Мишель Роуэн - Angel with Attitude

Val stared at him, gaping at the golden key the demon now wore.

Nathaniel’s lips twitched with amusement at her shocked expression.

“How?” Val said. “But, Julian had it, and now you . . . did you fight him for it?”

“Julian would have fought me to the end of time for this, I believe. But he couldn’t once he was unconscious. I simply removed it from around his neck.”

She reached out to almost touch it, but then pulled her hand back again. “The key.”

He looked down it. “This is the correct one, I hope.”

She nodded. “It is. Definitely.”

“I can feel its power. It hums against my skin.”

Before she could say another thing, Nathaniel slipped the chain from around his neck and held it out to her.

“Here.”

Her gaze flashed up to meet his in shock and amazement. “You’re giving it to me? Just like that?”

“Wasn’t that the reason for this trip to the Underworld in the first place?”

Her hand moved up to twist nervously through her hair. “Well, yeah. Of course.”

“Then take it.”

“Aren’t you afraid of what’s going to happen to you by helping me like this?”

He stepped closer to her and took her hand in his to place the chain and key into it.

“The key is yours. Don’t worry about me.”

She looked up at him. “Why are you doing this?”

“Do I have to have a reason?”

Val’s heart beat so loud and fast she thought it might burst from her chest. “For this? Uh, yeah, you do. Not that I’m not happy about it, don’t get me wrong. But look, I’ve known you for precisely three days. Has it even been that long? In that time I’ve pissed you off, you’ve pissed me off, I summoned you and have been bossing you around for the longest two days of my human life, you tell me the first moment you’re free you will make me pay dearly for the unpleasantness I’ve put you through, and now, after all of that, you hand me exactly what I’ve been searching for? When I know very well—thanks to Lloyd—what major trouble you’re already in with head office. Yeah. I want to know why.”

He turned toward the door. “I need to go find your rodent.”

Val grabbed his arm. “I command you to give me an answer, Nathaniel.”

His shoulder twitched, and he turned around to stare flames at her. “Don’t do this.”

“Why? Just tell me why.”

“I’ve given you the key because”—he grimaced—“I want you to be happy.”

Val’s eyebrows shot up. “Say what?”

He glared at her. “Happy. You. Being happy. So now that you have the key you can go back to Heaven.”

She stared at him, then blankly at the key in her hand as she tried to process what he’d just said.

He studied her stunned reaction for a moment. “You’ll notice that you didn’t have to command me to give the key back to you.”

She blinked. “I did notice that.”

“Then stop making me want to wring your neck and just go. Use your key. Go back to your fluffy white cloud.”

“It’s not like that.”

“Whatever.” He met her eyes. “Just be happy, Valerie.”

“You really want me to be happy?” She looked down at the key again.

“How many times do I have to say it before you’ll believe me? Yes.”

“Why?”

He shook his head. “You ask a lot of questions.”

She stared at him for a moment longer and wondered if she should command him to tell her why. But instead she took a decisive step toward him and threw her arms around his solid frame to hug him tightly to her. “Thank you.”

He wants me to be happy, she thought with amazement.

Nathaniel, a Tempter Demon, whose assignment it was to lure her, a fallen angel, to Hell . . . wanted her to be happy. And he was willing to risk his own existence to ensure it.

She frowned and stepped back from him. How did that make any sense? He’d only known her three days and he was willing to risk that much?

He looked at her uncertainly.

No. Scratch that. He must want her gone. That was all it was. Had to be.

Out of his life. Out of his hair. And not along for the ride to rescue Reggie.

“No,” she finally said.

“What do you mean, no?”

Val slipped the chain over her head and felt the comforting weight of the key drop against her chest. “Here’s my plan. You glamour me up again and we go back to the mansion and get

Reggie. Then we all go back to the motel. I can’t go anywhere until I get back to Barlow.”

He shook his head. “You’re not going back to the mansion.”

“Why not?”

“I have to explain this to you? Julian isn’t vanquished, I’ll have you know. He’s going to be looking for you, glamour or no glamour, and now he knows I’ve taken the key he’ll be looking for me, too. And you tell me that he’s Lucifer’s son, a little piece of information I wish I’d known before I just beat the shit out of him. You want to walk back into that?”

“I don’t see that I have any choice.”

“You do have a choice.” Exasperation colored every one of his words. “I’ll find Reggie. Trust me.”

She felt her bottom lip start to quiver. “It’s my fault Reggie’s stuck at the mansion in the first place. I don’t care what you say, it’s all my fault.”

She covered her face with her hands and started to cry. She knew she was a nervous wreck.

Prozac, here I come, she thought.

Nathaniel grabbed her wrists and pulled them away from her face. “Stop crying.”

She continued to blubber.

“Damn it, Valerie. Stop crying.”

She momentarily put the floodworks on pause and looked up at him.

His frown was very deep. “You’ve gone after this key with everything you’ve got. Listen to me. Do you know how amazing that is? You’re just so filled with light and life I can barely believe you’re real. No one else I’ve ever known in my entire existence could make me go from despising them to adoring them in less than three days.”

She blinked back a tear. “Huh?”

“You heard me.”

“No, I don’t think I did.”

“Valerie, you make me feel . . .” He trailed off and frowned.

“Feel what?”

He glared at her. “Just feel.”

“Why are you looking at me like that’s a bad thing?”

He let go of her. “Because it is. The whole demon/ angel thing? Not good. I don’t want to feel this way. But I can’t help it anymore.”

“So that’s why you want to get rid of me?”

“What are you talking about now?”

Val sighed. “You want me to use the key so I’m not around anymore.”

“I want you to use the key so you can be happy.”

She frowned. “Can we rewind a little? Seriously, I’m really confused—”

He grabbed her shoulders and pulled her to him and kissed her deeply.

He adored her? What was he, crazy or something?

Just then, she heard a cell phone.

“Um . . .” She pulled away a little and looked up at him. “I think your pants are ringing.”

Without moving his gaze from her face, he reached into his pocket to pull out the small phone, then quickly glanced at the call display. He pressed a button and slid it back in his pocket. “They can wait.”

“You don’t want to get in any more trouble than you’re already in.” She frowned again, thinking about Julian’s cell phone exchange with the head office earlier. “So, now what do—”

He sighed. “What more do I have to do to prove myself to you?” He kissed her again.

She pushed against his chest, feeling dizzy and unsteady on her feet. “Look, buddy. Reggie’s not going to wait at that mansion forever, you know. We’re talking priorities here. I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but I—”