***
Sunday morning, the fire investigator stopped by the wreckage of our house to meet with my parents. I tagged along to see if there was anything salvageable in the burnt mess. It was no surprise that there wasn’t. I was wandering across what used to be our family room, not paying attention to what the investigator was saying until I heard one word:
Arson.
I froze and strained my ears to hear the conversation.
“Mr. Jackson, is there anyone who would want to do this? Anyone who would want to hurt you or your family?”
“No, no one,” my dad answered.
I suppose that was partly true. It wasn’t a person that wanted to hurt us. I thought about telling the fire investigator that a bunch of demons wanted to kill us and had probably set the fire, but I decided he probably wouldn’t find it funny. So I bit my lip to hold in my giggles and kept my thoughts to myself.
My mom bit her thumbnail. “You think someone did this on purpose?”
“No. I think it was an electrical malfunction. But I have to ask.” The man smiled and shrugged a shoulder. “It’s on the checklist.”
Sunday afternoon, my parents, Ben, and I went to my grams’ house for dinner.
“You may as well come over for dinner, John. I won’t stop pestering until I get a look at each of you and know you’re okay,” she told my dad.
We were supposed to spend the day shopping. We needed to replace our clothes before work and school the next day. I needed makeup to cover the road map of bruises still coloring my eye and Benjamin needed some boy toys. He said his reputation was at stake; he couldn’t be seen playing with Muriel’s old dolls.
We went shopping that afternoon and stopped at Grams’ afterward. Ben carted every single one of his toys into her apartment and laid them out on the floor. Like any good grandma would, she made the appropriate oohs and ahs when he held up each one.
My grandmother toed me with her house slippers. “Hey!”
I jumped and looked up. “Hmm?
“I asked what toys you got,” my grams said.
“Oh, I got a MP3 player.” I held up the music player and headphones I’d been listening to. “Mine was on my dresser along with my computer. Mom and Dad replaced the laptop, but for some reason, it didn’t come preloaded with all my school assignments, so I’ll have to redo those, which means I got a bunch of crap to replace my other school crap, but that’s about as close to toys as it comes.” I smiled when she laughed.
“Well, at least it wasn’t your phone,” Grams exclaimed in mock horror. “Imagine losing all your texting contacts.”
“I know, right?” I agreed with a shudder. My pocket beeped and vibrated. Grams laughed.
“Sounds like someone is texting right now. Go on, child, you can answer it.”
I smiled at her and fished the phone out of the front pocket of my jeans. After I pushed the button to look at the text, my heart twirled. I couldn’t help the smile that curved my lips.
Chay: Whatcha doing?
Me: Visiting Grams.
Chay: How ya doing?
Me: Okay. The fire was one way to get a bunch of new stuff.
Chay: Tough way.
Me: Yeah.
Chay: Okay, I gotta go. Just wanted to check on ya.
Me: Bye.
“Judging by that grin, I’d say that was your boy?” Grams winked at me.
Ben rammed his trucks together in the middle of the room. “Which one?” he asked. “She has two.”
“Do not!” I threw a purple throw pillow at him.
“I hope it was Chay,” Ben said, knocking the pillow out of the way. “I like him better.”
“Benjamin,” my mom scolded.
That’s the second time he’s told me that. I wonder if kids can sense good character like some people claim dogs can.
“So what’s the official word on what caused the fire?” I heard Grams ask my dad. I didn’t listen to them talk. I texted Muriel instead. Besides, I already knew what caused the fire… and it wasn’t any electrical malfunction.
After dinner, we gathered our things to leave when Grams wheeled her chair to me. I smiled down at her. She looked at me with worried eyes, dulled by a long life.
“Don’t you be going and doing anything rash, child,” she whispered.
I opened my mouth to ask her what she thought I’d do when she called to Ben and asked him if he wanted some cookies to take home.
That night, Muriel’s family and mine sat around their dining table in my aunt’s cheery, yellow kitchen. We talked about school and what the firefighters thought caused the fire, our dads talked about work, and Benjamin told us all about the newest video game my mom said she’d buy him when we got settled in an apartment while our house was being rebuilt.
“He’s gonna kill us all,” I said out of the blue. It just popped out of my mouth. It surprised me as much as it did everyone else.
Everyone looked at me. My dad’s mouth was open, a fork full of pie halfway to it. My mom shook her head and her gaze landed on Benjamin.
“Him, too, Mom. All of us.”
“Why do you say that?” my uncle asked me. He set his fork down and wiped his hands on a napkin before he tossed it on top of his plate.
“Jake told me. He said he wants us all…” I stopped and looked at Benjamin happily playing with an action figure my parents bought him when we shopped for clothes earlier that day. “Dead.”
“Why?” Muriel asked.
“He wants to hurt me, and he knows it’s one way he can do it. Probably the best way. Jake said he might not even kill me because knowing I could have prevented your deaths would be worse than dying.”
I was strangely detached from the conversation, like it was happening to someone else. Maybe I was used to it. I mean, I’d just dealt with Azazel a little more than three months earlier. Or maybe I was in shock. After all, my house had just burned down. I was visited nightly by Jake standing in the shadows, and the little red hobgoblins showed up every once in a while. There was plenty to be shocked over.
