Masquerade (40 page)

“
I’m so sorry,” I
whispered.

She made no response. The injury to
her head looked pretty bad. Aware the car was a ticking bomb, I
moved farther away from the wreckage. She stirred in my
embrace.

“
Sssamm.” Her voice was
slurred.

“
I’m here. You were in an
accident. I’m going to get help.”

“
B-bracelet,” she
whimpered. I could feel her body tense as if she wanted to get
up.

I looked down at her wrist, hoping to
see what she wanted. It wasn’t there. It must have fallen off
during the crash. Damn that stupid clasp.

“
I’ll get you
another.”

“
N-no.” Her body spasmed
and she coughed.

“
Shhh. I’ll get it, and
then we’re getting you to a hospital.”

Cautiously I laid her down on the
ground and went to the car. The bracelet was there, caught between
some wreckage on the ground. I palmed it and ran back to her
side.

Her eyes weren’t open, and she was so
pale and lifeless looking. I felt tears gather in my
eyes.

“
No!” I cried, hoarse.
Gently, so gently, I grabbed her. “Heven. Can you hear me? Open
your
eyes.”

She gave no response as I
slid the bracelet in the pocket of her shorts. “I found your
bracelet, honey. It’s in your pocket.” I thought the news of her
treasure would make her open her eyes. It didn’t.
“Please
, baby. Wake up.”

Just when I was about to break down,
her eyes fluttered and she stared, without really
seeing.

“
Heven, thank God.” I
sucked in a deep breath, trying to ease the pain in my
chest.
Please don’t die.

“
Sam,” she whispered then
began coughed, and blood leaked from between her lips.

I hugged her a little bit tighter, and
I stared at the trail of blood slowly running down her face. I
couldn’t face this. I couldn’t sit here and watch the only thing I
loved die.

“
Hang on, baby. We’re going
to the hospital right now.”

“
Too late,” she
rasped.

“
No.” I grabbed at her
hand. She was ice cold. “You’re going to be okay, we’ll get through
this.”

“
I love you,
Sam.”

Words I’d longed to hear. They pierced
me to my very soul. I had been desperate to hear those words. But
not like this. Never like this. She coughed some more, then
gurgled. Blood filled her mouth, choking her. I turned her head to
the side so that the blood could come out and she could breathe. It
didn’t help.

“
I love you,” I groaned,
clutching her tight. A sob built up in my throat and ripped from my
throat.

Her body jerked and she stared up at
me. I cut off my emotion and focused on her, brushing her hair away
from her face. “Easy, honey. It’s okay.”

Then she was still.

It took me a moment to understand, to
realize that her eyes would never open again.

Heven was dead. She died in my
arms.

Had she even heard me tell her I loved
her?

A tear slid from my eye and trailed
down my face. Heven was dead, and it was my fault. I would never
see her smile again, never hear her laugh.

“
No!” I yelled and shook
her. Her head lolled around unnaturally. A sob escaped me, and I
clutched her harder against my chest. The scent of death filled my
nostrils. It made me sick. I turned my head to the side and
retched.

Just then the car went up in flames. A
deafening explosion at my back. I hunched around her broken body,
trying to protect her from the heat and flying debris.

A loud clap sounded above and the sky
opened up, rain pounding down around us. I let it slap against my
back, each icy drop feeling like a knife.

“
Heven, please,” I moaned,
rocking her back and forth. “Please don’t leave me
here.”

I sat there for long
moments, rocking her, buffering the rain and watching the car burn,
the rain doing nothing to extinguish the flames. I looked back down
at her
–
the
sight of her in my arms caused grief so deep that I knew I would
never be the same again. I wanted to die right along with
her.

The blood on her face was rinsing away
with the heavy rain. Even in death, she was so beautiful, even her
scars glistened beautifully in the downpour.

I did this to
her.

If I had just stayed away from her, if
only I hadn’t let myself fall in love with her that day, China
would never have become obsessed. Maybe she was right after
all…maybe hellhounds weren’t capable of love…maybe my kind of love
was twisted and unclean just like my soul. How could I live the
rest of my days knowing that because of me this beautiful, innocent
girl was dead? How could I wake up in the mornings and not feel her
body against mine, not hear the lazy, peaceful beating of her
heart?

Before I kill China, I
will make her suffer. Even a slow painful death is too good for
her.

The thought snapped my head up, and I
peered through the night to where I left her laying. I would just
go finish her right now. The things I would do to her…

China was gone.

I should have known that she would
drag her beaten, broken body away when she had the chance. I looked
back down at Heven. Her lips were blue. Filled with so much grief
and sorrow I did the one thing that I hadn’t done since I became a
hellhound. The one thing I thought I might never do again. I
prayed. I begged God to listen, not for me but for her. I prayed
that she was at peace.

I prayed that loving me didn’t give
her a one-way ticket to Hell.

Something hot and
heavy hit my back, something from the fiery
wreckage, but I paid it no attention, my concern wasn’t for me but
for her.
I wondered what I was going to
do. Should I take her to the hospital? To her mother? I snorted at
the thought. Her mother would say she got what she deserved because
she was evil. I looked down. Heven wasn’t evil. She was the
opposite. I brushed the blond hair away from her face. She was an
angel, my angel.

“
How will I live without
you?” I whispered. Another tear escaped me; it dripped off my chin
and onto her cheek. I brushed it away with my thumb. I paused.
Something wasn’t right…

There was an intense heat at my back,
almost uncomfortable. I figured that it was from the blazing fire,
but now I realized that I no longer heard the angry flames. It was
quiet, too quiet.

