Bad Angel

by JC Andrijeski

  Dags thought about that.

  “Go on,” Ty said, nodding towards the mask. “Try it on.”

  Sighing, Dags did as he was told. Once he had it arranged over his face, he turned towards the other man.

  Ty broke out in a laugh.

  “Damn,” he said. “That is badass. You sure you’re not the dark angel?”

  “No,” Dags said grimly. “I’m not sure of that at all.”

  Ty’s smile remained, but a shrewder look came to his eyes.

  “I am,” he said, after a beat, shrugging as Dags took off the mask. “I wouldn’t be helping you if I wasn’t sure about that much.”

  Dags nodded, but felt his brow furrow.

  He’d never asked Ty about his beliefs.

  He’d never asked any of his new “friends” what they thought about all this, not really, not even Phoenix. Thinking about Phoenix, though, so soon after having thought about her before, and the time before that, and the time before that… brought a sharp pain to his chest.

  For a few seconds, it was difficult to breathe.

  “You miss her,” Ty said, his voice matter-of-fact. “Don’t you?”

  Dags gave him a sharp, wary look.

  There was definitely something strange about Ty.

  Dags didn’t want to be the first to bring it up, mostly because he didn’t want to freak the other man out, but Dags wondered about Ty more and more. Ty was the only human Dags had ever met who could see the red glowing irises of a human possessed by a demon. Ty also had a few too many “insights” that felt a lot more like mind-reading.

  He also had a pretty mind-blowing aura.

  Dags didn’t know if his new friend was a witch, a psychic, some kind of shaman, the reincarnation of a Buddhist monk, or what, but he was nervous about being the first one to bring it up, since Ty himself seemed pretty oblivious.

  He was about to brush off Ty’s question about Phoenix, to tell him one lie or another, but for some reason he didn’t.

  “Yes,” he admitted, meeting those dark eyes. “I miss her a lot. But I can’t be around her right now. Not until I figure some of this out. Even if she doesn’t understand that, you should.”

  Ty nodded.

  Something about that nod didn’t exactly feel like agreement.

  Dags was about the change the subject, when his friend spoke.

  “She’s the same, you know,” Ty said, his voice serious. “Like, suffering somehow, from you two being apart. Whatever you think you’re doing, whatever you think you’re saving her from… it might be too late, Angel-man. The damage is done.”

  Dags felt that pain in his chest grow colder.

  He felt it somewhere in his gut, too, guilt and shame, shame and guilt. Some days, it grew into a kind of existential dread. He felt the part of himself refusing it⏤refusing to face the truth he heard in Ty’s words.

  He knew the other man was right. He knew it.

  But he wanted to believe it was fixable, even now.

  He wanted to believe it was like any other kind of addiction. He told himself if he just waited it out, if he committed to doing the right thing, if he just cut both of them off, cold turkey, she could still be okay.

  She could still be okay.

  WANT TO READ MORE?

  Continue the rest of the novel here:

  FURY OF ANGELS

  (Angels in L.A. #3)

  Link: https://bit.ly/ALA03

  JC Andrijeski is a USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author who urban fantasy, paranormal romance and mysteries, and apocalyptic science fiction, often with a sexy and metaphysical bent.

  JC has a background in journalism, history and politics, and has a tendency to traipse around the globe, eat odd foods, and read whatever she can get her hands on. She grew up in the Bay Area of California, but has lived abroad in Europe, Australia and Asia, and from coast to coast in the continental United States.

  She currently lives and writes full time in Los Angeles.