by JL Weil
Lexi shot to her feet and started to pace in front of the bed, working off the sudden excess energy pumping inside her. “What did she ask for in return? What’s his debt?”
I swallowed the coffee, which tasted stale in my mouth. “You…and Travis.”
She stopped abruptly, tiny flecks of gold in her sea foam eyes. “Me? What does she want?”
My shoulders lifted. “Who knows? She said to talk, but Chase doesn’t trust her. He didn’t bring her here. Kira came on her own, probably to stir up trouble.”
“I’m not so sure,” Emma said.
“You can’t tell me that you, the hunter, is actually thinking about trusting a demon. What has the world come to?” Lexi plopped down on the bed next to me, her weight sinking the mattress.
“If she meant you harm, why has it taken her almost twenty years to show her face? Have you ever fought a demon with your mark?” Emma asked.
Lexi bit her lip, staring at her pink walls. “We don’t always strip-search them before we kill them.”
I controlled a smirk tugging on my lips.
“There is something about her… I just can’t put my finger on it.”
“Chase has the same feeling,” I added.
“It’s so hard to believe she doesn’t have a selfish agenda. Being nice is not in a demon’s genetic makeup. They’re vindictive, cruel, and a-holes,” Lexi said, hitting it on the nose.
Emma’s freckle-dusted face contorted into a grin. “Go with the pink. It will compliment your complexion.”
Lexi’s eyes beamed. Getting a compliment from Emma was uncommon. “Thank you. Was that so hard?”
“Like pulling teeth,” Emma mumbled.
It struck me again how different we were, but in this moment, I couldn’t be happier to have them by my side.
Chapter 23
{Angel}
I flopped on my bed with a sigh, unable to stop thinking that soon this would no longer be my room. Some other girl would be sleeping in the room with walls the color of Chase’s eyes, staring at the network of cracks that traveled from the ceiling corner. It was a disconcerting thought, but I couldn’t actually expect Mom to live alone in this house forever simply because I’d grown attached to it.
Gah.
I was going to miss this room. A swell of emotion rose in my throat, and I chewed on my lip to keep it from quivering. Again with the changes. Too many of them coming at me all at once, and my future so uncertain. What kind of life would Chase and I have if we couldn’t destroy the one demon that had turned my world upside down? Like Chase, Alastair didn’t have the type of personality that gave up easily. He wasn’t done with me.
The darkness inside me was a constant reminder.
On the flipside, for the first time in weeks, I finally felt as if I was the one in control. Not my fear. Not the seed of darkness inside me. Not my anger. Just me. Learning to defend myself had been a big part of regaining the confidence I’d lost and finding me again.
It was about time.
I was drawing lazy circles over the pattern on my bed, deep in thought when a powerhouse of tingles galloped down my spine. A knock sounded on the door and I blinked. Chase.
Turning off the music playing in the background, I yelled for him to come in. Seconds later a gorgeous figure darkened my doorway. It didn’t matter if I’d seen him an hour ago or a week; I always had the same overwhelming reaction. And because he was a total hottie and I couldn’t help myself, I jumped into his arms, throwing my hands around the nape of his neck.
“Hey,” he said, pressing against me and nuzzling his face in my hair.
“Hey yourself.”
The tip of his nose butted mine. “Take a walk with me?”
“Perimeter check?”
He shook his head. “Travis and Emma took care of it. Nothing unusual. No sign of trouble. I just thought it was a nice night for a walk.”
“You did, did you?” He had something up his sleeve, and whatever it was, it was making him nervous and, in turn, made me suspicious.
A lock of hair fell over his forehead as he shoved his hands into his pockets. “Are you going to be difficult?”
I opened my mouth and then shut it. Chase and I could argue about the color of the sun, but something in his mood led me to believe that today was not the day to be obstinate. “Where are we going?”
“I want to show you something.” He held out his hand, waiting for me to take it.
