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Chapter 25
I was actually having a pleasant time sitting in the stone courtyard outside that Cathedral. It was chilly rest against the marble bench, though licking an ice cream cone while I watched Raf didn't help either. Then, like usual, my enjoyment went to shit.
A heavy body sat down on the other side of the bench my butt was occupying. I glanced briefly over to glare at the intruder, but dread filled my stomach instead. Luke was sitting casually beside me, his usual dark sunglasses covering those brown eyes, as a black leather jacket sat perfectly over his square shoulders.
He would have made the perfect hot 'bad boy next door' that I would have typically gone for in Sacramento, if it wasn't for the all-consuming hatred I had for him and his 'friends'. And I was infatuated with Adriel.
"Get. Lost." I spoke each word between separate licks of my ice cream. I was honestly proud of how strong my voice sounded. No wavering whatsoever, even though my insides were consumed with anxious nerves.
"Well, that's not very nice." Luke spoke casually, with no malice in his tone at all. His lips even pulled up slightly at the corner in an amused smile. One I wanted to smack off his stupid face.
"I don't care. Leave."
"I just want to talk. I promise. Nothing else. We can even sit right here, in the middle of the day, surrounded by people if that makes you feel better." The way he spoke only strengthened that fear in my stomach. Like he knew that I knew. That he was one of them.
"You're one of them, aren't you? One of those freaks with the red eyes." Admitting out loud that I was actually starting to believe in this stuff was far from reassuring. I kept my eyes glued to Rafael, who was chasing pigeons a few feet away. Even though I didn't want her anywhere near the birds, it was a lot better than being on this bench right now.
"'Freak' is a little harsh, don't you think?" He stretched one long arm out across the top of the bench, his fingers barely an inch from my shoulder. I shifted uneasily away. I didn't like how at ease he was making himself, like he couldn't tell I had Yarrow shoved into every single one of my pockets.
Maybe that was why he was trying extra hard to appear comfortable, because he wasn't.
"No, I actually think it's pretty nice for what I really want to call you." I finished off the ice cream and tossed the cone into the trashcan beside the bench. "Now, I'm going to get my sister, and we're going to leave. Do not follow me, or I swear I will stab you with this iron knife I ordered on Amazon. Goodbye."
I went to stand up and walk away like a badass, but his hand reached out and grabbed onto my wrist before I could.
"I wasn't kidding about that knife. I swear I'll shank you in front of all these people."
He laughed, and I wasn't all too pleased at that. "Oh, trust me. I believe you. I promise, but I really just want to talk. I'm not here to hurt you. I'll even hold onto some of those weeds in your pocket if you want."
Ha! I knew he knew I had them!
Then a sickening thought hit me. "Wait, so they won't hurt you?"
What the actual fuck?! The whole purpose of the stupid plant was to keep him and his freaks away from us!
"Steel and Iron hurt, Yarrow just—slows us down, I guess you can say."
Jess told me about the steel and iron, hence the big ass knife I bought. One side was steel, the other iron. I felt like a badass when I bought it, and just as surprised that Amazon actually sold something like that. But why the hell was he admitting that? Telling someone that obviously hated him how to hurt his kind didn't necessarily seem like a great plan.
"Why are you telling me this?" I asked as I sat reluctantly back down. Raf was still chasing pigeons, and I prayed she didn't decide to come over anytime soon. The farther away she was from the guy, the better.
"Because I want you to trust me. I told you the truth before when I said it was never supposed to happen this way. I wanted us to be friends."
"Right, so you can convince it's a good idea to wake up your demon dude? No thanks, I barely even believe in this crap." I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest, even though it was just an excuse to check that my fancy knife was still there.
"He's not a demon."
I was getting really sick and tired of people telling me that.
"Okay, whatever, but like I said, this stuff is all a little too crazy to be completely real-"
Luke's long irritated sigh interrupted my tirade and he shifted in his seat to grab a little knife out of his pocket. "Alright, look." And before I could make a move, he stabbed himself in the leg.
Or, tried to at least. The blade bent the second it hit his jean-covered thigh and slipped harmlessly away.
I had to viciously gulp down the saliva building in my mouth. There was no way I could convince myself that didn't just happen.
