Rogue Angel

by Stephani Hecht

  Rachael didn’t even bother asking who, just pointed to the pantry.

  Bear nodded his thanks and walked inside where Tiffany searched one of the far shelves. He shut the door.

  She turned around and dropped a can of cat food.

  It rolled until it hit his foot and stopped. Bear stalked her until her back pressed against the shelves and put one hand on either side of her head. A moment of panic flashed across her face before she replaced it with a weak smile.

  “How are you feeling this morning, Bear?”

  “I feel like crap. First of all, I wake up with one hell of a hangover, then I get the third degree from my brother because Heather can’t keep her big mouth shut and, to top it all off, I discover my healer missed a spot last night.”

  “Missed a spot? What do you mean?”

  He pointed out the hickey. Guilt covered her features. Tiffany always wore her emotions on her face. He must remember never to take her to a poker game.

  She went to touch it, then pulled her hand back like she touched something hot. “I can explain that.”

  “Please do. You see, at first I thought it was a succubus bite, then I realized no, it’s a Tiffany bite.”

  She tilted up her head.

  Her lips were only inches from his. He wished he had the courage to lean down and see if she really did kiss as good as he remembered. Good Molly, he did more than kiss her last night. He was right in the middle of touching every inch of her before Cam interrupted. He suddenly felt robbed.

  “I’m so sorry, Bear,” Tiffany said in a timid voice. “I’ll understand if you don’t want me to work with you anymore.”

  “Why did you stay and let me do those things to you?”

  She looked down. “Because I wanted you to do those things. I completely took advantage of you and I know it was wrong.”

  Bear strangled out a laugh. She took advantage of him? He was the one with his hands inside her panties. In fact, he was just about ready to replace his hands with his mouth when his brother came in and busted them up. He was so going to kill Cam for that one. “Did you mean what you said last night?” He tried to ignore the nervous hammering of his heart. “I need to know you weren’t toying with me.”

  She nibbled her bottom lip.

  Bear remembered how good it tasted last night. He also remembered how good her body felt underneath him. Leaning closer to her, he felt a small thrill of victory when she didn’t pull away. In fact, he could have sworn she was trying to get even closer to him. The sweet smell of Cherry Jolly Ranchers filled his nose, overwhelming his senses in a good way.

  She finally answered, “What would you say if I did mean all those things?”

  He took a deep breath and blurted, “Ditto.”

  “Huh?”

  Finding his courage, he took the plunge. “I feel the same way about you, too.”

  She gifted him with a huge smile. “Really?”

  “Really. I’ve been watching you since the day we both came here to live.”

  She gave him a playful swat on the chest. “Liar, you called me an airhead.”

  “That was because I freaked out because I fell in love with you the instant I saw you.” Bear felt his stomach flip and realized what he just revealed. Crap, he probably blew everything by going too fast. Relief flood through him at her coy look.

  “Does that mean you’re going to kiss me again? Because I would let you if you wanted to.”

  He took it slow, taking the time nibble playfully at her lips before he finally slipped his tongue inside her mouth to explore the sweetness within. She ran both her hands through his hair and released a deep sigh. He pulled away and looked in her big brown eyes, still not believing all this was really happening.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered, “I love you, too, Bear.”

  * * * *

  “Where’s Bear?” Ana came into the kitchen.

  Rachel pointed to the pantry, never looking up from her paper. “In there with Tiffany. They’ve been in there for fifteen minutes now.”

  Appolion chuckled as he walked in and gave his sister a small peck on her cheek. She seemed a bit surprised by his display of affection. “I’m sure they are just talking in there?”

  “I think they’re adding the fabric softener,” Rachael smirked.

  Ana felt a wave a panic go through her. Surely Bear couldn’t be doing that. Not even one of her brothers would be so crass as to mark a female in a pantry. She was relieved when the door opened and Bear and Tiffany came out. They were holding hands and, while Tiffany’s lips were swollen and her top was a bit rumpled, she appeared pretty much put together. Ana gave a questioning look to Appolion. If Bear marked the healer than any male would instantly know the minute they saw her.

