Wicked Souls by Misty Evans Page B

his cake and crumpled the
paper plate in one of his massive hands. “I don’t sleep.”
    The sun was sinking faster, growing shadows
in the cemetery. “Humans use beds for more than sleeping.”
    He looked at me with a mixture of curiosity
and confusion. How to explain the birds and the bees to an
archangel? “When two people like each other, like you and Keisha,
there are things they do in bed beside sleep.” I gave him a smile
and a wink.
    He blushed a fiery red and went back to
staring at the cemetery. He started to speak, cleared his throat
and rippled his feathers. “What else might I need in that
room?”
    Keisha chose that moment to come out the
back door. “There you are.” She walked down several steps until she
stood slightly below us and faced back toward the church,
skillfully avoiding locking eyes with Gabriel. When her gaze
finally landed, it was on me, but evidently from the strain on her
face, it was all she could do not to glance at the archangel next
to me. “Emilia and Liddy are getting ready to go. Do you want to
send the rest of the cake home with them?”
    “No,” Gabriel said, a look of alarm on his
face. “I want to take the cake with me.”
    Keisha finally looked at him, as if she
wanted to give him more than the cake. He stared back, like a
voodoo doll frozen in her hands.
    Setting up my best friend with Gabriel
wasn’t logical, but once in a while you had to throw logic out the
window and go with your heart.
    I patted Gabriel’s arm and said to Keisha,
“Divide up the cake and let Emilia and Liddy each take a piece
home. Then you and Gabriel can have the rest.”
    They were still staring at each other. He
opened his mouth to speak, made a squeaky noise, and closed his
mouth again. Keisha could be patient, but if Gabriel never got any
words out, his odds of hooking up with her were slim to none.
    “Gabriel’s coming to work for us.” I peeled
open his hand and took the paper plate out of it. “And he’s going
to live temporarily at the shop in the supply room.”
    Keisha’s jaw dropped open as she glanced at
me with a big fat imaginary question mark hovering over her
head.
    “Keisha is going to take you back to the
shop, Gabe.” Grabbing his hand, I held it out to Keisha and gave
her a nod that said, you have my blessing . “She’ll take care
of setting up the room and making sure you’re comfortable.”
    As Gabriel rose from the step, his wings
folded in at the bottom, tips touching. He looked like he had a
giant feathered heart attached to his back.
    Keisha took his hand and the two started up
the stairs together in a mutual daze. At the church door, she
looked back at me. “Aren’t you coming?”
    “I’ll catch up later.”
    Gabriel strode into the church, and before
Keisha could follow him, I caught her arm and lowered my voice. “He
likes cake and doesn’t sleep. Think you can handle that?”
    She chuckled under her breath. “Wait till I
introduce him to ice cream and voodoo.”
    When they had gone, I sat back down on the
step and finished my cake. My soul was mine again. My willpower,
too. What was the first thing I was going to do with it all?
    The cemetery grew dark and the birds stopped
their conversations. I pulled the chip out of my jacket pocket and
rubbed it.
    A voice behind me spoke, and a rush of heat
hit my back. “The past two days were all worth it for a piece of
that cake. What was in that anyway?”
    “Dove chocolates.” I stood and started down
the stairs. If I’d ever had a true guardian angel, he was standing
behind me. It was time to find out how much he knew about Eve,
starting with her weaknesses. “Walk me home?”
    Lucifer lifted one eyebrow in question
before smiling with evil intent. “Are you tempting me, witch?”
    Me? Tempt the Devil? Sometimes there’s no
changing your spots.
    I smiled back and started walking.
     
     

 
     
     
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