Angel Tears, page 23
Rey rolled her eyes and locked her arms across her chest. “Sort of. Some have more gifts than others. It’s too early to say what your brother can do, but at the very least he is someone gifted with an ability to sense and expel demons, yes.”
“And us?”
Qi’s eyes lifted, directed at Rey. I took notice of the way the two communicated silently for a moment, then pinned my gaze to Rey, sensing something left unsaid.
She glanced at me, then sighed loudly. “No sense in keeping it from you. We believe all your siblings have the ability, not just Milo. To some extent, anyway. We sense it in Joey and Sandra as well.”
“All three of them?” I asked, bemused. “As in they’re all gifted?”
“Seems so. It’s relatively uncommon, but not unheard of. Qi and Nessa will do more investigating to see if their gifts link to something else, like Asmodeus. But for now, we believe that all three are at the very least capable of sight.” Joey landed a confused glance on Rey and she clarified. “Seeing demons, so to speak. Or sensing them in some cases. For humans, it’s a little like getting the creepy-crawlies.”
“Creepy-crawlies,” Joey repeated, finally smiling. “Never imagined someone like you would say it like that.”
Rey’s eyes danced and her smirk was downright dangerous. “You suggesting something?”
Joey lost his smile and quickly shook his head. “No, ma’am.”
“Thought so,” Rey snapped back, laughing to herself. “But we’ll know more within the week. In the meantime, you’ll be monitored and brought up to speed. If you’re all gifted, it’ll mean training is necessary.”
Sandra managed to drag her eyes away from Neal long enough to look at Rey, visibly distraught. “Training?”
“When we uncover gifted humans, we do everything necessary to ensure they’re educated and trained to use their gifts wisely and effectively. You’ll be connected with others like you and part of the inner circle for the rest of your lives. To us angels, gifted humans are the highest priority. Many of you work hand-in-hand with angels. To put it simply, you’re invaluable to us and we do whatever’s necessary to make sure you’re a success.”
Sandra practically slumped in protest. “But that means homework. I hate homework.”
“What age do you normally discover them?” I asked, ignoring Sandra’s grumbling.
“It varies, but normally around Joey’s age is when they really start to show signs of it. Still, finding them is difficult if their powers aren’t glaring like Milo’s. More frequently, other gifted humans are the first to discover them since we limit interaction with humans. The only reason we discovered Milo, Sandra, and Joey is because of Asmodeus. If not for him, it may have been well into early adulthood before they noticed anything amiss. So they’ll be young, but I promise the tutelage will accommodate them, and their lives can go on relatively normally.” Her eyes went from one to the other before returning to me. “You’ll have your hands full with other things, so this gives them time to catch up.”
Joey eyed the two of us before rising. He took several steps and went to a knee in front of me. His familiar eyes met mine before he fingered anxiously through his hair—something he did when he didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t lost any muscle volume, but crouched like he was, he looked much too small. Seeing him like that did things to my heart. Mostly, the vulnerability my usually very strong brother offered me with a single glance, it took everything in me not to be overcome by guilt and regret.
“Cici,” he started, flicking his gaze to Dias uncomfortably, “Is it true you left because you were worried about us getting hurt?”
My throat was suddenly tight, and it took all my power to answer. “Yes.”
“I know we’re...well, we’re just human, but I hope you know we want to be there for you the same way you’ve been there for us all our lives.” Joey’s eyes dropped and his jaw clenched. Then his sparkling blues rose again and he silently grabbed my hand. “Please don’t do this alone. We love you, and I hope you know we’re strong enough to support you.”
Emotion crowded my throat and tears escaped down my face as I tried—and failed horribly—to respond. “I...”
Dias, who was decked out in his signature, much-too-casual clothing, which resembled a college student rather than a centuries-old angel warrior, smacked Joey on the shoulder. “You’re amazing, little dude. I really admire you.”
Joey leveled his eyes on Dias, stare full of contempt. “I don’t need to hear that from you.”
