UnGuarded (23 page)

19

FEAR CLUTCHED MY SPINE. It didn’t seem to
matter how quick I ran, that monster was gaining ground—and fast.
Stupidly, I’d wandered out of the cave to see if there might be any
clues as to where I was. Luke needed something to go on if there
were any possible way for him to get me out of here. But my
exploration had led to a big fat nothing. Now I was running for my
life, and there wasn’t a thing in sight for miles that I could hide
in.

A thunderous shrieking sounded again,
followed by the ground rumbling dangerously under my feet. My
balance was in question now as I held my arms out, rotating them
from front to sides, desperately hoping not to fall. The creature’s
familiar scent of rotten roadkill tortured my nose. It was close,
so close, but my legs kept pushing across the quicksandish terrain.
Keep going, keep pushing
, I encouraged, but my hope was
running thin. A girl can only take so much, whether an angel or
not.

Not too far ahead, something shimmered along
the sand like diamonds. If that’s what it was, I might be able to
use them as a weapon against the creature. With renewed hope, I
pushed harder, picking up a little more speed. Grumbles and
screeches threatened immediately behind me, but if I could just buy
a little more time…just a little more. But as I got closer, the
field of glistening diamonds morphed into a pond. My inspiration
immediately deflated like a popped balloon. Now I had no weapon,
and no way to defend myself against the monster. Back to square
one, only running wouldn’t help me much longer.

Pain exploded along the side of my abdomen,
and I felt something inside me crack against the impact as it sent
me flying through the air. One hand cradled my ribs, as my other
one braced for landing. It seemed like the ground opened up as I
crashed. The sand ripped through my exposed flesh as if it were
razor blades, tearing into my arm and face as I skidded to a stop
just before the pond. Ignoring the throbbing in my chest, I swung
around to face my attacker, and as I did it was already there,
something massive and hard crunching into my left cheek. Instantly,
a molten coppery liquid filled my mouth and I spit what I could out
as I jumped back, ducking down. One of the creature’s arms just
missed my face, its great
swoosh
tousling my hair and its
stench leaving me nauseous.

The monster howled, screeching in my head
like nails on a chalkboard. Then it lunged up out of the sand,
revealing that its massive, tubular, segmented body was at least
ten feet long. It reminded me of a giant caterpillar, with ten
stretched-out black legs extending in a row down its chunky, hairy
body. I couldn’t see any eyes on its gruesome face, but the mouth
on that thing was enough to intimidate me. Razor-sharp teeth the
size of my arm glistened with spittle as it gave another shriek,
then made its next move. A few legs from both sides compressed
together, with me standing helplessly in the middle. I dropped down
and lunged forward, both fists landing uppercuts somewhere below
its midsection, sending waves of intense pain down my side with the
broken bones. The creature howled in agony as it backed up. Instead
of standing there, I used its obviously distracted state to pounce
forward, both feet out like missiles, colliding into the beast and
making it stagger backwards even more. The impact sent me flying in
reverse, and I landed with a numbing smack against my back when I
hit the water before being swallowed into its depths.

Once my feet reached the murky bottom, I
pushed up and fought my way to the surface. As I emerged, my head
dipped back, flinging my drenched hair behind my face as I gulped
the air. My arms swished at my sides, legs kicking rhythmically, as
I watched the creature pace the shore. Shrieks and howls bellowed
from its open mouth, and it seemed to nervously ponder how to get
me. Each attempt to enter the water left the beast reeling back
with more screeching howls. It repeated this pattern a few more
times, then stood on the edge of the pond, facing me. Ragged
breathing replaced its howls, spittle dripping from its massively
sharp teeth. That’s when I knew I’d be dog-paddling for a while,
even though the sharp bite of pain in my side was making me
nauseous. There was no way I’d be leaving this pond until that
monster was long gone.

The sun had been gone from the sky for quite
some time before I finally built up enough courage to leave the
water. The creature had given up what felt like hours ago, but I
just couldn’t risk it in my weakened state. My arms and legs burned
with clenched pressure inside the muscles. I wasn’t sure how many
ribs had broken, but the excruciating pain in my chest made me
think it was more than just one or two, and the left side of my
face felt like I’d been hit by a Mack truck. It was going to be
real fun not being able to heal these injuries. Sure, yeah,
right.

Still, I somehow made the long, horrendous
journey back to my little hidey-hole of a cave. Thankfully, no
encounters with massive caterpillar monsters were made on the way.
I gingerly sat down, my back against the rocky wall. Pain shot
through every nerve in my body, intense enough to bring tears to my
eyes. Once it got as comfortable as it was going to get, I leaned
my head back and closed my eyes, concentrating on anywhere but this
wretched place. I opened them a few times, hoping my orbing powers
might be working again, only to see that I was still in the
cave—and my body a broken mess. Every bone inside me screamed that
I was fallen, and this was the hell I’d been sent to. But logic
rattled my brain with the fact that there were no demons here
attempting to enslave me. Every fallen angel always ended up some
demon’s bitch. Actually, a lot of the demons
were
fallen
angels. The rules couldn’t possibly have changed just for little
ol’ me.

So if I wasn’t fallen, then where in all the
worlds was I? And did Raphael send me here to punish me? Or was it
something else altogether? The changes inside me originated with
Cole’s bite, but had only intensified once I had Luke’s blood
flowing in my veins. Could performing the ritual of breath over
Caitlyn—pumped full of vampire blood—be the reason I’d experienced
those crazy symptoms? And ultimately been sent here as some kind of
crazy backfire? Perhaps I should’ve mentioned those little tidbits
of information to Ezariah. Or maybe that didn’t have anything to do
with it at all.

