Ethereal

Phillip's POV

Cameron wanted to bust some heads.

Well, he normally wanted to punch someone in the face with a chair, but this last week he'd been insufferable. Saying he'd been mood-swinging between annoyed and murderous would be this year's understatement.

I was pretty convinced Sam had something to do with it. Though, sometimes he flipped off without being near her. Like at the house. It could also be Raphael's constant orders for him to track down a Demon infected human and eliminated him or her. Which was almost every freaking night.

Anyway, Cam was coiled tight. I couldn't blame him. Nina didn't want us killing off Sam and I was on board with that, since it was my fault the Succubus had found a new playground. But it was getting tougher not breaking the girl's neck.

Since me and Cameron could be influenced by her hormone-producing-wickedness, Nina and Vanessa were the only ones who could keep tabs on her, closely. Sam and her BFF weren't stupid, they knew when they were being followed. So, every time the girls followed Samantha, she ended up not feeding, just toying with some poor guy's emotions.

Yeah, I sighed sitting back, everyone was worked up.

"I think you need to write something before turning it in." My eyes wondered off my blank sheet, capturing strangely beautiful whiskey eyes.

"You sound like my brother." V laughed softly, taking a seat beside me.

"How can you work in here? It's so loud."

I shrugged. The Lighthouse was crowded and noisy in the afternoon, it helped that it was a wintry Sunday. Not a lot of places to hang out. I normally didn't come here to study, but lately, any time I could escape my house or Cameron, was a damn Christmas gift.

"I can deal with loud." Nothing could match the echoing screams in the Imperial. I swallowed on reflex as a blurred images jumped across my eyes.

A weight fell on my arm. My eyes met Vanessa's'.

"Are you okay?" Sweet, old caring V. She never dropped that pureness. Even in death, as a Vampire, she was still the best person I knew.

And there was no running from such purity.

"Not really," I admitted after a week and a half of denial. "I'm not doing well, at all, V. I... I don't know why." Her brows furrowed like she didn't buy it. "Okay, maybe I do know why. Hell wasn't exactly the Ritz. It was..." I paused. So many words flew around and I couldn't pick one bad enough to describe it.

"Hellish?"

The edges of my lips couldn't help tilting up. Her lips curved, fingers squeezed my arm lightly.

"That's a real good word for it. Did you peek inside my head?" I knew she hadn't. I hadn't felt any Power being used.

She shook her head, "I've actually gotten pretty good at that. At not peeking, that is. I think being with Gary is helping." She nibbled on her lip, lost in thought. "He makes me feel..."

"Human." I stated. Her eyes went big looking into mine. "Sounds like it's serious."

"Much more serious than with Cameron." The minute the words left her mouth, she pressed her lips tightly. "And, hum, that's actually a problem."

"Why?"

"Because... huh... Well, I like him. Really like him? And he likes me." I nodded, honestly not getting how chick's heads turned. "When things get... deeper between us, I, huh, I feel cravings. Bad ones."

Oh.

"You mean... You want to bite him?" She nodded sheepishly. I held in a grimace. That was complicated. If every time they got touchy-feely, V felt the sudden need to nick open a vein—having a little taste—they'd never get past first base without Gary ending up with an ugly neck wound or worse. "That's..."

"Completely gross? Tell me about it."

Her face dropped into her hands.

"I was going to say lovable in a very weird way. If you like the smell of his blood that much, it means you're really into him." Vanessa glared, impish nose wrinkling. "Sounds like the blood-sharing factor is kicking in."

Reaching for my unfinished coke, I took a heavy swig as V slumped beside me.

"I thought blood sharing only happened between Vamps."

"No, pretty sure I told you it happened when a Vampire felt strongly attracted to someone. Sharing blood is a way of getting more intimate. You just happen to feel it with a human."

"A human who is totally unaware that his girlfriend is a blood-sucking monster."

My hand cupped her cheek before I could help it.

"You're not a monster. Blood-sucker? Yeah, can't deny that. But monster? Nope. Not on the list of things that make you Vanessa Crawford." Never in a million years would I think of this girl as a monster. She'd never taken a life while learning to deal with the whole craving business.

"Phillip," she lowered her eyes.

