Milayna's Angel (34 page)

I nodded my head, hot tears burning my
eyes.

My mom lay down next to me and wrapped me in
her arms. I closed my eyes, but I still saw images of Chay
disappearing and a demon taking his place, so I kept my eyes open.
I didn’t go back to sleep. Lying in the dark, I wondered where Chay
was. What he was doing. If he was okay.

It’d been a week and no one had heard from
him.

***

Two weeks. Still no word from Chay and no new
visions of someone trying to kill me. I wouldn’t admit to myself
that the visions stopping had anything to do with Chay’s
disappearance. It was just a coincidence. That was all.

“Mil-lay-na,” Friendly called. I hadn’t seen
the hobgoblins since before Chay left. I’d hoped they were gone for
good. I should have known better. Until Abaddon was out of my life,
the hobgoblins would be around.

With a sigh, I walked outside. “What do you
want?”

“Nice digs,” Scarface said with a scowl.

My family and I had finally moved out of
Muriel’s and rented a small house just a few doors down from our
old one. We were close enough to oversee construction on our new
house, but we had our own home—no more sharing a room with Muriel
or fighting for bathroom time. But I still didn’t have my own room,
not really. Since the night Edward tried to throw him into the pit
with the demon, Ben had slept with me. He had nightmares nightly of
demons and a glowing hole. I understood his nightmares, so I let
him stay in my room.

“Thanks, but somehow, I don’t think you’re
here to talk about my living arrangements.”

“Abaddon’s pissed.”

“And I care why?”

“You aren’t supposed to be alive.” Scarface
scowled.

I shrugged a shoulder. “Sorry to
disappoint.”

“Where’s Chay?” Friendly asked.

“Home.”

“No, no, no,” he said in his girly voice.
“We’ve been watching. He’s not there.”

“Why have you been watching?”

“He is mad at him.” From the hushed tone the
goblin used, I knew who ‘
he
’ was.

“Why is Abaddon mad at Chay?”

“He didn’t do what he was told,” Scarface
growled.

So Abaddon was behind Chay’s visions after
all.

“Chay was stronger than Abaddon’s spells.” I
laughed. “Abaddon must really hate that.”

“No, Chay isn’t stronger.”

“No? Then what?”

“Love.” Friendly giggled, clapping his hands
together and squeezing them so hard his fingertips bulged.

I tilted my head to the side. “Why’d Abaddon
pick Chay then?”

“Abaddon didn’t pick him,” Friendly said. “He
picked the other one.”

“Who’s the other one?” Generally, the
hobgoblins were confusing. They talked in circles, using riddles,
and never gave a straight answer. But at that moment, they were
even more so. My head hurt, and my convo with the red munchkins
from Hell wasn’t helping.

“That’s no fun. You have to figure that out
yourself.”

“So… why did the other one pick Chay?”

“Stupid question, Milayna,” Scarface
taunted.

Because I trusted him. He was someone I’d
never see coming.

“Because the other one couldn’t do it,”
Friendly sang, dancing around my feet.

Their message given, Scarface and Friendly
disappeared in little plumes of white smoke, leaving the smell of
sulfur behind.

The other one. Azazel? What other one? Ugh,
they’re so confusing that they make studying for the SATs easy.
Just let Chay come home.

***

Eighteen days. No word from Chay.

The demi-demons and Evils hadn’t been around.
There were no fights, no demon sightings, and no attempts on my
life. Even Rod and Jake stopped watching the house at night.

“It’s like nothing happened. They completely
ignore us,” Muriel said one afternoon at lunch.

I glanced at Rod and Jake sitting at a table
across from us. “I’m not sure if that makes me feel better or puts
me more on guard. Maybe they’re just trying to get us to forget
before they make their next move.”

“I agree with Milayna. I don’t think we
should get too comfortable yet,” Drew said, tearing up a piece of
doughy pizza crust. “I don’t think we’ve heard the last from
Abaddon.”

“He’s never far from my mind.” I hadn’t
forgotten, and I wasn’t letting my guard down. Abaddon and I still
had a score to settle, and I wasn’t resting until I stood over his
cold, lifeless body.

Train.

I sucked in a breath and gripped my plastic
fork so hard it snapped. The image flashed quickly before my eyes.
A train barreling down the tracks. I didn’t know what it meant. We
didn’t have any train tracks around us. There wasn’t a station
close by.

