by Weil, J. L.
And then things got…interesting.
Tactical maneuvers where tossed around like hotcakes. Papers were strewn around the room with stick figures, chicken scratch, and the worse drawings in history. It looked like a football playbook, and I didn’t understand a word of it. Through most of the bantering I just sat back and absorbed in wonder at the inner workings of this odd group. We were all brought together with a common goal, to survive and get rid of the hunters.
Yet that didn’t mean there wasn’t strife in the room. Trust me, there was plenty.
“We kill them. What else is there to discuss.” This was Craig’s big idea. With muscles the size of pythons, he was more brute strength than brains.
Emma who had been twirling one of her many large hunting knives, stabbed into down into the coffee table. “Let’s get one thing straight or I blow your plans straight out to the water. No one harms my dad.”
I might not exactly get why after everything Emma’s dad put her through, she was still protecting him. Maybe it was because he was her father and she was harboring some kind of hope that he could change. I was realist. The man I saw was not going to be swayed easily from his beliefs. I didn’t know how he could be saved.
“What do you expect us to do? Just let him walk away?” Sierra provoked, not the least intimidated by Emma’s little display.
“We could compel them,” Hayden suggested. Lexi smiled up at him, clearly thinking she liked his idea.
Emma shook her head. “It won’t work. At least not with my dad, and probably not with the others either. There are injections he takes to counteract compulsion. A cocktail of Mother Earth’s finest, except I don’t have a clue what is really in them.”
Sierra flipped her bold red hair, leaning forward on the edge of her seat. “How can we believe her? I surely don’t trust her. She could be leading us all into a trap for all we know.”
I wasn’t the only who wasn’t a welcomed addition to the group. Sierra wasn’t capable of making new friends.
Emma stared directly into Sierra’s disdainful glare, challenging. Catfight. “I was forced the injections for a year. It works. Ask Chase. He knows.”
All eyes were on Chase. He nodded. “I can’t compel her. She is telling the truth.”
There might have been a few gasps. Chase admitting he couldn’t do something was pretty gigantic. It was like saying the grass wasn’t green.
“Then we are back to killing them,” Craig said, leering in a creepy way that made me think he just wanted to kill something. Anything would do.
I shivered and Chase wrapped an arm around my shoulder.
“No!” Emma stated forcefully. “Travis and I have been talking and we think…”
Chase did not like where this was going. His body went ridged beside me and his heart rate accelerated. I could feel his distress coming in loud and clear. It was overwhelming.
“…that Angel could take care of him.”
Sierra laughed.
Chase growled.
I was like, “Me?”
“No!” Chase bellowed at the same time. “Absolutely. Freaking. Not.”
“Wait. I’m confused. Why would Angel be able to help?” Hayden asked.
I tried not to be offended that they all thought I was so useless and pathetic, but even I wanted to know the answer to that question. Why me?
“Travis, not another word. Do you hear me?” Chase threatened.
“Chase, it’s the only way.”
In a flash, he was up in Travis’s face, and I felt my butt hit the couch. “It’s out of the questioned. We’ll find another solution.”
“Will someone please tell me what the hell we are even arguing about for the love of everything that is holy,” Sierra yelled.
Chase jerked his head toward her, eyes ablaze. “Nothing that concerns you.”
“Think about it Chase. She is probably the only one who could compel him. She can try it out on Emma,” Travis rushed, trying to reason before he lost his head.
Chase closed his eyes and dropped his head into his hands. I swear I could hear him counting under his breath.
My ability to compel those who can’t be compelled seemed to be what got Chase’s boxers in a wadded bunch. Travis and Emma wanted me to compel her dad.
“Why the hell would you think Miss. Sassypants could compel anyone?” Sierra demanded loudly.
“She can’t,” Chase countered, lifting his head.
“Chase,” Travis pleaded. “It is the only way to keep her safe. Keep us all safe.”
