“Are you okay?” he asked in a flat voice.
I looked up at him from my back and winced. “Yeah, I think so.”
“Good. Now get up.”
Fighting back a groan, I pushed myself to my feet. “Is this really necessary? I can tell you now, I have no fighting experience. I’ve never thrown a punch, never shot a gun, never thrown a knife. I’m weak.”
A disgusted frown pulled at the corners of his mouth. “Don’t say that.”
I threw my hands in the air. “Why not? It’s true.”
“Because I won’t allow you to be weak.” He lifted his chin, his green eyes burning with a quiet rage.
I was getting tired of his attitude. Tired of the whole thing. I never asked for this. I certainly wouldn’t have chosen to be his partner or taken away his chance at the board.
“What do you want from me, Gabe?” I felt my voice grow too loud, but I couldn’t stop it. “I can’t help that I’m cursed and weak. I can’t help that your mentor is supposedly my father. And I can’t help that I got chosen as your partner.”
A fiery rage burned in the black of Gabe’s eyes. “If you’re so weak, why did you put your blood in that fire pit?” he demanded. “Did you think this was just a game? Fighting demons isn’t a game. You could get killed out there. I’ve seen it happen too many times.”
“Of course I didn’t think it was a game.” I was practically shouting now.
Bree and Dominic had grown suspiciously quiet up in the weight room, the clang of weights no longer a distraction.
“I didn’t put my blood in that fire pit, Raquel did.”
Gabe blinked in confusion, but I couldn’t stop myself from continuing.
“I didn’t ask for any of this. All I wanted to do was go to college in the fall. Be a normal person for once in my life. But that all went up in flames when my family tried to kill me and a demon decided she liked the taste of my blood. I am doing my best to cope, so I suggest that you learn to do so as well, even if you don’t like it.”
He stepped back as if I’d slapped him and I instantly regretted opening my big mouth. Yelling wasn’t a great way to show him gratitude for saving my life.
“I’m sorry,” I began. “I shouldn’t have…”
“No, you’re right.” The anger had washed away from his eyes. In its place was a dangerous new look that made my insides quake with longing. “You can’t help that you grew up in a horrible place like that with no training. And you can’t help everything that’s happened since.”
I closed my eyes and opened them again to make sure this wasn't some hallucination brought on by my spill on the floor. But no, Gabe was still standing there in front of me, the same smoldering expression in his eyes.
He closed the gap between us and placed his hand ever so lightly on my cheek, making me gasp.
“But you’re not weak and you’re not cursed. You are strong and willful and fearless. I am proud to be your partner. You’re everything I could’ve hoped for.”
I had to stare at him for a few seconds to let everything sink in. When it did, I only had one question.
“But, what about Luke and the board?”
Gabe sighed. “I’m not upset about that. How could I be? Just having Luke as a mentor has taught me so much already.”
I looked down at my hands. This wasn’t the way I’d expected this morning to go.
“Listen, I’m sorry if I upset you.” His fingers trailed down my neck as I met his fiery gaze. “But I wanted to bring out that girl I met weeks ago in the forest. The girl that thought she was standing up to a demon without a lick of fear. The girl that faced a shotgun head on and a demon of the most vicious kind. I was afraid that she’d died in that pyre. I’m glad to see I was wrong.”
I closed my eyes and concentrated on the burning touch of his fingers on my skin. He was right. I’d been locked up in the manor for so long I’d begun to lose the fire that had kept me alive in Hanna for so long.
“I want to make sure you’re more than ready when the time comes for us to face our first demons,” Gabe continued. I opened my eyes to meet his gaze. “So, I’m going to push you. It’s going to be hard, and you might hate me at times, but you’ll be better for it.”
I smiled. There was no way I could hate him. Although, he might not like me as much when he learned how clumsy I was with a knife.
“Sorry to break this up, but I was hoping for some time with my daughter.”
