Hunting Angel 2 (7 page)

He nodded his head.

“Well on the up side, you seem to be the only one who pisses me off lately. Maybe no one will notice.”

“Maybe…” But he sounded anything but swayed. It was more like he agreed for my benefit, to make me feel better.

I was sure this wasn’t good. If my eyes were changing because of our shared bond, what else did I have in store to look forward to? What other surprises awaited me?

Chapter 7

Halloween was like the best holiday ever. Hello free candy. Who can turn that down? I might be a senior in high school, but that didn’t stop me from dressing up and enjoying my inner child.

…Or having to take crap from Chase.

Apparently the sight of me in my costume was hilarious. He probably didn’t even know what I was. I was reluctant to admit how intoxicating his laugh was, realizing how little I actually heard it.

However, he was still a complete jerk. Some things never change. Chase might be incredibly gorgeous and I might be the teeniest bit attracted to the clad (okay more than a tiny bit,) but that didn’t mean that most days, I didn’t think he was a douche.

He looked me up and down, taking in the patched block dress I made myself, the red wig, and the stitches I’d drawn on my face. While he took his fill at the whole package, I tried to ignore what his gaze was doing to my body. Whenever Chase was near, it defied my wishes to be unaffected by his presence. Damn, uncontrollable body.

“Are you supposed to be homeless?” he asked, grinning widely. There was still a chuckle in his voice.

I started to shut the door in his face only to be stopped by his foot in the threshold. I glared, crossing my arms. “For your information bucko, I’m Sally Stitches.”

He just stood there looking blank.

I sighed heavily. Did he ever watch movies? “From
A Nightmare Before Christmas
.”

“Never seen it,” he said, looking unimpressed.

“You’re in luck,” I declared, yanking him inside. I secretly grinned. “We can rectify that immediately.”

He looked me from head-to-toe again, and once more I tried to ignore what his eyes did to me. It wasn’t easy. Especially since not that long ago we had been vertical, on his bed, doing things that still made me blush. He needed to stop affecting me like this. After all, I was only human, well mostly human I think. The jury was still out. “Why didn’t you go for something more girly?” he asked seriously.

“You mean slutty.” I was going to dropkick him. Soon.

He shrugged. “Your words not mine.”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s what you were thinking.”

“I’ll tell you what I am thinking,” he purred. His voice had suddenly gotten low and seductive.

That was the signal that I was in trouble. My body responded instantly to his insinuation. “Nope,” I said, waving my finger in the air. “Not tonight. Don’t even think about it. Tonight, you are not distracting me with your sexual prowess.”

“My what?”

“Just sit down. And keep your hands to yourself.”

He gave me a crooked grin. “I thought you liked my hands.”

“Don’t flatter yourself.” I knew I was giving off mixed signals, but I just couldn’t help it.

“Do you want me to prove you’re a liar?” he challenged.

One day I was going to make Chase Winters eat his words. I ignored him and popped the movie into the DVD player. Snuggling onto the couch next to him, I kept an ear out for the trick-or-treaters I was pretty sure weren’t coming. There was a giant bowl of assorted candy by the door. The good kind, it was brimming with chocolate goodness. Since we pretty much lived in the boonies, I don’t even know why mom insisted we buy candy. Really, how many trick-or-treaters did she honestly think we were going to get?

I’ll tell you.

Five. And two of those were Lexi and Travis. At least they understood the fun in dressing up.

The upside – I got all the leftover candy. Not that my hips needed the extra pounds, but my sweet tooth wouldn’t be able to ignore the temptation. It was kind of like my body being unable to ignore Chase. He tasted so good, but afterward you felt guilty.

On most days I thought my house was haunted. On Halloween, I was absolutely certain. All night I’d heard eerie noises. So when the ceiling above my head creaked, I should have expected it. Instead I acted like a scared little mouse and jumped into Chase’s lap, so much for the hands off policy.

His arms prevented me from tumbling off the couch. “Don’t worry Angel Eyes. I’ll protect you from the scary ghosts.” He smirked, mocking me.

“Hilarious,” I replied sarcastically…on second thought... “But seriously, are there such things as ghosts?” I asked hesitantly. It was plausible, right? I mean, I had a half-demon on my couch.

