Tears burned at the corners of my eyes until a boulder buried itself in my throat so that I couldn’t swallow the tears away. Sitting at the bench for the bus, I hunched my shoulders into myself, hiding behind my hood and the hands that now covered my face.
“Hey cutie, want to go to my place?” A rough voice that slurred his words. I could smell the alcohol from where I sat and boy, it was bad.
I uncovered my eyes slowly but pulled the hood closer about my face.
“What you tryin’ to hide. Warts or somethin’?”
“Go away.” I thrust the words out past the boulder that made my words almost as thick as his. That must be why he continued.
“Hey, you’re no better than me. You had enough ta drink, missy?” He sidled closer and I slid further away.
“This is the last warning. Go away.” Not knowing how to make him go away and leave me alone I considered what Devlin and Caine had told me. Angel of Deception, that could create illusion. I had already unknowingly done so when I sent the demon away. I could again.
Beginning to consider what I had done earlier, I began to chant to myself, gone, gone, she’s gone. Look she’s gone.
Then I wanted him gone from my sight, afraid he would see through my ruse, I began a different chant. Home, home, go home. Home, home, go home. No one’s there. Nice, comfortable home.
He stood silently for a moment, his eyes glazed over as the chant began to take over his mind. I could almost see the illusion working in his mind.
The drunk man stood staring at the empty bus bench, his eyes darting back and forth hunting for the strange girl. He heard a low voice in his head chanting, home, go home. No one’s there, home, go home.
His eyes widened in surprise as he whispered, “She’s gone. Where did she go?”
He turned around into a complete circle, until it became beyond apparent, I was not there. He shook his head and after putting a hand to his head, “Man, you’re drunker than you thought. Need to get off the drink.”
After one more look around the empty area, he turned and walked off into the darkness, his shoes making a hollow sound as he stumbled away.
“It’s amazing how fast you’ve learned without any training,” a voice out of the darkness said. “I applaud you, Paige.”
I recognized that voice even though I hadn’t known him long. He must have followed me.
Caine stepped out into a pool of low light that only accentuated his blond good looks. He wore jeans with a thick black belt and a blue sweater that accentuated his hazel eyes, bringing out the flecks of blue. But the black combat boots were incongruous.
As he stepped out into the lighted area, he looked right at me, his eyes alight with humor. How could he see me?
Standing from the bench, I strolled over in front of him, my head leaned back to peek up into his face.
A smile completely changed his face from the smirk he usually seemed to wear. It became more open and vulnerable and easier to feel comfortable while close to him.
“So, you’re having an easier time with your deception or illusion?” he asked me as he rocked back onto his heels, his chest out. “Whichever is best for you to use. Which is it?”
I smiled thinly. “Deception, I think. It has been easy to do far. I need someone to teach me what else I can do with these illusions.”
What else could I be doing right now? No more parlor tricks, that was sure. I needed to get my courage back so I could talk to Mom and Devlin about this.
I turned away from Caine and raked my gaze up and down the street where the loud music from the nearby bar broke the silence.
As I turned away, my foot caught on a root and I lost my balance. My arms went one way, my legs another and my middle? Well that was headed straight for the curb.
This is just my luck, I thought as I tumbled, I squinted my eyes tightly shut, my face mushed together as I waited for the pain to hit. Except I never made it that far. I stared at the ground a few inches from my face, a gasp escaping my open mouth as I hovered in the air.
Looking behind me, I saw Caine had me by my waist with both arms. I hung like a side of beef as he gripped me tightly against his body.
Still unable to catch a breath, my hands slid involuntarily down his forearms to where his were on my waist. I squeezed his between mine as I threw my head back. What was wrong with me? I didn’t do things like this.
Caine set me gently on my feet before he stepped back and I could turn around.
Clearing my throat, hoping I could speak intellectually, I said, “Thank you. I could have been seriously hurt.”
