by C. L. Coffey
I took the dress from her, slightly surprised.
I didn’t hate it.
Like the white one, there was a lot of lace involved, but there were also fewer layers. It hung on the hanger like a sleek lace and silk black waterfall compared to the meringue of the other one. I took my clothes back off and slipped the dress over my head. The zipper was at the side, making it easy to deal with. So far, I liked it, but the cubicle didn’t have a mirror.
Still scowling, I stepped out.
Leigh-Ann let out an excited squeal, which made me wince.
Rolling my eyes, I turned to Gabriel, half expecting him to agree that this was ridiculous, but instead, I found him staring. Frozen.
Turning towards the mirror my mouth fell open as I stared at my reflection. I had never been one for dresses. Ever. I’d certainly never even considered wearing anything like this, and had I been shopping, I wouldn’t have even given it a second glance.
It hung on me like a second skin—in a good way. My figure was tall and lanky with no butt, but it didn’t matter. I was wearing this dress, not the other way around. Hell, I was tempted to wear the thing as my new uniform.
The skirt was floor-length, and the lace that covered it with a loose second layer wrapped around the bodice, putting a modest amount of cleavage on show. More importantly, it covered all of my scars.
It was gorgeous.
I looked up in time to catch Gabriel rubbing at his jaw. I smiled to myself. If he could react like that, then I was certain it didn’t look too bad on me.
“Fine.” I sighed, far more dramatically then I needed to. “If you really want to spend …” I reached for the tag and choked. “You are not buying this.”
Leigh-Ann bounded over to me, grinning, then in one swift motion, she plucked the tag from the dress. “Oopsie. Looks like I’ll have to buy it now.”
“Then you’ll have to wear it,” I told her, still feeling faint at the number of digits on the price tag.
“Please, I’ll look washed out in that, never mind that it’d be far too long on me.” Leigh-Ann scooped up her dresses and sauntered into her own cubicle.
I looked helplessly at Gabriel but seeing he was going to be no help, I headed back into the changing room and changed back into my uniform.
The churning in my stomach remained when Leigh-Ann had both dresses rung up and handed over a credit card without even blinking. When the cashier handed the dress back to me, protected in a plastic dress bag, I clung to it like any person we passed was either going to spill something on it, or steal it.
“Won’t your parents say something when they see the bill?” I asked when we were safely back in the car.
“If anything, my mom will ask me why I didn’t invite her to come with us.” Leigh-Ann looked over at me, then at how I was clutching the dress. “You’ll wrinkle it,” she said, gently pulling it from my grasp and hanging it up beside hers. She looked back to me and gave me a sad smile. “Please don’t be mad at me for buying it. It did look really pretty on you.”
“I’m not mad at you,” I mumbled. Overwhelmed, maybe. That would have paid the bills for my mom and me for a month. I’d never owned anything so expensive, and it was just a dress.
“Good.” She beamed. “Because it’s been so long since I’ve been able to buy a friend anything, and I’ve really enjoyed myself this afternoon.”
That just made me feel worse.
I gave her a weak smile and let her babble on about how we were going to get ready together before the dance.
When I glanced up, I was surprised to find Gabriel watching me in the rear-view mirror again. This time, his eyes had turned that glorious shade of moss green I’d started to like so much.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Despite how little sleep we’d had the night before, after we got back from the mall and stored our dresses safely in the closet, we stayed up just as late the following night talking. By the time we finally fell asleep, I felt like I’d known Leigh-Ann all my life. She was so easy to talk to.
She was also adamant that her brother wasn’t as big of an ass as he seemed. That remained to be seen, but it did remind me that I had two objectives at Greenwood Prep. Aside from not flunking out, I needed to make an effort with him.
Or I needed to learn how to tolerate him. I was sure not all of the members of the Secret Service liked the president they were protecting, and if they could still manage to throw themselves in front of a bullet for him, then so could I.
Only, maybe without the bullet.
I was a nephilim, and I healed a lot quicker than a human unless you counted the scars on my body, but I wasn’t bulletproof.
Unfortunately, I didn’t see Harrison unless he was with Lottie, and seeing as how I was now friends with Leigh-Ann, I wasn’t going to suggest we all sit together. I’d half expected Lottie to say something when she saw me sitting with Leigh-Ann. Judging from the fact the faces of all those at that table held the same expression, they definitely had something to talk about. But they didn’t say anything to either of us.
Their attitudes also didn’t make me want to stick to my plan of trying to talk to Harrison. Instead, I decided I would wait for an opportunity to talk to him alone. Maybe I could catch him after study hall.
By Monday, the monotony of classes had sunk back in. Although homework was the first task of the day as I walked into Gabriel’s office after classes had finished, I pulled out a notebook and pen, and sat down in my usual seat, ready for a different mission: getting some answers.
Gabriel looked up from his laptop and arched an eyebrow. “Are you stuck?”
I nodded. “Yes. On angels, nephilim, and the Fallen.”
Gabriel slowly licked his lips before returning his attention to his screen. I was about to tell him I wasn’t giving up, but he finished typing and shut the lid to his laptop. “What do you want to know?”
Everything.
