by J. E. Taylor
Understanding trickled into my brain. “Oh.”
She licked her lips and sighed. “So, what I’m trying to say in my round-a-bout and very bad way is that I’m glad you’re here.”
“Even after today?” I asked before I had the sense to keep my mouth shut.
Her light laugh filled my room and swelled my heart. “Yes. Even after today. A few bumps, bruises, and a little blood is part of parenthood. Now get some rest. I’ll come check on you in a little while.”
“Thank you.”
She closed the door when she left. I stared at the ceiling. I had only been in York for less than twenty-four hours. That single thought boggled my mind, and I wondered if this was all a dream. If everything, including Alex, was just a figment of my imagination.
It would make total sense. The perfect guy. The near perfect family who unilaterally accepted me. The existence of things that I never imagined were real. It was all too bizarre.
Maybe I would wake up in the morning in our cabin to Mom making some oatmeal on the old stove and we’d have a really good laugh at my dreams.
I closed my eyes, letting the exhaustion pummeling every muscle have its way.
I SAT UP IN A DARK room, disoriented. The only light filtered from the moon coming through the thin curtains. Voices interrupted the silence of the night. I rubbed my eyes, swung my legs over the side of the bed, and crossed to the door.
I cracked the door ajar and looked out into an unfamiliar hallway. It took a few moments for my memory to clear. I was at the Ryans’ house, and everything that had happened was real.
I closed my eyes and leaned my head on the door, but the voices below moved me forward. I turned towards the stairwell and silently padded downstairs. The voices were coming from the partially open door of the office.
I crept closer, my mind racing with the possibilities of what could make Bridget and Tom raise their voices at each other.
“You have to!” a voice that wasn’t Bridget’s insisted.
“I have no fucking clue how to,” Tom’s voice snapped. “Believe me, we tried.”
“Do you not understand what is at stake?”
“I tried and then I had CJ try. It almost killed me,” Tom said.
“What?” Bridget asked, her voice agitated.
I could almost see his head spin towards her, and his wide-eyed expression that screamed he had just screwed up.
“There is a breech. We have no idea where on earth it is, but alarms are going off all over purgatory, which means...”
That voice sounded an awful lot like Fate’s.
“A portal to hell is opening,” Tom said. He sounded completely deflated.
“Yes. Anything leading to heaven wouldn’t set off alarms. And we have dominion over purgatory, so any hole there would be found like that.” Fate snapped her fingers loud enough for me to recognize the sound.
“What changed? What set off the first alarm?” Bridget asked.
“I don’t know. Things were fine, and then this morning, the alarms started going off.”
“Before or after we spoke?” Tom asked.
“Before.”
Silence fell on the room, and I closed my eyes. This morning was the first time I’d ever done that weird time travel thing. It couldn’t be a coincidence. I sagged against the wall.
“How long have you been listening?” Tom asked, and my eyes flew open. He stood in the doorway.
“Long enough,” I said. “I’m responsible for it?”
Tom opened his mouth, and then closed it. “I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do. The timing is too odd to be a coincidence.” I took a deep breath. “You shouldn’t have brought me here.”
Fate stepped out of the office, followed by Bridget.
“If they hadn’t gone to get you, you would be operating without a soul,” Fate said and crossed her arms. “That path would have killed far too many people before their time. Which would have been much more disastrous. Lucifer does not need permission to claim a soulless body.”
The rush of my blood flowing through my veins nearly drowned out Fate’s words. I trembled with a shiver gone rogue and wrapped my arms around myself to keep from triggering my fire nature. My mind raced as fast as my heart.
I locked my gaze with Fate. “Are my fire abilities tied to my soul?”
She slowly shook her head.
“Holy Mary, Mother of God.” My knees gave out, and I slid down the wall. “So as long as my soul is intact...”
“He can’t claim your body, and by default your powers, without your permission. However, without his grace, you cannot shut the rift between worlds.”
“Tom has his grace. Can’t he close it?”
“He doesn’t wield fire,” Fate said.
“Yes, he does. He has angel fire,” Bridget said.
“Angel fire may be enough to send Lucifer back to hell, but it cannot repair the tear. Only his daughter filled with his grace can repair that.” Fate’s eyes closed. “If he gets through again, there is only one thing on earth that can truly kill Lucifer. It isn’t angel fire. It isn’t tearing his head from his body. It’s a rare knife he had given to Lilith. It was forged with heaven’s light and can obliterate anything, even death. And when I say obliterate, it’s far more permanent than killing. It’s removing something from existence. No heaven. No hell. No purgatory. Just gone. And more importantly, there is no way back.”
I trembled in place on the floor.
“Kylee doesn’t have it in her arsenal?” Tom asked.
“I don’t believe so. It’s been missing since before Lilith was turned.” She pulled a piece of paper from her notebook and handed it to Tom.
He took a look and crossed back into his office. I stood and followed Bridget and Fate back into the office. Tom stood with his back to us, dropped the paper on the desk, and ran his hand through his hair.
I glanced at Bridget. A tear tracked down her cheek.
