Airs & Graces (23 page)

“What does it mean?” I asked.

“It means you’re tougher than Tabby Cat gave you credit for.”

Both of our heads shot in the direction of the sultry feminine voice. Tab’s shoulders dropped as the woman stalked across the cement floor to the training mats in her pricey Manolo Blahniks. Tab sighed and bowed his head.

“They’re coming, then?” he asked. The woman tossed her raven black hair and raised her hands palm out in the classic ‘don’t shoot’ gesture. She winked one of her bright blue eyes in my direction.

“Oh, Tab, honey, don’t shoot the messenger,” she purred, and I blinked as realization struck me. My jaw dropped. I knew where I’d seen her before, the vision on the balcony in Tibet, the laughing woman.

“Gabriel…” Tab growled, and I frowned.

“Wait, Gabriel is a
dude,
” I reminded him.

“Gabriel is whatever Gabriel wants to be, Cupcake,” the woman said, inspecting her primly manicured nails. Jesus, well, stranger things
had
happened, so I just rolled with it.

“Oh God!” I scoffed. “Don’t start talking about yourself in the third person. That shit’s obnoxious.” I glared at him – er,
her,
and she threw back her head and laughed. It echoed the vision from weeks ago, except in that vision, she’d been dressed in something decidedly Greek or Roman, some kind of toga. Here and now, she wore a fitted black sundress that hugged every curve.

I jerked my head back. “Didn’t know Archangels were allowed to have work done,” I stated caustically, and Gabriel gave me an amused smirk. She lifted her breasts and squeezed them together.

“Oh these? All natural honey,” she said.

“Both of you, stop it!” Tab ordered darkly.

“She started it,” Gabriel stated dryly and pointed at me. I stuck my tongue out at her, and she wrinkled her nose and grinned at me like I was a kitten that had done something cute.

“Adelaide,” Tab intoned, and I rolled my eyes and went over to the corner, pulling my leather jacket and messenger bag off the hook.

“Back to the hotel?” I asked.

“Better hurry,” Gabriel sang. “The locusts are coming.”

“Really, Gabriel?” Tab asked tiredly.

“What? You know it’s not a party unless there’s a plague involved.”

“Adelaide, hurry.”

“Let’s do it!”

We bolted out into the hot, dry weather and ran full tilt the seven or so blocks to the hotel, a dark cloud on the horizon closing in fast. When we arrived at our door, Gabriel was leaning against the wall beside it, arms crossed beneath her ample breasts, showing them off some. I rolled my eyes just as the buzz registered.

“Holy crap…” I uttered, wide-eyed. I mean I’d seen what a plague of locusts looked like on TV, but the real thing, in person, like this? Those things were fucking huge! Tab opened the door. Gabriel went in, I followed, and Tab slammed it shut behind us. The windows darkened immediately.

“Oh shit,” I said in awe.

“Why are you here?” Tab demanded.

“I told you, I’m fulfilling my role as the messenger. Michael says stay put, hand her over and he’ll do everything he can to keep her alive, since you’re so keen on it.” Gabriel looked me up and down, and her expression said something totally different.

“How did you happy bastards even find us anyways?” I asked, kicking off my running shoes and shrugging my feet into my heavier, more practical Doc Martens. I had my jacket on, my messenger bag slung across my chest and the backpack with the rest of the essentials on my back. I’d been running the first couple of weeks to and from our training space with added weight just for one of these eventualities. Tab didn’t do backpacks. It would just hinder his wings if he had to make them come out. So another part of me being useful was I got to play pack mule.

“
You
called
us,
Cupcake. Did Tab not explain how prayer works?” I blinked.

“What the fuck are you
talking
about?” I demanded, but Tab had frozen in place and was looking at me with a peculiar expression.

“What?” I demanded, scowling, pretty sure this was somehow going to be my fault, and I was going to get a fucking earful.

“What did you pray for, Adelaide?” Tab asked quietly.

