Erika let out a huge breath. “You wouldn’t mind? I won’t be keeping you from anything?”
“Not a thing. As a matter of fact, it’ll be just the stress relief I need,” Tessa promised. “I’ll be there in about twenty minutes.”
“You’re a Godsend, Tessa. I needed to run a few errands, and you know how Bea hates tagging along.”
“No problem. See you in a few.” Tessa pressed the button on her Bluetooth to end the call while getting in the turn lane. She was glad for the distraction from the craziness, but Tessa felt odd. She could have sworn she knew exactly what Erika was feeling, even over the phone. It was like she was sitting next to her instead of across town. The emotions came so clearly it seemed like more than a guess. But that was crazy—impossible. And when Erika called her a Godsend, Tessa cringed thinking back to David. She really liked him and hoped she made a new friend—maybe even more—but now she was scared of him. No, not scared of him, but scared of what he said. She shuddered as she pictured the kind of freak she was turning into. It was bad enough she had everyone’s pity, she couldn’t handle their disgust if they ever found out she was some kind of mutant.
She turned up the radio to drown out the thoughts. She didn’t want to think about him or any of the crazy things he said. She would focus all of her energy on the sweet little girl she was about to see.
***
Nico returned to the suburban neighborhood, shielding his eyes from the bright sun. He was already irritated and it was barely early afternoon. This lead better pan out, he thought as he donned his Ray Bans and popped two Tylenol. Unfortunately, being immortal did not mean being immune to hangovers, something to do with “sins of the flesh” or some crap. After spending a good hour cleaning and polishing his shoes last night, he fell into a restless sleep and dreamt of yapping dogs chasing him while he dodged piles of poo. He woke up in a cold sweat, sick to his stomach, and couldn’t go back to sleep. So he raided the hotel mini-bar until he passed out on the floor.
As he arrived at the entrance to the neighborhood, he landed in a wooded area and used his powers to tuck his wings away from mortal sight. They were always there, but he was able to obstruct them from the view of anyone he deemed unworthy—which most pathetic humans were. He walked through the gate ignoring the “all visitors must check in with security” sign and continued toward the girl’s house. He spread his wings once more and resumed his perch on the neighbor’s rooftop. He assumed she was like most teenagers and slept half the day, so he didn’t bother to arrive early. Today he planned to accomplish two goals: find out more about his target and the mystery girl, and take revenge on the irresponsible old crone who allowed her mutt to ruin his night.
The house was quiet and dark, but he wasn’t too worried. Kids were lazy; he’d wait for her to wake up. For all he knew, she could’ve been up all night with the suspect. What did the kids call it today? Ah, a “booty call”. With any luck, the suspect spent the night, and he wouldn’t have to do much work to find him.
Forty-five minutes later, Nico’s patience had worn thin. He wasted time checking his email, playing Angry Birds, and reading the latest Tweets from Charlie Sheen—something that never failed to make him laugh. But there was no movement from the house. He contemplated ringing the doorbell to wake someone up, but the damn security guard kept driving up and down the street, and he didn’t want to risk being seen.
Finally, a light went on in the back of the house by the kitchen. Ridiculous that these lazy kids sleep until after noon. The apathy of this generation makes me glad I’m not human anymore, he muttered as he flitted down to the garden bench he’d occupied the prior evening and peered through the window. He could see the backside of a female leaning into the refrigerator. It wasn’t the same girl from the night before, but she intrigued him just as much. There was something familiar about her, and he stood up to get a better view. She gathered ingredients, and with arms overflowing with vegetables, she turned to place them in the center of the kitchen island. That’s when he saw her face. The affect was like hearing about the Secret Service sex scandal: shock and delight at the same time. There, standing in the kitchen scrambling eggs while bopping her head to an attached iPhone was his Margaret. So much time passed since he’d seen her last; he blinked several times just to make sure he was seeing correctly. Without hesitation, he walked to the back door, melted off the lock, and walked inside.
