Divine Fall

by Kathryn Knight

  “I want it,” I said finally. I stepped forward, twining my fingers with his. The current ran between us, warm and electric.

  Dothan searched my face for reassurance, then nodded. “Let’s get you to the game,” he said, leading me out of the woods.

  I hurried along beside him, smiling inwardly. The tentative glow of happiness joined the rest of the emotions churning through me. But I was still seriously pissed at being manhandled in the woods during my best friend’s soccer game. “I can’t believe I missed so much,” I complained, shaking my head.

  Dothan gripped my hand tighter. “Those guys could have done a lot worse than make you late for the second half.” He muttered a string of vulgar descriptive words under his breath. “Sorry. But we can’t let this go on, Jamie.”

  His use of the term “we” spread the warmth up my arm through the rest of my body. “Tired of rescuing me?” I joked half-heartedly.

  “Of course not. I just don’t want to see you get hurt. What if I’m not there to intervene?”

  I sighed. I didn’t like feeling powerless, but I knew Dothan meant well. “I had my pepper spray. I just…” The damp grass of the top field whispered under our boots as I searched for the right thing to say. “They took me by surprise. But I admit I made a mistake going off on my own in the dark. I won’t do that again.”

  “I’m not sure that’s good enough,” he said, sliding the coarse pad of his thumb over the tender skin of mine. “We should tell someone.”

  “Here’s the thing, Dothan. I have no problem alerting authorities when I think it’s necessary. That should be obvious, since I didn’t hesitate to call 911 on Kevin. But since nothing actually happened tonight, this will turn into a ‘he said-she said’ situation. If I thought they were going to go around assaulting other women, I wouldn’t hesitate. But in this case, the three of them were drinking in the woods, and a girl they hate happened to show up alone.”

  Another cheer echoed across the field, and I paused to take a breath. “And then, a literal avenging angel appeared out of nowhere to save me, tossing huge guys around like they weighed nothing. The whole thing might get a bit complicated.”

  “Half angel,” he corrected wryly.

  “Right.” We came to a stop at the top of the hill, to the far left of the bleachers. The lights shone down on the soccer players as they battled for the ball. I flicked my gaze to the scoreboard: the Hawks were back in the lead, 2—1. “Can we just watch the rest of the game?” I asked. “I need…normal.”

  “I think you deserve that. As long as normal now involves me hanging around a lot. For my own piece of mind.” His white teeth flashed in the glow of the artificial brightness.

  I tipped my chin in a crisp nod. “I’m okay with that.” I spotted Sam’s strawberry blonde ponytail on the field as she stole the ball from another player. “Yes!” I cheered quietly, pulling my free hand into a fist.

  “Game should be over soon. Do you have plans for after?”

  “No. There’s a party, but I’m not going to go. Technically I’m welcome anywhere Sam and the team go, but I tend to put a damper on the festivities. Everyone thinks I’m going to call the cops on them,” I added, rolling my eyes. Below, Sam jerked as she caught an elbow from a girl on the opposite team. Ouch.

  “You should go. I could wait outside in my car in case you need me.”

  “What? That was a penalty,” I murmured when the ref failed to blow his whistle. “Yeah, um, I appreciate the offer, but that might not fall into the ‘normal’ category. Besides, I don’t really want to go. I’ll catch Sam on her way to the locker room, hopefully offer her my congratulations, and then head home.”

  “I’ll follow you,” he said tightly.

  I opened my mouth to say “that’s not necessary”, but then bit back the words. I’d sort of proven otherwise tonight. “Okay,” I acquiesced. There were worse things than having a literal guardian angel.

  We watched the final minutes of the game in companionable silence, my muscles tensing every time the ball came near our goal. Only Dothan’s firm grip on my hand kept me from tearing at my cuticles. I blew out a breath when the final three whistle blasts rang out, bouncing on my heels in my own private victory dance.