But I think I was just accepting it. It was my life. It wasn’t a life I would have chosen. I wished I’d never heard about demi-angels, let alone been one. But we didn’t always get to choose the paths our lives took. What we could do was decide how to deal. And I was going to deal with it the only way I knew how.
I was going to kill Abaddon. Or die trying.
23
Muriel’s House
Living at Muriel’s house was like living in a madhouse. Monday morning there were four adults, two teenaged girls, and a seven-year-old boy trying to get ready for work and school… with only two bathrooms. I wasn’t much of a girly-girl, but even I needed the occasional mirror.
By the time we made it to school, Muriel and I had missed first period. We walked into second period AP calculus together. I stopped at the teacher’s desk to give him a note from the office that excused me from homework due to an unforeseen family emergency.
“Is everything okay, Ms. Jackson?”
I looked at my teacher and smiled. “Yes, thank you.”
“If I can do anything…”
“Sure.” I kept my voice neutral. I remembered what Chay told me when Azazel was hunting me.
“We don’t know who works for Azazel. Do you understand that? It could be anyone in this school— from the principal to the janitor,” he’d warned.
He’d been talking about demi-demons. In the demi-angel world, it wasn’t simple like in movies or on television. The good guys didn’t wear white and the bad guys black. Angels didn’t all have wings, and the demons didn’t all have horns. Most of the time, they looked human. Demi-angels didn’t know who their enemies were until they decided to show themselves, and that was why I was going to be especially careful what I said to people about the fire. I didn’t have a reason to suspect my teacher of working for Azazel or Abaddon, but I wasn’t going to let my guard down around him or anyone else. As far as I was concerned, the fire was cau
sed by a damaged electrical outlet like the fire investigator wrote in his official report. Nothing more.
I turned and walked toward the table where I sat with Muriel. As I walked by Chay, his gaze caught mine. I gave him a small smile.
“You look good today,” he said. “But I’m going to miss seeing you in your faded, worn-out jeans and favorite U of M sweatshirt.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“Too bad it wasn’t your writing hand that got burned, huh? Then you’d have a few days off.” He smiled at me, his eyes twinkling.
“Yeah.” I laughed. “Although, I wish neither were burned.”
His smile faded. He nodded his head once, looking down at the tabletop. “I’ll bet.”
“Well, I better sit down.” I walked past him and sat next to Muriel.
“What was that?”
“Who knows?” I rolled my eyes at Muriel. “I don’t think he knows what he wants.”
“Yeah, well, you should stay away from him,” Muriel whispered.
“Why?”
“Because you don’t know who you can trust. You know that.”
“I can trust Chay,” I said. Muriel sighed. “What? I can. I know him better than you do. He’s fine.” Of course, I knew he probably wasn’t. He did admit to wanting to kill me.
“Still, you should be careful.”
I wonder why she just doesn’t tell me? I heard Chay tell her about his visions. Why doesn’t she just tell me?
“I will.” At her look of skepticism, I said, “What? I will! Geez, you act like he’s a murderer or something.”
Now’s your time to tell me. Spill, Muriel. You’re supposed to be my best friend… so tell me what you know.
“Just be careful.”
Secrets, so many secrets. I wonder if I can trust you.
***
That night, I dreamed of Benjamin. Jake carried Ben’s small body like a football, holding him around the middle while his head and feet dangled. He ran toward an open pit in the middle of our front yard. I heard my mother scream. I lunged at Jake, but instead of connecting, I missed, landing hard on the ground. I watched helplessly as Jake carried Ben to the hole where gray arms were waiting for him. They reached out and grabbed him, pulling him down into the pit. I heard Ben’s screams. He called my name. I scrambled to the hole and reached out to him just as the arms disappeared, taking my brother with them.
I woke up with a jerk. My body shook and sweat covered me. I ran my hand through my hair, pushing it back from my face. My hand quivered so violently that it pulled my hair when I ran my fingers through the curls.
I swung my legs over the side of the bed and put my elbows on my knees. Cradling my head in my hands, I blew out a heavy breath. Ben. He was a pain in the butt, but weren’t all little brothers? Still, I loved him and that placed a target on his back. Abaddon was playing dirty—going after the weakest. Benjamin was at the top of his hit list.
“What’s the matter?” Muriel asked, her voice gravely from sleep.
“Just a bad dream.”
“Wanna talk about it?”
“No. Go back to sleep.” I climbed out of bed and slipped quietly into the hall. I stood in front of the picture window overlooking the front yard. He was there. I knew he would be. I was hoping he was gone for good, but there he stood in the shadows, staring at the house.
Still looking out the window, I saw movement on the porch. I took two large steps back.
Who’s out there?
He walked by the window, the streetlight highlighting his face just enough that I could make out his features. I opened the door and stuck my head outside.
“What are you doing out here?”
“Watching,” Chay answered.
“Why are you on the porch? You’ll freeze.”
He grinned. “I don’t have a key.”
I laughed. “Come in before your toes freeze and fall off.” I opened the door wider so he could pass through. He walked to the door and brushed by me into the house. His body rubbed against me, his eyes locking with mine. I sucked in a breath. My insides sizzled from his touch.
