Fate: California Obscura

All of a sudden, Abel appeared right before me. He’d moved so fast, I hadn’t even registered it.

He knelt down and pressed his hand to Elias’s chest. I felt a wave of energy flow through him, and in the next instant, Elias gasped for breath and sat up. Sobs of relief shook me.

I let Abel feel that, too—my elation, my gratitude, all of it. He met my gaze, then reached out and touched the tears streaming down my face, as if he was trying to understand them. I whispered, “Thank you.”

His voice was soft when he said, “I’m sorry.” He touched my forehead, and I felt a dull ache for just a moment. When he took his hand away, I knew for a fact the connection he’d opened to track me was closed.

“Help us,” I begged. “Help Carter, or we’re all going to die. Please.”

Abel stood up while I gathered Elias into my arms. He took a few steps toward Carter and Cain, just as Tinder and August staked the last of the vampire horde and grabbed each other in an embrace.

Cain glanced at Abel and yelled, “What are you waiting for? Help me finish him, you idiot!”

Abel strode to Carter’s side and held out his hand. When Carter took it, Abel pulled him to his feet. Then he kept holding on to it as he turned to Cain and raised his other hand.

The force that hit Cain from Carter and Abel’s combined powers felt like a hundred lightning strikes all at once and made the earth vibrate. Cain’s yell was furious and terrifying. We shielded ourselves with our hands as a blinding flash of pure white light tore from the demon, and then Cain flew apart in a million shards of light and energy. Everyone was knocked back as a shockwave rolled past us, and then all the windows on the front of the house shattered inward.

Abruptly, the light disappeared. My ears were ringing. It was jarring to suddenly find myself in a perfectly tranquil setting, when moments ago there’d been pure chaos.

It startled me when Ari and Griffin suddenly landed beside me. Griffin looked pale but not much worse for wear, and he stuck his hand out and hauled first me, then Elias to our feet as he said, “We almost missed the good part.” Ari’s wings seemed to roll in on themselves, and a second later they were gone.

Abel and Carter both stood up, and as Carter brushed some dirt off his suit, Abel looked around at all of us. After a moment, he said, “I need to go and repair some of the damage I’ve done, assuming you decide to let me live.”

Carter glanced at us, and when Elias nodded, he told Abel, “You’re free to go.” The demon gave a single nod and started to walk away, but Carter called after him, “There’s just one more thing.”

Abel turned back to him with a curious expression, and Carter closed the gap between them. He pulled Abel into his arms and claimed his mouth in a demanding kiss. Then he let go of him and said, “Until next time.”

Abel looked startled. Then he grinned, just a little, before turning and walking down the road. He passed right by the SUVs that must have brought him here, and when he was maybe fifty feet away, a pair of huge, black wings unfurled at his back. He drove them downward and shot into the sky, disappearing from sight in an instant.

I turned to Elias, who looked troubled. He pressed a hand to his chest and asked, “Why can’t I feel you?”

“Because mate bonds are severed when one partner dies.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You died saving me,” I told him, as I took his face between my hands. “You threw yourself in the way of Abel’s attack and shielded me with your body. Don’t you remember?”

He thought about it before saying, “I remember searing pain. The next thing I knew, I was in your arms and you were crying.”

“Abel brought you back.”

“I didn’t know demons could do that.”

I shrugged and said, “The power we wield is based on electricity, so I suppose he acted as a living defibrillator and restarted your heart. I’m sure a big dose of magic didn’t hurt, either.”

Since he was a bit shaky, I supported him with an arm around his waist as we headed into the house. He asked, “What made him decide to bring me back to life?”

“A crash course in humanity,” I said. “I used a psychic connection he’d established to make Abel feel everything I did when you died. It seemed like empathy was a new concept to him, but he got the idea pretty quickly and brought you back.”

“But not our mate bond.”

“That was out of his control.”

We trudged into the living room, crunching over broken glass, and Elias and I collapsed onto the couch. August and Tinder dropped down next to us, and I glanced at the couple as they leaned against each other. They were smeared with dirt, blood-spattered, and clearly exhausted. Tinder’s black T-shirt had been torn almost in half. But they smiled at each other before leaning in for a kiss.