Milayna's Angel (27 page)

“Then why don’t you enlighten me?” I didn’t
really expect him to. I was surprised when he did. I guess he was
in a talkative mood because I learned a lot from our little
meeting.

“Abaddon. He’s ticked that Azazel couldn’t
finish you when he had the chance. He garfed up the whole thing. So
Abaddon is going to take care of things. You won’t be as lucky this
time around, Milayna, and neither will the ones you love. He’s
gonna take them from you.”

“Who’s Abaddon?”

Jake smiled like we were talking about the
weather and not my impending trip to Hell. “Your worst
nightmare.”

“What does he want with my family?”

“Nothing.” He shrugged a shoulder. “He just
wants to hurt you, and hurting your family is the best way to do
it. Maybe he’ll let you live. Then you can spend the rest of your
life knowing you got your family killed because you wouldn’t listen
when you had the chance. Your time is running out. You can still
switch sides even though you’re eighteen. You can voluntarily
crossover.”

“No.”

“Whatever. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. See
ya around, Milayna. Chay.” Jake jogged down the driveway and turned
on the street toward his house.

Chay guided me into the house. “C’mon. Let’s
go back inside. It’s freezing out here.”

“He’s coming after my family to get to
me.”

“Jake’s just trying to upset you, Milayna.
Don’t let him.”

“You don’t believe that any more than I do,”
I accused.

Chay looked down at me. His brow was furrowed
over his eyes, and he looked worried. No, he knew what Jake said
was the truth. Whoever—whatever—Abaddon was, he was after me and
anyone I cared about.

Chay threaded his fingers through my hair and
lowered his lips, grazing them softly over mine. I fisted my hand
in the front of his sweatshirt, the other on his shoulder, pulling
him to me. He kissed me greedily, his lips gentle, but demanding.
His fingers clenched and unclenched in my hair. I was lost. My
emotional side longed to keep him with me, to keep kissing him like
we were the only two people in the world. My rational side, damn it
straight to Abaddon and back, told me to stop. Chay didn’t want me.
He made that perfectly clear. And although I tried not to listen to
the rational side of my brain, it finally broke through and I
turned away from Chay’s kiss.

He slowly let go of my hair, combing through
the red curls with his fingers. Opening the hand that held his
shirt front, I placed my palm on his chest and pushed him away. As
much as I wanted him, as much as I loved him, I didn’t want just a
kiss and a grope in the middle of the night. I wanted all of him.
Something he wasn’t going to give me.

“Is that why you did it?” I whispered,
looking away from him.

He sighed in frustration. “Why I did
what?”

“Broke up with me. Did you do it because this
Abaddon person is going to kill off everyone I care about? Because
if you did, it won’t work. You won’t be safe.” I looked into his
blue-green eyes. “You might not love me, Chay, but I love you and,
apparently that’s all it takes to make you a target.”

“Who said I don’t love you?”

“You did.” I threw my arms up in the air and
let them fall with a smack against my thighs.

“Well, that wasn’t completely true.”

I didn’t answer. I just stared at him,
waiting.

“I did… do love you, Milayna. I just can’t be
with you.”

“Then it’s true. You broke up with me because
of Abaddon.”

“No. I’m not scared of him.”

“Then?”

“I’m scared of what might happen to you,” he
whispered. “I’ve gotta go.” He stepped through the door, closing it
quietly behind him.

Well, that clears up everything. So glad we
talked.

***

By Tuesday night, my face looked better.
Makeup covered a lot of the bruising and the swelling had gone down
enough that I could open my eye, which would come in handy when I
needed to look at the white board in class—or over my shoulder for
demons. I tried to convince my parents that I needed to stay home
one more day, but they weren’t buying it. So Wednesday, I was going
to school, but I made my objections perfectly clear to both my
parents.

“Duly noted,” they said. I hated that
response. It meant I was going to school. So long, weird game show
people. My time of watching daytime television had come to a bitter
end.

“You look better today than you did
yesterday,” Muriel said when she picked me up for school.

I smiled. “You’re a bad liar.”

“Yeah, well, I tried,” she said with a laugh.
“So… anymore visits from Jake the stalker?”

