Saving Angel (A Divisa Novel, Book 1)

by Weil, J. L.

  “Mom!” I screamed, letting the door slam shut behind me.

  She popped her head out of the kitchen looking stunned by my abrupt arrival. “Angel, I’m right here. What’s wrong honey?” she asked, seeing the look of annoyance on my face.

  “You’re going on a date? With Devin!” I accused, like the idea made me sick, which it totally did.

  She looked kind of stumped, not actually sure why this was a problem. Sometimes my mom could be so clueless. “Yes,” she drew out. “Is there a no dating policy I am unaware of? ‘Cuz if so, you have broken that rule more than once yourself.”

  Ugh. Technically no. Dating was fine. I wanted her to date, just not Devin. And I wasn’t dating Chase for goodness sake. “No, dating is cool, but does it have to be our neighbor,” I whined.

  She studied me with her motherly amber eyes. “Have you seen Devin? Or maybe you have been too enamored with his nephew.”

  I groaned. I did not want to talk about Devin’s apparent hotness with my mother. “I am not dating Chase,” I huffed, taking a seat in one of the bar stools.

  She put her hands on her hip. “What are you calling it? Devin says you two spend quite a lot of time together.” There was a secret smirk on her lips.

  My eyes widened. Devin was a tattle-tale. “We’re…friends. Anyways we were talking about you, not me,” I reminded her. “I get that we live in the country, and we want to fit in, but do we really have to start dating within the same family. It’s so Jerry Springer.”

  “Ha. So you are dating.” Leave it up to my mom to completely miss the point.

  I dropped my head to the counter. This was worthless. It was like talking to a brick wall. She brushed a gentle hand over my head. Did she want to hear that a few hours ago I was practically naked, getting hot and heavy between the sheets with Chase? That I nearly begged him to take me? And now she wanted to date his uncle.

  Could my life get any more complicated?

  “Did you hurt yourself?” Her eyes zoned in at the slightly purplish marks on my neck.

  Shit. Maybe I should have had Chase compel my mom.

  All things considered, I had really walked away from a life threatening situation with only a few scrapes and bruises. It could have been a hundred times worse. At least I hadn’t broken anything, though my ribs were pretty damn sore.

  I brushed her hand aside. “It’s nothing. I fell at the game yesterday. Oh, and to top it off, I locked my keys in the car.” I was trying for a little distraction here.

  “Hmm,” she replied, unsure if she believed my story. “I wondered where your car was.”

  “Do you think you could drop me off later to pick it up?” I asked, turning on the good daughter charm.

  The retrieval of the car was worse than I imagined. Every horrible detail came swarming back in vivid memories. I hadn’t even realized that I had stopped walking and was just standing there, staring.

  “Angel,” my mom called. “Everything okay?” she asked, a little confused by my behavior lately. First, I jumped down her throat for wanting to go on a date with Devin, then I spaced out in the parking lot, next I’d be dying my hair green and piercing my nipples.

  I was totally weirded out by being here. “Yeah fine. Let’s get out of here. I don’t want to spend my Sunday in the school parking lot.”

  Rushing to my car, I sped out of the parking lot at mach ten. I spent the rest of the day locked away in my room with my iPod and an unfinished history paper. Why did I need to learn history anyway when it was just going to repeat itself? My mind wasn’t into the paper, but was solely consumed with my crazy relationship with Chase.

  We were like fire and ice. Hot as hell one minute and cold as ice the next.

  Chapter 22

  I wasn’t entirely sure how it happened, but somehow I got suckered into shopping with Lexi for Homecoming. She needed a girl’s opinion. Why she thought I qualified, escaped me.

  The dance was still a few weeks away, but Lexi just couldn’t wait to get to the stores. She didn’t want the crummy leftovers.

  I had agreed to this shopping excursion under two conditions. One, she would stop trying to set me up on a double date with Chase for Homecoming. Two, she would not ask me again to reconsider going to Homecoming. It was not going to happen.

  She finally conceded, but not graciously.

