Tempted by Evil (22 page)

I pedaled hard, fighting to keep the bike from fishtailing about on the treacherous surface. As I did, I prayed for the moon to shine―
my moon to shine. I was equal parts good and bad, and though Constantine had guaranteed me that all was lost, I knew I shouldn't trust him. I shouldn't trust anybody. That's what Merrick had told me. Ironically, I was about to put all of my trust in him.

With every turn of the wheels beneath me, the slightest glow began to emanate from above. My hope was rising, and with it, so was the light. The slightest breeze started to move around me. Trees rustled. Dogs howled, and people started to slowly emerge from their statuesque states.

“Not all is lost . . . not all is lost . . . not all is lost,” I repeated to myself as I sped through town. “There must be a way. Not all is―”

“ASPEN!” Julian screamed from somewhere off to my left. I turned to see where he was and quickly found myself spilling over the handlebars of the bike, having slammed into a curb.

I scrambled to recover before he could reach me, but my efforts were in vain.

“Aspen,” he cried, trying delicately to scoop me off of the blood-soaked pavement. “It's not safe. You have to―”

“Don't you dare talk to me about safe, demon !” I yelled, yanking my arm out of his grasp. His expression sank when realization set in. Unfortunately for him, I'd only begun to let him have it. “You can wipe that pitiful look off of your face, Julian. I know everything. Your father told me while he held me prisoner in his hideaway office.”

“Aspen―”

“SHUT UP! I don't want to hear another lie come out of your mouth for as long as I live, which shouldn't be long now. I don't know what is about to happen to me, or anyone else on this planet, but I will not suffer your lies for a second more,” I screamed, shoving him back from me. “How could I have been so blind ? You manipulated me on every level imaginable. You made me believe that you loved me!”

He reached for me slowly, but I smacked his hand away. My rage was all-consuming, and, as it escaped, the winds that were mere breezes only moments before started to gust around us with terrific speed and impossible force. A storm was upon us.

“I did love you―
do love you,” he exclaimed, rubbing his temples with his thumb and forefinger.

“
Lies ! I will hear no more of them from you. You played me like a chess piece, strategizing with every turn, and now the world will be lost unless he can help me stop it.”

I tried to right the bicycle, but the second I did, it was whipped from my grasp and thrown far up into the air before disappearing completely. I never saw it fall, only ascend. The screams started shortly thereafter.

I wheeled around, squinting to see through the dusty cyclone that was encompassing Julian and me. Barely able to make out the bodies, I watched as people struggled to find shelter against the storm. One by one, they were plucked from the earth and whisked away. Away to where, I had no clue.

“If this is the end, Aspen,” Julian shouted, straining to be heard over the howling winds, “then you need to understand something. I cannot change who and what I am. I was born into my position, as you were yours. My whole life's purpose has been to sway you to the darkness, and I may have succeeded, but that does not change the fact that, though this started off as a mission to ensure the dominance and reign of my kind, it quickly turned into me struggling daily with the fact that I did not want to do this to you. I started to feel things . . . I hate myself for what this has done.”

“Stop it,” I cried, clasping my hands over my ears like a child. “I don't want to listen to you.”

“The night I found you in your room and brought you home undid me, Aspen.
I drove you to that madness.
ME!
You nearly killed yourself because of what I did.”

“No more . . . ,” I screamed, crouching into a ball on the ground to escape his confession and the wind threatening to carry me away.

“Yes, Aspen. There's more,” he yelled, stooping down to join me. “Doing what I did was a choice between hurting you and killing myself, as well as my family. We all would have died if I had failed. I held my family's life in my hands, Aspen. Surely you can understand that loss.” He pried my hands away from my face and held my chin captive so his azure gaze was all I saw. “If I had known then what I know now, I would have chosen differently. I need you to know that, Aspen. I would have happily resigned myself to the death I now deserve if it would have saved you just an ounce of the pain and anguish I have caused you.”

I searched his face for any indication of a lie, but both it and my gut told me the same thing. It wasn't. Though he appeared sincere, it was of little consequence.

