Lucifer (Brimstone Heat Book 1) (6 page)

By midafternoon, Angie was back behind the library counter, entering new books into the inventory. Putting the last book into the huge stack of books that needed to be shelved, she stood up and looked around as she stretched her tired muscles. Sitting in one position for hours was tough. But the mundane task was what she needed so she could think and clear her head of the cobwebs she had created.

As soon as she got home, she was going to call Lucifer and ask him out. She didn’t have anything to lose. The worst thing he could do was tell her no, but at least she would have tried to show him her change of heart. She smiled to herself. It was a good plan and there was always a chance he would say yes.

“It’s good to see you smiling again.” Josh Evans picked up a stack of books from the counter. “I hope everything works out between you and the sheriff. I think you make a good couple.”

You and me both!
Angie snorted as she shook her head. “Secrets are hard to keep around here.”

“Not really.” Josh gave her a lopsided grin. “It’s just really obvious you and Sheriff Fitch are meant for each other. Everyone deserves to be happy, especially when they find their mates.”

“Only time will tell if that is true or not.” Angie walked around the counter and picked up a smaller stack of books.

“You don’t have to do that. Teri will be back in about thirty minutes.” Josh balanced his stack of books in one arm and shoved several unruly strands of red hair out of his face.

“I know. I’m tired of sitting behind that computer. Besides, the exercise will do me some good.” Angie smiled. “When Teri returns, I’ll go back to entering books into inventory. There are still about ten boxes to go through before we are done. There will be plenty of books for everyone to shelve.”

“That’s just the brand new books you ordered, right?” asked Josh.

Angie nodded. “I ordered the replacement books yesterday. They will be here in about two weeks or so. But there’s nothing I can do about it. On the plus side, there won’t be as many books to inventory and shelve. I took the opportunity to purge the list of some of the books that were never checked out or had not been checked out in years.”

“Then there’s not much to worry about. With all the new titles you picked and the huge ebook inventory, I think everyone can find something they’re gonna want to read.” A goofy grin covered his face.

“I hope you’re right,” said Angie. “I’m a little worried about the ebooks.”

“I really think the ebooks are going to be a huge hit. I was looking at the ebooks last night. There are a lot I want to read.” Even though he towered over her, Josh leaned down and put his head on her shoulder. He looked up at her with huge, round hazel eyes. “Can I please check out a couple of ebooks today? Pretty please. Pretty please with lots of chocolate on top. I’ll be your best friend.”

Angie rolled her eyes and wiggled her shoulder. “You are a goof ball. Do you know that?”

“Mom tells me that all the time. But I know she loves me, just like you love me.” He stood up and rolled his shoulders.

Angie laughed.

“So can I check out a couple of the ebooks?” He gave her his best sad face.

Angie smiled. “I’m assuming you’ve already set up your account.”

“Followed the instructions you posted online. They were really easy to follow. I just need your approval to start checking out books.” Josh put the pile of books he was carrying on the floor.

“When I get back to the computer, I will approve your account. Actually, it will be a good check of the system to make sure the welcome email goes out like it’s supposed to after I approve an account,” said Angie. She moved farther down the aisle until she was almost to the end of it not far from a set of large windows.

“It’s a win win for both of us. You get to check the system, and I get a couple of ebooks to read.” Josh grinned at her as he knelt down next to the stack of books and started shelving them.

“Just remind me when I get back to the desk.” Angie set her stack of books on the floor, and grabbed the top book as she stood up. She looked at the tag on the spine of the book. Then she scanned the tags on the shelf until she found the spot that was the books new home. “One book down and a whole lot more to go before we are done.”

As she bent down to pick up another book, the window behind her shattered and something hit her left shoulder hard. She tried to say something to Josh, but words wouldn’t come out of her mouth. She felt a pair of arms wrap around her waist, and the next thing shew as on the ground with Josh covering her with his body.

“Don’t move,” he said as several more shots rang out. More windows shattered sending glass raining down on them.