His sparkling silver eyes studied me, and then he burst out laughing to my exasperation.

Was that a yes or a no?

Luckily he was saved from my fists of fury by the doorbell. I’d been contemplating using them on him if he kept laughing at me. Trick-or-Treating had ended, but I figured there might be a few stragglers. Turned out, the straggler was Lexi.

“Am I interrupting something?” she asked, peering over my shoulder. “Or are you guys ready to go?”

Ugh. How could I have forgotten?

The sacred Spring Valley Halloween Bash.

It wasn’t so much that I had forgotten we were going, it was that I had been so caught up in the movie and not passing out candy. “Umm. Yeah totally ready. Right Chase?” I turned around expecting to find him stretched out on the couch, but he was right behind me. “Dammit. You know I hate it when you sneak up on me.”

He gave me a snarky grin. “I wasn’t sneaking,”

“Whatever. Let’s just go,” I muttered.

Spring Valley’s Halloween Bash consisted of an empty cornfield, piled with more pickups than I thought possible, a mile high, very unsafe looking bonfire, and the scent of un-chaperoned mischief. Stalks of dried and shriveled corn blanketed the ground. The bed of one of the many pickups blasted the newest Taylor Swift song, and there were red solo cups littered everywhere. The only source of light in the otherwise blinding night was the out of control fire and, of course, KC lights.

“Are you sure you are ready for this?” Chase asked, close to my ear.

I refrained from elbowing him.

Lexi, the sexy Grecian goddess, walked on the other side of me. Her hair tumbled in perfect pale ringlets down her neck. Her costume was a maxi-mini in glittering aquamarine, the same color of her eyes. She looked more Hollywood than horror.

“How the hell did you get Travis to let you leave the house wearing that?” Chase rumbled, getting his first real glance at his cousin. Travis and Chase more than often thought of Lexi as twelve-year-old girl. They could be domineering and fiercely protective to the point of suffocation. Sometimes the only course of action was blackmail.

Lexi’s smile was anything but sweet. “I threatened to snap one of his games in half.”

I gasped.

Chase looked like he was about make some form of overbearing and controlling suggestion. I butted in. “Give her some slack. It’s Halloween.”

“The day of the damned…I think I have a right to worry,” he retorted.

“Look, we don’t need a babysitter all the time. You’re stifling me. Us,” I corrected. He had me on edge. I don’t know why I said it, but I regretted it the second the words flew from my mouth. Everything between us was so intense now. I didn’t know how to deal with all these emotions I was having, and I knew taking it out on him wasn’t the answer.

I was going to have to apologize. Later.

“Yeah,” Lexi punctuated. “We are here to have fun, dance and drink. Not necessarily in that order,” she said, plucking a fruity wine drink from one of the coolers.

Chase scowled. He barely spared me another glance before he took off. I lost sight of him in the crowd and sighed heavily. The look on his face stuck in my mind. I tried to convince myself that I imagined the quick streak of hurt.

“Come on,” Lexi grinned, grabbing my arm. “Let’s mingle.”

I do not mingle. I don’t drink due to daddy issues that have completely sworn me off alcohol. And I most certainly do not dance. But it was kind of hard to say no to the strength of a half-demon pulling you along.

Kailyn and Brandy spotted us and waved wildly.

“What took you guys so long to get here?” Kailyn asked at our approach. She was dressed as Pocahontas. With her dark hair in braids and her olive complexion she fit the part perfectly.

“I promised my mom I would pass out candy while she was at work,” I informed her.

Brandy looked like she belonged in a harem. Her midriff was bared, and the material covering her legs couldn’t have gotten any sheerer. She looked like a genie in a bottle, but with a lot less class. “Well, you haven’t missed much, that’s for sure.”

Shocker. In a town this small, we would have already heard about it if something had happened. Everything moved slower than snot here, except for gossip. That spread faster than the flu. “The night is still young and in Spring Valley, you are more likely to see a UFO than something of real importance happening,” I said, unable to help myself. Poking fun of this town had become like second nature to me. Sort of like my love-hate relationship with Chase, though lately it seemed like we had come to some kind of truce, tonight excluded.

The world must have frozen over.

Brandy and Kailyn giggled.

