Blake had rented an apartment on Toulouse a couple of weeks before. He figured if he was going to immerse himself in humanity, he’d do it right. Although the only furniture he’d managed to pick up was a leather sofa, an iron bed, and a mattress, which he hadn’t taken the plastic off of yet. He pushed the door open, still high from his date with Dixie, and found Lathan sitting in the dark on the sofa.
“What are you doing?” Lathan greeted him with a dark tone in his voice but didn’t bother to look his way.
Blake ignored him and went into the bedroom, where he stretched across the bed.
In true Lathan fashion, he stomped in behind Blake and stood at the door. “Get up.”
“What?” Blake saw the look on his face and knew Lathan’s mood meant trouble.
His cheeks were taut, his jaw was set, and behind him, the impeccable wings had made an appearance. Their crystal accents threw tiny prisms against the floor where the bathroom light seeped in under the door. Blake wiped his hands on his pants and stood up, waiting for the inevitable.
Moving quicker than any human could ever have, Lathan crossed the room and threw a punch. Blake felt his lip split and then heal again without a drop of blood hitting his face. He couldn’t fight back. Lathan had every right to be angry.
Blake couldn’t hit him, but he could make him talk. “What’s your problem?”
“Don’t play stupid.” Lathan hit him again. This time he felt the horrendous blow below his eye, and just as the throbbing started, it disappeared.
“I wish you’d meet her before you freak out.” Blake fell back on the bed, riddled with guilt. “Besides, we promised not to do this again… ever.”
Lathan snorted. The sound was malicious, a deep roll, which made Blake feel anything but happy. “Promises don’t mean much between us, do they? I lost everything, and now you want me to back down?”
Despite the anger, Blake could see Lathan’s loyalty to him was winning the war he’d waged in his own brain. Lathan had already started to feel remorse for hitting him. He could see it when his shoulders slumped forward, making him look like a child.
“Just meet her. I swear if you meet her and you still feel this way…”
“What? If I still feel this way what? Have you forgotten? I know what you’re thinking. I know how you feel. You’re not gonna just let it go because I don’t approve.”
“I will,” Blake whispered, knowing as well as his brother that he wouldn’t stop until things went his way.
“Let me think about it. How’s your lip?” Lathan headed for the door and then turned, casting a glance at Blake.
“I’m fine.”
Blake watched him leave the room and then laid back on the bed feeling like a jerk. He couldn’t hold anything against Lathan. In the span of an angel’s life, it had only been a short time since he’d caused Lathan to suffer a tremendous amount of misery.
Lathan hadn’t had a human charge since then, not because he didn’t want one, but because God didn’t believe him capable. The agony he’d suffered was one thing, but a Guardian without a human was a miserable creature.
Lathan’s last guard duty had been for a little girl. He’d been fond of her, protecting her from the smallest of things. Blake chuckled as he remembered those days. Lathan would follow her every footstep and berate himself when she fell off of her bike or scraped her knee. He’d had her for ten short years and then…
Blake turned over and closed his eyes in an attempt to push the memories from his polluted angel mind. He focused on the alarm clock next to the bed and watched the dots between the numbers flash then counted the rotations of the ceiling fan when that didn’t work. Despite all his efforts, his mind wandered back to the face of the little girl.
Ten years, and then she’d been affected in a way even Lathan couldn’t prevent. She’d awakened one morning and the right side of her face was entirely paralyzed. Numb. No movement whatsoever. Lathan hovered next to her bed, anxious for her to recover. Bell ’s palsy, the doctor had said. He’d also said she’d get better. Weeks passed, though, and her face remained frozen.
Blake had witnessed the way his brother had suffered when other kids called her monster, or when she sat for hours staring in the mirror sobbing. He’d tried to comfort Lathan, but the other angel had shut down and spent all his time trying to shield the girl from the cruelties of her human counterparts.
Once an angel has made the decision to protect his human, no matter the cost, it’s impossible to change his mind. The doctors had cut into her head and relieved the pressure on the facial nerve, but the child had slipped away. Her lifeless body had lain motionless on the operating table. Blake had been standing in the corner watching his brother’s angst. In a blur of screeching monitors and running doctors, Lathan had leaned across her and blown life back into her tiny body.
