Juliet Immortal

cry out and my eyes squeeze shut. He can strangle me to death, but I won’t give him the satisfaction of watching the light go out of these eyes, I won’t … won’t … not a second time …
    Power squirms inside me. I can feel it flood in through his fingertips, ooze into my veins, race—hot and horrible—into every cell, a ruthless invader that won’t stop until every weakthing is burned away. Heat scalds my bones, cold fire freezes my core. My back arches and a scream bursts from my lips—a sound so raw it tears my insides as it fights its way out.
    I am dying, but I’m also being born, melted and re-formed.
    He pulls his hands away and I suck in a breath, gasping, shocked to feel my lungs expand without difficulty, to feel the necessary things inside me shift without pain. My hand comes to my stomach. My T-shirt is still hot and sticky with blood, but the skin beneath is smooth and unmarked. He’s healed me, saved my life.
    I bolt upright, eyes finding Jason, who has already made his way out of the car. He holds a hand out to me. I ignore it. His healing isn’t a gift, it’s a bargaining tool, a manipulative measure, some new way to torture me that I don’t understand just yet. But I know better than to think this is over, or to believe for a second that he won’t just as quickly take my life as give it.
    I scramble out of the car, darting past Jason and the truck that drove Ben off the road, searching for the only person I want to see. The car has been knocked down into a pasture, but it stopped before reaching the bottom of the hill, where the collected rainwater forms a lake. If it had hit the water, Ben and I could have drowned.
    But maybe that would have been better. At the moment, I don’t know. All I know is that when I finally find Ben—a dozen yards away, illuminated by the car’s headlights, his back against a tree where Romeo has propped him up, his body limp and his face a bloody mess—my body fills with an agony worse than any weapon could ever cause.
    “Ben!” I run to him, shoving past Romeo, who stands swaying on his feet. I don’t spare him a glance, don’t worrywhen I kneel next to Ben, turning my back on him. He won’t stab me again—obviously that wasn’t on his superior’s agenda or I wouldn’t be whole right now. But even if he does, I don’t care.
    Let him do his worst. Nothing can be more horrible than hearing Ben’s soft moan as I hold his broken face in my hands, watching his lids flutter as he tries to look at me but fails. His eyes are so swollen it looks like someone has slipped golf balls under his skin. His cheeks, chin, and forehead are split open and bleeding, and he’s lost several of his front teeth. His nose is broken and maybe his right cheekbone. Maybe both cheekbones. Even if he lives, he’ll never be the same. He will always be damaged and scarred and—
    Scarred. Some faraway part of my brain senses the smooth skin on my right arm, feels the slight breeze stirring the soft blond hairs that have grown on my neck and face. Jason hasn’t simply healed me, he’s
healed
me, reversed years-old damage, something Ambassador magic has never been able to do.
    And if he could do it for me …
    Gently, I lean Ben’s head back against the tree and turn. Jason is already there, a few feet behind me, waiting for me to work things through with a smile on his face. Romeo stands woodenly beside him, staring blindly at some spot high in the tree, his lips moving without forming words, as if he’s in a trance. I begin to wonder how much is left of that brain I can see shining in the harsh yellow of the headlights.
    “What do you want? I’ll do whatever you want,” I whisper through the tears that stream down my face. “Just … heal him.”
    Jason shakes his head, feigning regret. “I wish I could, butmy powers only work on those touched by my magic. Ambassadors or Mercenaries. We’re all from the same source, you know.”
    “I know.” I suck in a breath. My nose is running along with my eyes. If it could, I know the rest of me would weep as well. I can see where this is going, see the inevitable conclusion to our talk.
    “So …” He lets the word trail off with a shrug. “In order for me to help Ben …”
    I don’t say a word. It’s impossible. I’ll never do what he asks. Never.
    “Come now, Juliet. Life doesn’t always have to be such a tragedy,” Jason says, laughing softly. “You’ve been granted an amazing opportunity. A