Earth Angel (The Kamlyn Paige Novels) (17 page)

“So, where are we off to today, Kammy?” Sari’s
voice broke my trance.

I opened the door and sat on the edge of the unmade
bed as I pulled on my shoes.

“Uh, I don’t know…there’s a powerful coven near the
Pleasant Little Bay in Massachusetts.” I answered without stopping to think.

Sari stared at me as I finished lacing up my
low-tops.

“You’re not going to ask me if I know where Lamia
is?” he asked, looking at me from the corner of his squinted eye.

“Well, if you knew where she was you would have
told me, right?”

Instead of answering me, Sari just grabbed the
luggage and headed for the truck.

“You know, this whole hunting business would be so
much easier if I could just appear where I wanted like you can,” I hinted as we
drove east, away from the city.

“I know, but you can’t,” was all Sari responded as
he stared out the window.

I wasn’t about to accept that answer, though.

“Why not? If you can, then shouldn’t I be able to?”
I pried further.

He sighed and glared at me with piercing eyes,
obviously frustrated that I had bothered to inquire any further.

“Because I’ve never met someone like you who can,
that’s why.”

I didn’t know why he was suddenly frustrated with
me, but something was clearly bothering him. Lucky for me, we had a seventeen
hour drive ahead of us so I had plenty of time to get it out of him.

“Well, you thought I couldn’t kill a demon and have
the person survive but I did. So, maybe I can do this too,” I persisted, not
willing to give up on learning such a useful ability.

He didn’t say a word as he returned his gaze
outward. This aggravated me. I hadn’t done anything to him, so why was he
treating me as if I’d just kicked his dog? I couldn’t contain myself any
longer.

“What the hell is wrong with you today?” I burst,
periodically shifting my glare between him and the road.

“You expect me to be all smiles all the time? Gimme
a break why don’t you?” he snapped back to my surprise.

“This isn’t you so obviously something is bothering
you,” I said in a low, meek voice.

“It’s nothing, really. It’s just that…the other
watchers are…a little…suspicious,” he responded guarded.

“What does that mean? Suspicious of what?” I
questioned, staring more at him than the road now.

He was rubbing the bridge of his nose with his
thumb and index finger. I knew whatever he meant, it had to be serious. That
was the same look my dad had when I’d told him I was pregnant.

“I checked in late and I couldn’t really explain
why when you weren’t even hunting at that moment.”

He looked at me briefly and then back down into his
lap. I still wasn’t grasping why this was such a big deal.

“I don’t get it. Everyone’s late sometimes. Why
were you late anyway?” I asked, furrowing my brow.

“I was late because we were lying down, talking,”
he admitted in a low voice.

I couldn’t help but giggle under my breath at the
innocence of his response.

“That’s it? I wouldn’t have gotten upset with you
if you had just told me you had to go. Why didn’t you say anything?”

He ran his hands through his thick brown hair just
to have it fall back down into his eyes again. His face was tense and his
forehead was wrinkled in thought. It was the face I usually made when I was
debating whether I should lie or not.

“I didn’t want to go. I wanted to stay in bed…with
you.”

I understood exactly what he meant. If I had needed
to be somewhere while his warm arms were around me, I wouldn’t have even
attempted to go. We both knew we weren’t allowed to feel these things for each
other without there being serious consequences, so what was the point? Before I
formulated a response, he leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

“I think I’m going to take a quick nap now. I
didn’t get any sleep last night,” he said as he relaxed his body against the
seat.

I knew that was just an excuse so he wouldn’t have
to address the situation and I didn’t blame him. I had no idea what I would say
to him once he awoke from his nap, but at least I had some time to think about
it now. If I was lucky, he would pretend to nap the entire rest of the way.

*

It was almost midnight when we finally arrived at
our destination in Massachusetts. I think in his attempt to avoid me, Sari had
actually fallen asleep. His mouth was slightly open and his breath was slow and
deep. I turned the truck off and sat for a moment just listening to him. He
looked so peaceful and at ease when he slept.

