by Lisa M Basso
The door’s bell chimed. I glanced up and saw nothing but black feathers, tanned skin, and handsome boy. My heart twisted, and a shudder crawled under my skin. I suddenly missed the rush crowd desperately. I forced my chin up and cleared the fear from my throat. “Coffee?”
His dark eyes were shaded as he nodded and claimed the same squeaky stool he’d occupied on Wednesday night. He dipped one wing and glanced over his shoulder, grinning at my very interested-looking customer.
I snatched the coffee pot off its warming plate and slid a mug across the counter.
“You mind making a fresh pot?” he asked, full attention on me now. “The ladies always make me a fresh pot.”
“I’m sure they do,” I mumbled acridly as I stomped to the coffee station. It wouldn’t surprise me if the ladies all fell at his feet, either.
I dumped five scoops of ground coffee into a new filter, added water to the line, and flipped the switch. I spun back around, telling myself I wouldn’t see those hideous, intriguing black things. But I did. “Can I get you anything else while you’re waiting?” I didn’t even try to force another smile. I was tapped out. On edge. Being so close to him did strange things to me.
He shook his head, his gaze following me in a mesmerizing way.
I looked down, avoiding those dark pools of danger.
“Can I tell you something?” His voice flowed like the roughest velvet, softening my resolve.
My temper flared at my reaction to his voice. I slapped my hand down on the counter and glared at him. “No, you can’t, but I’m going to tell you something.” My self-control was dissolving, things slipping from my lips I never intended to think—let alone say—with him in earshot. The weight of a horrible week pressed down on me harder than I could handle. The appearance of Cam, Allison’s suicide, Cam discovering I could see him, Tony’s suicide, an introduction to the first set of black wings I’d ever seen, the arguments with Dad and Laylah …
I closed my eyes in an effort to calm myself down, but it didn’t work. Kade was pushing all the wrong buttons. Anger steamrolled my fear, and I let loose on him. “I know what you are. Those abominations you carry behind you? I see them.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
What had I done? I backed away, fighting to keep my horror from showing. His face, on the other hand, was suddenly as expressive as stone. A ripple ran over his wings, and I got the sudden impression he was feeling something. Maybe he didn’t bother to hide his wing movement because most people can’t see them. But I could, and they were way more expressive than his face could possibly be. I couldn’t be one hundred percent sure what that ripple meant, but I’d damn sure be paying closer attention to them from now on.
I tried my best to keep my voice even as I added, “And don’t think, even for a second, that I’m afraid of you.”
He stilled. “Actually, I was going to tell you the coffee pot’s overflowing. You added too much water.”
I’d expected him to be shocked, angry, threatening to rip my head off my shoulders. If this was a trick to get me off my guard, he had another thing coming. I’d learned quickly—after the first time I’d been attacked by a fellow schizophrenic—to never turn your back on someone who just might be crazier than you. But when the sound of a small waterfall caught my attention, I did turn. Hot coffee rained from the back counter into a fast-growing pool of brown bitterness.
“Shit!”
I threw a rag into the slop and ran into the kitchen for a mop. I searched frantically for the bucket and Pine-Sol Daphne had used to mop up my last mess less than an hour ago. When I finally found them tucked away in the opposite corner, I returned to the ever-growing spill. The mop sloshed around in the liquid before it absorbed a single drop, and the coffee still streamed. I switched the machine off and unplugged it so I could wipe up the rest of the mess.
When another of my wonderful messes was cleaned, I looked up again. He was gone. I pressed my hand to my chest and almost sunk below the counter until I remembered my other customer.
I steadied myself, measuring each step as I walked to the blonde’s empty table, needing something easy and normal to calm my nerves. A fifty-cent tip. Par for my day. I stuffed it into my pocket and collected her plate. The pie was only half-eaten. I returned to the counter and dropped the plate off in the dirty dish bin.
“What’s this?” Daphne emerged from the back, wearing the same look she’d had every time I’d failed at my tasks the last two days.
“Trouble with the coffeepot.”
