Shaking some salt onto his eggs, he watched the angel Camael take a tentative bite of home fries and begin to chew. A look that could only be described as pleasure spread across his goateed face, and he greedily began to eat.
Would his life ever seem so mundane again? he wondered, watching as an angel of Heaven consumed a plate of home-fried potatoes beside him.
He seriously doubted it.
Miss you. Love Aaron.
Aaron sat back in the desk chair, contemplating the last words he had typed in his e-mail to Vilma. Is it too strong? he wondered, fingers hovering over the keyboard as he tried to decide. His feelings for the girl back home hadn’t even come close to changing, and the more he thought about her, the longer he spent away from her—the stronger they seemed to become.
An all too familiar sadness washed over him as he wondered if he would ever see the pretty Brazilian girl again. He knew it was for her own good that he stay away—Verchiel would certainly think nothing of using her to get to him—but a selfish part of him wanted to be with her, no matter the consequences.
Aaron read through the e-mail again, smirking at how boring it all sounded—if only he could write even a portion of what he’d been experiencing.
Miss you. Love Aaron.
He wondered what Vilma was doing just then. It was early Sunday morning, and he guessed that she probably wasn’t even up yet. He wouldn’t have been, either but they had to get going and continue his search for Stevie. He always loved sleeping late on Sundays, reading the Globe with a big glass of milk and a couple of Dunkin’ Donuts that his foster dad would buy. But that was then.
Aaron read the e-mail one last time and deemed it perfectly fine. What do I have to lose? He clicked on the Send button and watched his letter disappear into the electronic ether. No turning back now, he thought, in more ways than one. There was only the road ahead of him now, and at the end of that road he hoped to find his little brother, and maybe a chance at a normal life—if fulfilling an ancient prophecy didn’t get him killed first.
Gabriel and Camael had started loading the car. Aaron was just about to shut the computer down when Mrs. Provost appeared in the doorway to the tiny office. “Don’t shut that off right yet,” she said. “I was thinking of maybe sending a note to my son.”
Aaron got up and motioned for her to take the chair. “That would be nice. I’m sure he’d like to hear from you.” He suddenly wondered if it could have been Leviathan that had kept her from leaving Blithe all these years.
“Damn thing’ll probably blow up in my face,” she said, scowling at the computer as she took a seat in front of the monitor.
“You’ll do fine,” he said. He then remembered that he hadn’t paid the woman yet for his stay, and reached into his pocket for the money there. “Oh, before I forget,” he said handing her the stack of bills. She took it from his hand and began to count it.
“Gave me too much,” she said, handing back more than half the cash.
“You said that it was—”
“Are you calling me a liar, Corbet?” she interrupted with a scowl worse than the one she had given the computer.
Aaron knew he was on the edge of real trouble here. “No, it’s just that you said—”
“Never mind what I said. This is plenty.” She held up the money she had kept, then folded it and stuck it inside the front pocket of her ancient blue jeans. “I enjoyed your company—and your dog’s, too, even though he’s a bit of a pig, if you ask me.”
Aaron laughed. “You don’t have to tell me! The boy’s been like that since he was a baby. His stomach’s a bottomless pit.”
They both laughed.
“Well, I gotta hit the road,” Aaron said. “You take care of yourself, Mrs. Provost,” he said, waving good-bye as he left the office doorway.
“Same to you, son,” she said. “You and that dog of yours stop by again sometime, and bring your handsome friend along too.”
Aaron headed for the front door, listening to the old woman’s fingers tentatively moving on the keyboard. It sounded as though she was doing just fine, but as he opened the door, he heard her curse and threaten the computer with being tossed out with the trash. Laughing softly to himself, he stepped from the house to join his friends.
Aaron was passing beneath the flowered archway to go to his car when he saw Katie McGovern. She was dressed in a baggy white T-shirt and some running shorts. The vet was patting Gabriel, checking out his bite wound. Aaron noticed that her hand was bandaged as well. “Hey,” he said, approaching them and his dog.
“Hey, back,” she answered. “Was out running and saw Gabriel in the yard. He begged me to come pet him.” “Healed up pretty fast, didn’t he,” she pointed out, running the flat of her bandaged hand along the dog’s flank.
“I didn’t tell her anything,” Gabriel grumbled, looking at him guiltily, tongue lolling.
Aaron ignored the dog. “I don’t think it was as bad as it looked—and plus, he had the best vet in town looking after him. How could he do anything but miraculously heal?” he asked, chuckling. They were both patting the Labrador now, and the animal was in his glory.
“So you’re leaving, huh?” she said, eyeing his vehicle. He looked where she was staring and saw that Camael had already taken up his place in the front seat, patiently waiting.
“Yeah, got some things to take care of,” he said, stroking Gabriel’s side. “Thought I’d get an early start.”
“Is that the friend you were waiting for?” she asked, motioning with her chin to the car, and the back of Camael’s head.
“That’s him. Got back from Portland yesterday,” he lied.
“Nothing I could say to get you to stick around and help Kevin and me with the practice, is there?” she asked halfheartedly, already expecting that she knew what his answer would be.
“You and Kevin, eh?” he questioned, a sly smile creeping across his face.
“Yeah,” she said, now rubbing Gabriel’s ears. “Since he got back, we’ve been spending a lot of time with each other and have decided to give it another go.” Katie shrugged. “We’re taking it a day at a time—see what happens. So I guess your answer’s no?”
Camael turned around in his seat and gave him an intense stare. Even an angel’s patience has its limits, he thought, moving gradually toward the car. “Sorry,” he said, opening the back door of the Toyota for Gabriel. “Still got something I have to do, but thanks for offering.” He thought of his little brother still in the clutches of killer angels and he felt his pulse rate quicken. The dog jumped into the backseat, and he slammed the door closed.
“You’re good, Aaron,” she said, hands on her hips. “If you ever need a letter of recommendation for school or anything, be sure to look me up, okay?”
“Thanks,” he said, opening the driver side door. “You take care now. I hope everything works out between you and Kevin.”
Aaron sat behind the steering wheel and was just about to slam the door of the Toyota closed when Katie abruptly stopped him.
“The other night,” she said, her eyes wide. She licked her lips nervously. “You know what happened then—don’t you?” Katie nervously played with the bandage on her hand.
Aaron looked into her eyes and told her that he didn’t know what she was talking about, but he suspected that she didn’t believe him.
“There’s a little voice in the back of my head telling me that I should be thanking you for something—but for the life of me I don’t know why.”