Sunburst (Starbright Series) (19 page)

             
“I’m doing my job,” Jude shrugged. “The contract would tell you if I weren’t.”

             
That gave me pause. Living contracts were an extreme rarity. That also meant this one was bound by the signers blood. It was one thing to say Seth had sold his soul, even to see the evidence of it. But knowing they used a living contract meant the soul was actually trapped inside the contract. This was both good news and bad news. The good news meant that because the soul hadn’t been imprisoned in hell during the duration of the contract, Seth would actually have a chance of getting his back. The bad news was that just because Seth got his soul back didn’t mean he wouldn’t already have changed into the Fallen he was pretending to be. It also didn’t mean that his soul was going to be held apart from the evil that surrounded it. But the worst piece of news this brought was that the contract was extremely all-seeing. Where a simple paper contract was left to the signer’s honor system, this particular contract would know if there was deceit or malpractice.

             
It also meant I wasn’t told the entire story. If anything, living contracts were extremely wordy to ensure that all of the parties got exactly what they wanted, since they bonded the contract by blood both sides of the deal were carried out without any of the signer’s wishes. They just… happened.

             
Some people believed there was an entirely secret sect that was devoted only to living contracts. A mixture of Fallen and Warriors that carried out the contracts until they were satisfied.

             
“The contract will tell me when you fail,” Aliah reminded Jude, turning around so that they were face to face. “The contract will not tell me if you are on your way to failing.”

             
Jude’s face became a mask of unemotional placidness. His gray eyes were shuttered and his body remained relaxed against the car. He was too easy-going for me to fully believe him, and I suddenly felt nervous for him. Aliah would see through his façade easily and then Jude would die.

             
It was going to be simple and quick.

             
I just hated that; I actually felt bad for Jude. I should know better. I should be glad to get rid of him.

             
Finally Jude let out a long sigh, “Are you finished boss? I have to get to class.”

             
“I’m finished,” Aliah finally answered.

             
But Jude didn’t move. Instead, he just looked at me and waited.

             
“Stay away from him Stella.” Aliah’s words were steel and titanium, both unbreakable and unbending.

             
“Or what, Aliah? You can’t hurt me. You can’t touch me. Stop with the threats. They mean nothing to me.”

             
“I can’t hurt you, but I can hurt him, Stella. Understand me when I say that I own him now. I know very well that you’re looking toward the day he gets his soul back. Well, it won’t be any good to him if it’s blacker than he is. You better pray I take it easy on him while he’s in my care or can you imagine what that would be like for you? You’d have to kill your own Counterpart.” He paused for dramatic effect and then said, “That might be fun.”

             
And then he was gone. We stood watching him disappear down the line of cars and climb into a midnight blue Porshe. He peeled out of the parking lot in record time. Jude and I just stared after him while the first bell rang in the background.

             
“You’re a crazy person, Stella!” Jude exclaimed in a high-pitched laugh. I couldn’t determine if I should agree with him or be extremely offended. “You can’t talk to Aliah like that! Hell, you can’t even talk about Aliah like that!”

             
This was the most worked up I’d ever seen Jude, and it was almost amusing.
Almost
.

             
“Jude, we are enemies. I can talk about him however I want.”

             
“You don’t understand what he will do to make you suffer,” Jude shook his head, all traces of humor gone. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it before sucking in a long drag. His eyes went a bit unfocused; he dropped his tone as if he were afraid of being overheard. “Aliah wants complete obedience. It doesn’t matter who you are or what side of the war you’re on. You defied him, Stella. He will punish you for that.”

             
“I defy him every time I see him,” I pointed out. “I defy them all.”

             
“And look at what he did to you!” Jude threw up his hands in exasperation. “Look at how he’s making his point!”

             
“Seth made his own decision. He chose this to protect me.”

             
He let out a cackle of bitter laughter. “And you think he just came up with this plan all on his own? You think he wanted to sell his soul?”

