Angels and Misfits Part Two

Chapter 4

Gabe

The drive through these streets was quiet. The houses went from decent to grassy, broken sidewalks quickly. The barred windows were several blocks behind them. This area was just abandoned. 

Ace said Chicago, but they were well past the city limits.

It was a new place entirely and part of Gabe wondered when things changed. And how. 

It was subtle at first, passing old brick houses that were crumbling. The lack of any vegetation at all. Or life, really.

They didn’t find a single soul.

At least ghost towns had the spirits of old inhabitants in them. This place didn’t even have that.

No electricity and power poles, no streetlights. Just rows of old buildings that looked more like the aftermath of warfare. The black, cracking road turned into dirt, but the GPS still routed them forward.

Phoenix perked up in the back.

“Are you sure about this?” Katelyn asked. “It’s getting dark and I don’t think you and I will get to see anything. We haven’t seen anyone for miles. Just houses, Gabe. I’m actually getting scared right now.”

“We have Phoenix and you have me. I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise.” He would die before anyone nabbed her. She had been kidnapped far too many times, it wasn’t going to happen when she was with him. “But if you want, we can come back in the morning.”

He shouldn’t have let her sleep in so late, but damnit she was f*****g perfect and he felt zero shame watching her sleep while he tried searching for Trent Trout.

But he needed to do this. Close this chapter of her life for her so they could start their limited life together without this hanging over their heads. Gabe wasn’t wasting a single precious moment of their mortal relationship searching for dumb shits named Trent Trout that may have anything to do with Katelyn’s mother.

“How did Ace even find this?”

Gabe scratched his chin. The GPS was from Ace and there was no telling what weird s**t he did to it. No one really noticed it before—except Gabe—but Ace had sticky fingers. It wouldn’t be beyond that demon heathen to have lifted this technology from someplace like the Capitol. He was sly, but it was only because no one paid attention to him.

But Gabe did.

Ace had a habit. A sinful one, but it wasn’t as wicked as some others he could have had. Really, Ace ignored that demon part of himself, but fed it with that one little bit of Ace-type debauchery to quell whatever wickedness tormented him.

It didn’t make Ace human to do something wrong. It made him demon. And Gabe couldn’t fault him for going with his nature.

Truthfully, things could be worse.

So, if this GPS happened to be something Ace stole and regifted to Gabe in order to find Katelyn’s mother, he would keep Ace’s nasty little habit to himself. Just like how he figured Ace probably used stolen information to find this obscure address in the middle of this…whatever the hell it is.

“I have no idea how he finds half the stuff he does, but I’m glad he does.” It was true. This Trent with a stupid fish name to complete the alliteration better have something to share or better be the guy responsible.

Phoenix—too big to actually pace in the back seat—growled and fixated on a certain crumbling pile of rubble. 

“Here,” Gabe stopped the car. Soon enough, the headlights would be the only source of light. He got out of the car and before he finished pulling the seat forward, Phoenix shot out of the car like a bat out of—no, like a hound out of Hell.

“Phoenix!” Katelyn screamed.

The hound took off like a shadow toward that pile of rubble. Gabe narrowed his eyes and though it was almost a hallucination. “Is that…?” He took a few steps forward when Phoenix leapt into the air, landing on the figure.

“Stay in the car, lock the doors.” Gabe shut his door. 

Katelyn opened hers, “Gabe—”

“Katelyn! Shut the f*****g door and if anyone comes to the car just drive and I’ll find you.” He sprinted toward where Phoenix was holding down the figure. 

The man screamed and thrashed under Phoenix. “My time isn’t up! You can’t—”

Gabe stopped before Phoenix holding him down. Ripped black jeans, a ratty old shirt, an army jacket and one of those fur hats with the ear flaps. But those black eyes against his shimmery gold skin…

“Raith?” The last time Gabe saw Raith was during one of the great wars. Gabe grinned maniacally, “oh, how the mighty have fallen…” He kicked Raith in the face. “I should have known the stupid name should have been a dead giveaway. Although,” he kicked Raith in the teeth. “I should have known you weren’t actually dead.”

Raith spit blood out from his teeth. “Gabriel, you miserable f**k. Thought your kind was locked up in the golden gates these days.”

Raith was one of the last few remaining dark fae. Where Juliet—the fairy mated to Cal’s Beta/Adopted Brother dragon, James—was more of a light fairy, mostly drawn to nature and well, happy s**t like rainbows and unicorns, Raith was drawn to destruction, manipulation, and general misery much like a demon. 

And like Juliet, Raith had his wings torn from his body too.

Gabe thought taking those from him would have killed him, but apparently not.

“You haven’t heard? I’ve been Earthside a few years now.” Gabe knelt down. “What does Raith the Rancorous little dark fairy happen to be doing in the exact place I happen to be looking for another alliterative asshole?” Gabe chuckled. “Guess you spread that s**t like a disease.”

“How did you even find me!” 

Phoenix pressed his claws into the back of Raith’s neck with a menacing growl.

