Unseen (The Heights, Vol. 1) (32 page)

She slowed and turned around, thus jogging
backwards, a huge grin filling her face. “Come and get me, Rhyse!”
He overtook her in mere seconds, still confused as to what she was
running for. Then her ankle twisted, her eyes doubled in size, and
she fell backwards, cursing loudly.

He was instantly at her side. Her smile was
gone, replaced by a look of pain, tears filling her eyes. He bent
to lift her, but she pushed him away.

“Don’t…don’t touch me.”

He backed up a few steps, so far removed from
his element, so lost in what his role should be, how he should
behave, even what he wanted to do. So he stood silently, listening
to her cry. “I want to be free,” she whispered. “That’s all. Just
to be free.”

He didn’t respond, because he had nothing to
say. Did she not understand that’s what he wanted for her as well?
That, as much as he desired to lock her away to forever be his, he
knew he couldn’t. He’d kept her from the city because of the risks,
but when he knew she would be safe, he would give her a choice.

She looked up, her eyes moist. “It’s not
about you. Or us. It’s everything else in the Heights.”

He felt only slightly relieved. Because even
though he would give her anything, freedom was not his to give. She
would never be free, not in the way she desired, because of what
she was. What
all
of them were. Rhyse was no freer than she
was. He’d simply had more time to accept it.

Eventually she tucked her feet under her,
ignoring the ankle she’d twisted. Then she started sweeping sand
into a pile, a layer of dry from one side followed by a layer of
wetter sand from the other.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“All little girls want to be princesses.
Except me.” She spoke quietly, perhaps to him, perhaps to herself.
But he listened. “Princesses can’t do anything other than be saved
by a handsome prince and fall in love. No one ever hears anything
about them after that, as if their stories end as soon as they say,
‘I do.’”

She moved to her knees to broaden her reach,
to draw more sand to where she needed it. “I always pretended to be
the queen. Because even though she’s usually a total bitch, she
does shit, accomplishes shit, goes after what she wants. If she
wasn’t so obsessed with the stupid princess, she’d be totally fine.
Her jealousy destroys her, wanting things that don’t belong to her,
things she shouldn’t have. Trying to be someone she isn’t because
she never believes who she is could possibly be enough.”

Rhyse walked around her until he could see
her face. Then he did something he never would have thought himself
capable or desirous of. He sat down in the sand, on the opposite
side of the rough castle she was building. Stranger than that—he
dug his hands into the earth to help her gather what she needed to
make it stronger.

“Then I grew up and realized how stupid all
those fairy tales are. I got drafted as a disposal tech, and I saw
things I didn’t want to and learned how dangerous the world is. But
I knew if I kept my head down, I’d be okay. If I pretended things
weren’t what they were, I’d be okay.” She looked up into his eyes,
perfectly still. “I wasn’t okay. I wasn’t a princess, and I wasn’t
a queen. I wasn’t even one of the dwarfs or a sidekick. I
thought
I wasn’t even in the story. But I am, aren’t I? Not
like the ones we read as children—this one would scare the shit out
of a kid.” Even her breath was broken. “Because there
is
no
happy ending, and the good doesn’t stand a chance of winning. Not a
chance.”

Her eyes pleaded with him to understand
something he couldn’t. He didn’t know how to begin. “But I don’t
think it’s my choice anymore. I guess it was never my choice—I just
didn’t know it until now. I don’t stand a chance, but I have to be
someone I don’t want to be, anyway.”

“Addison? I...”

“You don’t have to say anything. I’m
being—”

“Human?”

“
Mostly
human.” She wiped her eyes on
her shoulders, holding out her sand covered hands. After a moment,
she looked down and focused on the castle again, her voice even
softer when she spoke. “I always thought
eventually
I would
understand where I belong. But the older I get and the more I learn
about myself, the less I belong anywhere.”

“You belong with me.”

She looked at him with tortured eyes. So
frail, so uncertain.