  So here I was, with a hyped up Lexi, surrounded by expensive dresses. She was in pure heaven, and I was in shopping hell.

  “Who are you going with again?” I asked, making a grotesque face at the lime green dress I stumbled upon. Who in their right mind would wear lime green to Homecoming, except Nicki Minaj.

  “Hayden,” she replied, shuffling through more silk, bows, ribbons, and lace than I’ve ever seen. We were in some kind of bridal shop in town.

  “Are you guys dating?” A friend should know this kind of stuff.

  “No. It’s just easier for us to go together,” she informed, like it was no big deal.

  I, on the other hand, thought it was a big deal, especially for a girl like Lexi. She was totally into all the high school traditions like dances, football games, and yearbook. She should go with someone she cared about. It got me thinking. “Do you only date other Divisa?” I whispered.

  She pulled out a super short black dress that I was sure would look phenomenal on her. Her turquoise eyes met mine over the rack. “It’s complicated. After Travis and Emma, my dad is worried about us being with someone who doesn’t know. So he thinks that it would be in our best interest to stick together.” She shrugged.

  I wondered if that included me. “Is that what you want?” I asked, thinking how unfair it was.

  “It doesn’t really matter. We have already broken way too many rules with you. Everyone is on edge.”

  “I would never do anything to hurt you,” I defended.

  “I know, but Chase and my dad think we need to be extra cautious.” She had an armload of sparkling dresses. “Here,” she said, tossing a few in my arms. “Can you help me with these?”

  Looking at the number of dresses we had between us, I internally groaned. We were going to be here for hours. “How many dresses do you plan on trying on?”

  She grinned cunningly. “All of them.”

  I was following behind her to the dressing rooms and tripped over my feet at her words. “Tell me you are joking.”

  “At least humor me and try on a dress. Please,” she pleaded, cutting off my rejection. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in a dress.”

  “With good reason,” I muttered.

  “It will be fun. I swear,” she vowed.

  Lexi and I had completed different ideas of fun. “Fine,” I huffed. “Will it get us out of here faster?”

  “Sure. You try on half. Then I can see what they look like.” She gushed in Lexi-chatter and grabbed my hand pulling me like a crazy person through the store. I was going to regret this.

  Did I need to remind her that nothing I tried on would look half as good on me as it would on her? Closing myself behind the curtain, she tossed over a dress.

  “Here, try this one on first.”

  “Whatever you say, boss,” I muttered.

  The first dress was midnight blue and elegantly simple. It was something that I might actually wear, if I had somewhere to go. The silky material felt like soft satin against my skin, and very well might have been. I didn’t know squat about fabrics.

  “You ready?” she asked, from the other side of the partitioning wall.

  Pushing aside the curtain, I stepped out.

  Lexi turned around and sucked in a breath when she saw me. She squealed in delight, making me cringe at her enthusiasm. She was drawing a lot of unwanted attention. “You look fabulous. Twirl,” she demanded in excitement.

  “Umm, I’m not twirling.”

  Surveying myself in the three-way mirror that highlighted every human flaw, I barely recognized the girl that stared back at me. Her eyes were wide and starlight blue. She looked taller, c
urvy, and she actually looked like she had boobs. It was amazing what the right dress could do.

  Lexi stood behind me and lifted the hair off my neck. “See, I knew there was a bangin’ body under those drab clothes you wear.”

  I totally should have been offended. She was lucky it was her. If it had been anyone else, I would have told them to go screw themselves.

  “Chase would lose his shit if he saw you in this dress,” she commented deviously.

  “I don’t really see how and do not get any ideas in that pretty head of yours.”

  Her smile only grew, those dimples looking dangerous. “So, have you guys…”

  I narrowed my eyes, afraid where this was going. “Have we what?”

  “I thought, since you spent the night in his room that you guys totally did the deed.”

  Ugh. “Lexi,” I hissed. “I can’t believe we are talking about this. We didn’t, okay?”

  There was just no stopping her. “But you were totally thinking about it.” She saw the look I was giving her. “What? This is what friends talk about.”

