A Slither of Hope (7 page)

Strained moments passed. I wondered if I should have felt something—regret, guilt, something.

“Good. Let him handle you from now on.” He stalked out the door, slamming it behind him.

Numbness hummed through every cell in my body.

Chapter Nine

Kade

Camael was back. Well, good for Ray. She'd been depressed when he left the first time. There were only so many outcomes this time. One: he'd leave again and I'd be left picking up the pieces. Two: he'd Fall for her which would either leave him stuck with us or her gone. Three: she was going to die this time.

I wish I could say I didn't care.

Hate boiled my blood down deep into my bones. He was back for a reason, and I guess it was up to me to figure it out. That meant getting in contact with people I'd rather stay a continent away from.

I was so epically screwed.

Flipping out my cell phone, I thumbed through the contacts, stopping at the S's. Without giving myself another second to puss out, I pressed the call button and waited.

“What?” Sorath answered, his voice bringing back decades of forgotten memories.

“Sorath.”

“Kasade! You old soul-lecher. How've you been, brother?”

“It's good to hear your voice.”

He barked out a steady stream of laughter. “Don't bullshit a bullshitter, Kasade. To what do I owe this magnanimous call?”

“I need some info. Heard some tales of angels in the States. Was wondering what you and your trackers could tell me about that.”

“Information comes at a price.”

One I was well aware of.

“I'm not offering up my life just yet, or my location, but anything you could tell me would be helpful.”

“I know you're in the States now. That's more information than I had yesterday. Head to your nearest major city. Fallen have meetings all the time. Recruitment and intelligence-gathering. I can't promise you confirmed information from a group I'm not a part of, but a meeting is a good place to start. Try church basements. Think AA for Fallen.”

Staying away from those meetings had always been priority one on my agenda. Just because of Camael’s arrival I was supposed to give up my location, the one I'd been bouncing around to keep secret for more than fifteen years? Doubtful. If I could listen in on a meeting without actually being there, that would be something.

“Thanks for the heads up, Sorath.”

“We're brothers, Kasade. My door is always open. And now that I have your number, I'll be keeping in touch.”

A number I'd be changing the first chance I got. Finding another burner cell with a New York area code wasn't going to be easy from three thousand miles away, but it sure wasn't impossible.

I spent the rest of the night on foot, searching every church basement for a light on or a door open. Finally, halfway across town in a residential neighborhood buried deep in the Sunset District, I spotted a pair of black wings casting a shadow on to the sidewalk. With my back against the wall beside the window, I tried to listen in. Too bad the three guys inside weren't anything like Sorath—unbelievably loud with a mouth that wouldn't quit.

There were other Fallen in San Francisco, and I'd found their meeting place. If they met every night then I was less than twenty-four hours from finding out all the goods a defector of Lucifer's army shouldn't know.

“Let me guess.” A fellow Fallen One coasted down from the roof, landing in front of me. “You're shy.”

I pressed down on my heels to keep from lunging at him. There were three more inside. If I attacked this one I'd be dead before sunrise. “Cautious,” I corrected.

“Understandable.” He took a step back. Breathing room. Smart boy. “Let me make a guesstimation. You have too much time on your hands. You've been topside for a long time, alone. And you miss the togetherness of being part of a brotherhood.”

Brotherhood. What a joke.

Even as I thought this, the core of me tugged a fishing wire around my cursed heart.

That thread of power, inserted the night my heart was, was the real reason Fallen never lasted long on their own. We’re hardwired from the day we Fall to step in line. It's been a near miracle that I've been able to fight it for so long.

“Curious what they’re talking about?” The Fallen ambled closer, tilting his head toward the basement window and the group of Fallen Anonymous.

“Maybe.”

“The gist: a wingless Azriel—I’m sure you know of Azriel—has been spinning stories in the nine circles, about a girl with the ability to see our kind
and
the angels. Nuts, right?”

Azriel. The last name I wanted to hear. If he was spilling that tale to anyone willing to listen, that was probably the reason they went after Ray's father: to draw her out in the open.

