I nodded. I understood where he was coming from. If it ever came down to choosing between Mila and I—he had to choose her. It was illegal not to, and if he broke that law, he’d lose everything he had worked so hard for.

“Let’s go before it’s officially night.”

Eli and I left the hall. Everyone had disappeared into the emerging shadows, taking their positions. He walked fast, I was barely keeping up. The only indication that it wasn’t quite night yet was the faintest glow of orange light that illuminated the sky.

No words were spoken until we reached the middle of the field near Mr. Aleksandrov’s house. Eli stopped and turned to me. He pulled me into him, wrapping his arm firmly around my waist. He tugged my ponytail slightly, tilting my face upward. He dipped his face down, bringing his mouth close to mine. My breathing intensified and he smiled slightly.

“I need you to listen very carefully. You stay with Mila and you do not go anywhere, do you understand?” His voice wasn’t angry or frustrated. He seemed to be pleading with me, begging me not to do anything stupid. Although his eyes were hidden by shadow, I could still picture how they’d look right now—soft, and gentle.

“I understand.”

“Promise me.”

“I promise. I’ll stay with Mila.”

He pressed his lips against mine. They were full and soft. Fire ignited in my core, sending waves of happiness and desire crashing into my stomach and spilling over my ribs. He ran his fingers through my ponytail and then cupped my neck. His hands skimmed the contour of my body, and without consciously thinking about it, my hands found his hair and entangled themselves in it. He pulled away from me.

“We have forty seconds until the sun sets. You need to get to the house. You’ll have plenty of protection there.”

He didn’t let me go and I didn’t try to get away. We stood silently, looking into each other’s eyes—trying to read each other’s thoughts. I broke the silence first.

“Be careful, please,” I muttered.

Eli planted a soft peck on my lips and turned away.

I bit at my nails anxiously as I paced Mila’s bedroom.

“You’re making me nauseous,” Mila groaned, her head hanging off the side of her huge four-poster bed. She stuck the pencil she’d been using into her mouth and chewed on it.

I stopped pacing and leaned against the new pure silver bars that had been placed on her window sometime today. I stuffed my hands into my pockets, preventing myself from doing my nails anymore damage. “Sorry, I’m nervous. It’s been two hours.”

“Which is a good sign. Lucian probably won’t even show up tonight, so relax.”

I exhaled and strolled over to her, collapsing on the bed next to her. “Tell me something to get my mind off it.”

“Okay. I kissed Xavier.”

I jolted upright and my mouth dropped open. “What?”

“Just kidding.” She laughed. “But at least I got your mind off it.”

I scoffed and nudged her playfully. “Liar!”

Mila sat up and opened her drawing pad. “Maybe this will get your mind off it.”

I stared at the squiggles momentarily as they made up a picture of Eli and I from the hips up. We were holding each other just as we had in the field a few hours ago. His hand wrapped around my waist, the other held my ponytail, forcing my head to tilt toward him. Our bodies were pressed against each other as my hand rested on his shoulder. Our features were perfect, and the way we stared into each other’s eyes… it was, well, like I said, perfect. “How’d… Where’d….?” I was at a loss for words.

“I saw you two in the field earlier. It was pretty dark, so I could hardly make anything out, but I still think I did a pretty good job at capturing...” She paused, looking for a word that fitted her sentence. “…Everything, between you two.”

As I soaked up her words, it hit me and suddenly I panicked. “Who else saw?”

“Only me… I think.”

I relaxed. “I hope so.” I sat, admiring the drawing for a few more seconds. “Can I keep it?”

“I drew it for you. It’s yours.”

Mila leaned over and tore it from the book. I held it in my hands, examining it closely. It wasn’t a real-life drawing or anything. It had a cartoony, comic book kind of edge to it. How had I not seen Mila’s incredible talent before now?

“You are amazing!”

“It’s been a while since I’ve felt the need to draw, and then I saw you two looking so in love and perfect, and it sparked a need to draw it.”

