Fallen Angel of Mine (32 page)

"This girl is no good for you, Justin."
She took my hand and pressed it between hers. "Her father has bad
manners and is so mean."

I felt uncomfortable holding her hand,
but she was squeezing mine so hard, I didn't want to hurt her
feelings by prying it loose. "He is pretty mean."

"Men. I do not understand.
Why are you all loco?" She opened her mouth to say something else
and instead pointed out the front door of her house and down the
narrow driveway. "Go right at the end. Bella's house is, how you
say, um,
rosa
.
Pink."

I opened my mouth to thank her but she
stormed away before I could force the words from my dry throat. I
felt really lousy, but what else could I do? It wasn't like I'd
kept Elyssa a secret and dropped the bomb at the last minute. The
situation only reinforced my notion that women were freaking crazy.
And I would give anything to have my crazy woman back. Maybe that
made me crazy too. I shrugged.

Guess we're all
crazy.

Rather than streak at top speed down
the driveway, I took my time with a leisurely stroll. I ached to
see the girl I loved but I also dreaded it. What in the world would
I say to her? How could I convince her of our past? I also wondered
if she would beat the donkey snot out of me. Every step I took felt
heavier than the last while my mind raced through a thousand
different versions of what to say to her. I sucked in a deep breath
of the heavy humid air and sighed. A group of black monkeys leapt
from tree to tree in the dense growth to my left. Did monkeys have
romance issues? Or did they just fling poo at each other until
everything was okay?

Bella's house stood in sharp contrast
to most of the whitewashed adobe houses with its vivid pink
exterior and purple accents. Surrounding buildings hid the atrocity
and prevented it from making a public spectacle of itself. Bella
and Elyssa sat outside on lawn chairs, a round table between them,
and a large umbrella shielding them from the sun. Bella wore a
simple green dress while Elyssa sported a pink soccer jersey and
ill-fitting cargo shorts.

She looked absolutely
beautiful.

Elyssa stood the moment she saw me. Her
fists clenched restlessly at her side and her violet eyes sparkled
with what seemed like uncertainty. She glanced at Bella and the
other woman nodded. I braced myself as Elyssa strode
forward.

She stopped a couple feet away and
extended a hand. "Thank you."

I took her hand, wondering if she was
about to flip me over or just whip out a sword and cut it off.
Instead, she shook it.

"You're welcome," I said, stumbling
over my words and feeling sick to my stomach. Punching or arresting
me would have been better.

Her hand released mine and she observed
me for a moment. "So you were our target? I don't understand what's
so terrible about you."

"I'm spawn."
That
ought to rile her
up.

She shrugged. "Most spawn are pretty
low and devious, but I've never known one to risk his own life to
save someone else's." A genuine smile lit her face.

My heart almost broke. She
didn't have a clue about me. About
us.
I wanted to kiss her so bad it
hurt.

The front door to Bella's
house opened and a guy who looked like a male model strutted
outside. A fair-skinned girl with her black hair up in a ponytail
and large round sunglasses covering her eyes followed him. The
guy's face gave definition to the word "chiseled" with a square
chin and straight nose. His muscles filled out the blue T-shirt he
wore. A not-so-genuine grin flickered on his face when he saw me.
"Dude, I owe you." He gripped my hand and squeezed it tight.
Apparently, he was one of
those
guys, the ones who think every handshake is a test
of manliness.

I fought the urge to respond in kind.
The effort to plaster a smile on my face actually hurt more than
his grip. "What for?"

"Saving my girl."

I almost barfed on his face. "Your
girl?"

Elyssa punched him hard on the
shoulder. "Your girl? Beck, you talk that way again and I'll cut
your boys off."

He laughed and let go of my hand.
"Geez, woman, calm down. I didn't mean it that way."

"This is Beck Andrews," Elyssa said,
rolling her eyes as she waved a hand his way. "He's a Templar
recruit like me."

"I'm standing here too," said the other
dark-haired girl, her words gilded with an unmistakable Italian
accent. She stood a fraction shorter than Elyssa, but otherwise had
a very similar build. They could almost pass for
sisters.

Elyssa's lip curled a smidge. "And this
is Fausta."

The other girl extended a hand and took
mine. Her grip was firmer than I'd expected, but I made sure to
return the grip. "Nice to meet you," I said.

She looked me up and down, still
gripping my hand. "You're spawn?"

"Half."

Fausta glared at Beck and
withdrew her hand. "Why would Christian change the plan at the last
minute for this
boy
? He hardly looks like a threat."

My face burned. "Hey now, I can be
dangerous when I want to."

Beck burst into laughter. "Maybe that's
what he wants us to think."

My eyes found Bella who still sat
beneath the umbrella. "I assume the Templars know I'm here." I took
a step her way. "So why isn't this place crawling with them? Why
haven't they tried to take me by force?"

"We called the Templars and let them
know everyone was alright, dear," Bella said as she took a sip from
her teacup.

My eyes went wide. "Are you kidding me?
They tried to kill me last night!"

"We weren't trying to kill you," Elyssa
said.

"Could have fooled me." I paced toward
the trio of Templars. "You followed me onto a plane that was taking
off, for crying out loud."

"It looked like fun," Fausta said,
casting a dirty look at Elyssa. "Would have been more fun if you
hadn't knocked me off."

"I didn't knock you off,"
Elyssa said, teeth tight. "You
fell
off."

"I almost broke my teeth on a rock,
too."

"Almost?" Elyssa smirked. "Looks like
you're missing a chip in your front teeth."

I face-palmed and mustered a disturbed
look. "You're both crazy. Why would you risk death and
dismemberment to capture me?"

