I hide behind his shoulder and peer out carefully. The last thing I want to do is scream like a maniac in front of the entire student body of West Paragon High.
It’s Michelle. The door’s wide open, and Michelle’s sitting there smoking a cigarette flanked by Emily and Lexy, creating a disgusting cloud of bitchiness.
Logan’s chest rumbles against me as though he were going to say something, but doesn’t.
“What did you think you were going to see?” I ask in a hushed tone.
“Something evil,” he whispers back.
“Looks like you were right.”
“Looks like I was.” He trembles with an inaudible laugh. “I didn’t want to tell you this last night, but Chloe thought this place was haunted.”
I take in a sharp breath. That explains more than a few things.
“I can spend the night if you like,” he offers.
His offer is a balm to my newfound misery, although I question if he’s telling the truth or utilizing scare tactics to his advantage.
“That’s OK. I have Bree.”
“I’ll stop by after the meeting anyway.” Besides, there’s something I want to show you that you may not have discovered about the house.
“That it grows eight furry legs at night, and it’s really a tarantula?”
His brows knit together.
Gage pops up behind him and slaps him on the shoulder. “Time.”
“All right.” He takes me by the hand and we move swiftly toward the front. “Expect me after midnight.”
He drops a kiss on my forehead and disappears into the crowd.
I’ll be seeing you long before then, I muse. Only you won’t know it.
23
Awakening
I found Nicholas Haver’s address this afternoon in a Paragon Island phonebook at the foot of Tad’s desk. I thought I’d have to dig for hours, scan the Internet, pick Brielle’s mom for information, but it was all so easy.
I head upstairs and change from my jeans to a charcoal running suit. I want to make every effort to blend into the night. Really I’m only planning on hanging out on the periphery to get a feel of what’s going on—eaves drop if I’m lucky. Besides, didn’t Logan say you needed to be thirty to go to one of these? Or maybe you needed to be thirty to learn all of the benefits? Who the hell cares. All I know is if Logan and Gage think they can go—so do I.
“Hey.” Brielle grabs me by the arm as I dig out the spare key to the minivan from the kitchen. Lucky for me Tad would rather pay a cab than risk his precious ten-year old body wagon get stolen from the pier. Little did he know I would be the one stealing it—borrowing it. “Isn’t this great?” She bounces into me.
Ellis Harrison shadows her from behind. I remember him from the party he threw when I first got here. He’s tall, good looking and his teeth glow in the dark. I don’t know why Brielle doesn’t go for him instead of Drake—so many choices to make and such poor choices being made.
“I gotta make a food run. I’m starving.”
“Are you kidding?” Clearly she wasn’t expecting me to leave my own party.
“No really. I’ll get a ton of food and be right back.”
“You can’t feed all these people!”
Something in the living room breaks, sounds like glass, and I’m praying it’s not a window.
We head over to find a bottle exploded all over the floor.
“I’ll get some towels.” Brielle offers rushing back to the kitchen.
I ditch out the front, the cold night air penetrates right through my clothes with a glacial chill, making me wish I’d brought a jacket.
“I’ll go with you.”
I don’t even notice Ellis at my heels until I unlock the minivan, and he piles in.
“You can’t come.” I shoo him out with my fingers as I start the engine. Technically I don’t have my driver’s license. I was way too petrified to drive around L.A. so I took my sweet time getting my learners permit. Plus, it probably didn’t help that my father died in a fiery freeway collision right about the same time. Nothing to dampen your zest for driving like a little vehicular homicide.
“I want to.” He’s quick to buckle himself in, and for a moment I consider taking him. He won’t have to know why I’m sneaking around. He can sit in the car. He can protect me from freaky women who like to hang themselves in my presence, and we can go out and eat donuts afterwards. It’s made of win.
I shake myself back to reality.
“Get out of the car,” I bark.
“OK, OK.” He holds up his hands in an effort to quell my aggression.
“I mean thanks, but I can’t drive anyone under twenty-one for the next two decades. It’s a special stipulation on my driver’s permit.”
His forehead wrinkles.
“Liar, liar pants on fire,” he says it calm and eerily out of cadence. “You’re going to see Logan. He’s not the right one for you, but have it your way.” He gets out of the car.
I roll down the window.
“What do you mean?” I shout after him.
“I mean, I am.” He holds out his arms while walking backward up the driveway.
Dream on.
***
Nicholas Haver lives behind the gates.
Shit.
I slam my hand against the steering wheel.
The guard at the gate all but laughed when I told him I was going to visit my friend Nick. He went over the list twice before making me circle back around to the main road. Then it hits me. Ellis Harrison.
I fly back down to the house, which eats up another twenty minutes and find Ellis standing in a circle of smoke with two guys I don’t know.
“Ellis,” I hiss.
The whites of his eyes glint.
“You got food?” He asks with glassy eyes.
The air smells funny. I see one of the guys pass a joint to the other, and I take in a sharp breath.
