Starbright (The Starbright Series) (13 page)

----

I
didn’t,
and
couldn’t understand boys.
I
watched Tristan and Seth race around the track while
I
finished
my
cool down stretches, and decided they had to be the most ridiculous species God ever created
, both human and
A
ngel
. Seth did his best to run with only human strength, but Tristan was fast, too fast for Seth to stay completely honest
, human and win
. 

In the end, Seth crossed the finish line with a smug smile across his face and a faint glow to his skin.
I
shook
my head, deciding to save my
congratulations for when they did something worth congratulating.

Tristan
sauntered
over to
me
, narrowing his eyes, clearly suspicious of his opponent’s speed. “Did he really win fair and square?”

“Of course I did! Do you really think I needed to cheat to beat a human?” Seth grunted from a little ways away, although he didn’t quite meet Tristan’s cold glare
while defending himself
.

“Stella, tell me the truth,” Tristan demanded, resting his hands on his hips while his chest still heaved heavily from his run.

“Hey, leave me out of this,”
I
took a step back, truly uninterested in being thrown into the middle of whatever jealousy lay between them. “I’m just an innocent bystander.”
I flashed Tristan
a
smile and hoped
he would move on.

“You’re anything but innocent,” Tristan murmured, taking a step closer to
me
.

I
backed away, recognizing the glint in Tristan’s eyes and not understanding where it came from.
My
back bumped against the white brick wall of the gym, while he trapped
me
with one arm over
my
head.
I
stifled a
groan
, knowing this was Tristan’s way of letting Seth know that he might have won the race, but he wasn’t about to win whatever contest involved
me
.

“Tristan, what are you doing?”
I
asked, a giggle bubbling up before
I
could stop
my
self. Tristan’s eyes swept over
me
, and he ran his free hand over his sweat-soaked shaved head.
I
knew
I
should be completely grossed out by him, but something about the way the sweat ran down his neck and over the
hollow part at the
base of his throat caused
my
eyes to linger unexpectedly.

“I just want to know if you have plans tonight?” he asked in his most innocent sounding voice. “We still have two free nights of winter-break left and I want to take full advantage of the whole no-homework thing.” His dark green eyes reminded
me
of the color of grass at night and they blazed with an intensity
I
had seen before, an intensity that remained between
us
even before Seth showed up. He dipped his head, and waited for
my
response.

I
could feel Seth’s eyes on
us
and couldn’t stop
my
self from
repeating
in a low
, careful
voice, “Tristan, what are you doing?”

“What do you mean?” He picked his head back up and blinked his eyes like a confused puppy dog.

Which reminded
me
, “You are not a dog and I am not a tree. This is so not going to work,”
I
lifted
my
hands to his chest
bare chest
and pushed him back. His hands clasped down on
mine
and held them to him.

“I know that, Stella,” he all but growled.

My
eyes flicked to Seth who stood there bouncing on the back of his heels, his jaw clenched tight and the glow under his skin burning like hot embers in a building fire.

“You know that I love you, don’t you?”
I
turned
my
eyes back to Tristan and softened
my
tone.

“No, I don’t know that,” Tristan complained, it was his usual response whenever
I
confessed
my
platonic love for him.

Even if he didn’t want to hear the truth in
my
words,
I
knew
I
had gotten through to him, that it would only take a few seconds before reality set in.
I
had always been Tristan’s, ever since they were little. Other boys didn’t ask
me
out, everyone in
our small town ac
cepted whatever was between
us
w
as marriage material, even though
we
both knew there was nothing. There could never be anything. And so,
I
waited for his expression to relax and his testosterone level to drop before
I
continued.

“I’ll text you later, but I don’t think I’ll be able to do anything tonight. My parents are getting back
later
and we have to have the whole, ‘what happens now’ talk,”
I
sighed, afraid of the future conve
rsation and the consequences it would have on my
life.

“Oh that’s right,” Tristan laughed. “I almost forgot the future of mankind now rests on your shoulders.” He released
my
hands and pulled
me
into a
completely
friendly
, but disgustingly sweaty
hug.
I
laughed against his chest, thankful he could take everything in stride. “But you’ll text me later?”

“Yes,”
I
agreed.
“Now get off of me, you’re so gross!”

Tristan let go of
me
and
we
gathered
ou
r warm ups to slip on before crawling back through the locker room window and out into the late winter afternoon. Seth stayed silent until the two of
us
were alone again in the beat up Jeep that still needed to get them home.

