I let my eyes float back to the booth in the corner where they stopped abruptly on the most attractive, most evil man I had ever seen. He was slender and tall, wearing an extremely expensive charcoal suit and a winning smile that promised only terrible things. His golden brown hair was swept back from his eyes and he had a five o’clock shadow that could have seduced any woman. His piercing bright green gaze was locked on me from across the space between us and I felt myself sink back from the waves of pure malevolence that seeped from him.

“Stella Day?” he laughed from across the restaurant like we knew each other intimately. “Stella? Is that you?”

I swallowed down the fear, anger, and wrenching disgust and plastered on a hardly believable smile. “Oh, hey,” I forced myself to answer, instinctively realizing I needed to play along in order to protect my friends.

“Saul, look who’s here,” he turned his head to address his accomplice as he stood from their booth. Saul, was a huge, muscular man with jet black hair and black eyes as if when he fell from Heaven, the Darkness not only tainted his soul, but his features as well.

Saul didn’t say anything to his friend, just grunted in my direction as if that was an appropriate response for a public place. But then his eyes raked over me as if he knew every inch of me already. A mixture of nausea and excitement for battle rippled through me. I would enjoy making this particular brand of evil extinct.

Seth walked back to the table at the exact moment I had decided to hell with the spectators and I was grateful for his reassuring presence. He put a hand on the small of my back and I felt his anger as his hand trembled against me. He stared down the two Fallen who watched us with unmasked, cruel delight as if he too couldn’t wait for the privacy of the back alley.

“That was my grandpa, Stella,” Seth growled, his voice low and vibrating. “I need to get home right away.” He turned his head at the last minute and addressed our table where everyone had fallen silent at the weirdness between us. “I’m sorry guys; you should get to the movie though.”

“But how will you get home?” Tristan demanded, not at all fooled by Seth’s cover story.

“Do you two need a ride back to that sweet little farm town?” The first Fallen asked from across the room. His eyes lit up with anticipation, paralyzing me in his hungry gaze.

I tried to pretend it was perfectly normal for two mysterious men to butt into a group of teenager’s conversation from across the room. And then prayed my friends wouldn’t start asking questions.

“We do,” Seth answered. “Were you headed that direction?”

“Well, we’ve been meaning to pay Jupiter a visit for a while now, haven’t we Saul?” the first Fallen asked, and a protective tremble shook my core. “If you would just call him and let him know we’ll take you home so he doesn’t worry, we’d love to offer you a ride.”

“I can do that,” Seth replied robotically.

I tore my eyes from the Fallen’s gaze back to my friends. I was desperate to protect them, to save them from this horrendous evil. “Is that Ok with you guys? These are old friends of our families; we can get a ride home with them.” I forced my lips to twist into a smile and my eyes to meet Piper’s and Tristan’s. Piper looked concerned while Tristan looked…. like he was going to fight this battle for me.

I needed to get them out of here.

“Are you sure you’re going to be Ok?” Piper asked as Seth hung up the phone and smiled reassuringly.

“Oh yeah, we go way back with these guys and my grandpa just told me how he cannot wait to see them again,” Seth promised, his voice sounding more controlled, but quietly scary.

“And you guys should go, or you’re going to miss the previews!” I declared, standing up so that my chair scraped against the floor loudly.

I held my arms up, shooing them to the door where I said goodbye to Piper and Lincoln and politely nodded to Bree. Tristan stopped though, right inside the door where nobody else could hear him.

“Who are they, Stella?” he demanded, his voice barely a whisper. When I didn’t respond he filled in the blanks. “Bad guys?”

I nodded my head seriously, “Yep, bad guys.”

“I’m not leaving you,” Tristan promised and my throat immediately tightened and closed with the fear that he was serious.

“Yes you are, Tristan,” I begged, my eyes meeting his and pleading with him to go. “They will hurt you if you stay, maybe even kill you…. probably even kill you and I cannot let that happen. Go with Piper, I’ll call you when I get home.”

“No,” he growled, his arm slamming behind my head, pinning me against the wall. “I can’t leave you.”

I cupped his face with my hand and ran my thumb across his bottom lip, knowing that the evil I was going to face tonight was greater than anything I had met before. “You have to leave Tristan. I can’t worry about you while I face these guys, I won’t be at my strongest. And you need to get Piper and Lincoln out of here. You’re the only one that knows what’s going on and you need to get them somewhere safe.”

“What if something happens to you,” his voice broke from frustration and I hated that he knew what was going on, for the first time in my life I hated that he knew what I was and what I had to face.

“Nothing will happen to me,” I promised. “Nothing. Tristan I am the only hope this planet has, I am strong enough to defeat these guys, I swear to you. I’ll text you as soon as I’m on my way home.”

