Ablaze Read online

  “I’m done now. Did you secure us new accommodations?” Hailey asked as she stood.

  Penn nodded. “Yes, when we get there we can put up the appropriate runes and protections to keep us hidden from demons or angels.”

  “Hold onto me, Sam. I’ll take you there,” Hailey said with a smile.

  “I can take the boy,” Penn said gruffly. He didn’t want to admit it, but he hated the thought of anyone touching her.

  “No!” she said sharply. “He is my charge; I’ll take care of him.”

  “Fuck it, Hailey, if I wanted to kill him or hand him over, I could’ve done it at any point and redeemed myself in the underworld,” Penn snapped. “Crap, I can break your scrawny neck and take him.”

  She raised her head in defiance. “Then why haven’t you? I tell you right now you would have a fight on your hands. Again I ask why haven’t you, Penn?”

  Hailey had put him on the spot, and they both knew it. The feelings were there, the love, but he couldn’t admit it; the words stuck in his throat.

  “It suits me not to at this time.” Penn shrugged.

  “This is why you will not take him,” Hailey replied. “Who knows when your mood might change for the worse.” She beckoned to Sam who wrapped his hands around her neck. “Lead the way to our new home.”

  With a soft growl, Penn dematerialized from the park. He knew she could follow him just by the stream of his power alone. They ended up in the back alley behind the Chinese place, and while Hailey kept her face bland, Sam wrinkled his nose in disgust.

  “You just keep finding us the greatest places to stay,” Sam said sarcastically.

  “If you think you can do better, boy, and stay off the grid go ahead,” Penn replied. “Let’s see how long you can survive without our intervention.”

  “Listen, you ass, I was taking care of myself long before Hailey came into the picture,” Sam snapped. “I like her, you are a douche bag.”

  “Okay, please don’t argue. Let’s go upstairs, and I’ll make some dinner,” Hailey said excitedly.

  “No!”

  The frantic shout came from both of them. He and the human boy might not share a fondness for each other, but they could agree on one thing. Hailey couldn’t cook, and while they tried to take a few bites just to see the happy look on her face, stomaching another tuna macaroni and cheese with anchovies was not in the cards for either of them. The look of confusion and disappointment on her face almost had him rethinking their refusal. So he made up an excuse quickly in his head.

  “We’ve all had a long day. Why don’t we get some takeout from downstairs?” Penn suggested with smile. “You haven’t tried Chinese food yet.”

  Hailey clapped her hands. “Okay that sounds fun, but tomorrow remind me to make you guys my dinner again. I think I might make chicken too. I’m going to go look around.”

  “You do that. We’ll grab the food and some blankets and stuff from the little store on the corner,” Penn called behind her as she walked into the bedroom. He turned to Sam. “I’m breaking the stove.”

  “Please do, break it good, or I’ll end up in the ER.” Sam sighed. “I always wanted a home-cooked meal, but this is so not it.”

  “Let’s go get the stuff.” Penn walked over to the small kitchen and pulled the fridge back with an easy move. He disconnected the gas and melted the nozzle so it couldn’t be turned. Then he made sure to destroy the pipe that led from the stove. She wouldn’t be cooking for a while. This time he and the boy took the stairs.

  “You’re pretty strong,” Sam commented.

  “Yeah so what?” Penn said.

  “Jeez, it’s a compliment, dude; I mean Hailey is just as strong as you.” Sam pushed his hand in his pockets as they walked.

  “I seriously doubt it, but, um, thanks,” Penn replied.

  “You dig her, man, so why don’t you romance her or something?” The boy posed the question as they walked to the corner.

  Penn snorted. “I hardly need advice on sexual matters from a boy. You probably never even tasted a woman’s lips.”

  “Hey, I’ve kissed plenty of girls, and I’m not talking about sex,” Sam said. “I’m fifteen and know the difference between that and love. Obviously you don’t. You look at Hailey like she’s some kind of meat on a plate. And all she probably needs is for you to be gentle and kind.”

