by Amy Henwood
“Mia,” I said, turning my attention away from the mirror. “Why do you keep lying to me?”
“I don’t follow,” she said.
“When I questioned your conversation with Chase, asking if you knew him and Jackson, you avoided the question.” I watched Jackson as I spoke, seeing if he would react to my accusation. “And now you are not the tiniest bit unsettled by the discovery of the angels.”
“Like I already explained, what I witnessed forced me to believe.”
“Seeing it is one thing, but actually comprehending it is another.”
“You’ve been out for two days, Scarlett. I’ve had plenty of time to comprehend.”
“It still doesn’t add up, Mia. What about Chase’s resemblance to your ex-boyfriend? It’s almost like you are one of them too.”
“Ha! You suffered major trauma to your body, including your head. You are not thinking straight right now.”
“What else was broken?” I asked, thinking that my injuries were possibly affecting my rationale.
Brandon responded to this inquiry. “When I was initially healing you, I could feel everything that was damaged. Two ribs were broken and another three were cracked. There was a severe slice on your forehead and a crack in your skull.” I searched, feeling around for a break in my skin, and found nothing. “Your legs were beaten but intact.” I pulled my ski-injured knee toward me and poked it. “Yes, I healed that as well.”
“You’re telling me that all this time you could have hopped on over and fixed my knee the day it happened?” I was quite pissed at the concept, and if it didn't hurt so much to move, I would have had my hands around his neck.
“Yes, but in my defence, you were never supposed to find out about our kind. We are here to protect you, not expose ourselves, letting you carry out a normal life under our close supervision without you knowing. It’s like having celebrity bodyguard protection with the benefit of not feeling crowded and watched.” He looked directly at me while he spoke.
That was the first time I had paid any attention to his stone-grey eyes, not containing a single pixel of colour. He stared at me while I examined him. The same way he would watch at me at all those parties. The same way my co-worker would watch my every move at work.
“Andrew?” I questioned with a tremor in my voice.
Brandon didn’t say anything, and I then knew it was true.
“But how?”
“I can’t let you know all my secrets,” he said. He turned to Mia. “Let’s leave them alone now.”
“Brandon!”
He ignored me and led Mia out of the room. Strangely, like they had known each other for more than forty-eight hours, he put a palm on her back, leading her out.
I immediately interrogated Jackson about Brandon,
“What—” I shook my head in confusion. “Who—what is Brandon?”
“He is a healer, he is guardian and watcher, he is immortal.” Nothing on his list explained him being two different people. “He can charm people like Chase. He can comminute with people like I can, and he can change into different forms.”
“Like a shapeshifter?”
“Exactly like a shapeshifter.”
“Has he been anyone else other than Andrew or Brandon when I have encountered him?”
“Not to my knowledge,” said Jackson.
He began pacing the room, stroking his chin, evidently nervous about what he was going to reveal to me next.
“What Chase told you about the night at the arena is true. I didn't want to tell you because I had gotten you back and didn’t want you to leave me for him again. I lost your heart the night you kissed him, and I lost your soul when you died. I wanted you back with me ever since, and when I had you, I was not taking any chances in letting you go, even if that meant holding back some truth.”
“But you left me at breakfast.”
“I would have been right behind you even though you clearly instructed me not to, but there was a complication.”
“What sort of complication?” I folded my arms.
“Angel business,” he said, not wanting to expand.
I did not let up. “I don’t know why you always dance around telling me about your secret angel underworld. I already know your kind exists, so explaining your angel complication cannot be any worse than what you have already told me.”
He sighed before talking again. “A dark angel was waiting outside of Maggie’s for me. She kept me from getting to you before Chase got you.”
“Why would she want to do that?” I didn’t know who she was, but I was sure her intent was anything but good.
“She was assisting Chase’s attempt to destroy me.”
“Destroy you? I thought his intention was to kill me, not you.”
“Killing you will also end me.”
My face dropped in shock and puzzlement.
“I’m on earth for one purpose: to protect you,” he said. “If you are no longer alive, I no longer have a purpose, and my time as a guardian will end.”
“You won’t become a spirit again and be cast as a guardian again later?”
“It doesn’t work like that, even for angels. I’m here to protect you, and once you are no longer in danger or require my protection—or are no longer living—my time as an angel is over.”
“I hope I always need protecting then,” I said, as I could not imagine my life without Jackson.
“Brandon informed me who you were with,” he says, staring out the window, trying to avoid looking at me.
