I braced myself for judgmental comments and more personal questions, but all she talked about were different types of contraceptives, how they worked, and the ones she thought were suitable for someone my age.

I was more than happy to leave with my prescription and the sample of the vaginal ring she'd given me. Echo wasn't in the lobby, but I refused to wait for him there with eyes on me.

As soon as I stepped outside the building, I felt the presence again. This time, it was stronger. I searched the parking lot, expecting to see Rhys or Nara.

A cool draft swept my skin. I searched for souls.

"Dev?" I called out.

Silence. That was strange. He usually had no problem showing himself. Maybe it wasn't Dev. I couldn't continue talking to myself without attracting attention.

"Listen, whoever you are. Show yourself or get lost," I snapped.

A dark, shapeless mass floated toward me. With it came air so frigid it hurt my lungs to breathe. I wrapped my arms around me, but it was blasting me with evil energy, or sucking heat and air from around me. Flower and plants along the entrance shriveled and turned black.

I started to shake. My mouth went dry. I tried to take a step back, but I couldn't move. Panic wrapped like steel around my chest and brain.

"Who a... you?" I managed to gasp.

It charged at me and I opened my mouth to scream, but terror stole my voice. I braced myself for the possession, but a familiar dark figure appeared and cut it off.

Dev.

They tumbled in the air until I couldn't tell which mass was Dev and which one was the evil one. They barreled toward me like a giant swirling mass of my worst nightmare. I tried to step out of their way, but I wasn't fast enough.

The iciness hit me first when they plunged into me, followed by a feeling I'd never experienced before. Like my insides had turned into jelly filled with shards of glass. I was being ripped apart from the inside. My breath had turned into ice in my lungs. Nausea rose to my throat, and black dots appeared in my vision.

I wasn't sure whether they were inside me or not. I couldn't hear their thoughts. I just had the weird feeling that I was no longer in charge of my body. I tried to fight back, breathe, move, but I kept sinking. It was as though the dark energies had ripped out a part of me and filled it with something vile.

I staggered backward, and my elbows connected with the wall. My skin stung, but the pain was like an afterthought. I realized why. Blood circulation was returning to the surface of my skin.

They hadn't possessed me. They'd passed through.

I became aware of my surroundings. My little gift bag from the doctor was on the ground. I knew I should pick it up, but I couldn't move. My body shook so badly the only thing holding me up was the wall.

The door to the building opened, and a couple stepped out.

"Are you okay?" the wife asked, her voice reaching me as though from afar.

I nodded. At least I think I did. My breath was still a heavy fog in my lungs, and my vision was still screwy.

"Honey, get help from inside," the woman told her husband and moved toward me. A door slammed shut. In the next second, Echo was beside me.

"What is it? What happened?" he asked, gathering me into his arms.

I let go of the wall and sunk to his side.

CHAPTER 12. THE LIGHT IN MY DARKNESS.

Echo scooped me up, and I buried my face in his neck.

"What happened?" I heard him ask, his voice sounding harsh. I clung to him. He was my anchor now, my buffer against the cruel, ugly, and painful world.

"We found her clinging to the wall when we left the doctor's office," the man said. "Should I get the doctor?"

"No. I got her." Echo started down the ramp.

"This is hers," the woman called out, and I knew she'd just handed Echo my ring.

Inside the car, he cradled me close as though to absorb my pain and cold. He had this down to a science because every time I had a bad encounter with a soul, he was there to help me, infuse me with his energy. This time was worse. I couldn't even engage my runes. I had to depend on his. He started the car and ramped up the hot air.

He didn't say anything. If he could wrap his entire body around me, he would have. He tried and warmth returned to my limbs. My insides still felt like I had just stepped off a spinning ride at an amusement park. I loved riding roller coasters, but hated spinners with a passion.

When I sat up, my stomach heaved. Echo studied me with bleak eyes. I hated seeing that look in his eyes. He reached inside the glove compartment and removed the bag of Twizzlers. I'd tried M&Ms, Skittles, even ice cream, but none seemed to work like Twizzlers after a possession. I shook my head. I didn't think I could hold anything down.

