Sweet Temptation (14 page)

I think of Anna's voice mail as I approach the party, and I imagine her running up to me, throwing her arms around me.

But it doesn't happen that way, does it? Girls run up to me, but none of them is Anna. I spot her through the crowd and what's she doing? LEAVING THE ROOM WITH KOPE.

Bloody hell! The cheek of him!

I am wound tightly with fear and anxiety as the worst possibilities overcome me; did she come tonight, not to see me, but because the others forced her? Worst of all, is it possible she no longer loves me, and she fancies Kopano instead? After all, he's everything I'm not. Would Kope plan a trip to seduce her, and then toss her off at the airport the moment things get heated?

No.

I don't want to listen, but I feel compelled. I shove my hearing through the walls and hear Anna and Kope bantering, and then he's telling her the story of how he abandoned his life as a Neph and got into Harvard.

God damn it, I feel ill. I need a drink.

I'm greeted at the kitchen counter by a platinum blond with a bottle of tequila. That'll do the trick. The tequila, I mean. It's loud in here. I glance through the crowd to see Anna hanging on Kope's every word in his oh-so-charming African dialect. She glances up and sees me as I take the shot handed to me. Then she turns her back to me as if I mean nothing, and my vitals plummet.

I can't believe this is happening. I can't believe I let myself
care this much for someone. I should be glad she's out of my hair. She can be Kope's problem now, not mine, but I'm not glad at all. I'm so fucking sad it's pathetic.

On the heels of my sadness comes anger, crashing through. I never would have expected Anna to be so fickle. To love me one week and forget about me just as quickly.

I'm going to need a bit more tequila.

“Mind if I take this for a moment, luv?” I ask the blond.

“Only if you promise to come talk to me later.” She smiles up at me.

I touch her chin and say, “Deal.” Then I grab the bottle, lime slices, and shot glasses, and head across the kitchen to where my mates are gathering with Anna and Kope. When I'm standing right next to her I'm struck again by a sensation of betrayal. She's acting sweet and innocent here with Kope, but I've seen her high and desperate for more drugs. I've heard her begging me to keep going. I
know
her. I know her when she's sweet and I know her when she's salty. I notice the way her eyes dart to the bottle with longing, because unlike the others, I'm watching for it.

“Tequila, anyone?” I say to her.

She squirms uncomfortably as others call for drinks and I hand them out.

“Kope?” I say, because I haven't forgotten how he ignored my warning to back off. “Anna?” I want to call them both out for pretending to be perfect when they're just as fucked up as the rest of us.

They just stare at me, clearly unhappy. Good.

“Oh, that's right,” I say. “I nearly forgot. The prince and
princess would never stoop so low. Well, bottoms up to us peasants.”

I've made everyone uncomfortable, and I don't care. I want to laugh. It's all a big joke, isn't it? This thing called life, where we hurt, where we work so hard not to care, and then a bit of feeling creeps in and people use it to hurt us further.

We take our shot and it burns through my chest. I can see Anna gripping the counter, trying not to look at me as she craves the liquor in my hand.

“How's your soda, princess?” I ask her.

“You don't need to be hateful,” she whispers.

Her words are like a sharp pin to my inflated chest, and I feel like shite for half a second.

“If you ask me, I'd say the princess prefers a dark knight,” Ginger says.

If I'm the dark knight, Gin is wrong. “She only thinks she does,” I respond, but I'm not so sure she prefers me over Prince Kope at all. I can't even look at Anna's reaction.

We end up out back, and I tip up the bottle, chugging the pungent alcohol when nobody's paying me any mind. I leave the empty bottle on the deck and head for the yard under the trees with the others. I sit heavily in a flimsy lawn chair and lean back, switching my gaze between Kope and Anna, who won't look at me. If the two of them want me out of the picture, I'm not going to make it easy on them. It's not how I work. I'm not a gracious loser.

Marna suggests a game of Truth or Dare, so I decide to cut to the chase.

“I'll go first. I dare Kope to kiss Anna.”

It's like a monk kissing a nun. Brilliant. I lean back and
cross my arms, enjoying their shifty-eyed embarrassment. Anna suddenly stands, I'm assuming to get far away from me, but instead she heads straight for me and kicks my chair up. I lose my balance and topple backward like an idiot. But when I look up and see her standing over me with eyes ablaze, I can only grin.

