Beloved Purgatory (Fallen Angels, Book 2) (7 page)

Chapter 4

Jasmine and I got halfway down the hall
before I heard my mom call my name.

I turned. "What?"

Her thin fingers latched onto my shoulders.
"I'm leaving," she said. "I just want you to know I'm not upset
about what happened. I'm happy you expressed your feelings in
there."

Before I could make sense of the last thing
she said, she pressed her dry, cracked lips to my cheek. They
scratched my skin. I remembered when they'd been smooth from
kissing foreheads and boo-boos--when they always smiled. Heat
closed around my throat like a fist. Why did my body react as if I
were being touched by a stranger?

She released me and I
stepped away. My fingers flexed at my sides as she brushed
imaginary lint from her skirt.
We really
have grown apart
, I realized.
The only things we share now are blood and bad
memories.

"I'm also proud of you for staying in school
today." Her words took me off guard. I hadn't said I would go to
class after the meeting, and even if I had I didn't understand why
that was something to be proud of.

She brushed her overgrown bangs behind her
ear. "Please, thank Forneus for me. I'm glad you now have someone
to talk to."

I bit my lip to stop myself from admitting I
would never say such things to that devil. I didn't want to give
her an excuse to wait around for him, so I lied. "Alright."

She nodded. "It was nice meeting you,
Jasmine."

"It was nice meeting you too," Jasmine
replied.

My mother shifted on her feet. Her hand
moved to her cross, and she moved it back and forth on the chain.
"You have such pretty eyes."

"Thank you," Jasmine said.

"They look..." she shook her head. "I've
never seen that color before, anywhere. Except..."

I stopped breathing. Was she thinking of Oz?
Could she tell they were the same person? No, that couldn't
possibly--

"Actually, I think it's best I don't tell
you." Her lips curled. It almost looked like she was smiling. She
placed her index finger over them and winked at me, probably trying
to communicate silently that I shouldn't let Jasmine know that she
was comparing her to a guy.

I looked over at Jasmine. She grinned.

You're probably the only
girl who'd think it was cute to be compared to a deadbeat, tattooed
punk by your girlfriend's mother,
I
thought. For some reason that made me grin too.

My mother's smile faltered when her gaze
rested on mine. "See you soon, Devi."

She turned to the front door. Sunlight
streamed through the glass onto her face, making the bags beneath
her eyes more prominent. I hated seeing them there--thinking of her
aging alone on the couch, awake when the rest of the world slept,
speaking less and less to the one person she still had left.

Then she walked out of the building. I
hadn't even said goodbye.

***

Luckily our parting scene with James and his
parents was less emotional--at least on our end. His mother nodded
politely and gave us a tight smile while his father glared. For a
second I feared he would grab the fold-up chair by the door and go
WWE on my ass.

I think his wife had the same thought. "Come
on, sweetheart." She tugged on his sleeve.

With his free hand, he pointed at his eyes,
then at ours. "I'm not going to forget this," he growled.

I didn't doubt it.

"Christ, Bill. They're just kids," his wife
muttered as she snatched his hand.

James picked up his pace.

"See? Look what you did." The wife's whisper
wasn't exactly soft.

James' ears blushed--well, either that or
during the last two minutes he'd somehow managed to get a sunburn
indoors and at the end of October. At that moment, I really felt
for him.

His dad seemed to sense my sympathy and spun
around. "Hey," his wife hissed as her grip on his wrist
tightened.

He tried to shake her off, but she'd lodged
her fingers into his skin like a bear trap. A bestial growl bubbled
up from his gut as he lifted his arm.

She still refused to let go,
but he was past caring. "You," he groaned as he did the
eye-thing
again
--this time with his wife swinging on his arm like a
monkey.

It was a good thing that James had his back
to his parents. No child should ever see the people who brought him
into this world like that. Also, it made me feel a little less evil
for giggling.

I held it in for as long as
I could, which wasn't very long, but at least they were out of the
building. Well, almost.
God
, I thought,
I'm such a terrible person.
But even
my preemptive chastising didn't stop me.

Jasmine stepped in front of me and tugged on
the bottom of my shirt. "What are you snickering about?"

I covered my mouth. "I don't know what you
mean."

