Daughter Trilogy Bundle (74 page)

"Now, let's get married.  We can leave tonight if you want," he urges.

"What?" I snicker at his amusing demand.

"You said we could get married the moment you turned immortal.  Here you are; green, white, and blue eyed," he murmurs sincerely.

"Why are you in such a hurry?"

"Because I've been dying to be married to you since before I even asked you to marry me.  I want to introduce you as my wife, and I want the world to know I'm your husband.  The bond between us will strengthen, and-"

"What do you mean by that?" I pop out quickly.

He shrugs a little before answering with a hint of hesitance.  "With immortals, a sanctioned marriage offers a strong sense of unity, and it binds your strength together.  You'll be stronger for marrying me."

"And you'll be stronger for marrying me?" I ask suspiciously.

"Yes, but…" He stops as his eyes gauge mine for where I'm going with this, and then his eyes narrow angrily.  “You don't think that's why I want to get married, do you?" he asks with an insulted tone.

"No, but I also don't know why you're in such a rush.  It's usually the other way around," I retort.

"So you really are entertaining the thought that I'm trying to be stronger.  Unbelievable.  If anything, I'd love for you to be stronger so I don't worry so much, but I can swear to you I could give a damn about myself being stronger," he admonishes before throwing on his pants and flashing into the main room.

I grab some clothes from the bag beside the bed and swiftly dress before leaving the privacy of the padded bedroom and following him with a guilty burden.

The others are sitting around the television, deliberately ensuring their eyes never meet mine.  Everyone's acting so different now.

"Devin, please talk to me," I whisper.

"I think there's been enough said," he growls.

"Devin, I'm sorry.  I'm just a little-"

"Don't say it," he interrupts.  "You've done nothing but make excuses, and now… Now, you've crossed a line," he adds, and I can see the pain I've caused with my stupidity.

He flashes out of the room, and I follow him again.  When I reach the bedroom, he's nowhere to be found.

I frown when I realize he must have taken the fire escape, and I screech in anger as I whirl around.  Fire explodes from me and crashes into the wall, setting it ablaze.

I scream louder as I feel the rain rushing in on the arms of my wind to extinguish it.  The cracked door has allowed the others to hear, and Kry is the first to burst through, alarm tainting his face.

"What the fuck?" he panics.

"I
… there was… I…. fire," I stammer wildly while pointing to the scorched and crumbling wall.

"Holy smoking bedroom," Deacon gasps.  "The whole place looks as though it's been torched."

"That's not what I'm talking about," I yelp while motioning to the rest of the tattered room.  "There was fire that flew out of me," I blare.

"What?" Theia gasps.

"Fire… It came out of me," I exasperate in a squealing octave as I grab my head in complete shock.

"Whoa," Jace mutters as he pulls me into his arms.  "Calm down.  You're worked up, and it's been a long couple of days.  Maybe your emotions have flared and been put on red alert.  Perhaps your Aphrodite passion got a little carried away," he says in an explanatory tone while trying to soothe me.

"No.  The rest of it might have been, but I saw the flames shoot out of me," I whimper.

His arms close around me tighter, and I start trying to collect myself as everyone stares at me expectantly.  It's as if they're waiting for answers, and I don't have any.

"Persia, what do you know about this?" Theia asks softly.

"This is outside our realm, but as I told you, she's stronger than me - more so than I could have imagined."

"What do you know about Sapphire's father?" Phillip says with a tone of mysterious intrigue.

"Nothing.  My mother told me he was irrelevant to our world.  I assumed it meant he was mortal.  Aphrodite did have a nasty habit of bearing children from mortals, and I never gave it anymore thought.  This can't be related.  I've never had this sort of incident," She answers distractedly.

"Asteria was part of the cosmo embodiments, and we still haven't seen all of the affects from that.  It's possible this is just the intro to what her power will be once it fully forms.  Most of her abilities are still in the early development forms," Theia offers.

Jace continues to hug me to his chest, and Kry frowns at the betraying contact.

"I'll call Devin and see what he thinks about all this," he grumbles.

Obviously he knows Devin is gone.  I'm sure he's also assessed why.

Because I'm so fucking stupid.

"Let's get you a drink of water or something," Jace murmurs sweetly while kissing the top of my head.

"No.  Something stronger.  Please tell me there's vodka."

"I think I saw some earlier."

"Yo.  What's up?" Kry says into the phone, and I have to eavesdrop.

"I just need a minute.  I'll be back after while," Devin replies dryly.

"I think you should take a minute some other time.  Adisia swears she just blazed, and the wall she scorched is pretty convincing evidence that she might be right," Kry counters.

"I'm sure it's her overworked emotions.  I doubt it was a true blaze.  I'll be back later," he argues.

"It was a real blaze," I growl.

"You're in the room with her?" Devin sighs in exasperation.

"Sorry, man.  I'll take it in the bedroom.  Hang on a minute," Kry mumbles.

"He's that mad?" I almost whimper.

"Yeah,
he's
that mad," Devin snarks in a whisper over the phone.

Tears fill up in my eyes as Kry disappears from the room, and Jace begins pulling me into the kitchen.  He props me up on the counter and starts to pour a glass and then shakes his head before just handing me the entire bottle.

I huff out a tragic laugh and turn it up appreciatively.

"Let's go to my room," he murmurs kindly.

"No.  Let's go to the balcony," I say with a scolding eye.

He laughs a little and shrugs.  "Balcony it is.  It's out of reach from the ears in here anyways."