“You belong with me, Addison.” He leaned over
the sand castle and kissed her. The sand on her hands scratched the
sides of his face as she held him, leaning back, pulling him
towards her. Unable to hold even a fraction of his weight, the
structure crumbled apart beneath him. Her hands moved to the collar
of his shirt, clutching it.

He cradled her head as he lay her down, still
holding her mouth with his. Their entire beings moving in
synchronicity—breath, pulse, desire. He undressed her slowly,
carefully, not knowing if this was what she needed. Everything was
new to him. Everything he’d never cared about before now vitally
important.

His human emotions had disappeared when he’d
stopped fighting what he was and finally understood no redemption
was possible. So he’d forgotten their beauty, their power, their
depth. With her, he felt them all again.

She pushed him away. “Not in the sand. It
gets...everywhere.” Although her eyes remained red and pensive, the
corners of her mouth lifted as she discovered a different way to be
happy, to adapt, to recover, from a part of her he would die to
protect. A light so rare, a fire so unique to her. Something he
could never possess.

She scrambled out from under him, undressing
on her way to the water. There were riptides here, areas of danger
that could sweep her away from him. He ripped off his clothes and
quickly caught up with her, taking her by the waist and carrying
her into deeper water, refusing to put her down.

She adjusted her body until her legs were
wrapped around him. They stared at each other in the moonlight as
she slowly let him inside her.

~ ~ ~

Addison shivered, despite Rhyse’s warmth
around her and inside her. She blamed her fatigue on a very
emotional day because right now, everything was perfect.

“You are cold,” he said, breaking their kiss.
“I will take you home.” Before she could disagree or tell him she
wanted to spend the rest of her life doing exactly this, exactly
here, with him, they were in front of the fireplace.

She huddled closer to him instead of leaning
towards the fire. He provided less heat, but so much more strength.
He sat down in the closest chair without letting go of her, his
cock still hard inside her.

“Oh, no! We left our clothes on the beach,”
she said. “Someone will find them and think two people
drowned.”

“Someone will find them and think two people
were so busy being naked they forgot about their clothes. Do not be
surprised if we see someone else wearing them when we go back.”

“Okay, but you’re going to have to take me
shopping.” She laughed. “No more leather, though.”

He brushed a wet lock of hair off her cheek.
“Are you all right?”

Was she? Less overwhelmed? Yes. Less
confused? No way in hell. Every hour, it got harder to ignore what
she desperately tried not to think about. She’d been so sure the
oracle was wrong, that her vision was wrong.

But denial hadn’t kept her safe—it had kept
her a victim. Just like all the seers.

Soon she would be swept into something scary
and horrible and violent. Something that couldn’t be denied or
ignored or avoided.

She felt something for Rhyse, knew he felt
something for her. But he was the guy at the top of an unjust
system, a world that had to change. That
she
had to change.
Even though she’d never, ever be ready, she didn’t have a
choice.

It was time. It was
her
time.

He kissed her. “Are you feeling better?”

No
. “Almost.” She pressed down,
drawing him deeper inside. He shook his head, but his body reacted
exactly the way she wanted it to.

“You should rest,” he said with a quiet
groan.

“I will.”

“Not if you tempt me much more.” His hands
caressed her sides, down to her hips, gripping them to prevent her
from moving. “If you do not stop, you may be up for hours yet.”

“Have you ever heard of a quickie?”

He looked baffled as she explained what it
was. “And that is pleasing to you?”

“Very. But not if it happens every time.”

His laugh sent a rippled spike of pleasure
from where his lips were to pretty much every other part of her
body. “It will not happen every time, Addison. Of that you can be
certain.”

Almost an hour later, he tucked her into bed,
his body cradling hers.

“We’re going to have to work on the whole
quickie thing. You need a lot more practice.” Not a criticism, a
hope.

