Falling (The Soul Collectors Series Book 1) by Tara Benham Page B

night, but no one really questioned the suggestion. I sat on a glider, and Everett sat down beside me. Alissa very happily sat beside Declan on the swing, while Hadraniel, Gray, Hannah, and Sadie took the remaining seats around the fire.
    “So how’s this work? Who goes first?” Had asked.
    “I’ll go first.” Hannah shot me a grin. “Bayla, truth or dare?”
    “Crap. Um, truth?” I shot a quick glance at Had to make sure he knew that most of our truths would indeed be untrue.
    “Yes!” She high-fived Gray who was sitting next to her. “If you had to kiss one person in this group, who would you choose?” She tried to play innocent, but her mischievous eyes gave her away.
    My eyes glided first to Declan, who seemed to have little more than a passing interest in my response, while Everett’s cheeks were turning all different shades of red. I’m sure my face matched his. I took a drink, coughed, and delayed so long, she told me I had to answer. I glared at her, causing her to grin even more. “I guess Everett.” Declan rolled his eyes, and Hannah just full-on laughed. Hadraniel seemed more than amused as well. Gray high fived Everett this time.
    “Your turn now, Bayla. You get to ask someone.”
    “Alissa, truth or dare?” I had no idea why I chose her. I didn’t even really like her.
    “Dare, because I’m not afraid of a challenge.”
    I knew she was poking at me and my choice of truth, but I wasn’t going to let her get to me.
    “I dare you to go wash off all of your make-up and have a bare face the rest of the day.”  As much as I disliked her, Alissa was pretty. She just wore make-up all the time. I wasn’t sure if it was out of vanity or insecurity. My dare must have caught her off guard.
    “Okay.” She didn’t looked pleased, but after talking such a big game, she had to follow through.
    A few minutes later, she came back out. She was prettier without the make-up in my opinion. Everyone else agreed, and even told her so which made her less self-conscious, but not any less annoying. She appeared to be gloating like she had won over me or something.
    “Declan. Truth or dare?” No surprise there with her choosing him.
    “Dare”
    “I dare you to kiss someone in the group.” She looked assured that she was going to get kissed.
    “Is that the whole dare?” He looked bored.
    “Yes.”
    He stood up, walked over to me and bent forward. My breath caught, and everyone gasped. I couldn’t even look up at his eyes. I could feel his eyes upon me, patiently waiting for me to look up, but I couldn’t. I could barely breathe. I had never, ever, been kissed, and here he was about to kiss me, with an audience no less. Time seemed to stop. I heard my heartbeat in my chest, I saw his knees bend, going from a bent to a squatting position directly in front of me. Hadraniel had said there were bad consequences when Angels and Demons tried to interact this way. I hope a kiss didn’t fall into that category.
    “Angel, look at me,” he whispered so only I could hear him. He placed his index finger under my chin, lifting it up slightly, so our eyes met. “One kiss, right?” He spoke out loud, never breaking our eye contact. He leaned over, bringing his face closer to mine. My heart was close to breaking free from my rib cage. Just as I felt his breath on my lips, I closed my eyes and then… nothing happened. When I looked up, he was on his butt near the fire. Everett was standing over him.  
    “Calm down, dude!” Gray had a hold of one of Everett’s arms.
    Declan was smirking. He stood up, dusted off his pants, and stepped towards Everett, getting very close to his face. “You get that one. Next time you touch me, I don’t care who’s around, I will retaliate.” He winked at me and turned back to sit next to Alissa, who was now pouting.
    I glanced at Hannah who was wide-eyed in shock. Hadraniel looked upset. I had no control over what just happened. It was like I forgot how to do anything. He had