“Why tell me?”

“Like it or not, you’re one of us. War is coming, and it seems this girl is at the epicenter.”

War? Did he just say war?

He looked me over. “That’s news to you. There’s more where that came from. Why not come inside?”

His invitation strengthened the pull drawing me to him, and to the Fallen Anonymous meeting.

“Your name, brother?”

My pulse skipped like a human kid playing hopscotch. I avoided his eyes, though doing that brought my attention back to the meeting. I answered with a shake of my head.

“There’s never been a better time to get in on the ground floor. You won't be able to skirt sides for much longer. Join us. Lucifer’s gathering his troops. We need this girl. Once we have her, it’ll only be a matter of time before we exterminate the angels and rule the Earth once again.”

Buckets of shit. What was I going to tell Ray?

I pushed off the wall and started walking. As far away from there as I could get.

He made no move to come after me. Probably because he knew the chaos he’d started within me. “Just know we're here,” he called after me. “Every night!”

The farther away I got, the tighter the knot in my chest pulled. Tighter, tighter, crushing the only organ my body needed to survive. It begged me to go back, to join my brothers, to end my painful isolation.

The last time I was surrounded by Fallen hadn’t ended well for the nearby humans.

Never. Stop. Fighting.

Sorry, Ray. No way I was ever visiting another Fallen meeting. Not even if her life depended on it.

Chapter Ten

Rayna

Another sleepless night. Too much swam around in my head. My phone rang. I checked the number. Barb, my boss at Smelly Brews. I buried my face in the pillow and let the call go to voicemail. She left a message.

I was fired, of course, after leaving in a hurry without so much as a call to her. But she’d let me pick up my last paycheck and the GED study materials I’d left there.

Goodbye to holding down a job. I should have known life wouldn't let me—or even Lola Penmis—have the one thing I wanted. I should have known a “wings only” problem would come up to wreak havoc on everything good in my life.

I wouldn't be swinging by there today, even though I had my first GED practice test scheduled in two days. Hell, I might leave the GED books for the next Lola Penmis. It's not like an invisible girl would need anything resembling an education to remain invisible.

Maybe in another life it could have all worked out, but not in this one. In this one I was made up of sacrifices and borrowed time.

On my way to the hospital my phone rang. It was Lee again. “I heard about your dad. Ray, I'm sorry. And I'm sorry for the other day at the pier. It was stupid to be mad. Ray? Hello?”

I sat there in the cab with the phone pressed to my ear and said nothing. Lee's words filled me with a deep, raw sadness. I wanted Lee back in my life so badly, but what would that mean for him? Lies, danger, and everything in between. He didn't know what he was asking for. Lee was my best friend, the one person I'd been able to rely on for anything and everything. I needed to let him go.

Something bright shone through the cab's windshield. I looked up from the phone to find a bright set of angel wings. The cab zipped passed them. I turned in my seat, expecting to see Cam attached to those brilliantly gold feathers shimmering in the sun. Instead. I caught sight of another man. One who looked eerily familiar. Our eyes met before the cab turned the corner. A glint of fear showed in his face. We recognized each other from Arizona. He was one of the angels I'd attacked on the streets of Safford, before I knew angels were real and that I wasn't crazy.

I lifted the phone back to my ear. “Lee, I think I just saw another one.”

“Thank The Doctor. I thought you weren't there—” His relief and
Doctor Who
joke fell flat as he took a beat. When he spoke again his voice was much more serious. “Another what?”

“You know.”

“Good or bad?”

“Well, good. I think.”

Lee exhaled. “It could be worse, right?”

“I guess, but listen, I'm sorry too.”

“Don't worry about that. How's your dad?”

“As far as I know, the same.” The cab pulled into the hospital's drop-off zone. “I'm here now. Would it be cool if I call you later? At this number?”

“Of course. And Ray, if you need anything, including a place to stay, I'm here.”

A place to stay? “What about your mom?”

“It's a big house, she doesn't have to know. We'll get creative.”

“Thanks, Lee, but I have a place to stay.” I paid the driver then exited the cab.

