Angelic Anarchy (Heaven on Earth Book 1) (2 page)

A
n hour later
, Colton and I arrived at the airport. Not for the first time, I wanted to grumble about travel time. I sighed. I couldn’t just emerge, appear, or vanish where humans might see me. And I certainly couldn’t flap my wings and fly there.

I caught Colton’s eye as we stood in the terminal building, and he flashed me a quick smile. I didn’t return it, instead looking away. Colton’s wings had been beautiful. I could only use mine in Heaven—I wasn’t powerful enough to use mine on Earth—but Colton? He might never use them again. I wondered if he would grow demonic wings—some demons could as they became powerful. The thought made my stomach churn.

I felt my shoulder blades itch, almost as if my own wings were fighting to emerge. It was an illusion, though. It’s been so many years since I felt them erupt; so many years since I’ve been home.

Colton turned to read the flight information on the screen and I scrutinized his back. I could nearly see his muscles through his jacket. I was almost willing his wings to erupt—they would be huge, nearly double his height, and they would be glorious.

My wings are equally as stunning. They are the purest white and they sparkle as if encrusted in diamonds.

Colton turned back to me, and the spell was broken. I followed him across the concourse to our flight.

* * *

D
uring the flight
, there was no small talk between us, just an uncomfortable silence as we both pretended to read the material provided by the airline. The air around us was thick with unspoken words and unanswered questions. My pulse quickened when I shifted and his fingertips brushed lightly against mine. Our eyes met, and he looked like he wanted to say something, but I pulled my arm away quickly.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, before excusing himself to the bathroom. His scent lingered as he walked away and I inhaled deeply, hating the fact I wanted to wrap myself up in it.

After three hours, we finally stepped off the airplane and took a cab to the Taj Hotel, where Evangelina had already checked us in.

We unpacked our many things right away. We brought with us not only clothes, but also laptops and human weapons. Going in blind on this case made me want to cover all the bases, which meant bringing all the weapons we could. I had no idea if this kid had run away or if someone had kidnapped him, whether human or otherwise. We try to only use our relics on demons, vampires, and other nonhuman beings. Of course, accidents do happen; it isn’t easy when the humans are working alongside the demons, which happens more often than you would care to know.

Colton ordered us some dinner from the in-room dining menu: cheeseburgers, fries, pie, and beer. Like I said, earthbound angels pick up lot of human habits, even drinking. We each sat on opposite ends of the sofa with our laptops on the coffee table. We have full access to every government agency’s database, so as we ate, we went to work researching “the kid,” as we dubbed him. We were dissecting every aspect of the kid’s life and anyone that ever interacted with him.

“Anything jumping out at you?” Colton asked as he reached for two more beers and passed one to me.

“Not really.” I replied. “He seems to be just your average teenager. The house should be empty tomorrow morning by eight-thirty. The other two foster teens and the husband leave for the day at seven and the wife by eight. I’ll pop in at nine and if it’s clear, I’ll come and get you. If not, we’ll try again after a few hours. We have to start somewhere—may as well begin at his house.”

“You think it’s a good idea for you to go alone?” He looked concerned as he waited for my reply. He even looked sincere, but I just could not trust him.

“Yeah, it’ll be fine. I’ll go in stealth.”

“Your stealth isn’t magic, Belleeza. It’s still not safe for you to go alone.” Colton flexed his hand.

“Relax,” I said. “I can look after myself—or have you forgotten? No one will be able to detect me: not humans, not angels, and certainly not
demons
.” I spat the last word at him and he recoiled slightly for a second. “And even if they do catch me . . .” I trailed off. He knew full well how fast and strong I was. Faster and stronger than most other angels. And if it came down to it, I had my light ability. I balled my hands up slightly.

Colton was looking down now, distracted. I wondered what he was thinking. Probably thinking of his own powers—the powers he had lost when he fell from Heaven. An image of his wings came to me so vividly I almost gasped. He had the loveliest wings I had ever seen—soft and shimmering in gold. When I say gold, I mean they sparkled like the precious metal, not the arrogant, overbearing kind of gold. They were a soft gold, as if made from the very light of the sun.

He was strong, of course, and fast. And he could heal—which had come in useful in our many centuries of battle together. He could also shield, meaning he could manipulate the air to form shields and barriers.

We had been an unstoppable force of light and wind. Together we could conquer any enemy. But those days were long behind us.

* * *

C
olton came around
in the end. Even he could see it was the best plan.

So by eight the next morning, I was already showered, dressed, and armed. We sat once again at opposite ends of the sofa.

“You
will
come back for me if the house is clear?” he asked, narrowing his eyes at me slightly.

