::

C h a p t e r   2

A nine year old little girl was going to solve all of Val's problems. Well, all of her problems were really only one, extremely large problem. But the important thing was, after two months stuck in the earthly realm, she'd finally found somebody to help her.

Two months. She could hardly believe it. Working as a maid at the Paradise Inn, which included, as she'd predicted, cleaning rooms and making beds. Also, cleaning toilets, which was just absolutely disgusting. Not the work for an angel, that's for sure. Not that she could entirely remember what she had and hadn't done as an angel so clearly anymore. Details were still fuzzier than she'd like them to be. But she knew that it beat being human any day of the week.

So that's what she'd done. Worked as a maid. Tried to be friendly to people she met and not give away what she truly was in case they'd think her insane. Tried to cope the best she could with her situation.

She also tried to do as many good deeds as she could. The golden scroll had said that that was a good way to get back on Heaven's good side. Even though she was positive she hadn't done anything worth getting thrown out for and this was all a huge mix-up, she wasn't taking any chances. She helped little old ladies cross the street, she returned stray dogs to their homes, she picked up trash from the sidewalks. Whether these were considered good deeds, or just being helpful, she wasn't sure.

But she'd soon find out. Because tomorrow was the day she'd fix everything.

The nine year old girl who was the answer to Val's problems was actually a psychic, and through hard work and a good chunk of luck, Val had an appointment with her. Tomorrow. She'd channel somebody Up There and find out what went wrong and how to fix things as soon as possible. Two months was more than enough time for her to decide, most definitely, that while there were certain elements to being a human that weren't entirely distasteful-although she'd be hard pressed to give any examples at present-it was not something she wanted to be for any extended amount of time.

She'd been extremely lucky, too. Two months and she hadn't run into any of those alleged Tempter Demons the golden scroll had so adamantly warned her about. She'd kept a vigilant watch, too. Most nights losing a ton of sleep shivering and shaking, waiting for some nasty demon to pounce on her and carry her off to Hell. But nothing happened. No pouncing. She figured the seeming lack of interest in the demon community proved her situation was all an unfortunate error. She must have been off demon radar. And that was just fine by her.

Val sneezed and wiped her nose on her sleeve as she walked along the darkened street. Bad head cold. Her first one. At first she'd panicked, thinking it would kill her, but then remembered that colds were mostly harmless-just incredibly annoying. She was on her way back to the Paradise Inn after a midnight drugstore run in the chill of early December. She needed NyQuil. It was nice to have a goal that was easy to accomplish. Plus it was on sale. Buy two get one free. She'd bought ten just in case.

How did she get the cold in the first place? From a good deed gone bad. Attempting to save a jumper from throwing himself over the Falls only resulted in getting her wet. And being wet in below zero temperature was a sure-fire way of getting majorly sick.

She learned something new about being human every day.

The falling snow stung her face and she gathered her thin, hooded sweatshirt closer. A pathetic sight to say the least. The self pity she felt was almost palpable and completely uncontrollable. She stopped walking for a moment and pulled out a notebook from the pocket of her hoody and opened it up.

The only snow in Heaven is on the Heavenly Slopes ski hill.

She let out a long breath. Just reading from what she'd dubbed her "Heavenly Memories Notebook" put her mind at ease. Immediate stress relief. Every memory of Heaven that came to mind got written down in the book, just in case she forgot. And, sadly, her memory was getting worse with every passing day. She figured it had to do with having a human brain now. It simply couldn't possibly hold all the wonders that she'd experienced as an angel. That had to be the reason. She kept the notebook with her at all hours of the day while she tried not to feel sorry for herself.

Well, not any more than absolutely necessary.

Luckily with it being well after midnight by then, there wasn't an audience for her extreme misery.

The immediate goal was to go back to tiny room seventeen at the motel, chug back the cold medicine, get into bed and pull the covers up over her head. She might get up sometime early the next afternoon and watch a soap or two before her all-important, most certainly life changing, appointment with the psychic. Had to get her quota of TV viewing in. One thing she had to admit she enjoyed about being human was watching television. In fact, when she got back to Heaven she'd decided to see if she could arrange to get cable Up There so she could keep up with Days Of Our Lives, her favorite soap. It was an excellent place to study realistic human interaction-as suggested in the golden scroll.

Stupid scroll.

The motel loomed in front of her, its vacancy sign a tacky beacon in the darkness. It was only a few blocks away from the drugstore, a distance that felt three times as far when feeling sick as a dog in the sub-zero temperature.

She felt a sneeze coming on. Or maybe she was just going to throw up. Maybe both.