Rey touched my shoulder, the gentle gesture exacerbating the struggle to stop crying instead of calming it. The tears rushed faster, and I swiped and brushed persistently in hopes of hiding the visible emotion. The last thing I wanted was to worry my siblings, who were probably overwhelmed by all they’d learned.
“I’m sorry you felt like you had to make the choice in the first place, Cici,” Rey whispered, her face expressing shame. “That was our failure.”
“No, it’s no one’s fault,” I said through gasps. “Thank you, Joey. I’ll try to remember that in the future.”
“You’re not alone,” Joey reiterated, hugging me around the shoulders and sitting beside me. “We’re young, yeah, but we’re family. Weirdo supernatural aside, there’s nothing stronger than our connection. I won’t believe it.”
“When did you become such a smarty?” I asked with a laugh, wiping away the wet paths on my face. “I don’t recognize this man you’ve become.”
Joey shrugged and scratched the back of his neck, uncomfortable. “Don’t know. Just felt like something you needed to hear right now.” His sideways grin was full of mischief. Battling a number of emotions, I gave my sweet brother a well-deserved noogie. “We’re not as fragile as you think, and if what you’re saying is true, then that’s all the more reason to rely on us.” His face turned pensive for a moment. “And I owe Cain a huge thank you.”
Rey laughed to herself as Dias took to the spot in front of Sandra, who was ogling Neal again. Sandra’s focus moved to the casually dressed angel immediately. She swooned when he kissed her hand and complimented her sun dress, which wasn’t very weather appropriate for where we originally lived but fit the tropical heat of California this time of year.
I offered my younger siblings an affectionate smile, just happy to see them again.
“THEY’RE ALL TO RECEIVE training?” Cain asked, propped up by several pillows.
His naked torso tensed as an angel tended to one of the wounds on his side, a sound exhaling from his lips, practically a hiss. The woman’s sparkling blue eyes rose to where I stood, curious. Her dark hair was perfectly fitted into an updo much fancier than anything I could achieve at home, and she wore a blouse that amplified her chest with a skirt that perfectly curved around wide hips. Even I couldn’t ignore how beautiful she was. Her skin glowed in nothing but sunlight, and her features were beyond appealing to the eye. I tried not to stare at Cain to figure out if he was attracted to her or not, dismissing the envy as best as I could, but Cain didn’t look away from me at all.
Finding my voice, I continued, albeit a bit slowly, “That’s what Rey said. They’re still running tests today and tomorrow, but Rey told me they’d be taken to a protected haven for gifted humans to train their abilities. Seems like all my siblings carry the identifiers for substantial gifts.”
“All of them, huh?” he asked, evidently surprised. “Well, Nessa would know. I can’t sniff that stuff out like she can.”
Eyes straying to the woman whose hands worked diligently to remove, replace, and ensure a perfect placing of each bandage, I tried desperately to focus on the conversation. “Yeah, seems so. But Rey says it makes things easier. If they all need to train, it’ll give me a piece of mind for the time being. You and I can focus on the demon, and they can focus on the future. At least with the skills to expel demons, I won’t have to worry as much about them.”
That was the best news I’d been given in a while.
Rey made it clear that my siblings could work as a group and be rather formidable to demons. Best of all, now they would be connected to a network of gifted humans and protected for the rest of their lives. Still, I hesitated slightly with the knowledge that one day they’d be forced to fight alongside me. But it was better than worrying about them every second of the day and how vulnerable they were to attack because of me.
“Really now?” he hummed, then tensed abruptly when the woman’s hands strayed close to one of the more tender wounds on his pec. “I can get that one, Tris.”
Clicking her tongue, the woman, apparently Tris, put a hand on her hip. “If you’d just stay still a second, I would be done. Stop talking.” Her eyes flicked over to me, glaring. “Maybe you should give us a second, little girl.”
Straightening, I instantly reacted to her tone. “Yes, of course. I’m sorry.”
A subtle burn reached my throat as I wrestled with my own helplessness. Of course I’d be in the way while he was recovering. Coming as often as I did probably didn’t help. My eyes dropped from Cain’s and I struggled to say more, my throat impossibly tight with an emotion foreign to me.
