Torment (Fallen 2)

Luckily, the morning had passed without incident; after giving her dad the longest, tightest hug she'd ever given someone, she'd mentioned that she had a few friends without places to go for the holiday.

Five minutes later, they were all in the car.

Now they were milling around Luce's childhood home, picking up framed pictures of her at di erent awkward ages, gazing out the same French windows she'd been gazing out over bowls of cereal for more than a decade. It was kind of surreal. As Arriane bounded into the kitchen to help her mom whip some cream, Miles peppered her dad with questions about the enormous piece-of-junk telescope in his o ce. Luce felt a swell of pride in her parents for making everyone feel welcome.

The sound of a car horn outside made her jump.

She perched on the sagging couch and lifted a slat of the window blind. Outside, a red-and-white taxi was idling in front of the house, coughing exhaust into the cold fall air. The windows were tinted, but the passenger could be only one person.

Callie.

One of Callie's knee-high red leather boots extended from the back door, planting itself on the concrete sidewalk. A second later, Luce's best friend's heart-shaped face came into view. Callie's porcelain skin was ushed, her auburn hair shorter, cut at a sleek angle close to her chin. Her pale blue eyes glittered. For some reason, she kept glancing back inside the cab.

"Whatcha looking at?" Shelby asked, pulling up another slat so she could see. Roland slid in on Luce's other side and looked out too.

Just in time to see Daniel slide out of the taxi--

Followed by Cam, from the front seat.

Luce sucked in her breath at the sight of them.

Both guys were wearing long, dark coats, like the coats they'd worn on the shore in the scene she'd glimpsed. Their hair gleamed in the sunlight. And for a moment, just a moment, Luce remembered why she'd originally been intrigued by them both at Sword & Cross. They were beautiful. There was no getting around it. Surreally, unnaturally stunning.

But what the hell were they doing here?

"Right on time," Roland murmured.

On her other side, Shelby asked, "Who invited them?"

"My thoughts exactly," Luce said, but she couldn't help swooning a little at the sight of Daniel. Even though things between them were a mess.

"Luce." Roland was chuckling at her expression as she watched Daniel. "Don't you think you should answer the door?" "Luce." Roland was chuckling at her expression as she watched Daniel. "Don't you think you should answer the door?"

The doorbell rang.

"Is that Callie?" Luce's mom called from the kitchen over the whir of the stand mixer.

"Got it!" Luce shouted back, feeling a cold pain spread through her chest. Of course she wanted to see Callie. But more overwhelming than her joy at seeing her best friend, she realized, was her hunger to see Daniel. To touch him, to hold him and breathe him in. To introduce him to her parents.

They would be able to see, wouldn't they? They'd be able to tell that Luce had found the person who had changed her life forever.

She opened the door.

"Happy Thanksgiving!" a high southern voice drawled. Luce had to blink a few times before her brain could connect with the sight before her eyes.

Gabbe, the most beautiful and the most perfectly mannered angel at Sword & Cross, was standing on Luce's porch in a pink mohair sweater dress. Her blond hair was a gorgeous frenzy of braids, pinned up into little swirls on top of her head. Her skin had a soft, lovely shimmer--not unlike Francesca's. She held a bouquet of white gladiolas in one hand and a frosty white plastic ice cream tub in the other.

Next to her, her bleached-blond hair grown brown at the roots, stood the demon Molly Zane. Her torn black jeans matched her frayed black sweater, like she was still following Sword & Cross's dress code. Her facial piercings had multiplied since the last time Luce had seen her. She had a small black cast iron kettle balanced in the crook of her arm. She was glaring at Luce.

Luce could see the others walking up the long, curving walk. Daniel had Callie's suitcase hoisted up over his shoulder, but it was Cam who was leaning in, smiling, his hand on Callie's right forearm as he chatted with her. She didn't seem to know whether to be slightly nervous or absolutely charmed.

"We were just in the neighborhood." Gabbe beamed, holding out the owers to Luce. "I made my homemade vanilla ice cream, and Molly brought an appetizer."

"Shrimp Diablo." Molly lifted up the lid of her kettle, and Luce breathed in a spicy garlic broth. "Family recipe." Molly slapped the lid back down, then pushed past Luce into the foyer, stumbling over Shelby in her path.

"Excuse you," they said gru y at the same time, eyeing each other suspiciously.

"Oh, good." Gabbe leaned in to give Luce a hug. "Molly's made a friend."

Roland took Gabbe into the kitchen, and Luce had her rst clear view of Callie. When they locked eyes, they couldn't help themselves: Both girls broke into involuntary grins and ran toward one another.

The impact of Callie's body knocked the wind out of Luce, but it didn't matter. Their arms were ung around each other, each girl's face buried in the other's hair; they were laughing the way you laugh only after too long a separation from a very good friend.

Reluctantly, Luce pulled away and turned to the two guys standing a few feet back. Cam looked as he always did: controlled and at ease, slick and handsome.