After Leigh-Ann had fallen asleep, I had laid awake, staring at my ceiling as dozens of unanswered questions circled my head. In the end, I had flicked the lamp on, pulled out my notebook and written down everything I could think of. My eyes scanned the page as I picked out the important questions. I wasn’t sure how many questions I could ask, so I didn’t want to waste the opportunity.
“Why is there a college in the middle of the Rockies which has the Dean rounding up nephilim and bringing them here? It seems she already knew about me before I started.”
“Starting with the easy ones, I see,” Gabriel said as a smile spread on his face.
“You don’t have a good history of answering my questions.” I shrugged.
Gabriel leaned back in his chair, nodding. “I suppose. Saint Ursula set up a nunnery here back in the early 1600s. In 1857 it was converted into a school, and at the turn of the century, a college. I assume she already had the location and decided to put it to a new use.”
“You assume?” I was skeptical.
“Saints and angels are different. Angels were created as angels. Our job is to protect our Father’s greatest gift. As such, we share a direct line with the angel we serve under, or who serves under us.”
I held a hand up, and Gabriel paused. “What do you mean?”
The smile was back on Gabriel’s lips. “Do you really want to know about angelic politics?”
“I want to know why there are angels on earth.” It was one of the questions on my list. “And I want to know what they do.”
“There are seven Houses around the world, each led by an archangel. Or in the case of the one in Dublin, two idiot seraphim. Each house has approximately thirty angels in it, and…” he sucked in a deep breath, closing his eyes.
“What?”
Gabriel’s eyes went glossy, and he quickly blinked them. “We have suffered from heavy losses fighting the Fallen. New Orleans was hit hard when we defeated Lucifer and two of the Princes of Darkness.”
“Lucifer?” I repeated. “I thought Lucifer was dead, that Michael killed him.”
>
“Yes and no, but he is no longer anything to be concerned about. Angel has him under control. The biggest problem we face now are the remaining Princes of Darkness.”
I had a feeling they weren’t members of a metal band. “Who?”
“Mammon, Belphegor, and Satan.”
I shook my head. “You just said Lucifer wasn’t a concern.”
Gabriel stared at me then let out a long sigh. “Satan and Lucifer are two different fallen angels, Kennedy.”
Of course they are. “The houses on earth are here for angels to fight the Princes of Darkness?”
“Angels do not fight. They are messengers,” Gabriel responded with a shake of his head. “The archangels do the fighting.”
I leaned forward. “Seven houses, seven archangels. Is that your army?”
Gabriel stood and walked out from behind his desk, moving to his window. “Is that one of your questions?”
Turning in my seat so I could watch him, I shrugged. “It is now.”
The corners of Gabriel’s mouth quirked up, but he didn’t look at me. “Despite gaining Angel, our numbers have fallen. Raphael was killed in battle in New Orleans. Cupid left the House of Michael, and Michael has gone AWOL. But yes, that is our army.”
I was almost certain I had misheard him because Cupid wasn’t an archangel. He wasn’t even an angel. But seeing as Lucifer and Satan were apparently two different fallen angels, I wasn’t going to question that. Not when Gabriel was in a talkative mood.
“Then why has Pinnosa been rounding up the nephilim and bringing them to this college?”
Gabriel half turned back to me. “I have answered that question.”
“No.” I tapped at my notebook. “You answered the part about why this college was being used. You haven’t told me why she’s got her eyes set on nephilim.”
“I suppose I didn’t.” Gabriel walked back to his desk, leaning on it beside me, glancing down at the scribbles on my notepad. “She tells me that nephilim are as much human as they are Fallen, and she wants them out of the influence of their fallen angel parent to see if they are capable of doing good and joining us in the fight against the Fallen.”
I looked up at him, arching an eyebrow. “You’re telling me that she expects kids to turn against their parents?”
“Most fallen angels abandon their lovers once they become pregnant. It’s common for the sway of that fallen angel to warp the human’s mind, slowly sending them crazy. Most of the Fallen seem to reclaim their offspring at puberty before the nephilim turns the human completely.”
I had to drop my gaze to my notebook as tears clouded my vision. He was so clinical in what he was saying, like a doctor diagnosing a terminally ill patient, that I didn’t think he truly understood what he was telling me.
But those words cut deep.
Not only was my mother ill, it had been me making her that way.
Being here was the best thing I could do for her sake …
I sucked in a deep breath, quickly wiping away the tears with the back of my hands, and I raised my head to Gabriel. “I want to see her.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he responded, knowing who I was talking about.
“I know, but I just disappeared, and I need to…” the words got stuck in my throat. Say goodbye. Apologize. Tell her I loved her. “You said she was going to be taken care of, but it’s been weeks since I’ve seen her, and I want to make sure she’s okay.”
“Very well.”
My eyes widened. Just as quickly, they narrowed. “Really?”
Gabriel nodded. “We can go now if you wish? Unless you have other questions that you wish to ask?”
I did, and that was maybe his way of avoiding answering them, but at that moment, they weren’t important anymore. I dropped the notebook on the corner of his desk and stood, grabbing my satchel. “Let’s go.”
