Alice's Insurrection (Alice Clark Series) (2 page)

“Oh, I’m just happy you are home and honestly I’m terrified of what’s to come. And most of all
, I’m sorry for putting you in that situation and causing you so much pain. I was careless and I hope you can forgive me for that.” It was the most honest thing he had said to her in months. “I’m sorry, I don’t really know what I’m saying.”

“There you are
,” she said, smiling up into his warm eyes. “All this time I thought you were pulling away from me and you were only trying to protect me.” She leaned up, carefully kissing his lips, grabbing at the back of his head to pull him closer. “I love you, Cole Corvus. No more protecting me. Love me, that’s all I ask, and everything else we can do together.”

He felt his soul smile at her
, making his own smile stretch wide across his face. “I love you, Alice Clark, and you have a deal.” He pulled her up gently into his arms kissing her, the kiss promising to honor her wishes and to love her always, as if he could not.

Alice must have been more
exhausted than they all thought. Near the end of the shower, just after she had endured all she could as he cleaned her wounds, she passed out, wrapped around him. Once all her wounds were cleaned, he wrapped her up in a towel and tucked her into the edge of their bed gently, on her side, so as not to put pressure on her injured wings, allowing them to drape off onto the floor. He couldn’t believe she was home, tucked safely in their bed. Their lives had been one gigantic nightmare, but without the horrors, would they have ever met at all? Shaking off the noise in his mind, he headed for the kitchen.

“How is she
, Son?” Kokabiel asked with hope in his voice.

“She’s okay
, she’s sleeping. You know Alice, she can take just about anything you throw at her.” His voice choked on the last word.
What is wrong with me?
It felt as if everything he held back was fighting to flood out into the open.

Jake’s hand rested on Cole’s shoulder. “I’m sorry it took so long to get her out of there.” Cole turned to him with anger in his eyes. He wasn’t sure if it was directed at Jake or himself
, but he wanted to hit something or someone. “Go ahead, hit me if it makes you feel better, let it out for once. If you don’t you will eventually explode and you won’t be able to block it from her. You know she won’t be able to take it.”

Cole balled his fists as his mind flooded with the closeness of Jake
’s and Alice’s relationship fueling his ever-growing rage. He was feeding his jealousy, inching toward an outlet which was coming nearer. He knew this and yet a part of him was telling him what he knew to be true. She loved them both, but she had chosen him and their relationship could rival any love that ever existed. Jake would never let anything happen to her even if he never had her the way Cole did. Even if Cole was the only one who knew how Jake truly felt, he wondered if that were true. Cole’s eyes danced as his mind raced for what seemed like forever.

“It’s true. All of it
,” Jake said, softly closing his eyes and allowing the impact of Cole’s fist to crush into his face. Jake’s body flew back into the wall, and everyone glanced to the stairs to see if it woke Alice.

“She needs her rest
! Do not wake her!” Paul yelled in a whisper, which felt less compelling to him.

Jake walked back in front of Cole calmly. “I will never come between you two,
and not only because you were gifted. Alice showed me how to truly feel again, and before you lose your mind, stop thinking the worst. Cole, you are a part of my family and…” Jake cringed in fear of saying something Alice had showed him to be true. “I love you both.” The entire room stared, jaw-dropped at the once cold, cruel and cocky Jake truly making an effort, for the first time since the Fall.

Cole dropped his head
, running his hands through his hair like he always did when he was baffled or thinking heavily. “She really has the strangest effect on us all, doesn’t she?”

Jake burst out laughing, “Come on
, man, you really can’t even comprehend the difficulty I have with all this. It’s not in my nature to have good left in me; cut me some slack.”

“It’s true
. Alice was the first person Jake ever let in fully. We don’t have souls like you do, but whatever it is we do have, Alice saw that the only good in him was caused by her. I’m sure that’s why she fights you about him being around so much. She’s beginning to take that savior thing a lot more seriously,” Kokabiel said.

“I felt what I guess you would call ‘being dead inside.’ She knocked my paternal instinct on its ass
, and now I just feel this warmth, like a part of her is protecting me. It’s hard to explain, I guess,” Paul added.

“I was not gone that long
, you guys,” Cole said shaking his head at the room of Fallen.

“No
, you weren’t, but when you were here, you weren’t really here either. So take care of her and be the man she fell in love with. She’s a big girl; she doesn’t need your protection, and honestly, I am tired of hearing her complain about the riff in your relationship when it’s just you two being stupid,” Jake said with a cocky smirk.

“I suddenly feel like I’m at an intervention
,” Cole said, thick with sarcasm. The room exploded in laughter. Cole walked back over to Jake with an outstretched hand; he pulled Jake into a hug. “Brothers?”

“Brothers
,” Jake said with a hard pat on his back.

