Good Side of Sin (14 page)

“I trust it is no secret to you the grave state Heaven and all of its occupants are in?” Geoffrey chided.

I glanced briefly to Isaiah, but he was an emotionless statue. I couldn’t even sense his fear, but I knew it was there, hiding behind those steel gray eyes, under the gentle curve of his nose and the sharp, hard line of his jaw. He gave nothing away.

After a heavy huff, I turned back to the archangel and nodded. “I am aware of the danger threatening Heaven, Archangel Geoffrey. I am also aware that Archangel Isaiah is at risk of losing his position on the Council, as well as his soul, if he does not find a way to reverse the damage done by Lucifer by end of quarter.”

Geoffrey smirked then, but it wasn’t comforting to me. I would have rather seen him frown. “What makes you think Lucifer has anything to do with the damage done here? If I remember correctly, it was the angel Malcolm that opened a portal between Heaven and Hell. If he had not dropped his soul and entered into Limbo, he would have received the same fate. Alas, we cannot punish anyone in Melina’s territory. She takes care of her own.”

Okay, that confirmed what Malcolm’s fate would’ve been if he had not already left, but I could hopefully deal with and fix that later. I had to have hope or I would need that waste basket again. I did not want to throw up in front of ten archangels. My only concern right then was the name he had mentioned:
Melina
.
Who is Melina?

“Melina?” I said, and looked to Isaiah, and then back to the others, the three-syllable question still hanging in the air for anyone to answer.
Hel-lo?
I was getting impatient, but worst of all, I felt like I hadn’t been told everything I needed to know. What a surprise.

Gabriella sighed dramatically as she rolled her eyes. “Oh, Isaiah, how do you expect the child to help you when she knows nothing—”

“And she should continue to know nothing!” Isaiah bellowed, and my head whipped around in stunned disbelief.

“What are you—”

“This wasn’t her mistake, nor is it her fight,” he continued, but I had obviously failed to remember how to breathe. What was he doing?

“You choose not to accept her help, Isaiah?” Aberney asked. “You know it’s the only way.”

“Then I will find another way,” Isaiah growled through clenched teeth.

“Isaiah, what are you saying? I can help. Please let me—”

He turned and grabbed my shoulders, cutting off my words and scrambling my thoughts. “I’ve changed my mind. I won’t let you do it! I’ll figure out another way. There has to be another—”

“What if there isn’t another way? What then? You will lose your soul, Malcolm will still be gone, Thoros will keep on killing the innocent and Heaven will continue to crumble until all is at Lucifer’s feet! Just tell me what I have to do and I’ll do it,” I pleaded with him, but he only shook his head.

After another moment, I ignored the stubborn look in his eyes and turned to the other archangels. It looked as though I would need eight of the nine now, since Isaiah was obviously against me helping. What had changed his mind? What would be in peril if I got what I demanded today? I knew that whatever it was, I was willing and able to do it, with or without him or his blessing.

“Tell me,” I begged.

“Josselyn, no—”

“Sit—down, Isaiah,” Geoffrey commanded, and as if pulled and bound by chains, Isaiah fell into the chair behind him and became immobile; only his eyes moved, and he pleaded with them, asking me to walk away and leave this be.

“I’m sorry, Isaiah. I thought you trusted me to do my job.
This
is what I was trained to do.” I turned back to the head guardians. “I can fix this. I know I can. Just give me a chance. That’s all I ask. And for Heaven’s sake, give me the information I need. What is Isaiah keeping from me?”

I stood there, feeling uncomfortable under their steady glares, until Gabriella finally spoke up.

“What is the condition?”

“Condition?” I asked, and got another eye roll from her.

She laughed and looked around to the others. A few of them joined in with the inside joke that I wasn’t getting. “It appears we have a true angel on our hands. She wants to risk her own soul for nothing in return.”

What? No!
“No!” I shouted, then stepped back and forced myself to think. What was the condition? What did I want? Had she just said I would be risking my soul? Well, I had threatened to drop it a couple times before when Isaiah was testing me, and if nobody else saved Heaven, then my soul was as good as gone anyway… Right—conditions… “If I can reverse the damage done to Heaven and everyone in it and fix the situation on Earth with the forgiven demon, Thoros, will that be enough to save the soul and position of Isaiah and… allow Malcolm to return to Heaven and reclaim his soul?”