She was so not going to miss any of this. The sickness, the cold weather, the way her back hurt in the morning from the lousy mattress in her room. But it was only for one more night.

Tomorrow she'd fix everything.

She heard something then. Voices. She stopped walking and turned around. It was a man shouting obscenities from around a corner. He sounded angry.

Then she heard a woman's voice. Smaller, meeker, pleading with him, but Val couldn't hear what she was saying.

Without thinking, she found herself moving toward the voices to peer around the corner.

A large man, roughly the size of an obese grizzly bear, had a woman up against the brick wall by her throat.

"There. Try to get away from me now, bitch."

"Let me go," she sobbed. Flakes of snow swirled around the dark alleyway from the cold wind.

"Lemme think about that," he cocked his head to one side. "No."

"Why? Please! I didn't do anything to you."

He grinned. "Little girls shouldn't be out late at night. The big bad wolf might get them and eat them up." He moved closer to her face and snapped his teeth. "Know what I mean?"

"Excuse me," Val said as she ran a hand under her clogged nose. "Do either of you happen to have the time?"

His head whipped around in her direction, his eyes wide. She'd surprised him.

"Time for you to mind your own business," he growled. "Get lost."

Val gritted her teeth and tried to look brave. "Let her go and we can all get lost."

His eyes narrowed. "Go away. I mean it."

The woman had taken this small distraction as her one opportunity. She sank her teeth into his hand and when he released her with a loud yelp of pain, she kicked him in the shin and ran away, her high-heeled shoes clicking against the icy pavement.

Val's good deed for the night accomplished successfully. She hoped somebody Up There was keeping track of these things.

She turned around just as a hand clamped down on her shoulder. The obese grizzly roughly turned her back around to face his furious expression.

"I thought I told you to mind your own business?" he snarled.

She stood her ground and tried to ignore the sick, sinking feeling in her stomach. "Look, I don't want any trouble."

"Could have fooled me. Looks to me like you're looking for trouble. Looks like you want to know what I do to people who get in my way."

He dug his fingers into her upper arm, pulling her close enough to get an unpleasant whiff of his dollar store cologne. It didn't quite make up for the putrid stench of his breath, though. She was almost thankful that her nose was nearly stuffed shut from the cold.

His black eyes narrowed. "You owe me now."

"I owe you?"

"You let her escape. I didn't get her purse or anything else. You owe me."

Val gasped as his grip tightened. "But I don't have any money."

He stared down at her for a few moments before his scowl turned into a lecherous grin and his gaze tracked down her tense body. "Maybe we can work something out, pretty thing." He licked his thin lips and moved his face toward hers.

She slapped him across the face hard enough to make her hand sting.

The grin vanished and his expression darkened. "Who said I was giving you a choice?"

Before she could make another move to protect herself, he clamped his sweaty hand over her mouth. Her ankle twisted as he dragged her further into the alley and she dropped her bag of cold medication so she could fight him with everything she had-but it wasn't going to be enough. The guy was strong and built like a truck. She felt fingers of panic grab her already rapidly beating heart and squeeze.

He pushed her up against the wall behind a dumpster and took a step back to get a better look.

"Yeah, this is gonna be good. Blonds are my favorite." He licked his lips.

Val held her hands up in front of her. "You do not want to do this."

"Why not?"

She tried to slow her breathing down so she could put together complete sentences to reason with this lunatic. "Just look at me. I'm sick. I've got a very bad virus. Incredibly contagious. And…and I haven't showered today. Yuck, right?"

"You look pretty damn good to me."

"You do not want to do this."

He grinned to show her his broken, rotten teeth. "Oh yes I do. Trust me on that."

And then he was on her. She lashed out with the only weapon she currently had-her fingernails. She got him across his cheek and a watched a line of crimson appear. He stepped back to touch his face, stunned for a moment when he saw the blood on his fingers.

Then he hit her hard across the face, hard enough that she sunk down to the ground, ears ringing from the force of the blow. He grabbed the front of her sweatshirt and pulled her back up to her feet as if she weighed nothing at all and her already injured ankle turned the wrong way. As it snapped she felt pain shoot up her leg like a lightning bolt.

"You're gonna regret that," he said. And she believed him. She really did.

He clutched her throat and pressed her up against the brick wall, hard and fast enough to knock the wind out of her. His fingers closed tighter around her windpipe and he started to squeeze. She stared at him, eyes wide, but after a moment things began to go blurry…to fade away. She stopped clawing at him like a wild animal and her hands fell slackly to her sides.

