Shadow of the Sun (43 page)

“
Come on. We need to talk,” I said as I pulled him into the bedroom at the end of the hall.

My hand reached along the dark wall for a light switch and found it. Lamps all around the bedroom flickered to life. The room stunned me for a moment. It was beyond lavish. The ceiling was tall, and everything looked old and expensive; everything except a big, comfy sofa under the windowsill of an enormous arched window. We were reflected back perfectly in the glass. I pulled Andrew over to the sofa, and we sat. We held hands in silence for a moment before I broke it.

“
Andrew,” I began, “I really don’t know that much about you, but there are a few things I do know. You’re a warrior, a protector of mankind. You take care of those you love, and you’re an honorable man. I’ve seen some of the past, and I’ve been around you for a couple of days now, and you’ve been nothing but caring, sweet, and kind.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but I put a hand up to stop him.

“
You have put my safety before yours. Everyone has been so great, and through all of my overwhelming feelings of being thrown into this world, you have made the adjustment much smoother than I ever thought possible.

“
Inside the
Timeless
book I saw Zola. She told me you were my kindred soul, and my heart tells me to believe her. You know it, and I know it. There’s something I can’t explain, but we have an undeniable bond.”

Andrew smiled. “I don’t want you to think I’m taking advantage of you,” he conveyed.

I groaned. “Before I knew what was happening to me, my dreams were scaring the living hell out of me, and you helped to take away those feelings when I thought I was losing my mind. If it wasn’t for you, I probably wouldn’t have been able to survive the past couple of nights.”

He shook his head. “You would have survived.”

“
That’s not how I meant it,” I remarked. “I was an emotional wreck, and you kept me together, helped me hold the pieces in place. And though this is completely unconventional—we are unconventional—please don’t leave me tonight. I need you, now more than ever.”

“
I won’t,” he promised.

“
Good.”

He held his hand out, towed me to the bed, and pulled the covers down. I scooted across the soft cotton sheets. He followed behind, and I cuddled in his warm arms for a few minutes before sleep pulled me under. The last thing I remembered was Andrew whispering “Goodnight, sweet Ella” in my ear.

<>

It was a dreamless night—my first dreamless night in what felt like a year. The sun poured into the room through the arched window and made everything in the room glitter and shine in its reflection. Though it was beautiful, the thoughts of my mom seemed to dull everything around me—everything except the angel fast asleep next to me. His dark, almost black-blue hair was tousled, and he had the most tranquil and serene expression on his face that I’d ever seen. I didn’t want to wake him, so for several minutes I just lay there and stared at him.

Suddenly, he smiled. “Are you watching me?”

“
No,” I lied.

He opened his eyes. “You were calm all night. Did you have any dreams?” He reached up and traced a finger along my jaw. Sparks crackled, and my cheeks burned.

I shook my head. “None.” My tone was relieved. Maybe there was hope after all for getting rid of the dark circles under my eyes, but at the same time I didn’t want to lose the last connection I had with my mom. My two dreamful nights had my brain reeling. “Andrew, do angels dream?”

“
You’re an angel.” He chuckled and pulled me tighter to his body. “Of course we dream. We’re similar to the average human in many ways—we were human at one point. Last night, for instance, I had a dream that you and I were at a baseball game, back in America. I read about baseball at the library in Boise City. It sounded like something I would enjoy.”

I laughed at the thought of Andrew, in all his celestial glory, wearing a baseball hat and eating a hot dog and garlic fries. I had to admit, the image in my head was adorable and surprisingly sexy, making the blood rush into my cheeks. I hid my face in the pillow to hide the blush and stifled the giggles.

“
What?” Andrew asked, seeming completely confused by my reaction.

“
It’s nothing, really. Just the thought of you doing something so common—so normal—seems strange to me.”

“
Angels do enjoy normal activities. We don’t always run around saving lives.” He grinned at me, his eyes almost back to gold. “That makes me wonder, though. What do you like to do when you’re not disproving the existence of mythical creatures?” He was looking at me so intently that it made me feel self-conscious. Could this beautiful man really be interested in the trivial aspects of my daily life?

“
Well,” I began hesitantly, “I enjoy snow skiing. Skiing is a sport where you—”

“
Ella,” he interrupted, rolling his eyes in amusement, “I know what skiing is. I may have been dead for a few hundred years, but skiing was around before then. Though I’m sure it has changed a lot since I last went.”

“
You’ve skied?” I asked. I didn’t even bother to hide the amused expression on my face.

“
Yes, well, I’ve lived in several places where snow was quite common, believe it or not.” He smirked, holding back a chuckle. “Skies were necessary for travel. I couldn’t fly while trying to blend in with humans.”

“
No, I guess you couldn’t. I’d love to take you skiing sometime, show you what it’s like now.”

“
Like a date?” Andrew asked, a phony surprised smile plastered on his face. “Are you asking me out on a date, Gabriella?”

There was no hiding the blush that I knew covered my cheeks. “Well, um.” I fumbled for words. How could I be so forward? I had to recover this conversation and fast. “Well . . . I guess a date isn’t the most practical idea right now, what with the Soul Stalker after me and all.” This thought brought me back to reality. “Or the Shadows and the Ladies of Light.”

Andrew saw the change in my expression and tenderly took my face between his hands. “Ella,” he whispered, “I won’t let anyone hurt you. What you said last night, about us being kindred souls, well, I feel the same way. You have suddenly become my entire life, and I won’t allow anyone to take you away from me.”