“You guys can’t do this here!” I try to ventilate the area with my hands. “I’m going to go to jail or prison for this. Plus my mom is totally going to kill me!”
“Relax.” Ellis snaps out of his stupor and looks surprisingly normal.
“I changed my mind. I want you to come with.” I drag him by the elbow and shove him into the passenger seat.
I run around to the other side and click on my seatbelt.
“Buckle up,” I yell, backing out the driveway in haste.
“Where we headed?”
“Your place.”
“There’s no food at my place.”
“We’re not headed there for the food.” I try to sound mysterious like maybe he might get lucky, so he won’t protest and screw up my chances of getting behind the gates. Nicholas Haver’s house is miles away from the front gate, and I don’t much like running around the dark in the middle of the night.
We drive in silence. Or at least I think we do until he lets out a loud series of strange noises and I realize he’s snoring.
I shake him abruptly as we arrive at the gate.
“Help you?” The guard asks peering into the car.
“I’m taking Ellis Harrison home. Right, Ellis?”
He gazes at the night security guard through heavily lidded eyes.
“Hey there.” The security guard gives a brief salute as the barricade rises.
I roll past the guardhouse and into the quiet solitude of the backcountry of Paragon Estates.
I’m in.
I’m going to the faction council meeting—with a very stoned Ellis Harrison.
24
Just Call Me Angel
“Over there on the right.” Ellis points to his house, bright eyed and bushy tailed.
I pass it up trying to visualize the map, which I stupidly forgot to bring with me. I know he lives on a cul-de-sac called Saddle Drive, and he’s the only house on the block so it can’t be that hard to find. It veered right off Steamboat, which is the main thoroughfare.
“Turn around right here,” he instru
cts.
“I’m not going to your house. Would you like me to drop you off?”
“No,” he says suspiciously. “You passed up his house too.” His being Logan’s.
“Not going there either. I need to pick up something for a friend at Nicholas Haver’s house. You know him?”
“Big Nick?” There’s a note of disbelief in his tone.
“Yeah, big Nick. So what does big Nick do anyway?” No point in letting my imagination run wild if Ellis is willing to blab.
“Construction.”
“Oh right. That makes total sense.” Not really.
Ellis instructs me on the details of how to get there, and after several twists and turns down unmarked roadways I come to realize there is no way I could have gotten here on my own. So it’s sort of a God thing Ellis is with me.
The street is loaded with cars. I park high up on the ridge behind a giant shrub and get out of the minivan.
Ellis joins me.
“You mind waiting in the car?”
“You’re parked like a mile away. I’ll come with. Besides, I like Nick. I helped him do an addition last spring.”
“OK. But I have to tell you something. I’m not really here to get anything from Nick. I have to ask you to wait by the car. This is strictly female business. I’m actually here to see his wife.” Who I pray actually exists.
His face darkens.
“Well if you put it that way.” He leans against the minivan and crosses his arms.
Stay, I shout at him mentally as though he were a dog.
It’s beyond dark, so I open up my cell and let it illuminate a pathway over to the property. I round out the back and find a giant structure, like Ellis’s pool house only ten times that size. The lights are on, and I can see a bunch of heads sprinkled around the room.
I tiptoe across the long stretch of yard with no bushes, or trees, or structure to obscure me. I glide across something greasy with my left foot, and it’s not until the foul odor hits my nose that I realize I stepped in a pile of dog droppings.
Gross.
I smear my shoe along the grass until I work most of it off.
If there’s dog crap, where’s the dog?
I don’t waste any time analyzing the situation, instead I hug the back wall, slightly out of breath from the long trek over.
Voices emanate from inside.
The window clear on the opposite end is open so I get on all fours and crawl over.
I can hear them perfectly clear as if I were in the room.
“Noster can’t afford to side with Celestra,” a male voice says matter of fact—sounds bored, actually.
Gee thanks.
“So Celestra is on its own?” Sounds like Logan. “Then don’t threaten me with a trial by Justice Alliance when I take things into my own hands.”
He’s yelling. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Logan worked up, let alone, yell.
“What in the heck?” A voice hisses from behind.
I turn in fright to see Ellis Harrison nose to nose with me, and I let out a small squeal.
A dog comes charging out of the bushes, two glowing red eyes—teeth sharp as arrows, barking at top volume. He’s charging a million miles an hour, all rage and salivating fangs.
I can’t look, so I push my face into Ellis’ chest.
A chain rattles severely, and the dog yelps a series of whimpers. When I look up he’s only three feet away, impotent to complete his mission.
Bodies bleed out of the room, and a man with a belly that hangs clear over his trousers yanks Ellis up by one hand and me by the other.
“What in the…” he says full of surprise.
It’s Gage I see first.
“She’s here for me,” Gage shouts, making his way over.
Logan comes into focus, his eyes the size of baseballs.
“All of you out,” Nicholas Haver shouts, pushing Ellis and I in their direction.
Just a minute ago the patio was teeming with people and now there’s just the four of us. It’s like they scurried back inside because they didn’t want to be seen.
