Chapter 9

 

Apparently, I dozed off, because I woke in the car parked at my house and found those mesmerizing green eyes watching me.

“We’re here,” Matt said softly.

“How long have I been out?” I asked. I checked the clock on the dash. It was off, which meant we’d been sitting there for at least ten minutes while he watched me sleep. Blood rushed to my face, suffusing it with heat. I hope I wasn’t drooling.

I unbuckled my seat belt and started to open the car door. A small jolt of apprehension made me stop and look around before I completed the movement. I didn’t see anything strange, but I knew that didn’t mean there was nothing there. I took a breath and got out.

It was still daylight, though the sun was setting, painting the sky with dark pink and smudgy purple. I took another deep breath, inhaling the clean country air, laden with spring moisture. A huge crimson dragonfly zipped through the yard and made a few circles, buzzing over the car.

“What the heck,” I said, thoroughly confused. “It’s spring.” Dragonflies didn’t appear until summer at least, and usually late summer.

Matt nodded. “Yes.”

I watched it go, pondering. I’d once heard a legend that human souls could ride dragonflies back to Earth in order to visit. The things I was learning and encountering lately made me wonder just how many of the legends and myths were true.

“Dinner?” Matt asked.

“Yes, please,” I agreed. Matt still had my keys, so he unlocked the door and held it open for me.

“I’ve never been much worried about locking my doors,” I said. “I’m rethinking that policy in light of recent events.”

He chuckled. “Good, and there are some other things we can do to place protection around your home.”

Inside, we shucked off our jackets. Matt took them to hang in the stairwell while I opened the refrigerator and perused the contents. “Salads with grilled ham and cheese?” I suggested.

I glanced over my shoulder. Matt was rolling up his sleeves. “Lead me to the rabbit food. I’ll dice while you do sandwiches.”

I chuckled. I loved the way he made himself at home. Can I keep him? The thought flitted through my mind as a joke, then lodged there. He had suggested we would be “partners.” Just how did he define that?

Something must have registered in my expression because his eyes locked with mine. Attraction flared on his face, then it went carefully neutral again.

He’d done that before—deliberately closed himself off. Damn. Why? He’s a man, I’m a woman. Why not?

I sighed and pushed the concern from my mind. Concentrate on food. I started pulling out lettuce, celery, cucumbers, carrots, and radishes for a salad, along with the different dressings I had on hand. I was more of a blue cheese girl, but I did Italian often enough and occasionally a buffalo wing ranch. I’d once had a Vidalia onion dressing I liked, but every brand I bought after never tasted quite right.

I set out bowls and the cutting board for Matt, then got out the sandwich makings and started slathering mustard on the inside of the bread. I added thick slices of cheddar cheese and ham before coating the outside with butter. They went in the preheated cast iron skillet, covered, so everything could melt and crisp up. When I started smelling the fried bread, I flipped the sandwiches.

Matt placed the bowls on the table. I brought plates of diagonally cut sandwiches along.

“What would you like to drink?” I asked.

“Milk?”

I got out the half gallon with the cow on the side then got myself a glass of seltzer water.

We sat down to eat, and both reached for the blue cheese dressing at the same time. “Oh, go ahead,” I said.

“No, you first,” Matt insisted, picking up his sandwich and taking a bite. “Mm, delicious.”

I retrieved the bottle. “Thanks.”

“So, how was your visit with Jen? You said she had something interesting to say? About how the accident happened?”

I capped the bottle and set it closer to him. “Yeah, it was very odd.”

His eyes flicked to mine as he picked up the dressing, then he looked down to pour some on his salad. “In what way?”

“Well, there were two things. First, like Denise said, Jen claimed she hadn’t been drinking, something just picked her car up and flung it at the trees.”

“Like a tornado or a microburst?”

“Not exactly. More like a… thing.” I paused to swallow around a sudden lump in my throat.

“Thing?”

“Yeah, a big, red humanoid monster with large, curving horns, like a ram.”

Matt set his fork down. “Any chance she could have picked that image up from somewhere else?”

I shrugged. “There’s always a chance, though she was adamant, and also adamant I not tell her mother or anyone because they’d think she was crazy.”