  Penn sighed. “Kid, I’m a demon; there’s nothing kind about me.”

  “Then why the fuck are you with us, man? Seriously, I don’t get you. You show up and then you’re here griping about not wanting to be here,” Sam groused. “Either you’re with us and you get the fuck over it, or you go.”

  Penn growled and lifted the boy off his feet by the scruff of his coat. He shook him like he was a rag doll. “I’ll kill anyone who talks to me like you are now.”

  “Then you should do it and go back to your sulfur cave, demon.” The boy’s voice changed, and Penn narrowed his eyes. Sam shook his head and then glared at him. “Put me down, fuckhead.”

  He dropped the boy to the pavement. “What just went on there with your voice?”

  “Don’t know what you’re talking about, man.” Sam hunched his shoulders and turned, but Penn grabbed him again.

  “Yeah you do. I wondered why both heaven and hell would want a kid who was just good with some words.” Penn grabbed his chin and lifted the boy’s face so he could search his hazel eyes. “There’s more to this, and I bet the little angel back there has some clues too.”

  “You leave her out of this.” Sam wrenched his face free of Penn’s grasp.

  “Kid, you tell me I need to care about her then fine. I’ll be nicer or whatever.” Penn grabbed him again by the shoulders. “But you’ve gotta talk to her, well both of us. Let us know what the fuck is in you, why you’re such a commodity, or all of our asses are dead. You got me?”

  “Yeah, I got you. Let’s get this shit and go back upstairs to the apartment before Hailey worries and starts blinking all over the place.” Sam moved with furious steps down the street, and Penn looked at him before he followed.

  Something was off about the kid, and when they got back to the safe house, he would find out what. He picked up blankets and sheets, anything they would need to make the place livable. He pulled a wad of hundreds from his pocket, and the cashier’s eyes widened in surprise, and so did Sam’s. Penn said nothing, and together they lugged everything to the apartment, including the food.

  Hailey whirled around when they opened the door. “I was beginning to worry.”

  “I told you,” Sam said to Penn.

  “Maybe you should tell us a lot more things,” Penn replied and dropped the bag. “The boy has something in him, something more than just human, and I can’t scent him.”

  “What are you talking about?” Hailey pulled Sam closer and put a protective arm around him.

  She’s worse than a mother bear with a cub. Penn gritted his teeth against the urge to ask her where his comforting caress was. Could he long for a touch he’d only had once? It seemed he could because it was his main thought.

  “He got mad at me…”

  “He lifted me by my collar and shook me!” Sam accused.

  “Yeah whatever, kid. The point being when he got mad and he spoke to me, I could hear another voice mingled with his,” Penn explained. “Something is inside him, another part of his nature; this is why both sides want him so much.”

  “Is this true, Sam?” Hailey looked at him and cupped his cheek gently. “We need to know, honey, so we can protect you.”

  Sam pushed away from her roughly. “I don’t know what I am, okay? I just know that I can tell people things and they listen. I know my mom was scared of me when she put me in the system.”

  “I can check,” Hailey said, and Sam began to struggle. Penn watched her calm the boy. “I won’t hurt you. From the time I came to you in your heart, you knew I would protect you. Let me help you; let’s find out who you really are.”

  Sam swallowed and
nodded. Penn had to admit the boy had bravery in him that he’d seen in very few humans. Hailey sat him down in an old chair of the small kitchen dinette and rubbed her hands. She closed her eyes, and the glow that emanated from her hurt his eyes, yet Penn couldn’t look away. Her hands glowed strongest when she placed them on Sam’s chest. The boy gasped and arched away from his seat. Penn knew that her power was racing through the boy and wished he could feel it. Wished that she could burn him from the inside out with one touch. It went on for only a moment, but it felt as if minutes ticked by. She pulled away suddenly gasping and looked at Sam with wide eyes of astonishment.

  “It’s not possible, its not…” she stammered.

  “What’s wrong with me; who am I?” Sam demanded.

  “Jesus, what did you see, Hailey?” Penn asked.

