Stay (19 page)

He snatched me up,
then pressed me to his chest until we became one with the rains and the clouds. We flew on the wind and the sensation of being so light was as beautiful as the first time. But now I felt true fear, a fear that struck me deeper than the thought of losing my life to my husband.

“Seid!” I shouted, throwing my arms up towards him. But his image blurred and dissipated like smoke into darkness. When I opened my eyes, I was sitting up in Cain’s bed. Panting, I twisted and found him staring silently at me. His hands brought me calmly back to the pillows, pushed my wet hair from my cheeks.

I
reached to touch my body where the whip lashes should have been. But the scars had long ago healed over. Reluctantly, I met Cain’s gaze and knew the sun would soon rise above the veil of clouds.

“You’ve sai
d his name in your sleep before,” he said darkly. “Was he the douche who cursed you?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “He saved my life. I was forced to marry the wealthiest man my father knew. He bought me for my beauty.”

“And this guy rescued you? Why would he rescue you and then curse you the next minute? That sounds even crazier than me, babe.” He laughed hollowly.

I dragged my finger along his battle s
cars and wished I could soak up his pain. “You didn’t know him. It was like he was made from the storm and sea itself. His nature was violent and unstable. But I made him steady, distracted.

“
He killed my husband for beating me, but he was furious and wanted to punish me. He thought I had chosen to marry that man. He didn’t understand what it was to be human, to be bound by duty and honor…” I trailed off, unable to go any further. Bile rose in the back of my throat as I relived all the feelings I had felt when my husband whipped me into submission. I was so lost to the past and that final dark hour that I didn’t recognize my point of view had changed. I was defending Seid.

Turning away so my back was to Cain, I
added, “I should not be telling you any of this. I should have slept in the magical couch.”

He
snatched my by the waist and pulled me flush against him. Huskily, he spoke into my ear. “Please don’t go. Stay. You keep the nightmares away. Not even she did that.”

“You mean Lissa?” I shivered when he
sighed heavily against my neck.

“You don’t still think you’re supposed to get us back together, do you? Not aft
er what you admitted last night,” he smugly said.

I closed my eyes and told him the painful truth. “What I said does not change what I was brought here to do.”

I could feel his rising panic through my connection to him. This was one of the greatest differences between Cain and the immortal I loved. Seid had never shown weakness of any kind. His temperament could be wild as the tempests, but he was always assured of himself, confident, until the day he cursed me.

“Rona, you’ve got to be—”

“You have to at least try, Cain. I will not be responsible for ruining your last chance for joy in this life.”

“Baby,
you
are the only thing that makes me happy,” he crooned against my ear, trying to turn me around to face him. But I refused, knowing I could not hold my resolve while looking into that familiar face.

“You say so now,” I replied, “
but how can you know for certain? You must try, Cain, for all of our sakes. Try to remember what you felt, what it was like when she made your sun rise and set every day.”

He nearly laughed.
“Yeah, right. Do you still remember how you felt about Seid?”

I shook my head, unwilling to go there when the answer would make me face things I was not ready for. “What we have is a new love, Cain. But what Seid and I shared, wh
at you and Lissa share, this is true. I do not know why you are able to see me or why you dream of the sea.”

I
hesitated and came close to telling him the awful truth, that I was first drawn to Cain because he looked like
him
. “I have no right to make you love me, or to love you. But I do know that love is something that is tested and mended over time.”

Cain pressed his lips to the crux of my neck and shoulder. “You realize this is only making me love you more?”

“I wish you loved me a little less,” I confessed.

He crawled so he was half on top of me
and supported his weight on his elbows, to trap me with his arms. “If this is you trying to make me fall out of love with you, it’s not working.”

“You ar
e trying to change the subject,” I replied, frustrated with his inability to take this seriously.

“Well
, I learned from the best,” he said and then kissed me until his alarm brought us both back to reality.

As I helped him dress for his job and prepare a quick meal, he
grudgingly promised he would try.

“You must learn to forgive her if you wish to truly heal from your past,” I
said.

Cain smirked.
“Can’t fix something that’s already broke. You’re the only thing that makes me feel alive anyway.”

As I watched him leave through the open doorway
, I wondered if he was right, if I could stay here forever.

Be human
… Learn to live again. Learn to love again.

For the second time in the six days I had known Cain, I began to believe. And once more, I felt a sharp stab of pain and jab beneath my healed scars.
This pain intensified until it was amplified fifty times over. Moments later, I was doubled over on the floor as the curse burned my human flesh with an invisible fire.

Chapter 17

Understanding Lissa

“Snap out of it, sugar! Come on! That’s a good girl. Breathe.” Her smoke-tainted breath washed over my face, accompanied by the scent of faint lilac and cloves that always permeated her skin. When I opened my eyes her black eyes were shining and her immaculate hair gleaming and red-painted lips turned up into a full smile. “See, I knew you wouldn’t run off and leave Mrs. Nguyen.”

Shivering, I leaned into the warmth her small body gave me. Somehow she had managed to shut the door, drag me over to the couch and w
rap me in Cain’s mother’s shawl in the moments following my blackout.

“How did you—what did you see?” My voice fell flat when I glanced down and saw my skin was still a brightly mottled mosaic of colors. I met her knowing gaze and frowned. Realization dawned in the aftermath of my fear. “You knew?”

