Page 10 of Holy Shift (New Orleans Nocturnes #8)

CHAPTER TEN

Pete stood in Crimson’s kitchen, staring at the empty doorway. Whew, that was a lot to unpack. A goddess had traveled to the earthly realm to talk to him . And then Destiny… How could…? Why would…?

He blew out a hard breath and shook his head. “Fluff if I know.”

“Running away seems to be a common theme with y’all.” Sophie laughed and brushed her hair behind her shoulder. “Should we follow her?”

“No.” Crimson rested her fingertips on the counter. “I recognized the look of mortification on her face. She’s embarrassed. We need to let her wallow for a bit before we figure out what to do.”

Let her wallow? No, he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t stand by while she suffered from embarrassment, pain, or even dysentery. His rabbit wouldn’t allow it, and neither would the man. “I’ll go talk to her.”

He started toward the stairs, but Crimson grasped his arm. “Be gentle. She’s a perfectionist, so I imagine she’s raking herself over the coals.”

Gentle. He couldn’t think of any other way to be. “Thank you. I’m sure we’ll be in touch.”

He descended the stairs and hurried across the yard to Destiny’s. The back door was locked, but a quick brush of his fingers opened it with ease. Darkness engulfed the bottom floor, so he went up to the living area and found her sitting on the sofa, cradling her head in her hands. He padded toward her and sank onto the cushion next to her.

A sob racked her body, and she sucked in a shaky breath. “You should hate me.”

He rubbed her back. “I don’t.”

“I wouldn’t blame you if you did. Eostre too.” She rocked back and forth.

“I could never hate you.”

She lifted her head and turned toward him, the tear stains on her cheeks making his heart wrench. “You don’t know that. You hardly know me at all.”

“Tell that to my soul.”

She started to look away, but he caught her cheek in his palm. “Ask your soul if it really believes that. We’re connected. You must feel it too.”

Her lower lip trembled, and she swallowed hard. “This prophecy, this… I don’t think…”

“Then don’t think. Just feel.” He grasped both her hands. “I have a feeling you sensed it the moment you met me. We both did.” They must have. Sure, he’d freaked and bolted, but the sudden amnesia would make anyone in a situation like that bounce. Truth be told, it wasn’t her he’d run from.

“I felt…I feel…” She took a deep breath. “I’m attracted to you, but this…you and me…can’t be. In a couple of weeks, I’ll be human and you’ll be a bird . A regular, non-verbal, no-human-side bird. You won’t feel anything for me.”

He squeezed her hands. “That’s not going to happen. I won’t let it.”

“Of course it is. You heard what Eostre said. I’m awry. I’ve brought about the end of days because I’m a fuckup. I always have been.”

“Don’t say that. Words and thoughts are energy. When you say negative things…”

“I draw negative energy toward me. Believe me, I know. That’s Angel 101.” She tugged from his grasp and wrung her hands in her lap. “I know all the rules. I try to follow them to the letter, but no matter what I do, what job the higher ups have assigned to me, I flub and someone gets hurt. I thought this assignment was the one I could do forever. Live on Earth with the supes and humans. Bake cakes for demons. I thought it would be easy peasy.”

She huffed a sardonic laugh. “Holy horns and halos, was I ever wrong. I gave the Easter Bunny amnesia.”

“That wasn’t your fault.” Why did she feel as if she were responsible for the entire world? A wallaby could catch a cold in Australia, and Destiny would find a way to blame herself. “And anyway, Eostre said it happened for a?—”

“ Everything happens for a reason. I know that too.” She rolled her eyes and shot to her feet. “I used to be a guardian angel. I had the highest ranking, most coveted job a standard angel could have in all the realms. Did you know that?”

He opened his mouth to answer, but she cut him off.

“No, of course you didn’t. No one knows.” She paced to her bookcase and rested her hands on a shelf. “I’ve never told a soul because I failed so miserably in that job.”

He shifted his weight on the sofa, angling toward her. “What happened? If you don’t mind my asking.”

“What do you think?” She laughed dryly. “I had twelve charges like every guardian when they first start out. I was supposed to watch over them, guide their decisions, and keep them safe. Again… Angel 101.”

“That’s a lot of people to be responsible for.”

“It’s not, though.” She strode to a chair and sank onto the arm. “Others had twenty, thirty. The elite could manage fifty or more.”

“Still…” Twelve seemed like a lot to him. Hell, he couldn’t imagine being responsible for anyone but himself.

