“The scary thing is,” Andie said, her voice a bit weaker than normal, “that the person calling always seems to know where I am. I mean, they don’t just call my cell phone, you know? When I’m at home, they call me here. When I’m at work, they call me there. And when I’m neither here nor there, they call my cell.” She paused, furrowing her brow as she tried to pull Jack closer to her. “It’s like Big Brother is watching, you know?”
“Trust me,” Jack said softly, using one hand to rub Andie’s back in a comforting manner, “there’s no way someone can come into the house and plant video cameras without somebody knowing. I would have to be incredibly distracted for such a thing to happen, and the only person even capable of such a distraction would be you.”
“So…” Andie began before biting her lip and pulling her head away from Jack’s body so she could look into his eyes. “What should I do?”
“Just…” Jack began, but faltered. What should she do? It would have been easier to give her advice if she was any other person living in Onyx. But she wasn’t. She was Andie – his Andie, and the fact that she was scared of some nobody who thought it was funny to play some stupid joke on her enraged him to no end. “Just be safe,” he mumbled, knowing that even that was crap advice. If anyone was safe it was Andie. Hell, whenever she watched America’s Most Wanted, she locked every door and every window in the entire manor, a task that could take up to a half an hour. The problem was, she already was safe. What more could she do?
Andie seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Jack due to the texture her eyes took on, and her furrowed brow. Instead of pressing him on the matter, she merely nodded. “Yeah,” she said. “Of course.”
“You know, Andie,” Jack said before gently cupping both of her cheeks with his hands in order for her to look him in the eyes. “You know I won’t let anything happen to you, right? You’ll always be safe with me.”
Andie curled her lips up into a knowing smile and nodded her head. “Of course I know that, Jack,” she told him, trying to ignore the goose bumps that had erupted on her skin due to the fact that his thumbs were currently caressing her cheekbones. “I’ve never felt safer than when I’m with you.” She paused, swallowing before she continued. “It’s just… when I’m without you, you know? You can’t protect me forever. Self-defense class will only teach me so much.”
“You actually signed up for self-defense class?” he asked, his jade green eyes sparkling in a teasing manner.
“Yes!” she exclaimed. “I already told you this, remember? After the whole Bill ordeal, I didn’t want anybody doing anything without me putting up some sort of fight. By the way, thank you for listening to me. You know, I should probably demonstrate what I’ve learned on you, and then maybe you’ll learn to listen when your girlfriend tells you things.”
“I listen to you,” Jack told her, tilting his head towards her so his lips were a few centimeters from her own. “I listen to you when you don’t even speak.”
“Oh yeah?” Andie asked, arching a brow.
“Yeah,” Jack said, smiling wolfishly as his eyes fixated on her lips. “Like right now… you’re just hoping I kiss you.” Before Andie could respond, he captured her lips with his, and for the moment, Andie couldn’t argue with his reasoning.
For whatever reason, though Jack refused to currently acknowledge it, this felt like the calm before an impending storm.
20
Reese had been staring at her closet for the past forty minutes, trying to figure out if there was an appropriate outfit to wear when one had to talk to her friend about partnering up with said friend’s boyfriend in order to fight crime at night in secret like a bunch of superheroes. The phone call with Andie had gone a lot better than she expected it to, and Andie didn’t push for any details over the phone. They were going to go out to dinner together so they could talk about everything, get it all out on the table. She was relieved. Really, she was. But was also nervous as fuck.
It took another ten minutes, but Reese finally decided on a pair of basic skinny jeans, a white t-shirt, and an over-sized forest green sweater that drowned her petite frame. She ran a brush through her hair a few times, deciding to leave the locks down, and applied only mascara and lip gloss. This wasn’t a fancy dinner; there was no need to get dressed to the nines. This was a serious dinner where a serious conversation would take place, and she wanted to seem approachable. Casual. Her normal self, minus the miniskirts and Mary Janes.
