was your face pale when Father Baek spoke about the storm and my birth?”

Eclipse took a moment to categorize his thoughts. The world sped by quietly as he spoke. “When Sources are born, there are always storms taking place the night of their birth. This is why ‘Heaven cried the night of your birth,’ because they sense an evil that is being introduced into the world. As far as I know, the Heavens are aware when a Source is born, but they are not privy to where a Source resides. As for Demons, we are aware of neither because storms take place all over the world and it does not always relate to a Source.”

A muscle worked in his jaw when he thought back to Father Baek’s tale.

“When Father Baek said that as soon as you were born, the storms stopped, something clicked within me.”

The world seemed to have slowed with my growing anticipation. I did not miss the ominous pitch in his voice.

“What?” I asked, my interest piqued beyond its crescendo.

“You remember how I told you that the weather can sometimes be viewed as a susurrus of voices from the powerful entities around the world?”

I nodded slowly, my curious eyes urging him to continue.

“When Father Baek mentioned that the storm, which apparently was a very violent one, stopped as soon as you were born, he also said that it was as if the world fell quiet. When he said that, I remembered a night where I was sitting on my throne and something peculiar happened.”

I uneasily shifted in my seat. “What?”

The wheels of the bus creaked over the road, harmonizing with Eclipse’s words.

“For exactly forty-nine seconds, all of Hell fell silent. Everyone was completely and utterly quiet as they stared up at the skies. We all collapsed into silence because when the storms stopped, it stopped
all over
the world. For that suspended moment, it was as if someone had wrapped something over us.”

He sighed, still uncertain as to what took place that night.

“After those forty-nine seconds passed, the world kept moving. Many forgot about it, but it kept replaying in the back of my mind as one of the oddest things I had ever experienced. My brothers and the Elders of our world made a note of this phenomenon as well, and when we heard about the murders, it made sense that you were the cause of that brief silence over the world. That was how we found out you were a Source.”

I sensed from the way he spoke that this observation wasn’t as conclusive as he made it out to be.

“You think there’s more to it?” I pressed softly.

He nodded thoughtfully. “I think when you were born . . . a veil was placed over the world.”

“Another veil?” For some inexplicable reason, I got immense chills at the thought.

“I do not know what kind of veil,” he continued, “but it can only be viewed as astronomical. It had the powers to silence the storms of Heaven and the ability to arrest the unwavering attention of Hell. Only something extremely powerful could manage this type of feat.”

“Something anticipated my birth,” I reasoned out loud, thinking back to that malevolent entity. A troubling but inevitable possibility surfaced in my mind. I shot my eyes at him, panic surging within me. “Does this mean that
it
created me?”

Eclipse shook his head, immediately clearing any misconceptions I may have had about myself.

“Sources are Ancient Evils that predate Angels and Demons. You are not created. If anything, you are the Creator.” He glanced down at me, his eyes assuring me that everything was fine. “Your birth may not have been natural, but it was miraculous. Whether it was a cataclysmic or blessed event, it was miraculous nonetheless. There is nothing to be afraid of. If anything, it is this world that should be afraid of you.”

I let out a relieved breath, my fears subsiding slightly.

“So you don’t know what it’s all about?” I continued to ask, miserably summing everything up. “The miscarriage at six months, the revival at thirteen weeks, and the birth thirteen days later?”

He presented me with a frustrated expression that rivaled my own.

“I feel like I’m getting mind-fu
c
ked as well,” he admitted irritably, offended that he couldn’t figure this out. Resolution thundered in his next words. “The only thing I know for sure is that the fu
c
ker who took a part of your soul just made my life a thousand times more difficult than it already is. When I find him, I am going to burn him alive.”

One could always count on Eclipse to uphold Gandhi’s “no violence” approach.

“What are we going to do now?” I asked once the familiar lights of the city skimmed over my eyes.

We had entered Seoul and the city looked like a shiny playground. Bright lights, tall buildings, and endless amounts of people graced my eyes. I felt like I had escaped from reality and came running back into my fantasy world. In this city, I felt invincible, like nothing could touch me.

“We need to lay low. After how eventful our trip was and how popular we made ourselves, we should stay under the radar for the time being. I also need time to consolidate my powers. After that, we will be well on our way to finding out how screwed we really are.”

