The Seer's Lover (The Seven Archangels Series) (29 page)

She couldn’t put it off any longer.

Calise was determined to believe she’d met Shane for a reason and damn it all, she wouldn’t forget it. He’d breathed life into her when she needed it most. He’d instilled confidence in her when she was weakest and most uncertain. He loved her with a pureness that she should have clutched onto for dear life, but instead, was letting go.

She never cheated on him. No mammoth lie hung between them, he had done nothing wrong in particular.

She strolled the familiar route to Shane’s frat house. The hibernating maples sported new leaves. She let it signify a new beginning for her until she saw the beautiful pink flowers of the crab apple trees covering the newly green grass. Perfumed beauty speckled the ground where people took no notice and stepped on it.

Lingering on State Street, she browsed the store windows. Should she get him a present or a card to soften the blow?

I am an idiot. What, like a thanks-for-playing “parting gift”?

Leaving the cherry tobacco smell of another store behind, she eventually found herself outside his room. She heard him drumming along to Led Zeppelin. “Black Dog.” He always said that was one of the hardest songs to play on the drums. He sounded flawless. She stopped at the top of the stairs and touched the door where she remembered her savior, Shane, busted through to get her out of the compromising situation with the creep.

The tears were going to come and she wouldn’t be able to stop them. With her stomach lurching, heart pounding and throat closing, she knocked on his door. He opened it with exuberance and grabbed her up in a sweeping embrace, planting a kiss on her lips that she didn’t reciprocate. Calise put the heels of her hands on his pecs and looked up at him as she began to literally push him away just like she had been mentally doing for months. He let her go and went to shut off the music. He turned to her with his head cocked questioningly.

“What up, my girlfriend? Shouldn’t we be celebrating your exams being done?” He still held a half smirk on his face, expecting a smartass remark from her but getting nothing.

She kept looking at the floor then walked over to examine his music collection.

Enough is enough…get on with it.

“I was thinking about next year and…” She swallowed, searching desperately for the kindest words, the gentlest let-down.

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about it, too.”

“Shane, stop! I. Can’t. Do this.” She was faltering and faltering fast. The tears began to fall.

“Can’t do what? I
promise
it will be fine. If it gets really bad, I’ll convince the band to move up here and practice or whatever. I know long distance will be tough—”

“No Shane, I don’t want to do this anymore. With you.” She risked a peek at his face and it only registered confusion.

He was dead calm and serious. “What are you saying?”

Cowardly turning away from him, she answered, “I’m saying I don’t want a long distance relationship, or…” She breathed and whispered, “…any relationship.”

Calise exhaled. She’d said it and she felt better.
I feel better.

“Why not? What did I do wrong? I love you, Calise; I would go to the ends of the earth for you. My heart is yours, I’ve freely given it to you.” Then he whispered, “You…you are my everything. I can’t do this life without you. I don’t
want
to do this life without you.”

Although her heart broke for hurting him, she realized in that moment that love is the trickiest and most fragile game played. Given freely or forced by obligation, love sets us apart from all other creatures. When one person loves another and it is fully returned, a circle is forged and a slice of perfection inhabits the soul. When one person loves another, and the love isn’t returned, that circle is severed. Calise just sliced open their circle with a machete. She saw in Shane’s eyes what she’d done.

She regretted it immediately, but the cut was just starting to bleed.

His eyes were pleading, then the life drained out of them and became empty. Vacant.

“Get out then,” he said softly, walking to his drum set. He sat down and stared at his hands.

“Shane, I…” She left the room and sat on the staircase between the first and second floor.

She heard his stereo turn on, volume way up. It was their song, “Patience” by Guns ’N‘ Roses. The whistling of the song’s intro reverberated though her whole body. She closed her eyes and sank her head in her hands.

What have I done?

Walking heavily back up to the room to check on him, she peered through the open door. He sat at the drum set wearing a Santa hat of all things. His shirt was off; he was so gorgeous. Seeing the tears streaming down his cheeks, the guilt of her actions hit her like a truck.

He drummed.

I just dumped the man who would have adored me forever. For no good reason other than he was flawless and I’m flawed. Crap.

Shane looked up at her and mouthed the word, “Go.”

