Eden (18 page)

“
Oh!” Jared yelled. His
hands were on his head, his fingers intertwined. He hated this. He
had spent his life protecting me, and now that we were married and
I was pregnant with his child, he was allowing me to be a
guinea-pig-slash-punching-bag.

“
You okay?” Bex said,
breathing hard.

I frowned.

“
Oh, God, I’m sorry, did I
hurt you?” Bex said, lifting my chin to see the damage.

“
Again,” I said, squatting
defensively.

“
No!” Jared yelled. “No,
we’ve seen what she’s capable of. That’s enough.”

I shook my head. “I’m fighting a
thirteen-year-old, Jared,” I said quietly. “I wasn’t trying that
hard.”

Bex crouched. “That’s
insulting.”

He lunged again, and although our
movements would have blurred to the human eye, I had no trouble
keeping up. Each move Bex attempted seemed nearly in slow motion.
Within seconds, Bex was in the air, and then flat on his
back.

“
My turn!” Claire said,
pulling on fingerless leather gloves.

I steadied myself. Claire had always
frightened me. Bex, I had sparred with before; I was familiar with
his moves. But it had been months since Claire and I had practiced
together, and I was unfamiliar with her strategy. Still, I didn’t
want to make Jared worry, so I planned to step up my game a notch.
I couldn’t let Claire punch me. Jared would feel guilty enough. Not
to mention that even though she loved me now, Claire been waiting
for this moment a long time.

She glared at me from under her brow
as she always did to intimidate an enemy. That part I was familiar
with. She would not hold back, and she wasn’t afraid to hurt
me.

This was going to suck.

Bex helped Ryan to Jared’s side, and
Ryan fell onto his knees, sore and demoralized.

“
Get her, Nigh!” Ryan
yelled.

“
Hey! Whose side are you
on?” Claire said.

I focused. Claire Ryel was the best of
the best. Demons feared her. She was Earth’s deadliest weapon,
undefeated by anyone she’d ever come up against, and I was about to
deck her. Once Claire returned her attention to me, I swung. Claire
took the punch, and it almost knocked her off her feet. She looked
at Jared, rubbed her cheek, and smiled with bloody teeth. “She hurt
me!”

I didn’t let my guard drop for a
second, knowing Claire was too competitive to quit. Her ice-blue
eyes sharpened and her vicious glare targeted me. “I love you, and
I’m sorry for the ass-kicking that’s about to commence.”

“
No, you’re
not.”

“
You’re right. I was just
being polite.”

Knowing that she had watched me wait
to be attacked with my last two opponents, I took the first shot.
She dodged, but in the next moment, my foot connected with her
chest, and I sent her flying forty feet into the one muddy section
of the entire field. She emerged, wet, dirty and pissed off. She
flung her hands outward, letting the excess mud spatter to the
ground. “You really went there, didn’t you?”

I smiled. “I did.”

She sprinted toward me and grabbed my
shirt. I was soon in the air, but landed on my feet—just short of
the mud.

“
Nice try,” I
smiled.

Claire was unhappy. She tried
repeatedly to push, shove, throw, and punch me into the mud, but I
either blocked her or put her there instead. After half an hour,
her platinum hair was tangled and brown, and we were both filthy
and panting. She more than I, but coming into contact with someone
covered in muck made it impossible to emerge unsoiled, and Claire
was definitely a full-contact adversary.

“
Enough,” Jared said,
walking out to meet us. He wiped a chunk of mud from Claire’s face.
“You’ve made your point.”

“
I’m…not…finished with…her
yet,” Claire breathed.

Bex had been laughing uncontrollably
since the first time Claire found herself in the mud, but with one
glare from his sister, the laughter silenced.

“
Okay,” I said, breathing
hard. “Now you?”

“
No.”

“
No?” I said.

“
Chicken!” Ryan
said.

Jared frowned. “We’ve seen what we
need to see, and I don’t want you to get overly tired. You may have
angel blood running through your veins, but you’re still human.
Until we know for sure how your body will handle the stress, I
don’t want to push it too far.”