“I didn’t. I came out here looking for someone with a stupid name like yours and my brother’s hound happened to find you.” Gabe patted Phoenix on the head. “He’s quite good at finding sorry ass souls like yours.”

“Why do angels have a f*****g hell hound?!”

“Not your business.” Gabe searched Raith’s pockets. “What’s a fae like you doing in an abandoned ghost town like this? This isn’t your normal scene.” He pulled out the needle and small tube with a glowing green goo inside. “What is this stuff?”

Raith, apparently, was feeling brave. “Are you dense, angel? You don’t see everyone around you?” Gabe looked around noticing the subtle movements. This wasn’t some place people willingly came. They were in hiding. “Tell me, were you cast out of Heaven or did you forget your way back home?”

“Phoenix, let’s go.”

Like the loyal hound he was, Phoenix grabbed onto Raith’s ankle and dragged him back toward the car with a waiting Katelyn inside. 

“What’s the green stuff, Raith?” he asked while Phoenix dragged the screaming fae toward the car. He didn’t like carrying a gun on him with Katelyn close, so he needed to get it out of the trunk of the car. He opened the trunk and pulled out the case he made special for it.

The more he studied the area, the more he realized he had been looking, but not seeing.

There were fairies of all kinds all around.

Odd for them to not be living with greenery around them.

Even more strange for them to be hiding in a place like this.

Gabe begrudgingly added “figure out how Ace knew this place” to his growing list of things to do.

“I’m not telling you f**k all, angel,” Raith squirmed. “Why don’t you test it out for yourself and let me know how it goes.”

Gabe c****d the gun in his hands and pointed it between Raith’s eyes. “You giving this s**t to humans, Raith?”

Raith swallowed, keeping his eyes on the gun in his face. 

Gabe pressed it to his shimmery gold skin. “Raith? I asked you a question.”

“They said we could live in peace here if we just did the distribution.”

Now they were getting somewhere. Lou came through with this name. “Kate, sweetheart? Can you come out here for a sec?”

He heard the door squeak open from the front of the car. She was in the driver seat. Good girl, she listened to him.

Her steps were slow and timid. 

“Could you hold this here while I make my friend here more comfortable?” 

Raith’s eyes shot to the blonde-haired blue-eyed beautiful traveling companion that made Gabe the luckiest bastard in the galaxy. “You’re with a human?”

Gabe ignored Raith and placed her hands properly on the gun. She looked perfect holding it but it wasn’t the time to focus on that. “Hold it here,” he guided her hands on the gun he held in Raith’s face. “Normally, you don’t keep your finger on the trigger, but I hate this fucker so if you happen to slip your finger, no harm, no foul.”

Raith’s eye’s widened. “She doesn’t—”

“Careful, Raith,” Gabe warned. “She doesn’t know what she’s doing. If you flinch, she might accidentally put the bullet between your eyes. A death even you wouldn’t be able to escape.”

He patted Katelyn on the shoulder causing Raith to gasp. Gabe chuckled to himself while grabbing the chains in the trunk of the car. Alex insisted on them, and until now, Gabe thought it was stupid.

He wrapped the chains first around Raith’s ankles and moved up his legs. Gabe knew he didn’t have wings, so he wouldn’t be able to fly away. Gabe hooked Raith’s wrists into the bindings and patted him down for any weapons or anything else.

As expected, he didn’t carry anything. Raith was more of a silver-tongued son of a b***h and he brought out the worst in Gabe. It was because of the things Raith convinced others to do that pit humans against one another. Caused them to hurt and kill one another.

For fun.

Raith was scum and it made sense for him to have involvement in something like some sort of magical drug s**t. Gabe tossed Raith into the trunk of the car. “You know a witch named Scout?”

Raith swallowed. “Ye—”

Gabe slammed the trunk shut. “Thought so.”

“Is he the guy?” Katelyn asked.

Gabe took the gun from her hand and put the safety back on. She did really well under pressure. Held it steady. Like she was born to do it. “Yeah. The second I saw him I knew it. He’s going to give us what we need.”

She nodded staring at the trunk for a minute. “You said you were going to teach me how to use a gun. You only gave me one lesson and I didn’t even touch it.”

No. She wasn’t going to touch it until lesson thirty, but maybe she would be okay. Gabe just needed to not freak out so much. “Guess you’re more ready than I am.”

She smiled and nibbled on her lower lip. “You called me sweetheart.”

Fuck yes he did and it felt almost natural. “Is…is that okay?”

She didn’t even respond to him. “Come on, Phoenix. We’re gonna get you a treat.”

Phoenix followed her to the car as she opened the seat up for him to get in. 

The screaming and thrashing in the trunk brought Gabe back to reality—away from thoughts about that blonde beauty that just held a loaded gun to a fae’s face and did everything exactly as she should. Her finger didn’t even twitch.

She was calm under pressure.

She listened.

She followed instructions.

Gabe took one last look around at the other fae in the area. They were all watching the scene unfold. Raith was going to tell him all about the why and how fairies were hiding out here and how the hell no one had noticed. Also, how they even ended up getting through to this place at all.