J’Von moved between the Lexus and the car next to it to stand over Alex. “Told you not to do anything stupid,” he said, leaning in enough to spit the words in Alex’s face. Half delirious, Alex’s eyes wandered up at the shadow over him. His hands sought to grab onto something, anything. J’Von wasn’t worried about it; he was angry, and he wanted this fool’s last moments to be full of weakness and fear.
Instead, a thought drifted through Alex’s fuzzy mind. Something about needing to be meaner than the other guy. He seized that thought, hung onto it for dear life…just like he grabbed the looming shadow by the collar, yanking backward with everything he could. Off-balance and surprised, J’Von’s head crashed through the passenger side window of the Lexus.
Another shot rang out from J’Von’s gun, this one striking nothing but pavement. Taylor yelped. Mike groaned. Tony lurched to his feet, pulling his gun. J’Von had always, always told Tony not to pull a piece unless J’Von told him, but this seemed to qualify. He grunted out something about having J’Von’s back.
Then Tony was face-to-face with a beautiful blonde in a simple white dress. “Huh?” he blinked.
The angel’s open hand came down on his face at a high angle. Her slap hit him like a brick. His whole body crumpled to the floor in the blink of an eye. Taylor saw it, but couldn’t believe it.
Rachel turned to Alex and J’Von as the bigger man extracted himself from the car window. Blood covered his scalp. He turned his gun on Alex again, but Rachel snatched it from his hand before he could pull the trigger.
“Lie down, asshole,” Rachel ordered him.
“The fuck?” J’Von blinked.
Rachel swung the pistol up against his bloody forehead, knocking him out cold.
On her feet now, Taylor rounded the parked car blocking her view to see Rachel crouch down over Alex. “Is he okay?” she asked, very close to tears.
Rachel touched the wound with her fingers. “He will be,” she said. Alex looked up in her eyes blearily, feeling things move inside his chest. He was pretty sure that whatever was going on in there was not good at all; he felt gurgly and could barely catch his breath. But then that all faded, and instead he was just sharply sore right where her fingers touched. The world stopped blurring and spinning. It hurt, but he could breathe again.
“It’s a miracle that the bullet just glanced off your rib like that,” Rachel smiled at him softly. “You could have had a collapsed lung. Or worse.”
“Alex?” Taylor asked.
“I’m alright,” Alex mumbled. “I think.”
“You’re a bit beaten up, but that gunshot could’ve been much uglier,” Rachel nodded. She looked to Taylor. “That other idiot over there probably has a gun, too. Maybe in his waistband. Could you check on him before he recovers? Don’t bother being nice about it,” she warned.
Taylor swallowed and nodded. She hurried over to Mike, shoved him onto his back and patted him down until she found the gun. He groaned loudly but didn’t put up a fight.
Rachel pulled Alex to his feet. “That was ballsy,” she said. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner.”
“What kept you?” he huffed.
“No wings,” Rachel shrugged with a slightly guilty smile. “I had to run all the way from your mother’s house. I didn’t realize you weren’t there until two minutes ago.”
“You ran all the way across town in two minutes?”
“It’s not that big a town.”
“Huh. Maybe I should’ve just waited for you.”
“No. You did the right thing. There are sometimes limits to my ability to intervene. I don’t know how else this might have turned out. Who is this?” she asked as Taylor returned.
“Oh. Taylor’s, um, a friend from high school. Wow, this hurts.”
“I would imagine,” Rachel nodded. “Hello, Taylor. You won’t remember much about me soon. Sorry for that.”
“Um. Hi?”
The angel nodded, surveyed the scene around her with her hands on her hips, and took a deep, calming breath…and then stopped. She took another long breath, slowly turning to Alex. “That…smell,” she mumbled.
“Huh?” Alex asked. Taylor was perplexed as well.
“You smell,” Rachel said, her voice wavering.
“I smell? Oh, no, not this again…”
“You smell like…” Rachel inhaled deeply once more, eyes fluttering with arousal. “You smell like charity and justice and…mercy…” she inhaled again. “Self-sacrifice and…and…sex!”
Taylor looked on in awe as Rachel practically tackled him, kissing him ravenously. She would undoubtedly remember this clearly.
Alex hardly even stayed on the same plane of existence as everyone else in that moment. An angel-his angel-was kissing him. Every pain and worry fell away while her lips met his.
The moment was more than a little awkward for Taylor. They practically glowed. But then, anyone would be beautiful in that woman’s arms. Alex seemed to have been taken by surprise, but then swept away. Everything in the parking garage went quiet.
Except, of course, for the groans from Mike and Tony. Taylor blinked. She looked over to Tony and kicked his gun under a minivan, then kicked him in the head. “Asshole,” she grunted.
A car drove up from the lower level and stopped. “Hey, are these guys okay?” the older woman inside asked.
“No!” Taylor said urgently, “Call the cops! Please!”
The woman blinked, finding the scene of sprawled-out men and two people making out a bit odd. Still, she pulled back a few yards and put her car in park, then grabbed her phone.
Alex wasn’t sure what ended the kiss, but the first thing that registered for him besides the overwhelming beauty of the angel in his arms was the sharp click of heels rapidly approaching.
Lorelei. She was here. Rachel’s eyes went wide. She slipped out of her embrace with Alex. His chest, his backside, and the rest of him felt terrible again. The only pain that didn’t return was the crunchy feeling in his jaw.
The succubus reached out to touch Alex’s arm, but she looked warily at the angel.
“Where the fuck were you?” Rachel shot at her.
Lorelei scowled. “I had given him some space. Had I known that you were sleeping on the job, I might not have been so careless.”
“Sleeping?! You bitch!”
“Ladies! Please! Can we just…can you just be a little patient with each other? Huh? Maybe at least try to be nice?” Alex held his hand over his bloody chest, then winced and realized perhaps that wasn’t the best idea. “It would mean a lot to me if you two could bury the hatchet, at least just a little.”
Rachel’s face conveyed a twist of emotions. His request appalled her, but at the same time the fact that he had to ask filled her with guilt. “Alex, I’m sorry,” Rachel blinked. “I don’t mean to make this hard on you.”
Lorelei was much more calm and collected. “I saw the two of you kiss. I can feel his desire for you. You are lovely together. I’m certain we could all come to an arrangement,” she suggested. Rachel looked at her in shock, but Lorelei merely shrugged. “Believe it or not, what I want most of all is Alex’s safety and happiness. You seem able to provide some measure of both. Sharing him would not bother me.”
Alex turned to Lorelei, dumbfounded, while Rachel’s mind seemed to go through an emergency reboot. Lorelei’s steamy offer hung in the air without any pretense of being anything other than it was.
“Just…” Rachel blinked. “Just keep him out of trouble and fuck him like he deserves!” she shot back at Lorelei, and then spun and walked away. As before, she was out of sight in mere seconds.
“That is the strangest angel I have ever met,” Lorelei murmured.
“Do they all talk like that?” Alex asked.
“Not a one,” Lorelei shook her head. Sirens began to echo through the parking garage. “I should be able to keep this from getting out of hand,” Lorelei thought aloud. She looked to Alex. “I am terribly sorry.”