"I'm serious. I saw monsters. Real ones. Some were Vampires, V, but they were nothing like you—nothing I'd ever seen. They... They fed on people until their necks broke off." Her flinch made my hand drop, I scooted closer to the wall, shaking from the little flickers.

People begged them to stop. They'd laugh before and after tearing their heads off. Sometimes they'd make me watch. Lucifer told them to make me watch, wanting to prove how weak I—

"Phillip?" The little shake Vanessa gave me pulled me from the edge.

"What?" I murmured, erasing my thoughts.

V nudged her chin toward the door. In came one hell of a moody twin brother. I thought about ducking under the table before he went off on my ass about God-knows what. That was before noticing the slight flatter in his step.

"I smell..." V began.

"Blood." I finished.

She slid from the booth, letting me out, I couldn't get to my brother fast enough. Pushing past a busy Zeke, I almost knocked Cameron back once I had him by the shoulders. He was looking a little pale for us.

"What's going on?" I drove him into a nearby wall, next to a state of the art jukebox.

Cameron's eyes skipped me, at first.

"I'm fine."

"I smell blood on you." My hands were already peeling away the jacket, searching for the smell's origin. I saw a drying patch on his dark denim jeans. "What happened?"

Even when Tapeworms had hosts, they chose later hours to pounce. It was the middle of the afternoon. Not that dark out.

"It's not my blood," made sense. There were no tears in his clothes. "I ran into a few cougars. Not the friendly kind, either."

Possessed cougars? My eyebrows drew together.

"How many?"

"Three? I think." He thought? Cam rubbed the side of his head.

"You look fine. Did you run?"

Cameron showed the want to push me off, "I never run, brother. From anything or anyone."

Rolling my eyes at his arrogant streak, I said, "You don't have a scratch on you. How did you beat them?"

"How does one generally kill Demons? Power, of course." Huh-uh.

My twin leaned heavily on the wall, like his body was becoming more than he could handle. Just in case, I pinned him harder on the bar's wall. Wouldn't want him to pass out.

"You're wobbly."

"You're nosy." Cam shot, batting my hand, leaning into my personal space. "Now I get what you've been saying, about me not leaving you alone? It's really annoying, bro. But unlike you, I have reasons to worry about you. You don't. Some Demons found me and I slayed them." He shrugged. But it was a big one, like he wanted me to believe everything was fine. "All in a day's work."

I really sucked at babysitting. And this right here, called for a sitter.

"Go sit there," I pointed to where V was, staring our way. "Unless you can't make it across the room." An urgency of proving me wrong got him all pumped. I thanked whatever deity for Cam's appreciation of dark clothes. If anyone happened to look at his knees, they'd think the splatters were from earlier rain.

Not blood.

Once he was sitting in front of Vanessa, I relaxed, slipping outside. Pulling out a newly bought cell, I coursed down my contact list. It rung three times and over the line a familiar bubbly chuckle sounded.

"Where are you?" It was dumb to ask. I knew who the chuckle belonged to.

"Dawn's house," Nina answered. Sounded like she was getting away from a very noisy place. "I'm helping Dawn with DNA replication."

"Fascinating," I mumbled. "Will you be done soon?"

"If she stops bringing up last night's rerun of A Walk To Remember, maybe. If not, it's going to take us at least two hours and a box of chocolate bars." The only thing I got was 'two hours'. I could not watch my brother for that long, not with my geography homework still blank. "Why? Something up?" It wasn't the first time I heard her voice on alert, still, it mind-blew me.

This Nina really wasn't the shy one from months ago.

"Yes. I mean, no. I don't know." I weaved a hand, nervously, along my hair. "Came just popped up here—at the Lighthouse. He's all tired out." I could tell she held in a breath. "Says he found three mountain lions that weren't themselves."

"Is he okay?"

I snuck a look inside. Vanessa's lips were moving and unless she'd gone off the deep-end, she was talking to Cam.

My voice lowered, I didn't know why I bothered, if my brother wanted to listen-in, he would, "Yeah. But that's the weird thing, he doesn't have a scratch on him. No evidences of a fight—besides the few specks of blood and the fact he's a worn out battery."

"And that's... bad?"

