Redeeming Angel (4 page)

Just what I needed—a sit-in taking
place in my room. Scooting up, I pressed my back against the
headboard, tugging down my worn gray T-shirt. “We’ve been over
this,” I mumbled.

“
I know. And I still don’t
understand why I can’t see my best friend.” Her lips turned
downward.

“
Lex,” I growled, not
wanting to rehash the same old argument. “My answer is the same.
No.” I held my ground.

She looked around the room and then
yelled, “Emma!” My cousin turned her pouty plea on the hunter as
she darkened my doorway.

My jaw hardened. “Jesus. Why not make
this a party?”

Emma stood against the door, ankles
crossed in her usual black jeans and tank. “Oh, someone is feeling
prickly this evening. Did the big, bad wolf have a rough
day?”

I struggled for patience, the vein in
my neck throbbing. “Kiss ass, Emma.”

The redheaded Lara Croft wannabe
absently spun a pen between her fingers. “Don’t make me dot your
eye.”

I snorted. Emma and I could exchange
insults all day. I never comprehended the term frenemy until
Emma.

Lexi’s hands went to her hips. “You
don’t scare me, Chase Winters.”

Courtesy of Travis and me, Lexi had
been sheltered, protected, and indulged, which I was now
regretting. Shifting, the mattress groaned under my weight. I
rested my wrists on top of my knees.

“
Fine,” she said spinning,
her blonde hair flying in the air. “Emma will take me.”

Emma grimaced. “Uh-uh. Don’t drag me
into this. I’m not willing to risk the mongrel’s wrath. No thanks.
I’m saving my strength for when the world goes to shit.”

I frowned. It’s not like I hadn’t been
called worse, but on the flipside, at least she recognized my
skills and agreed not to help Lexi. It still blew my mind that Emma
and I could agree on anything. Not long ago, she’d been hell-bent
on carving out my heart. I had committed some pretty unforgivable
acts.

Lexi’s lip started to
quiver.

Oh dear God. Not tears. I couldn’t
handle another bout of tears, not from Lexi and certainly not from
Angel. Emma…? I no longer thought she was capable of deep
emotions.

“
I have a plan,” I quickly
rushed before a single drop made its way down Lex’s
cheek.

Searching my face, she narrowed her
eyes. “Why do I suddenly have a bad feeling about what you’re going
to tell me?”

I gave her a look.

“
Chase,” she drew out my
name. “I know that face. Tell me you’re not thinking of doing
something that demented?”

All I could do was clear my throat and
stare at the empty spot between her ear and shoulder.

“
Chase! You can’t. Not
after spending so much time controlling it. Not after everything
you went through.” She looked crestfallen.

“
Will someone please tell
me what the hell we are talking about?” Emma demanded, her golden
retriever ears perking up and the hunter in her sniffing out
trouble.

I ignored her. “I will do whatever it
takes to get her back, Lex. Even if it means sacrificing parts of
me.”

“
I want her back as much as
you do, but I can’t lose you both. There has to be another way.”
Her eyes began to well with tears.

It hadn’t been my intention to hurt
Lexi, but I also hadn’t intended to fall in love. Shit happens.
“There might be, but I don’t have time to waste chasing after
possibilities. This is the fastest way to get the answers I need.
You know it is.”

“
That doesn’t mean I like
it.” A tinge of yellow flashed in her irises as she rubbed her
hands down her arms like she was brushing off a chill. “Putting
yourself in that kind of situation is something you might not
recover from. It can change you. Would Angel want that?”

“
Someone better tell me
what is going on, or I’m going to start cracking skulls,” Emma
badgered.

I flashed my demon eyes before turning
back to Lexi. “The reverse psychology bullshit you’re learning in
class won’t work on me. It doesn’t matter anyway. My mind is made
up. What matters is Angel is alive and that I find a way to bring
her back. Her safety is more important than my black
soul.”

