Reignite (Extinguish #2) (3 page)

She was different now, with her flushed cheeks and heartbeat so strong
he could hear it where he sat, but remnants of the angel still lingered in her
body. Her essence was intact, calling out to him, somehow connecting with a
part of his soul so strongly that he could almost feel her heart beating within
his own chest.

Probably
because you hijacked her Grace, asshole
.

Remaining still, sitting on the filthy ground, Luce watched her in
silence. She was casually strolling down the street, enjoying the afternoon
sunshine. Happiness surrounded her like a warm glow, a fact that made Luce both
smile and viciously ache.

Guess ignorance really is
bliss
.

She paused near the community center, her brow slightly furrowing as
she glanced around. She was looking for something, but what, Luce didn't know.

He couldn't hear her thoughts.

He sensed the connection with her, though. The residual angel in her
recognized something in the air. Luce could tell from the way the glow
surrounding her flared, like a spark igniting.

As he stared at Serah, desperately trying to get a read on her blank
mind, a pop of static electricity echoed through the playground. He forced his
gaze that direction, caught off guard by the sudden presence of another angel,
seeing a female in a red dress with curly blonde hair.
A
Virtue, one of the nature dwellers.
She stood a mere few feet from him,
her gaze focused across the street at Serah.

The angel shielded her mind, her thoughts purposely blocked from Luce.
He prodded, his protectiveness urging him to try to get some idea of her task,
to figure out what the hell she wanted from Serah, to no avail.

The angel's attention shifted to him when she felt him prying into her
mind, her eyes narrowed. "You can't steal my thoughts, Satan."

Satan
. Man, he still hated that fucking name.
"Nice to see you, too."

"Nice?" she sneered, hostility in her voice he was unaware
her kind was capable of possessing. "There is nothing nice about your
existence. Your presence poisons the air, tainting everything I vow to
protect."

He stared at her.
Dramatic much
?

"You, snake, are Earth's greatest enemy," she continued.
"You're an abomination. A
mistake
."

He cocked an eyebrow at her. "Thought Daddy didn't make
mistakes."

She stepped toward him, glaring. Man, she was pissed. "You lack
compassion, lack remorse. You may be free at the moment, but it won't last
forever, because I'll make sure you pay for what you've done."

Through her anger, her guard slipped, letting Luce glimpse into her
unbridled thoughts. Hannah was her name. Serah had been by her side since the
beginning of time, and she harbored deep resentment over losing her best
friend.

"Careful, Hannah," Luce said quietly, looking away from her.
"Your wrath is showing."

Without responding, Hannah evaporated, the pop of static loud. Luce
glanced back at the street then, finding Serah long gone. Sighing, he gathered
his cards and slipped them in his pocket for safekeeping before standing up and
walking away from the school, determined to find her.

Serah had turned her attention
away from the area and strolled down the street. Luce followed behind, hands
needlessly shoved in the pockets of his black pants, bare feet dragging against
the concrete.

He had no purpose for following her, other than driving himself crazy.
Maybe he still got his rocks off on suffering, because seeing her and not being
able to talk to her, or be with her, was undoubtedly torture of the worst kind.
A few times he thought about touching her. She wouldn't feel it, or really know
what it was she felt, the touch of an angel little more than a tickle,
resonating deep inside of them, but he'd feel it.

And if he touched her, he suspected he wouldn't be able to let her go.
He hadn't been brave enough to even get close enough to make that happen.

Maybe he was the coward now.

He followed her all day as she walked to and fro. He could hear some of
the thoughts of those she encountered, hear their assessment of the young woman
who always smiled and never seemed to be in a hurry to get anywhere.

They thought it was weird, how she stopped to smell the flowers when
she encountered some.

Luce thought there was nothing
more beautiful.

Serah tugged at the stiff black dress
as she gazed in the mirror, casually fixing the white apron tied around her
waist. It was a stark contrast, the black and the white, the light and the dark
against her pale skin.

It's not all black and white
.

The peculiar words echoed through her mind, whispered in a voice that
wasn't hers. She wasn't sure where they came from, or what they meant, but the
words washed through her like they were gospel.

The room was cramped, barely large enough to contain the old double
bed. It had a bathroom, though, and a small television, and even had a
mini-fridge wedged into the corner. It was air conditioned and heated, and
wired with electricity, giving Serah nearly everything she needed.

It wasn't perfect, but she
wouldn't dare complain. She had a job and a place to stay, two things she had
woken up without. The time following her injury, the mysterious incident that
caused her memory to be wiped, had been filled with doctors and sterile
hospital rooms, flimsy backless gowns and rehabilitation centers. They poked
and prodded, interrogated and investigated, before merely shoving her out into
the streets and wishing her the best of luck.

Compared to
that
? This was practically Heaven.