“I don’t think I like him,” Seth admitted as he watched Tristan’s big white pickup pull out of the parking lot.

“I don’t know where I went wrong,”
I sighed
. “I was sure you two would be best friends.”

Seth laughed too at that, a deep, throaty laughed that made
me
smile even wider. “It probably has something to do with that pretty blonde head of yours.”

Knowing he was right, but not wanting to admit it,
I
threw
my
arm out to smack Seth in the chest. He reached up to block
me
, and nearly dropped the door that he still held firmly in place next to him, since it no longer stayed connected to the vehicle.
We
both started laughing and what blossomed between
us
was more than a new friendship, but a
well-rooted trust that was solidly planted in the base of
ou
r souls.
We
were partners now; this world needed
us
both if it was to survive. And likewise,
we
needed each other if
we
hoped for the same fate.

Chapter Five

             
My
parents were already home and sitting at the kitchen table with Jupiter when
Seth and I
walked
through
the
back door. The early sunset
left the outside world dark by the time
we
drove home and
I
couldn’t help but feel chills of the Darkness nearby.
I
convinced
my
self that since Seth seemed unbothered, they were in
my imagination and nothing more. I
had been shaken up the night before, and that’s all.

             
Once inside the kitchen,
I
left all fears of impending doom behind
me
and ran for
my
parents, thankful they were once again home safe from one of their missions.
My
father stood up first, enveloping
me
in his muscular arms and holding
me
tightly to him. Micah Day, whose name meant
A
ngel of the
D
ivine
P
lan, was one of the fiercest
A
ngelic
W
arriors alive. He stood towering over
me
at 6’5 and because of his muscular frame and chiseled, god-like face seemed invincible to not just humans, but many
A
ngels alike. He was an intimidating man to meet, an
d an ironic contrast to many of the other farmers in the area who were aging and overweight from spending too much time sitting on combines and eating too m
any steak and potato dinners
. He did his best to hide his stature by wearing thin-framed glasses and keeping his light brown hair slightly askew, but
I
knew the Clark Kent rouse only confused humans.

             
“I’m sorry we left you Stella-
bean,” he apologized huskily in
my
ear.

             
I
shivered, trying to stop the sob that threatened to explode from
me. I
hadn’t taken the time to really think last night through, and hadn’t really wanted to. But hearing the fear in
my
father’s voice sent reality crashing around
me, clattering to the floor of my stomach and vibrating through me
.

             
“I’m
O
k,”
I
promised, lifting
my
head bravely to meet
my
father’s pale blue eyes
, the same ones I had
.

             
“I know,” he sighed with the resign of a father knowing he was raising her daughter for Fate’s purpose.

             
“My turn,” Celina Day announced,
me
from
my
father and into her own loving arms.

             
I
was
obviously
Celina’s daughter. There was no question when
we
stood next to each other.
Our
golden blonde hair fell in the same curled-at-the-end waves, and
our
slightly upturned noses, and full mouths reflected each other like mirror images.
Ou
r only striking difference was the color of
our
eyes, where
I
had inherited
my
father’s ice-blue color, Celina’s glowed a deep gold that matched the color of her hair and skin; she masked the oddity of their color with contacts when on
this
planet, but having just returned from a mission they glowed with the light buried inside of her. She had been a
S
un elsewhere in the universe
, with a whole galaxy of planets in her charge,
before duty called her to
E
arth and her husband, to raise her baby to inherit the responsibility of the
E
arth.

             
Stars and Warriors were the lowest level of angelic beings. They’re base was on the lowest level of
H
eaven, but their task to protect life kept them mostly away from home. Rarely did a Warrior and Star actually
get to spend significant amount of time together
, but instead chose to procreate in
responsibility to their race. Boys were born Warriors, and girls were born Stars, although the titles merely differentiated jobs and genders, both sexes were capable of the same fetes of supernatural.

             
My
own parents had been chosen for
E
arth because of their great skill in battle, and their relatively human-esque looks. It was important for a Star raised in the human world to look like a human, meaning her hair color needed to be one of the natural colors of
E
arth and the same with eyes.
Since I had
blonde hair and blue eyes
, I
fit the qualifications perfectly; pair
my
looks with the genealogy of battle-success in
my
family and
I
was an obvious choice
for Earth
.