Redeeming Angel (20 page)

What if I accidently hurt him? What if
I had attacked him instead of Emma? Why had I attacked at
all?

If I hurt my friends… If I hurt
Chase…

It would break me, shatter my heart
into a thousand little pieces. As much as Chase might get under my
skin, I would never put him in harm’s way. If I had
known…

The nightmare.

It came back to me in an arctic gust.
Chase splattered in his own blood. The odd angle of his colorless
and lifeless body. I closed my eyes, willing the images to stop,
fingers digging into the dirt.

As easily as my body had been dragged
backward, it now whisked forward. Darkness and body collided
together.

I peeled my eyes
open.
A spooky cluster of clouds moved
overhead, creating shadows over the forest floor. I was still
sprawled on the ground, pine needles and gravel embedded on my
palms.

A pair of really stellar
red wedges came into focus.
I craned my
neck, glancing upward.
Lexi anchored her
hands on her hips, hovering over me. “What are you doing on the
ground?”

I thought I was going to cry. “I
screwed up on a global scale.”

“
Not from where I stand.
You didn’t kill anyone.”

“
But I could have,” I said,
pushing to my feet. I winced as the scrape on my knee stung from
the stretching movement.

“
I got the cliff notes of
what happened. We all have a choice, to be good or to let the
darkness rule. Human or not, the choice is still there.”

I only wish it were that easy. “I’ve
done enough damage, but what I’m most concerned about is how much
more I will cause.”

“
Did you really throw a
ball of fire at Emma?” There was a hint of hilarity on Lexi’s pixie
face.

I pushed to my feet, brushing my hands
on my pants, and shrugged, but before I could confirm or deny, Lexi
gasped.

“
Oh God.” She
paled.

And all I could think was now what did
I do?

“
Do you know what caused
those tracks?” she asked.

I rooted my feet in the ground, afraid
I knew exactly what had made those marks in the dirt. “Hell’s
timing really sucks,” I muttered.

A howl raptured the night, stealing my
breath. Not a wolf’s howl, but that of a hellhound— many of them
from the numerous howls that followed.

“
Do you smell that? The
scent of rot is in the air.” Lexi’s eyes morphed into slices of
amber.

I inhaled deeply, but I only smelled
pine from the trees. And…Chase? I smelled Chase, and it was better
than the earthy forest. It was delicious. Mouthwatering. Made me
wish we hadn’t been interrupted before. I could still taste
him.

“
You able to fight?” she
asked.

I wasn’t sure, but there was only one
way to find out. “Don’t have much of a choice.”

A hound stepped out from under a bush,
dirty and dark hair matted. Three others moseyed out from different
corners of the woods, eyes glowing like rubies in the
shade.

“
Whatever you do, don’t
die. Chase will never forgive me.” She took a step back so her body
was shielding me. “And this might be a really great time to
practice your new pyro skills.”

If it were only that simple. I wasn’t
sure I ever wanted to do it again, and I didn’t have the foggiest
idea how I’d managed to produce the little spits of fire. I was out
of time.

A twig snapped.

My head whizzed to the left, and I saw
beady, red eyes peeking through the wall of green
foliage.

The hellhounds weren’t just nearby;
they were here.

At my side, a snarl punctured the air,
stretching out. I bent, reaching for the blade tucked into my sock.
On instinct, I turned, realizing two of the hounds had launched a
sneak attack. I stood and swiped out my blade, the tip slashing the
creature’s neck, but it was only a nick. I was so not ready for
this, and my faith in my skills was lacking.

I palmed my blade.

Scrambling over weeds and twigs, I
latched onto the handle, waiting. Instantly the air became hotter,
filling with the putrid pants of mutt. What I assumed was the
leader of this gruesome pack gave a short growl. Then they
attacked.

I arched left and stepped right,
narrowly avoiding pointed nails and razor teeth. My blade blindly
swung in the air, and a few times I got lucky, slicing through
decaying flesh. Black goo dripped down the end of my blade,
touching my skin. I wanted to shiver, to squeal, and run around in
circles with my arms flailing.

The hound jumped, pushing me to the
ground. I landed with a hard thud, my side throbbing. A second
later, I was pinned and teeth snapping in vicious chomps went for
my neck. I wiggled and only ended up gnawing my back on the brittle
floor.

As the hound hunched over me, I jerked
my knee up, barreling into its gut. The beast was so much stronger
than I anticipated and barely budged. Jaws nipping, saliva dribbled
from his muzzle, leaking onto my hair and the side of my
face.

Disgusting. Fowl.

This is it. They’re going
to munch my face off.

I tried to summon my fire
the same way I had not long ago, believing I could gain the upper
hand, but I was so new to this and didn’t know what I was actually
supposed to do. As expected, I couldn’t generate even a
spark.
So much for my flaming
fingers.

As I was about to close my eyes and
say a prayer, Lexi appeared behind the hound, golden eyes glowing.
Her hands moved in a blur on either side of the creature’s large
head, and then she gave one quick twist, snapping its
neck.

I wasted no time getting back on my
feet. They were everywhere. Hellhounds. Hellhounds. Hellhounds.
They swarmed around us like flies, growling instead of buzzing. I
trembled, the blade seeming to gain ten pounds in my grasp. I’d
been without real physical activity for too long, and after the
beating I put my body through today training with Chase, this was
too much, too soon. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep up
and still remain on my feet.

Another hound sprang at me,
black-stained teeth bared. I spun back and kicked my heel out,
slamming into its muzzle. The mutt whimpered as he rolled away.
There was no time to breathe a sigh of relief as yet another
hellhound lunged for me.