I nodded. “You’re right. I can throw
punches at you anytime.”

Jared laughed, and then
put his arm around me as we walked to the Escalade. He was
thoroughly enjoying my new
Yes,
Dear
attitude. The truth was I couldn’t
live with myself if something happened to our baby.

Ryan took off his coat and draped it
around Claire’s shoulders, and then used his hand to scrape the
rest of the mud from her face. She was never happy to lose a fight,
but the excitement we all felt for this new development was evident
in her eyes. “I want a rematch after Bean is born!” she
yelled.

“
No way!” I called back. I
looked to Jared. “She’s not serious?”

Jared tried to subdue a smile. “Of
course not.” His attention was diverted from the path to the road.
Kim’s Sentra barreled toward us.

The Sentra stopped abruptly, and Kim
emerged, slamming the door behind her.

Jared raised his hands. “I know you’re
impatient, Kim. We’re leaving next week, okay?”

When she was close enough, I gasped.
Her clothes were covered in blood. “Well, that’s just great, Jared.
Unfortunately for my uncle, it’s too little, too late.”

“
What happened?” Jared
said, equally alarmed. Bex, Claire and Ryan gathered
around.

Ryan grabbed Kim’s arm, but she pulled
away. “Oh my God, Kim. Are you okay?” he said.

Kim didn’t look away from Jared. Her
eyes glossed over. “I told you. I told you we needed to get it
back.”

“
I’m so sorry, Kim,” Jared
said.

“
Sorry won’t bring him
back. I helped you, and when it was my turn, you dragged your feet
until someone I loved was killed.” She turned and walked toward her
car.

“
Sunday, Kim,” Jared said,
calling after her. “We leave Sunday.”

Kim’s arm shot into the air and her
middle finger pointed toward the heavens. A moment later, she was
gone.

“
Poor Kim,” Ryan said.
“What do you think happened?”

Claire crossed her arms, watching the
Sentra disappear into the distance. “They’re sending a message. If
it were demons in true form they wouldn’t have been able to get to
him. They must be shelling.”

“
Shelling?” I
asked.

“
They’re taking human
form,” Jared said.

Ryan nodded. “Like
possession.”

Claire frowned. “No, like shelling.
They take over the body for a short amount of time to achieve a
purpose. It doesn’t leave the body weakened, and the human has no
recollection or aftershock.”

Jared rubbed the back of his neck.
“It’s starting.”

“
It sure as hell is,”
Claire said, heading quickly toward her Lotus.

“
It’s a good thing I was
quitting to go back to school, anyway,” Ryan said, following
Claire. “If I would have asked for more time off to go to
Jerusalem, they would have fired me, anyway.”

Claire put a hand on Ryan’s shoulder.
“They were going to fire you anyway.”

Ryan’s head jerked in her direction.
“Huh?”

“
Because you
suck.”

Ryan shrugged off her hand, and then
used all of his might to shove her. She didn’t budge, only turning
long enough to offer a small, amused smile.

“
I don’t suck.
You
suck,” Ryan
grumbled, climbing into her car.

Chapter Eleven

Last Minute Forgiveness

So much to do. So much, so much.
Repetitive grumbling hissed from my lips as I rushed around the
house. A week wasn’t long enough to get my life in order. I
scrambled around the house, up and down the stairs, trying to
maneuver around my growing stomach. It became rounder and fuller
every day. As I packed, Agatha worked overtime trying to finish the
laundry, and Jared was constantly up and down the stairs, fetching
clothes and medical supplies. It wasn’t until he phoned in a favor
to a friend for bags of saline, IV tubing and needles, and
anticoagulant that I realized I wouldn’t have my baby in a
hospital—not even at home. Bean would be born in a dark, timeworn
cavern under the city of Jerusalem, away from modern medicine, but
just beyond the reach of Hell.