             
No. I didn’t think that. But I thought he chose this. I assumed this was ultimately his decision.

             
“What are you talking about?” I demanded.

             
Instead of answering my question he just continued smoking and looking down at his worn-out Chuck Taylors.

             
“Jude, tell me what you’re talking about.” He looked up at me from under his full lashes and just stared. His eyes were bleak and dark, his jaw tight and his lips pressed firmly around his cigarette. He wasn’t going to give anything away. “Please, Jude. I need to understand this.”

             
He let out a whoosh of white smoke, nothing like his usually careful exhales that came out in “O’s” or concentrated streams. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

             
“Please.” I sounded pathetic, but if this tactic didn’t work I was taking my sword and gutting him with it. He would eventually heal. And I would have some satisfaction.

             
I realized I was still holding my sword, in broad daylight, surrounded by high school students and without any explanation that would make sense to my teachers. I kept my eyes locked with Jude’s and returned the katana to its hiding place. I slid up sideways onto my driver’s seat and rested my elbow on the steering wheel. I was late for class, but this was more important.

             
“The day you were… attacked,” Jude looked around and then moved closer to me. He was still smoking and the strong scent of tobacco filled my car and filtered into my clothes. But I let him get away with it so he would talk. “You weren’t the only one. Your boyfriend was attacked too. Seven, she can…. She has this way of affecting the atmosphere, making it seem like there’s no trouble.”

             
“I knew that,” I said confidently. Only, I didn’t exactly know that but I suspected it.

             
“Sure, but it doesn’t always work with you and Seth. Or, that’s what I figured out. Because you have that…. bond. Anyway, so they planned this whole thing. They knew you would be separated that day. And they knew you would be unarmed. When Saul took you out to that desert…. There’s no way they would have been able to find you. And Aliah knew he would never be able to convince Seth to change sides without killing him first. So he gave him the…. opportunity to save your life.”

             
“My location for his soul,” I filled in the blanks.

             
“Seth added a few of his own provisos. But the deal was made before Saul lost his head.”

             
“Aliah sacrificed his own man to get Seth to sign?”

             
“Aliah would have sacrificed all of his men to get Seth. He has this…. obsession with it, with him and his sister. You were collateral. A means to an end.”

             
“Seth had already signed the contract before he saved me?”

             
“And then he was given the weekend to say goodbye. His stipulation, not Aliah’s.”

             
“What else did Seth add?”

             
“Small stuff. The majority of the contract was not up for negotiation.”

             
“Tell me.”

             
“It was mostly little stuff. Your human friends are safe, but not your family. He’s allowed to see you whenever he wants. You get Sundays off.”

             
I get Sunday’s off.
I mouthed.

             
Jude smirked. “I think he was just reaching to put in as much as he could. It really got kind of ridiculous.”

             
“And Aliah gave him everything he wanted?”

             
“No, but then Aliah didn’t get everything he wanted either. And it had to happen really fast because, you know…. your life was hanging in the balance.” Jude finished his cigarette and stomped it out under his toe. Then he popped in a mint Mento. He held the pack out to me, but I declined.

             
“The protection until I’m eighteen thing, Aliah or Seth’s idea?” I asked carefully.

             
“Aliah’s. That was the whole incentive.”

             
“More than just my life?”

             
“More than your life. But it’s not exactly fool proof.”

             
“What does that mean?” My hand subconsciously went to my throat.

             
“You’re protected from Aliah and all of his Fallen. But at the time the contract was signed…. Seth wasn’t technically considered…”

             
“Fallen,” I finished. “So the only person allowed to kill me right now is Seth.”

             
At one point in my life that would have seemed absurd. Now…. it was actually a possibility.

             
“Exactly.”

             
“So why does Aliah want me to stay away from him then? It seems in his best interest to let us spend as much time together as we want until I end up headless and Seth becomes unredeemable.”

