Authors: Nia Shay
"I need you."
And so I found myself in an interesting predicament, with one of the rarest, most powerful beings on the planet bowed in supplication before me. What's a girl to do? I drew back my foot and kicked him in the stomach.
"Jade! What the hell?" Sara hopped from foot to foot beside me as I readied for another kick. I realized she'd shouted to be heard--over me. Apparently I was yelling.
"You vile son of a whore!" He absorbed my second strike just as he had the first, with a grunt and a small sway backward. "You have some fucking nerve!" Kick. "I thought I told you..." Kick. "I never wanted..." Kick. "...To see you again!"
By now his mouth had begun to open. Finally tired of the beating, he was preparing to defend himself. I rocked back on my heels and aimed the next kick at his head.
But the blow never landed. A slim forearm slammed around my neck and hauled me backward before I could move. "Let go of me, Cara!" I shrieked, outraged.
"Sorry, boss. You can't just kill someone in the middle of the mall. It's bad for business."
"Like hell I can't!" But the words tasted bitter on my lips. If only she knew how right she was. I glared down at him as he met my eyes again. Then he doubled over, his hands braced on the carpet in front of him. His hair swung forward like a curtain, hiding his face from sight. For some reason that pissed me off even more. I growled like a rabid dog as Cara dragged me behind the counter.
"Your ex, huh?" she murmured sympathetically as she released me.
"Yeah. You could say that."
"You sure did a number on him." She giggled. "That totally ruled."
I blinked, shocked by the fiendish glee on her pretty face. "You are such a psycho."
"Says you, karate kid!"
Before I could top her comeback, our uninvited guest groaned in pain. Sara leaned over him, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, are you all right?"
"Get away from him, stupid!" I barked. "And for hell's sake, don't touch him!"
"He's hurt,
stupid
." She leveled me with an insolent glare, telling me she'd drawn the same conclusion Cara had. And, predictably fascinated by his looks, she'd taken my warning as misplaced jealousy. "Why shouldn't I help him?"
I bit my lip, ingrained teachings whispering through my head--
Never reveal our secrets....
But fury won out. "Because he's a dark angel, you nit. So if you value your soul and sanity, you'd better take two giant steps that-a-way."
"A dark angel?" the twins repeated in simultaneous awe.
I scowled at Sara. "Move!"
She reacted to my tone at last, scuttling behind a clothing rack. I strode out from behind the counter, shrugging off Cara's hand as she tried again to restrain me. I stood directly before the fallen man, knowing he would sense my closeness. "Get up, Zeph. Get the hell out of here."
"I can't." He spoke to the toes of my boots, his voice raw with pain. "I can't leave without you, Jandra. I'm...sorry."
I snorted. "You mean your Siphon's sorry."
"Jandra?" Sara repeated, giggling. "Your real name is
Jandra?"
"Shut up," I replied absently, "and turn that music off." Another slow song had begun, the singer's voice low and sensual. Not what I needed in Zeph's presence. Especially since he'd straightened up to look at me again.
"I don't siphon, and you know it," he said, his tone as flat as his eyes.
"How should I know how low you've sunk, you wretched bastard? Unless you've been given another Warden, you must have...."
"That's it!" Cara's triumphant cry startled me. I whirled to find her wide-eyed, studying me as if I were a bug in a jar. "You're an angel warden," she concluded.
"Was,
not am." I frowned. "And what do you mean, 'that's it'?"
Cara shrugged. "Well, we always knew there was something weird about you."
"We just figured you were on something, man." Sara cackled.
I folded my arms over my chest. "Oh, please. Just because I take my job seriously does
not
mean I'm on something."
"This explains a lot, actually." Cara wound her way out from behind the counter and extended a hand. "Hi, nice to meet you. I'm Cara."
I looked daggers at him, but Zeph nodded to her, though he tactfully ignored her proffered hand. "And I am...."
"No one. Nothing. I told you not to talk to them."
"No." His gaze swung my way. "You told them not to talk to me."
"And they shouldn't be! What the hell were you thinking, coming after me in the middle of a busy shopping mall?" All right, so maybe the "busy" part wasn't true, but still. I pointed at Sara, who giggled and sang under her breath to the music she'd never turned off. "See? You're already affecting her."
