Personal Demons 2 - Original Sin (10 page)

He pulls back and wipes my tears away with trembling fingers, the question clear in his eyes. I answer with a kiss, sending him all the love I have. We sink into the sheets, into each other, and there's nothing else. Just him and me. Our souls dance and I let Luc take me to Heaven.

Frannie

My face burns and my belly tingles when I think about yesterday. I walk past Luc's door, and it's almost impossible to make myself keep going to Lili's. But the truth is, if I stop at Luc's, I'll never make it to Lili's.

“Hey, Frannie,” she says as she opens the door. She's melting in her usual gray sweats, beads of sweat across her upper lip and plastering her dark hair to her forehead.

“You ready to get that dresser?” I ask.

She shrugs. “Guess so.” She steps into the hall and locks up.

I throw a rueful glance at Luc's door on my way by.

Lili pulls her truck into my driveway, past the house, to the detached garage out back. I jump out of the truck and walk past the van in the driveway, choking on the plume of dust wafting out the open garage door. I hold my breath and venture in. Dad's in the back corner, sweeping it out.

“Hey, Dad,” I say to his back, pulling my T-shirt over my nose and mouth.

He props the broom in the corner and turns. “Frannie. Come to give your old man a hand?” Sweat carves rivulets through the brown film on his face, and when he smiles, his teeth are shockingly white against the mud of his skin.

“Not really,” I say, and shrug. “You know that old dresser?”

He turns and looks in the corner, where the sheet-draped dresser is buried under a stack of junk.

“Matt's old dresser? Yeah.”

“Can I give it to Lili?”

“Who?”

“Dad, this is Lili. She just moved into Luc's building.”

He turns to Lili with a smile as she steps up behind me. “Sure. If you have a need for it.” He holds out his hand.

I turn to Lili, who looks even more pale than usual. Her eyes widen for an instant, and she hesitates before taking his hand. “Hi.”

When their hands connect, Dad pauses midshake, then holds her hand for a second longer. “There's something familiar about you. Is your family from around here?”

She shakes her head, looking suddenly sad.

“Oh. Where are you from?”

Lili can't hold his gaze, and her eyes drop to her shuffling feet. “Lots of places. I move around a lot.”

Dad eyes her for a second longer. “I could swear we've met before. St. Catherine's, maybe?”

She looks at me.

“The Catholic church,” I say, and she shakes her head again.

Dad rubs his forehead, grinding brown mud into his eyebrows and leaving a white smudge on the bridge of his nose. “Hmm…I'll figure it out.” He smiles. “Well, I'll help you girls load up that dresser.”

When we get back, the dresser strapped into the back of Lili's truck, I see Luc's Shelby parked in the lot and I can't stop the smile from spreading across my face. My smile pulls into a grin when Matt appears at my window.

Matt

I watch them pull in, and fight to stay visible. When I walk up to Lili's truck and lean in the passenger window, Frannie's eyes widen and her face bursts into a smile.

“Matt! Hi.”

“Hey, Frannie. Is Luc around?” I realize I sound like an idiot. Of course she doesn't know if he's here. She just showed up.

And I'm sure I look like an idiot too, because I can't stop my eyes from flicking past Frannie to Lili every few seconds.

Frannie tries to keep a straight face, but she can't hide the laughter in her voice. “Um…well…his car's here, so, I guess.”

“Yeah. Okay.” Don't be a dork. Think. “So…are you guys bringing this up?” I ask, waving my arm toward my old dresser in the bed of Lili's truck.

“Yep. You feel like helping?” Frannie says.

“Sure.”

Lili walks around and drops the tailgate. I hop in, surprised at how stiff I feel, like my whole body is seizing up—every muscle taut.

“So, I'm Matt,” I say, shooting a glare at Frannie.

“Hi. Lili.” She doesn't look at me as she answers. “So, you're a friend of Luc's?”

“Yep.” I untie the ropes from around the dresser and give it a shove toward the tailgate.

And I can't think of anything else to say.

Frannie pulls the top half of the dresser out of the bed. I hop down and get the other end.

“I'm not totally lame,” Lili says, venturing a small smile. “You're giving it to me free. At least let me carry the damn thing.”

Frannie slides over. “Take the other corner.”

We make our way up the walk and through the door, Frannie and Lili shuffling up the walk backward, and work our way slowly up the stairs. But Frannie trips stepping up onto the landing at the top of the stairs and drops her side of the dresser. Lili tries to compensate, but it's too late. The dresser shifts, pushing me, and I fly backward down the flight of stairs. I feel the back of my head crack sharply off the corner of a stair on the way down, and my arm winds up twisted underneath me where I land at the bottom.

Lili drags the dresser onto the landing. “Unholy Hell!”

Frannie shoots a glance at Lili, then picks herself up and runs down the stairs. “Matt, are you okay?”

I lie here at the bottom of the stairs, not sure how to play this. I should be hurt, but, of course, I'm not. “Um…yeah, I think so.” Maybe something small. A sprained elbow? A bump on the head? I sit up and wince, still not sure what should hurt.

Lili comes down the stairs. “You hit your head really hard. You should lie still.”

My head, then. I groan a little for effect and rub the back of my head, pretending to flinch. “No. I think it's okay.”

“You're sure? What about your neck?”

I smile up at her. “Neck's fine.”

“Can you get up?” Frannie says, holding her hand out to me.

“Yeah.” I reach for her hand and use it to pull myself up. “Thanks.”

Lili puts her hand on my back to help me up. At her touch, an electric shock blasts through me, making me groan. With their help, I push slowly to my feet.

“No problem,” Frannie says, releasing my hand.

