by C. L. Coffey
After carefully cleaning up the cuts, making a conscious effort not to mention my scars, Gabriel went on to clear the bowl and towels away while I pulled my top back on.
“You haven’t touched your drink,” Gabriel said as he walked back to me.
I picked up the bottle and took a couple of sips. Strangely, it seemed to ease my stomach rather than irritate it.
“There’s a sub too.” Gabriel pulled two sandwiches out of a bag then passed one to me. He unwrapped his own and took a large bite, watching me while he ate.
Now that his was out, I could smell the fresh bread and the chicken and bacon filling. I unwrapped mine and took a bite. The sandwich tasted so good, it was like he fed me a miracle cure.
By the time I’d finished eating, I felt a lot better. My shoulder still throbbed, but my back was more stiff than anything.
“You want to tell me what happened?”
“Not long after you left, I heard someone at the door. I thought it was my mom, but when I opened it, I found those two. I tried to make a run for it and get out via the fire escape hence that.” I pointed at the bed propped up over the window. “But they caught up with me before I could get out.”
“How did one of them end up like a charred kebab?”
I glanced back at the black spot on the floor. “I don’t know. Maybe he had something flammable on him, and I somehow caused a spark?”
“Caused a spark?” Gabriel’s eyebrow quirked up.
“What do you want me to say? That I have magic powers and set him on fire?”
“That’s not possible.”
“I am aware of that,” I told him. “But seeing as though I don’t have magical powers, the only other explanation I can come up with is that he was covered in something flammable, and I somehow caused a spark. Maybe it was a static shock?”
Gabriel sat back in the chair, pursing his lips as he rubbed his chin. “And they were after your mother?”
“They asked where she was. I guess she really was trying to hide from my dad all these years.”
“Did they say who your father was?” While his voice sounded casual, with Gabriel’s green eyes locked on me, I knew the question was anything but.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the answer he and I both wanted. “They never mentioned my father. They never mentioned anything, they just asked where my mom was. I assumed from the way they were trying to break into the apartment and the way they asked if she was home that they weren’t there with my mom’s consent.”
“I see.”
I looked around the room but realized the one thing this place was missing was a clock. “What time is it?”
“Just after eleven,” Gabriel replied.
My eyes narrowed in suspicion. “You didn’t check your watch.”
Gabriel held up his hands, the cuffs of his jacket falling down slightly. “I don’t have a watch. It’s a gift. Angels know what time it is.”
I laughed. “That’s a very specific and unusual gift.”
“Is it?” Gabriel tilted his head. “If an angel must be in a certain place at a certain time, wouldn’t it make sense that he should know what time it was?”
“I guess?” I suppose that did make sense. “Aside from that ability to travel around the world in seconds, do you have any other abilities?”
“Just the ability to communicate with any human on the planet.”
Just? That was a cool ability, and I could see how that would help.
Before I could stop it, a yawn escaped me. The adrenaline from the fight was wearing off and after having something to eat, my body was ready to sleep.
Gabriel had the same idea. “It’s late. You should go lie down.”
I shook my head. “What if my mom comes back? What if the Fallen come back?”
“Then I will wake you up. You took a decent beating today and you need to rest in case the Fallen do return.” Gabriel stood and moved over to the mattress. Picking the flimsy pillow from the floor, he then shook it free of any leftover pieces of glass.
Tempting as that thin mattress looked, I couldn’t sleep there. It was late and my mom would probably return any time now. I didn’t want to be asleep when she arrived. If she came back to the broken door, she’d be scared.
“I’ll stay awake,” I said, fighting back a yawn.
Chapter Three
The next thing I knew, I was being shaken awake.
No, that wasn’t quite right.
Movement woke me.
I was being carried. Almost at once, my body seemed to acknowledge that the person carrying me meant me no harm as it took my brain a little longer to process that the familiar scent of oregano was Gabriel.
“What are you doing?” I asked as he lowered me onto a mattress.
We were still in my mom’s apartment, but the room was now being lit by a small light in the kitchen.
“You hurt your back. The last thing you needed was to continue sleeping at the table. Stop fighting me, Kennedy. I’m just trying to help.”
“I’m not fighting you,” I murmured, easing myself over so Gabriel would have room. Not that I expected him to lie down beside me. So I was surprised when he sat on the mattress, leaning back against the wall.
“She’s not coming back is she?” I curled up into a ball; my hands moved under the pillow as I stared over the top of Gabriel’s thigh at the door.
“Maybe she has a night job, or she’s staying at a friend’s place.” Gabriel’s words sounded hopeful, but I didn’t think he believed in them. I didn’t.
I lay there, staring at the door, and although I was still tired, it was like that small bit of sleep I’d caught before Gabriel moved me was enough to keep me awake.
My gaze drifted up to Gabriel’s finding him watching me.
Something warm grew in my heart. It shouldn’t have. This was an angel whose sworn duty was to kill fallen angels and their offspring—me—but there was no denying the man was beautiful, and the more time I’d spent around him, the more I was coming to understand him.
That and the fact we’d kissed and not discussed it.
At the time, the college had been under attack, and it wasn’t really the best time to bring it up. Then after that we’d been busy trying to track my mom, and it hadn’t been appropriate.
