Night Kissed (Chosen Vampire Slayer #1) - Mila Young Page 0,59
close.”
“That’s not true,” I said calmly. “You’re kidding yourself if you don’t think one of the reasons I’m here is because Orion knows I can put you down.” I didn’t say it would be a tall order to do so, or that I knew better than to imagine I’d come out unscathed.
Seth’s composure slipped just long enough to expose the bubbling chasm of rage within. His irises blackened, his expression hardening into a mask of dark fury. The air around his body shimmered with a searing burst of heat that I could feel from where I stood. In the next moment, he was inches from my face. “Watch your step, Logan,” he growled. “It’s a fucking long way down.”
This close, he reeked of hell and alcohol, and the veins in his face and neck threatened to pop. Despite the way in which he constantly sought to pave a pathway to ruin, by any means necessary, I found his existence grotesquely fascinating. A being made of little more than self-indulgent passions, barely contained in corporeal form. Really, we were lucky he hadn’t self-destructed long ago.
I laughed at him. “Look at you, presuming to talk to me about falling. That’s very funny, Seth.” I paused. “I recommend you save your breath. Someday soon you might not have any more to waste.”
If looks could kill, I would have dropped right where I stood. He turned and stormed away toward his room down the hall, leaving me to be washed over by his searing wake. The slamming of his door sent a tremor down through the foundation.
Technically, by standing firm, I had come out on top. But I didn’t wait around to see if he’d reemerge looking for a second round. It was my turn to retreat into my own modest sanctuary—not that a closed door provided much protection from Seth’s ire. Still, I made sure to engage the lock.
It was all becoming too much to handle. Homesickness wasn’t an emotion I’d ever felt in regard to the underworld, the cold, cruel side of the veil between dimensions, and yet I longed to step back into that blessedly serene realm for a little while. The barren plains of stone and ice would be a balm to my senses.
Orion wouldn’t like it; that much I understood implicitly. He wouldn’t like it, but he lacked the authority to prevent me from returning to my place of origin. And I was coming back. I just needed a respite from this chaotic space and the people with whom I had to share it.
A floor above, Orion slept in his modern crypt, dead to the world. I had learned from experience how difficult it was to rouse him from that state, but I kept my guard up nonetheless. If he should happen upon me while I was transitioning back and forth between realms, I’d be too vulnerable for comfort.
But as it turned out, none of that mattered. After I settled down to begin the rite of passage, I was quickly met by a strange sense of emptiness, as if looking off the edge of a broken-down road into nothingness. Where the path to the underworld should have manifested before me, I instead saw nothing more than dense, immaterial fog. And when I attempted to walk forward through the veil between dimensions, the haze cleared to reveal a solid barrier.
Something wasn’t right. Confused, I walked along the wall, running a hand over its smooth, unyielding surface. No door opened to admit me, no gateway broke free to let me through. Not even my wings could carry me over.
I was locked out. In disbelief, I stared at the cursed obstacle, mulling it over in my mind for much longer than was necessary. There had to be a way through, or around, or behind. Not once in the considerable time I’d spent moving between realms had the path ever closed without my knowledge. I felt a stone forming in the pit of my stomach.
Could it be that the paths had been altered somehow? The thought of some rogue supernatural tampering with gates between the planes filled me with unease. I knew of no one with the audacity, let alone the power. And worse, the only other person who might have more information was the very individual I’d intended to avoid for the foreseeable future—Seth.
I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, I was sitting on the side of my bed in Orion’s house. The light vertigo that always accompanied any planar