“Going to be like that, is it?” he asked, a touch of humor in the deep timbre of his voice. His hands in the pockets of his coat, his head cocked in my direction.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
Goosebumps raised on my skin as I shivered in reaction to what had just happened until what he said sunk in and then my temperature increased so much, this time my skin was even hot to the touch. Was that smoke coming out of my nose?
“Come on. You wanted inside a bar? Have you ever been in one?” The laughter was still plastered across his face making him almost irresistible.
“You act like I’m some Miss Goody Two-Shoes.” I growled at him.
“Aren’t you?” A smirk twisting his mouth so that I wanted to smack him.
I didn’t dare answer his smartass remark and instead tossed my head at him, my hair flying about my face as I strode across the street. The old-fashioned street lamps dimmed in the black night, the only other light being the bar and the millennia of stars.
For a moment, I stopped dead in the middle of the street and as I lifted my face to the heavens, my eyes closed involuntarily and I whispered a devout prayer of hope of all our survival in whatever was to be.
A voice said, “Gorgeous.” Opening my eyes, Caine was directly in front of my face, staring right at me, the blue in his eyes luminous. Parting my lips to speak he placed a finger right in the middle of my lips.
His large, calloused hand took mine in his to lead me back to the bar. As we finished crossing the street, we stopped before entering the bar, The Drift Bar. I had always considered a strange name for a bar.
There was no decoration to indicate why the name, except for bland dark wood walls that covered the exterior. With a quizzical expression he asked, “You’re sure you want to go inside? It’s a rough place for a girl like you.”
Nodding in agreement I tried to swallow the lump that had settled deep in my throat, the bar was dangerous territory, full of dangerous men and women.
Rubbing my hands down the sides of my jeans rapidly to wipe away the sweat that had suddenly accumulated on my palms, I bit at a corner of my bottom lip, working up the courage to stride into that bar.
I could weave deception into people’s thoughts. I could make fire balls. So far it was instinctive for me. Who knew what else I could do if I had been taught?
Following Caine as he stood by the door waiting for me to make my decision, he threw the heavy door wide open a flourish of bow and waving arm.
Striding into the center of the room, I stopped when I became the focus of every eye in the room. The scent of cigarettes filled the space along with the melodic strings from a guitar. Neon signs and posters selling beer and stronger alcoholic beverages filled the stained, faded white plastered walls. The floor sticky with spilled drinks and dropped food.
My childhood insecurities rose up to grip me by the throat. I gulped as I strained, forcing myself to not pull the hood of my sweater up around my face. I thought I heard, “Good girl.” But wasn’t sure.
Turning to plop onto a stool I waited for Caine to sit next to me. Instead he stood behind me, his hands gripping the back of my stool, hard.
The bartender came to me with a quirk to his eyebrow, “What’ll you have?”
Caine answered for me, “A virgin strawberry margarita.”
My stool had never turned so fast as I opened my mouth to
object but he had the nerve to interject instead, “you won’t like the alcohol.”
When the drinks were brought to us, with his beer, I took a sip of mine. The sweetness of it made me make a face but then I gave a little shrug. Even with that, it was good, so I took another and another until it was gone.
The whisper of air as Caine’s body moved and now, he stood leaning his back against the bar with his arms crossed, his eyes trained on the area before him. To me, it was as if he was guarding me from something. I was afraid I was about to find out what, because as I turned my head to glance in the direction he was looking, I observed a flicker of something.
7
My brow furrowed as I watched Caine stare at a far corner, his gaze intent. Mine followed his, trying to glimpse anything that might have captured his attention. Then I did. A flicker. The demon.
Then another, and another until I caught sight of about twenty hidden in dark places about the cavernous room. The demons were all identical, dark red leathery skin and black lidless eyes with huge dark pupils, they had short stubby arms and legs, and they all wore identical Elvis-like black jumpsuits with black combat boots. I huffed out a burst of inappropriate laughter, then covered my mouth with my hand to contain myself. Whoever thought up their outfits had a sense of humor. From what I understood about him, probably Lucifer himself.