“Sari,” I whispered as I pushed on his thigh to
wake him up. “We’re here.”

Instead of waking up, he gave a soft groan and
placed his hand on top of mine, rubbing it gently. For the first time, his
touch didn’t send my heart racing or knot up my stomach. I felt reassuringly
calmed and relaxed. A smile spread across my face as I stared down at our hands
clasped together. Not wanting to ruin the moment, I sat silently and took it
all in. Sari’s thumb ran along the back of my hand softly.

“We’re here,” I repeated, sure that he was only
half asleep at this point.

“Hm?” he groaned without movement.

His eyes flickered open and he sat there frozen,
looking at our hands linked together before he released his grip to stretch.

There’s the coven’s house,” I said, pointing out
the driver’s side window.

Neither of us had expected to see a place like the
one we sat parked outside of then. It was a beautiful, two story white home.
The front porch wrapped all the way around to the back in a quaint country way.
The front yard was lush and green with vast colorful gardens all over. The
property was surrounded by a perfectly painted white picket fence. Normally,
this would have been common for the area, except for the fact that it was below
freezing outside and all the other yards were covered with a few inches of
snow.

“Not the usual run down shack I’m used to raiding,”
I commented as we stared out the window in awe.

“Let’s take a look around, shall we?” Sari said as
he opened his door, barely shutting it so he wouldn’t wake anyone in the house.

I grabbed my flashlight from the glove compartment
and shut my door quietly as well before walking up to the white gated entrance.
I reached and pulled the gate towards me in one swift motion. I knew it was
going to give an echoing creak and that the best thing to do was to get it over
with. We stood for a moment and looked at the house in the distance. It was
still dark and there was no sign of movement within. It was safe to proceed.

“You know your powers and mine are far greater than
those of any common witch. You don’t have to be so cautious,” Sari chuckled
softly as he watched me creep onto the property.

“Old habits die hard, I guess,” was the only
response I could come up with. My mind was entirely focused on the task at
hand.

“These witches may use their powers for small,
harmless things like gaining a great house, but I know for a fact they also
hurt and kill innocent people without thinking twice about it purely for their
own gain. There’s no harm in being cautious,” I justified as I crouched behind
a bush.

Sari raised his hand, signaling me to continue
heading towards the house. We knelt down beside the hedges surrounding the
porch while I waited for our next move to come to me. I had to come up with our
plan of attack carefully.

“What are you doing here?” a soft, small voice
asked from behind us.

Sari and I jumped up, whirling around to see who
had snuck up on us. When I saw a young woman standing there with her arms full
of harvested plants and herbs, the tension in my stomach released. She couldn’t
have been older than nineteen and stood about the same short height as me. Her
long brown hair fell to her waist except for the bangs cut straight across her
forehead, resting on the lids of her eyes. Her face was glowing, naturally
kissed by the sun.

“Hi. I’m Kamlyn and this is Sari,” I said slowly,
trying to think of a cover to why we were there in the middle of the night. “We
are…local reporters from the paper.”

Sari glared at me from the corner of his eyes. I
knew he hadn’t been expecting me to lie to them, but for some reason I wanted
to know more about this coven. There was no way I could attack such an innocent
looking girl just because I had seen a vision of her in this horrible coven.
What if I had been wrong or just dreaming?

“We’ve been assigned to interview locals for the
human interest section and this week the paper wants to interview you and your
family,” I lied with more ease.

I stood completely still with a fake smile
plastered on my nervous face, hoping she would buy what I was saying. Who ever
heard of small time reporters coming over in the middle of the night to do an
interview? I was usually better at coming up with bullshit on the spot. She
stared at me for a while before her face lifted into a shining smile.

“Oh, that sounds fun!” she exclaimed, taking a step
closer and readjusting the plants in her arms. “I’m Demi and my sisters are
inside.”

“I hope we’re not imposing. I know it’s really
late. To be honest, we’re kind of behind on this column and took a shot in the
dark that you would still be awake,” I went further into the lie.

