Fallen Memories: Book Two

Fallen Memories - [5]

Fallen Memories - 5

    As soon as we were in the Mercedes, Colton leaned over and took my face between his hands. For a wild moment, I thought he was going to kiss me. But when he gingerly tilted my head to the right, I found his eyes examining my cheek and temple. Where he tenderly pressed his fingers, it throbbed, and I resisted the urge to pull away. He noticed this, frowning to himself. Probing gently, his fingers walked along the skin of my temple, checking for bruised bones, I suspected.

    “How bad does it hurt?” he asked.

    “Pretty bad,” I admitted. By the grim look on his face, I felt the need to crack a joke. “Not as bad as the time I nearly broke my arm.”

    Confusion tainted his features. “When did you-? Oh, very funny, Ivy.” For my sake, he forced a smile and reached up, punching the overhead light on.

    “How bad does it look?” I asked, refraining from looking in the mirror.

    “Not too bad. I should go back there and kill him.” Colton’s eyes drifted toward his window, and I knew he was imagining walking back up to Sabrina’s house, grabbing hold of Adam and having his way with him.    

“You shouldn’t,” I said quickly, afraid he might act on those thoughts. Colton’s eyes jumped back to mine again, flashing with something dark and unreadable.

“He hit you.”

“And a minute before you dragged me down that hallway, I was man-handled by a drunk frat. Are you going to sentence him to death, too?” I said, silently praying that Colton didn’t go up there and do some serious damage.  With the archangels watching, we couldn’t afford to add more to what we were already carrying on our shoulders. Or rather, what Colton was carrying on his shoulders.

“I can’t believe you’re going to let it pass like that,” he muttered.

I climbed over the center console, positioning myself on his lap. When he was looking straight at me, I placed my hands on his shoulders. Looking him in the eye, I smiled.

“I’m letting it pass because I know that what they did was wrong. As much as I’d like to see you put them in their place, I know that we both know we’d regret it later on. Right now, we’ve got enough on our plates and can’t afford to heighten the risk of you going to Hell.”

Colton’s irritated expression seemed to soften as he considered my words. He was silent for a moment, eyes trained on mine as he processed what I’d said.

“You really just want me for yourself, don’t you?” A smirk edged itself onto his lips. Now that we were out of the vicinity of Sabrina’s home, away from the tangible tension, I could see that Colton was relaxing. Not entirely, but he wasn’t on a killing spree anymore.

    “If I could think about anything apart from this pain in my eye, I’d agree,” I said, forcing a smile back. Colton shifted, handing me off to the passenger seat.

    “That’s not going to go away on its own for a little while. I’m taking you back to my place quick.”

    Mild panic stirred in my stomach. Glancing at the time on my phone I saw that it read 12:05 in the morning.

    “My mom’s going to kill me!” I groaned, wincing as the effort made my temple throb.

    Colton hardly glanced my way as he sped away from the curb. “Why?”

    “She told me I had to be home before midnight.”

    “You want her to see that?” He glanced at me now.