Angelic Avenger (33 page)

He started to snap, but the look on my face stopped him. This was his chance to say what needed to be said and not beg. Give the man a little credit; he caught on to my train of thought.

“Because I didn’t want to watch her falling all over that bottom feeder because I had been too much of a fool to appreciate her when I had her.”

Bravo! See, the man had enough sense to take advantage of the fact Honora was listening.

The raw pain in his voice told both of us how true the words were. Honora’s eyes went wide and she started to speak, but the words simply weren’t there. Tears pooled in her eyes and she glanced away from Tony to look at me imploringly.

“We’re late for our appointment at the bridal shop. Is Lizzy coming?”

I thought about making her stay and face him, but decided to have mercy on them both. Emotions were too raw and they both needed the space to sort through them before they took the next step. The balls were in motion that could lead to harmony between them, or at least a clean break that wouldn’t destroy everyone around them.

“No, she’s with Craig today at the aquarium and Tony’s going to keep her if we’re not back before he’s got to go to work. Believe it or not, he’s a natural.”

Tony flushed and glanced away. He mumbled something as he made his escape. Poor fool. He loved her beyond reality, but was going to screw it all up if he didn’t put her above his pride. Why was it the really smart men could have the hardest heads? Oh yeah, because we had to beat them more often. Okay, so we weren’t going to beat on him, but it made me feel better to think about it that way.

Honora watched him go with a sad smile before turning back to me. “Are you coming to Thanksgiving?”

The question surprised me and I looked at her in question. I’d honestly forgotten next week was the holiday. I’d not been big into holidays since I’d returned to the mortal plane. In the past years, it had been me and whatever angels chose to hang around and watch the parade or B-rated monster movies, whichever I was in the mood for. As much as I hated to admit it, the monsters had been winning in recent years. Guess that should have been a clue as to my state of mind and why Gav would think I was leaning toward the dark side. Oh well, hindsight is always clearer.

“Uhm…I don’t know…”

Her laughter rang in the room, so different from the sounds of her shouts of moments ago. The shadows were still in her eyes, but the crisis had passed for the moment.

“Everyone who’s in town without family gets together for dinner. Of course, it inevitably ends up with the women in the kitchen and the men camped in front of football, but it’s a good time all around. I didn’t know if you and Gray and—” she hesitated, “—Tony would be going back to Texas to meet the parents.”

“To be honest, we’ve not talked about it. There’s been so much going on and I’m not sure if we should take Lizzy all that way while we’re trying to track down her family. It has sort of slipped up on us.”

“If it’s any consolation, the Devereaus are wonderful people. Kim has been desperate to get the boys settled for years, so she’ll adore you. We always got along famously.”

Realizing what she’d said, her smile wilted a little, but she rallied. If I’d not been watching her, I would have missed it.

“Somehow, that’s what I’m afraid of. I think I’m slightly terrified of meeting the woman behind Gray and Tony. I don’t think I’ve ever met two men more secure with themselves and I shudder to consider the woman who shaped them. What if she doesn’t like me? How will I know?”

Honora laughed companionably as she hugged me and grabbed my hand to drag me toward the door.

“Well, if she does her magic act, you know you’re in like Flynn. That’s the special treat. She only performs at family things, so if she pulls it out, she’s accepted you into the fold. For the life of me, I can never catch her at the tricks and I know them all. When she does it, it really does look like magic.”

Magic? My interest spiked and speculation raced through my mind. No, Gray was merely half-blood. If he had been more, I would have seen it when we’d met. However, I’d never thought to question what the other half was. Thinking back to what Tony had said about being a wizard, I blinked. Could it be that obvious? He’d said he came by it naturally with pure blood. From what I’d managed to uncover about the wizards and magic users out there, they tried to keep among their own. Did that mean that Tony’s father, being a wizard, was attracted to Gray’s mother because she was one by blood, too?

I put it all behind me amidst the flurry of dresses and conversations that flowed over me as Honora and the consultants poked and prodded. I decided long before we were through that revenge was a sweet thing and her time would come. I personally planned to see to it.

