Darkling (8 page)

His trust knew no bounds.

If she were to steal the starscale and leave, he wouldn’t
understand her reasons. He’d believe her a thief and a user.

Yet what choice did she have? She had to get the starscale
back into the heavens before the ceremony.

There’s one other choice. You could tell him everything.

Tracing the circular outline of the scale in her hand, she
considered this. Some of the words were beyond her, she knew, but she could try
to explain.

She imagined the scenario. Lying in bed, still quivering
from release, and looking into his eyes as she told him that she wasn’t from
Earth. That she was a celestial being, and not one in good graces. A fallen
star. That she was only there for one reason and that was to find the
starscale, which he happened to have amidst his fossil collection in his
closet.

She scraped her fingers through her long tresses as her
tears started to soak her cheeks and a deep ache took up residence in her
chest.

Walking away from Niles would wound her, but she had no
other path. The only way to get the starscale back into the hands of the elders
was to take it there herself. Niles would be saddened by her disappearance, but
her people would be horribly disappointed in her if they discovered her
mess-up.

Biting back her cries, she closed the lid of the chest and
heaved it overhead, setting it on the top shelf. Then clutching the starscale
to her heart, she emerged from the closet and left his room.

If she was going to return home, she needed to wrap herself
in the rags she’d found when she first fell to Earth. She’d need the protective
covering outside. One of the garments had a pocket large enough to hold the
starscale secure against her body while she ascended. She had no choice but to
leave Niles and part of her heart behind, but she couldn’t risk losing the
starscale.

Chapter Nine

The instant Niles opened the front door of his apartment, he
sensed something was wrong. The draperies were open. Sunlight poured into the
rooms, heating the space faster than the air-conditioning could cool it.

Where was Vega?

Panic threaded through his chest and settled like a stone in
his gut. The weight sickened him. Folding slightly around the nausea rising
inside him, he started through the rooms, looking for her but knowing it was
too late. She wasn’t here.

“Vega?” His voice sounded hollow in the empty space.
Frantically, he cast his gaze around the living room, aware that the heap of
black clothing he’d noticed upon leaving for the office that morning was gone.

He strained to hear the sound of the shower or her
stuttering snore. Nothing. What was he going to do if she’d left? They were
just getting started. To cut off the fledgling relationship mid-flight would
gut him. Scar his soul.

“Are you here, baby?” He caught a whiff of her jasmine scent
and his heart raced in sudden excitement. He grabbed the doorframe between the
hall and the bedroom and steadied himself as he scoured the room for sight of
her.

The bed was empty. The flimsy slip she’d worn to his bed had
vanished. Even the bathroom door hung wide open, indicating she wasn’t inside.

He doffed his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose
hard, trying to fight back emotion and anger.
Gone. She’s gone.
The
words were a hot chant in his mind, branding him with pain.

When he was six, a stray cat had appeared at their house.
Over the two days he fed it, it grew accustomed to him and even allowed him to
stroke its marmalade fur for hours. On the third day, he went out to give it
food and water and it was nowhere to be found. Each day after that for a week,
he checked to see if it had returned, but it disappeared as swiftly as it’d
come.

Like Vega. He knew without a doubt he’d lost her. Having her
for such a brief time tormented him. He hadn’t gotten the chance to know her
darkest fears or greatest joys. Hell, he didn’t even know her last name or
where she came from.

You knew better than to allow her into your heart.

A shifting noise sounded from the closet. His fingers sank
into the wood of the doorframe as his heart soared with renewed hope.

“Vega!” He tore open the closet door as a big, heavy object
tipped off the top shelf. Blurred colors rained past his vision and the noise
of rocks striking the floor made adrenaline surge in his veins.

His fists clamped, prepared to fight.

But there was nothing there. The avalanche of rock had ceased,
and he found himself alone with his fossil collection. How had it gotten on the
top shelf? He always kept it on the floor for safety’s sake. The chest weighed
a ton.

He dropped to his knees and gathered the wooden trunk up,
checking the hinged lid for damage, but it was intact. Had Vega been examining
his collection before she left? She’d shown interest in the piece Mischa had
given him at the fight. In fact, while Vega had examined the disc, he’d studied
her face, captivated by the shimmery glow of her skin.

“Vega, where did you go?” His whisper was hot with pain. For
a long minute, he stood staring at the mess on the floor. And then slowly, he
replaced his glasses on his face and started to collect each precious fossil.