“Hmm, well, the fact she knows that suggests she’s fairly in control of her faculties.”

“There’s more.”

Matt folded his hands in his lap. “Do tell.”

“She said she died and met an angel. It gave her a message; she was pretty sure it was for me.”

“What did the angel say?”

I briefly considered how much to tell him. Something made me hold back. “It said, though she is no longer with us, still we are with her always.”

Matt’s expression didn’t change as we regarded each other across the table.

“What do you make of that?” I asked.

“Interesting.” He picked up his fork and resumed eating his salad.

Puzzled, I watched him for a minute, but he focused on his dinner. Hello? Strange. I picked up my sandwich and started eating, confused by his reaction, or lack thereof. If I pressed him on it, would he just lie to me? He kept me so off balance, I didn’t know how to react.

I snuck peeks at him as we ate, trying to formulate what I wanted to ask in my mind.

Finally, he caught me at it. “What?”

“I’m not sure how to say it.”

He shrugged. “Just say it.”

“Okay, why are you here?”

“For the same reason I started searching for you. After stumbling across the articles about your fantastic success rate with rehabilitating birds, then the article about the demon’s death when you were a child, I had a feeling I was supposed to find you. There had to be some kind of divine intervention here. And if I could find you, then maybe the demons would too. I needed to protect you.”

I sighed. “Unfortunately, you weren’t wrong.”

“Chin up.” He winked. “We’re stronger together.”

I wasn’t sure what help I would be to him. Maybe there was some way I could help, if only as bait.

After we finished our meal, I yawned as Matt got up and started clearing our dishes. “I’ll do these, you go on to bed.”

I wanted to protest because he was a guest in my house, but another yawn forced me to cover my mouth. I peeked over my hand sheepishly. “Okay, you talked me into it,” I said meekly.

He grinned. “You’ve had an exceptionally full day, and your body is probably still healing internally from your own ordeal.”

I tried to think of anything I needed to do before I turned in. “Um, oh, the guest bedroom. It’s the one on the left down the hall upstairs. It has clean sheets, and there are towels in the bathroom closet.” Was there anything else he might need?

“I can fend for myself, don’t worry. Scoot, off to bed with you.” He leaned over and kissed the top of my head.

Utterly bemused, I got up. “Goodnight.”

“Night.”

He turned to the sink. I left, feeling awkward in my own home.

Upstairs, I slid out of my clothes and tossed them on the chair in the corner, then rummaged in my drawers for something to wear to bed. My oversize T-shirt nightgown was probably not worth trying to clean and mend, if Matt hadn’t already burned it. The only other nightgown I had was a pink baby doll with lace cups; it wasn’t really for sleeping in.

I got out an extra soft turquoise camisole made of a stretchy material and put it on along with a pair of lightweight summer sweatpants. That would do for tonight.

I crawled into bed and was asleep nearly as soon as I drew my hand back under the covers after turning off my bedside lamp.

I dreamed of Matt, but it wasn’t exactly a fun dream.

Two demons gripped my arms in vice-like hands and dragged me along a path, rocks scraping the skin from my knees. I tried to resist; they were too strong. I didn’t know whether they really wanted me for some reason or if I was being dragged along as bait for Mattheus.

Facing back the way we came, I saw a battle raging on, demon forces versus angelic ones. The cacophony of shouts and metal ringing on metal assaulted my ears while the heat made the air feel like flames in my lungs. Grit invaded my mouth from the cloud of dust raised by the combatants.

Then I saw him. Mattheus moved steadily toward me through the battle, a long sword flashing with each swing as he engaged the foe, the occasional lift afforded by his wings aiding his down stroke, but his eyes almost never left me. He was coming for me.

Having fought free of the battle at last, he took to the air and soared toward me on huge, white wings that shone with the power and majesty of his heavenly office. As he neared us, the demons dropped me and fled in terror. He set down fifty feet from me and continued approaching as he folded his wings away and sheathed his sword. Barely breaking stride as he closed the distance, he scooped me up and took off again, cradling me against his chest.

I sagged against him, my strength spent, and realized I’d been wounded in the battle. “Am I going to die?”

