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

she snatched a look at Tom and Piranha who were casting me a smirk while giving the other death angels a wide berth. Matthew only saw me, looking around to see whom I was talking to. JJ was urging him to just get their newly arrested ‘monsters’ out of our way. The guardian shot JJ an especially tiring look. Then she looked to me again, realizing exactly who had invited me. “An invitation from mortal cops does not count!”

“Says you,” I snapped back, folding my arms. “As far as I am concerned, I am their guardian angel. And if they want help, I’m giving it.”

JJ, Matthew and the rest smothered smirks and quickly ushered their captives downstairs. Piranha called out to the two captive ladies. “It’s safe now. You can come with us.”

Deidre nodded, eyeing me while coming out of her hiding spot.

The guardian also saw that. Her eyes widened when I nodded back to Deidre.

“You know her as well?” The guardian gasped.

Gollum-wocky narrowly eyed me, breathing hard as he struggled to restrain himself in the presence of this guardian.

I nodded. “We’re friends. I met her in high school. My junior year.” Then a thought occurred to me and I shouted down the stairwell, “Hey JJ!”

“What?” he called back, a little tremble in his voice.

“Your cousin’s here!” I called down.

Deidre’s eyes widened on me.

I gestured down the stairs for her. “He’s the tall dark-haired cop.”

Nodding Deidre grabbed the other gal’s hand and rushed together with her to get to the bottom floor. Piranha shot me a puzzled look before following them.

It was just us death angels now.

Gollum-wocky turned to go.

“I’m reporting you,” the bag lady said.

I smirked.

“Both.” She shot me a dirty look.

With an eye-roll, I shrugged it off. I didn’t care. I didn’t want to be a reaper. I wanted to be back home with Hanz, getting married. Besides, I had just saved Deidre’s life, and the life of some other girl. If could not have my old life, I wanted to still help my friends.

Gollum-wocky shot through the roof, getting out fast. I sank down through the floor.

Bag lady huffed loudly. “You two! Blasted demons!”

I landed on the first floor where the surviving thugs of whatever-that-gang-was were being handcuffed and led off. Deidre was hugging JJ, both with tears in their eyes. But Matthew was staring at the other gal. He glanced once at me then said to her, “Tricia Garland.”

The waif-y chick with the almost horror-movie look stared back at him, genuinely startled. But she shook her head. “That’s my sister. I came to New York to find her.”

“She’s in prison,” Matthew said darkly. I could see he knew more about this girl than I did.

Tom also turned and so did JJ. All three recognized something in this woman—something they did not like. Matthew said to me, “She’s from Middleton Village. A witch.”

I looked to her, drawing in a breath.

“Who are you talking to?” the Middleton Village witch said, looking around the space where I stood.

I walked around her. Her imps (now that a few had established around her) were a little naughtier than normal. One had curving horns. Another looked brutishly large. Whoever she was, she wasn’t exactly a good person. However, one could not just arrest a person on their imps. In fact, it would be impossible.

“Was she helping them?” I asked Deidre.

Deidre shook her head. “No. But they were using her, though. I don’t think she’s lying about her story.”

“Who are you talking to?” that witch asked again, growing agitated.

“We arrested Tricia Garland on charges of murder,” Matthew said to both of us. “Along with Danna Groves and Marta Lindon, whom we have on lesser charges.”

I stared. I remembered Danna. She was one of the witches who had come to California and kidnapped me. She dressed like a Hooker Barbie—in all pink pleather usually with tall plastic clogs on her feet. She was a dangerously skilled witch. Marta’s name was also familiar but I could not recall a face. But this girl, I didn’t know her at all. Yet then, I only knew a few Middleton Village witches, and the name Garland was not one I was made to know. I had only been with a few witches during my brief captivity.

The witch paled upon hearing this news, though I could tell she knew some of these details already. She moaned. “Come on, I wasn’t involved.”

Matthew cast her a solidly dirty look. “Does it matter? You’re not still after Silvia Lewis, are you?”

The witch paled even more. Apparently she was.  

I remembered Silvia. “Silvia Lewis? Jessica’s friend? Daniel’s sister?” I asked. She was quirky, had the smell of someone who had once been involved in witchcraft (which she had), but I could tell from her imps that she was sincerely seeking a better life.

Matthew and the others nodded to me. Of course they knew I knew her. Silvia was one of Jessica’s bridesmaids. Nearly all of us were at the wedding. Jessica’s other bridesmaid, besides me, was some gal who was unable to come to the wedding but was in Africa. Audry Something. Silvia was teasing Rick about her, I think.

That witch looked towards me again, not seeing me. “WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO?”

Tom smirked at her and said, leaning near. “Eve McAllister.”

The witch paled, jerking back from where I stood—or the space where she assumed I stood—her eyes wide with horror. She was a little off. But clearly she knew about me.

Deidre looked surprised. She looked to the witch. “You know Eve?”

