Redeeming Angel (23 page)

Oh wow.

After that, it was all intense
feelings of love and passion, brought together by two people who
treasured each other reverently. Guys like Chase set the
expectations of love at an impossible bar for the rest of the
world.

I rolled over so we could spoon,
succumbing to the warmth of Chase and the rhythmic beat of his
heart. He reached around my waist and pulled me near. My eyes
fluttered closed as I relished the feeling of his arms.

Chapter 21

{Chase
}

I sat up, the sheets bunching around
my waist, and shoved a hand through my rumpled hair. Angel was fast
asleep, and she wasn’t restless or whimpering my name. Her face
looked peaceful, softened and lit by moonlight.

It was hard to leave her after being
steeped in the rich glow of loving her. Being close to Angel was
magic. She seduced my heart, my soul, and my body, and I wasn’t
referring to our bonds. The sweet sound of her even breathing
enthralled me.

I wanted there to be a day when I
didn’t have to leave her in the middle of the night. When I could
spend night after night with her in my arms, not worrying about
what slinked outside my windows. I wasn’t sure that day would ever
come, but I wasn’t giving up without a fight, which was why I was
leaving the comforts of my bed and the warmth of Angel’s
body.

I’d only been back to
Spring Valley a few weeks, but I couldn’t help but be on
edge.
What was taking him so long?
I’d stolen the one thing Hell desired, a way to
inhabit Earth, and yet there hadn’t been a single demon attack,
other than Kira and her pesky dogs. She didn’t count. I got the
sense she had been banished here. And that brought about more
questions.

Who was she really?

Or more importantly,
what
was she?

It worried me.

Kira owed me answers, and by god, she
was going to give them to me.

I pressed a light kiss to Angel’s
temple, careful not to disturb her sleep, and let my eyes roam over
her face one last time. Then I slipped out of bed, pulling on a
pair of sweats and a wrinkled T-shirt. I moved soundlessly through
the room, shoving my phone in my pocket. Downstairs, Colin was
crashing on our couch.

I shook my head.

Travis was sitting in the recliner,
waiting for me. “You ready?” he asked.

Oh, I was definitely ready, but was
he? I had to tell the truth about the demon we were hunting
tonight. “Emma coming?”

“
Nah. Not tonight. She went
home to see her mom and sis.”

Good, now I didn’t have to worry about
being hit in the back with an arrow. “Just like old times,
cuz.”

“
What are we going to do
with him?” Travis asked, giving a small nod in Colin’s
direction.

“
I know what I would like
to do to him,” I mumbled.

“
I hear you, but Lex would
never forgive us. She still cares about him.”

I grunted. “Then we better go before I
decide to give him a rug burn with my fist. If he ends up hurting
her…”

Travis leaned a shoulder on the
doorframe. “I’m right there with you.”

We snuck out of our house without
waking a soul and headed off into the woods. There was a crisp bit
to the autumn night, but I didn’t feel. My blood was pumping. I
stretched out my senses, listening and looking for the any sign we
weren’t alone. Dried leaves blanketed the forest floor, crunching
under our feet.

After five minutes or so of
walking, Travis asked, “Are you going to tell me why we’re
tracking
this
certain demon?”

My foot snapped a twig. I didn’t care
if she heard us coming. I wanted her to, and if my demon senses
were right, she’d been following us for the last four minutes. “I’m
getting around to it.” I didn’t want to blindside Travis as I had
with Lexi. He deserved to know what he was getting into and have
the choice to walk away.

“
Let me guess, she’s
hot.”

I coughed, suppressing a smirk. “If
you’re into the whole slutty MILF.”

“
Okay, you’ve piqued my
interest. Why you haven’t put a dagger in her heart
yet?”

“
Oh, I have. The bitch came
back. She’s the one who helped me bring Angel back from the brink
of darkness, and she is like no demon I’ve ever had the displeasure
of meeting.”

“
It sounds like she’s
gotten her claws in you.”

I snorted. He didn’t know how close to
the truth that rang. Not her claws, but she had managed to what no
other demon had. Make me in her debt. A fury balled in the pit of
my stomach, my demon growling inside me and causing my eyes to
glow. I wanted to bury Kira so far into the Earth’s crust she could
taste China’s soil.

“
You think she will tell us
how to destroy her own kind?” he asked, skeptic.

I continued to steer us as far from
the house as we could get in the woods. “Yeah, I do.”

“
Why would she do that? I
know demons are heartless, backstabbers, but they don’t usually
turn on each other, unless it’s a territorial thing.”

“
It’s not about staking
claims.”

“
Then what is it
about?”

I lowered my voice. “For Kira…it’s
family.”

“
Kira? What, are you guys
on first name basis? And since when do demons care about family?
You know firsthand that they don’t give two-shits about
us.”

I know that he was trying to razz me,
something we’d always done. A way to keep us grounded while the
world around was going up in smoke. “Kinda. She’s your
mother.”

He stumbled, his long legs getting
tangled up together. “What. I thought you said—”

My chest heaved. “I did.”

Travis froze, clenching and
unclenching his fists. If he decided to bloody my face, I wouldn’t
stop him, but instead he only stood there. “How long have you
known?”

“
Long enough to piss you
off.” I kept my eyes on the tall trees in front of me. It was
enough to hear the hurt and surprise in his voice. I didn’t need to
see it in his face as well.

A series of silence followed; the air
filling with the chirping of crickets. Indecision and confusion
framed his face. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel. Or what
the hell I’m feeling.”