“But you didn't,” I countered, pulling away from him.

I stood quickly while trying to maintain my balance. The wind started to funnel around us, creating an eye to the storm, hemming us in together. I ran toward the edge of it, wanting to escape―to find Merrick―but there was no point.

He found me instead.

Emerging from the wall of wind with hardly any effort at all, he glared at Julian and me through sharp eyes. His disappointment was plain.

“Aspen,” he yelled, reaching a hand out for me.

But I couldn't make myself take it.

I looked back over my shoulder to Julian who stood frozen with a tortured expression tarnishing his face. My eyes then jumped back and forth between the two, unable to choose where to turn. Inside, my body felt physically torn in half, with each trying to dictate my next move. The screams around me still permeated the violent winds, and I knew that countless lives were being lost by the second. Warring internally, I felt my mind go back to the dark place―the place it sought refuge the night I killed Mother Superior. The night I let the evil take me.

But if the evil had taken me then, why wasn't I rejoicing in the moment of victory taking place? Why was I not dancing in the street, worshiping the Shadow as it swept across the earth, taking the souls of humankind with it? Would evil not act that way? Was it not what they were doing already? Instead, I stood amid the storm, both inside and out, searching for the answers I needed. The answers only I could find.
Trust no one, Merrick had said, and he was right.
No one but yourself . . .

Myself . . .

I had given myself the final pieces of the puzzle in the street that morning. Whatever delusion had led to me staring a surreal version of myself down in the road was the only one I would believe. I would only trust myself .

The light and shadow will war within and the choice will be made.

They were wrong. All of them, and I knew it.

I looked back and forth between Merrick and Julian and saw that the choice was yet to be made. A choice between light and shadow.

How will your story end?

My eyes stopped on Merrick standing defiantly, his hand still reaching for me. He was the light―the salvation of humanity. Would I choose him? I sneaked a glance back to Julian, who stood equally far away―the two polarizing one another with me in the center of it all. The nucleus.

Could I turn my back on someone who loved me, knowing that it meant his eternal doom?

As that thought played in my mind, I closed my eyes and everything around me stopped. In the still and quiet surrounding me, I saw clearly what I hadn't been able to before. The vision of my mother, standing over my father's dead body.

An argument.

A standoff.

A battle.

A blade.

She fell lifeless atop her husband―her chosen one. She was never meant to die. She had made her choice because she loved him. She had chosen love over duty. Love over her own.

She had fought for him―to save him. I would fight to save mine too.

When I opened my eyes back up again, they welled with tears. My bleary gaze fell upon Merrick, his expression masked as always.

“Will my moon still shine, Merrick?” I asked while a single salty streak stained my face.

“NO!” they screamed at me in unison, understanding what was to come. But it was already too late. The choice had been made.

“Like Eve with the apple . . . ,” I whispered to myself as I turned to Julian, eyes closed, reaching for him. “Forgive me, Father, for I know not what I do.”

Acknowledgments

If it takes a village to raise a child, then the same thing can definitely be said of creating a good book. Thank you to Dannielle for being a photographer/Photoshop goddess, for countless hours and cross country emails that produced a kickass book cover. Jennifer, model extraordinaire, for being willing to do anything to get the right shot and for having the best hair ever. Bethanie for helping to create the bad boys in the first place. And a special thanks to all the beta readers who fell in love with Aspen and company right along with us!

About the Authors

Separated at birth (and by a few years), Shannon and Amber recently found one another on Facebook and have been attached at the hip ever since, barring the fact that they're on completely opposite coastlines. Their penchant for the dramatic is trumped only by their need for constant and relentless sarcasm, as well as their love of bad boys. Shannon is a true redhead who bears the fiery temper to match, and Amber is a blonde (masquerading as a brunette), whose British-Canadian background makes her nearly as volatile. Though they collaborate on the Light and Shadow Trilogy, both have individual projects on the go including Natusch's CAGED Series and Morton's Immortal Treasures Series, scheduled to arrive in 2013.