Last Rite (18 page)

“Just my lucky day.” He leans into the corner of the bungalow and grins. “And by that I mean your cheesy celestial Shield seems to be malfunctioning.”

“Unholy Hell,” Luc hisses as he shoves me hard into the side of the house, leaving his palm planted firmly on my pounding chest. Red rage is clear in his eyes even though he’s still human. “How could you let this happen?” he finally says when he confirms his fear with the wild beating of my heart under his hand.

A heart I’m not supposed to have.

It’s the same question I’ve been asking myself since we got here.

LUC

The crushing pressure of this is almost too much to bear, and I have to hold my breath against the pain as I realize what this means.
Everything
that it means. Frannie turned him human.

She wanted him
that
much.

I slam him back into the side of the house. “You son of a bitch. How could you let this happen?” I ask again.

He shoves me away, but he doesn’t look up. “The same way you did.”

I grab him with both hands and throw him harder into the side of the house. “But I wasn’t her protector, damn it!”

Finally, he looks up at me. “Let me go so I can find her.”

I throw him one last time into the house and back off. “If anything happens to her, I’ll kill you myself.”

Rhen’s low chuckle from behind me is more than I can handle. Before I realize I’ve done it, I spin and my fist is ricocheting off Rhen’s jaw.

His head snaps back, but then he turns to me with a grin. “There aren’t even words to describe how pathetic that was.”

I glare up at him and rub my hand. “Why are you here?”

“You’ve been a slippery little used-to-be demon,” he answers, rubbing his jaw and looking me over.

“Can you find Frannie?” I ask, my heart in my throat, grasping at any possibility.

He chuckles again, a deep rumble from his enormous chest, and he fixes Gabriel in a cold stare. “I thought keeping track of the ninja was your job, cherub.”

Gabriel shoots him a glare and, with an obvious effort of will and a growl that shakes the ground under my feet, he shifts.

I look at the empty space where he was, feeling the cold edge of dread cut through me, then turn back to Rhen. “I take that as a no.”

The humor clears from his face, replaced by surprise. “You’re serious? You don’t know where she is?”

I stare him hard in the eye and ask again. “Can you find her?”

He backs off a step. “That wasn’t our deal,” he grumbles.

“Your deal?” I ask.

“Your girlfriend’s ex-cherub brother.” He pokes a finger into my chest. “I told you he was no fan of yours.”

“That’s how you found her? Matt?”

“It was a quid pro quo. He swore to me he could find her, and I swore to him I’d keep you and Ozone Head out of his way—and maybe make you scream a little in the process.”

“But you didn’t.”

A grin stretches his face. “I lie. Figured if you slowed him down some it would give me time to get…” his grin pulls into a leer, “… close, shall we say, to your little friend.” He steps forward, right up into my face. “Did she tell you we got sweaty together this morning?”

My nails dig into my palms as I work to contain my fury. “Can you find her?” I ask again through gritted teeth.

His brow furrows in concentration. Finally, he shakes his head. “No.”

“Then Matt got the last laugh, didn’t he?” I say shoving him back. I jog for the Jeep and hop in, fumbling the keys into the ignition with a shaking hand.

Rhen appears in the passenger seat. “Looks like your feather-faced friend is losing his touch.”

“Looks like,” I say, ignoring the pang in my heart. As much as I’m painfully aware that there are bigger issues at the moment, it nearly kills me that Frannie wanted Gabriel enough to do this to him. I should have destroyed him when I had the chance.

“Well, this bites,” he says. “A lot of good a dried-up Dominion is going to do the uprising.”

“The uprising,” I repeat, a tickle of hope in my chest. I throw Rhenorian a sidelong glance as I crank the engine to life. “How’s that working out for you?”

“It’s not. We were counting on your and Ozone Head’s help, but then you vanished off the face of the planet.”

“We were on the planet,” I say as the engine finally turns over. I pause, wondering just how far gone Gabriel is and admonishing myself for not seeing what was going on. It was right there in front of me—his temper swings and violent outbursts and the way he looked at Frannie, like a starving animal. “As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure neither of us can leave it at the moment.”

