by Ella Summers
Footsteps padded softly up the stairs. My concern faded away when I saw Harker. The restaurants’ guests gawked openly at him, their elegance and refinement fading away at the sight of an angel in their presence. Their propriety was a poor defense against an angel’s aura.
Harker sure was putting on a show. His magnificent wings were out, glossy black with bright blue accents. He was dressed like Nero, in the black leather armor uniform of the Legion of Angels. A small metallic insignia, in the shape of angel wings, was pinned to his chest. It broadcast his rank as a Legion soldier of the ninth level, and an angel of the first level.
Harker stopped in front of our table.
“Are you planning on standing there all day showing off your wings, or are you joining us for dinner?” I asked him.
He smiled pleasantly. “I’d love to.”
“Put away those wings,” Nero told him, his voice so low that no one but the people at our table could hear him. “You’re always pulling them out and making a scene.”
“You’re one to talk,” Harker retorted.
I swallowed a snort. At least this time there was no wine in my mouth.
Harker put away his wings. They vanished in a flash of magic, like a swarm of black butterflies dissolving out of sight, fading into the air. Impressive. He’d been practicing hard. Harker was a new angel; he’d become one only a few months ago. It took a lot of practice to make magic look easy, to have that much finesse. That was especially true when it came to our more recently acquired skills. Brute force was easy once you had the necessary magic. It was the finesse that took time—time and a whole lot of patience. That’s what set the angels apart from everyone else: they made everything look simply effortless.
Harker took the seat next to Bella. He’d been watching her closely, judging her reaction to his magic. He’d clearly been showing off mainly for her benefit. Bella said nothing. In fact, she was avoiding looking at him at all.
Yep, she really liked him.
Harker lifted his hand, summoning our waiter, who practically ran to him. Harker ordered a steak and some fries.
“Dinner with angels,” Tessa sighed, braiding her fingers together. She looked positively ecstatic about being sandwiched between the two of them. Glancing at Gin, she said, “Maybe we should join the Legion of Angels too.”
“I don’t know if you’d like it, Tessa. At the Legion, you have to wake up really early,” I said.
Tessa would sleep until noon if she could.
“Do they have coffee at the Legion?” Gin asked.
“Yes, but you’re not supposed to drink it,” I told her. “Dependencies of any kind, including caffeine, are considered mortal weaknesses. You’re supposed to survive solely on the strength of your own willpower.”
“If you’re not supposed to drink coffee, then why do they have it at all?” Gin said practically.
I shrugged. “To torture you mostly. It’s there but you know you can’t have it.”
Tessa frowned at me. “Leda, are you bullshitting us?”
“Tessa, language,” Calli reminded her.
“You swear like a sailor,” Tessa retorted.
“But not while dining at a fancy restaurant.”
“No, just when picking us up from school,” Gin said.
“That was only once, many years ago, when Amanda Farthing put her hands on my stun gun. I told her it was dangerous, but she just had to touch it.”
Harker’s food arrived. Being jumped to the top of the queue was just one benefit of being an angel.
“Why did you bring a stun gun to a school?” Harker asked Calli casually as he began to cut his steak.
“I was on my way back from dropping off my mark at the sheriff’s station, and I didn’t have time to go home first.”
“She came to school covered in blood,” Tessa said melodramatically, her eyes wide.
“It wasn’t that much blood,” Bella said.
“It was enough. All the parents and teachers were staring at her.” I chuckled at the memory. “She completely freaked them out.”
Calli rolled her eyes at the show we were putting on. “I obviously didn’t freak them out enough if Amanda Farthing tried to fiddle with my gun.”
“Did you shoot her?” Harker asked.
“Of course not. There were young children present.”
“But later that night, Calli shot an arrow through her front door,” I added. “Then she shouted out, ‘the next one will go through your leg if you ever touch any of my weapons again!’ It was awesome.”
Harker laughed.