"Give me your knife." He tossed his now useless pocketknife in the trash and stuck his hand out towards me.
"Fuck that." If anything, I was less inclined to let him see it now than before.
I could practically feel his eyes roll behind those sunglasses. "I just want to show you it will work. Here," He turned his palm up so it was facing me in invitation. "Cut my hand. I won't try to take it."
I didn't believe him, like at all. But he was giving me a free invite to test out my fancy knife, and after that whole pocketknife display, I really needed to see if it would work. Completely ignoring the fact that we were surrounded by people, I took the knife out and quickly sliced a little nick in his palm. I've had to defend myself before, the trials of growing up alone in California, so the action didn't really bother me.
Luke flinched and as blood swelled onto his palm, relief flooded my chest. Until that blood started burning, like smoke was literally coming off his hand. He grabbed the bottle of water from beside him that I hadn't noticed before, and quickly poured the whole thing onto this hand. The smoke died away.
I sat back against the bench completed flabbergasted, my eyes shifting between the blade and his hand. Okay... So, maybe, I really did believe in this shit. Or I had officially lost it.
"There, happy now?" Though his voice was a little shaky and when I finally tore my eyes from his hand, I saw how his face had gone white as a ghost. Damn, I guess the thing really does work.
"Uh, um, I-I'll listen to what you have to say now, I guess." I didn't think he was going to hurt me, and even if he tried my fancy little knife will def stop him.
"You want me to hold that little plant of yours?" Luke tried to sound casual as he sat back against the bench, but he still looked three seconds away from throwing up everywhere.
"No, no I trust you... for now at least."
He nodded and ran his hand through that blond hair but didn't hide the relieved look crossing his face well. "Okay, thanks, but do me a favor and put that thing away." He gestured towards the knife and then looked out at the crowd. I followed his gaze only to see more than a few people eyeing the knife, and me warily. But the scary part were the red eyes flashing back at us.
Fear raked down my spine and I quickly shoved the knife into the inside pocket of my jacket. The red eyes disappeared to normal colors and they meandered on their merry way. Now it was my face that was stark white. Those were a lot of red-eyed freaks. I couldn't take all of them, I doubted in a real fight I could actually take Luke.
"You look surprised." He chuckled softly a moment later when it was just us talking and Raffie chasing pigeons once again. "You're in Shorzin's class, you heard the legend. This town was founded by Immortals. There's a shit ton of us and we don't die, hence the name."
Okay, my mind was officially made up. That night, when Adriel came home, we were packing the cars up and getting the hell out of this place.
"It's just... a lot to take in."
"Yes, I'm sure." Though his tone was reassuring and not at all scornful. "You're important, Larkin. More so than you could ever imagine. No Immortal will hurt you."
Yeah fucking right.
"Right, because that little run in with your friends was just casual conversation."
A small, apologetic, smile pulled at Luke's lips and his expression turned almost sheepish. "I truly am sorry about that, and I took care of them. They will never bother you again, and the rest of us have been informed of who you are. No one will hurt you."
"Alright, and what about my family? This doesn't mean anything if they're in danger." I still didn't trust the guy, but I did know he was telling the truth about not hurting me. Apparently, I was his, and every other Immortals, key to freeing the demon dude.
"They're safe too, I promise. Well, from us at least."
"What the hell does that mean? Aren't you guys like the big baddies or whatever?"
That sheepish look turned concerned and he shifted uncomfortably beside me. "Yes, technically, but you see, there are two very different groups in Deshua. Mine, the Immortals, and the others."
"What, and let me guess the 'others' are your dinner, right? The humans." I scoffed and was a little weirded out that this conversation didn't necessarily seem so weird.
He shrugged one shoulder but glanced away uneasily. "Yes, they're part of it, but then there's the true others. The ones that still hold onto the old ways and beliefs. The witches that locked up Avidus all those centuries ago."
"I though Michael gave the mortals the girl for that, not witches."
"How do you think their words reached him to begin with?" Luke scoffed, and slumped further down in his seat.
