by Weil, J. L.
“That was payback,” I said with clenched teeth, recalling that time in the woods when she had given me a bloody lip.
She gave me an evil grin, blood dripping from her mouth. “I bet that felt good.”
Hell yes it did. But there wasn’t time to gloat. I had to make this count. Keeping those fierce eyes of hate locked with mine, I weaved into her head. My chest rose and fell rapidly from exertion.
I didn’t exhale until I saw those piercing green eyes go lax. She was at my mercy now. I forced my voice to be as steady and smooth as possible. “Howdy, Emma. Let’s get down to business, shall we? You are not to move a muscle. Understood?”
She just stared at me, lying underneath me still as a board with a puffy lip.
Well, that worked like a charm.
“Now listen up. I am going to tell you this once. Chase never laid a finger on your father. He had nothing to do with his death. It was, umm…”
For the love of God. Why hadn’t I come up with a new cover story? My mind scrambled for a believable explanation. “He fell out of a tree and broke his neck.”
I cringed. That was the lamest excuse. Lexi scoffed behind me, but I ignored her and barreled forward. “There was nothing anyone could have done to save him. Travis has been helping you through your grief. He loves you.”
There, that should do it. I was feeling pretty darn good about myself. I’m a freaking rock star.
“Oh, just one more thing,” I added as an afterthought. “You don’t want to kill me or any Divisa for that matter. Actually, you like me. We’re friends.” Eyes still zeroed in on mine, she looked at me blankly. It was hard to know if she was really absorbing everything I said.
Crossing my Ts and dotting my Is, I prayed this worked. “I am going to let you up now. You are going to go home and call Travis. You won’t remember this or the fight before.”
Ever so slowly, I eased off her, afraid to make any sudden movements. She looked dead. Wouldn’t that have been my luck? If I accidently killed her with my mind? Once the thought entered my head, I began to panic. Was she breathing? Why wasn’t she moving?
I let out a huge sigh of relief when I saw her finger twitch.
Staring at the marshmallow clouds in the sky, Emma blinked. I offered her a hand and waited. A weak smile stretched on my lips. “I think you should go home, Emma. You look tired.”
It took a moment, but eventually she nodded her head. There was a spacey look on her face, and I wondered if I should have driven her home. The thought was cut short.
Lexi bounced up beside me. “That was fucking awesome,” she gushed in awe.
My mouth dropped open.
I couldn’t decide if I was more surprised that Lexi swore or that she found me awesome. On second thought, it had been pretty freaking amazing. I wanted to do it again, and I was starting to think that there was something to this ass kicking stuff.
“Really, it was nothing.” I brought my throbbing hand to my chest, cradling it. “God, I didn’t think that was going to hurt so much.”
Her hair was windblown and messy from the tussle, but she still looked phenomenal. “Chase is going to blow a gasket when he finds out what we did.”
Talk about a buzzkill. Thanks, Lexi. My heart squeezed in my chest. “Christ, don’t remind me.” It wouldn’t be the first or last time I made him angry.
She giggled. “I’ll never look at you the same.”
My eyes caught a glimpse of a red stain on Lexi’s white sleeve, and I thought it was odd. She was always pristine; she never spilled crud on herself, not like me. Then I remembered—the blade. “She cut you,” I proclaimed, feeling woozy.
Absently she touched her arm at the bright red spot. “It’s only a scratch. I’ll be fine.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Now you are starting to sound like Chase,” I mumbled.
“You did it!” she squealed. I found myself in a tight hug. Too tight.
“Lex,” I wheezed. “I. Can’t. Breathe.”
“Oh right. It’s so easy to forget with you.” She let out another shrilling screech. “I wish I could see Travis’s face.”
“So I take it I said the right stuff?”
Her grin said it all. “You killed it, sista.”
All right. Enough with the sister references. My mom was not marrying Devin. Not in this lifetime, but the more I tried to convince myself, the less I believed it. “What do we do now?” I asked, peeking at my watch. There were still twenty minutes of class left.
