“Josie?” my brother questioned, his brown eyes twinkling in amusement, and then he chuckled. “You mean no way, José.”
Uncle Davin glared at him, trying to hide a smile. “Whatever. Josie, José. They all sound the same.” He waved his hand as if he could dismiss what he had said. “Anyway, no boy crushing.” He pointed at me and then shifted his attention to my brother. “No girl crushing.” He looked back at me. “You think this is going to be easy? Wait until school starts and the human teenage world, filled with crazy hormones, engulfs you. It’s going to be too much for the both of you. Talking and discussing what high school will be like with me is a whole different story than actually going through the motions.”
“We know, Uncle Davin. You told us, like, millions of times.” I stood up and placed my fists on my hips.
“Oh, is that all?” His tone became sarcastic. “I don’t think it’s enough. I’ll tell you a million times more. But don’t worry”—he winked—“stay calm, Uncle Davin will be near.” With a twitch of his eyebrows, he left the room.
What did he mean by that? Zachary and I questioned each other; we were able to communicate telepathically, but only with each other. Uncle Davin had scolded us in the past when he’d caught us doing it. He reminded us demons could sense divine magic, which we’d already learned, but sometimes forgot. A habit of seventeen years was a hard thing to break all of a sudden. We would have to work on that.
“You did it, didn’t you? I could sense it,” Uncle Davin shouted from the kitchen. I could hear the refrigerator door being opened, along with a few cabinets.
“Shoot,” I whispered, bringing my chin down, running my hands through my hair. “Sorry!”
Zachary leaned over and turned off the computer. “Don’t say shoot. Teenagers don’t say shoot. They say crap. We have to try to fit in. Remember that, okay?”
“Okay.” I recalled Jack saying the word the other day. Uncle Davin had explained some of the slang to us. “Crap.” I came to the realization Jack had been waiting for us the entire time. I jumped out of my seat and came to a sudden stop on my way to the door. Uncle Davin sat on the brown leather sofa eating chips and salsa while watching some movie on Netflix.
“Uncle Davin.” My tone sounded a bit more scolding than I had intended. “You could have let Jack in.”
“Why?” He kept his eyes glued to our flat screen and laughed out loud. “I don’t like any boys looking at my niece that way. He can be your friend but that’s all.” He paused and then laughed harder than before.
His contagious laughter cracked me up. Not wanting to waste more time and feeling bad that Jack had already waited so long, I rushed to open the door.
“Jack. Hi,” I greeted.
Jack sported jean shorts and a T-shirt with a beautiful surfboard design made up of intertwining black lines. Wanting to make sure I wore the right clothes, I quickly glanced at what I had on—a flowery yellow summer dress with my long dark hair tied back into a ponytail. Perfect.
Though angels felt the difference between hot and cold, the weather didn’t affect us. We wouldn’t shiver in the cold, or freeze in the snow, nor would we sweat or have a heat stroke if we stayed out in the scorching hot sun. I only had to be concerned with wearing the right outfit.
“Hey, Lucia.” Jack’s hazel eyes lit up. The breeze softly tousled his ash-brown hair as his grin grew. I liked his warm, friendly smile. “I umm, thought if you weren’t doing anything, we could walk...or I could drive us...to the ice cream shop. It’s only a couple of blocks away. Since you just moved to our neighborhood a week ago, you probably don’t know where everything is. I mean...important places. You look like a girl who would like ice cream.”
“That better not be a pickup line,” Uncle Davin warned aloud.
I turned to glare at him, but he still sat on the sofa watching his movie. He could have been talking to the characters on screen or Jack. Hoping Jack hadn’t heard, I gave a fake giggle to play off what Uncle Davin had said. “Do you mind if my brother comes too?”
With his index finger, he pushed his glasses up slightly. “Uhhh, sure?” He didn’t sound enthusiastic about it. “His name is Zach, right?”
I didn’t want him to think it was a date. “His name is Zachary, but I guess we can call him Zach. Great. Thanks.” I turned my back to him and closed the door halfway to limit Jack’s vision. “Zach, we’re going to the ice cream shop. Come.”