“The only trouble with the coffeepot is that you don’t know how to use it. I’ll rinse the mop; why don’t you go take out the garbage.”
Taking out the garbage, a job that was impossible to screw up. I cinched the bag shut with a plastic strip tie and dragged it through the kitchen, past the office, and out the back door into the chilly fall night. The Dumpster was only a few yards from the door. I took a step toward it, but stopped when I spotted a set of familiar black wings folded around a blonde.
I squinted through the darkness, spotting that unmistakably messy-sexy hair beside bright platinum blonde. I heard noises. Were they …?
Yep. They were making out next to the trash bin. How, well, trashy.
The iridescent wings shimmered, growing brighter with every passing second. If Cam’s wings glowed like the sun, Kade’s shone like a starry night. The girl drew in a long, jagged breath. Kade tilted his face to the sky, lips parted, as if waiting to catch raindrops on his tongue. He sucked in a mouthful of air like he was drowning. Starlight danced and swirled along his wings.
Without it, I’d have never seen the strange, crimson smoke that curled between Kade and the woman. The blonde’s head rolled to her shoulder, and more smoke poured from her mouth. He lowered his head to hers, drinking in the smoke like he was stealing something from her. Something important. Something necessary.
The bag of garbage clunked to the ground. My hands were shaking so badly I was surprised I’d managed to hang on to it that long. He turned to me then, his eyes consumed with black. Under the glow of his wings, the red smoke deepened as it disappeared into him.
My feet screamed at me to run. And run I did, back into the kitchen, through the dining room, and straight out the front door.
“Kay, wait!” I heard him shout, even as I sprinted up the street. “Kay!” he screamed again. I ran faster.
A tiny part of my brain noticed he’d screwed up my name. Kay, not Ray. At least he didn’t know my name.
I darted across the street. Headlights blared, casting my long shadow across the asphalt. A horn honked. To my right, a car barreled toward me. Tires screeched. I jumped out of the way, barely escaping being flattened on the dark street.
With my heart threatening to explode in my chest, I kept going. I took a few different turns in case Kade was on my heels. Right, left, up another block, then left again.
I sprinted faster. My legs were weak, but I pressed them on as if my life depended on it. Because I was pretty sure it did. Shadows seemed to be following me. Dark corners breathed with life. Glowing eyes peeked out from everywhere.
A streetlight illuminated the reflective white street sign at the top of the block. Sacramento Street. I was still several blocks from home, but at least I’d be on the right street. I made a left, looking over my shoulder as I rounded the corner. No one was there. That meant nothing. He could be anywhere.
My legs shook from fatigue, and my lungs burned with a fire I couldn’t sate. Tears blurred the world in front of me. I pushed forward, glancing behind me every few seconds to make sure he wasn’t behind me. Hunting. Coming to steal from me whatever he’d stolen from that girl. Or maybe just to kill me. But there was nothing but shadows, buildings, and streetlights.
When I turned to glance behind me again, I slammed into something. Pain shot through my shoulder. My breath whooshed out, leaving my lungs empty. Strong arms wrapped around me. Arms that kept me from tumbling back onto the concrete. Or escaping.
&n
bsp; Adrenaline kicked in. I fought through tear-clouded vision and oxygen-deprived lungs. My kicking and struggling did little good against the tight grip that wouldn’t loosen. Every beat of my heart slammed against my ribcage. I tried to beat my fists against him, but they were clamped between us. Fire crept up my lungs, searing them before I could scream.
A deep, worried voice broke through my panic. “Rayna!”
Rayna, not Kay. It wasn’t Kade.
I melted in relief for half a second. Then I remembered that Kay was my mother’s name.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Her name was Kayleigh, and only Dad ever called her Kay. I couldn’t help remembering how Dad’s eyes always softened every time she asked him for something, her head tilted to the side, and he’d say, “All right, Kay.” When Mom wasn’t on one of her long, working vacations, she’d stay home with Laylah and me, turn up the music, and we’d all hold hands and dance. Even when Dad would take Laylah and me out, or bring us home from school, Mom would be waiting on the couch with snacks, always so happy to see us. Mom was the glue that held us all together, the light in Dad’s laughter, the master of the kitchen, the Band-aid queen, and hair-fixer. Mom was Kay, the love of Dad’s life and the best mother two girls could have ever asked for.
