Pure (10 page)

“Ready, my little Apollyon-in-training?”

I dropped my bag and turned around. Seth strolled across the mats, a cocky grin smeared across his face. Rain dripped from his hair and ran down his neck, giving him a wild look. I forgot about the missing blades at the sight of the wicked look on his face. He was
so
up to something. “Not really.”

Seth cracked his knuckles. “Since it’s pouring outside, I figured we could work on your grappling skills—since they are terrible. I know, I know—you’re devastated by the knowledge of not being able to practice with the elements today, but look on the bright side. We get to roll around on the mats. Together.”

I arched an eyebrow. “Sounds like fun.”

He stopped behind me and placed his hands on my shoulders. “You up for it?”

I shrugged off his hands and ripped the hair tie off my wrist. “Yeah, I’m not damaged.”

“I didn’t say you were.”

“Can we do this without you talking?”

Seth pouted. “But I have something you may want to know.”

“Doubtful.”

“Let me ask you a question: Do you feel bad about getting the halfs to refuse to submit to the exams being done? I saw five more halfs all bruised up today.”

Caleb hadn’t been joking when he’d said several halfs had been planning on refusing the exams. I could pick them out easily. Though there hadn’t been a sign indicating that the daimon was still on campus, the pures kept up with the rules and exams. I think it had something to do with the fact no one knew how long a daimon half could go without aether.

“I didn’t make them do anything,” I grumbled.

“They’re following your lead, and if I remember correctly, didn’t you tell the ones with you that they didn’t have to do it?”

My cheeks flushed with frustration. “Whatever. Shut up.”

“Then let’s play, Alex.”

He considered grappling “playing” only because it really did involve a lot of rolling around… and at times, hair pulling. And I think Seth used it as an excuse to cop a feel. Like right now. I knocked his hand off my butt. “You’re such a dog.”

“And your grappling skills suck.” He pinned me for the third time. Most of his hair had come loose, hanging over his face. “Most females suck at it. It’s basic body strength. Males have more mass. So you need to stay on your feet.”

Rolling my hips, I managed to knock Seth off. I scrambled back to standing. “Yeah, I think I grasped that already.”

Lounging on his side, he tipped his head back. “So, you slept like a little baby Apollyon last night. I wonder why.”

I glared at him. Seth had stayed the night again. “I loathe you.”

He chuckled. “You reluctantly like me.”

“Whatever. So are you going to tell me why you’re always with Lucian? Is he a part of your little fan club now?”

“My
fans
love to hear my war stories.” He jumped to his feet, swinging at me. “They’re obsessed with me. What can I say? I’m that cool. And I’m not always with Lucian.”

I grabbed his arm, twisting it back in a submissive hold. “I seriously doubt that.”

Seth stilled. “You know what, Alex?”

Straightening, I relaxed my hold on his arm. “What?”

He glanced back over his shoulder at me. “You really need to start resting more. The lack of sleep is clouding your judgment. I am that cool, and you just made a fatal mistake.”

“Huh?”

“You should never relax your hold.” Then he flipped me off his shoulder. I hit the mat with a loud grunt. “Aw, did you just fall?”

“No.” I rolled onto my back, wincing. “I attacked the floor.”

He dropped down, planting one leg on either side of mine. He caught my chin. “What were you and Aiden doing in practice yesterday?”

I grabbed Seth’s wrist, intending on snapping it. Seth appeared to guess my intentions, because his eyes narrowed into thin slits before he slipped his hands away from my chin. “We were practicing, and why do you need to sit on me to talk to me?”

“Because I can and I like it.”

I wanted to hit him. “Well, I don’t like it. So get off me.”

He leaned forward instead, his face only inches from mine. “I don’t like your practices with Aiden. So no, I won’t get off.”

My throat felt dry. “You just don’t like Aiden.”

“You’re right. I don’t like him. I don’t like the way he looks at you, and I really don’t like the way he looks at me.”

I tried to keep my expression blank, but I felt my cheeks burn. “Aiden doesn’t look at me weird. And he looks at you that way because you
are
weird.”

He laughed. “Yeah, I don’t think so.”

Could Seth be picking up on my feelings for Aiden like he’d picked up on my fear while I was in Gatlinburg? If so, that would be really, really bad. “What are you getting at?”

Seth rolled off and sat cross-legged beside me. “I’m not getting at anything. By the way, I do have something to tell you.”

As long as I lived, I’d never get used to the way Seth switched topics so frequently. He made my brain hurt. “What?”

“There was an attack at the Tennessee Covenant last night. It was a half who’d been turned. He cut up a pure, drained him of aether, and tossed him out of a seventh-story dorm window.”

Horrified, I jackknifed up. “Oh, my gods! Why didn’t you say something at the beginning of practice?”

He stared at me. “I clearly remember telling you I had something you’d be interested in knowing and you said it was doubtful.”

“Well, you could have explained it a little better.” I fell back against the mats. “Holy crap, what are they doing about it?”

“The same thing they are doing here, but they caught the daimon—it was a Guard once upon a time, and since the pure died, they’re taking more extreme measures.”

“Like what?”

“There’s talk of segregating the pures from the halfs.”

“What?” I shrieked.

Seth flinched and scooted away. “Ouch. Damn, Alex, I can only imagine what you sound like in the throes of—”

“Are you serious?” I sat up again, folding my legs under me. “How can they do that? We share dorms with the pures. And classes. It’s the same everywhere!”

“From what I hear, they’re going to put all the pures in one dorm and all the halfs in the other. And change the class schedules.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh, so they’re going to make the dorms co-ed? Yeah, that is going to go over well. Everyone’s going to be having sex.”

