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“You going to kill me, winged freak?”
“I’m not going to kill you.”
He stared at me for a beat longer, and I took an experimental step backward. He didn’t react. Stretching an arm protectively over Evie, who had made herself visible to him so he wouldn’t take one of the others, I watched his hand carefully as the gun he held was now pointed at her, straight at what he could see of her beyond my shoulder and arm. Lee didn’t need to know much about me to know that I wouldn’t risk her. So, slowly and carefully, we left the bar.
The slow pace we had left the bar with increased as the sound of the sirens got closer. I doubted Lee wanted to deal with the police any more than I did. He was willing to move as long as he could see a snippet of Evie and could keep his gun trained on her. I tried to keep her hidden with my body in such a way that meant I could protect her if Lee were to shoot, but there was that nagging sense of doubt in me I wouldn’t be able to move fast enough to stop a bullet, and she could get hurt.
This, and this alone, is what kept me compliant and not tearing Lee limb from limb.
The first alley we came across, he guided us into with a flick of his wrist. Once hidden mostly from the street’s view, I turned to face Lee, hiding Evie behind me.
“What do you want?” I asked again.
He had started to shake more now, a motion that had begun in his hand until his entire body was visibly trembling. I’d have had more sympathy for the man if it weren’t for what I knew of his past, had given him a chance at a fresh start, and that he had thrown it away.
No one is a lost cause.
Do you really believe that?
He had held up a bar of mostly innocent people, turning them into hostages, and for what? Because he was having some existential crisis and inner conflict over the new knowledge of celestial beings? I get it, it was a lot to take in, but I didn’t see Evie going crazy with that manic look in her eyes, threatening to hurt people. So, my patience was limited to none with this man.
“I told you, I can’t sleep knowing you’re out there.”
“Well, I don’t know what you expect me to do about—”
I stopped when he withdrew the items from his pocket.
It seems like hehadbeen busy over these past few weeks.
“Zaqiel, what is it?”
“Stay behind me, Evie.”
“Zaqiel—”
I pushed her further behind me and tried to ignore the panic that had been in her voice. She didn’t know what it was that Lee held in his hands, but she must have sensed the tenseness in my shoulders, the way my back straightened and breath hitched.
Yeah, he had been a busy man.
Doing his research, gathering information.
I don’t think I’ve ever misjudged a man as much as I did this one. He knew the gun meant nothing to me, that the only reason I feared it was because of the damage it could do to Evie, and he couldn’t kill me with metal or bullets.
But burning holy oil, that was something else entirely.
And the bottle and lighter he held told me he meant business.
If all I could get out of this was making sure Evie was safe, then I could be happy with that. Because Lee meant business, and it was like cutting a razor over my heart to know this was because I had given someone a second chance. I had found Evie, found heaven on Earth, found happiness, and things I didn’t even know I was capable of feeling, and because I had tried to see the best in someone, I may lose it all.
Irony. It wasn’t the least bit amusing.
“Lee,” I held my hands out in front of me. “Put those down, you don’t know what you’re doing.”
“I knowexactlywhat I’m doing. How many times do I have to keep telling you? I can’t sleep knowing you’re around. What is your kind doing on Earth anyway? We’ve been fine without you.”
I almost laughed. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. We’ve always been around.”
“Well, you can fuck off because we don’t need you.” He flicked the lighter and noticed I flinched, which brought a smile to his face. “This world is hard enough to make it in as it is with fucked-up humans, I don’t need supernatural bullshit to deal with too.”
