Eternally Yours (5 page)

I really wish that he would look at me so I could see his face. What color are his eyes? Are his lips full and pouty, or kind of small and sexy? Does he have a nice nose? I want to know so badly, to complete the picture of him that I have on the pedestal in my mind.

Please. Look at me.
I plead in my mind.

At that second, his eyes glance straight up to mine, as if he heard

my command. The knowledge of the telepathy that
Demon
s and
Angel
s can sometimes share with their bonded mates surfaces to my mind, and that’s when I realize that he’s a
Demon
. I groan inwardly and fight the urge to slap my forehead. Why oh why does he have to be the bane of my existence? Either that or why oh why do I like him so much? And did he hear me pleading for him to look at me?

He gives me a shy, half-smile with the sexiest, sultriest lips I’ve ever seen and glances away again. I should look away too, because those sinfully dark, chocolate eyes might enthrall me, even if he’s not a Nymph.

Finally, he is right next to my seat, so I stand up. I catch his eyes moving from his shoes to mine, and up slowly. He's discreetly checking me out, and I'm not embarrassed for once, this time I feel relieved, excited. I realize I want this, and feel ashamed of myself. I notice he has a few piercings. He has a little bar through his right eyebrow and two little balls on opposite sides under his bottom lip. He also has black studs in his ears and I wonder if he has anymore anywhere else. I wait for his eyes to meet mine so I can smile at him. When he finally glances at me he knows I've caught him checking me out because he stiffens and swiftly looks down in the opposite direction of me. It might be a trick of the light but I thought I saw a red reflection in his eyes. I step out behind him get a whiff of cedar and spice and it smells amazing. I never knew how much I liked the smell of cedar. I turn around to see if Kaia is behind me, maybe she smells it too? I wiggle my eyebrows at her and she frowns and gives me a disgruntled look. I turn back around and study him from this point of view.

He has a tattoo on the back of his neck of what looks like a flame, with a circle around it. It has extensions but they disappear under his shirt collar. I also notice a tattoo twining around the bicep on his right arm and I wonder if there’s more? I shouldn't be so curious about him, I should be repulsed. I should be aghast. I should be....anything but captivated.

The air smells freshly cleaned inside the lobby of The Battalion. The floors are white tile and there is very little furniture. There're a few counters and tables with different kind of gadgets on them. Along the walls there are molding trays hanging up, for what looks like different kinds of swords and knives. Altogether it's a very open lobby with windows everywhere I look.

The sounds of numerous feet echo off the walls as we follow the usher down the brightly lit hall. Looking up ahead, I see an orange flickering glow cast onto the bare wall, and the heat is definitely rising the closer we come to it. As we take the corner, I see that it's the effect of a large stone pit of flaming liquid iron. I guess it’s used to forge swords and other steel weapons. I notice that boy in front of me; the announcer called him
Shadow
, has a sheen of sweat on the back of his neck and his black hair is glistening. Is he that nervous? I wonder if it's from the high temperature of the smelting room, but we only passed through there briefly and now the air is comfortable again. I can't help but wish I knew more about him, why he seems so nervous after passing through there. Could he be afraid of fire? I wonder.

We finally reach a room with a dry erase board on the wall and some tables and chairs. Written on the board are names in pairs. I scan it for mine and almost immediately find it because it is in the middle, right next to Shadow's name.

“As you can see,” the instructor speaks sternly, “your assigned partners are written on the board in front of you. In a few minutes I will leave you to find your partner, take a seat and get to know them. When I return, I will
demon
strate how to forge various weapons of all shapes and sizes. Your first few attempts will be checked by me, to make sure you're getting the hang of it. If you are, you may leave. I expect those of you making weapons to memorize your partner from head to toe, find out their weight, their preferred fighting style, anything that will affect the weapon you will be making them. You will be spending a lot of time with your assignee from here on out. Now, find your partners and take a seat, I will be back momentarily to start.” He walks out of the room with his holier-than-thou attitude. I really resent that kind of attitude, especially on a fat, bald man who thinks he is at the top of the hierarchy.

“Well great.” Kaia mutters. “It looks like we can't be partners. I have to go find someone whose name is Wraith. I mean seriously, what kind of name is that?” She throws her hands up and walks off.

The noise level in the room rises and everyone starts to pair up. I know who Shadow is, so I waste no time scanning the room to find him. He is leaning back against the wall with his arms crossed over his muscled chest, staring at the floor in thought. I start walking over to him but this bimbo girl
Demon
beats me to the punch. Everyone is paired up now except for the three of us and a Vampire boy looking around for his partner, which would be Bimbo
Demon
. I approach Shadow and Bimbo is flipping her black hair over her shoulder, flirting her brains out. I stop in front of him and smile shyly. Bimbo so courteously takes time away from flirting him to throw an annoyed glance at me. I smile at her, despite the raging inferno inside me that is begging to slam her head into the wall. Shadow doesn't even look like he's listening to her, so maybe I should just feel bad for the girl.

“I hope you're Alexia,” he grumbles and nods his head at the dry erase board with our names on it.

“Well it's your lucky day,” I say nervously, faking confidence.

He snorts and then smirks, and oh, my heart falls through the floor. Now there are two hopeless girls with our tongues lolled out of our mouths panting for the same boy. I wish I was a Spirit girl and could turn invisible.

I'm not sure what to make of that statement. If he's excited that it's me, or if it's just that it's not her. It's quiet now, kind of awkward because Bimbo is still standing here. We both turn to her and wait for her to speak up or leave. This is her hint. If she doesn't go, then she is just asking to be embarrassed.

