by J. E. Taylor
“You don’t need to stay up with me if you don’t want to,” he said and pat his thigh. “And if you need a pillow, you can use my leg.”
“Why are you being so accommodating all of a sudden?”
He exhaled and glanced at me. “I’m not. I’m just thinking you’d like to get some rest if you were planning on driving all day.”
It made sense, but I wasn’t the least bit tired. “It’s way too early for me to go to sleep,” I said. “Besides, I’m getting hungry, so you’ll have to stop at the next rest area.”
I caught the dimple in his cheek and the slight shake of his head like he forgot I was human and needed food. He nodded, meeting my gaze for an instant before focusing back on the road.
“I’ll stay in the car while you grab something.”
“You don’t want to come in with me?”
His eyebrows rose. “No,” he said and kept his gaze on the road.
I wish I could still get a glimpse of what was on his mind because, outside of the silent challenge in his raised eyebrow, I couldn’t read him. It frustrated the hell out of me and I just wanted to know what was going on behind that stormy expression.
His gaze slid to mine. “I’m hungry too,” he said.
“Ah. And you don’t trust yourself around that many people?”
“I do, but I would rather not tempt fate.”
“Did you pack the blood?”
He shook his head. “It would have frozen in the back of the truck.”
“Are you going to be okay back there?” I hadn’t considered the temperature. With all our romps in the woods in Colorado, I never thought about what ten hours in the back of a van would do to Damian.
“We’ll find out,” he mumbled.
“We can find a hotel, instead, if you’d prefer.”
“I’ll be fine, besides, once we get there, I’ll have a ton of things to do, like building a house and finding somewhere for you to stay while I’m doing that.”
“I can stay in the garage with you.”
“Not until I make the property demon and angel-proof again,” he said.
“Can you make it vamp-proof while you’re at it?” I asked and got a dimpled grin in return.
“Did you want me exiled from the property?”
I exhaled and rolled my eyes. “I guess not,” I said and pointed toward the sign for the rest area. “How exactly does one demon-proof a property?” I asked. I knew about the order of ancient symbols needed to angel-proof a property but we never demon-proofed the camp in Colorado.
“I need enough rock salt to surround the property.”
I envisioned a circle of salt lining the property and laughed. “But won’t it wash away?”
He must have gotten some of my thoughts because he chuckled. “It won’t for quite a few years, especially when it’s sealed and buried in a ditch surrounding the property,” he said. “Unfortunately, I had waited too long to refresh the original defenses last time and once the circle is broken, it becomes useless.”
The van pulled to a stop in front of a gas pump and Damian shut it down. “I’ll park over there after I fill up,” he said and pointed toward the parking spaces in front of the building before peeling a twenty from his wallet. “Will this be enough?”
“Yes, thanks,” I replied and took the cash, stuffing it into my pocket and jumped out of the cab. I glanced at him over my shoulder and he had already gotten out of the cab and started pumping gas. The moment I walked in the building, the scent of burgers and fries assaulted my senses and my stomach growled; pushing me toward the McDonald’s counter. It had been five years since I ate anything other than blood and broth and I was ravenous.
But I also had to take care of business, so I diverted into the bathroom first. As I washed my hands, I studied my reflection. I couldn’t detect any change from before Lilith shot me with the antidote and I wondered if I did age five years or not.
My stomach growled again and I grabbed a paper towel, wiped my hands and headed to the McDonald’s counter to satisfy the food cravings that took control. My hunger pangs were nowhere near as painful as the blood pangs of a vampire; however, they were just as compelling.
I ended up with two Big Macs, large fries and a large chocolate milkshake. The minute I sat down in the cab, I dug in. Fast food never tasted so delicious and I didn’t look up at Damian until I finished both burgers. He sat with one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the stick shift just staring at me.
“What?” I asked with a mouthful of French fries.
“I’ve seen wild dogs eat with more manners,” he said.
“Fuck you.” I wiped my mouth with a napkin. “I haven’t eaten in five years, what’d you expect?”
He started laughing and put the vehicle in gear, pulling back on the road before addressing me again.
“I have no idea what I expected, but that certainly wasn’t it.”
“Normally I do have manners,” I said and licked my lips. “It’s just this was delicious.”
“I guess so.” He licked his lips and inhaled. “I’m going to have to eat something before sunrise.”
The way he gazed at me set my body on fire and I had to look out the window. While he was talking about hunting, my mind went to the last time he made love to me with his mouth, to the heat he created that went to a cellular level and I sighed, taking a sip of the chocolate shake like it could quell the fire he set with his innocent statement.
Silence filled the cab and after I finished my meal, I tucked the garbage into the bag and took Damian up on his offer of using his leg as a pillow.
“Sing something for me,” I said and our eyes met for a moment and he offered a slight nod before looking back at the road. He pressed his lips together in contemplation and then took a breath and his incredible voice filled the cab. I swear his voice would put the heavenly host to shame. He could easily walk into a recording studio and put out a number one album and the women would swoon, just like I always do. He crooned through a collection of my favorite songs, lulling me to sleep.
