Angel in Waiting

by Sharon Saracino

  “C’mon, Kat. She’s okay. Let’s give them a minute, huh?” McAllister’s quiet directive was accompanied by the sound of reluctant footsteps and followed by the decisive click of a door.

  “Elle, look at me.” Dimitri’s fingers gently tugged hers away from her face when she made no move to obey, and he kept her hands firmly in his. “You aren’t. It isn’t possible.”

  “Of course it is! What if Gatewick used DNA taken from a Fallen instead of an Earthbound? That makes me a Fallen, duh!”

  “Move over, my legs are going numb in this position. I’m not as young as I used to be.” Dimitri straightened to his full height and stretched as Elle shifted and tossed some of the pillows to the floor. Then he dropped down beside her and pulled her against him, tucking her under his shoulder so the side of her face rested directly over his heart.

  “I promise you aren’t a Fallen. If sharing some DNA was the deciding factor then everyone in this apartment would be in deep shit.”

  “You’re just saying that to make me feel better,” Elle sniffed miserably. Dimitri’s chest rumbled against her cheek.

  “Well, I guess after seeing you turn gray and nearly keel over I probably would say that to make you feel better,” he chuckled. “But, I promise you’re no more a Fallen than I am.”

  “I’ve never fainted in my life. Gah! I’m becoming a total wuss. And how do you know for sure?”

  “You aren’t a wuss. You’re overwhelmed. Now, let me see if I can explain the whole Fallen thing.” He pressed his lips to the top of her head, and she snuggled against him, wrapping her arms around his solid middle and hanging on for dear life, wanting so desperately to believe him.

  “I’m sure you already know the Fallen were cast out of the heavens and damned for sedition and disobedience?” Elle nodded against his chest. “And how after the Fall, one faction of the rebels quickly realized they’d gotten caught up in a deliberately misleading political scheme and sought forgiveness and reconciliation?” She nodded again. “To make a long story short, Earthbound and Fallen share a common history up to a point, and thus a common biology. Bottom line is, we share very similar DNA, and which side of the divide we find ourselves on isn’t determined by biology. Believe me, baby. No matter who provided your DNA, you don’t have to worry about which side you’re on.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “I’d stake my soul on it. Trust me. The sensations creeping up my spine when I’m around you have nothing to do with evil. Okay?”

  A sense of relief that left her as limp as a wet noodle snaked through her. She took a deep cleansing breath and pushed away from Dimitri’s chest. Tilting her head back, she looked into his eyes and saw all the acceptance and reassurance she would ever need.

  “Okay.”

  His gaze roamed over her face as though he needed to convince himself she was all right. Elle reached up, curled her fingers around the nape of his neck, and pulled his head down. When his lips closed over hers, Elle feared she might drown in the sheer physical pleasure of him. She nearly groaned aloud when he buried his fingers in her hair and cupped the back of her head, pulling her closer and deepening the kiss. His warm tongue teased along the crease in her lips and she opened for him without hesitation. He swept inside, seeking, stroking, plundering, as if he couldn’t get enough of the kiss, enough of her. His other hand stroked down her back and splayed across her buttocks, hitching her more tightly against him. Elle lost all sense of time and place, her mind temporarily emptied of everything except Dimitri and the desire exploding low in her gut. She slipped a hand under his T-shirt and skimmed her palm over the rock hardness of his stomach. His muscles twitched in response. As her seeking fingers, with a mind of their own, began moving lower, he snatched her hand, and with a growl that should have had teeth, brought it to his chest where he held it trapped beneath his and tore his lips from hers. His heart hammered against her palm in the same frantic dance taking place in her own chest. She raised questioning eyes to his and saw passion and frustration clouding his gaze. His breathing as harsh and ragged as hers, he dropped a chaste kiss on the top of her head, and let his own fall back against the sofa with a sigh.

  “By all means, join us,” he croaked. “It’s your living room, after all.”

  “Nice of you to remember.”

  Elle’s cheeks warmed as Kat and her comically grinning husband strolled back into the room hand in hand. Her face grew even hotter when Kat winked and rolled her eyes in Dimitri’s direction. What on earth was wrong with her? She’d schooled herself years ago to never get so caught up in anything that she became blinded to everything else around her. She’d never had the luxury of letting down her guard so completely, always aware she lived in a house of cards that could collapse around her at any moment.

