Hannah Jayne: Under Wraps

“Oh,” Alex said, his warm arms encircling my waist, his lips cool and moist against my earlobe. “I think you like me, Lawson. I think you like me a lot.”

For the first time in a long time my heartbeat sped up and the feeling was delicious and welcome—rather than precipice-of-death horrific. I looked up into Alex’s earnest blue eyes. “Angel, huh? I guess I could get used to that. It’s not the strangest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Well,” Alex said, “if it makes you feel better, I could just leave you to your relationship with the troll.”

I socked Alex in the arm and stepped back, awkwardly breaking our embrace and regretting it immediately. I rubbed the warm spot on my waist where Alex’s arms had been.

“So, if you’re going to be hanging around here”—I was careful to keep my eyes focused on the grain of my desktop—“I should probably know what happened.”

Alex’s eyebrows went up. “What happened?”

“To you. What happened to make you … fallen.”

His eyes clouded. “Sophie, I really don’t think you need to get involved with all this. It’s really …”

“Weird? Hard to understand?” I licked my lips. “Slightly left of center? You saved me and my werewolf boss from the scheme of a crazed killer, and you had to enlist the assistance of a smelly troll and a brooding teenage vampire to do it.”

“I didn’t have to enlist their help. They just … wanted to … assist.”

“Whatever. All I’m saying is that there really is nothing you could say that’s going to shock me. I’m pretty sure of it.”

“So you really want to know?”

“Yeah. If we’re going to hang out”—I held up my palm, stop-sign style—“just as friends, for now, I’d like to be sure that you weren’t, you know, tossed out of heaven for kicking puppies or eating babies or something terrible like that.”

Alex hid his grin behind his hand. “You really think I’m the type to kick a puppy?”

“Or eat a baby,” I finished, and then narrowed my eyes. “Alex Grace, I’m not entirely sure what kind of guy you are. So, go ahead. Spill it.”

Alex blew out a resigned sigh. “Well, it was close to two years ago when it happened. I was … kind of a security officer, I guess. A protector. And well, my loyalties were … called into question.”

“Called into question? And for that they sent you packing? Geez, that seems a little harsh.”

Alex crossed his ankles. “It wasn’t just me. I was supposed to protect something—something that was very important. And I … trusted the wrong person—I guess that would be the best way to put it.”

“And that someone betrayed your trust?”

Alex bit his lip, bobbed his head. “Yeah. My trust was betrayed, and because of that, something very precious was lost. It was my fault, and I was deemed untrustworthy—actually, more like an enemy to the hierarchy.”

“Wow. What was lost?”

“An amulet.”

I snorted. “Jewelry? God—or whoever—seems pretty nitpicky if he did all that over an amulet. Can’t he just”—I snapped my fingers—“whoosh! Whip up a new one or something?”

“The amulet is actually a keeper of souls. It’s the place where you go when your fate is being decided. In some religions they call it limbo or purgatory.”

I scratched my head. “So when you’re in limbo you’re in costume jewelry? Hm. Imagine that.”

“Good and evil are constantly warring, and the souls trapped in the amulet—well, the claimant of those souls can tip the scales in their favor and take over both worlds. Up until recently, the amulet was held on the angelic plane—balanced between the archangels and the fallen. There was a pact made in blood so that if either an archangel or a fallen angel touched the amulet, it would tip the scale and destroy their own world.”

“So, sort of like a super-duper security device.”

Alex smiled wanly. “Sort of. But I was taught a way around it, a way to claim the amulet. And I thought I was doing the right thing. I really thought I was stepping in for the good of humankind.”

“But you were betrayed.”

He nodded.

I raised my eyebrows. “So, as punishment you’re destined to wander the Earth forever now?”

Alex shrugged, crossed his arms in front of his chest. “It’s not that bad. I have cable.” He grinned and I eyed him expectantly, but he didn’t continue.

“Wow. An eternity of Sex and the City reruns. Lucky you.”

“I will be offered redemption when I find and return the amulet. Provided I do it in time.”

I frowned. “I don’t understand. If you’re out looking for this amulet thing, why did you get involved with the collector case? The chief was after power—and eyeballs and human hearts—not an amulet, or you know, souls. He never even mentioned it when we were trapped with him.”

“The collector—Chief Oliver—was working to open a portal to hell; to gain power over everything—the human plane, the demonic plane, and the angelic one.”

“He knew about the angelic plane?”

“Like the Underworld, there are all sorts of legends about it, people claiming to have been there, but it can only be an actuality if …”

“You’re dead?” I wondered.

“We prefer the term chosen,” Alex continued. “As for the chief, well, I had been tracking him for nearly a year. He was committing similar murders in other parts of the country—I think he was looking for each piece of his puzzle somewhere where an odd death wouldn’t draw so much attention. There was talk that possibly the amulet had ended up in his hands. I thought I was going to be able to find him, find the amulet, and then find my way back home.”

The sadness in Alex’s voice cut to my bones. “I’m sorry you didn’t find the amulet. So … what happens now?”

Alex focused on me. “Now I keep looking.”

“Okay,” I said, standing shoulder to shoulder with Alex. “Where do we start?”

Alex smiled wistfully. “Thanks, Sophie, but you don’t need to …”

“No, really, it’s the least I can do. You saved my life. I can, you know … get one of those metal detectors and go amulet searching. Maybe the chief buried it in Golden Gate Park or something.” I grinned.

“To be honest, I don’t even know exactly what the amulet looks like.”

“Weren’t you protecting it?” I asked.

“I was, but we weren’t able to see it. It’s charmed, so even though it’s called an amulet, it could really be anything. It’s a security thing.”

“Like Fort Knox?”

He smiled. “Something like that.”

I stood up. “I could still help you. I mean, there’s a good chance that maybe the amulet—or whatever it is now—has fallen into demon hands. Maybe the UDA can help you. And if it’s charmed, then I’ll be able to see through it. You know, if they got all squirrelly and decided to hide it in plain sight of something.” I was starting to dip back into my Sophie Lawson, CSI revelry. Although, maybe when working with angels I wouldn’t need a gun. Maybe just a bow and arrow or a sword or something. Yeah, I could deal with a sword….

Alex put both his hands on my shoulders and squeezed gently, bringing me back to reality. He looked at me, his cobalt eyes bright and clear, his smile soft.

“Thank you, Sophie. I appreciate you wanting to help. Your life is here, though.” He rubbed his thumb against my jawline, cradled my chin in his palm, and then his lips were on mine.

If I didn’t believe in angels before, I did now.

He had a shock of my hair wrapped around his knuckles, yanking so that my chin rose toward the ceiling and my neck stretched and elongated uncomfortably.