And I
sensed that I was no longer alone.

I clutched Heven tightly against me
and sprung up and around. I wasn’t prepared for what I
saw.

There was a woman, a beautiful woman,
standing in front of the wreckage, which was no longer on fire. She
was dressed in an elaborate white robe, and I swear the very air
around her shimmered. She looked so out of place, here, in this
place of destruction and death.

“
Who are
you?” I asked, instinctively curling around
Heven’s body.

The woman smiled. Peace wrapped around
me. “My name is Airis. I am here for the girl.”

“
You can’t have her!” I all
but snarled, half-turning away.

“
I am here for you,
too.”

“
What do you mean?” I asked
suspicious, turning back.

“
Will you come with me?”
Her voice was as kind as her face. She made no move to come at us,
nor did she try and lure me closer.

“
Who are you?”

“
Someone you can
trust.”

“
Not likely.”

“
I can help her, but you
must come with me.”

“
You can’t help her. She’s
dead.”

“
Is she?”

“
Yes,” I said, hoarse. I
smelled the death on her skin; I’d felt the life leave her
body.

“
It is not her
path.”

“
Why are you doing this?”
My head was swimming. I didn’t understand what she was saying, and
she talked like there was hope. Hope that Heven might live. Why
would she be torturing me this way?

“
Will you come?”

“
She stays with me?” Why
was I considering this? Because if there was even the slightest
chance for Heven to live, I would do whatever it took.

“
Of course.” Airis came
forward and my heart picked up its pace.

“
Stay back.”

“
I won’t hurt
you.”

It wasn’t me that I cared about. Airis
reached out a hand and placed it on my shoulder, causing warmth to
spread throughout my body. The air around the three of us began to
shimmer.

“
What…?”

Before I could say anything else
everything went white.

Airis brought us to a place
– a void – where there was nothing. No color, no life, not even any
noise except
for the sound of two people’s
breathing. I wasn’t scared of this place, but I wasn’t at complete
peace here either. It was a totally neutral world – a place where
you waited. Waited for something else to come along. My eyes
watered as they tried to adjust from the darkness I had just left
to this never ending sea of bright white.

“
Would you give up your
life for hers?” Airis asked, breaking into my thoughts.

“
Yes.”

“
Just like that?” She
seemed surprised that I didn’t need to think about it. I would do
anything for Heven, including dying so she could live.

“
Yes.”

“
All right then.” She
inclined her head and raised her palms above her. Light seemed to
gather in her palms, but I couldn’t be sure because everything here
was so bright. I watched as the light grew brighter and brighter,
then Airis made a motion like she would fling the light right at
me.

“
Wait!”

Airis paused, lowering her hands.
“Have you changed your mind?”

I recoiled from the idea. “No.” I
waited a moment for some of my disgust to dissolve then said, “Can
I have a moment with her?”

Airis inclined her head, “Of
course.”

For the first time since Airis brought
us to this place, I looked down. Even in death she was the most
beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Holding her tightly I looked around
for somewhere to lay her. Almost as if I conjured it, a bed swathed
in very pale gold appeared before me. I went to it, gently laid her
on the satin and kneeled before her. I always knew that I would
leave her eventually; what was between us couldn’t last. The
knowledge didn’t make saying goodbye any easier.

I cupped her cheek, turning her face
to the side to see her clearly. “I love you,” I whispered, brushing
the pad of my thumb across her bottom lip. It was like blue ice. “I
did this to you…but I’m going to make it right.” I leaned in and
kissed her, the last time I would ever do so.

“
Who’s going to protect her
when I am dead?”

“
There is a plan in place
for her safety,” Airis responded.

“
Goodbye,” I whispered
before I took one last look before making myself straighten and
walk away from her. It was the hardest thing I’d ever done. I
looked up at Airis who stood in the same place as before with the
same ball of light in her palms. “I’m ready.”

I didn’t lower my head or shield my
eyes from death. I stood tall and watched the ball of light spiral
toward me. Dying is easy when you do it for someone you love more
than yourself. The light got closer, and I felt its heat. It burned
fiercely when it slammed into my skin, but I didn’t feel the pain
long. That was the one good thing about death: no pain.

Chapter
Twenty-Two

Heven

My eyes jerked open, and I gasped for
air so forcefully I sat up. Where was I? What was happening? I
focused on my surroundings, but couldn’t really settle on anything
to tell me where I was. Everything was very bright and quiet.
“Sam?”

“
You are safe
here.”

I spun around to see who
spoke. It
was a beautiful woman
dressed all in white.

“
Where’s Sam?”

She didn’t answer but her eyes drifted
to something lying on the floor.

“
Sam!” I
surged across the room to where he lay, and I noticed right away
that his bare chest did not rise and fall with breath. My stomach
clenched.
He wasn’t moving, and he
didn’t respond to my cries. I shook him, slapped him, even pulled
his hair but he wouldn’t wake up.

“
Help me!” I cried to the
woman who stood and watched me flail about to help him.

“
You cannot help him, he
has died.”

He wasn’t dead. He couldn’t be. He
wouldn’t leave me. I screamed his name once more, the shrill sound
sure to wake him. It didn’t. “No,” I sobbed and lowered my head to
his chest. I waited and waited for the sound of his heartbeat. It
never came.