by C. L. Coffey
“Didn’t you have a roster last semester to know I was missing?” Ty blinked his eyes with innocence, even though his loaded question was anything but.
Gabriel pursed his lips. “The last thing I ever expected was the person on the top of Heaven’s Most Wanted to be in my gym class. I didn’t think twice about removing your name from my list for this semester. Which brings me back to, I didn’t know you were in this class.”
I still couldn’t read where this was going between them. I had no idea that Heaven had a Most Wanted List, but if Ty was on it, what was Gabriel’s responsibility? Scrambling to my feet, I brought myself into the conversation. If Gabriel was going to kill him, I wanted to try to stop him.
“I rejoined,” Ty told him, folding his arms. “Whether you want to admit it or not, Leigh-Ann is either a psychic or a prophet, and someone needs to protect her.”
“You think you’re that person?”
“Yes.”
The two of them were caught in a staring contest before I cleared my throat.
“Would being Ty’s charge be such a bad thing?” I asked Gabriel.
“You do realize that you will be responsible for Leigh-Ann’s safety, don’t you?” Gabriel asked Ty, ignoring me.
“Even with only one hand, I’m better than most of the nephilim who were in here today. I may not have had the best relationship with my dad, but he taught me a trick or two. More importantly, I’m the only one stepping up for a job I’m prepared to give my life for if needed.”
My lips parted. “Seriously?”
“You got something to say about that, Dora?”
“You’ve barely been dating long.”
Ty cocked his head. “And what’s the required standard timeline to fall in love?”
Holding my hands up, I took a step backwards.
Love?
I was not getting in the middle of that one. But I was happy that my friend had someone who cared that much about her.
“I’ve spoken to Pinnosa, and she’s happy for me to be here. She even rearranged my work rotation so I could attend.” Ty directed the statement back to Gabriel. “Unless you can find another guardian angel for her, I’m what she’s got, so I will be here at every class.”
Gabriel slowly nodded. “Okay.”
Whether he was concerned Gabriel was going to change his mind, or he simply considered the matter closed, Ty walked off, leaving us alone.
“For what it’s worth, I think his feelings for Leigh-Ann are genuine.” I offered.
“I don’t doubt them either.” With a deep sigh, Gabriel closed his eyes. Finally, he shrugged. “First you, then this place, now the son of Beelzebub,” Gabriel muttered, walking away. “If Heaven finds out, they’ll throw me out for sure.”
Running after him, I caught up and touched his shoulder. “What do you mean by that? Am I going to get you in trouble?”
Gabriel turned, giving me a rueful smile. “More than you can possibly imagine. I was sent to track and kill you. Now here we are in a school of nephilim and I’m . . .”
“I don’t want you to get in trouble because of me. If you need me to stay away outside of class, I will.”
“I think it’s too late for that.”
Too late?
“Get a shower and something to eat, and then meet me in my office later. Last I checked, Pinnosa was still set on you catching up on your academic work,” Gabriel told me before he walked off to his office.
I was exhausted, but it wasn’t from the running.
When I woke the following morning, I was only half surprised to see Leigh-Ann’s empty bed. By the time I’d gotten back after the study session with Gabriel, it was late, so Leigh-Ann was gone. I’d used my phone for the first time to send her a text message.
I’m with Ty. I’ll be back at some point <3 Leigh-Ann replied.
Seeing the unslept bed, I assumed she’d spent the night with him. After finally getting a roommate, it looked like she was going to be part time.
Then again, I had no room to talk for all the time I’d spent here myself.
At my study session, Gabriel had finally cancelled our early morning sessions, deciding that all the hours I’d put in with the other nephilim was probably enough.
Unfortunately, it didn’t stop me from waking early with the inability to go back to sleep. After getting dressed and doing some internet searches on how I thought Leigh-Ann’s Latin warning was spelled, I gave up and headed down to the cafeteria.