  Chapter 24

  Dothan hung back while I hugged Sam, trying to blend in with the crowd. But I felt his watchful gaze on me the entire time I chatted with the team. I made a mental note to ask him why angels couldn’t just reveal themselves to the world as I walked back toward him, even though I figured I already knew the answer. My initial reaction had been to assume Dothan needed to be locked up in a psych ward. I could only imagine what the lawyers would have said if Nathaniel had explained he was an archangel during the guardianship proceedings.

  I had a lot to learn. But as Dothan looped a protective arm around my waist and led me toward the front of the school, all the technicalities of his supernatural lineage flew out of my head. Suddenly all I was aware of was the proximity of our bodies as we crossed the deserted teachers’ parking lot.

  Dothan’s car sat alone in the shadows. “I didn’t want you to know I was here,” he explained. “I figured you’d be mad.”

  “Under the circumstances, I’ll let it slide.”

  “Good. Because I can’t stop thinking about you.” He shifted me around to face him, his hands settling on my hips. His eyes glittered in the moonlight as he guided me backwards until I bumped up against the car.

  “I am a complication,” I murmured, echoing the words preceding our first kiss.

  He grinned, slowly lowering his face toward mine. My breath caught in my throat the second before our lips touched. The kiss turned from gentle to urgent almost instantaneously, a mutual hunger fueling our connection. My muscles trembled with the intensity until my knees threatened to give out.

  I clung to Dothan weakly, and he held me up against the car, supporting my weight with his extraordinary strength. He nuzzled my neck, nipping at the tender skin.

  That’s going to leave a mark, an inner voice whispered disapprovingly. I decided I didn’t care. It was cool enough now for scarves and turtlenecks. A soft moan escaped my lips.

  Suddenly the car unlocked with a chirp, and Dothan scooped me up and tumbled me into the backseat. Somehow he managed to brace our fall enough to keep his weight from crushing me. He kissed me briefly and rose to his knees, reaching over to pull the door shut.

  He lowered himself back down on his elbows, his body stretched over mine. Rather than kissing me again, though, he hesitated, poised above me. I couldn’t read his expression clearly in the darkness, but my nerves jangled with apprehension.

  “Is something wrong?” I managed.

  He shook his head, his hair swaying with the movement. “Not with me.” He cleared his throat. “Wait, that didn’t come out right. What I mean is—that’s what I should be asking you. I sort of put you into a compromising position without giving you a lot of choice. Are you okay?”

  My mind whirled. Was I okay? I was feeling a lot of things, none of which really fell into the bland category of “okay”. On the other hand, I wasn’t not okay. I had come with Dothan to his car voluntarily, although I hadn’t exactly pictured ending up in the back seat. But so far we hadn’t done anything that made me uncomfortable. I reached up and ran my knuckles across his scruffy jaw.

  A distant flash of headlights illuminated the inside of the car, and I caught a clear glimpse of Dothan’s face. His eyes were wide with concern, his pupils deep pools of onyx. He rubbed a calloused thumb along my earlobe, and the current rippled through me.

  “Yes,” I answered truthfully. The reality was this: I wanted to trust Dothan. According to him, Nathaniel was safe. The rest of it had to be some sort of misunderstanding. And lying here in Dothan’s arms, melting under his electric touch, there was really only one thing I desperately needed to know in this moment.

  “I’m more than okay,” I continued carefully. “But, I was sort of wondering...” I trailed off, pressin
g my lips together. I swallowed and tried again. “You said your life was very…secluded.”

  He shifted slightly, tilting his head. “Yes. Why?”

  I gathered my courage as we stared at each other. His long hair fell around us, brushing softly against the sides of my face. “Um, I was just wondering if…you’ve had many girlfriends.”

  A small smile played across his full lips. “Spending most of my life in seclusion in an attempt to hide my true identity didn’t provide a lot of opportunities for dating.” His eyes narrowed slightly. “Am I doing something wrong?”

  “Oh, no,” I assured him quickly. The small amount of blood left in my upper body rushed to my cheeks. “You’re doing everything right. Too right. I don’t have a lot of experience with this, but it certainly feels like you do.”

  “Instinct,” he murmured, dipping his head back down. His lips burned a devastating trail along my throat.