She looped an arm through mine. “Mani!”
I hoped she was joking.
Chapter 9
I did not get that manicure. No matter how much she pouted those perfect lips. No matter how much she begged. It would take an act of God to get me into a nail salon again. Just the word emery board made me shudder.
Instead, I hid out in Chase’s car with my earbuds in and waited for the final bell to buzz. Lexi had been all geeked up demon-adrenaline, so she went for a run, assumingly to get pampered in town after I’d rejected her a dozen times. My body was sluggish and exhausted. I’d never used that much compulsion before, and it drained me.
I closed my eyes and let the sun warm my skin. I must have dozed off, because the next think I knew, I heard a voice that sounded like satin.
“What are you doing?” Chase asked.
He must have tugged the headphones from my ears, because they were hanging around my neck. I had fallen asleep with Katy Perry roaring in my ear. Waking up to Chase’s silver eyes, and the sunlight at his back, I almost thought I was dreaming. Then I felt the tingles at my hip, and a swirling of concern, amusement, and wary. Not to mention the scent of pure sin that followed him everywhere.
I took a deep sniff, and my brain went fuzzy.
Rubbing my sleepy eyes, I tried to figure out what I was doing sleeping in the school parking lot. Details were wishy-washy; however, it didn’t take long for the suds to clear. Emma. Fight. Brainwashing. It all flashed to the forefront of my mind.
He flipped my hair over my shoulder, his fingers brushing along my neck. “What are you doing ditching classes? Why wasn’t I invited? And where the hell is Lexi?”
I stretched out like a lazy kitten after a catnap, and then tucked my legs underneath me. He would feel put out because we had skipped class without him. In its current state, my brain wasn’t able to process all the questions he tossed at me. So I answered the easiest one. “She went to get her nails done.”
“Her nails? Christ. What trouble did you two cause that I will now have to clean up?” he asked, jumping to conclusions—accurate ones at that. We might have caused a small hiccup in the order of the universe.
But whatever.
“Can you take me home first?” I wanted a few more minutes to collect my thoughts. “Then I’ll tell you everything.” I couldn’t believe how tired I was.
“Everything?” He must have seen the exhaustion on my face.
I peeked up at him from under my half-lidded eyes. “Of course.”
He started the low rumble of the engine. “Angel, why do I get the feeling that I’m not going to like where this is going?”
Probably because he could read my emotions and right now as tired as I was, I didn’t have it in me to put up any walls. I sighed. “Just promise me you aren’t going to whoop Lexi’s butt. It was, after all, my stupid idea.”
“Gee, how could I refuse a promise like that?”
“Say it.”
He held one hand in the air. “Scouts honor.”
I snorted. “You were probably a sucky Scout.”
The smirk on his face had the potential to stop hearts—most definitely mine.
The ride home was quiet and nail biting. Not that I had much nails left to chew. At this point I was munching on skin. He pulled into my driveway, and the sound of tires crunching under crisp snow made me grimace. We walked into the house, and my eyes followed him.
Chase cracked his neck. “Spill your beans. Your anxiousness is giving me heartbu
rn.”
Just peachy.
I twiddled my fingers, eyes averted. “Uh…” I deadpanned.
Then, by the grace of Travis, I was momentarily saved. He busted through my door, zooming into my house like a cyclone. I was engulfed into a hug that knocked me off my feet, and before I could catch my breath, he had me up in the air, swinging in dizzying circles. It was worse than running light-speed with Chase. I thought my head was going to explode.
I swayed when he put me on my feet. “Oh, God. I think I’m gonna hurl.”
Chase backed up. “Not on my shoes you aren’t.”
I gave him a pathetic death glare. My eyes were sort of crisscrossed. Blasted demon speeds. Travis kept an arm around me, and I could feel his exuberance radiating off him. “Please don’t ever do that again,” I said green-faced.
His smile was so wide his dimples were even sparkling. “I can’t thank you enough.” He spoke softly, his gemstone eyes glistening.