Ten steps away stood his bed where he’d left her that
morning. Memories of their lovemaking filtered into his brain, throwing him
into the pit of despair once more.

He scraped all the fossils into a pile and gently set them
in the bottom of the trunk. He’d arrange them later. In the meantime—

He stopped. His heart rolled over and he gulped at the
skipping sensation.

The fossil Mischa had given him was gone. Missing.

And Vega was missing.

Sick dread burned in his chest. He’d definitely placed the
fossil in his box. He twitched aside the clothes, skimming the closet floor and
checked beneath, then moved his shoes.

Nope, it was definitely missing.

He dug a thumb and forefinger into his eyes. Why would she
take an object like that? While unusual, it surely couldn’t be worth much. Hurt
and betrayal stung the back of his nose. If she’d needed help, he would have
given it gladly.

You took a chance, man, and it didn’t pay off. She wasn’t
who you thought she was.
No, he couldn’t tame that stray cat to stick
around and become his pet, and Vega was no different. Except she’d taken more
than food, shelter and a precious gift from one of his dearest friends.

She’d taken his damn heart.

His phone vibrated in his pocket, drawing him from his
unhappy musings. The ringtone indicated work was calling, probably because not
only had he taken the previous week off work, he’d used up his lunch break, and
his next appointment was seated in his office waiting for him.

Without bothering to close up the chest, he spun from the
closet and strode out of the apartment, hesitating but locking the door behind
him. Vega wasn’t likely to return.

On the street, the sun baked the top of his head. He longed
for the cool recesses of the park where he liked to spend his break. Today he
needed that calm more than ever.

As he passed the Laundromat and the little stand where he
sometimes bought pastries on a Saturday morning, he stared blindly at the
people passing him. People with families and spouses to love.

You were stupid to think there was some deeper spark
between you and Vega.

Their connection last night had been much deeper than
anything he’d experienced in his longer relationships.

As he passed an alley, he automatically glanced into it.

Before his brain registered what he was seeing, he jerked to
a stop. Staring. Gaping at the woman who had come to his bed last night and
stolen his heart.

Also the woman who’d stolen his property and fled without a
word.

Slowly and deliberately, he paced toward her. The layers of
black clothing obscured her form from his view, but his hands twitched to glide
over her curves. Though her hood had been drawn up and shadowed her dark eyes,
he knew she was crying. Tears slicked the lower half of her face and ran into
the seam of her lips.

Two steps away from her, he drew up. Anger and hurt warred for
supremacy. He rarely lost his patience, but at this moment he wanted to yell,
to demand to know what the hell she was doing, why she’d taken the fossil and
fled. Why she’d given her body and ensnared him.

Harsh tremors racked her form. She plunged a hand into her
clothes as if holding tight to something. The fossil?

“Vega, what’s going on? What are you doing out here?”

“I… Niles, I don’t know how to tell you.” Her raspy tone cut
through the haze of anger, leaving only the deep ache.

“Start at the beginning. I think you owe me that much after
what we shared last night.”

Her perfectly square front teeth sank into her plush lower
lip. He bit off a growl. Damn, if she stepped into his arms right now, his
heart would accept her without another question. His mind needed more though.

She shifted, her bare toes curling into the hot pavement as
if to run.

The hell you’re going to run away from me.

In a flash, he snagged her around the waist and brought her
flush against him.

A clatter at their feet sounded as something bounced out of
the folds of her clothing. Her chest jerked with her gasp, and together they
stared down at the fossil Mischa had given him. Clenching his jaw against the
words that threatened to spew out, he simply gazed at her.

“Vega, tell me what’s going on. Now.”

Something broke behind the dark recesses of her eyes. They
filled with fresh tears, but beneath the watery surface, fierce determination
burned.

She scooped up the disc and clutched it tight to her chest.
Then she grasped the back of his neck and drew his ear to her mouth.

“I am Pollux of the constellation Gemini. This is a
starscale.” She pressed it hard into his ribs. “An enchanted scale from a
dragon which will grant the newborn celestials light. It was entrusted to me,
and I dropped it accidentally. I fell to Earth to find it, never believing I’d
come upon it so quickly. But more than that, I never thought I’d find someone
like you, Niles. Someone who makes my body warm right here.” She drew his hand
into hers and pressed it over her heart.

He fell still, his fingers clasped over her soft mound,
allowing her words to sink into the folds of his brain. She was delusional.
Obviously there was some mental illness or scrambled brains from the heat at
play. No one believed she was a celestial being, let alone a star fallen to
Earth to collect an enchanted dragon scale.

