Sunburst

“That’s too bad,” Jude smiled sadistically. It was the first time I had seen his true mask of evil. “Mars was one of my favorite planets.”

Jupiter took an aggressive step forward and I caught him by the wrist. “He’s promised not to hurt me. Don’t let him antagonize you.”

Jupiter seemed to take my advice immediately- well, until he opened his mouth to yell at Jude in a language neither of us understood. Although he fought like a man much younger than his age, he was now, currently, acting like the crotchety old man that he was.

Jude snapped his fingers and dropped his head back. “Jupiter! I should have known. I knew those red eyes were familiar, I just couldn’t…”

“Jude,” I interrupted with a hand on his bicep. We both looked down where my hand rested on his bare skin and I immediately withdrew. It was a familiar gesture, a friendly gesture and Jude was neither to me. “Were you really just checking in on me? Because as you can see, I’m fine now. So why don’t you scamper on home, back to the pits of Hell you crawled out of.”

“You’re adorable when you get all mouthy,” he cooed instead. “I’m starting to get turned on.”

“And I’m starting to get a

He blew smoke in my face, just to be a bastard.

“This is the third-party?” Jupiter demanded, looking over Jude with an entirely different expression. “This one?

“Yes,” I laughed. “Believe me, I was as surprised as…”

“I know your parents,” Jupiter cut me off. He was staring at Jude now, only this time Jude was

hesitant to look back at him.

Jude swallowed once, stomped out his cigarette and then turned the entire force of his blasé attitude on Jupiter. “Really? That’s nice, because I don’t.”

“It’s a shame what happened to you.”

“How did you recognize me?”

“The tattoo on your neck,” Jupiter pointed to the side of Jude’s collarbone, where there was, in fact, a half-dollar sized tattoo of two swords making an X. One sword had the word “Verity” scrawled across it and the other said, “Honor.” It was usually hidden by his t-shirts, but tonight he was wearing a long sleeved Henley with the buttons open, gaping at the throat. “Your parents gave that to you when you were a child.”

“Well, if you see them again, tell them I miss them,” Jude ground out bitterly and then barked out a derisive laugh. “Just stopped by to make sure you were in top order, Stella. And now that I see you’ve survived the afternoon, I’ll let you get back to…. this.”

“How generous of you,” I curtsied to be a jackass, but Jude only waved it on as if he were already bored.

He turned around and walked away from us- in the opposite direction of the house. He pulled his ever-present pack of cigarettes out of his back pocket and lit up while he walked away. He raised two fingers as a way of goodbye without turning around; I hated him infinitely more in that moment.

“Now that’s interesting,” Jupiter commented dryly. “Do you know who that is, Stella?”

“The bane of my existence?” I asked sweetly.

Jupiter chuckled and then began collecting the different swords that lay in discarded piles all over the ground. “That was Jude Michaels.”

“I did know that much.”

“He was kidnapped as a child- straight from the Lower Realms. Later, the kidnapper was caught. Apparently he was a traitor, intent on stealing an entire generation of Warriors for the Fallen. He only managed to steal Jude before they got him. But he never said what he did with the child.”

“What did the Council do to the traitor?” I asked, horrified by the story. I couldn’t imagine they would give up looking for Jude, or that his parents would allow the traitor to be executed before he gave up where their son was.

“The Council didn’t do anything,” Jupiter explained seriously. “The day before he went to trial, he was found beheaded in his cell. Someone else got to him before the Council could ask a single question.”

“And they didn’t find that suspicious?” Or had I just watched too many episodes of Law and Order?

“Of course they did. The investigation continued, but nothing else ever came up and the boy never resurfaced. They had no idea which planet to search or which direction of the Universe he was taken to. But that tattoo… I would remember it anywhere. Jude’s father is an Archangel, his mother sits on the Council. They have never stopped looking for him.”

“They will probably be a little disappointed with how he turned out,” I sighed. He had a sad story, I could give him that.

Jupiter was silent for a few moments, deep in thought. Finally, and in an amused voice, he said, “Fallen by consequence, not by choice. That makes an interesting study.”

True. It was rare, maybe even unheard of for a child to be raised into the Fallen culture without making a conscious decision to join their ranks. Fallen was a choice- even they knew that. Which was why Seth had been spared when he was younger. They didn’t, couldn’t, have children for this very reason. They were cursed to be barren, since the begi

“He’s obviously adapted,” I shrugged it off. Jude was just as evil as the rest of them. And the only reason we weren’t fighting to the death right now was because he was under contract to keep me alive. And my new mission in life was to save Seth. It didn’t matter if he chose this life or was forced into it; it was his life now and he was as Fallen as the rest of them.

Jupiter and I packed up the rest of the weapons and headed back to the house for a late di

My heart broke a little bit more with his heartache. I wasn’t the only one gutted by Seth’s disappearance and the news that he’d given up his soul for me. Why didn’t he talk to me about it first? Why did he just rush off and act so impulsively? There had to be more to the story than just his concern for me. We were in this together. Something happened for him to leave me.

I had to believe that.

I spent the rest of the night in my room working on the homework I was behind in. And finally when it was time for bed I called Tristan.

“Hey,” he breathed into the phone in a sleepy voice.

“Were you asleep?”

“Just about,” he chuckled and the gravelly sound made my toes curl. “I was waiting for you to call.”

“Sorry to keep you up.”

“No, it’s fine, I don’t know why I’m so tired.”

“Probably that intense practice earlier. Why did your coach make you run the bleachers? What did you guys do to piss him off?”

He groaned a muffled growl and I imagined that he was rubbing a hand over his face. Finally he said, “Rigley got caught smoking with that new kid right before practice and coach punished us all.”

“Rigley was smoking with Jude?” I shouldn’t be surprised, but I definitely was. Rigley made a lot of bad decisions, but this one seemed worse than all. That he was smoking wasn’t exactly beyond comprehension. But I honestly thought Rigley would have some kind of intuition that would warn him about hanging out with Jude.

This cemented in the idea that Jude was here to stay. And that sucked.

Maybe I could get him kicked out before he caused too much havoc on school grounds. I would just wait until he was smoking and turn him in every time. It would probably take one day for him to get expelled.

“That sucks,” I sympathized with Tristan. I debated whether to tell him about Jude and our special relationship or not…. I decided to see if I could get him out of my life first. I’d give him a week and if he wasn’t gone, then I’d fill Tristan in.

“That kid is something else isn’t he?” Tristan was so much more intuitive than I gave him credit for.

“I think he’s bad news.”