Ember (15 page)

“Be careful what you wish for, my Candra. Wishes are a dangerous affair if spoken without due regard. Once they are out in the world, they can never be taken back.”

“Anyway,” she went on, drawing out the word and ignoring his warning. “I think you are wrong. You have to be. It wouldn’t make sense, would it? If he isn’t past all that happened, why would he be protecting me?”

“Accepting what he has done is not the same as coming to terms with it, or moving on.”

She pouted childishly at his mocking tone, convinced he was teasing her.

“Sebastian is a powerful influence. His inability to believe there is hope for the future holds everyone back. Every time we move forward, even to the tiniest degree, he riles all the others up. He can’t be trusted,” he swore earnestly and paused to take a drink. Of course, Candra believed it was only polite to follow suit. “He’s so busy torturing himself for leading the army—”

“Wait, what?” She held her hand up and lurched forward in her seat almost sliding off the edge. All of a sudden Candra’s mouth felt dry and her throat felt like someone had scrubbed it with steel wool. She swigged at the amber liquid.
“He
led them?”

“Sebastian was the messenger, the one who held the plans, the one who rained fire down on all of us.”

Candra slumped back into her seat and stared into the flickering flames. The oranges, yellows, reds, and blacks mingled fluidly. If she squinted her eyes, she imagined she could see images there among the blazing streaks of color—maybe her life, the life that had all but vanished now, passing before her eyes. She had been wrong on so many levels. She had misjudged and been led astray—intentionally or unintentionally, it didn’t matter. Even as she thought about the rest of them, Brie, Gabe, and Lofi, inexplicably it was Sebastian she was the angriest with. She was angry at him for making her be angry at him. She’d thought it was Gabe they followed, but it made sense now how Gabe had backed down and hadn’t told her more when challenged by Sebastian that first day she’d found out about the angels. It made sense now that Brie listened to him.

“Then I really don’t get it,” Candra groaned. “What has changed? Is it because of Brie?”

Draven laughed loudly, slapping his thigh with the flat of his hand, making her jump.

“What?” she ground out bitterly.

“If it was Brie holding them at bay, why would there be any need for concealment?”

Candra drained the last of her glass and waved it in front of her, brazenly gesturing for more. Draven rose without a blink and took the glass.

“Are you being deliberately evasive?”

“No. Are you being deliberately obtuse?” he countered.

It was like dragging information from a stone. At least with a stone she would get something, even if it was only dust.

“I simply don’t want to further his cause,” he added, returning with the refilled glasses.

“His cause?” Candra mocked, taking the glass and keeping her eyes on the mellow liquid that swirled momentarily as the glass moved. The first sip went down surprisingly easy this time.

Draven was still standing over her with his hand resting on the chair at the back of her head. She sat up straighter to look at him without straining her neck. As if she had offered an invitation in that simple act, he bent down, bringing his handsome face nearer to hers. Candra found herself twisting her body to him and blinked several times when his warm breath fanned over her face, laced with the spicy aroma of the amber liquid.

He grinned meaningfully and came nearer to her, making her stomach flutter. She got the marked impression of someone sharing a secret, except there was no one else in the room to hear. Candra couldn’t look away from him or from his perfect pink lips and the way his tongue moved with each word he spoke.

“Sebastian, the leader of the army who besieged and annihilated the Nephilim—” he told her in a muted whisper and came closer still, making the fluttering intensify and spreading a tingling sensation through her entire body. He swept her hair over her shoulder, allowing his mouth to graze across the shell of her ear, “—is in love with one.”

Chapter Nine

Candra flinched away from him, aghast and laughing. Only it was more of a cackle that was a few pitches higher than her usual laugh. “That’s ridiculous.”

Draven stood straight and scratched his stomach absentmindedly under his shirt at exactly her eye level. She couldn’t help noticing the tiny sliver of tanned skin or the sprinkling of hair that formed a line disappearing into his jeans.

“Is it?” His tone had softened, and he took a long swig of his drink before continuing. “You can’t have failed to notice the way he follows you around like a puppy, making those pathetic moon faces?”

“He hates me!” Candra exclaimed, staring dumbly at him and then added as an afterthought. “How do you know how he looks at me? Have you been watching me too?”

Draven’s shrug was noncommittal. “Pulling pigtails in the playground. There is a very thin line between love and hate, and it is sometimes easy to confuse the two.”

Candra was convinced she would know if Sebastian had feelings for her—Draven had to be wrong. The more she thought about it, the more she was convinced that she was right about this and Draven was utterly delusional. Whatever Sebastian’s reasons were for letting her live, that wasn’t one of them. She sighed heavily and looked down to her glass and the liquid shimmering in the glow of the fire. It reminded her of
his
eyes.

Candra felt Draven’s fingers brush across her cheek and turned to him.

“You don’t have to concern yourself with that volatile, surly child. You have me to protect you now.”

Protect her from what? From Sebastian, from Brie…they had done nothing except what they thought was best for her. They weren’t always right, and she didn’t agree with most of their decisions, but she was sure she didn’t need protection from them.

