The Protect Her Box Set: Parts 7-9 (19 page)

It barely registered in my mind when the song turned sultry and smooth, and I felt Riley’s hands on my hips. He was behind me, and he pulled me against him. I didn’t stop moving, and I found that his body responded to the music like mine did. I slid a hand up behind me and let my hand encircle his neck as I pulled his head down into the crook of my neck.

I shimmied against him and heard his throaty groan against my ear. It sent ripples of desire down my spine, but I wasn’t thinking much about anything at all other than the music and his hard, lean body that pressed against me in a way that was driving me crazy. My heart beat faster as Riley’s hands began a not-so-subtle exploration of every curve of my body.

Every nerve was electrified by his touch. I had no idea if it was the hunger I felt for him or the magic that coursed through both of us that spun my emotions up higher and higher. Riley caught my wrist and whirled me around. My body bumped against his hardness, and then he slid his leg in between mine. As I stared up into his eyes, I felt lost. His hips thrust against mine, and I locked my arms around his neck so that I didn’t fall. But as I felt his hands grip my hips, I knew that he’d never let me go.

He was my saving angel. He’d never let me fall again.

CHAPTER THREE –
RILEY

Time seemed to stand still as Paige and I danced. I wasn’t sure what possessed me or where it came from, but seeing her wild abandon on the dance floor ignited something inside of me that I never felt before. I wasn’t feeling trepidation any longer. I just wanted to feel like that too, and I wanted to experience that feeling of letting go with her.

I knew from the moment I spun her around to stare into her eyes that I could have pulled off her clothes and taken her right there on the dance floor. She would have willingly let me, and I would gladly have obliged. The passion and desire were openly there on her face. But that wasn’t what this was about at the moment, even if she didn’t quite realize it yet.

There was a transparency and vulnerability that came from being this close. She and I were bonded together now, and I felt the heat of her emotions in a way that I had never experienced them before. It made me wonder if she could feel mine too. By the way that her eyelids drooped as her mouth formed a perfect “o” as I continued to touch and caress her body, I thought that it did.

I wanted her; there was no doubt about that. But it wasn’t just about the physical joining of our bodies any longer. It was about the mingling of our emotions and our very souls. It was the intensity of those emotions that held me tight in their grip and made me never want to let them go. My thoughts were fuzzy and spun upwards somewhere in the heights of what had always felt like an elusive dream. I was deliriously happy by the fact that everything I was co-mingled with everything that Paige was, and it made perfect sense. We were joined in a way that completely blew my mind.

So when the jukebox suddenly turned off, Paige’s eyes widened, and she stumbled against me. I caught her before she slid down more than a few inches and pulled her back to her feet.

“What happened?” she whispered. Her lips looked puffy as if she had been thoroughly kissed.

“Someone’s coming,” I said. I didn’t let her go. Instead, I twined my fingertips through her long hair and pulled her into a tight embrace. “The archangels aren’t the only ones who were taking safety precautions.”

“No.” She pulled away from me with a slightly bemused expression on her face. “What happened just now? I am pretty sure not even once piece of clothing was removed here, but I feel…”

“Satisfied?” I couldn’t help but wink at her. “I think that’s just a preview of what it’s like to be an angel’s mate.”

She smiled and ran a fingertip down the side of my cheek. “Let’s hope my poor human body can handle what happens next then. Because I think you just about gave me a heart attack.” I frowned, and she chuckled before adding, “In a good way.”

Reluctantly, I released her. “To be continued. Unfortunately, our date is going to be interrupted.”

She slipped her hand into mine. “I’m a patient woman.”

I caressed her cheek. I wanted nothing more than to find a quiet place and sink into Paige’s soul and softness forever, but we had work to do. It seemed to be becoming a common thing between us now. “I am far less patient, but I don’t have a choice in the matter at the moment.”

“I know,” she said. “We have to go find out what’s going on so that we can save the world.” She rolled her eyes with a theatrical sigh. “Again.”

I threw back my head and laughed. It was something I had done a lot more of since meeting Paige, and I found that I had missed having that emotion in my life. Somehow, she always made me feel better about things, no matter how dark the situation was. I felt more balanced and even keel despite the fact that somehow I had become a goddamn angel.