She searched his face. “It’s true! I know Earthlings don’t
believe in us, but I swear, Niles. I swear on the emotions in my heart for you
that what I’m saying is true.”

He stretched his lips into a tight line, unable to speak.
What was there to say? She needed help, and knowing this twisted a knife in his
gut. He had no clue what to do with the feelings he had for her. Even if she
got help, would he be able to believe anything she said was true? The first
things she’d told him were lies.

Clamping a hand on his shoulder, she shook him, but he threw
his legs wide in the stance he commonly fought in. The one that said don’t fuck
with me.

Her words rasped around her sobs. “Please, Niles. Don’t be
angry with me. I promise this is the truth. I have to take this starscale and
return it with all haste to the elders. If I don’t, I’ll be banished, a fallen
star forever.”

Part of his love for her shrank into a cold, hard kernel. He
stared at her impassively, resolved to protect himself from her tears and
charms. He’d known her for little time. Easy enough to walk away.

You’re lying to yourself and you know it.

Gently he pushed her back a step, fighting to gain his
senses and keep from being overwhelmed by her soft little body and the scent of
jasmine that seemed to cling to her no matter how many showers she took.

Tears streaked her bronzed cheeks. “Please understand. I
have to go. I don’t have a choice. It’s not about me now, but the lives of my people.”

When he made no reply, she took a step back, and another,
nodding in understanding. “All right. I see that I’ve misjudged you. I thought
your soul was open to those in need, that there was room for one more.”

“There is. But there’s got to be some trust and truth
between us.” He could barely force the words around the choking lump in his
throat.

For a long minute, she stared up at him. The point of her
chin quivered but she didn’t make a sound. Then, very slowly, she lifted the
disc high overhead. Her hood fell when she tipped her face up to the sky,
revealing the glossy black waves he knew so well. He could nearly feel the
slippery texture of the strands.

Worse—he could nearly taste her. Last night when he’d gone
down between her legs, he’d learned more than honey. He’d tasted her ache to be
loved.

“I’m sorry it has to be this way, Niles.” Her dark eyes
pinched shut. The air around her started to churn, the twirling currents
spraying him with dust from the alley.

In a blinding flash, she was gone.

A humming noise beat his eardrums like winged beasts. He
threw up his hands instinctively against the brilliant strobe of light and
squinted against the glare. An orange negative burst on his retinas and his
nose filled with the burning scent of ozone.

Frantically he strained to see through the haze of light
that somehow beamed hotly even in the deep shadows between buildings.

What the—?

He spun in a slow circle, stunned. Where was she? His mind
scrambled to make sense of what had just happened even as a crushing sense of
loss struck him.

“Vega!” He ran to the head of the alley, wondering if she’d
somehow rushed past him during that trick of the eye. He would not—could
not—believe her tale of the starscale. And yet, what other explanation was
there for that flash of light, for the gritty sound, the smell of something
burning and her disappearance?

He turned in circles, searching the street for the sight of
the black rags. His thigh muscles clenched. Taking off, he sprinted half a
block to the right and when he came up empty-handed, he twisted on a heel and
went back the way he’d come.

Fear assaulted him—battered him with stronger blows than any
he’d ever received in the ring. What had he done?

Lost her. You’ve lost her.

The truth was a spear in his soul and he curled around it,
blazing with pain and absolute awe at what he’d seen. For one shimmering
moment, he wondered if she’d been telling the truth. The world was filled with
strange mysteries. He believed there were other life forms in distant galaxies.
Why not celestial beings as she claimed?

He thundered up the stairs to his apartment, ignoring the
sweat soaking his spine and the droplets flying off his hair. He had to get to
his computer and a search engine. At that moment, he wasn’t concerned with
uncovering Vega’s past. He prayed he could find something that might help him
get her back.

* * * * *

The bright tang of cloudy air coated the back of Vega’s
tongue and her hair whipped straight back in the forceful winds high above
Earth. Moisture slicked her face, and as the breeze tore her clothing from her,
her bare limbs and torso grew damp.

Tears rained down her cheeks. She soared through the cloud
layers, up into the ozone, defying gravity. Without effort, she ascended to her
rightful place in the heavens.

But her mind and heart were still firmly fixed on Earth with
Niles.

He didn’t believe you.

She’d known he wouldn’t, but the reality was a blow. The
dark anger that had pooled in his eyes cut her to the core.