Angels and Misfits Part Two

Chapter 2

Gabe

Lou was testing his f*****g patience. 

Never wanted to meet in person, but was more than happy to give a time and place so Gabe could look for whatever message he had in some random object like this was a Cold War spy thriller. 

Lou once made him dig through a garbage can for this s**t just to get a note out of a soda can.

Every other situation they’ve talked to him about, Lou was happy to discuss over the phone. But finding Katelyn’s mother’s dealer? Apparently it needed to be more complicated and exciting for Lou. Like a f*****g treasure hunt. Really, he felt like one of those rats in a cheese maze and the walls kept changing around him.

The next time Gabe ever saw him, he’d make sure Lou got complicated and exciting in the form of an ass beat down. 

Phoenix and Katelyn waited in the car—Alex’s mustang—while Gabe sat on a park bench feeling around for whatever. His fingers ran into three chewed gum pieces that didn’t make it to the trash can two feet away, probably food leftovers and something else he didn’t want to think about. Park benches were officially on his list of places he would never take Katelyn. Ever. Or parks in general, if he could avoid them.

Lou had officially ruined public parks for Gabe. 

The miniature note was plastered under the fourth piece of chewing gum and Gabe promised himself he’d be the one to murder Lou one day. Maybe just for the hell of it. The pun didn’t even spark the slightest twitch of his lips. That was how bad this whole thing was.

The note had a name. Always a f*****g name. Nothing more, nothing less. 

Each name Gabe got would take a week to even find the person. By the time he showed up to wherever they were, they were always dead. Overdosing on the same stuff Katelyn’s mom may have had. Like Lou was sending him to find the dead bodies rather than answers.

If this stuff was killing demons, rogues, vampires, even a few sorcerers, that meant it was far too dangerous to the humans. Thing is, this was subtly getting out of hand, and Gabe feared this stuff was spreading and exchanging too many hands already. Too many of the wrong hands.

He turned over the tiny gum wrapper and this time, there was a number on the shiny side of it. It wasn’t a phone number, but it was something and he hoped it would help him get there faster.

He snapped a picture of the name and number and sent it to Ace over at Diamond Sky. He was helping in his free time locate the people. Hopefully he would know what the number was or be able to figure it out.

Opening the door of the car, he slid in and took in the sweet smell of Katelyn and…Phoenix. Not too long ago, the hound hated his guts but Gabe knew he was growing on the mutt.

This s**t was taking too long to figure out. Gabe knew he couldn’t possibly ask anything of Katelyn before figuring out who took her mother and put her back onto this path. Someone had to be watching. Someone had to know her mother’s struggle.

Even after he found the person responsible, Katelyn would probably grieve all over again. Her grieving over her mother wasn’t as long as it was when Kellan died, but Gabe had a feeling she finally had the right support system. 

And he took majority of the credit. Nora could take a slice, but Gabe was claiming the rest of it.

After that, Gabe would have to make the decision. He wasn’t stupid. All this talk about “price” and “punishments” and whatnot over every little change in the universe wasn’t lost on him. On top of that, an angel and human relationship may not be strictly forbidden, but the line still stood. 

They don’t want another Nephilim roaming the Earth.

Nora was too powerful, uncontrollable.

Gabe refused to earn Katelyn a spot in the pit like Nora’s parents, and knew he was going to have to sacrifice something to be with her.

Gabe would have to become human, and give up his immortality.

Not a big deal, and he figured he would have to. But it hit him harder each day this search dragged on knowing there would be a timer hanging overhead. Sixty, maybe seventy years. That was the most they could expect together.

They’d spend it doing everything possible. Every country, every historical place, every naturally beautiful thing in this world, he was mapping it out for her.

Alex wanted Gabe close by, but he’d understand the sacrifice.

Their father, however, wouldn’t.

Michael loved Nora, and was fond of Katelyn, but would never agree to Gabe giving up his own nature. He attempted several times to give Gabe his wings back, but Gabe refused. His father kept him on a tight leash most of his life, and the wings felt more like chains tying him to that life. Locked up inside his room, tinkering with weapons and instruments just to pass time in eternity.

That was the real hell.

“Another name?” Katelyn asked, slipping her hand toward his. She winced when Gabe tore his hand away.

“Sorry, yeah.” He wiped his hand on his black jeans. “Had my hands in some nasty stuff over there, don’t want to get your hands dirty.”

Well, not her hands, but unholy f**k when he became human…

Dirty didn’t begin to explain how many things he’d fantasized about for almost three f*****g years now.

Soon…

“Oh,” she breathed out. “Well, what’s the name?”

“Trent Trout.”

Katelyn snorted. It was adorable. “Trent…Trout. Are you serious?”

Maybe it was the four piece of chewing gum he had to string out in pieces while people walked by staring. Maybe it was the fact that Lou couldn’t just text or call a damn name, but even he didn’t see the stupidity in the name. “Hopefully it isn’t that common of a name.”

Phoenix and his big ass self shifted on the back seat. 

“Nora called, they’re on their way home,” Katelyn said. “They didn’t get any answers and supposedly one of them took a swing at Evander.”

Gabe scoffed, turning over the engine. “Those kids are more dangerous than any science project they come in contact with. They’ll be better off learning as they grow. See that their parents are the real heroes.”

“True.”

“Let’s take the long way back. I still owe you dinner for finishing school.”

She smiled, “Where to, then?”

“There’s this pizza place Alex used to work at. You want to check it out? It’s actually pretty decent.”

“I love pizza.”

I love you more than I love the sound of a perfectly composed piano melody. “Alright, cool.” The drive would take them about two days to get back home, and he wasn’t going to rush this. Take his time. For her.

Instantly his phone went off and Katelyn read it for him. 

“Ace says it’s a zip code. He’s pulling an address for that name. There aren’t any phone records for the name and it may be a fake name.”

Great. They were moving onto fake names now. No one would in their right mind name their kid that…he hoped.

***

They couldn’t take Phoenix inside with them, so Gabe brought food to the car. Alex could keep up his Domestic Dan routine and get whatever mess Phoenix left behind eating.

Gabe couldn’t quite eat in a park anymore.

And Phoenix wasn’t very easy to take in public. People tried to touch him and he wasn’t exactly a friendly dog. He stuck to his own tribe. 

Not a pack.

Because they’re not f*****g werewolves.

Phoenix had a tribe, not a pack, and he was selective about who he allowed within reach.

Thus, because Alex failed to make his dog friendly in general, he would clean whatever food stains Phoenix left behind.

Gabe’s phone went off again while he and Katelyn shared a piece of some weird goat cheese thing Alex created while at this place. 

Yes, shared.

Because love.

Gabe sighed, checking his phone. He never missed the irony of befriending a partial demon.

Ace: Chicago. Sending you the details.

That’s easily a twelve-hour drive. “Kate, you good for a trip to Chicago?”

“Can we stop on the way? I can’t sleep in the car and I need a shower.”

Fuck yes. “Sure, if that’s what you want.”

Trent Trout better not f*****g die before they get there tomorrow, because if she was willing to lay beside him and sleep while he pretended not to watch her, he wasn’t passing that s**t up for a second.