Embrace, Entice, Emblaze (16 page)

I bit down on my lip. The corner of Phoenix’s mouth curled and

he gave my hand a small squeeze before releasing it.

For the first time since all of this happened, I wanted to know more. Knowing that he had actually lived, existed, whatever,

through all of this was bewildering.

“Will you tell me more?” I asked as I watched him dutifully pay the bill. I idly wondered where he got his money from and then

decided I didn’t want to know.

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He nodded. “Tomorrow. When I take you to the new art exhibi-

tion at the Contemporary Museum.”

My eyes narrowed. “You looked through my diary,” I accused,

feeling violated. I never let anyone look through my art diary.

“Your little notebook? No.”

“How did you know I love art then?”

“I just did.” He smiled, shifting his gaze down to my hands.

I laughed. There was still yellow and orange paint in the cuticles of my fingernails.

Before we left, I looked around for Claudia. She was nowhere

to be seen.

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chapter
fifteen

“If then we have angels, let us be sober, as though we were in the
presence of tutors; for there is a demon present also.”

saint John chrysostoM

Phoenix insisted he walk me home, despite my mediocre protests

that I was fi ne. We walked out of the pizza place onto a now quiet street. Th e silence was quickly uncomfortable.

As soon as we reached the alley that ran behind the restaurant, I sensed it: the tangy-tart fll avor of green apples. It reminded me of biting into those liquid- fi lled pieces of chewing gum. I hated those.

Phoenix stiff ened beside me.

“Th at’s not you, is it?” I whispered, my heart racing.

He didn’t answer. He didn’t need to.

“Phoenix?”

He snapped to, spinning toward me, bracing his hands on my

shoulders. “Stay here.” He shook me. “I’ll be back in a minute.

STAY HERE!
”

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I nodded. He turned and walked into the alley, leaving a waft

of white musk in his wake. There were no streetlights. It was one of those narrow lanes, not wide enough for a car to drive down.

Garbage bins lined one side and odd bags of spilled trash and food scraps from the restaurants in front were piled beside them. After a few steps, the darkness swallowed Phoenix’s silhouette.

It was hot, steamy even, but I still wrapped my arms around my

waist, feeling a chill.

I strained my eyes but couldn’t see anything. Then, over the

sound of wings flapping, I heard the muffled scream of a girl. The next scream wasn’t muffled. It rang loud and clear. A scream that held absolute desperation. My feet were carrying me into the darkness before I even realized.

Phoenix was standing in front of what I could instantly tell

was another exile. He was tall and slim, but broad through the

shoulders. He was dressed all in black with glowing white- blond hair. He had hold of a girl, restraining her with an arm around her neck. She was kicking out, trying to get away. Her bright- red hair caught my attention. Then I registered her uniform. The shirt was ripped open and the black skirt was still there, though it was clear it wouldn’t be for long. Her gold name badge winked at me in the moonlight. Claudia.

As I walked toward Phoenix, she saw me and screamed, “Violet!

Thank God! VIOLET! HELP ME!”

The blond exile tightened his grip around her neck and put his

other hand over her mouth, silencing her.

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I stopped beside Phoenix.

“I told you to wait. Go back!” he growled at me. I didn’t have

time to respond before he turned his attention to the blond.

“Release her.” He spoke quietly, the threat stronger without the volume. A shiver ran through my body.

The blond flinched and threw Claudia down. Her head hit the

ground so hard it bounced.

“Kneel before me,” the exile sneered at her.

To my horror, I watched as Claudia crawled onto her hands and

knees. Blood was flowing freely from a gash above her left eye. She stopped at his feet, kneeling before him as he had commanded.

“Beg me to take your life,” he ordered, as if talking to a rabid dog.

Claudia shook with fear but couldn’t stop the words. “Kill me.

P- p- please,” she cried.

“No! Let her go!” I screamed. “Claudia! Claudia, run!”

But she didn’t. And instead of letting her go, the blond exile put a hand on either side of her face.

“If you want her, come and get her,” he hissed, looking at me.

“
Grigori!
”

He lifted Claudia, holding her out to us. Her feet dangled in

midair. Before I knew what I was doing, I was running. I felt the sweep of Phoenix’s hand at my back as he reached out to stop me.

Arms outstretched, I ran, even though I knew I was too slow and he was way too fast.

His arms moved with swift precision. Such a small movement,

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but the force was distinctive. Claudia’s neck snapped to the side with a life- ending crack. An unmistakable sound imprinted upon me for eternity.

I was there less than a second too late. But it may as well have been hours for all the good it did. He released her, dropping her into my outstretched arms. Her dead weight crumpled on me

like a massive rag doll and I fell under her. The exile inhaled a deep, satisfied breath, holding it for a moment before looking

straight at me as I struggled desperately to free myself. His face was stone— no remorse.