Later, after stories were read and Lizzy was tucked in for the night with the ever vigilant Ben reading a book in the corner of her room to watch over her, I curled up next to Gray and thought about it, again. Sated in the afterglow, the question popped out before I could stop it.

“You’re mother’s a wizard, isn’t she?”

Now, that hadn’t been how I planned to bring it up. No use worrying about it, though. He blinked at me as he tried to figure out where the question had come from. The barriers went up almost before I realized how close to the line I had walked. The sudden clarity of the situation washed over me. He hadn’t planned on telling me. I don’t know why that hurt so much. It wasn’t like we were going to have children to pass on the genes.

“Does it matter?”

“Not really,” I lied smoothly. I
could
lie when I had to—in the dark, anyway. “Honora was asking about Thanksgiving today and I mentioned I was nervous over meeting her. She told me that if your mom did her magic trick, then I would know I passed inspection. It got me to thinking, though. Putting that with something Tony said made me wonder. It explains why your magical signature is so different from the other angel spawn I know. I thought that it was because of who your sire was, but then…”

I let my voice trail off with a shrug he could feel. He must have felt more than that as his arm tightened reflexively around me. For the first time, I wondered if that little bit of soul that shadowed his emotions in my heart worked both ways. His heavy sigh ruffled my hair as he kissed my forehead and I felt immediately soothed.

“I didn’t mean to not tell you. Wizards tend to hide. It wasn’t that long ago when magical races and mortals both killed them on sight. The Salem Witch Trials were only the tip of the glacier of atrocities. I don’t think my mother knew what Gavreel was when she took him to her bed, but she certainly did when I was born. Hell, everyone did. My grandfather wanted to smother me discreetly. How’s that for love?”

The bitterness in his voice made my heart ache. I kissed his chest and felt like a heel for bringing it up.

“My mother’s answer was to take me and disappear before anyone could get any bright ideas. Meeting Dad was a miracle. Dad’s the type of man who simply didn’t care and was powerful enough to declare me off limits. My magic grew as I got older until the angel side overshadowed the wizard, so I learned how to shade them both. I chose simply to not call attention to any of my magical abilities. My mom never said anything, but by the time I was a teenager, I realized that my existence made life a little awkward for her. By not flaunting my angel heritage, I could hide her little indiscretion from those among us who didn’t know.”

Okay, I could buy that. He hadn’t planned to tell me out of the habit of saving what little of his mother’s pride he could. Of course, he had no idea how I would view the little war and it’s apparently recent ceasefire. Well, now he did. Leaning up to look into his face, I smiled as I kissed him lightly.

“You’re a good son, even if you did shack up with the undead.”

His startled laughter echoed in the night and we stopped talking for awhile.

Chapter Thirty-One

It takes exactly fifteen renditions of Old McDonald to get from Gray’s house to the Kennesaw nursery. Lizzy and I were off to see why Honora had cancelled the round of wedding stuff she had scheduled for the day. If that wasn’t enough to make me worry, she’d cancelled band practice for the evening, too. One might be okay, but not both. Something was bothering her, so Lizzy and I were going to kidnap her for an extended lunch. What she needed was a girl’s night out and I was just the girl to give it to her.

Wait, that sounded wrong. What she needed was a night of good clean fun on a five-year-old level. Lizzy was the girl to lead us on that adventure. I thought we’d start with Fuddruckers for hamburgers and ice cream that were so not according to any diets known to women. We’d go from there to life according to a five-year-old’s impulse. It sounded like the only way to ensure we wouldn’t be too serious for the day.

Pulling into the parking lot, I reached around to unhook the booster seat harness. Lizzy grinned at me as she bounced. I’d discovered I had a protective streak. Who knew that the undead could feel maternal?

“Okay, Lizzy, are you ready?”

“Oh, yes, Ms. Bella. I can’t wait. I’ll make sure Ms. Honora has a good time.”

She was strong enough to open the door and had scrambled out before I could unbuckle my own seatbelt. I followed her bouncing ponytail into the greenhouse and my suspicions were confirmed by the silence inside. Honora always sang to her plants. Lizzy disappeared into the maze of greenery and I lost her for a second. Panic raced through me and I started to call out, but the sound of her squeal of delight told me where she was. I followed it to find her sitting in Honora’s lap chattering away.

