2 1 | Athena

sprinted past Sebastian, crossing the finish line with burning lungs. I started to collapse onto the ground, but he teleported to me, grabbing my shirt and hauling me to my feet mid-fall. "You," he said, giving me a serious look, "are out of shape."

"It's cold," I protested, thinking about the hot chocolate and fuzzy socks that awaited me at his house. Along with a nice, steamy shower. Hopefully, Sebastian had made some chili—or soup. "I can't run in the cold."

"It was warm a few months ago, and you were slow then, too."

I sucked in cold, burning breaths, trying to filter air into my lungs so I could argue with him properly. I worked out with Sebastian inconsistently. Sometimes I was totally out here five times a week with him for a month straight—but then I took another month or two off. At least I was consistent in my inconsistencies.

Sebastian rubbed my back, looking down at me. In his other hand, he held a canister of room temperature water—something he would keep from me until I was able to do something besides gasp in pain. "Take it easy," he commanded, his expression serious, but his eyes twinkling.

I glared at him. "I have a desire to get out of here as quickly as possible," I snapped, looking around.

For his run today—a run I had joined him on because both Hilary and her boyfriend, Ricky, were going with him, and I didn't want to be left alone—he had chosen the sketchiest path ever. It wound through the forest, but not the familiar, usually travelled path most people ran, but this weird, rumored to be haunted path he just had to go on. Of course, it made sense for Sebastian to run this path often; if it was haunted, the rumors probably came from demons snatching humans off the path left and right, or scaring them.

The path did send chills up my spine, though. Something around here made me want to run back to the car—which happened to be a mile away. As it was, I kept my eyes on the trees thirty feet away, waiting to see Hilary and Ricky come crashing through. Ricky was in super great shape, but he always slowed down to keep up with Hilary—unlike Sebastian, who completed his run before doubling back to me and jogging beside me the rest of the day.

"I'll keep you safe," he promised, a grin on his face. "If it makes you feel better, I cleared this area of demons a year ago. No one would dare come back."

Of course not. My best friend was notorious for killing demons. Which was weird, considering he was a demon, but I had never questioned it. Sebastian talked to me about everything else—except that and his family. I figured that he'd tell me about it when he got and good ready, and, until then, it was my duty as his best friend not to ask him to air his traumas out for my consumption.

I had known Sebastian about three and a half years now. The first time I met him, I was outside on campus, "studying" for a statistics test, but I was really scoping out the cute guys and enjoying the warm weather before the ice started falling. Hillary had nudged me randomly, making me lift my head from the problem I hadn't been solving, and there he was: all six feet, olive-skinned, green-eyed bit of him. He wore his infamous Sebastian scowl, a diamond earring in his left ear, and his black hair—now long and shaved on the sides—was messy and long, like he hadn't bothered to do anything with when he woke up. He walked like he owned the entire campus. People literally fell at his feet—and, yet, he seemed oblivious.

However, I was not oblivious to his looks, so I did what any intelligent young woman would do—dropped my jaw and said, "Well, I'll be doggoned," and whistled underneath my breath. Hillary had only laughed at me, but Sebastian whipped his head to where I sat, studied me with that hard look that stole my breath in the best way, and grinned. That grin usually chilled the bones of his fiercest enemies, but it only made my toes curl in those dirty high-tops I was wearing.

A second later, I found myself with hair wrapped my finger, my head cocked to the side, and a smile on my face as I, Athena Adele Walker, flirted with the best looking man I had ever seen in my life. The rest, of course, was history. Somewhere between "What's your major" and "I'm from the UK," we had managed to fall into a friendship that consisted of laughter, jokes, and adventures.

I gave him a look now, and Sebastian only grinned at me.

"Hillary and Ricky are making out just beyond the trees. We might be a few more minutes." He looked toward their direction, smiling faintly. Even when he relaxed, Sebastian radiated danger.

The first time I hung out with him alone, about two nights after we met, I had finally shaken off the attraction to realize there was something off about him. Handsomeness aside, he had this super weird aura, like a tornado surrounded him, contained to him and him only. I noticed his touches both warmed me and warned me. Meeting his eyes was like making eye contact with the lions at the zoo; you could see the predator in their eyes, the danger, but they were contained and—mostly—unable to harm you.

"That's... troubling," I responded, only because I wanted out of here as soon as possible. Despite Sebastian's claims of safety, the area didn't sit right in my stomach. "This might take awhile."