I swallowed hard, pretending I wasn’t about to cry. My eyes connected with Chase’s as he uplifted that brow with the hoop. The one I loved.
“What was that for?” he asked. There was genuine confusion and hope on his beautiful face. Hope that his cousin, in some holy miracle, had forgiven us. I missed that look, the one that said how much he had missed this charming side of Travis, but I wasn’t able to savor the moment for long, or the feelings that were bursting inside me.
My stomach dropped, but this time for entirely different reason. I knew that I was going to have to squash that thread of hope, and it killed something inside of me.
Chase’s head whipped from his grinning cousin to me with a menacing scowl that had the hairs on my neck standing up and my tattoo tingling.
Shitballs.
He stared at me, clearly unimpressed. “You didn’t.”
Silence.
I cursed our bond and its emotion sharing.
In a snap, his eyes burned golden, and his voice dropped ten octaves lower. “God damn it, Angel. Do I have to handcuff you to me?”
My dark eyebrow rose in consideration. Handcuffs? Chase? “I don’t see how that could be bad.”
He let out a long growl of frustration. There was no telling what he was going to do next.
“Chase, I didn’t have a choice,” I defended my claim.
Pain flashed across his eyes. And I knew that he saw my actions as a betrayal to his trust. To him. “We always have a choice.”
Then he was gone.
He didn’t scream at me.
He didn’t throw me over his shoulder.
He just left.
“Son of a bitch,” I muttered, followed by a string of very inventive swear words.
“Umm. I second that,” Travis said, coming to stand next to me, staring at the open door.
I wrapped my arms around myself as a chill blew through the house, knocking papers to the floor. Shuffling my feet, I kicked the door shut. It felt like I had slammed the door on my heart. It hurt.
But for Travis’s sake, I slapped on a small smile. “Did you see her?” I asked.
An ear-splitting grin appeared on his lips. “I didn’t think you would actually do it.”
I shrugged. “I’d do anything for you.”
The dimpled-smile disappeared slowly, and he looked at the floor. “I am sorry about what happened in the woods.”
Right-o. I was ready to let bygones be bygones, even if that had been a sad excuse to hurt Chase. I didn’t really want to sit here and rehash all the wrong we’d done or the crappy decisions we’d made. So I didn’t say anything. I just let him ramble on because he seemed like he needed to get it off his chest.
“It’s weird. I remember some of the things I’ve done the last few weeks, but most of the memories are as if they belong to someone else.” He dropped down onto my zebra-print couch. “The things I did…” His voice trailed off.
I tilted my head sideways, studying him. “It can’t be worse than the shit Chase has done.” Once the words left my mouth, I kind of wanted to slap myself. Talk about putting my foot in my super-sized mouth. “Wow, that…was probably too soon. Me and my big mouth.”
“Angel, it’s fine. I don’t pretend to think that Chase is something he’s not, and I don’t think there is anything you can say that will darken my mood. Not today. You gave me back my life.”
I didn’t know about that, but I sat there for a moment, thinking if the roles had been reversed and that if it was Chase and I torn apart, how it would make me feel. I understood more than Travis probably realized, though I think I would have been worse, if possible. Not that I was lessening what Travis felt for Emma, but Chase and I, we did everything on epic levels.
Including love.
I scrunched up my face. “I am not sure about that, but I owed it to you.”
He put his hands on his knees. “Well, no matter what my jackass cousin thinks, I say you’re a genius.”
A natural smile spread across my lips. “Damn straight. It’s about time someone recognized.”
He chuckled. “Man, I’ve missed you.”
“How about we play a round of Search and Destroy sometime soon?” I couldn’t stop from asking.
“You’re on.”
For the first time in weeks, the world felt right as rain.
Once Travis left, I hit the shower. Stripping off my ratty clothes, I dropped them on the floor and stepped into the steaming spray. I stood under the hot water until I looked like a shriveled raisin. As I turned off the water I felt the familiar tingles. I wondered what he would do if I walked out, goods showing and all. Something told me he wouldn’t even bat an eye. Twisting in front of the mirror, I hissed in horror, catching a sight of a bluish-yellow mark on my shoulder. Yuck. Quickly pulling on a t-shirt, I hid the bruise. The last thing I needed was for him to see that. No reason to add fuel to Chase’s fire when it would be healed by tomorrow anyhoo.
