Honestly, I wondered if this day could get any stranger?

Little did I know …

* * *

After ending up in the nurse’s office again, this time selecting a stylish blue cold pack for my wrist, Brooke and I headed to the last class of the day, grateful that the end was nigh. Luckily, Foods and Nutrition was usually a very low-stress class. Even so, a part of me was hoping Ms. Phipps would have another hangover. Sadly, she wasn’t quite the lush we’d hoped she would be. Instead, she gave us a quiz on the video we saw the day before. If I’d actually paid attention, I might have passed it.

But Brooke, dang her, knew every single answer. It was at that moment, at that pivotal turning point in our relationship, that I realized she’d sold her soul to the devil. No way could she have aced that quiz when neither of us paid any attention.

“It’s an absorption thing,” she said. We’d stayed behind to clean the kitchen for extra credit, so the halls were almost empty when we left class. “I just absorb information. I’m like a sponge.”

“You’re like a sphincter.” I said it before I thought. And yet, didn’t regret it. Clearly, I needed to work on a few issues. Resentment was never the answer.

She raised a superior brow, mocking my insolence, but her gaze quickly slid past me. “Jared’s coming.”

I whirled around. Fast. Too fast. So fast, I lost my balance and had to grab on to Brooke’s jacket.

And the world was depending on me.

We were in so much trouble.

Jared smiled as he walked toward us, but it was different—he was different, harder. His gaze was cavalier. His walk was more arrogant than confident. His gait almost taunting.

He strolled up to me. “I’ve actually stumbled upon you without your bodyguard. That’s not an easy thing to do.”

I glanced around, looking for Cameron. He was always right outside my classroom or waiting just down the hall. Brooke stepped to the side to check her phone. Mine beeped too. I ignored it.

“Is there a reason you wanted to catch me without Cameron around?”

The grin that slid across his handsome face was more like a leer. He hooked his thumbs on the pockets of his jeans and leaned against the wall. Most of the students had vacated the premises. We were alone except for a couple of stragglers at the lockers down the hall.

Brooklyn tapped on my arm. “You should check your phone,” she said. When I looked at her, she’d placed a wary expression on Jared, her brows crinkled in distrust.

Jared noticed. His mouth tilted as I took out my phone. Just as it lit up, I heard a clicking of heels and turned to see Tabitha walking toward us, her blond head bouncing, her white teeth visible from a hundred yards.

Then I felt Jared tug at my shirt. I backed away. He’d pulled my neckline and, I could’ve sworn, looked down my shirt. I clasped it to me with one hand. “Did you just look down my shirt?” I couldn’t decide if I should be flattered or offended.

“Ever the good girl.” His grin was gone and he stood eyeing me from underneath hooded lids. No expression on his face. No emotion. “Did you know there were seraphim, sons of God, who came to Earth to marry the daughters of man?”

I blinked at the abrupt change in subject and glanced at my phone. It had a text from Cameron. One word. Run.

“Well, yes,” I said, frowning in confusion. Run? Run where? “They had children who were called nephilim, right? Like what Cameron is.”

His gaze traveled down again, paused on my hips.

I stuffed my phone back into my bag. “Jared, I don’t understand—”

“You don’t understand what I am,” he said, his voice as sharp as steel with a razor’s edge. He tilted his head, his eyes sparkling darkly underneath his lashes. “Did you know that I took the firstborn from ten thousand families in a single night, because one man, one human man, refused to submit to a power greater than his own?”

I tried to step back, but he curled the tail of my shirt into his fingers and held me to him. “The Pharaoh of Egypt,” I said. I’d heard the story dozens of times, of how Moses had warned him. Of how he lost his own son that night.

“I have killed princes and paupers, kings and slaves, all upon a word. An order. And I could kill every person in this town without a second thought.” He leaned closer and whispered in my ear. “I’ve done it. So many times, I lost count.”

I really should have run. I could see that now.

“And in all that time, I never understood the allure. The desire inside my brethren to give up everything to be with a human.” His expression hardened. “Until you.” His hand slid around to the small of my back and he pulled me even closer.

I placed my hands on his chest and tried to speak with calm authority. “Jared, let me go.”

He looked up as Tabitha walked past. “Then again, maybe any human will do.”

Tabitha, seeing our position, had turned up her nose and clearly had every intention of walking on. He looked back at me, the smirk on his face cruel, punishing. Without taking his eyes off me, he whispered, “Come here.”

And she obeyed. Tabitha stopped, turned toward us, and walked forward until she was on his other side.

“Maybe even this human will do.”

He took hold of her jaw and dipped his head to place his mouth on hers.

And the world fell out from under my feet.

* * *

I couldn’t believe what I saw. Not that I could blame him. He was stunning. And I was … well, I was not. If I defined any adjective in the English language, it would not be “stunning.” I wasn’t tall or gorgeous or a blonde or brunette. I was a short, redheaded pixie stick with curly hair and freckles. Truth be told, Jared deserved someone just as stunning as he.