Chapter Nine - Naomi
A chill tickled the back of my neck and I burrowed further into my coat and shifted, opening my eyes to the empty cab and the night beyond. I sat up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes and stared at the almost deserted rest stop. The lights were on in the rest rooms and I bit my lip, looking at the key ring hanging from the ignition. It held half the keys that it had earlier and I knew Damian was hunting.
I stretched and pulled the remaining keys from the ignition, pocketing them and sliding out of the cab. I made sure I had the right one to unlock the truck before I closed and locked it, and headed inside to pee and rinse my mouth out.
When I stepped out of the stall, movement caught my attention and my head snapped toward the door. I stepped back at the hovering shadow. Sharp teeth gleamed and the form stepped toward me. It wasn’t Damian and my heart thundered in my chest announcing my fear to this fiend.
Instead of retreating into the stall and limiting my options, I stepped into the center of the space, facing the vampire. She chuckled when I took a defensive posture, tucking my chin to my chest and Michael’s name popped into my head.
“Michael,” I whispered, calling on my ancient grandfather who could toast her on sight.
The air shifted as the vampire attacked, but the moment her fangs dug into my arm, her feral growl turned into a scream of agony. She pulled away, her hands clawing at her throat as my blood spread like poison through her.
Michael’s hand descended on my shoulder and he stood watching exactly what my cured blood did to descendants of Lilith and Eve. The angry blisters on Damian’s skin were nothing compared to the complete breakdown of this vampire’s cells. It was as if she swallowed a gallon of battery acid. A bloody froth bubbled from her mouth and her skin looked as if it were boiling. Her dying screams echoed off the tiled walls, the entire ordeal horrified me and I turned my face into Michael’s chest.
All I could think of w
as what if I had let Damian drink my blood.
The screams subsided, but the stench of death hung on the air like a thick bank of fog. When the door banged open, I turned my head, meeting Damian’s frantic gaze. A drop of fresh blood still graced his lips and when he glanced at the pile of bloody froth on the floor and back to Michael and me, his brow scrunched in confusion.
“She bit Naomi,” Michael said.
“So you did that to her?” his breathless question settled over the room.
“No, my blood did that,” I said and wiped the wetness from my cheeks. I hadn’t realized I was crying, but the shake in my voice confirmed it along with the traces of tears on my fingers.
His gaze dropped to the floor and he closed his mouth, pressing his lips together before his eyes rose to mine. They moved past me to Michael.
“And you just let her suffer?”
“I was curious,” Michael said and I pushed away from him. “And I wanted her to know what would happen if you ever bit her,” he added and met my gaze.
I shivered at the thought but there was something underneath Michael’s gaze, something akin to a plea for me not to allow Damian to self-destruct. I sent a reassuring smile his way before turning back to Damian.
“Where are you going?” Michael directed toward Damian.
“Home,” Damian said, squaring his shoulders and putting on that rebellious expression that I associate with Michael’s presence.
“Home, as in Greece?” Michael asked, his hands finding his hips and a warning flared in his eyes.
“No, home as in Connecticut.”
“You would be better suited to go to Greece.”
“She wants to go to New York,” Damian said, focusing Michael’s displeasure in my direction instead of his.
“No.”
“That’s what I said.” Damian sent a smug smile in my direction and then glanced back at Michael. “Although right now I’d like to tear your brother to pieces for what he’s done to us.”
Now that the adrenaline had died, the stench of death made me gag and I shuffled around the steaming puddle and out into the cold night. Damian and Michael followed and for the first time, I noted that Michael was wearing regular clothing instead of bare-chested with his majestic wings and I sent him a sideways look.
“I’m tagging along for the ride,” he said and both Damian and I stopped in our tracks. “Someone needs to keep her safe during the day now that my brother is back in action,” he added to Damian.
“But won’t you give us away?” Damian asked, narrowing his eyes.
“No, not while I take a completely human form.” He spread his arms out to prove his point. “No wings, no angelic powers, no beacon, but I still can kick ass.”
Damian circled him and the spark in his eyes made me want to warn Michael, but I kept my mouth shut, watching the dynamics. I was sure there was more at play here than just my safety and as soon as Damian was tucked safely away in the truck, I’d get to the bottom of Michael’s intentions.
The hellacious grin that spread on Damian’s lips, just before his shadow form morphed, was enough to make me step between the two supernatural beings.
“No,” I said, pointing at Damian, knowing his first instinct was to break free of Michael’s bond. His mad gaze landed on me and he smiled with a mouthful of razor sharp teeth.
“Move, baby,” he said, but the feral growl that accompanied it made me stand my ground. I knew more about Michael than he did.
Michael put his hand on my shoulder to clear the path, but I shook it off, meeting Damian’s glare.
“He cares a great deal about you, you stupid moron,” I growled back at Damian. “So I’m sure part of it is keeping you safe too.”
The transition out of shadow form happened in a blink and the confusion clouding Damian’s face made me smile, even with Michael’s less than silent curses behind me. I glanced back at him. “Don’t you think it’s time he knows what he means to you? I know you said this angry shit between you two worked, but it doesn’t work for me.”
