Chasing Angel (A Divisa Novel, Book 3)

by Weil, J. L.

  He heaved a giant sigh. “I’m damn close.”

  Ego much?

  I wanted to argue, but the set in his jaw told me I wasn’t going to make any headway. He was hardly reasonable when he was jived up and ready for a fight. Actually, he was rarely ever reasonable.

  “Now get some sleep.” Then he kissed the tip of my nose.

  “I don’t want to sleep,” I debated, pulling back the covers. “Can we stay up and talk instead?”

  He climbed under the covers, facing me. “Whatever you want, love.”

  “Ugh. Don’t ever call me that.”

  ~*~*~*~

  Saturday—the day I got my country swag on.

  Twenty pairs of jeans later, I stared at my floor and thought that this might be a really good time for the cleaning fairy to show up, especially before Mom awoke. What did one wear to a country concert when one didn’t own cowboy boots or a cowboy hat?

  Well this girl was going to wear jeans and a cardigan. I lined my eyes with thin black eyeliner and gooped on a heap of mascara. Staring at my reflection, I figured this was as good as it was going to get. If I had to put any more thought into the way I looked, my head was going to combust.

  OMG. Is that a pimple?

  Great. This night just kept getting better. Dabbing on some cover-up, I cursed my luck. There was nothing else I could do, so I walked next door to see Lexi. She might not be happy to see me, but I was ecstatic, and she needed to get the heck out of the house. I didn’t want my friend to become a hermit. Plus, what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t take her to see her favorite country star?

  I took one look at her tucked away in bed, rocking the world’s wackiest hair, and knew that she needed a friend-ter-vention. It was my God-given duty as her best friend to help her resume life with the living.

  First order of business—let in some natural light. There were pink dust bunnies collecting in the corners. Pushing aside her girlish curtains, a stream of sunlight streaked across the floor. With purposeful strides, I walked to her bed and whipped back the covers.

  Lexi groaned. Even the way she grumbled in the morning was feminine and cute.

  “You look like one of those trolls I used to collect with the freaky colored hair,” I said staring down at her.

  She rolled to her side. “I hate you. Go away.”

  I sat at the corner of the bed. “Yeah, that’s not going to work on me. I know how close love and hate run.”

  “I’m not going to school.”

  I smirked. “Neither am I, considering it’s Saturday.”

  She plopped a pillow over her head. “Go climb in bed with Chase. I am sure he would appreciate the company,” she mumbled through the pillow.

  I pursed my lips. “Hmm, that idea does have merit. Just one problem…he already left.”

  Turquoise eyes peaked out from under the pillow. “What time is it?”

  “One.”

  She shoved her mad scientist hair out of her face. “In the morning? Are you insane?” she shrieked.

  I rolled my eyes. “Would the sun be shinning at one in the morning? I think not. Now get your curvy butt out of bed,” I demanded, tugging on her arm.

  She sat on the edge of the mattress, glaring. “I don’t remember you being so pushy.”

  That was because she never let me get a word in edgewise. “Good. Let me remind you what a great friend I am. I have a surprise planned.” I shoved her into the bathroom, turning the shower on hot. “Get in,” I commanded.

  While I waited for the diva, I went to her dresser and thumbed through clutter. Bottles upon colored bottles lined the top. Curiously, I sniffed a few of the pretty shaped glass containers and sneezed. I busied myself for the next forty-five minutes twiddling my thumbs.

  When she reappeared in a towel she looked semi-Lexi. I went to her closet and got lost. “Holy smokes,” I muttered. I didn’t even know where to start, so in true Angel fashion, I just pulled out a pair of jeans and randomly picked an outfit.

  Lexi hissed in disgrace. “You cannot pair Channel with Jacobs.” And off she went, storming to her enormous closet like a woman on a mission.

  Watch out. I was almost afraid the fashion po-po were going to kick down her door and slap me in handcuffs. Boosting myself on her bed, I bit my tongue when I would usually grumble about having to wait so long. I wasn’t known from my patience.

