Heaven and Hell (Beautiful Beings, #2) (9 page)

Before I could go nuts with suppositions and hypotheses, I grabbed my phone and called Moore.

“Yeah,” he answered, his voice already hard and cold.

“You said you needed me.”

Silence.

“Did you mean it?”

The silence lingered and I expected him to hang up at any moment.

“Yes,” he finally whispered, a glimmer of hope hanging on the word.

“Can I see you? I missed you at school.”

“Yeah, I’ve been kinda busy.  I should be back in class tomorrow.”

“Do you want to wait to see each other then?”

“Lux.”  Emotions weighed heavily on my name.

“I need to talk to you.  I have so much to say.  I feel….”  It was hard knowing what I felt.  “The trip, the whole weekend… it was really so…”  I felt increasingly silly as emotions gushed forth faster than I could process them.  “You swept me off my feet.  I don’t know if it was just the romance of the castle or the fresh country air, or… or the way you made me feel so important, so…”  Choked up, I stopped, searching for the right word.

“Loved,” he finally finished for me.

I grunted a vague concession.  “I think I might feel something for you, but… I just… I don’t know if I can… if we can… you know.  You're what you are and I’m what I am, and I don’t think we can…”

“I’ll be there in ten minutes,” he cut in.  “We’ll go somewhere.”

“Right.”  Setting the phone on my dresser I felt a wave of relief. 

He was prepared to talk to me.  That was a start.  I threw on a pair of snug jeans and a warm sweater.  I had just enough time to hurry downstairs and run out to meet him.

“That was a quick ten minutes.”

“Blame it on my eagerness to see you.”  His voice was soft and lacked the humor it usually carried.  I even noticed the sad tug on his forced smile as I got in.

“Where to?” He offered me a lackluster wink.

“Anywhere we can talk… be alone.”

In silence we traveled the streets of San Francisco, much as we had in England, only now tension filled the little black Saab where romance and adventure had filled the Maserati.  When he pulled up to a quiet pier, I knew he’d found the perfect spot.

“So,” he said as we got out and turned to the deserted pier.  “What did you want to talk about?”

“You left us so quickly.”  I didn’t want to be argumentative, to sound bitter and resentful, but controlling my emotions proved difficult.  “You just abandoned us there.”

“Sorry. Guess I’m not used to being the third wheel.  I knew it was a chance to take, leading you to him, but… seeing you guys together, all cuddled up on the sofa as if no one else existed. How much do you expect me to endure, Lux?”

“Brax was happy to see me.  We just got caught up in the emotions of it all.”

“How nice for you.”  With his hands shoved petulantly in the pockets of his jacket, he approached the railing and looked down at the gently rolling waves.

“I’m here now, Moore, with you, not with Brax.”

He turned to me, cynicism filling his eyes.  “Should I be grateful that you found the time to squeeze me in?”

“Why are you being so… difficult?”

His lips pressed into a tight, belligerent smile.  “Is this what we came out here for?”

Caught off guard by the persistent cold shoulder, I stammered as I searched for something to say.  “You haven’t been in school.”

“Told you.”  He returned his gaze to the bay, his hands leaving the refuge of his pockets to come out onto the railing.  Stiff and tight, his fingers showed the degree of anger he so artfully hid.  “I was busy.”

“Busy doing what?”

“Being the nosy, clingy girlfr… girl isn’t really your style, Lux.  What is it you really want to know?”

Setting my elbow on the railing, I leaned over until I caught his gaze.  I inhaled deeply, my eyes on his, ready for the slightest flicker of guilt.  “A body was found by Lincoln Park.”

“Okay.” Not a flicker, not a flinch.

“It was mummified.”

A cynical grin crept across his face.  “Okay, now I see where this is going.  You think I had something to do with it.”

“I haven’t seen you since England and you refuse to tell me what you’ve been up to.”

He snorted, letting his chin fall to his chest.  “Well, I am the incorrigible monster who can’t control his evil urges.”

Panic surged through my veins.  Was he just being sarcastic? Was this an admission?

“No,” I said, refusing to accept his words.  “Please tell me you didn’t do this.”

“Why?” He glanced at me and cocked a sinister brow.  “Since the very first day we met, you’ve sought only to crucify me.”

“Did you do this, Moore?”

He turned to me, his lips in a grimace and his eyes hollow.  “No, I didn’t.”

I let out the breath I’d held back.  “Shayne?” I finally said.

He shook his head, his eyes still hard.

I reached out to cover his hand with mine, fearful he’d recoiled, but he remained motionless and accepted my touch.

“I know you think I’m a heartless monster,” he said, his eyes downcast and his voice small.  “But seeing you with Brax hurt.  Having you accuse me of draining Suzanne hurt. Suspecting me of doing this hurts.”  Licking the salty droplets off his lips, he brought his gaze to me.  “I hurt, Lux.  Demonic blood may course through my veins, but the human in me feels and hurts… and loves.”

His fingers rose off the railing and threaded through mine.  I felt his warmth and his pain.  He was reluctant… to let go, to let me in.

“I didn’t have anything to do with this, and neither did Shayne.”

“The body was very much like the others,” I said softly.  “Like the ones Shayne claimed responsibility for.”

He shook his head.  “She didn’t.”

“Then who?”

“I think there may be other beautiful beings at St. James; some other kind of succubus or mix.

Closing my eyes at the thought of more battles, I tightened my fingers around his and he responded, tightening his hold of me as well.

I looked at him and smiled wistfully.  “Maybe I’ll need you just as much as you need me.”

Chapter 9

I
couldn’t quite wrap my head around the notion.  It was inconceivable.  It wasn’t the fact that beautiful beings roamed the halls of St. James Academy that shocked me, but the fact that they did so without any trace.