“Not since I talked to him Monday night. I
guess he ran out of things to say.”

She drummed her fingernails on the steering
wheel. “Maybe.”

“What? What do you know?” I sighed. I hated
when they kept things from me.

“Nothing. Just… Jake’s been spreading rumors,
saying that Chay smacked you around and that’s why you two broke
up.”

I laughed. “Really?” Muriel nodded, and I
laughed harder.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing. It’s just that most people will
probably believe him since Chay can act like a real douche
sometimes… well, most of the time lately.” I wiped the tears of
laughter off my cheeks with the back of my hand and blew a piece of
hair out of my eyes. “That’s classic.”

Muriel glanced at me. “Glad you find it
funny. Chay doesn’t.”

“Probably not. I’ll set it straight. By the
end of the day, his reputation will be saved and he’ll be free to
date whatever bimbo he wants.”

She glanced at me. “I guess that answers my
next question. No chance of you two getting back together,
huh?”

“Nope.” I shook my head. “None.”

“What about Xavier?”

I looked out the side window. “What about
him? We aren’t dating, if that’s what you mean. I haven’t even
talked with him since Sunday afternoon.”

“Oh.”

“What? Oh, what?”

“I was just curious,” Muriel said. “Are you
gonna? Date him?”

I lifted a shoulder and let out a breath of
annoyance. “I don’t know.”

Xavier is smart, charming, and straight-up
sexy, but I’m not sure if I’m ready to date. Scratch that. I know
I’m not ready to date. I’m in love with Chay, even if he doesn’t
love me, which, according to him, isn’t the case.

I angled my body to face Muriel. “Chay said
he still loves me.”

“Really? Huh. Then why—?”

“Why did he break up with me? According to
him, he loves me but can’t be with me. Makes sense, right? I mean,
why wouldn’t you want to be with the person you love, especially if
they loved you back? It’s so totally Chay to say something so
freakin’ stupid.”

***

That afternoon, I overheard Muriel and Chay
talking. “What’s up with you? You’ve been acting weird.” I stood
around the corner from our locker, eavesdropping shamelessly.
Holding my breath, I waited for his answer.

“Nothing,” Chay mumbled.

“Something. Everyone sees it. Even Milayna
sees it, even though love is supposed to be blind and all that
crap,” Muriel said.

“I’ve… I’ve been having visions,” he
admitted.

“Standard visions or something else?”

I wished I was able to see his expression
when he answered.

“Something else. They’re about Milayna… I
know who’s gonna try to hurt her.”

“Who?” Muriel asked slowly.

“Me.”

“What? What are you talking about? You’d
never hurt her. I know you two aren’t together anymore, but you’d
never hurt her.”

“My visions say different. And when I have
one, I have this… urge… to make it… real.”

“You’re scaring me, Chay,” Muriel said
quietly.

“I scare myself. I’d never hurt her
intentionally. I love her, but the urge to carry out the vision is
so strong…”

“Have you told her?” Muriel asked.

“Hell no!” he snapped. “What am I supposed to
say?
‘Oh, by the way, I’ve been having dreams of killing you,
and I think I want to make them a reality.’
Yeah, just what
every girl wants to hear from their boyfriend.”

Their voices faded as they walked away from
the lockers and down the hall. I stood rooted in place. My heart
slowed in my chest. It plodded along painfully. I could feel it
squeezing each drop of blood through it, like someone was wringing
it dry.

Chay, my ex-boyfriend, the guy I’m still
hopelessly in love with, who I’ve been dreaming is trying to kill
me, is having visions about hurting me? Can my life get any more
complicated?

The thought scared me. When I, or another
demi-angel, had visions telling us to do something, it was almost
impossible to fight the urge to carry it out. But they were always
about ways to help people. They were meant to show us how to
protect humans—to right a wrong. Not to hurt someone.

“
Someone you’ll never see coming,”
Jake had warned
. “Someone you trust with your life.”

21

Friday night and a double date—what could be
better? Maybe going with Chay instead of Xavier. Although, I was
probably safer with Xavier, considering Chay wanted to kill me.
Yeah, Xavier was the best bet, even if it wasn’t a real date. Just
two friends going to a movie and dinner with each other.

