They stared at each other as though they hadn’t seen each other in a long time. I shifted me feet and cleared my throat, hoping to remind them I was still in the room.
They smiled at each other as they slightly moved apart.
“So why have I never seen you before.” This needed to be taken care of first before any fatherly hugging. “Biggest question, why do we live like this, when you seem to have more than enough judging by your expensive clothes.”
Pointing to his designer clothes mimicking regular jeans and motorcycle boots, he must have put a shirt on over his tank top.
Devlin scratched a hand at the back of his neck as he obviously considered his options. Leaning his head back to stare at our grimy popcorn ceiling he said, “I haven’t been in this town your whole life. I’ve just recently returned. Your mother wouldn’t let me move the three of you to a better place. Only pay for Ben’s doctor bills. She wants to do this on her own, which I’m very proud of by the way.”
“From where?” Mom made shushing gestures with her hands which I pretended not to see.
“ What do you mean from where? No, no. Nothing bad. What are you thinking I do, little girl?” A frown slid his face downward and his blue eyes took on a fierce light.
Quietly, I almost whispered, “Drugs? Guns?”
“No, no,” he repeated, his head shaking back and forth violently, while waving a hand in front of his face.
“But what be about Lucifer and Asmodeus? “
I waited, expecting an answer. If it wasn’t drugs or anything equally awful then what could be making him hold off telling me. What could be so bad?
He looked to my mother, meeting her eyes. She nodded in agreement. Devlin took a deep breath and held it for a moment before saying in a rush, “I’m an angel.”
Laughter burst out of my chest so hard I started coughing at the air that went down the wrong tube. He frowned. Oh, he was serious?
I started laughing again so hard, I had to lean my hand against the wooden arm of a chair as I was bent over.
He had delusions of grandeur. “Angel? Pa...lease.”
Now it was his turn to roll his eyes. “What? Am I supposed to show you my wings?” He snorted a laugh but put his hand over his mouth trying to hide his mirth from me. “I’m a fallen angel, so-- they’re a bit tattered, them being in hell and all. That’s how I know Lucifer and Asmodeus. “
The correlation between the names I said and Devlin said suddenly hit my mother. “How does Paige know about Lucifer and the King of Demons? You just told her you were an angel.”
Oh, oh. He was in trouble now. I could tell he was backed into a corner. His eyes went wide and he opened his mouth to respond but I saved him instead.
“Okay, so Ben and I are half angel. Right?” I stretched my neck trying to look at my back, my voice heavy with derision.
With a half lift of a corner of my mouth, I asked, “Do we get wings, or do only pure angels get those?” The mirth dropped away from him like a ghost. One second there, the next gone.
“It’s a toss of the coin as to whether you get wings. Usually they come around puberty, at the latest your twenty-sixth birthday. If you haven’t got them by then, you’re not going to.”
“So, in three years Ben not only gets to deal, maybe, with a puberty he won’t understand, he’ll also maybe get wings he won’t understand. Great, Dad. Great.”
“Paige, stop right now, young lady. He’s your father and you need to show him some respect.” Mom chided, standing with her hands on her ample hips.
“But Mom I think he needs to be around more to earn that respect.” I said softly trying to be gentle.
“You have no idea what he’s been through. And no, he had no idea the two of you were his until a couple years ago.” Mom scolded me.
“Sher, she’s right. I must earn her respect. She knows nothing about me or me about her.” His gaze at me was intent. I could see him studying my every facial expression as if he could learn about me from that.
My father he was an enigma. His emotions were hidden behind the mask he let others see. Was this the real Devlin? Or was there another? Third question, did mom know the true Devlin?
“Thank you, Dev.” My smile was enveloping. The wry twist to his lips made me realize he would be a hard nut to crack.
“Come on dear, and lets us sit down. Your brother is gone so we can talk things out. You can find out what your father did to become fallen.”
