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She rubbed the cross necklace around her neck
that was once her grandma’s as she realized she was wearing the
symbol of one of the greatest evil around her wrist. Her heart and
mind were in complete conflict. “It won’t will it?”

“Won’t want?”

“Nothing will happen to me?”

“No,” he answered and shook his head. “No one
is brave enough to hurt the prince’s woman?”

“The prince?”

“I’ve been their prince since the day I was
born. A prophet predicted a great leader that was half human-half
demon. My dad was the most powerful demonic figure there was, so he
found a willing human, and nine months later there was me.” Trucker
hesitated and traced the contour of her ear. “Baby, their story is
not ours. I’m half human. I have human qualities. Our relationship
is not a game but true feelings.” He swiftly but ever so lightly
crushed her to him. “Matter of fact, it throws a wrench into
everything. I was born to take a powerful position in politics. The
perfect mate for me to carry out my mission was even foreseen.”

“Emily,” Julie gasped.

“Yeah, my sweet love, she was born to be my
partner. She’s been raised to be the perfect mate. The best way for
evil to infiltrate the world is for evil to take over their
government and businesses. I’m half human so I understand humans.
My demonic bloodline is from some of the most powerful demons ever.
I’m the perfect person to wreak havoc on the world and for the
world to not know what hit it.”

Trucker released her and walked over to a
huge oak tree. Julie watched intently as he stood there, staring
out over the horizon. He was so still he appeared to be turning
into stone. That is why Julie jumped when in an unnatural speed he
broke off an oversized limb on a nearby tree and impelled it across
the tree line. In a blur, Trucker was at Julie’s side again and had
her secured in his arms. She wrapped her hand around his forearm
and stroked her fingertips along the underside. She could feel his
tendons running along his arms and his muscles that were twitching
uncontrollably.

“Do you care about Emily?” she asked and
squashed her face against his chest.

Trucker’s lips parted as he inhaled sharply.
He released her, his eyes darted around. They grazed across every
object around them, everything but Julie.

“I understand. She gets you,” Julie said with
her heart splitting in two.

“She gets part of me.” He paused and kicked
some loose leaves around. “She has always been in my life, but she
means nothing compared to you.” He shook his head and reached for
her hand. “Nobody but you matters.”

“It’s okay,” Julie said, but it wasn’t okay.
Emily was a malicious, heinous monster and he cared about her.

“Baby, it’s not what you think. No, I don’t
care about her. It’s hard to explain. She saved me, when I turned.”
He narrowed his eyes, his chest beginning to heave with labored
breathing. “I didn’t understand what was happening to me. I was
fourteen years old. I had all these raging hormones, then this evil
came alive in me. She showed me how to deal with it all. But baby.”
He combed his fingers through her hair. “You’ve saved me
completely.”

“Emily, is she friend or foe?”

“Foe, she is one hundred percent demon and
only cares about what is in it for her. Angel, never invite her in
your home, make sure your parents never let her in too.”

“Why?”

“Sin can’t enter a place without first being
invited in.”

She thought back to the first day he came to
her home and his warning about inviting sin in.

“That’s another vampire myth?” she asked.

“It’s another
me
thing,” he said with
a smug smile and a shrug of his left shoulder.

“Sure you’re not a vamp. It might be easier
to swallow then the prince of darkness thing.”

“Angel, there is no such thing as a vampire.
Well, maybe except for the human variety, who bleed you dry for
their own desires,” he stated nonchalantly with a robust laugh.

“I thought there was no such things as you
too,” she said sarcastically, his laughter suddenly bothered
her.

“I promise no vampires, werewolves, or even
ghost. People take some of our traits and put them on their
monsters. It is better to imagine a monster that was once human
with human traits. Better than us, just pure evil, no human
characteristics at all.”

She was taken aback by the causal way he
spoke about it all. “You have human characteristics.” She needed to
see those characteristics and soon.

“Yes, but I’m a rarity. I’m half human.
Angel, my kind have no redeeming qualities don’t trust anyone.”

