Milayna's Angel (10 page)

A hand squeezed my shoulder and I screamed,
the sound echoing in my ears, bouncing around in the painful chasm
of my brain.

“Milayna,” he called. He sounded so far away.
“Are you having a vision?”

I think I nodded. Or maybe I said yes. I
wasn’t sure. The images were flashing so quickly through my brain
that it made me dizzy and bile rose in the back of my throat.

Me. My back turned. The person is advancing
on me. A hand taps my shoulder. I turn and smile. It fades,
replaced by a look of shock. The person glances down. My hands are
holding my stomach. I pull them away. Blood. So much blood. It
covers my hands and drips to the floor.

Screaming, I put my hands to the spot on my
belly I saw in the vision. I looked down; there was no blood. I
gasped for air. One hand clutched my head, fingers fisted in my
hair. My other clutched the place I was stabbed. I could feel the
sizzling pain, the gushy, warm blood as it oozed between my
fingers.

It’s not real. It’s not real.

Slowly, the pain eased, and I opened my eyes
and saw my dad’s worried face.

“Are you okay? What did you see?”

Closing my eyes, I shook my head. I couldn’t
speak; the pain in my skull was still too crushing. It seemed to
reach into my lungs and suck out the air.

Breathe in… breathe out… breathe in… breathe
out… It’s not real… It’s not real…

Finally, the last of the vision dissolved and
with it, the horrible sight of my blood spilling onto the kitchen
floor. The pain disappeared, and I opened my eyes again. My dad’s
face came into focus. Behind him was another face. One I loved just
as much, but differently, than my dad. Worry lines creased his
forehead, and his blue-green gaze searched mine.

“Chay,” I said, my voice cracking.

My dad smiled and moved out of the way. Chay
took two long strides and reached out to me, pulling me against his
chest. He gently caressed my back, whispering to me.

“I love you,” he said in my ear, his warm
breath fanning my hair against my neck. He kissed the hollow behind
my ear, sending shivers through my body. Even after the horrific
vision, his touch sent my body into a tailspin.

“What did you see, Milayna?” my dad asked
from across the room.

“Me.”

“What happened? What about you?”

“Someone stabbed me.” I looked down at my
stomach again to make sure it wasn’t real.

“Who?” The question was from a new voice.
Someone else in the room. I recognized it—I knew who it belonged
to, and I didn’t want to see him. Xavier.

I looked up, and Chay’s face was hard.
Clutching his arms, I looked into his eyes. “Don’t.”

“What?” he whispered. If you could yell and
whisper at the same time, that was what he did.

“There’s nothing for you to be jealous about,
Chay. I love you, remember?” I held up my ring finger, showing him
the commitment ring he put there just days before. “You.”

He smiled and kissed the tip of my nose. “Are
you feeling better? Do you want something to drink?”

“Yeah, something to drink would be
great.”

Chay started to stand to get it when Xavier
said, “I got it.”

Chay shrugged and settled back on the couch
next to me, pulling me closer to him. I snuggled deep into the
crook of his arm, soaking up the comfort he gave.

This is where I belong.

Xavier walked to me and handed me a Coke.
“Thanks,” I said, reaching for the glass.

“Who stabbed you?” Xavier asked again.

I shrugged, taking a sip of the cold pop.
Setting the glass on the coffee table, I looked at the three men in
my life.

“I don’t know. I couldn’t see the person’s
face. In the vision, I was looking at everything through my
attacker’s eyes. I saw what they saw. But I know it was someone I
knew and trusted.”

“How?” my dad asked.

“Because I smiled when I saw them, and they
stabbed me right there.” I pointed. “Right in our own kitchen.”

The room buzzed with silence. They were all
probably thinking the same thing I was. Who in my life would want
to kill me? Who did I trust enough that I would never suspect? And,
the most important question, why?

8

“You’ve seen, haven’t you?” Scarface poked
his sausage finger at me.

The hobgoblins had been running through my
yard for twenty minutes. Chay had been there for eighteen of those
minutes. Xavier seventeen. We sat in the sunroom, watching. It was
too cold to go outside and sit on the deck, but I still got the
faintest whiff of sulfur as they ran past the windows. Now that
their playtime was ending, I stood at the door to hear what they
had to say.

“Seen what?” I asked.