“No thanks.” Hi voice boomed from his room.
“You can drive the car,” I bribed. The sudden soft breeze behind my back indicated how fast my brother had taken up my offer.
“Did you say I get to drive?” he asked in an excited tone.
“Uh-huh.” I gave him a sly smile.
“Did you ask Uncle Davin?” He seemed worried.
“No, but I’m going to. He’s going to agree, especially since he’s watching his movie. Make sure he has a lot of chips and salsa.”
Zach glanced over his shoulder. “He has enough. I don’t know how he eats the whole bag by himself.”
“He says he likes the texture. Anyway, listen—watch this.” I paused and turned back toward my uncle. “Uncle Davin, Zachary and I will be out only for a little bit. We’ll have our cell phones. We’re taking the you-know-what. We’ll be back.”
We waited as silence took over. After a long few seconds, he answered, “Okay, be careful.”
Zach gave me a triumphant grin. “My sister, you are awesome and cool. Meet me in the car.”
“Okay,” I said and turned to Jack. “Zach’s driving. Meet me in the garage.”
“Okay.” Jack smiled, but he didn’t seem at all pleased. Maybe he’d wanted to drive?
After Zach grabbed the keys from the table next to the door, I opened the garage and hopped in the vehicle. The car’s initials were BMW, which meant nothing to me. To me, a car was a car. But Uncle Davin said it was an expensive SUV. After Jack got in the car, we took off—more like we flew like a lightning bolt from the way Zach drove.
Chapter 2
“You might want to—” Sitting in the backseat, Jack pointed to something he saw out the windshield. His eyes and mouth were opened wide. “Red light! You just—you can’t...what if...? You’re going too fast. This is only a twenty-five mile-per-hour road.” He panicked. “If a cop sees you, you’ll get a ticket.”
Zach peered back at Jack, keeping one hand on the steering wheel. He was practically giving Jack a heart attack. Jack had no idea we had perfect vision and coordination. We could see in every direction, which allowed us to drive so fast. We could practically drive with our eyes closed.
“Ohhh, ohh—could you please keep your eyes on the road? Are you crazy?” Jack barked. I had never seen him so uptight before. But then again, he didn’t know anything about us. It was only natural for him to worry; he could get badly injured from a car accident—or worse, he could die.
“Jaaaaack,” my brother teased, lifting his hands off the steering wheel. “Look, no hands.”
I swatted Zach’s arm. “Stop it,” I snarled through gritted teeth. “You’re scaring him.”
Zach’s lips curled at the corner. With a light chuckle, he placed his hands back on the wheel. I sighed with relief and Jack did the same. Poor Jack. After we drove a couple of blocks, Zach parked the car.
“At least you know how to do that well,” Jack grumbled under his breath as he got out of the car.
I placed a hand on Zach’s shoulder, preventing him from getting out. “Be nice, please. You might not think of him as your friend, but he’s my friend.”
Zach gave me an apologetic grin. “Okay. I’ll be good for today. I’m just trying to be a friend. Friends joke all the time.”
“Maybe you should look up what friendship means,” I suggested. I got out of the car and slammed the door. It didn’t matter if we were angel siblings, bickering was inevitable. Who said angels were good all the time? I had to live with one who was sometimes a pain in my chest. Or was it butt?
Jack opened the door to the ice cream shop for me. The chime on the door rang softly. As soon as we entered, Jack inhaled deeply, as if he were enjoying his first breath of fresh air. I could only imagine the scorching heat. He must have found it refreshing to enter a cool place.
The ice cream store, called Cream Stop, wasn’t as big as I had pictured. Since I’d never been to one before, a store only serving ice cream fascinated me. There were more than a dozen different colors and flavors in containers behind a glass case. How could I even choose one, two, or three?
“Abel,” Jack greeted.
“Jack. I’ll be right with you.”
I didn’t have a clear view of Abel, but his chin tilted, a gesture my uncle had informed me was the way guys greeted each other. Sometimes they would exchange words such as “what’s up?”