  “You can stop worrying,” Appolion muttered under his breath. “They didn’t add the fabric softener, yet.”

  Bear said, “We’re going to the store to buy cat food.”

  Appolion gave him a disbelieving look. “It takes both of you to pick up cat food.”

  Bear shrugged. “It’s my turn to do the shopping.”

  Tiffany added. “And I have to go with him because he doesn’t know where the cat food is. Are we going to take your truck, Bear?”

  “No, let’s take your car.”

  She gave him a cute little frown. “Why?”

  He leaned down and whispered something in her ear.

  All Ana caught was something about the car having a bigger backseat.

  Tiffany giggled before she nodded her head and grabbed the keys off the rack.

  Bear snagged them from her hands. “I’ll drive.” He dodged her hands as she tried to get them back.

  “No way, Bear, I’ll drive,” she argued as they walked out of sight toward the garage.

  Tiffany’s laughter drifted back to them. “Okay Bear, since you asked that way, you can drive.”

  They all stood there in stunned silence long after the couple left. Finally, Rachael rolled her eyes, “I hope he doesn’t go and mark her in the backseat of her car. That would be so cliché.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Honey, I’m home and I brought the boss for dinner,” Bear announced with mock happiness as he and Tiffany came home from their cat food errand.

  Appolion noticed that neither carried a grocery bag. Michael came walking in after them with a pained look on his face. Almost like he quite didn’t know what to make of Bear.

  Appolion was stunned when he finally saw the great Michael for the first time. The Chief wasn’t like anything he thought he would be. He always imagined him as some giant with a stern face, not as some regular guy. Crap, he didn’t appear to be any older than any of them.

  Michael asked, “Not what you expected?”

  Appolion was so taken back by the Chief’s appearance he blurted, “Well, no. I kind of expected you to be older and meaner looking. You remind me of a…”

  “A beer drinking, country music listening, football fan,” Rachael came in and sat down.

  Part of Appolion agreed. With his plaid shirt, worn jeans, warm brown eyes and shaggy dark blond hair, Michael did kind of match that description. Another part of him was mortified by Rachael’s flippant behavior. Michael was their leader and she should be showing him more respect than. In Hell, not being subservient to your ruler was a good way to end up in the torture chamber. However, Michael didn’t appear to take offense, just the opposite.

  “Nice to see you, too, Rachael,” he said with a small chuckle, “and tell your brother to stop looking at me that way. I don’t bite. Where’s Ana?”

  “She’s taking a nap,” Rachael supplied. “We had a very busy night.”

  “So I heard.” Michael fixed Bear with a hard stare. The empath squirmed. “What were you doing outside of the house, just now? I specifically ordered you to stay put until I know it’s safe.”

  Bear tried for a cocky grin, but failed because it was obvious he was as nervous as hell. “Technically, since we w
ere parked in the garage, we were home. We never went anywhere.”

  Rachael laughed. “You mean to tell us that you’ve been out there all this time?”

  Appolion added, “It’s been two hours.”

  Michael had a ghost of a smile on his face. “If I hadn’t of interrupted them, they’d probably still be at it.”

  Bear blushed. “You were the one that put me under house arrest? I thought it was Cam.”

  “No, Cam just took all the heat for it. Would you have obeyed and stayed in if you had known the order came directly from me?”

  “Probably not.”

  “Well at least you’re an honest sneak.” Michael addressed his next question to the entire group, “Does anyone know where Cam is? I wanted to ask him about an angel nightclub that went up in flames about an hour ago.”

  Bear opened his mouth.

  Michael raised a hand. “Save the excuses, Bear, I know exactly what is going on because Little Miss. Tiffany doesn’t know how to shield her mind and she just mentally blurted everything to me.”