When Tom turned, deep-seated pain reflected in his gaze as it met Bridget’s. He shrugged and tried to smile, but it looked haunted.
“We’ll figure this out,” Bridget said and wiped at the tears on her face.
“There’s only one way to get his grace,” Tom said.
It took a moment and then my eyes grew wide. “No.” I backed out of the room and ran upstairs, then slammed the door to my bedroom. I leaned against it.
The memory of Tom eating his best friend’s heart turned my stomach.
I could never take his life like that.
Not even if it meant hell on earth.
Chapter 11
A knock on the door interrupted my frantic swarm of thoughts.
“Let me in,” Tom said.
“No.” I continued to press my back against the door.
“I promise, you won’t have to eat my heart today.”
“Not ever! Promise me you’ll never make me.”
“I can’t promise you that.”
His voice was soft enough to calm some of the storm brewing inside me. The man was talking about his own life as if it wasn’t worth bargaining for. I opened the door and stared up into his bright blue eyes.
“I won’t kill you.” I crossed my arms.
“I’m a dead man walking if Lucifer gets loose, and everyone I care about will be a target. Including you.”
I pressed my lips together to stop my chin from quivering.
“When the time comes, you will have to. Otherwise, your father will take it from me. And honestly, if I’m going to die, I’d rather it be by your hand than his.”
My vision blurred, and heat filled my hands. I balled them and stepped back. I shook my head. “I can’t.”
“We are stressing over something that might be years away. Let’s not do that. It’s not something we need to worry about right this second.”
I scoffed. Any thought of digesting a heart was not welcomed, whether it be tomorrow or ten years from now.
“You have other things to worry a
bout, like getting your high school degree, and learning how to control your fire.”
“I already know how to control it.”
“No. You know how to suppress it most of the time. But you don’t know how to wield it.”
He was right. I knew how to put it under wraps when I was stressed, and it had a habit of getting away from me when I used it under duress.
“I also have to deal with the tiger,” I whispered, trying to focus away from the dull panic throbbing in my muscles.
“Yeah, well, Grace is something of a wild card. But Alex should be able to keep her in line. If not, CJ will.”
The mere mention of Alex’s name soothed the beast inside me. “I’d like to get to know him better,” I said, and my hand went to my lips.
“You mean kiss him more?” Tom crossed his arms.
Heat filled my cheeks.
“On second thought, don’t answer that. It’s time for you to get some rest.” He nodded toward the bed. “You have that test with CJ tomorrow.”
I laughed. Sleep would bring nightmares, which would likely bring fire with it in my current condition.
Tom’s eyes darkened, and his gaze dropped to my hands. “Where are your gloves?”
I pointed towards where the laundry closet was at the end of the hall near the stairwell.
He crossed and opened the folding doors. He came back to the doorway and sighed at the melted leather bundles in his hands. “I don’t think these should have gone in the dryer.”
I snorted a laugh.
He crumpled them in his fist and turned, marching away.
I closed the door and climbed into the bed, staring at the window, my thoughts swirling like a wild storm in my head. I kept my fists clenched tight, but I didn’t know if that would be enough. Not with the images that kept pushing to the forefront of my mind despite my efforts to push them away.
A few minutes later, the door opened, and my light went on. “I always have a backup plan,” Tom said and handed me a second pair of leather gloves.
These were softer than the other pair and fingerless. I slid them on, and they dampened the heat in my hands the same way the other gloves had. These were much more fashionable and would go beautifully with the black leather outfit that we had bought. I liked them much better than the last pair.
He pointed at my hands. “Don’t let Bridget throw those in the washing machine, okay?”
“Okay.” I flexed my fingers. These felt like a second skin. “I really like them. Thank you.”
“I would have given you this pair to begin with, but we decided to play it safe and see if it worked before switching up. If you need another pair, I have one more in my desk drawer downstairs. Now, get some more sleep. You need it.” He turned the light off and left me to my own thoughts.
I tried to focus on Alex, but the visions of the past kept congregating, clouding my focus and keeping sleep out of reach.
When the clock reached two, I climbed out of bed and grabbed the bathrobe on the back of the bathroom door. I wandered down to the family room and stretched out on the couch with the television remote in my hand.
I studied the tool and pressed the power button. The television blared to life, and I quickly pressed the volume to the lowest setting before mute. I surfed the channels, going one by one, unable to choose what to watch.
“I need to be more decisive,” I whispered to the dark. “Too many choices and I freeze.” I sighed and rubbed my eyes. “Just choose something,” I scolded myself, while doing another round of switching channels.
A scene with a little girl throwing fire from her hands caught my attention and I put the remote down. I watched with curiosity, hugging my knees as it became tense.
“Firestarter? Really?”
I jumped at his voice.
Tom stretched out on the other couch and crossed his arms. “I couldn’t sleep, either.”
I gave him a cursory glance and then focused back on the movie. Hot tears tracked down my cheeks as the credits rolled across the screen. I sniffled and wiped my face. The girl in the movie had lost everything. A deep pain filled my chest. If she couldn’t save those she loved, how could I?
