Sunburst

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 pla

“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.