Earth Angel (The Kamlyn Paige Novels) (22 page)

Without a word from Cara, I heard the small fast
clicks of her fingers on the keyboard in the background. She must have had her
laptop right there when I called.

“There’s a town in Texas called Corpus Christi.
It’s near Houston,” she said with a sense of pride, as if she were the first
one to raise her hand in class and answer a question right.

“Thanks so much. You’re a life saver.” I said
before turning my attention onto her. “So…how are you?”

I heard the loud click of the laptop closing. I
could picture her sitting on the old fluffy sofa, legs tucked up close under
her body for warmth and already in her pajamas with her hair in a messy
ponytail. I wished I could have been there for her during this hard time. Once
I was done with Lamia, I was going to go home and spend some time really making
sure Cara got through this okay. I knew the importance of moving on. She took a
deep breath before speaking.

“I’m good. I know Tom’s death wasn’t that long ago,
but I had closure. I know how he died and the one responsible for it is dead as
well.”

She sounded sincere, but I couldn’t be too sure if
she really meant it or if she was hiding her pain behind her signature positive
attitude. I looked at Don, who had been the last of us to check in on Cara and
he just shrugged his shoulders. I guess no one knew how Cara was truly feeling.
She was a strong woman, though, and I knew if she wasn’t ok now that she would
be eventually.

“That’s good. I’m proud of you. I’ll see you when
I’m done here,” I said to her before hanging up the phone. I walked back over
to where Sari and Don were sitting.

“Cara said the place is called Corpus Christi and
it’s near Houston. The drive is going to take the whole night so we better get
going,” I relayed the message I had just received.

They both stood up and Sari stopped right in front
of me, gazing into my eyes.

“I want Don to drive you there…” he said to my
surprise. “You’re the one who is going to stop Lamia and you need your rest.
I’ll catch up with you. I have to meet with the watchers again and try to come
up with an alibi for us that has nothing to do with you trying to kill a demon
goddess.”

I laughed and nodded my head. If I tried to face
Mia on no sleep and pure rage, the outcome probably wouldn’t be pretty. The
three of us walked down the porch steps to the vehicles. It pained me to think
about leaving Sari’s side, but I knew it had to be this way…if only for a
little while. The snow fell gently onto our cheeks, melting to little puddles
when it hit our warm skin. I brought my lips to Sari’s and kissed him softly.
Every time our lips touched it was as if the whole world were slowing down,
giving us time to savor the moment.

I watched as Sari climbed into my rusted truck and
shut the door. He looked at me through the thick glass of the windshield and
kissed his hand before waving goodbye to me. The engine roared as he turned the
key before backing out of the driveway and disappearing down the road.

“Boy, you’re really head over heels for that one,
huh?” Don asked, putting his arm around my shoulder as I stared out at the
dark, empty road.

I didn’t answer. It was clear he already knew my
feelings for Sari. Don turned, still holding onto my shoulder. We walked over
to his station wagon and he opened the door for me. It was refreshing to not
hear the piercing screech of rusted hinges. I got in and rested my head back,
trying to prepare myself for a long night of rest. I closed my eyes, but the
minute Don joined me in the car I felt sleep drift further and further away. It
had been ages since Don and I were alone with the chance to have a long
conversation. I had so much to tell him.

“I’ve heard this life is
overrated, but I hope that it gets better as we go.”

 – 3 Doors Down

The road was slick with freshly melted snow. Don
was driving the speed limit as he so often did. Whenever I complained he always
told me that if he was going to go out it wasn’t going to be in a stupid and pointless
car crash. The funny thing was Don was exactly the kind of guy I could picture
with guns blazing, running into the fire, going down swinging. I watched out
the window as trees and everything else outside became a blur. The only thing
visible was the white snow rushing past us at full speed as we ripped through
it.

I looked over at Don as he concentrated on the long
dark road in front of us, both hands firmly on the wheel. We had already been
driving for hours and in that time I’d tried every position possible to get
comfortable and fall asleep in. Nothing was working. I had too much new
information buzzing through my head. Since Sari came into my life, Don and I
hadn’t gotten a chance to talk and there was so much I learned about myself
that he had no idea about. It wasn’t like us to withhold from each other. This
was the first time I was nervous to share something with him. I wasn’t even
sure where to begin.

As I stared at him, counting the little specks of
gray hairs mixed in with the dark ones while building up my courage, I opened
my mouth cautiously. Like every other difficult situation I faced, it was
always best to just dive right in without thinking too much.

“What would you say if I told you I was different
than everyone else out there?” I asked while fidgeting with my hands.

“I’d say I’ve known that about you since the day we
met,” Don laughed.

“Well, what if I told you I had…special powers?” I
spoke slowly, not wanting to come off as insane, but not wanting to hide the
truth either.

“Well, then I’d have to ask if you were reading
those ‘Harry Potter’ books again,” he laughed once more, not grasping the fact
that I was trying to have a serious conversation.

Just jump in I told myself. Don’t hold back. He
would never judge you or reject you because of who you are.

“I’m not one hundred percent human is what I’m
getting at, Don,” I blurted out.

His face tightened with the shock of what I had
just revealed to him. He took his eyes off the road, just for a second, to look
at me as if I should look different now that he knew there was something else
to me besides human.

“This is that guy’s doing isn’t it?” he asked me,
raising his voice slightly. “He’s got you thinking all these crazy things so
that you’ll feel obligated to stay with him or something, is that it?”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. How could
Don even think I would be stupid enough to fall for someone’s tricks like
that?  I had proof I was out of the ordinary.

“Sari would never do that to me,” I defended,
raising my voice to match his. “What he told me is true.”

“Yea?” he asked, not trying to hide his sarcastic
undertone. “And what’d he tell you?”