I opened the door, my hair dark and damp, and our gazes locked.
Sprawled out, with his hands behind his head, he took up my whole dang bed. I didn’t know what to do, so I stood in the center of my room and nervously gnawed on my lower lip. The silence was killing me. “I’m sorry, for everything,” my lame apology rolled from my mouth.
He zipped in front of me, and I searched his eyes for any sign of his demon. It was just Chase, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t about to get my ass chewed. “What you did was reckless and stupid. I just spent the last few hours making sure your shenanigan don’t blow back in your face.”
A smorgasbord of feelings fluttered in my belly, confusion being one of the more prominent ones. I slanted my head, trying to figure out want he meant.
“Emma’s mom. Her little sister,” he supplied. “You bet your sweet booty that they know the truth surrounding Eric’s death. You don’t think they might find it a little odd that Emma suddenly isn’t angry at the world anymore? That she has feelings again for a half-demon?”
“Umm, I hadn’t really thought that far ahead.” He brought up some valid points, but that didn’t mean I liked knowing I’d jumped in fully without thinking the whole thing through. So Lexi and I weren’t great masterminds. Sue me. My heart had been in the right place.
“But, you were right,” he said, brushing aside a clump of my wet hair. “It had to be done, just with a little more finesse.”
And that was why I had him. To finagle all the little details that never crossed my mind.
I blinked. “What? Hang on.” I scrambled around the room in search of my phone.
“What are you doing?” he asked, watching me tear apart a pile of crap on my floor.
Why could I never remember where I put anything? Finally. I snatched it from under a stack of clothes I had tossed off my bed earlier. “Say it again,” I said, switching my phone to camera view. “I need this to go on record. That way I never forget.”
He gave me a dry look, which I captured on film. It was adorable. I couldn’t help but crack a small smile.
“Not happening. I only apologize once. But…I can give you something else to remember.” He proceeded to wink at the camera and blow me a kiss. There were flecks of gold that glinted off the camera’s lens.
Good grief. I almost dropped the thing.
I hit the stop button and glanced up. “Does this mean we are okay?”
His lips turned into a sexy grin. “As if I could ever stay mad at you.” His hands circled my waist. “But that does not mean that I condone what you did.”
I laid my cheek on his chest.
“I also understand why you did it. If I could have, I would have done the same. I wouldn’t have hesitated, but you have to realize, Angel Eyes, the dangers you put yourself in when you use those abilities. If anything happened to you…”
I put my finger to his lips, silencing those thoughts. “Nothing is going to happen to me. You won’t allow it.”
Usually that would have enticed a smug smile from the jerk, but not tonight. He stared off over my shoulder, lost in thought.
“What else is going on?” I asked, feeling just an underlying worry seeping inside me. The closer he was to me, the easier I found it to zero in on what he was feeling. It had taken a little effort to weed through, but I had sensed there was something buried that he didn’t want me to feel.
When he didn’t answer right away, I contemplated pinching him. Finally, he let out a heavy, reluctant sigh. “I didn’t want to worry you.”
Too late. Immediately I felt a rise of panic in my chest.
He laced our fingers together. “This is exactly why I haven’t said anything,” he replied, feeling my rapid heartbeat.
I pinned him with a glare. “Spit it out already before I go into full panic mode.”
He went to my window. “There is something coming. I can sense it in the air.” His body was lined with tension.
“What is it?” If there was one thing I’d learned, it was you don’t screw with demon intuition.
His shoulders slumped, and I could feel his aggravation. “That’s just it. I don’t know and it’s got me on edge.” A muscle feathered under his jaw.
Yikes. Not good.
I walked to him, winding my hands around his waist. “So what do we do, wait for it to find us?” I really hated being a sitting duck while something decided to stalk me.