She was going to die. This is what she gets for trying to help somebody out. Her good deeds suddenly flashed in front of her eyes. No, she hadn't done enough. And saving that kid the other day from the Pomeranian that was looking at him funny probably didn't even count. This horrible man was going to kill her and she hadn't had enough time to fix things yet. To make Heaven take her back. They had to take her back…had to…

Suddenly, he released her. As she sank down to the ground in a heap, sputtering for breath, she watched him rise into the air. It struck her as odd, but her brain wasn't making logical connections at the moment. He looked down at Val with surprise before he flew backwards to slam against the other wall of the alley, then fell to the snow-covered ground.

Unconscious.

A dark shape moved before her eyes. She blinked and tried to focus on it and saw it slowly condense into that of a man. He crouched down in front of her.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

She coughed. "Do I look okay?"

"Not especially."

It took another moment before everything completely came back into focus. He held his hand out and she grabbed it. He pulled her up to her feet, a movement that was met with a gasp of pain as she realized just how hurt her ankle was.

"Did he harm you?" the stranger asked with a frown.

Standing, she could see he was much taller than her five and a half feet. Well over six feet, she estimated. He wore a serious expression on his shadowed face and a long leather jacket over dark clothes. From what she could see in the dim light from a nearby streetlamp he was very handsome.

Movie star handsome.

At least, he was the best looking man she'd seen outside of the movies or TV. He almost didn't look real.

But maybe her mind was playing tricks on her. She was so disoriented and congested that she couldn't be certain her eyes weren't deceiving her. She swallowed hard and coughed again, realizing that she couldn't even feel her nose for how plugged it was.

"That man wanted to kill me." She frowned and looked over at the mugger, still out like a light. Humans made no sense at all. Fascinating creatures-sometimes-but completely incomprehensible.

"Your ankle is broken." The stranger's gaze had lowered and he was studying her foot.

She grimaced, the pain was intense. "Yeah, I guess I'd better make a quick trip to the hospital. Broken ankle. Just my luck. And here I thought I was going to get some sleep tonight for my big day tomorrow."

Maybe one of those nice doctors from ER might be available, she thought absently.

He looked directly at her then. His eyes were light. In the darkness she couldn't tell which color, but she felt almost hypnotized as he held her gaze. He smiled and a weird sensation came over her. Fuzzy. Uncertain. Awkward.

And incredibly attracted to this man she's never seen before in her human existence.

She shook her head to clear it. Weird.

"Let me take a look at it for you," he said.

Val shook her head. "Really, that's not necessary." But he'd already sunk down to his knees in front of her and pulled up the right leg of her track pants to run a warm hand down her calf. "Oh, well, okay then. If you insist."

Had she shaved her legs recently? Couldn't remember. She thought so. She'd tried out that depilatory lotion stuff. It was supposed to last longer than just shaving according to the packaging. She was finding human maintenance to be extremely time-consuming, and in the case of the lotion-a bit goopy.

Didn't have to shave your legs in Heaven. Hair free. All the time. If you wanted to be, that is. She frowned. Maybe she should add that tidbit to her notebook in case she forgot. She patted her pocket to feel the reassuring outline. Still there.

The cold wind touched her face and she was surprised that it didn't bother her. She looked up at the clear dark sky, at all the stars above, and wondered if anyone from Heaven was watching her right now. And, if so, what were they thinking?

All these thoughts were to distract herself while feeling the stranger's warm fingers probe her ankle. If she hadn't felt so uncomfortable with her current position, pressed up against a cold brick wall with an unfamiliar handsome man caressing her foot, she probably wouldn't have needed to distract herself. But there it was. She sniffed and felt in her pockets for a Kleenex, but came up empty. Should have bought more when she was at the drugstore. Stupid.

After a moment she attempted to clear her throat. "How's it going down there?" Her words came out a little croaky.

"Just another moment. Almost got it."

"Almost got what?" Then she gasped and braced herself against the wall. "What are you doing?"

A warmth was spreading across the top of her foot and around her injured ankle. He'd slipped her running shoe off and had one hand on either side of her foot, raising it slightly off the ground. But it didn't hurt. Not at all. In fact it felt really good, all warm and tingly. Too good, in fact. She shouldn't feel this good with some unknown man in a dark alley. Bad. It was very, very bad. But also…incredibly good. What was he doing down there, anyhow?

The stranger finally rose to his feet.

Val tried to smile at him and felt her cheeks twitch nervously. "Okay, well, that was…um…interesting. I think I need to leave now."

"Try the ankle."

"What?"

He smiled at her. "Your ankle. Try to put your weight on it."

