I am about to leave but he holds my arm and says, “You should be with Russell.”

My eyebrow quirks as I say, “Ah, I see, you’re being cupid… how ironic. What is this then—are you trying to provoke Russell into action, or me? Well, I’ve got news for you: I can’t be with Russell—don’t you get it? I love you. If I try to be with Russell, I’ll only end up hurting him more. He deserves someone who loves him with her whole heart.”

“You’re so stubborn, Genevieve,” Reed says in frustration. “You make yourself so sad for no good reason.”

“No, Reed, you make me sad,” I reply, and he releases my arm like I’ve burned him.

Walking back to the ballroom, I stop at the entrance, seeing Owen and Caroline still on the dance floor together. Caroline is kissing Owen’s neck. Perfect! I think, shifting back toward the lobby just in time to watch Reed leave through the outer doors. I’m not going back in the ballroom. I’ll be better off hiding in the bathroom the rest of the evening because Candace is going to want to gloat about this one.

Resolving to hide in the ladies room, I begin walking across the atrium near the attached hotel when a voice behind me says, “Angel.”

I turn to see a beautiful young man attired in a pale gray, silk suit. He isn’t wearing a tie, and his white collared shirt is unbuttoned casually. A lock of his blond hair is lighter in the front as if the sun has kissed it, and his eyes are the deep blue of a dark pool. A shadow of a beard graces his face, but it doesn’t disguise his strong jaw line. It enhances it. He can’t be much older than twenty, but I don’t recognize him from school.

“I’m sorry, I thought you were speaking to me,” I say, realizing I don’t know him. I take a step in the direction of the bathroom, but he catches my elbow loosely in his grasp.

His blue eyes shutter seductively as he asks, “What is your name, little one?” Reaching out, he touches my hair almost reverently.

“Um, why?” I ask nervously, weirded out by the expression of delight on his face and by the fact that he is touching me. I scan the atrium to see if I recognize anyone I can call to, but we are alone for the moment.

Smiling as if I’m an exquisite jewel he’s just found lying around, he says, “Because I must have a name for the singularly exceptional creature I find before me. It cannot be angel, because you are more than an angel, are you not?”

“Um…my name’s Genevieve,” I say, definitely feeling alarm, my heartbeat speeding up.

He cocks his head to the side, studying me for a second. “Your heart is beating so fast, Genevieve, are you afraid of me?”

I let out a breath like he has punched me in the stomach. Holy Freaking Crap! He’s an angel! Don’t freak out—ask him his name, like you’re interested—buy time, I think.

“What’s your name… angel?” I ask as confidently as I can, hoping that my bluff has improved.

“Sebastian,” he replies immediately to my question with a grin. “You are incomparable,” he continues, and then he moves so quickly I couldn’t have avoided him if I had been a thousand yards away. Holding me in his arms as if I am a gift that he intends to unwrap, he scrutinizes me like he will memorize every detail of my body.

“You have a soul,” he breathes, and it would be sexy if it were not so completely creepy.

“Yes, and I plan on keeping it, so don’t get any ideas,” I reply grimly, not knowing what else to say.

Sebastian laughs delightedly at my rebuttal, before saying, “What a paradox you are! You change everything, Genevieve. Do you know that?”

“I have heard that somewhere before, but change is a good thing, right?” I try to smile back, but I’m sure it looks more like a grimace than a smile.

Sebastian hoists me in his arms and moves toward the outside doors. I think he’s so distracted by me that he’s forgetting to use a human pace because the room is whirling by faster than it should. We are across the lobby and to the doors in seconds.

Pushing against his chest, I try to wiggle free. “Please put me down! Where’re you taking me?” I ask Sebastian, really frightened now.

From across the lobby at the entrance to the ballroom, Russell yells, “HEY, WHERE’RE YA TAKIN’ MY GIRL?”

Sebastian doesn’t stop to deal with Russell, but heads out to the parking lot instead. “You are with the humans?” Sebastian asks, frowning disgustedly. “You know, we consider that slumming. It is a good thing that I found you when I did. You really cannot associate with trash like that and expect to survive long.”

Fear makes it hard to breathe. “Sebastian, I’m here with somebody, and I can’t just leave…” I start to say, but am interrupted when Sebastian stops. I look in front of us to see Reed blocking our way. “Reed!” I squeak, unable to say more.

Sebastian growls low and menacingly at Reed, and it has to be the most terrifying sound I’ve ever heard in my life. Reed doesn’t react to this threat; in fact, he is fairly bored with Sebastian’s aggressive warning. “I want her,” Sebastian rasps, and his voice sounds eerily like a wild animal’s. A shiver of revulsion runs the length of my body as he holds me closer to him.

