I crossed through the kitchen to the back hall where I could go either upstairs or into the living room at the front of the house. I did neither, pausing instead to study the framed photographs hanging in the hall.
The dreamwalker was an only child from what I could tell. With a shy smile and short, trendy, dirty blonde hair, he looked like any other teenage boy. Normal. Nobody was normal though. Not really. He should have been focused on girls, school and the future. Instead, he was plagued by a gift that doubled as a curse. It had stolen everything from him. Would he trade it all if he could? Would I?
I had never laid eyes on this kid. I didn’t even know his name. Still, I felt we were kindred. Born human but never really meant to stay that way. Nobody had tried to save me. I didn’t think I could save this kid, but I felt obligated to try.
“I knew you were stupid, but you are reaching a whole new level of idiocy.” Falon’s voice rang out, shattering the dead silence. A moment later, he materialized on the staircase.
A little shriek escaped me, and I muffled it with a hand. “You ass**le! You do that again, and you’re going to get a face full of claws.”
Falon’s face was a mask of judgment. Though he glared at me with haughty self-righteousness, satisfaction glimmered in his pale eyes. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
“What happened?” I returned Falon’s glare tenfold. The angel was unpredictable and creepy, but he didn’t scare me the way Shya did. The way I saw it, Falon was the last person capable of judgment. He was the ultimate fence rider, and his opinion meant nothing.
“You need to leave, Alexa. I have things to do here. Try not to drop any tainted DNA on your way out.” He waved his hands at me as if shooing a bug.
I stood my ground, scowling back at him with all the venom I could muster. “I want to know what happened to the dreamwalker. And, where is Kale?” I was adamant, refusing to be intimidated when Falon’s massive wings flared out as wide as the staircase would allow.
“You’ll have to ask Shya. I’m sure he’ll have questions for you as well. For instance, why you’re here sticking your nose in business that is none of yours.”
With my hands on my hips, I scowled at Falon as if he were something I’d found stuck to the bottom of my shoe. “What do you do exactly, Falon? From where I’m standing it looks like you’re the help.”
Fury flashed through his eyes, and I smiled. He descended the rest of the steps in near silence. The grace of his gait gave the illusion that his feet never touched the floor. He stepped close, in my personal space without touching me, and towered over my small frame, forcing me to look up at him.
“Better watch your mouth, wolf. Don’t assume to know a damn thing about me.” Falon spoke low and soft. The underlying menace in his tone was vague, but it was there. “Did you think these situations just disappeared on their own? I’m capable of things you can’t even begin to dream of. You’d be wise to remember that.”
“You may have never been human, but you’re not better than me.” I shot back, uneasy by his close proximity but unwilling to show it. “The fact that you’re here right now proves that. You’re fallen. I think that makes you just as tainted as the rest of us.”
He grinned, flashing even white teeth. There was no humor in his silver gaze. “Oh you stupid little twit, you have no idea.”
Fear and rage gripped me simultaneously. A warning growl was my response. I was perfectly aware that demons and the like often looked down on vampires and werewolves. They had never been human, and those of us who had weren’t deemed worthy of respect. We walked in both worlds, human and other. They didn’t. I couldn’t help but feel they weren’t giving us the credit we deserved.
Before I could spit a nasty retort at Falon, the sound of sirens destroyed the moment. Panic slapped me breathless, and I looked frantically to the open side door.
Falon made a frustrated noise but otherwise had little reaction. With a snap of his fingers, time stopped. It literally stood still. The sirens froze, a strange high-pitched sound off in the distance that didn’t rise or fall but stayed one long, continuous ear-piercing note. The clock on the wall fell silent. I hadn’t noticed its ticking until it was gone.
“I can’t do this for long without dire consequences. Get out of here.” Falon moved fast, sweeping past me to the living room where he stared out the front window. “I can buy you thirty seconds or so. Go, now!”
I was running before he finished. Superhuman speed carried me through the yard and across the street to my car. The atmosphere felt thick and resistant, as if I ran through water. Not so much as a leaf moved. It was as if the world had really stopped. Falon’s power may have been limited, but it was immense.
It was a time warp. One moment the world was still, and the next I was speeding through traffic with Arys throwing question after question at me.