Redeeming Angel (19 page)

“
I guess,” she agreed,
sounding anything but convinced. A shadow cast in her violet
eyes.

“
And sometimes you end up
stronger at the broken places.”

“
Do you know what I
want?”

“
I could guess.” I pressed
my lips to hers.

She placed her hands on my chest. “So
much for reading my mind. I might not be Wonder Woman, but I can do
things that make you wonder.”

U
nable to deny myself the pleasure, I meshed my lips against
hers, my tongue slipping between her teeth. The kiss was slow at
first, but like everything with us, it sped into something
wild.

Somehow, my worries vanished and her
hand inched up my shirt, her nails embedding in my skin. I couldn’t
get close enough to her. Couldn’t get enough of her. Would it
always be like this? I could go on just kissing her for an
eternity, but of course something always intervened.

This time it was a someone.

“
Is that all you guys do?
You’re worse than bunnies,” interrupted a voice.

I closed my eyes and groaned. “Please
tell me I’m hearing things.”

Angel buried her face in my shoulder
and giggled. Her heart thumped crazily, a mimic of mine.

I popped my jaw. “What are you doing
here, Emma? Don’t you have a home?”

She shot me a dirty look. “Lexi was
worried, so Travis and I got conned into a search party. Looks like
my tracking skills are better.”

Rolling over, the softness of the
grass absorbed my weight. “Your timing sucks.”

Emma grinned. “I know.”

Sitting up, Angel inhaled, a blank
expression crossing her face.

My heart sunk. Terror burned in my
chest like a fistful of acid. “Angel?” I called.

She didn’t respond, her skin
paling.

No. No. No.

Emma’s body stiffened, her shoulders
squaring. “I thought you said she was better,” she
murmured.

“
She is.” So I kept telling
myself.

“
Really? Then what’s wrong
with her?” Emma asked with a tremor.

“
Nothing,” I demanded. “She
needs time to heal. You better than anyone should know what it’s
like being held against your will.” The fear radiating inside me
made me snappy, but Emma’s feelings weren’t my first
priority.

Emma took a step backward. “I get it.
She’s fragile.”

Angel got to her feet, that glassy,
faraway look still in her eyes. “I’m not fragile!” she
shouted.

Just as I leapt up, her arm
swung out, fingers extended.
I thought she
was going to bitch slap Emma across the mouth, but to my great
surprise, a ball of fire shot from her fingertips.

What the…?

For a moment, I was mesmerized as I
watched the flickering flame move through the air. Suspended in
time, I waited for someone to yell code red, because this couldn’t
possibly be real.

Emma ducked, and she barely
missed being incinerated. Unfortunately the tree behind her wasn’t
so lucky. “Umm, Chase.
That
was not normal.”

Okay. Fine. She wasn’t a fragile
human. Point taken. Angel’s spirit had never been weak. She had
always been brave, sharp, and reckless. And now her fingers spit
embers of havoc. I’d known there would be consequences due to the
transformations Angel’s body and soul had undergone. I just never
imagined this.

Before she could set off another round
of fireballs, I flashed in front of her. Sparks of gold twinkled in
her violet irises as I stared at her face. “You don’t want to do
this, Angel Eyes.”

The shock of what she had done must
have brought her to her senses. Her hands shook as she intently
studied her fingers. “What did I just do?” Her voice quivered and
the cloudiness cleared from her eyes.

“
It’s okay,” I assured
tenderly, reaching for her.

In an instant, horror transpired in
her face. Horror and fear. “No,” she shouted, backing away from me.
“No. It’s not.” She widened the distance between us. “St-stay away
from me. You have to stay away.”

I moved toward her, determined.
“Angel,” I said, latching onto her arm.

With a quick jerk, she
wiggled out of my grasp. “Don’t touch me!” she hissed. “Just let me
go.
Please.
”

My hands fell to my sides.

All I could do was stare as
she took off, running toward the tree line at the back of the
house.
Let her go? No…Yes…No!
It took a great amount of willpower to not go
after her. Every cell in my body woke up when I lost sight of her,
stretching to reach out to her, desperate to make things better for
her.

Except I didn’t know how.
Nothing I could say or do would make it better.
I
had barely processed what I
witnessed.

“
What did I miss?” Lexi
asked, suddenly appearing at my side. Her aqua eyes narrowed.
“Where’s Angel going?”

Emma came to stand beside her, the
three of us all staring at the spot where Angel had disappeared
into the woods. “You missed me nearly pissing my pants,” Emma
said.

Lexi’s gaze slid sideways. “I would
have paid to see that.”

“
I need to find her,” I
declared. She might not want me to follow her, but it was too risky
allowing her to go off on her own, especially in the
woods.

Lexi placed a hand on my arm before I
had the chance to speed off. “Let me. You look like you could use a
few minutes to calm down.”

She was right. I tangled my fingers in
my hair, pushing out a breath, and nodded. This whole day seemed
surreal, from Angel harassing me to teach her to fight to her
fingers spitting fire. I let Lexi go. In the meantime, there was
something I needed to take care of as well. And I was dreading
it.

Chapter 18

{Chase
}

As reluctant as I was to leave, it was
more important than ever that I had this little sit-down. Yet, it
didn’t stop a seed of guilt from sprouting in my gut. Angel wasn’t
the only one keeping secrets. I wanted to tell her where I was
going and why, but divulging any information at this point would
only suck her in deeper, the very last thing I wanted to do. The
whole point was to get her as far removed from Hell as
possible.

And where I was going was as close as
walking through the gates of Hell.

The door jingled over my head as I
strolled into the Village Diner. A quick scan of the nearly empty
restaurant and she was easy to pick out.