I had sincerely hurt him with my selfish actions. “I’m sorry.” Tears filled my eyes and my voice stuttered.
For the first time since waking, I left the bed. I was healed but sore, yet no pain was going to stop me from being with the man I once loved and had fallen in love with again. I reached for him and he gave me a light, reassuring squeeze.
“I didn't intend to hurt you,” I said.
“I know you didn't. His power keeps everyone close to him. You may not want him, but you cannot stop from wanting him.” He ran a thumb along my face to erase my falling tears.
“But, I can.”
He held me back. “What do you mean?”
“Well, at first I couldn't, but then I taught myself how. The barrier I use to keep nosey individuals out—like you—” I managed to get a half smile out of him. “Well, I’m able to project that blockage beyond my mind. I used it to block out the pain of my knee and the pain from him beating me—until, that is, I wasn’t able to focus any longer. I was able to use that same blockage to not fall under his sick love spell.”
He distanced himself from me, and a weird look appeared on his face. “That can't be,” he said.
“That’s how I was able to run away from him, though it proved to be a wasted effort.”
“No, exactly the opposite. It bought me precious time in getting to you. Brandon, come in here.”
Brandon appeared at the door.
“She was able to ward of Chase’s power,” Jackson said to him.
“That’s impossible,” said Brandon.
“She explained how she did it, but I have no explanation how she could.”
“No human has ever been able to resist any power of an angel.”
“Can somebody please explain what is going on?” I said.
Brandon hesitated, a look of wonder on his face. “I think you’re a defender.”
“A what?”
“A defender. You have the ability to be immune to every supernatural power. Being a medium and building a mental blockage is one thing. Having the strength to move it outwards is another. I only know of one other defender in my entire existence, and she only exists in angel form.”
I was stunned. I had surrounded myself with mythological creatures, and I turned out to be the mythological one. Yep, definitely not a normal life.
I had a sudden thought that brought a worried look to my face. “What did you do to Chase?” I asked.
“He was nowhere to be s
een when Brandon and I found you. He had deserted you before we got there. He probably sensed we were on our way and ran before I could lay a non-reversing beating on him. You were dead when we found you, and with him not knowing about Brandon, he would be fairly confident you were done. He is most likely waiting to read your obituary.”
“But he said that he can locate me anyplace, anytime. When he finds out that I’m still alive, he’ll come after me again.” I had died once and did not consider myself lucky enough to come back from a corpse state a second time.
“If you can keep your blockage up and extended past your mind, he will not be able to find you. Also, if you promise not to run away from us again, Brandon and I will be with you until he is taken care of,” said Jackson. “You are safe now, and I promise to never let anything happen to you again.”
19
A few weeks later, I held my purse in one hand and was gripping my pen in the other as I walked out of room 215 for the final time. I was glad it was over—my fingers had begun to cramp during the three-hour exam.
My crutches had been returned to the hospital. After Brandon healed me, they were no longer necessary, though I was still mad he didn't expose his healing powers earlier.
The weeks following my encounter with Chase, Jackson and Brandon had barely left my side.
Brandon had evicted himself from the house he was sharing with Chase, Sadie and Dominic, and had taken up temporary residence in ours. He never slept—like Jackson, he just waited out the night.
I was enjoying having Jackson by my side each nightfall. He held me until I fell asleep, and spent the dark hours working on his client portfolios and his personal stocks.
With Brandon never leaving my house unless I did, Mia had grown quite fond of my new personal security detail. She broke things off with Ryan, using the excuse that she wouldn't be able to do the long-distance relationship thing after moving back home, but I knew the true underlying reason. Anyone with common sense would know.
On exit of the exam room, I was happy to see Mia on the floor resting her back against the wall several metres down the hallway. She was staring down, the clicking of the keypad on her phone gradually growing louder as I advanced. Texting Brandon, no doubt.
“Hey,” I said softly on approach.
She paused to look up. “Hey.”
“Thanks for waiting.”
“Anytime.”
“Where are the guys?”
“Wandering,” she said, lifting herself from the floor and brushing off her ass, dusting off any foreign objects that may have attached themselves to her.
Brandon and Jackson had been questioned by faculty members when they were noticed loitering outside the classroom of our first exam. Since then, they roamed the halls and outdoors during each exam, never straying too far from my exam room but staying far enough away so as to not draw unwanted attention.
“I didn't notice you leave. How long have you been out here?”
