Heartless (The Heartless Series) (22 page)

That just sounds weird.

"Speak of the devil." Hart flips up his knife and stands. I do the same, stand, not flip up my knife. I don't have a knife. Of all the times I'd love to have a knife, this would be it. Not that I know if a knife will actually kill a demon. I don't know anything about demons or paranormal things. Yeah, I've seen television shows about them. Can't say I would call them reliable sources of information.

Through the torch light, I see the silhouette of a person walking toward us. Just a shadow at first, and I tense up. This has suddenly gotten very real. Not that it wasn't real before but—yeah—very real. Very uncomfortable.

This is where I'm going to die. In this hole in the ground. I'm going to bring Hell to Earth because I'm some sort of key. I can't do this… It's not right. My mind races to try to find a way out. I know Hart knows what I'm thinking. I can't see how I can stop that. And I don't see how thinking can get me in trouble. What is he going to do? Kill me?

"Don't tempt me." He mumbles over his shoulder while he keeps his eye on the silhouette coming toward us. I'm standing behind Hart's shoulder. Like I think he's going to shield me from something. If I were a strong, awesome person, I'd be standing beside Hart. Heck, screw that, I'd run away. I'm not awesome. I'm scared. And right now, Hart is the most familiar thing I know. Apparently, I've known him forever.

I don't know what I think about that.

"You brought the girl?" The shadow asks.

He's still blocked. I can't exactly see him in the shadows, but I know his voice.

Oh God… I know his voice!

Chapter Twenty-Five

"
P
ROFESSOR
M
ITCHELL."
I
SAY UNDER MY BREATH.

Hart peeks back at me and nods. "Good job," his voice oozes sarcasm. Jerk.

I'd like to hit him. He'd probably hit me back, and since he's a demon, it'd probably hurt. Then again, I'm a demon too, so I might could take him.

Heck, I'm a pure demon. An abomination! Surely, I have some sort of ability to get myself out of this mess. Surely.

Hart, my demon shield, takes a step back so that I'm in front of him and he's right behind me. Like, right behind me. I feel his breath against the top of my head, and I feel his skin touching mine. He's way taller than me, so my head is to his shoulders. I can't say I feel very protected where I am, not that I expected Hart to protect me. His entire life. His entire existence has been to get me to this moment. To keep me alive so he can kill me and open the gates to Hell for some reason.

"Don't do anything stupid." He whispers in my ear. It sounds more like friendly advice than a command. He seems as intimidated by Professor Mitchell as I do. If that were possible.

"Fancy meeting you here, Professor." I try to make it light. When you face your executioner, might as well do it with a smile and a healthy dose of sarcasm.

"Oh, Gracen. Formalities are for the classroom. You can call me Seth."

"Seth." It sounds so strange to say that to a man I've respected. A man most of the campus respects. Seth…
Seth.

"Is she ready?" He asks Hart like I'm not even there.

"She is. Drank the last of the demon blood about an hour ago. Her eyes are black. She's as demonic as she's going to get."

Oh good.

"Or that she can get now. If it's any consolation, Gracen, you aren't at your full capacity. Not yet. There is one more thing you have to do before you fully become the Abomination."

"What's that?" I don't even care that my voice shakes.

"Doesn't matter. You are as strong as I need you now, and now is all you have. You'll be dead in a few minutes. Trust me, I'll be doing the world a favor. If you were allowed to reach your full power, turn completely-- believe me, Hell would seem like a picnic."

He turns his attention to Hart before I can ask anything. "Good job, Hart. I'm proud of you. It's been a long time coming." Seth stays in the shadows. I don't like it. If someone's going to kill me, he should have the decency to show his face. Common courtesy and all that.

Hart moves me over to the side and takes a few steps toward the professor. They seem to have some unfinished business between them. Must be important for Hart to have done all this work with me. "Yeah, Seth. It really has. Now. You hold up your end of the bargain. Where's my brother?"

His… brother… the one he hates so much? Well, of course the one he hates so much. What other brother would there be?

"He's on his way. Don't worry your pretty little head." The wink he gives Hart makes even my stomach turn.

