Tempted by Elise Marion Page A

fire…
     
     
     
     
    Jackson shook himself back into reality at the sight of a white light streaking across the sky. A shooting star. Sarah.
    As it neared, he couldn’t deny the urge to meet her on the roof. Not only did he owe her a serious apology, but he just knew that seeing her face would make everything else seem distant. He wasn’t sure how it had happened, but somehow Sarah had become a lifeline, a symbol of hope for his life. She represented goodness and faith and everything that was right in the world. Being near her was like coming up for air after being trapped in a dark cave.
    Raindrops plopped onto his head and shoulders as he stepped onto the roof. Sarah stood a few feet away from him, her palms stretched out to catch the water drops. Her eyes were closed and her face was tilted back to the cloudy sky. Jackson watched, his jaw slack, as she twirled in a slow circle, extending her arms to embrace the coming storm.
    His heart pounded in his chest, and his conscience nagged him for intruding on her private moment. Yet he couldn’t look away from her. She looked like the angel she truly was, bathed in moonlight, her arms and legs bare in the thin sundress she was wearing, her face tilted to the sky. His stomach clenched and his blood raced. He took a step toward her.
    She opened her eyes and turned toward him slowly, lowering her arms. As she moved toward him, he felt time slowing around him, and realized he’d felt this sensation before so many times. He’d never bothered to pay attention to it, chalking it up to childish fantasy on his part, blaming it on too many slow-motion filled action movies. He would never have attributed it to the power he'd always possessed. A power he'd never known he had.
    But as Sarah walked toward him through the rain, he soaked in every detail. It was as if his mind wanted to remember everything; the flow of her dress’ skirt around her knees as the breeze tugged at it and the curling sable waves made damp by the rain, every water drop that rolled down her face. Every detail stood out in sharp clarity, until nothing else existed for him.
    “ I’m so sorry,” she said, breaking the silence. Her wide eyes were filled with tears that mingled with the rain running down her face.
    “ No,” he interjected, reaching up to grasp her upper arms gently. “I’m the one who should be sorry. I took my fears out on you, and you didn’t deserve that. You didn’t ask for this job, and you sure as hell didn’t ask for me. I told you to run, to leave me alone, but you stayed. No one stays for me, Sarah. No one ever stays.”
    “ Your father…” she trailed off lowering her eyes. “I know who he is.”
    Jackson’s heart dropped into his stomach. “You do?”
    She nodded. “After you left, Vivian told me all about him. He left your mother because he was charged with guarding one of the few portals between earth and hell. He knew he would be putting you and your mother in harm’s way if he stayed. Guarding portals is a dangerous job. There are Oracles, demons, and even some humans who are constantly searching for them. They would not hesitate to hurt the family or friends of a Guardian in order to get what they want.”
    Jackson felt his head spinning with the sheer magnitude of what he was hearing. All this time he’d thought his father was an arrogant, heartless bastard. He’d never known anything about him beyond the day he left. While he was still hurt and angry at his father’s abandonment, he couldn’t help but feel pity for him. Much like Jackson, he’d stood on the precipice, facing a choice that could change his life forever. It had cost him his family, but contributed to a greater good beyond anything Jackson could have ever fathomed.
    “ Did you know that Vivian raised me?”
    She shook her head, a frown marring her forehead. “No. What happened to your mother?”
    “ She ran off with some boyfriend of hers a few months after my father left. His leaving