“Absolutely not,” Gabriella shot back. “Isaiah has already been—”

I took a step forward and spoke before she was finished. If my soul was at risk, there was going to be a damn good reason for it. “Mistakes are made every day, Head Guardian Gabriella. The mission the Council gave to Rhyan was impossible without our help. I was just as much at fault for the portal being connected to Hell as Isaiah or Malcolm. Being archangels, you can’t honestly tell me that you all didn’t know what was going on.”

“That is enough, girl!” Geoffrey scolded, but I continued on. If he really wanted to silence me, I would have been in the chair beside Isaiah.

I took a step around the podium and pressed on. “You wanted to see Lucifer fail just as much as we did, but you didn’t have the guts to stand up for what was right and help one of yours make it through. No, you waited and let us risk everything to help Rhyan, and then you want to punish Isaiah and Malcolm for succeeding. It’s not right and you damn well know it!” I blinked and swallowed. I hadn’t been reprimanded or struck down for my accusations. I was shocked, but grateful that they seemed to be listening to what I had to say. I had never even heard of anyone speaking to the Council in this manner, but my intuition told me it was the only way to get my point across. If my soul was the cost of such efforts, so be it. “Please, just allow me to fix this and grant me what I ask of you if I succeed. Isaiah and Malcolm do not deserve the fate you have sentenced them with.”

More with the staring, and then when I thought I would scream from the tension and silence, Alexandra stood up from her throne on the far right. “I vote in favor of the angel’s request,” she said, and a smile crept slowly across her pretty face.

Something happened in my body then, and I looked down as my hand came up to rest on the erratic pounding in the center of my chest. My heart—it was beating.

I looked up to the archangels with tears blurring my vision, but I could see as each stood in unison, and then voted in favor of my request.

Ethan followed Cross down the short hall of her two-bedroom apartment. The condo itself wasn’t very big, but it was a lot bigger than what he had, and it was clean. From what he had seen, as he had waited for her to get settled after arriving home for the night, she collected dragonflies.

Vibrant colors in teals and blues and greens decorated the walls, furniture and every other available surface. The décor was simple and fresh-looking, reminding him of spring—maybe in a place other than Nevada. Everything was dry and brown here, but, standing in her apartment, he felt like he was in a whole different world, one he enjoyed being in.

She turned to smile at him, and then opened the door to one of the rooms. “It’s not much, but it’s all I’ve got, unless you want to sleep on the couch. With everything that’s going on, I don’t feel comfortable letting you out of my sight, so I guess this is the safest safe house you could possibly be in.”

Ethan glanced in the room and smiled. On one side of the room was a nightstand and full size bed, covered with what looked like a handmade quilt, and on the other side of the room, weights, a treadmill and various other workout equipment were scattered about. He closed his eyes and allowed himself a moment to imagine her doing reps and sweating as she strived to keep that fit body of hers in tip-top shape. He smiled as he opened his eyes and looked at her. “It’s perfect. Thanks—”

The sound of a phone ringing interrupted the moment and Cross took her cell from her pocket and raised it to her ear as she brushed past Ethan to walk back down the hall. “This is Cross. Hey, Galloway, hold on a sec.” She looked back over her shoulder at Ethan. “I’m going to heat up some leftover soup Granny sent home with me yesterday. There is plenty if you want to join me.” She gave a light laugh and grinned. “Granny doesn’t know how to cook for just one.”

Ethan smiled, remembering the little old lady and the way she had taken him in and fed him as if he were one of her own grandchildren. Plus, turning down an invite to eat with a pretty girl would just be rude. He nodded. “Thank you. I’d like that—”

“Cross!” Ethan heard from the cell phone in her hand. He lost his smile and his jaw flexed in irritation as she quickly brought the device back up to her ear.

“What?” she barked at the caller, and Ethan disappeared into the room she had offered him before she noticed the heat quickly flushing his face.

Ethan closed the door, walked to the bed and tossed the single duffle bag he had been allowed to pack from his apartment when they had picked up his dad. There was no sense in being embarrassed of how he lived or the half-intoxicated condition his dad had been in when they arrived—he did the best he could with what he had—but he had been. He had glanced at Cross several times the whole ten minutes that they had been there, trying to read her thoughts. For some reason, it mattered a lot to him what she thought of him.