  Annoyed, I angled my head. “Maybe, but not when it’s her cousin,” I countered.

  “Hmm,” she pursed her lips, chewing on my words. Distracted, her jewel eyes looked me over again. “At least you would give Sierra a run for money. She wouldn’t stand a chance next to you.”

  Normally, I didn’t succumb to flattery, but any dig at Sierra brightened my day. We smiled at each other. I ended up having more fun than I thought possible. Lexi was such a sunny contrast to my dark sarcasm. We made a great team. Odd ‘cuz she actually was part demon and I was the good girl. Talk about role reversals.

  After Lexi finally picked a dress with the wow factor, we walked down the cobblestone path, Lexi’s shopping bags swinging merrily beside her. I glanced into one of the large shop windows. A group of little girls in leotards were doing some form of pirouettes. Bare Feet Studios was painted in bold colorful letters on the glass. Ballet shoes hung from hooks in the storefront display.

  Travis said that Emma was a dancer. I wondered if she’d ever come to this studio and looked out the same window I was looking in, if Travis had ever come to watch her dance?

  Lexi noticed that I had stopped and was staring into the studio. She glanced in beside me.

  A happy couple caught my eye, strolling toward the studio with a little strawberry blonde girl swinging between their arms. The little girl couldn’t have been older than four and squealed in delight. Lexi stiffened at my side and watched the picture perfect family walk into the studio.

  “That was Emma’s parents,” she said softly. Her eyes shifted in the setting sunlight.

  I looked at her confused. How could that couple, who looked so content, be the parents of a girl who had only been missing for a year? It didn’t seem possible.

  “They don’t seem…sad, or effected at all.” I don’t know what I expected, but that hadn’t been it.

  The petite woman, with hair like her little girl’s, laughed at something her husband said. He lifted the girl easily into his arms and tickled her cheek with his nose. She giggled.

  “I know. It’s so weird. I remember the first time Travis saw them after they called off the search. He approached them, accusing them of giving up, not caring. Her father told him he couldn’t possibly know what they were feeling and to stay away from his family. Travis got so angry I thought he was going to expose us to the whole town. It was after that when he lost it.”

  I wanted to walk right up to them and ask them how they could have so easily forgotten their daughter. Apparently they had another one to replace her. I could fully understand Travis’s anger. There were plenty of colorful words on the tip of my tongue for them. I never met Emma, but knowing Travis and what he felt for her, made me wish I had had the chance.

  “Don’t tell Travis,” she pleaded, worried for him.

  “I won’t,” I promised.

  The ride home was somber.

  Lexi was the one to break the silence. “If anything happened to you…” Lexi started, her voice trailing off.

  “Lexi nothing is going to happen,” I assured, even though we both knew that wasn’t exactly true.

  “Angel, look what has already happened. Look what we have already exposed you to. It is probably only a matter of time.” She slumped in the seat, her pretty mouth frowning.

  “Don’t say that. I’m not Emma.”

  “I know. It’s just that this time, it’s not just Travis who will hurt. It’s all of us.” Her voice hitched on emotion.

  My throat got thick with sentiment. I cared about them too. “How can anything happen to me when I have Chase looming at my every move?”

  She smiled halfheartedly. “That’s true. He is a badass.”

  I returned her grin.

  She hugged me as we got out of the car. “Thanks Angel. You are the best friend I’ve ever had.”

  Damn. Now she’d done it.

  My eyes misted. “So are you Lexi, even after you dragged me from store-to-store and made me try on a hundred itchy dresses.”

  She giggled on a sniffle.

  Chase came out of the house as we were wiping our eyes. “Why are you crying?” he asked, his eyes clouded with concern, and his stance ready for battle.

  Lexi waved her hand. “It’s nothing. Just girl stuff. See you tomorrow?” she said, grabbing her shopping bags.

  I nodded.

  Chase watched her walk inside. “I’ll never understand the two of you. It was hard enough with just Lexi,” he grumbled.