Fine. He wanted to be mysterious, so be it. Some days it was better to indulge Chase. I placed my hand in his, enfolding our fingers together. “Lead the way, Romeo.”
Outside, I stretched my face up to the sky, letting the nippy wind wash over my cheeks. Chase scanned the dense, dark surrounding forest before guiding us toward the fields. It was dusk, and I let my eyes adjust, illuminating over the trail.
“Do you remember when you followed me into these fields?”
Wheat tickled my nose. I swatted at the stalks in front of my face. “How can I forget? It was the night I found out you were more than an ass.”
He smiled. “That was the most gutsy thing I’d ever done, letting down my guard and taking a chance you’d keep my secret.”
“I did keep your secret.”
“Yes you did, and I’m glad.”
“Well, you sure didn’t act like it.”
His eyes glowed an uncanny silver in the moonlight. “You didn’t exactly make it easy.”
The air smelled of autumn spices and Chase. I took it all in, savoring the scent. “Did you bring me out here to take a trip down memory lane?”
“Sort of.” Our fingers interlaced as we went deeper into the fields. “Before things can possibly get any crazier, there is something I’ve been working up the courage to ask you.”
“Since when do you lack courage?”
“Just like back then, you’re not going to make this easy, are you? That’s not our way.” We stepped into a circular clearing.
“Make what easy—?” My voice trailed off as I caught sight of light that didn’t belong in the middle of a field. Lanterns lit the opening, casting a soft yellow glow over the ground. The wind rustled the stalks of wheat surrounding us and all I could do was stare.
He tipped his head to one side. “I wanted this to be special,” he whispered in my ear behind me, his warm breath tickling my neck.
My stomach flipped. I blinked, struck by the romantic gesture. I wasn’t sure what this was, but I was beginning to like it. Standing in the center of the circle, I spun around and faced Chase. He sucked in a deep breath, wiping his palms on the back of his jeans before reaching for my hand and threading our fingers.
I squeezed his hand.
Then he dropped to one knee.
My heart did a series of flips. “Oh God.”
I think I stopped breathing. I wasn’t sure, because I couldn’t take my eyes off what he was holding in his other hand. Clenched between his fingers a tiny object glittered under the moon, catching the gentle flicker of lamplight.
My features immediately softened, and I leaned toward him. Emotion pure and undiluted filled me, a bizarre mixture of love and panic and joy and disbelief. “Oh God.” I spent most my life imagining this moment, dreaming about it, but nothing came close to seeing Chase on one knee, staring up at me with nerves and love shining in his gray eyes.
There was a very good chance I was going to pass out.
“I know things are crazy right now, but I realized I don’t want to live my life with regrets. I want to live every day of my life with you. Every second. There aren’t enough ways to tell you how deep my love is for you, but I know you can feel it. I will be in love with you for always, and nothing will ever change that. I want you to be more than my soul mate. I want you to be my wife.”
I felt a rush of something utterly foreign fill my lungs. It was air, I realized dumbly. I hadn’t even comprehended I’d been holding my breath. “Oh God.”
He chuckled deeply. “You said that already.”<
br />
“I’ll probably say it ten more times. Is this real?” I wanted to pinch myself. Hard. Wonderment whirled through me like a windstorm.
“As real as my feelings for you. Angel Chloe Morgan, will you marry me?”
This was Chase Winters on one knee for me. Tears stung my eyes and a lump formed in my throat as I dropped down beside him, framing his face with my shaky hands.
“Say something.” He took the pad of his thumb and wiped at the corners of my eyes.
Feeling like an overemotional girl, I said, “I think I’m still in shock.” Then I tipped my head forward, pressing my lips to his in a quick kiss that tasted of my salty tears. “I want to sear this moment in my memory forever,” I whispered.
“You still haven’t said yes.”
I smiled. “What else would I say? Yes, I will marry you, Chase—” My brows drew together. “I just realized I don’t know what your middle name is.”