  “You’re a bad influence, Radchenko,” she grumbled into his shoulder.

  “You started it,” he replied, keeping his eyes closed, but allowing the corners of his lips to curve up.

  “Well, you didn’t exactly beat me off with a stick.”

  “Haven’t slept in two days. I figured I lacked the strength.”

  “Hey! Speaking of sleeping…my nightmare…I didn’t have it last night!”

  “I know.”

  “You know?”

  “Yep. I was there, remember?” Dimitri opened his eyes and picked up his head to look over at McAllister. “Alec’s here.”

  Kat hurried to the door and threw it open. Then she launched herself into the open arms of an extremely attractive dark-haired man with laughing blue eyes.

  “Your wife is inordinately happy to see me, Kass,” Alec McAllister laughed, stepping into the room and dropping his bag inside the door while keeping an arm around his sister-in-law.

  “For reasons I will never understand, she likes you. She really likes you.” McAllister stepped forward and briefly embraced his brother, pounded him soundly on the back, and tugged Kat along with him when he stepped away. “It’s good to see you, Alec.”

  “You, too.” He stepped aside to reveal another man behind him. The guy was huge, bigger even than Dimitri. A bald giant with ear gauges the size of nickels and Japanese throwing stars tattooed all over his scalp. His black tee strained across a chest nearly as wide as the doorway. His eyes scanned the room. He nodded to Dimitri and fixed his gaze on Elle. Her stomach flipped. And then he smiled. He had a beautiful smile, and with his shockingly green eyes twinkling in amusement, he wasn’t quite as intimidating as she first thought. “So, I hear we’ve got a microchip to scan?”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Galen passed the handheld scanner over Elle’s wrist for the fourth time, glanced again at the laptop screen with a frown, then shook his head and clicked off the scanner.

  “Typical RFID transponder. Doesn’t tell us a thing.” He blew out a deep breath and rose to his feet. He snapped his laptop shut and shoved it, and the scanner, back into his bag.

  “Maybe you could dummy that down for those of us who don’t spend our evenings with our nose buried in the latest Technology Today,” McAllister muttered. “What the hell is RFID?”

  “RFID, or Radio-frequency identification, is a wireless use of radio-frequency electromagnetic fields to transfer data,” Galen laughed, dropping into a chair and reaching for one of the beers Kat had just carried in from the kitchen. “Thanks, gorgeous.” He took a long draw from the bottle before continuing. “Lots of industrial uses…access management, tracking of product on assembly lines, that kind of thing. You might be more familiar with it in terms of toll collections. You know the little box your driver keeps on the dashboard so you can zip through the tollbooth without stopping to pay? Courtesy of RIFD.”

  “So there isn’t any data on it?” Elle asked in a voice thick with disappointment. She’d been so hopeful the microchip was the key to bringing Gatewick down.

  “Oh there’s data, but it could be something as simple as an ID number similar to those used by pet owners. Mary Jane’s pampered pooch gets lost, sho
ws up at a shelter, and the shelter scans for the microchip. The ID number coincides with the registration information provided by Mary Jane and Rover gets to go home. Yours could be linked to information in an external database somewhere, too. But there’s no way of knowing what or where just from the chip itself.”

  “You don’t think it could be some kind of tracking device do you?” Dimitri asked. “I’m more than a little concerned they managed to tail her to Katrina’s house. Especially since I tailed her to Katrina’s house and never noticed anyone or anything out of the ordinary.”

  “Well, there’s nothing this size in GPS commercially available that I know of, but they’re using RFID chips in passports these days so I guess anything’s possible,” Galen replied with a grin. “But even with passports, a high powered reader has to be within about a hundred and sixty feet to pick up the signal, so it’s unlikely Elle could have been located by that method.”

  “But what if they knew where to look to begin with?” Elle’s teeth worried at her bottom lip. “I don’t remember much about what happened when Azakriel was in control, but it seems too coincidental Gatewick contacted me so soon after that when I’d managed to stay off of his radar for all these years. I’ve been assuming the demon contacted him and told him where I was. If he knew where to start looking, it wouldn’t be all that hard to keep tabs on me, would it?”

