Page 22 of Angels Don’t Date

He smiled back at me, charming and cheerful.

I pointed at him. “You really do have the worst personality. But I love you anyway.” I beamed at him while my heart pounded harder and harder. I was going to squeal. “Sunrae?! Really? It’s you!? Eeee!” I threw my arms around him and squeezed him as tight as I could.

He creaked because I was channeling too much vampire.

I pulled away, beaming at him, a real smile I could feel down to my toes, which I was bouncing on. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to crush you. And after you were poisoned! That’s why you don’t want me to die, because we’re friends! And you don’t want to kill me!” I frowned at a sudden thought. “Although you might change your mind if someone gave you an offer you couldn’t refuse. What would it take for you to kill me? Someone could threaten your family, your sister or father. Never mind. We won’t worry about that. You could really help me bake something for my kitties? You haven’t met them. I haven’t come up with names because I don’t want to mess up. I’m thinking stormy for the gray one, but is that too basic? And Tiger for the orange stripes, but that’s obviously too basic, but still, that’s what I think when I pick him up. And the black one…” I winced. “Blackie. Why can’t I think of good names? Like Vesper is so good! Oh! Can I meet your horse? Can I call him a horse or will he bite me? I probably won’t mind if he does. He’s so pretty. Do you have to brush him to keep him so shiny, or do you actually use heavenly fire?”

I bounced, holding onto his arms and beaming up at him. SunRae was here, and I thought she’d been worried about the assassins, but it was him all along. “You really are crazy, being a closet animal baker this whole time you’re not off fighting wars and whatever. Could Lorien the Cupid really not make it, or did you want to come because you’re better at keeping people alive?”

He wrinkled his nose. “No, Lorien’s fine at keeping people alive, but he just flaked. Went chasing after this weapon in the middle east from the crusades.”

I beamed at him. “Too bad. He’s super pretty.”

He nodded, agreeably. “Super. And he’s all about the romance, so even if the two of you didn’t hit it off, he could help you with whoever else you wanted to end up with. He’s good at plotting that kind of thing, secret assignations, not to be mistaken for assassinations, which we’re definitely trying to stay away from. So, you don’t have any idea who could be behind it all?” He leaned closer, eyes intent, serious about getting to the bottom of these assassinations.

I shrugged. “You probably know more of the world’s evil power players than I do. The thing is that I’m not really valuable to the Scholar or the Vampire King. If I was killed, I don’t see how that would actually hurt either one of them. Other than maybe a hit to the ego.” I shouldn’t say that to someone, but if he was SunRae, then he’d already heard all of my personal ramblings over the past five years.

He frowned all the way to his warm blue eyes. “The Scholar would definitely miss you.”

I shrugged. “He’d feel guilty for not doing his duty, but he’s busy with his ancient languages and the laboratory and Libby. I don’t mind. It’s just that…” I leaned closer to him and lowered my voice. “I don’t actually like translating languages. It’s so boring. I want to rip out my eyeballs every time I do. And restoring weapons is like cleaning the closet. Useful, but not fun.”

“What is fun?” he whispered, leaning closer, like we were conspirators.

I hesitated and then whispered in his ear, “Shopping for princess dresses.” I pulled away, waiting for him to mock me for being superficial and idiotic.

He flashed me a grin that was absolute mischief and mayhem. His voice was low, conspiratorial. “I have a pan fetish. I own over three hundred pans in different shapes and sizes. I use the same half dozen every time I bake, but I can’t help checking to see if there’s anything new. I have this pan shaped like a fish. Ooh!” He grabbed my arm, his eyes lighting up. “We could make a tuna cake for the kittens! What do you think?”

“That’ll be so cute!” I bounced around with him until we knocked into the counter and he caught me around the waist. For a second we stood too close, almost awkward before I remembered that he was SunRae and my bestie forever and ever the end.

I kissed his cheek and pulled back beaming. “You have a dimple. It’s so cute. When can we make the fish cake?”

He cocked his head as he thought then said decisively, “Tomorrow morning. I’ll order ingredients. Vesper will get jealous if he thinks I’m cooking for someone else’s pets, so don’t tell him.”

I nodded soberly. “Your secret’s safe with me.” I beamed at him and bounced. “You’re really here.”

He smiled back, eyes dancing. “I really am. Now, you should go back to your cottage and order at least a dozen fabulous dresses to replace all the ones this show has trashed. Who knew reality tv would be so hard on wardrobe?”

“It’s probably in the fine print.” I grabbed his hands, squeezing them. “I’m so glad you came.”

He squeezed my hands back. “Me too.”

I spun around and danced out of the kitchen, filled with a bubbling euphoria I could barely contain. SunRae was here! And yes, it turned out that she was the obnoxious angel I’d met on the Scholar’s wedding day when he threatened to kill everyone and expose my guardian and had been absolutely awful, but that was just his personality. He couldn’t help it.

Except…

My dancing slowed as I left the castle, stepping out into the overcast day, following the path towards the woods. The angel woman followed me, six steps behind like she was almost giving me privacy. I preferred how Mitt seemed to disappear into the shadows, but angels were like that.

Bold. Honest. Direct.

Richard was not. Otherwise, he would have followed me with his own name, and he wouldn’t have kept following me for five years. Not just following. Messaging every day, multiple times a day, sometimes for hours and hours about nothing.

Why would an angel keep a secret like that for so long and then just come out with it in the middle of another conversation? What were we talking about? Assassination. He could have told me when he first met me in the kitchen while he was baking cookies. “Hi, I’m baking because I’m SunRae, you know, your online friend.” But no, he waited until after the baking segment, when I was washing his poisoned blood out of my dress. Which I’d left in the sink, and I was still only wearing the white petticoat and camisole. Was he worried about me dying? But how would telling me that he was SunRae help with that? Maybe he was trying to make me feel better about Mini dying, and him killing her, because he was a much better friend than she’d ever be, and he was here to support me so I wasn’t so lonely. Or maybe…My stomach tangled. Maybe he’d told me so that I’d stop staring at him like I had some kind of attraction for him. Because I loved SunRae, but we were friends forever and I’d never let something silly like romance get in the way of true friendship. And he was an angel who didn’t feel desire. He’d been very, very clear about that while I’d been touching his silky glowing skin and healing his internal bleeding. He wasn’t here for romance, just like I’d said when I voted him off, but he didn’t want me to vote him off because he did care about me as friends, and didn’t want me to die.

No way he would have spent that much time and effort being my online friend if he wasn’t, in fact, actually interested in being my friend. Right?

I dropped back so I could walk with the angel. “Hi. I’m sorry I didn’t officially introduce myself. I’m Katriana, and you’re…” I held out my hand, smiling hopefully.

She gave it a firm shake. “I’m Hallie, short for Hallelujah.”