Reality came crashing back down on me. Aiden—he must be paralyzed with grief. Abelie had obviously been his kindred soul. How could he possibly deal with her loss? He and I may not have a normal father/daughter relationship, but I wanted to be there for him, to support him as he grieved for his wife.

“
We better get up. I’m sure we need to help Aiden with arrangements for Abelie. We can’t let him do this on his own.”

Andrew sat up, stretched, and put an arm around my shoulders. “Yes,” he agreed. “It’s time for her to be at peace.”

CHAPTER 29: REVENGE

Another dreamless night had passed, and I wasn’t quite sure what that meant. Did the Sight fade when the one who gave it to you passed? It worried me. Andrew had stayed with me again, and he was a complete gentleman. It was amazing how much my life had changed within a few days. The fleeting thought of going back to work in the Fishbowl was kind of surreal—would I ever go back to the life I once knew?

Special arrangements were made for Abelie because of the circumstances surrounding her death. For a whole day, I wandered through the house—my parent’s house—while I traced my fingers along their belongings. I soaked up everything I could. This was where Abelie spent her time with Aiden and with me when I was a child. The feel of the floor beneath my feet and the smell in the air made me feel like this was my home. It smelled like Abelie: roses and vanilla. Each room was extravagant and different. Some items were old and priceless and others were more modern. You could tell she had been collecting trinkets for centuries. They especially liked old paintings of angels, which almost made me laugh.

The sun flooded down like liquid light into the room from the window high on the wall, but then a cloud passed over, and it turned dull and grey. When I looked up, I couldn’t see through the dew that hand built up on the glass. Little rainbows shimmered through the water droplets as clouds passed, and the sun faded in and out.

My feet dangled from my perch at my mother’s bed. It had a large canopy with wrought iron metal that twisted into beautiful designs and connected over my head. I had a family photo in one hand and the phone in the other. My life felt torn between who I was and who I was becoming. It literally hurt when I thought about my family back in the States, especially Jenna. At the same time, my heart was still trying to put all the pieces back together after losing the life I never had, the life I had almost returned to. In the photo, Aiden looked so human with Abelie and me in his lava-cracked arms. We looked happy, like a family should. I was young, of course, with long golden curls cascading down my back. There was so much love in their eyes, even in my father’s, which were nothing more than flames.

The door squeaked when Joseph pushed it open, and he strode toward me. The bed sank when he sat beside me. “Who you gunna call?”

I snorted. “That line is never going to be usable again.”

He cocked his head to the side and smiled at me. “Yeah, I guess not.” He shrugged. “But really, who were you going to call?”

“
I thought about calling my sister, Jenna. But I don’t know what I would say to her.”

“
Probably not a wise idea,” he suggested. “At least not yet. I made a phone call, earlier this morning, to the FBI.”

“
Oh,” I said, looking up at him. I bit my lip, an automatic reaction when I was nervous. “And what did you say—what did they say?”

“
Honestly, I had nothing. I told them not to ask.” He chuckled anxiously. “I mean, it isn’t like I can tell them that I went through a portal and ended up in Italy—even if I do work in Paranormal Investigations. My boss would ask me how many hallucinogenic mushrooms had I eaten.”

I burst out in laughter, the first real sound of joy I had made in several days. He smiled back, a look of confusion on his face.

“
It’s—” I tried to speak through the fit of giggles that had overtaken me. I would take in every happy moment I could get because I knew it wouldn’t be this lighthearted for long. “When I first found out there were angels, like real, live angels, I thought that someone had put some hallucinogenic mushrooms in my coffee. The whole day I was questioning whether I was losing my mind.”

After reigning in my insane outburst, I asked, “And they just said”—I tried to imitate a man—“ ‘Sure, Agent Carter, just come on back home’?”

His smile vanished. “Not exactly, though they did say to come back immediately. And not in a pleasant way.”

My humor was swatted away by his tone. “Are you not staying for the funeral?”

“
Of course I am.” He grabbed my hands in his. “I can’t express to you how sorry I feel about everything. I didn’t know your mother, but she was valiant, and she fought bravely. She was a hero.”

I looked down at the golden rug beside the bed. “Aiden said that word spread quickly of her death after we made arrangements with the funeral home.” I took in a deep breath. “It looks like I have to stay hidden during her funeral.” Before I knew what I was doing, I was on my feet, marching back and forth, effectively wearing a hole in the rug. “She was my mom,” I practically shouted. “I deserve to be there—to not have to hide from her.”

Joseph ran a hand through his dark hair. “It’s not fair, it really isn’t—” His forehead creased.

“
What?” I stopped pacing.

“
How did the angels find out? Because, you know, we’re in hiding. They were in hiding.”

“
Apparently—” I sighed and joined Joseph on the bed again “—Abelie had made many friends in the community around here. They were all human friends—one human happened to know an angel.”

“
Did the humans know she was an angel? Do they know about angels?”

“
They suspect. Angels were—are encouraged to mingle with humans. Aiden and Abelie were apparently good at hiding their relationship from public view, so at least Aiden’s safe. He said they rarely had people over. Abelie was loved in the community.” My eyes shot down to the gold rug again. “Of course she was loved, she was wonderful, and I—” I cut myself off, knowing that if I started to talk about her, I would cry again.

“
So how are you going to stay ‘covert’ during the funeral?” he wondered as he ran his hand through his hair. I was surprised it wasn’t standing on end.