Seventh Seal - Jacquelyn Faye Page 0,71

what?' Josie's curiosity was piqued.

I pointed at her fiancé. "While we were getting our asses kicked, she yells at an angel and it flies off with its tail feathers tucked between its legs."

Josie looked down at Candace for confirmation and Candace stared at the floor. "Did you?"

"Yes."

"That was very brave of you…"

"And stupid. Now they know where I am. I was foolish."

"Uh…what's going on?" I was so far out of the loop that I couldn't even see the loop.

Josie looked up at me and gave me an imperceptible shake of her head. For the first time in my life, Josie was privy to information that I wasn't. It was kind of refreshing.

"You're fey blooded, but your father wasn't elven," Yuki answered for her.

Judging from how Josie's eyes widened to the size of saucers, she had hit the mark on the head. "What?" I looked at Yuki.

"Today was the closest I'd ever gotten to one of the angels. Want to know what they smell like?"

"What?"

"Sunshine. Just like Candace."

I looked over and Candace had her face in her hands, shaking visibly. Josie practically snarled at Yuki and tried to comfort Candace by rubbing gentle circles on her back.

And it all clicked in my head. All the subtle clues, everything that she'd been hiding, her troubled past. "Candy?"

She pulled her hands from her face and looked at me forlornly with red rimmed eyes.

"Is it true?"

She nodded, ever so gently. I held out my arms toward her and she didn't waste a moment before she crossed the distance and jumped into my lap. "Do you hate me?"

"Hate you? What the hell for? Look at my mother. We're like sisters. You're the child of angels, and I'm the child of demons."

She pulled back and raised an ironic eyebrow. "Yes. Just like sisters." She pursed her lips, but I could see them trembling with laughter.

"Okay. Maybe cousins." I winked conspiratorially. "Why are you ashamed of being sired by an angel?"

"You've seen them. They are not nice." She frowned. "They're corrupt."

"Yep. They're a big bag of dicks. Doesn't change who you are, though." I ran my fingers through her hair, pulling some of the stray strands out of her eyes. "But why are they afraid of you?"

She shrugged. "I've met only one. It was nearly four hundred years ago in a church in Sweden. My master had left me with the priest when she was called off to battle."

My heart sank. No story of being left with a priest ended well.

"Father Mikel." She laughed at the memory. "Was a gentle soul who taught me much of what I know about healing. Then one day the angel appeared, and I wasn't surprised. The priest was as close to the angels as a human could attain. Then it started tearing apart the church and Father Mikel tried to stop it… He was cleaved in half by its sword." She gulped and started crying. I felt like an asshole for assuming the worst about the priest. "Something inside me broke, and I ran out from where I'd been hiding. I shoved it back from where it stood over his body and it watched silently as I tried to heal him."

I stared incredulously. "Did you?"

"No. You can't heal the dead, but I tried."

I rubbed her shoulder. "The angel left you alone?"

She shook her head. "It called for others, singing that it had found me. It was in a language I'd never heard before but understood completely. Fear filled me and I knew they were coming for me. The angel sneered but wouldn't come near me. It dodged when I tried to attack it with my dagger. Then I felt them. A choir of them were coming for me. So, I ran and barely managed to escape. It took me two years to find my master. When I told her what had happened, she didn't seem surprised. My mother told me my father was an angel, but I never believed her until that moment. I was an abomination in their eyes. Something to be destroyed, nothing more."

"You are so much more." I hugged her and looked at Josie over her shoulder. "You knew?" I mouthed my question and she nodded. I smiled in response, proud that she had kept her secret.

Candace went rigid in my arms. "What if they come back for me?"

"Then every witch, vampire, shadow, and dark elf in this city will stand between you and them."

"What if they come during the day?"

"Then we'll just have to hide until it