“We’re getting pretty good at doing that. We’re a good team,” I said just as the door to the bar opened. Samuel walked through with a man that I had never seen before following behind him. It was habit as I slowly pulled Paige to stand behind me.

I could tell that Samuel saw what I was doing, and his expression darkened. I didn’t trust him, and that bothered him. But I didn’t trust most people, and archangels even less. The guy was going to have to get used to it. I liked him for the most part, but I sure as shit didn’t trust him any further than I could throw him. That made me wonder how far I realistically could throw him now. I was itching to find out more about my current angel state and the extent of my abilities.

“I see that you two have been getting comfortable,” Samuel said. He had a pointed look on his face that made me wonder if he knew what we had been up to. It wasn’t like we’d just had an existential make out session on the dance floor without even taking off our clothes or anything. He pointed at a large table that sat near the middle of the room. “How about we sit and have a talk? We need to bring you up to speed. Things are going to be beyond our control soon, and we need to do something quickly.”

Josiah and Tobias brought up the rear but stood on either side of the door instead of making their way to the table with Samuel and the mystery man. Despite Samuel’s earlier assurances that this was a safe place for now, I sensed that sentiment had changed. I glanced over my shoulder at Paige. I caught the shake of her head that told me she didn’t know who the new guy was either. I sighed. More secrets.

I strode over to the table. The man was openly staring at me. As I got closer, I noticed more details about him. He had to be in his late forties or early fifties. His hair was gray and on the longish side. He was tall, but still not as tall as me, and his shoulders seemed stooped, not with age, but weariness. He looked tired and worn down, but he straightened as I approached. It was his eyes that got me though. They looked just like the eyes that stared at me in the mirror every day. That’s when I felt my stomach flop. It couldn’t be…

“Riley, I’d like you to meet someone,” Samuel said. He turned to the man, and I saw him cock his head toward me. The man seemed hesitant, and I knew why. How did you introduce yourself to the son you abandoned twenty-eight years ago?

The man raised his hand toward me, but I felt a violent rush of emotion as I took a step backward. I heard Paige’s gasp of surprise and then a short cry as my wings emerged of their own volition.

“I don’t know what the fuck you are doing here, but I’m not playing any more games,” I hissed.

The man took his hand back, but he didn’t shirk away from my stare. “So you know who I am.”

“I’m not stupid,” I said. “I don’t know why I’m even surprised. First, I find out that the woman who was supposed to be my mother isn’t my mother, and now I find out that the father who was supposed to be dead is apparently very much alive. I’m starting to think I have the most fucked up family on the planet.”

“That is probably reserved for the archangels,” Samuel said in a mocking tone. “I can see that you haven’t managed to control your emotions yet. Once you do that,” he pointed at my extended wings, “that won’t happen to you anymore.”

I expelled the breath from deep in my lungs. I glanced to my side and saw Paige getting up off the floor. I realized that when my wings had extended, they must have pushed her aside. I ignored the men before me for a moment and moved to help her up. I gave her my hand and searched her face as she rose to her feet.

“I’m sorry,” I said in a low voice.

“Watch what you’re doing with those things, will ya?” she said in reply. She brushed the dirt off her jeans but didn’t appear the worse for wear. “Next time, I’m going to knock you back on your butt too. That was a freebie.”

Her words had the appropriate effect, which I wasn’t sure if that was her intention or not. I had calmed, and the buzzing sound in my ears was gone. As I took another deep breath, the wings disappeared. I wasn’t sure of the mechanics of how they did that, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to understand it yet. But it was clear that my emotions definitely played a part in when they appeared.

“Please, Riley, Paige, sit,” Samuel said, waving his hand toward the chairs on the other side of the table. I saw him point at the chair next to him for my father to sit down.

My father.

Every time I thought that there couldn’t possibly be another surprise waiting for me, another larger one was revealed. I couldn’t help but study him now that he was in front of me. This was the man who saved Alice and Joanna from a horde of demons when Alice accidentally opened up herself to them through a Ouija board. He was supposed to become the leader of the Hopekee tribe. Instead, he and Alice got saddled with a kid whose destiny was to become an entity the world hadn’t seen since Lucifer was kicked out of heaven.