I’d chalked the whole thing up to me being under the influence of something at the time and Gabriel gracefully not bringing it up because he wasn’t interested. Which would have been fine if it weren’t for the way he was looking at me right now.
Like he wanted a replay.
I was just about to declare myself hallucinating—I’d already imagined fire magic today—when he reached over and brushed some hair from my face.
My hair was a mess. I didn’t need to see it to know that the long brown hair of my ponytail was escaping the band it was tied back with. Taking it out of that band, even if I was gentle with it, was still too much for my tender scalp.
Come on, Kennedy. This was Gabriel, for crying out loud.
“I always thought tying hair back when fighting was the best thing to do to keep it out of your face, but apparently tying it back just gives the enemy something to grab onto,” I muttered. “Maybe what I need to do is cut it all off.”
“Don’t cut an inch of it.” Gabriel had an accent. It was European—one of the softer languages—but I couldn’t narrow it down to a country, mainly because it was so light when he spoke. But now, as he spoke quietly, it was more pronounced. “It’s beautiful.”
Okay, I was not hallucinating anything.
Carefully, so as not to break whatever this was, I sat upright. Gabriel’s gaze never left me.
When I started to lean in towards him, the only thing that moved were his eyes as his gaze alternated between my eyes and my lips. I moved slowly, getting closer.
Just as my eyes fluttered closed, he let out a long breath, the warm air dancing across my lips.
“Kennedy, what are you doing?”
I stared ba
ck at him. It had been a while since I’d last kissed someone—other than Gabriel—but I wasn’t completely inexperienced, and I was certain it was quite obvious what I was doing.
“Oh, Kennedy.” He groaned, reaching up to run a hand through his hair. “That’s not a good idea.”
“That’s not a good idea doesn’t mean I’m not attracted to you.”
Gabriel nodded, but instead of saying anything, he got to his feet. “Get some sleep.”
With my cheeks feeling like they were on fire, I rolled over and dropped onto my side. Although my body protested at the vigorous movement, I bit down on my lip. No matter who you were, rejection hurt, but I didn’t even get some empty platitude of it’s me not you.
When I woke next, the room was just as dark as it was when I had fallen asleep—whenever that had been. I rolled over to find Gabriel sitting at the table, drinking a glass of water.
“You had another five minutes before I was going to wake you.”
I sat up, tentatively touching my scalp: still sore. “What time is it?”
Gabriel stood, carrying the glass over to the sink. “A little before six.”
That was sleeping in by Gabriel’s standards.
Then it hit me. “She hasn’t been back, has she?”
“No.”
Disappointment consumed me. This had been the closest I’d come to finding her, to the point that before the room was filled with the scent of charred fallen angel, it had still smelled like cinnamon… like her.
“Maybe she has a boyfriend?”
“Kennedy, this place is empty.”
I shook my head, pointing at the refrigerator. “There was food in there. Not even expired.”
Gabriel pursed his lips. “Did you check the closet yesterday?” When I shook my head, Gabriel scratched at his brow. “It’s empty. There are no clothes or personal belongings.”
Scrambling to my feet, I walked straight to the closet and pulled it open. As he said, it was empty. The drawers were the same.
“That means nothing,” I told him. “Me and my mom never had much to start with.” I was clutching at straws, and even I knew that.
“For what it’s worth,” Gabriel said as he followed me into the bathroom, “I think she knew you were trying to find her, which is why she left you that sword. Your picture was with it.”
I stared at the sink. Yesterday I’d taken painkillers but noticed that there was no toothbrush. “Why would she leave me that?”
“I think it’s her way of telling you that she knows you’re looking for her, but she’s not ready to be found.”
My reflection looked as hopeless as I felt. What kind of parent didn’t want to be found by their child unless the child was something to fear?
The tears I’d been trying so hard to keep locked inside over the last few weeks finally started to leak out of the corner of my eyes. Furiously, I wiped them away. I’d cried in front of Gabriel once, and I was not going to do it again.
With a sniff, I ducked past Gabriel into the main room. At some point during the night, he’d picked up the sword and photograph my mom had left and placed them on the table.
As nothing else had been left behind, I took a moment to make sure my voice wasn’t going to break and then turned back to Gabriel.
He hadn’t moved from the bathroom doorway.
“Let’s go.” I relented.
Gabriel’s gaze scanned over me, and then he bowed his head. “Very well.” He walked over then placed a hand on my shoulder, and the next thing I knew, we were in his office at Greenwood Prep.
I glanced around, not sure how I felt about being back there. It wasn’t like I hated it, but it felt like I was turning my back on Mom. “Welcome back to Hellfire Academy,” I muttered under my breath.
“What did you say?” Gabriel gave me a confused look. “Hellfire Academy?”
“It was something Cody called this place,” I said with a shrug. “Kinda feels like a good name considering how many nephilim there are here.” Yawning, I rocked my head from side to side, trying to stretch out a kink. “I’m going to grab a shower before class.”
“Kennedy?” Gabriel called after me as I went to leave the room.
I stopped and turned back.
He pointed at the dagger-sized sword in my hands. “You should leave that here.”
