Sunburst (Starbright Series) (10 page)

             
Well, since he was Fallen, enrolled in
high school
, I imagined that he did.

             
“Until you graduate?” I asked innocently.

             
“Until
you
graduate,” he confirmed on a whisper as he leaned in.

             
“Well, welcome to Mead,” Tristan interrupted awkwardly. I was sure he picked up on the strangeness of this guy and was not at all thrilled Jude seemed so familiar with me.

             
Tristan and I had that in common.

             
The rest of lunch went by without incident, except that I had somehow managed to share a meal with a Fallen. I picked at my food while my friends chatted up Jude and welcomed him into our circle of trust. It wasn’t like everyone here was super goody-goody. Tristan and Rigley regularly got into trouble and I had just been basically called a slut by my English teacher- although it
was not
true. But Jude added a whole new level of danger to the table, one that my friends were fascinated with instead of afraid of.

             
I was going to have to kill this guy.

             
The sooner the better.

             
I excused myself a few minutes before the bell rang and ran to my locker for a weapon. This morning I pulled out a fitted black trench coat to wear to school today in order to keep my katanas close by. It was a little more Goth than I was used to, but I didn’t really have a choice if I wanted to smuggle in swords without having the school administrator call the FBI.

             
I opened my locker door and had it abruptly slammed back into place, nearly catching my fingers in the motion.

             
Jude.

             
I hadn’t heard him come up behind me- unacceptable.

             
I turned with my back pressed into the locker and faced my enemy. “What are you doing here?” I demanded on a growl.

             
He smiled at me and put an arm over my head. If anyone walked by, it would look like he was hitting on me, but lunch was still in progress and we were alone in the hallway.

             
“Isn’t it obvious?” he smirked.

             
“Are you here to kill me?” I laughed lightly. “Because you won’t be the first one to try. I just need to know if I’m going to be late for next period.”

             
His eyes narrowed on me and he leaned in. He smelled like cigarettes and mint. “You think you’re funny don’t you.”

             
“Obviously.”

             
His gaze traveled down the length of me, lingering on all my curves and exclusively female features before he lifted his eyes to mine again. “I think I’m starting to get it.”

             
“Get what?” I asked before I could stop myself.

             
“I’m not here to kill you, Stella,” he confessed on a sigh. I expected him to back up, but he stayed hovering over me, way too closely. “I’m here to do the opposite.”

             
“And what is that?”

             
“I’m here to protect you- to make sure nothing happens to you.” His grin turned wicked and the sparkle in his eyes turned devious.

             
“What does that mean?” I demanded, a bit exasperated.

             
From start to finish so far, this did not make sense.

             
“So your boyfriend defected yesterday, if I understand this correctly,” Jude intoned dryly. He stood up then and pulled a cigarette from a pack in his back pocket and slid it between his lips. With the tip of his finger and whatever was left of his fading Light, he lit it and then sucked in a long breath.

             
“I feel like I remember hearing about this. What does that have to do with me?”

             
“He signed a contract, Starling. Made a deal with the devil himself. Aliah gets his free will, bright white Light and eternal soul all in exchange for you. Seth stays with Aliah and your hot little body remains untouched until you’re eighteen.” He sucked in another long drag and blew it out over my head.

             
Which was both oddly considerate and brazenly rebellious all at the same time.

             
“I’m not understanding.” I shook my hair out. My head was starting to hurt with all the implications of his speech.

             
“Your boy Seth gave himself up to Aliah in order to make sure we left you alone until you turn eighteen. But I have to warn you, Sweet, your birthday equals game on.”

             
“And you’re part of the bargain?”

             
“Contract,” he clarified. “I am.” He inhaled his shortening cigarette and stared at me intently.

             
“Explain that part to me.”

             
“Protective detail. I’m here to ensure nothing happens to you.”

             
“All you have to do is keep your Fallen friends away from me. I should be just fine.” I pushed away from him and started walking down the hall. We were still alone while everyone was at lunch but I kept waiting for the teachers to converge on us in their version of a SWAT team, tackling us to the ground and shouting for us to hand over the cigarettes! My transcript would forever be blackened thanks to Jude and his literal inability to follow the rules.

             
Not that my transcript mattered in the big picture….

             
Jude let out a bark of laughter and then followed after me, bringing his disgusting habit with him. “Sorry. That’s not how it works. I have to make sure nothing happens to you. As in
nothing
. I would hate for you to trip and skin your knee or stub your toe on something. I can’t risk being held liable, you know?”

             
“No, I don’t know.”

             
He smirked at me.

             
“And what if I just kill you? End my headache now?”

             
“Then Aliah kills Seth.”

             
“Aliah wouldn’t-“

             
“He would. It’s in the contract.”

             
“And if something happens to me?”

