Falling (The Soul Collectors Series Book 1) (10 page)

“Yeah. I know she’s supposed to meet Hannah later today to spend the day at the quarry, I believe. If she’s not up soon, I may have to wake her.”

“Good luck with that.” Declan chuckled.

“No kidding. I don’t know how she would react. She’s always the first one up.”

With that, I decided to sneak back to my room and very loudly close the door to signal I was up and getting ready. I walked to the bathroom to turn on the shower water. I loved the water as hot as I could tolerate it. I got in and just stood there for what seemed like an eternity. I let the water fall down over me as I prayed. I asked for guidance, strength, and a level head for when the time came. I knew a day with Hannah would be a nice break, but it would still be work. I would still be gathering good information about her and about Gray. I knew I needed to be finishing up soon and getting dressed to go meet her, but the heat felt good on my body. Since yesterday, I had felt chilled to the bone. I gave myself five more minutes before I finished showering.

I decided that for a day at the quarry, my hair didn’t need to look cute. I pulled it into a curly, messy bun on top of my head, put on a black two-piece suit with a black sundress over it and headed down to grab a quick bite to eat before leaving for town. Shockingly, Declan was still there, and he was alone in the kitchen. The sight of him relaxing at my table took me aback, and I stopped in my tracks. He gave a lazy grin and nodded before speaking.

“Well Bay, I must say, you look H-O-T hot in black.”

I harrumphed in his general direction, mainly because I didn’t know how to respond. My lack of response changed his lazy grin into a face-splitting smile. He was beaming at being able to make me speechless. I had to remind myself he was a demon, and he was made to know how to charm people both with personality and looks.

“Where’s Haddy?”

Declan stood up and made his way towards me. He kept his eyes on mine the whole time. I felt like I couldn’t look away, and it was so intimidating that I needed to take a step back as he approached, causing his to smirk.

“He went out back to grab his gear. We’re going to hike to one of the places on the map Mr. Whitstock told us about.” My eyes must have widened, because before I could question that decision, he spoke. “Don’t worry Bay, I’m not going to hurt your precious Haddy. It’s an honest trip. I need to know as much about the layout as you all. After all, I have a bet to win.” With that, he winked at me, smacked my butt and headed out back to meet with Hadraniel.

I growled and stamped my foot at him with disgust. “Don’t ever do that again. Do you understand me? It will not bode well for you.” To which he threw his head back and gave a haughty laugh as the door behind him closed. I was still fuming as I gathered my toast and bags to head to town. I could not believe the nerve of him to touch me, and in such a familiar manner at that!

I must have been angrier than I realized because I made it to town in no time. I was sitting at one of the tables that were outside the café waiting for Hannah. The day was beautiful and hot. It was the perfect day to spend at the quarry with just Hannah. We could lay out, relax and talk. I had never had a connection with other girls, Angel or human. There was something about Hannah that made friendship easy.

“Hey! Want to grab a smoothie before heading to the quarry?”

I turned to see Hannah who had brought Alissa and some other girl I hadn’t met yet. I wanted to roll my eyes but smiled instead. I was hoping to get one on one time with her so that I could get one up on Declan, but it appeared it would be no such luck. There was a quick introduction between myself and the new girl, Sadie. She apparently was newer to town too, having just moved here a little over a year ago.  

When we walked inside the café, Gray had four banana strawberry smoothies already made. I assumed Hannah must have texted him on her way in, or there was more to him than I knew.

“Psychic mind reader?” I pointed to the smoothies.

“Oh, yes. The great and powerful phone knows all things.” he said with a laugh.

I smiled and took the cup he was handing me.

“You girls don’t have too much fun today.” Gray said to none of us in particular while he handed his jeep keys to Hannah. She gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

Inside the jeep, Hannah insisted I sit up front with her, leading to slight protests from Alissa. Hannah gave her a look that told her it wasn’t up for discussing, and she shrugged and climbed in back with Sadie. Gray had taken off the top of the jeep, so the wind was enough distraction that I hoped I could talk to Hannah some before we got there.

