Angel in Waiting

by Sharon Saracino

  Chapter Two

  Dimitri materialized in the parking garage under Elle Gates’ building where his bike waited, gleaming in the artificial light. The woman was hiding something. He knew it as surely as he knew his own name, but he had yet to put his finger on it. In sleep she was an open book, but the nightmares were so convoluted it was impossible to differentiate thoughts from memories, memories from fears. Once awake, she was always on guard. Well, except for an occasional slip like she’d had this morning. Was she blind? He scared the hell out of most women, most men, too. And that was exactly the way he liked it. Easier to keep his priorities in order. Elle Gates thought he was compassionate and tender? Some kind-hearted savior? Damn demon must have screwed with her mind more than any of them suspected. Either that or she had perfected rationalization to an art form.

  He’d just swung his leg over the bike when he felt it. Pinpricks of electricity raced up and down his spine, heralding the presence of evil. He carefully eased away from the bike, unsnapping his sleeves to expose the intricate tattoos on his forearms and avail himself of the weapons hidden within. Gripping a stiletto in each fist, he froze with his back to the wall and peered into the shadows of the darkened structure, eyes narrowed and focused, ears attuned to the slightest sound. A soft scuffle of a shoe, the shift of a slightly darker shadow, and Dimitri faded in a heartbeat to the far side of the garage behind a battered sedan that looked as though it hadn’t moved in years.

  He pinned one animorti to the wall with a knife at his throat and hoisted the other helplessly in the air by his neck before either of them had time to register that he’d moved. Looking from one to the other, Dimitri twisted the knife, his lips stretching in a cold grin as the bastard against the wall exploded into a puddle of slimy, black goo, and then he turned his attention back to the other, shaking his head in disgust. The Fallen were becoming less and less particular about their recruits. This one was little more than a kid. Of course, to the evil ones, everyone was fair game and everyone was expendable. He didn’t like the idea of killing him, but the kid was already doomed and putting an end to his existence was probably the greatest kindness Dimitri could do him. The scrawny puppet stared in horrified fascination at the oily mess that had been his partner seconds earlier. Then he flicked his gaze back to Dimitri. His eyes widened and rolled back until only the whites showed, and he began to struggle in earnest. He writhed and twitched, panting in short, terrified gasps, before switching to wild kicks and punches, connecting with nothing since he still dangled a good twelve inches above the concrete. Dimitri sighed and simply waited for him to wear himself out.

  It took nearly ten minutes for the animorti to admit defeat. Finally, when he hung limp and exhausted in Dimitri’s fist, Dimitri lowered his arm until the kid’s feet touched the floor, released the shirt, and flexed his aching fingers.

  “How did you find me here?” He growled in a low menacing voice. The answer slapped him in the back of the head almost as soon as he asked the question. Instead of fading to Elle’s as he usually did when he was through hunting for the night, he’d gotten cocky and brought the bike thinking maybe he could coax her out of the house with the offer of a ride. Yeah, as if that would interest someone like Elle. Lack of sleep must be softening his brain. He led the bastards right to her front door. Thankfully, he’d gotten to them before they’d gotten to her. If anything happened to her because of his carelessness, he’d…well, he didn’t know what he’d do exactly, but it was irrelevant, anyway. He’d have the threat neutralized in just a minute.

  “Well?”

  The animorti remained stubbornly silent. Dimitri flipped the knife in the air. He caught it deftly and plunged it into the kid’s chest all in one smooth and too familiar motion. As usual, Dimitri spared a thought for the family who waited and worried and would never come close to imagining what had become of the boy. What a damn waste.

  “Not…” The kid gasped as his head snapped up just before he disintegrated.

  “Oh, sure. Now you wanna talk,” Dimitri grumbled as he slapped his stiletto against his forearm where it disappeared into his tattoo. He rubbed his palms together briskly and aimed them, and the resultant blue light, at the two puddles of remains, vaporizing them instantly. Stalking back across the garage, he threw a leg over the bike, and slammed a boot down on the kick starter.