“You know, if you’re worried about everything, I could go with you,” Ollo said from behind Reese, who was still inspecting her outfit in the full-length mirror that acted as a sliding door to the closet. She rarely, if ever, wore jeans, especially in the spring and summer, and the feel of the denim against her legs–the look of the denim against her legs–felt weird. She almost didn’t feel like herself, and she wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
“Do I look like I’m trying too hard?” she asked him, locking eyes with him through the mirror. “Do I look like myself?”
“Do you feel like yourself, darl?” Ollo asked, adding emphasis on the word feel. He perked his brow up, indicating that that was the question that was more important than her initial ones.
“I don’t know how I feel,” she replied honestly. “Nervous.” She fidgeted with the end of her shirt. “What if she doesn’t believe me? What if she thinks I’m doing this to get to Jack, or that I’m trying to steal her boyfriend away? I have never been and never will be a homewrecker, Ollo. If guys liked me, I always made them break up with their girlfriends before anything happened.”
“I really didn’t need to hear that,” he told her.
“I don’t want Andie to think of me that way,” she went on, completely ignoring his flat comment. She shook her head, placing her thumbnail between her teeth. “And what if it comes out crazy? What if she can’t look at me the same way because she thinks I’m spewing out nonsense? Even you have to admit, Ollo, it sounds crazy. You know that, right?”
“That’s why I suggest you let me come with you so I can help explain–”
Reese shook her head. “No,” she snapped, harsher than she originally intended to. She turned her head so she could look at Ollo directly, an apologetic look on her face. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap.” She reached out to touch his arm, needing to feel connected to him on a physical level. “It’s already going to sound crazy explaining my role. I know I’ll have to explain you, but I don’t want to overwhelm her with both of us being there. I don’t want to feel like we’re ganging up on her because she might run away or get defensive.”
“I think you need to give Andie more credit,” Ollo pointed out. “Clearly, she knows a lot, considering she knows Jack is really Black Wing.”
“Yes, but I don’t think she truly understands the significance behind that. I mean, it’s easy to grasp that your boyfriend is some vigilante dressing up like some kind of angel in order to protect the city from the bad guys. I could wrap my head around that. But to drop the bomb that her boyfriend is actually an angel from Heaven here to protect the city as a punishment for his arrogance and to be the last line of defense from a war breaking out between angels and demons, that might be a harder concept to grasp.” She paused, taking a breath. “You know what I mean?”
Ollo smirked. “Darl, it sounds to me like you’re frustrated,” he said. “Very sexually frustrated. You know I can help you with that, right?”
She couldn’t stop a giggle from coming out of her mouth or a blush from littering her cheeks if she tried. Ollo’s grin only deepened, causing his dimple to pop, and he reached toward her, wrapping her waist in his arms.
“You smell good,” he murmured in her hair.
“I smell like you,” she replied. “I ran out of my body wash and had to use yours the past few days.”
“No wonder.”
Reese closed her eyes, enjoying the moment for just a little while more. She knew, eventually, she would have to leave. In fac
t, if she didn’t get going soon, she would certainly be late, and she didn’t want Andie waiting on her. If she wanted to get this over with, the best thing would be to leave now.
“All right, well,” Reese murmured, turning around in his arms. “Wish me luck.”
He smiled down at her before placing a soft kiss on her cheek. “There’s no such thing,” he replied.
They met at the diner–their diner–and though Reese was notorious for showing up late the majority of time, she managed to snag their usual booth in the back before Andie showed up. The diner itself was more high-end than not, but still offered customers affordable prices and a casual dress code. The food was greasy, which was what probably made it amazing, and Reese used the diner whenever she had a cheat day and felt she needed to stuff her face in order to forget about her problems, however temporary.
Andie looked quite pretty, as she usually did, and very put-together. Ever since she started dating Jack, she had this air of confidence that surrounded her, causing her to walk with a little more oomph than she had had before. Either that, or she had been enjoying sex between herself and Jack. Cosmo did say that you could tell which women experienced real orgasms on a frequent basis by the way they walked.