“What’s going on down here?” Alice asked groggily
, standing in a pair of Cole’s red plaid boxers and one of her black beater tanks.

“Sorry we didn’t mean to wake you
,” Jake offered.

“Could have fooled me
,” she joked. “I would have asked for help getting dressed, but you know I like to suffer through the pain. It’s like a battle scar,” she said with a grin. “Though figuring out this tank top was a trial with these damn wings. Besides, I wouldn’t dare interrupt the intervention,” she teased.

“Har har
,” Cole said, lifting her up cautiously in his arms. She chuckled and kissed the top of his head. He set her down, angled sideways in a chair at the table, remaining conscious of her injured wings. As his fingers slid off of her shoulder, he took a hard look around. He hated to admit it but this was his family and he loved them too.

ALICE

Interesting group of Fallen, interesting
family you have here.
Briathos thought to Alice from his new room.

Yes they are, and I love every one of them.
He could feel the smile in her voice when she answered, all while watching her family who were already in a new conversation and looking as if they were enjoying themselves thoroughly. A part of her remembered their conversation earlier and wanted to bring up the Four Horseman and the seals, but she felt she had had enough pain and darkness in one day and that she would wait to bring it up. That wouldn’t stop it from plaguing her mind.

It has been a long time since I have witnessed such love. I think I will try to get some rest now.

Sweet dreams.
She said with a smile, wondering if angels dream.

We do. Better than the alternative, which I have a feeling Fallen do more of. Who knows
? I may be about to find out.

Cole studied her curiously
, knowing she was speaking to someone. He didn’t ask but she eased his discomfort and nodded her head toward the angel’s room. He sighed in response as she glanced at Jake and back to Cole looking for an opening where she could interrupt. “Jake?” She asked reaching one hand out, watching Cole’s eyes. Cole nodded to her with a newfound calmness that washed over her and eased her worry. She felt Jake’s arm slide up hers to support her as she lifted herself from the chair. She looked to Kokabiel who patted his son on the back, pulling him over to the conversation that included her father.

“Outside?”

“You got it,” Jake said slipping out the door with her. Once outside he scooped her into his arms, careful not to disturb her injuries more than he had to, knowing part of her strength was a front. “Where to, Your Highness?” he said, smiling wickedly at her in his arms. She swatted at him in response. He made a ‘who me’ face at her, sending her into an uncontrolled chuckle that hurt almost as much as it was worth it.

“Sometimes you really are terrible. Under those trees in the back
, since I don’t have to walk.” He set her down softly on the bright green grass near the tree line and sat beside her. She was grateful for that; she felt safer knowing that if she could no longer hold herself up, she could lean on him. She often found comfort on his shoulders when things were tough for her, physically or emotionally. He had, after all, seen her at her darkest moment, that was until she met Purah. The truth was that she was moments away from having no strength at all. She felt the brave face was necessary, not only to help herself through these tough times, but to ease her family’s worries as well. She didn’t have to do any of those things with him, for which she was grateful.

“What’s on your mind?”
he stared quizzically.

“Feels like a dream.
Of all the ways that this could have played out, this one feels like a dream.” Her fingers grew fidgety until she realized this was the second time she had gone to talk to Jake in Cole’s boxers. Obviously thinking it loudly, they both chuckled together.

“That was the day I learned you don’t take no for an answer.”

“You also learned I could hold you down in the shower.” The laughter stopped when the thought of where they had been going that day arose. Camille’s funeral entered their minds with a cruel force.

“I wish I could tell you it’s not always going to be like that
, but I promised I would never lie to you. Being a Nephilim or a Fallen, you have to fight and struggle through so much bad shit to get a moment of good. I suppose that’s true for some humans too, but we are programed to feel everything to higher degree,” Jake said, almost in a monotone, and he stared with angry eyes at the sky ahead.

“Something’s coming
, isn’t it?” she said glancing at the sky and knowing what he envisioned wasn’t the sky at all but more likely a place he once called home. He didn’t answer; he only grabbed her hand and wrapped his fingers through hers. Ever since she had discovered what she was, she had known that her heritage was how she had earned her gifts. She had always felt it was a curse, and now while she felt Jake’s pain, she was having difficulty believing otherwise.

“Yes. Something is coming
, but it was set in motion long before you were created.” He sighed, wanting to change the subject. He didn’t want to subject her to the other enemies that would arise in their future or the ones that had come before her. “Let’s enjoy our moment; there is plenty of time to worry, I promise,” he said.

She leaned her head on his shoulder
, and he leaned his head against hers. They sat there silently for a long while, staring at the clouds as they rushed across the sky. She breathed in deeply, slowing the space around her so that she could remember this calm moment when everything went wrong in the not so distant future. She exhaled and as she did, everything resumed its normal, steady pace.

Jake ignored the shift, knowing by the smell in the air what she had done.
“What did you want to talk about, Alice?”