Michael’s arms crossed and he glared at me before he moved his gaze to Damian’s.
“What exactly does she know that I don’t?” Damian asked.
Michael threw a curve ball that neither Damian nor I saw coming.
“That I’ve been watching over you for a very long time,” he said and his gaze bounced from Damian’s to mine and back.
“I failed to save your daughter. Why the hell would you watch over me?”
“Because, you are Gabriel’s son.”
Damian shrugged. “What does my father have to do with this?”
I stared at Michael and my mother’s catholic upbringing brought forth the names of the archangels. Understanding sank in and I gasped. “You mean to tell me, Damian is your nephew?”
Silence descended between the three of us and when Michael nodded, I stepped back, digesting the implications. Angel blood bound us and that was the principal difference between Damian and the rest of the vampires.
“But...my parents died when I was a child,” Damian whispered.
“Yes, unfortunately, they did. My bringing Athena to Greece wasn’t a coincidence. Our brother didn’t know about you because he had been exiled from heaven before you were born and Gabriel had seen what kind of destruction he was capable of. If our brother knew about you, I think you would have had the same fate as my son.”
“Athena was my...cousin?”
“Yes,” Michael said.
Damian shivered and turned away, stalking toward the van without another word.
“You let him screw around with his cousin?”
“Times were different back then and I knew he had a strong need to protect her,” Michael said. “I knew he’d die for her and that’s the best a father could hope for, especially with my brother on the warpath.”
I paused with my hand on the door handle. “So while you’re in human form, you can die like Gabriel?”
A bitter smile surfaced. “Yes.”
“And if your other brother was to find you in this form?”
“I would be just as screwed as the two of you.” He reached past me and opened the door, holding it so I could climb into the cab.
Damian glared beyond me at the being who had kept him in the dark for millenniums. The hostility in the cab was enough to make me take a deep settling breath. Anger traced its way through the muscles in his face and the tightness of his jaw. His lips presented a thin white line and the only thing holding more resentment was his challenging blue eyes.
“Fucking angels,” he muttered and pulled out of the parking lot like a bat out of hell.
I still had a wealth of questions pinging through my brain and when Damian lowered his hand to my knee and gave it a squeeze, I glanced at him. The sheen covering his eyes told me more than any words could have and I went to cover his hand and stopped myself just before our skin touched.
Gritting my teeth, I pulled my hand away, opting to squeeze his arm through the fabric instead and found my vision distorted by my own tears. I didn’t give a damn if he was an angel or a vampire or some weird half-breed like me, I just wanted to hold him and love him again.
Chapter Ten - Damian
I glanced at the clock on the dashboard and her hand on the crook of my arm before refocusing on the road ahead of me. My mind still reeled from Michael’s revelation and I couldn’t bring myself to look at him, never mind speak. For thousands of years, he played me for a fool and I wondered if this was just another part of his twisted game.
The steering wheel creaked and I dropped my gaze to my hands. My knuckles were white from squeezing the metal and I inhaled, forcing my muscles to relax and the grip on the wheel to loosen. I chanced a glance at Naomi and the tear slowly tracking down her cheek shot straight to my heart.
I sent a glare at Michael and focused back on the road.
“Why now?” I asked once I was sure I could speak without lashing out.
Michael didn’t answe
r and when I glanced in his direction, he was busy studying the landscape.
“Well?”
When his gaze slid to mine, I clenched my teeth, expecting another ultimatum, but his sigh and the shift of his gaze told me all I needed.
“So, if Naomi hadn’t played the ‘he cares about you’ card, I would still be left in the dark?”
“Pretty much.”
“What kind of family were we born into?” I muttered and glanced at Naomi.
“A colossally dysfunctional one,” she answered. “At least mine is buffered by umpteen generations. You’re the only firstborn angel offspring, so you are totally fucked.”
Her answer was just as unexpected as Michael’s and I started laughing. Leave it to my lovely wife to say it like it is. I bumped her with my shoulder and she bumped me back.
The humor faded as I turned over the facts and I pulled off the highway onto a deserted country road, putting the car in park.
“So, the only reason I survived that pit is because I’m half angel?” I slid my gaze from out the windshield to Michael. He didn’t acknowledge the question. “And Naomi didn’t freak the fuck out like some of my earlier disasters for the same reason?”
Michael leveled a glare in my direction, one meant to silence my oncoming tirade, but I was already too far gone into the land of fury to let it go. I wanted a piece of this asshole and there wasn’t anything on this earth that could stop me. Not even Naomi.
“Get out,” I snarled and received identical dropped jaws from both Naomi and Michael.
“Damian,” she started and I dropped my glare to her.
“Don’t give me that Damian crap, it’s high time I kick my uncle’s ass.”
Michael’s face morphed into a mask of anger and his door opened. I don’t think his feet even touched the ground before I was on the other side of the cab. Naomi started to speak and I slammed the passenger door on her, shutting off her ability to divert my attention.