I reacted with the first thing that
came to mind. I popped it in the snout. The hound went to the
ground but quickly twisted and nipped at my ankles.

I don’t think
so.

Hopping up, I stomped down on the
hound’s head, and with a twirl of my dagger, I punched the blade
into the creature’s belly and took a step back.

“
Nicely done,” Lexi said
from behind me, panting with exertion.

I bent down and grabbed my knife,
wiping the dust against the material of my thigh. Tingles radiated
in my stomach as something solid pressed against my back. Fear and
adrenaline drove my actions as I threw my elbow behind me and
raised my blade.

Chase ducked just as I sliced downward
in an arc. If I had been faster or he had been slower…

“
Idiot!” I screamed. “I
almost stabbed you.” He knew better than to creep up on me when I
was armed. Or at least you would think he would.

Ruthlessness radiated in his eyes. “I
guess those lessons paid off.”

Chase! He was here.

Yes,
my body sighed in relief.

He reached the creatures, using two of
them as punching bags. So much rage. It was a viable force,
surrounding him inside and out. Eyes blazing amber, he gave a wide
slash with my dagger, clipping the hound’s spine and nearly
removing its head.

The woods went eerily quiet, and I
knew Chase and Lexi had finished off the pack. I shook my head to
clear the surge of dizziness.

Chase’s gentle hands framed either
side of my face, steadying my rapid breathing and heartbeat. His
eyes morphed into a soft heather gray. “You okay?” he asked, his
gaze running over every cell of my body.

I drank in the horror scene around me,
the mossy ground scattered with the putrid ash of Hell. Nothing
about my life or me was okay. “Define okay?”

Chapter 19

{Angel
}

I’d spent the first
seventeen years of my life sheltered and protected by a woman who
only wanted me to be happy. She moved us to the quiet, small town
of Spring Valley and into a house she made a home in the hope of a
better life
—
a fresh
start.

Now, I knew more about the concealed
world around me, more than I ever wanted to know. I’d experienced
firsthand the inner workings of Hell. I knew demons inhabited human
bodies, drawn to the thirst for souls. It gave them power and life,
allowing them to survive longer on Earth.

Fear added spice to the delectable
soul.

As miserable as my life had been when
my parents were together, nothing compared to the misery I’d felt
locked inside the underground bunker. It wasn’t even that I’d been
held against my will that tormented me. It had been and always
would be the losing myself to the demon Angel.

Remembering caused pain to scrape
across my heart, over and over again, leaving me raw and
vulnerable. I hurt.

Tiny flickers of red burned in my
eyes, and black smudges of mascara ran down the corners. Through
the reflection I watched as demon Angel smiled and waved mockingly
at me.

Power.

Kill.

Thirst.

Hot.

The words played through my mind like
a terrible song. I wanted to shatter the mirror, to run away, but
my vision was going dark.

My brows furrowed as I tried to stay
focused on my image. The encounter with the hellhounds combined
with the unleashing of power I didn’t know I possessed must have
provoked the darkness to rise. The worst was happening.

“
No!” I commanded my
reflection. “I’m not letting you in.”

I blinked.

And then…

Nothing. I must have
blacked out or something. Those blank spots in my memory were
piling up, but for now
I was just glad it
was over.

The red flecks in my eyes were
gone.

I quickly tossed my hair into a messy
bun and slapped ice-cold water on my face. It came down to a battle
of wills and war of power. The past ceased to matter.

Temples throbbing, I stalked out of my
room and hunted for Chase, although it wasn’t much of a hunt. He
was easy to find thanks to my built-in GPS. I needed a
distraction.

What better way than a little physical
one-on-one combat? Chase’s favorite.

My evenings were all about
training.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Social life? I wasn’t good company nowadays. Education? There would
be time for that later. After the hellhound attack, Chase—to my
surprise—was more determined about the idea of me learning to
defend myself.

Halle-freaking-lujah.

Mom was at work, so she was none the
wiser.

Throwing open the front door, I
smacked into a wall, or what felt like a wall. My nose pressed to
Chase’s chest. He was so much taller than me, dwarfing me in every
way possible.

“
Did you see that?” he
asked, angling his head toward the sign stuck in the middle of my
yard.

My eyes shifted around him. “Looks
like we’re going to be one big happy Brady Bunch.” A realtor had
come out the day before and put up the for sale sign.

“
If
someone buys it,” he added.

“
They would be out of their
mind if they did. Maybe I should talk to my mom about having a
disclosure added to the listing.
Neighbors
are part demon. Often have unexpected hostile
visitors.
”

He snickered.

I rested my head on his
shoulder, taking a moment to just enjoy his presence. Our lives had
been so turbulent lately and he was still tiptoeing around me, not
that I could blame him, we hadn’t taken more than five minutes
for
us
time.

A date?

Sadly, I couldn’t remember our last
date. It wasn’t fair to either of us. Chase, even with all his
flaws, was an outstanding guy. He was my rock. There was no way I
would have been able to get through the last months without him. He
inspired me to want to overcome the trials of being scarred by the
Underworld.

“
I know those cute little
wrinkle lines on your forehead. What are you thinking
about?”

“
Just how lucky I am to
have you,” I replied.

He wrapped his arms around me, tugging
me into his embrace. I looped my hands at his neck and buried my
face in him. The dark scent that was uniquely Chase caused a string
of fireflies to flutter through my belly. “You don’t have to do
this, you know,” he said, his cheek brushing against
mine.