Passion*

I looked up and locked eyes with Gabriel, who was attentive to my strange reaction.

Tell me about your plan."

"We could move to a small town such as this. Far away from here." Gabriel stared at me as if gauging for another extreme reaction. " You know, change our identities."

"How?"

"It'll take a lot of my powers. My total lifespan could be diminished if I used glamour for a very long period, but I can manage." Gabriel said. " As long as we wouldn't be found."

"You are so stupid. " I said honestly. "You should have killed me when you've got the perfect chance to bring honor to your House."

Gabriel stared down at me for a moment, speaking volumes with his eyes, then he turned back to me. "This wouldn't have happened if you heeded my warnings and stayed away from Leif or any of the Knight in the first place."

"Why are you protecting me anyway?" I swallowed a lump forming in my throat. "What's in it for you?"

"Yeah, Cass. I ask myself every day why I am doing this too. Before I sleep and the first thing that comes to my mind the moment I wake up? It's you." His gaze jerked up and clashed with mine, confusion darkening those gorgeous irises. "I'm doing things I never even wanted to do in the first place. Like messing up my mission as the heir of the House of Cups."

"I don't want to be indebted to you! I don't want you to get hurt while you kept me safe."

The more I spoke, the more Gabriel's pupils narrowed.

"Do you know why I'm doing this?" Gabriel chuckled without humor as he cupped my chin, forcing my face to his. "Because I loathe it when you are hanging out with some other guy. Someone who isn't me." He pulled back and studied my face before shaking his head. "I want to kill them myself. There's a dark thought in my mind that says you are mine to own. And you are mine to kill when that time comes where I have to."

Gabriel's grip tightened, and he leaned down, placing our nose to nose, his choppy breath traipsing over my lips. "You like taunting me by flirting with other guys too, do you? Well, guess what? It works. I can't fucking get you out of my mind." He released me long enough to slam a fist into the wall just beside my temple. "The first kiss was a goddamn mistake. It was supposed to purge you from my thought, make me stop wondering what you taste like."

His gaze dropped down to my mouth. "I can't stay away. That's the problem."

"It's your problem, then." I shot back and crossed my arms over my chest.

"Maybe it was you who put a spell on me." Gabriel's blue eyes slit dangerously and acted as if I hadn't spoken. "What have you done to me, Cassandra? I'm not even the jealous type of guy. All the other girls I've dated..." He trailed off, not daring to continue.

The tables had turned.

So, the bastard had thought I had tricked him into falling in love with me?

"I don't know anything about you, Gabriel, except Riley. She was the only link between us. I don't even know who you are, what's your real character or you were just good at pretending. Keeping up a certain image when it suits you." I said sadly, then with more force. "You can't play with my feelings like this, Gabriel, like what you did to Lauren. "

Though I had meant to sound flippant there at the end, my hurt rang loud and clear.

"You are different, Cassandra. Never compare yourself to other girls." Once more, Gabriel got in my face. He was furiously hurt but still determined. "Do you think I'm so shallow to fall for a piece of ass with no redeeming qualities at all?" His jaw clenched hard, and my heart swelled at how stubborn he was. "I'm going to kiss you, Cassandra, and prove that I'm attracted to you. No one's going to stop me except you."

My breath was caught in my throat.

"We shouldn't do this, Gabriel," I whispered because I couldn't say no to him, but I had to talk us out of this.

"I might kill you." I licked my lips. "I can't control my powers yet."

His gaze followed the movement of my tongue. "I remember our last kiss."

The hoarse statement dripped with desire, and my resistance is crumbling already.

He didn't give me time to protest, abruptly smothering my lips with his own and his tongue thrust inside her mouth: deep, hot and hard.

I didn't notice that my hands were on his raven locks, nails digging into his scalp as if he were mine. Our tongues clashed and fought, but I finally allowed him to conquer. Gabriel's lips were soft, his body a hard press.

As I arched into him, common sense tried to rear its ugly head.

Stay in control. Don't give him everything. Hold a part of yourself back.

'But why?' My heart cried.

He will hurt you. And as he tried to remind you, he and his friends could kill you even if he confessed he would do anything in his power to keep you safe. Gabriel's words can't be trusted.

True.

I had to be careful whenever I am with him. Stay in command and rein in my impulses and enjoy him just for a little bit. The bastard was hard to resist, and I needed to forget, if only for a bit, how dark and strange my life had become.

But as common sense demanded, I would have to hold a part of myself back. That was the only way I could allow myself this kiss. He was here in my arms, devouring me as if he needed it to survive.

"I want to touch you," Gabriel said, releasing my hair.

"No. Too much." I replied between nips and licks.

Gabriel was working his shirt over his head and tossed the material on the floor in a forgotten heap. I settled my palms against his chest and said,  "You're so beautiful."

"Not as beautiful as you." Gabriel licked his way down my throat, then licked his way back up. "Touch me more. Kiss me."

"Like this?" I trailed kisses down his neck just as he had done to me, my nails scraping at his back. Electric currents ran through my veins, and I could the tendrils flowing through my fingertips, sparking to life. I fought the power with every strength I had so that I wouldn't hurt him by accident.