After what felt like forever to Angie, the shooting stopped, but Josh didn’t move for several more minutes. He kept turning his head as if he was listening for something.

Slowly, Josh moved off of Angie. She blinked several times, but her body refused to move. She couldn’t even raise her arm.

“Oh shit!” He pulled off his t-shirt. “This is going to hurt, but I’ve got to put pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding.” He gently rolled her toward him.

A mangled cry came from her as burning pain ripped through her body. Either she had been hit by glass or she had been shot. She wasn’t sure, but the pain was like nothing she had felt before.

“Not good. Not good.” He gently rolled Angie back to the floor and pulled the shirt over her shoulder. “It looks like the bullet went clean through your shoulder, but there’s an awful lot of bleeding from both wounds.”

“Shot?” The word came out in a gasp that she barely could understand. Breathing was getting more and more difficult. Angie heard the panic in Josh’s voice.

“Yeah, you were shot. I have to put pressure on the wounds to try to stop the bleeding.” Josh didn’t wait for her to reply. He put his hand on the makeshift bandage that used to be his shirt and pressed down.

Angie groaned.

“I know it hurts worse than the wound itself, but I have to do this.” Josh pulled his cell phone out of his back pocket, and flicked his thumb across the screen several times before he put it up to his ear. “Wesley, there’s been a shooting at the library. I hear sirens, but I need you and the others to get here, like yesterday. And make sure an ambulance is on the way. Angie Gunner’s been shot.”

He paused as he listened to the person on the other end of the line.

“It’s a shoulder wound. Entry and exit. Just hurry. There’s a lot of blood and I think her lung was hit. She’s having trouble breathing.” Josh ended the call and put the phone in his pocket.

Angie stared at him as his words sunk in about her wound. And then it hit her. The library was not the target. It was just the means to get at her. She was the target and had been the target all along. That also meant the others weren’t safe around her. “Go. Not safe.” Her voice was barely a whisper but she knew Josh, being a shapeshifter, would hear her.

“I’m not going. Help is on the way. Wesley Wolfe has a lot of field experience when it comes to gun shots. He’s also one of the paramedics in town. He will get an ambulance here and several guys to help find the bast—the jerk who did this.” His voice shook.

Several minutes passed, and everything was quiet.

There were no sirens. No more shots fired. It was too quiet.

A door creaked.

Josh maneuvered his body as best he could so that he was facing the noise, but still had pressure on Angie’s wounds. He put a finger up to his lip to tell her to be quiet.

Footsteps grew louder.

Angie watched Josh’s teeth grow longer and sharper. A low growl rumbled in his chest. He sniffed the air and stopped growling. His teeth returned to normal. “Over here,” he said in a low voice.

Deputy Wade Martinez came around the bookcase and knelt down next to Angie. “You were supposed to duck.”

Angie looked up and blinked. “Right.” She wasn’t even sure if what she said was intelligible  or if she just imagined saying it.

“Is there anyone else in the library?” asked Deputy Martinez.

Josh shook his head. “No. Teri is the only other person who’s supposed to be here, but she left on a break about twenty minutes ago. I called Wesley Wolfe.”

“Good. I’ll send him—never mind.” Deputy Martinez looked up to see Quinn Hunter and Wesley Wolfe coming around the corner of the bookshelf. He moved to give them room.

Quinn knelt down next to Angie. “Gracie is not happy with you.”

Angie tried rolling her eyes, but it was just a little too much effort. She really wanted to close her eyes and give into the darkness that called to her. She looked past Quinn and saw a hooded demon watching her. Its long black robe flowed around it as if it were alive. Maybe it was. Or maybe it was just an illusion to keep people from guessing. Either way, she knew that the demon being there was definitely not a good sign for her.

Quinn put his hand on Angie’s forehead. “Now, Wesley here looks scary with all of his tats and piercings, but he’s one of the good guys and a damn good medic. He’s going to take care of you until we can get you to the hospital.”

Wesley opened a bag he had brought with him. “Hey, Angie. I’m Wesley. I’m going to switch places with Josh, and then I’m going to look at your wounds.