Gabriel reached out and placed a hand on my shoulder. The next thing I knew, I was in an alley, feeling like I had been put on a carousel and spun really fast.
“What was that?”
“It’s a gift that archangels have. We have the ability to travel anywhere in the world in the blink of an eye. Because you are not an angel, and you don’t have that direct connection with Heaven, you might find it disorienting.”
No kidding.
I blinked a few times, trying to get the spinning under control, and finally recognized the alley behind the last apartment I had been living in. At least my mom hadn’t moved. She was still in an apartment in the alphabet streets, off the rough end of the Strip.
My hand dove into my bag, searching the contents at the bottom until my fingers wrapped around the spiky neon green cactus keychain the apartment key was attached to.
With Gabriel beside me, I walked to the main street and into the building. The place was cheap and nasty, and the main door’s lock system hadn’t worked when we’d moved in. I pushed it aside, heading straight for the stairs. If the door hadn’t been fixed, I highly doubted the elevator had, and even if it had, I didn’t want to go in.
I hurried up the two flights of stairs and along the corridor to my mom’s apartment. There was a note pinned to the front door from the landlord. The rent was due. I chewed at my lip, taking the scribbled note from the door and thrusting it into my bag. I’d been the one making the money. I hadn’t left her with much. She might have gotten a job, but given her state of mind when I’d left, I doubted it.
I needed to make a detour to the bank and empty the last couple of hundred bucks in my account for the landlord. Then, regardless of what restrictions I had at the college, I was going to get a part time job so I could send some money back to my mom.
Putting the key in the lock, I turned it, pushed the door open, and stepped into the apartment. “Mom, I’m home,” I called.
There was no answer. The apartment was empty.
Not in the sense that my mom had gone out, but that she had left. We didn’t have much, but there was always something on a kitchen table that made whatever dump we were staying in feel a little more like home. There was nothing of ours in sight.
That didn’t feel right.
“Mom?” I called out, just in case she had been on an epic tidying spree. I moved through the small apartment with Gabriel close behind me. “Mom!” I yelled again, even though it was obvious she wasn’t there.
I turned on my heel, rounding on Gabriel. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
The worry in me gave way to anger. “You said you would watch her.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed at my accusation. “After dropping you at Greenwood Preparatory College, I came straight here and spoke to your mother to let her know you were accepted into college and wouldn’t be back for some time.”
“That’s not the same as watching her!” I shoved him.
Gabriel’s hands shot out and grabbed my wrists. “I was last here two weeks ago. She seemed to have been grocery shopping as she was putting cartons of pistachio ice cream in the freezer.”
I pulled my hands free and marched over to the rusting fridge-freezer, yanking open the small compartment at the top. Inside were four cartons of ice cream, taking up most of the space, covered in a thick layer of frost from the inefficient appliance.
In the entire apartment, these were the only things my mom had left?
Neither of us had phones, so calling each other wasn’t possible. But if Gabriel was checking in regularly, she would know to tell him, right?
My heart sank. Unless she was having one of her episodes where she thought she was being chased … but even then, she was usually in so much of a hurry to leave that I’d have to slow her down so I could pack our belongings.
This place was empty, and the landlord seemed to be under the impression my mom was still here. Something didn’t add up.
Even though it wasn’t his fault—I couldn’t expect him to check on her daily, and pistachio ice cream said he had checked in on her—I was mad,
and he was the easiest person to blame. With my hands bunched up into fists, I moved past him and left the apartment, then jogged back down to the street.
“Where are you going?” Gabriel asked as he kept up with me.
“The bank.” I grunted. I had about half an hour before it closed, but the branch was nearby.
The streets were full of cars barely moving in rush hour traffic, but the sidewalks were almost empty. We were getting a fair number of curious stares from commuters. Probably due to the fact there was a twenty-one-year-old wearing a Catholic schoolgirl uniform. In this city, that could have meant anything.
Or maybe they were staring at the exceptionally attractive guy who was walking beside me with all his arm muscles on display.
My steps faltered. Where had that come from?
“Are you okay?” Gabriel asked.
I could feel my cheeks heating up as I glared at the sidewalk, refusing to look at him. Instead, I picked up my pace.
There was nothing wrong with describing him as attractive. He was good-looking. He just happened to also be a person who once tried to kill me.
As it was nearly time to close, there was almost no one in the bank when we arrived. I walked straight up to a window and found a woman there who greeted me with a bored smile. “How can I help you?”
“I was wondering if you could look at some transactions on my account. I think there’s been some fraudulent activity, and I was hoping you could tell me what the last purchases are that I made?”
The woman glanced at the clock and sighed. “Sure.”
My mom had a card for my account. She’d never used it, but it was there in case of emergencies. Her wallet was usually full of scraps of paper she refused to let me throw out, and as she rarely had money on her, I wanted her to have access to something in case she ever found herself in a situation where she needed it.
I gave the woman my account details, then she tapped away at her keyboard before looking back at me. “I’m not sure how you’d notice fraudulent activity considering how little money was in it to start with,” she muttered rudely.
Gabriel stepped forward. “Theft is theft, regardless of how much is taken,” he said, before I could say anything.