He slammed his fist down on the table, standing to his full six-foot two-inch formidable height. “It is out of the question. I’m done discussing it.” Then he promptly stormed out, slamming the front door behind. The house rattled under impact.
Chapter 26
I sat in a room full of half-demons and one hunter. All of them were staring at me. Shifting under their curious and puzzling gazes, I stood up without a word and went after shitbrick. I’d rather deal with him than all their questions.
I found him with his hands in his midnight hair, pacing up and down the driveway. Messy and windblown, he looked fabulous. Lines of strain creased the corner of his cloudy eyes.
He was troubled.
And if I had to guess, he was torn in half.
His hand clamped and unclamped right before one of those fists slammed down onto the hood of Emma’s car. Chase was on the verge of going twenty-one flavors of crazy.
“Goddammit Chase. Can’t you use something else as a punching bag? Not my car?” Emma spat from behind me on the porch. I hadn’t heard her come out after me. Emma and I might be friendly, but Chase and her…not so much. They didn’t trust each other. Truthfully, I think Chase harbored some resentment against Emma and the part she had in my kidnapping. It hadn’t mattered that she was also the reason I escaped.
He turned his caramel eyes on her snarling, and she took a step back. “Jeesh. Fine,” Emma relented, learning when not to push Chase’s demon switch and hightailed back into the safety of the house.
Now I was the one on the receiving end of his rage.
Joy.
Jaw set, he said, “You are not doing it. You got that. I forbid it.”
“You forbid it?”
After hearing the outrage in my voice, he realized that forbid might not have been the wisest choice of word. Not for me. “Okay, so that might have come out a little strong–”
“A little?” I crossed my arms over my chest. It was no secret I didn’t like being told what I can and can’t do.
“Fine. Whatever. The point is, I don’t want you that close to him. Never again. We will find another way. I’m not yielding on this.”
“Chase you are being unreasonable.”
His brows slammed together and he bristled. “Am I?”
I nodded my head. “Yeah, you are. Trust me, I am in no hurry to be up-close-and-personal anytime soon with Mr. Wack-job, but if there is even the slimmest possibility that I can stop him, I have to try.”
“And I disagree.”
God, he had a fierce protective streak that was both enduring and maddening at the same time. “Errrr. Getting you to be sensible is like smashing my head against a brick wall.”
He leaned against Emma’s dented SUV. “No argument from me.”
“Dammit Chase. You could at least consider it. I might just do it with or without your so called approval. It’s my choice.”
He fixed me with an icy glare, closing the space between us. “Don’t test me.”
For the first time, I could feel the anger that was feeding him. It radiated inside me. Placing my palms on his chest, I tried again. “You really need some anger management classes. At least just let me try it out on Emma. If it doesn’t work, no harm done.”
“And if it does…”
“How about we cross that bridge when we get there, before going all he-ho about it.”
He went rigid. “This is a very bad idea. I can feel it.”
&nb
sp; “So you are no longer forbidding it?” I steeled myself for his refusal.
He shook his head. “N-no. Like I ever could.”
I think that was the first time I’d ever heard Chase falter his words. “D–did you just agree?” I asked.
He pulled me against him, squeezing in me in an epic hug, his mood veering sharply to despairing. “Angel,” he murmured my name through my hair. “If I could tuck you away and keep you safe, I would. I’ll never be able to give you the fairytale ending you deserve.” His fingers stroked my cheeks.
I blew out a slow breath, stirring the long strands of dark hair that escaped my messy ponytail. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet Angel Eyes.”
~*~*~*~
“Are you even trying?” Emma asked. Her toned legs were stretched out in front of her.
I gave her dry glare. “Look, I never said I knew what I was doing. It only happened once and I didn’t do it on purpose.”
She sighed heavily. “I’m starting to think Travis made the whole thing up.”