“How you’re going to die,” Scarface said with
a twist of his deformed mouth.

“No, actually, I haven’t.” That was true for
the most part. I’d seen visions of someone trying to kill me. But I
didn’t die in any of them, and there was more than one way the
person tried to make it happen. Choking and stabbing. I wasn’t sure
of my preference. Although, I was almost positive it was
neither.

“You’re a liar.”

“You’re a pain in the ass. Go away.” I kicked
snow at him.

“It won’t be long, Milayna,” Scarface
warned.

“Whatever.”

“Milayna’s coming to our house to play!”
Friendly exclaimed in his shrill voice.

There were two puffs of white smoke and the
little red goblins disappeared, the scent of sulfur heavy in the
air.

“Well, that was interesting.” Xavier covered
his mouth and nose with his hand. “They stink.”

“You get used to it.” I walked back into the
sunroom, Chay and Xavier following close behind.

“I’ve never seen one up close before.”

“Really?”

“No, they aren’t all that common where I come
from.” Xavier smiled with a quirked eyebrow.

I shrugged. “I guess not.”

“Well, now that the party’s over, I guess you
should be on your way.” Chay glared at Xavier.

Subtle, Chay.

“They won’t be back?” Xavier asked.

“My house is close if they are.”

“Okay, then. I guess I’ll see you at school,
Milayna.” Xavier bent and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before
he strolled out the door, whistling.

Chay took a step after him. “Chay Roberts!
Don’t you go out that door,” I said through clenched teeth.

He looked from me to the door, clearly
weighing his options. “He kissed you.”

“On the cheek. I barely felt it.”

“You were trying to feel it?”

“No! Look, the important thing is this…” I
took his face in my hands and kissed him, my tongue dipping slowly
between his lips before I gently sucked his bottom lip in my mouth.
Pulling back, I looked into his blue-green eyes. “I kissed you.
Which do you want to go after, the one who kissed me or the one who
kissed you?”

He smirked and lowered his lips to mine,
grazing over them softly. “Definitely the one who kissed me.” He
leaned in for another kiss when someone behind me cleared their
throat.

“Damn it!” Chay threw his arms up in the air.
They came down with a thwack against his legs. “I swear, Milayna,
I’m going to kill him. And he’s so infuriating that no sane jury is
going to convict me of it either. Hell, they’ll probably give me a
medal.”

I turned around and rolled my eyes. “What do
you want, Xavier?”

“Well, on my way home, I came across a group
of not-so-nice looking demi-angels. I believe you call them
Evils.”

“And how do you know they’re Evils?” Chay
licked his lips before sucking his bottom lip into his mouth.

“Call it a sixth sense,” Xavier said
blandly.

We walked around the side of the house,
stopping short before Muriel ran into us.

“Drew’s on his way. What’s he doing here?”
She jerked her thumb in Xavier’s direction.

“He can answer, you know,” Xavier
snapped.

“Sorry. Check the ‘tude, dude, geez.” She
glared at Xavier before looking at me with her eyebrows raised.

Oh! She doesn’t know yet. She’s probably
trying to figure out a way to get rid of him before the fireworks
begin.

“Muriel, there’s something you should know
about Xavier. He’s an angel.”

Muriel opened her mouth, and then snapped it
shut.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought too,” I said
with a frown.

“Well, whatever. We can sort all that out
after the fun is over. Jake and his crew are here.”

“Jake?” Xavier asked.

“Yeah. He’s the worst. A real badass who gets
off on the fights.” Drew jogged to us from the side yard. “He has a
thing for Milayna.”

“You mean like a romantic thing?” Xavier’s
eyebrows pulled down over his eyes.

“No, that’d be me.” Chay gently pushed me
behind him and away from Xavier. “Jake has an
I-want-to-see-her-dead thing for her.”

Xavier’s jawed worked. The tendons in his
neck grew taut. “I guess I don’t like Jake.”

“That’s probably the only thing you and I
agree on. I don’t like Jake, either. We thought he was dead three
months ago when Azazel threw him in the pit. It was a big surprise
when he showed up for school the next day. Him, Stephen, and the
bitchy duo.”

Xavier pinched his forehead between his thumb
and index finger and asked, “The bitchy duo?”