  The bike roared beneath him as he revved the throttle and exited the garage, cruising the dawn lightened streets on his way uptown. He absorbed and embraced the power of the engine vibrating from the soles of his boots up through the muscles of his thighs. His hair hung loose and streamed behind him in a wind-whipped frenzy. This was where he belonged, alone in the shadows, ass glued to a rocket of steel and chrome, barreling down dark streets or running a blade through the Fallen and their animorti scum in some back alley or parking garage. There was no place for him in the velvet darkness and soft lamplight of satin sheets scented with sandalwood and roses. He had no business being mesmerized by the soft breasts and silky tangled limbs of a woman he could never have. A human woman. But he parked his ass in that chair every night watching and waiting until she woke up. Because it was his duty to figure out her secret and report it to McAllister, right? That must be it. Yeah, right.

  ****

  “What could she possibly have to hide? It’s not like there’s a lot occupying that head of hers beyond the latest shoe sale.”

  “No clue,” Dimitri replied. “But I plan to figure it out. And just for the record, you’re wrong about her. There’s more to the woman than meets the eye.”

  “Thank you, Dimitri. I’ve been telling him the same thing for months.” Katrina McAllister strode into the room carrying a tray of coffee and Italian pastries. She set it on the cocktail table in the middle of the furniture grouping, snagged a mug for herself, and then tossed her long, silvery hair over her shoulders before curling up like a kitten on the sofa next to her husband. “You just don’t know Elle like I do.”

  “So you keep saying, baby, but I still say there’s nothing in her head but hamsters on a wheel.” McAllister leaned forward to grab a mug and pluck a cornetto from the box indicating with a wave that Dimitri should help himself. Then he sat back and shifted his position, gluing himself to his wife from shoulder to knee. Dimitri envied them their closeness. They were bound soul mates, two halves of whole. It was something all Earthbound hoped for, but not all were lucky enough to find. “And I don’t mean to imply Elle isn’t a bright woman, or that she doesn’t have redeeming qualities. I just think what you see is what you get. Not a whole lot of depth.”

  “I’ll admit, I had the same impression at first, but there’s a lot more going on in that head of hers than you give her credit for.”

  In fact, he’d learned the real Elle Gates couldn’t be more different from the shallow, giddy, fashionista he’d originally thought her. Except for the same inexplicable addiction to shoes, the woman he’d come to know didn’t resemble her public image in the least, and though she certainly read the romance genre she also wrote, he most often glimpsed the classics or thick volumes of non-fiction on her nightstand. In private, she dressed casually, wore her long, dark hair loose or in a messy ponytail, and was intelligent and thoughtful. In fact, he was beginning to think she was damn near perfect, and that couldn’t be good. Dimitri bit into a crisp sfogliatelle pastry and chewed contentedly. It was nearly as good as the ones he’d gotten hooked on in Italy, and it definitely beat the sugary doughnuts he’d eaten for breakfast. He made a mental note to ask Katrina where she got them.

  “There’s definitely something going on with her. I’m just not sure what it is yet.”

  “Well, whatever it is, and for reasons I can’t quite fathom, my wife loves her.” Mac frowned. “Association with us is what got her into this mess, so she’s our responsibility. We take care of our own.”

  “How is she, really?” Kat asked in a quiet voice.

  “Physically, she’s fine.” Dimitri polished off one pastry and reache
d for another. “Healed a lot more quickly than I would have expected considering Luca’s blade was Heaven forged and she’s a human. But the nightmares? Yeah, they still drop in to say hello every night.”

  “Maybe she did so well because you’re a hell of a doctor, brother.” McAllister grinned. “Don’t know why you ever stopped practicing.”

  “Aw hell, getting a medical degree was just something I did to kill time when Fallen activity was slow,” Dimitri retorted. “Never took it very seriously.”

  In reality, he’d taken it far too seriously. He’d served as a medic in countless wars and political conflicts over the centuries before finally taking the time to obtain an actual college degree and license to practice. But the chaos of a battlefield wasn’t quite the same as the very public arena of a busy city hospital. It wasn’t long before he found it impossible to stand by helplessly and watch as lives were lost when he had the power to save them. But saving them would have revealed his true nature. Rather than sit on his thumbs and look the other way while one more needless tragedy came through his Emergency Department, he walked away. Humans were too damned fragile.