He glanced down at me. "Maybe we should make out, too. Pass the time." The nonchalance in his voice was the only thing keeping the blush from my dark brown cheeks. Hilary swore he was in love with me, but I couldn't see it. Not fully. I knew he found me attractive, and sometimes he flirted with me... but, really, that was it.

"Come put your money where your mouth is," I teased, puckering at him.

With one of those lightening quick demon moves, Sebastian wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me to him. I inhaled quietly, a shriek turning into a surprised, breathless giggle as he lifted me up, making my face mere inches from him. "Why waste a perfectly good mouth by putting money by it?"

Hillary told me I had repressed feelings for him. I knew for a fact I had a small crush—after all, his looks were the reason we first spoke, and that, if Sebastian asked, I would let him have his way with my body. However, I totally admitted those things on most days.

Really and truly, we maybe would've developed into a relationship if the first date hadn't gone completely left. Something about learning demons existed and then being almost killed by one before being saved by a demon you just met and didn't know he was demon before that kind of put a damper on romance. And by the time I had rekindled my crush, our friendship had been established, and I didn't want to mess that up.

Also, Sebastian was deathly afraid of a demon snatching me due to my proximity to him. It was why we worked out together, why I knew how to use various weapons, and why he was always so damn close to me.

Not that I minded his closeness. Knowing demons existed scared me. Knowing Sebastian was around to take care of them comforted me.

Also, something about the way he looked when he hunted and killed—focused, deadly—made me feel things. Things I rightfully admitted to him, and he often laughed it off like I wouldn't jump his bones if he so much as thought it too hard.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, grinning despite the butterfly of nerves in my stomach. "Kiss me then," I challenged, wondering if this would be the time he—finally—did it. "You're always threatening me with a good time."

He chuckled, leaning forward to kiss me—

"Are we interrupting something?" Ricky boomed, the Canadian bastard.

Sebastian stopped, his green eyes darkening with anger at the interruption. He had a horrible, horrible, murderous temper that he could hide within the blink of an eye if he pleased. He only hid it around humans. Otherwise, he'd stab a demon in the throat in one second, and by the next, he'd be finishing his drink.

I pinched his shoulder with a grin, lightening the tension from his body. "We never get interrupted when I lead." Whether that was on demon raids (the few he allowed me to go to, all of which I stayed behind him and did nothing), or random outings, it was absolutely true. When I made the plans, decisions, and moves, nothing and no one bothered us.

He sat me down on my feet with his signature scowl playing across his lips. He ignored my comment but pinched me back as Ricky came jogging over, Hillary strolling slowly behind him with a raised eyebrow.

Before Sebastian, there was Hillary, my first college friend and my closest. She came from a town not too far from mine in Alabama. The bond was instantaneous being that we were the only two people out of about six hundred from Alabama in our class. She was friendly and an avid partier, while also remaining on top of her classwork and different organizations.

Hillary got me in ways other people didn't. She knew when I needed silence, or when I needed to talk. She knew when to give me advice or when to just let me vent. She probably knew me better than anybody except my parents. We literally did everything except hunt demons together. Or discuss them.

She knew about demons; Sebastian had told her a while ago, apparently. But she never discussed it with me except that one time when she asked, "Are you okay?" after I came back from demon-hunting with Sebastian. I tried to tell her then about the night, but she had paled, and I had left it alone.

Weeks after I met Sebastian, Hillary met Ricky, who was fifty percent sweetheart, fifty percent jokester. He wasn't nearly as smart as Hillary, who always swore she wanted a brooding poet or aspiring actor with dark hair and brown eyes, a lanky frame, and a melancholy outlook on life. Instead, she fell in love with Ricky Williams from the moment she laid her baby blues on him. He was a muscled jock with about as much common sense as you could assume one who consistently took hard hits could get. He couldn't smart together enough words to finish his essays most days, and writing poetry wasn't even an interest of his. He was as blonde as she was, as blue-eyed as she was, and everything was sunny where Ricky was concerned.

However, he did adore her, as well as introduce her to different things. He had her leaving her room to volunteer with children, which he did during the off-season, coaching little league baseball and tiny tots basketball with patient smiles, high-fives, and all the energy drinks and granola bars their little seven-and-eight year old hearts could ever want. On Fridays, he always went down to the animal shelter to volunteer there, and when he graduated, he wanted to go get his masters in social work and actually try to fix the system. He was everything Hillary needed, even if he wasn't all she had ever wanted.