There's my girl. I'm relieved I've made her feel
something
.

Ginger and Blake are cracking up as Anna storms away. Jay goes after her, and then Marna trails him. I try to push my hearing out, only to realize I'm too drunk to do so.

Kopano is glaring at me hard. I get to my feet.

“Is there a problem?” I ask him, holding my arms out. I sound like my bloody father. Kope only sighs, as if disappointed.

Before he can respond, Marna is yelling my name. Excitement clutches me as I forget about Kope and head for the side of the house. Marna and Jay pass me, but I ignore them because all I can see is Anna standing there with her arms crossed and her head down. I move to stand in front of her, and my anger is smothered by a blanket of her softness. I'm at a loss. I know I've been a prick.

“Sorry,” I whisper, shocking myself.

“I'm sorry, too, about the whole chair-flipping thing.”

“No, I deserved it.”

She looks at me, and the world clears a bit. Just standing here, the two of us, makes me feel secure. I know it's stupid and fleeting, but I can see in her eyes that she still feels for me, and that is all I needed.

I can't let myself sober up while the twins are around. I can't allow anyone to know how I feel, so I pull the flask from
my pocket and take a long drag. Ugh, bourbon and tequila are not a good combination.

I'm not quite as drunk as I was ten minutes ago, but I have to keep a good buzz going. I walk with Anna back to the group. When we sit, I get a strange sensation up the back of my neck, and I turn to look for whisperers. The others are laughing and playing Truth or Dare for real, but I can't shake the feeling something's off. My hearing is still wonky from the alcohol, but I hear a girl near the back door say my name, and when I look up I see the platinum hair through the window.

She's looking for me, and I don't want to deal with it right now. So I get up and move to hide behind the tree while Blake tells her I'm not out here. That's a good boy.

I expect the strange feeling to pass, but it doesn't, so I keep alert.

“Everyone cheats,” I hear Ginger say.

“That's not true,” I mumble without thinking. They all stare at me and I could kick myself for saying something so pure out loud. I can only shrug. “Well, it's not.”

Ginger likes to think everyone cheats because she can get 99 percent of them to do it, but in fairness she only goes for the ones who seem dodgy anyhow, just as I go for the ones who are showing signs of lust for me.

“What the hell do you know about it?” she snaps. I hate my life as much as the next Neph, but Gin is poisonous about it.

“Nothing, I suppose.” I'm feeling prickly, like I need to do a perimeter check for whisperers. I don't want the others to worry, but that sensation of being watched will not go away. “I know I need another drink.”

I send my hearing around me in a circle like a radar as I walk to the house. But when I get inside the feeling dissipates. It's something
outside
. I go back out and freeze at the edge of the deck.

No. Blood slams through me as a giant dark spirit circles Anna. I can't make out his features, but he looks vaguely familiar. Everyone is still until the whisperer flies off. Marna quietly sends Jay away. As he comes up to the deck, I make my way down the steps at a jog.

This is not good.

“I would swear it was Azael,” Marna says. “But what was he doing?”

My ears ring as everyone talks. Azael. Satan's messenger spirit. My world flips and I feel as if I'm dangling in midair. Please, not this. Not her.

“What are you not telling us?” Ginger demands.

My eyes lock with Anna's. I need to get her out of here. I stretch my hearing in a farther radius and catch booted footsteps beside the house. My heart rate goes berserk as I realize it's too late to run. I slowly turn my head to the sound of the footsteps as a big-ass man steps out and walks toward us with casual, even steps. He's bald and broad with a goatee, and he's got a thick, amber badge at his sternum.

Belial.

I'm immediately relieved that it's him and not one of the other Dukes, but I still don't trust him, no matter what Anna says. This brute can definitely snap a neck with no remorse if it suits him. And when he sees me and glimpses my badge, that's exactly what it looks like he wants to do.

“You're a hard one to find,” he says to Anna. Damn, his voice is even deeper and more intimidating in person. I want to know why he's come and what he plans to do with her. I feel the weight of my knife in my pocket, and I will not hesitate to use it, no matter how big he is.

Then Anna introduces all of us. When she gets to me, her father cuts her off.

“Son of Pharzuph.” He sneers, and it's clear there's no love between him and my father. My stomach turns and I'm filled with self-loathing from the look in Belial's eye. I am not good enough for his daughter. I nod and drop my eyes.