  But this time it was different. Smiling, it felt amazing to see her back in her element. “I missed you,” I said, meeting her gaze in the floor-length mirror.

  She stuck out her bottom lip in a cute pout. “Something’s missing.”

  What could possibly be out of place? I looked her over from head to toe. She looked pretty fantastic to me and definitely outshone the worn cardigan and jeans I’d thrown on.

  Lifting a sparkly necklace from one of the spindles on the side of her mirror, she said, “Got it. My lucky amulet.”

  “You have a lucky amulet?” This shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but I was under the impression that it was more of a witchy thing, not that I believed in witches. However, I probably shouldn’t have been so quick to dismiss the idea. I was dating a half-demon for goodness sake.

  “Who doesn’t?”

  I failed to mention that I didn’t. It would lead to a discussion on my lack of sense that I didn’t want to have. “Right, who doesn’t?” I mumbled to myself, a total crock of shit.

  Her eyes met mine in the reflection. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that. Now what’s my surprise?”

  A ghost of a smile touched the corner of my peach flavored glossy lips. “I scored Luke Bryan tickets,” I said and quickly plugged my ears.

  “Eeeee!” Which was followed by another round of, “Eeeee!” And then she gave me a rib-crushing hug. “Angel, I didn’t know you were such a rebel.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I didn’t compel anyone into giving them to me. I bought them.”

  She started playing with her hair. “Oh. I guess that works, too.”

  Geez, sometimes I swore she was as bad as her cousin. I wiggled onto the end of her lacy bed. “Some of us still have consciences.”

  Her pristine aqua eyes flinched. “For now. Hang around us a little more and it all will go to shit.”

  “Lex, that’s not true.”

  She spun the stool around, facing me, and raised her thin whiskey brows. “I think you are the only person who thinks so.”

  I stared at my friend and knew she felt utterly alone. My heart cracked. “Then the rest of the world doesn’t know what they are missing. You are amazing, the best friend I’ve ever had.”

  She glanced down at her chipped nails. “You’re my only friend now.”

  My throat constricted. This was getting heavier than I intended. The point of this night had been to lighten the mood. “Okay, let’s not get overly sappy before the night even begins. The last thing I want to do is reapply this makeup. I’ve already stabbed myself with the eyeliner once tonight. I don’t think my eye could handle a second time.”

  A small laugh escaped her shell-pink lips. She smeared away a few lonely tears and sniffled. At least I got the beginnings of a smile.

  I folded my legs Indian style on her bed. “So I’ve been meaning to ask you. What’s up with you and Hayden?” I decided we needed a change of topic before things got any more awkward. What better way than with boys?

  She shrugged her dainty shoulders. “Nothing. Absolutely, positively nothing.”

  “And I am assuming that is a problem.”

  “Bingo.”

  This was sort of news to me. I was under the impression that there wasn’t much of a spark between her and Hayden. “Are you saying that you want something to happen?”

  She fumbled with the hairbrush in her hand. “Maybe. I don’t know. I want what you have with Chase. I see the two of you together, and I know that I would give anything to have someone look at me like he looks at you. When you walk into the room, his entire face changes. I’ve never seen him
like that. Truly happy.” Her eyes caught mine, and she captivated me with her words. “He has always been fiercely protective, but with you he takes that to an extreme. He loves you. Honest to God loves you. No teenage crush. You are it for him. There won’t be another girl to take your place. He might be the strongest of our kind, but you are the only person in this world and the underworld with the power to hurt him. I don’t know if I will ever find someone like you.”

  I stared at my best friend and I vowed, right then and there, that I was going to find her the perfect guy—the yang to her yin. “Don’t settle, Lexi. If Hayden isn’t the one, we’ll find someone who is.”

  “That’s easy for you to say; you’re shagging my cousin.”

  I let out a small snort-laugh. “Not yet.”

  Her eyes widened. “You’re shitting me.”

  I leaned my cheek on my hand. “Wish I was. And trust me it is not without effort on my part. A lot of effort.”

