Hunting Angel (A Divisa Novel, Book 2) (Divisa Series)

by Weil, J. L.

  The shadowy figure must have heard my gasp and turned toward me before I had a chance to bolt. I expected to see hallowed eyes without a soul or the eyes the color of blood not aqua eyes brimming with sadness.

  “Travis?” I expelled on a rush of air. Stepping closer into the room, I could make out his sharp cheekbones, his frowning mouth, and his moppy sandy hair. “What the hell? You literally just shaved off ten years of my life. Between you and Chase, I don’t know how many I have left.”

  “Sorry,” he apologized, his voice falling flat, not at all like the usual carefree disposition I was accustomed to.

  Plopping my badonkadonk down on the sofa beside Travis, I didn’t bother with the lights. Darkness seemed to suit both our moods. Misery really did love company, and he looked like he could use a friend. Why he chose me was mind-boggling. I could only assume this surprise visit was about Emma.

  I looked at my friend and for the first time since I had known him, he seemed deflated. Not at all like the Adonis God I associated him to. His shirt was wrinkled as if he just threw on whatever was lying on the floor. His eyes were ringed in puffiness and dark circles. And a single whiff said he desperately needed a shower. Travis looked like crapola.

  “Talk to me, what’s going on?” I kept my voice soft.

  He ran both hands through his already wild hair. “Nobody gets it. Not what’s running through my head, or how I am feeling inside. They’ve tried to pretend nothing is different, but that’s just it. Everything is different. To make matters worse…the one person I want to talk to…the one who would get it. Well, I can’t be sure she won’t try to stake me before hearing me out.” He dropped his head into his hands.

  I scooted closer to him on the couch. My heart lurched inside my ribcage for him, for his evident pain. “Travis,” I said gently. “I can’t pretend to understand what you are going through, but I’ll listen. I won’t judge you for what you’re feeling. Trust me, if I can be tied to your dumbass cousin, then I must have the empathy of a freaking saint.” My jab at Chase got me the smallest of a smirk. It was a start.

  Emma’s return had messed with his head. “I’ve never experienced a shock like that. It jolted through my system, I was useless against it,” he said, bringing the memories back to life. “A part of me never expected to see her again. Never see her face. Never hear her voice. Touch her. It was surreal. Just the sight of her stole the breath from my lungs.”

  I thought about what he said, seeing someone you thought was gone from your life forever. I knew that if my dad suddenly appeared one day, I would drop dead on the spot. All things considered, I thought Travis handled the situation as well as was expected.

  His voice quivered ever so slightly. “Emma and I don’t have the kind of link you and Chase do, but I would have given my life for hers a million times over. That has to count for something.”

  “It does,” I assured with compassion.

  He lifted his head, meeting my eyes with so much pain swimming in them. “I feel like I should have done something. I should have known she was in trouble, that she needed me.”

  His guilt was monumental. It stifled the air. He blamed himself for what had happened to Emma, for her transformation into a vicious hunter. How did one absolve that kind of blame from his shoulders? I couldn’t stand to see Travis take such a gigantic heap of fault onto him. It was unfair, unjust, and plain out bullshit. “Travis, you couldn’t have known. This guilt you’re carrying around is going to eat you up inside, and it’s not what Emma would want. Not the Emma you knew.”

  He didn’t look convinced. “Maybe,” he conceded, but I could tell that he was just being polite, he didn’t really believe it. I wasn’t sure there was anything I could have said that would have made a difference.

  Of course I wasn’t one to give up.

  “Emma showed up at school this week,” I said, unsure whether it was a wise decision to tell him. I took the chance.

  “She was?” There was a touch of hope in his voice. It killed me to have to crush it.

  I nodded and pulled my legs under me. “Yeah.”

  He took a deep breath. “I’m guessing by your tone, it didn’t go well.”

  “Depends on who you talk to. School was definitely buzzing, that’s for sure. I’d never heard so much outlandish gibberish in my life.”

  “That’s a small town for you. News like that is the biggest thing of the year. It tops Fall Harvest.”

  Good Lord. The peeps of Spring Valley needed to get a life.

