Falling (The Falling Angels Saga) (8 page)

“Coming,” I called back. I got up. Amanda raised her head, decided whatever I was about to do wasn’t important, and lay back onto the pillow. I needed to change my mood before I got downstairs. They shouldn’t see the cloud of gloom that was hanging over me. I’d become a master of disguise, a wizard of the plastic smile. I painted one on and went downstairs.

“What is all the fuss?” I called in my fake annoyed voice, the one that said I wasn’t annoyed at all.

When I reached the landing, I saw them both standing in the entryway. Also in our entryway was a five-foot statue of a Native American in full Indian headdress. “Oh!” I said as I continued downstairs. What I was thinking was:
more clutter
.

“You heard that
oh
? I think she just made my point,” said Suze.

“That wasn’t a negative
oh
. That was a positive
oh
, as in ‘oh man, that is so cool,” said Tony. He grinned at me. “Before you form an opinion, this treasure is a cigar store Indian,” he said with a grand gesture toward the statue.

I nodded. “That’s good to know. What’s it doing in our entryway?”

“Exactly,” said Suze and started laughing.

“Wait, wait, wait! Before you put Chief Obi out on the street, let me tell you a little something about him.”

“Chief Obi?”

“That’s his pet name for him. The sign of a man stuck in his
Star Wars
youth,” my mother said and laughed again. “Obi Wan Kenobi.”

“Ignore her. Megan, you love trivia. Do you know anything about cigar store Indians?”

“No,” I replied, the beginnings of a genuine smile replacing the false one on my lips.

“Uh-oh, here we go,” said Suze, and they both started laughing.

“Just hear me out,” Tony said through his laughter. “Come.” He escorted me into the living room, sat me in the large armchair. Suze trailed us in.

“This is feeling like a long explanation,” I said.

“It’s not. I just want you to be comfortable.” Tony stood a few feet in front of me and started in like a tour guide. “Cigar store Indians have a wonderful place in American history. Back in the eighteen hundreds, it wasn’t uncommon to find many adults living in cities who couldn’t read or write. So a sign on a store that said ‘dry cleaning’ would be wasted on half the people. To avoid alienating customers, shop owners used visual aids. A barbershop had the barber’s pole. When a man saw that pole, he knew that’s where he could go to get a haircut. Pawn shops had three gold balls, and tobacco shops had Indians.”

I was enjoying Tony’s story. He was right; I loved trivia, and the trivia tale helped to brighten my mood.

“That’s very interesting. But it doesn’t explain what Chief Obi is doing in
our
entryway.”

“I just wanted to give you a little piece of history. Now, come on back outside and let me introduce you.”

“Oh, brother,” said Suze, but she was still smiling.

We went back into the entryway where Tony gave me a closeup inspection. The statue was carved from a solid piece of wood, possibly oak, and colorfully painted. Up close, I could see the detail. It was a fine piece of handiwork, and this particular statue seemed very well preserved, although Tony didn’t tell me how old it was.

“You see how the one hand extended in front of him is open in a clutch? Tobacco store owners stuck cigars in the open hand. Isn’t that neat?”

“Uh-huh,” I replied.

“It still doesn’t explain what Chief Obi is doing in our entryway, does it?” Suze said to me while eyeing Tony with a devilish grin.

“Nope.”

Tony sighed. “With all the boxes I’m storing at my place, there’s no longer any room for him. I told your mother I wanted the chief to stay here for a few weeks, just until we unloaded some of our inventory.”

“And I told Tony the chief was welcome to stay in our garage. I don’t want to come downstairs half asleep in the middle of the night and see a man standing in our entryway. That would scare me to death.”

“You can’t put Chief Obi in the garage. Haven’t Native Americans suffered enough?” Tony asked, adding a touch of drama to his voice.

“Oh, brother,” said Suze, and now
I
was laughing, too.

“And so we both decided to put it to a vote,” said Tony. Both of their eyes were on me. Silently waiting. “A tie-breaker,” he added.

I stopped laughing.

“Oh, no you don’t. This is between the two of you. Don’t drag me into your mess. I have homework to do.” I turned to leave.

“Coward,” called Suze.

“Turncoat,” called Tony.

“You both know me so well,” I said and started upstairs. They went back to jawing and laughing over how Tony had tried to sway me. I got the feeling when it was over, Chief Obi would be staying right where he was.