“Tris,” Cain warned in a low, angry tone, “talk to her like that and this will be the last time you’ll change any of my bandages.”
“I just don’t get it,” she complained, getting back to the one on his chest and sighing. Her hands touched him with such care that the feeling in my throat intensified and my stomach twisted spitefully. “What’s so special about her? She’s just a kid.” Her eyes strayed back over to me, and something hit my chest with enough force to take my breath away.
Words said to me had never cut so deep. Because, whether or not I wanted to admit it, what the woman said was entirely true and something I’d battled since the first time I realized my feelings for Cain weren’t simply familial. Worse, I was the reason he had to recover at all. If I were stronger, maybe I could’ve saved him from it. If I were more powerful and less of a burden, perhaps Cain wouldn’t have felt it was his responsibility to protect me.
Cain’s look was apologetic, but her words had already done potent damage. I bowed my head in apology. “I’ll come back later.”
“Wait—” Cain tried to yell out, but I was already out the door, heart held in a vice grip. Biting my lower lip, I lifted my chin and strode down the hall, recovering my lost pride.
“Just a kid.”
Her words echoed in my head as I entered the main room, where Rey and Dias busied themselves with several laptops, discussing things related to their current assignments.
When I entered, Dias’s eyes broke down my expression with a subtle onceover. “What’s wrong?” he asked, walking forward.
I put a hand up and shook my head, a second away from crying and refusing to burden anyone with it. “Nothing. Anyone in the mood for some coffee?”
Why does it feel like all I do lately is cry?
Clearly not buying it, Dias dropped a heavy arm around my shoulder and directed me towards the kitchen. “I’ll help and you can tell me why you look like you’re about to shed a life’s worth of tears.”
“I’m not—”
“Sure, sure,” he dismissed, leading me over to the kitchen with a wave to Rey.
When we entered the lavish kitchen, Dias encouraged me to sit on a bar chair at the island, then set out to make us both a cup of coffee with the fancy espresso machine I’d squealed over when I’d first seen it. His eyes strayed over his shoulder several times before he brought me my cup and comfortably settled his arms on the granite, golden eyes penetrating mine.
“Go on, tell me,” he commanded, smirking. “I promise to keep it a secret.” When my eyebrow rose in suspicion, the large angel laughed loudly. “Come on, even I can keep a secret.”
“It’s not a big deal.”
“If it wasn’t, your face wouldn’t look like your puppy just got ran over by a car,” Dias rebutted with a scoff. I opened my mouth, disgusted by the analogy, and Dias threw his hands up with an impish smile, not the least bit sorry. “Just spill. Something tells me you met Tris.” I instantly stiffened, and Dias sighed in exasperation. “Thought so. She’s a real piece of work, that one.”
“Who is she?”
Dias looked conflicted, probably judging whether or not it was appropriate to respond, and it only made the pain in my chest worsen. “I’m sure you’re going to find out one way or another, but...to put it simply, she and Cain used to date.”
My heart sank and the pressure in my chest intensified, nearly taking out my lungs. “Date?”
“For a decade, yes. Way before you and Pure Boy hooked up, of course. Cain was devoted to your protection after Samuel passed away. Probably the entire reason Tris rues your existence in the first place. Their relationship completely fell apart when Cain dedicated himself to some human.”
Cain hadn’t said a word.
Of course, I never assumed he hadn’t been in relationships before. But the fact that he had hit me hard enough to limit my responses. I wasn’t used to the feeling of jealousy, and its intensity was highly detrimental to my control. I didn’t know what to do with my heart clamoring and my palms clammy. The burn in my throat was fierce, and I got the oddest inclination to flee, but I wasn’t entirely sure from what.
Dias seemed to gather as much, which caused him to go on without prompting. “She’s still pretty hung up on him. Cain’s made it clear their relationship was done a long time ago, but Tris refuses to acknowledge it. Honestly, I’m surprised he even let her around him.” Dias sipped from his cup and eyed the main room from the open doorway. “Not very smart of him, if you ask me.”
