Page 21 of Metatron
To his surprise, Francesca didn’t immediately let go. She held on and tilted her head. “You’re lucky I didn’t want to do that climb, or I’d slap you again for grabbing me like that.”
“Go ahead and hit me.” He dared her.
Her lips pinched. “You are so annoying.”
“The feeling is mutual.” He set her away from him before he entered the tunnel, ready to get back to the open sky. He’d gotten past the first bend in the passageway when she dared to duck around him to plant herself in front of him.
“What is your problem with me?” she huffed.
“I have no problem.”
“Are you sure? Because you don’t treat anyone else the same as me.”
“And how do I treat you?” Other than at arm’s length, for a good reason. He still felt the imprint of her against his body.
“Well, for one, you argue with me all the time.”
“I do.” He didn’t even deny it.
“Why?”
“Because no one else does.” The truth. It proved a novelty to have someone like Francesca who didn’t look at him and see someone to automatically obey. She stuck to her opinions, right or wrong.
She pointed from where they’d come. “That was a dick move letting us walk into a trap. I could have died.”
“I was there to ensure nothing untoward happened.”
“What if you’d missed, or the demon was faster?”
“He wasn’t.”
Her gaze narrowed on him as if he’d given the wrong answer. “I won’t have you pulling dangerous stunts like that. Nor will I be allied with someone who would take a chance with our lives.”
“Sometimes the best lessons are the ones that make a deep impression.”
She poked a finger in his chest, and he took a step back, mostly because his initial urge was to grab it and bring it to his lips.
“Listen here, if this partnership is going to work, I have to trust you.”
He loomed over her to snap, “It goes both ways. I tried to tell you about the guns. You didn’t believe me.”
Her lips pressed flat before she offered a grudging, “I was wrong. From now on, if you claim something, I’ll take it more seriously.”
“You should because angels can’t lie.”
She looked him dead in the face as she said, “You just did.” With that, she stalked off, the light on her head bobbing to light her passage.
He joined her in the first cave, where she used a stick to poke through the remains of garbage left behind.
“There’s human bones in here.” She pointed with a stick.
“Imps are meat eaters.”
“Speaking of meat, I could use some food,” Joey exclaimed, emerging from the passageway with Kyra. “That was some scary shit.”
Kyra nodded. “One second I was scanning the beach, and the next, I’m like a frozen statue and there’s that goat dude standing there. How did he do that?”
Despite it seeming obvious, Metatron stated, “He made himself invisible.”