“And where is that?”

“With Kade.”

“Who in the
Whoniverse
is Kade?”

Oh, then it had been a while since I'd really talked to Lee. “A friend. Sort of. It's complicated. Listen, Lee. I appreciate it, but my living conditions are… fine. I'll call you later and we can catch up.”

I hung up before stepping into the hospital, and this time, I couldn't help smiling. Lee was my friend again. I could give up a lot of things for this damned angel/Fallen dispute, but maybe my best friend didn't have to be one of them.

When the elevator doors opened on the eleventh floor, Cam was waiting on the other side. “What are you doing here?”

I tugged self-consciously on my ratty wig. “Checking on my dad.”

In one swift movement Cam spun me around and followed me back into the elevator. “Your aunt and sister are in with him now.”

“How is he?”

“Still in a coma. They’re waiting for the swelling to go down so they can stop the medicine, but…” The elevator traveled up one more floor to let a man off then started to descend. “There’s a chance he might not wake up. I just keep hearing them say brain injuries make it difficult to determine how things will work out.”

I studied my shoes, worn and dirty, my earlier smile becoming a rapidly fading memory.

“Are you okay?” He draped his hand lightly over my shoulder.

I forced a nod, but felt like I’d been run through a shredder. Dad: coma, Aunt Nora: aware of me not only being alive, but local. Laylah: still hating me. Kade: who knew? And Cam: at least he was here.

Another blow would hit soon. Of that, I was painfully aware. From everything I’d learned from life in my short sixteen-and-a-half years, when crap was flying at you from all angles, more was sure to come, even when you thought you couldn’t take another ounce. Life had a way of showing us all our breaking point. The problem was, it never stopped once I reached mine.

The doors dinged open at the first floor. “You don’t look so good.”

I inhaled to bite out an “I’m fine”, but I wasn’t. I dug my thumbnails into my index fingers. “I saw another angel.”

With his arm secured around my shoulders, Cam led me out of the elevator, passed the people crowding us for an inch of valuable elevator space, and out the front doors. “I heard there will be more in the coming days.”

“Why?”

“Let's go somewhere. As long as Laylah and Nora are in with your dad, they won't need me.”

The cab ride was quick. The entire time his arm remained around me. I hadn’t been paying attention, so I had no idea what neighborhood, or even what street we stopped on. Being lost in thought was too all-consuming. We exited the cab and walked through a set of glass doors with large brass handles, polished to a shine so bright they rivaled Cam’s wings in the sun.

Inside, I almost tripped over my own feet while trying to take in everything around me. The grand lobby shone like nothing I’d seen before. Pale marble floors reflected the luster from the crystal chandeliers. Two elegant side tables held large vases of long-stemmed white roses along the right wall.

“Good morning, Mr. Wright,” a man dressed in an expensive-looking suit and tie greeted Cam and pulled a tight smile out for me, Mr. Wright's dingy-looking guest. I smoothed the fringe of bangs on my tangled wig.

“What is this place?” I whispered when we stood in front of the dual sets of gold elevator doors.

He punched the button in the center. The doors slid open to reveal wallpapered excellence. Beige and cream had never mixed together in this gorgeous of a pattern and tone before. My worn-out Chucks sank into the elevator's carpet.

“When I’m…in town, this is where I live.” He tapped the
five
button and up we went.

“Wow,” I breathed out the word. Another ding and the doors opened again. I followed him down the hall and into his apartment.

He led me through the foyer and into the living room. I didn’t know where I imagined him staying when we were in school together, but this well-decorated almost-palace was definitely not it. Rich cream carpets covered the floors. The walls were painted dark blue with a bright white chair rail along the bottom. Sheers covered the large windows that bathed the rooms in more light than I thought the gray sky was capable of.

“I'm truly sorry about your—”

“I don’t want to talk about that.”

The white Victorian-style couch with dark wood around the top and hugging the bottom just begged to be enjoyed, but I wasn’t about to be the first one. The spotless fabric screamed: “You’ll ruin me!” So I remained on my feet.