To Fall (The To Fall Trilogy Book 1) (33 page)

“Busy,” he muttered.

“With?” I snapped.

He wagged his phone like I was a moron.

“You talking smack about my best friend to your idiot cronies?”

Putting his phone away, his light brown eyes twinkled. “Whoa! Look who found her lady balls!” That was an image I didn’t need.

“Why did you do that?”

He shrugged. “Because I can.”

“Beth is a nice girl.”

He flinched. “Exactly, too nice.” His eyes flashed something that didn’t match his words.

“You aren’t worth getting upset over.” I paused and studied his eyebrows. “You know, it’s time for another waxing.” With a smirk, I turned the oven on and I caught Mark checking out his eyebrows in the mixing bowl.

I was in charge of the mixer and put the setting too high, most of the dry ingredients ended up on my shirt. Mark laughed. Picking up the excess on the counter, I threw it at him. “If you’re gonna be my partner, you’re gonna look like it today.”

Leaning over, Mark’s lips were too close, and his eyes were not where they should be. “You know, Miller, we should hook up. You’re feistier than I thought. I like that.”

“You must want to sample my fist today, Richards,” Xander growled just loud enough for Mark to hear.

Mark’s eyes widened and his face paled a fraction. He turned to see Xander looming over him, seething. Snickers erupted from Greg and Jake. After a thorough swallow, Mark nodded and finally started to help me. Xander threw me a wink before returning to his kitchen.

Quite a few times, I glanced to Xander and Jake, talking like they were best friends. I didn’t understand how boys could act that way. When girls hated each other it was a lifelong passion, forgiveness wasn’t a part of our vocabulary. Guys came to blows and they were right back to being buddies again. Weird.

My cupcakes burned and Mark’s frosting was lumpy. Our assignment was gross and an utter disappointment. Mrs. Bradley didn’t bother putting our samples out for taste testing. Jake gloated, adding a tick on the board for himself and Xander.

After class, I laced my fingers with Xander’s. “Why didn’t you wait for me?”

He stopped walking and spun toward me. “I texted you.”

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t see it.” I waited for a verbal explanation.

“I wanted to talk to Mrs. Bradley.”

“What for?”

Xander sighed and shifted his feet. “I figured you wouldn’t want to be paired with Jake after the last time.”

“You talked to her?” Doubt colored my tone.

He winced. “Okay, yes. I may have used mind control.”

“You paired up with him?”

“Yep. Keep your enemies close, right?”

“I guess,” I said, looking down at my feet, still uncomfortable with his one ability.

He kissed my hand to bring my attention back to our conversation. “You and Mark? What’s going on there?”

“Taking care of a little best friend business.”

“I don’t have to worry about him do I? I didn’t particularly care for his propositioning you.”

I smiled at his old-fashioned vernacular. “So not my type.”

One arm looped around my waist and had me tight against his chest. “Oh? What is Abigail Miller’s type?”

“I have singular tastes. The Alexander Wright. He is tall, dark, handsome, unique, and heavenly.” Reaching up, I kissed him.

His voice was a sexy rumble. “Heavenly, huh?”

“Oh yeah.”

48

Xander

As much as I didn’t want to, we needed to hunt during fall break. Since it would take time for Cresil to regain his energy and return, now was a safer time to go. The university in Northern Arizona attracted demons and it had been a while since we were up there.

Patrolling the bars, we found Fraim, a demon duke in Prince Vetis’s realm. Before Fraim realized he couldn’t sense our souls, Hannah’s hand landed on his neck and trapped him.

Fraim’s near black eyes flashed in the dim lighting as they peered over the thin-rimmed glasses his human vessel wore. “Well, lookie what came waltzing in the door. The winged rats.”

Caleb nodded to Fraim’s side. “Who’s your friend?”

“Oh, this?” Fraim pet the head of a semi-comatose boy that couldn’t be older than sixteen. “My company.”

“We should take him home for you, Fraim,” Hannah offered. “Wouldn’t want you to get your clothes dirty when he pukes on you.”

“I didn’t know rats were so considerate. You would ruin my fun, though.” Fraim pouted at me. “Many warned me of you, especially. Cresil told me you like to ruin his fun.”

I glared at him. “What else did Cresil tell you?”

Swirling his finger in the amber liquid, ice clinked against the glass, and then he sucked his finger. “He wants what’s yours.” He cackled. “He will you know. He’ll have her.”

Feeling my body coil, Caleb held me back. “Hannah,” he implored.

“Gladly, Caleb. I’ll take out the filth.”

