A Slither of Hope (22 page)

How did everything get so messed up?

Kade's feet crunched beneath the sand and small rocks. He'd taken a step closer. “You finally managed to land a hit on me.”

“Yeah. I did. According to your rules, you owe me a truth.”

An eternity of silence stretched out in front of us, much like the uncertainty of our futures.

“You're right. What do you want to know?”

“My mom. Everything you know.”

His sigh weighed heavy in the air, so much more defeated than I'd ever heard it before. “It was just over twenty years ago when we met. We were both in New York.” He placed his hands on the iron banister enclosing the cemetery behind him, as if bracing himself before this trip into the past. “I was looking for trouble. Kay was a full-time student in art college. We were on the street, going in different directions. She walked right into me. The poor thing had two bags hanging off her and her face glued to a map. She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Long blond hair…” He studied me and gripped the banister tighter. “And your eyes.”

He looked out over the hundreds of headstones. “I walked her to the subway, but couldn’t stand leaving her. I found myself… afraid of what might happen to her if she got lost again, in a worse neighborhood. She tripped over damn near everything and smiled at everyone. She didn’t belong in a place as tough as New York.

“And she talked to me, not as a stranger, but as a friend. The woman didn’t know small talk. She dove straight in to the hard-hitting questions, wanted to know everything about my life.” He glanced over at me. “You have a little of that, too.”

I’d been afraid to ask before, but that didn’t sound so bad. Maybe he’d given me the G-rated version.

“But that’s not really what you wanted to know. You’re more interested in how I Fell.”

My throat made an unintelligible sound as I swallowed.

“Thought so. The Cliffs Notes? We became friends. Yeah, I was an angel, but as a Warrior, our M.O.s were different than everyone else’s. We stayed on Earth; we were never allowed back the way the others are. As long as there wasn’t a battle, I was basically free to do whatever I wanted. Everything except fall in love.” Indescribable pain ripped through his words.

“One day Kay got a call that something went wrong back at home. Her dad was in the hospital. Heart attack I think. She had to leave, and flew back to Arizona. She didn’t leave a number for where she’d be. A week passed and I got bitter. The longer she was gone, the more I missed her, and the more I knew I wanted—needed—to see her.

“One night I broke into her place, just to see it, to smell her. I’d crossed the line and knew something was wrong. I'd been around humans a long time, but she was different. Finally, I tested out those three words, saying them aloud to see if they were true.

“I never saw what came and tore my wings out, replaced them with these.” He flapped his black wings. “I was already unconscious when they put the cursed heart in my chest. When I woke up I’d never been so hungry.”

He had to have meant hungry for souls. “That’s awful.” I knew the scar he was talking about, had seen it many times.

He ignored my comment. “She never came back to New York. Once I got a hold on the whole Fallen thing, I went to Arizona to see her. Found her taking care of her parents and dating her old high school sweetheart. Your father, from what I understand.”

“Oh.”

“You had it all built up in your mind that we had some wild love affair while she was married to your dad, didn’t you?”

My cheeks flushed slightly, admitting it for me, but in the darkening light I didn’t think he noticed. I cleared my throat and dove into another line of questioning before he changed his mind. “So did you?”

“Did I what?”

“Love her?”

The metal banister he was holding on to clanged as he let go. “Since then I've learned loving someone and being in love are two different things. I loved your mom. That was all.”

“Oh.” Was he trying to say something to me in his strange, roundabout way, or I was looking too much into it?

Kade sucked in a breath. “I…there’s only one person—”

The sound of a slow clap came from the back end of the cemetery. That familiar buzzing started in my wings again.

“Something's wrong,” I whispered to Kade.

Kade's eyes bored into the man sauntering toward us. He didn't have any wings, but the way Kade's body tensed meant he had to be someone significant. “Not something. Everything,” he corrected. Kade hadn't so much as blinked. Whoever the man approaching us was, he was bad news.

“What do we do? Should we run?”

“It's too late for that.”

“Then what do we do?”

Kade shook his head. “You run. I'll hold him off.”

