Celestra Forever After (44 page)

“We’d better be careful.” I’m keeping the boys in check. There’s no way I’d even chance it.

Skyla drills her tongue into my mouth as if this, right here, is our very last kiss—and judging by the trajectory my life has taken, it just might be. Her skin rakes over mine, hot as coals, her hips already writhing beneath me.

My hands run wild over her body. Skyla has curves for miles. Her long, lean legs wrap around my back, and that moist, heated part of her rubs up against my dick.

“
Shit
,” I mutter, tightening my grip on her with an urgency that scares me on a primal level. Skyla lets out a groan and pulls my mouth harder over hers as our bodies mold together like wax. This is it—our last night living in this delusion—living in the bliss of who we thought we were. My insides shake to have her. A cold sweat breaks out all over me at once. Gage Oliver has left the building. He’s watching from the ceiling as this desperate monster I’ve become devours her. I hold her face to mine, greedy, uncaring of any horrific outcome that our actions might bring because all I want is one more night to be with—be
in
—the girl I love.

There’s not enough self-control on the planet.

Skyla reaches down and guides me in.

“Just for a second,” she pants in my ear.

My body presses into hers, slowly. Skyla gives my dick a squeeze from the inside, strong as love and death. A groan rips from me loud enough to peel the paint off the walls.

“
Gage
,” Skyla shouts, digging her nails into my back, pushing me further inside her.

I give a few good thrusts as an entire heated inferno envelops us. Flames from the fire of our lust rise ever higher, and the only two beings in all creation that exist right now are Skyla and me.

“Gage. Gage
. Gage!
” She shouts so loud, her voice reverberates off my skin.

I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to it setting something off deep inside me. This is the moment I was made for—loving Skyla exactly in this manner is what I was created for—outside of this, there are no other truths. It’s Skyla and me forever. We were meant to be. I can feel it right down to the marrow in my bones.

I give one thrust after another as my heart hammers over her chest. I can’t control it. There’s no turning back. I let out a roar that carries for miles as the world around us claps into darkness.

Logan

Rain falls like oil, slicking the streets with its greased rivers. The truck skids sideways, three times, on the way to the Gas Lab while the evergreens lash back and forth as if nature itself were protesting some great malfeasance.

“Dude, there aren’t any girls here,” Liam bitches as we get out and duck inside.

“There’s a girl.” I nod over to Ezrina as we take off our jackets.

“Not for me. And I don’t know about you, but the last thing I want to do is shove a hose full of air up my nose.”

“Then have some coffee.”

“I’ll do better than that.” He pulls out his phone and starts texting. The one thing Liam isn’t complaining about is modern conveniences.

The Gas Lab holds the scent of fresh brewed coffee and hot glazed donuts. For the first time in a long time I’m actually looking forward to grabbing a bite in this place.

I head over and take a seat at the bar where Nev and Ezrina are hunched over a laptop.

“What’s going on?” I ask, noting an array of knives and cleavers laid out around her. I’m betting all those sharpened blades make her feel at home.

“Working for him.” Ezrina continues pecking at the keyboard without looking up.

“Working for who?” I look to Nev for help. If Ezrina ever hopes to integrate into society, she’s going to have to start by using whole sentences.

“Wesley.” Nevermore’s jaw tightens. I’ve seen his predecessor, Pierce Kragger, offer me that exact grimace on more than one occasion.

“Catering a party for the Counts?” Nothing would surprise me. “Make sure you lace the oxygen with nerve gas.”

Ezrina growls. “Genetics tracing compounds.”

“Tracing compounds?” I pull her back by the elbow. “What the hell does Wes have you doing?”

“Please”—Nevermore kindly removes my hand—“refrain from touching my ladylove.” His eyes squint with the warning. “Ezrina has been commissioned to find a way to hide the genetic markers that identify the Nephilim people. The five factions share one extraordinary key. It’s unnoticeable to humans because quite frankly they have no idea what to look for.”