Every time I looked at Emma with the intention of full concentration she was making some stupid face at me, crossing her eyes, or sticking her tongue out at me. “I swear. If you do that again, I am going to rip your tongue right from your mouth.”
Emma laughed. “Do you think you are going to have time to center yourself out in the field?”
“No drill sergeant,” I replied, giving her a poorly executed salute.
She only laughed harder. “You would make a sorry excuse for a solider.”
“And you are a crappy test subject.”
She bunch up her nose. “I am not all that keen about you screwing with my head.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not going to make you do anything crazy like jump in front of a train.”
“Geez, that’s comforting.” As far as verbal sparing went, Emma and I were perfectly matched. “I can’t believe your menacing shadow left you alone with me. Even for just an hour.”
I shrugged, happy for a break. This compelling thing was taxing my brain. “Trust me. He is not far, probably lurking around a corner.”
Emma’s eyes shifted around the family room. “Well that’s not creepy.”
A small smile snuck over my lips. It might have made Emma nervous, for me, knowing Chase was never far was comforting. “Did you honestly think either of them would leave us alone? You’ve been out of the game too long.”
“Yada Yada. Are you we going to do this or what?”
“Do I really have a choice?” I said, sounding reluctant, which I totally was. I didn’t really want to do this anymore than she did.
“Nope. And no more funny business.”
I rolled my eyes again. Yet this time there weren’t any antics from Emma. Facing each other on the sofa, I sat on one of my legs and made my mind go blank. She and I were both on our best behavior…
Because I compelled her.
I couldn’t explain how I’d done it.
Emma’s eyes went from lively and teasing to wide and spacey. Her iris got big, the deep green in her them almost disappearing. Staring at her, I got freaked out. I had her under my spell so to speak and now…now I didn’t know what to do. Did I have her do cartwheels around the room? Jump on the couch and squawk like a monkey? The possibilities were endless and payback was at my fingertips, except none of that was appealing.
Emma had put her trust in me, just as I had put my trust in her when she saved me as hard as that had been. I wasn’t about to break this friendship we just had started to form. Angling me head, I briefly wondered how much control I had over this compulsion. I really didn’t have a clue what I was doing or how it worked.
How the hell was I going to get her dad under my enthrall?
This had to be the absolutely worse plan in the universe.
Finally, I just decided to make Emma my cook. All this mind control stuff had made me hungry. My stomach rumbled. “Emma,” I said in the calmest voice I could manage. “I want you to make me a turkey sandwich.”
Like a robot, she mechanically stood up from the couch and started rummaging in the fridge pulling out food. I turned in my seat, resting my chin on the back of the couch and watched her. “Can you bring me a Dr. Pepper too? I’m dying of thirst.”
She immediately brought a can and even popped the tab from me. Oh man, this was great.
Emma made a mean sandwich. “This is really good,” I said with a mouth full.
I wiped a smidge of mustard from the side of my mouth, and then just like that, while I was chomping away, Emma snapped out of my hold. I didn’t have any idea how I had dropped the veil. I sucked at being anything but human, and even then I had a hard time staying alive.
She shook her strawberry blonde head like she was trying to clear any remnants of me poking around in her brain and shot me a glare. “Did you just make me your bitch?”
I choked on my Dr. Pepper, spraying it all over us both and laughed. “I highly doubt you making me a sandwich constitutes as you being my bitch.”
She shuddered beside me. “Whatever. Don’t try that crap on me again. I don’t like it.”
“That’s something we can both agree on.” I didn’t like it either, honestly. It felt too Godly to control someone with my mind. “Can I just say that you are much more agreeable when you are compelled.”
She whacked me on the side of my head with one of the decorative pillows, and I had to bite back another laugh before I snorted burning pop through my nose. I shoved the last bite of my sandwich in my mouth and went looking for Chase before Emma could find something else to smack me with.
I found him in his bedroom, lounging on his bed with his laptop. A chunk of hair flopped over his forehead. He propped his arms behind his head as I walked into his room. “So I’m guessing from that silly grin on your face that you can compel her?”
