A vivid image of Sam being hungry went through my brain and I shrugged. “I’m not hungry.”
Cole frowned and shifted the coffees and paper sack into one hand, then used his free hand to feel my forehead. “Are you still sick?”
“No.”
“Let me see your arm.” He lifted it up, inspecting the marks, which thankfully were fading.
“I’m not five years old, you know,” I snapped.
He must have been satisfied because he thrust a coffee and the bag at me. “Eat.”
My stomach revolted and pain echoed through my knee. Maybe I was running too much lately.
Riley reached around and took the coffee and bag from my hands. Cole glared at him, but Riley ignored him and returned to his seat beneath the tree. I sat down next to him. Riley reached into the bag and pulled out a huge blueberry muffin and took a bite. Cole’s aura screamed.
“Thanks for the food, man,” Riley said, shoving another giant bite into his mouth.
Cole took a threatening step forward and I panicked. They had to get along. At least until Sam was home. I reached over and plucked the muffin out of Riley’s hands and took a bite.
“It’s good,” I said, forcing myself to chew and swallow. It tasted like sand.
Cole seemed to relax. Beside me, Riley took the lid off my coffee and smelled it. He wrinkled his nose, but then he took a sip.
“Who the hell is this guy?” Cole spat. He glanced at Logan, hoping for an answer.
“This is gross, Hev. Here, you drink it,” Riley said, gaining all our attention once more.
I stared at the coffee warily. Cole glared at us and I didn’t want to hurt his feelings; after all, he was sweet enough to bring me coffee. It was bad enough that Riley insulted it. I took the cup and took a sip. It was sweet and hot. I liked it. “This isn’t gross,” I declared.
“All the more reason you should drink it,” Riley said smoothly.
It dawned on me what he had done. My eyes flew to his face. He smirked. He conned me into eating. I took another sip of the coffee. I felt the warmth slide down to my belly as I sat down in the grass next to Logan.
Heven, tell me you’re okay, Sam’s voice was urgent.
I’m okay. What about you? Suddenly, I realized that the pain in my ribs was his and probably so was the echo of pain in my knee. What did that guy do to you?
That guy is Beelzebub, Heven. He’s definitely back.
I jerked like I had been slapped. I should have realized! The sense of urgency, the rapid heartbeat… those had been Sam’s feelings, not mine. What happened after I got pulled away?
Something was gripping my arm, distracting me from Sam and I looked up. Riley was peering at me with a frown on his face.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Heven?” Logan asked anxiously. “Is Sam okay?”
Cole made a sound. “She’s talking to Sam.”
“She’s what?” Riley asked.
“He’s okay, Logan. We’re just talking,” I said to Logan quickly, as I waved Riley’s hand away and focused back on Sam. I didn’t mention that Sam and I shared a Mindbond. Cole could fill him in.
Be careful… I made him angry.
How?
He can reach through the force field; it yields for him. I tried to get out. But I didn’t make it.
I reached down and felt my knee. At least we know there’s a way through the barrier now. This could help us. How bad are you hurt?
I hit my knee and my ribs are still bothering me, but I will be fine. Listen to me, Heven. Trust no one you don’t know. Just because he is in that body now doesn’t mean he’ll stay there.
Hang in there, okay? Get some rest.
Be careful. If anything happens to you…
Everything’s going to be fine.
Six days… six very long days had passed, and though I just saw him, he felt farther away than ever.
“How’s he doing, Hev?” Cole asked me quietly, sitting down next to me, drawing me out of thought.
“He’s a strong guy,” I answered, unwilling to voice my concerns because Logan was sitting right there. I looked at him and smiled before telling everyone, “Beelzebub is back. We need to be careful. Right now he’s in the body of a man with blond hair. But from this point on, we can’t trust anyone we don’t know.”
I glanced at Riley to see if he grasped the situation—if he really understood how dangerous Beelzebub was, but he wasn’t paying any attention to me. He was looking beyond Cole and me at an approaching figure.
Cole followed our eyes, and when he saw Gemma, he stood and met her a few rows of apple trees away. She smiled briefly at him, but then her gaze slid to us, or rather to Riley. Something around Gemma seemed to tighten even though her face was blank as she walked with ease. It might not have been noticeable, except Cole noticed it right away and his aura was bursting with anxiety over what might be upsetting her.
My brother was a lot of things, but stupid wasn’t one of them. His eyes landed directly on Riley. Everything in me began to splinter. I knew something was about to challenge his presence. Could I go against Cole and Gemma if they didn’t want Riley around?
I had to.
Riley was the strongest of us all. Even though Gemma was a warrior and a fallen angel with abilities that were amazing, Riley possessed a special set of skills that were absolutely necessary for going into hell.
