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  The air was eerily silent. No more screaming, no more celebrating. The quiet “reverence,” as Pastor Warren called it, after a Taking. Yeah. Reverence. That’s what that was.

  I knew I was getting close. As I passed the swing, I took a sharp breath and focused my gaze ahead of me. My gut clenched. Where was he? At first I was sure he’d somehow managed to survive and disappeared again. And then what? I’d have a pretty angry angel on my hands. But then I saw a figure lying there on his back on the ground. He was still some ways off. I felt a mixture of relief and dismay. I mean, I didn’t want any angry angel coming back to life and seeking his revenge. At the same time, I was feeling sick at the thought that I’d killed someone. Something.

  But it was odd. The figure on the ground didn’t seem right somehow. Not as…big. As I approached it, it looked a lot more human than anything. And then it hit me. There were no wings. None. The figure was totally missing wings.

  I got closer then, and stopped, placing the wheelbarrow to one side. I prepared myself for the gruesome sight of a creature with its face and probably head blown clear off.

  What I saw freaked the heck out of me even more than that.

  A naked guy.

  Totally completely stark naked. Lying on his back. Head turned slightly to one side, but face and everything absolutely there, not a mark to be seen. And there was other stuff absolutely there too, lower down, and I turned around and started to panic again.

  Okay, forgive me, but I’d never seen a naked guy before. Only child and all that, no brothers, and yeah I know maybe there should have been relief that I didn’t have to worry about the gory possibility of no head, but all I could think about was that I needed to get this naked guy into my wheelbarrow, and if I was going to do that, I’d have to touch him.

  Suddenly I heard a moan. I turned back around, careful to keep my gaze on his face, and watched as he rolled his head slowly from one side to the other, and another moan escaped his lips.

  Oh god. He wasn’t dead. That was a good thing, right? I wasn’t a murderer. That was a good thing.

  But what the hell do I do now? I’ve got some angel who’s lost his wings and is suddenly a naked guy in my yard, and I just don’t know how to explain any of this to anyone.

  I needed time to think. Which I really didn’t have. How could I earn more time?

  I looked at the wheelbarrow.

  I thought of the shed.

  Really? This was where my train of thought was leading me?

  But it did buy me some time at least.

  I brought the wheelbarrow over to him. I went and stood behind his head and looked down at him. Really he didn’t look too much older than me, but that didn’t make much sense. And his features were kind of nice—square jaw, straight nose. Had good shoulders, too. Oh, what did it matter? Put him in the damn wheelbarrow already, Riley.

  I bent down and pushed him up from under his shoulder blades. He was dead weight and stupid heavy. But I managed to slip my arms under his armpits and tug him along to the edge of the wheelbarrow. I didn’t want to think what the dirt and stones in the grass were doing to his butt, being dragged like that. I reminded myself that even though he looked like some hot naked guy, he was really a son-of-a-bitch angel, you know, like the ones that took Chris, and then I didn’t really care how scraped-up his butt got.

  This thought was actually really helpful because it gave me back some of that rage from earlier, and the rage helped get me get him into the wheelbarrow and push the damn thing back to the shed. It helped me feel more satisfied than concerned when I dumped him inside, and he rolled onto the hard cement, his head cracking against the push mower.

  I knew what to do next. I was in a fully stocked shed, so I grabbed some rope and tied his hands together. Then his feet. There was an old cement block in the shed for some reason, so I tied a long bit of rope from his hands to the block, kind of like tying up a dog. Finally there were some old cleaning rags covered in oil hanging in the corner, so I took one of those and, with way more effort than you’d think it’d take, pried open his mouth and gagged him. Then I took any sharp instruments that I could find, bagged them up, and took them outside the shed and hid them around back. Just in case. Because he was an angel, and they have tricks.

  I examined my work and wondered exactly how I’d figured all of that out. Then I heard a car come up the drive and quickly shut the shed door and locked it. This time I kept the key with me.

  I made it to my room just in time, dove under the sheet, turned on my bedside light, and reached for my book. The door opened.

  I looked up. “Still here,” I said.

  Mother came over to me in a rush and pulled me into a tight embrace. Her chin was resting on the top of my head, and I could feel her tears in my hair.

  “I’m okay,” I said into her chest. But I could hear her heart pounding and knew that she needed this.

  After a long moment, she finally released me. She held my face in her hands and brushed a strand of hair behind my ear. She furrowed her eyebrows.

  “You look flushed.”

  “Do I?” I asked trying to sound confused.

  “Yes.” She placed the back of her hand on my forehead. “No fever.”

  “I’m just hot,” I replied. I glanced at the fan in the corner. “I think I got so into my reading I forgot to turn on the fan.”

  “Maybe,” she replied, walking over and turning it on. The breeze felt good. “Your windows are closed too.”

  “That’s probably it.”

  She opened all three as wide as they’d go, and gazed out into the yard. I hoped upon hope that I hadn’t left any evidence behind. She turned and stared at me with a final scrutinizing look. “You let me know if you’re feeling off tomorrow.”

  “Sure.”