“That my real father was an angel which makes me
half,” I answered, lowering my voice halfway through the sentence.

Saying it out loud did sound a little crazy to me,
but there was no way I could keep this secret from everyone I loved. Don was
the closest thing I had to family, except for Cara, and I wasn’t going to take
them for granted. If something were ever to happen to Don and he died without
knowing who I really was, I would never be able to forgive myself.

“And how do you know this is true?” he asked after
a long pause.

Don glanced at me out of the corner of his eye as
if he were unsure he wanted to know the answer to his own question. What would
be most convincing and impressive way to prove my point? The fact that I can
travel anywhere in the world without ever leaving my hotel room, or that I can
actually kill a demon and have the victim survive? Any example should be more
than enough proof.

“I’ve done things…things normal people aren’t
capable of,” I started off.

He glanced over at me again. His eyes widened,
asking me for more information.

“I’ve traveled the country and found evil just by
closing my eyes. I can see things happening inside my head. I stopped a soul
sucking spirit with the touch of my hand…I killed a demon who was possessing a
girl…actually
killed
it and the girl lived!” I said, the elevation of my
voice escalating.

Don just stared at me, forgetting that he was
driving at night on a dark highway. The honk of someone else’s horn as he crept
over into their lane brought him back to what he was doing.

“What else can you do?” he asked, trying to hold
back a tiny grin of excitement.

“You don’t think differently of me?” I questioned,
double checking I hadn’t gone from a hunter to hunted for being different.

Don was the one who taught me to discriminate
against the unnatural. He always said no matter what it is, even if it appeared
to be good, do not trust it if it wasn’t entirely human. I thought for sure
when he found out about me it would be the end of my little tight-knit family.
I pictured him dropping me on the side of the road and speeding off while his
tires squealed. The actuality of being abandoned on the side of the road
wouldn’t bother me as much as the emotional abandonment from someone I cared so
deeply for.

To my extreme dismay, the truck began to slow down
as it cautiously swerved off the road and onto the shoulder. Don put his car in
park and turned to look at me, his eyes full of disappointment and anger.

“Don’t you ever think for one minute that I could
ever hate you for being you,” Don said, narrowing his eyes.

I looked away from him and stared out the window as
I thought about the strong statement he had just declared. I turned back and
smiled, leaning over to give him a long, tight squeeze. I was so relieved to
hear that he wasn’t going to turn me away and forget all about me because of
this.

“You will always be my sweet Kamlyn. Nothing can
change that. It’s your core…it’s who you are,” he muffled into my shoulder as
we hugged.

Once we loosened our grip on each other, Don smiled
at me mischievously.

“So, show me something,” he demanded.

There was only one thing I could think of that
would really show off just how amazing my abilities could be. I had only done
it once successfully while held up in the hotel room practicing with Sari. He
had warned me it was dangerous and should only be done when absolutely
necessary. I debated this for a moment before grinning back at Don.

“Okay, watch this!”

I closed my eyes and thought about the back of
Don’s station wagon. I cleared everything else out of my head and pictured
myself standing next to it instead of sitting in the passenger seat. I felt as
if I were as light as air, drifting through the breeze before feeling my feet
land on the cold hard pavement.

“Oh wow!” I heard Don exclaim from inside the car
as he looked around.

I walked over to the driver side window, knocking a
few times to get his attention. He rolled down the window and stared at me with
his mouth wide open. I felt exhilarated, as if I had just been somewhere no one
else had ever discovered before.

“I can’t believe it!” he yelled as he stared at me.

I ran back over to the passenger side and climbed
into the warm car. I shook the water from my hair, letting it splash Don a
little.

“They call us Earth angels apparently and I am the
last of our kind,” I said, now enthusiastic about giving Don all the
information I could.

I suddenly couldn’t wait to get back home and tell
Cara all about me as well. If anyone was going to truly appreciate this, it was
going to be Cara.

“Who’s your real father then?” Don asked, bringing
me back to reality and the one question I was constantly asking myself.

“Sari said he has to be a fallen angel too because
they were the only ones to have had relations with humans, but he hasn’t
figured out who it is yet,” I admitted.

“Why doesn’t he ask some of his other angel buddies
and see if any of them know which one could be your father?” Don asked
innocently.

It was the same question I used to ask. If the
watchers weren’t trying so desperately to be invited back home then I could
easily figure out who my real father was. It was the possible imminent death in
revealing what I was to them that was stopping this from happening. I looked at
Don and all the excitement and joy that now filled his usually tired face and
wondered if I should tell him about the dangers I could be facing if I was
figured out.

“The thing is…my existence threatens the watcher’s
chances of being accepted back in and if they found out who I was they would…”
I stammered, trying to be blunt and to the point. “They would kill me.”

Don was strong. I knew he could handle anything,
including what I had to say. But as I stared into his wrinkled eyes that were
now filling with tears, I doubted my decision to tell him anything at all. I
had never seen him react this way.

“And Sari knows this? What if he tells them?” he
started to ramble as the panic built up in his voice. “How do you know he’s not
going to just give you up and…?”

“Don, stop,” I interjected before he could throw
out another accusation. “Sari and I love each other and once this Lamia thing
is over with and I quit hunting for good, he is going to cut his ties with them
and stay with me. We’re going to be fine. No one is going to find out.”

I felt like an eighteen year old telling her father
she was moving out of the house to go live with her boyfriend. Instead of
arguing with me further, he accepted the fact that there was nothing he could
do about me and Sari. He lowered his gaze to his tightly clenched hands on the
steering wheel and took a few deep breaths.

“If that’s the case I want you to quit now,” he
whispered, but his voice had an underlying determination.

“What? Are you serious? I can’t quit now. I’m
this
close to finding Lamia and destroying her,” I said in an uproar, not sure how
the conversation even took this turn.