“You will have to get in line then, and it forms behind me,” Reed says, taking off his jacket and tie and resting them on a nearby car. Reed unbuttons his collared shirt. As Sebastian watches Reed, I become aware that he’s deliberating about what to do next. He keeps squeezing me uncomfortably, like he wants to put me down but he can’t actually make himself do it.

“Hey freak! Yer not goin’ anywhere with her!” Russell yells from behind us, and Reed actually smiles.

Sebastian scowls. “Really, little one, you do keep very strange company,” he whispers in my ear as he nuzzles my neck. “We will have to rectify that in the future. I will insist upon it.”

“Sebastian…please, don’t hurt them,” I plead, my breath catching in my throat as the revulsion of his touch hit me in waves. He has a particular darkness to him—I can smell it, feel it, but I have no experience with it to be able to name what exactly it is.

Reed fishes in the pocket of his jacket, and then he pulls out his keys. “When he puts her down…” Reed says, tossing his keys to Russell, “and he will put her down, or I will rip his arms off…” Reed says with menace, looking at Sebastian, “take my car and get Evie out of here. I am parked over there.” He points behind him.

Sebastian, growling again in anger and frustration, gently lowers me to the ground. When my feet touch the pavement, he points directly at Russell even though he never takes his eyes off of Reed, and says, “Do not make me come after you, boy. I will have her.” The menacing tone makes my knees shake. Pausing in his assessment of Reed, Sebastian says to me, “I’ll just be a minute, little one.” And then, he presses his lips to mine, kissing me roughly.

That gets a reaction from Reed. I don’t even see him move, but he hits Sebastian so hard, it knocks him back fifty feet or more into a docile-looking minivan parked in the lot. Sebastian smashes right through the windshield of the vehicle, falling between the tan, bucket seats. The minivan’s shrill car alarm goes off. We all watch the van for a few seconds as the shock of what just happened paralyzes Russell and me. I am sure that no one can survive the crush of being thrown through a windshield like Sebastian just had, so when the teal-green sliding door of the minivan flies off its hinges, crushing the car next to it, a scream tears from my lungs in utter horror.

Slowly, Sebastian emerges from the interior of the van. When he is fully out of it, he takes off his gray-silk, suit jacket and shakes the broken glass from his sun-kissed hair. Smiling ominously, he calls to me, saying, “Don’t be alarmed, Genevieve. I haven’t been harmed. We’re just getting started.”

I hold my hand over my mouth so that I won’t scream again. Reaching over, Sebastian rips the chrome-plated side step off the van. Before I can figure out what he intends to do with it, it is embedded in the side of a car directly behind where Reed had been standing a fraction of a second ago.

“Russell, now would be the time to get Evie out of here,” Reed says without looking at us, but focusing directly on Sebastian.

Even as I turn to Reed to tell him that I’m not going anywhere, he disappears. In the next second, Reed has pounced on Sebastian who is still fifty yards away. The two become locked in a malicious struggle, each one trying to tear the other apart. I don’t get a chance to try to help Reed because Russell picks me up and throws me over his shoulder.

Russell runs with me in the direction Reed had indicated his car was parked. He has the keys out, hitting the lock button, looking for flashing lights and a horn honk to direct him to the vehicle. Pausing for a second to look down an aisle of cars, a screeching of metal grows louder behind us so I crane my neck upward to try to see what it is.

Russell turns toward the sound at the same time, so I can’t see what’s happening, but then Russell shouts, “AHH, SHOOT!”

Leaping forward into the next aisle of cars, we land hard on the ground just as the teal-colored minivan that Sebastian had smashed rolls over and over several times on its way past us. It lands in a heap of twisted metal and gives an abbreviated honk before falling silent. Russell, looking at me incredulously for just a second, seeks validation from me for what he just sees happen. My eyes are as wide as his as I nod to him, letting him know that this is real; he isn’t dreaming. Scrambling to his feet, Russell drags me to mine. I hear snarling behind me as the fight between the titans ensues. Wanting to go back to help Reed, I pull against Russell’s grip on my wrist, trying to make him let go of me.

“We have to go back, Russell,” I plead as he drags me down the line of cars.

A terrifying noise sounds from across the parking lot, making us both pause again. My heart pounds in my chest as one of the huge parking lot floodlights, which is held in place by a thick concrete column at its base, comes crashing down where we had last seen Reed and Sebastian. Unable to see over the cars in front of me to get a good view, I flinch because it sounds ghastly as the lamps shatter and the area goes dark.