  I tried to hide my grin. “So, did you need something?” I asked, after it became clear he wasn’t going anywhere.

  “You want to watch a movie?”

  “Is this part of the whole bodyguard thing?”

  “Yes and no. I just thought we could hang out,” he said, smirking.

  Hang out? Was that even a good idea? Last time we were alone together he was sucking my face. Extremely effectively, mind you.

  What the hell. Why not?

  The house was dark and empty when we walked inside. My mom was at work, and I was secretly glad he had come over. This big old house still gave me the willies. We sat on opposite sides of the couch, almost as if we were afraid to touch or get too close. Who knew, maybe we would end up attacking each other again. It seemed to be our style.

  I popped in an action film. The last thing I wanted to watch was a sappy love story with Chase. Give me guns, explosions, and high speed car pursuits. No awkwardness there.

  Then why did it feel like there was a ghost sitting between us? I had to break the eerie silence, or I was going to go nuts.

  “We saw Emma’s parents in town today,” I blurted out.

  His eyes roamed from the TV to me as my words sunk in, surprise shrouding them.

  “Lexi doesn’t want me to say anything to Travis,” I quickly added.

  “She wouldn’t want to drudge any old feelings Travis has just started to get over. And I agree.” He rubbed his hands over his face.

  “They were so…happy,” I noted, my tone laced with disapproval. “They didn’t even seem like a chunk of their life was missing – their daughter.”

  “I saw them once, a month after she was gone. It took everything I had in me to control my anger. They were having a picnic in the park, without a care in the world, while my cousin was at home suffering. Every. Single. Day. I decided then, that they didn’t deserve Emma. Not the way Travis did. He loved and adored Emma, risked everything for her. His guilt ate at him for months after she was gone, and he is only a fraction of the guy he used to be. I don’t know if he will ever be the same.”

  There was an underlying of grudge in his words. It made me curious. What was under the surface that had him upset? “He hasn’t let go,” I said.

  “I know,” he admitted, looking through me, lost in his own thoughts.

  I fell asleep some time during the movie. My body was still worn from Friday night. It ached in places where a body s
houldn’t ache. When I woke-up to darkness, a fuzzy TV screen, and a stiff neck, Chase was gone.

  Chapter 23

  My life sort of resumed as normal. I wasn’t attacked by anything evil trying to steal my life, Sierra continued to give me hateful glares, Chase and I kept a safe distance between us, and my mom went on her date with Devin.

  Okay, that part wasn’t normal in my book. But she did have a good time, and it was nice to see a smile on her face. I think they even made plans for a second date. Before you know it, we were going to be planning a wedding.

  God, I hoped not.

  Brandy and Kailyn had wanted to know what had happened to me after the game. I never showed up to the bonfire. I sucked ass at lying, so I tried to give them as much of the truth as possible. I got hurt at the game. Totally true. And then I had locked my keys in the car, so I had called Chase to come pick me up.

  That perked their little gossiping ears up. I was positive by the end of the day everyone in school was going to think we were dating. Surely that was going to please Sierra. I expected a pleasant visit from her sometime after school. She was such a bitch primavera.

  Oh grand, something to look forward to.

  I heard all about how someone had snuck booze into the bonfire. Brody, a football jerk, got so wasted he ended up puking all over some poor girl. They both declared it had been a blast. I was almost sad I missed it.

  Not really.

  The halls were decked out in banners, streamers, and balloons of red and black. Our team mascot was plastered everywhere.

  Earlier that morning, the nominees for Homecoming court were announced. Brandy’s name had been called along with puking Brody. Maybe she should ditch Tommy and go out with Brody. How cute would that be? Brandy and Brody. Wasn’t that just the sweetest?

  During chemistry things got a little dicey.

  Brody the, I-can’t-hold-my-liquor football player, walked into the class. He smiled when he saw me. “Hey Angel.”

  “Hey,” I replied, returning the smile. He took the seat next to me, and I was finding it hard to keep a straight face.

  “I didn’t see you at the bonfire,” he said, playing with the eraser on his pencil.