But Daniel looked uncomfortable--and he had good reason to be. They hadn't spoken since he'd seen her kiss Miles, and now they were standing with Luce's best friend and Daniel's enemy-turned- ... whatever Cam was to Daniel now.

But--

Daniel was in her home. Within shouting distance of her parents. Would they lose it if they knew who he really was? How did she introduce the guy who was responsible for a thousand of her deaths, whom she was magnetically drawn to almost all the time, who was impossible and elusive and secretive and sometimes even mean, whose love she didn't understand, who was working with the devil, for crying out loud, and who--if he thought showing up here uninvited with that demon was a good idea--maybe didn't know her very well at all.

"What are you doing here?" Her voice was bone-dry because she couldn't talk to Daniel without talking to Cam, too, and she couldn't talk to Cam without wanting to throw something heavy at him.

Cam spoke rst. "Happy Thanksgiving to you, too. We heard your house was the place to be today."

"We ran into your friend here at the airport," Daniel added, using the at tone he spoke in when he and Luce were in public. It was more formal, making her yearn to be alone with him so they could just be real. And so she could grab him by the lapels of his stupid coat and shake him until he explained everything. This had gone on long enough.

"Got to talking, shared a cab," Cam picked up, winking at Callie.

Callie smiled at Luce. "Here I was picturing some intimate gathering at the Price household, but this is so much better. Now I can get the real scoop."

Luce could feel her friend searching her face for clues about what the deal was with these two guys. Thanksgiving was about to get really awkward, really fast. This was not the way things were supposed to go.

"Turkey time!" her mother called from the doorway. Her smile changed into a confused grimace when she saw the crowd outside. "Luce? What's going on?" Her old green-and-white-striped apron was tied around her waist.

"Mom," Luce said, gesturing with her hand, "this is Callie, and Cam, and ..." She wanted to reach out to put her hand on Daniel, something, anything to let her mom know that he was special, that this was the one. To let him know, too, that she still loved him, that everything between them was going to be okay. But she couldn't. She just stood there. " ... Daniel."

"Okay." Her mom squinted at each of the newcomers. "Well, um, welcome. Luce, honey, can I have a word?"

Luce went to her mother at the front door, holding up a nger to let Callie know she'd be right back. She followed her mother through the foyer, through the dim hallway hung with framed pictures from Luce's childhood, and into her parents' cozy, lamplit bedroom. Her mom sat down on the white bedspread and crossed her arms. "Feel like telling me anything?"

"I'm so sorry, Mom," Luce said, sinking down on the bed.

"I don't want to shut anyone out of a Thanksgiving meal, but don't you think we need to draw the line somewhere? Wasn't one unexpected carful of people enough?"

"Yes, of course you're right," Luce said. "I didn't invite all these people. I'm as stunned as you are that they all showed up."

"It's just that we have so little time with you. We love to meet your friends," Luce's mom said, stroking her hair. "But we cherish our time with you more."

"I know this is such a huge imposition, but Mom"--Luce turned her cheek into her mother's open palm--"he is special. Daniel. I didn't know he "I know this is such a huge imposition, but Mom"--Luce turned her cheek into her mother's open palm--"he is special. Daniel. I didn't know he was going to come, but now that he's here, I need this time with him as much as I need it with you and Dad. Does that make any sense?"

"Daniel?" her mom repeated. "That beautiful blond boy? You two are--"

"We're in love." For some reason, Luce was trembling. Even though she had her doubts about their relationship, saying out loud, to her mother, that she loved Daniel made it seem true--made her remember that she did, despite everything, truly love him.

"I see." When her mom nodded, her sprayed brown curls stayed in place. She smiled. "Well, we can't very well kick out everyone else but him, can we?"

"Thank you, Mom."

"Thank your father, too. And honey? Next time, a little more advance notice, please. If I'd known you were bringing home `the one,' I would have grabbed your baby album from the attic." She winked, planting a kiss on Luce's cheek.

Back in the living room, Luce ran into Daniel rst.

"I'm glad you got to be with your family after all," he said.

"I hope you're not mad at Daniel for bringing me," Cam put in, and Luce searched for haughtiness in his voice but found none. "I'm sure you'd both rather I weren't here, but"--he looked at Daniel--"a deal's a deal."

"I'm sure," Luce said coolly.

Daniel's face gave nothing away. Until it darkened. Miles had come in from the dining room.

"Um, hey, your dad's about to make a toast." Miles's eyes were xed on Luce in a way that made her think he was trying hard not to meet Daniel's stare. "Your mom told me to ask where you wanted to sit."

"Oh, wherever. Maybe next to Callie?" A mild panic struck Luce as she thought about all the other guests and the need to keep them as far away from each other as possible. And Molly away from just about everyone. "I should have done a seating chart."

Roland and Arriane had made quick work of setting up the card table at the edge of the dining room table, so the banquet now stretched into the living room. Someone had thrown down a gold-and-white tablecloth, and her parents had even busted out their wedding china. Candles were lit and goblets of water lled. And soon Shelby and Miles were carrying in steaming bowls of green beans and mashed potatoes while Luce took her seat between Callie and Arriane.