Literally dragging my feet into the shabby living room with its orange flower-covered sofa from the eighties, I dropped heavily into it with a loud disgruntled sigh. There was a matching upholstered chair and loveseat clustered around a tiny second-hand side table with a fake, crystal vase holding brightly colored flowers. That was one thing Mom insisted on was fresh flowers in every room every week even if we couldn’t afford it.
My narrowed glare fixed on Devlin as after giving my mother a speaking glance he moved the chair to sit in front of me for her. He sat on the edge of the blue painted coffee table his hands hanging loosely between his legs.
“Hon.” I heard my mother say, disbelieving. Hon?
I settled my body with my legs under me and a big, fluffy pillow to lean my head on. “Okay. Start the story.” I waved my arm at him for him to start the story.
“This isn’t a fairy tale Paige, but I’m sure it’s unbelievable to you.
It started millennia ago. Same old story involving Lucifer and free will. Many of us were curious about this world and the many others out there as well as dimensions.” Devlin hung his head while shaking it back and forth as I could see him recalled those embarrassing memories.
“He had always had that extra spark some people had. That smooth talk that could get anyone believe what they said and to think it was their idea.” Devlin picked his head up to look me straight in the eye.
“Not that that’s excuse but it needs to be added. Those of us that followed Lucifer were naïve. Again, no excuse. We were small time angels, never having been anywhere else. We heard all the tales about how incredible all these worlds were.
Lucifer was up there with Michael and Gabriel, Lucifer being the third in God’s right hands. They travelled to all these different worlds and dimensions giving him the information on them as was needed.”
Mom got up from her chair so she could sit with Devlin to and gently stroke her hand down his head to settle on his back. She leaned toward him and kissed his cheek.
It was hard for me to see the love between the two of them, as he closed his eyes to turn his head into her kiss so their lips met. But my mother was right. I needed to suck it up and grow up. The love between them could not be denied.
Mom left the room while we sat and I digested the information for a few minutes. Devlin looked slightly drained until Mom walked back into the living room with two tall glasses filled with ice and sweet tea.
The cold sweet tea gave Devlin his second wind and he continued his story, “Lucifer, at that time, decided he was better than either Michael and Gabriel and had to get them out of the way. But how?”
He stopped briefly to take another sip of the cold tea and I sat forward slightly, my elbows on my knees and palms against my cheeks. My mouth was slightly open as I waited for the story to continue.
Devlin opened his mouth to speak when there was a loud, obnoxious knock on the front door. With a grimace, he went to stand up and I waved a hand at him to sit back down.
Smiling, I opened the door to a huge man with a fisted hand ready to hit me. My martial arts training kicked in, a leg went straight out into his abdominals as I grabbed an arm, and with a huge heave threw him over my shoulder where he landed against a wall leaving a body-sized hole in the plaster with a house shaking thud. Chunks and sprinkles of plaster leaving a puddle on the wood floor.
At the noise, both my mother and Devlin came rushing into the entry hall to stand staring at the man lying against the wall, his head and shoulder still inside the hole he ha
d made, shaking his head, plaster dust spraying all around him.
Devlin threw his head back in body moving guffaws. His hands holding his stomach, one hand out as if to hold onto something to hold him up as he laughed.
With a hand to the side of his head, the dread lock haired man gave me a narrow-eyed glare of dislike. Grunting he struggled to extricate himself from the broken wood and plaster.
After putting a light hand on Devlin’s arm with a glance of censure, Mom rushed over to the guy without a word, trying to brush the dust off.
A hard light entered his eyes as he reached over to pull Mom away from the strange man.
“Caine. What do you want?” A harsh guttural tone to his voice. Anger evident in the growl.
Leaning his large body against the wall before straightening and standing on his own feet, he waved Mom away with a slight smile and a nod of thanks. He turned to Devlin. “I came looking for Amy. We had made plans for the day.”
I had no clue why that answer gave a sharp spear to my chest for a man that had just walked into my life.