             
“Depends on the something. If it’s minor, I’m…. uh…. replaced. If it’s fatal, Seth kills Aliah.”

             
“That sound an awful lot like a third party soul contract.”

             
“Did I not say that already?” Jude chuckled. “Your boy-o sold his
soul
, Starling. It’s time to grasp the fine print.”

             
I spun around on my heel, making Jude stop dead in his tracks. He faltered a little, but pulled himself together. Pulling the last drag from his cigarette he threw it on the floor and stomped it out under his heavy boot. Ash smeared across the buffed tile floor and when he was satisfied that it was out, he kicked it over to the side of the hallway.

             
“Seth wouldn’t sell his soul.” He wouldn’t. Becoming Fallen was one thing. But selling your soul? Entirely different kind of problem. “He wouldn’t.”

             
“Are you trying to convince me? Or yourself? Because I know that he did. I was there. I signed the contract.” When I raised my eyebrows, he quickly explained, “Third party. I’m the third party.” He let out a shaky laugh. “I may be a little lost, but I’m not crazy enough to sign over my soul.”

             
“Tell me what I don’t know,” I demanded.

             
He smirked at me. “Now why would I do that, little Star? Seems like it’s in my benefit to keep you in the dark.”

             
His words had strong innuendo and I did not like his line of thinking. Faster than I’d ever moved, I retrieved the four inch dagger from my thigh sheath and had it to Jude’s throat before he could think another dirty thought.

             
“Because I’m suddenly of the impression that Seth is better off dead than soulless, so tell me now what I need to know or I’ll cut out your heart and watch you bleed out for the fun of it.”

             
“I’m thinking Seth isn’t the only one without a soul.” His joke cost him a nick, just under his Adam’s apple. Blood trickled down the blade of my knife and onto the tips of my fingers. I let up just a little bit and he said, “But I think I like you like this. All feisty and mean. I’d expected a docile little thing. You’re not cooperative at all.”

             
“Jude, stop playing games,” I demanded in a firm, no-nonsense voice.

             
“There’s not much else. There are answers you probably should know, but you won’t ask the right questions. And there are answers that won’t matter one way or the other, but you most certainly will ask those questions. The long and short of it is eighteen. Your protection ends at eighteen and Seth’s contract runs out. He’s free and you become hunted.”

             
“Seth is free when I turn eighteen?”

             
Hope. Small, miniscule, insignificant. But hope all the same.

             
“Seth is free when you turn eighteen.”

             
“Why would Aliah allow that kind of clause?” I asked aloud, more to myself than anyone.

             
“Think about it,” Jude shrugged and then pushed my hand away from his neck. I wiped the blade on my black leggings and slipped the dagger back under my denim bubble skirt. “Seth is going to be soulless for how long? Then what? What do you expect him to do?”

             
“He won’t stay with Aliah once he gets his soul back,” I promised him. “He won’t.”

             
“Ah,” Jude winked knowingly. “But does one ever truly get his soul back? And think how many dark deeds will weigh on his conscience between now and then. Better to give him up now and just be grateful for the chance he’s given you to live, than hold out hope for a man he will never become.”

             
“You don’t know him.” I pointed out full of righteous anger.

             
“And now? Neither do you.” He smirked at me one more time and then turned around and walked away just as the bell rang and the hall flooded with students.

             
I walked over and picked up his discarded cigarette and walked it over to the trash can. I hated everything about Jude. I hated his presence, his carelessness, his symbolism in my life. But most of all I hated that he somehow replaced Seth.

             
And Seth.

             
I couldn’t even wrap my head around what he had done for me. He must have been desperate to save me. He must have realized how bad things were or had insight into how bad they were going to get.

             
He gave up his soul for me.

             
I ran to the bathroom before it was too late and threw a random stall door open so I could empty my lunch into the toilet. I’d never thrown up before, but I couldn’t stop the overwhelming nausea from taking hold and burning a path of fear and self-loathing down my throat.

             
How could he?

             
The tears came next. I sunk to the floor and pulled my knees to my chest and cried as quietly as I could. I knew I would make a scene if anyone came in here, but I couldn’t stop. My heart didn’t just break for Seth, it exploded. And I didn’t know why he did this, why he did this for me. We could have fought this together. We could have stayed together. He didn’t have to leave me.

             
And now I was more lost than ever.

             
I just wanted him to come back to me.

             
I just wanted him to be with me.

Chapter Ten

             
“Higher,” Jupiter ordered.

             
I lifted my elbows higher.

             
“Looser,” he demanded.

             
I relaxed my wrists.

             
“Focus, damn it, Stella!”

             
“I’m sorry,” I threw my katana to the side and yelled at him. “I’m sorry!” This time it was a little more hysterical and the tears I’d been fighting since a few days ago when I’d lost it in the bathroom at school were instantly back and hot against my eyes. “I’m sorry.”