Cara shook her head at her twin. "No, she's just that weird sometimes."
"Get up, Zeph," I repeated. "You need to leave."
He didn't. Instead, he turned that haunted expression on me again. "I won't make it out of here unless you take me, Jandra."
"What? How
dare
you threaten me? After what you did...."
"Um, boss?" Cara arched a dark brow at me. "He didn't threaten you. He asked you for help."
I stopped myself before I could scream at her. She didn't understand--how could she? "No, sweetie. What he's saying is, unless I let him mind-rape me, he's going to eat the soul of the first person he passes on his way through the food court."
Her eyes went wide. "Oh."
"Yeah, oh."
"Hey, eat Kevin, eat Kevin!" Sara shrieked, bouncing up and down like a giddy monkey. "The blond cashier at Wiener Works!"
Zeph frowned at her antics. "You're right. We do need to leave."
"Not we.
You
. Get out of here and never come back."
"No! Don't go away!"
Startled, I sprang forward just in time to catch Cara, who'd flung herself at him in a sudden frenzy. The situation was going downhill in a hurry. I pinned the struggling girl in a headlock, gesturing to Zeph with my elbow. "Go in the back room.
Now
."
Thankfully, he didn't argue. He leapt up with an agility that belied his battered midsection, and vanished into the office before I could blink. "No!" Cara wailed, lunging against my restraining arm. "Bring him back! Make him come back..."
I drew in a deep breath and prayed for patience. "I will, sweetie, but you have to calm down first. All right?" I glanced over my shoulder. "Sara? You okay?"
"Nooooo," she moaned, bursting into tears. Cara followed suit, slumping against me and bawling.
Perfect. Just fucking perfect.
*****
It took a full ten minutes to deposit both girls somewhat safely behind the counter with promises that the pretty man would come back soon. Still, they clung to each other and sniffled, mascara running down their faces in dark rivulets. Not quite a full thermonuclear meltdown, but way too damn close.
Though the mall wouldn't close for another half hour, I took a moment before leaving them to pull the grate across the entrance and lock it. It was all too evident something funny was going on in here, and the chance of a few late shoppers just wouldn't be worth the hassle of questions. Sighing, I gathered my resolve and made my way back to the office, belatedly noticing the music still played on. Hell.
Zeph had left the door open, the idiot, and had perched on the edge of my desk. His long legs easily reached the floor, crossed at the ankles in a parody of nonchalance, but I could feel his agitation like static electricity on my skin. His mouth drew tight as he regarded me. "Dark angel. I hate that term."
"Well, it got the point across. I doubt the word 'nephilim' is on the SATs."
"I don't much care for that one, either."
I threw up my hands in frustration. "So, what? You're not mad at me for outing you, just that I didn't do it right?"
"I'm hardly in a position to judge anyone's adherence to the rules, am I?" His voice held an edge of bitterness as he pushed off the desk and rose to his full height with fluid grace.
"Well, at least you realize that now." In spite of myself, I fell back a step as he loomed over me. "You must not be indulging in much arrogance these days."
His brows lowered in a scowl. "I repeat, I haven't siphoned anything from anyone."
"Oh, no? Then why so animated? Whose emotions are those, Zeph?"
"I don't know." His dark eyes flashed bright for an instant, revealing their true color--not black or brown, but a deep, deep amethyst. "It would seem they're my own, but I don't understand how or why. That's what I need you to tell me."
"What?" I turned away from him, slamming my fists against my thighs. "How can you even ask me that?"
"Because no one has ever known me the way you do--Jade, is it now?" His hand landed on my shoulder, making me flinch. "You're the only one who can help me."
I sniffled, horrified by the prickle of tears in my eyes. "Sell it to someone else."
"I can't. I need
you."
He stepped close enough I felt his warmth against my back--and damn it all, I stood there and let him do it. "I realize I handled things badly between us," he murmured, his voice deep and resonant, compelling. "But don't you care about me anymore?"
"Stop it!" I spoke through clenched teeth. "If you force me into anything, I'll hate you even more than I already do."