This feeling was foreign to me having never experienced it before, not even a teenage crush. It was something I didn’t like either, the wanting. I pushed it down until it became a tiny puff of smoke that I could pretend never existed.
“She’s with Ben, my son. She took him for ice cream while we talk.” My mother rarely needed to raise her voice. She had such a personality that people listened even when they never wanted to.
Caine nodded, having calmed down while she spoke, but he kept giving me dark glances that was making Devlin bristle. “Was there anything else Caine? If not, why don’t you leave. “
He looked me up and down, his gaze feeling like hands caressing me making me shiver. So much for pushing away that puff of smoke.
Devlin clenched his fists tightly, his eyes narrowed. I could feel the fury radiate off him. His shoulders broadened as his back arched slightly. He drew his elbows up as his big hands fisted. A faint shadow of what appeared to be wings trembled behind him.
My eyes widened almost as much as Devlin’s body grew but my mother tried to diffuse the situation by placing a calming hand on Devlin’s arm. Her hand lightly caressed Devlin’s forearm to his biceps, up and down, over and over.
“I’m not ready to leave yet Dev. Well, how many children do you think he’s had over the last few millennia?” His smirk widened and for a moment I didn’t like him at all. “And women?”
He leaned his shoulder against the wall he had broken, his arms and ankles crossed nonchalantly.
Caine gave my mother a sly glance as she paused in her stroking for a moment, her expression thoughtful. Then she continued. “That has nothing to do with me.”
“That's Lucifer’s job Caine. To create disharmony and distrust. You’ve been around him too much.
There has been no woman for me since I met Sherry. And I’m not certain there ever will be another.” Devlin shook his lowered head and with a slight turn of his head gave Caine a narrow-eyed glare with a bitter smile.
Now I knew who Caine was. A fallen angel like Devlin, who I wasn’t ready to call my father yet. I could see Caine as more of a fallen angel than Devlin was with his striking hazel-eyed good looks.
“So, Dev. Enough playing around. Where’s Amy?”
“I have no idea where your daughter is, Caine. Sherry told you she was with Ben. I’m sure she still is. She’s a very responsible girl.” An unspoken unlike her father was a given. I had no idea what had happened between the two men but there was a lot of hidden or not so hidden anger.
“How sweet, Dev. Think you need some time outside of Angel Falls with Lucifer. Next time I see him, I’ll suggest it to him for you. K?” Caine gave Devlin a wink before he turned back to the door and me.
Staring into his hazel eyes I tried to decide what color they were. Blue and green seemed to trade places with his moods. Devlin’s voice came to me from a distance. “Do not mention me to Lucifer. I don’t know how, but he somehow knows about Paige. I don’t want him to know anymore. And stay away from my daughter.”
Those words made me pause. What right did he think he had to tell anyone what to do with me? A blue glow seemed to emanate from his eyes. A heat emerged from those eyes that tried to burn me up.
As he walked out the door, he suddenly turned to give me a pensive look before making his way back to his overgrown truck. “I know you’re checking out my ass, young lady.” My hand caught at my throat as my breath choked out any come back, I could have had, but I couldn’t come up with anything.
What was the Angel Falls part? The town we lived in was called Willow Falls.
Willow Falls, Washington. Where angels congregated. Ha-ha. What was next?
4
Shaking my head and looking down, I wrinkled my nose, as I considered my wayward emotions about Caine, especially after just meeting him. My brain came up blank. I was thrust inward so that when Devlin spoke my name, I didn’t hear him.
“Paige, I’ve spoken to you three times. Can you hear me?” His question was short with impatience as he stood behind me.
My head snapped up so fast, I was glad I hadn’t gotten whiplash. I bit at my bottom lip, not answering him or turning around.
“What is this fascination you have with the Angel of Love? Caine’s a miserable S.O.B. You can definitely do better.”