“Of course,” I said, haughtily. “Of course, if you were still an angel or even a demon you would have been able to
tag
along with me and I could bring you in stealth, but seeing as how during your viatorship you are now neither . . .”

He shrugged, grinning slightly. “If I was still an angel, we wouldn’t have been lying awake in our separate beds last night.”

I blushed, annoyed that he could tell I’d been tossing and turning all night, and walked across to the table. I heard a low chuckle behind me . . .

As I enjoyed my third cup of coffee, I read the newspaper provided by the hotel. Colton sat buried in a pile of paperwork, consisting of notes, maps, and profiles of everyone connected to the kid.

Just before nine o’clock, I stood up and set my empty mug on the table. Colton set down his paperwork and stood up as well.

“Okay,” he said. “Just go in, look around quickly, and come straight back here for me. I don’t like you going without backup.”

“Did you forget who you are talking to? I know the plan, Colton, and I’ve been working solo for quite some time now, if you’ll recall. I’ll be back in a flash.”

“Believe me, I have not forgotten, Belleeza, I’m just being . . . cautious. This case is strange, and we are completely in the dark. Just be careful, Beauty.”

I sighed, resigned to the fact he wasn’t going to stop using his old nickname for me. Later I might make an issue of it, but for now I needed to prioritize. So I nodded my head in agreement and focused on where I wanted to go. I quieted my mind and imagined myself in the kid’s home. I willed myself to be there and almost instantly I felt lighter as though I was fading. I vanished completely and reappeared in the living room of a split-level home. It was sparkling clean—not exactly what I had expected. You hear terrible stories on the news all the time about foster parents, so I guess a spotless house was unexpected.

The house looked like the home of a real family—a close and happy family. The foster parents really seemed to care about the children they had opened their home to. The walls and refrigerator were full of school reports and artwork. There were some trophies sitting on the mantel above the fireplace.

A quick sweep of the garage and lower floor told me that the area was clear, so I slowly made my way to the second floor. I walked up the stairs, noticing how quiet the house was. Eerily quiet. The first bedroom on the left was a girl’s room with walls painted a light shade of pink. I stepped in tentatively. I was in stealth, but caution was still advisable. The closet door was open, as were all the dresser doors, but the room was empty. Next, I checked out the master bedroom. Something wasn’t right; the room, closet, and master bathroom were all empty, and all the drawers in this room were open too. In the girl’s room, I had assumed she was searching for something in a hurry. Now I realized someone else was searching this house, and I’d probably just missed them, judging by the silence of it.

I left the master bedroom and peeked into the guest bathroom at the end of the hall, which was empty. Just as I walked into the last bedroom, the hair on the back of my arms stood up. I was not alone.

Dammit, Colton. I told you to wait for me!

Suddenly, a dagger flew at me, narrowly missing my head and landing in the wall of the hallway. My hands were instantly holding my own two daggers; my reflexes were so fast I didn’t even realize I had reached for my weapons–relics passed on to me from older retired warriors.

“I can’t see you, but I know you’re there.” The voice that spoke from the last bedroom was cold and dripping with venom. I could tell from the way his energy felt that he was a demon. He smelled of blood and death, and he was not alone. He must have had some sort of ability that allowed him to smell through my stealth. I stepped to the side and two more lesser demons behind him came into view.

Crap!.

They were lesser demons, but one of them had to have a weak version of stealth for me not to have heard them before.

“There is no one here but us,” said the first demon. He had short spikey blonde hair and a smooth baby face. The spikey-haired demon went on, “I would sense if someone emerged. No one could hear us with the shield I put up, but we’d have heard anyone before they unlocked the door. Finish searching the closet and let’s get out of here.”

I stood there for a moment, taken aback. And then my brain kicked into action again. Even my stealth couldn’t mask the smell of my blood. I started to back away toward the door—I was going to need more room for this. I took another step back and the demon that smelled me lunged.

I
had
a split second to react. I felt myself drop out of stealth as all my focus channeled into avoiding the demon’s attack. I spun out of reach, tossing the dagger from my right hand into the spikey-haired demon’s heart and simultaneously throwing the second dagger into the right eye of the other demon, who had black hair cut in a military style. It all happened so fast they never saw me coming. As soon as the first dagger left my hand, I replaced it with the sword that had appeared instantly on my back, and before I even finished spinning away from the first demon, I took his head with me. The blade was so sharp, it was a few seconds before the first drop of blood fell, but once it did, it poured.