He laughed and pressed his forehead to mine. “Liam.”
“Chase Liam Winters.” I meshed our lips together in another quick branding kiss. “I want nothing more in this world than to marry you.”
His body shuddered, tension releasing from him all at once. Wonder clouded his smoky eyes dashed with bits of gold.
Happiness like I’d never known trembled through me like magic. It might have been a simple proposal, but I didn’t need flashy or over-the-top. I wasn’t that kind of girl, but this had to be the single most swoon-worthy thing he’d ever done or said to me. Then again, he was otherworldly.
We were young, but in so many ways we’d been through a lifetime of ups and downs. It didn’t matter if we were nineteen or ninety, there would never be anyone else for me but Chase. Tears clogged my vocal chords. “I’m going to love being your wife.”
He laughed, a delicious sound that lightened his gorgeous face into sheer happiness. With a hand not completely steady, he slipped a ring onto to my finger. It fit snuggly. “I didn’t want to give you something traditional. I wanted it to be special, like what we have. The stone is a tanzanite. It reminded me of your eyes.”
I was going to start crying again. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” The white gold band wove around the stone much like our matching marks.
“That’s how I feel about you.”
From the corner of my eye I saw a shooting star gracefully speeding across the dark night. “I love you.”
He flashed me a lopsided grin, enveloping me in his arms. “I want to marry you as soon as possible.”
“Like now?” My heart sped, and my face lit on fire.
“Not this instant, but soon. Very soon. I want to start our life together without the constant threat of Alastair. When this is all over, I’m going to be rushing you down the aisle.”
He wasn’t going to hear any arguments from me. I would marry him right here in the middle of a field if he asked. “I’m going to hold you to that, Winters.”
One dark brow lifted.
In a blink, he was standing and I was ensnared in his strong embrace. I felt as if I was floating, my body soaring with love. I glimpsed down at the ring on my finger, its weight foreign on my hand. He took a little breath and his arms tightened around me. “Let’s go home, fiancée.”
I giggled. “I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to hearing you say that.”
“Maybe we should elope.”
I swear my feet didn’t touch the ground as we left the grove swallowed by wheat. “Lexi would kill us.”
As we leisurely weaved through the fields, we decided not to tell anyone just yet. I felt giddy to have such a huge secret, and honestly, I wasn’t sure how long I could keep something like this to myself. My mouth had a tendency to move without communicating with my brain. It was a disease almost.
There were no lights on as we broke through the fields, crossing the road, only the glow of the crescent moon above and a huge sky full of stars. We couldn’t stop touching and talking about random things, like where we would go for our honeymoon, whether Chase was going to go bald in his old age, and my personal favorite, how many kids we would have.
“So have you changed your mind about kids?” I asked, tiptoeing to the subject. I enjoyed making him squirm.
“My gut says it’s a bad idea. With our genetic makeup, can you imagine what kind of kids we would have?”
I could, and they would be perfect. How could they not? With Chase’s incredible looks and my sparkling personality they would be destined for greatness. He must be dense. “And you always trust your gut?” I countered.
“It’s kept me alive.”
“But has it made you happy? What did your gut say when you met me?” I challenged.
He snorted. “Run. As far and as fast as you can, because this girl is going to get you in trouble.”
I smiled. “Wow. That was what my gut told me, too.”
“And your gut was right.”
I shook my head and looped my arm through his. “Not a chance. Why didn’t you listen to your gut?”
He shot me a grin. “You know why. Besides, I tried. I just couldn’t stay away from you.”
Thinking about the days when we first met and the mix of feelings I had about my sexy douchebag neighbor brought a smile to my lips and made my insides light up.
He wrapped his arms around me, pulling our faces close.
We spent to rest of the night wrapped up in each other, trying to forget about the things we’d soon be facing. It was a night I would always remember. How absolutely loved and cherished he made me feel. I didn’t think life could be more blissful than being in love with Chase.