  She came over and gave me a kiss on the forehead and went to the door. Daddy was standing there, silently, having been watching us.

  “How was it?” I asked as Mother walked by him out into the hall.

  “Next year I think I’m going to follow your example and stay home.”

  “That bad.”

  “They took Jonah Richards.”

  “But he’s just eight years old!”

  Daddy nodded. It was his turn to come over and kiss me goodnight. Then he was gone, and I was alone again.

  I ripped the sheet off my body. I was too hot for any of it. I got up and walked over to the window, sitting in the seat and staring out at where it had all happened just a few minutes ago.

  Jonah Richards.

  That’s it, angel boy. You’ve no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into.

  6.

  I didn’t need my alarm clock to wake me up first thing the next morning. I’d barely slept at all and was staring up at my ceiling for fifteen minutes before the thing went off. Five in the morning. I’d forgotten that there was a five in the morning.

  I threw on the same dress from the day before. I actually had three of the exact same dress that I could have chosen from—that’s how I shop. It depresses my mother. This one was still hanging over the chair and perfectly fine to wear again. I quickly pulled my hair up into a ponytail and slipped on my sandals before making my way as quietly as possible through the house out into the backyard.

  There was a mist hanging over the grass, and the air was already very warm. It was hard to believe school was starting next week. It felt like summer was just finally getting going. It’d been particularly rainy this year. Though still insanely hot. My forehead was already beaded with sweat by the time I made it to the shed, though this morning I didn’t think it had to do with the weather.

  There were so many thoughts going through my head. The biggest one was probably the stupidest one: fear of being caught. Not, “I’ve bound and gagged a naked angel in my parents’ shed.” Not, “Will this angel find a way to hurt me?” Not, “What if he’s dead?” No, the biggest concern I had was, “What if my parents wake up ea
rly and find out what I’ve done?”

  I don’t keep things from my parents. I’ve got a pretty good relationship with them, more so than most teenagers, I’d guess. Not that we don’t have our problems, but we’re okay. Generally. I’d never kept anything big from them. I’d never kept something like this from them. Then again I don’t think I’d ever had this particular problem.

  Before I unlocked the shed again, I went around back and opened up the bag of sharp tools I’d removed the night before and grabbed the garden shears. And before I unlocked the door, I hoped upon hope that he wasn’t dead.

  I looked over my shoulder. I was lucky the overgrown hedgerows blocked the view of the shed, but I had a serious guilty conscience going on, and even at five in the morning I worried my parents would be standing right behind me.

  No one was there.

  Safe and alone.

  Well, alone at any rate.

  Just do it already.

  I unlocked the doors and opened them wide, brandishing the garden shears and turning on the lamp by the door. It took a moment before I actually saw what was in front of me. Aside from the fact that there was a naked guy tied up on the floor of the shed, everything seemed pretty normal. I worried for a second that I’d have to lean over and check his pulse, but he reacted to the lamp turning on, and I knew he was alive.

  Should I wake him?

  Well, I couldn’t just stand staring over him like that. It was kind of creepy.

  “Hello?” I asked softly. Probably too softly. He didn’t move. I cleared my throat a little, felt the panic start to rise. “Hello?” I asked again. This time I might have been a little too loud.

  The guy heard me. He turned his head toward the sound and opened his eyes a bit. He closed them again, turning away from the light a little. This time he opened his eyes looking into the dark part of the shed. I think that’s when he realized he was bound and gagged because he suddenly jerked violently trying to stand up and fell back down hard. He turned and looked at me again and made to move toward me.

  “Don’t!” I said aiming the shears in his direction and taking a step back. He looked at the shears then up at me. He squinted a bit and then sat back.

  “Now I’m going to take the gag out of your mouth, but you can’t call for help or be noisy or anything. And if you try to hurt me I’ll use these, I swear.” What I’d use them for I hadn’t any idea.

  The young man, on the other hand, seemed to find the large scissors I was aiming at him particularly threatening and eyed them with obvious concern. He nodded at me and I said, “Okay, good.”

  I kept them up before me as I entered the shed again. This was pretty stupid of me to do when you thought about it. I mean, okay, so he didn’t look a lot like an angel now, but it wasn’t like he was just some guy tied up. This guy had powers. I’d seen him disappear right before my eyes. Then again, he was still tied up after all this time, hadn’t gone anywhere in the night.

  Was this all a big trick?

  Well, I’d find out soon enough.

  I leaned over and took the gag out of his mouth. The second I did, I ran back to my position at the door in front of the lamp.

  The young man opened and closed his mouth a bit. Then he stopped and looked at me again. We stared at each other in total silence. I wasn’t about to speak first. Besides I didn’t know what to say.

  Then he smiled. It was the first time I’d seen him smile, and it threw me. It was kind of…awesome.

  He spoke: “I can see through your dress.”

  “What?” I said automatically.

  “The light coming from behind you like that. Can see right through it.” The smile widened.

  “I…”

  “Look, I’m not complaining. And since you haven’t moved, I’m guessing you don’t mind me looking.”

  I had no idea what to do, so I stumbled further into the shed and walked to the side into the dark so I wasn’t being backlit anymore.

