Renegade (Heven and Hell #4)(5)
Author: Cambria Hebert

He walked out of the room without looking back. As he went, the daggers he’d managed to lodge into the wall fell to the floor with a clattering sound. I shifted my gaze to the mess on the floor from the broken chair, the ashes that had drifted from the fireplace, and the blood-red rug that was torn.

“Jeeves!” I yelled, wincing at the pain in my back. Something was definitely broken. I healed fast, but this felt pretty bad.

A short demon wearing a black suit with a black bowtie came into the room. “Sir?”

“Clean this mess up!” I barked.

He surveyed the room silently. His scarred features, from when I melted off half his face with a torch, didn’t change. Then he looked back at me, noted my condition, and hesitated.

I growled, low and mean, and then forced myself to my feet. “If you think a broken back will keep me from torturing you, you got another thing coming.”

“Yes, sir.” The demon I called Jeeves began cleaning the room. I half drug myself to the bed, where I managed to lie down and close my eyes. I wondered how long it would take to heal.

Chapter Three

Heven

“Your father met your mother when they were very young. They were just a little bit older than you are now,” Gran said. Cole straightened at the mention of our father, the father who he didn’t even know about until a couple months ago. In the chair right beside him, Kimber listened aptly, probably glad that for once she was being told the secrets the same time as everyone else. Gemma was standing next to the coffee pot, trying not to watch Cole… or his ex, who he was practically attached at the hip with since we pulled her out of hell.

“Yes, I know,” I said, fidgeting in my chair. “Mom told me that.”

“Did she tell you how they met, exactly?”

“Well, no.” Where is she going with this?

“Your grandpa introduced them,” Gran said with a faraway look in her eye. Her aura bloomed with the color of love (pink) at just the mention of her deceased husband. But beneath the pink were some muddy colors that indicated whatever she was about to spill wasn’t going to make me very happy. I was about to urge Gran to get on with it when she spoke again. “Your grandpa was a Supernal Being just like your father and just like Cole.”

“I figured as much,” I said, wondering why it was such a big deal.

“He knew he was a Supernal Being. We all knew it. We knew because an angel came to him, much like Airis came to you. He was asked to carry out certain acts here on Earth. I never knew exactly the things he did. He never told me and I never asked. What he was doing was very important, but it was dangerous and he never wanted to give anyone cause to come after his family for information. But there was this one night… we were on the cusp of a blizzard, the worst Maine had seen in years. The skies were heavy and gray and the air was so frigid it practically shimmered with ice. He was running late and I was worrying he wouldn’t make it home before the snow started. Your father was about to go out and look for him when he showed up.”

The coffee maker beeped and I watched as Gemma pulled down some mugs and started pouring the dark, steaming liquid into the cups.

“He had someone with him. A girl. She was dressed all in black, with heavy makeup and wild hair that fell around her shoulders. She came around the side of the car, looking tough as nails, but when she stepped through that door…” Gran pointed at the door in the kitchen and smiled. “She wasn’t nearly as tough as she wanted us to believe.”

Gemma handed me a mug and I breathed in the strong scent of the brew.

“Your grandpa had found her somewhere, I have no idea where. She’d gotten into some trouble and had nowhere to go. With the blizzard coming there was no time to find her somewhere to stay so he brought her home.” Gran smiled and the pink in her aura brightened. “He told me later he knew I always wanted a daughter so he got me one.”

Cole cleared his throat as Gemma added like half a ton of sugar into a mug, adding a dash of cream, and then handed it to him. He looked at her intently when he reached for the cup. I noticed she tried to avoid his stare but wasn’t exactly successful. Then, Gemma turned away to hand a coffee cup to Kimber who immediately wrinkled her nose. “I don’t drink black coffee.”

Gemma made a face and set the mug at her elbow.

“What does this have to do with my mom?” I tried to ignore the cat fight brewing between Kimber and Gemma.

“The girl was your mother,” Gran said, getting up to get some caramel-flavored creamer out of the fridge and hand it to Kimber. Kimber gave Gran a genuine smile and poured some in her mug. Then she slid it across the table to me. I added some to my cup, then about half the bottle to Sam’s.

“She stayed with us for a week, during the blizzard, and then your father drove her home.”

“I thought she didn’t grow up in this town?” I said, confused.

“No, she didn’t. She lived a few towns over. I don’t know how she got where she did. She and your father got very close while she was here. I think it was love at first sight. I could tell she was nervous about going home, but she went. Then a few weeks later she showed up at the door with a pregnancy test in her hand.”

I glanced at Cole. He looked away.

“We didn’t know your mother was also pregnant, Cole,” Gran said. “Jason dated Cole’s mother for quite a while before Madeline came here. I don’t think he wanted to hurt anyone.”

“But he did,” Cole said, no doubt thinking of his mother.

“Madeline’s parents kicked her out when she told them she was pregnant. She was alone and she was a very fearful girl. She was always looking over her shoulder and she was naturally afraid to be pregnant. Jason felt very protective of her, of you,” she said, looking at me. “Your grandfather seemed to feel the same way. So Madeline moved in. As soon as she and Jason graduated, they got married and then that fall, she had you.”

“And he dumped my mother,” Cole muttered, looking into his mug.

Gran turned toward him. “Yes, Jason chose to live his life with Heven’s mother. He wanted a relationship with you. I used to hear him on the phone with your mother, begging her to let him see you. She was very hurt and she refused. I don’t blame her.”

“He never tried to see me when I got older,” Cole retorted.

“No, he didn’t. Because on Heven’s first birthday everything changed.”

“What happened on my birthday?” I asked, a chill finding its way up my spine. Not even the warm mug of coffee could ward it away.