I flicked a glance at Devlin as I turned to face him, to watch him pace, before standing with clenched fists as he looked in the direction of the door as if expecting Caine to walk through again. That was when I caught what he had just said.
“The Angel of Love?” I repeated. “Don’t you mean the God of Love?”
He grimaced and turned his gaze to the ceiling as if asking for patience. I thought it was a reasonable question. “Those little flying cherubs? He thought that was great fun, calling a cherub the god of love. Flying cherubs? Flying? Angels? He always was an idiot.”
“So, Angel of Love is a fallen angel, huh? Interesting.” I puffed out a breath in thought. My brain stuck on Angel of Love.
He would no way be interested in me. I knew I wasn’t the prettiest woman out there, and with little experience with men didn’t help
“So, no nookie for me. I understand.” I gave a quick glance in Devlin’s direction to see him choke on what I assumed was air as he bent over coughing.
I felt slightly bad, but I tried to hide the smirk that played about my lips. My hand pounded his back hard until his coughing lessened enough to stand upright. He gave me a narrow-eyed glare as if it was my fault. Then I remembered something else I was curious about. “Angel Falls? Why did you say that? This is Willow Falls. Willow Falls, Washington.”
He rolled his eyes at me. “Of course, this city is. That’s just what we call it. The fallen angels appear to congregate here. Have families and have a life. Therefore we followed Lucifer. To have a life like the humans. Children. Love. We didn’t have it in us to worship God twenty-four-seven. We needed more. You know the falls about five miles from here?” A flush crept up his neck as he lowered his head to whisper, “and so it’s called Angel Falls by us.”
It would be interesting to find out how many of the people I knew in this town were angels. Or former angels. So many questions I had.
“But I thought fallen angels became demons. That’s what we were taught in Sunday School. Like Lucifer.” I was stunned by what I was hearing. It was hard to wrap my brain around his reality.
Devlin dropped his head into his hands and rested his forehead against his palms. He moved two fingers so I could see one sky-blue eye. He regarded me with that one eye. “Lucifer is not evil.”
A gasp escaped my lips.
“Not evil in the sense of the residents of hell. He’s very fun loving with a wry and strange sense of humor. He loves practical jokes. More the giving than the getting.” Devlin continued.
Devlin chuckled, a devilish spark of humor in the eyes he had now revealed to me, as he relived some joke
s he must have played on Lucifer. Those could be a story for another day.
“We fallen angels are not evil. We are…or were, at the time, led astray.” He lifted a corner of his lips, shaking his head at himself.
“No, that’s too easy to say. We were eager to be led astray, like children I guess would be the best comparison. It looked so exciting down here, and we wanted some of that. We were naïve at the time.” Devlin stretched his arms over his head, leaning backwards at the same time.
“Let’s get your mother from the other room and see if we can pick up your brother.” He looped his arm through mine and for the first time in my life, almost knew what it was like to have a father.
* * *
A half hour later and a couple of phone calls we were able to find Amy and my brother of all places in a book store. After the ice cream Amy had decided to take Ben to her book store. I didn’t even know my brother could read. He never did it around me, I always read to him.
It was a kid-friendly, family-oriented business. Ben was sitting with kids younger than him in a bean bag chair. His round face split with the biggest grin I had ever seen. And he was laughing. Actually laughing.
I leaned over him slightly to get a portion of the cover of the book he had in his lap, The Little Kitten. Not caring that it was a picture book for little kids I mussed his hair and lightly ran my fingers through the tangled strands, my fingers catching on tiny tangles.
“Hey, kid,” I said bumping my hip against his shoulder.
He gave me a wide grin in return spotting our parents talking with Amy. Our parents. I was having trouble wrapping my head around that one.
Mom and Devlin were at the coffee area having a nice, hot drink. Hmm. I was going to need one in a few.
I glanced at the little circle of bean bags for the children to sit on but there was also a couple sitting on the plush rug in the center. Those children were more interested playing with their metal cars that looked like they had been made in the fifties.
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