  “And you’ve come inside, so you want to be closer to me.”

  “No!” This I shouted a little too loudly. And to prove how “no” I was, I pointed the shears at him.

  “You gonna cut it off?” He raised an eyebrow.

  “Cut what off?” Damn it. I had to stop answering him automatically like that. Think before you speak, Riley. Think!

  The young man glanced down at himself, and I almost followed his look until I remembered that he was totally naked, and then I understood what he meant.

  God, no, I hadn’t even thought of that! Who did he think I was?

  Maybe the girl who shot him in the face maybe?

  But I wasn’t that kind of a person normally. Then again…he didn’t know that …

  “Maybe,” I finally answered. “Depends.”

  He made a small laugh. “Oh yeah? On what?”

  “On if you answer my questions and don’t make a fuss.”

  “Look, sweetheart, if you want to ask me out the answer’s yes. You don’t have to threaten me. Though, okay, I admit it, it’s kind of sexy.”

  “Shut up, just shut up!” I could feel the tears burning in my eyes again. This wasn’t fair and made me really uncomfortable, and I had nothing else to say back to him. “You don’t get to say stuff like that, just stop it.”

  “Sweetheart, I’m the one who’s all tied up, doesn’t know where he is, who has some crazy girl threatening to deprive him of his manhood, and you’re the one who’s crying?”

  “Stop talking, just stop talking!” I turned around and stared out the shed into the garden. I couldn’t think. I didn’t know what to say. This was not angelic behavior, and I was totally thrown for a loop. Not that I knew what angelic behavior was. I should have planned this before, should have come up with a line of questioning so I’d be ready. “I don’t know where to start,” I said quietly, my back still to him.

  “How about you tell me what I’m doing here, how I got here in the first place.”

  “I’m asking the questions.”

  “Okay. You ask a question, then I ask a question, how ’bout that?”

  I turned back and glared at him. He seemed to find my expression amusing, and his smile widened.

  “Where’s Chris?” It’s all I could think of, and it’s all I wanted to know.

  “Who the heck is Chris?”

  “What have you done with him?” I could feel the rage start to build up, and my voice started to shake.

  “Are you crazy?”

  “Where is he?” I took a step toward him.

  “Wait, stop,” he said and I stopped. “I think we screwed up with our rules. One of us has got to answer a question before asking a new one.”

  “Where’s Chris?!” With instincts I didn’t know I had, I opened the shears, kneeled down, and placed the edge of the blade along his neck.

  “Dollface, I swear by everything that’s holy, I haven’t a friggin’ clue who you’re talking about.” He seemed to take my threat seriously. His breathing got shallow and his expression deadly serious.

  I didn’t believe him. But I didn’t think there was any way he was going to tell me. At least not now. At least not with these tactics. I sighed. For now, just right now, it probably made sense to play by his rules. That is, until he told me what I wanted to know.

  “Let’s try your question thing again,” I said as I lowered the shears.

  He nodded. “Where am I?”

  “In my shed. Where are your wings?”

  “I left them in my closet. Why am I in your shed?”

  “No, you didn’t answer me seriously.”

  “That was a serious question?”

  “What happened to your wings? What happened to you? You didn’t look like this when I shot you.”

  “You shot me?”

  There was a silence after that. I couldn’t answer. I felt terrible.

  “You shot me?” he asked again, looking down at himself. “Where?”

  �
��Your face.” I sat back, leaning against the side wall.

  “You missed.”

  “No. I didn’t.”

  “Sweetheart. You’re nuts.”

  “No. I’m not.”

  “You have me naked, bound, and gagged in your shed, and you say you shot me in the face, but it’s pretty clear you didn’t. Honey. You belong in a mental institution. It’s too bad, you’re quite the looker.”

  I shook my head. “Don’t say that.”

  “Babe, it’s the truth, you’re crazy.”

  “Not that, the other thing.”

  “Other thing?”

  “Never mind. Look. I’m not crazy. You’re an angel and…”

  He laughed. “An angel?”

  “…and you were in my yard, and you were going to take me, except you didn’t. You decided to make fun of me instead, and then I shot you. And I thought you were dead, except when I came back you weren’t. You also were a lot smaller…”

  “Hey, now…”

  “And didn’t have any wings. And that’s when I locked you up in the shed and tied you up in case you tried to escape because I was scared. And because I wanted to find out where Chris was. And because I was angry.”

  “I stand by my statement. You’re nuts.”

  “And you’re just trying to trick me. I know your kind.”

  “What? Us angels?”

  “Yes. I mean, I don’t know your kind well, but I’ve seen what you do, how heartless you are. I know you would stop at nothing to get what you wanted.”

  “Sweetheart…I’ve been called many things, but I ain’t no angel.”

  “What are you then?” This wasn’t working. He was just going to keep on denying it. This was all so stupid. What was I supposed to do with him?

  “I’m a guy.”

  “Yeah? And where are you from?”

  “Hartwich.”

  I started to laugh. I shook my head. “That’s the dumbest lie ever. You think I don’t know every single person in this town? Even all the newcomers? This place just isn’t that big.”