I roll my eyes, and I see the devilish smirk on Gemma's face.  She's enjoying Jace's persistence.

Right now I just need someone to talk to that isn't on
team Devin
.  Everyone else is strongly tied and completely devoted to him.

I get sick of not having anyone to listen to me, and it's already a thin patch for Persia.  She doesn't like groups, and if she hears me struggling, she might just whisk me away.

"So, what's going on?" Jace asks as he shuts the door behind him.

"I fucked up," I grumble while lowering my head to my hands.

"I doubt that.  That room looked pretty tossed, so I'm not seeing any reason he would be left with sanity let alone complaints."

I laugh a little at his envious tone.  "It was after that.  He's ready to get married this instant," I sigh.

"And you're not?" he asks hopefully.

"It's not like that.  Honestly, I'm just learning about who I am.  I'm not sure that
right this minute
is the time to be getting married.  There's so much other stuff going on, and it's starting to become overwhelming."

"Then don't get married," he says with an all too chipper tune, though he's trying to keep an expression of nonchalance.

Perhaps I shouldn't take advise from someone who has such obvious ulterior motives.  I roll my eyes at his plotting remark, and then I slink into the folds of the oversized chair that has been heavily doused by my storm.

The water seeps through my clothes to dampen my body, but I don't care.  It'll annoy me later, but for now I'm just ready to give up.

"I just need a minute to wrap my head around everything.  He's the first guy who has ever truly loved me.  I should be leaping at this opportunity instead of cautiously tiptoeing in.  Devin's perfect in so many ways, and I'm not."
"Don't put yourself down.  You have every right to feel confident, and no one is perfect - not even him," he grumbles.

"You don't even know the things he has done for me.  He saved me from the downward spiral my mortal life was taking.  He has taken care of my family and friends.  He has gone to extreme lengths to ensure their safety and mine.  He's saved my life countless times
… I'm so stupid," I scold to myself.

"You're not stupid.  You just turned immortal
… again.  You've barely had a chance to engage in our world, and what you have experienced is some of the worst parts.  It's hard to appreciate the world we're in when you're constantly fighting for your life," he says encouragingly.

My lips twitch in an unconvinced manner, and he stands to his feet while extending his hand for mine.

"Come on," he demands gently.

"Where?" I grumble.

A devious smirk spreads over his face as his eyes dance over to the balcony's edge.

"You're crazy," I murmur dismissively.

"No I'm not.  I'm immortal, and so are you," he dares.

"We can still be killed," I argue.

"Only by other immortals.  It's impossible to die any other way.  Trust me, I know," he says menacingly.

"No.  Everyone will worry about where I am," I gripe.

"That's the problem.  You keep worrying about what everyone else is telling you to do.  You can't think for yourself long enough to make a decision about anything.  Come with me and clear your head," he tempts.

Standing up, I take a deep breath and stare down the side of the enormous drop.  There's no way, and there are so many people.

"We could kill someone, and I don't know if I trust your theory on our immortality deal," I chuckle.

"The people will move, trust me."

"How do you know?" I laugh.

"Because they hate electrical bursts," he says playfully, and the lights on the edge of the sidewalk begin bursting in unison causing the mortals to run.

"What are you-"

"Come on.  We've got a short window.  I can't blow them twice," he chuckles as he grips my hand.

I shriek as I feel myself dropping over the edge, and I panic as the ground nears us too fast.  My stomach flies into my throat, and my eyes almost pop out of my head at the rapid descent.

The wind slides against me, doing all it can to grab me and pull me back to safety, but I'm too heavy.  I brace for impact as a girly squeal emerges as the collision nears.

The concrete cracks under my feet, a crunching rock sound springing up to meet my ears, but I'm completely unscathed.

"Wow," I gasp with such an adrenaline high, my eyes alight and dancing with excitement.

"Immortality has its perks," he snickers out.

"That was incredible," I laugh out as I grab my chest being forced to expand vigorously.

"Life isn't always running.  Sometimes it's just living," he says softly.

He starts to lean in, and I feel his hand gripping my side to pull me to him.  My eyes flicker green, and the commanding tone exits.

"Stop," I order.

"Why?" he asks with casual indifference.

What?  He's immune too?

"You're not affected by me?" I gasp.

"Very much so," he seduces, and his lips close over mine before I can give it any more thought.

I feel the electricity surging through me as Aphrodite punishes him for his disobedience.  He flips backwards through the air after my shocking wave strikes through him, and he lands on his back with a cracking thud as the concrete splits open beneath him.

"Damn," he grumbles as he rolls over to his knees while coughing out the lingering sparks.

"Sorry.  I didn't mean to be
… that rough," I say with a grimace.

"I suppose I deserved that," he heaves as he tries to fully catch his breath.

I rush to help him to his feet, and he trembles a little at my initial touch.

"I really am sorry," I murmur.

"I'm sorry too.  I knew stop didn't mean go ahead, but I took a chance.  Next time I'll be holding the hand of a conductor before attempting such a bold move," he jokes.

"Let's get you back upstairs.  You look like hell," I exasperate.

"You look pretty incredible in those skimpy little shorts," he teases.  "Perhaps that's what bested me."

"Okay, Romeo.  You've reached your limit tonight," I joke.

He keeps his arm wrapped around my shoulder for support as he limps lightly back to the apartment.

             
When we walk in, all eyes turn to us, almost scolding us.

Devin's back
.

His eyes narrow when he sees Jace's arm around me, and his jaw looks as though it's about to break off when it clenches too tightly.