“How pathetic is that?” Rhen mutters. “All I need to know is how she does it.”

In the next heartbeat, which I can easily count since mine is pounding out of my chest, I’m shoving him up against the door.

“You will not come within a mile of her, except to help me find her. I’m assuming since my Shield is ineffectual, Frannie’s is too, in which case, if we get you close enough, you should be able to sense her.”
You and every other demon on the coil,
I think as a thread of panic twists through my gut.

“You expect me to help a celestial?”

I glare at him. “I thought you just said you were counting on Gabriel’s help. I’m sure you’ve heard the adage, what goes around comes around?”

“I’m not going to take orders from a used-up featherface. I can find her. And you’re both useless now. I don’t need your help.”

“She can’t help you, Rhen,” I say.

“She
will
help me,” he says. A depraved grin tugs at his face. “And then I’ll help myself … to her soul.”

I glance his way and he’s gone. I floor the accelerator, not sure where I’m going except away from here, and nearly run over Faith, who appears out of nowhere in the road in front of me.

I slam on the brakes and she runs to my window. “Where are you going?”

“To find Frannie.”

She runs to the passenger door and throws herself in. “I’m coming with you.”

GABE

In all my existence, I’ve never felt so blind. I seem to be able to shift on the coil, barely, but each time I’ve tried to give myself up to the Light, it’s like I hit an invisible barrier—as if I’m too human to be allowed back into Heaven, which might be exactly the case.

For hours I’ve searched, shifting along the Florida coast looking for a needle in a haystack, and each shift has taken a little more out of me. In the end, it’s all been for nothing. I’ve yet to pick up any trace of Frannie.

Of two things I’m certain. One: she’s not alone because she got into a car. Two: she left with whoever has her on the pretense of going home to help Maggie.

I’m standing at a rest area on the side of the highway north of Miami when the phone in my pocket buzzes. I pull it out and look at the caller ID, hoping for Frannie. Instead, it’s Faith. “Yes,” I answer.

“Gabriel!”

“What is it, Faith?”

“I think Frannie … I think I saw her get into a car with a boy.”

“Tell me everything you remember.”

She hesitates. “It’s all just so foggy.” I wait through her long pause. “She was outside her window … and she said she was going for a walk on the beach, but then she went toward the road and there was a car … and a boy.”

“What did the boy look like?”

“He was kind of far away, but … I think he looked like Frannie—the same hair, anyway. Luc thinks it could have been Matt.”

“Matt,” I whisper under my breath. It makes sense. I’m not sure how he found her, but if anyone could convince her to go with him, it would be Matt.

“Thanks, Faith. This is a big help. Where is Luc?”

“We’re at the airport.”

“We?”

“I’m coming with him. This is my fault.”

I shake my head at the guilt in her voice. Heaven knows I’ve done more than my share of screwing up. “I’ll see you in Haden,” I say as I disconnect. I breathe deep, mustering every ounce of celestial might I can, and shift to Frannie’s house, knowing this shift might be my last. I know there’s no guarantee that she’ll ever get that far, but there’s someone there who can get to the Board and find her.

I materialize on my hands and knees in the shadows next to Frannie’s garage and can’t stop the groan that erupts from my chest. I wipe beads of sweat off my face with the back of my hand as I haul myself to my feet and start when my wrist comes away bloody. I pull off my T-shirt and press it to my face to staunch the flow of blood from my nose, cursing myself under my breath.

“You stink of demon. I’d have thought the stench would have worn off your fiery friend by now.”

Even though I broadcast that I was here, essentially calling him to me, I still jump at Aaron’s voice behind me. I’ve been over and over this, trying to find another way. But, in the end, I don’t have a better solution.

“Aaron,” I say, tossing my bloody T-shirt aside without looking up. Even so, I can hear the smirk in his voice when he answers.

“To what do I owe the honor of your radiant presence, oh omnipotent one?”

I turn to look at him then. “What is the status here?”

“Are you checking up on me?” he says, his smarminess giving way to incredulity.

“I’m here to speak with Daniel.” I brush past him on my way into the garage to look for something to wear. “But I need you to do something for me,” I add, offhand.