Although it was early, there were a couple of people in there already, including Harrison. Selecting some juice and oatmeal, I joined him, sitting down across from him.
“You normally come in later,” Harrison said.
“Until now I’ve been out with Gabriel every morning. That changed after—” I frowned. For some reason I couldn’t finish my sentence. And then it dawned on me that Pinnosa had set the wards to stop us talking.
“Huh,” I mumbled, surprised that it worked so well.
“After what?”
“After my study session with Gabriel last night,” I told him while sprinkling some sugar onto my oatmeal then stirring it in.
“Does it have anything to do with you being my guardian angel?”
I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to say that, so I nodded.
Harrison set his fork down. “Does that not bother you? Being my guardian angel?”
“No. Should it?”
Harrison had really deep blue eyes, and they were fixed on me. “I just find it odd that out of everyone, I’m the one who needs a guardian angel.” He shook his head. “No, I find it odd that you would agree to it without knowing why me.”
Staring at my bowl, I continued to stir the oatmeal. “I did ask, but Gabriel didn’t know why either. He’d just heard you needed a guardian angel and that ended up being me. If he asks, it’s going to draw attention from Heaven.” The reason I had so readily agreed was because, at the time, I thought Gabriel was going to kill me if I didn’t—or if not Gabriel, then another angel.
As to why I was still doing it, I wasn’t sure anymore.
But it felt like the right thing to do.
“Are you doing anything on Friday?” Harrison asked, suddenly.
I looked up and shrugged. “Homework?”
“Want to watch a movie with me?”
“We’re not allowed off campus, remember?”
Harrison sighed. “Netflix. I have Netflix. I get they’ve made this place feel like a school environment with all the homework and assignments, but we don’t have to do that all the time. I just figured we could watch a movie and chill.”
While I had never had Netflix, I was familiar with the term, Netflix and chill. “Are you trying to hook up with me?” I blurted out.
As he turned beet red, Harrison shook his head. “No. I mean, you’re attractive, but you’re not my type. I just thought it would be cool to get to know the person who’s supposedly going to save my life from some Big Bad.”
Certain I was turning the same color as him, I quickly grabbed my drink and took a few gulps. “Sure, sorry.”
Was sliding under the table and hiding an option?
Harrison puffed out his cheeks and tapped his fingers on the table as the awkwardness settled over us. “So.” He drew out the word.
“How’s it going with you and Lottie?” I asked, searching for something to talk about and picking the first thing I could as the woman in question walked in.
Arching an eyebrow, Harrison looked at me, then over his shoulder. He turned back sighing as Lottie locked eyes with me and frowned. “Since yesterday?”
Apparently, I was on a roll with putting my foot in it.
“After several hours, she no longer thinks I’m interested in her, which is progress.”
From across the room, Lottie was sending me a look that was trying to kill me.
“Did you tell her you liked me?” I asked.
Harrison shook his head.
This semester was going to b
e fun.
“Why do you two look like someone came in and kicked a puppy?” Cash slid in between me and Harrison. He leaned over and stole a piece of bacon off Harrison’s plate.
“We were talking about Lottie.” I shrugged.
Cash shrugged. “That would do it.” He propped his head up on his hand and stared over at Harrison’s ex-girlfriend. “She is sexy, though.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “Are you serious?”
“It’s fine,” Harrison muttered. As Cash went for another piece of bacon, Harrison slammed the back of his fork down on his cousin’s hand. “But stealing my bacon isn’t.
As the two of them started bickering over the greatest part of breakfast, mine was forgotten about. My attention kept drifting over to Lottie. Last semester, she’d held the throne at the central table in the cafeteria, flanked by Harrison, Cody, and Simone.
Not only was Harrison gone, but so was Lottie’s best friend. Her face and clothes might have been immaculate per her usual appearance, but her table was empty, and her gaze kept drifting to the now empty seat Simone once claimed.
Lottie didn’t like me. I’d never really gotten to the bottom of why, other than the assumption that it was because she’d thought I was going to make a move on her boyfriend.
