Chapter Seven

 

THEA

 

Thea woke and stretched, wincing as her back popped from sleeping on the hard couch she’d fallen into the night before. She had been staying the night with a different friend, couch-surfing until she could figure out what to do. Her home was gone, all of her things destroyed. On top of that, she hadn’t even seen the angel since he’d dropped her at the bar where she worked. If the apartment hadn’t been burned down, it would’ve been easy to convince herself that the whole thing had been one bizarre dream, but no—she was homeless, with practically no clothes or money, and now she had to hop from couch to couch to have somewhere to stay for the night. She didn’t even trust some of the ‘friends’ she was staying with and had to mess with their emotions to ensure her safety.

For the last few years, Thea had done anything and everything she could to get her own place—a secure, warm room she could call home. Now it was gone. The angel had destroyed it and left her with nothing. Angels were not the saints they were made out to be, though they were definitely sexier. Since she had sent him away, a desperation to see him again consumed her. She couldn’t understand it—her mind and body were at complete odds.

Later in the week, Thea managed to get a waitressing job at a different bar. She told Amber to meet her while she was on her shift, and was grateful to see her.

However, Amber looked terrible. Her blond hair a mess, her pallid skin highlighted by dark circles under her green eyes. She hadn’t been sleeping well. She’d had another fight with Leo, a terrible one, and was more upset than Thea had ever seen her about her relationship with him. She had also had to leave her catering course because of him, which completely pissed Thea off. Amber had worked so hard and saved ruthlessly to get into the course. It was an ambition she was striving for, to get herself out of the life she knew and on to better things; and Leo was destroying her dreams.

Thea had always wanted to join the police force, but with her connection to so many criminals, it was something that would never be possible. She had come to terms with that but desperately wanted Amber to succeed with her dreams; she was doing it for both of them. Of course, Leo had to try and fuck everything up.

Amber looked so miserable. Thea got up and gave her a long hug. Amber was a fighter but she was being worn down. Thea had promised herself never to use her ability with emotions on Amber, but at that moment she wished she could make her feel better instantly.

As Thea tried to comfort Amber for the remainder of her break, she decided it wasn’t a good idea to bother her friend with what had been happening with her lately. Like the fact that she was homeless, that she was supposedly a half-angel, that she couldn’t stop thinking about a gorgeous angel with wings whom she’d only met once but couldn’t get out of her head. She had never wanted to tell Amber anything that could cause her to think she was crazy or cause her to worry about her. She was the only one that cared about her and who she could truly rely on. She wasn’t going to jeopardize that.

Once, they had failed to deliver on a job for a ruthless gang in a nearby neighborhood and, as punishment, they had been locked in a garage with about fifteen men to ‘pay their dues.’ Thea and Amber knew what was coming next and it was clear they wouldn’t survive it. Although they had had some combat training by a kind community officer, fifteen hardened criminals driven by lust wasn’t something they could easily get out of. While they fought wildly, Thea had reached into multiple men at once and caused utter havoc with their emotions, reducing most of them to blubbering messes. It was the only reason they escaped, and that was barely. Afterward, Thea decided to tell Amber what she could do but Amber never accepted it. She thought Thea was traumatized by the experience and actually used the money she was saving to book Thea in to see a shrink. Thea never mentioned it again.

After her break, Thea flitted around the tables serving customers their drinks and snacks while Amber waited until the end of her shift. Thea’s mind was partly on the angel while she worked. Once her shift finally ended, it occurred to her to ask her friend the same question she had been asking herself all week.

She slid into the chair beside her with a couple glasses of wine. “Amber, what would you do if there was a chance you could learn about who you really are? About your history? Would you want to find out?”

Amber chewed on her chicken wing thoughtfully. “Yes. I wish I knew. I’d kill to know, actually. I wouldn’t necessarily want to have anything to do with any of my family, but to get some answers as to why my childhood was the way it was, and about my ancestry? Hell, yeah. Why?”

“I was just wondering.” Thea had been thinking a lot about why she turned down the opportunity to train with the angel. Part of it was because she absolutely hated having to be rescued like some princess in a fucking fairytale. Her independence was everything to her; she’d had to look after herself and her father since her earliest memory. She had allowed more than one man she thought she was in love with to make her dependent on him before letting her down, and it nearly destroyed her every time—though she realized now it wasn’t from the heartbreak, but from the embarrassment of having relied on them. Her hurt pride. If she didn’t have her ability, she would have ended up drugged up, used and abused, in a gang or doing anything she could to keep herself alive. And who knew what would’ve happened to Amber. She didn’t like the idea of being under the “protection” of anyone, even a warrior supposedly from heaven.

It was undeniable, though, that she had developed in some way since meeting the angel. She found that her ability to manipulate other people was stronger and that niggling feeling she’d had the day of the attack had blossomed into an odd awareness of the air around her. She could see beings like the angel that saved her and the beasts who’d attacked her almost all over the place. She had to duck and hide away from the creatures at times, skulking down back alleys, finding different routes or temporarily obscuring herself among groups of people. If she was going to protect herself, to stand on her own without the help of anyone else, she needed to know how to control her powers but she had no clue where to start. Was it something she could learn on her own?

“Thea?” Amber placed her hand over Thea’s.