As he squirmed in bed trying to forget the memories, they became more lucid than he cared to admit. He could still feel Lathan’s anguish and the sheer disappointment he’d suffered when his brother had finally caved and pulled her back from the brink. It had taken great strength for Lathan to watch her die, but he hadn’t had it in him to allow her passing. In the days following, things snowballed until a wedge had been driven between them, a wedge Blake wasn’t sure had been removed yet.
The girl had awakened from her near-death experience with a new gift, and upon opening her eyes, she saw not her parents, but Lathan. Lathan’s devotion to her grew until Blake felt he’d gladly trade anything, even his brother, to have another moment with the child. If Blake had only let it go, if he’d just let things play out and waited for Lathan to come back to his senses. Instead he’d argued with him, trying to snap Lathan from his stupor, and their fights had been epic. They’d fought in the most horrific manner until it drew the attention of their Maker.
God was so displeased with Lathan that he’d immediately made him give her up. He’d not only taken her away but admonished him, handing down a harsh punishment. Lathan would be without a human until he could be trusted again. And the girl? Well, Lathan had been allowed one last visit with her. During this last meeting, he’d been coerced into healing her and stealing the power she’d been given to see him and other angels.
God could change what she was allowed to see, but there was something that couldn’t be altered. The girl had been altered in a permanent way, and like Justin’s girl, Jess, she’d now live forever. At least God had agreed to allow Lathan one last wish. He’d made it so the girl would age like any other child until her twenty-fifth birthday, then she’d be frozen in time and death would never find her. Lathan didn’t talk to Blake for a year after, not a word. Their reconciliation had been hard fought, and it had taken all this time for them to get past the rift in their relationship.
Blake was about to get out of bed and go for a walk in hopes of clearing his head when Lathan returned to the room. Blake watched as his brother’s face twisted with shame and anguish.
“Do you have any inkling what you’re asking of me? Do you have any idea how painful it is for me to watch you do this?” Lathan sat on the end of the mattress and buried his face in his hands.
“All I want is for you to give her a chance.”
Lathan held his hand up. “Stop. You didn’t give me a chance, you made things so hard and then…” Lathan’s eyes softened as he looked at Blake, as though in that moment he’d decided to put aside their past differences. “But I’ll do this, because you’re my brother and I love you.”
Before Blake could answer, his cell vibrated in his pocket. He fished it out and answered while his eyes remained locked on Lathan.
“What’s up?” he barked into the phone, having seen Justin’s number pop up on the screen.
“Why are you so grouchy?” Justin was calm as usual, and his voice soothed Blake’s conflicted soul.
“Lathan and I were just talking.” Blake finally looked away from his brother and tried to concentrate on Justin’s words instead of the guilt he felt growing in the pit of him.
“About the girl?” Blake heard the objection in Justin’s question and wanted to toss the phone across the room. What right did Justin, of all angels, have to judge him? Blake had never questioned Justin in regards to Jess. He’d stood by his side and supported him through the events that had altered her life. The least Justin could do was muster up the ability to do the same.
“Don’t start. You know exactly how I feel.” Blake’s words came through clenched teeth. He was hurt that he couldn’t even count on Justin to have his back where Dixie was concerned.
“Yea, Bro. But it’s not the same.” Justin cleared his throat.
“How is it not the same? You were supposed to be guarding Jess and you fell for her.” Blake’s voice rose as he stood to pace the floor. He was ready to fight with Justin too, if it became necessary. Suddenly he was glad that they were separated by miles, lest he attack Justin the way Lathan had attacked him just moments earlier.
“Yeah, and you see how that turned out.” If this was an attempt on Justin’s part to convince him that he regretted bringing Jess back from the dead, then it failed. In Blake’s mind, everything had turned out fine. Justin and Jess were together and happy.
“Whatever. I gotta go.” Blake chucked the phone on the bed and left Lathan sitting there alone.