Seven days didn’t seem like enough
time, but knowing that demons were shelling, it was also too long.
Anyone we happened upon could try to kill us. Any human was a
threat. Beth, Chad, even Ryan or my mother. The thought of my
mother as a demon made my blood run cold. She was already
frightening enough as a human.

Grant needed to be informed of my
upcoming absence, but something kept me from dialing the numbers.
Knowing he was an Arch—a fallen one, at that—made me feel uneasy. I
had been rude to him, even insulted him at times. Being kept in the
dark seemed to be the theme of my life, and yet this time it felt
like a violation of my trust by everyone. Not to mention the
unspoken competition I felt between us was forever ended. He had
won. Every jab at my expense, every flirtation was only him goading
me, and I played into his hand every time. Knowing that made future
conversations with him difficult. The urge to admit defeat might
come, and that would be the ultimate humiliation. Nope. Absolutely
not. Wasn’t going to do it. Jared was his celestial BFF. He could
talk to Grant.

“
Sweetheart?” Jared called
from the hall.

I shoved more clothes into my suitcase
and then zipped the lid shut. “In here.”

He chuckled. “I know. Bex called.
Grant will keep an eye on Mom. He said he needs to speak with
you.”

“
You talk to him. You know
the details of the trip.”

“
I don’t know the details
of Titan. He wants you to go in tonight. I’m going to let Bex
follow you in while I run to a friend’s clinic to get the rest of
the supplies, and then I’ll be by.”

“
Jared—”

He pulled me to his side, his arms
surrounding me. It just occurred to me why the temperature of his
skin didn’t feel as warm as usual. I was running the hybrid fever
as well. That was one thing I would be glad to have back once Bean
was born: Jared’s warmth had always been so comforting. Now that it
was gone, I mourned its loss a bit.

Bex burst through the front door and
sprinted up the stairs, stopping just short of us.

Jared tensed. “What? Is it
Mom?”

“
No. Why?”

“
Why else would you barge
in and run full speed up the stairs like that?”

Bex shrugged. “I don’t know. I just
felt like running. What’s the big deal?”

“
The big deal is that at
any moment someone we care about could die. Don’t do that to
me.”

“
Okay,” Bex said, taken
aback. “I’m sorry.”

Jared stomped down the stairs and
slammed the door behind him. Bex looked at me. “I didn’t mean
to.”

I put my hand on his shoulder and
squeezed. “It’s okay, Bex. He forgets you’re just a kid, I think.
You’re doing great.”

Bex’s half-wounded, half-appreciative
smile offered little persuasion that my pep talk did him any good.
He waited for me to dress for the office, and then I allowed him to
drive the Beemer to Kennedy Plaza.

“
You are so much like your
brother,” I told him as he opened my car door.

“
I wish he’d see
that.”

“
He does.”

“
I’ll walk you to the
door. With them shelling, we can’t be too careful.”

I nodded. Although I felt bad that Bex
had to babysit me once again, I was glad he was so close. The
sidewalk was an obstacle course, and as usual I didn’t choose the
correct shoes. My high heels landed unbalanced on broken cement
more than once, and my pregnant body wasn’t in its most graceful
state—angel-blood-amped or not. If Bex’s newly thick and bulging
arms hadn’t been there to grab me, I would have rolled both of my
ankles at the very least.

“
Okay. You made it. I’ll
wait in your car for Jared.”

I nodded. “Sounds like a plan,
kiddo.”

“
Nina?”

“
Yep?”

“
Think you could stop
calling me that? I’ll be fourteen in a few weeks, and it’s awkward
when people hear you. I look older than you.”

“
Do not.”

“
Do so.”

“
Fine,” I grumbled. “My
apologies, Mr. Ryel.”

“
Bex will do.”

I pushed through the glass door,
frowning. I wasn’t sure when Bex had grown up, but it was
unsettling. My boot heels clicked across the tile floor, muffling
when I reached the elevator. The building was quiet, making me even
more nervous to meet with Grant.