             
“Stop,” Jupiter continued to boss me around. “Stop it. It’s as much my fault as it is yours.” His voice broke just a little with that admission. I continued to stare at my tennis shoes, knowing the moment I looked up at him I would crumble into a useless, weeping heap.

             
“Probably a better idea if we just blame him for all this, right?” Saying that made me feel a little bit better; I bent over and picked up the sword that just seconds ago I had hated more than anything.

             
“Now that is a good idea,” Jupiter smiled at me. “Again?”

             
“Again?”

             
His sword was there to meet mine as my katana sliced through the air with deadly force. He pulled his arm back in a surprising move and my arm continued with my momentum setting me off balance. He swung up and over me as if he would come down from on top and get my neck that way, but I allowed the forward pull to carry me and pushed my body all the way around, spinning on one foot. Our swords connected again and we were back to clanging metal and fancy footwork.

             
After Jude’s hallway revelations today, I left school with the pretense of a relapse of the plague and came home to fill my parents and Jupiter in. They were as shattered as I was.

             
But one good thing had come through all of this- I was motivated to train my ass off until I was the best, until there was
nobody
better than me.

             
And I wasn’t going to sit idly by and wait for my eighteenth birthday, growing soft under the double-edged protection clause. Hell, no. I was going to fight. I was going to engage as often and as violently as I could until every Fallen across the universe cowered at the sound of my name.

             
They wouldn’t be able to touch me while I collected their heads.

             
Ok, that was a little gruesome.

             
With my new manifesto tattooed on my soul, the one I intended to keep eternally, I fought with a strength and focus I had never known before. My wrists were fluid, loose extensions of arms that were strong and capable of killing. My feet were fast, my legs were steady, my core was taut with the right kind of tension and my eyes took everything in with lightning quickness.

             
I was becoming the Star I was born to be.

             
Jupiter met my blows with shocking agility. He was something like nine-hundred years old, but as spry as any Warrior my age. He was fast and skilled with his broadsword, which was why he was currently kicking my ass. His sword was freaking heavy! And every time he landed a blow on top, I would struggle to hold his weight up with my thinner, longer shaped katanas.

             
I flipped through the air, tucking my head and kicking my feet around gracefully. I landed on my feet but had already spun around to meet his thrust. Our swords clashed and slid apart. I moved quickly to the left and ducked as he swung wide and low. I lunged out and cut towards his legs which he avoided by jumping up and back. In the blink of an eye, he had somersaulted forward through the air again and rendered a blow so forceful that my blade actually
shattered
.

             
Without missing a beat, I spun on the inside of his arm, plucked the dagger from my thigh and held both the broken blade and my deadly little one to opposite sides of his throat.

             
“I have you here,” Jupiter pointed out. He tapped me on the back of the neck.

             
I smirked confidently, “Ah, but you can’t slice my head off without catching your own. But I am perfectly capable of taking your head with the help of my special friends here.” I emphasized my point by scratching his neck on either side with the tips of my blades.

             
“Very well done, Starling,” Jupiter smiled at me.

             
Slow clapping sounded behind us; I spun out to face our spectator. Although by the lazy pull and release of his hands, I had an idea of who it would be.

             
And just as I suspected, Jude stood, leaning against a tree, watching us with bored disinterest. He was wearing that half, amused grin that seemed to constantly fix his face and his jeans were slung even lower than earlier.

             
Seriously, get the boy a hamburger, his pants need help.  

             
“That was…. impressive.” But he said it in a way that made it seem like it was the exact opposite of impressive.

Jude pushed off the tree with his shoulder and walked slowly forward. There was a cigarette dangling from his lips and his hands were shoved in his pockets. He looked…. dangerous.

              And I hated that.

             
I wanted him to look like nothing.

             
I just wanted him to disappear and stop reminding me of everything I lost.

             
“What are you doing here?” I sighed.

             
He grinned at me. Again. It was like he forgot he was Fallen. He seemed way too happy to be filled with malice and Satan. Possibly he was addicted to energy drinks.

             
“I came to check on you.” He stopped just before us and quirked a brow at Jupiter. “You are
not
from this planet, old man.”

             
“Why are you here, Jude?” I bit out, feeling frustrated and overprotective of Jupiter.

             
“I already told you.” He hadn’t taken his eyes off Jupiter yet, and it was getting awkward.

             
“Alright, then
why
did you come to check on me?”

             
“Stella, we’ve been over this how many times? I had to make sure nothing happened to you. That you weren’t kidnapped on the way home from school today, or didn’t break a nail in the aftermath of your chores, or decide to off yourself when the bleak reality of your situation set in. That was probably the one I was most concerned about.” His eyes flickered over to me from Jupiter but then went right back to Jupiter’s red eyes. “Let me guess…. Mars?”

             
“Not even close,” Jupiter grunted.