  Travis’s lashes lowered. “Did she…”

  “Try to shank me in the hall?” I supplied, only partially joking. “No, but I got the impression that she would have liked to cut out my tongue.” That might not have been the smartest answer, but sometimes my mouth is flapping before I realize what I was saying.

  “I don’t know what to do,” he admitted, sounding more saddened than ever. Some friend I was. “This is a disaster. I know Chase. He will stop at nothing to protect you.”

  I swallowed, getting an idea of where his mind was leading to. Travis was worried, and probably rightly so, that Chase would harm the girl he was still in love with to protect me. The girl he was secretly hoping he could save. I didn’t know if I should pity him or condone him for his perseverance, because there was a very good possibility that Chase would do just that.

  And I wasn’t positive I would try to stop him.

  He must have seen the doubt in my eyes. Pivoting on the couch faster than my eyes could follow, he grabbed my hand. “Angel, I can save her. I know I can.” There was hysteria bubbling in his voice. He desperately wanted me to believe. “I just need the chance, and I know that I can get through to her. Somewhere inside there is a girl who loved me once. I know that she is still in there. I can feel it.”

  Squeezing his hand, I held his gaze and looked deep into his wide-eyes. I had to do something. Say something. Quickly. During his saving Emma speech, Travis’s eyes had started to glow brighter than the sun.

  “Travis, hey. Listen to me.” My eyes never wavered, and his were intently captured with mine. I watched a little staggered as his irises slowly calmed. Slap me silly and call me crazy, but that was weird. “Everything is going to be okay. I promise. I won’t let Chase hurt Emma.” I don’t know why I made such a declaration, because honestly it was far from the truth. No way did I know that everything was going to be fine, or if I could actually prevent Chase from slicing and dicing Emma. She made it pretty clear she was trying to kill us. But I had to say something before he went into demon-freak-out-mode.

  His eyes were still locked on mine, unblinking. It was like I had him captivated under my spell, but I was mostly certainly not a witch. Well, I was 99% sure I wasn’t. At this point, even the impossible was probably possible.

  Then in a snap I saw clarity come back into his expression, like a cloudy haze had been lifted from him. “D-did you just compel me?” Travis accused.

  “What?” I shot, taken aback.

  “This is bad, I got that blank spot in my head, though this is the first time I’ve ever experienced it. I had no idea what it felt like. You just got inside my head,” he told me.

  “Na-unh. I did not.” I sounded like a five-year old.

  He just stared at me oddly. Shifting uncomfortably under his astonished gaze, I couldn’t take the suspense any longer. “Okay, say that I did,” I conceded. “Is it a big deal?” I’d never done anything like this. Heck, I didn’t even know that I had done it or what exactly I had done.

  He shrugged, finally waking from his daze of wonder. “Depends, I guess. We’re not supposed to be susceptible to compulsion, so I can only guess that some Divisa’s won’t take well to knowing you can manipulate their minds.”

  I cringed. Sierra’s name popped into my head. “Great,” I muttered dryly.

  “Chase has no idea how incredibly fortunate he is to have you. I’m gonna kick his ass later for putting that shadow of pain in your eyes.”

  I rolled my eyes.


  “By the way…did you know your eyes change colors?” he asked offhandedly.

  Damnation. What next? Was I going to sprout horns and blow fire? Fortunately this wasn’t a surprise. Chase had already confirmed that my eyes did that freaky-color-fluctuating-thingy.

  I hugged one of the couch throw pillows, averting my gaze to the mocha carpet. “Just one more of the many perks of being brought back from the dead,” I mumbled.

  A corner of his mouth lifted. “Well, it’s kind of hot.”

  I grinned despite myself, and then promptly hit him with the pillow.

  He dodged it of course, chuckling. “And if that leaves this room, I will deny, deny, deny until I’m six feet under. I really don’t want to mess up this face.” He rubbed a hand under his two-day growth chin. “It would be such a damn shame if that happened.”

  And I saw a hint of sparkle in his teal eyes, just like the old charming Travis.

  There it was. What I was looking for.

  A ray of hope.