“I’m not here for them,” I say with a renewed vigor.
Big Nick eyeballs me up and down.
“I’m here because I belong here.” I stop short of flaunting the word Celestra because of Ellis, who, by the way, ruined everything.
“Come on.” Logan grabs me by the waist and starts leading me back up the trail.
What the hell are you doing here? He sounds markedly pissed.
I need more answers than you’re willing to give me. I give his hand a hard squeeze to let him know I feel the exact same way.
And you bring Ellis? He glowers over at him openly.
I needed to get behind the gates. Besides, he’s stoned. He won’t remember half this tomorrow.
He’ll clearly remember all this tomorrow, and by the way—he’s always stoned. That’s baseline for him. He twitches his nose. New perfume?
Yes. It’s called Craptastic. Like my night.
We get back up to the ridge and I take in a few deep lungfuls of fresh night air. I pluck off my shoes and toss them in a plastic bag that I find floating around the trunk of the minivan.
“Are you guys coming back to the party?” I ask looking from Logan to Gage.
“No.” Logan observes as Ellis stumbles into the passenger side of the minivan. “And neither are you.”
He takes the keys I’m holding rather loosely and hands them over to Gage.
“Drive Ellis back. Stay as long as you want, but drive his car home for him.” He turns to me. “You’re coming with me.”
25
Facts
The shutters are drawn and a small glow of light warms the Oliver’s sprawling estate.
“Nobody’s home,” he informs as we enter through the front.
A lethargic yellow lab wags his tail nervously as he sniffs forcibly by my feet.
“You must be Charlie.” He was out back in the fields when I was here the other day, so we missed our first meeting.
Logan leads me into the dining room. A palatial rectangle sits in the middle with a gold inlaid table that’s fit to seat twelve comfortably. A massive hutch sits behind it, and on each of the glass shelves are hundreds of angel figurines. My mother would say the whole thing’s gaudy, but I find it fascinating—eccentric.
“I’d have to agree with her.” Logan rubs his thumb against my hand.
“Is there any way to turn that off?” I can’t seem to keep forgetting he can hear me clear as a loud speaker.
“Not that I know of.” He pulls out a sheet of paper and a pen from a small desk off to the side before we take a seat at the table.
He starts making charts and jotting down names. The word faction is written in giant letters across the top.
“So you’re finally going to tell me everything there is to know?” I’m thrilled by the prospect.
“Maybe.” He keeps at his work until he’s done. “I’d never lie to you.”
“So that means no.”
“That means maybe.” He looks almost apologetic.
He spins the paper around and scoots in close.
“There are five factions of earthbound angels.” He taps his pen against the first one. “Celestra—that’s us.” A brief impression of a smile appears. “Countenance, most powerful, crooked bunch of bastards that roam the earth—think mob, but far more greedy. We don’t know who they are. They don’t make it a practice to reveal their status. They band together and share the wealth, so there’re lots of reasons for keeping their mouths shut. Plus, they don’t frown upon killing their own if they don’t cooperate. Then there’s the most common three, Noster, Levatio—that’s Gage and my uncle. Deorsum, that’s my aunt. And there you have it, factions at a glance.”
“So Celestra has the most powerful blood?”
“Yes.”
“Which means?” I can tell I’m going to have to pull all of the answers out of him, which isn’t fair because I d
on’t know the right questions to ask.
“Which means if there were enough of us, we could rule the Nephilim kingdom. Celestra is supposedly in charge but with lame duck status. It’s like a government, and right now the crooks are taking over. Each faction must pay a royalty to the Counts in exchange for their protection.”
“Protection against what? Aren’t they the ones we need protection from?”
He points the pen in my face.
“You’re a smart one. Technically, yes, but they claim to be protecting us against other spiritual beings called, Sectors. The Sectors are like overlords of the angel armies. You’re a warrior if you hadn’t already done your homework. That’s why it’s all right to kill if your life is in danger, or you’ve been instructed to do so by your faction leader.”
“And is that a sufficient plea to tell your legal council before they haul your ass to prison?”
“You won’t go to prison if you stay within those bounds. The factions take care of everything.”
“So murder out of necessity or under orders is OK.”
“Essentially.”
“I don’t exactly understand the Sectors,” I say.
“I don’t either. It falls under the category of wait until you’re thirty, but I have some theories.”
“And what about powers? Both you and Gage are really strong. Gage knows things. You and I can read minds, what else is there?”
“My aunt can influence small children to do her bidding. She owns and operates the single largest daycare center on the island. Parents love her. Most Deorsum don’t have that ability. The run of the mill things for them are strength and speed. You might say they got the shaft when it comes to outstanding superpowers.”
“I hear pretty well, too.” A tall brunette with her hair in a bun makes her way over and extends her hand.
She’s wearing a royal blue suit and has on an obnoxious shade of orange lipstick, but she’s absolutely stunning. I’d love for my mom to meet her.