  “He’s human, and yet he is us,” Hailey breathed. Son to the archangel Gabriel from a human mother and the mark…the mark of the higher ones, the soldiers, is on his heart.”

  “You are fucking kidding me; he’s a hybrid?” Penn asked.

  “A nephilim, one of the most powerful; he will turn the tide when the time comes, lead human…” Hailey stopped herself and bowed low. “I will protect you with all that I am.”

  Sam shot up and began to pace. “Jesus, stop that!” He threw a look at Penn. “Make her stop that weird stuff.”

  “You’re making the boy nervous,” Penn said humorously. “You’re coveted, boy. Get over it, and now we know why.”

  “I pledge my life to him; will you?” Hailey demanded to know of Penn.

  He would say yes to anything when it came to her, but anger burned through him. She hardly gave him the time of day, yet she asked for something like this.

  “Angel, I’m here. That’s as much as you’ll get,” Penn snarled.

  “Listen, you two don’t even start this shit, can we just eat?” Sam asked. “Let a kid get used to knowing he’s part angel or whatever. Tomorrow we’ll figure out what we’re going to do on a permanent basis because we can’t keep running like this.”

  “You’re smarter than you look, small fry.” Penn reached out and ruffled Sam’s hair, and in return Sam pushed his hand away.

  “I’m fifteen not five; jeez, you really don’t know how to talk to people, do you?” He stomped into the small kitchenette and began to unload their food.

  They sat and ate in silence as they all contemplated the implications of the new information they had. He’d never heard of a nephilim not going crazy, or even worse, having to live away from humans. This boy had power; it was in his lineage from the archangels. The boys below would love to get their hands on him and twist him to their uses. Before he would have taken him to the higher-ups in hell and just let the good times roll. Now, he looked at Hailey and knew it would break her heart, and something inside him shifted. Crap. He hated this feeling and wished he could rip it out of his chest.

  Later that night, after dinner, he had Hailey mark the building with protection runes. Now he looked at the boy sleeping on the thin mattress of the old pull-out couch. He opened the bedroom door expecting to see Hailey. She had made up the bed with the bright yellow comforter that he bought and piled the blue pillows on top. He wanted to bring her a little of the sky and the sun in his small way. He closed his eyes and homed in on her and dematerialized to where she was on the roof. Hailey was looking upward, and her face was forlorn as she stared into the night sky.

  “Why are you up here?” he asked as he stepped behind her.

  “No reason,” she replied but her eyes never left the sky.

  “You’re missing up there,” Penn said.

  “I’ve never been cut off from them before.” Hailey shook her head. “I only hear silence, and then sometimes I feel the pull, the call to grace, and I cannot answer. Other times I hear those who I care for. They whisper to me even though its forbidden. I know this is for the better good, for Sam. But my heart aches for it sometimes, the peace and the balance.”

  “You had no choices up there, just following always doing what you’re told.” Penn grabbed her shoulders. “Tonight you ate Chinese food, and you like chocolate; you love that boy even with his attitude. Why miss it when there is more for you to see and experience?”

  “Don’t you miss your version of home, the hell and heat of it?” Hailey glared at him.

  “No, I don’t,” Penn said automatically.

  “Why don’t you? Is it because you care for nothing, that being in the underworld is worse than death?”

  He pulled her hard against him and caressed the chocolate brown skin of her face. “No, because I have you. There’s nothing down there worth more than being with you.”

  “Why are you saying this now?” Hailey asked.

  “I long for you to touch me, to feel your hands on my skin,” Penn said. He could hear the ache in his own voice. “I long to taste your lips again and see you look at me like how you look at the boy. You shut down when I’m around, and I miss your light.” He slipped his hand into the hair at her nape. “Kiss me, Hailey, just kiss me so I can feel somewhat normal. Even if you have to pretend kiss me like you care. I hate having to feel like this, to beg for just a kiss. But I need it. I need to feel you more than anything.”