"A dark soul?" he asked in a voice that said he wanted to kick someone's ass.

I nodded. I was sure if I spoke, I might throw up.

He cursed softly under his breath. "Dev?"

I shook my head.

I swore relief flashed in his eyes before he lowered his lashes and hid them from me. That gave me hope. Maybe, just maybe, he'd listen to what Dev had to say. I burrowed in his neck, not ready to leave the comfort of his arms. He stroked my back and tried to absorb the occasional shudders that rocked my body.

"Every time I leave your side, some weird shit happens," he whispered in an unsteady voice. "I don't think I can take any more of these scary situations without going insane."

I didn't know how to respond to that. Telling him I'd be okay would be lame because we both knew I wouldn't be. He'd rescued me often enough from possessions gone bad, and dealing with dark souls was a whole new level of badness. The only thing I could do to reassure him was hug him tight.

"Tell me what happened," he said again later, his voice steadier.

"A dark soul came after me and Dev stopped it."

Echo stiffened. "So he was here."

I leaned back to look into his eyes and hoped he saw the truth in mine. "He saved me, Echo. I felt a presence outside The Hub and even the house, but it was too faint. At first I thought it was Dev spying on us."

"He's been spying on us?"

I sighed. His mistrust of Dev defied logic. "No, he hasn't. All he wants is a chance to talk to you and explain things, and so he checks on me periodically to see if you're ready. I told him you're not. He was going to leave and try a few centuries down the line, but I convinced him to stay around because I know that deep inside, you need to talk to him."

"No, I don't."

"It's a good thing I did or he wouldn't have saved me," I continued as though Echo hadn't interrupted me again. "The dark soul must have followed us and waited until I was alone." I shuddered, my stomach still churning.

"Damn dark souls," Echo mumbled. "I'm taking you home where you'll be safe. Then I'm going to find Dev."

"You're not going to disperse him, are you?"

For a second a look crossed his eyes that said he'd love nothing else, but he sighed again. "I haven't decided yet."

"Would it matter that he did it because of Teleia," I whispered.

He leaned back and cocked his eyebrows. "What?"

"He said he did it because of her." Echo didn't respond, and when I glanced at him, he wore a preoccupied expression. "Do you know what that means?"

He shook his head. "Teleia disappeared when we were under attack. We searched for her, but she wasn't among the dead or the living."

"Was she an Immortal?"

"No. She didn't want to be one. She was close to her parents and her brothers. When they were taken and presumed dead, she wanted to die, too. She begged me not to turn her, and I honored her wish. She..." His voice trailed off. "Teleia was like a delicate flower. Sensitive and fragile. She could not have survived the Romans. They would have used her, so she chose death. By the time Dev betrayed us..." He went quiet, and I could feel his pain. "Teleia had been dead for almost a year."

I squeezed his hand, trying to absorb his pain.

"So, I don't understand what Dev meant. Before the Romans started rounding us up, he begged her to reconsider the immortality thing, but she refused. He found her a hiding place, or a place he thought she'd be safe among non-Druid members of our society. She refused to go. Dev was insanely in love with her and would have done anything for her, but she didn't feel the same way. It's tragic when love is one-sided like that," he added quietly. "It makes me appreciate what we have more."

I stroked his face, and I wondered how Dev's betrayal was connected with Teleia. Could he have blamed his people for her death? Was that why he'd betrayed them?

"I'm so sorry," I whispered.

He lifted his head and frowned. "For what?"

"Making you relive the past, bringing up painful memories. All I want to do is take away your pain and replace all those memories with happy ones, yet I keep-"

"Shh." He kissed me, and for a moment, the queasiness went away. "You take away my pain, and we're creating new memories. Good or bad, as long as you're in them, I'm happy. I have to find Dev and get some answers about tonight."

"And the past?" I asked.