I can smell the exhaust… and something else.
Something cleaner, fresher… cologne. Chay.

I stood up so fast my chair fell over with a
loud bang against the tiled cafeteria floor.

Muriel put her hand on my arm. “What’s
wrong?”

“I don’t know.”

Closing my eyes, I concentrated on the
vision. I needed a landmark, a sign. Something, anything, that
would tell me where Chay was. I tried to relax and will the vision
to show me something else. But like always, it came on its own
terms. When I wanted to see something, I didn’t.

Drew tossed his pizza crust down and leaned
forward. “You’re having a vision?”

I shook my head, muttering a frustrated
curse. “Just flashes of an image. Nothing I can use.”

“What was it?”

“A train. I think it… never mind. It was
nothing.”

***

I see him standing in the distance. The
turquoise water behind him, waves lapping at the white, sandy
shore. The sun is high in the cerulean sky.

His back is to me. I call his name, but the
sound is lost in the wind. I walk toward him, calling his name
again. He turns. His face is void of any emotion, masked, closed
off. I stop walking. Have I made a mistake? Maybe he doesn’t want
to see me.

He raises his arm, holding out his hand to
me. A smile lights up his face. I laugh and run to him. He catches
me against him, lifting me up in a hug, twirling me around. When he
stops, I slide down his body to the ground.

The water laps at our feet as we stare into
each other’s eyes. He lowers his head and kisses me gently. I wrap
my arms around his neck. This is right. This is where I belong.
Where ever Chay is, that’s where I need to be. He lifts his head
and moves his mouth close to my ear. He murmurs something. I strain
to hear.

“
What?”

“
I said it’s time to come home, Milayna.
Abaddon is waiting.”

My blood runs cold. I pull back and look at
him, dropping my arms. I see the gray-faced demon looking back at
me with black, lifeless eyes.

I turn and run. The sand shifts under my feet
and I slip, catching myself with my hand. I look over my shoulder.
The demon is gaining on me. I push myself harder, run faster. I can
hear it calling my name.

“
There’s nowhere to go, Milayna. He’ll
find you. Hell waits.”

I look down and see the sand disappearing.
It’s falling away beneath my feet, and I realize I’m not on a
beach. I’m in an hourglass. The sand is falling from one globe to
the next. My time is running out. The last of the granules swirl
through the hole and I slip down with them, like water circling
down the drain.

At the bottom… a yellow, glowing hole. The
smell of burning flesh swirls though the air. Screams of the damned
bounce off the glass walls of the hourglass.

Time has run out.

Bolting upright, I looked around. I was home,
in my bedroom. Benjamin lay sleeping in his bed next to mine,
snoring softly.

I pushed a sweaty lock of hair off my face
and lay back on my pillow. The nightmare didn’t upset me. I’d had
them every night since Chay left. Besides, any dream of Chay—even a
nightmare—was a good dream.

My stomach clenched so hard that I doubled
over and inhaled sharply. I tried to stay quiet so I didn’t wake
Benjamin, biting my lip to keep from crying out. My head pounded.
The pain so intense it felt like someone was jabbing me with a hot
poker from the inside.

You hear me, don’t you, Milayna?

I squeezed my eyes closed against the
stabbing pains in my head. “Yes,” I gasped.

I’m coming for you.

27

Six weeks. No word from Chay.

“Dinner was great. Thank you for inviting
me.” Xavier folded his napkin and laid it neatly beside his
plate.

“Any time.” My mom smiled.

Yeah. Whatever, Mom. Your little dating game
isn’t gonna work.

I started clearing the table, so ready for
the night to be over. I just wanted to go to bed. I didn’t care
that it was only seven o’clock. Sleep was the only time I dreamed,
and dreams were the only time I was with Chay.

“I’ll clear the table, Milayna. Why don’t you
go talk with Xavier?”

I stared at her. Was she serious? With a loud
sigh, I flung my arms up in the air and turned toward the family
room. I was relieved to see that Xavier was already killing space
aliens with Ben in a video game. I didn’t hang around to see who
won.

Minutes later, I heard him walk up behind me.
Then I smelled him.