He sat on the pillow-top mattress and let his face fall in his hands as a huge breath pressed past his lips. “Stupid, stupid wishful thinking, Ethan. She’s out of your league, dumbass,” he muttered to himself, and then sat up and gathered clothes from his bag, so he could shower before they ate. He might be poor but, around her, he didn’t want to look it.

He could hear one-sided whispered arguing when he crossed the hall to the bathroom, so he paused and craned his ear in the direction of her voice.

“I don’t know how long he will be here, but that isn’t any of your business anymore, now, is it?” There was a brief moment of silence, and then a much louder, “Get serious, James! He’s not going to murder me in my sleep. You just don’t want him here because you think—No, I honestly couldn’t care less who you sleep with. This is business, not a brothel.” There was another moment of silence, and Ethan stepped inside the dark bathroom in case she sensed he was eavesdropping on her conversation. He knew it was rude but, damn it, he just couldn’t stop himself. He hung on her every word and wanted to punch that James guy in the face for talking to her like she was beneath him. A woman like that should be put on a pedestal, pampered and touched with only the gentlest of hands, he thought, and then squeezed his eyes tightly shut and swore under his breath. His eyes flew open and he leaned forward when she started talking again. “I’m not having this conversation with you right now. I can’t—” The microwave dinged. “I gotta go. We are about to eat—No. I’ll see you tomorrow. Call me, but only if you find new evidence on this case.” She huffed. “I know you can’t change what you did and I know that you are sorry, but I’m just not sure I can forgive you right now…”

Ethan shut the door quietly and ran his palm over the wall until he felt the light switch under his fingers. He flicked it on and then turned around and went straight for the shower. He didn’t have time to stop and admire how neat and tidy her bathroom was. He had to hurry. He didn’t want to keep her waiting.

“Oh my God!” Cross dropped her spoon to her bowl and then laughed out loud. “You didn’t?”

Ethan chuckled and flashed her that heart-melting smile again. Man, did the guy know what he was doing to her or was he just a natural at it? She placed a hand over her chest and tried to catch her breath, a breath that was needed for more than being out of breath from laughing so hard.

She picked up her wine glass and drained the last bit, rolling the bitter sweetness over her tongue and wondering if Ethan’s kiss would taste the same since he was drinking the wine from the same bottle. Jesus, she thought, I need to get a hold of myself.

“I did.” He nodded without shame as his eyes danced with silent laughter. “I did. Although, in my defense, I didn’t know at the time that she was the mayor’s daughter. The poor girl had to almost have her head shaved to cover up the damage. I was only ten, but I couldn’t even spit on the sidewalk without being handcuffed after that. Her dad took it pretty personal, but I wasn’t trying to be mean; I was only trying to get her to notice me.” He chuckled. “My idea of flirting was a little morbid back then.”

Cross clapped a hand over her mouth, but it did no good to suppress her laugh. After a moment she removed her hand, but her smile remained. She leaned closer to him. “Would you believe I did almost the same thing to a girl in my class when I was nine? I wasn’t crushing on her, though. She stole my baby doll and cut all its hair off, so I cut off her ponytail,” she said, and then started giggling so hard she had to put her hand back over her mouth to keep from snorting and looking like an idiot. Though she was sure he already thought she was.

He shook his head and just stared at her with glistening eyes.
What is he thinking?
She stopped laughing and looked down at her bowl in embarrassment.

“You have a great laugh,” he said, as if he’d heard her unspoken question.

That took her by surprise. Cross looked up at him with mixed emotions playing across her face. “Excuse me?” she said, her voice squeaking near the end.

He smiled as he propped his elbow on the table, and then let his head rest on his fist as he gazed at her. “Yeah—you have a beautiful smile, too.” Ethan’s eyes widened and he quickly sat upright in his seat. “I’m so sorry. That was out of line, with you—you know—having a boyfriend and all.”

“Uh…” Her eyebrows drew together and, looking back down at her bowl again to keep him from seeing right through her, she picked up her spoon and pushed the veggies and beef around in a slow circle.
How much should I tell him?
she wondered. With the wine she had consumed over the meal her tongue had already become too loose—