Gemma and Cole stopped before us with Gemma looking more uncomfortable than I had ever seen her. I looked over at Riley, but he seemed completely unaffected by the cloud that settled over us.
I cleared my throat. “Gemma, this is Riley,” I began, but she cut me off.
“No need for introductions,” she said.
I looked between her and Riley. Cole looked at me for some sort of explanation and I shrugged. Gemma shifted uncomfortably and Riley smiled. I was pretty sure he was enjoying her reaction.
“Riley?” I asked. His gaze flitted to me and his smile faded.
Before Riley could say anything, Gemma said, “We’ve met.”
“You know each other?” Cole burst out. His aura filled with muddy, faded colors. He was jealous and suspicious. If he liked Riley before, he sure didn’t now.
Gemma nodded.
“How ya doing, Gems? Long time no see,” Riley said, splaying his legs out in front of himself and crossing his feet at the ankles. He was so unaffected by everyone else’s obvious distress, I wondered what it would take to upset him.
“What are you doing with him?” Gemma turned to me.
“He’s going to help us get Sam out of hell.”
Gemma shook her head. “Riley can’t help you.”
“Oh?” I asked, lifting my eyebrows. “So you can swim to the bottom of that sludge and get me a Lucent Marble?” Gemma’s mouth opened, then closed, her lips settling into a frown.
“He isn’t human?” Cole scowled.
Riley laughed again.
Gemma ignored Cole and Riley to stare at me levelly. “You shouldn’t trust him.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because he’s a killer.”
Chapter Six
Heven
Gemma’s declaration left me feeling cold. I glanced at Riley, and like always, he didn’t seem the least bit offended Gemma had called him a killer. Did that mean it wasn’t true? Or maybe his lack of emotion was a sign it was.
“Would someone please tell me what the hell is the deal with this guy?” Cole spat.
“He’s a hellhound like Sam,” I responded.
Cole made a face like his stomach hurt. “What is it with you and hellhounds?”
“Sam and Riley used to be roommates.”
This bit of news seemed to surprise Gemma. Maybe she didn’t know Riley as well as she declared. Cole made a rude noise, but I ignored him and turned back to Gemma. “How do you know Riley?”
“Don’t you mean how do I know he’s a killer?”
I nodded.
“I’m the one w
ho trained him. I taught him everything he knows.”
Riley laughed. “Don’t flatter yourself.”
“You trained Riley?”
“It was a long time ago,” Gemma said softly, looking over at Cole.
Riley’s white teeth flashed as he made a sound kind of like a laugh. “You and a human, huh?”
I kicked his foot, but he didn’t take his eyes off Gemma. Couldn’t he see he was causing trouble?
“I never thought I would see that,” Riley mused.
Obviously he liked causing trouble.
Cole turned toward him. “What?”
“Gemma. Getting involved, making attachments.”
“Shut up!” I spat and stepped in front of him, blocking him from my brother’s view. Cole was standing there with clenched fists. “You need to explain,” I told Gemma.
“You want me to explain?” She seemed surprised.
“Of course.”
Gemma dared a look at Cole. He actually smiled. “You’re not getting out of here that easy.”
Gemma gave Cole a half smile and his aura, which had been crazy up until now, smoothed out and returned almost to normal. The deep magenta color that was unique to him bloomed out a little farther than usual and seemed to reach toward Gemma.
I looked over my shoulder at Riley, who was still lounging in the grass. I had a hard time picturing him as a killer. I mean, wouldn’t I be afraid of a killer? Sure, at times he made me uneasy, but I’d never really been afraid… I glanced at Logan. Well, I guess that wasn’t true because I had just been afraid of Riley when he went after Sam’s little brother.
I looked back down at Riley, keeping my eyes on him when I spoke, gaging his reaction. “So, Gemma, why don’t you tell us exactly how you know Riley?”
He looked up and his eyes flashed. Silver was a much colder color than gold.
“I’ll start with why I fell from heaven.”
I spun around in surprise and we all stood there, staring at Gemma… waiting for the information we’ve all wondered about but never dared to ask. She didn’t seem nervous, just sad. Inside, I was screaming. I could hear the ticking of a clock inside my head, reminding me that Sam only had so much time, that I only had so much time.
I wanted to snap at her to hurry up, but I knew it wouldn’t help so I forced myself to take a step back and sit down near Riley. I motioned to Logan and he came and lowered himself next to me. So far, he seemed pretty neutral about Gemma’s declaration. Maybe he was waiting to hear the evidence like me.
“Heaven is… It’s indescribable.” Gemma began softly. “There is no other place like it. Light and peace and love fill everything. There are no feelings of anger or sadness. It truly is what everyone imagines it to be. I was an angel and my job was to occasionally come down from heaven to spread God’s word. It was during one of those trips that I met Callum.”