The school day dragged on forever. I never
thought it would end. My head hurt, and my face throbbed. I just
wanted to go home, stand under a hot shower until the water ran
cold, and then go to bed. But that wasn’t how things were gonna
play out. Nope. Date Night. Or rather, non-date, date night.

Xavier picked me up at six o’clock. “Hi.” He
smiled when I opened the door. His dimple winked deep in his
cheek.

“Hi. Thanks for picking me up.”

“Why wouldn’t I? I wasn’t going to let you
drive to the restaurant alone.”

Oh, yeah. We aren’t supposed to be alone. At
least, I’m not. With Abaddon and Chay running around, both trying
to kill me.

I smiled. There really wasn’t anything to
say.

“So. Our second non-date, date.”

I laughed. “I guess so.”

“Maybe we could rename it. To, oh, I don’t
know, maybe our-first-real-date date. Something like that.”

“Let’s see how our second non-date goes
first,” I said, smiling to take the sting out of my words. I just
wasn’t ready to date anyone. I was too confused by Chay and his
hot-and-cold behavior. But still, Xavier was here… he wanted to
spend time with me and, bonus, he wasn’t trying to kill me.

“You look good tonight,” Xavier told me
walking into the restaurant. “Your face isn’t as awful
looking.”

I laughed so hard I snorted. “Gee, thanks for
that compliment.”

“You know what I mean,” he said with a
chuckle.

I was still laughing, but nodded my head. “I
know what you mean.”

“I like that.”

“What?” I was still preoccupied by his
sort-of compliment

“The sound of your laugh,” he said
quietly.

I smiled then. “Thank you.” I could feel a
blush heat my cheeks.

When I slid into the booth, Xavier followed,
sitting next to me rather than across like I wanted. I’d rather
look at him than touch him. Although, both were equally disturbing.
Just looking at him made my stomach do funny things. Things it
shouldn’t be doing if I loved Chay. And touching him… well, that
was almost torture. When his thigh pressed against mine, flames
licked my skin, followed by the prickling of goose flesh. Being
close to Xavier wasn’t a good thing. Not when it was Chay I was
supposed to be with.

I’m in all kinds of trouble. Bring on the Ben
and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey ice cream and a big spoon. There’s no way
I’m getting out of this unscarred, and that means one wicked
ice-cream binge is in my future.

We beat Muriel and Drew to the restaurant.
With each second that ticked by, I became more furious at Muriel
for leaving me alone with Xavier. I needed her and Drew as a
buffer.

Xavier and I sat in a corner booth and talked
while we waited. Like the first time we went out, he was funny and
easy to talk to. The apprehension I felt about being alone with him
slipped away—so did thoughts of Chay—and I found myself wishing we
were on a date. A real date. Without Muriel and Drew.

“What can I get you to drink?” our waitress
asked, looking at Xavier.

“Coke, thanks,” he said.

She continued looking at him, waiting for my
order. “I’ll have a Coke, too,” I told her, leaning forward and
blocking her view of Xavier. She gave me a tight smile, practically
flung the menus in my direction, and told Xavier if he needed
anything to ask for Amy.

“That’s funny,” I said and bit my lower lip
to hid a grin.

“What?”

I shrugged. “Amy.”

“What about her?”

“Oh, please. You can’t tell me you didn’t
know she was flirting with you. She never stopped staring.”

Not that I blame her.

“No, I didn’t notice. I wasn’t looking at
her.”

“Well, she was looking at you,” I
muttered.

“Milayna, are you jealous?” he asked,
laughing.

Am I jealous? No… yes. I am jealous. And
she’s pretty, too. Figures.

I looked at Xavier out of the corner of my
eye, pretending to study the menu. “No. Why? Should I be?”

He shrugged a shoulder. “You have nothing to
be jealous of. In case you were wondering.”

My cheeks heated in a small blush. I had been
wondering. “Good to know.”

Amy walked to the table, carrying our drinks.
She bent toward Xavier just enough to give us both a good view of
her cleavage before she set the two Cokes in front of him. Maybe
she thought he was really thirsty.

“Are you ready to order?” She looked doe-eyed
at Xavier.

“We’re waiting on two people.” Her gaze never
left Xavier’s face