I wiped the sword against my jeans and sheathed it. Then I walked to the military haircut demon and removed the dagger from his eye. I took the dagger and pierced his heart just for good measure, and then I did the same to the first demon. I saved spikey hair for last so that I could keep him for questioning before I killed him. I wanted to know exactly what they knew and why everyone seemed to be after this kid. As I reached him, I unsheathed the sword from my back once again and used my left hand to remove the dagger from his chest. As soon as the blade was no longer in his heart, he tried to jump up, but I quickly stomped his chest with my right foot and held him down.

“Start talking!” I demanded as I placed the tip of my sword to his eye, just short of touching it.

“I don’t know anything,” he sputtered. “All we were told was to find the boy and bring him back alive and unharmed.”

“You sure that’s all you know, demon?”

His eyes darted from me, to the other demons, and back to me. “The only other thing I know . . . ” he started to say, but suddenly his eyes opened wide in fear and his body went rigid. “NO!” he screamed. “Please not that, please!” He was pleading to someone—and it was not me. With my boot still tight to his chest, his unyielding body suddenly went slack and his cries ceased instantly. Startled, I removed my foot and looked at him in confusion. Then, without warning, he abruptly reached for a gun that was in the front of his jeans and pulled the trigger.

He missed his mark the first time, hitting my shoulder, but he didn’t miss it the second. Before I could even react to the bullet striking my heart, he pulled the gun to his own head with jerky unnatural movements and pulled the trigger. It’s not usually so easy to kill demons, but these were baby demons.

“Shit!” I said with feeling before I vanished and emerged back into the suite, where Colton was waiting for me.
I hate getting shot!

“Dammit, Belleeza! One minute longer and I was coming after you. You were supposed to . . .” Colton saw my face and the bloodstains. “Shit, what happened? I knew I shouldn’t have let you go without me! I can’t even heal you yet!”

“Why? What would you have done—had a powwow catching up with your old demon pals?” I huffed as Colton eased me into a dining-room chair.

“Let me have a look,” he said, ignoring my jab. He grabbed my now blood-red tank top and ripped it from top to bottom, revealing the bullet lodged between my breasts.

“Anyway, I handled it. Just give me something to bite on and rip the damn bullet out before I heal with it in there. The one in my shoulder is already healing.”

I winced as he used his fingers to see how deep the wound was. “The demons never would have seen me coming if it wasn’t for the one having some kind of stealth-proof nose. Speaking of which, contact Evangelina and tell her we need a clean-up crew.”

Colton’s eyes widened. “He could smell you?” He must have called for Evangelina because I heard him say something along the lines of “no, it’s not necessary” and “you know she’ll refuse the help anyway.” I grinned, knowing Evangelina was probably insisting they call a healer. She more than likely huffed and vanished, knowing he was right. She hated that I usually had to be on my deathbed before I would see a healer. Colton walked back toward me carrying a small pillow from the bed and stuffed a corner of it in my mouth.

I nodded, answering his previous question about the demon smelling me through my stealth.

“Nothing about this case is making any sense,” he replied. “It keeps getting stranger and more dangerous. The secretiveness is making it more dangerous than missions when we have to hunt the most-feared demons.”

He opened a small bag of tools that we used for a number of different things from breaking and entering, repairs, or—in our case—usually torture. He unzipped the black bag and pulled out a pair of needle-nose pliers. He walked to the sink with the dirty pliers and washed them with soap and water before drying them in a paper towel. Then he grabbed a few extra paper towels and set them down on the table beside me along with the pliers.

“This won’t be as pleasant as it would have been if I still had my healing abilities.” He gave me an apologetic smile.

I gave him the
no shit
look he deserved before I rolled my eyes and braced myself. I had to keep it together in front of him. I refused to show him any sign of weakness.

With his left hand, he used his thumb and pointer finger to spread open the wound, then he quickly inserted the pliers with his right hand. “Brace yourself. It’s wedged in there pretty deeply,” he warned.

Refusing to show any more weakness than I already had, I kept my eyes open and focused on Colton.

Just do it already,
I pleaded with my eyes. The pliers were cold and foreign, touching a part of me that was not meant to be touched. My blood leaked from my lacerated heart faster, and finally I felt the pliers hit home. I bit down on the pillow until I could feel my teeth grinding against each other as I swallowed down the scream in my throat. It hurt like a bitch when he spread the pliers open wide enough to grab the slug, but finally I felt him grasp it. He pulled it out swiftly with skilled hands. I felt myself release a deep breath I didn’t know I was holding as he removed the pillow.

“Thanks,” I mumbled, as he cleaned and taped the wound. Taping it was not necessary, but sometimes it helped to speed up the healing process. “I got to the house and at first it seemed clear, but when I made my way upstairs I realized someone had searched it before me. When I came to the last room, a dagger flew past my head. The demon smelled me and attacked. Then it got really weird.