He groaned into my mouth, and I swallowed the sound, the flavor adding to a new level of passion.

"You are my sweetest temptation..." Gabriel's fingers traced the curve of my hips, and it stayed there.

"You're perfect..." I nipped the base of his throat, and he hissed in a breath. "Careful, Gabriel. You don't want to fall in love with thy enemy, wouldn't you?"

He didn't respond for a minute, and the room echoed with the sound of our panting.

"I won't ever make that mistake again." Gabriel chuckled softly, darkly. "You're not my enemy anymore, Cassandra. You belong with me."

Already the thunderbolts inside me churned to be released. Any more of his sweet talk, and I would lose my grip on it.

The muscles in his stomach quivered as he tangled one hand in my wet hair, pulling tight.

"What?" Gabriel asked, grip loosening on my hair and not on my waist. "Are you okay?"

"Nothing." He was hard against me. Soon, we would both become mindless, lost, and pleasure would become extraordinary. We would explode like rockets.

But what would happen afterward? I found myself wondering again.

As if sensing my internal struggle, he rubbed against my lower body, and I moaned, so close to losing my self-control. The pleasure I felt was just too good.

Higher and higher, my powers raged. I gripped it together tighter and tighter, holding it captive, but for how much longer. "I—I need a moment." I panted.

I jerked my hips backward, dancing out of Gabriel's reach. Several deep shuddering breaths later, I still can't get myself under control.

Gabriel traced a fingertip along the curve of my cheek. "What's wrong, Cass?"

"Just have to catch my breath."

"Yeah, right. Touch my body." Gabriel commanded again. " Do that thing with your tongue once more."

"I can't."

"Please, Cassandra," Gabriel murmured.

When his fingers fluttered down my throat to the edge of my bra, tracing as if he meant to push it away so we could be skin to skin, the electric currents inside me grew, spread, soon demanding release.

I needed to push him away, so I let my hands limped to the sides. I straightened, not looking at him in the eyes. Not yet. Those eyes had already enslaved me. "We—we have to stop."

"But we just got started," Gabriel said, but his fingers ceased their movement.

There was so much more I yearned to do. "I'm sorry."

"You changed your mind about wanting me." He sighed. "It's you who is playing me."

My legs were trembling so much that they threatened to give up on me. I need to get rid of this lust, whatever it is. It's distracting me. He was making me lose myself in him.

"Did you do it with Lauren?" I blurted out.

Silence. Gabriel had no answer for me. I had no reason to hope, but for some reason, there was a tiny spark still glowing in me that maybe somehow, I had misunderstood.

It went out completely when Gabriel nodded.

I pushed the hurt I felt down and buried it deep before it could bombard me.

"That's why we are stopping. " I bit out. My voice was foreign to him, so bitter and loaded with sarcasm that it sounded like someone else. "You have a girlfriend, and you are cheating on her."

"Lauren is a fake girlfriend." He reasoned out as if it wasn't a big deal and took my hand. I stared at our linked hands like it was the first time I had seen anything like it. "She'd find a rebound quick enough."

"Doesn't matter. I won't let him screw me as if I'm a random stranger he picked up at a bar for a one-night stand. I want his devoted love and attention or nothing at all. I'd have to remember that myself as quickly and easily as I gave into him.

"Quick question," I said as I pulled out my hand from his in disgust. "Do people like you, I mean Knights, catch STDs or something?"

"No, we don't get STDs. We practice safe sex to avoid an unwanted heir of our Houses." Gabriel said evenly, clenching his fists so hard. He stepped backward, no longer crowding me, as if he sensed my strange mood. Dangerous mood.

Sagging against the wall to keep me upright, I glanced up at him in hatred, not hating Gabriel but despising the loss of contact. "Well, that's nice to know. But I wanted to be on the safe side, so you better keep your hands to yourself."

Gabriel's beautiful face crumpled with anger, frustration, and fear at the same time.

'Stupid girl." My hormones cried.

"Well, I guess I led you on," Gabriel said, squeezing his eyes shut and clenching his fists so hard his knuckles went white. His voice was harsh, almost a snarl. "You and I can't be together anyway. It's against the rules."

"Then what are you waiting for? Fuck off." I yelled as I pushed him away out the door. "Get out of my house!"

I knew I was making a fool of myself, throwing a tantrum in my own house without bothering if my mom would hear it like this, but I couldn't stop. Humiliation was leaking at every pore, and I needed to get away from him fast.

"Wait, please--- Cassandra, let me explain." Gabriel pleaded, and he almost sounded as if he was in pain, but I slammed my door shut to cut him off.

I stood near my bedside drawer with my head down, and my arms crossed tightly over my sore heart. I knew he was looking at me at the tiny gap in my door because there was a sliver of light coming from it, so I angled my body away.

When I noticed that Gabriel clicked the door shut behind him and strolled out of my house for good, I decided it was time to rest and de-stress. I was about to open my closet to get some clothes when a humungous blackbird came into my room from the window. It suddenly swooped over my head and clawed my left shoulder leaving a huge gaping wound.

My collarbone dripped in blood.

I looked around, and my room was filled with them.

Ravens.