She did go and didn’t look back, even when the music changed and he banged out death metal.

****

The flood of memories broke Shane’s spell. “I pity what you’ve become and I’m sorry if it’s partly my fault,” she said.

His body went rigid again, then he set her down away from him. He pointed his finger right in her face and spat, “I
never
want your pity. This is far from over,” Shane warned her and vanished.

Chapter 27

Calise didn’t get out of bed or answer her phone the whole next day. Uncle Don called and said he hired a relief pharmacist to work part time, and she had two weeks to pull herself together, or she could look for a new job. What was the point? Nara was going to kill Lucas—maybe she’d already succeeded; Shane was a fallen angel because of her; Ellen and her mom were so completely freaked out by her having the sight that she was petrified to leave the house.

Movement and sustenance became a chore. She was depressed but didn’t have the strength to care. The phone rang over and over. When she heard the key in her apartment door late in the afternoon, she pulled her covers up and rolled over. “Go away.”

Ellen filled the door to her bedroom with light. “Hey.”

Calise kept quiet.

“Look, I know your mom and I are probably making you crazy, and I apologize. You’re almost to the point of accepting this new world you’ve been shown. When we spoke at the hospital, you were in denial. Let’s pop you out of this depressed funk, and I’ll show some real light at the end of this tunnel—so to speak.”

“There is no light at the end of this for me, El. I got exactly what I asked for, and I can’t give it back.”

Ellen sat down at the foot of her bed and rubbed her foot.

The warmth of her hand made Calise jerk her foot away. “No more angel tricks from you to make me feel better, please.”

“Agreed. But I do have a surprise for you.”

“Is Lucas here?” Calise asked, hopefully.

“No, but I do have someone even more fun. I’ll be right back.” Ellen left the apartment.

I only want Lucas. Maybe there’s a way to change me back. Holy shit—I’m going to be a mother…

“Get up—get dressed—get crackin’ girlfriend. We are going out!!” Sarah’s voice boomed through the apartment, and she jumped on Calise’s bed and ripped off her covers. “I’m in town for the night, and we three bombshells are going out to rip it up! Just like the old days…what do you say, Cali?”

Calise suppressed a grin. “I’m not feeling well. Can’t we stay in?”

“Abso-frickin-lutely not!” Sarah bounced.

Calise couldn’t fight with Sarah, because she knew from college, she wouldn’t win. Plus, Sarah was one hundred percent human, her face had barely changed since she was eighteen. Still scrawny with shoulder-length curly hair, a contagious laugh, and penchant for chic outfits from thrift stores. “Fine—I’ll go.”

Cheers erupted from her college roommates at the impromptu reunion, and they spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and getting ready to go out.

The three girls walked into Metro to go dancing after dinner downtown. Everywhere she looked in the bar, eyes seemed to be glowing back at her, watching them. Ellen wrapped her arm around Calise, “Tonight, you can relax, maybe even enjoy your new gift. I’m with you, and I’ve already scoped out this place, it’s angel friendly and demon resistant. You’ll see.”

Calise gave her a half-hearted nod. She needed to tell her about Shane’s visit, but this wasn’t the time or place.

Dancing.

All Calise could think about was Lucas. Where was he? Sarah asked about her trip, and Lucas casually, but her glassy eyes and incessant nodding and smiling told her Sarah was absorbing little to nothing over the club’s din. Sarah bolted for the dance floor and flitted from one gorgeous potential one-night stand to the next while Ellen stayed close to Calise whose mind tumbled from thought to thought.

I’m pregnant—is Lucas still alive? What if he does come to visit and leaves once he hears about the baby? Maybe I’ll scare the hell out of him with this news—I mean, we barely know each other…No, he is your soul mate!

Could he adapt to her mundane life in Wisconsin? She didn’t want to move to Costa Rica. Damn, she needed a shot of tequila. She ordered a virgin piña colada instead.

The two men who approached Ellen and Calise were both angels. They were breathtaking. One looked a bit like Patrick Swayze with a dazzling smile and hips that appeared to know how to move. The other angel had messy blond hair that glinted like the sun and upper arms that were busting out of his Green Bay Packer t-shirt. Calise let them draw her in, and she found herself smiling at the Swayze look-alike as they chatted. Both had gone to medical school with Ellen and before Calise knew it, she and Ellen were on the dance floor next to each other. Calise’s angel was pungent with cologne, and he indeed could dirty dance. The music pulsed loud in her head, and she let the music seep inside of her.

