Fallen Angel of Mine (33 page)

She took a step toward me, fists
clenched and eyes glowing. "I think I have the right to
know."

Very Spanish-y sounding music blared
from somewhere. Bella pulled out her smartphone, arcphone, or
whatever she called the thing, and spoke for a moment before
hanging up. "The council would like to meet with all of you for a
recap of yesterday's events."

"Council?" Beck gave her an uncertain
look.

"Yes, our town council. We are very
nosy people and love gossip wherever we can get it. Not only that,
but the removal of two very dangerous and corrupt drug-dealing
vampires is worth a celebration."

"What kind of celebration?" I
asked.

"Oh, a dance, of course! We celebrate
anything around here. If Juan mows his lawn, we celebrate. If Maria
finds an extra egg from her chickens, we celebrate. Otherwise, this
place would be too dull to bear."

"I don't know how to dance."

Bella winked at me. "You will learn,
young man."

"Ugh. There you go again with the
creepy grandmother words again."

She smirked. "I may look close to your
age, but I have decades of experience that would probably
disintegrate your young little mind."

Beck grinned. "I don't care how old you
are, I think you're hot."

Pink colored Bella's cheeks. Elyssa
flashed Beck a look of what might have been jealousy or just simple
disgust, but hard as I tried to interpret her look, I couldn't
tell. Fausta didn't seem surprised a bit. Her eyes met mine and
held my gaze for a moment, but if she were trying to communicate
anything, I couldn't sense it.

"I will definitely teach you how to
dance, young—" Bella paused and took a breath. "I mean,
dude."

I couldn't help myself and felt a
genuine grin creep onto my face. Bella's cheerful attitude seemed
infectious and even drew a snort of laughter from Elyssa. It
reminded me of the time I'd shown her a trophy with lopsided boobs
and we'd laughed so hard, Ms. Foreman, the Evil Queen of Detention,
had made us stay even longer. The memory punctured my happy
balloon, leaving me feeling even more depressed than
before.

Bella stood and motioned for everyone
to move out. "Before we go to council, Lina has invited us over for
lunch. Do you require any more blood, Elyssa?"

"I'm fine. Thanks so much."

"It's very nice to meet other dhampyrs.
Our kind are so rare, in the grand scheme of things."

We walked toward Lina's house while
Bella chit-chatted about the weather and other things holding no
interest for me. Fausta walked to my left, well away from Elyssa,
her eyes alert, as if danger might be upon us at any moment. I had
to force myself not to look at Elyssa, though it didn't work. My
eyes sought out her fair skin, those amazing eyes of hers, and the
smile that set my heart afire. I smelled the underlying hint of oil
and leather on her, not to mention the indescribable scent all her
own. The lustful demonic part of me strained against my
indecision.

Take her. She's
yours!

Elyssa's eyes wandered my way a few
times, and for one electric second, our eyes met before I pretended
to look at a plant. Beck, for his part, took every chance he had to
check out every female rear end within range of his vision. I
wanted to punch him every time his gaze settled on Elyssa. And when
he pursed his lips appreciatively, I wanted to murder
him.

As we reached Lina's house,
the aroma of
arepas
drifted out and curled around my nose. My stomach gurgled and
whined with anticipation. Lina was setting the table when we
stepped inside, Alejandro pouring drinks into cups. Eduardo smiled
from his place at the table and said something in Spanish to
Bella.

"Eduardo, you old dog," she replied,
before rattling off a reply in his language.

Beck said something in Spanish. Bella
blushed and Eduardo laughed until he coughed.

I caught myself staring at Elyssa and
looked away, only to meet Fausta's smirking gaze. I turned away
from her and caught a glare from Lina. She shook her head slowly
and gripped a fork in one hand like she wanted to skewer me with
it.

"I hope you are hungry," Lina said, her
large dark eyes regarding Elyssa.

"Famished," Beck said, and
winked.

Good lord, was there any woman this guy
wouldn't flirt with? Then again, maybe it would be a good thing for
him to set his sights on Lina and get me out of her
crosshairs.

"This looks delicious," Elyssa said.
"Can I help you with anything?"

Lina's eyes traveled up and down
Elyssa's body before casting a venomous look at me. Her expression
abruptly changed to a sweet smile faker than a blonde in
California. She aimed that smile at Elyssa. "Well, Justin, your
girlfriend is very pretty."

The room went absolutely silent. Except
for Eduardo who was already digging into a baked plantain Alejandro
had just set before him. I froze. Bella's eyes widened. Beck stared
at Lina's chest. Elyssa blanched. Fausta's eyes lit up like she'd
just won a rare vermillion unicorn at a raffle.

"What did you say?" Elyssa said in a
strained voice.

"Oh,
Justin
did not tell you?" Lina
gestured at me to be absolutely sure there was no mistaking to whom
she was referring. "He said you were his girlfriend but your father
erased your mind so you would forget him."

Fire blazed in Elyssa's eyes. I could
practically feel the heat as they settled on me. I knew beyond a
shadow of a doubt one thing was for sure.

Things were about to get
painful.

Elyssa clenched her fists and stormed
toward me. "Now I know why my father hotlisted you."

I dodged around the table, putting it
between us. "Whatever you think you know, it's not
right!"

"Who, what?" Beck asked, coming out of
the boob trance he'd apparently been in since the inception of this
crisis.

Elyssa lunged across the table. I
jumped back and hit the cabinets. She raced around the long table.
I scrambled past Eduardo as he munched on his plantain, and hid
behind Bella.

"Look, I know it sounds really bad, but
I have a reasonable explanation."

"You're the spawn my father warned me
about," she said, stalking toward me, squeezing between the chairs
and the cabinet.

