Free Redeemed In Shadows by Tigris Eden

inside your body.”
    Xee ignored Micah and turned towards the elevator.
    “Wrong way Blossom.”
    She froze. The only person to ever call her Blossom was her grandmother and she was dead.
    “What did you call me?” Xee whispered.
    Gabe turned and hunched his shoulders making his wings flare out at his sides.
    “You call me Angel Boy, I’ll call you Blossom.”
    Idiot.
    Only her Tutu could call her that and since she was dead… It was a term she didn’t want to hear again. Ever.
    “Don’t call me that.”
    “Don’t call me Angel Boy then. My name is Gabe. You don’t like calling me by my name; I’ll answer to Sir, or even Gabriel, not Angel Boy. Don’t let the wings fool you little girl.”
    She watched as he walked in the opposite direction and quietly followed. She wasn’t a little girl, but she wasn’t trying to go head first into a fight with Death either.
    “I’m not a little girl.”
    “Then stop acting like one.”
    Shit!
    She’d said that out loud and she’d used her pouty voice. She heard him chuckle under his breath and she almost kicked him but thought better of it. Gabe led her down a series of never ending stairs.
    “Had I known I was going to walk this much, I would have invested in a Fit Bit. Ever head of an elevator Angel Boy?”
    She was goading him again, but couldn’t seem to help herself. Hurrying to keep up she bumped into his feathers when he stopped abruptly and grunted. They looked soft, but were anything but. They were sharp and rigid at the tips. A very deceptive trick. She’d always thought the wings would be soft. She didn’t know that about Angels. Or maybe it was just him. The other thing she noticed was the smell. Enticing with a spicy aroma that invaded her senses. She pulled a lung full into her chest and physically melted.
    “Are you sniffing me,” Angel Boy turned in her direction, head bent low so that they were face to face. His champagne eyes assessing her with cruelty as they narrowed. They stood toe to toe, neither one of them moving. The intensity of his stare was alluring. She was a fish dazzled by the end of a lure as it beckoned her closer for a taste.
    “Stop! Xee snap out of it, it’s Angel dust.”
    “Angel dust?” She asked Micah in confusion.
    “It’s like faery dust, only it doesn’t put you to sleep. It’s meant to ensnare, lure you in.”
    Why the heck was he trying to lure her in?
    A fish out of water. He was trying to trick her.
    His response was to click his tongue and turn back, continuing his descent down the stairs.
    “The reason we can’t take the elevators,” he said by way of not answering her question. “Is because once we hit the sub level, the electro-magnetic field throws off the electricity.
    “Couldn’t we have taken the elevators to the cafeteria level?”
    “You lazy or something?”
    Or something.
    “No.” Her voice rose.
    “I like the exercise.”
    Xee mimicked his words behind his back, snickering as she did.
     

Chapter 5
     
    “No fraternizing with the enemy Xee. We’re here to do a job and that’s it.”
    “I’m here to work and get paid. I won’t be doing any such thing with him or anyone else. Same goes for you. You’re just here taking up residence in my body and keep your un-helpful tidbits to yourself.”
    “I’m the only one here who cares about your wellbeing. Best remember that.”
    Micah had always been there for her. From the beginning when she would have fallen into complete darkness, he’d been there to reach in and give her a helping hand. She’d felt hopeless and afraid. She’d been sixteen when she tried to end her torment. He’d been the one to stop her. She’d been numb, and non-responsive to the pain she was constantly subjected to. Being locked away in a dark place where there was no light for more than twenty hours a day was no way for a sixteen year old to live. In the dark there was always light. Always a way, but at sixteen, lying on a cold harsh metal table, barely