My fingers traced the edge of the papyrus
wedged in my bosom. Somehow the scrolls never got wet, even though
they’d been fully submerged in the pond. What a relief, even though
I had no idea how to return them to their owner. What if all my
efforts had been for nothing? Depressing thoughts deflated me
further, bringing forth an exhaustion I couldn’t fight off. My mind
finally petered out while wondering if Caitlyn had been healed,
allowing the dream world to claim me once more.

Techno music thumped in my ears, vibrating
in my pulse. There were people—humans—but not too many, so it
wasn’t overly crowded. I watched them dance from my comfy seat at
the bar, sipping on something that definitely wasn’t water. My
mouth puckered at the bitter, tangy flavor as I turned around,
setting my drink on the black granite countertop. Steel framing,
fixtures, and appliances adorned the back of the bar in a slickly
decorative way. Red bubble-shaped lights hung in various places,
further accenting the décor with their red shade. A presence
appeared behind me with two cool hands on my shoulders.

“Luke,” I breathed, crossing my right leg
over my left, the smooth, tight black pants crackling with the
friction.

“Hello, Angel”—delight beaming in his azure
eyes. He sat down in the empty seat beside me, and I couldn’t help
but notice how nice he looked in black jeans and a matching black
leather jacket. “Thanks for not calling me Cole this time.”

The thought of that name stole my breath,
and I released a deep sigh of frustration. “You know I love him.
That will never change.”

A roll of his eyes let me know that he did
understand. “I’d rather discuss your feelings for me, not him.”

“What feelings?” I asked, indignation in my
tone. “Anyway, there is something that I need you—”

“Nah ah ah!” he cautioned with a few flicks
of a finger near my face. “You’re not changing this up on me! We’re
talking about this—now!”

I tilted my head, feeling my patience
melting. “Luke, this isn’t the time. I need to know if that ritual
worked. Please. Go to Caitlyn, see if she’s awake.”

“Maybe I will,” he taunted. “But I won’t go
anywhere until we talk about us.”

“There is no ‘us,’” I hissed with vehemence.
“I’m in love with Cole!”

“I said I don’t want to talk about him!” His
voice growing louder. “I care about
you
, damn it! I need to
know you feel the same!”

If that wasn’t putting me on the spot, I
didn’t know what would be. His pushiness made me want to tell him
that I didn’t feel a thing. “What does it matter?” was what I
settled with instead.

His eyes locked onto mine, emotions best
left unspoken revealed inside their depths. “It matters to me,” he
said at last. “I know you care, but I need to hear it.”

My heart lurched in my stomach. Now just
wasn’t the time to discuss this. Actually, there would never be a
good time, but I’d get nowhere suggesting that. “Who knows if I’ll
ever get out of this hellhole I’m stuck in. But if I do, then I’m
going to Cole and working things out with him. I care about you,
Luke.” I stole a moment to determine the best words to say next.
“But my heart belongs to Cole.”

Pink moisture welled up in his eyes, and he
looked away. My chest tightened, and my eyes stung with my own
welling tears, but I fought them back. Not only did it hurt to see
Luke upset, but he was also the only one who could help me. Plus,
I’d be beyond lonely not having him visit me in my dreams. So when
he turned back and looked at me, the sadness in his eyes mimicking
my own feelings, my heart froze in a panic.

“Luke,” I tried with a soothing voice as a
pink tear slicked down his cheek.

“No, I needed to hear that.” He closed his
eyes, then added, “I really did.” He stood up in a blur of motion,
then he was gone.

“Luke! Wait!” My shouts brought me back to
the hellish cave. My body was still mangled and in agonizing pain.
Unable to move, I rested my head further against the rocky wall and
closed my eyes, begging my dreams to steal me away. Thankfully, at
least I had that going for me.

I was in the same club from before, but all
the humans were gone. The dance floor looked like a deserted ghost
town. No more pulsing music penetrating my ears, but the silence
was eerie and disturbing. Footsteps approached from behind and I
swung around, finding Luke on the far side of the bar. “Have a
drink with me,” he suggested with a smile.

“Don’t leave me like that again,” I demanded
as I walked toward him, then with a softer tone I added,
“Please.”

He handed over a martini glass filled with a
red liquid. I took it without thinking, bringing it to my lips and
taking a sip. Instantly, I spit it out. “Yuck!”

“You need to drink it, Angel. I meant to
give you some earlier.” He rounded his shoulders. “Better late than
never.”

I frowned, setting down the martini glass.
“I’m not drinking that.”

“It’ll heal you,” was his encouraging reply.
“Be sure to drink every drop in that glass. Since you’re not taking
it directly from me, you’ll need more of it.”

I felt my eyes widen in surprise. “If I
drink your blood in this dream, it’ll heal me in real life?” I
tilted my head and shrugged. “How’d you know I was hurt?”

“We’re connected, Angel. I can sense your
pain. Even though you broke my heart before, I can’t bear to leave
you suffering. So go on now and drink that up. Before it goes
bad.”

Tentatively, I picked up the glass. Then
chugged its contents while holding my breath. Wiping my mouth, I
set it back down. My body tingled from head to toe, and I knew its
healing power had already begun working.

Luke leaned over, folding his arms across
the countertop. “Did you figure out where you are?”

I shook my head. “Not a clue. But there are
the meanest creatures you wouldn’t believe. And all of them want to
eat me.”

“I’m so sorry you’re there.” He straightened
and slammed a fist against the granite, the countertop rattling
with the force of his blow. “I just wish I knew where you
were!”

“Even if we knew, how would you help me? I’m
stuck here. My powers don’t work. And as you know, I can’t even
heal myself.”

“Don’t worry about that,” he said, his voice
reassuringly confident. “If we can figure out where you are, I can
come get you out of there.”