“So,” I cleared my throat. “Who’s our mystery guest?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s Rod tonight.”
“Hmm.” I fiddled with the hem of my T-shirt. The silence stretched between us.
“Well…” Chay’s eyebrows knitted above his eyes.
“Yeah.” I had no idea what to say.
The silence in the room crackled. I stood next to the door, my hand on the knob. He stood just far enough away that we weren’t touching, but close enough that I could smell him and feel his body heat. It was seriously doing things to my body, making places tingle, my heart skip beats, my breathing quicken.
The room was dark but for the faint dusting of light the streetlights gave—just enough for me to make out his features. The silence in the house gave the illusion we were alone, the darkness the illusion we were invisible to everyone but each other.
“He’s gone,” Chay whispered. “I guess I should go.”
“Okay.” I dropped my hand from the doorknob just as Chay reached for it. Our hands brushed.
It happened in a split second. We were standing in the quiet room not knowing what to say to each other, and then our hands brushed, Chay grabbed my hand and threaded his fingers through mine. He took a step forward, pushing me backward against the door. His free hand moved to the back of my neck, pulling my face to his. His lips took mine in a rough, demanding kiss.
Chay let go of my hand and slid his arm around my waist, moving under my T-shirt, skimming the bare skin at the base of my back. I sucked in a breath.
His mouth moved from mine, kissing along the length of my jaw, down the side of my neck, and across the skin above the collar of my V-neck T-shirt. I threaded my fingers through his silky hair before letting my hands flutter down. Lifting the hem of his sweatshirt, I glided my nails over the skin beneath. He groaned low in his throat.
His hands moved slowly down my body. Gripping my thighs, he lifted me, and I wrapped my legs around his waist. Pressing into me harder, he held me between him and the wall. His hands squeezed my thighs, while his tongue and mouth trailed kisses over my neck and chest. The muscles in his back flexed beneath my hands.
“Chay…” I moaned.
I pushed his sweatshirt up as far as I was able. I needed to touch him, the real him. Not what was covering him—I needed to touch his skin, feel his warmth. I ran my hands up his chest, running my nails down his naked sides. He ground out a curse between clenched teeth and kissed me hard. I moved my hands down and gripped the edges of my T-shirt, lifting it slowly, letting our bare skin touch.
He groaned. “Are you trying to kill me, Milayna?”
The sound of our heavy breathing and low moans were the only sounds in the stillness of the room. Until we heard the small creak of a floor board upstairs. Chay dropped his hands, put me down softly, and took a large step backward, his rapid breathing causing his chest to rise and fall quickly.
“I need to go,” he murmured. Looking down at his feet, he reached for the doorknob.
“Chay…”
He turned his head to me. I reached out and touched his lips with my fingers, tracing their shape, memorizing the feel of them—still wet from our kisses.
“Don’t go.”
“I need to leave before someone comes downstairs.”
I shook my head. “That’s not what I meant.”
He looked at me, confusion in his eyes. “Then what?”
“Don’t leave me. Don’t close off. This break up isn’t what either of us wants—”
“I’m sorry. This was a mistake.” He opened the door and walked out, closing it behind him with a small click.
I watched him jog back to his house until he disappeared into the inky blackness. I fingered the gold band I wore on a chain around my neck. I’d worn it since the day he gave it back to me.
***
“It’s been a long time, Milayna
,” I heard someone say behind me.
I looked over my shoulder and rolled my eyes. “Hello, Edward. I’d say it was good to see you again, but we’d both know I was lying.”
He laughed. An ugly sound. It amazed me how someone so good looking on the outside could be so repulsive on the inside. The ugliness seemed to seep through his pores. But that was a demi-demon for you. Ugly. In their case, the saying ‘beauty is only skin deep’ was so, so true.
Paying the cashier for my yogurt and water, I turned toward my usual table in the cafeteria when he called after me. “I heard you had some bad luck at your house. Nasty business.”
I didn’t answer.
“Keep looking over your shoulder, Milayna. There’s more to come.”
“Whatever.” I walked away.
“See ya tonight.” Fear slithered up my spine.
I dropped my tray on the lunchroom table. Muriel jumped and looked up at me. “What’s the matter?”
“Edward. Sounds like we’ll be having a reunion with some of the demi-demons tonight.”
“Oh. That’s sounds like fun,” Jen said and took a long drink of her Coke.
My hand went to the damaged side of my face. I poked at the bruises and grimaced. “Yeah, just how I want to spend my evening. Getting my butt handed to me again.”
“Maybe Jake won’t be there…” Muriel let her words trail off. We both knew if there was a fight, he’d be right in the middle of it. Jake seemed to live for them.
“You don’t need to fight tonight,” Chay told me.
“I’m not going to let you guys fight alone.”
I watched as he eased himself into a chair across from me. It was the first time since he broke it off that he’d sat with the group. I hoped it was a good sign.
Demons. Glowing pit. Ben.
The images zipped through my mind. I barely had time to focus on them.
Bloody hands. Chay.
Milayna's Angel Page 23