I smiled at Hillary, not sure what I'd tell her later—she never did believe that Sebastian was "just kidding around." However, even if he was serious, we both knew there could never be anything between us romantically. Not with the threat of demons that would come. Not with Sebastian being immortal. He valued my life way too much, and I valued having him near me, even as a friend. The crush may have been on and off again, but our friendship was always on.

"I think we're ready to go," Ricky stated. Like Sebastian, he wore a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt, despite the cold air. He slapped a hand on Sebastian's shoulder, grinning widely because he, too, was on the 'Sebastian and Athena are in love' train, though he never said anything about it. With Ricky, you could just tell by his smiles. "Listen, dude, Hillary and I could go first—give you and Athena some time alone to, you know, recreate the moment."

His eyebrow wiggle made me laugh.

Sebastian only half-heartedly snarled at him, a sound that didn't bother Ricky at all. "You can't recreate a moment," he replied, shrugging Ricky's hand off.

To his credit, the guy didn't even seem put off by it. Instead, he laughed.

Hillary stood by my side. "Aren't you too tired to be fraternizing?"

I eyed her. My energy had returned, and Sebastian's kiss had knocked the nerves this area brought right out of me. "I'm never too tired to fraternize." I grinned, slinging an arm around her Ricky-style. "You should get your boyfriend before Sebastian snaps him in half out of irritation."

"Irritation? Or sexual frustration?" She gave me a grin ."What are you two doing after this? Breakfast?"

"Nope. I'm going over to his house to shower and sleep." Sebastian would be out during my nap hunting demons or doing whatever he did. He never really explained what he did when he wasn't hunting demons or hanging with me.

"And will he be sleeping with you?"

"He'll probably be asleep, yes," I answered, instead of telling her the truth. I never saw Sebastian sleep either. He was constantly "fighting his demons," as he said, which was an ironic way to put it. His demons consisted of him fighting his very essence of Sloth to work harder.

Anyway, when he did sleep while I was there, he fell asleep after me and woke up before me. I hadn't seen him do so much as a prolonged blink.

She gave me a disbelieving huff, which meant she'd bring the conversation up later. "Well, I want breakfast, so Ricky and I are gonna head out before the place closes." As soon as she said his name, his head whipped to her with those puppy-dog eyes. "Let's take the shorter trail back, baby."

He nodded. "Whatever you say, my love." He waved good-bye to us, and Hillary promised to call me later for our Saturday night movie date, and they were gone.

"Romance," I said, not really meaning it, but looking for something to break the stony silence of Sebastian, "is overrated. It's a man made concept brought to life by the French in the late twentieth century."

"Hear ye, hear ye," Sebastian replied with a grin. "You ready to go, too?"

"Not if I have to run back." I paused. "We could take the short trail, too. Or you could carry me."

He would, if I really wanted him to. We'd probably get back faster, too. I often wondered little things when they came up—like now, I wondered if it bothered him to slow down when running with me. He had never shown any sign of it bothering him, not so much as a look or irritated sigh.

And he wore his irritations and anger on his sleeve, so if he had a problem, I'd know it. That being settled, I promptly put it out of my mind. The thing with Sebastian was that I never worried where we stood. I could tell him when he bothered me, and he told me when I bothered him. Although, honestly, there wasn't much bothering going around on either side.

"You could walk. It's a beautiful day."

I wrinkled my nose. "Only thing beautiful about today is me." The sky was overcast and gray, making this Saturday morning gloomy at best.

"If you're the beauty standard for today, then I'm afraid this day is positively hideous."

I slapped at his muscled arm, laughing. "It's not like you're a ten."

"Because I'm a twenty."

"Out of?"

"Five."

"Imagine if you had the looks to match that confidence. You'd be unstoppable with women." As far as I knew, Sebastian had no serious girlfriends. I had seen him flirt with a few women, but I had never seen him bring a woman home or even get her number.

He barked out a laugh. "Like you are with the men?"

He knew better. No guys came near me because they were afraid of Sebastian. Not that I minded. When I wanted a date, I got one. For the most part, I liked being booked and busy with friends instead of a boyfriend. I had the rest of my life for love. "If you stopped scaring them off, maybe."

Sebastian feigned ignorance, and we started our walk down the trail we had just run. The rarely used trail whose only foot prints prior to our run had been Sebastian's.

Sebastian strolled next to me, relaxed. Strapped against his thigh was a knife, and in his pocket was some sort of small, sharp bald ehe could easily hide between his fingers. Against his back, beneath his shirt, he wore a sword that was spelled to stay hidden from anybody who wished him harm until he whipped it out. Besides his weapons, Sebastian had an array of powers that made him virtually impossible to beat if you weren't as powerful or more powerful.

