“I cannot locate her,” Julian says, making me startle a bit. “Which means she’s probably in another dimension right now. I’ll try again later.”
“Thank you. Does this other angel work for—or with—my dad, too?”
“Yes. Michael is in charge of a great number of angels. This angel, Alona, ranks higher than me. She’s who I would report to before going to Michael.”
“So angels have rankings like demons do.”
“Yes.”
I put another book in its rightful place and move on to the next aisle. “What do you do for fun when you’re not hunting down demons or bad guys?”
Julian gives me a blank stare. “Fun?”
“Yeah…fun.”
“I’m an angel. I don’t know what you would consider fun.”
“Well, I’m guessing you don’t have wine in Heaven,” I say with a laugh and get met with another blank stare. “Never mind.”
“What do you do for fun?” he asks, picking up another book. It’s a historical romance with a much less sexy cover than the previous.
“Watch TV, read, go out to dinner, shop…normal stuff for a human.” I shrug. “I spent a lot of time just lying out in the sun drinking wine on my honeymoon. It was really nice.”
“You like the sun.”
“Love it.”
“But Lucas…” Julian’s brows push together. “He can’t go in the sun.”
“I know,” I sigh. “But I’m working on something to take care of that, too. I already figured out a way to keep the harmful rays from coming through the windows without actually having to block out the light.” I fix two more books and move down the aisle again. “Have you ever heard about an amulet that allowed vampires to day walk? There have always been legends of them, but Lucas says that’s all they are: legends.”
“I have heard of the lore. I can look into it, too.”
I smile. “I’m going to get used to having you around. I wish you could stay. It’s…it’s really nice having another angel around, which is weird to say since I don’t even know what being half-angel really means. I know I’m different, yet I don’t know how we are similar.”
“You don’t have to know,” Julian says gently. “You can just feel it. I saw it in your eyes the first time you spotted me.”
“Did you want me to see you?” I ask as we slowly walk down the aisle.
“Yes,” he admits. “I’d wanted you to for years. I felt for you, and while I understood Michael’s reasons for having to keep you hidden, it hurt me to see you go through what you did. It…it was the first time I felt pain like that.” His brows furrow, looking confused from his emotions. “I’ve seen a lot of human suffering. All of us have,” he says, referring to the other angels. “But knowing who you are, what had to happen, and knowing I couldn’t intervene, it wasn’t fair. Michael wanted to, you should know that.”
“But he couldn’t.”
“Correct. Ten years after you were born, the first rumor surfaced about your heritage. Michael put a quick end to the demon who started it, but it would have been much too risky to go to earth himself. He sent your familiar instead.”
“Binx,” I whisper with a smile. “If he hadn’t come and alerted Tabatha to where I was…things would have been so different. Even if I got out of that laboratory, I wouldn’t have come to Thorne Hill. I wouldn’t have met Kristy and maybe…maybe I wouldn’t have met Lucas.”
Julian tips his head. “I think you would have run into each other one way or another.”
I’m hit with emotion again and turn, quickly blinking away tears. What the hell is wrong with me? I move onto the next aisle, explaining how the store works to Julian. We get everything straightened up and then go into the office, taking care of anything that didn’t get done when we all rushed out of here yesterday.
The little bell over the store’s front door sounds, and I shoot up, magic sizzling around my fingers. Along with the warding, the stay-away spell is still cast around the store. Julian rises to his feet, too, and holds out his hand. A dagger materializes in his hand, blade glinting under the harsh office lights.
“Callie?” someone calls from inside the store.
“It’s Kristy,” I say with a sigh. “Yeah, it’s me!” I look at the dagger in Julian’s hand. “Where did that come from?”
“I’ve always had it.”
“No…you haven’t.”
“It’s kept hidden with what I suppose you would call magic.”
Kristy walks through the store. “Who’s with you?” she asks before she gets to the office and then comes to a halt as soon as she sees Julian. “Oh, hi.” Her eyes go from Julian to me to the dagger in his hand. She blinks a few times and quickly shakes her head. “What are you doing here?”
“We’re just hanging out. Lucas thought it would be a good idea for me to get out of the house after Julian dropped by last night to tell me Ruth is trying to bust Bael out of demon-jail and the demons want me so they can force me to kick my uncle off his throne and rule Hell.”