"Just because he's a 'good' angel, doesn't mean he listens to humans. Prayer, after prayer, and soul after soul, tries to reach his ears. After the first billion or so, I'm sure he got irritated and turned off the radar. Only those with genuine power can penetrate an angel's mind—much less Michael's. And believe me, it's no easy feat, nor would anyone dare to do so again. Just because he is God's right-hand man, doesn't mean he isn't spiteful."
The fact that he was talking so causally about the actual existence of an archangel threw me for a loop. I wanted to scream that I was just a regular girl with a regular family that didn't sign up for any of this shit. But I knew that was never going to happen. I would never be 'normal' again. This was life now.
"Alright..." I started slowly, like my brain needed time to absorb all this chaos. "So, the mortals that got Michael's attention were actually witches, that still live here and—what? Want my family dead?"
"Well, they definitely don't want you to wake up Avidus, and I know they're willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that doesn't happen." Luke didn't outright say they would kill me and the Markos, but the implication as there.
"They spent all that time and power trying to get rid of him. There was a balance for a while after Avidus—'went away'—that they thrived on. We weren't strong enough to fight their power without him, and had to let go of our reign. Over the centuries we came to an agreement, never take more than we need, and they'll lay off any mass amounts of power. And it was working, until..." Luke's words trailed away, but I had a feeling I knew what he was going to say.
"Until I showed up."
That small smile was back, and he gazed over at me sheepishly. "When news that Key had returned, like legend said, that balance started to break. Everyone knows that things are about to change. Change how, is what remains uncertain." He nodded his blond head towards the dig site just barely in view behind the Cathedral. "They're not looking for a busted pipe. They're looking for him. A scroll was found in the catacombs a few years ago claiming the tomb he was entrapped in was buried there. They've been searching ever since."
Fear skyrocketed down my spine. That was the dig Adriel's construction site put him on. He was helping them look for greedy-demon guy. Bile started to build in my stomach. I definitely needed to get them away from this place. Even if the Immortals weren't 'supposedly' going to hurt us, I wasn't willing to risk those witch people.
Then a sickening realization hit me.
"Avid." I said out loud with a disbelieving scoff. "The construction company digging is named Avid." Like in Avidus. That knowledge felt like a slap in the face.
Luke let out a small, uncertain, chuckle. "Yes, he thought it would be funny to have me name the company that. Since they are 'avidly' looking for him and, well, his name is Avidus."
"You... you talk to him?"
Luke's face, which had started to look much better, paled again and he shifted uneasily. Like he wasn't supposed to have admitted that. "Um, sometimes. I was his—assistant when he still walked the Earth. He still has me do things for him now and then."
I already had a feeling Luke was 'in charge' of those freaks after the whole second run in with his friends. It wasn't hard to guess he was the 'boss man' they were talking about. But it never occurred to me that he was actually communicating with the locked-up greedy dude.
"How? Isn't he supposed to be trapped and asleep?"
"His body is, his mind travels in and out. Michael only gave the witches the girl, the power that binds Avidus was created by the mortals and has holes that he can slip through. Usually it's just his voice in my head telling me what to do. On rare occasions there's images, but those are few and far in between."
Horrible, gut wrenching dots suddenly connected in my head, and all breath escaped my lungs. My dreams. The ones with the dark wings and black eyes. With the soft, tender, intoxicating touches. Fuck. What if those had all been him? Had all been real? "You said it wasn't supposed to happen like this— He wanted you to find me, didn't he?" Then another sickening thought entered my mind and all I wanted to do was throw up. "You said you named the construction company. You created it?"
His sheepish expression was out for all to see and I nearly had to bend over to force the nausea away. "Oh my God. You found me in Sacramento. You sent Adriel that job offer to get us here. Holy shit! Did you kill his great aunt for the house?! Fuck, I'm going to be sick." I leaned over the side of the bench, ready to spew the contents of my stomach, when relief suddenly washed over me like a warm, soothing wave.
I sat back against the bench, the spinning in my head slowly fading away when I realized why. Luke had somehow managed to wrap his hand around the skin of my wrist, having had to push my sleeve up to do so, and the calm feeling was surging through the touch. I glanced over at him, and his smile was warm and understanding.
"It's an Immortal trick. I didn't want you to get sick." He let go and raised his hands in surrender at the narrowed look I shot him.
"No, you just want to fuck my life up."