“This goes against everything I believe in, everything that’s in me,” his eyes held the deepest loss and even though I knew he believed I would win this fight, I also knew that it broke him not to be able to protect me.

“Please go,” I begged, my own soul feeling dangerously close to shattering.

A deep growl rumbled inside of him and he pushed forcefully away from the wall and stalked out the front door. I watched him walk away from the restaurant realizing that may have been the bravest thing he ever had to do. His eyes found mine one more time before he climbed in Piper’s Durango and I promised him again with my expression that I would be fine. His expression hardened as if he knew I was lying to him and then he was in the car and gone.

My shoulders fell in relief for just a moment before I turned back to face the men that had followed Seth and I to the restaurant. Seth was watching Saul and the other Fallen, and I got the distinct impression he had yet to take his eyes off of them.

“Well, should we take this carpool someplace a little more private?” The first Fallen asked, his voice mocking and amused.

“I’m going to kill you tonight,” Seth snarled, his Adams apple bobbing in his throat with the effort to swallow.

“Do you know these guys Seth?” I asked with feigned confidence as I searched their faces again wondering if I should know them too.

“Sure, Stel,” Seth replied with a surprising tone of malicious disgust. “You remember when I told you about Aliah, don’t you?”

My gaze snapped back to the first Fallen that I could now identify as Aliah, the Angel that had betrayed and murdered Seth’s parents.

Chapter Sixteen

Aliah. The name echoed back and forth in my head and turned my blood to ice in my veins. It was more than the tragedy of Seth’s parents, more than the pure wicked evil that seeped from every pore as he stood casually across the room from us; it was that his Darkness seduced me.

I wanted to ignore the fact that some part of me, some secret, hidden, horrible part of me was drawn to him. Something made me want to take steps toward him, to investigate exactly what was so enticing about him. But I swallowed the desire, the haunting craving of the darkest places that resided in my own soul.

My father had told me every one of us were somehow drawn to the Darkness. Humans and Angels alike struggled to ignore a calling we didn’t understand and that would destroy us before we ever could.

That is all that Aliah represented: a once strong and good Warrior who had allowed his weakness and hunger to destroy everything that was pure in him. He was weaker than me because he had given in, he had surrendered.

I tilted my chin proudly and felt the slow crawl of heat flood my skin as the best part of me began to show. I could ignore the shameful thirst for the Darkness. And I could face Aliah. Both were predators and enemies. I would have to fight both of them.

I was born to fight both of them.

“Shall we?” Aliah asked and gestured towards the door. Neither one of us moved for a while, not wanting to give up the ground of who walked out first.

“After you,” Seth smirked with a tilt of his head.

Aliah smiled patiently as if he were dealing with a small child and then eventually made the move for the door. Saul grunted behind him, but followed his lead. They walked out to the parking lot while Seth offered me his hand and we walked out together.

Aliah led us around to the side of the building that wasn’t exactly isolated, but it was shadowed in darkness, the tops of the buildings caging us in, blocking out the light from the night sky and the bright lights from the parking lot.

We faced each other off, silent at first but I knew Aliah was waiting for something. Saul stood next to him, not any less evil, but somehow less intimidating. He gave off the vibe of a minion without much individual ambition. Not that I should have regarded him as less scary, I was sure he was capable of just as much damage as Aliah…. but Ok, anything standing in comparison to Aliah was going to be less scary.

He was simple, pure evil.

“How good to see you Seth,” Aliah purred, his voice smooth and melodic as it sailed over his words.

“Don’t,” Seth growled.

“But it’s been so long,” Aliah antagonized, not losing the hypnotic tone to his voice. Saul grunted something that could be considered a laugh beside him. “The last time I saw you, you were just a wee little thing. But now look at you, full grown man with a chip on his shoulder. You are fairly intimidating, all brute strength and goodness and light.” Aliah snarled, his upper lip curling back over his teeth in an expression of hatred and mockery.

“Don’t forget the revenge he’s been storing up, waiting to unleash,” Saul threw in, barking his laughter.

I took Seth’s lead as he stood silent and listening, although I could feel the storm brewing beneath his skin, his anger and restraint pushed to its very limits as he waited for the right time. I swallowed roughly, taking strength from Seth but acknowledging that my own control was slipping. I needed to fight, needed it more than air at this point. My battle instincts had flared to life and I was desperate to banish this evil that hovered much too close to everything I loved.

Besides that, this was a bit of an anomaly, standing in an alley, having a conversation with Fallen. Fallen rarely sought out Angels, usually they were simply hunted and remained in the unseen places to protect themselves. Aliah seeking us out said a lot about his confidence in himself and amusement in our abilities. Which made me want to prove him all the more wrong….

“Why are you here?” I sighed as if annoyed by the whole evening.