Shaking my head, I looked at Moore.  “Why can’t I see them then?  I have the ability to see demons, to recognize them, to sniff them out.  I’ve been at St. James now for months and other than a few encounters at the start, I’ve hardly seen any demons at all.”

“Maybe the demon in them is subdued, quiet… undetectable.  It can take a while for the venom of evil to spill through and take over.  Chances are they don’t even know what’s brewing inside them yet.”

“Is that what it was like for you?”

“In a way. On the one hand we knew because of our parents.  We saw what it was like for them and had a good idea what was coming for us.  Despite that, there was a part of us that didn’t really believe it would come to this.”

“When did you first see a sign?”

“A little in our tweens and then more and more in our teens.  It appeared in Shayne first.  Puberty hit and something darkened in her.  At first my parents held to the hope it was all just teenage rebellion.  She’d talk back, swear, turn her room upside down and have a fit whenever her Gucci bag didn’t match her shoes or whatever.”

“Yeah. Typical teenage behavior, right?” I smirked sarcastically.

“Well,” he said sheepishly.  “You have to admit…”

“Yeah, yeah.  Some girls go through the teens in a whirlwind.” I waved him on.

“Hey, speaking of Shayne, she asked about you.”

“Really?  What, was she surprised to hear I’d made it back alive?”

Moore gazed at me and flashed an adoring grin.  “She got wind of our little trip to England and wasn’t too elated to hear about it.  To make matters worse, I let slip how I felt about you.”

“I bet she was thrilled to hear that.”

“Let’s just say I’ve seen her happier.”

“Let me guess.  She doesn’t approve of me?”

“Dead on.”

I couldn’t help but silently question his choice of words.

He reached for my hand, cradling it gently in his.  “I don’t want you to think I’m the kind of guy who can’t keep his promise, but…”

“But you're going to break a promise,” I snapped as I rip my hand out from his, instantly angry to see how quickly he could let me down.  “What? Shayne?  Did she get to you?  Have you turned to your dark side?”

Chuckling, he looked at me and shook his head.  “It’s nothing like that. Stop jumping to the worst conclusion.” With a warm and thoroughly convincing smile, he took my hand and held on tight.  “I may have to break the promise about leaving you alone… the silly promise I made before leaving for London.  It was such an easy promise to make at the time, but now, looking at you, touching you…”

He brought the back of his hand to my cheek and ran his fingers down to my chin.

“Moore…”

"Times UwI saw the way you looked at Brax.  Worse yet, the way he looked at you.  I want to believe it was all platonic, but… it’s hard to think there’s nothing going on between you two… that he doesn’t matter to you.”

I squeezed my fingers around his as I felt his slip away. Despite the anguish clearly written all over his beautiful face, I knew I had to tell him how I truly felt.  “I want to be completely honest with you, Moore.”

“Do you have to?”  With a playfully dejected pout, he turned away and kicked at the ground.

“Yeah,” I said with a half chuckle.  “I think it’s best that you know I do care for Brax, quite a bit even.”

“So where do I fit in?”

“I care about you, too. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.  But at the same time, this is all very confusing.  Between the demons I already battle with, your background, his background, the murder, everything… I feel a little overwhelmed.”  I shook my head.  “Okay, I feel a lot overwhelmed.  I can’t allow myself to become involved with either one of you.  Not now.  My focus needs to be on everything that’s happening at St. James and around the city.  This isn’t the time for me to get emotional and fall in love with some guy.”

“In love, huh?”  His lips spread into that perfect and charismatic smile. Wrapping his big, strong hands around my waist, he pulled me close. “Does that mean…?”

The heat of his hands pierced through my sweater and the desire to get closer to him flared with surprising speed. When he leaned in closer, the scent of his skin and the warmth of his breath added to the thrill of being with him. The never-ending spell he had over me took over.

He kissed my cheek and worked his lips along my jaw line.

“Is this all part of a spell you’ve put me under?”

Between kisses, he glanced at me, his gaze loaded with hunger and confusion.

“From the very start,” I whispered as his lips resumed their assault on my skin.  “I’ve felt such a strong, almost unreal attraction to you.  My brain turns to mush and all that matters is you and your touch.”  I backed away to look at him.  “Have you put me under some demonic spell?  A spell that controls my emotions and desires?  Is this all part of how the demon inside you functions?”

His fingers squeezed at my waist while his eyes held my gaze with surprising affection and candor.  “If someone put a spell on you, it’s not me.  And if someone truly did put a spell on you, they’ve put me under the very same one. I felt that strong attraction to you the very moment I laid eyes on you.  Being close to you intensified that attraction, making it impossible for me to turn away from you.”

He had a way with words and could charm the devil himself, but something in his gaze, in his voice… soft, yet intense, loving and with such sincerity, I couldn’t help but believe every word.

“St. James is lousy with gorgeous, beautiful, sexy and exciting women.  I’ve had my share of charming girls who bat their eyelashes, pout their lips and openly want sex with me, but none of them… none… have ever affected me the way you do, the way you always have.  None of them have ever touched me the way you can.”

“That’s quite a spell.” I tried to laugh, but the sound was husky and weighted with sexual energy.  I could feel the pent up desire burning inside me, and while I wanted – needed to remain in control of my faculties, my body only wanted more of him.

His lips worked their way down my neck, warming me as the sweater on my back never could. 

“I lied,” he whispered, his voice just as husky and weighted as mine. “I can’t just let you go… not without a fight.”

“Even if I ask you to stop Shayne from hunting?” I challenged. “Even if I ask you to help me find the culprit… the demon who drained that poor guy’s soul?”