I took a fluttering breath before I could speak.

“Did you find anything?”

He shook his head and all the hope that I had harbored evaporated. What was I going to do now? I had to suppressed the momentary urge to go into a full blown panic. I had to keep calm and rational, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to figure a way out of this. And despite Damien’s inability to find a way out of this, I had to believe there was a way. We just hadn’t discovered it yet.

“This was never going to be easy Tessa. You’re effectively trying to beat death.” He kept his distance in the far corner of my room.

“Not beat it, just delay it.” I shrugged. Everyone had to die, it was inevitable.

I slipped off the bed to stand. “Besides I’ve beaten death before.”

“Because I was there to save you. I can’t save you from this Tessa.” His tone was resigned. “I can’t stop the Grim Reaper.”

“So that’s it. I just wait to die.” I couldn’t just do nothing and play the waiting game. I hadn’t endured years of Damien, resisting every attempt he had made to convince me to go back to hell for nothing. If I just gave up, I would be throwing away everything I had fought for and I wasn’t prepared to accept that.

There had to be a way. We just hadn’t figured it out yet.

“Don’t you get it Tessa.” His eyes flared with anger. “You’re not supposed to be here Tessa. If I hadn’t interfered you would have died with your family. You should have died then.”

I shook my head. “What if you were meant to save me?”

He frowned. “Angels are forbidden to interfere.”

“What if it was meant to happen Damien?” I moved closer. “What if everything that has happened was supposed to happen?”

I couldn’t believe that we weren’t destined to be where we were standing right now.

“You should have died and I should have let you.”

I stilled. His words hurt. He was trying to inflict pain but why?

“You can’t let me die Damien, we have already proved that multiply times.” I began to move closer to him, feeling more confident with each step. “And there is a reason why you can’t.”

“And what’s that?” he asked, still standing perfectly still.

“Because no matter how much you try to hide it, you feel something for me.” There I had said it and I watched his features remain stone like.

“It’s forbidden,” he whispered harshly. It was a reaction that gave me the confidence to keep going.

“You ever heard of Romeo and Juliet?” There were so many stories of forbidden love but that was the one that came to mind immediately.

“They both die,” he said flatly. His eyes held mine and I swallowed.

I faltered, the distance between us seemed further away than the physical distance separating us.

“What will happen to you if the Reaper succeeds?” I had to know what would become of him, if we failed.

“If we fail, I will never get to return to heaven as an angel. I will spend eternity in hell as a demon.”

There was so much at stake and no clear way of winning. My shoulders slumped feeling the weight of what was to come. I wasn’t the only one who would have to face severe consequences if we failed.

If there was no way to fight the reaper than I wanted to at least be able to set him free. He didn’t have to suffer alongside me. I could give him that.

“If you can’t figure out a way to stop the Reaper, then you can take my life Damien.”

His perfect features marred with a deep set frown as he took a step closer. “What do you mean?”

“If I’m going to die anyway and there is no way to change that.” I sighed. “The least I can do is set you free.”

He took another step closer and then stopped. His eyes held mine.

“That might have been an option before but it isn’t now.”

“What do you mean?” Surely I could still set him free. It would give me some sort of peace in a situation where I would have very little.

“I can’t take your life now Tessa. I can’t kill you,” he reminded. “If I could I would have let you drown in the car.”

He couldn’t let me die but I was going to die anyway.

“If there is no way to change what is going to happen what does it matter what is forbidden or not Damien?”

His eyes were dark pools of obsidian and I wanted to drown in them.

Silence hung between us.

“If everything about our situation is forbidden, what does it matter what we feel?”

I would not go any closer. I would state my case and the rest would be up to him.

He didn’t deny that he felt something for me and that gave me feel more confident in what was happening between us. We both felt something, this wasn’tt one sided.

If someone had told me this would happen I wouldn’t have believe them. To think the boy who had tormented for so long would be the long whose touch I yearned for, was crazy.

When time was running out, every moment precious. Too precious to be wasted with rules that both of us had not heeded up to now.

He had broken the rules to save me, I had broken the rules by resisting him for the last seven years. What was the point of playing the rules now when we would both lose?

His gaze went to my lips and I remembered what it had felt like for him to kiss me. I wanted him to do it again so bad but I refused to push him. If it was going to happen again he would come to me.

I needed to feel he was in this with me. I would settle for no less.

“We shouldn’t do this,” he murmured, moving closer. My heart raced in my chest.

“Why?” I whispered, knowing there was no valid reason.

If our situation had been different, then perhaps it would have been wise to heed the rules but when all was lost and there was no hope, what was the point?

“It’s forbidden,” he finished as he stopped in front of me.

He was close enough that I could reach out and touch him but I kept my arms still. He had to be the one to make the first move. I didn’t want to feel like I was forcing him into a situation he didn’t want to be in. I had already made the choice, it was his chance to make his.

And no matter what he decided, I would honor it.

“Tessa…” His voice wrapped around me and closed my eyes losing myself in the feeling.

Or may I was scared to face the fact that he would choose differently to me.

If this was all the time I would have, I wanted to embrace every moment of it.

I had experienced my first kiss just a few hours before with him. If I was going to die soon I wanted to embrace all the things that made living worthwhile and he was the one I wanted to share that with.

The silence continued and I opened my eyes to stare deep into his. Touch me, I whispered in my thoughts, willing him to closer the distance and seal his mouth over mine.

I needed it more than the air I breathed.

He was closer. It felt impossible not to reach for him, to touch him, to sway him.

“This can’t happen,” he whispered, huskily. Searching my features.

My lips parted as I fought my own battle within, trying to do that right thing when all I wanted was to wrap my arms around him and lift myself onto my tip toes to press a kiss to his lips.

I stopped myself from whispering his name.

His eyes burned and I could feel the heat radiate from him. Part angel, part demon. I didn’t care which one would make the choice to kiss me, I just wanted it to happen.

His lips stopped a breath from mine. It was agony. But I held myself so still, fighting against what felt so right.

My eyes lifted from his lips to his gaze. I saw what I felt mirrored in the depths of it.

He felt it too.

The realization hit me. And then he lowered his mouth to mine.