  Chapter 16

  “Angel!” Mom bellowed from downstairs.

  I just barely heard her through my headset. Flipping the off switch on my Xbox, I put aside the controller, and opened my bedroom door. “One sec!” I yelled back as I started to descend the stairs.

  It was the start of Thanksgiving break and that meant quality time with my mom. Seeing her in the kitchen mixing a bowl of what I hoped would be pumpkin pie, I realized how much I missed her. Between my school, her job and now Devin, we hardly saw each other. Sometimes it felt like we were more roommates than mother and daughter.

  She had an atrocious apron tied around her waist, a jazzy CD on low in the background, a streak of flour on her cheek, and her honey hair piled like a nest on top of her head. She looked beautiful. For the first time my house didn’t feel old and creepy. It felt homey.

  I jumped up on the corner of the counter, the only one without clutter and food ingredients, and my mom grinned at me. I tried not to think about the last time I’d been up on this counter. How I’d been wrapped around Chase. Pangs of longing I couldn’t control stabbed my heart. Days without him were taking its toll, but my stubbornness won out.

  “What’s up?” I asked, sticking my finger in the bowl.

  She swatted my hand, but not before I scoped some batter. “So, I wanted to run an idea by you,” she began. Her spoon paused.

  Uh-oh. What now?

  “Please tell me you’re not preggers,” I said. Apparently I had sex on the brain, and it wasn’t wasted on me that there was probably a good chance my mom was doing the deed with Devin.

  I shuddered at the thought. Ick.

  “Angel, you’d make a great big sister. But no, there are no little babies in our future.” She gave me a pointed look. “Right?”

  “Funny.”

  “Just checking. Anyway, that is not what I wanted to talk about. I was thinking about having the Winters clan over for Thanksgiving dinner. Devin isn’t much of a cook, and I thought it would be good for them. And us. A family dinner.” She looked at me with her big brown eyes, waiting to see how I would respond.

  At the end of the day, I knew that what I wanted was all that really matter to her. So if I made a stink about this, we would be having Thanksgiving with just the two of us. The way it had been the last few years and I liked it that way. But I also knew that things never stayed the same. Change was inevitable. I looked into my mom’s warm eyes and I saw, really saw that Devin made her happy. She sacrificed so much for me. Didn’t she deserve happiness?

  “That sounds great,” I heard myself say.

  “Really?” she asked like she couldn’t believe that I was being serious.

  I jumped off the counter. “Really, Mom,” I assured and gave her a hug.

  “Devin and I weren’t sure. He thought that you and Chase had a lovers’ spat. Is everything okay?”

  My mom usually lacked the normal internal motherly instinct, so I wasn’t surprised that Devin might have mentioned something to her. I still wasn’t pleased by it.

  “We aren’t lovers,” was the first thing out of my mouth. “And we’re fine.”

  Lie, screamed a voice inside my head. He still hadn’t spoken to me.

  “Well it should be eventful,” she said, squeezing my shoulder.

  I didn’t doubt that.

  ~*~*~*~

  Thanksgiving with a bunch of half-demons, my mom, and her boyfriend…sounded like a recipe for disaster. The dreaded holiday was upon me in all its anticipated emotional conflict. “This is going to be worse than a root canal,” I mumbled to my bedroom ceiling. We had the kind of ceilings that had the little popcorn balls on them. Sometimes if I stared long enough, I could make out creepy shapes and faces. To say my house more than often gave me the willies was an understatement.

  Laying there on my back, my thoughts drifted to Chase, and how I would be forced to be in close quarters with him. We had successfully eluded the other like pros and the space was bittersweet. Now, the thought of seeing him filled me with a mixture of apprehension and impatience. Whether I wanted to admit it to myself or not…I missed the jerk.

  What was wrong with me?

  I’ll tell you. It was the damn curse that bound my soul to his for all eternity. Lord help me.

  Swinging out of bed, I headed into the bathroom to steam in a very long, indulgent hot shower. Afterward, I threw in some hair product and dried my dark locks. I guess since it was a holiday, I could attempt to look nice, but that still meant no dress. Scurrying through my closet, I tugged on a pair of skinny jeans with no holes and a blouse with the tags still on.