“Not if I can help it,” he growled.

Sometime later, I roused to the feel of something solid beneath my body. His hands cupped my face, and I felt his soothing lips on my forehead. “Hush now,” he said softly.

My eyes would not open. I heard his footsteps recede, though not far enough that I couldn’t hear the conversation.

“Can you heal her?” he asked.

Another voice, higher, though not feminine, answered. “Only time can do that, and it will be long and arduous. It would be best if I sent her consciousness away, to a different land.”

“Send me with her.”

The other voice protested. “In case you have forgotten, there is a battle going on here. Every angel is needed. Besides, this is not a certain thing. She might not come back. You would both be out there, but where I could not say.”

“Couldn’t you send us somewhere that would be fixed?”

The other voice sounded wary. “What do you mean?”

“Make us human for a season.”

“That is not done, you know that.”

“I have heard the reports the demons are hiding there, on Earth, in human forms. What better way to combat the situation than to send us?”

Silence reigned for a minute. “No, no, I’m sorry. I take your point, but it cannot be done. There are agreements.”

“That have been breached already.”

“This is a complicated process. The intricate intertwining of His will with human free will and other influences. We can’t simply toss someone into the flow of time. It would cause chaos.”

I felt a breeze upon my cheek, like a cool wind rising, growing stronger, sighing, ebbing and flowing, then it died away.

“Very well,” the high voice said. “You can go.”

* * *

I opened my eyes and sat up, back in my own bedroom. “Mattheus?” I called. “Mattheus.”

I heard footsteps, and my bedroom door flew open. Matt stood there, a blue towel in his hands. “What did you say?” He seemed anxious, as if not sure whether to believe what he had heard.

I didn’t know what to think of it. “Mattheus?” I said quizzically.

He grinned, sat on my bed, cupped my face, and kissed me. He looked like a child on Christmas Day. “You remembered.”

In a way, I hated to take it away from him, but I felt wary too. I’d had a dream. I didn’t know if it really meant anything. If it really meant something, then what? Considering I seemed to be dying of wounds in the dream, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. “What did I remember?”

“You remembered my angelic name. What else do you remember?”

“Angelic?”

“I’m an angel. We’re angels, or we were, before we became human.”

I studied him for a minute. He seemed serious, but he couldn’t be. I laughed.

Giddiness gone, he sat back. “What did you remember?”

I told him about the dream. He nodded several times during my narrative. “That was not a dream.”

I put up a hand. “Wait. Are you serious? You can’t be.”

He gave a half shrug. “Think about what has taken place the last couple days. You know I’m serious, and you know I’m not alone. At least, not anymore. I’ve suspected there were others like me in the world. My memories of the other side are vague at best. I remember some things; others are hidden behind a veil. I know what I am, what I’m here to do. I’ve had to study and figure out things by trial and error and instinct.” His lips quirked up. “You have the benefit of my prior experience at your disposal.”

I smiled back. I was leaning forward. We were less than a foot away. The electricity arcing between us made the room feel too small. I could so easily fall into the wilds of his green eyes. It was overwhelming.

“I don’t know.” I drew the comforter up and hugged it to my chest. “I don’t know if it was a memory or just a dream.”

All expression on his face drained away. “Okay.”

It clearly wasn’t what he wanted to hear, yet he seemed willing to back off if that was what I needed. It warmed my heart. It also made it easier to share my dream with him, made me more comfortable doing so.

I was also very aware we were sitting on my bed, very close together. I touched his arm, and he met my eyes. His lips parted. He moved just a tiny bit toward me, then abruptly stood up. “I’ll make us some tea. Let’s sit in the living room to talk.”

He was out the door before I could reply.

I threw on a light blue, fluffy chenille sweater that was like a cloud and joined Matt in the living room, where he brought two cups of tea.

As he sat there on the couch, in something as simple as a T-shirt and jeans, he was magnificent. Our eyes met. There was longing written all over his face, but he quickly looked away.

Utterly frustrated, I picked up my cup of tea from the coffee table. We weren’t touching, but with the way his energy reached out to me when he simply looked in my direction, we might as well have been.