Angie blinked. She understood they were there to help her, but she was just too tired to care. She did have one regret in her life. She didn’t take the chance with Lucifer. She wanted to laugh at the irony of her situation. So much for making that phone call tonight when she got home. She wished she could tell Lucifer she loved him, and that she was sorry.

She closed her eyes and waited for what would happen next as the growls around her slowly faded into the background.

“Are you flipping crazy? I just want to go home.” Angie stared up at the ceiling for about the hundredth time. Two weeks in the hospital, and all she wanted to do was to go home, and sleep in her own bed surrounded by her own stuff. She was tired of the commercial grade antiseptic odor. It burned her nose and made her feel nauseas, though that could have been the stuff the hospital called food.

The hospital must have gotten a huge deal buying the stuff in bulk. Heck, they probably bought the food from the same supplier. It sure wouldn’t have surprised her.

“You are going to go home. You are just going home with me.” Lucifer put the overnight bad on the corner of the bed. “You’ve only been here two weeks. It couldn’t have been that bad.”

Angie poked him in the chest with her finger. “How about you stay here for two weeks and then you tell me it wasn’t that bad. I’m tired of the smells, the sounds, the doctors, and the nurses. And then there are those de…” She stopped poking him and as she stared at the demon that had floated into the room and was now staring at her.

“Angie, what’s wrong?” he asked as a cold chill entered the room. Lucifer watched Angie shudder and pale slightly. She closed her eyes and swallowed several times. Slowly, he turned and looked over his shoulder and saw a demon standing there.

He frowned. There was absolutely no reason for the demon to be in Angie’s room. She was not dying.

The hooded demon was actually waving at him, or rather, it was waving at Angie. Lucifer’s forehead creased as he stared at the demon in disbelief. He turned his attention back to Angie. Her eyes were moving from him to the demon behind him.

He glanced back at the demon.

It was still waving.

He looked at Angie. Her nose was wrinkled and her lips were pressed tightly together. She raised her hand and made a slight waving motion. Lucifer looked back at the demon. It was giving a gruesome, skeletal thumbs up to her.

What the Hell was going on?

Angie put her good arm around her waist as best she could and sighed. “I have to get out of here before I go crazy,” she said. She had a defeated look on her face. Tears shimmered in her eyes.

Seeing her look so defeated made Lucifer feel as if someone had stuck a knife in him. He leaned closer to her and caressed her cheek with the back of his hand. “I’m getting you out of here today, but you will be going home with me. And I promise you that none of those things will follow you into my home.”

Angie looked at him out of the corner of her eyes. “What things?”

Lucifer chuckled. “That black hooded demon that was waving at you. I think I’m kind of jealous.” He winked at her.

Angie’s eyes widened as her lower jaw dropped. “I don’t know what you are talking about.” She quickly closed her mouth and turned her head away from him. This wasn’t exactly the time or place she wanted to have this conversation, especially when she had no idea why she was suddenly seeing those things. She didn’t need Lucifer thinking she was crazy. “There wasn’t anything there. I’m not crazy or anything like that.”

“I know you are not crazy.” Lucifer cupped the right side of her face and gently forced her to look at him. “I saw it too. How do you think I described it too you. But what’s funny is that I’ve never seen one do a thumbs up sign.”

Angie chewed on her bottom lip as she stared at Lucifer. “You saw it too?” she asked in a soft whisper.

“Yeah, I did.” He playfully patted the tip of her nose as he smiled at her.

“I’m not going crazy?”

He shook his head. “You are not going crazy. You are not seeing things that don’t exist. And you are not dying.”

“Good. I was a little bit worried, especially the dying part.” Angie’s whole body sagged with relief. “I still want to go home.” Angie lifted her good arm up to her nose. “Gross! I definitely need a shower. I stink really bad. I don’t know how you can stand to be next to me.”