  My hands crept under his thin cotton shirt as our mouths crashed together in another all-consuming kiss. I writhed beneath him, the pleasure building to an intensity I’d never even imagined. My body took control, moving with his in a primal dance that was both exquisite and torturous.

  We finally came up for air, our hearts pounding in the darkness like the thundering of Beau’s hooves at a full gallop. Our shallow breaths mingled in the still air between us.

  “My instincts are telling me we’d better stop,” Dothan whispered, touching his forehead to mine.

  “No,” I moaned. From beyond the thick layer of lust clouding my mind, that faint inner voice chided my audacity. I mentally swatted it away as I ran my fingertips along the bare skin of his back.

  “Believe me, stopping is the last thing I want to do.”

  “Good, then we’re agreed.”

  His kissed the tip of my nose, sending a warm hum traveling all the way to my cheekbones. “Jamie,” he said as he tangled his hands in my curls. “I don’t know a lot about relationships. That’s the truth. But my father taught me that when you care about someone, you put their needs ahead of your own.” He closed his eyes, exhaling forcefully. “And what you don’t need is me taking advantage of you.”

  “I’m a willing enough participant,” I pointed out, a small sigh lodging itself in my chest. “But I get it.” And I did, all too well. Dothan and I were kindred spirits in that regard. Neither one of us was the type to engage in the risky behavior usually embraced by our age group. We’d both endured the kinds of tragedies that changed people forever. We were two old souls, trapped in the bodies of teenagers.

  “I hope so. Because my father told me that’s what love is: wanting to put someone else’s needs ahead of yours…always.”

  My heart lurched to a stop. I drew in a sharp breath and it stumbled back into an erratic beat. “Are you saying you love me?”

  “Does that scare you?”

  I rewound his father’s advice in my mind again. By “needs”, Dothan was surely referring to more than just the battle between fulfilling sexual desires and protecting my virtue. He had sacrificed his entire plan—his reason for existence these past six months—for me. Maybe it was crazy, but I’d already been falling for him before that revelation. Tonight, I’d completed the fall. “It scares me a little,” I whispered. “But I love you too.”

  He kissed my swollen lips tenderly. “You’ve had a pretty intense night. Let’s get your car and get you home.”

  He was right: a painful Friday evening shift at work, the frightening standoff in the woods, a passionate make out session, and then emotional declarations of love. A sudden tidal wave of exhaustion slammed into me, turning my bones into liquid. “Okay,” I agreed feebly. I was still trapped under his heavy weight.

  “Hang on,” he commanded, rising to his hands and knees. He twisted and crawled backwards in a fluid movement that would have been highly awkward for anyone else.

  Once he had extracted himself from the car, I heaved myself to sitting, my loose joints barely obeying.

  Dothan opened the door and helped me out. “Will I see you tomorrow?”

  I sank into the front passenger seat. “It might rain,” I said absentmindedly.

  He hovered over the open door, the glare from the interior light hiding his expression. “Will you come anyway?”

  Oh. My heart rate spiked with one last burst of energy. “Yes. I’ll be there.”

  He nodded, shutting the door with a gentle click before climbing behind the wheel.

  Chapter 25

  I gazed into my bathroom mirror one last time, tucking my shirt into camel-colored riding breeches. The vibrant hunter green of my blouse set off the dark brown waves of my loose curls. And the high collar helped hide the rosy circle marking the side of my neck. I dabbed some concealer over the spot as a rising blush stained the surrounding skin.

  Being in love was certainly making me more self-conscious, I decided as I dusted powder across my nose. My lips, still puffy from the night before, curled into a tentative smile. I rubbed gloss onto them with a finger that trembled slightly. Time to go. I blew out a breath and flipped off the light.

  The pale blue of the Saturday morning sky slowly disappeared beneath a rolling bank of ominous clouds as I drove toward Fox Run. A few intermittent rain drops plinked against my windshield, and I smeared them across the glass with a flick of my wipers. The rubber scraped noisily, making me wince. I needed new wipers. Preferably attached to a new car.

  Maybe Dothan could help me change them out, I thought absent-mindedly. He obviously knew his way around cars.