“Sometimes, you make me remember I’m living this life as a human,” he said.

I flushed. He turned me on and scared me half to death at the same time. I laughed weakly. “Would that be bad? Would it violate some kind of natural law if we’re angels?” I still didn’t really quite believe him, I guess. “Like, would we get hit with lightning if we, ya know, did the nasty?”

He flashed a strained smile in my direction. “I don’t know. I’m pretty close to being willing to find out.”

I’d take it, for now. “There was something I wanted to ask you.”

“Ask away. I’m an open book for you.”

Heat rose up my neck into my cheeks at the implied intimacy. “How did you start demon hunting?”

He picked up his tea, his hands wrapped around the mug. “I started with… on, my friend Horton.”

Horton Hears a Who sprang to mind, and I had a terrible urge to giggle. I restrained myself somehow.

Matt cocked an eyebrow at me. “Go ahead.”

“Who?” I asked, eyes wide in mock innocence, then giggled so hard I sloshed tea onto the pillow.

Matt took the pillow, shook it off, then tossed it into the chair.

I was quickly losing my layers of defense.

“Yes, his name was Horton. Horton Howard. His parents had a bad sense of humor or something.” He shrugged. “Anyway, we grew up together, Horton and me. We did everything together, went to movies, swimming, got odd jobs. It happened when we were fifteen. Horton was supposed to meet me out at our place, a sort of self-sufficiency farm my parents had. He was going to help me with my chores so we could go swimming. When he didn’t show up, I started walking into town, thinking I’d meet him. I just had a feeling something was wrong, you know?”

I nodded, set my tea aside, and drew my legs up. I didn’t like where this story was going.

“When I found Horton, he had the classic signs of possession. Oh, not like you see in most of the movies, spinning heads or anything—he was in a human body after all—but he was foaming at the mouth. He was more like an animal. It was like there were two people in the one body—Horton and someone, something, else.

“It was horrifying to watch the confusion on his face change to animal rage when the monster was manifesting, then back again. He tried to bite me. Something stopped him, though. When I realized it was my silver cross he was shying away from, I grabbed it and ground it into his forehead, saying as much of the casting out of demons stuff as I could remember from all those movies Horton and I had watched. I got lucky. According to my mentor, later on, it wasn’t so much the words as the intention behind them that had the desired effect, nor the actual silver or cross, but the belief I had imbued it with.”

He shrugged. “I don’t go in for crosses much these days, silver or otherwise, though they can be useful.”

Thinking back to how my parents had taken care of the body of the man I had killed, I shuddered. “What did you do with Horton?”

“I ran back home and got my Dad. He took one look at the body and suggested it had been rabies, then decided that explanation wouldn’t fit. We buried the body out in the woods, and I kept my mouth shut when people came searching for Horton. It was terrible to see the fear and confusion on his parents’ faces, wondering where their son was. I knew there was nothing I could do. I hadn’t really killed Horton, the demon had. I had just cast out the demon.”

I placed a hand on his arm. He knew it wasn’t his fault, but he still looked so sad.

Matt gave me a lopsided smile. “I found out the next day there had been a cave in at a mine, and apparently one of the guys was killed. I suspect he was possessed. The cave in killed the body, but the spirit had ventured out searching for another host. Somehow, the story of the cave in and the missing boy caught the attention of Juan DeMunoz, another demon hunter, from South America. He came asking questions. He wanted to talk to me because I’d been Horton’s friend, but then he decided I was one of them, the demon hunters. He taught me everything I know about the history and what to do when I find one. It was a great time for me. I was learning to fence and fight,” he misquoted The Princess Bride with a cheeky grin.

“So, what happens now?” I asked.

He took a deep breath and exhaled loudly, his cheeks puffing out. “Oh, well, we should probably get some sleep. Lots to do tomorrow,” he said evasively.

“Like what?” I asked.

“I need to train you to protect yourself.”

“More guns?” I asked, wrinkling my nose. I could appreciate the need to shoot accurately, but my hands had buzzed from the shooting we’d done for a long time afterward.

“No, this time we’ll start with the more… esoteric solutions.”