She had a type.

Slut.

I slide into the corner booth across
from Kira in her new human form. This one was no less beautiful and
probably left most men drooling in her wake. I only drooled over
one girl.

“
Well, isn’t this quaint?”
she said, her dark crimson eyes roaming over the homey café. “Can a
girl at least get a decent martini?”

“
Hardly. Try the coffee.”
Under the table, I carefully extracted my blade, lying it in my
lap. “You look like you could use a cup.”

She pouted, and it was an expression
I’d seen countless times on Lexi. I flexed my fists on top of the
table, hating that this demon had any part in my cousins’
existence. “That was a dirty trick you pulled on me.”

Having Kira so close to home, so close
to Lexi and Travis, made my muscles tighten. I stretched out a hand
on the table. “Really? I thought it was one of my finer
moments.”

She twirled her fork between her
fingers. “It’s reckless to anger a demon, especially one as old as
I am.” The spears of the fork came down on the table right in
between my index and middle fingers. The wood splintered under
impact.

I sat back in my seat, my free hand
resting over the back of the booth. “I’m not impressed. Seriously?
The almost stabbing me with a fork is all you’ve got? I know all
about enraging demons. I’ve been doing it my whole
life.”

“
But I bet this is the
first time you’ve ever found yourself indebted to one.”

I saw fury. “You got me there. Unless
you count the time I bargained with death.” I scratched at the
stubble sprouting on my chin.” You know, now that I’m thinking
about it, I’m not entirely sure what I traded in that deal. My
soul? Pretty damn sure I lost that a long time ago.”

“
Souls are overrated,
unless you’re dead.” Repositioning herself on the worn-out leather
seat, Kira ran a hand down her long champagne colored hair,
smoothing it into place. “I assume you took my advice and it was
successful?”

I hesitated, not comfortable with
divulging information I considered none of her business, but it
wasn’t like I could hide Angel away. Angel would definitely not go
for that. “I did what I needed to.”

“
So Chase Winters, why did
you summon me then? Or did you just want to hang out with your aunt
Kira and have a heart-to-heart?”

“
You demented witch.”
Ripping the fork from the table, I sent it flying across the booth.
I had damn good aim. If I had wanted to hit her heart, I wouldn’t
have missed. My intent had not been to wound her, but to send a
warning.

She gave a throaty laugh. “Come on
now.” She yanked, pulling the fork out of the meaty flesh of her
shoulder. “You know there is no such thing as witches. I’m a demon,
honey. Not a witch. God’s honest truth.”

Hilarious
. I fought not to be amused.
“Oh, I can think of many things to call you, and not a single one
of them will ever be family.”

“
Whether you like it or
not, I’m not going anywhere.”

I pressed my tongue to the roof of my
mouth. “Maybe not, but Alastair is.”

“
A vacation
perhaps?”

“
I was thinking of
something a little bit more permanent.”

She arched a brow. “What did you have
in mind?”

“
That’s why I called you,”
I replied.

There was no denying the intrigue in
her gaze. “You already know I don’t give away that kind of
information for free.”

I wasn’t sure she had any information
to give, and the idea of owing this particular demon another
“favor” made me want to lash out. My frown deepened. “Can it be
done?”

“
There has always been
talk. War? Grace? Final death? You name it. There’s been some kind
of whisper surrounding what demons desire and fear most. Of course
most of it is utter crap.”

That wasn’t deflating. “You aren’t
making this deal very tempting.”

“
I didn’t say I didn’t have
information that might be of value. With age comes wisdom, and I am
very, very old.”

“
It shows.”

“
And you claim I’m the
wicked one. Does your precious Angel know where you are?” she
sneered.

Anger bubbled up inside me. There was
an underlying threat in her tone, and it made me go King Kong
protective. “Don’t say her name.”

“
You’re more fun when
you’re angry.” She looked at me through lower lashes as she took a
sip of her watered-down drink. “I didn’t want her to get bored
while we had all the fun, so I sent her a gift. I hope she isn’t
afraid of dogs.”

Vision blurring in a haze of murderous
red, I slammed my fist onto the table, knocking a glass on the
floor. I wanted to litter the restaurant with her body parts with
no concern for who witnessed.

“
You should calm down. We
wouldn’t want to make a scene,” she mocked.

Calm? Calm! I. Utterly.
Exploded.

Launching myself at the demon, I
grabbed ahold of her neck, forcing her to look at me. “If a single
hair is harmed on her head, I’ll end you,” I seethed, venom
dripping from my threat. And I meant every word.

I loved to make scenes.

With or without Kira’s help, I would
find a way to destroy the soul of a demon, and Kira had just been
bumped up to number two on my dead list.

{Angel
}

I wasn’t sure how far I expected to
get, but after a minute of running, I realized he wasn’t going to
come after me, and I wasn’t sure if I was feeling relief or
trepidation.

Get it together,
Morgan.

My limbs trembled as I walked
aimlessly, no real destination, as long as no one was near me. I
stared at my hands, seeing smudges of black soot on my nails. My
eyes felt like they were going to pop out of my head.

Holy
flamethrower.

Fire? Fire! It literally erupted from
my fingers. There was still a warm prickle vibrating just under the
skin.

I felt dizzy thinking about it. What
was wrong with me? What had I been thinking, fighting with Chase,
getting him to give me a few lessons how not to get killed? Bad
idea all around. I’d barely begun to deal with the lingering
darkness.

As my mind revolved, circling back to
the dream, I tripped over my feet and fell, banging my knees into
the cool, hard ground. The air, which had been slightly warm
earlier, was now chilled, and the scent of smoke clung to my nose,
mixing with wildflowers and grass.