  She cracked a smile. “Poor Chase. You are surely going to be his downfall.”

  The doorbell rang before I over thought that statement, and our night was about to begin. In strutted our designated driver, looking ready to command a fleet of soldiers. Her strawberry blonde hair was straight and silky under a military cap.

  Emma.

  “Hey, bitches.” Emma took one look at Lexi in her rhinestone jeans and boots. “Kickass cowgirl hat, Lex.” Then her eyes turned to me, looking at my ensemble. “I’ve got nothing.”

  I shot her with daggers. “Shut up.” I’d witnessed Emma’s driving first hand, and I just hoped we all made it there in one piece, but she was the only one with a ride large enough to fit us all.

  The crap I did for my friends.

  Chapter 18

  Luke Bryan was sexy. Luke Bryan was made for butt-hugging jeans. Luke Bryan was country through and through. So maybe there was something to country boys that I was missing out on. Geez, Spring Valley was warping me.

  The music was loud and bodies were bumping. I’d never seen so many cowboy hats in my life. There was a good chance I would be deaf tomorrow morning, but the happiness in Lexi’s eyes was worth it.

  It wasn’t long after we arrived at the stadium, safe and sound, that I felt the familiar tingles. They glazed along my skin, washing me with a sense of longing and security. He wasn’t far, yet he seemed too far. Knowing he was near was a temptation that was hard to ignore. I was having fun, but there was always a piece of me that missed him when we were apart. It took willpower to not sneak a quick visit to the parking lot where I knew he would be waiting.

  Emma bumped me with her shoulder. “Did you use your mutated abilities on those two?” she asked, nodding to Brandy and Kailyn who were screaming their heads off with Lexi in front of us. Emma and I were much more reserved concert goers. We valued our vocal cords.

  I brushed a piece of my hair behind my ear. It was making me a tad nervous taking about compulsion. “Nah, but I thought about using them to get us backstage.”

  Her emerald eyes glinted off the cosmic lightshow coming from center stage. “Wow. You are capable of good ideas.”

  I squinted at her.

  “So when do you plan to resume the Deen school for butt kicking?”

  Who would have thought that I actually missed my warped sessions with Emma the terminator? When I was training with her, I didn’t feel helpless and weak. She might be merciless and relentless, but it was what I needed—tough love. “I don’t know, but I have to find the a way.”

  She nodded, eyes direct. “You need to keep your body in shape. Without the constant practice, your skills get rusty and sloppy—that means mistakes and mistakes cost lives.”

  She was right. Mental sticky note: start running.

  It was impossible to hold a conversation over the noise, so we stopped trying and enjoyed the show. Maybe it was all the excitement. Maybe it was something I ate, but after the show ended, we were on the scavenger hunt for Emma’s SUV and that was when I started to feel like poo. My belly started to gurgle and roll. One minute I was boiling and wiping the sweat from my brow, and the next I was teeth-chattering cold.

  I gave up trying to help my friends find the car and just followed, hoping I didn’t fall in a pothole or trip on a rock. The horrible sick feeling overwhelmed the tingles, so I couldn’t sense how close or how far Chase was, but I wasn’t in a state to care. Right then I was concerned about losing my dinner. I sighed in relief when I was finally curled up in the back seat of Emma’s car. Then she started driving and my relief was cut short.

  I might have made a groaning sound. I couldn’t tell if it had been in my head or if it had been out loud.

  “Angel, your face looks like the color of avocados. Are you okay?” Lexi asked beside me.

  I had my forehead pressed against the cool glass. Another bout of hot flashes rippled through me. “I think I might be sick.”

  She pushed the hair off my forehead, pressing her palm to my clammy flesh. “You are definitely something. Crack a window. I don’t want you blowing chunks on these boots.”

  I was glad she cared so much—about her shoes.

  My stomach started to cramp up, mildly at first, but it wasn’t long before I was doubled over, gripping my side with the worst PMS of my life. As soon as my demon mark began to throb, I knew that I wasn’t being gripped with female problems or the flu. That would have been too normal, and this was so much more and something supernatural.

