Page 7 of Fear the Fall

“Impressive, Tori.”

“Very valiant of you to watch without offering help,” I say tersely, annoyed at his presence.

“Didn’t look like you needed help. I was enjoying the view,” he says, looking me up and down. “You look good in leather.”

“Good deity. Do those lines really work with the human girls?”

He barks out a laugh. “Always with them, never with you.”

“And they never will.”

“I like the chase.”

“You should stop. You’re wasting your time,” I say, moving past him. “Why are you here, anyway?”

“We cleared an alley north of here. Five vamps had a girl trapped.”

“Is she okay?” I ask, spinning toward Zeke.

“She will be. I compelled her to forget and sent her on her way.”

I nod my head, pleased that the girl wasn’t hurt.

“Any other sightings?”

“Not tonight. It seems abnormally quiet for this time of year.”

He’s not wrong. Typically, springtime in New Orleans is crawling with vampires. Add mayhem like Mardi Gras, and the evil descends. I don’t know what to make of the change. It has been unusually quiet for months, and nothing good can come from that.

“Where are your human pets?” I jab, truly only caring about one.

I’ve never met the human hunters, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t run into them many times. There’s a particular redhead that has it bad for Zeke, and based on the way she looks at him, they’ve been together.

“I fought alone tonight,” he says, staring at me a little too intently.

“You took on five vampires alone?”

He shrugs like it’s no big deal. I’ve taken on more, but despite Zeke’s insistence that he’s the toughest hunter out there, we both know that I am. I fell to Earth as one of the strongest virtue angels. In angel hierarchy, I was several rungs above where Zeke had ever been.

“Good for you,” I say, lifting my hand and breaking the veil I’d placed on the alley to keep innocent bystanders from happening across my run-in with the demons.

It’s imperative that humans remain in the dark about the evil that walks alongside them in the shadows. Humans aren’t capable of handling such news. Widespread hysteria would ensue, giving the demons no reason to hide. They’d revel in the fear and feed on the souls of the damned still living.

It’s the only reason I can imagine that God allowed us to carry any of our powers to Earth. We don’t have them all, but we do retain the necessities: strength, speed, energy absorption, elemental control, mind control—compulsion—and glamour. Add to that impressive list the innate ability to track down ethereal objects—not ethereal beings—and now I have Solis at my back.

“I’m sorry about earlier, Tori. I shouldn’t push you into something you clearly don’t want. I’ll stop.”

Lies. He’s said this so many times I’ve lost count.

“What’s the draw, Zeke? I don’t get why of all the women on Earth, you keep coming back here. I’ve done nothing but push you away since the day you saved me. Why would you do that to yourself?” I ask, but I already know the answer.

Because we were good together.

When I gave in to my need for Zeke, it was like two stars crashing together. Two celestial beings with energy coursing through us made for one hell of a climax. I can’t imagine he has the same experience with any of his human conquests. The thought sours my already dire mood, but I smash it down, unwilling to go there.

“Maybe I like a challenge,” he drawls lazily, that roguish smirk almost doing me in. I know that as long as I’m on Earth, he won’t stop tracking me. Why? Because despite my insistence otherwise, we’re drawn to each other. Call it spiritually connected if you want.

We’re the only two—from what we’ve uncovered—who’ve experienced Heaven and are stuck here on Earth due to our own choices. Zeke claims he doesn’t want back in, but I know the truth. He doesn’t believe it’s possible. If he can’t achieve it, he thinks it better to delude himself into believing Earth is the best choice. If he tells himself enough times that this place is great, it just might become great. It won’t.

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