Page 4 of The Red Rider
“Wouldn’t it be just the little bit badass if you could?”
“No!”
“Yes, it would. Now, go stand in the door and focus.”
Dice came and stood behind me. I felt his arms wrap around my shoulders. He trailed his fingers down my arm until he grabbed my wrist. He lifted my arm and aimed my palm at his target. My heart was thudding in my chest. What was this man doing to me?
“Focus on what you felt when you exploded that light bulb, but try to harness it.”
Easy for him to say. I was kind of in the middle of getting laid. Like I remembered anything other than intense pleasure. I wasn’t exactly feeling that right now. I was nervous as shit, and being in this close proximity to Dice’s naked chest wasn’t helping.
“What’s wrong?”
“I was having sex when I made the light bulb explode, and the power go out.”
“Do you want to have sex right now?”
“Asshole!”
“I was going to offer to get Aeron, Ariel. I hardly know you either.”
“I don’t fuck with an audience.”
Except for that one time, but Dice didn’t need to know that.
“Well, you need to do something, because you need to get your angel boner up.”
I whirled around and bumped right into his chest. I stepped back because he shouldn’t be allowed to smell that good.
“You just expect me to be able to do it. Maybe you should explain the mechanics first.”
Nothing ever seemed to bother Dice. He just shrugged and took my arm to lead me over to the couch. He plopped on one end and stuck his big, head stomping boots in my lap like we were at that point in our relationship. I lifted his boot by the tip and removed it from my lap. Yeah, I was a little conflicted about the Horseman of War.
“It’s tied to your emotions, yeah? We all use different things to access our angel grace. You need to look deep inside and figure out what your trigger is.”
“Well, I’m certainly not going to be thinking about sex when I face my father.”
“No, you’re going to be pissed. But you can use that. It’s not just one emotion. It’s powerful emotions in general. I’ll bet if you thought of him and tried again, you’d be able to call your grace. Forget blasting shit for now. Let’s chat.”
I cocked an eyebrow at him. I thought the whole point of pulling me away from Aeron and Leif was to teach me this. Yeah, it made me nervous as shit, but so did the idea of just having a chat with Dice. Why did this angel unnerve me so much?
“Talk about what?”
“Girl, you wake up from a coma and can’t remember shit. You wake up in the middle of allthis,and you find out Daddy is the Antichrist, and your mom was an angel. Aeron isn’t huge on talking about feelings, and I imagine Leif has been buried in his test tubes since you got here. We’ve never met, but I’ve had to listen to those two goofy mother fuckers wax poetic about how even your farts smell good. Call me curious, and you probably need to talk to someone that doesn’t think the sun shines out your ass.”
“Aeron talks, and Leif isn’t buried in his test tubes all the time.”
“Call it professional curiosity. None of us have been up close and personal with Isaiah like you have. I’ve listened to his tantrums, but you know his weaknesses.”
“Yeah, but I don’t remember them.”
Dice just smirked at me.
“Then, talk to me, and maybe we can jog your memories loose.”
He was right. I needed to remember, and anything I could give them that would result in Isaiah’s death would help. I hopped up.
“Have you had Maria’s salsa? If we’re chatting, I want food.”