“Jake is neutral?” She wanted to change the
subject. She sat down on a fallen tree to give her some space from
him. He sat down beside her without touching her.

“Yes, he helps the bad and good, so no humans
can learn of our plans. The world is a balance between good and
evil. It has leaned one way or another at times, but it has always
revolved around not realizing where it comes from. Jake and others
like him are here for the greater good.”

Struck by his tremendous beauty, she blurted
out. “Demons are supposed to be grotesque, not beautiful?”

He laughed again. “That’s the world’s view.
It wants us to be. So you weak humans can avoid us. The truth is
reversed. We’re beautiful, bewitching, appealing like sin. Your
Jake is average looking, right?”

She nodded her head.

“Because he can go both ways, he’s the middle
ground. Angels are ugly, odd, unappealing. Think about bad and
good
,
which one is more fun, more appealing? Which one is
hard, less appealing?”

“You call me angel all the time because I am
unappealing?” She didn’t know why, but it hurt her when he
described that. He moved closer to her.

“No, baby, I call you that because of your
goodness. I can see auras.” His voice cracked as confusion washed
over her face. “Do you know what that is?”

“I’ve heard of it, it’s your mood, what you
radiate from your true self.”

“Exactly, I can see everyone’s auras. I’ve
never in my life seen an aura as pure as yours . . . it’s blinding,
it hurts.”

“You feel that horrible pain every time I
touch you?” Julie cringed thinking about the burn she felt as he’d
ran his fingers down her arm.

“Yeah, my sweet Angel, it feels like a
thousand little bee stings. It hurts so damn bad, it’s hard to
breathe sometimes.”

“Why do you touch me then?”

“I love your touch.”

“Why?”

“Because baby, your touch does things to me I
never dreamed possible. As painful as it is physically, the mental
pain of not having your touch is unbearable.” He leaned in, she
thought he was going to kiss her but he paused. He pushed the hair
off her face, nudged her neck with his nose, and inhaled deeply.
“When you asked me to go to church with you? The pain would’ve been
so severe I would have come unglued.” He linked his fingers with
hers. That simple gesture meant the world to her. The thought that
her touch physically hurt him was unnerving, but even through the
pain he still craved her. She scooted closer to him and placed her
head on his shoulder, and marveled at his skins coolness. After
that day, she assumed it would’ve been scalding.

“I know when you’re hot, your other side is
taking over.”

“You do?” he asked, surprised.

She clasped her hand around his knee, taking
in the natural humanly warmth of his skin. “Thank you for being in
control with me now.”

“It’s easier when I’m not hiding who I am. I
knew it would be easier when you finally knew, but I didn’t know I
would like it so much. I don’t want to keep anything from you ever
again.” His face lit up with the most beautiful smile. His eyes
were glowing, but she could still see the malicious look his eyes
had.

“What do I see in your eyes?” she asked as
she laid her head against is forearm.

“The eye is the lamp of the body. The window
to your soul.” He closed his eyes. Shaking, he pulled her close to
his side. She wanted to yell and tell him, that was not true. It
might be a window to the evil in him, but his soul was bright and
good. She had to believe that because his soul was what she was
fighting for.

“Truck, why can I see the look in your eyes
but no one else seems too?”

“I don’t know
.”
He cupped her jaw and
rubbed the pad of his thumb over her bottom lip. “It’s never
happened before. Only you have ever seen who I truly am.”

“What?” Julie asked and raised one
eyebrow.

“We kind of hypnotize people. They see what
they want to see, all their desires, their hopes. That’s one of the
ways we are most dangerous; we make you believe we are the answers
to all your problems, but in reality, we are the problem,” he
answered. He turned his head so she couldn’t see his eyes. “Only
you,” he said with a shake of his head.

“I like what I see,” she muttered. His eyes
met hers.

“You do, why?” he inquired.

“I see your good side. I watch you with Sea.
I feel how you touch me. No matter how many times my head tells me
to leave, my heart tells me to stay. I know there is more to you
then you believe. I’m willing to accept all of you for that love
you have in your heart.”

