“I sneaked out.” Her smile twisted up on one side. “I had to see you again. I’ve been trying for a long time, but security—well, you know. It’s not exactly lax. Your kind and my kind—we aren’t supposed to mix. But you know that.”
“Coming here was a bad idea.”
“I know it’s been a while, but I was hoping for a slightly more friendly reaction,” she said, pushing her lips out in a pout.
Patch didn’t answer.
“I haven’t stopped thinking about you.” Dabria dimmed her voice to a low, sexy pitch and took a step closer to Patch. “It wasn’t easy getting down here. Lucianna is making excuses for why I’m absent. I’m risking her future as well as my own. Don’t you want to at least hear what I have to say?”
“Talk.” Patch’s words didn’t hold a shred of trust.
“I haven’t given up on you. This whole time—” She broke off and blinked back a sudden display of tears. When she spoke again, her voice was more composed but still held a wavering note. “I know how you can get your wings back.”
She smiled at Patch, but he didn’t return the smile.
“As soon as you get your wings back, you can come home,” she said, speaking more confidently.
“Everything will be like it was before. Nothing has changed. Not really.”
“What’s the catch?”
“There is no catch. You have to save a human life. Very judicious, considering the crime that banished you here in the first place.”
“What rank will I be?”
All confidence scattered from Dabria’s eyes, and I got the feeling he’d asked the one question she’d hoped to avoid. “I just told you how to get your wings back,” she said, sounding a touch condescending.
“I think I deserve a thankyou—”
“Answer the question.” But his grim smile told me he already knew. Or had a very good guess.
Whatever Dabria’s answer was, he wasn’t going to like it.
“Fine. You’ll be a guardian, all right?”
Patch tipped his head back and laughed softly.
“What’s wrong with being a guardian?” Dabria demanded. “Why isn’t it good enough?”
“I have something better in the works.”
“Listen to me, Patch. There’s nothing better. You’re kidding yourself. Any other fallen angel would jump at the chance to get their wings back and become a guardian. Why can’t you?” Her voice was choked with bewilderment, irritation, rejection.
Patch pushed up from the pool table. “It was good seeing you again, Dabria. Have a nice trip back.”
Without warning, she curled her fists into his shirt, yanked him close, and crushed a kiss to his mouth.
Very slowly Patch’s body turned toward her, his stance softening. His hands came up and skimmed her arms.
I swallowed hard, trying to ignore the stab of jealousy and confusion in my heart. Part of me wanted to turn away and cry, part of me wanted to march over and start shouting. Not that it would do any good. I was invisible. Obviously Miss Greene … Dabria … whoever she was … and Patch had a romantic past together. Were they still together now—in the future? Had she applied for a job at Coldwater High to be closer to Patch? Is that why she was so determined to scare me away from him?
“I should go,” said Dabria, pulling free. “I’ve already stayed too long. I promised Lucianna I’d hurry.”
She lowered her head against his chest. “I miss you,” she whispered. “Save one human life, and you’ll have your wings again. Come back to me,” she begged. “Come home.” She broke away suddenly. “I have to go. None of the others can find out I’ve been down here. I love you.”
As Dabria turned away, the anxiety vanished from her face. An expression of sly confidence replaced it.
It was the face of someone who’d bluffed their way through a rough hand of cards.
Without warning, Patch caught her by the wrist.
“Now tell me why you’re really here,” he said.
I shivered at the dark undercurrent in Patch’s tone. To an outsider, he looked perfectly calm. But to anyone who’d known him any length of time, it was obvious. He was giving Dabria a look that said she’d crossed a line and it was in her best interest to hop back across it—now.
Patch steered her toward the bar. He planted her on a bar stool and slid onto the one beside it. I took the one next to Patch, leaning in to hear him above the music.
“What do you mean, what am I here for?” Dabria stammered. “I told you—”
“You’re lying.”
Her mouth dropped. “I can’t believe—you think—”
“Tell me the truth, right now,” said Patch.
Dabria hesitated before answering. She gave him a fierce glare, then said, “Fine. I know what you’re planning to do.”
Patch laughed. It was a laugh that said, I have a lot of plans. Which one are you referring to?
“I know you’ve heard rumors about The Book of Enoch. I also know you think you can do the same thing, but you can’t.”
Patch folded his arms on the bar. “They sent you here to persuade me to choose a different course, didn’t they?” A smile showed in his eyes. “If I’m a threat, the rumors must be true.”
“No, they’re not. They’re rumors.”
“If it happened once, it can happen again.”
“It never happened. Did you even bother to read The Book of Enoch before you fell?” she challenged.