Luke stood on the fighting ring behind us, a curious and challenging look in his eyes. At the sound of his voice, Gabe dropped his hand from my neck and took a step back. I mourned the loss of his touch, but managed to keep my cool. Nothing like a new dad to step right into the role of protective father.
“Sure.” Gabe bowed his head half an inch and took another step back. Before he turned to leave, he gave me the smallest of grins. It made my heart flutter and I longed to plant a kiss on his lips. But we’d been there and done that, with disastrous results. I watched him leave the ring and felt Luke come up beside me.
“He’s a great warrior,” he said. “One of the best I’ve ever met. I have no doubt you’ll learn much from him.”
I smiled to myself. If only Luke knew what I was really thinking about learning from Gabe, he wouldn’t be so happy to let me train with him.
Chapter Twenty
By the end of a week, I could barely get out of bed. Gabe was intent on helping me awaken the latent angel abilities of the Nephilim as fast as we could. Super strength and super speed were all part of the package deal. He’d thrown me into fighting scenarios, worked me on the bags, made me run sprints and lift weights, showed me how to throw knives and fire my first pistol. Muscles I didn’t know I had ached and pleaded for relief. Still, my special abilities eluded me.
At the same time, Gabe had kept a maddeningly cool demeanor towards me. There were no exchanges of fiery gazes. No more fingertips trailing along my neck. And no more pep talks that made me want to push him up against the wall and kiss him. His distance was both frustrating and confusing at the same time.
It was safe to say, I was in major need of a break. When Raquel told me she and a couple of others were going to Rapid City in the afternoon, I jumped at the idea.
“It’s just one afternoon.” I followed Gabe to the weights where he set up a hundred pounds on the bench. My bench-pressing was still puny. “You know I’ve been working my tail off this week. Just let me go with Raquel to Rapid City. You still owe me from our bet.”
He raised his eyebrow. “I heard Ashley’s going. Are you sure you still want to go with them?”
I swallowed down the lump of disappointment. It wasn’t exactly the ideal trip, but it was better than nothing.
“Sure, that’s no problem. I can handle her.” More like, I would sit in the back seat of the traveling van and ignore her petty comments as best as I could.
“Fine, I suppose you do deserve a break. We’ll cancel training this afternoon.”
I managed not to squeal and jump up and down like an idiot in front of him.
“You should go get ready.” He looked up at the giant clock on the training facility’s wall. It was already noon, and the vans would be leaving at 1:30. Glancing back at me, a lopsided grin grew on his lips. “You look like you just got out of a pool.”
I looked down. My tank top was drenched and I was pretty sure my hair looked like a sopping mess. It was like a wet t-shirt contest without the sexy. Gabe had just finished putting me through sprinting drills. He got to look suave and cool on the sidelines while I turned into a hot mess every day.
“Don’t act like you don’t like it,” I said with a wink.
Immediately, I wanted to take it back. Sure, training with Gabe had put us in a sort of comfortable status, but flirting with the man who I’d basically kicked off the board and hijacked into being my partner was a low move. Especially when he’d been so cool to me this week.
I was surprised to catch his green eyes smoldering with so
mething wicked that instantly made my knees tremble. For a heavy second, he said nothing, then the look vanished and his usual serious frown came back. Yet another confusing reaction from him, for me to analyze a million times in my head later.
“Just be careful in town.” He picked up the dull swords we’d used to spar at the beginning of the training session, and placed them back on the weapons rack. “Your goddess demon is still out there. She probably won’t venture that far into human territory, but be on your guard.”
I promised him that I would be careful and then ran back to my room to get ready. In all, there were seven of us that piled into the huge van for the trip. Dominic drove and Bree sat with him in the front. Ashley claimed the middle seat for herself, while two teenaged Nephilim by the names of Jordan and Charlotte took the third row. Raquel and I climbed into the back, only too happy to put room between us and Ashley’s snide remarks.
"I killed a demon yesterday," Ashley was telling Jordan and Charlotte. "It was a big sucker. He had hands the size of tennis rackets. Killed him with one clean swipe through the neck with my blade."