“I finished off the first two demons, but I saved the other to bring him back for questioning. He was ready to spill what he knew about the kid, but suddenly he went rigid and started screaming for mercy. That’s when he pulled the gun out, shot me twice, and killed himself.”

“You mean he killed himself so he wouldn’t talk?” Colton sounded annoyed. “Dammit! I should have gone with you!” He slammed the drawer he was putting the supplies in and came to sit down across from me.

“Really, Colton? You walked away from me. Not the other way around. Don’t try to act all protective now. Where have you been all these years? I work alone now and that’s just the way it is, thanks to you. Anyway, back to the topic at hand. No, I mean as if someone took away his choices and made them for him. He was begging and screaming no. It was as if he was . . .”

“Under mind control, as in
influenza della mente
?” His left eyebrow rose as he made the suggestion. “That is a very ancient demonic ability and rarely used. So rare that to this day, I’ve still only witnessed it on two occasions. Both were missions with you, and each was a case of higher-level demons controlling politicians. I’ve never even heard of the gift being wasted on lower-level demons. This kid is wanted by everyone! We have to figure out what they want him for.”

Colton shook his head and our eyes met; it seemed as though we both carried a load of regret on our hearts. I just didn’t know if his regret was for losing me or losing everything else. The only thing I knew for sure was that he fooled me, and I would never let that happen again.

Somewhere in the back of my head, there was also a little doubt where Colton was concerned. Had there been signs that he was falling? If I had been paying better attention, could I have saved him? Did I fail him? I have never failed at anything, but my lover, my friend, my partner was going corrupt, and I hadn’t had a clue.

There were signs, a lot of them, but I thought they were signs of him falling out of love with me, not falling from Heaven
.

Somehow, I got the feeling that I failed him as much as he failed me. My eyes must have betrayed the doubt and guilt I was secretly holding. Colton slowly stood up and walked to the bar area where I was standing. I turned my back to him as he walked up behind me, but he put his hands around my waist. My heart was racing. I tried to walk away, but he gently turned me around so that we were face-to-face. I silently scolded myself for noticing the details of his lips. I remembered the feel of those lips against mine; so soft, like kissing butterfly wings and yet they could be oh-so-fierce when the moment called for it. The feel of his hands against my skin made my breath catch and I shivered with pleasure. No matter how my mind or heart felt, it seemed that my body still craved his touch.

As he turned me to face him, his fingertips delicately traced along the scars on my back. I hadn’t realized I’d closed my eyes until I felt his kiss on the tender skin of my neck. I shuddered at the feel of his warm breath against my throat. I had the sudden urge to rip off his shirt, to run my teeth along his chiseled chest.

Don’t give in, don’t give in . . .

He lifted me onto the bar and my legs tightened around his waist automatically.

Oh God, yes
. . .

My head swung back, overcome by desire as Colton’s hot moist lips worked their magic all over my neck and my blood-soaked chest. His mouth found mine and our tongues met in feverish longing as we tried to consume one another. I felt the hard length of him against me, and a small moan escaped from my mouth. That was it; I could not hold back any longer. I ripped his shirt off, ready to take him. I could feel things below tightening with the need to have him inside me. Colton’s mouth began to work even more fiercely against my body, as if he could sense my need.

I was ready for him to satisfy the craving my body had ached for ever since he was cast from Heaven. He was still the only one I had ever been intimate with, the only one I ever wanted, and after he fell, I’d known I would never again feel the way I felt with him.

It was that thought that brought me back to my senses.

He ripped my heart out
.

In a matter of moments, he had destroyed every happy memory I had ever known. He’d left me jaded, and I would never recover. I shoved him off me abruptly and attempted to look pissed off instead of hurt, but sure I was failing miserably. He did not fight my rejection but instead accepted it with grace. I saw the recognition in his tortured eyes that he knew how much he hurt me, broke me, and would never again get back what he lost.

It was quiet for a moment while we both regained our composure and our heavy breathing slowed. “I failed you, my Beauty,” he said, as his hands rested on the bar countertop on both sides of me.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt as vulnerable as I did in that moment. I made it a point not to express weakness to anyone, but as he said
my Beauty
, I could not stop the single silent tear from falling. When he was still an angel and we were alone, Colton always called me
my Beauty
.

“Please let go of any sorrow, guilt, or self-doubt you carry over me, because you could not have saved me. I didn’t realize I was even falling until it was too late, but ever since I was cast out I have done nothing but try to find my way back home. Back to you.”

Well, damn.