“So we’re marked.” I nod into the idea. “And he wants the ability to remove this indelible stain from our bloodlines.” Wes is up to something, and, if I were a betting man, I’d say the government was a part of his grand plan. “Barron knows what the markers look like. Dr. Flanders knows. A hell of a lot of people know what the markers are. Ask them.”

“I know what they look like. I was the first to discover them.” Ezrina sighs into the screen, and I peer over to see a magnified image of blood cells. “The identifying markers Dr. Oliver and Dr. Flanders can find are linked to an alphabetical orientation that reads like a genetic code. Although, it is the proper ID of a Nephilim, it can easily be mistranslated as malformed nucleic acid.”

I sit stunned by the sheer volume of words Ezrina just unleashed in one sitting. That was quite the alphabetic assault.

“In English,” I say. “What the hell are you doing for Wes and why?”

Ezrina looks up. Her eyes lit like a blaze. “What the
hell
am I doing?” She gravels it out like a threat. “
I
am helping my people live to see another day.”

Nev leans in. “Master Wesley approached Rina and asked if there were any way to hide the genetic codes, should the information fall into the wrong hands.”

“That makes no sense. You just said they wouldn’t know what to look for—that it was nucleic acid. Essentially the codes are already hidden.”

Nev glances around before leaning in further. “He knows Ezrina’s link to Celestra—to Skyla. He’s simply testing her abilities. We think he may have already found a way to mask the genetic code and plans on using this to his advantage.”

“His advantage?”

A girl cackles in the corner, and I turn to find a vamped up Michelle Miller wrapping her arms around my brother. Emily and Lexy are with her, and Lex offers a spastic wave in my direction. I give a brief nod before turning back to Ezrina and Nev.

“I don’t get it.”

“Heathcliff.” Ezrina closes the laptop and looks to Nev impatiently—but I have a feeling her impatience lies with me.

Nev takes over. “Wesley has vowed to protect all Counts who side with him in the Steel Barricade. They have until the end of the week to make this grave decision. Those who choose not to stand with him will be cast aside along with the enemy.”

“He’ll never rule the factions.” The Justice Alliance won’t allow it. “It’s a pipe dream.”

“Something tells me he’s not interested in ruling the factions.” Nev wraps an arm around Ezrina’s shoulders, and the two of them stare at me with their long, morbid faces. “He’s more interested in dismantling them.”

“Dismantling?” Crap. “Of course. If there are no factions, he and his band of cowards rule the roost.”

“Exactly.” Ezrina’s eyes narrow in on mine. “Now tell me, Logan, what do you think Wesley wants with a hidden genetic code?” Her lips tighten because she already knows.

I close my eyes. “To protect those within the Steel Barricade.” A thought comes to me. “Nev said you think he’s already done this. I don’t get it. If that’s true, why have you on a mission to try and hide the code?”

Ezrina bleeds a necrotic smile, and for a moment I see Chloe’s wickedness lurking in the background.

“Oh, young Oliver.” A dark laugh gurgles from her. “If I cannot find a way to hide the Nephilim markers then Wesley has nothing to fear. I am the best. Wesley knows this.”

“If you’re the best and you can’t come close to hiding jack shit, then what the hell do we have to fear?”

Ezrina turns toward the large front window as rain presses against the glass soft as tears. “There is one just as knowledgeable as me. He shares Wesley’s thirst to destroy Celestra. Heaven help us if he’s able to cloak the Counts.”

“Who is this person?”

“You’ve met him.” Nev bears into me. “He was your spirit guide in the tunnels.”

“Ingram? That piece of glowing shit?”

Ezrina picks up the cleaver next to her and hoists it back before launching it at the oversized picture window at the front of the store.

The Gas Lab reverberates with the sound of shattering glass. The window has spider-webbed into a thousand miniature pebbles with the hatchet still embedded in the center, the handle flexed up toward the ceiling.

Ethan walks in, and his jaw unhinges. “Effen’ cool! Keep up the good work, Rina.” He gives a thumbs up before heading to the back where Liam sits with the girls.