“
Fine, d-bag. Have it your
way, but I’m coming with you. Someone has to keep you from going
AWOL.”

“
No.”

“
Chase,” she whined. “If
you won’t let me see Angel, then at least let me help you. I can’t
sit here day and night, pretending everything is okay. Nothing is
okay.”

She didn’t have to tell me. My whole
world was turned upside down. “I’m going alone.”

“
Alone?” She started to
pace the floor, and I didn’t like the way her eyes began to glow.
She was supposed to be the one with all the self-control, and here
she was on the verge of letting her demon take
possession.

This was bad.

And only explained how much Angel’s
betrayal affected her. Lexi was far from okay.

“
Oh boy. Now you’ve done
it, Deputy Dipshit,” Emma said, leaning a shoulder on the
doorframe.

I frowned. “Travis!” I
roared.

A second later he popped his head into
the room, chomping on a mouthful of a monster-sized turkey club
clutched in one hand. “What?” he mumbled, crumbs covering his ‘I
don’t need to get a life. I’m a gamer. I have lots of lives!’
T-shirt. He had taken up wearing them in Angel’s honor.

Seeing the ridiculous shirt
squeezed my heart.
Will I ever get her
back?
I let out a heavy sigh. “It’s your
turn. Lexi’s throwing a tantrum.”

“
Again?” He ran his free
hand through his tousled sandy hair. “Christ.”

Lexi’s sea-green eyes went from me to
Travis and back to me. She shook her head. “You’re all idiots.”
Then she was gone as stealthily as she had arrived.

“
Umm, that went well
half-breed,” Emma commented. “Now, are you going to tell me what is
going on? Where are you going?”

An awkward silence
descended in the room. Travis inhaled another bite of his sandwich,
dropping more bread bits on my floor. I sighed. “Three’s a crowd,
don’t you think?”
Hint. Hint.
I wanted to be left alone. “Someone should
probably check on Lexi and make sure she doesn’t break a
nail.”

“
On it,” Travis said,
turning to leave.

I cleared my throat. “Take your
girlfriend with you.”

“
Winters, I have a right to
know what you’re planning. It’s my duty to protect humankind. If
you’re about to—”

Travis scooped Emma off her feet,
tossing her over his shoulder as she gave a little shriek of
displeasure. I didn’t know a guy on campus who would envy Travis
right now. Two extremely pissed off extraordinary females that
could give him one heck of a fight—he was going to have his hands
full. Hopefully, he didn’t come away with too many cuts and
bruises.

I waited until the door closed behind
them, listening to Emma bitch and moan to Travis about how she was
going to pull his balls out from his throat. Sinking against the
wall, I let my back hit the drywall. There was only one more person
I needed to see before I hit the road.

Chapter 4

{Chase
}

No matter how long I stood under the
steaming hot spray, I didn’t feel cleansed, and the growth on my
face was out of control. After a quick shave, I put on black sweats
and a white shirt that was identical to the fifty others I had. I
could have gotten dressed in the dark and my look would have been
similar. My wardrobe was simple. Jeans. T-shirts. Comfy
clothes.

I hadn’t even left the house and
already I felt tainted—the demon slowly shadowing my humanity. My
gut twisted as I stared at my reflection, the silver in my eyes
glossed by an uncanny gold.

Before Angel, I had traveled down a
dark path. There were many moments in my life I wasn’t proud of,
but there were some choices I wish I could whiteout, obliterate
from existence. Angel didn’t know of my less than stellar past,
other than I had one. I didn’t want to talk about it or think about
it.

That person no longer
existed.

The pain I’d caused my family was
unredeemable, and I’d taken a vow to never go back. At that time
I’d meant it with my last dying breath…until Angel.

She had no idea how much she’d saved
me. How much light she’d offered me at a time in my life when I was
emerging from such blackness. Knowing I was about to enter a past I
swore to leave behind was chilling, but for Angel, I would walk
through Hell. Nothing in the world was going to stop me.