“I lost one. A mother of two died of an opium overdose because I was too busy with another charge to step in and stop her. Her children were sent to a workhouse, and they…” She pressed her lips together and frowned.

“I can imagine that must feel awful, but people die every day. Surely every angel in the realm doesn’t take responsibility for each human death. That would be devastating.”

She shook her head. “I should have stopped her. Opium was so unpredictable back then, and she’d gotten ahold of a really strong batch. If I’d been there, I could have warned her.”

“You were helping another charge.”

She scoffed. “I wasn’t helping him. I was with him. Guardians can appear to their charges as humans when they need a friend or even a random stranger to give them advice. I appeared to Jonathan as someone to court.”

He scooted down the couch toward her. “Then, I’m sure that’s what he needed at the time.”

“I’m not, and neither is Gabriela. She yanked me out of that position so fast, my halo nearly slipped off. I was reassigned to holy water distribution, but I fell into the vat we were blessing and pulled two other angels in with me. You can’t fly with wet wings, so we were stuck there all night until someone on the next shift found us.”

“Sometimes it takes a while to find our calling.”

She arched a brow. “It happened three times. After the third, my boss was ready to send me to the repository to be a file clerk, but Michelle, my boss’s boss, took pity on me. She sent me here to bake cakes for the demons of New Orleans.”

“And this is where you’re meant to be.” He couldn’t say why or how he knew, but he felt it all the way to his bones.

She rose again. “I thought so. I’ve been here over a century, and I’ve perfected the recipe to subdue demon magic without harming the hellions. I visited the angelic realm around one hundred fifty years ago to tell Gabriela in person. She acted like it was nothing.”

Her shoulders slumped. “Like I was nothing.”

Pete stood and stepped toward her, lifting her lowered head with his finger beneath her chin. “You are not nothing. Your role in this realm is important, but your job isn’t your identity.”

She looked into his eyes, tears gathering on her lower lids before one rolled down her cheek. “Says the literal Easter Bunny.”

He smiled softly and wiped it away with his thumb. “Even with that very large piece of me missing from my mind, I’m still here. I think I’m still me. If I never remember my past, I’m okay with that.”

He was okay with it, anyway. Before Eostre appeared and warned him his life was on the line, he’d have been happy to stay put and spend the rest of his days with Destiny, whether she was “awry” or simply beautifully imperfect.

Now that he knew he was a pawn in a fae prophecy, of course he’d have to act. He couldn’t sit by while an entire realm fell apart, but right now, Destiny needed him more.

Another tear rolled down her face, and he wiped it away. His entire being ached at her sadness, and he wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her and take it all away. To make her happy. To make her his own.

“I like being here in New Orleans with you.” And that really was the gods’ honest truth.

“I like you being here too. I just…” She laughed and shook her head. “Would you listen to me? I didn’t mean to drag you into my pity party. I’m done now.”

“I don’t mind. Pity party, dance party, you can invite me to them all.” He brushed a lock of hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear. “I want to be here for you.”

Her gaze dipped to his mouth, and she slipped out her tongue, moistening her lips before smiling softly. “That’s kind of you.” She rested her fingertips lightly against his chest.

Her touch made his head spin, and desire unfurled inside him. She’s mine, his rabbit said in his mind, and goddess have mercy, did he ever need to make it so. He drifted closer, cupping her cheek in his hand, and her lips parted slightly as she lifted her gaze to meet his.

Heart thumping, he leaned in, his mouth scant centimeters from hers. He waited, giving her ample time to pull away, the anticipation of tasting this sweet angel’s lips tightening his core and making his stomach loop.

She didn’t pull away. In fact, she leaned in closer, sliding her arms around his waist and pressing her soft, velvety lips to his.

Every muscle in his body seemed to melt as he pulled her to his chest and kissed her. She tasted as sweet as he imagined, like vanilla and lavender. He wasn’t sure if it was because of the cakes she baked or because she was an angel, but it didn’t matter.

His rabbit leaped with joy, and he drank her in. Her soft curves pressing against him turned his head into a carousel, the sensation both exhilarating and nauseating at the same time, and as he dipped his tongue into her mouth to tangle with hers, he gripped her shoulders to steady himself.

She broke the kiss, pulling back to look at him, and a dark vignette formed around his vision. “Pete? Are you okay?” She held his face in her hands, and his knees buckled beneath him.

He pitched forward, the vignette closing in, turning into a black tunnel as they tumbled onto the couch. He fell on top of her, and everything went dark.