Pure (16 page)

“Don’t,” Aiden ordered in a low voice. “Just ignore him.”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” I seethed. “I want the dagger so I can cut him.”

“Cut me?” Seth laughed. “What are you—a street thug Apollyon about to shank me?”

Lucian sat down in one of the leather seats. “So much passion between you two,” he murmured. “Can be expected, I imagine. You two are one and the same. Let them go. We can continue this conversation without any more interruptions, entertaining as they are.”

I stopped. So did Seth. Actually, everyone in the room who didn’t appear to be on drugs stopped and stared at Lucian. “What?”

Smiling like he knew some huge secret, he flicked his wrist elegantly. “Let them go. Alexandria has already told us what has happened. The oracle has passed and another has come into power. Let them work through their lovers’ quarrel in private.”

Even Seth’s eyes widened at that. I had a more vocal response, one that caused Marcus to look like he wanted to shove me in a dark room and never let me out again.

“We have not yet determined what the oracle told Alexandria,” Leon interjected from the corner. I’d almost forgotten he was there.

“She’s already told us what she could. What was it, dear?” Lucian simpered in my direction. My hand itched to smack him upside his head. “She said that fate can be changed? Is that not great news? The oracle was referencing our two Apollyons.”

I scowled at him. “Why does everything in your head automatically go back to the Apollyon?”

Lucian waved his hand again. “Let them go.”

Aiden’s hard stare bounced between us. “I don’t think that’s a good idea at the moment. One of them may seriously injure the other.”

I wondered if he really thought that or if the idea of us “handling” our “lovers’ quarrel” in private bothered him.

Marcus sighed. “I think it is an excellent idea, as we aren’t getting anywhere with both of them in the roo—”

“I thought Lucian needed Seth here,” Aiden interrupted, eyes like chips of ice.

Something ridiculously stupid sprung alive in my chest. Aiden was jealous? “You know what?” I shot Aiden a defiant look. “Let’s go. Come on, Seth. Let’s go continue our
lovers’ quarrel
.”

Pushing off the wall, Seth arched a brow. “Yes,
my love
, that sounds absolutely fantastic. Don’t forget to grab a dagger so you can poke my eyeball out. Oh, that’s right.” He fixed a sympathetic look on his face. “Only a trained Sentinel can carry a dagger.”

I shot him a sneer, and then whirled around and stalked out of the room. My head pounded like crazy, and even though I’d agreed to leave, I didn’t want to continue talking with Seth. We actually made it to the first floor before all hell broke loose.

Seth grabbed my arm and dragged me into one of the empty offices, slamming the door shut behind him. “You little brat, what the hell have you been doing all day?”

I pulled my arm free and moved to the other side of the office. Seth stalked after me, and I thought of the lion from earlier. All he needed was a swishing tail. I laughed, not able to help it. The image of Seth with a tail was kind of funny.

Seth stopped short, scowling. “What’s so funny?”

I sobered up. “Jeez, nothing.”

“What have you been doing all day, Alex?”

“What have you been doing?” I sidestepped him, putting some space between us. “And why don’t you seem to care that the oracle died?”

“Alex, she was ancient. At least a couple of hundred years old. It was bound to happen. Lucian is right. Another has come into power and blah, blah.”

“She died right in front of me! It was a bit unsettling.”

Seth cocked his head to the side. “Do you want me to host a pity party for you? I’m sure I can wrangle up a few people who can help you commiserate.”

“Gods, would it kill you to be a tiny bit nice? Oh. Wait. It would. So excuse me, I have stuff I need to do.” I started for the door, but Seth caught my arm. His skin felt like fire. “Seth, come on. I have a freaking headache and—”

His eyes searched my face. “What have you been doing today?”

I started to get uncomfortable. “I’ve been training. What the hell else could I be doing?”

“Training?” Seth laughed harshly. “Where?”

“Here,” I said immediately.

Seth’s eyes narrowed. “You little liar, I checked the training room for you. You weren’t there.”

Oh, crap.

A smug smile inched across his face. “So I checked all the other training facilities, and the gym, and the beach, and finally your room. You weren’t in any of them.”

Oh, double crap.

“So don’t lie to me.” He backed me up until I hit the edge of the desk. “Your cheeks are blood red, your pulse has skyrocketed, and you’re a terrible liar.”

I clenched the edge of the desk. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Seth bent down so we were eye level. “You don’t?”

“No.”

“I’m going to ask you one more time, Alex. What were you doing today?”

“Or what?” I demanded. “What are you going to do? And why do you even care?”

“Because the emotions you were feeling today were outrageous.”

“Gods, this day will never end,” I muttered. Throbbing temples aside, I was pretty sure I had enough aggression in me to take out Seth at this point. “Who cares?”

“I care because you were supposed to be training with Aiden today, and there is no reason you’d be feeling those kind…” Seth’s eyes widened. I swear, I’d never seen his pupils so dilated, and for someone who kept dragging me back to him, he sure let go of me awfully fast. “Oh. No, no, no.”

Apprehension blossomed, quickly turning my insides cold. “What?”

“You wouldn’t.” He ran his hand down the side of his face. “Wait. What am I saying? You
would
do something so incredibly stupid.”

I leaned against the desk. “Uh… gee, thanks.”

Seth shot forward, grasping my shoulders. I flinched, unable to suppress the natural response. “Please tell me I’m wrong. Tell me that you are not messing around with a godsdamned pure-blood. Damn it, Alex.
Him?
My gods, it explains so much.”

Anything and everything in my head sort of emptied out. My brain had this wonderful ability of doing so when I really needed to think fast.

He laughed harshly. “Now I know why he hates me, at least. Why he’s always on you. I just figured it was in the figurative sense and not literal. What the hell are you thinking? What is he thinking? You’re going to throw everything away! Your future—my future—and for what? To get more pure in you?”