"We'll see. All this could have been staged, you know. Bringing up Teleia, then having a friend pretend to attack you, so he could rescue you."

Seriously? We were having a heart-to-heart conversation about something that affected him deeply and he thought he was being played? I wanted to knock some sense into his thick head.

Then realization hit me. He'd done something similar before. He'd played me the first time we met. I leaned back to look at him, and my stomach rebelled. Gah, when would this queasiness go away?

"Isn't that more your M.O.?" I asked.

Echo smirked. "Yep, and he graduated at the top of the class when I taught him and the others."

Yeah, well, isn't that just freakin' great? "I give up. I'm not reasoning with you anymore. Help him. Don't help him. You decide. You are annoyingly stubborn, arrogant, unreasonable, and impossible. If I wasn't insanely in love with you, I'd dump your ass."

He laughed. "And I'd create situations so you'd always need me to rescue you and make you feel safe, and you'd take me back." He stood up with me.

"I can walk, Echo," I said.

"Is the nausea gone?"

I started to nod, but the look in his eyes warned me not to lie. My insides still heaved like I'd swallowed a giant slug. "No."

"It takes a while for the feeling to go away. How about your lungs?"

"I can breathe okay now."

"Good." He carried me to the passenger seat, buckled me up, and closed the door.

We drove in silence. Instead of taking me to the last house, he headed straight home. I studied his profile, thinking about what we'd talked about. I loved this man with all his flaws. He drove me insane with his crazy ways of doing things, but I never wanted him to change.

We were almost home when I said, "Never change for me, Echo. Always be true to yourself. Your honesty is what I love most about you."

He chuckled and reached for my hand. "I thought it was my body."

I smiled. "I love that, too. It's okay if you want to change for you. If you do it for me, you'll end up resenting me and possibly even leaving. Because if you can't be yourself with me, you'll be yourself with someone else. When you're pissed and want to rant and rave, then rant and rave. I won't love you any less. If you want to yell at me, do it, because I'll yell right back."

He chuckled. "You don't yell."

"Really? Then you're missing out on an opportunity to find out my lung capacity and how fast you can duck, because I throw things."

He was laughing hard by the time we pulled up outside my house. "So what you're saying is when I hold back, you hold back?"

"Yes. I could easily hurt you, too. I have a mouth on me and a strong throwing arm." Of course, I'd never hurt him that way. He'd known enough pain to last any Immortal a lifetime.

"You could never hurt me," he threw my words back at me, jumped out of the car, and made it to the passenger seat just as I opened the door. He squatted, his eyes not leaving mine. "Want to know why?"

The sexy grin did it. I stopped arguing and fed my curiosity. "Why?"

"I'm the beast, mean and ugly, and you're the only one who makes these things seem insignificant. With a kiss and a touch, you make the meanness and ugliness go away. With your love, you calm the beast inside me. So yell at me all you want when you're pissed. Throw things at my head. Maybe I'll yell back or throw you over my shoulder, cuff you to my bed, and make love to you in ways you couldn't possibly fathom, but you could never, ever hurt me. You are the light in my darkness. The hope chasing away my despair. You are the keeper of my soul."

Just like that, the fight went out of me. I was an idiot, thinking about simple things like words you hurl when you're angry and physical pain, which he could withstand without blinking, while he was thinking bigger and deeper. My eyes teared.

He gulped when he saw them. "What did I do now?"

"Nothing. Everything." I threw my arms around his neck, almost making him lose his balance. "You're perfect."

He laughed. "See what I mean? You only see perfection where there's imper-"

"Oh shut up, Echo. Just shut it and let me hold you."

Not caring that my parents were probably watching us, he knelt right there on my driveway, let his head rest on my lap, and wrapped his arms around my waist. I stroked his hair. I was going to love this man fiercely until he saw himself through my eyes and through our children's eyes.

"I'm going to fill our home with children," I whispered.

He lifted his head and frowned. "No. No children. Not for a couple of centuries. Just you and me." He grabbed the bag with my Nuvaring. "I'll even put this in for you."