Lili turns and heads back up the stairs, and Frannie gives me the eye. I shrug at her.

“We'll get this,” Lili says to me when we reach the top of the stairs. I move gingerly down the hall, rubbing the back of my head as they carry the dresser to Lili's apartment.

Luc

Frannie, Lili, and Matt burst through my door, Frannie holding her key up for me to see. “Do you have any ice?”

“Yeah. What's up?”

She's fighting the amused smile that pulls at her lips. “Matt hit his head.”

Matt shrugs and cracks a dubious smile when I turn to look at him. I roll my eyes. This kid is just a tragic comedy of errors.

I head to the kitchen and crack an ice tray into a Baggie, then hand it to Matt, who slides into my kitchen chair and can't rip his eyes away from Lili long enough to thank me.

“You're welcome,” I mutter.

He reaches around and presses the bag to the back of his head. “Oh, yeah. Thanks.”

Lili walks up behind him. “I'll hold that for you.”

A distinctly dopey expression crosses Matt's face as he hands her the bag.

“So, what happened?” I scrutinize Matt.

He grins, trying to roll his eyes to the back of his head to see Lili. “Frannie tried to kill me. Death by dresser.”

“Sorry,” Frannie says, settling into the other chair.

I look back at Matt. Something is definitely off. “But you're okay?”

“Yeah, just a bump on the head.”

Lili's free hand drops to Matt's shoulder and rubs. “It's gonna be sore. If your vision gets blurry or you feel dizzy, you need to go to the hospital.”

Matt keeps grinning this big, stupid grin and looks a little spacey. Maybe he really does have a concussion.

“Nope, don't need a doctor.” He reaches up and lays his hand on top of Lili's on his shoulder. “What you're doing is working.”

It hits me like a lightning bolt. Unholy Hell. Matt's lusting on Lili. Why didn't Gabriel believe me when I told him this was a bad idea?

Lili blushes and backs away from Matt. “Are we still going shopping?” she asks Frannie.

“Absolutely!” Frannie says.

Lili moves toward the door. “I'll go get my money and stuff. Give me, like, fifteen minutes?”

“No problem. Take your time,” Frannie says as Lili slips through the door.

When she's gone, I yank Matt out of the chair by the front of his shirt. “What the Hell are you doing?”

Frannie jumps out of her chair so fast, it flips over backward. “Luc—”

“You need to cut the crap and focus,” I say, my face an inch from Matt's.

“You need to get the Hell out of my face,” he spits back.

“What are you thinking? You can't start a relationship with a mortal.”

He plants his hand in my chest and shoves. “I'm not starting a relationship with anyone. I was moving a dresser.”

“If you can't stay focused on your job, we're better off without you.”

“You really
are
as stupid as you look. If it's between you and me, who do you really think will keep Frannie safer?”

I step right back up into his face. “That should be a no-brainer, but with you distracted, I'm not so sure.”

Matt

“I'm not distracted.”

I can't believe this guy. All his big grandstanding is just jealousy. With me visible, he's got competition for Lili's attention, and he doesn't like it. What makes it worse is that Frannie can't see it for what it is. She thinks he's being all noble—protecting her. All he's protecting is his ego.

Frannie looks between us, concern creasing her brow. “Luc, I don't think Matt would really try to start something with Lili.” Her quizzical gaze lands on me and I look away.

“If he's smart. But at the moment, I'd say his IQ is up for debate,” Luc says.

Frannie comes up beside me. “Be serious.”

“I'm perfectly serious, Frannie. If he can't stay focused, he's useless to you.”

As I listen to them argue, I feel frustration and anger build inside me like an electrical storm. I'm at critical mass, about to explode.

I step up and shove him, daring him to strike back. “You're such a hypocrite, not to mention a jerk.” I shove him harder and get what I want when he grabs the collar of my T-shirt and shoves me hard into the wall. I feel my power crackle to life, ready to blast him into oblivion, but Frannie pulls Luc off me, unfortunately, and stands between us.

“Cut the shit, you guys!”

I glare at Luc over the top of Frannie's head. “I'm not starting anything with Lili, but if I was, what's it to you? Why is an angel hooking up with a mortal so different from a demon hooking up with a mortal?”

He sweeps Frannie aside like so much trash and leans into me, his nose nearly touching mine, his jaw clenched. “Because your purpose is to protect your sister, and you can't do that without wings.”

Sparks crackle over the surface of my skin. I'm going to kill him if I don't get the Hell out of here. “You know what? I'm done here.” Before anyone can respond, I phase out into the hall—where I sit with my back against the wall across from Lili's door, invisible, fighting the urge to phase into her apartment.

But the smell of brimstone pulls me from my thoughts. I bound to my feet, still invisible.

“So, I'm waiting, cherub. Question is: What am I waiting for?” Rhenorian stands next to me, a scowl darkening his already dark face.

“I'm working on it,” I snap.

“We're working on a timetable here. We don't have the rest of the millennium.”

I lean back against the wall. “Things aren't as simple as I'd hoped,” I say, thinking about what excuse I'd have to see Lili without Luc around. None. “If you have a better idea, go for it.”

He glares at me, making it clear that he's got nothing.

“How hard can this be? Just take him,” I say. Then I realize that's it. I push to my feet and look at him. “You should just kidnap him.”

I picture Lili and me together, searching for Luc, getting to know each other, bonding. I could comfort her…kiss her tears away.

“And then what?” Rhenorian's voice pulls me from the fantasy.

I bang my head hard into the wall, then glare at him. “You're a demon. Don't tell me you can't think of
some
way to reverse his tag.”

He glares back and phases in a puff of sulfur just as Lili's door opens and she steps out.