Then again, after the way she’d treated Leigh-Ann, I didn’t like her, either.
But that didn’t mean I wished what she was going through on her.
Sucking in a breath, I stood, barely paying attention to Harrison and Cash as I gathered up my uneaten breakfast. With my mind made up, I walked straight over to her.
Lottie looked up and rolled her eyes. “No.”
“The coffee shop coffee is much better than what they serve in here. I was wondering if you wanted to head down there for one before classes start?”
The disbelief on Lottie’s face was quickly replaced with distain. “Get lost, Dora.” Leaving her own breakfast untouched, she got up and walked away.
“That went about as well as I should have expected,” I muttered to myself as I watched her walk out of the room.
Chapter Ten
Movie night didn’t happen. Not that week, anyway. Considering we’d only had a week off over Easter, it had taken two weeks to get back into the college routine. With half of the classes being devoted to academics, and the other half being nothing but workouts and fighting 101, it felt like my college life was splitting in two.
The normal half was me being a student at Greenwood Prep, and the other half was being a student at Hellfire Academy.
“There was no easing into this.” Ty grunted from beside me.
It was Friday morning, and we were back in the gym. Today, we were working on our strength and stamina while the upper-class members had sparring lessons. Gabriel had written a list of exercises for us to complete: push-ups, sit-ups, burpees, jumping jacks . . . the kind of exercises that had me silently cursing him out.
Although, like with the running, I seemed to have found a strange reserve of energy that had me on my third repetition while everyone else was on their second. Ty was the only one even close to keeping up with me.
Blowing some stray strands of hair out of my face, I paused and looked over at Ty. Instead of complaining about push-ups, he was doing them too.
One-handed.
Honestly, I was finding a whole new level of respect for him while we were doing this.
“If you keep staring at me, I’m going to tell Leigh-Ann you have a crush on me.” And then he would open his mouth with crap like that.
“If the choice was between you and Professor Bell, I’d pick him.”
Ty grunted and lowered himself onto his side so he could sit upright. “Liar.”
“If you were dating Leigh-Ann I certainly would.”
“Which means, if I wasn’t, you’d jump into bed with me.” Ty grinned.
Dropping to my knees, I mined sticking my fingers down my throat. “How did we go from having a crush to wanting sex. Ick. I’ll choose celibacy then.”
“I won’t. I have Leigh-Ann.”
On the other side of the room, I noticed Gabriel looking over at me. When I met his gaze, he quickly looked away.
Scratching at my brow, I shook my head. Whenever we were in a room together, I would constantly catch him watching me. Then again, if I knew he was watching me, it was only because I kept looking at him.
Rolling onto my back, I stared at the ceiling as I brought my knees up. Part of the reason I was so tired and having trouble with my academic classes was because I was pushing myself as hard as I could in the gym. The more I worked out, the quicker I would fall asleep at night.
Once I was asleep, I didn’t wake up until my alarm went off. But falling asleep was the problem. That was the time when my mind went into overdrive, thinking about the same things: Gabriel, my mom, Leigh-Ann, the Watchers . . .
I started my sit-ups like a woman on a mission to get herself a six-pack in a week. Sweat was beading all over, but I wasn’t going to stop until I completed Gabriel’s list of objectives.
“You know, my dad didn’t push me as hard as Gabriel is.”
“If you don’t like it, you can leave like Lottie,” I told him without pausing. “If we’re protecting someone, then maybe he’s pushing us for a reason. I know I’d like to be more prepared when the Fallen come back. Or the Watchers. Or both.”
“Did you miss the part where I said I was going to be Leigh-Ann’s guardian angel?”
“Guardian nephilim, and no. She seems to be spending more time with you, so I’d rather someone was looking out for her.” I paused and angled my body to face Ty. “What exactly did your father have you doing?”
“I learned how to peel skin off someone and keep them alive long enough to reveal anything I needed,” Ty told me without blinking.