Reese felt a stab of jealousy prickle her skin before she pushed it away and mentally scolded herself for it. It was easy for Andie to enjoy sex–if that was the cause of her new-found confidence, after all–because she knew where she stood with Jack. They were together, they were exclusive, and they lived together. So what if Jack was in the tabloids every other day; Andie got a commitment from him. Andie knew exactly her position in Jack’s life.
Reese, on the other hand, wanted that same confidence. She wanted to know where she stood with Ollo, especially after they… well, after they consummated their feelings for each other. Except Ollo still had yet to tell her just how he felt about her. They still had yet to talk about what their love-making meant for them. Ollo teased her about having sex again, but did he want it because he wanted to have sex with her or because he wanted to have sex? He was more affectionate with her, yes, but that didn’t technically mean they were together. Did he even want to be in a monogamous relationship right now-at all–or did he prefer the freedom singleness promised? She didn’t know, and it hurt her head trying to work it out.
No wonder her walk had gotten stale, even if she had enjoyed a real orgasm.
“Hey!” Andie greeted warmly as Reese stood up to give her friend a kiss on the cheek. “It’s so good to see you, especially since we don’t have classes together anymore.”
“Oh, I know,” Reese agreed as they sat down. “AP everything sucks without you.”
“I can only imagine. I’m glad I don’t have to go anymore,” Andie said, looking down at her menu. “I’ve been so busy with everything, I don’t feel like a regular seventeen year old. I feel as though I’m missing out on the experiences we should be having. Like, I highly doubt I’ll be able to go to prom this year.”
Prom. Reese had always dreamed of going to prom–and she had back in Beverly Hills, when she was both a freshman and a sophomore–but she hadn’t even thought of her junior prom this year. How could she, when she didn’t even know if she would survive to see it?
Was that a little morbid? Maybe she just shouldn’t think about it in the first place.
Both young women looked through the menu and placed their orders to one of the waitresses who knew them. Once she had walked away, Reese took a deep breath. She knew that now was the moment of truth.
“Listen, And,” Reese began, resting her elbow on the table between them, “I know I’ve been really cryptic with you the past week or so about… everything, but I wanted to go out with you tonight to talk to you about it. I’m not trying to scare you or confuse you or blackmail you or anything remotely crazy. I’m here to tell you everything so it’s out in the open now. As my friend, it’s important to me that you know, and it’s also important to Jack.”
Andie furrowed her brow. “What does Jack have to do with this?” she asked, not rudely.
“Like I told you before,” Reese said, “I know who Jack is.”
“I remember. I just don’t get how you know. No offense, but I barely figured it out because… Well, because Jack screwed up and I notice everything. But that’s not the point. How did you find out?”
“That’s what I want to talk to you about,” Reese said. This was the nerve-racking part. This was where Andie either became the only person she could trust after Ollo or she became the person who thought Reese was bat-shit crazy. “Do you know why I came here in the first place? Why me and my family came to Onyx, I mean?”
“I’ve heard rumors but I don’t know anything definitive one way or the other,” Andie said. She shrugged her shoulders.
“My family brought me here when I was in a coma,” Reese said. She didn’t really talk much about the accident, but the more she spoke, the more cathartic she felt. “I got into an accident when I was living in Beverly Hills. My friend died. I ended up in a coma. I had been driving.” She paused a moment, trying to find the words. “I didn’t know it at the time, but the reason for the accident was because I was having a vision.”
Andie furrowed her brow but didn’t say anything. Reese was glad; interruptions would completely throw her off right now.
“Anyway, Onyx had the best doctors in the nation,” Reese went on. “Plus, my dad just got a really good job with Jack Phillip at his company, so they transferred me over to Onyx General. I was in a coma for a while, while my family settled in this new city. My mom got a job with Lucas Burr at his office, and my brother was enrolled in Onyx High. I was too, but since I couldn’t attend, they weren’t sure what I grade I’d be in, or when I would actually go.