Shaking her off, he jumped to his feet. “I
don’t even have a heart. When you lay your head on my chest have
you ever once heard a heartbeat? No. Because it is not there. I was
born with one because of my mom, but it froze over soon after my
first birthday.” He ran both hands through his hair. Placing her
hand on his back, she trailed her fingertips along his spine. She
remembered his mother talking about the rage freezing over his
heart and she was the one to melt it. Then she thought of him with
Sea listening to her heartbeat.

“You listen to Sea’s heartbeat, because as
long as her heart beats she can’t be a monster.”

He nodded his head. “Yes, I had one for about
the first year and a half of life. I listen every time I hold her
and fear I’ll not hear hers one day too.”

“Demons have no heart, so as long as her
heart beats she’s human?” Julie asked.

“Yeah, and I don’t want her to be a monster.”
Trucker sat back down and quickly and forcibly kissed Julie. He
held her face in his hand, and pushed his forehead against hers. “I
don’t want her to suffer like this forever.”

“Are you immortal?” she asked and he released
her.

“Not like you mean. I have a life span. It’s
hard to run for president without a birth certificate.”

“And the ability to turn gray.” She tried to
laugh and lighten the mood.

“Yeah, my kind are born and we live to our
mission is played out. Our awards and punishments come in our
afterlife.”

Julie’s heart pounded in her chest loud and
fast enough for the both of them as she pondered all she had
learned about the world around her. She didn’t ask any more
questions. They just walked in silence, listening to the leaves
crackle under their feet.

I’m tired. Can I go back home now?” she
wondered.

Trucker flipped around, picked her up, and
crushed her against his chest. He raked his teeth along her
jawline, and begged, “Give me tonight. Please, Angel, let me have
tonight.”

Julie’s heart melted. She would’ve gave him
anything, a night was nothing compared to what she was willing to
give him. “I meant your home. I need to be near you more than
ever.”

Without saying a word to each other or
anybody else, they went hand in hand to his bedroom. She was in
that very room earlier, but with her world falling apart she never
truly got to look at it. Trucker tossed her a drink that he had
grabbed out of a small refrigerator built into a wet bar. Julie
could see he was breathing hard. No doubt he was reliving the
moments from earlier that day in his mind. He smiled at her, stood
back, and with the wave of his hand gave her room to explore his
personal space. Julie felt guilty about it. Trucker didn’t open up
to anyone, yet he was giving her free rein to explore. The room was
nicer than most studio apartments. There was a small home theater
off the main bedroom space. The plasma TV was possibly the largest
one Julie had ever seen: sitting in front of it was a row of
recliners. Around the TV, old movie posters hung, on the remaining
three walls were selves after selves of DVDs. He had everything
from Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights to every Stephen King movie
made. Looking over the shelves, his organizational skills were
evident. Each and every movie was placed in alphabetical order.

Julie glanced back at Trucker; he had already
stripped out of the shirt his wings had split earlier. She wanted
to take in the sight of his perfectly sculptured chest but it was
the peculiar expression on his face that grabbed her attention.

“Why do you hang out at my house so much when
you have a bedroom like this?” Julie asked, but had a million other
questions she wanted to ask.

“Because that’s where my angel is. This is
just stuff.” He reached for her. His arms formed a cage around her
as he lunged toward the bed that was stationed across the room,
knocking it into the wall as they landed on it. She gasped at the
smooth almost motionless leap. Trucker chuckled at her wide-eye
expression. He readjusted her so that she was laying firmly next to
his body. “Look around, I told you my favorite color was green,” he
murmured against her skin and traced around her green eyes with his
thumb.

His walls were covered in green and gray
plaid wallpaper. The massive leather sofa seating opposite the bed
was an odd but unique shade of green. The marble on the wet bar was
the same particular shade of green. The bed however stood out. It
had a gray comforter that perfectly matched his wallpaper. It
reminded her of a massive fluffy storm cloud. His life was so full
of storms that Julie saw it as poetic that his bed, the one place
for him to find peace and comfort, was a storm cloud.