             
“Yeah, I don’t get that either.” I shot him a disbelieving look and a smirk tilted his lips. “Hey, listen, I’m just a lowly foot soldier. I don’t get to hear the big plans.”

             
“I find that hard to believe,” I groaned. I hopped down from my truck and adjusted my green cotton gypsy skirt. It fell in billowy folds to my feet. It was way more bohemian than I was used to, but in case of emergency it had a hidden slit and I could easily hide my dagger underneath. I paired it with a tight gray Mead Raiders t-shirt and felt more like Piper than myself. But desperate times and all.

             
“I know,” he sighed. He moved out of my way so I could grab my backpack and close my door. “I look important.”

             
I snorted. “That is not what I meant. I just thought this job… your third-party job was kind of a big deal.”

             
“I fit the demographic: age, looks, not overly aggressive, not completely bat shit. All the important stuff. Before this I was mostly forgotten about.” He sounded almost proud of that.

             
“You? With all your diabolical evil-ness?” I pretended to be shocked. “That’s very hard for me to believe.”

             
He shoved my shoulder and tried to hide a smile. We started walking toward the school in what could be considered a comfortable silence.

             
Right before we reached the office where we would have to face the wrath of the secretaries and try to explain away our extreme tardiness he said, “Just give Aliah what he wants, Stella. He gets to win because you can never compete with his inhumanity. He’s not bluffing. He will ruin Seth.”

             
I didn’t respond because I didn’t know how. Because I believed Jude. But I also knew, without a shadow of a doubt that I couldn’t leave Seth alone. I was fighting with my life to protect this boy that I loved, this boy I wanted to come back to me. And if Aliah was demanding I stay away from him then I was doing something right.

             
Finally.

Chapter Seventeen

            
 
“Where were you this morning?” Piper asked at lunch. “You were really late.”

             
“She was with me,” Jude declared with an arrogant and suggestive raise of his eyebrows.

             
“I wasn’t,” I quickly denied.

             
“You weren’t with me this morning?” Jude drew out his words slowly and I felt myself burn with embarrassment.

             
I swallowed and took a few calming breaths, trying to get the glow under control. “We were in the same place at the same time, but in no way were we together.”

             
“Dude,” Rigley laughed with respect. “Way to go.”

             
“I just said we weren’t together,” I pointed out.

             
“Yeah, but when a girl works that hard to point out the specifics of what happened, she’s obviously in denial.” Rigley was grinning like the cat that ate the canary.

             
“I’m sure you know all about girls that are in denial after being with you,” I pointed out acidly. “But, for real, nothing happened between Jude and me.”

             
“You forgot about the sword.”

             
Even Lincoln joined in the male snickering. Thank God Tristan wasn’t here yet.

             
“The sword?” Piper asked slowly.

             
“If I say it was Stella’s sword and not mine would that make things confusing?” Jude asked innocently.

             
“Yes,” Piper agreed over the boys now howling with laughter.

             
“Dude, that sounds kinky,” Rigley giggled- yes… giggled. “I had no idea Stella was so freaky.”

             
“You, my friend, have no idea,” Jude grinned.

             
I dropped my face into my hands and willed the world to just disappear around me.

             
“I’m going out for a smoke,” Jude declared to the table. And then in my ear he whispered, “Want to join me? I know you secretly like the smell.” His voice was both teasing and goading and my fingers itched for the sword in question.

             
“Go away,” I groaned.

             
“Suit yourself,” he sat back and I felt him swing his legs over the bench.

             
“Also,” I turned my face in my hands and met his gray eyes. “I’m going to kill you later.”

             
“You’re adorable.” He winked at me.

             
Bastard.

             
“No, seriously,” I insisted quietly. “I’m going to
fillet you
. And then I’m going to strangle you until your head pops right off. Just wait.”

             
“Mouthy,” he whispered with a shit-eating grin on his face. “I like it.”