  Katrina McAllister eyed him steadily over the rim of her coffee cup. He met her knowing gaze and looked away with a frown. Damn pain in the ass having an empath around. Blocking his thoughts was second nature. Blocking his emotions? Yeah, not so much. Then he brightened. He was willing to bet Mac couldn’t get away with a damn thing anymore.

  “Well, that’s it,” Kat announced, unfolding her long legs from under her and jumping to her feet. “I’m going to see her whether she wants me to or not.”

  “And what if she won’t let you in?” McAllister quirked an amused brow at his wife.

  “Earthbound don’t let a little thing like a locked door stand in their way,” Kat announced, planting her fists on her denim clad hips like a silvery superhero.

  “We don’t. But you, my love, have yet to master the fine art of consistently fading on demand,” her husband laughed, referring to the Earthbound ability to dematerialize and travel limited distances at will. Katrina hadn’t discovered her true heritage until meeting her husband and brother, and unlike typical Earthbounds, hadn’t spent a lifetime perfecting the skill.

  “Well, I can do it most of the time.” Her shoulders slumped and her lower lip protruded in a frustrated pout. She dropped back onto the sofa like a stone.

  “I’m not telling you what to do, you understand?” Dimitri pointed the last bite of his third sfogliatelle in Kat’s direction before popping it in his mouth. “My opinion? You should wait. She’s struggling with something right now. Maybe it’s guilt, maybe it’s something else altogether. I don’t know. But I do know she misses you, Kat. I see it on her face every time your name comes up. I think maybe she just needs more time.”

  Kat’s large, gray eyes shimmered with tears.

  “For years, each of us was all the other one had. We were family. She always stood by me and never treated me like a freak, even when it probably cost her other friends. She accepted my weird abilities without batting an eye. I want to give her the time she needs, but I can’t let her think I’ve abandoned her.”

  “Seriously, Kat?” McAllister wrapped an arm around his wife and hitched her into his side with a smirk. “You think the hundreds of phone calls and text messages and almost daily flower arrangements indicate you’ve abandoned her? Shit, I’m considering buying the florist. It’d be cheaper in the long run.”

  “It’s not the same thing as being there.” Kat thumped her fist on her husband’s broad chest and then settled into him with a sigh. Just then, McAllister’s cell phone buzzed on the table beside him.

  “McAllister,” he barked into the device. “What? Shit! Kat, turn the television on…channel 3.” He turned to Dimitri. “That was my assistant. Apparently Elle has decided to come out of seclusion. She’s holding a press conference on the midday news.” He tossed the phone back onto the table and sat forward as the sixty-inch screen lit up and filled the living room with a larger than life image of Elle Gates’ smiling face.

  Dimitri watched in stunned disbelief as a stylish, sassy, redhead in a pixie-cut looking nothing like the drawn, frail brunette he’d left standing in her kitchen this morning smiled into the camera and announced she was taking a sabbatical from her career. A sabbatical of indeterminate length. She planned to travel, she said, in order to recharge her batteries and feed her muse. Gone were the jeans and T-shirt she’d been wearing earlier, replaced by some sparkly, blue thing that caught the light and reflected into the camera as she fidgeted on a makeshift platform at the entrance to her building, nodding and smiling at the small knot of reporters scribbling down her every word. She stepped away from the microphone after thanking her agent, her editor, McAllister Publishing, and most especially her loyal readers. Frustrated shouts followed her retreating back as she hopped down from the platform and disappeared back into the building after declining to answer questions.

  “What in the hell was that all about?” McAllister barked.

  “She looks so thin,” Kat frowned at her husband. “What are you so upset about, McAllister? So she’s taking a break. It’s not like you need the revenue she generates.”

  “I could give two shits about the money, Kat. I’m thinking of selling the company anyway. I’ve become a little more visible than I like. I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on in her head. Elle Gates loves to write. She’s a writing machine. Why would she give it up and walk away?”