Raquel rolled her eyes at me. We both knew Ashley had gone on patrol yesterday with Luke. From the version Luke told us, Ashley had managed to cut off one of the demon's hands, but it was Luke that dealt the killing blow. Still, Luke was a gentle teacher, no matter who he was with, and had praised Ashley for her efforts. He said she was getting better.
At least once a day that week, Luke had pulled me into his office in the manor to share tea or a meal. He was determined to get to know me as fast as he could, and it seemed like the other board members had finally stopped insisting I was a demon trap. We didn't talk about demons or any of the bad stuff that had happened lately. Instead, he asked me about my childhood and the school I went to and all the little things he’d missed as I grew up. Once in a while, I’d even ask him about his childhood and growing up in Europe.
I didn’t notice before, but Luke had the slightest hint of a Scottish accent. He said his mother was human and had raised Esther and him in Scotland until their mother died from a horrible fever that ravaged his town when he was twelve. That was when his father came to collect them and brought them to live with the Nephilim at the Hell Gate.
I felt better knowing Luke knew something about what I was going through. He'd been a latecomer to the Nephilim way of life, too. Not only that, but he knew what it was like to be without a mother – a topic we purposely avoided. I wasn't ready to talk about the woman he'd loved. It was painful enough to learn that I was the reason he carried around a permanent sad glint in his eyes.
"Mission for today: find you some clothes so that I don't have to keep digging in the warehouse for hand-me-downs for you." Raquel pulled a gold credit card from the depths of her black leather purse. "We've got unlimited credit, so we can go crazy."
I gaped at her. "I can't spend someone else's money. I'd feel too guilty."
"Don’t be silly. Everyone gets an allowance." She shook her long red hair until it was out of her face. "And besides, Uncle Luke gave me this card for that reason. He wants you to use it and won't take no for an answer."
I rolled my eyes and looked out the window at the forest as we sped through it. There was no way I’d ever become used to having a father, especially one as caring and kind as Luke. He was everything I’d hoped for as a kid. I couldn’t help thinking that I didn’t deserve him or everyone that had been so kind to me at the manor. It was like waiting for the other shoe to drop. Something, somewhere, had to go wrong. Life couldn’t be this perfect.
Almost two hours later, we pulled into Rapid City. It wasn’t exactly New York, but it was huge compared to Hanna. I’d been here a few times with Kate and her mother when it came time to shop for school supplies. It felt strange coming here without them.
“All right, urchins, everyone out.” Dominic pulled over to a metered parking space downtown and shut off the van. “I expect everyone to be back in exactly…” he looked at his bare wrist for emphasis, “three hours. A minute later, and you’ll be walking home. Everyone understand?”
We nodded and scrambled out of the van, splitting off into groups. Jordan and Charlotte went off to do their thing. Ashley joined Dominic and Bree to check out a music store a couple of blocks down. Raquel grabbed my hand and pulled me in the opposite direction.
“Come on,” she squealed. “There’s a cute little boutique this way and you’re going to love it. We could get everything you need there.”
I let her drag me a block and half to a little corner store with a colorful window display of cute summer clothes. The store was called Stacy’s Stash. From the outside, I could see racks piled high with all sorts of women’s clothing. A leather display on the wall nearest to the window made my eyes go wide. There was a little red leather jacket hanging halfway up the wall, calling my name.
It didn’t take Raquel more than five minutes to drop a pile of clothes in my arms, and march me straight to the dressing rooms. I was trying on clothes left and right, dropping most of them into the keep pile. Shaking off the guilt I felt at the impending bill, I tried to let myself get into the spirit of the trip. Here I was, with my newly found cousin, and we were having a girls’ day. If I couldn’t even enjoy this, then I needed to get an attitude check.
“So, how’s it going with Gabe?” Raquel leaned casually on the door next to my changing room, as I took her newest pile of clothes to try on. “Please tell me you guys have made out already. I want to know every single little gory detail.”