“Well Lilith, it was good catching up but you better find your partner before the usher comes back.” Man, that deep voice rumbles through my mind like a drug. It’s got a strange accent as well. And I really hate that I like it that much more.

“Yeah, true…alright, well I’ll see you around, Baby.” She winks at him and says something in a different language with the same accent that he had. Then she turns around and catwalks to her partner, swaying those killer hips as hard as she can.

“Ugh, finally,” he grumbles, “thanks for saving me, you walked up at the perfect time. She's driving me insane lately.”

“Oh ha ha, you’re welcome.” I smile.  I want to ask how she is but I can’t figure out how to do it without sounding nosy.

“Do you want to sit down and go over all that stuff the instructor wants us to know?” he asks.

“Yeah, good idea. I guess we can just sit here against the wall?”

“Yeah, that's good with me,” he rumbles.

We sit down side by side, both inconspicuously trying to sit far enough apart so neither our legs or our arms touch. I get out the small tech pad I brought from the Aerie so that I can record his stats. I probably don’t even need it to remember though; because I have a feeling I will remember everything about him that I find out.

“Alright, I'm not sure what you need to know, so just ask me whatever you think will be important,” he tell me.

“Hmm, I'm not sure either. Um... How much do you weigh?”

“Two forty five.” Yeah, and it’s all muscle too.

“Height?”

“Six, four.” Mmm. So he’s taller than Gabe.

“Preferred fighting style?”

“I like hand to hand mostly. But since you have to make weapons, I guess I'd like to have two swords.”

I picture him sword fighting and really like what I see. His muscles straining under the weight of the sword and with the force he uses to wield them. I look at his arms and chest picturing this and realize he's waiting on me to ask another question. I don't know what else to ask. What else is important for sword making? Surely not the beautiful color of his dark eyes, or his attractive, really- tanned skin tone, or his sultry lips with those hot twin piercings. I could go on and on but he is still waiting on me to speak. He arches an eyebrow and I know that he knows I was checking him out, and liking what I saw.

“So, what are those piercings called?” I ask staring at his lips. I ask because I really want to know, because they are my new favorite thing, and because maybe that will make him think I was just wondering that instead of how much I want to lick him from head to toe.

He touches them with his finger, “these?”

“Mmhm,” I nod.

“Snake bites.” His tongue makes an appearance to wet his lip and nudge each little ball, making it gleam all shiny and attractive. I really like shiny things.

“They’re cool.”Hello, understatement. You’re lame, Alexia. 

He looks down at his calloused palm, and starts picking at it.  If I didn't know better I would think he's avoiding looking at me. “Thanks,” he smiles a little.

“Hey...” I attempt to get him to look at me, “you okay?”

There's a long pause where he just keeps picking at his palms and ignores me. Then he finally looks up at me with eyes that glow like embers.

“Yeah ...I’m fine.”  He looks down again with a depressed demeanor.

Now I remember the faint glow I thought I saw in his eyes at the auditorium and I remember Aaron telling me that their eyes glow when they need to feed or with intense emotion. However, there is one thing I do wonder: why was he so on edge in the smelting room?
Demon
s are used to fire; in fact they are made to live in the hot, fiery conditions of Hell.

Centuries ago, all of the
Demon
s lived in Hell. One day, a war broke out between them, and some of them left Hell to come live up here. They say it's because they were the “good” ones and they didn't agree with how Lucifer was running the place.  At least, that's what I heard, from my parents.

I always thought of
Demon
s as evil. They were supposed to stay in Hell under Lucifer's command in my mind, and none of them were “good”. But he doesn't seem evil, or bad. In fact, when I even compare him to Gabriel, an
Angel
, he wins my vote. Shadow seems so humble, shy, insecure, and the total opposite of cocky. I think I like that better about him and it makes me want to save him in some small way. In fact, the way he stares at his hands and his embarrassment over me seeing his eyes glow makes me want to kiss him all better and show him that I accept him. That I like him, just the way he is. I get the feeling he doesn't even accept himself and he's already written me off as someone who will judge him for being a
Demon
.

“So have you been taught to fly yet?” he breaks the silence. His voice is really quiet now, still seeming sort of intimidated.

“No, we have to wait until we are matched with our betrothed, and then we're put on a waiting list. It could be a while.” I act like nothing is different, because in my mind the fact that he's a
Demon
hasn't changed anything. That's something I will have to worry about later.

“That's good I guess. I saw an
Angel
's first flight once. I hope you do better than he did. It wasn't pretty.”

“Really?” Oh great, and here I thought it would just come naturally. “What happened?”

He takes a deep breath and looks right at me with his red eyes.

“Well, it's a long story, but to make it short, he thought it would just come natural to him, so he jumped off the side of a five hundred and eighty foot cliff, and fell. He fell so far so fast, and he just kept falling. He thought his wings would just expand and carry him off into the clouds, away from the
rocky river
below. He didn't know that you had to have someone make that first fall with you because no one ever told him that.”

I can’t hide my curiosity. “So what happened to him? Did he die?”

He looks down again. “No he didn't die, but it was close. He fell into the river, on the side where it was only a foot deep. He was unconscious for two days; the next thing he knew he woke up in his bed, with his mom standing over him, dripping blo-....water...into his mouth.”

I think he was about to say ‘blood’ but I don’t mention anything. I know he probably wasn’t thinking and since it’s what he drinks he accidentally said it instead of water at first. 

“That's crazy! I'm glad he was okay, poor thing. Do you know who it was?”

He pauses for just a second, seeming to think about whether or not to tell me. “No... I don't. Hey did you know we're paired to our mates today?”