Ember (8 page)

“Perfect.” Candra closed her phone with a snap. The idea of being at a party had lost its shine. She decided it was time to leave and started toward the door until she spotted something over the heads of the people dancing. The sight of the fiery head of hair made her gag.

She immediately ducked behind four guys by the wall and had to politely decline the offer of a suspicious looking roll-up. After a moment or two, she started to move sideways, keeping her eyes on Flame-hair’s head bobbing through the crowd with ease.

Candra was momentarily distracted when she came to a couple shamelessly groping at each other by the side of a cabinet, behind a table where all the other furniture had been moved to the side of the foyer. She had two choices: she could squeeze by them—they didn’t look like they’d be easily disturbed, but she still didn’t relish the idea. Her other choice was to skirt around the front of the table and the edge of the dance floor nearer to Ananchel. Candra took another look at the couple; the young girl had begun to thrust her hips against the boy.

Candra looked around again to see all the couples gyrating on the dance floor, and it dawned on her that she should have noticed something before. It was Ananchel; she was doing something to the entire party. Everyone, including Candra, was over-heated. She grimaced and turned, eager to get out of there, and walked straight into Ananchel moving toward her. In the brief moment Candra had looked away, she had obviously spotted her. There was something different about Ananchel as she closed the distance between them: she didn’t look ominous, the way she normally did. She looked…friendly, or at least what Candra presumed passed as friendly for someone like Ananchel. She wasn’t convinced someone with the power Ananchel had over others could ever be trusted to be merely friendly.

Candra was caught between the idea of running and curiosity about what had brought about this change in Ananchel. Regardless, her legs didn’t want to move. She looked around wildly, pretending she didn’t see Ananchel even though she was almost on top of her, all the time willing her limbs to cooperate in the most prudent action…getting her the hell out of there. By the time Candra’s legs decided to reconnect with her brain, it was too late, and Flame-hair had stepped in her path.

“Ananchel.” Candra plastered the most sincere fake smile she could muster on her face. “I didn’t see you there.”

“No matter.” Ananchel shrugged and flicked her long hair over her shoulder with one liquid movement of her hand, an unsuspecting college guy dancing behind her swooned a little catching her scent.

“What a coincidence, running into each other again so soon.” Candra’s stomach clenched, and she remembered that she hadn’t eaten since picking at a salad at lunch.

Ananchel sighed and lifted her hand to examine her blood red nails. For some reason, Candra imagined they were talons on the end of her elegant fingers, but they weren’t. Her nails were short and squared off, perfectly en vogue with current trends.

“Not really,” Ananchel breathed. Candra could hear her even though she didn’t strain to lift her voice above the din of the music.

Ananchel dropped her hand again and turned her dark eyes on Candra. “You see, I followed you here.”

Candra’s initial reaction was to wonder if she should scream or cry. She inhaled deeply and felt her heart start to pound like a base drum. She was a deer caught in the headlights with nowhere to run.

“Oh, relax,” Ananchel laughed. “I have been told to refrain from interfering with you.” Her expression was lighthearted but Candra could still clearly see the underlying traces of smugness and suspected Flame-hair enjoyed seeing her squirm.

Candra steeled her body just in case and tried her hardest to breathe normally. She desperately wanted to gasp in air, but she wasn’t willing to let Ananchel see her do it. The air was hot with smoke and the smell of liquor, yet Philip had never once gotten busted the whole time she knew him.
Parties are getting busted all over the city for drugs and underage drinking. Why can’t I have luck like Philip? What is wrong with me?
Candra mused. She couldn’t seem to keep her mind on a single train of thought for any length of time.

“What is it you want, then?” Candra forced out through a tight throat.

“I’ve been sent to offer you an invitation.”

“A what?” Candra was sure she must have misheard.

“An invitation, Candra, to our home.”

“Why?” Candra enquired, baffled. She hadn’t managed to gather much information, but from what she did have, there was no love lost between the ones guarding her and Ananchel.

Ananchel rolled her eyes knowingly and looked past Candra to the second floor balcony over where they stood. “Surely you want to hear both sides, Candra? I can’t imagine a bright girl like you would take the word of a Nuhra as the whole truth without question.”

Nuhra
, Candra repeated the word she didn’t recognize in her head, presuming Ananchel had to be referring to Brie or Sebastian; maybe all of those who claimed to protect her. Angels really did exist, but from what she was learning they didn’t all get along—they had chosen sides, but why? She got a sense she was being manipulated, both sides using her ignorance against her. And by ignorance she meant that she didn’t even understand what Ananchel had just said. It could be a trick, or was Ananchel really offering her all the answers the others were withholding? Candra eyed her suspiciously.

“Why would you want to help me? I thought we were like enemies or something?”

To her surprise, Ananchel blinked twice before her perfectly groomed eyebrows drew down in a scowl. Candra braced herself for whatever onslaught Ananchel was about to throw against her. She couldn’t stop Ananchel, but maybe if she was ready for it, if she was prepared, she could limit how much she showed it affected her. But instead, Ananchel laughed a high-pitched cackle.

Candra unconsciously took a step back when she saw a blur of black and red fluttering out from Ananchel’s bare back for an instant before it vanished.

The moment Sebastian was inside the door, he knew there was something wrong. Candra was talking to Ananchel, but she was too relaxed. There was no fear in her expression. She looked perfectly at ease discussing something he couldn’t hear, and he didn’t like it.