“Margaret, my darling Maggie, I can’t believe it’s really you,” he greeted as she whipped up the fluffy eggs and hummed along with the song. Her back was to him, and with the headphones on she couldn’t hear him. He wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace. Holding her, breathing in her essence, he couldn’t believe his luck. The fates were truly with him this time.
***
Morgan, lost in the sounds of Lady Gaga’s newest album, didn’t hear anyone come in the door. As hard arms wrapped around her, she screamed and dropped the bowl of eggs shattering glass all around her feet. She tried to turn to see who startled her, but was encapsulated by a set of strong hands and couldn’t break free. After wiggling for a minute, she started to cry, certain this was not a friend playing a joke. She was spun around to face the person holding her. He was a stranger in his late twenties with curly, brown hair that hung just past his ears. His eyes were intense, never leaving hers. He loosened the grip around her waist, which allowed a little more movement, so she pulled the headphones out of her ears. Desperate for a weapon, she reached for the chef’s knife she was about to use to dice the vegetables for her omelet, but came up inches short.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?” she cried.
“It’s me, Margaret, it’s Nico. You came back to me! After all these years. I’d almost lost hope, but here you stand.”
“My name’s not Margaret. It’s Morgan.” Tears fell down her face as she continued to squirm in the man’s arms.
“Don’t be silly, Maggie. You may look a little different, but I’d know you anywhere. Oh how I’ve missed you all these years.” He traced a finger down her face stopping at her chin and tilting it up to look her in the eye. When she tried to move her face out of his grip, he only held her tighter, almost digging his fingers into her skin. “So many years passed for me, thinking of nothing but your sweet lips. You’re as beautiful as ever.”
“My name is Morgan,” she pled as tears streamed down her face. “Please, you have the wrong person. Please let go of me.” The man ignored her as he ran his hands up and down her body, causing Morgan to shiver in fear. “Listen, mister, I’m sure this is a simple mistake. Let me go, and I’ll help you find Maggie. I promise.”
“No, Maggie, I’ll never let you go again. It was a mistake leaving you for the war. It won’t be one I make again. When I almost died on the battlefield, your face was the last image I saw. I had so much regret. So many things I wished I’d told you.” He nuzzled his face into her neck and breathed in deeply. “I vowed if I was given a second chance, I’d spend forever making it up to you. It’s been so long. I didn’t think my prayer would ever be answered. But here you are! At last! Now we have all the time in the world to make up for our years apart.”
Morgan whimpered. He wasn’t touching her sexually or trying to take off her clothes, but the fear that he would was rising. How had this happened? How was he able to get inside my house? All the doors were locked and the security alarm should’ve gone off at the very least. Her mind raced to different conclusions. He must be some kind of Iraq war vet with PTSD or something who thought she was someone else. But how do I convince him I’m not this other girl? Oh God I wish Tessa were here.
***
Nico savored the touch of his new Maggie. He wasn’t an idiot, he knew this wasn’t exactly the same woman he loved all those years ago, but she was the reincarnation of his dead wife. He heard of people coming back, but he never believed he’d find her after all these years. He needed to get her away before anyone else woke up. He needed to be alone with her to explain t
he situation and make her love him again. The only problem now was her fighting him. If he took a woman kicking and screaming out of her home, especially since he didn’t have a car, he would be noticed. As she struggled against him, he delighted in the feel of her body against his. Her soft skin and the smell of her natural perfume made him almost weak in the knees. Loneliness was all he felt for so long, but soon they would truly be reunited as husband and wife. He reinforced the hold around her waist and on her mouth as his eyes skimmed the large kitchen. There, on a hook attached to the back wall were several sets of car keys.
“Which one of these is yours, sweetheart?” he whispered in her ear, licking the outline of the lobe the way she always liked.
“Please, just please let me go,” she mumbled around his hand.
“As much as I love your body squirming against mine, if you’re not going to be helpful, I’m going to make you more compliant the hard way. I don’t want to hurt you, love, so just calm down.”