She did, tentatively. When that didn't hurt she put all her weight on it. Then she hopped up and down on it. No more pain. It didn't feel broken or even slightly sprained anymore. She stopped hopping.

And glanced at him with a small frown.

"How did you do that?"

His smile widened. "Do you feel better?"

Her frown deepened. "Yes."

"Then, you're welcome."

"I didn't say thank you."

"You're still welcome."

She glanced at the unconscious thug on the ground and her eyes narrowed. "How did you managed to launch him way over there, anyhow? Who are you, Batman or something?"

The handsome stranger's smile held. "No, Valerie, I'm not Batman. Unless you'd like me to be, of course. I'm sure I could scare up a cowl and cape if I needed to."

She tried to swallow the nervous lump forming in her throat. "How do you know my name?"

You will know a Tempter Demon when you see one.

A flame flickered to life in his hand. He held a lighter and with it he lit the cigarette he'd removed from his jacket's inner pocket. Val watched the tip of the cigarette glow red, a flickering glow that lingered in the stranger's eyes longer that it should have. "I know all about you, Valerie. And not just your name. Sorry it's taken me so long to show up. I was…unavoidably detained. Have you been waiting for me?"

For every angel that falls, a Tempter demon is assigned to lure them to Hell for an eternity of torturous servitude.

She racked her brain. What else did the scroll say?

Eat regularly. Three meals a day is standard for human sustenance.

That wasn't going to be very helpful.

Stupid. She was so stupid to allow this to happen.

She pressed her hands together to stop them from shaking. And she'd thought the mugger was the worst thing that could happen to her that night?

The demon smoked his cigarette and waited patiently for her to find her voice again. But her voice had gone on vacation. Somewhere warm. With palm trees.

Just one more day, she thought miserably. I only need one more day. Why did he have to show up now?

Of course he was attractive. All Tempters were. In Heaven she'd heard all sorts of tales about demons from the other angels. She'd listened with distracted amusement, never thinking she'd ever have to personally face one. Otherwise, she might have paid more attention to what was said. Taken some notes, maybe. But, Tempters had to be tempting. After all, it was their job, wasn't it?

How could she have been so out of it not to see this coming? Was she that sick?

TEMPTER DEMONS ARE VERY DANGEROUS. Be extremely wary as their methods are underhanded and almost impossible to resist for the newly fallen.

"Take it back," she finally said, her voice weak but present and accounted for.

"Take what back?"

"What you just did to my ankle."

He took another drag of his cigarette, then flicked it against the wall. "I don't know what you mean."

"I know what you are. I don't want to owe you anything. Take it back. Make it broken again. Please."

He smiled and tried to meet her eyes. But her eyes were shy-they weren't prepared to meet anyone tonight. Or maybe ever again.

"What I did was a favor for you. I expect nothing in return. Is it so wrong that I don't want to see you hurt?"

Val managed to laugh at that. Just a little. It came out sounding jerky and pathetic. "Right."

"My name is Nathaniel." He took a step closer to her.

She took a step back and felt the brick wall, cold and unyielding behind her. "I'm happy for you. Leave me alone."

The demon pulled something out of his pocket. A cell phone. He flipped the lid open, pressed a few buttons, and looked at the display screen.

"According to this, your full name is Valerie Grace." He looked up from the phone and those dangerous eyes of his tried to catch her in their weirdly hypnotic gaze. "That's a very beautiful name."

"I'm going to leave now. Don't try to stop me."

He frowned, creasing that handsome face into a semi-serious expression and cocked his head to one side. "But we have so much to talk about."

"No, we don't." She tried to keep the fear that filled her chest from showing in her words.

"Yes, we most certainly do."

"No," she managed to put more emphasis on it this time. "We really don't."

Her head ached. Too sick. Too tired to deal with this right now. Or ever, for that matter. She attempted to walk past him but he moved to block her escape.

"You don't belong here, Valerie."

"You're absolutely right. I don't. That's why I'm going back."

"To Heaven?" A grin appeared on his perfect lips. "Are you, now? And how are you going to manage that, little angel?"

Is he mocking me? she thought with a sudden jab of disdain.

"Because this is all a mistake, that's how. And I'm going to fix it. So you may as well not waste your time with me."

"A mistake, huh?" His grin widened. "Are you so sure about that?"

"Positive. I didn't do anything wrong." Her throat hurt as she said it since she her memories had grown so faulty she was no longer positive that she was one hundred percent innocent. But if she'd done something to warrant being thrown out, she couldn't remember what it was. However, he didn't have to know that, did he?

"If you haven't done anything wrong than you needn't be afraid of me."