  “I guess not,” Galen allowed. “But if that’s the case, why haven’t they already grabbed you? The demon possessed you months ago, so if that’s how Gatewick was alerted to your location, he’s had ample opportunity. Yeah, Dimitri was hanging around, but it’s not like he was there constantly or guarding you twenty-four-seven. Hell, until today, no one knew there was anything or anyone to guard you from. So why didn’t Gatewick simply get you while the getting was good?”

  “I don’t know,” Elle admitted. “But now that you mention it, why didn’t he? Why didn’t he just send someone to grab me? Even when I was at Kat’s house, Nerd-nuts came to the door, but Dimitri said there were Fallen nearby to pick him up. Why send a human? They didn’t know Dimitri was there. Heck, I didn’t know Dimitri was there. Why not just grab me then?”

  “No idea,” Galen echoed Elle’s sentiment. “There’s one other possibility that comes to mind about the microchip, though. It could be security related.”

  “Like an access code,” Dimitri pondered slowly.

  “Exactly,” Galen confirmed.

  “So maybe he doesn’t want me back at all. Maybe he never did.” Elle whispered. She was surprised to realize that the fact her father considered her disposable still hurt in a place she didn’t think existed anymore. She swallowed hard over the lump of sadness lodged behind her breastbone. Despite everything, he’d been kind to her in his own way. She’d even believed he loved her until she learned the truth. Enough! She refused to waste another breath or another tear wishing things could have been different. Gatewick wasn’t worth it. She cleared her throat as the others regarded her with quiet concern. “I thought running would keep him from learning of your existence and keep you safe. I guess I’m an even bigger fool than I thought. Apparently, he’s been watching me for weeks at the very least. Maybe he wasn’t waiting for an opportunity to get me back. Maybe he’s just keeping tabs on me to make sure I haven’t figured out I have the means to get the Defensori into his compound and bring them down on his head.”

  “If he thinks I…we would let you anywhere near him, he’s not playing with a full deck. And we hardly need a measly microchip to gain entry anywhere,” Dimitri grumbled.

  “Elle’s very existence speaks to the fact he thought he could experiment with impunity. Makes me think he has the place more secured than we might be giving him credit for,” McAllister observed thoughtfully.

  “Elle,” Kat suddenly straightened next to her husband on the sofa. “Do you remember the summer we decided to plant our own garden?”

  “Kind of random there, girlfriend,” Elle laughed.

  “No, think about it. We ended up with so many tomatoes we didn’t know what to do with them. We made our own salsa, remember? All that chopping and dicing?”

  “Of my fingers, you mean!” Elle snorted. She glanced at Dimitri. “Hope you weren’t holding out for a domestic goddess, Big Guy.”

  “Exactly!” Kat exclaimed. “You did an absolutely outstanding job of almost chopping a finger off! Took seven stitches to close it, then it got infected, and it took forever to heal even with antibiotics!”

  “Don’t remind me. That one-handed hair style I rocked for weeks was not my best look.”

  “How long ago?” Elle felt Dimitri tense against her back and his arm came around her waist to hold her steady as he shifted his position.

  “About four years,” Kat regarded him with wide eyes, which she then turned on Elle. “What if it wasn’t the demon? What if Gatewick knew where you were all along, but simply didn’t care if you came back because you were useless to him, nothing but a failed experiment?”

  “So now I’m not just a freakish experiment, I’m a failed one?” Elle realized she could say it now with none of her previous self-loathing since Dimitri’s acceptance, and that of the others, had allowed her runaway train to Pity Central to derail at the Suck-it-up-Station. Dimitri was right. She was really no different than any other child born by in vitro. Even if there’d been some genetic tinkering involved, medical researchers were doing the same thing all the time in an effort to counteract congenital defects and diseases, right? Right. She decided from now on she would spin it just that way and never look back.

  “Well, of course you’re a freak, honey, but you’re our freak.” Kat grinned. “But that’s not my point. Don’t you get it? Dimitri said you should have died from Luca’s dagger, but you didn’t. You exhibited accelerated healing after the demon attack, but not before. Something changed.”