Caine lifted himself from the side of the bar to stand straight, as he nodded to a bunch of men and women sitting at a large round table. They stood with Caine, staring at the demons and waiting for their first move.
As one, the demons swarmed the room attacking everyone in the bar whether angel or human. Screams erupted echoing off the walls along with the clans of swords. What, swords?
The swords or long knives glittered with a rainbow of colors as they were used. Caine left my side momentarily to help a female angel as she was attacked by three demons at once, their spike-like teeth dripping with saliva.
A sharp pain gripped my shoulder and I spun to find a demon with a claw covered in my blood. A glance at my shoulder revealed a bloody gash with my favorite black sweater torn.
Anger filled my mind and a ball of fire appeared out of nowhere floating in front of me, I pointed to the demon, directing it at him. It exploded against his chest with a flash making him flash out of existence or disappear back to hell. Which scenario was true, I didn't know.
Glancing around quickly, I saw a man being attacked by a handful of demons. I wasn’t sure if there was anything supernatural about him, but it didn’t matter. I gathered a fireball in my mind, trying to fill it with more fire to make it more substantial.
My gaze skipping around the room I decided I needed to be higher up. With hasty glances I decided the bar top was the best place for me to take a stand. I slipped over as fast as I could and after placing one hand on the thick piece of stained wood, I leapt onto the bar top, my karate training helped me at this moment.
I leaned over with one knee on the bar top next to my hand, I was ready to take them all on. I was doing this by the seat of my pants having no idea of what I was doing. I didn’t even know if it was possible by using deceptions. But so far what I imagined, happened.
Sudden, excruciating pain blossomed up right at my shoulder blades as if someone were slicing into them.
I opened my mouth soundlessly as the blood rushed away from my face, leaving me shaky and panting with my face turned down. Caine looked at me quizzically with a raised eyebrow and I shook my head the agony slowly dissipating. Closing my eyes for a split second to get my mojo back, I sighted the exact locations of the man and demon.
Wanting to finish this but not wanting to accidentally hit the man, I prayed he would not question me as I yelled, “Duck!”
He dropped to the floor just as I threw the fire ball right at the demon closest to him, who immediately burst into flames and was so volatile he took the demon standing beside him. Two more down. Caine yelled, “Paige, left!”
Not quite sure what he meant, I jumped to the left and weaved down as a blue-bladed sword swung by where I had been standing and cut a demon in half. No blood. There was no blood. He only disappeared.
Raising a fist to Caine at his ‘kill’ I observed what was left. The sight that greeted me was awe-inspiring. None were left.
All of us stood looking around and only seeing the twenty of us that had fought. That included the bartender. Our chests rose and fell fast and hard with our heavy breathing. Raising our arms high, we cried out our victory loud, and, the bartender, put Champions by Queen on the jukebox.
One of the men, a human I gathered by how skinny he was, tried to fist bump Caine. He put his fist in Caine’s direction, who stood like an immovable boulder, while the poor guy would thrust his arm out to Caine and draw it back in. After a couple tries Caine finally got the idea and with great reluctance touched his fist to the skinny guy who now it appeared decided he was Caine’s best friend.
“Dude, can you believe it? What were those things? Were those swords you had? That’s sick.”
My hand covered my mouth as I tried not to laugh, as I jumped off the bar top after a dour scowl from Vic. Who grabbed a towel after I had jumped off and with disinfectant in hand set to cleaning his bar top.
Caine’s face fell as the skinny guy chatted away at a million miles an hour about if the creatures, they fought were demons. Caine nodded to a girl who came over to the skinny guy gabbing to him as if they were old friends. She put a hand out as if to touch his shoulder but instead placed her palm against his forehead, where he went quiet. As she continued talking to him, he got a blank expression on his face.