  “Oh, Penn. I don’t have to pretend,” Hailey whispered.

  She cupped his cheeks and pulled his lips down to hers for a kiss. The feel of her, the taste of her was almost too much to take, and he groaned in delight, in pleasure and the ache of it all. She opened her mouth under the probing of his tongue. He molded her to him as he burrowed into her mouth. It was like drinking nectar, and if he could taste sunshine, she would be it. She took his onslaught with moans and whimpers that took him higher and made his cock so hard it throbbed between his legs. This time he pulled away, thinking about not only taking her body but keeping her in his heart. To do that, he had to pull away and take it slow. She was not just an object for release to him. Hailey was everything.

  “Why did you stop? Why didn’t you take me?” she whispered when he stepped away.

  “I’m giving you the choices you earned in more ways than one,” Penn replied. “When you want me to love you, you’ll come to me. I won’t take you otherwise. Your body is your own.” He pulled her close and kissed her gently. “Come downstairs soon. I don’t want the boy to wake up and not see you.”

  It was the hardest thing he ever did, but Penn walked away from the pleasure that he knew he could find in her body and with her kiss. For the first time he understood what humans experienced when they felt love, what they were willing to give up just to keep it. Why the sacrifices were so unimaginable, yet they paid the price hand over fist to keep what they’d found.

  Chapter Three

  My choices. Those were words that she never thought would be used when it came to her life, her path. In the heavens she was a guardian, protector of her charges. But when they told her to leave Sam to his fate, she could not. This boy had been hers since he was a baby; she’d comforted him while his mother abused her body. Hailey whispered in his mother’s ear that she should send Sam someplace safe so he could be better taken care of. Granted the human version of safe eventually led Sam to living on the street to getaway from the group homes, but she was always there watching over him. He was never hungry or slept in the cold; she found ways to get him what he needed. Now she knew why they wanted to leave him to whatever hand he was dealt. It seemed that even angels had secrets because he was the child of the warrior cast. Unlike Penn who could twist and wrap men’s mind to sign sinful deeds, Sam could change the world with a twist of a few words. Why would they leave him to the demons to get ahold of? Maybe they thought he would be killed outright. Hailey firmed her lips in a determined line. There was no way she was about to let that happen. With Penn fighting beside me…

  Thinking about the demon who now lived with her and Sam made a hint of a smile cross her lips. He’d spent so long doing what he wanted with no repercussions that she understood this new r
ole bothered him. While he would never admit it, she could see a change in him, honor maybe, or just plain need to claim her. She wondered about where they were going and what would happen next. That night when he took her body, she knew he would love her. From there she was as innocent as a newborn babe at what to do. Hailey didn’t know if she could truly trust him, yet she looked into his eyes and felt an ache she didn’t quite understand. She longed to feel his touch again, and that bothered her as well. How could one like her from the heavens feel such a need for a dweller of hell? She looked up at the sky once more, reaching out just to feel a small piece of the grace she missed. Again there was silence and a whisper in her head, one simple word … No. There was the finality to it, the determination to barring her. Her choices were made.

  Hailey closed her eyes and thought of where she wanted to be. In an instant she was back in the bedroom where the bedspread was a bright yellow and the pillows were blue. What will become of me? She had no idea what was to be done after they made sure Sam was safe. The thought of wandering the earth alone was unbearable. She wrapped her arms around her waist and lay on the pillows. Who knew that choices left you so alone? Yet in asking herself if she would change anything, her answer was no. Loneliness filled her being, so much that she felt tears spill from her eyes. Getting accustomed to this new role would be difficult for her, an angel who always had the heavenly hosts joined with her soul. Penn appeared into her room and sat on the bed. Silently, he picked her up in his arms and sat her on his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and rocked back and forth gently. Amazed, Hailey knew that he was offering her comfort without her even having to ask. She linked her arms around his neck and pressed her face against the skin of his neck. When he took her she expected him to smell like sulfur, and she was still amazed that his skin felt warm and held a hint of the spicy musk of the aftershave he used.