  “And earlier she sensed we were having a telepathic conversation,” McAllister interjected. “Okay, so she couldn’t make out the words, but she’s been around us before and that never happened.”

  Elle’s mouth dropped open and she felt sure her chin was in danger of hitting the floor as the ramification sank in. The blood pounded in her ears as she gripped Dimitri’s hand—hard—and stared at all the other occupants of the room who were suddenly grinning like idiots. Before she recovered enough brain cells to speak, Dimitri, who wore a look she knew must be similar to her own, spoke up.

  “Are you implying Azakriel’s possession sparked some latent Earthbound tendencies in her DNA and jumpstarted them? Is that even possible?” Dimitri gasped.

  Kat leaned back against her husband with a sigh and rolled her eyes.

  “You know the trouble with you guys? You were born Earthbound and always knew who you were and what you were capable of.”

  Mac stretched his legs out in front of him and leaned his head back against the couch, closing his eyes with a groan. Alec settled for hiding his grin behind his half empty beer bottle. Obviously, they’d both heard this particular spiel before.

  “One would think given who and what you are, the question of the impossible would never even arise. One would be wrong. Clearly, those of us who came into our identity a little later in life have a much better grasp of the whole ‘anything’s possible’ vibe.”

  A peculiar ache squeezed the center of Dimitri’s chest and he found it hard to breathe as the iron cage he’d constructed to protect his heart from the pain of loss creaked and crumbled. Forged by the murder of his family and tempered by the loss of countless patients and friends over the long centuries of his life, the fortress he’d built failed completely in the face of an emotion he thought he could no longer feel—hope. Of course, only the passing of time could confirm it, but the possibility demonic possession had potentially increased Elle’s longevity staggered him. It was more than he dared dream of when he reluctantly accepted what he felt for her was too deep to walk away from no matter what it cost him in the end.

  “Dimitri?�
� Elle’s voice sounded far away. “What’s wrong with you? You look a little green.”

  “I…just realized. Maybe you aren’t going to die soon after all.”

  The other three men were regarding Dimitri like a man who’d gone a little soft in the head. But not Katrina. A tremulous smile split her face from ear to ear. Clearly, her empath picked up on the churning emotion Dimitri knew he must have been throwing off faster than a menopausal woman shucking a wool sweater in July.

  “Well, I kind of hoped your skills were up to the challenge of keeping me alive, Big Guy.” Elle frowned.

  “Soon is a relative term in Earthbound vernacular,” Kat laughed, jumping up from the sofa and pulling her friend out of Dimitri’s lap and into her arms. “I think what Dimitri is trying to say over that big lump in his throat is if you are developing Earthbound characteristics, you could live for a long time. A very long time. As in centuries.”

  Over Kat’s shoulder, Elle’s wide, shocked eyes locked on Dimitri. They’d deepened to the rich, dark blue of the sky before a storm. He couldn’t help noticing she looked a little green around the gills herself at the moment. Something in his expression must have reassured her however, and the panicked look faded from her eyes. She hugged Kat back, extricated herself from her friend’s embrace, and then came to stand between his knees. Looking down at him as though they were the only two people in the room, she reached to cup his jaw in her hand, rubbing her thumb lightly over his scar where it transected the angle of his cheekbone.

  “If there’s any way this is true…” she began in a hoarse voice, then paused and cleared her throat. “If this is true… I mean…the uh...listen, all that stuff you said before? I realize you weren’t thinking in terms of my being here for damned near forever.”

  “I sure as hell wasn’t,” Dimitri confirmed without thinking, but her rapid blinking and the way her throat worked as she fought to hold her emotions in check told him that what he meant and what she understood were two entirely different things. He covered her hand with his and brought it to his lips. Never taking his eyes from hers, he grazed his lips along her knuckles before pressing a slow, firm kiss in the hollow of her palm. She curled her fingers inward as though she could catch and hold the sensation and a spark of desire lit her eyes through the glint of her tears. An answering heat curled low in his gut as he rose to his feet and buried his hands in the hair on either side of her head and tilted her face up to his.