When she had finished, she and Caine left him alone where he stood a vacant look on his face until he gave the appearance of shaking whatever she had done to him off and wandered away as if nothing had happened.
Had she made him forget? Angels must each have different abilities from what I could discern. Devlin was the Angel of Deception, which I had inherited.
“Come on, everybody. Drinks are on the house. I think we need it after what just happened,” Vic called out to us as he set out a row of twenty shot glasses that he began slopping liquor into. He set the bottle down beside him so he could easily pick it up again.
We gathered around the bar grabbing the short glasses while Skinny Guy took his but glanced around as if confused about what had happened.
Watching what everyone else did out of the corner of my eye, I lifted my glass and threw my head back, tossing the liquor into my open mouth.
Burning. Bitter burning. That’s all I was able to feel as I bent over coughing my lungs off.
“I guess now is not the time to say I told you so, huh?”
“Ha-ha.” I responded in a harsh voice so unlike my own. My throat was like rough sandpaper, but the burning became warmth that rose from my belly and a peace overcame me, fuzzing my brain.
Vic shot an arm out with the bottle to pour me another portion but Caine grabbed the arm to stop him. “You don’t need anymore. It’ll slow down your reaction time and shut out part of your new ability. But you know that don’t you, Vic?”
Looking between the two of them I imagined what Caine was talking about. That meant Vic was an angel, by what he had insinuated.
“You want to learn what your abilities are? Right? I can teach you.” A smirk twisted Caine’s mouth as he gave me a sly glance out of the side of his eyes.
He had me there. He knew I wanted to know everything I could do now. Especially with demons running around. “Do you know why there are so many?”
His lips drooped in disappointment as he shook his head no. “I don’t know why they’re suddenly coming around. There must be something happening with Lucifer. We’ll have to try and catch one of those…things. See if we can get what’s happening out of it. Somehow.”
As I contemplated what he had said, I considered what I would do now. I needed to go to bed and get some rest. After what I had done, I was near exhaustion but there was still a linge
ring buzz of excitement.
“Why don’t you come home with me?”
My eyes widened at his suggestion and my heart gave a faster, harder beat. Did he ask me that?
“Not like that.” Caine glowered at me.
“We have an extra bedroom you can use. I’ll get some healthy and filling food into you and you can rest tonight and we’ll talk in the morning.” His explanation sounded reasonable so I nodded in agreement. I was sure Amy would be there.
Trying to slip off the barstool, I stumbled and almost fell to my knees if Caine hadn’t grabbed my arm. A slight smile touched my lips in a thank you as I held my ankles straight, managing to follow Caine in a straight line.
“Hey, I have food,” Vic called out to us. I didn’t know why he was trying to keep us here but Caine wasn’t going along with it by the way he was glaring and growling.
Caine glared at Vic as if he would tear the other man limb from limb if he took one step closer to us, but all Vic did in return was chuckle and move away to pour some more of that burning liquid to other customers, shaking his head as he did so.
Carefully making my way after Caine, we walked back to his car where he stopped. “You need to tell your parents you’re going home with me.”
My mouth opened to protest but closed it when I thought about it. I had to agree with him. With a huge huff, I threw open the door to his car to plop down on the soft as butter seat. I hadn’t looked to see what kind of car it was but now I was interested. “What make of car is this?”
Craning my head around looking for an emblem or anything. Instead I leaned my head back on the headrest, turning in Caine’s direction who almost looked embarrassed, “A BMW.”
“A Beemer? You?”
I thought he would be more of a classic car kind of guy. A rebel. Muscle car.
It didn’t take long to get back to my mother’s house. Dragging my feet, I softly went up the steps not wanting to wake anyone up. I had no idea what time it was. I wanted to leave Mom a note if possible and not have a conversation with her.
As I crept through the small house, wincing at every creak of a floorboard, until I reached the kitchen. When I turned on the light, there they were, Mom in Devlin’s lap kissing and more.
Shadows and Sorcery: A Collection of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels Page 174
