the ground, her wings and back against the gym wall. I slide down next to her and chug the deliciously cold and refreshin’ bottle in a few gulps. Delta hands me another one, and I drink about half of that one too before my body decides it’s not gonna die of dehydration and it can chill.
“So...you didn’t run when they announced that you were a demon, you didn’t freak out when Flint and Alder claimed you as their mate, and you also seem to take to this whole training for battle thing like a total badass,” she muses. “I’d be jealous that you’re beautiful, but luckily, we look alike, so at least I have that going for me too,” she announces on a sigh.
I chuckle. “Oh, please, you kept me on my toes the whole time, and I saw that smirk that snuck over your face several times today. You’re better at this than you think, and you like it a heck of a lot more than you thought you would too,” I tell her.
“It is easier sparring with you, I’ll admit that much,” she says. “For some reason, watching you work through the moves helps me do the same.”
“Maybe your grumpy mate is right, and it’s simply about gettin’ out of your head more,” I offer. “It’s about not thinkin’ like a human or givin’ human limitations to our angel and demon abilities.”
She nods in thought. “Yeah, the guys have been on me about the same thing, but I told them it was easier said than done. But then I saw you doing it, and I don’t know...it’s starting to click. I just want to know how you got so good at this so fast and how the whole you’re a demon bomb didn’t freak you the fuck out?” she asks, bumpin’ my shoulder with her own playfully.
I shrug. “I honestly don’t know why I’ve been so acceptin’ of everythin’. I think I have my parents to blame—or thank, dependin’ on how you look at it,” I tell her with a smile.
She chuckles and sips her water, waitin’ for me to elaborate.
“Ever since I was little, my mama has always talked about angels and God and Heaven as if they were real parts of our lives. She constantly told me the story of the angel who dropped me on their porch, and I just grew up understandin’ that there was more out there than most people knew. Heaven and the angel-stork story were just part of the fabric of who I was,” I explain as I rest my head back against the wall.
I can see the guys on the other end of the room, workin’ out and probably tryin’ to one-up each other. I’m lost to thoughts of all the bedtimes I begged my mama to tell me about the angel again. I recall all the moments she and my daddy spent explainin’ how special I was, what a gift I’d been.
“I really only thought about Heaven when it came to explainin’ who I was, and then I had my first tribulation.” I pause for a moment and try to sort through the best way to explain what I’m feelin’ and thinkin’. “I don’t remember much other than what my parents told me about it, but the older I got, the more I started to accept that with Heaven, there’s always a Hell, and when the blackness took me over, it wasn’t an angel that came out to play.”
Delta nods and sets her water down, her eyes lost in thought. “I get that. I always had a darkness that seemed to underlie all my intense emotions too. My mom called it impulse control issues and simple naughtiness, but now looking back, I see it. Something must have happened to your blocks, since you were tapping into the other side of yourself that Nefta tried to hide.”
“Yeah, that’s what I figured too,” I agree. “Anyway, my point is, I’d already embraced my light and dark, my differences. Alder and Flint didn’t drop a bomb so much as they gave me a name for somethin’ that I’d been dealin’ with my whole life. Well, aside from seein’ actual demons. That I didn’t do so well with. I tore up their bar like I was on one of those business renovation shows, and everythin’ just had to go.”
Delta laughs and looks at me with a warm gaze. “It’s so weird that we’re strangers but alike in so many ways. I did a