“Which it will be soon,” I said. “Alex and I found a way.” Alex shook his head. “Not yet. I still haven’t found out where my mom is.” Aislin’s eyes popped wide. “Our mom.”
I elbowed Alex in the side. “You didn’t tell her?”
He winced, clutching his side. “Ow… you’re like freakishly strong now.”
“And immortal.” I stuck out my arm.
Alex snatched it, tugging me to him. He blinked at the Mark of Immortality, then let me go and headed for the front door.
“Wait. Where are you going?” I chased after him, wings slamming into the walls.
“To find a witch,” he explained. “So we can get those things off you.”
“Wait,” Aislin said, racing after him. “I’m going with you.” Alex paused, looking at me. “Are you going to be okay?” His eyes wandered to Laylen. “By yourself.”
98
I shooed him away. “Go, I’ll be fine.” But then I pulled him back, looking at the Mark of Immortality on my arm. “Are you sure we want to change it.” I almost gagged on my words.
“Because this could maybe help us if I don’t die, neither can you.”
“It’s not worth it,” he said. “Besides, you wouldn’t last long. You’d become one of them.” I leaned in, lowering my voice. “I thought you said I was supposed to get stuck in a cage.” He gave me a soft pat on the wings, ticking the black feathers. “Give it time and you will.
You’re in transition.”
I glanced at Aislin. “How did you free her?”
Aislin’s face twisted with confusion. “I used magic. A spell I didn’t even realize I knew. It was weird, but I seemed to know a lot of spells I’d never heard of, darker spells.” Then she sighed, reached in her pocket, and retrieved my locket. “Sorry I took it.”
“It’s okay.” I put my locket back on and then gave Alex a heavy stare. “Are you absolutely sure you don’t want to keep me like this.”
He pressed back a smile. “I’m not going to let you turn into an Angel of Hell.”
“Fine.” I sighed. “I just wanted to make sure this wasn’t our way out of dying.”
“We’ll find a way.” He touched the feathers on my wings and this time I shivered. “I promised I’d save you and I will. Just not this way.”
They left, slamming the door behind them and Laylen and I were left alone. An awkward silence built between us. Even worse, we both knew it wasn’t because of my wings or the weird leather getup I was wearing.
“So,” he began, staring at the black and white checkerboard floor. “How bad was I?” 99
“You don’t remember?” I gasped.
“No, I remember, well at least enough to know that I…” he trailed off awkwardly. “I was just asking you… I mean, you were the one that was hurt.”
I touched my neck. The bite marks were gone, but I swear I could still feel them. “It wasn’t that bad.”
It was like he’d relapsed or something, his bright blue eyes a deep sea of shame. “Don’t sugarcoat it for me.”
I sighed. “You know what, you’re right. It was bad. You scared the crap out of me.” I walked across the room, tucking the hideous wings against my back. I stopped in front of him, throwing my arms around his neck. “But we’ve all done things we’re not proud of. And we just have to live with it and move on. Our mistakes don’t define us, it’s what we do afterward how we grow that makes us who we are.”
Wow. I wasn’t sure if I was saying that more for him or myself.
He was quiet for a while and I started to think my little speech bombed. But then he sighed and hugged me tight.
“When did you get to be so insightful?” he asked with a soft laugh.
I loved to hear his laugh, because it was such a rare occurrence. “I learned from the best.” We stood there in the silence, hugging each other, wings and all.
100
Chapter 23
(Alex)
Ihated leaving her, but there was no way I was going to let her come with me. Her violet eyes drew enough attention and now she had wings.
“How did you know about this, but I didn’t,” Aislin fought to keep up with me as I shoved my way down the crowded streets of Vegas, neon lights flashing, casino machines ringing. People were dressed in impersonator costumes, handing out leaflets, ignoring the vampires feeding in the shadows.
“I know a lot of things you don’t,” I said.
“Yeah, but I’m a witch. You’d think I’d know that there was a spell to remove the wings of a Black Angel without sending them to hell. Are you sure it’ll take two witches though?” She cast a glace around the street. “It’d probably be easier if I could just do it.”
“No you need a witch for each wing… So this is where all the vampires, fey, and witches migrate to?” I observed, changing the subject, worried if she found out how I knew about this she’d be hurt. “I guess it makes sense, going where it’s more crowded, where there are more humans.”
She shook her head, pushing a crying woman out of the way. “You could be a little bit more sympathetic you know. You don’t have to be such a jerk all the time.”
“And you didn’t have to hall a Black Angel to the house,” I said. “But you did.” Tears started to slip out and I shook my head. Aislin had always been a crier.
“Sorry.” I gave her a pat on the back. “That was me being a jerk again.” 101
“It’s okay.” She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt. “You’re just stressed”
“No, I’m not.” I scanned the crowd for a witch that wasn’t marked. “Because I’m going to fix this.” Then I spotted one, not too far off, head down, black hair a veil across her face, trying to conceal her identity.
“We also have another problem.” Aislin was still chattering. “Aleesa’s still missing, and I think we should —”
I stopped, Aislin running into me. I pointed through the crowd. “There we go. I’m guessing she’s unmarked.”
When we were younger, before my mom vanished, she used to teach me all this stuff that, at the time, I’d thought was a useless bunch of information. Things like how to kill a Death Walker or where the City of Crystal was. Or how to shift a Black Angel back to human form.
Sometimes I wondered if she knew all of this was going to happen. Or maybe she just knew my father was a dick who wanted to kill the entire world and would never teach me how to protect it.
Aislin seized my arm. “Maybe I should handle this.”
“Hey,” I said. “I can be charming when I want to you know.” She frowned. “No, you just think you can.”