             
And then he was gone. He zipped out of the cafeteria, pulling his cigarettes from his back pocket before my head could completely spin around from pure rage. That boy was going to make my head explode one day.

             
I turned back to my lunch and felt Piper’s eyes on me.

             
“What?” I asked innocently.

             
“What is going on with you two? You were with him this morning? You were late to class? He flirts with you like he
knows you
. Stella, what the hell?”

             
“That stuff wasn’t true,” I defended myself. And then louder to the table I said, “Jude was just joking. None of that was true.”

             
“What wasn’t true?” Tristan asked as he slid onto the bench across from me. His eyes were curiously quirked and he was looking at Piper for an answer instead of me.

             
What was that?

             
“Jude is the reason Stella was late this morning,” Piper explained quickly. Her eyebrows raised in a “Now what?” expression and I couldn’t believe she just sold me out like that!

             
“Jude is the reason you were late this morning?” Tristan asked slowly, understanding what that meant at an entirely different level than Piper. At least I wasn’t going to have to be defending myself to him.

             
Tristan sounded outrageously pissed off. He pinned me in place with a blazing glare and I felt paralyzed. Rigley and Lincoln all of a sudden found their lunches super interactive, and Piper sat gloating next to me with her arms crossed. Bree was noticeably absent for lunch today, which was fine with me. She would have found this way too entertaining for her own good.

             
Or my own good.

             
“It’s not what you think,” I offered lamely.

             
And like a furious older brother or father, he raised one eyebrow and said, “Oh really? What am I thinking?”

             
Shoot.

             
“I just meant, nothing happened.” What? That was a terrible thing to say because it implied that something could happen. And that was just gross.

             
“Well, that’s good news,” Tristan glowered.

             
“Ok, stop.” It was time to lay it out for them. “There is nothing between Jude and me. Nor will there ever be anything between us. So please stop listening to his craziness and trust me, your friend.”

             
“So defensive,” Piper grumbled, but Tristan looked satisfied.

             
I rolled my eyes but decided to smooth things over with her. “Piper, are you and Lincoln still getting the limo for prom?”

             
Lincoln tuned back in and nodded. I caught Tristan’s eye and gave him a questioning look. He took over, “Want to split it?”

             
“With you?” Piper drawled. “Uh, no.”

             
“With me and Stella.”

             
“What?” she gasped and then punched me in the arm and her bangles set off jangling down her forearm. Ok, maybe this wasn’t exactly smoothing things over. “You’re going to prom with Tristan?”

             
I shrugged. “Yes?” I didn’t know what I had done to piss her off now, but apparently she was not a woman easily pleased today.

             
Her head snapped back and forth between Tristan and me like she was watching an invisible tennis match. She pointed a painted black fingernail at him and scowled. “You had sixteen years to make your move, Tristan Shields. And you did nothing. Then as soon as a decent boy walks into her life, you decide to go all caveman and claim her? That is not cool.”

             
My mouth dropped open- all the way open. Tristan cocked his head back like he had been slapped or punched or worse. And Rigley and Lincoln did the whole look-anywhere-but-at-us thing again.

             
When nobody challenged her, she continued. “And prom? Could you get more cliché? Ugh! I am so sick of the boys in this cow town. Grow up. All of you!”

             
And with that she swung her legs around and stomped out of the cafeteria in her low-heeled, red wedges, and shimmery black leggings. She looked like a pin-up model today- like a scary, raging, murderous, pin-up. Oh boy.

             
“Chase, what is going on with your woman?” Tristan gaped at Lincoln.

             
“Don’t look at
me
!” He was blushing, the tips of his cheekbones tinged pink and his white blonde hair flopped forward in his eyes. “That was all you! But now I’m going to have to deal with the fallout. Thanks a lot, asshole. And she’s right.”

             
“What?” Tristan swiveled around to face Lincoln. He didn’t usually use that many words in a row; it might have been some kind of record.

