Fallen: Angels in the Dark Read Online Free Page B

light in the room came from a refrigerator being opened when somebody pulled out a beer. It was stuffy and hot, and something in the corner smelled rotten.
    Daniel didn’t know why he’d come, what he was doing there, and it made him ache for Luce. He could fly away from here and go to her right now! The time they spent together was the only time in Daniel’s whole existence when anything made sense.
    Until Luce went out in a flash and everything went dark.
    He kept forgetting his promise. To stay away this time. To let her live.
    In the dark, disgusting living room, Daniel took a hard look at life without her, and he shuddered. If he’d had a way out, he would have taken it. But he didn’t.
    “This sucks.” Shelby was standing at his side. She was shouting over the harsh, discordant music, and still Daniel could only read her lips. She jerked her head toward the back door. Daniel nodded, following her.
    The backyard was small and fenced in, with scorched grass and patches of sandy dirt. They took a seat on the small cement ledge and Shelby cracked open a beer.
    “Sorry I dragged you all the way out here for this shit show,” she said, taking a swig, thenpassing the warm can to Daniel.
    “You hang out with this crowd often?”
    “First and last time,” she said. “My mom and I, we move around a lot, so I don’t really get to hang out with any crowd for too long.”
    “Good,” Daniel said. “I mean, I don’t think this is the kind of crowd you should be spending your time with. What are you, fourteen?”
    Shelby snorted. “Um, thanks for the unsolicited advice, Dad, but I can look out for myself. Years of practice.”
    Daniel put down the beer can and looked up at the sky. One reason he liked L.A. was that you could never really see the stars. Tonight, though, he missed them.
    “What about your parents?” he finally asked.
    “Mom means well, she just works all the time. Or, all the time she’s not in between jobs. She has a special talent for getting herself fired. So we keep moving and she keeps promising that one day things are going to get ‘stable’ for us. I’ve had some problems, you know, adjusting. It’s kind of a long story.…”
    Shelby trailed off, like she thought she’d already said too much. The way she was avoiding his gaze made Daniel realize that she did know at least a little bit about her lineage.
    “But Mom thinks she’s got the solution,” she went on, shaking her head. “She’s got this fancy school all picked out and everything. Talk about a pipe dream.”
    “And your dad?”
    “Skipped town before I was born. Real classy guy, huh?”
    “He used to be,” Daniel said softly.
    “What?”
    Then—Daniel didn’t know why—he reached out and took Shelby’s hand. He didn’t even know her, but he felt an urge to protect her. She was Sem’s daughter, which made her strangely almost like Daniel’s niece. She looked surprised when his fingers clasped hers, but she didn’t pull away.
    Daniel wanted to take her away from here. This was no place for a girl like Shelby. But at the same time, he knew it wasn’t just this party or this town that was the problem. It was Shelby’s whole life. She was totally screwed up. Because of Sem.
    Just as Luce’s lives had been screwed up because of Daniel.
    He swallowed hard and suppressed a fierce new urge to go to Luce. He didn’t belong here in this fenced-in yard. On this hot night, at this stupid party, with nothing to look forward to for the rest of eternity.
    Now Shelby squeezed his hand. When he met her eyes, they looked different. Bigger. Softer. They looked like—
    Uh-oh.
    He pulled away and stood up quickly. Shelby thought he’d been making a move.
    “Where are you going?” she said. “Did—did I do something wrong?”
    “No.” He sighed. “I did.”
    He wanted to clear things up, but he didn’t know how. His eyes fixed on the busted screen door, where a dark shadow wobbled slightly in the stiff, hot wind.
    An