I shoved my hands into my pockets.
“Look man, you don’t have to do this. I can handle it on my
own...handle her.” I didn’t know how to apologize for not telling
him sooner. Expressing feelings wasn’t my strong suit. With Angel
it was so much easier—she already knew how I was feeling without me
having to say anything.

He squinted at me, then looked into
the dark woods. “How do you plan to track her?”

“
I don’t.” Travis was more
than my cousin—he was my best friend, and I should have known he
wouldn’t abandon me. No way. I knew Travis, and he would see it as
missing all the action. It didn’t matter who she was. “She’s been
following us for some time.” I could feel her practically breathing
down our necks. How could he not?

Abruptly, Travis stopped in
his tracks a second time, eyes wildly searching the dark and thick
forest as he adjusted his heightened vision. “She’s been
trailing
us
?”

I nodded. “Since we stepped into the
woods.”

“
Shit,” he muttered under
his breath. “That explains why my mark’s been on fire.”

I was going to give him one more shot
to bow out before things got real. “You sure about
this?”

“
Who doesn’t have mommy
issues? Yeah. Let’s do this,” he said.

I spun around. “Kira, you can come out
now.” The cat was out of the bag, no use prolonging the inevitable.
Whether I liked it or not, there was nothing I could do to stop
Kira from trying to contact Lexi and Travis.

She stepped from the shadows, blonde
waves standing out in the twilight. For a change, Kira didn’t look
like she just came from the clubs. In jeans and a white flowy top
the wind blew behind her, she could have easily been mistaken for
an angel or a ghost, until they got a glimpse of her eyes…or she
opened her mouth.

Her sinister lips curved. “There’s no
need to yell, luv. You’ll wake the dead.”

Travis stiffened beside me.

My eyes chilled, sharpening. “Save the
endearments for someone who cares.”

Travis and Kira locked eyes, and I
held my breath. Anger slithered through my veins like
poison.

“
I’ve waited for this
moment for many years,” Kira said in almost a whisper. Her eyes ate
Travis up.

He put his hand out, and for a second,
I actually thought he was going to hit a chick, not that Kira
really counted as a girl. “Don’t. I don’t want to hear anything you
have to say. I’m here for one thing only, and that’s Chase.
Clear?”

She was less than thrilled, but what
had she expected? “So much for the tender family reunion. Fine,
have it your way, for now. I know what you’re looking for, Chase. I
know you want to kill your father, and who could blame you? Demons
aren’t exactly parents of the year, but…you’re going to need my
help.”

“
Why would you
want
to help? What’s in
it for you?” I demanded, once a cynic always a cynic.

“
You would never believe
me,” she answered.

I folded my arms. “Try me.”

“
You’ve done an exceptional
job keeping your family safe all this time. Would it kill you to
put a tad bit of faith in me?”

Yes, I believed it would kill me,
especially when I wanted to put my foot up her ass. “You still
haven’t told me why I should believe anything that comes out of
your mouth. As far as I can tell, you haven’t done anything without
ensuring you get something in return. Typical demon.”

Her eyes kept flicking to Travis who
refused to look at her. “Some habits are hard to break.”

“
So are some human bones,
but I’m not above breaking all the ones in your host’s body to get
what I want.”

She laughed, a sound too musical for a
demon. “We’re more alike than you want to admit,
nephew.”

“
If you won’t tell Chase
why you’re suddenly eager to help us, then tell me. I’m asking you,
as your son,” Travis said.

An emotion I never expected to see on
a demon’s face swam in Kira’s eyes. I couldn’t call it love because
demons weren’t capable of such a feeling, but an emotion similar. I
was taken aback.

She tilted her head to the side. “What
I’ve always wanted. To keep you and your sister safe.”

Travis was having none of it. “Yeah
well, you haven’t exactly done a bang-up job of that, have
you?”

“
There is so much you don’t
know, don’t understand,” Kira said in a rush.

“
Enlighten us,” I
stated.

Her eyes were fixed on me.
“The sun will be rising soon and we don’t have time to waste. What
is important is
you
have the only weapon capable of destroying the flesh and soul
of a demon.”

Huh? What weapon?
“Explain.”

“
There is only one thing
that can end a demon’s soul, dissolving them from Hell and Earth,
and its fire from the chosen’s hands—a demon slayer forged by
demons and death.”

My mind started to turn, pieces of the
puzzle falling into place as I processed what I thought she was
saying. A slayer. But it was the “forged by demons and death” that
caught my attention. I didn’t need Kira to spell it out for
me.

Fate had a way of really twisting
things up. I slumped against a nearby tree trunk, and the branches
overhead shook at the impact. I rubbed my face. “You’re not
suggesting…”

“
I’m doing more than
suggesting.”

“
You better not be wrong.”
Venom dripped from my words.

Chapter 22

{Angel
}

“
What color? Naughty ’N
Nice or Lacy Not Racy?” Lexi asked, holding two bottles of nail
polish in each hand, one a deep red, the other a soft
pink.

“
You’re asking me?” I
replied flatly.

“
Right.” She swirled in her
chair toward Emma propped on the floor. “Okay, which one, camo
girl? You used to at least have a girly streak.”

“
Who says I still don’t?”
Emma grumbled.

“
Seriously, this is
important stuff.”

It was just the three of us, hanging
out, having a girls’ day like normal college girls. We needed a bit
of normalcy before the crap storm on the horizon hit. Lexi had made
coffee and cranberry-lemon scones for us.

“
Totally. It’s not like we
have to save the world or anything,” I said around a mouthful of my
scone, covering my mouth to keep from dropping crumbs all over
Lexi’s bed.

“
Exactly. The way I see it,
who says I can’t go to war looking my best? At least my nails will
be fabulous at my funeral.”