I entered my room. Guy was seated in my armchair with Amanda in his lap. He was stroking her face with his forefinger and she was purring contentedly. My eyes widened in surprise. My pulse quickened.

“Sorry to barge in so unexpectedly. If you want me to leave, I will,” he said, hope-filled eyes searching my face.

I eased shut the bedroom door behind me. “No. You can stay.” Did I want to race into his arms? Of course, I did. But I moved to the edge of my bed, where I sat.

“Thank you for seeing me,” he said with a relieved sigh. “I know you’ve been through a lot with Satan since I’ve been gone, but I really think I can help.”

“Of course you’d say that. You’re Guy,” I said, allowing a small smile to grace my lips.

His head tilted to the side. “You mean, I’m arrogant?”

“I mean, you think you can fix everything. That’s the kind of guy… angel you are. But yes, you’re arrogant as well.”

He smiled his smile, full of arrogance. He reached across the empty space between us and extended his fingers. I reached across and extended mine. There was too much distance between us for our fingers to touch, and yet with our fingers extended in the air toward each other, I felt the connection. It was as if an electric charge had jumped from each of our hands and met in the empty space.

“He comes to you in your sleep,” said Guy. His voice was low and conspiratorial.

“Who?” I asked.

“Satan,” he replied.

The mention of Satan made me recoil. I withdrew my hand. “No, not anymore. He hasn’t visited me in my dreams for a while.”

“That’s what he wants you to think. But he comes, Megan. He comes and uses his power that lives in you to awaken you. Once you’re awake, he uses glamour to manipulate you and your memories. He wants you to think you’re going to pieces, but you’re not. It’s another one of his tricks.” He withdrew his extended hand and used it to pet Amanda. She rewarded him with a nuzzle.

Initially, Guy’s revelation surprised me, yet after I thought about it, it made perfect sense. Satan was full of tricks. Having me believe I was walking in my sleep was one of them. “So all the nights of dreamless sleep weren’t dreamless at all?” I asked.

“No. But I can stop him. I can keep him from visiting you while you sleep.”

“Don’t say that, Guy. I can’t deal with any more false hope.”

“I’m not just saying it. It’s true,” he said his voice ringing with confidence. “I may not be able to defeat Satan without heavenly intervention, but I can definitely stop him from coming into your bedroom and entering your dreams.”

“How?”

“I will sit here in this chair and watch over you. He won’t be able to get past me, even in spirit form. As a spirit he can elude Amanda, but not me. I will ward him off, and if he still tries to enter your dreams, I will waken you. Satan will never disturb your sleep again.”

My heart instantly felt lighter. As much as I tried not to believe it, his words represented a new ray of hope. Perhaps with Guy’s return, I had a chance at happiness after all. “You want to sit in my room and watch me sleep?” The image of Guy spending the night in my room gripped my thoughts and would not let go—not that I wanted it to.

A slow smile teased the corners of his lips. “Yes.”

“How do I know you won’t try anything?” His expression shifted until he realized I was teasing.

“You’re just going to have to trust me,” he replied, playing along.

“I don’t know how much sleep I’ll get with you sitting there. I’m going to have to keep an eye on you.”

“Righteeo,” he replied with a sly grin.

I suddenly felt like a fool. I realized in all the months Guy had been gone, I hadn’t heard his pet expression. When Orthon was impersonating him he never used it, probably didn’t even know it. I should have spotted the imposter right away.

“Did I say something wrong?” Guy was looking at me with concern.

“No. I was just thinking of all the trouble I’d caused.”

His expression softened. He got up, set Amanda in the chair, and moved next to me on the bed. As soon as he sat down, my temperature began to rise.

“I’m sorry I was gone for so long,” he said, taking my hand in his. “But now that I’m back, I will help you fix things.”

“Thank you,” I said, although I wasn’t thinking about fixing things at the moment. Despite my troubles, my eyes kept flicking to his lips.

“The whole time I was gone, I was counting the days until I could be with you again,” he said, his voice lowering to a husky whisper.

“Righteeo,” I said. I smiled into his eyes, and he kissed my hand. My cheeks reddened. A delicious warmth caressed my thighs, and I slid in closer.

“If you can keep Satan from my dreams, perhaps there’s a chance for us yet,” I said. A slight tremor erupted in my chest—the heartbeat of hope.