  “It could be my fault,” Dimitri mumbled.

  “Huh?” McAllister reached for the remote and clicked off the news that had moved on to coverage of a house fire in Jersey City.

  “She told me she was staying in today. No big surprise there since she’s only been outside to move from your place to hers since we got back from Europe. I told her to call if she decided to go out. I may have let it slip there were photographers hanging around and she might need someone to run interference.”

  “So, she thinks it over, makes an appearance, and announces she’s taking a sabbatical…all’s well, nothing to see here, folks. Bye-bye public curiosity, bye-bye creepy photographers. It’s rather clever, really.” Kat’s grin widened. “See, Kassian. I told you she had more brains than you give her credit for. You may reward me for my brilliance later.”

  McAllister simply grunted as his wife planted a triumphant kiss on his jaw. Dimitri kept his own thoughts closely guarded and his expression neutral, but he knew he must have been throwing off negativity like a sanitation worker chucking trash bags into a dumpster.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Kat demanded. “This is a good thing, right? It’s so…unexpected, so impulsive, so smart. Well, it’s so Elle! Maybe she’s finally coming around.”

  “Maybe,” Dimitri agreed automatically, but he was far from convinced. Katrina McAllister might know Elle Gates better than anyone, but she knew the woman she’d been before she’d gotten up close and personal with a demon. Something like that had a tendency to change a person. He was the one who’d been with Elle almost day and night since. He was the one who’d shared Elle’s nightmares and watched her struggle alone with some unidentified burden. And he was the one who suddenly had the epiphany about what had prompted the unexpected public appearance of the blue-eyed redhead with the pixie-cut and the over-bright smile. Elle Gates wasn’t preparing to pick up the pieces of her life. She was preparing to run away from it.

  “Gotta go.” Dimitri jumped to his feet, almost knocking the cocktail table over in his haste.

  “What the hell?” McAllister groused, reaching out and grabbing the table to steady it as the remaining coffee and pastries slid to the edge and threatened to tumble to the floor. “What’s your problem?”

  “No problem,” Dimitri stuttered, deliberately avoiding Katrina McAllister’s perceptive gaze. “I just remembered I was supposed to take the bike in for service an hour ago.”

  A bead of sweat trickled down the back of his neck,
and his heart pounded like an iron fist trying to punch its way out of his chest. He was vaguely surprised they couldn’t actually hear it. He’d never met anyone who could change her appearance so completely. The Elle Gates known to her fans bore no resemblance to the woman he’d been spending his time with. If she slipped away before he got to her, it would be a bitch to track her down, assuming he was able to find her at all. The thought of losing her induced a feeling uncomfortably resembling panic. Losing her would mean…well, it would mean he’d failed a brother Defensori, and it would upset Mac’s wife. Yeah, that was it.

  “Bullshit,” Mac rose to his full six and a half feet. Still, Dimitri topped him by inches. “Spill it.”

  “Look, it’s just a hunch, and I could be wrong,” Dimitri moved toward the door making a wide path around Kat, hoping it would keep her from picking up on his emotions. He should have known better. Just as he gripped the knob and thought he was in the clear, a small, soft hand landed on his forearm. Kat’s nails curled into him like talons, gouging his skin deep enough to draw blood, but the look on her face told him she didn’t even realize it.

  “I think she’s gonna run. I might be off the radar for a while. I’m leaving the bike here for now.” Dimitri sent the thought to McAllister telepathically on a wavelength used specifically by the Defensori, the warrior branch of the Earthbound to which they both belonged.

  “Do what you need to do, brother. Get in touch when you can.”

  Mac stepped up behind his wife, wrapped his arms around her waist, and pulled her back against him. He reached around to pry her tense fingers from Dimitri’s arm and then brought them to his lips.

  “Back off, Kat. He needs to go, and we’re wasting time.”

  “Whatever is going on, keep her safe, Dimitri,” Kat ordered in a firm voice. “I’ll have your word on this.”