“The nurse still has to come in with your release paperwork and your care instructions. Once that is done, you can take a shower, and then as soon as you’re dressed, we can leave. But you have to get dressed before we leave. As lovely as that hospital gown is on you, I really don’t want to hurt anyone who dares to stare at your gorgeous backside. That’s for my eyes only. No streaking through the hospital.”

“Believe me! I have no plans to run around the hospital or anywhere else with just this gown on. Honestly, it should be burned.” Angie raised her eyebrows. “If I take a shower now, it will speed up the whole check out process.”

“Release papers. Care instructions. Shower. Get dressed. And then we go home.” He shook his finger at her. “And by home I meant my place. No exceptions. You are not ready to be on your own with your injured shoulder. You have to have someone there who can help you.” He loved the fact she wasn’t afraid to disagree and argue with him. He hoped it wouldn’t change when she found out who he really was.

“Why are you being so nice to me? Is it because I almost died or something like that?” asked Angie.

“I could tell you there are a lot of reasons. But there is only one that counts. You are my lifemate, and as crazy as it may sound to you, I deeply care for you. And on the subject of you almost dying, I forbid you from ever trying to die again.” The memory of the paramedics working on her almost lifeless body was etched in his mind. He never wanted to feel that helpless again. The worst part was he could have healed her, but Quinn Hunter had held him back.

Quinn didn’t know exactly what Lucifer was, but Lucifer suspected Quinn had an idea because Quinn told him he couldn’t do heal Angie in public. Too many humans where around, and too much could end up on the Internet, especially with him being the sheriff.

Angie rolled her eyes at him. “It’s not like I did all of this on purpose. If you haven’t figured it out, I’m the innocent victim here, and I hate hospitals.” Her skin flushed as the heat of desire flowed through her veins. She wasn’t fully recovered from her injuries, but she wanted him.

In her bed.

Forever.

In her life.

Forever.

Her need for him was growing stronger.

He threw his head back and laughed.

“That wasn’t meant to be funny.” She glared at him. A couple of second later, she took pity on Lucifer. “I’m sorry I’m being so mean about the hospital stuff. I’m not a good patient. I really, really hate hospitals. And those things that have been drifting by haven’t helped one bit.”

“And you hurt,” he said.

She nodded. “I don’t like the painkillers they’ve been giving me. They leave me loopy. That’s not good. I would rather deal with the pain instead of the loopy drug feeling.”

“When we get home, I will do something that will help your shoulder, and then we are going to have a long talk.” He kissed her forehead.

She slipped him a curious glance. She wondered what he meant by helping her shoulder? Only time would heal the injury. As for the discussion they needed to have, it was definitely not one for the hospital. There were just too many eyes and ears around them. “Why are you just kissing me on the forehead?”

“Because if I kiss you anywhere else, I’m not going to be able to hold back, and the nurse will walk in on one hell of a show, if you get my drift.” Lucifer waggled his eyebrows. “We are lifemates. We are not spending any more time apart. And I don’t want to hear any argument about it.”

Her heart skittered as the image of what type of show he was talking about filled her mind. “Sounds good to me.”

Lucifer stared at her. He half expected a huge fight out of her. “Really?”

“What did you expect? An argument from me?” she asked.

“Actually…yes! You’ve turned me down every time I asked you out.” He waited for her to tell him she was just joking.

“I can be reasonable…sometimes.” She gave him a quick smile as she lifted her good shoulder in a half shrug. “Actually, I have a confession to make.”

“And what is that?” he asked.

“I was…I had planned…” She pinched the bridge of her nose. Angie let her hand drop away from her face. “The day I was shot, I was planning to call you after I got off from work and ask you out on a date.”

“You were?”

Angie nodded her head. “I know I have issues, but…”

“We will talk about them too, when I get you home.” He cupped her face with his hand. “Once I get you there, you are never leaving me.”

“You sound awfully confident. You had better have coffee, or the deals off.”  She grinned at him as she rubbed her cheek against his hand, enjoying the warmth emitting from him. She put her hand on his, and accidently touched her hair. “Oh yuck!” She pushed his hand away from her.