When Addison woke up, a few unfortunate
things were clear and no longer deniable. Nothing about her life
would ever be the same, so trying to get any of it back was
useless. If any being ever got through her shield, she was as good
as dead, so she needed more practice. And, of course, the biggie:
Now that she understood her place in the Heights, she had to do
something about it. Not because of the stupid prophecy, but because
it was the right thing to do. Her life wasn’t about her anymore, if
it ever
had
been.
Damn, that really sucks.

She needed to go back to the city, but not to
stay. Rhyse was right—she’d only be asking for trouble if she
stayed in the city that was home to more supers than any other in
the zone. At least for a little while, she’d live in the tropical
equivalent of the boondocks. Of course,
his
idea was for her
to stay up here, but her mom needed more care than was available in
the middle of nowhere. So after she got her mom ready to relocate,
Addison could say goodbye to her friends. And maybe while she was
in town, she might recruit a little help for a plan so incredibly
dangerous, even
thinking
about it scared her.

“I need to go back to the city,” were the
first words she said to him after opening her eyes. “To get things
sorted out.”

He seemed happy, probably because she didn’t
fight him on the idea of moving. It could also have been because
he’d just pulled her on top of him.

“I’m trying to focus here, buddy.”

“Continue focusing. I will find something to
occupy myself with until you are done.”

She sucked in a quick breath when she found
out what he would occupy himself with. With only about a minute
before she lost all train of thought, she spoke quickly.

“If you take me home right before dawn, I’ll
have a whole day to say goodbye and get things set. If I need more
time, I’ll call you.” Her phone was still in her apartment. “You
know, it would be so much easier if you guys used telepathy. Like
the angels.”

“And a few of the other races.”

“Seriously? Which ones?” When he didn’t
respond to her teasing, her jaw dropped open. “Do you? Is that
something seers and…other beings can learn? Can you teach me how to
do it?”

“Stop ignoring me, and I may try.”

“Liar. Other races can’t do it,” she
grumbled. “Say you’ll take me back to the city, and I’ll stop
ignoring you.”

He sighed. “Although I hoped I would never
have to see it again, I will take you to your apartment before
dawn. You will not leave there until it is completely light
outside, and you will carry your cellular phone with you at all
times.”

“I just love it when you order me to do
things.”

“Good. Because there is more. You will call
me every hour on the hour to tell me how much you miss me.”

“You want me to lie every hour on the hour?”
She laughed until he silenced her with a kiss it would have been
impossible to ignore.

And…just before dawn, she was in her
apartment wanting to throw up.

“There will be no more traveling for an hour
after you have eaten,” Rhyse said. “Someone waits for you outside
the building.”

“Who?”

“I do not know. She is a seer who knows how
to block fairly well.” He covered Addison’s mouth. “She is thinking
of the Treaty celebration. And you.”

“Well, we
could
wait here until you
pick up enough tidbits to make sense out of it.
Or
…I could
just go look.”

“
Or
I could rip through her pathetic
shield as if it were tissue paper and know—”

“Let’s start my way,” she said quickly.

With Rhyse’s arms around her waist as if
something was going to suck her out the door, she peeked outside
and saw a woman sitting on the top step of the walkup. “We’re all
clear, captain. She’s a friend. Dating a warlock. Totally
nonthreatening. Name’s Dawn.”

“Dawn?” he said, grimacing. “I already
dislike her.”

Addison laughed. “I can’t wait to tell her
that.”

“Do not tell her anything,” he warned.

“Come on, Rhyse, are you worried I’m going to
ruin your reputation?”

“There are some things that should not even
be joked about.”

“Ugh, relax. I won’t tell her anything. Now
kiss me, tell me how hot I am, and then get the fuck out of here.
It’s getting…early.”

“Every hour on the hour, Addison. I will
remain in the city, but cannot phase until the sun goes down.” He
kissed her, growling when she pulled back. “Do not worry about
bringing any of your clothing—we have enough kindling at home.”

Home?
She held back her mini-freak-out
until right after he left.

She found her phone and changed into
something more comfortable, amused by the image of Rhyse’s face
tonight when he saw her wearing sweats. He would probably rip them
off her.