             
“That’s too bad,” Jude smiled sadistically. It was the first time I had seen his true mask of evil. “Mars was one of my favorite planets.”

             
Jupiter took an aggressive step forward and I caught him by the wrist. “He’s promised not to hurt me. Don’t let him antagonize you.”

             
Jupiter seemed to take my advice immediately- well, until he opened his mouth to yell at Jude in a language neither of us understood. Although he fought like a man much younger than his age, he was now, currently, acting like the crotchety old man that he was.

             
Jude snapped his fingers and dropped his head back. “Jupiter! I should have known. I knew those red eyes were familiar, I just couldn’t…”

             
“Jude,” I interrupted with a hand on his bicep. We both looked down where my hand rested on his bare skin and I immediately withdrew. It was a familiar gesture, a friendly gesture and Jude was neither to me. “Were you really just checking in on me? Because as you can see, I’m fine now. So why don’t you scamper on home, back to the pits of Hell you crawled out of.”

             
“You’re adorable when you get all mouthy,” he cooed instead. “I’m starting to get turned on.”

             
“And I’m starting to get annoyed.”

             
He blew smoke in my face, just to be a bastard.

             
“
This
is the third-party?” Jupiter demanded, looking over Jude with an entirely different expression. “This one?

“
Yes,” I laughed. “Believe me, I was as surprised as…”
“I know your parents,” Jupiter cut me off. He was staring at Jude now, only this time Jude was

hesitant to look back at him.

              Jude swallowed once, stomped out his cigarette and then turned the entire force of his blasé attitude on Jupiter. “Really? That’s nice, because I don’t.”

             
“It’s a shame what happened to you.”

             
“How did you recognize me?”

             
“The tattoo on your neck,” Jupiter pointed to the side of Jude’s collarbone, where there was, in fact, a half-dollar sized tattoo of two swords making an X. One sword had the word “Verity” scrawled across it and the other said, “Honor.” It was usually hidden by his t-shirts, but tonight he was wearing a long sleeved Henley with the buttons open, gaping at the throat. “Your parents gave that to you when you were a child.”

             
“Well, if you see them again, tell them I miss them,” Jude ground out bitterly and then barked out a derisive laugh. “Just stopped by to make sure you were in top order, Stella. And now that I see you’ve survived the afternoon, I’ll let you get back to…. this.”

             
“How generous of you,” I curtsied to be a jackass, but Jude only waved it on as if he were already bored.

             
He turned around and walked away from us- in the opposite direction of the house. He pulled his ever-present pack of cigarettes out of his back pocket and lit up while he walked away. He raised two fingers as a way of goodbye without turning around; I hated him infinitely more in that moment.

             
“Now that’s interesting,” Jupiter commented dryly. “Do you know who that is, Stella?”

             
“The bane of my existence?” I asked sweetly.

             
Jupiter chuckled and then began collecting the different swords that lay in discarded piles all over the ground. “That was Jude Michaels.”

             
“I did know that much.”

             
“He was kidnapped as a child- straight from the Lower Realms. Later, the kidnapper was caught. Apparently he was a traitor, intent on stealing an entire generation of Warriors for the Fallen. He only managed to steal Jude before they got him. But he never said what he did with the child.”

             
“What did the Council do to the traitor?” I asked, horrified by the story. I couldn’t imagine they would give up looking for Jude, or that his parents would allow the traitor to be executed before he gave up where their son was.

             
“The Council didn’t do anything,” Jupiter explained seriously. “The day before he went to trial, he was found beheaded in his cell. Someone else got to him before the Council could ask a single question.”

             
“And they didn’t find that suspicious?” Or had I just watched too many episodes of
Law and Order
?

             
“Of course they did. The investigation continued, but nothing else ever came up and the boy never resurfaced. They had no idea which planet to search or which direction of the Universe he was taken to. But that tattoo… I would remember it anywhere. Jude’s father is an Archangel, his mother sits on the Council. They have never stopped looking for him.”

             
“They will probably be a little disappointed with how he turned out,” I sighed. He had a sad story, I could give him that.

             
Jupiter was silent for a few moments, deep in thought. Finally, and in an amused voice, he said, “Fallen by consequence, not by choice. That makes an interesting study.”

             
True. It was rare, maybe even unheard of for a child to be raised into the Fallen culture without making a conscious decision to join their ranks. Fallen was a choice- even they knew that. Which was why Seth had been spared when he was younger. They didn’t, couldn’t, have children for this very reason. They were cursed to be barren, since the beginning of time.

             
“He’s obviously adapted,” I shrugged it off. Jude was just as evil as the rest of them. And the only reason we weren’t fighting to the death right now was because he was under contract to keep me alive. And my new mission in life was to save Seth. It didn’t matter if he chose this life or was forced into it; it was his life now and he
was
as Fallen as the rest of them.