  A flare of anger pricked at my good mood as I remembered his stunt with the fuses. No, I thought, forcing my fingers to relax on the steering wheel. That was behind us now. He’d fixed the car quickly and returned it to me. Not to mention followed me to last night’s game to keep an eye out for my safety. If we were going to embark on a relationship, I was going to have to let go of his past transgressions.

  I shivered with pleasure at the word “relationship”. He loves me, I reminded myself incredulously. A stunningly handsome, unusually intelligent, fiercely protective Nephilim was in love with me. My mouth stretched into a silly grin.

  Hopefully I wasn’t just making excuses in order to be with Dothan. My fresh start approach felt very mature, but what did I know about healthy romantic relationships? No one close to me had modeled anything I could look to as an example. My own father had taken off the week after I was born. My mom’s parents had been separated by my grandfather’s death before I could remember them as a couple. And Nathaniel the archangel was apparently too busy guarding supernatural secrets to pursue a love interest.

  I blew out a heavy sigh, punctuating both my hopeless attempt to analyze such a bizarre situation as well as the sight of Rocky trotting along the side of the road. He paused to turn toward my car, the white of his coat shining in the gray light of the day.

  I rolled down my window and whistled. “What are you doing, Rocky?”

  He cocked his head in response, a slight wag in his pointed tail.

  “Go home,” I ordered. When he failed to listen, I drove forward slowly, swinging left into the entrance of the long Fox Run driveway while calling the foxhound’s name in a singsong voice.

  He lifted his paw, indecisive for a moment. The echoing barks of the rest of the dogs, along with the movements of my car, were enough to peak his interest. Rocky loped alongside my hatchback as the remainder of the pack rushed to investigate the new arrival.

  I drove slowly down the curving drive, dogs trailing behind me, and carefully pulled into the empty parking area. A fine mist, along with whining yips and wagging tails, greeted me when I stepped out. The enthusiastic canine attention made me smile, even as my mind flashed back to the uneasy feeling I’d had getting out of my car last night. My skin had prickled in the cool night air with that now-familiar sensation of being watched. True enough, Dothan had been watching me cross the yard to my stairs from his car—we’d realized beforehand it was safer for our resolve if
he didn’t come up to my apartment door—but it wasn’t his eyes I’d felt on me. And yet, I didn’t see or hear anything suspicious. I’d chalked it up to lingering nerves from the scare in the woods, and that was probably a reasonable explanation. Still, these days it felt like I was constantly being followed by someone—or something. I suppressed a shiver, bending to scratch each dog behind the ears.

  “I think that’s everybody,” I decided, giving Rocky a final pat. “No more wandering.” Shooting him a stern look to match my warning, I hurried toward the barn. I could almost feel my curls tightening in the moist air.

  The stable was quiet, and just as humid, the soft chuffing breaths of the horses adding to the warmth. Force of habit made me glance at my wrist for a hair tie, but the only thing there was a stretchy elastic bracelet of bronze beads. In my careful attempt to look halfway decent, I’d forgotten a key accessory. Such was my luck.

  Maybe I could borrow one from Dothan, I thought with a small smile, picturing the thin strips of leather he used to bind his hair. It took a very masculine guy to pull off a low ponytail, but he did it—well. A trickle of desire pooled in my belly as I peered down the dim aisle, searching for his tall form.

  “Up here,” a voice called from above.

  I jumped, almost choking on the peppermint I’d popped in my mouth. My head snapped back with enough force to guarantee a stiff neck in the morning. There he was, peering down at me from the opening to the hayloft.

  “You scared me!” I coughed out, clutching my chest.

  His mouth pulled into a concerned line, but I could see laughter in his eyes, even in the weak light. “Are you okay?”

  “Fine,” I grumbled, feigning annoyance. It was better, actually, than allowing him to see the ridiculous grin that was fighting to come through at the very sight of him, hovering above me, his long hair falling around his perfect face. I guess he forgot his hair tie too, I thought silently. My stupid inner dialog finally got the best of me, and I giggled.