“Threats were the only thing that got through to her. The woman was an idiot, playing with my gun at a school, not knowing what she was doing. My stun gun only knocks out adults, but it could put a kid in the hospital.” Calli gave me a harsh look. “And you weren’t supposed to see that.”
I’d been twelve at the time. Calli had never sugarcoated the world for us, but she didn’t like us to stand by and watch when she got her hands dirty, even if it was all for the greater good.
“I followed you when you went out that night,” I told her.
“Of course you did.” Resignation—and a bit of pride—shone in her eyes. “You always were a rebel. Maybe I should have made you do some pushups while I sat on you.”
Tessa smirked at me. “Since you’re not a hot angel, Calli, I don’t think she would have enjoyed that very much.”
“Undoubtably.”
“We have to move to New York. It’s apparently full of hot single angels,” Tessa said to Gin.
I hated to burst her bubble, but… “There are only two angels who currently live in New York, and right now they’re both sitting at this table.”
“And neither of them are single,” Tessa lamented.
“That’s not exactly true,” I told her.
She blinked.
“I asked out your sister Bella, and she turned me down,” Harker said. He didn’t sound the least bit embarrassed.
Tessa looked at Bella like she’d lost her mind. “Why would you do an idiotic thing like that? Why?” Her voice shook with emotion. “You’re supposed to be the smart one in the family.”
“I’m not giving up.” Harker looked at us. “What sort of gestures of affection would Bella appreciate?”
“Fairy’s Breath,” Tessa said immediately.
Fairy’s Breath was a fragrant, lacy flower that came in all kinds of colors.
“Also, hard-to-get potion supplies like liquid silver and crushed diamonds,” Gin added. “Horned Ravager hooves. And other beastie parts.”
“She apparently likes angels too,” I commented.
Harker chuckled. “It runs in the family.”
“It’s hard to say no to all those muscles and magic.” I even managed to say it with a straight face.
Gin was laughing her head off, but Bella looked positively mortified. It was only fair, especially after how Bella had teased me earlier. And, besides, this was just how our family rolled, passing the hot potato of mortification.
Harker finished his last bite of steak, drank a sip of wine, then he set his napkin on the table. “Unfortunately, this is not a social call, ladies. I came here to get Nero. We have a mission from the First Angel.”
“What kind of mission?” I asked.
“The secret kind.” Harker looked at Nero and added, “And the urgent kind. We have to go now.”
Nero gave me a quick kiss. “Try to stay out of trouble, Pandora,” he whispered against my mouth.
I could feel the warmth of his kiss lingering on my lips like magic, even as he rose and left the restaurant with Harker.
“That sure was one powerful kiss.” Tessa shivered. “It’s giving me goosebumps, and they’re not even my lips he kissed. Angels don’t really do anything halfway, do they?”
I was still touching my lips, feeling the mark he’d left. It was a small one, but it was an angel’s mark nonetheless. He’d left a part of him behind with me.
“No,
they really don’t,” I agreed.
Gin and Tessa sighed in unison. Bella was quiet, probably still fighting with herself over whether she should go out with Harker. Angels were intense in everything they did. And, as Tessa had figured out, they did everything at a minimum of two hundred percent. Anything worth doing must be done perfectly. That was their motto. Bella looked like she wasn’t sure if she wanted to jump into that world.
I paid the bill, then my family and I went back to the festival. It was so different out here, so bright. The scene was not magically darkened to create an atmosphere, then spot-lit with magic lanterns and magic fire. No, out here on the streets, it was noisy, alive. Vibrant. Corny carnival tunes repeated again and again as brightly-colored flags and banners rustled in the wind.
As we made our way through the festival, we picked up packages of cookies, apple treats, onion rings, and all sorts of unhealthy things for dessert. The food was the exact opposite of the upscale meal we’d just had at the Silver Platter.
Tessa’s gaze flickered around rapidly, scanning the crowd.