I reached across and pulled her into a hug. As usual, her sweet, candy-scented perfume enveloped me. Suddenly I felt better about tonight. That was until a big bang sounded in the distance, forcing Mila and I to jump apart.

“What was that?” she whispered.

“I don’t know.”

I folded up her drawing and cringed. I didn’t want to crease it, but I wanted to keep it safe. I stuffed it into my back pocket and approached Mila’s bedroom door. As I pulled it open, Sera was standing there about to knock.

“What was that noise?” I asked urgently.

“They’re here. I need you two to stay in this room. There are plenty of us in and around the house, so if they, touch wood, get in, you should still be well protected.”

She hurried down the staircase. I watched after her until she disappeared from sight. Suddenly, I felt anxious and I was desperate to know what was going on. How many vampires had Lucian brought? Where were they? Was Hunter with him? I wanted desperately to be with them, to fight and do my part, but I couldn’t. I rubbed my wrist; the ugly metal bracelet was still there. There was nothing I could do except wait and make myself sick with worry. It still seemed unreal… vampires attacking Sage. It was supposed to be our safe haven. I looked at Mila, who was sitting on her bed, her glazed eyes looking out the window. I paced over and shut the long, sheer curtains.

“It’s okay, everything will be okay.” I joined her on the bed.

“I know. It’s just hard to believe…”

“I know.”

Mila was petrified. She shook in fear and she looked like she was going to vomit at any second. I realized my duty wasn’t killing vampires and risking my life. Right now, my duty was to be a good friend.

“Can I have a go at drawing?” I asked, picking up the pencil.

It was my attempt at distracting her from thinking about Lucian.

“You draw?”

“No, definitely not, but I want to try.”

With a small twitch of her lips she opened her drawing pad.

“Give me something to draw.”

“A puppy,” she suggested.

I put the sharp lead pencil to paper and attempted to draw a dog—attempted being the key word. I wasn’t even halfway through when Mila exploded into a fit of laughter.

“What?” I giggled.

“I’m sorry, but that’s horrible! It doesn’t even look like a dog!”

I threw the pencil at her. It looked like a puppy to me. “What does it look like, then?”

She looked at the paper and wiped tears from her eyes. “I have no idea, but it definitely isn’t a puppy.”

Mila claimed her pencil back and drew a quick sketch of a puppy… an actual puppy. It looked so realistic and so animated. I could watch her draw all day and be completely at peace. What a beautiful talent. A few more bangs sounded, and every now and then we’d hear a distant scream. Soon, not even drawing could take our minds off the horrible sounds of battle. We curled up next to each other at the head of her bed, praying that everyone made it out safely.

“Ruby?”

“Hmm?”

“He’ll be okay.”

She knew I was thinking about Eli. I was, but I was also thinking about everyone—Mr. Aleksandrov, Gwydion, Aaron, Lyric, Xavier, Sera, and even Paul and Markus. I wanted nothing more than for them to come out safely.

I nodded, swallowing the hard lump that formed in my throat. “I know.”

BROKEN

Mila and I didn’t sleep. Instead, we sat in silence, listening and waiting for any sign the house had been breached. It hadn’t. The hours didn’t fly by, but they did eventually pass. As soon as the first murky, gray light peered through the sheer fabric of the curtain, I sat up, feeling tired and bleary-eyed, but I was ready to find Eli. To my surprise, Mila was as well. Despite the slight bags that hung underneath her big, blue eyes, she still looked beautiful.

“I think the angels are meeting in the hall, do you want to come?” I asked her.

She bobbed her head and pulled the bandage from her wrist and exposed a two small angel wings.

“I think it’s healed.”

An excitement grew in my chest. “Can you feel him?”

She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. After a few moments she opened her eyes.

“No…”

“That’s okay. When we get closer to the hall, you’ll feel him.”

We exited her room. The house was quiet, no one was home.

“They’ve already gone to the hall?” I wondered aloud.

“I guess so.”