“We have company,” Draven stated sourly while still cupping her cheek with his curved fingers.

A split second later, the door at the end of the room where Candra had come in burst open, smashing into the walls on both sides and ricocheting back to be caught by Sebastian’s outstretched arms. His face was hard, as if his features had been carved in a warm-toned marble. He was too far away for her to read the emotion in his eyes…if there was any. His entire body strained with so much tension that Candra had a fleeting moment of panic that he would snap if he tried to move a muscle.

“Get your hands off her, right now.”

Candra’s eyes darted back to Draven who was grinning smugly. He winked and traced his thumb across her skin again before he pulled his hand away, at the same time rolling his shoulders backward, shooting a wave of onyx-colored mist along his spine. His blue-black wings uncurled behind him. “You don’t get to tell me what to do.”

Draven extended his wings out wide, blocking Candra’s view of the room. All she could see was the sleekness of the feathers gleaming like glass. They stretched and shuddered once more, creating a soft breeze that fanned the flames of the fire, enveloping her in the faint aroma of burning wood. Draven, who was already turned slightly, leaned his head a little so he could look over his shoulder with a dangerous taunting glare. Candra knew he was using her, or more pointedly, what he perceived as his possession of her, to prod at Sebastian.

There was a sudden whoosh of noise in the distance, and Draven’s wings erupted with a crack as loud as thunder at his back. The force lifted him away from Candra, allowing her to witness the scene.

Sebastian was running toward them…toward Draven at lightning speed, his wings moving so rapidly they seemed to blur in a golden light. His feet barely touched the ground, and Candra was struck silent by the magnificence of him. Draven stood his ground solidly, now several yards away from her, his wings out wide and his fists clenched.

In a flash, Sebastian was right in front of him, his wings curved in as he lifted from the ground, flying feet first at Draven and hitting him square in the chest with the flat of one foot. He twisted his body one hundred and eighty degrees, catching Draven’s jaw with a violent kick and knocking his face to the side.

The glass fell from Candra’s hand and rolled off her knee, spilling its contents over her clothes, shattering on the ground and sending splintered crystal cascading across the floor.

Draven whirled with the force of the blow, but instead of falling, he did a full circle and in the process went down bent on one knee, straightening his other leg to catch Sebastian at his ankles as he landed. Sebastian somersaulted backward to a graceful crouch, his body tilted forward to accommodate his wings, still fluttering behind him. Draven stood in a flash, followed by Sebastian who instantly directed a blow to Draven’s face. Draven blocked the hit, forcing Sebastian’s arm away and opening him up to the body blow fierce enough to send Sebastian sliding backward across the floor.

“Had enough yet?” Draven sneered ferociously.

“Not nearly,” Sebastian panted. To Candra’s horror, he flew at Draven again, only this time, missing him completely.

Draven shot into the air and flipped upside down over Sebastian’s shoulders, hitting the ground behind him with a quiet thump. In a split second, he had his arms twisted around Sebastian’s wings, as if he was about to rip them away his body. Sebastian’s face contorted in pain, and Candra wanted to scream at them to stop, but when she opened her mouth, not one sound escaped. Her head filled with sounds of their grunts and her own heart beating rapidly as adrenaline coursed through her system. Sebastian let out a loud groan when Draven’s force increased. Candra was sure she heard something snap.

She was frozen, unable to stop them. Draven’s grip narrowed again, forcing Sebastian into submission.

“You come into my home and threaten me?” Draven growled incredulously. “What are you thinking?”

Sebastian winced again. His face was flushed and covered in a thin sheen of sweat while Draven appeared calm and unaffected.

“I’m thinking that I’m going to finish the job I should have done millennia ago.” Sebastian reached over his head and bent forward slightly.

In a swish of swirling color and feathers, Draven was wrenched over Sebastian’s head. This time Sebastian didn’t give him a chance to retaliate: he immediately pounced to crush Draven’s throat by standing on it. Before he found purchase, grunting with the strain, Draven locked onto Sebastian’s ankle and twisted it, spinning Sebastian into the air. He came back to the ground once more in a crouch, ready to spring again.

They were clearly evenly matched, and neither one would find it an easy job to finish the other. Sebastian stood in front of Candra, as if he was protecting her or shielding her from Draven.

“Did he touch you?”

“What?” Candra gasped, shocked by what was happening and the anxiety in his tone.

Draven laughed blackly.

“Did he touch you?” Sebastian roared without turning to her.

“She came of her own free will, Sebastian,” Draven informed him, placing emphasis on “free will” as if the words were a blade he could use to cut through Sebastian’s skin.

They were as bad as each other, Candra thought, both using her to goad, bait, and taunt. She wasn’t about to just sit there and let them.

“Stop it,” she shouted, standing up. “Stop it right now, both of you.”