The trusting young girl continued to smile as if
there were no way I could be making any of this up. She led us up the front
porch and into the house. She showed us to the living room before leaving to
tell her sisters of our arrival. The house was just as charming on the inside
as it had been from the outside. The carpet was plush and light in color. I
took my shoes off by the door and felt the cushion under my feet with every
step I took as I walked over to the couch. The focus of the room was on an old
brick fireplace that I could practically walk right into.

“What are you doing?” Sari leaned over and
whispered in panic. “We know who they are, why don’t we just get rid of them?”

I was surprised at his readiness to off someone
without knowing for sure if they were really evil or not first, especially
after meeting Demi. At times he seemed more like a ruthless assassin than an
angel.

“You saw that girl, Sari. There’s no way she can be
doing the bad things I saw,” I reasoned quietly, glancing around to make sure
no one was listening.

“You said so yourself, Kamlyn. This is a dangerous
coven and they can’t continue to do what they’ve been doing,” he reminded me in
a slightly mocking tone.

“Just go with me on this, please,” I said,
narrowing my eyes to make what I hoped was an intimidating face.

Before he got the chance to agree with me like I
knew he was going to, I heard someone softly clear their throat from across the
room.

“Can I help you?” the woman asked with a sense of
arrogance and annoyance.

The woman stood as far away from us as the room
would allow. She was wearing a long silky black nightgown that had a slit cut
drastically high up one of her thighs, showing off her perfectly smooth leg.
Her fire-red hair fell just below her shoulders in tight ringlets. I felt like
I was staring at a living harlequin romance novel character.

“I’m Kamlyn Page and this is Sari…Angel…o…” I
responded softly, stuttering as I tried to come up with a plausible last name
on the spot. “Angelo.”

Did Sari even have a last name? This thought had
never crossed my mind, but I was curious. I shoved my wonderment aside to tackle
the task in front of me.

“We’re reporters from the local paper and…” I
started as if it was perfectly rehearsed, but the woman held up her hand to cut
me off.

She walked over to where we were seated, swinging
her hips while locking her eyes onto Sari’s. She sat down fluidly in an antique
velvet chair, crossing her legs and sticking out her chest while she adjusted
her nightgown.

“Well I have to say, this is certainly a surprise,”
she began, licking her lips a little during her pause.

I noticed her not so subtle interest in Sari as she
continued to only look at him while she spoke. It sent a fiery heat throughout
my entire body. I was shocked my blood wasn’t boiling.

“The town’s never showed any interest in us
before,” she said as she stood up again and walked straight over to the loveseat
we were seated on, stopping just inches in front of Sari. “My name’s Adena,”
she introduced herself in a low sultry voice as she stuck her hand out to shake
his.

My eyes narrowed as I watched her bend over to
Sari’s level, exposing her cleavage.

“And I’m Kamlyn,” I said abruptly, standing up and
squeezing myself in between Adena and Sari.

“Yes, you already said that,” the temptress said,
rolling her eyes before turning back around and walking over to stand next to
the fireplace.

Again she bent over, now giving us a clear view of
her silken covered rear end as she repositioned some of the logs unnecessarily.
I glared as Sari sat next to me and felt the anger bubble up inside when I
caught him sneaking a peek at her. I swung my hand to smack him across the arm,
reviving him from his trance.

“What?” he asked as he rubbed his arm. “I was just
making sure she didn’t have any trouble with the fire.”

He looked up at me innocently and smiled. Out of
the corner of my eye I saw Adena blow into the fireplace when she thought we
weren’t looking. The logs burst into bright red and orange flames without the
help of a match.

“These damn fireplaces take so much effort to
light, don’t they?” she chuckled as she walked over to the chair she’d been
sitting in previously. “Sometimes you have to give them a good blow…”

She smiled at Sari and gave a small wink before
turning towards me. My inward stewing was about to turn to outward violence if
she kept it up. I took a few small breaths to regain control over myself.