Thea blinked, realizing that she’d zoned out. She sighed inwardly and smiled at her friend, bringing herself back to reality. She felt bad about being distracted; Amber was suffering and needed support. That was another thing about learning to control her powers—Thea would be able to protect Amber, to keep her safe if things with Leo didn’t work out. Thea might be able to tell her everything one day and maybe even convince her to break up with her boyfriend. She imagined the advice of a trained half-angel would go further than that of just a struggling friend with no ambition and no love life to speak of.

“I’m here, sorry,” she said, holding Amber’s hand. “Haven’t been getting much sleep lately.”

“I’m with you there,” Amber said, wryly. “What’s wrong?”

Thea smiled, although it felt false. “Nothing, why?”

Amber gave her a knowing look. “You do know I can read you like a book, right?”

“No you can’t,” Thea said, teasing. “You’re never able to read me when I’m trying to signal something to you.”

“You mean when you’re wiggling your eyebrows and twitching your mouth like you’re possessed?”

Thea laughed.

“So tell me,” Amber said. “I know something’s wrong. If you can’t turn to family…”

Thea sobered, her heart becoming heavy at the state of her life. “I lost my apartment.”

Amber gasped. “What? How? When?”

“Fire. About five days ago.”

Amber leaned forward, inching up from her chair, her mouth dropped open. “Are you all right? What the hell happened?”

Thea tried to soothe her worry and immediately slipped into a lie. “I wasn’t there. It was vandalized. And you know, insurance wasn’t ever an option.”

“So you lost everything?” Amber said, aghast. She lowered back to her chair. “Where are you staying?”

“With a few of our people.” Thea raised her hand before Amber could protest. ”I could never impose on you, Amber, not when you’re having trouble with Leo as it is. You know me being there would only make your relationship worse.”

Amber’s face dropped, her eyes widening. “Thea. Are you telling me you didn’t say anything about this to me because of fucking Leo?”

The disgust in her voice made Thea’s guilt surge. “I didn’t want to make things any more difficult.”

“No. This isn’t right.” Amber shook her head. “I know this relationship with Leo is consuming, Thee. I know you don’t like him and I know you’re usually careful not to make me mad by saying anything about him. But you’re homeless. He’s not more important than that.” She clenched her jaw. “You’re my family. If you need me, I’m there for you one hundred percent. Fuck Leo! I don’t even know if it’s worth it if you can’t talk to me.”

Thea grabbed Amber’s hands on the table. “Amber, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you or make you feel like I’m not confiding in you. It’s not about that, it’s just…” She didn’t know what else to say. How could she explain she just wanted to figure all these things out on her own? Amber would surely take offense.

Amber’s eyes locked onto her own and she squeezed her hands. “It’s not your fault.” She lowered her eyes. “It’s mine.”

Thea pressed her lips together, a warmth blossoming in her chest. For a moment, she was tempted to tell her friend everything, to share the weight of everything she had been dealing with, even her abilities. But she held back and the moment passed. Amber was a practical and sensible person, and Thea knew she would sound insane again if she told her everything.

“You only get one chance with the love of your life right?” Thea said, smiling. Amber was always saying that—she used it as a reason to stay with Leo. Thea had always been skeptical of the term. Every time she thought she might be in love, she was left crushed and deceived. “I couldn’t live with myself if I made you lose your chance.”

Amber chuckled, but it was humorless. “I’m not even sure if he is anymore.”

Thea raised her eyebrows. “Really?”

Amber shrugged. “At some point I have to look at my quality of life and weigh up if it would be better without him, Thee. I used to think no relationship is perfect, it takes work from both sides, and he’s been there for me so many times, you know? But lately, I have to wonder if he’s just holding me back. He knew how much I wanted to finish that course and the bastard made sure I got kicked out.” Amber scowled, her eyes flashing, and, right there, was the Amber Thea knew. “Now it feels like you’re pulling away from me because of him,” Amber continued. “What if eventually I’m left with just him and nothing else? What if that will be my life? I can’t say I’d be happy with that, and that makes me wonder what the fuck I’m doing.”

“Amber,” Thea said. “You’ll never be without me, okay? Never. I’m not pulling away from you, I just don’t want you worrying.”

Amber sighed, her green eyes becoming glassy. “Then come and stay with me.”

“I’ve got something lined up, Ambs,” Thea said, lying again. “Honestly, I won’t be in this situation for long.”

Amber blinked away her tears. “Alright, but I don’t want you to keep anything from me anymore. I called you a couple times this week and you never mentioned anything. Stop taking the brunt of everything alone.”

Thea nodded but decided it was best to figure things out on her own for now. She could never be the cause of Amber and Leo’s break up. If it was going to happen, it needed to be Amber that ended it. It was encouraging that she was thinking about it, but she had to take that step. If Thea truly couldn’t sort out housing in the next week, she’d consider staying with Amber.

For the rest of the evening, they talked about Amber’s course, the possibilities of her re-enrolling and possible ideas to fund the tuition fees. Thea tried to brighten the mood for both of them, even making Amber laugh once or twice. It was a good distraction but still wasn’t powerful enough to keep Thea’s mind from spinning, wondering what to do about her situation. She could try and find the angel and accept help from him and learn how to use the powers he’d mentioned, or she could try to develop them on her own. Either way, it was going to be a hell of a lot of work. She couldn’t avoid the creatures forever.