  Bear gave a pleading look, “He was just really upset that I went and got hurt last night. It’s all my fault so if you’re going to be pissed at someone, be mad at me.”

  Michael’s face softened. “You don’t need to cover for him. It may surprise you, but this is one of the few times where I happen to be happy he went berserker. Not only did that club need to be shut down, we needed to send out a lesson to anyone else tempted to deal with demons. Now, where would Cam go in this town if he needed to find a place to cool down?”

  Bear sighed, “Come on, I’ll take you.”

  “I’ll come, too,” Appolion volunteered. “Ray, you stay behind in case he comes back.”

  * * * *

  Several hours, and neutral bars, later they were no closer to finding him than before. Now Appolion worried. He really liked Cam a lot, but he wouldn’t put it past him to go off and do something stupid either.

  Bear drew up short and pointed at a movie house. “He’s in there.”

  They made themselves visible to the humans and went inside. Bear led them to one of the theaters and sure enough, Cam was sitting there, pretty as you please, watching a movie. He even had a tub of popcorn and a soda. Bear plopped down in the seat next to them.

  Cam seemed only mildly surprised. “Checking up on me, Uncle Mike?” He offered Bear some of his popcorn.

  “Yes I was,” Michael said frankly. “I was sure we would find you up to your old games.”

  Cam looked thoughtful for a moment. “You know I haven’t had those urges in the past few days. Strange, huh?”

  Michael shifted his gaze from Cam to Bear and then back to Cam again. “Would you say you haven’t been feeling them since you’ve been with Bear?”

  Cam shrugged, “I guess.”

  “I think it’s because of Bear that you’re not so moody.”

  Bear pointed to his own chest. “What did I do?”

  “You’ve been absorbing his dark feelings.”

  Cam gave him a doubtful look. “Bear had been doing more than just absorbing feelings lately, he’s been amplifying them tenfold. If what you say is true, then he would be a really cranky Bear.”

  “I didn’t say it made sense, I just think that it would be a good idea if you stuck close to him for a while.”

  Appolion reached over and got a handful of popcorn. “Just think of it this way, you got your very own Bearcurity blanket.”

  Cam flipped him off and there was a giggle from a group of female humans seated across the aisle. They waved. Cam smiled and waved back. They giggled even harder and whispered to each other. “You’ve lived among humans a long time. Did you ever have sex with one, Appolion?”

  “Crap no.” He looked nervously over at Michael. “I just never had the desire. Humans don’t do anything for me.”

  Michael rubbed his eyes. “Do I even want to know where this is headed?”

  Cam gave him a wicked grin. “Don’t get your panties in a bunch, Chief. Human’s don’t get it up for me either. I was just wondering is all.”

  Bear gave Michael an imploring look. “Please, tell me I was adopted.”

  “You were adopted, Bear,” Cam spoke in a quick fire manner. “Angelina Jolie wanted you, but Mom and Dad got to you first. So now, instead of living in Beverly Hills with Brad Pitt, you’re stuck with us playing angel hero.”

  “I knew it.” Bear shook his head with mock sadness. “Man, I could have seen Angelina in her nighties, too. Damn my luck.”

  “You better not let Tiffany hear you say that. She’ll spank you and not in a way you like.”

  Appolion watched the two brothers banter back and forth and felt a twinge in his heart. It was almost like he was longing for his own brother, which was stupid. Why would he want something he never really had to begin with?

  Michael gave a knowing look and held out his cell phone. “Abdiel is speed dial four. He’s been waiting for you to call him. He misses you, too.”

  “He’s got his own family to worry about,” Appolion argued. “He doesn’t need me messing up everything.”

  “He wants you in his life. The only reason he hasn’t come to see you yet is that he’s afraid of scaring you away. He’s waiting for you to make the first move.”

  Appolion nervously cleared his throat and rubbed the screen of the phone. “You’re not supposed to use these things in the theater.”

  Michael gave a crooked smile. “Who’s going to stop us?”