Seth walks toward me, and I finally see him. His eyes are blue. I noticed it before, but I didn't think much about it. Blue. Bright blue… bright blue like…

"You're an angel." I gasp. My mind screams,
He's your father.
But I refuse to believe it. It's not true. It can't be true. There have to be other angels in the world. I mean, heck, Lucien is an angel. He could be my father for all I know.

Except I sort of had a few feelings for him or at least lustful thoughts and that might be a little… weird. Weirder than any of the rest of this?

I wanna go home.

Seth looks from Hart to me. His eyes light up when he sees me, really sees me. He bounces from rock to rock over to where I'm standing next to Hart and claps his hands together like an excited fairy. I guess I can picture that since he's an angel.

My freakin' history teacher was an angel all along.

My head hurts.

My stomach too, now that I think about it.

I want some more of that wine Hart had. No… no I don't. I don't. It's blood. I don't want blood.

I want it so bad.

I can smell it on Hart. I guess a side effect of being this pure blood demon thing. I can smell the blood pumping through Hart's veins. Now, how a demon can have blood beating through its veins, I don't know. I don't care. All I do know is that it's taking everything I have not to reach over, grab him by the back of his hair, bite his neck (or his hand or his shoulder or whatever), and drink. Drinking would be good. Drinking would warm me up again. I'm starting to get cold.

"You'll need a lot more blood now, Gracen. Now that you've almost fully transitioned. I mean, if you were to live past today. Which you aren't."

Walking toward me, he stops when he's a few inches away. I can smell his angel blood, too. It goes through his veins, but not at the same rate Hart's is. It's slower. More rhythmic. Not chaotic like Hart's. Not as appealing.

"I'm sure you have lots of questions. I'm sure Hart filled you in on a lot of it."

"You owe me." I say before he finishes his sentence. I don't have time for this. My head is starting to hurt. My nerves are starting to get more and more shot. I feel the anxiety coming back. I need something to take the edge off. I need… I know what I need.

Most of all I need answers.

Seth tilts his head. The silver in his hair catches the torchlight. It almost looks like a halo hanging over his head. "I owe you nothing, child. Nothing. I've given you everything. Life. The chance to live. Eighteen years. That's more than a lot of people get in this world. I know. I see them in Heaven all the time. Babies. Children. Teenagers. You tell me how that's fair. You tell me how that's just."

I scoff. I can't help it. He's actually trying to tell me he's the good guy? The good guy? Really? "If you are an angel, then help me. Stop Hart. Let me go."

"Um… no. I don't think so. I've waited a long time for this. Invested too much. I just can't end it. What good would that be? Turn you into a demon, into
almost
your full potential, and just walk away? Are you insane?"

"It's possible." I totally feel insane. It's funny how normal this all feels. I'm not even completely shocked that Seth is an angel. I mean, it sort of feels like par for the course. Hart is a real demon. Lucien is a real angel. Seth might as well be a big, bad evil angel. "How can an angel be evil?"

I taste the blood, my blood, before I feel the sting of the slap. Seth could hit harder than he looked. He looked like a stereotypical college professor. Tweed tan jacket, white shirt, khaki pants, middle aged. Handsome, no doubt. But nothing special. Nothing. But here we were. An angel…

Hart finches beside me. I can feel his body tense and his fist ball up. I think he wants to hit Seth back. I think I'd like to see it.

Seth is breathing heavily, still miffed at me for calling him evil apparently. "Not just an angel you spoiled, ungrateful little child… your father."

I had suspected as much, but actually hearing it… For years I'd wondered about my father. Who he was. What he was doing. I knew my mom hadn't loved him. She told me that. But I always sort of figured, or at least hoped, he was a good man. I don't know why I thought that, but I did. A good man. A kind man. At least that's how he looked in my head.

My father is an angel. The best of the best. The goodest of the goodest. Except he doesn't seem to be very good.

"My brother." Hart huffs beside me.

"He's on his way." Seth glares at him. Seth is much, much taller than Hart, and he has a more commanding presence. Seth's posture says 'My shit don't stink'. Hart is more of a fighter, or at least that's how I see it.

