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“Do you see yourself having kids?” Nate asked.
“Yes,” I answered without hesitation. “What about you?”
“I don’t know. I can’t picture myself having a family again, willingly choosing to love someone so fiercely. I won’t even go to church with you because I can’t stand to watch families together. Besides, I don’t even know if it’s possible to have kids while I’m in the secret order. No one else in the order has their own families.”
I twisted so I could look up at his face. “What is the secret order exactly? You didn’t mention it when you listed all the orders.”
He grinned at me. “That’s because it’s a secret. Most angels and demons have no idea the order exists. We’re Heaven’s assassins, spies, undercover military.”
“You’re like Heaven’s version of the FBI?”
His laugh was real this time. “I guess that’s one way of putting it.”
“Thank you for telling me about your sister,” I whispered, snuggling closer into his warmth. “She’s the angel in your sketchbook, isn’t she?” That was why she looked familiar. It wasn’t because I’d met her before. It was because she looked like Nate.
“Yes.”
“I have one more question.”
“Hm?”
“You said she lived among humans for years. Do angels age like humans?”
“No. We’re immortal. We do start as babies and age at a human rate, but we can choose to appear any age we’ve already reached, and we can never look physically older than fifty or so.”
“How old are you?”
“You said one more question.”
“I changed my mind.”
Nate didn’t answer for long enough that I didn’t think he was going to. Then, just before sleep claimed me, he whispered, “Thirty-five. I’m a baby by angel standards.”
Sixteen
Nathaniel
I wokeup alone on the couch. Sierra’s heat was no longer pressed to my chest. I sat up and shoved off the blanket I didn’t remember being there when I fell asleep.
A glance at the clock on the living room wall informed me it was quarter to eleven. Shit. I hadn’t slept in this late since before I joined the secret order nearly ten years ago.
I shoved my hands through my hair and tried to shake the lingering sleep from my brain.
“Sierra?” I called.
Nothing.
I pushed to my feet and headed down the hall to her room. The door was open and her lights were off. She also wasn’t in either of the bathrooms. Where the hell was she? The apartment wasn’t exactly big enough to have many hiding places.
Ice flooded my veins and my heart rate picked up as a sense of dread crept in. I returned to the living room, and this time I saw the note sitting on the end table where Sierra and Kylie stored their keys.
Went to church with my family. I’ll be back a little after noon. I’m going to pick up takeout on the way home. Text me if you want me to get you anything. I’m getting Chinese.
—Sierra
“Fuck.” I crumpled the note in my fist. “Fuck, fuck,fuck.”
She’d left. She’d fucking left. I knew she hadn’t promised me she’d stay in all weekend when I asked, but I hadn’t thought she’d disappear without talking to me about it.
