Daughter of Stars and Nightmares (The Eternal Bond Saga book 1)

Nectar of the Gods

Julia lay on her double bed holding her pink fluffy pillow, sniffling. She'd taken all the hushed comments, looks of pity, and the insults from everyone in Havenswood in stride. Over the years Julia had built a wall around her, she could hide behind. But hearing her own mother say those things, and seeing the look of utter pity etched on Rosalie's face made that wall crumble into dust, leaving Julia utterly heartbroken.

She started to pick at her wounds by running though the events again and heard a tapping on her window. Thinking it was Ren she groaned. "Ren, go away."

She rolled onto her side so she wasn't facing the window, hoping that if she couldn't see Ren he would go away. There was another couple of taps and Julia couldn't believe he hadn't got the hint.

"For the love of the gods, Ren, just leave me alone," she shouted, throwing a pillow at the window and pulling her thick blanket over her head.

The tapping only got harder. Pissed, Julia threw back her blanket, stormed over to the window ready to give Ren a real piece of her mind. Pushing the window up with more force than necessary she stuck out her head.

"Gods why can't you use the damn door like a regular person." Julia froze when Damien grinned at her instead of Ren. Then she jerked back into her room, tripping over the padding on the window seat and landing on her butt.

Damien poked his head into her room and gave her a warm smile as he stepped through. "Sorry for the intrusion."

She scrambled backwards still unsure of him, because the last time he gave her that smile he made her black out.

He raised both hands as he stepped closer to her. "I come in peace."

Julia couldn't help giggling at the cheesy line. "You've been watching way too much sci-fi."

"You got me there." He crouched and reached out, gently wiping the moisture from her cheek with his thumb. "Are you all right? I heard the fight you had with your mom and I have to say she was out of line."

His touch sent warmth rippling through Julia, which shocked her. She pulled her face away from his touch and groaned, "Great, now I have another stalker."

Damien raised his eyebrows. "Hey, I wasn't stalking you."

Julia was still ratty from dealing with her mom and sarcastically replied, "Oh yeah, and what would you call lurking in the bushes outside my house listening to everything? I bet that's a camera in your pocket."

He chuckled, "Cute," and brushed a few stray locks out of her face causing her breath to catch and her cheeks to flush.

Julia couldn't tell if he was commenting on what she just said or if he was talking about her.

Damien took Julia's hand and stood up, pulling her up with him. "I wasn't stalking you. Alex told me what happened, and I wanted to check on you."

The image of Alex and Véronique rolling on the floor laughing about her reared its ugly head again. "Wonderful. That's just the icing on this particularly crappy weekend."

Reaching into his jacket pocket he said, "See, it's not a camera; I brought you some pomegranate juice," and handed her a small crystal vile with blood red liquid inside.

Julia took it and looked at it suspiciously. "Umm, thanks?"

"I promise I haven't done anything funny to it. Pomegranate juice is great for you and it will help when the effects of Alex's blood wears off. You may find that you'll feel a little down in the dumps for a day or two."

Intrigued by this titbit of information she perked up wanting to know more. "Really, why? Alex told me that dark fae blood doesn't affect supernaturals."