Neither of them looked at her. Instead they glared angrily at each other. So she moved to stand between them, which was difficult when Sebastian’s wings juddered in front of her, clearly telling her she shouldn’t. She shook it off and moved past, noticing how he flinched when she brushed the silken feathers. His eyes were narrowed and black with rage, his chest rising and falling with each heavy breath. Draven, on the other hand, was composed and smirking, as if he knew something she and Sebastian didn’t…but he was wrong. Candra was well aware they were on his territory and he could probably have any number of Watchers in here to tackle Sebastian to the ground at any time. But she also strongly suspected Draven wanted to come out of this as the good guy and that meant dealing with Sebastian man to man…so to speak.

“I am so sick of this,” Candra told them both furiously. “You both treat me like I’m a commodity to be owned, and both of you need to back off.” She pursed her lips and inhaled deeply, filling her head with an array of fragrances that reminded her of both of them. “You have kept your shit together for this long. What the hell has changed? This can’t be all about me. What are you still not telling me?”

“You belong with us—”

“You actually believe that’s true, don’t you?” Draven broke Sebastian off, clearly in disbelief.

“Tell me,” Candra demanded, “or so help me, I’m leaving and—”

“We can’t have children,” Sebastian finally spat out. She looked to him, and his eyes closed briefly and then snapped open again, as if he’d forgotten he couldn’t take his eyes off Draven.

“I beg to differ,” she argued since she was standing there between them.

“He doesn’t mean can’t as in not able to,” Draven explained, and Candra watched as his wings rolled back in again, clearing sensing Sebastian’s defeat as much as she did. “He means can’t as in, it would break the covenant. If the Tenebras can’t bear children, then neither can the Nuhra. If the covenant is broken, then those that remain are no longer tied to it.”

She got a sick dizzy feeling suddenly and honestly couldn’t tell if it was the liquor or if what Draven was saying was sinking in. Both hands came up to rub her temples, and she felt a headache begin to tingle inside her skull. She was the weapon her father used to break the only thing stopping these Watchers from unleashing Armageddon on the world.
Why would he do that?

“What can I do to stop it?” she asked quietly, feeling the weight of the responsibility pressing down on her already as she thought about Lofi’s description of the vicious, soulless creatures.

“You come to us,” Draven said. “We say Payne became a rogue before he died and was punished for it. You were kept hidden because of Sebastian…that part wouldn’t be a lie.”

She sensed Sebastian shift and raised both her hands to halt them before they moved, darting her eyes back to Sebastian.

“Then what?” she pushed, turning her face back to Draven but keeping her hands raised as a warning to them both not to move.

“If…” Draven spoke enticingly while casually running both of his hands through his hair.

As if anything about this could be deemed casual, Candra thought. She was standing in an ornate ballroom between two angels, both of whom apparently had a thing for her, despite the fact her very existence could unleash a plague of monstrous, evil creatures on the world.

“If,” Draven continued, “it was a rogue that bore a child, well, then the covenant would be intact.”

“What about me? Wouldn’t more break the covenant and risk having children because I didnt turn out bad like the others?” she asked, confused.

“No, not at all,” Draven chortled. “They will watch you, waiting for you to change and become more like the other Nephilim until your dying breath. Do you think just being born would be enough to convince them you are good?”

Yeah, I kind of actually did.

“But—” Draven went on. She heard Sebastian’s sharp intake of breath, almost a hiss behind her. “—because of the very nature of your birth, you belong with us, not them.” His head nodded to behind her to Sebastian.

“But it’s my choice, right?”

Draven’s lips spread into a half-smile, and he nodded once. She glanced back to see Sebastian’s expression was guarded, giving away nothing.

“And you’ll help us because…?”

“Because I don’t want another war. Those of us left will one day die out. I don’t want that cut short and…” Draven paused and licked his lips to bide his time. Obviously tasting the blood on the corner of his lip, he lifted and dragged the back of his hand across his mouth to wipe it away.

“And?” she prompted.

“I think you know what I want.”

“You would start a war to get a girlfriend? Boy, you really need to get laid,” Candra told him jokingly, feeling the nervous break in her voice and the warmth of the liquor in her system.

“No. I would start a war to possess you,” he corrected her in a husky voice that was drenched in sexual innuendo and made heat blaze across her flesh.

She blinked and looked away from him to the floor.

“How in the Arch’s name is that free will? How can we trust her choice will be her own?” Sebastian raged.

Candra push her hands out again and gave him a look that clearly shouted “do not move,” making sure he knew not to test her. She could see the tendons clearly straining in his forearms and his fist bunched up ready to hit something: Draven.

“What’s he talking about?” she asked Draven as calmly as she could, given that the tingle in her brain was quickly becoming a hammer pounding behind her eyes.

“A small trick.” He shrugged. “Something we used to help humans be more accommodating to us.” He lifted his hand to run his index finger over his chest. “Cross my heart, I’ll be good,” he finished with a toothy grin.

“Excuse me?” Candra asked with raised eyebrows. She had no idea what they were talking about, but then, nothing new there.

Sebastian snorted. “Heart? You don’t have a heart.”