“I wouldn't do that if I were you,” the stranger said from across the distance. He was so far away he shouldn't have heard us talking. But he did.

My wings picked up their uncontrollable rhythm, tightening invisible screws in my spine. I dropped to one knee. Kade stepped in front of me, putting himself between the man and me.

The stranger slithered between the headstones, walking on dozens of graves in the process. “I'm sorry, I don't remember your name. There are so many of you now.”

I couldn't move my head, but I did angle my eyes up. His head was tilted as he spoke to Kade.

“It doesn't matter,” Kade drew out slowly. “After this you'll remember it.”

The stranger leaned to the side, angling around Kade's wings, bringing him into my view. “Oh, my darling girl. I've been after you for quite some time.” Pointed-toe cowboy boots peeked out from beneath his thick, black wool dress pants. The dusty silver tips of the elaborately patterned boots glinted, reflecting the stars from Kade’s wings. His gray dress shirt rippled when he walked, not quite fitted enough to his slim build, but perfectly tucked and buttoned up to the collar.

My wings continued to beat against my back. The pain eased enough for a brief moment that I could make out his face. And holy crap. I'd seen him before. The man leaning against the doorway at Cam's hotel. He was the one I thought was Cam, though now, even in the dusky light, I could tell he looked nothing like Cam. Definitely losing it. Again.

“And you”—he turned his attention back to Kade—“that was a very touching speech, but I have a thing against liars.”

“Not that it's any of your business, but I didn't lie to her.”

“But you did. You said you never
saw
who gave you your new wings and inserted your heart. But you do
know
who did it. Why did you leave that out?”

Kade took a step toward him. “I know now it was you.”

Him.

There was no way this stranger could have had anything do with the Fallen without being one himself. “Who. Are. You?” I fought back a grunt from the struggle to talk through the awful vibration.

The stranger stood maybe two inches taller than Kade, but so much slimmer. On stature alone, Kade could probably take the guy down in two moves. Too bad stature wasn't the only factor.

“Well, my dear, we've met before, but not officially.” He quirked an eyebrow at me. “In fact, we've met more than once.”

More than once. The words pinged around in my brain the way my wings still rattled against my spine. More than once? Damn it. I couldn't think with these damn wings… It hit me then like lightning igniting a brush fire. My wings. The vibrating. This was all because of him.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Rayna

The first time? When I met Lee at Pier 39. The second time? My chest tightened, making the memory harder to come by. When that guy tried to grab me in the alcove after my shopping trip with Gina. I'd sent out that shockwave thing. The wing vibration happened again at the hospital. That man whispering in Detective Rhodes’s ear, right before he chased me down and brought me to the police station. Then the boy whispering in Laylah's ear, looking up at me. And finally, that night with Cam in his hotel room.

None of those five instances had anything in common. They were all at random places and times with all different people. The one constant was my wings. I had talked myself into believing my wings vibrated because they sensed trouble, but that couldn’t have been the case.

They never buzzed when I was with Kade. Not when he was training me or pretending to be a thief robbing our place. Not even outside Roxy's Diner two nights ago, when I couldn’t trust him as far as I could punch him. There were times with Kade that I felt truly scared, afraid for my life, but my wings had never reacted like this.

“By my count…” I took several breaths before I could continue, grabbing fistfuls of sand and gravel to ground me to the world, to the moment, so I didn't lose consciousness. “I'm guessing five.”

The stranger smiled and turned on one foot, kicking his other leg out from his body as if he were a child trying to balance on an invisible tightrope. “
Very
good. You put it together, then.”

Kade glanced at me, taking his eyes off the stranger for one instant before they shot to him again.

The stranger bent at the waist so I could see the glint in his eyes. “Have you figured out
how
I did it?” The tether cinched around the curiosity in his voice, lowering his tone to just above a whisper.

“Don't talk to him,” Kade warned me, holding his ground.