“Mm, more important question is; who did she pray
to?
Tabby Cat.” I glared at Gabriel, and she grinned and opened her mouth.

“Please make her stop, please. Just please make her stop, I don’t want to see anymore. Just for five minutes, let me have a break, don’t make me see this! I can’t… I can’t…” my voice emanated from Gabriel’s mouth and I felt the color drain from my face. Oh shit, last night at the diner… Watching Tab drive his sword through my – Iaoel’s chest, I’d prayed. I’d prayed silently using those exact same words. I frowned.

“I didn’t pray to anyone specifically,” I said.

“No shit!” Gabriel cried, exasperated. “Look Honey, the Heavens is a little like corporate America, if you don’t plug in the proper extension, the call goes to fucking India or someplace where anybody can pick it up. Next thing you know, Punjab has remote access to your computer, or in this case
your location.
Didn’t help that Michael had your phone tapped, he knew it was only a matter of time. You mortals always end up clinging to your faith at the worst times over the most ridiculous things.” Gabriel rolled her eyes, and Tab reached for me. I took a step back, shook my head, took a deep breath, and reached for him.

“Yell at me later, please,” I muttered miserably, and Tab pulled me into the curve of his wings.

“Hold on,” he said, tone weighted with
something
… I don’t know. I squeezed my eyes shut and the vertigo took hold and we made the jump or whatever away from Gabriel and the town of Elko, with its new plague of locusts thanks to me.

I thrust myself away from Tab upon landing and threw up in the damned bushes by the side of the road. My eyes watered, and I couldn’t tell if it was a physical reaction or an emotional one. I hated feeling like I was in trouble, like I was a huge disappointment, and as I stood there, hands on my knees panting over my puddle of sick, I forced out brokenly, “Go ahead.” A few more breaths. “Start bitching me out.”

“I apologize,” he said unexpectedly.

“What?” I straightened up and turned around to look at him. Tab’s beautiful face might as well have been carved from marble for all the emotion it showed, but he was talking again, repeating what he’d said.

“I should have explained prayer more. It’s my failure, not yours.”

I blinked, stupidly. “Did you seriously just apologize to me?” I asked pointing at myself

“Yes.”

“Wow.”

I rocked back on my heels and didn’t feel any less shitty even though I at least felt a little relieved.

“So I can’t even pray anymore, huh?”

“Not true… you just have to be careful where you direct your prayers. Direct them to our Father, or to someone you know you can trust,” he murmured.

“What, like you?” I said abruptly.

“If I’d known more of what you were seeing sooner…”

“You could have what Tab? Do what you’ve pretty much done so far? Tell me to pull on my big girl panties and soldier on? Jesus!”

“Or try to explain what really happened, when she shows you the past,” Tab said.

I turned my gaze to the overcast sky just as the first fat drops of rain started to fall. The cool water felt good on my overheated face.

“I’m trying to be a good little soldier girl here, buddy. I try not to fucking irritate you, I try to keep it in perspective, but I’m human and I’ve got feelings. So could you try to at least meet me halfway sometimes, and look at it from my perspective?” I asked.

He blinked slowly, a look of almost startled surprise crossing his features. “I thought that’s what I was doing…” His brow crushed down in confusion.

I scoffed a short laugh. “Heh, a little too little, a little too late, don’t you think?” I regarded him a minute, hands on my hips while he looked me over with that same unidentifiable expression on his face.

“It’s okay,” I said. “I get it. She fucked you over. She tried to fuck the entirety of
humanity
over. There’s no love lost between you two, and she’s now living in my head. You want what everyone else wants – the location of these damned keys – and you don’t believe in me or any other human at this point.” Which hurt. Which hurt a whole hell of a lot. I sniffed and turned my face to the side, looking up the long dirt track we stood on. Looked like we were on some kind of a farm, and it was twilight. I was guessing Europe somewhere based on the time of day in relation to what time it was after we took off from Nevada.