Screw it. She was knocked up and her boyfriend—
can I call him that?—
hadn’t called her since he said he was in Kansas. She allowed herself a dance with the hot angel. She was in a club packed with celestial beings, so she was momentarily safe. Releasing a bit of her pent up worry, she moved.

Moved with the angel. His searing touch penetrated Calise to the core and when the strobe lights flashed, she could see his shining golden eyes.

His touch was an aphrodisiac—like Shane’s had been. The next thing she knew, she was in the angel’s warm, protective arms dancing slowly. It was hypnotic. She returned his tight embrace.

She opened her eyes and through the smoky haze of the club saw a man not dancing and standing still like a statue, watching her.

It couldn’t be! Lucas!

He’d come all this way to find her in the arms of another man.

“Thanks for the dance.” Calise smiled at the angel, who released her reluctantly and nodded.

She found no good way to maneuver around all the couples and get to Lucas fast enough. He started to move in between couples to make his way to her as well.

He glowed brighter to her than any angel ever would, and when they finally made their way to each other, he looked down at her with worried eyes. He wouldn’t make the first move.

“You came.” She was ready to explode she was so happy to see him.

“Did I interrupt something?” His eyes bored into hers.

She drank in the rustic, sexy sound of his voice. She waved her hand in the direction of the angel. “With that angel? I was just passing the time until someone better came along.”

Lucas bent his legs so his eyes were parallel with hers and held her around the waist. “What did you say?”

“I can see them now, too.”

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, three angels had Lucas pinned up against a wall with his arms behind his back. “Who are you?” Ellen barked.

Lucas struggled and they slammed him into the wall again.

Calise yelled, “Ellen, stop! This is Lucas.” She grabbed the Swayze angel’s arm, “Let him go.”

Ellen rolled her eyes, called off the bodyguards and went back to the dance floor.

Lucas shook himself free and she placed her hand on what would be a nasty bruise on his cheek. He glared at her. “You promised you would tell me! Are you okay?” He wrapped a hand behind her neck and tugged her closer to him.

Tenderness melted away the anxiety in his face.

Kissing him on the nose, Calise leaned over to his ear. “It’s not so bad. My mom and best friend are angels.”

“Cali, I don’t
just
see angels,” Lucas said, glancing around nervously.

“I know.”

His eyes hastily scanned the club. Ellen and all her angel friends were the only otherworldly beings in the joint. Ellen had made sure of that.

Lucas smirked. “I’m out of your life for a week and already you’ve traded up?”

She stuck out her lower lip and came close to Lucas's ear, “Well it was
you
who gave me the
sight
, so I figured I might as well put it to good use.”

His eyes widened.

Grabbing his t-shirt and pulling him close, Calise said, “They all pale, literally, in comparison to you. You’re the only one I want to be with…forever. And it’s okay. I’ve been fine with everything, especially since you gave me this.” Calise pulled the necklace out from under her shirt.

He looked stricken. “I didn’t want this life for you. I didn’t think…You didn’t say anything—”

“Let’s think about it tomorrow. Hey, do you salsa?”

He kissed the top of her head. “Kind of.”

Leading her back onto the dance floor, he spun her around and pulled her close. They had physical contact from their foreheads to their rocking joined hips. She was still mesmerized by this man. It was even better than their first dance because they knew how the other moved. If there had been an army of angels fighting the devil himself in the club, she wouldn’t have noticed or cared. All her attention was drawn in by the man who’d finally captured her heart. She inhaled his scent of ocean salt that still clung to his sun-drenched skin and followed his lead.

Every inch of her body wanted to dance with him forever, but after a few songs and with their bodies glistening, Lucas took her by the hand and pushed her up against the nearest wall. He interlaced his fingers with hers and held them above her head pressed to the wall. He dropped down for a fierce kiss like the war hero who’s returned to his wife after a long tour of duty. Their tongues danced with the music and she let the heat tingle between her legs in rampant anticipation of the night to come.