Outside was gloomy and depressing. Clouds hid the sun and light rain spat down on us. A hint of smoke lingered in the air and there were no noises. No birds. No crickets. Nothing. The closer we got to the hall, the more nervous I became. Mila and I watched as guardians swept up tons of piles of dust and set them on fire. They greeted us with sympathetic nods and awkward glances. I didn’t read into it. Eli is okay, I told myself over and over.

Mila grasped my elbow and walked close beside me. “I can’t feel him, Ruby,” She whispered.

“Maybe your tattoo isn’t in full effect yet,” I replied, refusing to believe any other explanation.

“Yeah, maybe.” Her tone was thick with doubt. I ignored it.

In the hall, stretchers were laid out everywhere as guardians were helping each other with their injuries. Some were sporting injuries as small as scrapes, others as horrific as, well, death. There were so many people, it was hard to find a familiar face. I squeezed in between people, searching for the one face I needed. When all was lost, I spotted Mr. Aleksandrov and my anxiety eased up. I was happy he was alive and well.

“Mr. Aleksandrov!” I called out.

When he spotted me, his face fell slightly. My stomach knotted, but my heart refused to react.

“It’s good to see that you’re well.” I smiled when I reached him.

“As well as one can be in a situation like this,” He replied, gesturing to all the pain and suffering.

I couldn’t hold the burning question back any longer.

“Where’s Eli?”

Mr. Aleksandrov looked me dead in the eyes. I tilted my head to the side, trying to understand what his eyes were trying to tell me.

“I’m so sorry… ”

My heart shattered into a million pieces, I no longer heard it beating. I shook my head and bit back the tears, forcing my body into a sense of numbness.

“They’ve taken him.” Even as he said it out loud, I refused to believe him.

“When are we going to rescue him?” I asked, expecting some kind of plan.

Mr. Aleksandrov shook his head. “We aren’t going to.”

I felt my face crumple. “What?”

“It’s dangerous. We’ve lost enough guardians. We can’t afford anymore.”

Each breath I took hurt. The urge to cry was there, but I swallowed it down.

“We can save him!” I shouted furiously, the words exploding out of me.

“Even if we knew where Lucian was, we couldn’t risk it,” Mr. Aleksandrov rebutted.

I stared, uncomprehendingly, into his eyes. He stared back, his gray eyes filled with regret. Guardians tried not to stare at me, the girl who was in love with her guardian angel. How pathetic I must’ve seemed.

“Please.” My voice was just a whisper now. My body finally registered that Eli was taken and awareness began to seep through me. “Please…”

Mr. Aleksandrov dropped his head. “I’m sorry, there’s nothing we can do.”

He turned away, leaving me staring into an empty space. My whole body went numb and Mila pulled me into a hug, but I refused to cry.

“I’m so sorry,” she mumbled, her voice shaking with emotion.

I pulled away from her as my chest tightened. I could feel a panic attack coming on, and I rushed outside. I bent over and placed my hands on my knees, inhaling as much air as I could. Soon, my heart beat slowed down, but only enough for it break again and again. Then I felt it—the pain. The aching pain radiated from my chest and into the pit of my stomach. I wanted to vomit and scream, all at once, but instead, I ran. I sprinted as fast as I could—as fast as these guardian boots would allow me—and I didn’t stop, not until I made it back to my little house. I burst through the door and stormed into my room. I was so angry and hurt, this wasn’t meant to happen. I screamed. I screamed until my voice disappeared and my chest burned. I grabbed my lamp and threw it across the room, shattering the light bulb. I pulled the sheets off the bed and threw them on the floor. There wasn’t much else in my room, so I gave up. I collapsed onto my knees and dropped my face into my hands, then the tears came and boy, did they come full force. Once they started, they wouldn’t stop. I cried so hard I was gasping for air. When I was certain my lungs were going to explode, my tears slowed down and eventually stopped. Once again I became numb and angry. Why weren’t they preparing a search party? Eli was a great asset to the team… Didn’t they want him back?