“Not really. I’d rather be sitting across from my angel without wings than looking at a picture of an angel with them.” I could feel his breath on my lips, and I leaned closer to him.
Jared fell against his chair. “I knew this conversation was going to be difficult, but it’s become difficult for a completely different reason,” he sighed, running his fingers through his hair.
“Why is that?” I asked, surprised at his sudden retreat.
He glanced up at me with a smirk. “I thought I’d have to stop you from running out into the street in a panic, instead I have to concentrate on finishing everything I want to say before you get me too flustered to speak at all.”
The blood pooled under my cheeks, and Jared touched my face lightly with his thumb, tracing to my lips.
“It’s a nice surprise,” he said, letting his thumb slide from my chin.
“I’ll try to restrain myself,” I said flatly.
“Why don’t you leave that up to me?”
I raised a dubious eyebrow at him and he chuckled. His demeanor had improved one hundred percent since the beginning of our conversation, and I couldn’t help but grin.
He outlined my fingers with his and I yawned, relaxing with his warm touch.
He gave me a disapproving look. “Nina….”
“I still have questions,” I said. “You said you don’t get sick. Ever?”
Jared shook his head with an amused smile, he was enjoying my interview.
“But the rest, about dying after your Taleh, do you…?”
“Yes.”
I gasped. “But that’s not fair!”
“Nina, don’t forget…I fully intend on growing old with you.” He enveloped me in his arms then, pulling me into his lap. “I literally can’t live without you. But I wouldn’t want to, even if I could.”
I struggled for words to reply with, but they never came. Jared’s expression tensed as though he might have said too much, and the need to relieve his quandary had me searching for new questions.
“That’s very convenient, isn’t it? That you and Gabe’s Taleh just happened to be father and daughter?” I asked, hoping to take the uncomfortable expression off his face.
“It’s great for carpooling.”
I tried not to smile. “Seriously.”
Jared leaned his forehead against my cheek, taking in the scent of my hair. “It’s quite common. Archs are family as well as an army, existing in groups. Those groups are generally assigned humans that are related or connected in some way. It creates stronger bonds with humans.”
His candid desire to grow old with me made my heart race, and I was suddenly focused on his mouth. After all, he’d only qualified that we wait until he told me everything.
And we were so close…
“How many like you exist?” I asked to distract myself. I didn’t want to give him another reason to point out my embarrassing lack of self-control.
“Not as many as you might think. Like I said, it’s taboo to get too involved with humans. It’s even worse to fall in love with one — to betray your seraphic family for one.”
“So how can they protect us if they despise us?” I asked, incensed.
“It’s not that, Nina. They have an almost maternal love for humans. They see you as innocent, naive children. Falling in love with a human is frowned upon by Archs as humans would an elderly man falling in love with a five year old. It’s a social taboo, it’s inappropriate. It’s not because they are disgusted by humans, though there are those that feel that way. But those types of emotions lead to falling farther than earth.”
“Dem—,”
“Don’t say it. Don’t even think it. Especially in my presence, they tend to hover.”
A shiver traveled down my spine, but when Jared pulled me tighter to him, I instantly felt more at ease. As I relaxed my cheek against his neck, I yawned again.
“All right, it’s morning. Time to take you home.” He stood up and in the same movement, lifted me effortlessly in his arms.
“I’m not leaving until you kick me out,” I said, feeling slightly intoxicated.
“Then you may never leave,” he said, kissing my lips.
He sat beside me on the couch and I leaned against his chest, sliding my arm across his middle and nestling my head under his chin. He didn’t speak; the only sound in the room was the buzzing from his ceiling fan and our quiet, rhythmic breaths.
Before I could focus the fuzziness in my brain to form another question, exhaustion engulfed me, and my eyes became too heavy to keep open. I relaxed further into Jared’s side, feeling my consciousness slip away. It wasn’t an uncomfortable feeling — I felt I was just where I belonged. My last coherent thought was the contentment I felt as Jared’s warm arms tightened around me.
Chapter Seven
Caught
The mangled, dark blue sheets underneath me were unfamiliar, but their wonderful scent was one I recognized right away. I lifted my head, peering around to study my surroundings. I was in a king-sized bed that sat against a grey, cinderblock wall. The alarm clock on the night table read nine o’clock in large, red numbers.
My eyes drifted to a metal frame beside the clock, and I blinked to bring it into focus. It was a black and white picture of me. It had been taken from an indefinite distance, zoomed in on my face. It was from a high angle, and it reminded me of the surveillance photos I’d seen in the Port of Providence file.
Rolling over, I hugged the pillow next to me. It smelled like Jared, and I took in a deep breath. His scent was incredible — like line-dried laundry, soap and something else…the way it smells when it’s about to rain? — I couldn’t put my finger on it.
The only rooms upstairs were his bedroom and a closed door to what was likely the master bath. The far wall beyond the end of the bed wasn’t a wall at all, only a metal railing.
I heard Jared’s voice speaking to someone else in French downstairs. His company’s voice was distinctly female. They argued in hushed tones, and in my limited knowledge of French I thought I heard Jared reprimand the woman for waking me.
This piqued my interest, so I tiptoed to the railing to steal a glance at the woman below. When my fingers met the metal bar, I saw that Jared and Claire were both looking up at me. I waved sheepishly and bit my lip, feeling foolish for trying to sneak up on celestial beings.
“Good morning, sweetheart.” Jared said, almost crooning.
Claire’s expression was the polar opposite of Jared’s. She glared up at me with ice blue eyes, as if she wanted to scale the wall with murder in mind. I recoiled, suddenly feeling out of place.
While avoiding her eyes, I noticed crisply folded bedding at the end of the couch. Jared had slept downstairs.
“If you’d like to shower, fresh clothes are on the dresser. You’ll find everything you need,” Jared called up to me.
On the dresser sat a neatly folded stack of clothes, and beside them a pair of boots. My eyes darted to the opposite side of the dresser where my toiletries sat. They were all from my dorm room.
“Where did you get these?”
“I had Claire bring them,” Jared explained, making his way up the stairs. When he reached the top, he pulled me to him and kissed my neck.
I glanced down to Claire, who hadn’t ceased her death stare. It was clearly more than intimidation. If Jared hadn’t been near, I would have been afraid for my life.
“Don’t worry about her. She won’t bother you,” he assured me as he pulled me away from the railing. “Did you sleep well?”
His face was positively lit up; I couldn’t recall seeing him quite so cheerful.
