Starbright (The Starbright Series) (40 page)

             
“Do you know these guys Seth?” I asked with feigned confidence as I searched their faces again wondering if I should know them
too
.

             
“Sure, Stel,” Seth replied with a
surprising
tone of malicious disgust. “You remember when I told you about Aliah, don’t you?”

             
My gaze snapped back to the first Fallen that I could now identify as Aliah, the
A
ngel that had betrayed and murdered Seth’s parents.

Chapter Sixteen

             
Aliah. The name echoed back and forth in my head and turned my blood to ice in my veins. It was more than the tragedy of Seth’s parents, more than the pure wicked evil that seeped from every pore as he stood casually across the room from
us;
it was that his
D
arkness seduced me.

             
I wanted to ignore the fact that some part of me, some secret, hidden, horrible part of me was drawn to him. Something made me want to take steps toward him, to investigate exactly what was so enticing about him. But I swallowed the desire, the haunting craving of the dark
est
places that resided in my own soul.

             
My father had told me every one of us were somehow drawn to the Darkness. Humans and
A
ngels alike struggled to ignore a calling we didn’t understand and that would destroy us before we ever could.

             
That is all that Aliah represented: a once strong and good
W
arrior who had allowed his weakness and hunger to destroy everything that was pure in him. He was weaker than me because he had given in,
he
had surrendered.

             
I tilted my chin proudly and felt the slow crawl of heat flood my skin as the best part of me began to show.
I could
ignore
the shameful thirst for the Darkness. And I could face Aliah. Both were predators and enemies. I would have to fight both of them.

             
I was born to fight both of them.

             
“Shall we?” Aliah asked and gestured towards the door. Neither one of us moved for a while, not wanting to give up the ground of who walked out first.

             
“After you,” Seth smirked with a tilt of his head.

             
Aliah smiled patiently as if he were dealing with a small child and then eventually made the move for the door. Saul grunted behind him, but followed his lead. They walked out to the parking lot while Seth offered me his hand and we walked out together.

             
Aliah led us around to the side of the building that wasn’t exactly isolated, but it was shadowed in darkness, the tops of the buildings caging us in
,
blocking out the light from the night sky and the bright lights from the parking lot.

             
We faced each other off, silent at first but I knew Aliah was waiting for something. Saul stood next to him, not any less evil, but somehow less intimidating. He gave off the vibe of a minion without much individual ambition. Not that I should have regarded him as less scary, I was sure he was capable of just as much damage as Aliah…. but Ok, anything standing in comparison to Aliah was going to be less scary.

             
He was simple, pure evil.

             
“How good to see you Seth,” Aliah purred, his voice smooth and melodic as it sailed over his words.

             
“Don’t,” Seth growled.

             
“But it’s been so long,” Aliah antagonized, not losing the hypnotic tone to his voice. Saul grunted something that could be considered a laugh beside him. “The last time I saw you, you were just a wee little thing. But now look at you, full grown man with a chip on his shoulder. You are fairly intimidating, all brute strength and goodness and light.” Aliah snarled, his upper lip curling back over his teeth in an expression of hatred and mockery.

             
“Don’t forget the revenge he’s been storing up, waiting to unleash,” Saul threw in, barking his laughter.

             
I took Seth’s lead as he stood silent and listening, although I could feel the storm brewing beneath his skin
, his anger and restraint pushed to its
very limits as he waited for the right time. I swallowed roughly, taking strength from Seth but acknowledging that my own control was slipping. I
needed to fight, needed it more than air at this point. My battle instincts had flared to life and I was desperate to banish this evil that hovered much too close to everything I loved.

             
Besides that, this was a bit of an anomaly, standing in an alley, having a conversation with Fallen. Fallen rarely sought out Angels, usually they were simply hunted and remained in the unseen places to protect themselves. Aliah seeking us out said a lot about his confidence in himself and amusement in our abilities. Which made me want to prove
him
all the more
wrong
….

             
“Why are you here?” I sighed as if annoyed by the whole evening.

             
Aliah
’s eyes flicked to mine and then
narrowed into cruel slits of concentrated hatred. I forced myself to remain surefooted without taking a step back, although under the heat of his gaze all my body wanted to do was flinch away.

             
“Oh right, how forgetful of me,” Aliah murmured, his gaze softening. It wasn’t as though he looked at me with less hatred or malice, it was more like there was a purpose behind his words now that somehow altered the unfiltered line of loathing he had been pouring into me. “I got so caught up in reminiscing that I neglected to introduce myself.”

             
Sometimes when an Angel was old, like really old and had spent a significant amount of time in
H
eaven they would have an accent. It wasn’t a strong sound and didn’t affect words obviously, but the gentle strain to each syllable reminded the listener that English, or any Earthly language was not thei
r first. Aliah had the accent, w
hich made his betrayal, his conversion to the dark
side much more tragic.

             
“I know who you are,” I said evenly, although his name and intimate knowledge of one of his assumingly long list of misdeeds hardly counted as anything.

             
“But I don’t know who you are,” he spat, his features energized with the accusation.

