Love Bites Then it Sucks by Julie Steimle (best self help books to read .TXT) 📕

Matthew frowned. “Then how come I saw you downtown not too long ago?”

Shrugging, I said, “I was leaving a meeting of death angels at the time. I was taking a detour… looking for help, to be honest.”

He glanced to Officer Johnson, nodding. “Ok. She can help us here then.”

But a thought came to me. “I can recommend a reaper that might help you. Just don’t let him know that Rick Deacon is your friend. He takes personal offense to that as a pack of werewolves had killed him once-upon-a-time while he was hunting Rick on a full moon.”

Their eyes widened on me.

I just shrugged and blinked back. “His territory is just to east of mine. He’s an old SRA hunter.”

Matthew closed his eyes, shaking his head. “An old SRA hunter? I don’t know about that. He would probably know me already.”

“Why?” I stared. How much did Matthew get around anyway?

Shrugging sheepishly, Matthew replied, “If he is the hunter who got killed in Alabama—”

“Yeah, that’s him.” I nodded, pointing to Matthew.

Matthew groaned. “Man…” He looked to Officer Johnson, “We can’t catch a break. Eve, that guy has been hunting Rick since he was at Gulinger. He knows me. We’ve thwarted him twice already from shooting Rick. He won’t help us.”

“He might, though,” I said, folding my arms. “Think about it. An ex-SRA hunter obsessed about killing ‘monsters’—if you tell him there are supernatural murders in New York City and that Gollum-jabberwocky is possibly helping them—”

Matthew mouthed ‘Gollum-jabberwocky’ to Officer Johnson who gave it a considering nod as that was the best description as to what he was like.

“—then I am sure he would take your side as someone who ‘righteously’ believes that supernatural things should not mess with humans.” I shook my head. “He might even involve Asahel and get Gollum-wocky out of the territory.”

“Who’s Asahel?” Officer Johnson asked, genuinely curious. I wondered how many angels he had seen already.

Nodding to him, I said, “A gray angel—a supervising angel over this region. He’s the one who dragged me into this situation. Following orders, he says. And he hates me. But I think he hates any demon who has become a death angel.”

Matthew shot Officer Johnson a look to confirm what I was saying. But Officer Johnson himself listened as if he was learning something new about death angels.

“But he hates rule breakers more,” I added. Then I looked around. “I don’t think they would be too happy with me talking to you.”

“You mean talking to him.” Officer Johnson gestured to Matthew. “You can talk to me all you want. I’ve known a few reapers who like to say stuff to me—though it creeps me out.”

“Sorry.” I ducked my head.

But he chuckled and smiled at me, his blue eyes shining sheepishly. “No. Don’t be sorry. I didn’t understand. You’ve just opened my eyes. I’ve been standing so close to death all the time, I was just reacting as any human who wants to live would. I guess I felt threatened.”

Yet I shook my head. “No. You have every right to feel the way you do. When I saw death angels before knowing what they were—before I became one—they creeped me out too.”

Officer Johnson continued to chuckle, shaking his head more. But then he said to me with a thoughtful glance, “You asked about my second cousin, Deidre earlier. I wasn’t entirely honest with you. I knew my dad’s cousin had gone nuts. According to my dad, he went totally off the reservation when his wife had died. I mean the guy was an accomplished engineer and he just dropped everything and left his home without contacting his landlord. As his nearest relatives, we were contacted when he defaulted on his payments. We had always assumed that Deidre had been put into foster care, you know, abandoned also. Dad tried to find her, but he could not get a lead. Dad tracked him for a while, but his cousin never kept an address for very long. And, worse, we had no idea she could see ghosts also—though to be fair, our grandfather was a ghost whisperer. It runs in the family.”

I drew in a breath. Deidre had not told me anything of this. She had hardly said anything about Joshua except that she knew he could see ghosts the same as her.

“When her father came to us and told us she ran away, we investigated mostly make sure she was ok, but she left no tracks. The man was furious rather than concerned,” Officer Johnson said with an embarrassed shrug.

I felt sick in my stomach. How was Deidre? Was she ok? Or had she run into trouble? I looked to the cop pointedly and said, “You have to find her, Officer Johnson.”

Matthew exchanged a look with the police officer who was his friend.

The policeman nodded with a chuckle. “Ok—but Officer Johnson is my father. Call me Joshua or JJ if you will.”

I smiled. “Ok, JJ.”

Matthew cleared his throat, lifting a finger. “Uh, Eve?”

I looked to him, seeing his imps shouting for him to just blurt out his suggestion, but he was being cautious.

