Loving Angel (A Divisa Novel Book 4) (6 page)

Chapter 9

I woke up that first morning with something tickling my ear. My hand swatted blindly through the air in an attempt to shoo away whatever
it
was. The flutter came again.
It
had a death sentence.

Drowsy, I growled and rolled over.

It
giggled.

Pesky flies, annoying mosquitos, or irritating bees didn’t giggle.

My eyes shot open. What I saw stole my breath.

I should have known.

The tingles that were ever-present when Angel was close were going haywire. She was smiling down at me, looking freshly showered. The smell of hand-plucked peaches and sweet nectar surrounded me. I watched as her long lashes swept up, revealing those shattering eyes.

“You’re going to be late,” she said.

I rubbed my hands over my face. “For what?” I yawned, stretching my arms above my head.

Bringing her face inches from mine, she spoke low. “Freshman orientation, sleepy-butt.”

“Do I have to?” I grumbled, flipping on my side. I curved an arm over her hips, my blood already humming. Who needed coffee to wake up? Angel was better than any caffeine buzz.

“Don’t make me—” She pulled at the covers, then immediately froze, her eyes widening. “Are you naked?”

That did it. My lips upturned into an unapologetic grin, and I caught her eying my fabulous bod.

Her cheeks flamed. “Seriously. You’re naked.”

I winked. “I know.”

She chewed on the inside of her lip, staring at my stomach.

A burn started in my chest, under my heart. “It’s nothing you haven’t seen before,” I reminded her, reaching out with the intent of thoroughly distracting her.

The cute pinkness spread on her cheeks. “Oh, no you don’t,” she said, scooting out of my reach. “There is no time for what you have in mind.”

“Oh, yeah.” Then I whipped back the covers. Let’s just say I wasn’t shy.

She let out a yelp and jumped from the bed, her hands flying over her eyes. “Chase!”

I laughed.

Peeking through her fingers, her blue eyes heated. “You’re deplorable.” She dropped her hands. “Now stop being so tempting and get dressed.” She tossed a shirt she’d plucked off the floor at me and, with averted eyes, started to walk out of the room. As her hand reached the doorknob, she turned, smacking her forehead on the doorframe. “Ouch, dammit,” she cursed.

Unable to help myself, I rolled over on the bed, laughing hysterically. Water gathered at my eyes.
Oh, Angel. What am I going to do with you?

Grimacing, she held a hand to her head and slammed the door closed.

I breathed out slowly, grinning, but the humor died the moment she left the room. In its place was a pressure clamping down on my chest. I missed her. Nothing would alleviate the heaviness, except Angel. I sighed, not pleased about starting my day before noon. Regrettably, I dragged myself from the comforts of my crumpled sheets and hit the shower, a cold one.

She was waiting in the tiny kitchenette for me, munching on a bowl of Fruit Loops. I still couldn’t believe we were living under the same roof. The idea brought a smirk to my lips.

We were going to drive each other insane.

But our three bonds would thrive.

It wasn’t just having her close that would strengthen our ties to each other, the longer we were physically near one another, the greater the impact of the triforce—soul, heart, and body. The three were a potent combination.

Her brows arched. “It’s a miracle. He is wearing a shirt.”

I ran a hand through my damp hair as I watched her standing over the counter, chomping on the colored cereal. “I knew you were obsessed with my body.”

Milk sloshed over her spoon. “I’ve seen hotter.”

“Oh, yeah.” That was a challenge I couldn’t refuse. My fingers skimmed the edge of my shirt. I pushed up the black cotton material inch by slow inch, baring my midriff in my best stripper pose.

Her husky laugh was loud and full. “No you didn’t.” She snorted indelicately, milk threatening to spill out her nostrils. “That was priceless. Good God, stop before I choke to death.”

Seeing her huge smile only made me want to go further. I blinked in front of her, pressing intimately against her body, just to see her cheeks flush. It backfired. Her laughter intensified, and I was disappointed in more than one way.

“Don’t. You. Dare,” she warned between fits of giggles. Her hands waved in front of her like she was having a seizure.

Not exactly going as planned. “How’s your head? It looks like there might be a knot forming.”

“I’m fine.” She stuffed a spoonful of cereal. “It will heal.”

Indubitably. It was another perk of being bound to me. She healed at alarming speeds, same as I did. Rummaging the cupboards, I searched for something to eat other than cereal. I heard her fidget behind me and finally caught on that she had something to tell me. “Spill it,” I said, facing her. I rubbed the pad of my thumb against her waist.

She swallowed. “Guess who showed up while you were snoring logs this morning?” A sneaky smirk played on her lips.

Strutting to the coffeepot, I poured myself a cup, noticing the mug had some gamer mumble-jumble written on it. “Do tell.”

Crunch. Crunch
. “Emma,” she said with a mouthful of cereal.

She was shitting me, right?

My hand was paused midair, clutching the handle. Behind me, I heard a snarky voice that made me cringe.

“Heya.” In walked my redheaded nightmare.

I guess that meant Angel wasn’t kidding. A guy could hope. It wasn’t like I didn’t know that Emma would be here. I had just hoped it would have been later—much later. The little hunter was bad news.

My fingers dug into the mug. I didn’t even bother to hide my frown. “Joy,” I mumbled.

Angel elbowed me in the side.

“What did you eat for breakfast? Bitch Flakes?” Emma said drolly.

The hunter and I had a bad rap sheet. She had once been assigned to kill me. She failed, as many are prone to do when taking on such a daunting task. I’m no easy target. Angel, as usual, got caught in the crossfire between my battle with the hunters, and I had to make an executive decision. So…I killed Emma’s father. He was basically the CEO for the hunters.