“Ain’t that the truth,” Lexi agreed. “And trust me, alien sightings are a common occurrence here.”

No doubt, with the high demon activity they have running amuck. We chatted, but I sort of checked out of the conversation. Since I’d lost sight of him, Chase had been on my mind even though I tried to forget him. Scanning the crowd again, I looked for those silver eyes. Nothing. My heart sunk a little.

It’s your own fault
, I reminded myself. You wanted space. Well, suddenly I felt like I had too much space.

Lexi took a long swig of her bottle. When she turned her bright eyes on me, I knew I wasn’t going to like what she had in mind. She grabbed a hold of my hand. “I love this song,” she declared in a voice much louder than necessary. Someone was feeling a little buzzed.

Before I had a chance to protest, I found myself in the middle of what felt like a mosh pit. Bodies were bumpin’ and grinding, in what I guess what was called dancing. Someone elbowed me in the ribs, my toes got trampled, and I hadn’t even started moving yet. Not that there was much room to really move. I was so out of my element.

If I survived tonight, I was going to strangle Lexi.

I lost track of how long we swayed our hips to the bass. Somewhere between Tim McGraw and Miranda Lambert, Lexi brought me back to earth. She was also the reason I was wedged like a pickle.

“He’s watching you,” Lexi sung, twirling in a circle, the crystals on her dress catching in the firelight.

I was pretty sure that wine cooler had gone straight to her head. She wasn’t making much sense. What a lightweight. “Who?” I asked, trying to concentrate on the movement of my feet.

She rolled her turquoise eyes. “Chase, dummy. Who else?”

My heart sped up in triple time. “Oh. Whatever. He is probably waiting for me to trip over my feet and fall on my ass.”

She looked over my shoulder. “Hmm. I don’t think so. He is looking right this way.”

“Lexi, stop,” I growled.

“He is…wait…” Her eyes narrowed.

“What?” I screeched, barely able contain my exasperation.

“He’s scowling,” she finally said.

I relaxed. “Why is that abnormal?”

She had stopped dancing and looked around. I continued to move with the music, trying to blend in with the crowd. “Everyone is staring at you,” she said, her eyes connecting back to me. “You’re magnetizing.”

“What?” I said again in disbelief. This time I stopped what might have passed as dancing. What kind of mumble jumble was she going on about? Note to self,
Lexi and liquor don’t mix
.

“Chase is going to go ape shit,” Lexi informed, like I didn’t already know.

Somehow, a circle had formed around Lexi and me, making us the center of attention, exactly what I hadn’t wanted. People were still dancing, but they were more or less dancing around us. It was as if a spotlight was shining down on us.

On me.

I was going to puke.

I was going to faint.

Maybe both. I had to get out of here.

Leaving Lexi to her dancing, I pushed my way through the crowd, looking for some space and air. I couldn’t breathe. I kept walking and walking, until the music was just a low hum. Leaning against a beat up, rusty red truck, I drew in huge gulps of the cool breeze. It washed over my heated cheeks. I laid my head back and closed my eyes, enjoying the moment, the low music in the distance, the smell of burning wood, and the crickets singing in the fields.

Away from all the gawking eyes.

I didn’t hear the footsteps until it was too late for escape. My solitude was over. A cornstalk snapped, and I expected to see Chase’s surly face bulldoze into the clearing, even deadly with anger he looked devastating. But it wasn’t. Instead, I saw a very unwelcomed, wobbly Brody.

“Oh my God.” My hand flew to my chest. “You scared the bejesus out of me.” I didn’t even try to hide the annoyance from my voice. The hammering of my heart pounded under my hand.

He stepped in front of me with a red plastic cup in his hand and like most of the guys, forewent a costume. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to. I was being as loud as possible, I swear.” He drew a sloppy X across his chest and smiled at me.

What a dork
. “I think I’m just jumpy. Too much caffeine or not enough.”

He laughed with brown eyes that looked glazed, like melted ice. “That’s what I like about you, you’re funny. Not like the other girls at school.”

If he only knew how different I was.

“I’ve been waiting all night to talk to you.” His words sort of blurred together into one.

“You have?” I was utterly clueless as to why he wanted to talk to me.

He took a step closer, our shoulders brushing. “Of course. You look great by the way. Who you supposed to be?”