Hearing that, Hart's shoulders slump. I wonder why. Hart is a freakin' demon. Evil personified. Seth is an angel. Yeah, I get that demons didn't like angels. I imagine there have been very epic battles between angels and demons in the past, oh, ever. Probably even going on now. Good and evil. Right and wrong. Then again, Seth seems pretty wrong to me. And I guess angels wouldn't like demons. This is just… I wish I could just tell which side both of these things were on. I assume they're on the same side, but not exactly on the same side.

My head is killing me.

"It would make this easier on you, wouldn't it, Gracen? I've been around since the beginning, and one thing I've noticed about humans is their need for why. Why is this happening? Why me? Why did God choose me?"

"Well… why?" He asked every question I'd been thinking, so it would be nice if he started answering.

Seth, it's so strange calling him Seth, he's always been Professor Mitchell. The cool professor everybody wanted to have. The one who taught the cool Civil War stuff, the dude that made learning interesting.

Prof—Seth, smirks at me and sighs. He places his hands behind his back like he does in class and starts pacing like he's lecturing me on history. Maybe he is. Only I bet this history isn't something we learned about in the history books—dare I say not even the Bible.

"You're not wrong." Seth says. "The Bible, though accurate, is sort of skewed. Think about the subject matter. Think God wants you to know all His dirty laundry? As such, it leaves out some key details."

"Like evil angels?" My nose twitches. I want blood. I want to go home. I want to be okay. I don't see any of that happening. That makes the rage burn in my belly. I've always been angry at the world for—whatever. But now it's different. I'm angry at all of this for happening. I'm mad that my entire damn life has been a lie, a ruse, the damn Truman Show. All leading up to this.

Seth keeps pacing. When he speaks, it's like I never even said anything. Never asked a question. That son of a bitch. Is it blasphemy to think bad about angels? Because if it is, I'm totally screwed. I have no love for these dudes. Not even Lucien. Not really, though I guess I like him more than Seth so that's saying something.

"He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them
,
Psalm 78:49.
" Seth looks at Hart. I look at Hart. Hart tilts his head. Oh, so the big bad demon is learning stuff too. He catches me smirking at him and glares. I don't care. It serves him right.

Seth claps his hands together. The sound echoes though the cave, making me jump. "Children, focus. The signs won't stay aligned forever. We don't have much time. Especially not if you want your brother to show up before we get this done."

"You promised." Hart growls.

"I promised your brother." Seth roars back. "I never promised when. Keep your panties on and focus. You haven't come this far to throw it away now, have you?"

I can tell it takes everything he has, but Hart backs down. I swear smoke is coming out of his ears. He looks down at me and sucks in a breath. I can't tell if he's embarrassed that Seth is here making his big bad demon status go out the window, or if he's really scared of Seth. Or if there is something more going on.

I'm sure there's something more going on here. Of course there is. Hart wants revenge on his brother. I'm supposed to help make that happen. He's waited centuries for this. And now Seth wants to talk.

Talk about patience.

If I had my guess, Hart is losing his.

For my part, the longer Seth talks, the longer I get to live so… yay for rambling.

I keep my thumbnail pressed into my middle finger, just to keep myself grounded. To keep from going off the rails. It wouldn't take much.

"Are you done thinking, Gracen? Ready to listen?" Seth isn't very patient either. Not really.

I nod and bite my lip. I'm sure this isn't going to be an easy conversation to listen to. "I'm sure Hart has told you about angels and demons. At least I told him to."

"I did." Hart's jaw flinches. Wow, no love lost between these two.

Seth keeps going like the ant didn't even speak. "Most, but not all, demons were human at one time or another. But some are…"

"Pure," I add to show him that Hart had told me things. Not sure why I feel the need to defend Hart, but I do. Sue me.

Seth stops pacing for a second and his face lights up just a bit. "Very good. Good. They are pure. Made by God Himself."

Wait. "Whoa… back up. God himself. God made demons?" Because that doesn't exactly seem right to me.

The way Seth's eyes lit up shows me that he's happy I'm listening. What else would I be doing? "They don't tell you that little bit of trivia in Sunday School, do they? They don't like it known that God—" he points to the sky as he says the word like it burns his tongue "—allows evil into the world. Not just allows. But creates. Nothing can exist without God, right? He made everything. Demons are everything so…" He picks back up pacing. "Not to balance power like everyone thinks. Like
He
has them think."