Chapter Six
The bell jingled—an angry, short sound as the bar door flew open and slammed into the wall. Snow swirled inside as Oliver stormed toward his devil of a guardian angel. “She’s gone.”
Cael gave a little burp and not-so-discreetly shoved away the glass of whiskey that was close to him. “Who is? And where did she go?”
He stalked toward the bar. Grabbed the whiskey glass. Threw it against the nearest wall. It shattered into a million pieces. The same way he’d shattered on that blood-soaked sidewalk. “Gia is gone. She’s dead.”
Cael’s eyes widened. “You don’t say.”
“Yes,” he gritted out between clenched teeth. “I fucking say. She’s dead, and now, so are you.” He reached for the bastard.
Cael shot back. A very, very fast move. “But I didn’t hurt her!”
“You’re not an angel. An angel wouldn’t let someone like Gia die.
Someone good. Someone innocent. Someone who freaking baked brownies for the homeless on Christmas and kept extra socks in her glove compartment because she said that you never knew when you’d see someone on the street who needed socks.
” His hands were shaking, so he balled them into fists.
“You’re not an angel,” he repeated. “You’re some kind of demon.
Or maybe you are the devil. You’re playing with my head.
Giving me my worst nightmare when you promised to grant my fondest wish. ”
“There you go again,” Cael huffed. “Blaming me because you don’t like the way the wish turned out.”
“Gia died beneath my hands! I loved her, and she’s gone.”
“Well, if you loved her, then maybe you shouldn’t have left her alone. Maybe you should have been there sooner, and you could have protected her from the threat that’s been waiting.”
He wasn’t playing any more games. “Bring her back.”
“Uh, it doesn’t quite work that way.”
Yes, it did. “Bring. Her. Back.” He reached for the bottle of whiskey that was still on the counter.
“I’m not scared of you,” Cael said, and his voice only trembled a little. “You’re not a werewolf any longer. You’re a human. You don’t have claws—”
Oliver smashed the bottle on the side of the bar. “What I’ve got is jagged glass, and I’m betting it cuts as good as the claws ever did.”
Alarm flashed on Cael’s face. “Let’s just both calm down.”
“Bring. Her. Back.”
“I can’t! That’s not how it works! You tell me your greatest wish—the thing you want most in the world—and I help you get that wish!
What you wanted was to be human. Well, wish granted.
You’re human, and when you’re human? Well, bullets can tear through your skin.
They can slam right through you and then rip into the heart of the woman that you love. ”
Grief nearly choked Oliver.
“When you’re human,” Cael continued grimly, “your reflexes are normal. Not super-fast and enhanced. You can’t whirl to face an attacker or grab your girlfriend and push her out of the way before the bullet comes flying to end her life.”
“She didn’t even know me at the end,” he rasped. The pain would not stop. “She stared at me as if I was nothing more than a stranger.” To her, he had been.
“When you’re human…” Cael’s voice was lower. Softer. Sadder. “Your senses aren’t enhanced. You don’t hear the attacker coming until it’s too late. But if you had only been a werewolf…”
Oliver’s shoulders stiffened. “A werewolf could have saved her.”
A nod. “The odds of her living would have been much higher, certainly.”
“I could have saved her.”
“Not human you. But that werewolf version? The one you hated but that Gia was willing to accept even though she knew nothing about paranormals? Yes, I think it’s quite possible, even probable, that he would have done a much better job of protecting her.”
Hope burned in Oliver. Burned past the suffocating grief and the consuming pain and the choking rage. “Turn me back.”
Cael inched closer to the bar. “What’s that? Not sure I understood.”
“You understood. Now turn me back.”
Cael sighed. “Make me human. Make me a werewolf. Someone is so demanding. I granted your fondest wish—”
“That wasn’t my freaking fondest wish! I thought I could only go back to her if I was human.
” The words flew out with the pounding force of his desperation.
“Being with her—being with Gia is the only thing I want. I want to hold her at night and wake up with her in the morning. I want to haul fucking giant Christmas trees all the way across town for her. I want to kiss her under the mistletoe, and I want to hear her laugh.” He missed her laugh so much. “I want Gia.”
Cael leaned across the bar. Patted a hand on Oliver’s shoulder. “Was that so hard?”
He growled.
“Oh, look.” Bright. Perky. “Almost sounds like you’re turning back already.”
He hadn’t changed at all. “Fix me.”
Cael shrugged. “Fix it all yourself.”
Why that arrogant, tricky, bast—
Before he could shout or swing or do anything else…darkness closed over Oliver.
***
A hand patted Oliver on the shoulder.
“Fix it,” Oliver muttered.
“Sorry, buddy, but you need to wake the hell up.”
His body jerked. Oliver realized that his head was on the bar top, his body slumped forward. He heaved upright, and his gaze slammed into the bartender’s.
The little guy squinted back at him. “You okay?”
“No, Cael,” he snapped. “I am not okay. I asked you to fix my life. To turn me back into a werewolf and—”
The bartender stared at him as if he’d grown two heads. “Ah, I think you’ve had enough to drink for the night.”
A glass of whiskey sat beside Oliver. A perfectly normal, unshattered glass.
“Want me to call you a cab?” the bartender asked.
“I want to be a werewolf again!” Oliver snapped. His hand slammed into the bar. “Why won’t you just—” He’d caught sight of his hands. And the claws that tipped his fingertips.
He was back. Back, baby. His gaze jumped back to Cael.
“You have claws,” he pointed out, voice nervous.
“Cael, I could kiss you right now.”
Cael firmly shook his head. “I am in a relationship. And…how do you know my name? We didn’t exactly exchange a lot of personal info before you started snoring on my bar.”
Snoring on his bar? Wait, had all of that just been a dream? No way. No. Way. “Nice try, angel, but I’m not buying it.”
“Should I call someone for you?” Cael asked delicately.
He threw cash onto the bar. “Gia moved to this town, didn’t she? And she’s in danger. I’ll find her, don’t you worry.”
“Um…good?”
“I’ll find her, I’ll protect her, and I’ll love her forever.” He exhaled. Squared his shoulders. “Then you can get your precious wings and fly to any place you want.” With that, Oliver practically leapt for the door. But right before he opened it…
Oliver glanced back.
And he caught the smile on Cael’s face before the angel could wipe it away.
Cael really sucked at trying to look innocent.
“Thank you,” Oliver told Cael.
He opened the door. The bell jingled.
***
Cael waited until the door closed before he smiled again. The bell seemed to echo around him, and for a moment, he could have sworn that he felt a little tickle begin behind his left shoulder blade.