Five teenagers stood in front of us when we got in line, two guys and three girls. As if we had signaled a warning bell, they turned as one to stare at us. Their blank stares became glares, mostly toward Jack. I wondered why. High school rivalry? Maybe they didn’t like Jack because he was popular? Whatever that meant, anyway.
The two guys were tall and buff, but not as tall and muscular as my brother. One good thing about angels, we had nearly perfect bodies. The taller one with light-brown hair answered to Cayden when Abel called his name to give him his ice cream. Strangely, the other guy with red hair, named Kohl, growled at Jack.
Two of the girls were blonde and the other had dark hair. One of the blondes called the other one Vanessa. The unfriendly girls gawked at Zach longer than they should have. I thought I even saw them smile at him. After they got their ice cream, they sat at the table near the door.
“Jack, you brought some friends.” Abel had a nice deep voice.
When his pretty blue eyes set on mine, I blushed a little and strange tingles swept over me. Instantly, I knew why the girls were friendly with Abel. He was handsome and looked at me differently than he did my brother. Was this called flirting?
“Oh.” Jack placed his arm around my shoulders as if to claim me as his friend. At least that was what I thought. “This is Lucia and her twin brother, Zach.”
Zach slowly and gently picked Jack’s hand off me while he kept his eyes on Abel. “Hi. I’m the protective brother,” he warned.
“It’s nice to meet you,” I interceded, trying to defuse the awkward situation.
Zach’s comment didn’t seem to faze Abel. “Same here,” Abel muttered with a grin, running his fingers through his light golden-brown hair. “So, we have some newbies. Where are you from?”
Newbies? What did he mean by newbies? I tried to remember the response Uncle Davin had made us practice, but I drew a blank. Pretending to be human was difficult. I reminded myself Abel didn’t know I was an angel.
“We’re originally from Los Angeles,” Zach replied. “We moved here because our Uncle Davin lives here. My parents are busy traveling for work, so our uncle thought it would be a great idea for us to move to Hawaii. That way, he could keep an eye on us when my parents travel. My uncle used to live on the Kona side, but he recently moved to Hilo, next door to Jack.”
“Cool.” Abel winked, never taking his eyes off me. “So, you’re Jack’s friend?”
“Yes,” I answered, as my face warmed. Why were my lips stretched out to my ears?
“Good. So then, you’re not taken? You don’t have a boyfriend, right?”
Jack was agitated all of a sudden. I couldn’t understand the change in him when he’d seemed relaxed a second ago.
“Abel is our quarterback,” Jack stated quickly, breaking into our conversation.
“Is that why he has muscular arms?” Oh crap. Did I just say that? “I mean, of course you have to have strong arms.” My face flushed even more deeply. I shifted my attention and pointed to the ice cream display. “That one. I want chocolate.”
After we ordered, I didn’t know if we were staying there or heading back home until Zach spoke to me in my mind while licking his strawberry ice cream cone. We should stay and see if we can talk to those teens.
Okay, I agreed, then immediately regretted answering. We weren’t supposed to use our powers. We really needed to contain that.
Before Jack could exit, I took a lick and said, “Hey, Jack, let’s eat our ice cream here.”
Jack didn’t answer at first. He glanced at the group of teens who had ignored him earlier. The five of them were doing something with their phones. “Umm, let’s just go.” He started to head for the door, and then to my surprise he flew across the floor.
“Oops.” Cayden smirked.
“Jack. Are you okay?” I felt so bad for him. What was wrong with Cayden? I wanted to yell at him and ask him why he had to be so mean, but I didn’t.
By the time I got to Jack, he was already standing and placing his glasses back on his face. He held up his ice cream cone. “It’s still here.” He tried to sound cheerful as if it hadn’t happened, but sadness filled his eyes, not to mention his face, red with embarrassment. Why didn’t he say something to Cayden?
“Apologize to him.”
I whipped around to see my brother hovering over Cayden and the girls staring at him in awe. Still in his chair, Cayden slowly peered up and stared boldly at my brother.
“Zach, it’s okay,” Jack whispered, but I heard it. I think he was too shocked to raise his voice. Either that or he was afraid of Cayden, who was taller and more muscular. If they brawled, Jack wouldn’t have a chance.