He laughed miserably at his own joke, and I smiled because the ironic thing was that he was probably right. Things weren’t simple. It was doubtful that things would get simpler once we unearthed more secrets.

“Until then,” he said distractedly, his eyes admiring the beautiful neon-lit world shimmering like a kaleidoscope around us. “School is back in session. It’s time for you to go back to being a normal college girl, Teacup.”

I snorted at him, watching with jealousy as the bus treaded through the busy street where my fellow human beings were perusing about, unaware of how big and scary the world outside our civilization was. “How can I go back to my normal life after this? I’m going to be a hundred times more paranoid than before.”

“There is no safer place than Seoul,” Eclipse assured, corroborating the unexplainable “safe” feeling I had with my city. “Plus, I’m awake now,” he added darkly, confidence teeming on his face. He leaned in, brushing his soft lips over the side of my neck. The innocuous movement sent a surge of electrical current that had my nerve endings spiking up in yearning. “Every bad, awful, and evil entity may be after you, but you have the biggest, baddest, and most cunning son of a bit
c
h by your side. There’s no veil of protection in this world that is more powerful than me. I promise you, as long as I’m beside you, you will always be on the winning side.”

Though it felt wrong, my lips curved into an even bigger smile. I truly believed that I had the best veil on my side.

If it were Eclipse against the world, then I’d choose him.

To me, the world could never measure up to him.

“Now, let’s get back to normal life,” he announced as the bus came to a slow stop.

We got off, stepped onto the congested streets, and started heading back to my apartment. I didn’t know what got into me, but as soon as we stepped on the ground, I felt relief sweep through me. We were finally home. We were home, and we were safe and sound. In a move I didn’t anticipate, I hurried in front of Eclipse and blocked his path. I then did something out of character:
I hugged him
.

I looped my arms around his towering body, placed my cheek on his chest, and breathed a sigh of relief as I embraced him, savoring the feel of him awake and conscious again. It was the most human emotion I had ever shown in my existence to date. The biggest irony was that I was showing it to a Demon.

When I wrapped my arms around him, I could feel Eclipse stiffen in shock. It was funny that the Demon could throw sexual innuendos and seduce me left and right, yet the one time I gave him a hug, he appeared thunderstruck. It was like he was astounded by a foreign sensation. After a few passing seconds where I continued to hug him, the stiff muscles under his powerful body relaxed. Instead of standing there like a tree, I could feel him loop his own arms around my back.

It was awkward at first, but then it just felt so wonderful. For the first time in my life, I felt at peace with my world. All the evils in the universe could be after me, but I had never felt more safe—or happy—than at that suspended moment in time. This odd sensation was nice, but leave it to Eclipse to ruin the human mood we were in.

“Are you okay, Gracie? Are you still worn out from our trip? Is that why you’re acting so strange?”

I pulled out of the embrace, flushing immensely. I digested my actions and felt embarrassment rain over me.
D
id I really just hug him?
Oh my flying pigs. This weekend had completely fu
c
ked up my rationale. What was I thinking hugging a Demon?

“I’m feeling woozy,” I told him, frantically vocalizing what I was internally saying to myself. Dramatically and almost too desperately, I held up my left index finger as proof of my hazy state. “I tried to feed you my blood so you’d wake up. It really hurt when I cut my own finger. I ‘hugged’ you because I was feeling tired and lightheaded and I needed to maintain my balance.”

Relief engulfed me when he laughed with adoration at my response. The normally astute Demon was actually stupid enough to believe my crappy excuse.

“Isn’t there a fairytale in your world?” he prompted lazily, kissing my index finger as rain began to sprinkle over us. “The one about a royal getting a kiss to awaken from their sleep?” His alluring eyes glowed suggestively. “You should’ve kissed me, Teacup. All the hibernation in the world wouldn’t keep me away from those gorgeous lips of yours.”

My heart pattered when he mentioned the fairytale story I was all too familiar with. Shaking, I feigned an eye-roll as a means of protecting myself.

I promptly began to walk through the crowd, eager to get home where I could be normal again. I didn’t know why I hugged him. I reasoned it was because it had been an exhausting weekend. As long as I got the rest I needed, I should be fine again.

“Glad to know you’re conscious and back to your old flirtatious self,” I said over the noise of the city streets.

Inwardly, I was still shaking from the impromptu embrace. It continued to amaze me that I actually hugged a Demon . . .

Eclipse’s lips drew into a soft smile.