afraid, Nina. I would never let anything happen to you.”
I took a deep breath and put on a brave face for him. “I know,” I shook my head, “there is so much that I don’t understand.”
“You have more questions?” he asked, ready for the next barrage of inquiries.
I looked at my watch. It was almost midnight. “I’m not sure I can get them all in tonight.”
“You have somewhere to be?”
“No. I assumed you wanted to sleep sometime. You do sleep, don’t you?”
Jared smiled. “I do. But I don’t require as much…just a few hours to recharge. Claire and I take shifts.” He sighed and touched my arm. “I owe you another apology. I hadn’t slept long — about twenty minutes when Claire called to inform me that you wandered out of town and were stranded on a dark road. She was prepared to let you wait, but I couldn’t just let you sit in the cold. I’m sorry I was so…abrupt.”
“Cranky when tired…check,” I nodded once.
Relief brightened Jared’s face. “This is surreal. I’ve dreamed about how I would tell you for years, and now it’s done.”
“And here I sit, in front of my half-angel Hybrid boyfriend eating cake. I think I win.”
Three lines appeared on Jared’s forehead when his eyebrows shot up. “Oh. It’s boyfriend, now, is it?”
I swallowed hard, feeling the heat radiate from my face. I picked up my wine glass and took a large gulp.
“Are you okay?” Jared asked, concerned.
“I’m fine. I just…I didn’t mean…ugh!” I moaned, covering my eyes with one hand.
“Nina,” he chided, “as if I’m not thrilled beyond words at that idea.” Jared pulled my hand from my face. “What could you possibly have to be embarrassed about?”
“Just…forget I said anything, okay?” I said sheepishly.
“Absolutely not,” he smiled.
I involuntarily yawned, using the back of my fingers to cover my open mouth.
“I should take you home,” he said.
“I don’t want to go home. I still have questions,” I argued, wiping the inevitable tears that followed.
“We have a long, long time for Q and A, sweetheart,” he said, tucking my hair behind my ear. I smiled, realizing why he always seemed to pull my hair from my face the moment it crossed my mind.
I yawned again, but stubbornly shook my head. “The cut on your face?”
Jared touched it with two of his fingers. “There are pro’s and con’s to being what my father’s world calls Half-breeds.”
I wrinkled my nose at the word. “Sounds derogatory to me.”
“It is. Most Archs don’t believe we should exist, and the…Others see us as the enemy as well.”
“Archs?”
“There are several types of angels: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones…there are nine in all. Archangels serve as protectors for humans. They relay messages, fight demons on occasion, and protect their Taleh against harm, from demon and human alike. But all humans have Archs, and even if their Taleh is threatened by another Arch’s Taleh, Arch’s are forbidden to harm humans. They are strictly protectors, but that protection has limits because of the Laws. Claire, Bex and I are half-human, freeing us from many of those restrictions, just like my father when he chose to live as human.”
“So…Gabe…turned human?”
“No. He relinquished the ability to transfer planes….” My expression must have reflected how foreign the words sounded to me, because he stopped to explain. “To be invisible. Falling from grace has a price. Archs are cursed when they choose to stay, and that curse carries on to their offspring; although, it lessens with each generation. As the blood is diluted with the human gene pool, so is the curse.”
“What kind of curse?” I asked. His world was much darker than wings and harps.
“Archs are obligated to protect their humans even after they fall, and because their priorities have been compromised, so to speak, the curse keeps that obligation in check. Fallen and their offspring, like Archs, don’t get sick and we can’t be killed. But unlike Archs, we experience a degree of pain and have a limited life span. Once our Taleh die, we almost immediately fall ill and expire.”
“So you lost your father when I lost mine,” I whispered.
Jared nodded infinitesimally and wiped a tear from my eye.
I leaned away from his hand. “Please don’t do that. Don’t comfort me for your father’s death.”
Jared shook his head. “I can’t stand to see you cry. Not when I’m close enough to stop it.”
“I’m so sorry, Jared.” I couldn’t imagine having to experience the constant worry of not only my father’s mortality, but someone else’s as well, for the sake of my father.
My eyes widened as my thoughts shifted. “I’m you’re Taleh?”
“You are.” He sat up a bit taller as his sad expression warmed at the thought.
“How do you know?”
“It’s a feeling we get. When you’re in pain, embarrassed, scared, sick, happy…aroused—,” he looked down for a moment, seeming embarrassed—“…we feel it to a lesser extent.”
“You can feel it when I feel those things?”
“It’s hard to explain. I guess I could liken it to a mosquito buzzing in your ear.”
“So, if I…bump my side on my father’s desk?”
“I can sense it,” he confirmed, amused that I had caught on.
“Was that you on the phone with my mother?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Yes. I just wanted to make sure you were all right. You hit pretty hard. I’d be surprised if you didn’t bruise,” he said, lightly touching the exact spot where I had collided with Jack’s desk.
“I did bruise. I thought you said my parents’ house has cameras. Couldn’t you see that I was okay?”
“Your father’s office is the only room in the house that isn’t wired. When you’re in there I have to rely on my senses. I’d prefer it if you wouldn’t spend so much time there in the future.”
I nodded, preoccupied with an errant thought that had popped into my head. “So…if I’m cramping….”
Jared closed his eyes and nodded. He clearly didn’t want to dwell on the subject.
I giggled in disbelief. “That hurts you?”
Jared chuckled and rolled his eyes. “I don’t get cramps, Nina, no. I’m aware of it.”
His answer caused my giggles to erupt in laughter. I was definitely feeling the effects of fatigue.
I tried to remember where we left off before my short bout of hysteria. “When did you know I was yours?” I asked. Jared’s eyebrows lifted and I corrected myself. “When did you know that I was your Taleh?”
He nodded in understanding, but a grin lingered on his lips. “Archs are assigned to their humans, but Half- breeds—,”
“Hybrids,” I interrupted. I didn’t like him using a derogatory term to refer to himself.
He smiled. “Hybrids have to figure it out on their own. Another reason Archs resent us — it leaves our humans vulnerable for a time. They don’t agree with that.”
“Lots of cons,” I sighed.
“There are pros,” he assured me. “We have few advantages over the Archs, the most important being that because we’re half-human, we can kill other humans to protect our Talehs if necessary. We can see them, even if they remain hidden to humans. We also retain a fraction of their pronounced strength, focus, intelligence, and accelerated healing. Archs are indestructible and they don’t bleed; bullets don’t bounce off of them, they simply pass through them.”
I glanced at his fading scar. “But you bleed.”
“Yes, but we heal quickly. Very quickly.”
“So, the wings thing….” I yawned as exhaustion set in.
“You don’t have to worry about me sprouting feathers, Nina,” he chuckled. “Archs don’t fly. They simply appear where they wish to go. I’ve always found the pictures a bit silly, myself.”
“I like those pictures,” I argued.
“You’re disappointed, then?” The corner of his mouth pulled up as he rested his hand on the back of my chair, leaning towards me.
