“Gabriel,” he choked out.
“You’re not talking about your father, are you? You mean The Gabriel?”
“Yes…The Gabriel.” Jared said, rolling his eyes at his own words. “He’s one of the most vocal advocates for eliminating fallen Archs before they have a chance to procreate. My existence insults him,” he said, an indignant look flitting across his face. “Gabriel’s a messenger…he also serves as the angel of death.”
I swallowed. “What did he say to you?”
Jared leaned his head back against the wall. “He said that he’ll see me soon.”
My mouth opened as I gasped. “What did you say to that?”
“That he always says that,” he said with a contrived smile.
I thought for a moment. “Eli doesn’t mind Hybrids. Maybe he can talk to Gabriel?”
Jared breathed out through his nose, trying to be patient with my suggestion. “Nina, no one but the Almighty tells Gabriel anything.”
My shoulders sunk. “So now we’re fighting demons and angels? How did we sink into this mess?”
“I shouldn’t have sat on that bench.”
I touched his face. “You sitting on that bench is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
Jared recoiled from my touch. “You don’t know what you’re saying. You have no idea what I’ve caused. Shax won’t stop until he has the book, and even then there’s a good chance he’ll retaliate. Hell wants us dead and Heaven won’t help us, Nina. I don’t know what to do.”
“This isn’t your fault. If Jack hadn’t taken the book, none of this would have happened.”
Jared laughed once. “Including us.”
I frowned. “Didn’t we agree we had to get through the nightmare to get our miracle?”
Jared smiled infinitesimally. “Yeah.” He parted his knees and pulled me to him, hugging me to his chest.
“What are we going to do about what we saw today?” I whispered into his neck.
“Right now we’re just dealing with humans. We have to make sure it stays that way.”Jared shifted and stood up, bringing me along with him. He brought me to the middle of his room and took in a deep cleansing breath, pressing his forehead against mine.
“I’m sorry I’ve been so….” he shook his head, clearly in full self-loathing mode.
I inched up on the balls of my feet and touched my lips to his. He cautiously kissed me back, and then sighed again.
“You’re under a lot of pressure right now,” I said, running my fingers through the sides of his hair.
“The last person I should be taking that out on is you. The way I treated you this morning is unforgiveable,” he frowned.
“It was unforgiveable,” I said. “But I forgive you.”
“We know what they want; we’re just not sure how far they’ll go to get it. Claire and I can handle the humans. The hardest part will be waiting for their next move.”
I nodded and wrapped my arms around him. “Can we start this day over?”
Jared kissed the top of my head. “Why don’t we start with getting you to class? You have a test today, don’t you?”
I shook my head. “I have a paper to turn in at ten thirty.”
Jared released me, disappearing to the bathroom. He emerged in a light grey t-shirt and black soccer shorts, with his ratty running shoes. He looked dramatically different than the more professional attire he wore to the bank.
I stood by the door and waited while he pulled a hooded sweatshirt over his head.
“Get your stuff together and I’ll take you to school. I need to finish setting up for next week, so I’ll meet you later, okay? Claire will be close,” he said, almost in passing.
“Jared?” My fists gripped the fabric of his shirt, holding him tightly to me just as he began to walk away. He looked down at me and tucked my hair behind my ear.
“Yes?” he smiled, the softness finally returning to his eyes.
“Can we just pretend it’s a normal vacation and forget about everything here?”
“Absolutely,” he said, hugging me to him.
At Brown, Jared seemed to be back to his old self, which helped the unease surrounding me. Bibles from Hell, demons with criminals-for-hire, antagonistic angels—trying to make sense of it all only created more questions.
I snapped out of my daze when I saw Jared’s expression. “See you at one thirty?” I asked.
Ryan passed us as he walked into the classroom, nodding to Jared. I noticed Jared watch him for a long moment, and then he looked into my eyes.
“Nina,” he said, a bit nervous. “I’m sorry about earlier. It won’t happen again.”
“You’ve already said that,” I said, pulling up one corner of my mouth.
Guilt displayed across Jared’s face. “I know. I just don’t think that I was clear.”
“You were clear. Consider it forgotten.”