"Knock, knock."

Serah glanced toward the open doorway as Gilda Barnhart stepped into
the room. She seemed a lot like her son, round and kind, with hair bordering
between blonde and white.

"Hello," Serah greeted her, smiling warmly.

"I see the uniform fits."

Smoothing the material, Serah glanced down at herself. "It
certainly does."

"So I brought your cart up and left it out on the walkway,"
Gilda said. "There are only two rooms occupied today, 7A and 21B. You'll
want to talk to the front desk in the mornings for a list of our occupancies,
just so you're aware, but your key is universal."

Serah pulled the key she'd been given when hired from her dress pocket.
It was a card that when swiped would open every door in the motel. She gazed at
it, running her fingertips along the magnetic strip. "Thank you."

"Of course," she replied. "It's great to have you on
board."

"It's great to be here," Serah said, meaning that as she said
it.

Gilda gave her a quick rundown of what to do, which added up to basic
maid services, nothing Serah couldn't handle. The woman departed with a
whispered
good luck
, leaving Serah to her duties.

Neither rented room was actually
occupied when Serah made it to them. She swiftly cleaned both, in and out and
finished within an hour. She returned to the lobby of the motel and stepped
inside, approaching Gilda as the woman sat behind the front desk.

"Now what?" she asked.

"Nothing," Gilda said. "That's it."

That was it? Didn't seem like much of a job to Serah. People worked
from nine to five, didn't they? It was barely ten o'clock in the morning.
"Are you sure?"

"Positive," Gilda said. "Enjoy the rest of your
day."

Shrugging, Serah stepped back out of the lobby, on her way back to her
room, when something across the street caught her eye. Her footsteps briefly
faltered. It was a man, wearing all black, with dark hair, shorter on the sides
and dramatic. He was handsome in a harsh way, his features sharp, his
expression stoic like a hardened warrior, but that wasn't what stalled her.

What stalled her was the spark of recognition.

She'd seen him before.

And he was watching her.

There was something strange about him, the way he stood so still it was
like he wasn't breathing, a fixture along the street, alive like the trees, but
not swaying in the breeze. She recalled his face, a face she'd seen before,
staring down at her when she awoke in the street, her mind a blank slate. No
name, no identity, no sense of direction, but his eyes were as familiar as
looking at her own reflection.

Her lips parted as she tried to think of his name. She knew it… she
could feel it… but she couldn't think of it, no matter how hard she tried. She
blinked rapidly, trying to force it forward by sheer will, but it evaded her.

As did he.

Another glance across the street
and the man was gone, like he'd vanished into thin air.

Sin.

It was
everywhere
.

Greed. Wrath. Sloth. Pride. Envy. Gluttony. Lust.

Luce could feel it permeating the air like a fog, growing denser as he
approached the bar on the outskirts of the city. The place appeared rundown,
like the remnants of a long ago abandoned saloon, the old porch falling apart,
the windows broken, but people still frequented it.

Sinners
.

It wasn't a place anyone with a stitch of self-respect would step foot
into, so it didn't surprise Luce a bit that Abaddon's essence was all over it.
While angels couldn't technically feel, the emotions of uninhibited humans
tended to have an affect on the guardians. The sins were raw, pure power in the
air, which called to them like an emergency beacon, feeding their energy.

The more depravity, the stronger the
Guardians.

Luce could feel the humans
because he'd been damned, fallen from Heaven, tapped into the sensations, but
Abaddon was the closest to mortal as angels got. Humans often depicted Guardian
Angels as lifesavers, guides that existed to keep them safe, but more often
than not, Guardians were dicks, spending their days mingling with humans and
mocking their mistakes. And they certainly weren't the beautiful beings all the
paintings portrayed them as.

Abaddon, for instance, looked like a fucking pirate that hadn't
bothered to bathe in weeks.

Luce lingered outside the bar for a moment, absorbing the unsavory
sensations, before strolling inside. His gaze was immediately drawn to Abaddon,
sitting casually on top of the very end of the bar and leaning back against the
wall, his wings fully emerged.

Flashy son
of a bitch
.

Nobody saw him.

Nobody knew he was there.

He looked up as Luce approached, a sly smile twisting his lips.
"Well, well, well... if it isn't the Prince of Darkness."

Luce slid onto the stool right in front of him, refusing to respond to
the title. It was almost as bad as Satan. "Don."

"What brings you by?"

Truth
be
told, Luce didn't know. He was just
tired of wandering all alone. "Was just in the neighborhood."

Abaddon laughed. "Can't say an Archangel has ever dropped by these
parts before."

"Yeah, well, I don't know that I count," Luce said. "I'm
more of a hybrid these days."

Curiosity twinkled in Abaddon's eyes. "You still got your wings, right?"