"Not bad. Weird." I leaned on the wet brick wall, taking in the snow along the sidewalks. "Cameron's tough, but I've never seen him come unscratched from a fight."

"Well," she breathed and I heard a fridge door closing. "He's had a temper all week long, probably made good use of it." Could be. "You're wondering when I can take him off your hands, aren't you?"

I chuckled under my breath.

"I'm trying to get homework done."

"Hmm, I'll hurry." She whispered, I heard her walking. "You're taking school serious."

"I want to get back on the team." Between trainings and slaughtering wandering Demons, I still had plenty of energy to burn. I needed to play. Burn more anger out. The more I did, the better I slept. And lived. "Swing over once you're done. I don't see his car anywhere. He probably walked."

Heading back in, I asked Zeke for another coke, sure that Cameron drank the rest of mine. Vanessa got up, letting me slide back in. Cameron was across from me, stuffing his face with pie. My brows notched.

"If you choke, I'll let you." I warned, eyes slipping to the glass on the table. Empty. It was scary how well I knew him.

For a minute, I thought Cameron was going to give me a cheeky grin, but he swallowed and kept forking apple pie. Dude loved apples. And pie. So, apple plus pie, equaled a very tasty baby.

Vanessa was torn between fascination and worry. She side-glanced me, I shrugged.

Her raven, curly edges whipped as she fastened her eyes on him.

"Sam's getting out of hand," I tried hard to keep my focus on Geography, leaving my brother and her to discuss Slutty-Sam's thing. "Yesterday, she made a freshman guy put the moves on Seth."

I swear Cameron stopped eating delicious crumbs, staring at V.

Screw Geo.

"She what?" We deadpanned.

The Vampire glanced between us, and we could easily guess what she was thinking. Cute, sweet, adorable. Heard it all before.

"Seth?" Seth was a two-time-senior. Guy was pretty cool if you didn't give a shit about weed stench and burned out brains. "What happened? Is the kid even gay?"

"No, that's the bad part. Seth was leaving school when the freshman walked up to him, flirting, and seconds later... he tried to kiss him. I saw her hanging around her car. Giggling." Vanessa crossed her arms with a little huff. "Poor guy ended up with a black eye."

"He's probably rethinking his tastes, too." Chirped Cam, going for the coke Zeke slapped down. I snatched it, light-speed style, eyes narrowed. "How possessive, little brother."

"What's mine is mine." I muttered, feeling seven all over.

His eyes crinkled with humor.

"She's causing messes, guys. We need to do something before she does something worse, like kill someone." She was right. But we didn't have a Witch. Something twisted in my chest just thinking the word.

Witch.

There it was again. Damn. I poured myself a glass full of sweet, bubbly liquid and chucked it down. Blue eyes and blond hair shifted in the corners of my memory, then rosy lips... Those images didn't haunt my dreams at night, sometimes I thought I saw her—Serena—but it all happened too fast and I either ended up being tortured or waking up.

She never came in full image.

Vanessa was eyeing me, lips curved. A little Power wafted from her. I gave her a dirty look. Lip corners tipped more.

"Nina doesn't want her dead," Cameron broke our one-on-one moment. "Which means, she's not dying."

"Taking someone's wants in consideration? I'm impressed." Said V.

He half-smirked at her, saying nothing.

"We have two options, starve her or get lucky and find a Witch."

"Number one." Cam said, I agreed, nodding. "It can't be that hard. We bag her, lock her somewhere and leave her there for a few days. That should do it." He made it sound so simple.

"It can't be one of us. She'll use her mojo and we'd be royally screwed." I still remembered how it'd felt to be aroused, to desire her until I hurt. To feel my brother's bones crack under my hands. Those were things I never wanted to experience again.

"I can do it." V volunteered, leaning her elbows on the table.

"Problem solved." My brother said with a big taunting smirk. I wanted to wipe it off. He straightened fast, though, smirk slipping, eyes drifting to the entrance.

Following his night eyes, I saw Nina's petite figure waltzing in, shrugging off her red coat.

Somehow, I knew their eyes had locked across the distance. This happened a lot, it was a straight-out-of-a-movie kind of scene. At least, I wasn't a third wheel today, I had Vanessa backing me up.

"You have a little drool here..." I reached for a corner of Cam's mouth, he knocked my hand away, scowling.