“I’m not your errand boy, Gabriel. In case you’ve forgotten, I have a charge—”

I spin on him. “I’m shifting your assignment. I need you to watch Frannie for me.”

He stares for a long moment, trying to read me. “Something’s going on,” he says slowly, looking me over more closely with narrowed eyes.

I do the best I can to look like I’ve got it together. “I just need you to check the Board for Frannie and keep an eye on her. Of course, if you can’t manage that…”

“I hate the humidity in Florida,” he says.

“She’s not in Florida. I think she’s on her way here.” I realize my slip as soon as it’s out of my mouth.

“You
think
? Isn’t it your job to
know
?”

“Go! Or I’ll find someone else who can handle it!”

He grumbles and fades out with a glare as sharp as a razor blade.

I jerk my head around at the rustle in the rhododendrons near the house, expecting Marc—or worse—and I breathe a sigh of relief when a cat streaks across the ten feet between the house and the detached garage, disappearing around the corner. My eyes glide up the white siding of the house and to the trees outside Frannie’s second-story window. No sign of Marc.

I duck into the garage and come up with a sweatshirt hanging on a hook near the door. It’s too small, but I pull it over my head anyway and push up the sleeves. I trot to the front door, every step jarring my broken body, and ring the bell, breathing hard.

When it opens, Grace’s serious face is peering back at me. “Oh…” she says, her eyes widening.

“Hello, Grace. I need to speak with your father. Is he in?”

She just stares back, wide-eyed, for a long moment before blinking. “Oh, my … Um … okay. Come in.”

I step through the door and she just stands a moment longer, staring.

I look down at her, and she inhales sharply when I touch her arm. “You know what I am, don’t you?”

She nods.

“This is really important, Grace. Can you please get your father?”

She nods again and turns for the kitchen just as Maggie appears at the top of the stairs.

“Hi Gabe,” she beams. She skips down the steps and stops in front of me. “You know Frannie’s not here, right?”

“I do. I was hoping to speak with your father.”

Her eyebrows shoot up into her dark bangs. “About Frannie?”

I smile at her. “I suppose so.”

She scrunches her face. “You’re not gonna ask him if you can, like, date her or anything? You know she’s with Luc?”

“I’ve seen them,” I say, then scrutinize her. “Maggie, have you met a boy named Marc?”

Her eyes widen slightly, and she glances past me at the family room. “How do you know about Marc?” she says in a near whisper.

“Listen, I know how this is going to sound. You barely know me and I’m about to go all big brother on you, but he’s dangerous.”

A smile ticks the corners of her mouth and she opens it to say something, but I nip it. She needs to know this is serious.

“You know what happened to Taylor,” I say holding her gaze.

She goes pale and nods.

“Marc was partly responsible for it. You need to steer clear of him, Maggie. I’m begging you.” I work to keep my voice calm. No need to scare her more than necessary.

She backs off a step, wide-eyed and looking a little green. “Okay…”

“Okay,” I repeat as Daniel strides across the living room, a sense of urgency in his step.

He glances between Maggie and me. “Hey, Maggs, sweetie. Why don’t you go clean up your mess in the kitchen?”

She nods and heads to where Frannie’s mom is perched in the kitchen doorway with Grace peeking around from behind her.

“Ma’am,” I say with a nod.

Frannie’s mother smiles, but her eyes are cautious.

“Gabriel’s just checking in, Claire,” Daniel says, reaching for the doorknob. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

He pulls the door open and we step through into the night.

“How much does she know?” I ask as soon as the door’s closed behind us.

His expression is edged with guilt, but his words are defensive. “She needed to know.”

I nod. “She did. Does she know how much danger Frannie is in?”

His eyes drop. “I didn’t want to worry her too much.” He sighs deeply and steels himself before looking back up. “Has something happened?”

“Have you heard anything from Frannie?” I try to keep my voice neutral, but I’m fairly certain that I don’t succeed.

“Not for a few days,” he says, his eyes searching my face. “Is everything okay?”

“She’s missing. I need to know right away if you hear from her.”

His eyes narrow. “What aren’t you telling me? Why can’t you just find her?”