“On my seventeenth birthday, I woke up. Well, technically, someone woke me up. Ollo. You think he’s my boyfriend, but he’s really my trainer.”
“Why do you need a trainer?” Andie asked, after the waitress set their drinks down.
Reese swallowed the strawberry lemonade before responding. “I’m a Seer,” she replied. Andie looked as though she was going to say something, but Reese cut her off. “Listen, I know this sounds absolutely crazy. I know. But I promise you it’s true. I have the ability to see things. I can’t predict what I’ll see or when I’ll see it, but every once in a while, I’ll have a vision of the future and it will always come true. I saw my family die.”
Andie’s face paled. “What?” she asked in a soft voice.
“I knew they were going to die,” Reese said. “Ollo wanted to take me camping in order to help train me. He thought shooting at targets–I use a bow and arrow–in the basement of Bacchus’s Brewery wouldn’t help once the war started. He wanted me to shoot at moving targets. I thought if I left, they’d be protected. But when I came home… I knew it would be fire, too. And I have an idea who did it.
“Anyway, I’m getting off track.” She leaned back in the booth to collect herself. “I’m a Seer. Until I have sex, I’m neutral in this war–”
“You keep mentioning a war,” Andie said, interrupting her for the first time. “What war are you talking about?”
“The war between angels and demons,” Reese said. “Listen, we can have a religious discussion in a little bit about God and freewill and His part in this war, which is, He doesn’t have a part in this war. But there’s a war going on in Onyx right now between angels and demons.”
“Right now?”
“It’s taking the form of the crime increase in Onyx,” Reese explained. “It started when Noir threw himself in front of the bullet meant for Keirah. Noir was a psychopath, sure, but he kept crime lords at bay because he caused chaos throughout the city. Initially, the Bosses wanted to get rid of him because his tactics weren’t organized. However, they realized if he were to go, other people would try to fill his void and accumulate his power, which means threatening the Bosses and everything they stand for.” She looked at Andie. “Is all of this making
sense?”
“Kind of.” She nodded. “Go on.”
“The devil wants Onyx to lose faith in God. Once that happens, their souls are practically his, and if the devil wants anything, it’s souls. His power is only measured by those who look at him as a ruler. The only way to go to Hell is if you don’t want to repent for your crimes or if you’re truly evil.”
“So a lot of these criminals are really demons doing the devil’s bidding?” Andie asked.
“Some of them, yes,” Reese said with a nod. “Some of them, no. Not knowingly, anyways. And that’s where I come in. Part of my responsibility is to protect Onyx, to give people a reason to hope and to maintain their faith in God, even if it looks hopeless right now.”
“That sounds like what Black Wing does,” Andie murmured, more to herself than to Reese.
“It is, exactly. This war started once Noir disappeared. I needed to be out there, protecting the city. I have been practicing and training and doing everything in my power to make myself better, more prepared, ever since my family died. But I still didn’t have that experience. So Ollo and I came to a compromise where we would ask Jack if I could go with him at night and help him protect Onyx. I would be fulfilling my duty and I would gain on-hand experience. And that’s what I wanted to tell you. I wanted to tell you about me and what I’m doing with Jack because Jack trusts you more than anyone and I trust you, and we both wanted to let you know what’s going on.” She paused again, and looked Andie in the eyes. “We don’t want to keep anything from you, And.”
Andie nodded, letting everything sink in. “And Jack?” she finally asked. “What does Jack have to do with this war?”
“I can’t say,” Reese said. “It’s not my place. But I’m sure if you talk to him, especially now that we’ve talked, he’ll tell you everything you want to know.”
Andie nodded, but the look on her face was indecipherable. Oh well. Reese said everything she needed to say. And honestly, it felt good to finally share her secret with a friend.
Sacrifice: Book 3 of The Dark Paradise Trilogy Page 15