“Lily and Shayla. Jeff was the only
unfortunate one. Azazel broke his neck,” I shuddered at the memory
of the sound of Jeff’s bones cracking and watching his body crumple
in a heap on the floor. “It’s a memory I wish I could erase.”

“What egregious error did Jeff make that
caused his untimely demise?” Xavier asked me.

“Dude, you talk like my grandfather,” Drew
said, looking at Xavier. “What’s he doing here anyway?”

“He’s an angel.” Muriel jerked her thumb at
Xavier.

“You’re an angel,” Drew told Muriel, making
her cheeks turn pink.

Chay rolled his eyes. “I see you’ve finally
gotten around to realizing what everyone else has known for a
year.”

“What?”

“That you two are complete idiots for each
other.”

I laughed.

Drew looked Xavier up and down, drumming his
thumb on his thigh. “So, an angel, huh? How old are you?”

“Eightee—”

Drew shook his head and interrupted, “No, not
how old you came to earth as. How old are you really?”

“We don’t have the same concept of time as
you do. I don’t know how to calculate it into human years.”

“That old, huh?” Drew grinned and turned his
ball cap backward.

“Milayna,” Shayla called from the front
yard.

“Hmm, I guess the fun’s about to start. Do
you know how to do this?” I looked at Xavier.

Uh-oh. There’s gonna be an angel
beatdown.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, we’ve all been trained in hand-to-hand
combat and self-defense. You know, high-impact mixed martial arts
and crap like that. Personally, I always wanted to take piano, but
my parents forced me to take—”

“Milayna,” Chay interrupted with a sharp
shake of his head.

“Right, save that for later. Anyway, do you
have any… talents? I don’t suppose they have dojos where you come
from.”

“Dojos? No, but I can hold my own,” he said
with a smirk.

“Whatever,” Chay said under his breath.

“Milayna!” Jake yelled.

“Well, your initiation is about to start.” I
knocked on the side door to the house. “Dad? We have company.”

“Yeah, I see them. I’ll call the police.”

“What will the police do?” Xavier asked. It
was obvious he was totally unprepared for human life.

“You’d think they’d have a training course or
somethin’ for you guys before you come bouncing down the clouds to
our part of the universe,” Drew said, shaking his head. “You’re
gonna get your angelic butt handed to ya.”

Chay sniggered.

“The cops break up the fight. That’s usually
how these things end. It helps that a lot of cops are angels or
demis themselves, like my dad, Uncle Rory, and Chay’s dad. They
know the drill. So they usually put a stop to the fights. Unless,
of course, the Evils and demi-demons complete their mission,” I
explained as quickly as I could. Jake walked up the driveway toward
us.

“And their mission is?”

“Dunno. Last time, it was to either get me to
change sides or kill me before I turned eighteen and Azazel was
able to absorb my powers. Maybe Azazel is still trying to kill me,
who knows?”

“But you’re eighteen. What good would killing
you do?” Muriel asked, turning to me. “I thought we were done with
that.”

Chay scrubbed his hands up and down his face.
“He can’t absorb her powers, but he can take her powers away from
the group. She’s the highest-ranked, strongest demi we’ve got.
Robbing the group of her visions would mean he could pick us off
one by one if he wanted. None of us are immune like she is,” he
said.

“Hey, Milayna.” A smile slid across Jake’s
movie-star handsome face. His baby blues sparkled in the light cast
from the porch light. A lock of blond hair fell over his
forehead.

“Stay out of the way and try not to pee
yourself, that’s all you need to do tonight, Xavier.” Chay shooed
him away with a flick of his fingers.

I inclined my head toward Jake in
acknowledgement.

“It’s been a while,” Jake said.

I stared at him, not speaking. I felt Chay’s
hand on the small of my back, his thumb rubbing the skin just under
the hem of my T-shirt. “Be careful.” He kissed the hollow behind my
ear.

I smiled slightly. “You, too.”

I knew what was about to happen. Everyone,
except maybe Xavier, did. Jake had a thing for hitting girls. He
liked it. A lot. Especially hitting me. He was gearing up to rush
me. I could see his body tensing, getting ready to push off and
launch himself at me. I also knew he’d never make it. I could feel
Chay’s body grow taut, ready beside me. He’d block me before Jake
could ever lay a finger on even one hair on my head. I had no doubt
of that.