It was more of a dazed grin, and I couldn’t seem to control it. “Did you doubt that I could?”
“Doubt? No. Hoped you couldn’t? Absolutely.”
My smile slipped.
He set aside his laptop and edged to the end of the bed. “Look Angel, I am not trying to discredit the sense of accomplishment you are feeling. I just…I just wish it wasn’t you.”
“I know. Me too,” I admitted, sitting next to him on the bed.
He wrapped me in his arms, and I hung on for dear life. “This isn’t going to end well,” he whispered.
~*~*~*~
I figured we would have time to prepare. More time to practice me messing with people’s heads. More time to come up with a solid plan. But time wasn’t on our side. What I hoped was going to be a week or more turned out to be hours.
Something was going down, and no one was telling me a damn thing. Travis was jazzed. Emma was back to being snappy and brooding. And Chase was just too keyed up. But I’d come to my own conclusions.
Shit was about to get real. It was go time.
“Let’s rock,” Travis said, grinning with a deep dimple on either side of his cheeks.
Chapter 27
I wish I could say that I shared his enthusiasm. There was a nervous flutter in the pit of my stomach and an excitement that hummed in my veins. My emotions and Chase’s swirling together. I knew this day was going to come, but nothing could have actually prepared me for the real thing. I was quaking in my converses.
Before I could even wrap my head around what was happening, what we were about to do, the group had arrived looking ready to kickass. Sierra of course looked more like she was going to the club then on a hunting trip. I could tell it was on the tip of her tongue to complain about my presence, yet again. Chase silenced her with a demon glare.
Chase pulled a black hoodie over my head, and I obediently slipped my arms through the sleeves. It smelled like him, sinful and yummy. With my head still reeling, I was swept away in the group as we moved into the dark, damp, dingy woods. The place of many nightmares.
“You sure you are ready for this Angel E
yes?” he asked, studying my face.
“I don’t think I could ever really be ready.”
He nodded his head, just a shadow moving among the darkness with bright yellow eyes.
Not knowing what precisely waited for us among the massive oak and soaring pine trees played into my fears. There were so many unknown factors. How many numbers did the hunters have? Were we walking into a trap of our own? Had they been tipped off somehow? Did they know we were coming to greet them with a battle plan of our own?
None of those questions mattered now, because there wasn’t time to second guess what was already in motion. My companions moved like ghosts in the woods, soundless and incredibly fast.
Me. I moved like Bigfoot.
Chase stayed with me while the others took off ahead. I knew it must be killing him to not be in the thick of the action. But as much as I hated that he was antsy, I would have hated it more if we weren’t together. As irrational as it might be, we both needed to know the other was safe. He squeezed my hand, eyes twinkling with anticipation. “Game on.”
I shook my head and gave him a nervous grin. I loved it when he did video game references. It was just uber cute.
Everything always seemed to happen in the forest. I listened to the winds howling like a wolf on the hunt as blades of grass rustle around me. Deeper we traveled into the woods, relying on their sixth senses to give us the edge. The hunters might have technology, but we had supernatural gifts.
Tangled undergrowth covered the forest floor. We kept off the paths, traipsing through bushes, briars, and God knew what else. I tried not to think about the things I might step on or the traps I might walk in. I tried not to think at all.
A prickle of unease skirted over my skin, followed by Chase’s entire body going on alert. I dared not move muscle or even breathe. The others had fanned out into pairs, but they were all within hearing distance of each other. Well half-demon hearing distance.
With a yelp, Chase flattened us against a tree trunk as an arrow slashed through the air, straining to reach us. It hit the bark with splitting force. And one by one, a half a dozen tipped spears followed, sticking out of the tree, outlining us. Hugging the tree, I took a moment to pick my heart off the ground where it had fallen while I was being plummeted with arrows.