I had nothing on me because I didn't like to run with weapons. I only brought them with me when I knew we'd be facing demons. The only weapon I had anyway was a dagger he had gotten made just for me and a sword that felt out of place and heavy in my hands.

The first time I used the sword was by accident. About three weeks after I found out who Sebastian was and didn't run, he brought me out with him. We were supposed to be peacefully tailing these demons, but it ended up turning violent. I stepped on a stick and snapped it, sending four or five our way. Luckily, Sebastian was able to take them down—all except one, who managed to sneak away. He lunged for me, I screamed, and Sebastian was there in a second, taking him down. Except without the sword. Although I loved the position of damsel in distress when a hot guy was saving me, I decided to not risk my new friend's life. I grabbed the sword that had clattered somewhere, and when they were engaged that the demon didn't notice, I swung, chopping his head off.

I also cut Sebastian a little on the finger, but he didn't mind so much.

After that, we stopped going on demon raids together for a few months, and he kept my demon knowledge to things I could learn in books and accidental, nonviolent sightings. However, we did start training. He wanted me to know how to defend myself if I planned on sticking around—I did, his life was too exciting to pass up—and I liked the idea of being one of those sexy, huntresses that were shown in movies and books.

I was not one of those sexy huntresses, though. Far from it.

It was weird, thinking back on it, that I hadn't freaked when I found out. We were out picking up some food from this one club. He knew the owner apparently, so we went to the back through this alley—sketch, and I thought he was trying to kill me, so I had my knife in my pocket—but this demon lunged for me. Sebastian killed him before the demon could fully make it to me. Black blood splattered everywhere on me, and I held my knife out, useless and too late.

I'm a demon, he had said, wiping his sword off with a cloth, his voice patient. He was a demon as well.

Blinking, I hadn't responded.

Then I smiled. Awesome. He handed me a cloth to clean off my shirt, and we finished the rest of the date pretending he hadn't done or said any of that. It took me three days before I talked to him again—three days to process everything that happened and realize I was okay with it.

Sebastian turned left, away from where he was parked, and I followed him blindly. Maybe it was naive, but—

"What are you thinking about so hard?" he asked, interrupting the silence.

Now that I wasn't running, the cold sat uncomfortably on my face. I pressed my hands, gloved and warm, against my cheeks. "How we got here," I answered, my voice muffled.

"Was the run really that bad?"

I giggled. "No, like us. Our friendship."

"We're friends?"

"I swear you want me to beat you up." I grinned at him, though, dropping my hands and grabbing his hand.

He smiled, squeezing my hand. "Until you can keep up with me on a run, you'll never beat me."

True, but he was also a super strong demon. I didn't expect to keep up with him either. I pressed my head against his shoulder, yawning. I couldn't wait until I arrived at his house to shower and sleep.

His house had nearly become my own. I had an entire closet and two dresser drawers worth of clothes that stayed at his place. During the summer when I attended summer school, I stayed at his house instead of on campus, saving myself money. I had my own room, but I also used his because it was much bigger and his bed more comfortable.

"While you shower, I can go get breakfast for us," he stated. "Pancakes, waffles. I'll make those disgusting grits you like, if you want. Your choice."

Breakfast did sound good. And it was Saturday, I had nothing to do but sleep and catch up on some TV shows. I pursed my lips. "Grits are delicious, but I would love some pancakes actually."

Sebastian tensed. I looked at him.

He looked past me, over my head, briefly, before returning his gaze to mine.

Uh-oh. I knew that look. Something was following us.

He slid his hand underneath my long-sleeved tee, hand against the flat of my stomach. From a distance, it looked like a lover's caress. My body sure reacted to the touch as if potential danger wasn't lurking around the corner. "Eggs? Bacon? Sausage?" he murmured. Where his hands rested—partly on my waist, partly on my side—the skin burned.

He tapped my back three times. Three things lurked. Only two of us. Well, one of us if you were going by skill level and weapons. I hadn't fought anybody but Sebastian. I smiled up at him, not wanting to look back and give us away. "You spoil me," I said.

Something cool and sharp pressed against my stomach. The dagger. "Nothing less for you." His voice was smooth, but he looked over my shoulder before heralding us further away from the path and into the trees. A branch hit my shoulder. I gripped the dagger, heart pounding in my chest.

"I think," I started to say, turning toward Sebastian, but then he fell forward, an arrow sticking out of his back.