Lovely

Chapter 5

|Chapter 5|

My back hurts like hell. My arms ache. My legs are jello and I can barely keep my eyes open. 

"Isn't your last name Steele? Shouldn't you be stronger than that?" Ross taunted and I couldn't help myself when I lunged for his throat. He definitely wasn't expecting me to do that so he fell to the ground. The bastard still had the nerve to seem amused. Of course. 

I laid on top of him while he had both of his hands placed around my wrists to protect himself. I heard a melodic laugh behind me, but chose to ignore the owner of it. Isabella had been doing that a lot this entire session. 

"Put your wings away," Ross ordered. Unwillingly my wings curled themselves back into hiding and I cringed, sliding off of my advisor to soothe the new aching pain. Ross had developed a sort of command over me that I was not very fond of. He said it was enacted because of the fact that he was my advisor. It happened to all of the angels in training. He was my "alpha". When he told that bit of information to me earlier this week I wanted to slap the stupid smirk off of his face. 

It's been two weeks and I still wasn't that used to flying. Not to mention that Ross is making me wear these overbearing ankle weights and wing covers to help me with my strength and endurance. That's why he made that little comment about my last name, but that seemed to be the final straw for me. 

"Control your emotions," he reminded. I pursed my lips, but nodded stiffly. 

Somehow I'd convinced Isabella to come watch my session with Ross. My hope was to impress her because I was finally able to compel people and show them my true angel form. Impressing her and taking her mind off of Elliot was what I was aiming to do. After my little spat with Paul a couple weeks ago I couldn't shake the fact that I'd spent six weeks now without any contact with my friend I'd met in purgatory. Now he's stuck there or God knows where. 

My idea of having Isabella come here seemed to be doing the trick because she was smiling down at me. I snatched the bottle of water out of her outstretched hand. 

"Yes, Nova. Control your anger," she reiterated. I stuck my tongue out at her before Ross launched into one of his famous speeches. I got two to five every session is seemed. 

"Patience is a virtue," he began. "I've said this to you plenty of times. Getting frustrated with your lack of progress will only serve to slow you down, Nova. Stand up."

I obeyed him silently. 

"Go change into something nice. I've something planned for the two of us," he said pointedly. I offered Isabella a sheepish smile at his not so subtle hint and encouraged her to follow me to my bedroom. We were training in my backyard because Pierre had an indoor track meet that left the house empty besides me. I feigned an illness to avoid it. It's something else Ross had taught me.  He'd phrased it as something along the lines of "pretending to be human" or simply a "glamour". I could now give any appearance that I wanted to give to humans and they'd have no idea that I was actually just a purple eyed petite blonde. 

"He's cute," Isabella winked at me as I picked through my newly defined closet. There were many nicer clothes than before. Ross surprised me every so often with skirts and blouses. Just a couple weeks ago he gave me a bracelet which was a little different, but sweet nonetheless. He said it was to improve my image. 

"He's mean," I corrected. While Ross was one hell of a looker he knew how to push all my buttons while keeping a cool demeanor. "He's always insulting me."

"Can you blame him?" Isabella snorted, managing to still make it look graceful. "I can definitely say your wardrobe has improved."

"Not you too," I narrowed my eyes.