  God. What now?

  Was I being mutated into some kind of demon lizard? Because that was what it felt like. My insides were being carved out.

  “Hey, we are almost there,” Lexi encouraged, rubbing my back. “Emma, step on it.”

  Emma mumbled some sort of mouthy response right before her monster of a car lurched forward.

  I moaned in agony, unable to do anything else. And then I sensed him. “He’s coming.”

  “Of course he is,” Lexi said in exasperation.

  “What’s happening?” Emma asked. She actually sounded worried about me.

  “I—I’m not sure,” Lexi replied flustered. “But Chase is on his way.”

  Emma sighed. “Great. He better not rip my door off again.”

  Even totally sick off my butt, that memory was a happy one. Inside I was grinning. And that was the last thing I remembered. My body just couldn’t take any more and it all went dark.

  ~*~*~*~

  What is with me blacking out? That was the second time in the last few months. Coinky-dink? Probably not.

  I awoke surrounded by white lace and bubble gum pink. It was nauseating, but for entirely different reasons. The room was spinning in funhouse circles. There was only one place I knew that actually looked like Candyland—Lexi’s bedroom.

  Squeezing my eyes shut for another few minutes, I tried to wait out the whirling. When my eyes fluttered open a second time, Travis was standing in the doorway.

  “It’s about time, sleepyhead.” His voice was light, but was deceived by worried lines wrinkling his forehead.

  “Ugh. How long have I been asleep?” I asked, still feeling sluggish.

  “Almost two days.”

  “Two days!” How was it possible that I had been out for practically two whole days? And then as if to drive home the length of my latest blackout, my stomach promptly growled. Well, that explained the hunger pangs. I didn’t know what to make of it.

  Physically, I felt… I needed a moment to take inventory.

  The God-awful cramps were gone.

  The hot and cold flashes had vanished.

  In all honesty, I felt good. Awesome-sauce good. Possibly too good. The first thing I noticed was my eyes. Everything in the room was so sharp and vibrant as if I had just gone from black and white to Technicolor. Weird.

  Travis stepped into the room, flashing me his dimples. “You are giving my cousin ulcers.”

  “Where is he?” I could tell he was gone.

  He leaned against one of the white dressers, watching me. �
��He went to speak with Ives.”

  “Ives,” I echoed in disbelief, though I shouldn’t have been.

  Ives was the only other Divisa that we know of who had also been bonded to a human, except we really didn’t know jack about him. He had helped us understand what was going on after the first link—soulbond. Then he had also enlightened us on the other two that would complete the binding triforce—heartbond and bodybond. But as far as anyone knew, it had never been done before. Not all three.

  Chase and I would be the first.

  If we ever got there.

  Travis’s eyes twinkled. “Don’t worry. I am sure he is on his way back as we speak. If you’re awake, he must sense it.”

  I inched up higher on the pile of pillows behind my head. “In that case, I really think I need a shower.”

  Travis laughed. “I doubt Chase will care either way. He will be too busy being grateful you are okay.”

  Right, but I had to scrub off this two-day-old grime for my own sanity. I felt ooey-gooey. “Travis,” I called before he could leave the room. “You guys don’t ever get sick, right?”

  He shook his surfer boy head and gave me a questionable glance. “Nope, never.”

  “And you heal incredibly fast.”

  His sea-green eyes sparkled. “Speedy Gonzales fast.”

  “So it would make sense that with me being connected to Chase I would have inherited some of that healing, but at a slightly slower rate,” I said out loud, voicing the process of thought trickling through my head.

  Intrigue lit in his expression. “Okay, I’m following you.”

  “Then why did I get so violently sick? So sick, it knocked me on my back for two days?”

  He gave me a one-shoulder shrug. “You got me.”

  Not exactly the profound response I was looking for, but then again Travis wasn’t known for his brains, unless it was combat related. “Why didn’t my body heal itself before it got to such an extreme? I swear it felt like my body was turning itself inside out. Not even as a human, have I ever been that ill.”