Dark Calling (47 page)

Keely shivers.  “I understand.  I’m sorry.”  She is such a coward.  “May I go now please?”

He touches icy cold fingers to her chin.  Lifts her head so he can look into her eyes.  “
Inform Asmoday
he is
to return home.  I do not want to do anything rash.”

Keely sits up soaked in sweat.  Nick stirs beside her.  Reaches out to touch her shoulder and she jumps.

“What’s wrong?”

She shivers again
.  “I have to be free of him
.”

He sits up.  Turns on the light.  “Who?”

“My father.  I hate him so much.”

Nick pulls her against his chest and rubs her arm
.  “Dream visiting?”

She nods.

“What happened now?”

“He betrothed me to Asmoday.  He wants me to marry my brother.  And I think he can force me to do it
,
too.  That thing I feel with him.  How I can feel his emotions, this is why. 
He said that when it’s complete
we’ll be like one person.  I don’t want that, Nick.  I am so sick of not controlling my life.  I’m sick of
being scared all the time.  If t
he Hierarchy doesn’t decide to help me tomorrow
,
they better kill me because I won’t marry my brother.”

Nick crushes Keely into him.  “Don’t say that.  We’ll find a way out of it.  We can search the Grimoire.  I’ll ask my dad for help.  The Hierarchy may know a way.  There is always hope.”

“I just feel hopeless at this point.  How many times am I going to get knocked down before I can’t get back up?
”

“It’ll never happen.
I’ll always be there to lift you.”
 
He kisses the top of her head while his mind races.  “Did he say how long you have until it’s completed?”

She shakes her head against his chest.

“We’ll talk to Asmoday.”

“I don’t think he’ll be helpful,” she says.
 
“
I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know anything.  And besides, he
’s probably
all for the marriage.  He said it’s different for Demons.  They marry their family members.”  She shakes her head again.  “I can’t do that.”

“You won’t have to.  We’ll figure it out.”

**
*

Asmoday leans his head back and looks at the speckling of stars in between the hazy gray clouds.  The moon light drowns his skin
in
a soft glow.  As he
feels Keely begin to relax, he
closes his eyes. 
It’s the only thing keeping him in this spot.  He r
ecalls the rush of emotions that brought him to stand here in the grass outside of Nick Wallace’s apartment building in the middle of the night.  The raw, vicious anger that heated his body
with rage.  The shock and confusion that made his hands tremble with helplessness.  The jolt of excitement that sent his stomach into somersaults.  Followed by a feeling of betra
yal that resurfaced
the confusion.  Resting
finally
on a cold, desolate fear that brought tears to his eyes.  He battled this along with his own outrage and alarm for what Keely was going through. 

Her overall sense of well being calms him now.  This of course makes the jealousy surge within his heart.
  It should be he with her.  He who makes her feel so safe.  And not knowing what had her so upset eats at him.

He looks back to the building.  Watches the light go out.  Feels the heavy weight of sleepiness.  Just one quic
k look.  They’ll never know he i
s there.  He will only stay long enough to verify she is unharmed.  He won’t even touch her. 

Asmoday envisions Keely and his body shakes,
vibrating quickly as he loses himself to the jump.  He stands over the futon.  Regards the two intertwined bodies.  He begins to shake again.  This time from the fury his resentment produces.  He wants to pry Nick’s arm off of Keely’
s waist
.  Break it into pieces.
  The way their legs are tangled
together makes him physically nauseated.  This is something he is not accustomed to.

Asmoday battles against his temper.  If he reacts in any way to his
outrage, Keely will never forgive him.  His hands fist at his sides.  Every tendon tightens and bulges under the smooth skin on his arms.  Knuckles turn white
,
looking as angry as he feels.  His foot moves, bringing
him a step closer.  His hand r
ises, still balled into a fist.

And this is when Keely feels his presence.  She is off the couch.  Her soft, warm hands pushing his
hands
back down to his side.  She breathes heavy.  Pushes him with her whol
e body until she
back
s him
up a few steps.

Asmoday can’t see his surroundings.  Can’t hear anything beyond her voice calling his name.  Can’t feel anything other than her touch soothing him out of the
murderous wrath he was lost in.

“It wasn’t him.  It wasn’t him.  Asmoday, I’m all right.”  Keely puts both hands on each side of his face and forces him
to
concentrate on her.  She tries to send feelings of peace to him through the cord.  “Look at me.  I’m o.k.  Nick didn’t do anything.”

Asmoday
stares into her eyes;
this is how he sees her flinch
when he speaks
.  “He was touching you.”

“Asmoday.  Stop,
”
she pleads.

He looks around now.  Observes the dagger outstretched toward his throat.  He glares at Nick.  Tries to move after him.  Keely blocks him.  He could easily move her, but he doesn’
t even try.  He senses
her panic now that the adrenaline is wearing away.
  She’
s concerned for him.  His mind turns back the wheel of his memory.  He replays it like a movie in his head.  The way he was ready to slam his fist into Nick’s face.  Nick openin
g his eyes.  The flash of light,
reflection from the street light hitting the blade of the Guardian’s dagger.  Then Keely diving across Nick with the reflexes of a cat.

He had been literally blinded with rage.  Unable to see how close his stupidity had brought him to dying.

Keely protected him.  She saved his life.

“He didn’t hurt me,” she whispers.

“I’m sorry,” he
whispers back to her.  He can’t recall a time he has ever meant those words
so entirely
.  Not until th
is moment.  “I did no
t mean to.”

