Fate

25

Chapter 25

I stared around the room and my eyebrows scrunched together. I was back in Lucy's living room but... I never left Kellan's apartment.

"I've missed you, Julia."

I turned around and came fact to face with Andreas. His dark clothes were ratty and exaggerated the dark circles under his eyes. He looked older yet it had only been weeks since I'd last seen him.

"Where am I?"

"You don't recognize your own home?"

"Why did you bring me here?"

"So full of questions. I thought you'd be delighted to see your own father."

"I would be except you're not Kellan."

"He is so unfit to be a parent." He said, shaking his head back and forth.

"Why did you bring me here?" I repeated, not wanting to play his games. I knew him too well to stand here and go back and forth over Kellan.

He sighed and walked closer to me. The scent of the lab wafted from him. "You left me. And I want you back."

"That is not happening." I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Things will be different this time. It will be just you and me. No Terrance to torment you."

"You do that well enough on your own."

He narrowed his eyes and looked at me for several seconds before he slowly smiled. "I see you have your wings back. I wasn't as fortunate."

"You don't deserve your wings."

"Maybe so." He walked closer to me and I took a step back, hitting the wall. "Not all angels get their wings back once they've lost them."

"So I've heard."

He stared at me once more and I wanted to hit myself. I was revealing too much and if I wasn't careful, he'd find out that Holden was working with us. "Your mother tells you a lot, doesn't she?"

"She told me that you're trouble and I'm better off without knowing you."

He walked up to me and brushed my hair behind my ear. "Your mother lies to you, Julia. You can trust me."

"No."

He leaned even closer, enough that he was pressed up against me and just as his lips were brushing against my forehead, I woke up.

I sat upright in bed and struggled to catch my breath. Beside me, Aryan watched me, his eyebrows raised.

"Are you okay?"

"It was him."

His eyes studied me, reading my expression to see how I felt about it all. "What did he want?"

"Me."

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"Kellan!" Lucy yelled from his bedroom.

Aryan looked at me from our spot at the bar in the kitchen and Kellan got up from the couch in the living room. He went into the bedroom and I heard them talking.

"That son of a-" Lucy said loudly. "No, I will not calm down!"

I got up and Aryan grabbed my arm. "Do you think that's a good idea?"

I looked back at him. "She has to be talking about Andreas. I want to know what's going on."

He held my gaze for just a second before he nodded and followed me toward Kellan's room.

My eyes widened as I looked around the room. It was larger than expected and offered plenty of space. There were two computer screens, ones that looked like TV screens, on one wall and a desk underneath them. His bed sat, unmade, against the wall directly across from the door, giving the room the illusion that it was only a bedroom. Smart.

Kellan and Lucy were standing close together, looking down at a cell phone. Lucy was frowning and the tension was thick between them.

"What's going on?" I asked.

Lucy didn't look up from the device. "Someone's in the house."

My eyes widened. "You don't think it's him, do you?"

"He's the only person that it could be. No one else knows where I live." Her teeth were gritted together and her knuckles were white. Lucy worked hard for her house and wasn't going to just stand by as someone, likely Andreas, tore it apart.

I was about to take a step toward her when a sickening feeling washed over me and I was no longer in the bedroom. I was in the living room of the house, where I'd been in the dream with Andreas. This time, the couch was pulled out from the wall and the cushions were on the floor. Andreas was standing in front of me, straighter and more confidently than usual. He was in his white lab coat again. "Julia, darling, where are you?"

"What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to find you, dear. But... you're not here."

"How are you doing this? You're not an angel anymore."

"Just because I do not have my wings doesn't mean I am not an angel."

"That makes no sense."

"I try to live one day at a time."

"A guy like you has to."

He smiled. "You're very brave."

"You don't know me at all."

He laughed and let his head fall back as he did so. "I like your level of confidence. Though you are wrong."

"What?"

"You see, I came for you and you were not here. But I will keep looking for you. You can run, my child, but you cannot hide from me."

I opened my mouth to speak and was back at Kellan's apartment. Three sets of eyes were on me, one directly in front of me.

I blinked and looked at Aryan. "It's him. He's looking for me."

"We're not safe here." Lucy said, putting her phone into her back pocket.

"Where should we go then?" Kellan asked.

She rubbed her forehead and sighed. "I have a friend two hours away that we could stay with but I'm afraid even that isn't far enough."

"Europe?"

"Julia doesn't have a passport and we don't have time to get her one."

"But we'd fly."

"She can't fly that far. Even I can't."

"So what? We just let him come after her then?"

"I'm not handing her over to him." Lucy said defensively. The iciness in her voice made me glad I was across the room and not directly beside her.

"I wasn't saying that-"

She glared at him and that must have been enough to shut him up. "We have to think of something."

Kellan ran his hands over his face. "Do you have any ideas, Julia?"

I swallowed hard. "No. I don't know what I'm supposed to do." I was so overwhelmed. Andreas was coming for me, again, and I didn't know how or where to run to get away from him. I wasn't trained enough to handle him like I had with the intruder. And I hated to involve Lucy and Kellan and Aryan in this. Andreas wanted me and only me.

Aryan slid an arm around my shoulders and pulled me against his side. "Hey, we'll figure this out, okay?"

I hated to cry and be so weak and vulnerable but I was helpless. Andreas was coming after me and if I wanted to protect my family, I had to sacrifice myself.

Aryan pulled me into his arms and let me cry. No one said a word.