She picked up the cigarette she had earlier discarded and inhaled deeply before answering. “I always knew aliens existed, just never expected you guys to be prettier than us.”

I was prepared to disagree
, until I saw the teasing glint in her black eye. I was certain then. She would not expose my secret. Easing back against the pillows in relief, I said, “Any other human would have run away screaming or forgotten about me.”

Mrs. Nguyen
chuckled deeply in her chest and ignored her rattling cough that accompanied it. “Kind of hard to forget seeing a girl with rainbow skin, huh? But I don’t care what color skin you have, duckie, long as you Cain’s girl.”

I relaxed into her lap and let her play with my hair, relishing in the motherly affection. My own mother had never been as kind or understanding. She heard my sister
s’ whispers and was the first to inflict punishment on me for my disobedience. This was how I first learned women could be crueler than men. Internal scars were not so quick to heal.

Thinking of Seid’s curse and the warning I h
ad just been given, I confessed. “I fear he only loves me because he still grieves for her and all they have lost.”

I didn’t know how much Mrs. Nguyen knew of Cain and Lissa’s relationship. Not even Cain realized how much I knew of their past.

“Ah, I see. You think he’s sad because of the baby.” She tapped her nose and smiled. “I may be a crazy old lady from Brooklyn, but I know a lot more of what goes around here than people think.”

“So you know he still loves her?”

After exhaling the smoke from her lungs at a leisurely pace, she answered, “I think you’re obsessing so much over what love is or isn’t, you’re missing the big picture.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean you need to get out there. Go talk to Lissa. You can’t make this thing happen, sugar. Love ain’t all magic and fairy tales. Just gotta hope you find someone who can put up with you long enough to commit.” Forcing me to sit up, she handed me her smoke and said, “Now take a drag of that and come get some of my special tea. Let’s see about what clothes you’ll need to stop that boy’s heart.”

“But I should not be trying to draw his attention. I should be—”

Mrs. Nguyen interrupted. “Shut up and let me have my fun.”

When I arrived at the club later, trusting the note Mrs. Nguyen had written for Cain and left in his apartment, I found it the center of activity. People were walking in and around the building and speaking with men and women dressed in black and yellow uniforms.

I had used my gift and my cloak to come undetected, but now that I had arrived, I had no clue how to avoid drawing more on the curse. Once I tapped into the source inside of me it was nearly impossible to stop. And I would be forced to become transparent again to avoid bumping into people.

After weaving through the crowd, I turned at the familiar voice arguing with the throng of women around him. “Look, Ginger, how many times have I got to tell you, smoke
outside
the club? Not right underneath a freaking smoke detector!”

It was the redhead I had seen the night before, the one who kept her things on the dresser beside Lissa’s. She didn’t hesitate to challenge her employer’s authority in front of the other girls. “Yo, I only took like two puffs! No reason to call in the DEA on this place.”

I cautiously edged through the space between them, not daring to breathe.

Jude slapped his face with his hand and groaned. When he spoke I could smell the coffee and faint taint of alcohol on his breath. “Those aren’t the DEA,
doll,
and if you’d gone to high school you’d know the difference between cops and the fire department.”

Cocking her hip, she glanced back at the other girls. “I got the best education I’ll ever need on these streets. Come to think, I got to know some cops and a teacher or two better outside the classroom.”

Another girl, a brunette, laughed. “Can you remember that far back, Ginger?” Another squabble quickly began. Jude put his head in his hand.

I cringed, sympathizing with his frustration. My sisters had been equally difficult to tether. I was almost to the club door when one of the dancers called out, “Hey! What’s with the chick under the trench?”

“What if she’s DEA?” another exclaimed. Cursing, they began to worry over their possessions.

Jude’s voice cut over their chatter. “Keep your pantyhose on! It’s just Cain’s new girl. Hey, new girl, yo
ur man ain’t here!”

I gasped, tightened my grip on the cloak that should have been firmly in place and glanced down at it.

Has it ceased working completely? Was the curse’s attack more than a warning?

“Orona! What are you doing out here, chica
? And dressed like this when it’s freezing!” Lissa appeared out of nowhere, throwing her own smoke to the ground before clasping my hand in hers and pulling me around the back.

“Where are we going?” I asked. I glanced back to find Jude’s eyes trained on me while he spoke with one of the uniformed men.

“Ginger tripped the smoke alarm. Stupid stoner. I’m hiding out up in the loft till the smoke clears. Jude would flip if he knew I was taking you up here. But he’s the one who called you Cain’s new girl,” she said with a shrug.

Lissa’s mahogany curls bounced in front of me, nearly half as long as her curvy figure. Without those stick-like heels on her feet, she was much shorter than me. And the heavy jacket, baggy pants and boots
were the complete opposite of her usual, glamorous attire.

She led me
up a rickety metal stair that was braced into the side of the building. Once again, I saw remnants of a time gone by in the style of the brick apartments and businesses. At one time, this part of their city might have been considered beautiful. At the head of the stairs, a very heavy-looking metal door awaited us.

She released my hand to push
the already cracked door aside. “Just bang it shut real hard,” she called over her shoulder before rushing ahead of me into her temporary home. When I did as she asked, a crack formed in the wall connected to the doorframe.

Oops…

Lissa didn’t notice now that she had turned a corner and stuck her face through yet another doorframe. “Hey, Pops, you awake yet?”