“Um, I was wondering… Considering your situation—this business with JJ’s cousin aside—I was thinking about your fiancée, Hanz,” he said. “And what he must be, uh, going through right now.”

I nodded, urging him on. Hanz had to be out of his mind. But there was nothing I could do except wait for him to find me.

“The thing is, I was wondering if it is actually is a good idea to let Hanz know where you are,” Matthew said. He was nearly sweating. “Considering your condition right now… Uh, is it so wise?”

Color washed from my face. My condition? I glanced at all my bloody wounds. Hanz would freak out if he saw me. I put my hands over my mouth, drawing in a breath. My eyes on Matthew, I said, “You didn’t tell him yet, did you?”

Matthew slowly shook his head. “I called Rick, though. And he and I discussed it. He told his friend Andrew, but uh, we didn’t think it was a good idea to let your fiancée know where you are right now. We don’t know how to reverse your condition yet, and Hanz…” Matthew closed his eyes. “Logic kind of goes out the window when the one you love is… well, taken from you. And he seems the kind of guy who would sacrifice everything to be with the one he loves.”

I knew that was true the moment Matthew said it. Hanz was a sensible sort of man, but he also was self-sacrificing and would give up more than his coat for someone suffering—especially if it was someone he loved. I knew he had already sacrificed a lot to be with me. Not his medical school studies—because I would not let him—but he gave up a family with children to be with me. I knew he wanted to be a father. He admired his own father so much, and he loved kids. But we would never have any. He also gave up his dream to join with Doctors Without Borders to be with me. He had wanted to travel and help the poor of the world. But the moment the organization found out that he was connected to a demon, they refused to even consider him for the program—even though he was not even yet meeting their other requirements.

“It may be that this separation will actually be good for Hanz,” Matthew added with a cringe. “Maybe he’ll focus on his medical career more. He’ll save lives.”

I didn’t want to hear that. But it was probably true. I never really felt worthy of him. That was the main reason I had not accepted Hanz’s proposals for so long.

I nodded.

“You make this guy sound like a saint,” JJ murmured, amazed.

Matthew nodded, mouthing, “He is.”

“Hanz isn’t perfect,” I said with a sad chuckle. “But he’s the most amazing guy I have ever met.”

“And none of us can compare,” Matthew mouthed behind my back. I could hear him though. It wasn’t like he could hide it from me. His imps were shouting all sorts of jealous things that would embarrass me. I knew Matthew had also crushed on me like Rick had—which I had always found weird as most guys growing up called me ‘monster’, ‘freaky’, and ‘it’. But to be frank, I was in love with Hanz—and that was all that mattered to me.

Chapter Ten

The Gollum-wocky did not return to my area, assuming that the cop was quite dead, but his lackeys came in and out just to mock me. That is, until I got up to speed. Then I chased them out of my territory.

Getting ‘up to speed’ was like relearning what it was like to go from material to immaterial while using my imp skills. It was another level or plane of existence. And all it took was to let go of physicality. I had to stop thinking like a piece of solid matter and think more like elemental electricity. I know, that makes no sense. But after a while, when watching those jerk angels move faster than my imp reflexes, I remembered that all energy is matter and all matter is energy. Basic physics. Matter and energy are just in different states of excitement. Hanz used to say that spirit is also matter, just more refined. So, applying that logic, I reasoned that if I were not alive but in a step beyond even imp immaterialism, then I had to be in a state of spirit that was still solid matter that could transition. Thus, I just had to excite the particles within and voila! I could fly fast as lightning.

Ok, so it wasn’t that easy. It took practice. But being half imp and having used those skills since I was fourteen, I understood the principle of it, and it was easier to apply than I had thought previously.

That said, it also gave me mobility around the city—meaning, I was able to leave my territory and return to it fast if needed. And I used it to help Matthew and JJ.

You see, the murder case they were on was particularly ‘sticky’. It involved members of the Unseelie Court—a group of supernatural beings of elvish and demon nature whom I (as part imp) would have been an unofficial member of except for the fact that even the Unseelie Court was terrified of me. I knew a bit about them, though Matthew seemed to know more. During the course of my contact with him as they investigated the suspects to the murders, he revealed to me that he had once been kidnapped by the Unseelie Court when he was in high school while with his friend Tom Brown who apparently got regularly abducted by the Unseelie Court every Halloween since that time. I had met Tom Brown once. Half-imp like me, he understood the dangers of the unseen world, and he was also helping on the case.

Tom wandered into my territory one afternoon, seeking me out. I found him lingering near the hotdog vendor, debating with the man about the sanitary conditions of the hotdog water. He was mostly teasing the guy as his imps were also urging Tom to scoop up