“I know.  I felt it.  You were worried.  You were mad.”  Her hands grip him tightly.  “You need to learn to control it.”  She looks down at the floor.  “If anything had happened to either one of you…”  She shakes her head.  “Nick will never hurt me, Asmoday.  He’s my Guardian.  He protects me.”

“What happened?”

“I had a visit with daddy.  He wants you to go home
,
”
she explains before stepping
away from Asmoday.  Contemplates getting into the whol
e betrothal, but decides now
isn’t the time.  She can’t take
anymore tonight.

Nick has been watching silently.  Waiting.  He doesn’t like the way Keely stands protectively in front of Asmoday.  Doesn’t like the way they look at each
other.  It’s almost as if they’
re communicating without words.
  “It’s time for you to go.”

“He’s right,” Keely says softly.  “You should go.”

Asmoday tilts his head to her and then he’s gone.

Nick opens his mouth to say something.  Keely shakes her head.  “I know, Nick.  I just can’t do this anymore right now.  Yell at me tomorrow, please.”

“Keely, this is bad.  Putting it off isn’t going to solve it.  It’s just going to make it worse.  You always make things harder on yourself.”

With a shrug, Keely says, “We aren’t solving this right now.  It may not be able to be solved at all.  So just back off me.”

“He was going to kill me.”

“I stopped him.”

Nick smiles sadly.  “You protected him.”

“I did both.  What’s wrong with that?”

“It scares me.”

Keely throws up her hands in exasperation.  “Why?  He’s my brother.  I’m so sorry I don’t want you to kill him.  And if I remember correctly, we are going to need his help.”

“He was trying to kill me.”

“But he didn’t, Nick.”

Nick laughs without humor.  “Not this time.  Keely, it’s no secret he and I can’t stand each other.  But now he has this thing with you.  He wants you for himself.  Ca
n’t you see that?  What if he
t
ries again?  A
m I not supposed to defend myself because he’s your brother?”

Keely blinks.  “No.  You can defend yourself.  Of course.  I’ll talk to him.  If he were to hurt you, it would hurt me, so it would in turn
, hurt him.
”

Nick’s jaw tightens. 
“And how would you feel if I killed him in self defense?”

Keely feels sick to her stomach.  “I don’t know.  We have the connection, so it would probably hurt me.”

Nick hadn’t thought of it like that.  Hadn’t thought that maybe she protected Asmoday to protect herself.  Hadn’t conceived that he would cause her pain by hurting Asmoday.  It’s like a punch in the face.  What if killing Asmoday kills Keely?

Thirty
:

The room is twice as full as it was yesterday.  Keely suspects every student from the Academy is in attendance.  All waiting patiently for the judgment.  This is
their idea of entertainment
.  They don’t care that Nick may lose his job.  It doesn’t matter to them that Keely may not live to see tomorrow.  It makes her sick to see these people
.  The way they stare at her and whisper.  Do they not realize she can hear most of them?  It
makes her want to scream.  She’
s not a display in a window.  Kee
ly cannot stand attention.  Canno
t take so many eyes boring into her.  Hands fist in her lap.  Nails dig into her palms.  Her breathing increases as the panic attack threatens to take over for all to witness.

Stop looking at me. 

Stop looking at me.

Stop looking at me.

Nick glides his fingers across her knuckles.  Gives them a hard tap. 
She unlocks
her cramped fingers
.  Stretches them
and he takes her hand
in his
.  “Calm down.  Everything will be fine,” he says.  But Keely can see the nerves weighing on him.  Sees the tight lines around his eyes as he struggles to smile at her.  He’s sweet for tr
ying
.

“You’re an awful liar, Nick Wallace.”

“I wasn’t lying.  I phrased it wrong.  We’ll get through it.  No matter what the judgment is.”

She smiles. 
Rolls her head trying to ease some of the tension in her neck.  “Can’t get through death.  Unless you mean you’ll get over me quickly.”

“
I’ve promised
to protect you.  You are not going to die.  And quit talking about it so casually.  I know you make a joke out of it to make it easier, but seriously
—
stop.  It’s not funny.  Not to me.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.  I forgot it was my mission to ignore my impending death for your benefit.”

Nick sighs loudly.  “Can we not fight?  Just once?  Can you not take every single thing I say and turn it into a personal attack against you?  I just don’t want to think about someone hurting you.  Or trying to live my life without you, damn it.  Freaking sue me for caring about you.”

Keely growls in frustration.  “I’m sorry.  I can’t stand everyone star
ing at me.  Judging me.  And I’
m a little stressed, because whether you want to think about it or not, I may be killed.  All because my mom had to pick the Demon King to be her sperm donor.  Of all the donors there must have been.  Who has luck like that?”  She points to herself and rolls her eyes.

Nick squeezes her hand.  “Calm down.”

“Quit telling me to calm down.  Every time you say ‘calm down,’ it annoys me
,
which obviously doesn’t help me
calm down
.”

“Why are we fighting?
” Nick asks.
 
“
We’
re in this together.”
 

“You know what?  We’re not really.  See, the worst that will happen to you—you lose your
job
.  The worst that can happen to me is I lose my life.  It’s not exactly an even playing field.”

Nick releases her hand.  “I know you’re stressed and scared, but you need to quit
attacking me.  I love you.  I’
m here for
you.  I know what’s at stake a
nd I am fully a
ware you have a shitty deal
.  But if you think for one second it’s not as hard for me to handle, you’re wrong.  Frankly, you die
,
that’s it.  You’ll be at peace.  I’ll be left here to mourn you and actually feel the loss.  Along with your friends
and your parents.  I have just as much to lose.  Screw the job.  I don’t care about that.  I care about you.”