V and I snickered.

He reached for her hand—whenever they were in the same room, they needed to touch. "I thought you were tutoring Miss Air Head."

"Be nice," Nina warned, claiming the seat beside him. "And I was and now I'm here. Problem?"

"Nope," he slid an arm around her curvy hips. Totally inconsiderate towards Vanessa. They hadn't meant that much as boyfriend and girlfriend, but still... V didn't seem to mind. "You're just in time to hear our plan."

Her golden eyes widened, searching all of us, "Plan?"

He nodded, "We're going to lock Sam up and wait until that pesky thing inside her dies."

Nina made a questioning sound.

"Any idea how long it'll take?" Cam shrugged. "What about her parents? She'll just go missing."

Cameron hung his head back, letting a sigh ripple free.

"I never said it was a solid plan." He murmured.

Yeah, he wasn't putting a lot of effort into this. It had more holes than Swiss cheese.

I saw Nina's face screw up, hand sliding for his jeans.

"What's this?" She asked innocently. I knew she was talking about the blood-splatters, but damn, the way she acted—like I hadn't told her nothing? Priceless.

"Demons came. Demons died." Cam smiled leisurely at Nina, peeling a wavy strand from her face. "No harm done."

"Does that mean you're up for training?" Cameron's pompousness died down. He'd been teaching Nina some kick-ass moves lately. "You promised."

"Don't remind me."

She pouted, edging closer. "Cam."

"Now?" I almost laughed. My brother had just whined.

"Yes!" She slapped his arm. "Before Raphael throws another dead-pool at you."

"She has a point." I pushed, I really needed them gone—V included. Otherwise, there would be no focusing.

Cameron glared under his lashes, before nodding Nina out of the booth. When my twin wasn't looking, she gave a secret smile my way, I shook my head mentally thanking her. V took the hint walking with them for the exit.

Okay.

There was nothing capable of ripping me from this Geo-crap—

Nothing but a sudden flash of blond hair. Eyes knocking into the blue-eyed girl, I felt my breath catch. Felicia Wayller's hair was blond, dropping just an inch below her shoulders, it was sort of wavy—not straight—her blue eyes were ocean deep—not sky-blue—her skin wasn't porcelain. Her face was round, not oval.

But shit, she was the closest thing to her.

I was so screwed up. Fantasizing over someone I'd never see again—but I couldn't help myself. There had been something there, between us. For me, at least. Which was the damnedest thing, finding a person who you liked in Hell.

My fixation with blond hair and blue eyes earned me a smile from two feet away. She came closer.

I smiled, "Hey."

"Hey," Felicia tossed hair over a shoulder. "What are you working on?"

"Boring stuff." I was pretty much screwed with the whole-getting-back-in-the-game thing. "You here alone?"

"Yup," she leaned over the table, eyes looking over my textbook. Her camisole was thick—not enough to hide the swell of her chest. Throwing me a cute smile, she asked, "Want to find better things to do?"

A sweet perfume scent washed over me. The expensive kind.

I propped my chin on my knuckles, eyeing her closely.

"Like what?"

"I'm sure you can come up with something." I could. I was—just it wasn't her I wanted. But... maybe it was what I needed, someone like her—to get it out of my system. "My parents are out of town for the weekend."

I'd noticed Felicia checking me out before, like most girls, but she'd never called out my attention. Not like this.

"That sounds like an indecent proposal." A smooth smirk pulled at my lips, fingers brushed her hand on "accident".

"It is." In my head I whistled. Talk about good girls gone bad. "Up for it?"

I shut the book with a flick of my wrist.

***

Felicia's house was two streets away from Madison Avenue. It was a nice house, two-floors, small pool on the backyard. Too bad we couldn't use it. Well, I could, but she'd die from hypothermia and there was little fun we could have then.

"Bedroom or—"

She'd been saying something before my lips closed over hers. From there, no more words. Felicia let me walk her into the living room—her legs hit the couch. My hands slid down her sides, hungry and wanting. Everything in me edged to rip her sweater in half. Breathing deeply, I smelled more than any human could—her perfume, her natural scent of roses and a musky scent.

The last one mattered most.