The girl fought even harder to get away, kicking, biting, and pinching. He found it adorable she thought she could get away from him and let her struggle a bit longer. Finally growing weary of her antics after she repeatedly tried to kick his nether regions, Nico pressed down on a key nerve in her shoulder and she crumbled to the floor, completely knocked out.
“There, that’s much more cooperative.” He smiled. Knowing she would not wake up for at least an hour, he propped her in a chair and went about working on a plan. It couldn’t look like a struggle took place, so he quickly cleaned up the egg goo and broken glass from the floor and counters. He put the ingredients away and placed the dishes in the sink. Glancing over at Maggie, he noticed she was still in her pajamas and would need new clothes. He tiptoed upstairs and found her room. He breathed a sigh of relief that no one else was home. Good, that will make this a lot easier, he thought as he packed a small overnight bag with items from the floor. He had no idea what she’d want to wear, but he wasn’t going to bother to coordinate outfits. He rifled through a few drawers before coming across her under-things. Holding up the meager pieces of lace, he smiled wickedly as he pictured her in it. He scooped several in the bag, added a hairbrush from the vanity, and a few jeans and tee shirts before he zipped the bag closed. It would look like she was away for the weekend. Later he’d text a few people from her phone so no suspicions rose about her disappearance.
When he got back downstairs, he placed the bag near her still-sleeping body and picked up several sets of keys before heading into the garage. He pressed the remote buttons on the key chains and found a set that unlocked a large Land Rover SUV.
“Excellent,” he purred. “This will suit our needs perfectly.”
He returned to the house, gently scooped Maggie into his arms, and headed to the car. After laying her in the backseat and buckling her in, he revved the engine and backed down the driveway. “Nothing can stop me now”, he muttered. “And finally, things are going my way.”
David arrived at the house just as the SUV was pulling away. The driver wasn’t Tessa and he strained to identify who it was. As the car rounded the corner and headed out of the community, David scrambled to climb on top of a slide in a neighboring yard to gain a better vantage point. His heart raced and his vision blurred when the driver turned his face and David recognized it. It was the notorious Hunter, Nico. No, no, no, he cried and ducked to not be seen. Not now, I can’t go on the run again. I can’t leave Tessa alone. How did he find me? David peeked his head up again before they disappeared. He could see someone was slouched in the backseat just as they turned the corner out of sight. It was Tessa’s roommate.
What was going on? Where was Nico taking her? And why? David knew enough stories about Nico to know he would stop at nothing to apprehend his target. Was he taking Tessa’s roommate to try to draw David out? No matter the reason, he needed to make sure the girl was okay before he did anything else. It was too late to stop them, so he went back to Tessa’s house. The front door was locked, so he searched the rest of the property. When he reached the back door he saw the lock had been melted off unnaturally. David squeezed his eyes shut and said a quick prayer before heading inside.
He picked up the landline in the kitchen and scrolled through the recent calls. Seeing “Tessa’s Cell”, he hit call and prayed she picked up.
On the third ring, she answered, “Hello? Morg?”
David let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. She was safe. “Tessa, its David. I’m so glad you answered.”
“Where are you calling me from? Are you at my house?” she asked, annoyed.
“Yes. I came over to see you and—”
“Listen, I don’t want to talk to you right now. And I certainly don’t want you at my house. I have no idea who you are or what you want, but I don’t want to deal with you until I’ve thought things through. I have a lot of stuff going on and your craziness just makes it worse. I need more time to make sense of all this. I’m sorry to be so blunt, but I’m busy and I don’t have time to sugarcoat it.”
“Tessa, I need you to stop and listen to me. I know you’re having issues with what I told you, but put them aside for just a minute. This is important. It’s about your roommate.”
Tessa drew in a sharp breath before asking quietly, “Morgan?”
“Yes. I believe something has happened. I can explain more when you get here.”
“What do you mean ‘something has happened’? Is she okay?”
David scrubbed his face with his free hand and grimaced. “There’s a lot to explain. Where are you? Can you get back to your house?”