“Forgive my manners.” The almost-stranger straightened up, and the loathsome pinch between his brows vanished, eliminated so fast I might have imagined it. “My name is Lucien, dearest.” He thrust out his hand to me, as if I could move at all. His face fell when I didn't make an effort to shake it. “That was a little rude,” he said under his breath, pulling a black handkerchief from his shirt pocket and wiping his hand with it. “But nevertheless, I come with many gifts. I can be anyone or anything I desire.” Glee lifted his voice at the last words.

Shape changing. I imagined all the places he could go, all the things he could see, all the chaos he could bring with a “gift” like that. The thought splayed my stomach under the blade of a guillotine, slicing it into frail ribbons.

His blue eyes snapped to Kade, playful demeanor vanishing again. “Technically, since I’m the Prince of Hell, you should be bowing to me, but since you're obviously not on the winning team, I'll let that go. For now.” Lucien's words drew out slow, his threat obvious, hanging in the rapidly chilling air.

“But look where we are.” Lucien spread his arms wide, a grin snaring his lips over his teeth. “This isn't the place for bowing. This is Earth’s realm of the dead. Who are we here visiting?” He twirled toward Mom's headstone.

While he moved, Kade stepped between us again, his hand a fist at his side.

With an exaggerated squint Lucien read Mom's headstone. “Oooh.” The longer he drew it out, the deeper his voice became. “Mommy dearest.”

A tear leaked from my eyes. I didn't know if it was from the pain twisting in my back or the self-proclaimed Prince of Hell standing on Mom's grave.

He turned, this time slowly, purposely on the balls of his feet, his boots making no noise in the gravel. “I can tell you my own story about your dear, dear mother.”

“Don't listen to him, Ray,” Kade said between gritted teeth.

“What's he talking about?” I asked Kade.

“Whatever it is, it's a lie.”

“Lies, lies, lies!” Lucien hissed and backhanded Kade across the face.

Kade touched his hands to his cheek, but did nothing to retaliate. His wings shook as he caught his breath.

“Why would I lie to this little thing if I don't have to?” He peeked out from behind Kade again to gauge my reaction. The way his emotions bounced around reminded me of people I’d met at the SS Crazy, only Lucien struck me as a man who knew exactly what he was doing.

The vibration in my wings calmed some, decreasing enough that I could take in full breaths, but not enough to attempt to climb to my feet. “What do you mean, you don't have to?”

“Not only did I know your mother, but I know how she died. A little mystery I have to assume you've been
dying
to hear.”

It wasn't possible. Like Kade said, he was lying. He had to be. But… what if he wasn't? What if this was my only chance to hear what he had to say? Even a fake story was better than nothing at all. Wasn't it? “Go on.”

“Ray, no!” Kade’s warning earned him Lucien’s attention. Lucien’s mouth straightened in the tiny pinpricks of light coming off Kade’s wings. He turned, lifted his leg an inch off the ground, and kicked his boot into Kade’s ankle. Kade grunted, turning his head away, but still, he did nothing.

Lucien smoothed the back of his hair, leveling his gaze on me. “Not so long after your dear mommy and daddy married, she contacted me.”

That settled it. He was lying. “My mother would have nothing to do with you.” Trepidation quaked in my voice.

“Oh really? Even if her sister Nora became dreadfully ill?”

Aunt Nora, sick? Mom had mentioned something about her being in the hospital for a long time before I was born. Trying to think with the pain jolting through my body was nearly impossible, so it took longer than it should have for the memory to find its way to me. When Aunt Nora was a teenager, she'd been diagnosed with something serious. Cancer, leukemia, a brain tumor, something like that.

Lucien's face lit up. “You do know what I'm talking about?”

“I might,” I grumbled, wishing he would just get this over with. Whatever he was going to do to me, just let it be done.

“Your mother promised to do a favor for me…in return for the miracle of letting her sister live. Now, it does take a few deaths to grant a miracle—a few dozen, more like—but I was happy to do it, because she had something I wanted.”

“Wh—” My voice cut out, though the pain lessened with every breath. “What did you want from her?”

Kade turned his head, tipping his wing to look at me. “Don't listen to him.”

The vibrating had subsided to more of a nuisance. I pushed off the ground and circled around in front of Kade, forcing him to step back. I couldn’t endure watching him take another hit.