Bella held up her hands. "Please,
everyone, calm down."

Elyssa's lip curled into a
snarl. "Not with that
thing
in here."

I moved Bella out of the way and waved
Elyssa on. "Fine, bring it on. I'm sick and tired of everyone
dehumanizing me just because I'm part spawn. What makes you any
better, dhampyr?"

"I'm half human."

"Big deal. So am I."

She paused for a moment. "There's no
such thing."

"Is too."

"Is not."

"Is too!"

"No there is not!"

Bella cleared her throat. "Justin is
telling the truth, dear."

Elyssa shook her head. "Even if he is,
it doesn't change what he did to me. He used his incubus abilities
to pull me under his influence and indoctrinate me so I'd betray
the Templars."

I laughed.

"What's so funny?"

"I'd like to see someone try to do that
to you. You define the term 'strong willed'." I blew out a breath
and took a seat at the table. "I'm not leaving. I'm hungry and I
plan to eat something. If you want to really know what happened,
I'll tell you about it later. Otherwise just shut the hell up about
it."

I grabbed a fork and dug
into the chicken-covered
arepa
, eating with a gusto I really
didn't feel. Part of me wanted to bend Elyssa over my knee and
spank her. The other part of me didn't want to die, so I kept
eating while the others looked around uneasily. After a moment,
Bella took a seat beside me and, after touching my hand and
offering a reassuring smile, took a bite of her own
food.

Alejandro followed suit while Beck and
Fausta exchanged amused grins and whispered. Elyssa strode to the
far end of the table and dropped into a seat. Beck sauntered her
way, parking his macho butt in a chair next to her. He flashed a
smirk my way, probably figuring it would be easy sailing right into
my girlfriend's pants. Except, she wasn't truly my girlfriend—not
until or if she remembered me. One seat remained conspicuously
unoccupied. Lina had apparently left the room. Probably for the
best. I was so angry with her right then I would have said
something nasty. Something I couldn't take back later. I wanted to
blame her, but couldn't. It might not even be me, Justin, she was
attracted to, but my incubus traits or the thrill of someone new. I
didn't know for sure and probably never would.

Crazy women.

Eduardo gave me a gap-toothed grin as
he ate another plantain. He said something in Spanish and an
uncomfortable look came over Alejandro's face. Beck
laughed.

"What did he say?" I asked.

Alejandro cleared his throat. "He says
you are quite the Casanova."

My face grew hot and I stared at my
food while Bella snorted with the effort of not
laughing.

"It's not funny," I hissed at her.
"Really, I'm feeling very emotional right now."

She nodded and tried to give me a
serious look as her face contorted with the effort to hold in her
mirth. A tear trickled down one eye and she looked away, her sides
shaking. I groaned and gave myself a well-deserved
face-palm.

Risking a sideways glance down the
table, I noticed Elyssa's gaze seemed to have settled on me. Her
lips parted a fraction as if her jaw had gone slack, and her eyes
grew unfocused. I removed my palm from my forehead and looked
behind me in case Lina was sneaking up on me with a butter knife.
No one was there. When I looked back, Elyssa's attention was back
on her plate.

"Can you tell us the story now, man?"
Beck said as he chewed a mouthful. "I'm dying to hear
this."

Elyssa shoved him so hard his chair
fell over sideways with a thud.

"Ouch, woman!" He sprang back to his
feet and put his chair upright. "Gotta watch this one. Nasty
temper."

"Tell me about it," I said.

Elyssa jolted to her feet. "What did
you say?"

I ignored her. How could someone go
from being the love of my life one day to a complete stranger? My
experience with women before Elyssa had been overwhelmingly bad.
Awful, in fact. I really didn't have a basis for comparison. It
felt worse than just about anything else, like glass churning in my
stomach and my heart sputtering and clenching like it might stop at
any moment. It felt like the time Elyssa had figured out I was an
incubus and told me she never wanted to see me again.

My heart welled with agony as I glanced
up and saw Beck talking to her in hushed tones while she smiled.
Her eyes caught mine and, for a fleeting moment, I saw something
besides distrust in them. Something so tiny it was possible I'd
just imagined it. But it was enough to blow a gentle breeze on the
spark of hope I still held onto.

I would
not
give up.

After one of the tensest meals I'd ever
endured in my life, Bella led us to the town hall to meet with the
council.

"I'll come in after the spawn tells me
the story," Elyssa said, crossing her arms and standing outside the
building.

"Let it wait," I said.

"I think the council should hear both
sides," Bella said, eyes shining with curiosity. "It will be very
interesting gossip."

I groaned. "Exactly what I
need."

"Do you have any sensitives?" Elyssa
asked. "I'd like him to tell the story to someone who can feel his
lies."

"As it happens, we do!" Bella rubbed
her hands together. "So, it's agreed. We'll ask Maria to judge the
truth of the matter."

"Agreed?" I said. Before I could
object, Bella pushed me inside and announced my predicament to the
council and her solution. They cheered. These people were way too
delighted with my misery. I felt as though I were in my own reality
show and everyone was enjoying the train wreck of my life. Maria, a
plump middle-aged woman, wasted no time in directing me to drag two
chairs into the middle of the circle.

"Wait a minute!" I shouted, finally
finding control of my mouth. "What's the meaning of all this? Why
am I being subjected to a lie detector test?"

"This is to help you," Bella assured me
with a smile. "If a sensitive confirms your story, then Elyssa will
have no choice but to believe you."

"Doesn't mean she won't still be a
bitch to you, though," Fausta said with a grin.

"How accurate is this—this sensitive
reading stuff?" I asked Maria, my stomach doing flip-flops. The
last thing I needed was an inaccurate reading. For all I knew, she
was worse than a regular old lie detector.