“He’s right, man,” Rigley cut in helpfully. “I think you broke her.”
“What did
I
do?” Tristan asked in a high, disbelieving voice.

“Hell if I know,” Rigley muttered sympathetically. “But she’s right. If you would have asked Stella

out the first time you noticed she had boobs, you would have saved us a hell of a lot of drama around here.”

             
I expected Tristan to blow up and rival Piper’s fury, but he just shrugged. “That is probably the first smart thing I’ve heard all day.”

             
That was it for me. “I can’t take this anymore. You guys are all idiots. All of you. Possibly the entire species of males everywhere are all idiots. I’m out of here. I’ll catch you losers later.”

             
“Can you smooth that over for me?” Lincoln asked while ignoring my entire rant.

             
I did find a sympathetic look for him, “Lincoln, I don’t think a new car could smooth that over. You’re on your own.”

             
And then I walked out. I left my entire tray at my spot. Tristan would deal with it and I was too worked up to even spend one extra minute in that cafeteria. I walked straight to my locker and dug deep in my bag for my cellphone.

             
Can I meet up with you tonight? I need to kill something.
I texted to Serena. And then I stared at my screen until she texted back.

             
Yes, please. We have a lead. Be ready by nine. I’ll call Jupiter with details.

             
Thanks.

             
I was actually impressed at her texting skills. Serena had adapted well to human life, even while I knew she itched to get back up in the sky. I had been bred for a purpose and one of the reasons was so that the rest of the Star community didn’t have to deal with the claustrophobic prison of Earth.

             
I slipped my phone back into my bag and pulled out my books for my next class. Piper yanked open her locker next to me sounding extra loud in the quiet hallway.

             
I peeked at her from around my opened locker door and found a miserable expression on her face.

             
“I know I’m crazy sometimes,” she grumbled. “You don’t have to tell me.”

             
“I wasn’t going to,” I said sincerely. “You alright?”

             
“No,” she admitted. She slammed her locker closed and let her forehead fall forward on it. “I’m worried about you.” She tilted her face to mine and I met her concerned eyes with steady ones of my own.

             
She had reason to be worried about me; I was surprised by her perceptiveness. She wasn’t usually this…. insightful. I mean, she was, in certain ways. But not about the big, secret stuff in my life.

             
Except maybe Tristan. Apparently I should have given her more credit a long time ago.

             
“Why are you worried about me?” I asked carefully, already afraid of her answer.

             
“You would tell me if something was going on, wouldn’t you?” she demanded. “Like if you’d started using drugs or got pregnant or something. I mean, I’m your best friend. I should be the first to know. Plus, I’m the least likely to judge, so-“

             
“Piper! I’m not pregnant. Good lord.”

             
“Drugs?”

             
“No drugs. Geez.” I shook my head at her.
              “Something’s going on,” she pointed out gently. “You don’t want to talk to me about it, and I don’t know why.”

             
“I don’t either,” I admitted. And it was true. I had never wanted to open up to Piper more than this moment. I used to be able to talk about this stuff to Tristan, but that was before we were suddenly more than friends and back when things were a lot less complicated. My problems revolved around accidently lighting up like a light bulb in math class when I didn’t know the answer, or running too fast at practice. He would lend me a listening ear and soothe my ego by telling me I was the hottest alien he’d ever seen. Now those small, conceited problems had morphed into the boy I was in love with sometimes wanting to kill me, sometimes making me feel things I’d never felt before. And in those moments, Seth made me feel things I never knew were possible. An entire faction of bad guys were out to kill me or torture me and the most annoying creature on the planet- Jude- existed as my constant shadow, doing his best to ruin my reputation at school. There was a lot to talk about with Piper, and I needed my best friend to unload on. “But I want to.”

             
“Then talk to me, Stella. I hate watching your life unravel from the sidelines. I at least want to attempt to help you tape it back together.”