"I'm not afraid." She jumped as he took another step closer to her. "I'm not."

"You have nothing to fear from me. In fact, I can make things so much better. Just listen to what I have to offer you and perhaps you won't need to spend another two months in a frozen wasteland like this."

She crossed her arms. "What part of 'I'm going back to Heaven' didn't you understand? Besides, I hear Niagara Falls is beautiful in the Springtime. Lots of tulips and happy tourists. Not that I'm going to be here to witness it, that is."

She had to get out of there. From what she'd heard about Tempters in Heaven, they preyed on the weaknesses and insecurities of the newly fallen-loneliness, fear, naïveté. Just because she was innocent didn't mean she didn't have any weaknesses he might be able to poke at. In fact, she had a very long and detailed list of human weaknesses. And right at the top seemed to be her immediate need for a Kleenex.

"I can give you beauty for all eternity," he said. "You'll never be cold or alone, or want for anything ever again."

"Right now I want to be cold and alone. Please, just go away." Her voice caught on some unexpected emotion and she forced herself not to start crying. She swallowed hard and met his gaze fully.

His brow furrowed and he took a step backward at her expression. And as suddenly as his change of mood came on it disappeared, replaced by a confident, drop dead sexy grin curling up one side of his full lips as he shook his head.

"I can't leave you alone, Valerie. But I can give you everything you've ever wanted. Just give me the chance to prove it to you."

Stop looking at him, Val, she told herself.

She wondered what had taken him so long to show up? It would have made more sense for a Tempter to arrive early, while the fallen were still fresh and gullible. But she'd had some time to adjust to the unpleasantness of being human, albeit kicking and screaming, so there was no way he was going to tempt her.

No way.

DO NOT LET YOUR GUARD DOWN WHEN CONFRONTED BY ONE OR YOU WILL REGRET IT.

BIG TIME.

Then she made the mistake of looking into his eyes again. Grayish blue, that was the color. He'd moved fully into the light of the lone streetlamp so she could see him a bit better. Grayish blue eyes framed with thick, dark lashes. Chiseled cheekbones led down to full lips. A square jaw with the slightest indication of a cleft. He looked like an angel, but she knew he was just the opposite. The balance. The flipside. And he was trouble. There was no way she could ever trust a single thing he said to her. Not in the slightest.

He reached forward and stroked his fingertips along her cheek. She didn't try to move away and it wasn't just because she was pressed up against the hard wall. His touch left behind a warmth that made her entire body tingle, much like he'd done to her foot, but this time it seemed more…more something. He traced a finger along her bottom lip, probably feeling the remnants of the chapstick she'd applied before leaving her safe motel room to go on her fateful trip to the drugstore.

She couldn't stop staring into his eyes, and noticed her head was starting to feel fuzzy.

Just the head cold, she told herself. Ignore it. Ignore him. Push him away right now.

But she didn't. As she looked into his eyes she began to wonder if maybe he was right. What if they didn't take her back? What if she was stuck in this awful place? And not just Niagara Falls-the earthly realm in general. Full of its sickness, disappointment, pain and misery. Maybe there was a better way. And if this beautiful stranger was by her side, then how bad could it possibly be?

No, what was she thinking? She didn't honestly believe that, did she? Was he using some kind of demon mojo on her? Maybe it worked like a few cocktails, loosening her inhibitions up so she'd agree to something she wouldn't normally. And, if so… that was totally cheating.

"Just say the word, Valerie." His lips were only a few inches from hers. He moved to push the long, light blond hair out of her eyes and tuck it behind her ear that he then whispered into. "I can take you away from all of this."

Hmmm. The word. What was the word again?

He's a demon! her brain hollered. And he's cheating. Demon mojo, remember? Ignore what he's saying. Get away from him right now!

Abracadabra? Hocus pocus, maybe? No, that was two words. What word was Nathaniel talking about?

Then it came to her. She knew what the word was. The only word that truly counted. And she could say it. So easily. So very easily.

Y-E-S.

"Say it." His voice was warm, open, soothing, and oh-so-tempting, as he leaned back to look at her. "And I will make all your troubles disappear."

She nodded slowly, trying to breathe him in through her stuffed nose. But as she opened her mouth to speak the word that would make it all better, to stop her pain and loneliness and suffering once and for all, she felt something rising inside of her-from deep within.

Deep inside her nostrils, that is.

Oh no, she thought. But it was too late.

She sneezed all over him.

Read Chapter 3...

Order ANGEL WITH ATTITUDE!

back to top

Angel with Attitude
Warner Forever
ISBN: 0446616990