And if it came down to it, I would
choose her over family, over life, over death.

There was no doubt in my mind I would
help. No matter what condition she was in when this was over, I
could handle it—we could handle it. I just hoped I was in a state
of mind to see her through the worst of it.

Plucking a set of keys off the
dresser, I turned to leave, kicking a discarded bottle of some kind
of carbonated drink. I swore and took a good look around my room.
Christ, was I in desperate need of a maid. Everything had gone down
the shitpot, including my necessity for tidiness.

Closing the door behind me, the house
was silent as I moved through it toward the front door. No one
tried to stop me. I didn’t know if I was relieved or disappointed,
not that it mattered. My mind was made up.

Slipping behind the wheel of my
newly-acquired sports car, I revved the engine a few times, eyes
glancing in the rearview mirror. This was it. Do or die. My foot
slammed on the gas. The wheels spun for traction a moment before
lurching forward and shooting down the road like a
bullet.

I had a thing for fast cars. I also
had a thing for crashing fast cars. In my defense, four out of five
of those had not been my fault. Demons materializing out of
nowhere, while cruising at speeds nearing seventy miles an hour
equaled big crashes. Angel unfortunately had a front row seat in
one of those famous wrecks.

The drive to nowhere was only about
twenty minutes from the college, but the way I drove, I could do it
in half the time, except my paranoia was real. I spent more time
staring in my rearview mirror than I did on the road in front of
me. Not a damn thing happened the entire drive. Sand and gravel
kicked up from the tread of the tires as I came to a
stop.

What was down in the cellar wasn’t
really Angel—not the girl I loved with every breath I took. And she
wasn’t in control of herself or her abilities. It was only a matter
of time before she hurt someone or worse…herself.

The idea of what I was about to do
screamed wrong on every level, but there was no other choice. I had
to do this.

As I stepped out of the car, a dry
heat more suitable for Arizona washed over me. Even the climate was
feeling the heat of Hell. There had been little butterflies in my
stomach the closer I got, but as I pulled open the hidden door, a
warm tingle shimmied down the base of my neck that had nothing to
do with the sun.

I couldn’t wait until I never had to
see this dump again. Titanium and whatever other twisted crap the
hunters used to secure this place fucked with my mojo. And no one
messed with my mojo, not unless they wanted to die.

I zapped down the stairs, anxious.
Whether she was snarling at me or threatening to kill me, it didn’t
matter. I only wanted to see her face one last time before I walked
into Lucifer’s den.

She lay on a bed of blankets, her hair
spilling over the gray material, eyes closed. Approaching the bars,
I slipped a hand through, my fingers brushing aside the tangled
mess of auburn hair. She could pretend all she wanted, but with me,
it was pointless. The quickening of her heart gave her
away.

{Angel
}

The sound of footsteps neared, and I
cracked my eyelids. A face, tilted sideways, came into view,
blocking the measly amount of light. Fabulous. It was my
not-so-better half.

The skin around his eyes crinkled as
his brows knitted together. “Good. You’re awake.”

My body locked up at the sound of that
particular male voice. Jaw clenched, I tried to look away. “Duh.
You try sleeping on a slab of metal.”

“
Guess I don’t need to ask
how you’re feeling today,” he said in a level voice.

I spit in his face.

The bastard laughed. “Spunky.” He
swiped the back of his hand across his face. “I’d say that’s
progress. I’m getting to you. I can feel it.”

Pushing up on the bed, I sung my feet
over the side. “The only thing you are feeling is my bitter hatred
emitting through our despicable bond.”

Backing up, he propped a shoulder on
the concrete wall, all while keeping those silvery eyes glued to my
face like he was memorizing every detail.

“
Take a picture, it lasts
longer.”

A lazy smirk crossed his lips. Amusing
him was not what I wanted to do. “Ah, there she is.”