“I’m babysitting, and I can’t bring Beatrice with me. Her mom should be home soon, but I’ll call her and tell her to come home now. I’ll be there within an hour.”
David groaned, hoping she was closer. “Just get here as soon as you can.”
“You’re really freaking me out. What exactly has happened? Do you need to call the police? Or Vinny?”
“No, the police won’t be able to help. I’ll see you when you get here,” he insisted and hung up.
David spent the next hour investigating the house. He tore apart room after room, including the shed and garage, searching for clues. There was only one room of the house where items were out of place: Morgan’s bedroom. Several things were awry, like her underwear drawer pulled out and the neat stacks of clothes in the laundry basket now askew and wrinkled. He also found broken dishes in the kitchen trash, but nothing helped him figure out where Nico took the girl. Finally, the front door opened and Tessa bounded through.
“Morgan? Where are you?” She dropped her purse and keys on the floor and searched the room closest to her.
“Tessa, she’s not here,” David answered, coming out of the kitchen to meet her in the hallway.
“What have you done with her?” Tessa balled her hands into a fist and headed for the security alarm to alert the authorities.
David cut her off at the pass, taking her hands in his own. “Let’s sit down, and I’ll explain everything.”
After hesitating a few more seconds, Tessa allowed David to lead her to the couch and sat on the edge. “Spill,” she ordered.
David felt defeated. There was no chance she’d understand without hating or blaming him, but he had to try. He fixed his gaze on her. She was already angry, tapping her foot anxiously with arms crossed.
“Please understand—“ he started, trying to gather the right words.
“No. No more stalling. If something has happened to Morgan and you keep waisting time we could be finding her, I will have you arrested for…something.”
David nodded. He recapped what happened since he arrived at the house. She couldn’t stay seated as anxiety washed through her, so she paced the floor, keeping her eyes closed. He could read her worry on top of fear and anger. After a few tears and some angry mutterings under her breath, Tessa reined in her emotions.
“So this Nico, you said he’s a hunter? And he’s after you? Why?”<
br />
“As I told you earlier, when I was still a Healer angel I had a disagreement with God and parted ways. I cut off my wings and went rogue so I could use my powers on anyone rather than just the select few chosen by God. But this isn’t allowed. It upsets the balance. Even though I’m not tipping the scales when it comes to who lives and dies, I am healing people who aren’t supposed to receive it. According to God, when I do this people don’t learn from their pain. I disagree. I don’t think people need all the pain in their lives to learn from it. What lesson does an eighty-five year old woman learn from chronic rheumatoid arthritis that prevents her from playing with her grandkids or baking her famous pies?”
He stopped talking while thinking back to the last time he was in Heaven, arguing with the Almighty. The atrocities he witnessed horrified him, and he’d been so angry that he couldn’t save those kids. He hadn’t known it would be the last time he saw Heaven, and he missed it now. He rubbed his eyes to play off the tears that welled in them. Tessa, while obviously worried about her friend, let him have the moment. A grandfather clock chimed, bringing him out of his head and he continued, “I guess once I healed you, I went too far. You were supposed to die, and I prevented that. The angels wouldn’t tolerate this and began to more actively hunt me. Nico is one of their best hunters.”
“So Morgan has been kidnapped because you saved my life?”
“In all likelihood,” David relied solemnly. Tessa nodded as guilt washed through her. What was she going to do now? She couldn’t call the FBI or even her own friends to form a search party. What would she say? An angel is hunting my friend because he supernaturally saved my life and then another angel kidnapped Morgan to lure me out? No, and she couldn’t wait the 72 hours for a psych hold, which they would obviously give her for weaving such an elaborately crazy tale. It was up to her and David to find Morgan.
“What does he want?” Tessa asked, hoping to brainstorm some ideas or clues on how to get Morgan back. She did her best work when she could talk through it.
Echo of an Earth Angel (The Earth Angel Trilogy: #1) Page 6