Having him sitting there and openly studying me back was surreal on too many levels. It made me wish that I had taken the opportunity to leave with Paige and skip all the angel bullshit back at the convent.

“I’m sure you have questions,” he finally said. “But we should start at the beginning. My name is Viho.”

“I know who you are,” I said. “I know how you met Alice. I know about the dreams involving your ancestors. I know about the attack and the fact that Alice gave me to her best friend to raise before escaping to become a nun. What I don’t know is why she thinks you’re dead.”

“It was safer for her that way,” Viho replied. “It was safer for you too.”

“I’m pretty sure that my life has been the opposite of safe since the day I saw my first ghost,” I said sarcastically. “Everyone thought they knew what was best for me, but don’t you think it would have been safer for me if I had someone there who actually understood what was happening to me? Who would have been able to tell me that I wasn’t crazy? Who could have guided me and kept me on the straight and narrow?”

“I believe that is what your mother attempted to do,” Viho said evenly. “Despite her best intentions, you still made your own path. It just goes to show that no matter how we try to intervene and change fate, it will always find a way to succeed.”

“So why now?” I crossed my arms and leaned back in my chair. “After all this time, why come out and reveal yourself now?”

“Samuel asked me to help,” Viho said.

It was frustrating to see that clearly my father was not a man of many words.

“I’m Paige,” Paige said, interjecting herself into the conversation. “I’ve heard the same story that Riley heard. I don’t think we’re in any position to turn away help, so what is it that you can do here?”

Viho smiled at her, but I noticed that it didn’t reach his eyes. “It’s nice to meet you, Paige. Samuel has told me about you and your situation.” The way he said ‘situation’ made it sound as if Paige had a terminal illness of some kind. “We will get to that. I think that Samuel would like to start the discussion in another place.”

“What place is that?” I asked, directing the question at Samuel.

“I didn’t realize until after I had brought you here that we had a problem.” Samuel looked pointedly at Paige. “You didn’t tell me that she had an active blood pact with Bruno Proctor. I thought that was done.”

I heard Paige’s sharp intake of breath. Under the table, I put my hand on her knee and squeezed. “Things have been a little bit chaotic. I didn’t realize it myself until just before you showed up on Alice’s doorstep.”

“Have you asked her what the pact is about?”

“I am sitting right here,” Paige said. It reminded me of a slightly similar conversation that we had the first time we encountered the entourage of archangels on Calamata Island. I hadn’t entirely forgotten about the blood pact, but it had fallen further down my agenda after we arrived at Slinky Pete’s.

“So why don’t you tell us about the pact then?” Samuel’s attentions swung back to her. His expression was one of hardened stone. “You put all of us at risk by being here. I wouldn’t have allowed Riley to bring you along had I known.”

“Well, I wouldn’t have gone along with you if she had stayed,” I said. I squeezed Paige’s knee again. “Tell them, babe. It’s okay.”

I watched Paige open her mouth, and it was as if she wanted to say something, but she couldn’t. She closed it with a frown, and then tried again. It was the same result.

Samuel’s eyebrow rose. “So part of the pact is that she can’t tell you what the pact is. Clever.”

I turned in my seat and pulled on Paige’s hands so that she faced me. Her fear and anxiety was palatable. All of the color was gone from her face except for two bright spots of rosiness high on her cheeks. She was scared shitless, and I couldn’t blame her.

“Paige, did Bruno Proctor tell you that you couldn’t tell me any details about the pact?” I asked the question as calmly as I could. I had no idea what the archangels were planning to do, and this was one situation I had to head off at the pass.

She bit on her lower lip and stared at me. Her eyes started to blink rapidly, but she didn’t give any other indication that she had even heard my question. I felt her pulse through the skin of her wrists, and then it was as if I could hear her heart beat. It was moving fast. Too fast. Her pupils dilated, and I realized in an instant that I was losing her.

“Paige!” Then I watched in horror as her eyes rolled back in her head, and, unconscious, she slid into my arms.