He quickly stepped back. “What’s wrong?”

She gingerly touched her hair. She suppressed a shudder. “My hair is greasy and just plain gross.” She looked at Lucifer with horror-filled eyes. “Are they going to let me wash my hair when I shower?”

“I don’t know. Are you going to be able to wash it with just on hand?” Lucifer covered his mouth and coughed, hoping it would cover up his laughter.

“Are you laughing at me?”

He shook his head.

“Then move your hand away from your mouth and prove it,” demanded Angie as she glared at him. “And here I thought you were being nice to me.”

“I am nice to you,” said Lucifer as soon as he knew he was going to laugh.

Angie shook her head. “Laughing at me is not being nice.”

“I brought you clothes to change into after you shower.” He gestured toward the overnight bag at the foot of the bed. “Actually, Gracie packed the bag for you. I just helped.” His mouth curved up into a smile.

Angie raised her eyebrows. “You just helped? Why do I get the feeling I’m not getting the whole truth?”

Lucifer leaned closer to her. “I’m going to get rid of all your underwear except those lacy numbers you have hidden in the back of the top drawer of your dresser. I can’t wait to see you in each set.” His pupils darkened with passion.

Warmth spread through her body as she stared into his eyes. Why did she have to be injured and in a hospital? “I’m going to model them for you? In your dreams!”

“And I’m going to enjoy stripping each piece off of you as I slowly explore your beautiful body.” He whispered in her ear causing Angie to shudder as desire rippled through her body.

“Excuse me.” The discharge nurse stood in the doorway. “Should I come back later when you are done?” The woman’s stern voice brought Angie’s desire into check…somewhat.

“No. I’m ready to get out of here,” said Angie. Her cheeks were burned with her embarrassment.

“So I can see.” The woman walked into the room. “Then let me collect some signatures.” She opened a red file, collected the necessary signatures, and went over wound care procedures.

Finally, the nurse handed Angie her copy of the papers which Lucifer promptly snatched out of her hands. The nurse closed her red file. “You can take a shower. As I said, you don’t have to worry about getting the wounds wet. A waterproof dressing was put over them, but you will need to take it easy. No lifting of anything over five pounds. You need to get lots of rest and give your body a chance to heal. In about thirty to forty minutes, a nurse will be here with a wheelchair. Do you have any questions?”

Angie shook her head. “No.”

The nurse nodded and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.

“Would you move this table thing out of the way, please?” asked Angie.

“Do not get up until I’m there to help you. You’ve only been out of bed for a couple of days now.” He shook his head at Angie before she could protest. “I don’t want you getting dizzy and falling. If you do, they might just keep you here for a few more days, and I don’t think you want that do you?”

Angie sighed. “No, I don’t.” She patiently waited for Lucifer to move the rolling table out of the way. “You do realize I’m only listening to you because I want out of this hospital.”

He chuckled. “I know. If you suddenly did everything I asked you to do, then I would be worried.”

“Ha. Ha. Ha. You’re so funny.” She held out her good arm. “Help me up.”

Lucifer took her arm and carefully helped her to sit up. His eyes darkened when she groaned. “Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked as she slid off the bed.

A wave of dizziness overtook Angie. She knew it wouldn’t last long, so she closed her eyes and let it pass. “I stink. I feel grubby. I am taking a shower before I put on any clean clothes.” She felt a cool breeze on her backside. “Damn hospital gowns,” she grumbled.

Lucifer reached behind her and pulled the two edges of the gown together. “Okay, I’ve got the gown. You won’t flash anyone, though I wouldn’t have minded you flashing me.”

“Thank you.” She decided to just ignore his comments. She knew eventually he would see her without clothes, but she didn’t want it to be her rear end hanging out of the hospital gown. That was so unattractive no matter what size you were.

Lucifer helped her to the bathroom. “Do you need any help?”

“I just need my clothes.”

Lucifer went back into the other room and grabbed the bag off the bed. He put it on the sink. “Are you sure you don’t need any help?” he asked again.