Chapter 24
{Angel}
Moonlight streamed through the sheer curtains, and an eerie feeling I was being watched prickled my skin. Chase was sleeping soundly next to me, a rare sight. I climbed silently from the bed, careful not to wake him, and went to the window. Glancing out into the yard, I could see nothing out of the ordinary.
I shivered.
Whether I could see anything or not, I knew someone was out there.
It wasn’t just because it was incredibly dark out, or that the moon was full and the streetlights were out. It was the sudden shift in the air. My heart raced as the demon marks on my side swirled in radiance.
I opened up my night vision, and in the darkness, trailing through the evergreens, was a glowing red light. It didn’t take a brainiac to know the light was a demon. I know it was probably a trap, but the fear I’d seen in Kira’s eyes combined with my newfound skills gave me a boost of confidence. I wanted to know who and why a demon was lurking outside my window, although I had a hunch who it was.
After slipping on a pair of worn jeans from the floor, I slid my feet into a pair of sneakers and glanced toward the bed. Chase hadn’t moved a wink. He must have been exhausted, and how could I blame him? The real trick was to sneak out of the house without disturbing him and make it back. I wasn’t holding my breath, but I moved silently down the stairs, avoiding every creak.
I left the front porch and took off toward the woods. My heart was pounding in my ears and my stomach was in knots, but I didn’t run back inside like I wanted. As I got closer to the edge of the woods, the hair on the back of my neck stood up, and my demon marks went haywire. I twiddled the ring on my finger.
This was stupid. I knew better than to wander off at night, let alone gone near the woods. No matter how curious and brave I was feeling, nothing was going to lure me into those woods. Not even an entire box of apple cider donuts. As I berated myself, I stopped and stared at the spot where a group of trees were the thickest.
Yikes.
Bewilderment leaped into my violet eyes, and I felt the dizzy sense of vertigo. “You?”
“Who were you expecting, the queen of England?”
“You know who the queen is?” I shook my head. “Never mind. What are you doing creeping outside my window like a jealous girlfriend?”
Kira stepped out from the shadows. “I
wanted to talk.”
I took a conscious step backward. “To me?”
The ends of her lips tipped up in a not-so-nice smirk. “Well, you’re not Queen Elizabeth, although my nephew does treat you like a princess.”
I snorted. “So you’re not here hoping to catch a glimpse of Travis or Lexi?”
There was something less intimidating about Kira; maybe it was the way she was dressed, in a pair of cute jeans and flat riding boots. “Not tonight, but it would have been an added bonus.”
At least she didn’t try to deny it. “How many nights have you been out here?”
“Do you want an exact number?” She appeared impatient, eyes lively.
I glared and folded my arms.
She blew out a smoke of hot air. “Every night since they came home, okay? Happy now?”
Far from it. Chase would not like to hear about this. It would definitely set him off into a demon rager, and so would my being alone with Kira. If he were to wake up…
Ugh. Best not to think about those consequences.
The demon and I would be in hot water for sure, and that thought was enough to make this a short conversation. I glanced at the window just to make sure it was still dark. “I don’t have much time, so spit it out already. What did you want to talk to me about?”
Her scarlet eyes lifted behind me. “Honestly, I’m surprised you came alone.”
“Who said I’m alone?” Never reveal anything to a demon, lesson number two. Lesson number one: never find yourself alone with a demon. I’d already broken rule number one; it was better to not push my luck.
She wore a dark cloak that covered most of her silvery-blonde hair. “It doesn’t really matter whether you believe me or not. I mean you no harm. None of you.”
The scary thing was, I believed her. “Okay.”
Her shoulders relaxed in a way that her movements were nothing but flickers. “I came to warn you.”
Now she had my undivided attention, and the fear I’d been dreading since I returned home became real. I knew what she was going to tell me, what we’d all been waiting for—Alastair to strike back.