             
I laughed in response.
“Of course you do,” I sneered. “Isn’t that why you’
re here?
”
             

             
“For you?” his eyes followed every line and feature of my body from the top of my hairline to the tips of my toes and back up again, slowly, intimately.
I willed myself not to shift under his hungry eyes, but I felt naked in his gaze, completely exposed and it was possibly the most uncomfortable I had ever felt in my entire life.
I cleared my throat in a gesture to regain his attention but he was not someone easily affected by others. “Not today, Stella Day. I’m here for you,” his eyes fell to Seth and I had the instinctive urge to step in front of him,
to shield him with my body and
protect him from whatever Aliah was going to say.

             
“That’s a good thing, Aliah, I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time,” Seth clipped his words carefully, making sure to enunciate everything.

             
“So you’re ready to come with me now?” Aliah asked, knowing full well that was not what Seth was implying. “It was unfair of me to ask you when you were so little, when you had so little experience. But now…. now you are a big strong man with the ability to make his own
decisions
. I’m giving you another opportunity. Give in
to the whispers that have threaded themselves around your heart, give in to those desires that keep you up at night….
c
ome with me. Join me.”

             
Aliah’s voice was like velvet, floating over every word, seducing the listener with his fluidity and promise. I waited for Seth to snap at him, to shout at him or attack him, but instead Seth shifted uncomfortably next to me, before simply shaking his head. It wasn’t the crushing verbal response I was hoping for, but the gesture seemed to provoke the same kind of concrete absolutism.

             
“You want to, Seth, why not just give in?” Aliah asked, prodding Seth’s patience. “If not for yourself then, how about Seven? She misses you, you know. She often asks about her little brother and wonders if he’s alright. Don’t you hate to disappoint your sister?”

My mouth fell open at the mention of Seven.

Why I expected Aliah to play fair was beyond me
, but still, bringing up the beloved sister that

had betrayed your parents and left you to fend for yourself was a little harsh…

             
“Don’t say her name, don’t
ever
say her name,” Seth growled, his words low and so menacing I had to look at him to make sure it was still him speaking.

             
“
Why? I
s it too soon? The wound still fresh?” Aliah asked, humor returning to his voice.

             
“Enough of this,” Seth warned. He stood per
fectly still, no muscle moving
, not even a tick in his jaw. His skin glowed brilliantly in the dark alley, but instead of comforting me this time, it almost frightened me with the intensity of his inner light.

             
Unlike Angels that still held goodness inside of them, Fallen shone with a different light, their inner goodness having been corrupted. Both Aliah and Saul emanated a dark light that was lighter than the night sky, but had to still be described as darkness. A grayish hue encompassed both of their figures, as if their evil essence seeped out from their skin and infected the innocent air around them.

             
“Tired of reminiscing already? We just started our walk down memory lane, let’s not give up yet. It might be healthy for you to work through your…. issues. Possibly come to terms with the nightmares? The dark, haunting thoughts….? Maybe even embrace them?” Aliah’s voice had turned sickly sweet and my stomach churned violently against his meaning. Was Seth really struggling against the Darkness?

             
“Holy hell, you are such a conniving bastard!” The words and accusation slipped out before I could stop myself. Although I meant every word I said, it was definitely not Star-protocol to engage the enemy, especially when I was just calling them names. 
             

To my surprise Seth let out a bark of laughter that rang scornfully in the air.

“Well aren’t you something special?” Al
iah’s expression had turned to something like surprise mixed with respect, which scared me more than any of his threats combined.

“I’m tired of this conversation,” I scowled, drawing a short and thin but
unquestionably
deadly sword from
the sheath strapped to my
thigh. Skirts had definitely become part of my every day wardrobe now that I needed to carry weapons around. While maybe impractical for the actual battle portion of the evening, they still made access to weapons super easy.

“Now, now let’s be reasonable,” Aliah patronized us patiently after Seth had quickly drawn his own sword from his
back strap, hidden beneath his worn leather jacket
. “We’re not here to fight, not yet anyway. We just want to talk to you. Besides you might want to wait until your cavalry arrives before you start pulling out the big guns, you kids aren’t quite up to speed to fight at this level just yet.”

“We’ll be the judge of that,” Seth replied, and I could tell he was just as amused as Aliah was. I shook my head slowly at the two mortal enemies practically laughing their way through this confrontation.

Aliah’s white teeth glinted from across the alley and I watched his lips curl into a taunting snarl. “You’re not going to get your revenge tonight Seth, but it’s been so fun catching up. Let’s do it again soon.”

Saul barked a laugh next to him, and I began to wonder if the evil had made them deranged. This was the craziest, least productive conversation I’d ever had.

Before I could even contemplate the night
too closely though, the sky above our heads was lit up with an incredible light that uncovered every space in the narrow alley. Saul shielded his eyes against the blinding brightness, but Aliah stared straight on, unblinking and unflinching.

Seth
and I never took our eyes off
the two Fallen however, our training wouldn’t let us. I felt them as they landed around us,
Serena
and Nate, Jupiter, my parents. They had joined us, gotten here as fast as they could to fight this battle with us. I felt more than saw their surprise that we weren’t engaged in fighting yet, although I also knew they would be relieved. Fallen were difficult enemies to begin with, put it to test with our inexperience and young age, and the likelihood of victory had looked bleak.