Protect Her: Part 11 Read Online Free PDF Page A

she was entirely too perceptive.
    She pushed me away from the door and toward the sitting room. “You must tell me what’s happening. Quickly now. Spit it out.”
    I stood in the middle of the sitting room and stared at her. “Um. The angels tried to kill me. Bruno tried to kill me. Riley killed Bruno. An original angel named Adam showed up and killed Eva after she convinced me to let her possess me. Riley resurrected my spirit, but Benjamin kidnapped it before I could go to him. Riley crushed the relic and sucked all the bad mojo into himself, and Adam killed Eva in retaliation. Riley thought I was dead, and he gave over to the darkness to go after Adam. When Eva died, I was made corporeal again.”
    I paused to take a breath. When I rattled off everything that had happened since I last saw Alice, it sounded crazy. My only relief was that I knew she’d believe me. I had carefully kept the Viho threads out of my story. “I think that about brings us up to present.”
    Alice crossed her hands in front of her. There had been no reaction on her face during my tirade of a recap. “I see. So you are here because you think Riley will come here after me.”
    “I’m trying to find Riley to let him know that I am alive,” I said.
    “You think that this knowledge will change the outcome of his destiny?”
    I felt something snap inside of me. I was tired of everyone questioning what Riley and I meant to each other. “Surely the one thing that could turn anyone away from darkness is the opposite emotion. Love. That’s what we have. It’s something that is bigger than both of us. It’s something that I don’t think either one of us ever expected to find, but we did. And so yes, I believe that if I find him I can convince him that there’s another way. He’s not alone. He never was.”
    There was a swirl of cloudy smoke behind Alice, and I reached out to pull her away as it materialized into a shape of a man. I felt my throat clench.
    “Hello.” Riley stood behind his mother with a smile on his face. The smile didn’t reach his eyes. “What a surprise.”
    “Riley.” I suddenly realized that we hadn’t beaten him there at all. He had been here waiting. I wondered if he had known before this moment that I was alive. If he had, and he hadn’t come for me, then it would be proof of what Viho and Benjamin had been telling me all along.
    Now that we were here staring at each other, I didn’t know what to say. My eyes drank him in, noting the similarities and the stark differences between this man and the man I knew. He was dressed in a long black trench coat that fell almost to his knees. His normal faded jeans had been traded for a pair of dress slacks. His hair, which normally fell in dark waves across his forehead, was neatly coiffed on top of his head. He looked every inch a proper gentleman, far from the rough rider necromancer that I knew him to be.
    “Did you know?” It was the question buzzing in my mind.
    “That you were alive?”
    I don’t know why he had to say it out loud. Riley and I were practically able to read each other’s thoughts at one time. He knew me better than I knew myself. I gave a short nod.
    “For a few days now,” he said with a smirk. “My network of spies were keeping tabs on anyone that might come sniffing after me. I expected archangels, not a ragtag group of humans.”
    My stomach dropped. He had known, and he hadn’t come to find me. Had I misjudged what there was between us so badly? It was as if my worst fear was coming true. “Maybe we could go somewhere and talk,” I said weakly. “A lot has happened.”
    Riley snapped his fingers, and I watched as Alice slid away from him toward the kitchen. “Don’t forget to bring sugar cubes this time,” he called at her back. Then he turned back to me with a slight eye roll. “Mothers. Always trying to keep their kids away from the sweets.”
    “What’s happened to you?” I whispered. This was far from the reunion I had