Holding the sword up, I frowned. “My mom left me this.”
Gabriel walked over, holding out his hand. “And I’m not taking it away from you permanently, but I can’t, in good conscience, allow you to take a weapon into the college.”
“The same college attacked by fallen angels last semester?”
“You’re already toeing a fine line with Dean Pinnosa. Let’s not leap over it with a sword.” When Gabriel didn’t lower his hand, I gave him the blade.
“It’s still yours,” he said. “And it will be waiting here for you.”
Gabriel’s office was in the back of the gymnasium. Today, all the bleachers were out and there were several rows of chairs in front of them. I ignored them, too distracted to care to wonder what they were there for.
For a college, Greenwood Prep felt more like a fancy boarding school in the Rocky Mountains. When we’d left at the beginning of Easter break, there’d been a good foot or two of snow on the ground. A lot of that had been stained red during the attack on the campus.
Now, although there was still a chill in the night air, most of the snow was gone. The bright floodlights illuminating the grounds showed almost no sign of there being any trouble here. If you hadn’t been to the campus before today, you wouldn’t have known there were a few statues and trees missing.
The cold air tickled my nose as I inhaled a deep breath and looked at the college.
It wasn’t a big campus, but the single main U-shaped building had a castle feel to it, and several outer structures including the gym and a small church. Having been to Gabriel’s place, I knew there was also a small group of cabins just a short distance away from the main building, and that was it.
As I rounded the corner and spotted the main building, my mouth fell open. There was a ballroom and library at the center of the college building, and it had taken heavy damage during the battle.
I’d not really had the opportunity to see the full extent of it, but now the center part was almost fully encased in scaffolding. To one side, temporary structures were lined up, along with a couple of obligatory port-a-potties for the construction workers. All of it was blocked off with tall, wire fences.
I moved on past it, heading for the back door to the dorms. The main entrance held a grand staircase made of dark wood. The back entrance was tiled and cold, but it was the most direct route to my room.
After an uncomfortable night and a fight with a couple of fallen angels, my muscles ached. I was looking forward to a hot shower, but I couldn’t find the energy to jog up the stairs to get under the hot water.
Upstairs, the floor was quiet. Seemed no one was up yet. Or maybe there were still some students to arrive this morning like me.
I pushed the door to my room open and was almost immediately jumped on by a hyperactive blonde talking a million miles a minute as she wrapped her arms around me.
“Kennedy, I haven’t seen you in weeks. I’ve missed you. I can’t believe you abandoned me and went travelling with the Archangel Gabriel.” Leigh-Ann didn’t stop bouncing up and down on her toes. “To Boise, of all places. Did you see much of the city or did you see more of the hotel room?”
Although she was nearly a foot shorter than me, with the way her hug almost crushed the air out of me, I would have been convinced that she was a nephilim as well.
“You need to tell me all about it because I am desperate for gossip.”
“I missed you too.” Extracting myself from her grip, I moved us over to my bunk bed. Underneath was a couch, and I sank onto it, taking a deep breath.
Leigh-Ann didn’t know why I’d gone to Boise.
“Gabriel and I didn’t spend
two weeks locked in a hotel room.”
Leigh-Ann’s excitement dipped as she pouted. “You had two weeks with a super-hot archangel, and you didn’t hook up?”
“Of course she didn’t. Archangels are boring eternal virgins.”
The answer didn’t come from me.
I looked across the room and found Ty sprawled out across Leigh-Ann’s bed. Wearing only a pair of jeans, his dark abs were on full display.
I turned to Leigh-Ann and arched an eyebrow.
Leigh-Ann blushed bright red but stared back at me. “I’m a grown up, and that’s my boyfriend, Kennedy.”
“Yeah, don’t be such a prude, Kennedy,” Ty said in a sing-song tone.
Raising a hand, I flipped him the bird.
Ty hadn’t spent most of last semester at the top of my favorite people list. He wasn’t even on the list. And it wasn’t because he was the nephilim son of Beelzebub. Frankly, I thought he was an arrogant ass with a chip on his shoulder.
But it was clear he was crazy about Leigh-Ann and after she had spent her time at college being ostracized, I wasn’t going to stop her from being with someone who made her happy.
Though, if he did do anything to hurt her, I was going to kick his ass. Even if he was missing a hand.
“It’s not like that with Gabriel,” I said, turning my attention back to Leigh-Ann.
I mean, yes, I wanted it to be, but I wasn’t going to share that piece of information with her, especially with Ty in the room. It was embarrassing enough that Gabriel turned me down.
“Then why were you in Boise, of all places?”
“Can we talk later? I’m dying for a shower.”
Leigh-Ann leaned back and looked me up and down, her gaze settling on my hair. “Girl, what on earth happened to you?”
Standing, I shook my head. “This is why I need to get that shower before class.”
Nodding, Leigh-Ann’s eyes suddenly went wide. “This morning’s classes are cancelled. We have a college meeting in the gymnasium at 9:30 a.m.”
That would explain the chairs.
I gathered up my things and made my way to the small en suite bathroom. Setting the water running before I stepped in, I turned and examined myself in the mirror.