“Do you want me to check for monsters hiding behind the buildings?” I asked her.
Tessa’s face lit up, and she grabbed Gin’s hand. “We’re meeting some friends. See you later.”
Then they ran off without waiting for a response. I watched them join the growing crowd that had surrounded Brokers and a few other paranormal soldiers. They sure had a lot of fans from Purgatory’s young lady population. Tessa had managed to squeeze through the wall of bodies to the front of the line. She was already talking to the soldiers.
“I guess we don’t rank as high as the latest batch of paranormal soldiers to arrive in Purgatory,” I said to Bella.
Calli wrapped an arm around each of us. “Let them have their fun. They’re young and foolish. Sooner or later, they’ll learn to stop chasing after boys and let the boys chase after them.”
I watched Tessa flirt with three soldiers at once. “Unlikely.”
“It’s just the three of us for a bit,” said Calli. “I’ve missed you both.”
“And we’ve missed you,” Bella told her. “Terribly.”
Uncertainty trembled in her eyes, the lingering shock of discovering the truth of her origin. She must have felt really alone right now.
Calli saw it too because she squeezed us closer. “I know that must have been really tough for you, Bella, but I want you to forget all about it and just have fun with your family.”
“Your real family,” I added.
“I will.” Bella looked fortified by our words.
“Don’t you worry about anything,” Calli said as we passed blinking game stalls. “I’m going to win you an egregiously large stuffed animal.”
She stopped in front of a game that involved shooting a tin can. She slapped her one dollar bill down on the counter.
The gamekeeper, a teenage boy who looked like he’d been hit with the pimple curse I’d threatened Tessa with earlier, glanced from the money to Calli. He shook his head. “You can’t play.”
“Why not?” Calli demanded.
“The game’s out of order.”
“Don’t bullshit me, kid. Two minutes ago, you were happy to take that boy’s money for twenty rounds of the game as he tried in vain to win his girlfriend a unicorn. Yep, you took his money, even though he never had a chance because you’ve rigged the game.”
Looking indignant, he huffed. “I can assure you that Shoot ’em Down is perfectly fair and—”
“I’ll be the judge of that.” Calli slid her dollar toward him.
He slid it back. It wasn’t surprising that he didn’t want to let Calli play. She was an excellent shot. She didn’t miss, and the whole town knew it.
“Look,” Calli said, her tone softening. “I promised my Bella a gigantic fluffy cat. If it will make you feel better, I’ll play the game blindfolded.”
He waved over his colleague. The two of them turned their backs to us and whispered for a while.
Finally, Pimples said, “All right, but I am tying the blindfold.”
“I can’t believe she convinced him to let her play,” I commented as Bella and I watched him tie the blindfold securely over Calli’s eyes.
Bella ate a piece of popcorn. “This will be good.”
Calli shot and missed the target.
“I wonder how long she’ll pretend to fool around,” Bella said.
Calli could shoot blindfolded or not. It didn’t matter.
“She’s of course waiting until she has only one shot left before she aims at the target. To create drama,” I said as Calli missed again.
Pimples was smiling in triumph. The fool was celebrating his victory too early.
“How many shots does she have left now?” Bella asked me.
“Three.”
Calli was taking her time, pretending to be disoriented. She aimed far off the target. Pimples and his colleague ducked, afraid she was going to shoot them by mistake.
“So, now that we’re alone, are we going to talk about the elephant in the room?” I asked Bella.
She blinked. “What elephant?”
“Don’t be coy, Bella,” I said, wiggling my eyebrows. “You know I’m referring to you and Harker.”
“Honestly, there is no Harker and I. It’s a very bad idea.”
“You know, that’s what I told myself about Nero. I had myself perfectly convinced that it was a bad idea to get involved with an angel.”
“And I see logic won out as usual.”
“Love isn’t logical. And throwing caution to the wind didn’t turn out so badly for me.”
“I’m not you, Leda. I’m not brave enough.”