  My mom was going to be so impressed.

  Butterflies buzzed in my belly as I rounded down the stairs. I knew before I even left my room that he was in the house. It might have been why I lingered upstairs for as long as possible, not yet ready to face him, and at the same time bursting to see him. I couldn’t explain. It wasn’t logical.

  My mom’s gentle humming could be heard over the clattering of pots and pans. I stepped into the kitchen. “Glad you could join the living,” she said when she saw me. “Oh Angel. You look lovely.”

  “Thanks,” I mumbled, a ball of nerves moving through the room. And then the smell of something familiar tickled my nose, and it wasn’t turkey. Sharp tingles frolicked along my skin. My heart rate spiked.

  Chase.

  I had to fight every crazy and irrational instinct to turn around and throw myself into his arms. Knowing D-bag, I’d probably end up on my butt. Deliberately, I spun around ever so slowly. When my eyes latched onto him, I immediately forgot to breathe. Sooty lashes, fanning the tips of his cheeks hid his eyes as he looked me over. I found myself impatient to see the color of his eyes. Silver or gold? Which would they be?

  Was his heart beating a thousand miles a minute like mine was?

  Had he suffered as I had the in last week?

  God, I hoped so.

  The room around me vanished and the suspense was killing me. I willed him to look at me. And then our eyes met. A burst of sunlight exploded inside me, filling my entire being with warmth. I took a step forward. Wanting…Needing…to be closer to him. It was unfair that only this guy could make me feel so crazy, him of all people. A lazy smile crossed his lips as his eyes ran over my face, eating up the sight of me.

  I shivered.

  “Angel.”

  That was all he said. Just my name and I was melting faster than an ice cream cone on a hot summer’s night. The sound of his voice tore through me. I never wanted anything so much in my life as I wanted the touch of his hand and to feel his arms around me. My control was only so great, I had to close me eyes against it, and my hands balled to fists at my side.

  Still it wasn’t enough.

  As if he understood what I wanted, his hand moved toward my face. I leaned forward and–

  “Angel.” My mom said my name behind me like she was disciplining a bad puppy. “Why don’t you offer our guests something to eat
or drink while I finish up with dinner,” she suggested, breaking our enthralled contact.

  That had been close. Too close.

  He hadn’t even touched me and I’d made a complete and utter idiot of myself standing there like I was awestruck by his hottness. Okay, let’s face it, I had been. That was irrelevant. What I needed was stronger willpower for frickin’ sake. There was no reason we couldn’t have a nice family dinner without ripping into each other or jumping each other’s bones on the dining room table.

  Or so I hoped.

  With one long deep breath, I turned and grabbed a platter from the island. Smiling sweetly I walked into the family room, stopping in front of Chase. My eyes glittered with sarcastic humor. “Devil egg?” I asked, holding out a tray of the little white halves with gooey yellow tops.

  Travis coughed covering a laugh. Devin frowned. Lexi giggled. The corners of Chase’s mouth tilted, and I tried not to stare at his lips, failing miserably.

  This was going well.

  Setting the platter down, I joined the others. There was a football game on the TV, occupying the guys’ attention. I caught Chase glancing at me as much as I snuck glances at him. Lexi was thumbing through a few of my mom’s magazines looking bored.

  Excusing myself for a moment, I needed air. Being within arm’s reach of Chase was making my insides go bananas. So I snuck off into the hallway thinking I could cure myself of him with some distance. But he was like a deadly disease. There wasn’t a cure. No pill. No remedy. No medical procedure. I leaned my head against the wall and blinked.

  Chase popped in front of me and I shrieked. My heart pounded in my ears, and I swung at him, hitting only air. He moved to the side. “Christ. I hate when you do that. I swear you do it just to piss me off.”

  “Which isn’t hard to do Angel Eyes.” His eyes were laughing at me.

  I made a face.

  “Are we going to kiss and make-up now?” he asked, blocking any escape with his powerful body. It was rippled, chiseled, and toned in all the right places.

  I gave him an uninterested expression. “Don’t hold your breath.”