“Your turn,” he said with a smile, as if offering me a go on a

Ferris wheel. He lunged toward me.

I didn’t stand a chance, but then, I didn’t need to. He barely

made it within an arm’s length of me before Phoenix was there,

barreling into him like a freight train.

They exchanged blow after blow, all at lightning speed. If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed it. The blond was so fast, sending his fist into Phoenix’s face with punishing force, throwing him across the width of the alley and into the brick wall. Amazingly, it barely slowed Phoenix, who was back up faster than I could track with my human sight. Phoenix didn’t hesitate in his retaliation. He was a beautiful, lethal machine, lithe and fluid as he weaved and dodged the exile’s blows.

It was soon clear they were matched in strength but not in skill.

With fierce precision, Phoenix maneuvered the blond into the end of the alley, pounding his fists into him over and over again.

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Finally, the exile slumped to the ground. Phoenix knelt over him.

I couldn’t see clearly in the dark and I was glad. One God-awful thrust, then the wet, sticky sound of something being torn and

snapped. It was not a sound I’d ever heard before, nor did I want to ever hear it again.

Phoenix was quick to lift Claudia off me and help me up. He

wiped the tears from my eyes and pulled me close. The senses were still affecting me, but I didn’t care. I held on to him as tightly as I could. As I did, I could feel his exhaustion…and something else.

He was rigid, tense.

“What happened?” I stuttered, moving back a little.

“He’s dead.”

“How?”

“Grigori have their ways; exiles have their own.”

“I heard. You ripped his heart out?”

“Yes,” he said.

The most frightening thing was, I didn’t mind a bit. “How did

he make her ask to die?” I was shaking my head even as I asked the question. It was impossible.

“Imagination. He had her seeing one thing but saying another.

She was weak and he took her will easily.”

I thought yet again of my mother’s letter, which I had now read countless times.
Imagination
is
their
highway; free will is ours.

My mind was racing, reliving the moments.

I
was
almost
there
.

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to me.” My breathing tightened with the thought. Had I been the reason Claudia was killed?
Please, no.

“He would have killed her anyway, just not so fast.”

I pulled away and got my first good look at him. He was

breathing fast— not with exhaustion…but with adrenaline. His

eyes were so…alive…wired.

“He was an exile of dark, a Cherub. Never liked Cherubs, not

here or in the realm.” He wiped his hands down his jeans as if

dusting them off. “His only goal was to inflict pain. You just saved her the torment.”

“Her name was Claudia.” I needed to say her name out loud. I

would never forget it again.

“We need to go,” Phoenix said, looking around.

“No. We have to do something. Call the police,” I said, horrified that he was willing to just leave her in the dirty alley.

“Someone else will find her.” He tried to push me toward the

main road. I refused to move and eventually he sighed and nodded.

When the police arrived, we answered all their questions. I felt terrible lying, but Phoenix made it clear there was no choice. At least there was only Claudia’s body to explain. The exile’s body had disappeared. Not a trace left behind. The police took our state-ments, accepting all too quickly that we had caught a glimpse of a woman’s body lying on the ground when we walked past the alley

on our way home from the pizzeria. Phoenix careened through

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was over in a matter of minutes. I felt an awful pang of guilt that Claudia’s family would never know the truth. Though, I was

learning, the truth was not always better.

After walking me to my building, Phoenix stood awkwardly on

the pavement while I fished through my bag for my swipe card to the main doors. The silence had dragged as I hiccupped and sobbed most of the way home. Any other time, I would have been embarrassed, but for now I was settling for a kind of numb.

“Violet?”

“What?” I tensed, worried he might ask to come up to the apart-

ment. But it was worse than that.

“You should see Linc— ”

“No!” I shook my head hard, trying to throw off the whole

conversation.

Phoenix put his hands in the air defensively. “Hey, I don’t even know the guy and I don’t like him. But things out there are…

you saw yourself. You need to learn how to protect yourself. Think about it.”

That’s exactly what I didn’t want to do. Thinking about it made me want to fall apart, and I couldn’t, I wouldn’t, do that.

“Maybe,” I said, just to make it go away.

Images of Claudia’s body circled in my mind and thoughts of

Lincoln stirred close behind— pain and love and loss. All too much to comprehend.

“I have to go.” I swiped my card on the doors with too much

vigor and had to try three times before they clicked open.

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“You can’t just pretend he doesn’t exist,” he murmured.

I spun, heat rising through my body. “Actually, I can! And if you want to see me again, so can you!” My heart twisted at my words as I stormed through the doors.

“We’ll see.”

I didn’t bother turning. I just kept walking into the bright lobby, leaving him on the dark street. When I heard the doors close behind me, I breathed a sigh of relief.

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