“Hell no. He was in my space.” Cayden laughed as if it were a joke. “It was his fault for walking so close to me. I think he tripped from seeing my handsome face.”
“You won’t have a face anymore if you don’t apologize,” Zach snarled.
Zach, I called to him through my mind. Don’t. We’ll get in trouble. This warranted telepathic communication with my brother. I could imagine him picking Cayden up with two fingers, humans were so featherlight for us. He would look like Superman if he did. I knew of Superman because my mother had told me once she thought Father was like him. Before my fears became reality, Abel stepped in.
“What’s the problem, Cayden?” Abel asked sternly. With his hands resting on the counter, he leaned over to get a better view. “Not in here, okay? I told you to leave Jack alone. He’s my tutor. You hurt him and he can’t help me, and there’s no football. If there’s no football, I kick your ass.”
“Okay.” Cayden dipped his head and turned away as if he had been scolded.
“Sorry, Jack. He won’t—” Abel started to say.
Jack’s lips curled to offer a small grin but he turned away. “It’s okay. I’m sure it was an accident.”
I looked up to see Abel smiling back at me. “See you at school, Lucia. If you want a free ice cream, come by tomorrow.”
“Sure. We can do that. Thanks,” Jack answered for me. He was back to himself. “See you later.” Linking his arm around mine, he tugged me to the door.
Zach drew his hand down like a sword between us, separating us when we walked out. “Popular? I think not,” he commented by my ear so only I could hear. He had already halfway finished his ice cream, while I savored mine.
I shrugged as I got in the car. At that moment I realized three things. One, Jack was sweet, which I already knew. He took the time to help others, like being Abel’s tutor. Two, I liked chocolate ice cream. Three, Abel was definitely cute. If butterflies dancing in my stomach were an indication of having a crush, then I understood the meaning. Oh, what a great feeling. But I had to lock those feelings away. Having a crush was tolerable, but falling in love was deeply frowned upon. My Venator status would be taken away.
The stars were the brightest I’d ever seen. They filled the dark sky like countless diamonds, sparkling brilliantly. They reminded me how tiny we were compared to the vast universe. We had visited other states, but they offered nothing like the tranquility of Hawaii.
The daytime hours were just as beautiful. The backdrop of the deep g
reen hills and mountains was like a painting, as the swaying palm trees danced with the breeze. Everywhere I gazed, serenity blossomed from the magnificent views. I could smell the orchids and the ocean—nature at its finest.
Hawaii felt much like home. The clouds were thick and fluffy, and the tall grass on the road resembled the entrance to Crossroads. Zach and I sat on the roof, something we did together late at night when the world slept. Angels didn’t need to sleep, so our beds were for appearances. We needed to blend in.
The dim yellow light of the streetlamps illuminated the roads below. Whispers of the wind and the faint hum of cars miles away filled my ears. The night was calm and peaceful.
“I love being here,” I said.
“Me too, but should we go back inside?” Zach stared up at the sky.
I leaned back to anchor my arms on the roof tile. The soft breeze tousled my hair, making me feel light as a feather and relaxed. “Who’s going to see us? Besides, I told Uncle Davin we would be up here and he was fine with it.”
“Jack is asleep, so not him for sure.” Zach chuckled. “He’s an unusual one.”
“He’s just full of life. He’s happy. There should be more humans like him.” I wondered why I sensed the need to stick up for him.
Zach looked at me, his eyes a darker shade of brown in the night, and then up at the stars again. “Maybe.” He paused and then changed the subject, “Do you miss Mother and Father?”
I inhaled a breath. “Yes. Do you?”
“Yes,” he replied without hesitating.
“Do you think we could visit them soon if our mission becomes too long?”
Zach flashed his eyes at me. “Do you want to tell me something?”
Thoughts circulated through my mind. “I’m scared.” I whimpered lightly. It was the first time I’d felt that way since coming to Earth, and it had only been a week. Usually our missions were less than one day. We went to our destination, killed the demons, and then returned to Crossroads.
“Scared?” He craned his neck sideways, asking for more of an explanation, “What are you scared of?”