My heart thundered, and I worked hard to keep the anxiety from my face. “You said you were surprised he suggested sharing blood. Why was that?”
Dias’s shoulders hunched slightly, expressing his discomfort. “Just a bit out of character. Cain may be a pure girl at heart, but he’s jaded. He believes tying yourself with someone is ultimately damning. Hard to explain it without making him out to be a scrooge, but he’s seen sides of the bond that others haven’t because of his late parents.”
“Sides of it?”
“Like how it could destroy someone who fell out of love after sharing the connection.”
“What?”
Rey entered, accusing eyes on Dias. “I hope you’re not in here saying something you shouldn’t,” she warned.
Dias’s expression fell back into its signature apathy. “Don’t you think she deserves to know? Cain seems to be only telling her the good parts. That’s not how relationships work.”
“Oh? And you would know how relationships work because...?” Rey smacked Dias with spite, punishing him without remorse. “Besides, it’s not your place to decide what gets said or left unsaid in their relationship. And it’s for good reason he doesn’t say things, you asshole.” She took one look at me and sighed. “Look at her. Look. At. Her. She’s traumatized and destroyed by all of it. Now’s not the time.”
“She should know everything before she goes into something and finds out afterwards,” Dias snapped back, agitation causing his chest to constrict and expose nothing but powerful muscle. It wasn’t often Dias lost his composure, so Rey relented some. “And what the hell is Tris doing here, anyway?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. I’m not sure why Cain even entertained her being here in the first place.”
The pain was back in my chest, so I busied myself with drinking the cup of coffee made for me. I didn’t have the strength to ignore the jealousy, and I certainly didn’t have the courage to storm down the hall and demand answers from Cain in his current state.
Rey touched my shoulders, and I jolted with surprise. With a sigh, she wrapped her arms around me and hugged me close. I closed my eyes tightly and smothered the urge to cry again.
I didn’t have any tears left. For months I cried, more than I had my entire life, and this was hardly a reason. This was just possession. I shouldn’t be childish, not with Cain still recovering. It wasn’t fair to anyone. But despite telling myself that, it still affected me more than I cared to admit. It still got the better of my reactions. It still hit harder than anything ever had, and I wanted nothing more than to run away from it.
But how do you run away from something inside of you?
“I know Cain and Cain would never suggest something like sharing blood lightly. Tris being here changes nothing. Do you hear me?”
I nodded, not trusting my voice.
“So she needs to be coddled as well?” someone asked, and I immediately pushed away from Rey’s embrace. “What a kid.”
“Shut your damn mouth, Tris. How did you even convince Nessa to let you come here?” Dias’s voice was a vicious growl I’d never heard on him.
Tris didn’t appear the least bit affected by it, though. “I’m one of the best healers they have. If not for me, he wouldn’t be as well off as he is today.” Her eyes narrowed in warning. “Nessa knows it. Cain knows it. You should remember it.”
Rey touched my cheek and offered Tris a scowl. “Your job is done, Tris, yeah? Better head on back, then.”
Despite Rey’s urging, Tris bypassed us for the fridge. Turning and munching away on a cheese stick, she shrugged and smiled. “I think I’ll hang around for a bit. Cain’s request.” Her eyes found mine. “He still needs me.”
Needs her?
Weight landed in my stomach, and I suddenly felt sick. I shut my eyes and chastised myself for only thinking about myself. Cain was injured just a few days ago, to such a degree an entire team was required and his recovery time unknown. But I was jealous—not about their past relationship but about what Tris was capable of doing for Cain. She could heal his wounds. She could save him from death. She was capable of things I only dreamed of, and I was extremely envious. Because when I first heard about Cain’s injuries, I was helpless to do anything for him.
Opening my eyes and schooling my expression, I pushed down the feeling of envy and rose from the chair with a smile. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for him. Really. I can’t say it enough, but this world would be a lot darker without him.”