I turn to Ezrina, her face as pale as stone, her eyes ablaze with fury. It’s clear that her long departed other half is capable of eclipsing her scientific abilities, and the mere mention of the fact infuriates her. I’ll have to use this to Celestra’s advantage.

I slip a set of keys across the counter. They belong to the house I built for Skyla. The one I wish she would live in so that in some small way I can feel like I’m doing something to keep her safe and warm even if I’m not the one sleeping next to her at night.

“I’ve got a state of the art lab that says you can find a way to hide that genetic code before that information ever gets into the Counts’ hands.” A smile curves on my lips, but I won’t give it. “You’re not going to let Ingram destroy Celestra once and for all, are you?”

Her nostrils flare. Her eyes widen with a revenged based fury that can only propel her to do great things for our kind.

“Ingram is taunting you,” I whisper. “He thinks he finally has an edge over you.” I lean in. “Prove him wrong.”

Ezrina slaps her hand over the keys and strangles them.

Ingram and Wesley will never know what hit them.

And if Ezrina doesn’t find that code before they do, the rest of the factions won’t know what hit them either.

14

Wild Abandon

Skyla

The universe warps and pulls until I’m spit out onto the rolling green lawn of the ethereal plane—a blade of grass spiking up my nostril. I sit up and sneeze three times in a row.

“I’d bless you but I’m afraid I’m too angry to mean it.” My mother’s voice barrels over me like the heat from a nuclear wind. “
Rise
.”

I jump to my feet and glance around, still slightly disoriented as to how I got here. To my surprise I’m robed in a bath of light, and thankfully so since I’m not too keen on showing off my bare assets to anyone other than Gage.

The three goofs that flank my mother sit on their invisible thrones above the lake, glowering at me. Candace Messenger, the woman who I will probably never refer to as
mommy
, speeds over with her hair blown back, her sharp features etched into a hard look of rage.

“What were you thinking?” she hisses, and for the first time my mother looks a whole lot more like an angry teenager than a wise woman of the Decision Council. “Are you prepared to be a parent? Do you realize I have very little jurisdiction to have pulled you from the situation? I could be tried for treason.” Her words slit harsh and jagged like a rusted blade.

I lean in with a rage of my own brewing in my heart. “Do you realize I’ve been waiting to speak with you?”

She inches back and gives a quick blink.

“You’ve been avoiding me, haven’t you?” I dig a finger into her chest.

“Skyla.” She takes up my hand, but I yank it right back. “I realize there are things we need to discuss.”

“Like why the hell does Chloe Bishop get to globe trot when I thought we had locked her in the armpit of the universe? And what the hell does that dragon have to do with Gage?”

She swallows hard. The veins in her neck quiver like snakes.

“Skyla, has Chloe been a burden to you?”

“Oh my, God.” I suck in a never-ending breath. “Do you even realize what it is you’re saying?”

“Yes, I realize you have a history—”

“
Lizbeth
and I have a history. Chloe and I have a deep-seated hatred for one another that only death by fire or permanent banishment can cure. What’s the matter with you? Are you in your right mind?”

“The future is fluid to an extent. People—decisions can change things. Do you remember me telling you this?”

“Skyla?” A familiar voice calls from behind, and I turn to find my worst nightmare coming true—Chloe Bishop herself. “Have you come for a visit?”

“What the hell is she doing here?” My mouth falls open because for one, it feels as though I’ve just been hit with a ton of bricks made entirely of shit.

“What
are
you doing here?” Mom looks panicked, and, holy crap, if my mother can’t control Chloe Bishop we’re all in trouble.

Chloe latches onto my arm like a desperate leech about to have her belly sliced open. Now that’s one happy ending I can wrap my head around. “Skyla, you have to listen. Trust me—you don’t want to banish me. I promise, I will tell you everything.” She darts her wicked gaze to my mother for a second. “She’ll never tell you what she’s done, Skyla—she won’t fess up.”