“Ten minutes or so.”
I couldn't read her to know if she was telling the truth or falsifying the information to make me feel better about the length of time it took me to write my exam. The months leading up to finals were not honour-roll worthy. Rightfully, it was a struggle to cram, as I had to try and make up for lost time.
“Hopefully those ten minutes of sitting didn’t make your arse numb.”
She turned her head behind to inspect. “It’s still there.”
“Well, that is good to know.” I chuckled.
We walked the hallway that connected to the centre of the building. Few students strolled the hallowed halls with us. It was eerie moving through the almost vacant school—after-class hours contained more activity than now.
It was the final day of exams with summer courses set to begin a couple weeks later. Until then, the hallways would remain calm with only professors and administration staff coming and going.
We had walked several kilometres on these floors, pushed and pulled every door, and with only steps remaining until we were outside—I paused.
“Did you forget something?” Mia asked.
“This is it.” I glanced around the interior of Darlington. “The next time we walk through these doors and this hallway, it will be graduation, and then nothing. We have spent the last four years of our lives between these walls, learning, building friendships—though some were not good ones—stressing about tests and projects, and like that, it's all over. I’m happy we accomplished it, but I will miss it.”
Mia stood alongside me and pulled me in close.
“I’ll miss it too,” she said. “But now we have to go find ourselves some real jobs.”
Across the parking lot, we spotted Jackson and Brandon at the vehicle waiting for us. I now knew how Jackson could afford the beauty of an Audi Q8. Having twenty-two years to build up wealth and not requiring many overhead expenses, he had been able to watch and study the market trends closely. He needed something to occupy him in my early years, as my parents did all the protecting the first several years of my life.
I was getting used to my personal security and the added bonus of unpaid packers. I had two shifts remaining at Cinnamons before heading home and leaving Darlington a distance memory.
In sight of the men, but not close enough for them to hear, Mia stopped me.
“Scarlett,” she said, “I need to come clean and tell you something.”
I gave her a stink look.
“Mia is not my birth name. It’s only my nickname.”
We had lived together for four years, and never once did I suspect Mia was a nickname. “That’s a little surprising but not uncommon. Lots of people go solely by a nickname or middle name—like a Robert being addressed as Bob.”
“That’s just item one. There is actually a lot I haven't told you.”
Instantly, I felt betrayed. She knew every little detail about me and my life, right down to my blood type, and suddenly I supposedly knew nothing about her. The vision of her being an undercover detective or in the witness protection program crossed my mind. What if she was some sort of angel hunter and used her powers for her own benefit. Crazy as it may sound, I would not be shocked if such a thing existed.
I asked her the most basic of questions, which turned out to be the most telling of any.
“So, what’s your name then?”
“Hi,” she said, extending her hand out to shake mine, as if introducing herself for the first time. “My name is Marianne Applegate, and I’m the only fallen defender angel.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Years ago, I had an idea, and decided to transpose that idea onto paper. Slowly I added, changed, rewrote, change it some more and rewrote it again…and again. When I was satisfied with the result, my editor and I rewrote it…yes—again. Finally, there was a finished product that I was proud to share.
When I started this project, the only person that knew my secret was my loving husband. I was embarrassed to show my work.
It was not until the final months of the many years long journey, I finally opened up to some that were close to me, and to my surprise, encouraged the completion.
Firstly, I am beyond grateful for my incredible and supporting husband. All the hours I ignore you and our children so I could write. Dinner, homework, baths and bedtimes you took on without complaint so I could finish a page. Your love towards me and never-ending encouragement is the greatest gift and I love you deeply—forever.
To Carol and Melissa. Thank-you for wanting to read more. Thank-you for making me smile when I walked into the office and hear you ladies discuss theories on what was going to happen next. You are the reason this acknowledgment page is being written. These words would still be a manuscript; sitting in a lonely computer file. This would not be a book without you.
To my editor, The Bearded Book Editor; who showed extreme patience in the multi-stage process. Taking my rough pages and turning it into something amazing is a true artform.
Finally, thank-you to every r
eader who took a chance, picked up my book and turned the pages. You are all awesome!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amy resides in Ontario, Canada with her husband and two sons, and foot-attacking cat.
She is an avid curler and active member at the Paris Curling Club, where she volunteers with the youth program. Once the ice has melted, Amy enjoys spending the summer months at the family cottage; where she possesses an extraordinary talent of getting sunburnt.