“Sounds like my kind of place.” Seth grinned. “Maybe I can get a transfer.”

“Do you ever take anything seriously?” I pushed to my feet.

Seth shot to his feet, towering over me. “I take you seriously.”

Eyeing him, I stepped back. “This is serious, Seth. What if they do something like that here? What if this is the beginning of everything changing?”

The ever-present—and annoying—mix of smugness and amusement faded from those eerie, golden eyes, revealing a level of gravity I didn’t think Seth was capable of. “Alex, everything has already changed. Don’t you see that?”

I swallowed and folded my arms around me, but it didn’t stop the sudden coldness from washing over my body like I’d stepped into the freezing downpour outside.

Aiden had said the same thing.

“There are two of us,” Seth said quietly. “Everything changed the moment you were born.”

I tapped my finger along the edge of the keyboard. I was having one of those nights where I questioned everything that ever was, and I was getting on my own nerves.

I blamed Seth.

Everything changed the moment you were born.

I tried not to think about how the whole Apollyon business worked most of the time. Usually I pretended like it wasn’t a big deal. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t dealing with it, I just knew there was nothing I could do about it. It’s like not crying over spilled vodka and cranberry juice or whatever. But there were times—like earlier with Seth—when the idea of becoming this
thing
that people expected something miraculous from, and were also scared to death of, terrified me.

I stared at my computer screen, forcing myself to stop worrying about the Apollyon stuff and what was happening at the Covenants. I then played about a dozen rounds of minesweeper and solitaire—anything to keep my brain nicely blank. It worked beautifully for a short while.

Another question poked at me. Why had Lucian intervened on my behalf? And why was Lucian handing over so much information to Seth? Yes, he was the Apollyon, but Lucian was the Minister and Seth was just a half-blood. Why would Lucian allow Seth to be privy to such information?

Then there was the business with the Council. I had this feeling I didn’t have many fans on the Council and my time with them was going to suck daimon butt.

All of this made my brain sore.

Groaning in frustration, I dropped my head on the keyboard. An immediate, shrill buzzing filled the otherwise quiet room, but I ignored it until I had a streak of brilliance. And it had nothing to do with the Apollyon, the Covenant, or Lucian.

It had to do with Aiden.

Lifting my head, I bit my lip and opened up an internet page. For the last week, I’d been scouring the internet for the perfect gift for Aiden’s birthday. Not just a birthday gift, but a peace offering, too. I figured I could get him something—I don’t know—special. I’d come up empty-handed for the most part, but tonight, I had an idea.

It had to do with what I’d seen in his cottage that night—a ridiculous number of books, comics, and a colorful assortment of guitar picks. I’d thought then it’d been a strange thing to collect, but at least he didn’t collect something gross like body lint. Anyway, I knew there was one color he didn’t have—black. But I didn’t want to get him just some crappy, old plastic pick. I wanted—needed—something special.

An hour later, I came across an online store dedicated to rare picks and I knew I’d found the perfect gift. They had one made out of onyx gemstone, and apparently it was a super extraordinary guitar pick. I had no idea why. Buying the thing would be hard, though. I hadn’t been trusted with a bank account for some reason.

The next day I cornered Deacon before class started. “Can you do something for me?”

“Anything for my favorite halfy.” He gave me a little nod as he eyed Luke, who was gesturing wildly at the front of the class.

“Halfy? Never mind. Forget it. You have credit cards, right?”

He flicked a wayward curl out of his eyes and smiled. “Loads of them.”

I shoved a piece of paper in his face. I’d scribbled the name of the website and the stock number of the pick on it. “Can you order this for me? I’ll give you cash.”

Deacon glanced down at the paper and then lifted his head, looking at me. “Do I even want to know?”

“Nope.”

“This is for my brother, isn’t it?”

I felt my cheeks flush. “I thought you didn’t want to know.”

He folded up the paper and stuck it in his pocket, shaking his head. “I don’t. I’ll order it tonight.”

“Thanks,” I murmured, feeling overexposed.

Staring at the front of the classroom while not really seeing anything the teacher wrote on the board, I hoped Aiden liked the pick—
loved
it. My muscles locked up at the idea of love and Aiden in the same sentence.

Just because I was buying him a stupid little guitar pick didn’t mean anything. And just because I wanted to jump his bones didn’t mean I… loved him. Halfs didn’t love pures. So where had that thought even come from?

I ignored Deacon for the rest of the class and slipped into a weird mood that lasted all day long. Not even Caleb and Olivia’s hilarious bickering at lunch snapped me out. Not even when Lea tripped in the hallway. Practice with Aiden couldn’t shake me out of the funk.

Aiden’s tense and concerned gaze followed every one of my movements. I imagined he was waiting for me to fall asleep and crack my head or something.

But I didn’t.

By the end of practice, some of the tension had eased off his face and a lopsided grin appeared as he picked up my gym bag. “I want to do something different tomorrow.”

“Are you going to let me off my Saturday training?” I was only half-joking. The idea of lying around in bed all day did sound really nice.

“No. That’s not what I was thinking. Not really.”

I reached out for my bag, but he held it back. I grinned. “What were you thinking?”

“It’s kind of a surprise.”

“Oh.” I perked up. “What is it?”

Aiden chuckled. “It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you, Alex.”

“I can act surprised tomorrow.”

“No.” He laughed again. “That would kind of ruin it.”

“All right, but it better be good.” I reached for the bag again, but Aiden caught my hand. His fingers wrapped around mine. Our hands fit perfectly together. Well, at least I thought so. A swarm of butterflies stirred in my stomach. My eyes flicked up, and I was immediately snared. I could always tell what Aiden was thinking by the color of his eyes.