  Appolion had to admit he was right. Bear was the smallest one out of them and he stood at over six-foot and, even though he was scrawny by angel standards, in the human world he could be a linebacker. Before losing his courage, he flipped the phone open and pressed the number four.

  * * * *

  “Appolion would you sit down?” Ana said from the bed. “All your pacing is beginning to make me nervous.”

  He kept wearing a hole in the carpet. “I don’t know why I let Michael talk me into this. Abdiel’s going to be disappointed in me. Just like the rest of my family always was.”

  Ana came up and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Abdiel is not going to be disappointed in you. He and Rachael aren’t like your parents and brothers.”

  He held her tight, inhaling her familiar scent and taking some comfort in it. “I said some really nasty things to him the last time we saw each other.”

  “I know Abdiel. He won’t care about that, he’ll just be happy to have you back.”

  He pulled away from her. “You know what? I’m just going to go for a ride on my bike. I need to get away.” He opened the door and almost walked right into his brother. Appolion had forgotten how big and mean Abdiel could look. His brother’s dark hair was cut shot and kept in perfect order, except for one lock that hung down between his dark eyes. He wore the black leather uniform of the angel warriors, complete with a sword strapped to his back. They called Abdiel, The Dark Angel, and the titled sure fit. Appolion looked down at his worn jeans, Rolling Stones shirt and scuffed boots, then felt like the loser he was. Abdiel was going to see right through him in a heartbeat.

  Ana squeezed passed them. “I’ll give you two some privacy,” she murmured as she left.

  Abdiel recovered first. “Uh, thanks, Ana. Gabi is downstairs, she’s been real anxious to see you.”

  Appolion didn’t say anything or move a muscle, although a huge part of him wanted to run out in the hallway and bring Ana back in. Deciding it would be rude to leave one’s long lost brother in the hall, Appolion stood to the side so the archangel could step inside. Abdiel took a chair while Appolion sat on the bed. They both sat there quiet, neither one quite knowing what to say.

  Abdiel broke the silence. “Gabi and I were really happy to hear about you and Ana getting together.”

  Appolion let out a bitter laugh. “Well it made Ana a fugitive.”

  “The council just used that as an excuse. They would love nothing more than to lock all of us up. Even before you r
esurfaced, we’ve been walking a thin line between peace and war with them.”

  “It still probably would have been better for everybody if I stayed lost.”

  “Don’t say that,” Abdiel said harshly. “You’re finally back where you belong, with me and Rachael. Look I may not be good at expressing my feelings like the Lehors, but damn it, Appolion, I love you and I’ve missed you.”

  God, how Appolion wanted to believe that, but a small part of him was still leery. Then he thought of Ana. If she could find him worthy, then why not Abdiel? He noticed he nibbled on his thumbnail, all Bear style, and jerked his hand down. He realized he was about to cry like some girl and he hated that. “You might not say all that if you knew everything about me.”

  Abdiel shook his head. “I don’t care about any of that, Appolion. You’re my brother and I will always love you no matter what.”

  “Douma and Forcas were our brothers, too.”

  “Those bastards stopped being my brothers the day they hurt you and Rachael.”

  Damn it, why did it feel so good hear Abdiel talk to protective like that? Appolion was still so afraid of rejection he whispered his next confession, “I didn’t want to go with Dad the day he took me and Ray to Hell with him.”

  “I know. I’ve always regretted not stopping him from doing so.”

  Now Appolion became protective. “You fought for us so hard that day you almost got destroyed. For years the only thing that kept me sane was knowing at least you cared enough about me to try.”

  Abdiel pulled him into a hug.

  At first Appolion resisted the urge to fight back. After so many years of abuse, his natural instinct was to avoid any personal contact at all, with the exception of Ana. He reminded himself Abdiel would never hurt him and was eventually able to let his guard down. He closed his eyes, hugged his brother back and felt like he finally came home.

  * * * *