Shrugging his hands off my shoulders for the umpteenth time, I snapped out of it. “You don’t have a clue what you’re talking about! I’m not messing around with Aiden.”

“Don’t you dare lie to me about something like this!” He shoved his finger in my face. I had the urge to break it. “You can’t do this, Alex. I will not allow this to continue.” Seth started for the door.

“No. No! Seth, stop! Please.” This time I grabbed him, pulling him back from the door. “Please listen to me. It’s not what you think!”

His eyes practically glowed he was so angry. “It’s not about what I
think
. It’s what I
felt
today!”

“Please. Just listen to me for a second.” My fingers dug into his arms. “You can’t say anything. They’ll—”

“I’m not going to say anything to the Council, you little idiot. They would send you into servitude in a heartbeat.” He pushed me off, swearing under his breath. “You know, I actually thought he might be different from the other pures, but he sure as hell doesn’t act any different. Screw a half; enslave a half. That’s what they say, Alex.”

“What are you doing? You can’t—”

“I’m going to have a little talk with Aiden.”

I flew in front of him, plastering myself to the door. “You are so not going to talk to him! You’re going to try to fight him.”

“Quite possibly. Now get out of my way.”

“No.”

“Get out of the way, Alex,” he snarled. Edges of the Apollyon marks started creasing his otherwise flawless skin.

“Okay,” I breathed, pressing against the door. “I’ll tell you the truth. All right—just please don’t do anything… stupid.”

“I don’t think you should be lecturing me on not doing anything stupid.”

I counted to ten. Now was not the time for me to lose my patience. “Nothing happened between Aiden and me. Okay? I do care about him, all right? I know it’s wrong.” I closed my eyes, wishing the words didn’t hurt as much as they did. “I know it’s stupid, but nothing is going on between us.”

“What I felt from you today wasn’t
nothing
, Alex. You’re still lying to me.”

“Okay. We kissed, but—stop!” I pushed Seth back as he tried to pry me away from the door. “Listen to me. We did kiss, but it’s nothing. It was stupid—a mistake. It’s nothing to get all bent out of shape over. Okay?”

He stared down at me, lips drawn tightly. Then he closed his eyes. Terse silence stretched out between us. “You… you love him, don’t you?”

I stared at him, my heart thumping loudly. “No. No, of course I don’t.”

Seth nodded, running a hand over his face again. “Alex… Alex, you’re insane.”

Obviously, he didn’t believe me. I needed to make Seth understand that nothing needed to be done about this. There was no way he could go after Aiden. Gods only knew what Seth would do, or what Aiden would do. I could see them now, brawling on the beach. One thing would lead to another, and the Council would find out. The pures would dope me up to suppress the Apollyon in me and I’d be scrubbing floors for the rest of my life. Aiden would never forgive himself. I couldn’t let that happen. And then there was the idiot standing in front of me. If Seth attacked a pure, that would be it. The Council would move against Seth, and even though I wanted to strangle him, I didn’t want… well, I didn’t want anything to happen to him.

Call it self-preservation.

“Nothing’s going on,” I said. “Just promise me you won’t do anything.”

Seth stared at me so long the silence that enveloped us started to get to me. Then the tattoo started to sink back into his skin and he looked surprisingly calm.

“You’re not going to do anything, right?”

“No.” Seth reached for me and pried my hand off the doorknob. “I’m not going to say anything.”

Relief, sweet and beautiful, flooded through me. I let out my breath. “Thank you.”

“You’re not going to ask why?”

“No.” I shook my head. “I’m not going to look a gifted horse in the mouth.”

“Do you even know what that means?”

“Not really,” I said, “but it sounds about right.”

Seth arched a brow, and then tugged me away from the door. “Come on, let’s go.”

I spared our joined hands a brief glance. “Where are we going?”

“We’re going to do some training, since you apparently didn’t do any of
that
today.”

“She poofed into nothing? Damn, that’s crazy.”

I stared at Caleb, wishing he would poof into nothing. “What is everyone’s big deal with the terminology? I swear to the gods, if one more person questions that, I’m going to lose it.”

“Poof,” Olivia whispered, grinning.

I shot her a death glare. “Ha. Funny.”

“Sorry.” She slid her arm around Caleb. Apparently, they’d made up at some point, again. That made me happy. I liked the way they looked at one another when they weren’t fighting. “I bet that was freaky, though.”

“Freaky doesn’t even begin to describe it.”

“She was old as dirt,” Caleb said, “but still. The old crone was kind of entertaining.”

“Entertaining” wasn’t a word I’d use to describe Grandma Piperi. I leaned back in the moon chair and let my eyes drift shut as Olivia and Caleb started talking about the party they’d snuck off to last night. I felt a spark of jealousy and bitterness. I hadn’t been invited. Maybe Caleb thought I had more pure than half in me, too. Blech.

I refocused my thoughts on Piperi. Even a few days later, I was still so wrapped up in the almost exposure of Aiden’s and my nonexistent relationship to give much thought to what she’d said before she’d died.

The conversation I’d had with her didn’t make much sense—no big surprise there. The only thing important I’d picked out was about the guy who wasn’t who he appeared, that he had everyone fooled. If only she hadn’t poofed into nothing a second later, maybe she would’ve said his name, which would’ve helped tremendously. I didn’t share this part of the conversation with anyone. It seemed that whoever it was wasn’t a friend of mine. Then again, I couldn’t be sure. After that thought, I must’ve drifted off to sleep, because I jerked upright at the sound of my name.

“Miss Andros.”

I peeled my eyes open and found Leon standing in the doorway to the rec room. “Yeah?”