His eyes brightened. “Of course there’s a chance for us. More than a chance. One day our hearts will beat as one.”

I let loose with a breezy laugh. “That sounds like an old love song.” I wasn’t being mean. I enjoyed that Guy could be so corny.

“It
is
a love song. The love song of Megan and Guy.” He slid closer to me on the bed, so close air couldn’t pass between us. He leaned toward me, his lips brushing my hair, my cheeks, my chin, and then he kissed me.

Despite telling Guy I couldn’t return his love when we were at the diner, I knew there was no way I could turn my love off like a faucet. Not loving Guy would be like waking up in the morning and finding out I no longer had a head. How could I see? How could I smell? How would I breathe? Not loving Guy was akin to not breathing, not existing. I loved Guy with all my heart. I hoped my love would not be my downfall.

When I awoke the next morning, it took several minutes for me to convince myself that Guy’s return wasn’t part of a wonderful dream. I lay with my eyes closed, not daring to open them, because if it were a dream, I wanted to hold onto it for a few more moments.

Guy’s kisses last night had been so intense. No, not intense. They were filling. I had been hungry for his kisses, and when they came, I gorged myself on them, like a starving person at a banquet table, consuming them voraciously until my lips ached and my desire had been satiated.

But was it a dream?

When I could no longer bear not knowing if Guy had truly returned, I slit open my left eye and then my right and looked toward the chair across the room. Slowly the sleep drained from my eyes and the chair came into focus. Guy was seated there looking every bit as fresh as he did when I’d fallen asleep. Amanda was on his lap. They were both staring at me. The thought of Guy’s dreamy eyes on me all night made me blush. I smiled.

“Good morning,” I said, my voice husky from sleep.

Guy smiled his smile. “Did anyone ever tell you you snore?”

I sat upright, now fully awake. “I most certainly do not!” I said, my voice filled with outrage, although I was still smiling.

“Yeah, you do. Good thing angels don’t sleep, or I’d be a bleary-eyed mess right now.”

I started laughing. I didn’t know if he was joking, and what he said was quite embarrassing, but it was also very funny. “Do I really?”

He nodded. “You sound like a walrus.” He made a funny sound that was both humiliating and hilarious.

“Ugh!” I said, wagging my head. “How embarrassing.”

“And you talk in your sleep, too. ‘Oh, Guy! You’re so handsome and clever. I’m so lucky to have you in my life’” His smile widened. There was twinkle in his eye that told me he was teasing.

“Forget you!” I said and threw my pillow at him. Amanda leaped from his lap and onto the floor as the pillow hit him in the face. He let the pillow fall into his lap.

“You’re right, Amanda. She can’t handle the truth,” he said, now laughing. I was laughing, too. Our laughter saturated the air. It was high and giddy and childlike, as if nothing mattered but our joy.

“Shh,” I whispered. “I don’t want Suze to hear.”

He got up, moved across the room, and sat on the edge of the bed. I looked into his eyes. They were smoldering. I had an idea of what was coming.

“Please don’t kiss me before I brush my teeth,” I said, clamping my hand over my mouth. “That would be too embarrassing.”

“More embarrassing than sounding like a walrus?” he asked with a wry grin.

“Yes. Absolutely,” I said, turning away to keep him from getting a whiff of my morning breath.

“I will not stay away. You’re mine, morning breath and all,” he said, leaning toward me and puckering up, trying to pull my hand from my mouth.

“No way, José!” I said, brushing his hand away. I leaped out of bed, laughing, and headed for the bathroom.

“So let me get this straight,” he called after me. “You snore, you talk in your sleep, and you have bad breath. I don’t know, Amanda, I think I’m getting ripped off.” The sarcasm coming my way was the source of more laughter.

“Tough luck. All sales are final,” I called back. “I’m yours, remember?” I went in the bathroom and closed the door behind me. I leaned back against it, allowing the feeling of joy our playful conversation had conjured to wash over me. It lingered, like an expensive perfume. I was happier than I’d been in a long time. Guy and I seemed to have picked up right where we left off. I felt so good.

I could tell from how rested I was that Satan hadn’t visited me during the night. I didn’t know if he’d tried, but if he had, he hadn’t succeeded. This revelation was more confirmation that a life with Guy still might be possible.