“Nonsense. You’re one of the bravest people I know.”
“Not this time. When I found out who I am—what I am—it toppled everything. My plans for the future, my dreams, all of it. The gods will hunt me to the ends of the Earth. And they will threaten everyone I care about. I shouldn’t be making connections. I should be severing them. I should leave to protect you all.”
I caught her by the shoulders. “Bella, stop. No. You’re not leaving. They won’t find out.”
“And if they do?”
“Then I will protect you. We will all protect you.”
Tears pooled in her eyes. “Leda—”
I wiped them away. “Promise me you won’t leave.”
Bella met my eyes. “I promise.”
“Good,” I said, nodding. “Now I won’t have to tie you up.”
Bella laughed. It was nice to see the wall of her fear and frustration burst.
“I’m glad you’re my sister,” she told me.
“Of course you are,” I said, smirking. “I’m awesome.”
She laughed again.
“I’m glad you’re my sister too,” I told her.
We turned to watch Calli take aim again.
“She’s on her last shot,” I said.
“She’s still facing away from the target.”
“She’ll make it.”
Calli lifted the gun. Then she quickly pivoted around and fired at the target board.
As her shot hit the bullseye, all the game stands around us blew up, the force of the explosion throwing me and Bella in opposite directions.
5
A Dubious Superpower
I opened my eyes, pushing the burning debris off my body. The festival was in ruins. The stands were broken, the wooden beams split, cracked, or on fire. Broken wood chips covered everything. People lay on the ground, moaning.
As I rose to my feet, pain blossomed all across my body. The hard fall of the explosion throwing me backwards had left me bruised. My top was stained with blood. A sharp piece of wood protruded from my side like a stake. I gritted my teeth, grabbed on to the piece of wood, and yanked it out. Dizzy, I swayed to the side but managed to stay on my feet. Thanks to the gods’ gifts of magic, my body could take a rough beating before it gave out—not to mention, I was no stranger to pain. I’d had mu
ch worse in my time at the Legion.
I looked for my family and anyone else I could help. As far as I could see, no one appeared dead. But they needed healing. I reached for the tiny emergency potion vials I kept in my belt.
As I was leaning over the first victim, I picked up the hint of a sound. And it was growing louder. I could hear them walking, the scrape of their thick boot soles against the cobbled road, the rough rasp of their breathing. There were six of them. And they were sneaking up on me.
The wind changed direction, and I smelled metal and gunpowder, the kind used for fireworks. The explosion had been caused by these new arrivals; I was sure of it.
There was something more, the scent of sweat, thick and harsh. Werewolves. I rose in my knees, facing them. There were six men, and they looked just how they smelled—wild, rugged, and untamed. A combination of denim and leather, of a cowboy posse and a motorcycle gang, they looked like the type of Frontier outlaws the festival visitors came here to gawk at.
The six bulky guys weren’t part of the entertainment, however; they were mercenaries. There was no missing that distinctive hired-gun look in their eyes, in the way that they moved. They were trouble, plain and simple. Add in their werewolf magic, and that meant double trouble.
They hadn’t shifted into beasts. They didn’t have to. They were very strong in human form, and I was horribly outnumbered.
But I had the element of surprise on my side. When they looked at me, their gazes were dismissive. They didn’t see me as a threat. I wasn’t in uniform, so they didn’t know I was a soldier in the Legion of Angels. They didn’t know I’d wrestled their kind before.
The werewolves walked under a canopy of decorative lights. The explosion had left the strands of flickering bulbs in a twist. The lights hissed and zapped over the chime and jingle of the carousel music. The festival site was in ruins, but that eerie carnival melody continued to play, as though possessed by a dark spirit.
“What are you?” gasped the werewolf with the big belt, his voice distant. His eyes were wide, locked on my hair.
My hair had only ever mesmerized humans and vampires before. Now here it was bewitching a werewolf.