Following Hannah to the back alley, I shut the door just as her wings unfurled around the tank top. Fraim screeched and fought against her light, lifting a few feet off the ground. Hannah slammed him back down, chunks of asphalt rained over them. I loved that demons believed a female angel would use anything less than brute force. He was no match for her. She growled, “Demon Fraim, with the Light of God, I cast you back to Hell!”

Calista wiped the boy’s mind and cleaned his body of drugs. Hannah called his parents and sobs erupted from the earpiece. She pulled the phone from her ear, cringing. The girls bought the kid a burger while they waited for his parents to get him.

I called Abby again. “Hey, beautiful.”

She giggled. “Okay, there has to be something wrong. You cannot miss the sound of my voice that much. This is the third call in two hours.”

“I miss everything about you, including your voice. You doing okay?”

She sighed, “I miss you. Does that count for okay?”

“No, that’s terrible news. I’ll have to make it up to you.”

“Please. I’m stuck at home with a drooling dog and twin girls who are obsessed with Mario and Luigi
.
They downgraded me to Toad because I can’t get my thumbs to move fast enough. I keep dying and they’re yelling at me,” she complained. “How are you going to make it up to me?”

The purr in her voice had me wishing she was in my arms right now, my lips on hers. My siblings were too close to finish this conversation the way I wanted. “Hmm, I have company here.”

She laughed. “Gotcha. You can plan on taking advantage of me Sunday.”

“That was a given.” Hannah signaled me and I followed. “I have to go. Caleb found another one.”

“I love you, be careful,” she pleaded.

I smiled. “Love you. No need to worry.”

We cast forty demons, a record number for this area, and each of us noticed. A few of the demons goaded us with talk of Cresil, aimed at me. And after each one, I was compelled to hear Abby’s voice, to make sure she was okay, giving me a little peace. The worst one was demon Hagath. We chased her to the Grand Canyon.

Bouncing down the sides of the red rock, Hagath skidded and tore up the sparse cacti and wild desert flowers. Caleb and Hannah followed her on the rock face. Calista and I hovered in the air, ready to catch her if she jumped.

Hagath slipped and fell down the canyon. Landing at an odd angle, her human body bore deep scratches. She wasn’t healing, weak from being on Earth too long and her human would suffer the consequences.

The demon perched on a thin ledge. “You rats have no idea what you’re up against!”

Calista shook her head. “I’m pretty sure we do. Heaven versus Hell. Good versus evil. Yada, yada, yada. We’ve been doing this a while.”

Hagath cackled, and then coughed with blood flowing from the corner of her mouth. “No, my dears. Hell is coming. Hell will reign here. You can feel it, can’t you?” With a long blink, her human eyes turned completely black and shot up in the air. Caleb caught her and landed back on the ledge. She shielded her eyes from our angel light, squinting to find me. “You! Cresil is coming. He’ll get what’s yours, rat. I think Cresil might be obsessed, actually.” She laughed again.

Caleb’s voice shook. “Calista, take her.”

In a swift move, Calista switched places with Caleb. Calista said, “Tell us, Hagath, what’s the master plan of this millennia? Same as the last one? Get as many of you little guys up here? I hate to break it to you, it never works.”

Hagath threw her head back, laughing. “Little guys? No, my dear. Not the
little guys
.”

I flew in closer. “What does that mean?”

“Oh, I think you know.”

“Impossible, Hagath,” Hannah hissed. “Your foul king cannot come to Earth.”

“Oh? We shall see.” Hagath broke from Calista’s hold and fell onto a jagged boulder. The demon threw her vessel’s head against the rock. Bones crunched and blood splattered against the desert floor.

We bolted after her.

Calista gripped her neck first. “Demon Hagath, with the Light of God, I cast you back to Hell!”

We healed the woman and Calista kept her in a dream state.

Hannah asked, “Are we thinking those are empty threats? Or…?”

Caleb scrubbed a hand through his hair. “There were more demons here than I expected. A lot more and back home is getting worse, too.”

We nodded in agreement and returned the woman home to her family.

Abby asked to ride my R6 for our two monthiversary tomorrow and I was happy to take her. Before flying home, Caleb and I stopped at a bike shop to buy Abby a helmet, and the girls went clothes shopping. I zeroed in on one section and picked the perfect helmet of pink embossed with delicate white swirls.

“Pink, huh?” Caleb looked at it in disgust.

I laughed, admiring my choice. “She likes pink.”

He shrugged. “Is everything going well with Abby?”

“Yeah, of course, it is.”

He looked down to his boots. “I meant in the romantic department.”

“Well, we haven’t had a lot of alone time lately,” I muttered.

He nodded. “I guess we hang around a lot, huh? I’ll talk to the girls. Sorry, we like having Abby around, like a fun little sister. She’s always giggling and smiling. And her soul is…incredible. She’s infectious.”

“Yes, she is.” I smiled thinking of Abby again.