I blinked away tears, shoving memories of my mom back to a safe corner of my mind, and made out a blurry head of blond hair—blond, not black. I’d given up my fight, but tension still locked my knees. Digging my nails into my palms tore the soft skin, dripping warm blood down my wrists.
“Rayna, are you all right? What happened?” Slate eyes searched my face, my throat, my arms. Cam stopped at the blood on my wrists. As quickly as his arms wrapped around me, they retreated. “Are you hurt?” He took my elbows in his hands gently, allowing my fists to uncurl. “Who did this?” His fingers clenched tighter to me. “Rayna, what happened to you?” The power in his voice, his concern, focused me.
I backed away. He reluctantly released me, his grip tensing before slacking.
Panic intensified inside me. My breathing stopped short. I turned in every direction, trying to get my bearings, looking for a counterweight to keep me from tumbling over the edge.
We were in a park. The same park he’d walked me to on Tuesday. Over the tips of his wings, I could see the white church across the street.
But … Mom. Kade. Black wings. Red. My vision tunneled. My eyes welled. The air I breathed wasn’t enough. And cold. It was so cold. A shiver racked my body. My teeth chattered together.
Cam stared at me, concern obvious on his face. “Is everything okay?” When I didn’t respond, he grabbed my shoulders and shook me. “Rayna.”
I pushed away from him and swiped at the hair that had fallen over my shoulder. He let me go. My knees threatened to buckle, and my head spun.
Cam’s arm curled behind my back, guiding me to the nearest bench. His warm, frustrated breath rushed by my ear. He sat me on the bench and kneeled in front of me. “Can you tell me what happened?”
I swallowed and shook my head. There was no way to explain what I’d seen in the alley. What Kade had done to that poor girl … or why he’d called me Kay. I glanced back down the street, searching all the places the amber streetlights failed to touch. When I looked again, the sight of Cam’s wings sent a torrent of chills up one side of my spine and down the other.
“Was someone chasing you?” His eyes narrowed and searched mine. If he was looking for sanity, he wouldn’t find it there, not with me.
I looked away, choosing instead to watch the shadows in the park. During the day, the park was lively, beautiful. At night … another shiver skipped across my shoulders, and I dragged my gaze back to Cam’s. “I don’t know.” I cleared my desert-dry throat and continued. “I was at work … worst day ever … took out the trash … he was there, like a … vampire, stealing … blood-red smoke.”
Silence cloaked the air.
I wasn’t making any sense. He thought I was crazy. I thought I was crazy. It was a far too familiar feeling.
“Red smoke?” He whispered across the night. “Where?” Urgency spiked in his voice. “Where did you see this?”
My heart fought against the adrenaline. “What was it?”
His expression took on a hard edge. His gaze burrowed into mine. Like he believed me. “Where, Rayna?”
“What—what was it?”
His tongue peeked out from between the dryness of his lips to moisten them. “He … ” His brows drew together and he shook his head. After a long, long time, Cam finally dropped his head down toward his chest and sighed. “He has to be a Dark One. An angel who chose to stray from the path of light and was cast out of Heaven and away from the light of God.”
I reeled from the information, but pressed forward. “A—and what … I saw him doing?”
“A punishment handed down from on high. Or, rather, from on low.” He lifted his chin. A fight warred within his eyes. “I wish there was an easier way to tell you.”
I could barely breathe. “Tell me …?”
“Everything you need to know.” He blinked and shook his head, then pushed on. “The Fallen Ones are destined to roam the earth, feeding on that which they once defended. Souls.”
I gasped. Souls? Human souls? My thoughts swam in circles before they tipped over the edge. They really were angels. I couldn’t move, just sat there staring into the night, shock numbing everything around me. It was all too much, and my brain needed a vacation—one for which it was already packed. The world seemed to get further away. I’d spent years in this state of mind, and it seemed all too easy to give in to the familiar tug of insanity.