Elyssa stared at the hand on my
forehead as though she were in a daze. She shook her head and gave
me an uncertain look. "It was reflex. I saw you escaping and
followed."

"And tried to climb over me?
I guess you didn't care if
I
got sucked into the engine."

Her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed.
"I had no intention of killing you. But after those bullets hit me,
I—" her eyes looked into the distance. "I thought I was a goner. I
thought you were trying to kick me off your leg." Her eyes met
mine. "And then you saved me."

"Hey, even spawn know better than to
kill a Templar," Beck said, pulling out a pair of aviator
sunglasses and slipping them on. "He'd know the true meaning of
'wanted' if he did that."

I glanced over my shoulder at Bella.
"All they sent were two extra Templars? This doesn't make any sense
considering the number they had chasing me last night."

"You were hot-listed, according to
their commander, Christian, who, by the way, is a very fine looking
man." She moved her gaze to Elyssa's. "I don't suppose he's single,
is he, dear?"

Elyssa looked flustered and shrugged.
"I don't know him that well."

Beck took a seat at the table and
smiled. Despite his stupid-looking sunglasses, I could have sworn
he was looking at Elyssa's ass while she faced me. I couldn't blame
him. But I could hate him for it.

"What's hot-listed?" I asked, trying to
keep my cool. Fausta came to stand next to my other shoulder and I
suddenly felt hemmed in and wondered if they were about to make a
play for me.

Beck moved his gaze from Elyssa's rear.
"It means a high-ranking commander recommended you be put on the
Hot List—a list of our most-wanted fugitives."

I squeezed my eyes shut and rubbed a
hand down my face. "In that case, I know who did it."

Elyssa tilted her head a fraction.
"Who?"

"Daddy dearest, of course."

"Who?" Her eyebrow quirked up in the
adorable way I'd always loved.

"Thomas Borathen."

"My father?"

Beck laughed. "Whoa man, your dad
really hates spawn."

"I can't believe they would put this
boy on the hotlist," Fausta said.

I didn't find it amusing in the least,
especially being called a boy by a stupid girl. As I regarded the
confusion on Elyssa's face, I wondered if I should tell her why her
father had hot-listed me. Then again, it would be the worst thing I
could do right now. Telling her about our past would only confuse
or anger her.

"Are you still supposed to bring me
in?" I asked.

Beck shook his head. "The people in
this town vouched for you and, given the testimony of the hostages
we rescued from the compound last night, it seems that you're not
evil enough to be on the list."

"You spoke with the doctor and those
girls?"

"I didn't, but Christian did. He sent
me and Fausta to get Elyssa and to invite you in as our guest so
you could give your statement."

I offered him a humorless smile.
"Thanks, but I'd rather send a postcard."

Beck shrugged. "Suit yourself,
dude."

"What I really need is to go to La
Casona in Bogota so I can take the Obsidian Arch back
home."

Elyssa shook her head. "You don't want
to take any arches right now."

"Why not?"

"They aren't safe. Something happened
to them a couple days ago and now you're more likely to end up in
the Gloom than your destination."

"What? Two days ago?" What were the
odds those stupid things would stop working as of two days ago?
Perfect timing, as usual. I'd only arrived here a couple of days
ago. It abruptly occurred to me the timing wasn't a coincidence.
What if I'd screwed up the entire space-time continuum by taking
that joy ride through the arches from Thunder Rock?
Lovely.

I looked at Fausta, catching her in the
act of looking me up and down again and sighed before moving my
gaze to Bella. Surely, her magic shag carpet could get me back
home.

She apparently read my mind because she
shook her head and said, "We can't take you all the way back to the
States on the rug, I'm afraid. You'll have to go
commercial."

"I don't have a passport. I couldn't
buy a ticket if I wanted to."

"We could get you back on one of our
jets," Elyssa said. "I can guarantee it. But I've got to know—how
did you end up down here? Did you come via arch in the first
place?"

"If I'm on this Hot List, how is it you
Templars know almost nothing about me?"

"We didn't exactly get a full
briefing," Beck said with a snort. "In fact, we were about to hit a
rogue vamp in Bogota who split off from the Syndicate when
Christian got the word about you and diverted us."

"By definition, anyone on the Hot List
is someone who should be captured immediately," Fausta
added.

I blew out a loud sigh. "This whole
thing sounds sketchy to me."

Beck shrugged. "Exactly what I
thought." He gave me a once-over. "There's no way someone like you
should be listed."

"So you've repeatedly said," I
growled.

"My father isn't sketchy," Elyssa said,
her voice tight with anger. "I'm sure he had a good reason to list
you." Her eyes narrowed as if something had just occurred to her,
and I prayed it wasn't something that meant she'd be whipping out a
knife or punching me.

The way she spoke to me without any
clue as to who I was pierced me in the guts. This was agony. The
love of my life stood only feet away but she was out of my reach
unless I figured out how to reverse the memory loss. And the only
people who could do that were the Templars.

"Are you feeling okay?" Elyssa asked,
the anger fading from her gaze. "You look a little
green."

I sucked in a deep breath and nodded.
"Yeah, I'm fine."

Beck shrugged. "Like Elyssa said,
Christian can get you home. You go in, give a statement, and he'll
help you out. Get you home to mommy and daddy."

"Or toss me in a cell and call Thomas
Borathen to come get me?"

"How do you know my father, anyway?"
Elyssa said, eyes filling with suspicion.

"That's a story I'd rather not get into
right now."

"I have time."

I glanced at the others and shook my
head. "No. You really don't want to know."