UnGuarded (16 page)

“But what if I want it to? Angel, it felt
too perfect being close to you. Feeling your body pressed against
mine. There’s something between us and you can’t deny it!”

My mind was reeling; my heart was beating
out of control. He was right. I couldn’t deny it, but none of that
mattered. I loved Cole. So how was it possible to feel something
for Luke? My body started trembling, and Luke’s hand was instantly
on mine. “Are you okay?” he asked.

My chest tightened with anguish. I tried to
speak, but couldn’t get my words over the lump in my throat. I
swallowed a few times, and it helped a little. Dang it, why
couldn’t Luke have gotten me the water I’d asked for? I reached for
my drink and took a small sip, then said, “Listen to me. Cole will
be back tonight and then everything will be back to normal. I’ve
been lonely and missing him so much. I’m sorry for letting this
happen tonight. We need to stay focused. Please, I can’t do this
without you, Luke.”

His expression hardened as he shook his
head. “No problem,” he mumbled as he stood up.

“Where are you going?”

“To grab one more drink before we go.” He
stormed off, in human steps, and I watched him disappear into the
sea of dancers.

13

WE ARRIVED AT HURON’S bar after a couple
long hours of traveling in Luke’s arms—since he had to carry me. A
silent frustration had prodded my heart the whole way, unspoken
desires floating in the air between us. I hoped my mixed feelings
for Luke were only filling the empty void of not having Cole here
with me. Once I got Cole back, everything would return to normal,
and the unexplainable attraction to Luke would disappear. It had
to.

We were about a block away from the bar when
Luke set me down. I assumed we’d just walk the rest of the way in
human steps, so I turned and headed up the sidewalk. Suddenly,
Luke’s hand was on my shoulder, holding me in place. “Wait.”

I took a deep breath and turned. “We don’t
have much time.”

“I know, but this can’t wait. I need to say
it now.” He ran his hand through his hair. “If anything happens, I
mean anything bad, I just want you to know…I want you to know that
I care about you.”

That clenching in my stomach returned. What
was happening to me? I was a complete wreck without Cole. It wasn’t
possible to feel something for Luke. Was it? I looked down at the
ground, stealing a moment to collect my thoughts. We were less than
an hour away from the fight of our lives. There was no guarantee
we’d come out of this victorious. What if we couldn’t defeat Limos?
What if his army proved greater than ours? And what if—just
thinking this broke my heart into a million pieces—Cole was already
dead? I shook off the thought immediately, refusing to believe
Limos would have killed him before he’d gotten what he wanted—me.
Surely the stress of my situation, and the fear of the unknown,
were the reasons I was feeling anything for Luke, and he had to be
feeling out of sorts because of that too. He just
thinks
he
cares about me, when in fact, I’m filling a need for him also. I
glanced up at his face and simply couldn’t acknowledge what he’d
told me. So I tried to sound positive when I replied, “I wish I
could tell you that everything was going to be okay. But I have no
idea what to expect with Limos. We can only pray that things work
out in our favor—we get Cole, and we all get out…in one piece.”

He half smiled. “Even when you get
your
vampire back, I’m still going to care about you.”

I shook my head, feeling a stab deep in my
heart as I tried my best to ignore that. “You’re getting him back
too. Remember, Cole’s your friend?”

Something strange flitted in his eyes, then
they changed back to their normal deep and mysterious pools,
threatening to swallow me inside them. I gasped, certain he was
about to enter my thoughts, but nothing happened. Without saying
another word, Luke swooped me up in a big bear hug. I resisted at
first, but then the reality of his words hit me like a ton of
bricks. Maybe he really
does
care? What if Luke dies trying
to help me save Cole? Caught up in the moment, I wrapped my arms
around his neck, squeezing tighter and tighter. Time seemed to
stand still as we held each other, then his lips slowly brushed
across my cheek as he pulled away.

I sighed, then turned and headed off toward
Huron’s. I couldn’t hear Luke behind me, but I felt his closeness
tingling on my skin as he followed me. We walked inside the musky,
smoky bar and went straight to the back. Huron set a mug full of
foamy beer in front of some old, raggedy-looking vamp, then he
looked up at us and nodded. His eyes slid to the side, directing
us. Luke got in front and led me to the furthest right corner of
the bar. A cracked, wooden door spilled us into a short, narrow
hallway. We followed it to the end and arrived at another door. My
angelic senses were going haywire, cautioning me not to proceed,
but when Luke opened the door and walked in, I stayed right behind
him.

The medium-sized room was dimly lit and
overcrowded with dark ones. In the center was a poker table with
six vampires sitting around it—all of them with cards in their
hands. A few more vamps were seated in wooden stools along the side
wall. They’d been watching the poker game, but now their eyes were
on me and Luke.

There were three demons at the very back of
the room. I instantly recognized Grote, Caitlyn’s former nuisance
of a demon, and one of the four that had helped with her attack,
leaving her to die. Grote was in human form—well, sort of. He was
around five foot tall with curly brown hair perched on the tops of
his shoulders. He wore black leather pants and matching combat
boots. His bare chest and arms were pale and scaly—like a cross
between a gator and a vampire—and his eyes were bright orange with
black, diamond-shaped pupils. One of the other demons looked very
similar to a panther, but instead of black fur, thousands of
razor-sharp whiskers covered its body, and its eyes glowed red. The
other demon looked like an oversized centipede with a deep green
body and red spikes all over it.

I grabbed Luke’s arm, pulling him close,
then whispered, “I know one of those demons. I don’t trust
him.”

“I don’t trust any of the demons,” he
breathed in my ear, “but I trust Huron.”

“Hello, Suh-leeen,” Grote hissed. “I had no
idea it was
you
I’d be helping.”