“Adelaide…”

“Save it. Where do we go? What do we do from here, preferably
before
I have to deal with Gabriel’s snarky attitude? One more comment out of that bitch’s mouth, and I was gonna throat punch her.”

“He would have killed you for that,” Tab said, frowning.

“Yeah well he can get in line right along with everyone else.” Since Tab didn’t want to pick a direction, I did and started walking. For once it was him that had to scramble to catch up with my long strides.

“I don’t wish to see you dead, Addy.”

That made me stop. I turned and looked him over, from his boots as black as mine to his typical attire of unrelieved black pants, shirt, and long coat. I met his gray eyes and quirked an eyebrow of my own in mirror counterpoint to his.

“
Now
you call me Addy?”

He smiled, and I think my heart tripped over itself before it did a barrel roll and came up singing falsetto in joy in the center of my chest. Damn it! He was beautiful when he smiled, and I was only human… That put a lid on it.
I was only human.

“You’re correct: I could stand to try more. With Iaoel in your head, I can’t have you feeling like you need to hide things from me.”

I rolled my eyes and started walking again. “Just when you almost had it.”

“Had what?” he asked, puzzled.

Had me believing you might actually give a fuck about
me
, I thought.

“Never mind. Just where are we, and where are we going?” I asked.

“France, near the Italian border.”

“Peachy.”

What about you? I thought to Iaoel. Got anything else you wanna do? Wanna kick me while I’m down? Twist the knife a little? You’ve been awfully fucking quiet, just saying.

Nothing, not even so much as a flicker of anything. I got the pervading sense that Iaoel was sulking and that she was heartily put out with Gabriel, but beyond that, I just didn’t know. I didn’t really care either. Tab and I hiked along the French countryside in the cold, pouring rain, dressed for Nevada desert weather. Wasn’t long before I started to shiver, but I figured if I just kept moving, I would be cool.

Eventually, Tab turned around and sighed harshly. “You’re cold,” he stated.

“Yeah, it’s all good, as long as we keep moving.”

“Adelaide, your lips are blue. It’s best we stop.”

“Whatever you say. You’re in charge,” I shot back through chattering teeth.

“I don’t think you understand me,” he said.

“What was your first clue?”

He sighed. “Very well…”

“Knock it off, I’m not in the mood. Just tell me what you want to tell me, ask me what you want to ask me.” I was tired, and he was right: I was cold. Add to that, miserable, and I was just generally in a foul fucking mood. They happened.

“I’m the Angel of Free Will; you were drawn into this against yours. It’s true: the stakes are high… and that’s been my priority, but I’m still here to help you.” He held up a hand as we approached a rundown and tired cottage of some kind. A moment later he kicked in the door.

“Nice, resorting to B&E. That’s great.” Sarcasm, just one more service I offered. You know, beyond fucking everything up.

“You’d prefer someplace specific?” he asked.

“Well, we haven’t had any early Demon warning systems go off,” I said, holding the necklace up and letting it swing. “And no sign that your Archangel frat-boy buddies are onto us. Does that mean we’re back under the radar?” He nodded once and ducked into the cottage.

“Guess this’ll do.” I sighed. I waited for him to sweep for any danger. His hand appeared from within the darkened portal of the empty doorway, and he waved me in. I went past him, out of the pattering rain, and his hands descended on my shoulders, fingers winding around the straps of my heavy pack. He lifted the physical weight off of them, but the emotional and mental strain remained.

I seriously needed to suck it up.

“Find dry clothing,” he murmured and walked over to the empty grate in the fireplace. There was no furniture in here. Windows were boarded up. This was going to suck but a lot of things had sucked so far. I dug through the pack while he got a fire going.

“I want to see you through this…”

“Save it. I get it. I really do, Tab. I’m just in a rotten mood. I feel like no matter how hard I am trying here, I am so far behind on the learning curve that all I’m capable of doing is fucking things up.”