Beside Gemma, Cole stiffened, but she didn’t notice because she was lost in the past.
“He was unlike anything I had ever seen. In heaven, everything is perfect, beautiful, symmetrical. Callum wasn’t any of those things. He was flawed, striking and nothing about him was linear. Nothing was black or white; Callum existed in the gray area. I think that’s why I was so taken with him. He was everything I thought was wrong with the world. But there wasn’t one thing wrong with him.”
“How did you meet?” I asked.
“I met him during one of my many trips here to Earth. We spoke only briefly, but those minutes stayed with me. I thought of him often, and then the next time I was here, I sought him out.” She lowered her eyes as if that was something to be ashamed of. “I knew I shouldn’t, but I did anyway. After that, we would meet in secret.”
“Why in secret? Weren’t you allowed to see him?” I asked.
“My contact with humans was to be on an as-needed basis only. As an angel, I was bound to God. My love was supposed to be only for him. It’s considered sinful to love anyone but God.”
“Doesn’t God want you to love everyone?” Logan asked softly.
Gemma smiled at him. “Yes. Yes, he does. But you see, angels are held to a different standard. By nature we are caring and giving, but we are to only love God. That’s why we are angels, his most loyal and devoted servants.”
“So you fell in love with Callum? And you were punished?” I asked.
“Yes, I did love Callum. And he loved me.” She glanced at Cole, who was stone-faced, so she continued. “I got into some trouble one time when I came down to Earth. I see now that it was because I was distracted, too involved with my own feelings to see what was going on around me. I was captured by some rogue fallen angels. Angels who should’ve been in hell, but were on Earth. Callum was there; he saw what happened. As a human, he was powerless against my kind. I begged him to go, to leave. And he did.”
“He left you there?” Cole said, disgusted.
“Yes,” Gemma said sadly. “He went and made a deal. A deal with Beelzebub. He sacrificed his humanity and the humanity of his family bloodline to become a hellhound so he would have enough strength to help me.”
I gasped.
Riley yawned.
“He rescued me.” Her voice faded away and she shook her head. “But he was foolish. He should’ve known making a deal with evil would only create more evil.”
At this, Riley stiffened.
“So what happened?” Cole asked.
“Well, I was banished from heaven because I fell in love with a human… a human that basically made a deal with the devil… and despite his hellhound status, I loved him anyway.”
She looked at me and I nodded. I knew exactly what it was like.
“But because my greatest crime was falling in love, I was sent to Earth instead of being sent to hell. I was stripped of my wings, but still able to keep some of my powers. I have dedicated my life to seeking and destroying evil.”
“But what about Callum? Where is he?” Logan asked.
Gemma was silent a moment. “We were happy for a while. But after he changed… he was different. The goodness in him had fallen prey to the binds that held him to hell. I was trying to help him, to deny the darkness in him, but Beelzebub wouldn’t allow it. He showed up one day with an amulet”—she fingered the pouch at her waist—“keeping Callum from shifting, from being able to defend himself and then he killed him.”
Finished with her tale, Gemma looked up. Anguish stole over her features, and for the first time, I truly understood why she was so reluctant to let anybody in.
Cole cleared his throat. I wanted to reach out to him, but I didn’t think he would let me and I didn’t want to draw attention to the fact this story was breaking him. But then he did something beautiful. Instead of focusing on how crappy he felt (it was all over his aura), he reached out to Gemma and put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”
Gemma cleared her throat and then looked at him. “Thank you.”
I didn’t know what to say. She risked everything to be with the man she loved and then he was killed and she was left alone to walk the earth forever.
“Such a sad tale.” Riley drawled, drawing all of our stares.
“How does this relate to Riley?” I asked.
“Callum was my grandfather,” Riley replied.
My eyes widened in shock. Even Cole seemed taken aback.
Gemma nodded. “I had known Callum had a son, and after he was killed, I checked in on him from time to time. When Riley was born, I kept a close eye on the family because I knew the hellhound gene would surface in him.”
“Because of the deal Callum made with Beelzebub,” I said, looking at Riley with new eyes. What must it be like to know that his grandfather had made a deal that literally took away some of his humanity?
“Yes. I always watched them from afar, until the summer Riley turned ten.”
Riley’s mouth flattened.
“He had no idea what was going on with his body or how to control it. He was so
much like Callum…” Gemma’s voice faded away. Cole finally became restless and got to his feet and wandered off, but stayed close by.
Gemma watched him, no doubt wondering if she should go after him.
“Give him a minute to cool off,” I said.
Gemma nodded. “It took a while, but I made friends with the family and I tried to spend as much time with Riley as I could. I taught him about what was happening and how to control his movements. I didn’t want someone to use one of those amulets against him like they had Callum.”
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