Cam’s fingertips brushed the backs of my hands. When I didn’t pull away, his grip firmed around my fingers, warm and soothing as his thumbs drew lazy, calming circles in the sensitive skin between my thumb and forefinger, bringing me gently back from the brink of madness. A flutter tensed in my stomach.
Finally, I found I could meet Cam’s gaze, I could bring air into my lungs without fear, and I could ask the one question I didn’t want to know the answer to. “Are you really sent from God?”
Cam closed his eyes in a pained gesture, like I’d punched him in the stomach. “There is a hierarchy, a chain of command that … I’m … not allowed to divulge the specifics of.”
“But you just did.”
He stood from his kneeling position and threw his hands up in the air. “That was information you needed.” He huffed and eased onto the bench beside me. “I’m not supposed to interfere in human affairs. But there are a few things you have to know.” He took my hands in his again, stroking my knuckles with the sides of his thumbs.
Wind rustled through the dying tree leaves, and a chill crept across my skin. I drew my elbows in closer to ward off the cold.
“I can’t reveal too much. We’ve never asked for a human’s assistance before, but you’re special. I’ve been instructed to answer all your questions, within reason.”
I pulled my hands free from his, not liking the sudden shift in the conversation. “Special how?”
“You can see us. Angels, I mean. And apparently Dark Ones as well.” He swallowed, his thumbs now circling over his own clenched fists. “I … truly didn’t think it was possible. A human has never been able to see us before. When I caught you staring at my wings, I didn’t know what to do. I reported you to my superiors that afternoon—I had to. I couldn’t hide something like this. I know you have no reason to trust me, but I’m asking you to do just that. You’ve seen what their kind does. How they survive. All my kind want is peace. They’ve been responsible for so much bloodshed. Including, we believe, the deaths of your two classmates.”
The weight of a bus slammed into my chest. My head spun. “Good angels, bad angels. Tony and Allison’s suicides.” My chest rose and fell, inflating and deflating faster than should be possible. Lightness filled my head, threatening to lift it off my shoulders, then slam it into the ground.
“Rayna, stay with
me.”
I dug my hands through my hair, wishing I could dig in the ground instead, needing soil beneath my nails and bright petals to help me see clearly.
“I know this is a lot to take in.” He kneeled in front of me, pulling me back from the edge with his hands. A strange, bluish-white light beamed from his eyes as he looked at me, into me. The spinning stopped.
He blinked, and the light disappeared. I felt calmer somehow. I only had a second to wonder what he’d done before he continued. “Your world is in peril.” He rushed his words, probably trying to get them out before I lost it completely. “That’s why we’ve been sent down. Evil is here. The Fallen have been in search of souls to add to their army for centuries. Lost souls. What better way to send a soul to Hell than by making its last act on Earth a sin? Now, though, the situation here is different. We’ve heard rumors that these souls, your classmates, are being used to build something specific. We think it could be a weapon.”
“What kind of weapon?” Cold fingers encircled my heart. I couldn’t shake the image of demonic … angels using Allison and Tony, sucking up every soul they could like the proton packs in Ghostbusters. A smaller twinkle of sadness reminded me of the first time Lee and I watched his favorite ghost movie together.
Cam pried my hands from my hair and waited for me to blink. “We don’t know for sure.” I lowered my head, ready to retreat. “Stay with me.” His voice was smooth, calm. He cupped my face, tilting my head up to look at him. “I’m here. I know it’s shocking. Ask me anything. It may help.”
Demons. Demons were real. Bad angels. A weapon. No. No. None of it was real. Couldn’t be. Not real. Not. Real. I whispered those words to myself, over and over, as I rocked on the bench, back and forth. Back and forth. Not real. Not real. Not …
“Rayna,” he drew out my name in a whisper. “I need you with me.” The solid steel of his irises strengthened me. His eyes reminded me of a tropical, silver-blue hibiscus called Feelin’ Blue. Especially when they lit up in that unnaturally bright way again. The light flooded into me, calming me.