He sighed and leaned away to run his hand through that blond hair once again. "Look, my job was to get you here, become your friend, and slowly introduce you to all of this. I wasn't expecting those four fucking idiots to ruin everything, but it was my fault. They knew the Key was here, but I didn't show them who. That's on me. I also wasn't expecting you to be so—aware."
"Aware? What the hell does that mean?"
"Aware. Like, you knew there was something off with me from the beginning. I could tell by the way you acted. You didn't trust me, which is fine. Some people have that ability to sense the paranormal. I just wasn't expecting you to have such an adverse reaction."
"I tend to get like that around people that want to eat me."
Luke shoved his sunglasses up enough to rub his fists into his eyes before letting the dark lenses cover them once again. "I don't want to eat you. I don't want to hurt you at all. Like I said, it's not the Immortals you need to worry about. We want you to wake him, I was just supposed to be the person to help you decide if you want to."
"You mean force me to."
"No, Larkin. Not force. You can't be forced to do anything." The complete seriousness that took over his tone zapped that sarcastic tone from me. I knew there was a dark, ancient secret hiding behind his words.
"You have a soul, which means you are in charge of your own will. You have the ability to your own mind, your own decisions. No one, not even true demons, can change that. It's the gift of having a soul." Luke's tone turned remorseful, so much it almost made me feel bad for the guy. Almost.
"When we choose to become Immortals, we sacrifice that gift. We willingly send away our souls. We are the only beings Avidus can truly control how he wishes. He will only wake if you genuinely choose to do so. It has to be your choice."
Your choice. See, I knew I was going to get sick and tired of that eventually.
"Let's say I do decide to wake him, which I really don't see myself doing, what happens to me then?" I had a sick feeling demon dude would kill me to ensure no one can trap him again. It's what I would do if I was in his place.
Luke tilted his head curiously to the side, like he really hadn't thought of that before. Great, well that was reassuring. "I'm not really sure, actually. Though, I assume he'll let you do whatever you want."
"You assume?" That was so not reassuring.
He shrugged again and glanced over at Raffie who had sat down to throw the breadcrumbs I gave her before we left the house at the pigeons. "More like I know. Your original life was able to trap him for a reason, and I highly doubt that reason has changed."
"Right, because trapping him inside his own body for centuries really makes the heart grow fonder."
Luke laughed for the first time since sitting down, and I hated to admit that the sound was somewhat relieving. "All I can promise is that he has never spoke an ill word about you. Usually he just demands that I figure my shit out and get you here. That's about it."
That wasn't reassuring either.
"Look, Luke, even if I believed the fact that he wouldn't hurt me, or my family, there is literally no incentive to wake his ass up. He created a bunch of vampires, enslaved mortals and wanted to take over the world. Why the fuck would I wake him so he can finish all of that? Hm?" I leaned my elbows against my knees in emphasis and 'harrumphed' at him.
"It's not what he wants anymore."
"Ha! Yeah, right, okay. And what exactly does he want now? World peace?"
Luke was silent as I scoffed and rolled my eyes, but I could feel his gaze penetrating the side of my face. He actually sat like that for so long it was starting to freak me out, more than I already was.
"I can't tell you what to do, nor is that my intention. All I can do is tell you the truth, and I have. But I also want to tell you a secret." He leaned closer and I resisted the urge to jump away as his lips stopped just a few inches from my ear. His words were so low I knew he did so for no other Immortal nearby could hear.
"They're digging in the wrong place. Please keep that little tidbit of information to yourself." My heart jumped as his words, and I stared at him with wide eyes as he pulled away and stood to his feet.
"The choice is yours, Larkin." Luke announced as he stretched his long limbs and glanced around the stone courtyard. "But if you ever need help making that choice, there were never cougars in the forest that day we met." With one last beaming signature Luke smile, he turned and began to walk away.
"I do hope you will see me as a friend one day." He called over his shoulder before disappearing into the crowd.
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Hope you enjoyed! Editing this chapter gave me chills!
Just a quick little note, this story isn't going to be as long as my other ones and only has a few more chapters left to go.
However! I have officially decided to turn it into a series! Yippee! So stay tuned and enjoy the roller coaster that's about to come!