“What?” I sputtered and felt my face go red. “No. He’s just training me. I told you.”
“Uh, huh.” She raised her eyebrows at me like she didn’t believe a single word I said. “I’ve seen you two training together. He’s totally gaga over you. Might as well enjoy it.”
I chewed on the inside of my cheek and shook my head. Raquel was crazy. If she’d seen him from my point of view, she wouldn’t be saying the same thing.
“No, he’s just protective. He wants to make sure I learn everything I’ve missed. I thought that’s how a partner was supposed to be.”
“Protective? Yes. Totally head over heels? Well, that’s a bonus.”
I closed the door to the dressing room and leaned against it. True, I’d thought there were sparks between us this week, but every time it seemed like we were getting close, Gabe pulled away. I tried to talk to him about things other than demons and fighting, but I still didn’t know much about him, and he wasn’t one to open up.
“What do you know about him?” I asked Raquel.
Who better to ask than the Queen of Information herself? Raquel was a walking house of knowledge. She collected it like some people collect stamps.
“He’s been at the manor since before I was born,” she said from the other side of the door. “Every female Nephilim wants him, including Ashley, of course.”
I winced. Fighting over a guy was not on my to-do list.
“His parents lived in South Africa for a long while. There’s another gate there. They recently retired to South America, I think.”
“You can retire?”
That was something I’d never considered. A retired Nephilim. It sounded strange.
“Yeah, you can. But retirement for a Nephilim is more like a long break. Most of them return to defend a gate at some point. It’s in our blood, after all.”
I had a yellow blouse pulled halfway over my head when I paused.
“Do you think Luke would ever retire?”
“Nope. He’s a lifer. He says he wants to get off the board and let new blood take over, but he’s not going to leave. Especially not after his wife died so tragically.”
I heard Raquel inhale sharply and stomp her foot.
“I’m sorry, Lizzy. I forget that’s your mom, too. I shouldn’t talk about her like that.”
“It’s okay.” I opened the door so that she could inspect the yellow blouse and a pair of tight leather pants that were a bit too sexy for my taste
. “I never knew her.”
Raquel’s eyes grew wide when I spun in front of the big mirror.
“Yes, yes, and yes. God, I love your tiny little figure. Everything I buy has to come in extra-long. Do you know how hard it is to find clothes long enough?”
I’d never had anyone call my figure tiny and little. But, I suppose, next to Raquel’s tall frame, the description fit. I wasn’t as enthused about the outfit as she was, but then again, she had better taste than me. They’d join the yes pile and then we were done here.
I was about to go back in the dressing room to change into my clothes, when a flash of blonde hair caught my eye. We saw each other at the same time. Kate was standing ten feet away from me, her face a complete mask of shock.
“Lizzy?” Her chin trembled. “Is that really you?”
I wanted so badly to run to her and wrap my arms around her tiny little shoulders, but I held back. She was the reason I’d been nearly murdered. Things like that didn’t just blow over.
“Hi, Kate.” My voice sounded hollow. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“That’s Kate?” Raquel dropped the jacket she’d been trying on and crossed her arms over her chest. “The one that turned you in?”
Big crocodile tears fell from the corners of Kate’s eyes. It was a talent she had – looking beautiful even when she cried. I’d never mastered the art.
“I’m so sorry, Lizzy.” She took a step forward and clasped her hands together as if she didn’t know what to do with them. “You don’t know how sorry I am. I never thought it would come to that. You have to know, I just thought they’d kill the demon and yell at you. I swear.”
I closed my eyes. As much as I wanted to hate Kate for the rest of my life, I couldn’t. She’d only done what she thought was right. It was a fault that I loved.
“It’s okay, Kate.” I looked down at her and shrugged. “I’m alive. It’s all over. You don’t need to worry about it anymore.”
Her eyes flicked to Raquel and then back to me.
“But it’s not over. People are still dying because of what I did.”
Heart of a Demon: A New Adult Paranormal Romance Page 13