Just the idea of that had my stomach churning. “That’s not funny.”
“Who said I was joking?” Ty stared back at me until he got up and walked away.
Leaning forward, I rested my elbows on my knees and watched him in disbelief as he left the gym.
“Where did that come from?” I asked the gap he’d been working out in. Push-ups and burpees to flaying?
Was it even true?
Had Ty really done those things?
More importantly, was he still prepared to do them?
“You look pale,” Gabriel said as he appeared beside me. “Are you okay? Did Ty do something?”
“Not recently,” I replied, still staring in the direction of the locker rooms. “At least I hope not,” I added, under my breath.
“Do I need to be worried?”
Glancing up, I saw Gabriel looking in the same direction I had been. “I think Ty did a lot of stuff he’s not happy about, but I still trust him to look after Leigh-Ann.”
“Heaven is going to lose its collective mind when it finds out about him.” Gabriel let out a long breath as he dropped his gaze to meet mine.
“How much trouble are you going to be in?”
Gabriel scratched at the back of his head before looking around the rapidly emptying room. I hadn’t noticed the class had ended. “It’s nothing you need to worry about.”
“If you’re going to get in a load of trouble over this, why did you do it? Training me is one thing, but a whole class of nephilim?”
He reached out his hand. I took his offer, and Gabriel pulled me to my feet. “For all the reasons I shouldn’t have,” he said, holding onto my hand just a little longer than was necessary.
“Me.”
It wasn’t a question, but I found myself waiting for Gabriel’s response.
“Once upon a time, the Fallen were my brothers and sisters but now they’re Heaven’s mortal enemy. Evil corrupted them and a millennia later, they’re still performing nefarious acts.” Finally, Gabriel let go of me and took a step back. “We’ve always assumed that their offspring were just as evil, but the longer I’m at this college, the more I see that’s not the case. At
least not with all of you.”
“Is that going to matter if Heaven finds out about us?”
Hesitating for only a moment, Gabriel shook his head. “You’re gray. You’re all gray. And Heaven only deals in black and white.”
“Then why are you trying?” I chewed at the inside of my cheek. This wasn’t the first time Gabriel said Heaven wouldn’t like this place—or me—but for some reason, the way his green eyes seemed to have darkened a few shades had my stomach churning. “Wouldn’t it be easier to head back to the Vatican?”
“Absolutely. But sometimes the easiest option isn’t always the right one.” Gabriel tilted his head, staring off into the rafters before looking back at me. “You should go clean up and get some dinner.” He turned on his heel and started walking towards his office.
“Gabriel?” I called after him.
He stopped and looked back at me.
“Please don’t do anything that’s going to get you in trouble because of me. The worlds needs the Archangel Gabriel more than it needs me.”
“And what if I need Dora Kennedy in my world?”
My brain seemed to freeze. There were a hundred different ways I could have—should have—responded to that, but instead, I just stared dumbly.
The archangel gave me a wry smile then continued on his way to his office.
Long after the door had closed, my brain kicked into gear. And the winning emotion was irritation. If Gabriel didn’t like me, I was fine with that. If he’d decided he did like me but couldn’t be with me, I was fine with that, too. Mostly . . .
But to say he couldn’t be with me and then come out with a line like that?
That was unfair.
I stormed back to the dorm room in a bad mood. Leigh-Ann wasn’t there, which also annoyed me. Great, she had a boyfriend. But she also had a best friend who she hadn’t seen in ages.
Sucking in a deep breath through my nose and exhaling through my mouth, I forced myself to shake that thought off. I was not going to begrudge my friend for having a boyfriend. And it wasn’t like I never saw her.
After a shower, I felt like I’d finally washed away the anger and irritation. I was in no mood for starting on any of my homework assignments, and it was still too early to sleep. I was trying to find a suitable distraction and was contemplating pulling out my drawing pencils when my phone beeped.