“You look better today, Bayla. You really gave us quite a scare yesterday. Declan caught you and carried you to the stage before the rest of us even knew what was happening.”

“You mean Had. He caught me and told me he had me.” I distinctly remember Hadraniel coming behind me before I passed out.

“No, that was Declan. Had made a move to stand beside you, but Declan caught you. He was whispering something to you as he carried you. You should have seen the look on his face when you passed out. It was like his whole world collapsed. Had pushed him out of the way once you were on the stage which is why he was huffy afterwards I suppose. There was too much commotion after that for me to go check on him. Have you seen him today yet?”

I couldn’t quite process what I was hearing. Declan carried me. Declan whispered that he had me. He was mad at Hadraniel for taking over. I must have been thinking about it a little too long because I heard her ask me again if I had seen him yet today.

“Yes, sorry. I just guess I’m still a little off today. I think I just got too hot yesterday with the studying and going with Gray to see the valley.” With the word valley, Hannah slammed on the brakes and turned her entire body towards me. Luckily there was no one else on the little side road we were on.

“He what?” She didn’t look angry, just shocked, and maybe a little hurt.

“He found me outside of the bookstore and asked if I wanted to join him on a hike. He took me to the top of the hill, told me about his brother and showed me the valley.”

“He talked about Oliver?” The tone of her voice had increased almost to a squeal. “He hasn’t talked about Oliver since his death!”

“You’re not mad are you?” I didn’t know if I was supposed to have told her or not.

“No! I’m a little sad he didn’t talk to me about Oliver. I miss him a lot too, but it’s good for him to talk about him. It was hard on Gray when he died, but it helped him straighten up too. He was on a rough path before all that happened. He was supposed to be staying with Oliver that night he got sick but left him alone for a little bit to practice with a different band he was in. Oliver had stayed alone before, so Gray didn’t really think much about it. When he came back, Oliver was sick, and had a fever. Gray called his parents, and they took him to the hospital. He never came home. Gray took it hard. He holed up in his room for a long time. His parents had to threaten him to get him dressed and to the funeral. The whole town showed up. It was months before Gray was somewhat himself again. That’s when he decided he was going to be an art teacher. He had seen how his drawing really brought out Oliver’s personality, and he wants to be able to help other children in the same way.”

There was so much love in the way Hannah spoke about Gray. I didn’t know that feeling, but the way she expressed it, made me jealous, made me want to know how it felt to love someone that much. I audibly sighed, making the girls in the back giggle.

“That’s how I feel about Gray, too.” Hannah giggled.

All these things made Gray special and kind, but still not so astounding that I could figure out why he was more special than other humans that had been kind and caring. Tired of racking my brain as to why I was supposed to save him, I decided to give it a rest. The Elders knew what they were doing, and I had a mission. It didn’t matter why he needed to be saved, just that he did. The beach was crowded when we parked the jeep. We decided not to unpack our stuff, but just lather on the sunscreen and head to the floating platform to lay out as there wasn’t anyone out there. The swim was nice and refreshing, but I was ready to lay in the sun and sleep by the time we got out there. I could hear Alissa and Sadie discussing how hot Had and Declan were, plotting about how they could try to get dates with them.

“Had actually is talking with someone.” I said in a sleepy haze. All this time with these human girls, made me realize that once I was home I needed to give Aniston a chance. Maybe she wasn’t so bad to have as a roommate.

“What about Declan?” Alissa asked.

“Declan….is Declan. Who knows what he’s doing.” I had a twinge of jealousy at the thought of Declan with Alissa. Then I reminded myself that was his false advertisement, and he was using his strengths to play with my mind. If Alissa wanted to date a demon, more power to her.  I was here on a mission, and to learn to enjoy myself some, and that’s what I was going to do. I stretched and rolled over to tan my back. I glanced over at Hannah and noticed she was smirking at me.

“What’s with the face?” I asked grinning. I couldn’t help it. She was so bubbly it flowed over to anyone around her.

“You like Declan.”

“I do not. I tolerate him.”

“Nuh-uh sister, you like him. A lot! Your body language when he’s around, your snarky responses to Alissa, the way your eyes widen when I talk to you about him give it away. I think it’s fair to say you may even love him.”