Anger clawed my spine and I felt my eyes
narrow. “Because of you, Caitlyn is dying!” I took a few steps
toward the demon, but Luke grabbed my arms from behind, holding me
back.

“You know that isn’t true,” Grote said,
scowling. “The charge is dying because you weren’t there to keep
her safe.”

“No!” I exclaimed, pushing forward while
Luke’s grip tightened, keeping me where I was. “Who orchestrated
the attack? You demons”—I gestured toward the two beside Grote—“are
never
that
organized. Tonight, you’re here for Huron. Who
were you following when you attacked my charge?”

Grote’s lips curved into a sly smile.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Was it Typhon?” My voice was getting
louder. “What would he have to gain from killing my charge?”

Grote burst into sinister laughter. As he
shook, flickers of light danced across his skin. The other two
demons swayed back and forth, as if trying to laugh in their
creature forms. My chest felt constricted, my heart heavy with
anger and grief. Luke tugged me back a little more and I slumped
down, Luke’s hard chest against my back. I let out a deep breath
without even realizing I’d been holding it.

The vampires along the side wall, one
middle-aged woman and two twenty-something men, were watching me:
stone-cold, expressionless. The vampires at the table had returned
to their poker game—except for a younger-looking redhead. She
must’ve been barely sixteen when turned into a vampire. Her skin
was flawless and smooth like porcelain, and her eyes were like
black, bottomless pits. “Enough!” she roared, keeping her eyes on
me. The room fell silent, and I could’ve sworn I saw Grote cower
and take a step back from the corner of my eye. She set her cards
on the table and stood. A black rocker-styled tee hung loosely over
her skinny, dark blue jeans. She fluttered to me, swift and
graceful, standing no more than a foot away. We were about the same
height, giving me too good a view of her eyes. I hurriedly looked
to the side, finding the only unoccupied space in the room. The
wall was off-white with numerous cracks running up and down, just
like the rest of the walls in the room. I felt the vampire’s
fingers brush across my face, below my lips and along my chin. I
gasped, sucking in a deep breath, attempting to step back but being
already squished up against Luke. “Why won’t you look at me?” the
young vampire purred.

“Back off, Annabel!” Luke said, his voice
deep and authoritative. As I focused on the wall, I felt the
vibrations of his words against my back.

“Oh, Luke, I just want to know why the
lovely angel here won’t look at me.” She cupped my face, and I
could feel her staring at me.

There was a blur of motion, then suddenly
Annabel was flying across the room, just missing the poker table
and hitting the wall beyond it before crashing to the floor. The
vampires at the table were looking at me, obviously unhappy about
the distraction. Luke was beside me now, eyes slanted in a glare
and fangs exposed. “I said back off!” he roared.

Without seeing her move, Annabel was now
standing just behind the table. Her mouth was bloody and she was
snarling, crimson drops falling from her fangs. “That really wasn’t
necessary!” She sprang up, coming straight for us.

Luke jumped in front of me, but she was
intercepted by one of the poker-playing vamps. He was tall and
slender, thick brown hair cropped above his ears. He was
standing—one arm stretched in front of him, holding Annabel by the
neck, over the table, in the air. In what seemed like slow motion,
he swung her to the side and set her down beside him. “Know your
place, Annabel,” he said, then looked at me. “After we help you
tonight, our debt will be repaid.” He looked back at Annabel and
added, “And that is when you can get to know the angel a little
better. Do you understand?”

Annabel nodded, slowly. “I’m sorry, Argon, I
must’ve lost myself in her scent.”

“If Annabel even thinks of trying anything,”
Luke said through gritted teeth and fangs, “she’ll be going through
me first!”

“So quick to bounce into the arms of another
woman,” Annabel smarted, glaring at Luke.

Argon elbowed Annabel in the side. “You can
play the scorned jealous lover later. Right now, there are some
things to go over.”

Luke and Annabel had been in a relationship?
I felt my own wave of jealousy wrap around my spine, pulling at the
corners of my chest. I glanced over at Luke and he was clearly
seething, fangs still exposed. I took his hand inside mine, giving
it a gentle squeeze, then looked at Argon and said, “There isn’t
much time before we need to leave. I think we’ll get along best if
Grote and Annabel keep their distance from me.”

Argon nodded. “I couldn’t agree more. Now
tell me…Selene is it? Tell me, why are you even helping a
vampire?”

My throat was instantly dry. But there
really was no point in keeping secrets from my allies, right? I
didn’t have a backup story to tell anyway. “I’m in love with
him.”

Several gasps sounded throughout the room. I
sensed something unsettling coming from Luke, a minute tremble
within my grasp. It reminded me of my last run-in with the siren,
how my hands shook with anxiety, the sharp anger from being in her
world in the first place, the swirling uncertainty of when I’d hear
the chimes, or that maybe this time I wouldn’t hear them at all.
Because of that stupid kiss, now Luke was feeling confused and
unsure of me, where I stood with him, with Cole, and how things
might change once Cole was back. All because of a kiss that I
couldn’t take back, couldn’t make disappear from our memories, and
sadly, a part of me didn’t want to forget. And it scared me more
than anything we were about to do in Charon.

When I glanced at him, his face was hard and
unreadable. I knew he didn’t like hearing what I’d just said, but
it was the truth and every being in this room deserved to know what
they were risking their lives for…even Grote, though it wouldn’t
have bothered me the slightest if he never made it back to
Earth.

Another male vampire at the poker table
stood up. He was shorter than Argon but just as slender, with long
dark hair swooped back in a low ponytail. “You’re in love with a
vampire? How is that possible?”

Suddenly, Grote started laughing, pulling
everyone’s attention his way. All the vampires swung challenging
glares at him. His laughter turned into a gagging sound, like he
was pretending to clear his throat instead of laugh. After that, he
fell completely silent.