“You know her?” The witch went pale.

Deidre nodded, rolling her eyes. “Yeah. I met her in high school. When did you meet her?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know her personally. But if she is a Middleton Village witch—”

“Look,” the witch said, coloring and stepping further away from where I stood. “It was a long time ago. The coven… A vimp is supposed to…”

I moaned, hanging my shoulders. “Kill the Holy Seven. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s why they kidnapped me my sophomore year.”

“They kidnapped you?” Deidre stared at me, then back at the witch—the only one who could not see me except for the other cops.

Cringing, the Middleton Village witch nodded. She eyed the space I was in. “It wasn’t my idea. It was…”

“Probably ‘Aunt Margaret’s idea,” I muttered. But then I felt something in the air change. It was like a cold wind washed by. Someone was coming. Possibly Asahel.

“Who’s Aunt Margaret?” Matthew asked.

The witch paled even more.

“I think I need to go….” I muttered, inching away from the door. I looked to the ceiling, preparing to launch through it.

Tom nodded to me, probably feeling the same thing I was, though also JJ and Deidre nodded. That’s when I realized I was feeling the cold of ghosts fleeing reapers. They had visible goosebumps.

I saluted Matthew and the other. “Until next time.”

“Thanks a heap,” JJ said, nodding to me.

I pushed off the ground and launched through the ceiling. When I reached the roof, I was waylaid by that Sariel and another death angel I did not know well. Both of them grabbed my arms.

“Hey!”

“You are out of bounds,” Sariel said, his eyes glimmering with almost vindictive enjoyment.

“Yeah?” I jerked back, but was unable to get out of their grasps. “Well that Gollum-wocky has been sending in jerks to my hospital for the past two weeks, so I figured turnabout was fair play.”

The other death angel choked on my description of Gollum-wocky. But Sariel said with a deadpan voice, “That is no excuse. We are to take you to Asahel for punishment.”

I was about to retort, demanding to know what kind of punishment they had in mind—until I realized many of these folk were from more medieval eras where quite possibly they believed in torture. I was still alive, after all. Who knew what they could do to me?

With an effortless heave, they launched into the air, ripping me out of there and into the sky.

Naughty You

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Eleven

 

 

I was in trouble.

But this entire situation was trouble. I wasn’t happy being a reaper, but I was happy about helping Deidre, and Tom, and Matthew, and all the others who really needed an extra hand. What I had done was needed. And damn Asahel if he hated that I had broken the rules to do it. That Gollum-wocky deserved to be stopped.

The two death angels deposited me on the top of the Chrysler building where Asahel waited. He stared at me with those intense eyes, saying nothing. Not far from him was that bag lady who huffed to herself then dropped off the edge on her newspaper wings.

“You left your area,” Asahel said.

I raised my chin, huffing. “Yes, I did.”

His lips thinned. “You attacked Armârôs in his own territory.”

I huffed again. “Of course I did. He was aiding other demons in criminal activities and was keeping a friend of mine and a witch captive.”

A grumble escaped his throat. His gaze on me continued to darken. “You killed someone not marked for death.”

In that, I paled, wondering whom I had killed. Then I recalled that little blue demon. “The boogieman? Admittedly, I did that without thinking, but the stinking little thing was—”

“SILENCE!” Asahel was white with fury.

The other two angels backed away, hovering in the air.

I lowered my gaze. I did feel a little ashamed—though not that much. The malignancy from that tiny blue boogieman had been so palpable it was natural for me to want to get rid of it, and I knew that it must have eaten tons of imps in its lifetime. Instinctively, I felt it was a natural born enemy. And of course Tom had commissioned me to get rid of it. Tom just never said it in words. He needed to get in, and that little blue monster was stopping him. I could have just gotten rid of it and left, had not that Gollum-wocky interfered. But of course, someone had to deal with that Gollum-wocky also. Tom would have been able to see Gollum-wocky, and so would have JJ and Deidre. They would have been witness enough for the crimes of that death angel—though clearly a mortal court could do nothing against him.

On that thought, I asked, “What about that big Gollum who—?”

“I said silence!” Asahel snapped. His hands were shaking now. I could see he was holding back all his fury at me. “You have violated all the rules since you have arrived.”

I averted my eyes again, but did not feel guilty. I still believed I had done the right thing.

“You will be restricted to your territory—”

“So what’s new?” I muttered under my breath.

“—until judgement by angelic council will be made upon you.” Asahel looked like he would sprout fangs and spit upon me.”

“And what about Gollum-face?” I shot back. “He was helping some—”

“Silence, I said!” Asahel drew out a sword, pointing it right at my chest.

I took a step back from that sharp point. I had a feeling that sword would easily end my present existence and possibly even my soul. Raising my hands, I tried to show I was not going to fight him.

“You will not speak to any mortals!” Asahel ordered.

With a dry look, I was about to ask, ‘What if they spoke to me?’ but I didn’t say it. He appeared likely