He sighed heavily. "You were right, you know. I
was
assigned another Warden, not long after you left me."
"And?" I prompted into the long silence that followed.
His grip tightened on my shoulder. "And I nearly killed her within a month."
"You
what
?" I whipped my head around to goggle at him.
"I've been alone ever since," he went on, as if he hadn't even heard me. "I think I have, anyway. I can't remember much of what I've been doing lately. Until one day last week, after I woke from a nightmare."
"You were dreaming?" I looked askance at him, intrigued in spite of myself. "About what?"
"I can't recall." He drew a harsh breath, stirring the hair beside my ear with his exhalation. "Something awful."
A spasm twisted my chest at the note of despair in his voice. Damn it, he was getting to me, too, and he wasn't even trying hard. I pulled away and rounded on him, struggling for anger to clear my head. "Zeph...."
"Help me, Jandra." He caught up my hands in his and held them tightly. "Do you want me on my knees again? Do you want to hurt me some more? I don't care. Just please, promise you'll take me."
"Oh, I'm going to," I growled, "but only because innocent lives are in danger, thanks to you and your selfishness. And I'll only take enough to get you out of here safely. Once you hit the parking lot, you're on your own."
"And then what? Where else can I turn?"
"I know it's been said before, but frankly my dear, I don't give a damn."
"You can't mean that."
I made a futile attempt to yank my hands free. "Get it through your skull. You're not my problem anymore."
"You don't think so?" He cocked his head to one side, eyes narrowed. "Because of you, I knew my own mind for the first time I can recall. You gave me the only peace I've ever known, and then you took it away."
"Because you thanked me by taking away
my
choices! Or did you conveniently forget that part?"
"No. I haven't forgotten a thing about us." He sighed, his gaze dropped to our joined hands. "Sometimes those days are all I can remember."
"Oh, stop your whining. Let's get this over with." I wrenched my right hand free of his grip and slapped my palm flat against the center of his chest.
Anger and bravado made me hasty as I opened a channel between us. There's no way to describe the trick. I just switched my mindset from "pissed" to "receptive"--or maybe "pissed but receptive." Then that dizzying array of feelings I'd seen on his face earlier came spilling into me, like a thread unraveling from a tapestry.
The first rush hit me like a physical blow, blazing down the synaptic pathways that had once connected us. Our neglected psychic channel burst open again, like an old wound tearing through scar tissue to bleed fresh. With the pain came the deafening roar of every human mind for miles around us. Shuddering, I bit back a scream.
A blur of flashbulb images exploded before my mind's eye--Zeph's memories, broken and garbled as they were. I glimpsed an ancient building, a volcano in eruption, a monarch butterfly. A view of the sun that would've been painful to perceive firsthand. Myself, curled up asleep in an armchair. I shied away from that image, fearful of my place in his memories.
Somehow, in exerting that bit of control, I managed to stem the tide of his visions, and my physical eyes began to function again. I found myself staring up at him--I'd fallen forward against his chest.
"Why did you do that?" he whispered. Surprise still colored his features, suggesting my brain had been exploding for only a few seconds.
I shrugged, though I regretted it when I felt my shoulders quake with like an old woman's. "Did I hurt you?" I asked.
"No."
"Then shut up. And relax."
He obeyed, drawing me closer against his body than I cared for, but I didn't waste time arguing about it. His big hands bracketed my hips, anchoring me. Once I felt secure, I closed my eyes and sorted through the pool of our shared consciousness. Beyond perception, past thought and emotion, to the source behind it all--the elusive substance that is the life in a body, what some call the soul. I sensed immediately at least part of what ailed him. He felt like an overcharged battery, hot and electric and deadly.
"Damn. You're a mess."
"I'm aware of that," came his sullen response.
I couldn't quite squelch a whisper of pity. "It's all right, Zeph. I'm ready if you are."
His grip on me tightened. "Do it."
Again, I can't describe what I did to draw that wild energy from him. Natural aptitude fostered by years of training as a Warden made the act second nature to me. I allowed the power to flow between us and it came in a torrent, racing through my body like liquid fire. This time I couldn't hold back a cry. His voice mingled with mine, and I knew his beautiful face would be pinched and pale with the pain.