The absurdity that I could love him without knowing what love really was made me cough out loud and laugh. I had to explain I wasn’t laughing at her before I hurt her feelings.

“I have never even had a boyfriend before! Remember we’ve lived missionary lives, so I highly doubt I could love him. I don’t even know what love is.”

She smiled. She looked to be plotting something that would not be good for me in the end.

“You don’t have to know love to feel it, Bayla. You just wait. You’ll see. It’s love, and I would bet my next paycheck that he loves you too.”

“Save your money, Hannah, for something more worthy.”  I slipped off the platform, and went for a swim so I could avoid having the rest of that conversation. I didn’t want to think about Declan loving me. It wasn’t a possibility. Like, ever. Maybe if we were just humans I could see being with Declan. His stormy eyes made him more interesting than any of the angels I knew, and he was definitely steaming hot. I took a deep breath and went under. Maybe the lack of air would reset my brain and my heart. I swam for a quite a distance underwater before coming back up. Hannah was waving at me to head back to the platform.

“You were under for so long, I got worried.” She reached her hand down to help pull me up on the platform.

“Sorry.” I forgot that sometimes I had to decrease my physical abilities some to not bring attention to myself for the wrong reason.

“We were talking about heading back into to town to get lunch, are you ready to go?”

“Lunch sounds great. Let’s go.”

Back the café, we were just about to eat our hamburgers when Declan and Hadraniel entered. They were dusty and dirty. I was pretty sure the older lady who was our waitress almost dropped the dishes she had just cleared from the table next to us from the sight of them. It was entertaining to watch others react to their looks so much. Even I had to admit that the dust and dirt looked good on them. Alissa straightened her hair and waved for them to join us at our table. Both boys grabbed a chair before sitting down, Declan between Alissa and me, and Hadraniel safely beside Hannah.

“How was your afternoon boys?” Alissa almost sung her question.

“It was most educational,” Hadraniel said in a seemingly bored tone.

“That doesn’t sound fun.” Sadie pouted towards Had.

I rolled my eyes causing Hannah to giggle.

“It would have been more fun if the walking encyclopedia over there had shut up even for a minute.” Hadraniel pointed towards Declan, who simply shrugged, unconcerned with the jest.

“I know what I know.”

Another eye roll from me garnered yet another giggle from Hannah. This one was not unnoticed by Declan.

“Something funny?” He arched his eyebrow.

“Bayla. She’s a funny, funny girl who doesn’t know how to control her face.”

I made a silly face at her and then stuck my tongue out.

“Anyways, Gray and I were talking about a group date,” she said, glancing at me before continuing. “Would you all want to team up and go with us?”

“Declan, you can be my date.” Alissa was literally bouncing at the chance to have a date with Declan.

“Cool.” He was nonchalant, but she didn’t seemed fazed.

“Had, you can accompany Sadie. It can be on a friendly manner. Bay told us you were dating someone. I wouldn’t want to step on toes.”

“What about poor Bay over there? Is she to be left out, or go solo?” Declan asked with a smirk. He was lucky my eyes couldn’t do more than glare.

“Actually, Gray has a friend in the band that could accompany Bayla on the outing.” She looked very pleased with herself when Declan grunted at her answer.

“Sounds fun to me, I guess. What’s the plan?” I asked.

“They’re playing a movie on a portable screen downtown on Saturday.” Gray stepped up and wrapped his arms around Hannah’s neck and rested his head on hers. Again, the texting was something for me to get used to.

“Friday, cookout at your parents, and Saturday, a movie on the square. Right?” I was making sure to reiterate the dates, so that I kept us on a working timeline to get us safely out of town at the right time.

“Yes ma’am.”

The rest of the day was spent hanging out with the group, checking out shops together and just enjoying each other’s company. Having friends my age was nice. It was different to pretend to be a human teenager, and I could see what Hadraniel was talking about when he said I needed to have a little fun. I was enjoying myself and really letting go. It was late in the evening when we made it back to our cottage, tired but fulfilled.