“You're leaving with me, girl,” he says to Anna. “Time to start your training.”

It takes all my power not to look up and shout my first reaction of
No!
I don't want her submersed in this life, but it's too late.

Anna goes compliantly to his side, as if he's asked to take her to the park. She gives me a small smile, and I know she's telling me she'll be okay, but I'm too nervous. I can't let anything happen to her. I stretch my hearing to follow them, but they don't speak. And then they're out of range. Gone. And I cannot keep her safe.

“I'd never dreamed that I'd meet somebody like you

I'd never dreamed that I'd lose somebody like you.”

—“Wicked Game” by Chris Isaak

A
few minutes of stunned silence pass after they leave, and then I reach in my pocket for my keys. Ginger grabs my arm, digging her fingers in when I try to pull away.

“Where do you think you're going?” she hisses.

“I'm off to work a different party.”

“Bollocks!”

She eyes me suspiciously, and I level her with a stare. She always could read me too well. Blake removes her claw from my arm and says, “It's all good, brah. We'll catch you later.”

Marna pushes past them and squeezes me around the waist. It takes me a moment to relax and hug her back, and then I'm off. I don't even look Kope's way.

I just need to be sure Anna makes it home all right, I tell myself. I get on the highway and push my hearing as far up the road as I can, threading through each car, but none of them are Anna and Belial.

I don't calm down until I'm within a mile of Anna's apartment complex. I throw the vehicle into park in the lot of an abandoned petrol station and listen. I can hear her moving around her room. The shuffle of clothing and linens. Is she going to bed? She starts humming a song by Pink, and I nearly laugh at how she's at ease while I'm on edge.

It's one in the morning. Anna is safe. I've no clue where Belial's gone. Did he truly show up at the party just to nab her and take her home? I'm not buying it. It's too bizarre. I'll just stay for a bit to listen.

It's hard not to doze when Anna falls asleep, because the sound of her breathing is so comforting and even. At some point my chin falls to my chest, and I startle myself awake as an early autumn wind whistles through the darkness. It's just after three. I should go. I shuffle my extended hearing back up the road and into the apartment one last time. Then I nearly jump out of my skin.

Anna and Patti are both shrieking.

I fumble with the keys and finally crank the engine, peeling out of the pebbled lot.

Shite! How could I bloody well fall asleep? I knew something was up!

It's chaos at the apartment, with Patti yelling and Anna crying. I accelerate. I cannot figure out what the hell's going on. A knock at their door ratchets my pulse higher, and rain
splatters the windshield, muddling my hearing.

“This is my friend Kope,”
I hear Anna say, and I go cold all over.

What. The. Hell.

That scheming pretty boy must've been right outside her neighborhood!

“Whisperers were here!”
Anna says to him.
“I could see them. . . .”

Whisperers? Wait . . . she could see them? My poor girl—her voice is trembling. I turn too quickly into the apartment complex, going up on the damn curb and probably killing a flower bed.

Don't care.

I am seeing red. The raging bull kind.

Why are the whisperers haunting her? Who sent them? And why is Kope here?

I park across two spots and leap out, taking the steps three at a time, and burst into Anna's apartment. She screams and claps her hands over her mouth. I jump and reach for my blade when a raspy voice behind me says, “What in God's name is going on over there?”

Bugger, just an old neighbor. Anna pulls me in and shuts the door.

“What are you doing here?” she yells at me. She's wearing a threadbare fitted T-shirt and fuzzy blue shorts and has adorable bedhead, ponytail askew. I want to shove Kope from the room so he can't see her like this.

From the corner of my eye I spy movement, but it's only Patti. My heart warms a bit when she seems relieved to see me.

“They could come back any second and see us together and tell your father!” Anna is still yelling at me. “Go home!”

No, I want to know what happened. I want her to tell me about the demons and what they did to her, the way she told Kope. I look over at him with his arms crossed, and something inside me cracks. He doesn't look smug, only resolute, as if he's not budging from his place as protector. And why should he? Anna's not telling
him
to leave.

“Yes, I'll go,” I say with a measure of bitterness. “You've got help.”

I slip past her halfhearted attempt to stop me, and she doesn't come after me. I'm too angry to listen anymore. I don't want to hear them talking, even though I'm dying to know every detail about the whisperers.