“It’s a movie, Faith.”
“But...” I waved at the television.
He glanced over at me. “I’m going to ask CJ to try to extract the grace again.”
Tears still tracked down my cheeks. “You said you almost died today when he tried.”
“I may have been embellishing that a little.” His lips formed a goofy grin. “Not only am I moody, but sometimes I embellish for effect.”
I wiped my face. “Bullshit,” I said. The word felt foreign on my tongue and I cringed inside, but it was the only one that would slap the truth out of him.
His eyebrows rose, his mouth popped open, and he sat up, facing me. “Faith.”
I put my hand out. “Save your placations for someone else.”
“You are worse than Bri.” He ran both hands through his hair and stared at the ground.
“I’ve been sheltered all my life. I don’t need you to sugarcoat things for me. I will come to terms with everything that’s been dumped on me since you picked me up from the state home.” I took a breath when his gaze met mine. “I have to, because otherwise, everyone I care about will be at risk, too.”
He huffed and smiled. “You are much more prepared to take on the world at sixteen than I was when I was thirty.”
“I just want—”
“Don’t say a normal life,” he interrupted. “Normal is boring and underrated.” He grabbed the remote and started flipping through channels.
“Normal might actually be nice,” I said, feeling a little more argumentative after watching that movie.
He sighed. “Being powerless and clueless...” He chewed on his bottom lip. “I’ve been powerless, and believe me, you don’t ever want to be in those shoes. But clueless might be nice. To never know what really lurks out there... Yeah, I could get on board with that.” He smiled over at me.
“I was clueless all my life. If my mother hadn’t died, I’m sure I would have been clueless for quite a long time.” I raised my hands to stare at my palms. “And I would have thought I was the only real freak out there.” I curled my fingers and dropped my hands to my lap. “So, thanks for making me not feel so alone.”
He belted out laughter. “We are a bunch of unnatural freaks,” he said. “Except for Bri. She’s normal, as you categorize it.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Alex and his sisters?”
“Nope. Angel descendants. Same with Austin, the witch’s husband. No powers, but he is angel blood, too, so that does not qualify as normal, like Bri.”
I stared at his profile. “April?”
“She has visions sometimes. Grace, beyond her tiger transformation, seems to be in tune to angel radio.” He pointed to the ceiling. “Michael and Gabriel don’t show any signs of supernatural powers though.”
“I think Alex has powers,” I said. “He has the power to calm the fire, just like these gloves.”
Tom chuckled. “Are you sure he isn’t just turning it into another kind of fire?”
I stared at the television trying not to allow a blush to heat my face. I failed miserably. Alex’s touch did bring on some powerful and highly inappropriate emotions.
“Be careful with him.” Tom’s smile faded, and a serious light shone in his eyes.
I nodded. I had no intention of hurting Alex.
“I’m not worried about Alex. I’m worried about you.”
“Why?”
He inhaled deep and glanced at the ceiling. “I have no idea if he’s experienced or not. But at his age, I was... wild. CJ had a steady girlfriend ever since we were nine. He never looked at anyone else until after she dumped him. And then he met Valerie, and married her. But me... I started sleeping around when I was thirteen. I was kind of a whore in that respect.” He glanced at me. “In other words, I don’t know if Alex takes after his father or not.”
I traced my bottom lip with my finger. I couldn’t imagine him kissing anyone else, and the thought spurned an uncomfortable flare across my skin. I shifted on the couch and yawned.
“Please stop talking about Alex,” I said. I didn’t want to broach that subject with Tom. He’d already planted the seeds of doubt.
“Don’t doubt that he is into you,” Tom said. “That isn’t what I’m saying. I’m...”
“I know what you’re saying. I just don’t want you to keep talking about Alex. At. All.”
“I’m making you uncomfortable?” He had the audacity to grin.
“Very,” I admitted.
His smile faded. “I don’t know if I’ll be around to torture April like this.”
Now I wished he had just kept on razzing me.
Chapter 12
Hands shook me.
I blinked my eyes open to Bridget standing over me. The television still played some movie. Tom snored on the other couch.
“CJ called wondering where you were.” She rubbed her eye. “Go get dressed and I’ll take you over.”
I rolled off the couch, stiff from sleeping at an odd angle. I headed for my bathroom and the toothbrush first. My braid still held, and outside of a line on the side of my face from the piping on the throw pillow, I didn’t look bad. I used a washcloth to clean up and went to the bureau where my new clothing had been stashed.
I chose my jeans and the green shirt that Alex had picked out for me. There was a pair of green underwear that matched the shirt as well as white socks and a bra that was similar to the one Bridget had let me borrow.
I dressed, used deodorant, and slipped on my beat-up sneakers. By the time I got downstairs, Bridget was waiting in the kitchen. My backpack was on the stool by the door.
“What about Tom?”
“Letting him sleep.” She yawned and headed outside with her keys in her hand.
I hooked my arm around my backpack and headed outside. My stomach fluttered with both excitement at seeing Alex and dread that I might have another run-in with Grace. I adjusted in my seat and hoped like hell my day would be better than yesterday.