Geez, he smells good. Whatever cologne
he’s wearing should be banned. It does weird things to women’s
heads
.
Ugh!

I wiped my hands on the back of my jeans.
They were sweaty even though the rest of my skin was covered in
goose bumps.

Why does he make me feel this way? I love
Chay, and I’m waiting for him. He’ll come home. He will
.

I didn’t turn around. I could tell from the
heat radiating from his body that he was standing too close. So I
kept looking out the front window.

“Rod and Jake are back,” I whispered.

“I see,” Xavier said.

“I wonder what it means.”

“I don’t know. Nothing good.”

“Yeah.” I turned then. I was so stupid
sometimes. I should’ve listened to my instincts and kept my back to
him.

“I’m on my way out,” he murmured, gesturing
toward the door.

“See you Monday at school.” I winced when my
voice cracked.

Xavier didn’t move. He stood in front of me
for what seemed like hours, his crystal-blue eyes looking into
mine.

“He’s not worth it.” He reached out and
cupped the back of my neck with one hand and placed the other on
the small of my back, pulling me against him. “Waiting for him…
he’s not worth it. He doesn’t deserve it.”

He lowered his head, his lips hesitating just
inches from mine. My lips parted slightly and my tongue ran across
them. Xavier groaned and lowered his mouth the last few inches. Our
lips touched, and my body sprang to life. It was like I’d been
living in the ugly part of winter, when everything was gray and
dirty, and as soon as his lips touched mine, everything turned into
a beautiful, colorful spring. His kiss was gentle, and I kissed him
back, opening my mouth when his tongue touched my lips.

I grabbed his arms, feeling the tight muscles
flexing beneath my hands. My head swam in the smell of him,
sandalwood and soap. And my tongue craved his taste—more, more,
more, until I was clinging to him, pulling him against me.

His mouth left mine. I breathed his name as
he kissed down my neck and across my collarbone, before moving up
the other side, leaving a trail of fire everywhere he touched.

He ran his lips along my jaw to my ear. “He’s
not good enough for you.” He kissed the hollow behind my ear before
sucking on the lobe. “I’m here now, Milayna. I want you now.”

He kissed me again, a slow, deep kiss, before
reaching up and taking my hands from around his neck. Lifting his
head, he looked into my eyes. Kissing one palm and then the other,
he let my arms fall gently to my sides.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” I watched him walk
away, running my fingers across my lips, swollen and moist from his
kiss.

Holy hell.

***

Xavier rang the doorbell at exactly five
o’clock Saturday afternoon. Walking carefully down the stairs, I
tried not to slip and fall. I wasn’t used to wearing heels, much
less the stilettos Muriel picked out for me.

He swallowed hard when I opened the door.
“You’re beautiful.”

My cheeks pinked, and I felt a small
fluttering in my chest. “Thanks.”

“Purple is your color.”

I like you in purple.

I shook my head to rid it of Chay’s voice.
It’d been almost two months, and I still dreamed about him every
night. I had flashes of visions that I was sure related to him in
some way, although I couldn’t put the pieces together.

“Are those for me?” I gestured to the bouquet
of flowers in Xavier’s hand.

He grinned. “Yes, they are. You told me not
to get you a corsage, and I’m glad I didn’t,” he said, looking at
my strapless gown. “But senior prom seemed like a flower occasion
so…” He shrugged a shoulder.

“I love them. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Are you ready?”

“Let me just put these in a vase and we can
go.”

My attempt to sneak out was intercepted by
mother. She thought she was a photographer and subjected us to a
million photos before she finally decided she had enough.

“There. These will come in handy one day.”
She scrolled through the files on the camera’s digital screen.

I groaned.
Another way for her to torture
and embarrass me.

“Can we go now?” I pleaded.

“Sure. Have fun, but not too much fun.” My
dad gave Xavier a pointed look.

“Ugh.” I hiked up my gown and stalked toward
the limo we were sharing with Drew and Muriel.

We went to the Ivy, a very posh and obscenely
expensive restaurant, for dinner before going to the dance. As soon
as we walked into the banquet hall, I immediately knew I had a big
problem. The prom’s theme was winter wonderland. I hadn’t paid
attention to the theme before agreeing to go with Xavier. I hadn’t
planned to go, so I didn’t care what the theme was.