The only reason Emma and I could be in the same room without bloodshed was because my girlfriend had compelled her to forget that I murdered her father. How was that for a twist?

Angel had the ability to compel those I couldn’t, like other Divisa, demons, and hunters. The hunters took a synthetic serum that rendered my compulsion useless. Angel was the antidote. There was no one she couldn’t bend to her will if she was so inclined. It was a heady power, and the thing was, she hated using it.

“I’m about to—” I started to say, before I was rudely cut off.

Angel kicked me in the shin and covered my gripe by clearing her throat. “So, Emma, do you like your room?”

Angel and Lexi were bunking together. I had my own room, being the only guy. And the final bedroom was given to Emma. I refused to let either of the two people I cared about sleep in the same room with her. I also reinforced the lock on their bedroom door yesterday when we got here. You never know when the hunter might lose her mind and go completely mental.

Emma’s watchful emerald eyes were honed in on me as if she knew what I’d been thinking. “Compared to some of the places I’ve stayed, this is like the Hilton.”

Awkward.

None of us really knew, except maybe Travis, the torment Emma had endured at the hands of her own father. He had kidnapped her for God’s sake. That was extreme, even for my standards. What kind of nightmares she’d suffered while held captive by her asshole father was anyone’s guess, but I had a good imagination. Appallingly, it made me have just the teeniest empathy for Emma.

I still didn’t trust her.

Taking a sip of my black coffee, I pretended that I had no idea what she was talking about as Angel struggled for a response. How did you follow a comment like that? We all had parental issues, but none of us wanted to talk about it. What a house of misfits.

Angel pleaded with me with her eyes, looking to me to ease the mounting discomfort. I leaned back, crossing my ankles, and cradled my cup. She had opened this can of worms.
It’s all you, babe.

She narrowed her eyes in a sarcastic thanks-for-nothing glare.

Lexi breezed into the kitchen, grabbing a banana. “What did I miss?”

My cousin always had such impeccable timing. Thank goodness. The uncomfortable level was at epic proportions.

“Nothing. Just the two love birds attempting to christen the kitchen counters,” Emma said dryly.

Angel’s pretty little mouth dropped.

My cousin made a scrunchy face. “Ew. TMI. I swear the two of them are like rabbits,” she said to Emma as if Angel and I were invisible.

“Hello,” Angel called. “We’re still here. And nothing happened.”

Emma opened her mouth to bless us with another condescending comeback, except her expression contorted in pain and she grimaced, her hand flying to her temple.

“Hey. You okay?” Angel asked, concern lacing her words.

Emma kept her head hung, rubbing the side of her head with one hand and the other braced on the counter for support. “Yeah. It’s just a headache. I’ve been getting them a lot lately. Stupid allergies.”

Allergies my ass.

The hunter and I were going to have words, and until then, I was keeping a close eye on her, like stank on skunk.

Angel and I shared a look. Shit was going to get real. I could tell by the worry that crossed her face, she was thinking about doing something utterly stupid. She bit the inside of her cheek, and I knew I was going to have to save her from herself.

There were consequences for scrambling people’s memories. The more you meddled in someone’s mind, the greater the irreparable damage. If we weren’t careful, we could end up screwing Emma far more than she already was. And Emma’s mental state was questionable as is. Dig too deep and you might set off a machine with a
no kill
switch. That was a chance I wasn’t willing to take.

For Angel as well as Travis.

If I could help it, I would do everything in my power to make sure that Travis didn’t suffer the anguish of losing the girl he loved a third time. I felt a sense of obligation to Travis and Emma’s tumultuous relationship. Travis and I were just at a place were things felt
normal
again. How could I jeopardize that? I had promised him that I would look out for her. Why did I always have to make the hard decisions? Angel and Travis might not like it, but even at the expense of her returned memories, not compelling her would be the right thing to do.

I would hurdle that boulder when it came.

Northern Illinois University—home of the huskies. The mascot looked like a cute version of a hellhound. I didn’t know if I should take that as a bad sign. Our high school mascot had been a devil. Seriously, could I not get away from the Hell references? Or maybe it was my mind turning everything into something related to Hell.

After two minutes of standing in a line that was going absolutely nowhere, I came to one conclusion.

Orientation blows.

“Why am I here?” I asked, quashing my umpteenth yawn. Crowds of students gathered outside, around the white square tables set up in the courtyard with poster boards advertising college groups, events, and class schedule information. Not that I gave a hoot.

“To pick out classes and plan your major,” Angel stated obviously.

Right
. “Easy.” I smirked. “I’ve got that covered.”

She looked unconvinced. “How exactly?”

“I’ll take whatever you take.”

“Chase.” She drew out my name exaggeratedly. “No more shadow.
You
need to figure out what
you
want to do with your life.”

I take it this wasn’t the time to tell her that right now, I wanted to
do
her. She was wearing these skimpy frayed jean shorts and a white crop top that showed off her tan belly. Her scent teased my senses.

Drool.

I bestowed her with a charming smile. “The only thing I want out of life is you.”

Try as she might, she was amused. “You’re so lame. How did I ever fall for you?”

“If we ever make it through this never-ending line, I’ll show you.”

My tacky moment was ruined by none other than Emma and her extra-large mouth. “You guys make me sick.” She proceeded to make awful gagging noises.

I folded my arms across my chest. “Aw, Deen. Someone need a hug?”

“Touch me, and I’ll embed my knife so far up your—”

Unable to help myself, my lips twitched. “I think I got the point, G.I. Jane.”

Emma’s poisonous green eyes narrowed. “My middle finger salutes you.”