I know, bad bodyguard. Turel had not raised a finger, so it was easy to forget why she was with us. I admit I’d been more lax than I should be where she was concerned. I promised myself I’d do better as Honora’s eyes lifted to mine and she smiled sadly.

“We’ve come to kidnap you, Ms. Honora. Ms. Bella promised lunch at Fuddruckers and then we could go to the Botanical Gardens. I thought you’d like that. They have so many plants. You can tell me what’s what and what they do, just like you do here…”

I blinked and realized the tyke really had put some thought into my mad plan. That’s my girl. She earned extra cookies before bedtime once we got back home and a pat on the back for making good choices.

“Lizzy, honey, I have to work. I can’t…”

“Yes, you can. I’ve already worked it out. You never take your vacation time and it was approved without a blink. Apparently, we’re not the only ones who thought you needed a day off.”

She frowned. I smiled. We had her.

Lunch was a chaotic affair that ended with an ice cream eating contest that Lizzy won in spades. An hour later, the sugar high had dropped to her falling asleep in the middle of a rose garden while Honora lectured on the role of roses in medicines over the ages. No, it wasn’t that boring. It was pretty intriguing. I didn’t doubt that Lizzy was going to demand a full accounting exactly from where she fell asleep with her head in Honora’s lap.

I gave her enough time to be well and truly asleep before I asked the question that had been haunting me all afternoon.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Honora glanced at me and quickly glanced away. Reaching up to caress the petals of the rose hanging from the lattice right above her head, she shook her head even as she contradicted herself.

“I don’t know, really. Talking to Tony yesterday made me stop and think about how things ended with us. I’ve spent so much time blaming him for leaving that it’s hard for me to acknowledge what I did to drive him away. I did say those awful things.”

“We all say things when we’re mad that we shouldn’t. The people who love us will forgive. If they don’t, then they’re not our true friends, much less anything more.”

“I really thought he’d go to Gray’s and we’d work it out despite what I said.”

“What did you actually say to him?”

“He didn’t tell you?” The puzzlement on her face was clear as she turned back to face me. She really thought Tony and I were in cahoots against her. I shook my head and tried not to let that bother me.

“We’ve not talked about you at all. It’s not a topic for discussion in the house. To be honest, we’ve got our own rather unsteady truce going. He doesn’t like me enough to confide in me.”

Her eyes widened at that admission. “He doesn’t like you?”

“Nope. I think he believes Gray can do better, but that’s okay. I know Gray loves me and that’s all that will matter in the end. But that’s what’s up between us. I’m interested in knowing what happened that was so dreadful he skipped back to Texas with his tail between his legs. He strikes me as a pretty tough man to run off.”

She flushed and looked down to brush her hand through Lizzy’s hair. My sorry excuse for a ponytail hadn’t lasted through the initial mad dash down the paths of the gardens. Silence reigned with the occasional chatter of the squirrels to break it while she considered how much to tell me. Finally, she gave a deep sigh and glanced at me with a look I’d never seen on her face. It was a very old look, laced with a jaded air that wasn’t anything like the Honora I knew.

“Tony didn’t go to the club with me that first night Andy approached me about a contract. I was so flattered and excited when I got home. Tony had dinner ready and it seemed like the perfect ending to the perfect night. You know, someone walks up and hands you your lifelong dream on a platter. It was too good to be true and I was dying to share it with him. He listened, but was thinking like a lawyer instead of my boyfriend. I suppose I should have listened to his caution and saved myself some heartache, but I couldn’t bear for him to be right. He told me we should see what the offer was and get it looked at by professionals before we should even consider the proposal. He’d heard Andy had a bit of a shady reputation. At the time, I took it as jealousy. I thought he didn’t want my career to take off and was attempting to sabotage my first big break.”

She sighed and went back to soothing Lizzy’s hair over her lap as the little girl turned on her side, nestling deeper in her embrace. Since I didn’t think she was finished, I didn’t say anything. Interrupting would be a bad thing. My own heart ached with sympathy. Been there, done that, and paid the price with my soul.