The Impact (Book II)

Scuffle

Will found me sitting on the roof later that evening. I stared up at the midnight sky dappled with stars. From the distance, the trees looked like they had been colored in with charcoal. I loved nighttime; everything had an unfamiliar slant to it when compared to day. The darkness enveloped me like an embrace and I welcomed it. My eyes were better suited to this blackness. I heard Will pull himself up onto the roof, holding a flashlight. My eyes reflected when the light strayed to hit my eyes. At first, my reflective eyes startled him, but he had long since gotten used to it.

"You haven't come up here since we first discovered Keith was a Semifacta Demon. What's on your mind?" He sat beside me, crossing his legs and looking down at me.

"Just...thinking about home. Hell." I admitted, nibbling on my thumbnail.

"This because of your brother?"

I nodded.

He asked, "Do you ever miss it?"

Shrugging, I smiled sheepishly at him when he wrapped his fingers around my wrist and pulled my thumb from my mouth. "Sometimes. I never thought I would miss souls, but I do. I miss my hellhound and I miss the way things used to be with Zane. I digress, though. I'm thinking about what Lucifer suddenly wants with us."

Will's silence grew thoughtful, if not anxious. He was as disquieted as I was with the warning. He released my wrist and leaned back on both hands. Finally, he said, "Whatever may come we need to be prepared. Does Joel know?"

I nodded. "Joel's strengthened the barrier; no intruder can get in without the explicit permission from one of us."

"Good. Should we take the kids out of school?"

I thought about it for a moment before shaking my head. "No, we don't need them to start to worry. We just have to keep a closer eye on them. Especially since Zach is involved with a human."

He frowned and grunted. I eyed him strangely and asked, "What was that?"

"Don't like her," he groused. "Something off about her."

I rolled my eyes. He was always like that when one of our children showed any interest in someone. Last year, Cole had been infatuated with a popular girl at the school and went out with her for several months. She was a sweet girl named Beth and they parted as friends, but the whole time Will complained and bellyached to me that he didn't like her that there was "something off" about her.

"She seems like a well-balanced, perfectly polite young lady," I said.

"You never see anything wrong with our kids' partners," he pointed out.

I raised a brow. "Maybe because I can detect when someone is motivated by ill intentions. You know, what with me being a demon and all."

Will chuckled diffidently. "Ah, yeah. I forget that you're a demon sometimes."

The mood between us sobered. I hugged my legs to my chest. It was no secret between the two of us that I often wished I was human. That way it wouldn't be so dangerous for Will to be with me. Life would have been simpler if I had been a peasant girl that fell in love with an Archangel.

I murmured, "Sometimes I forget I'm a demon, too."

He placed his hand on my shoulder. I glanced up at him and he smiled at me. I returned his smile weakly, but it strengthened when he said, "If you weren't a demon you wouldn't be Mel. I love Mel, not 'the demon.'"

"If only Zach felt the way you do. I'm becoming worried about him; I think he sees me and Keith more as enemies than family. What's gotten into him, Will? Up until Zane, he's never had a bad encounter with a demon. Why does he have such a distaste for us?"