Felicia tried keeping up, pushing the jacket off my shoulders. I growled marking her jaw line with burning kisses, fingers on the sweater's hem. In a blink, it joined my jacket somewhere on the floor. Her lips were soft—I nipped at her bottom one. Nimble fingers dug into my mess of hair, tugging.

Roaming her naked stomach, I sucked her neck. She pulled my head deeper—molten lava filled my veins as I took her waist. This was physical, no strings. Just libido.

Only when her leg brushed the hardest part of me, did I realize how bad I'd been itching ever since Sam's little stunt.

"Wrap your legs around me." I ordered, lifting her. Felicia put my hips in a lock. Flaxen blond hair splayed all over my face and hers, shielding us. I kissed her again, longer, savoring every bit of lust.

I knew not to move too fast, it was hard, though. I walked us somewhere, anywhere. All I knew was that I had her up against a wall.

Felicia moaned when her back met the hard place—again. She liked it, most did. Nails dug into the fabric still keeping our skins apart. She wanted it gone. I was down with that.

"Don't let go," I husked deeply, breath tingling her ear. Using only my body, I let go of her hips, keeping her fastened to the wall. Her legs had a death grip on my waist—she kept squeezing, testing me. Fast, I tossed my shirt. "Perfect."

She shivered, drinking me in. Before I felt like man-candy, I slid a hand between her back and wall. The flimsy strap came apart. Her thighs tightened on me, I nuzzled her neck. Her mouth was all over my neck, nails rapped my shoulders, hands explored my chest causing heat to built in the hardest places.

Somehow, we ended up on the couch, my jeans down to my knees. Hers MIA, along with her satin panties. Her tight body flushed every crimson color.

Cheeks puffed, Felicia's hips twisted and I arched feeling close.

Bending my head, my mouth curiously explored down her chest, taking some time until I crossed her bellybutton. She gave out a cry when I probed lower, hands holding fistfuls of my hair.

"I'm..." I glanced up, seeing blond hair spill against a black pillow. "I'm on the pill."

That saved us time.

"You don't..." her small hands pushed my chest. I hovered there, drinking her in, throbbing. "You don't have..."

"Sexual diseases?" I found it funny she was having trouble with that, considering what we'd been doing. "No, I don't." Bright-side of being part-Angel. Nothing human got me sick.

I shuddered, easing in. She scrunched her eyes. Her body body moved up, mine matched her pacing, then, created a new one—hurried became slow, then hurried. A constant mix of exploding fireworks.

"Phillip..." Felicia gasped. Hands grasping my shoulders, smacking our chests together.

Finding what she needed, my name dripped from her sweet mouth over and over. I couldn't count the times. But every time she said it, I began hearing another voice. My name meant something on those lips—on Serena's lips.

God, I thought as release washed over me. I needed a serious counseling session. Why was I so freaking obsessed with a girl I'd known for two weeks?

Deep down, I already knew the answer. Part of me did.

I didn't breathe Felicia's name. I couldn't lie. I hadn't been thinking of her—

"Phillip?" Lifting my head off her shoulder, I watched deep-blue eyes growing big. For a second, I thought I'd set something on fire—that's when I felt something beneath my hand. A TV remote—voices.

I must've clicked it on.

"Sorry," I mumbled with an easy smile.

Felicia shook her head, pleasure leaving her all too quickly, "No—look!"

Tilting my head, I saw the TV was showing the local news.

ETHAN MARVICK, COLLEGE STUDENT

FOUND DEAD

Ethan Marvick. I knew the guy—everyone did. He'd been the star quarterback back when me and Cam were freshmen and sophomores. He had to be two, maybe three years older. I had no idea he'd been in town.

"...paramedics are confirming that Ethan Marvick suffered from a sudden, and fatal heart attack." Heart attack? At his early twenties? Not likely. "He was discovered in the local bar's bathroom, about twenty minutes ago—"

The Lighthouse.

The anchor news lady kept yapping, but my eyes were trained on an image. It had been fleeting, but I'd seen it. They were carrying his dead body, closing the black bag. I saw, though. Ethan's skin had been a sickly pale. Like he'd been dead for days, drained of all human color.

Just like that, I knew. He hadn't died of fucking heart failure.

His life force had been drained—to the last drop.