The footsteps coming down the dim stairs behind me are too heavy to be Anna's. I flex my fists as I turn to face Kopano at the bottom of the stairs. Rain is falling in torrents around us, and we're barely protected by the edge of the stairwell's awning.

“Let us go somewhere and talk,” Kopano says.

“We can talk here. She never uses her senses.” It feels good to throw that fact at him—there's loads about Anna he doesn't know.

“Do not be upset, Kai,” he says calmly. “I feel only concern for her.”

Right. If by concern he means attraction and awe. “I'll bet you do.”

“Even you are willing to risk yourself for her, brother.”

Okay, so he can tell I feel attraction and awe, as well. So
what? “That's because I actually know her. What's your reason? I suppose you'd like to get to know her, too?”

“You have made it very clear that she is not available in that way.” And yet, he has pursued. “Be reasonable. There is plainly more at stake here. I only wished to help.”

Bullfuckincrikey. How is he going to help? By being her shoulder to cry on? He's just as powerless against the Dukes and whisperers as I am. He can lie to himself, but not to me. He wants her. “There's nothing you can do, Kope!”

He tries to calm me, which makes me more furious.

“There is no stronger weapon for Pharzuph to use than your concern for each other. If he learns you were here to console her, you will lose all leverage with him. Do not fool yourself into thinking he will not discard you.”

“Yes,” I say with pure malice. “Some of us have to worry about such things. Thank you for the reminder.”

I've been taken off guard by this conversation, and I catch the sound of heavy footsteps too late. Kope's eyes widen as he peers over my shoulder, and I spin, whipping out my switchblade with a
zing
and holding it in front of me where Duke Belial stands mere feet away, looking lethal as a bomb.

He smiles down at my knife, water dripping from his face.

“Put it away, boy. Sorry to break up the testosterone party.”

With a shaking hand, I slide the blade back in and slip it into my pocket. Anna comes racing down the stairs barefooted and stops herself just short of us.

She looks up at Belial and yells, “Dad!” Her hands cover her mouth as she looks between us. When Belial faces her full on, her hands fall to her side and her face goes slack.

“It was you,” she whispers. “You sent them.”

My head snaps to Belial to see his jaw set. Everything suddenly makes itself clear, and I nearly sag where I stand. He sent the whisperers to haunt her. Anna is not under suspicion, and her father does not want to hurt her. He's trying to smarten her up. He's forced her to acknowledge and see the demons. It's admirable and heinous all at once.

Belial turns on me and Kopano, stepping closer, and we both stand taller under his intense scrutiny. This is obviously a man who wants to protect his daughter, and right now he's staring us down like we're threats. Shame burns me as I realize what fools we were, standing out here arguing when larger issues are at stake.

“This little thing,” Belial says, pointing between Kope, Anna, and me, “isn't gonna fly. Don't worry yourselves about Anna anymore. You hear?”

I nod, but there's no way in hell I can stop worrying about Anna. I'm in too deep.

“Then get on out of here,” he says in that low voice. “And keep your heads in the game.”

Anna is watching the ground where the rain falls next to us. I don't look at anyone as I turn to leave, climbing into my vehicle, driving straight into the storm, head on.

“Love Letter” by Kaidan Rowe

Staring at this paper

Tryin' to write a “love letter.”

This is not my thing,

Yeah, it's just not me.

My mind turns instead

To a wicked beat in my head,

And I bang out the lyrics to a song.

Yeah, I bang out the lyrics to a song.

You're soft to my hard,

You're sweet to my salt.

If we both end up naked

It'll all be my fault.

Yeah, I'll take the blame,

That's it, say my name.

You're gorgeous, you're stunning,

Let me win at this game.

CHORUS:

Gimme, gimme, gimme,

I'm Greed when you're near.

I want more, I need more,

Ignore all of my fear.

Heat me, scald me, burn me,

I'm Lust for your touch.

You kill with a smile

And I refuse to be rushed.

How's this for a love note?

Do my words rock your boat?

If not, I'll try harder

Take things a bit farther.

You bet your ass I'll do that,

Raise the bar, sexy cat.

So step closer to me, turn up the AC.

You'll be singin' the chorus in 1, 2, 3 . . .

CHORUS

Roses are red and violets are blue,

That played-out shit isn't for you.

I got your love letter right here in my eyes.

If you look deep enough, you'll see through the lies.