When Gabe had called to say Candra was missing, it didn’t take long to figure out where she had gone. Sebastian had overheard Ivy telling Candra about the party, and Lofi had already reported any and all student gossip she’d heard during the day—that included word about a party at a guy named Philip’s house, Philip being the guy Candra had seemed close to for a while after Sebastian finally managed to track Ambriel down.

Lofi wasn’t far behind, but he wasn’t about to just stand there and wait again. Candra had no idea how far Ananchel would go to get something she wanted or what she considered entertainment. It wasn’t a conscious decision: one moment he was watching them from the doorway, and in the next instant he was standing in front of Candra, blocking her from Ananchel. His hands reached behind him and anchored on her hips to push her back another step from Ananchel.

“Sebastian, I always knew you couldn’t be trusted, but this…” Ananchel ranted, raving a hand in Candra’s direction. “This is beyond you.”

The palms of Candra’s hands were pressed flat against Sebastian’s back as she tried to look past him to Ananchel. His chest heaved, and adrenaline raced through all his extremities. Gauging from Candra’s previous reactions to him showing up out of nowhere, he wagered that she wouldn’t be happy about his uninvited appearance at the party. Her heart pumped out an uneven rhythm so strongly he could feel it vibrate against his back, and at first he thought he imagined it when her fingers grazed timidly over the place where the bone thickened to support his wings. Then he felt the touch of her damp palm grow more insistent through the black cotton of his button down shirt and wondered if she was comparing his back to the roughness of Brie’s, where her wings had been snapped away. He couldn’t think about it now, so instead he glared defiantly at Ananchel who was ranting something preposterous about him being the one who hid Candra.

“She is ours.” It was all he could think of to say. Still, he had to beat down the thrill it gave him to claim her out loud. He knew Candra wouldn’t appreciate being claimed.

Well, she would just have to get used to it, he thought, and as if in confirmation, Candra’s hands twitched against his skin.

Ananchel cocked an eyebrow, and Sebastian suddenly felt irrationally vulnerable against her—although it wasn’t
that
irrational. Ananchel could bring stronger men than him to their knees if she felt inclined to do so.

“She is not a toy,” she hissed like a cat arching its back and instinctively unfurled her jet black wings tipped with scarlet, resembling an oil slick creeping outward in a pool of blood.

Sebastian felt Candra’s weight against him increase when she leaned forward to look over his shoulder. There was no longer merely a shadow of Ananchel’s wings. Candra’s warm breath made the hairs on his neck rise when she gasped at the sight of Ananchel’s magnificent, dark, silken plumage brushing against the unsuspecting dancers around her.

Sebastian knew Ananchel’s words were for Candra’s benefit. If it was to her advantage, Ananchel would be just as willing to claim Candra as he was.

“This isn’t the time or the place for this discussion,” Sebastian told her pointedly.

“Excuse me,” Candra screeched from behind him, once again pushing to get past.

He heard her utter a small gasp and felt her breath against the back of his neck when all the air left her lungs. Just like everything he seemed to do lately, uncurling his wings wasn’t intentional. His only thought was to keep Ananchel away from Candra. As soon as his mind thought the word
barrier
, there they were. He was sure Ananchel could see his weakness; his desire to protect Candra at any cost to himself was perfectly apparent. He turned his head to catch a glimpse of the girl behind him, and her shocked eyes stared back at him. Her mouth was hidden behind her two hands.

“Go!” Sebastian bellowed fiercely to Ananchel without fully turning from Candra, his nails digging into the palms of his clenched fists.

“You go,” Ananchel laughed in return, apparently amused by Candra’s reaction.

When his eyes met Ananchel’s again, he confirmed by the way her smile faded infinitesimally that he had exposed himself. She had forced him to prove to Candra once again that he wasn’t human, not even in the smallest measure. He should have known she wouldn’t stop there. They had played this game a long time.

The trembling began in his stomach, shooting downward like tiny electrical pulses, and his already tense muscles tightened further. All over his body, his skin felt like it was on fire, and it made him shudder. He fought it, closing his eyes to keep from looking at Ananchel and keeping Candra out of his peripheral vision. He couldn’t look at Candra now. The volume of the music seemed to grow until the bass was an eruption inside his brain and every thump matched his heart. His stomach pulled in on itself as wave after wave of trembling heat washed over him, making his body go weak. It made him want to give in and beg her to finish him. He wanted to lose himself in the familiar feeling, fall at her feet, and beg for mercy. But he couldn’t—it would leave Candra defenseless. Sebastian continued to fight the delicious chills racing up and down his spine and tried to keep his mind away from the growing hardness of his body. He felt himself spinning.

Candra’s voice came from far away, frantically calling to him and pleading with him to answer her. Ananchel laughed, and then, without warning, it stopped. Small hands locked around his upper arms, shaking him.

“Sebastian,” Candra called again and again, trying to break through.

Then her hands were gone, and he felt something soft brush across his face. It smelled like tangy, fresh green apples. He inhaled deeply, concentrating on the fragrance to bring him back from the brink.

“That’s enough!” Candra shouted.

Sebastian could feel her body in front of him and her back flush against his chest.

“You should get out of here now, Ananchel. I will think about your offer, but you need to leave
now
.” Candra’s voice was strong and determined; her conviction was indisputable. She expected no argument.

Payne’s child,
Sebastian thought to himself as he fought the gravity that was making his body sway. There was no argument.