Caleb nudged my arm. “Man, you’ve got it bad.”

“You have no idea.”

Picking her up Sunday morning, the same thought ran through my head. How very blessed I was. She looked so sexy in skinny jeans hugging her curves, tight T-shirt, and a ponytail that showed off her neckline. The look in her brown eyes made the world around us disappear. One day away from her was torture. A week was pure Hell.

Without another thought, our lips slammed together, and I pulled her away from the house windows. My hands roamed down to cup that perfect bottom and picked her up, holding her against my constant reaction to her. Normally, I didn’t kiss her like this in public, but a week away necessitated inappropriate kisses. The neighbor’s lawn mower stopped, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw him watching us and broke our kiss.

I pulled the 4Runner up to my drive and found the garage was open and my siblings wore riding gear, pulling their bikes out. “What are you doing?” I asked, shutting my door.

“Getting ready for our ride,” Hannah stated as if I had turned into an imbecile.

Evidently, Caleb didn’t have a discussion with the girls yet; he shrugged before turning from my glare. Unbelievable. I looked back to Abby who had a bright smile on her face and I let the group outing slide.

Hannah had an old riding jacket that we rolled up the sleeves for Abby, and I pulled on my own black leather jacket. In the garage, I presented the helmet to Abby.

Her face lit up. “How did you know? Pink!”

“Because ninety percent of everything you own has pink in it or on it, even your toes.” I helped slide the helmet over her head. “You sure, beautiful?”

The weight of the helmet exaggerated her nod. “Heck, yeah!”

After running through how to mount the bike, I slid on and started it. Abby hopped on behind me and snuggled against my back. I realized how difficult concentrating was going to be when I really wanted to shut the bike off and take her to my bed. But this was an experience she wanted and I would never deny her.

I advanced out of the drive. Abby clutched onto me, her fingers dug into my stomach, and her legs squeezed mine. My siblings zipped around us in blurs of red, blue, and black. Sensing her racing heart, I slipped her hands one at a time under my shirt and focused my healing gift to my stomach. It was weaker there, but it would get the job done.

The combination of Abby’s hands on my abs, her thighs cinched around me, and our flush bodies had me more than distracted. My thoughts turned inappropriate for most of the trip, thinking of any excuse to pull over and kiss the hell out of those lips.

After an hour, I figured her seat and back were achy, so I decided to stop at a diner. Abby dismounted and we pulled off our helmets. “Hungry?” I asked.

“No, but you must be. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you would have to use your gifts.”

The parking lot was empty and I didn’t hear my siblings’ bikes yet; I had at least a five-minute lead on them. It would have to do. I hooked a finger in her belt loop and tugged her closer. “Do you think an apology is what I want after being between your legs for an hour?”

Her gaze dragged over me and her lips parted, driving my need to have them all over me. “Did I tell you how incredibly sexy you are? And you on this bike? It doesn’t suck.” Her words came out breathy and the pulse jumped in her neck.

“No, but please feel free to show me instead.” Before she could blink, my hands grasped her hips and I had her straddle me on the bike. The corner of my mouth tipped up. “Welcome to my crotch rocket.”

She opened her mouth for a retort, but I took the opportunity and sealed my lips to hers. Her sweet tongue teased mine and my reaction was instant. Gripping her hips, I pulled her farther down. She felt amazing against me, and damn, a moan came out of her that had me wondering if I could drive home this way. That probably wasn’t safe, but…

Somehow, my ears were still working and I heard a bike come closer. They had to have been going well over one hundred miles per hour. Hannah parked and I glared at her. “Sweet angel light! Five minutes! I haven’t seen her for a week!”

Hannah’s laughter sounded louder as she pulled off her helmet. “Are you trying to cram the whole week into her mouth right now? Don’t your tongues ever get tired?” We both shook our heads and smiled. “Oh, good grief!”

“It wasn’t my idea.” Caleb held up his hands. “I told you he would be upset.”

Calista blinked at us. “Alexander and Abby wouldn’t be upset with us!”

Caleb’s mouth opened, but Abby cut him off. “Hey, let’s go eat!”

Once settled into a booth, we ordered hamburgers and fries with milkshakes. Since Abby only pecked at her food, she shared her plate with me, even though I had polished off two double burgers already.

Calista asked, “What are we doing the rest of the day?”

I stared at her. “I don’t know what you guys are doing, but Abby and I are going to have private anniversary time. Alone.”

Calista’s mouth went slack. “Oh, come on, Alexander!”

Leaning toward her, I growled, “Over my broken wings you are coming out with us tonight.”

Caleb’s shoulders shook, biting into his burger. Hannah and Calista were ready to persuade me, but my glare silenced them.