"I think you do." She glanced over to make
sure James and his parents had left the building. "And I think I
know what it was about too."

I raised my brows. "Oh really?"

"Yeah. Really." Her green eyes lit up with
challenge. "You were wondering what car they drove here--"

"Stop!" Did she want to kill me? I wasn't
thinking about that, but that made it even funnier somehow. I
yanked on her arm, pulling her behind the row of lockers. "What if
they see?"

She grinned and leaned forward, so her head
was on my shoulder. "I don't care who sees, or what they see."

My heart skipped. I couldn't think. I didn't
even understand what I was feeling. All I knew was that her words
made my limbs giddy--and while that didn't exactly make sense,
neither did my reaction to her.

Jasmine looked up, and those warm, green
eyes clouded over. "Do you regret what we did?"

Her grave tone startled me.
Moments before she'd been smiling, and now... Should I answer
honestly?
A little bit. I don't
know.

I couldn't say it. "Look, we all wanted to
do it and it was fun, right?"

"Right," Jasmine repeated without any
passion. "I'm sorry it turned out this way. I should have been here
for Kim, to tell her that she didn't need to say anything--"

I didn't want to hear it. I drew her into my
arms and squeezed, muffling her voice. Jasmine was so soft and
small--as lush and delicate as her namesake. "You couldn't talk to
her because you were off rescuing me," I said.

"Maybe." The hairs at the back of my neck
swayed as she spoke.

I held her harder. "Then it's really my
fault, then."

Her arms wrapped around me. "Don't say such
things."

My chest felt tight. Cold. I brushed her hair
away from her face with my fingers. It was longer and darker than
mine. Silkier. I felt older, for some reason, and alone. I let her
rest her ear over my heart.

"It's true, though," I said. "You weren't
here for Kim because you were chasing after me. That makes it my
fault."

Then I heard a voice by my
ear--low, soothing, and
male
. "You cannot blame--"

I leaped to the side, screaming.

Jasmine put her hands over my mouth. "Jesus,
Camael." Then she turned her attention to me. "Are you okay?"

My stomach twisted. Somehow, when I'd
freaked out, I'd slashed her cheek. Alright, maybe it was only a
scratch, but there'd been blood.

I raised my hand to touch the already
closing wound. "I should be asking you that."

Jasmine backed up and pressed her forefinger
to her cheek. "Oh. Don't worry. I didn't even feel it."

Don't
worry
. I was beginning to loathe those
words. People only said them to me when they were hiding some
horrific secret. I glanced down at my apparently lethal,
half-bitten nails. In this one case, I was probably
overreacting.

"Devi." My body melted as my conscious mind
recoiled. Why was that angel still here?

Oh yeah, because he couldn't leave. The
angel stepped towards me. Then closer. Terror pierced me. He'd keep
coming regardless of what anyone, and even myself, did--just like
the terminator. Hell, he even showed about as much emotion as that
thing.

But this angel was far more frightening than
the terminator. You could kill terminators--it was hard, of course,
but it was possible. And, more importantly, terminators didn't
sparkle.

"What are you doing?" I stammered as he took
yet another step forward.

His eyes locked onto mine. I tried to
retreat, but there was nowhere to go. I was plastered against the
lockers, and someone's crooked lock dug into the sensitive area
beneath my shoulder blades. He shimmered, glowed, and every inch of
my human body reached out to him.

"Sorry," he whispered. "You just
look..."

Jasmine's fingers curled
around my hand. A low sound emerged from her unmoving lips. The
angel looked down at her, then stepped away. "If you think I'm
going to apologize for that, you're mistaken,
demon
."

I flinched at his sharp tone. Jasmine's grip
on my hand tightened. "You should apologize to Devi, for sneaking
up on her like that."

The angel shifted his gaze to me again.
Something in his expression had softened. His features blurred, as
if I were looking at him with eyes that were either watery or too
dry. "I didn't mean to startle you."

Just like you didn't mean to startle me when
I woke up to see you staring at me this morning?

I didn't say it. I knew his
answer would be something like:
That's what
I've always done
, and I didn't want to even
contemplate such a creepy thing again. "Look, there are more
important things for us to be focusing on now, like Forneus hitting
on my mom."