Redeeming Angel (24 page)

“
That’s not funny,” I
mumbled.

“
Finally, emotion. I wasn’t
sure if that was my best friend or a zombie on my bed.”

I squashed an eye roll. “Sorry. I
didn’t get much sleep.”

Lexi and Emma both grinned. “You never
did make it home last night, did you?” Lexi asked.

She knew I didn’t, thanks to the
morning run-in in the hallway. I crinkled my nose. “Oh, and where
is Colin today?”

Lexi pouted. “He slept on the couch
while Travis watched him with one eye open.”

I giggled. “A-w-k-ward. Does your dad
know he spent the night?”

Lexi made a ghastly face. “Are you
kidding? No. He would go ape shit. Anyway, he was at your house
last night. I guess someone made an offer on your
house.”

I gagged on air. “What?” Disbelief
stared back at me in the mirror behind Lexi.

She angled her head, causing her
cherubic curls to fall over one shoulder. “Are you going to miss
it?”

If someone would have asked me six
months ago, I would have probably said no, but now I couldn’t
imagine living anywhere else. Even next door. “Yeah, I think I
will.” Polishing off the last bite of my scone, I rolled on my
belly, dangling my feet in the air.

Lexi crossed her legs, taking a sip of
her hot tea. She didn’t guzzle coffee like it was the fifth food
group as Emma and I did. “When do you guys plan on going back to
school?”

Emma and I groaned in unison. “I’m
thinking of not going back this semester. I’ve missed too many
classes already. I’ll probably just start my freshman year over
again in the spring.” Mom would love that, an entire semester of
tuition gone down the crapper.

Emma stretched her legs. “Yeah, I’m
kind of thinking college might not be for me.”

“
Guys! You are not ditching
me. I can’t go to college on my own.”

This time I did roll my eyes. “Yes,
you can, Lexi. You were born for college life.”

“
It just won’t be the same
without you guys.”

And just like that, the three of us
started to realize we were growing up and in different directions.
Unlikely of friends—a half-demon, a hunter, and a mutated human—but
we had been brought together for a reason. I couldn’t be more
grateful for the bond of friendship we had, and I wanted it to last
a lifetime.

Sitting up, I swung my feet over the
side of the bed and reached for my cup of coffee. “I don’t think
our lives are ever going to be the same.” My voice had gotten
grimmer than I’d intended; I tried to soften the effect with a
small smile.

Lexi’s brows drew closer together, but
she didn’t say anything. “Why do you think he hasn’t made one
threat on our lives? It doesn’t make sense.”

Emma made a sort of irritated sound in
the back of her throat. “Since when does anything a demon does or
says make sense?”

“
Have you said anything to
Travis about, you know?” I asked over my steaming mug.

Lexi shook her head. “Not yet. I still
can’t wrap my head around it. I mean, I actually saw my mother
yesterday, and I didn’t even say anything to her.”

“
Did you want to talk to
her?”

She shrugged, swiveling her chair back
and forth with the tip of her toes. “No. Yes. Maybe. I shouldn’t
want to have anything to do with her, but I’ve always wondered what
she looked like. What her name was. Why she chose my dad. Why she
left us.”

“
It’s normal to be curious
about a parent you’ve never met,” I said.

“
I’ve dreamed about it
countless times, good and bad dreams, but not once did I ever dream
it would play out like it had. But what I had a
aaa
hard time understanding is why
Chase didn’t tell me.”

“
He didn’t do so to hurt
you.” Of course I came to his defense. It was second nature to
me.

“
Which is why I’m having a
hard time processing. I know Chase would never intentionally hurt
me. From the day I was born, he has only ever protected me, often
too much, and it makes me wonder if that’s what he’s doing.
Protecting me still.”

“
I guess in his way he
is.”

Lexi’s eyes narrowed. “If you know
something, you better spill your guts.”

I frowned at the floor, struggling
with my loyalty to my best friend and my boyfriend. Chase had a
reason for everything he did, but he had gone too far this time.
“Chase made a deal with Kira to save me.”

A unified gasp erupted in the room.
“He didn’t.” Outrage was evident in Lexi’s voice. “Idiot,” she
muttered.

“
Moron,” Emma
added.

“
It was the only way she
would tell him how to save me,” I defended, not because I didn’t
think he was some days an idiot and a moron, but because he was
mine.

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.”