“You two just can’t stay out of trouble, can you?” Raphael sighed as he inspected the nasty bruise on my forehead.

I shrugged. “No good deed goes unpunished.”

“Obviously. You’ve gotten in more trouble in one week than I’ve been in for a hundred years,” Gabriel mused as he dabbed a cotton ball doused with rubbing alcohol on Michael’s cuts. He didn’t seem to find it painful, but maybe he was just being manly about it. Figures.

“Just lucky, I guess.”

“Better lucky than smart,” Gabriel said. I stuck my tongue out at him and he chuckled.

“I suppose we should thank you for at least getting rid of Mulciber for a while. There’s no sign of Belial, either.”

I froze. “Does that mean Michael has to leave?”

Silence fell. Michael’s face was blank, but I noticed that his shoulders tensed just a bit.

Gabriel spared me a faint smile. “Normally, yes. However, considering you’ve angered Mulciber I think it’s safe to say you’ll still be needing his protection.”

“Oh. Right.” I felt a flush of heat across my cheeks. If Raphael or Gabriel noticed, neither of them said anything. Fabulous.

“That’s two demons in one city. Maybe you need to move, Jordan,” Michael said, his eyes sparkling as they met mine.

“Please. I’m not going to let two measly archdemons run me out of town. There’d have to be at least…four.”

Raphael finished cleaning and treating my wounds, patting my shoulder. “With your luck, it’ll probably happen.”

He grinned as I glared at him. “Thanks for the confidence boost, Raph.”

“My pleasure. Almost finished, brother?”

“Yes. He’s got a hard head, after all,” Gabriel replied.

Michael rolled his eyes. “If you have something to say, just say it already.”

Gabriel finished wrapping the gauze around his chest and put it back in the First Aid kit before standing. “Be careful. That’s all.”

“I’m pretty sure we won’t get in anymore fights any time soon,” Michael told him, rubbing his bruised cheek with a rueful expression.

Gabriel’s blue eyes twinkled. “I wasn’t talking about fighting.”

We both stared at him with wide eyes, but he merely nodded to both of us and followed Raphael out of my bedroom without saying another word.

The awkward silence started to grow so I sighed and flopped down on the bed with a groan. My eyes fell across Michael’s neck—now noticeably empty.

“I’m sorry Belial took the necklace. I know it was important to you.”

The angel shook his head. “It…couldn’t be helped.”

“Can you sense where he put it?”

“Not really. It’s out of range. He must have thrown it away. Don’t worry about it.”

I paused. “But doesn’t that mean you don’t have anything to protect your heart any more?”

He met my eyes, a slow smile touching his lips. “Guess I’ll have to risk it.”

The eye contact felt far too intimate. I had to glance away. “Well, we’re certainly not going anywhere for a while. Want to do some reading?”

“I had something else in mind,” Michael said, sitting next to me. I swallowed, trying very hard to keep my mind out of the gutter.

“And that is…?”

He held up a DVD case. A Walk in the Clouds. Oh, thank Heaven. “Your less-than-subtle best friend Lauren insisted we should watch it.”

I shrugged. “Eh. Put it on.”

Michael got up and turned the TV and DVD player on while I stared at everything in the room except his rather muscular bare back. No sense in being immature. So we’d kissed. Big whup. Didn’t mean I was going to act like a fifth grader about it.

I nearly yelped as Michael turned the lights off and crawled next to me.

“Just so you know,” I said in a mild tone. “That kiss was a one time thing.”

“Really? That’s too bad, ‘cause I have something for you.”

Surprised, I couldn’t help but glance over at him. He leaned across me, his face drifting dangerously close to mine. Instead of kissing me, he reached for something on the nightstand and brought it up to my face. It was a caramel apple.

“You’re welcome,” he murmured with a secretive smirk. Slowly, I took the apple and unwrapped it, bringing the delicious treat to my lips.

“Bite me.”

Michael was strongly reprimanded for what was described as “fraternizing” with a human being. The Big Guy let him off with a warning since we didn’t go past first base and it was understandable that we were both incredibly vulnerable at that point. Gabriel and Raphael knew about it afterwards and didn’t make a fuss, but I sometimes caught them smiling at us without saying anything. I decided to just let it slide. Shit happens, whether it’s demons having designs on your body or angels stealing smooches. It’s not a part of life—it’s just a part of my life.

However, there was a bit of good news to come from our messy business at the hospital. Gabriel got a tip from a demon stoolie that Mulciber and Belial wouldn’t be returning to Earth for a period of time. Their boss was rather ticked off that neither of them were able to complete their missions. Mulciber didn’t kill Michael and Belial didn’t secure the Spear of Longinus. I personally found the thought comforting, but not after Gabriel reminded me this would only further their desire for revenge once they finally returned to this world. I enrolled myself in a riflery class as well as a martial arts one to get better skills for my next grudge match with Belial, assuming he has enough chivalry to challenge me to a duel again.

It turns out that Jacob had been able to enter my apartment because Gabriel hadn’t made the blessing of my apartment specific to spirits, just demons. He refined it as soon as we told him what happened and apologized for not being careful enough. I tried to convince him it wasn’t his fault, but I got the feeling he didn’t believe me, God bless his heart. We were even anyway. He’d been the one who told me years ago that demons were susceptible to the feathers on an angel’s wings because they were so pure that it burned them. I owed Gabriel my life and aimed to find a way to make it up to him someday.

Michael started training me in some of the arts Mr. N had been practicing, like how to ward off malevolent spirits and perform exorcisms if need be. He wasn’t crazy about the idea of bringing me deeper into the supernatural world but he got better as the weeks passed. If anything, he felt more confident about me going to work on my own now that I knew how to defend myself from a demon attack.

Speaking of which, I finally got to go back to work, only to not do much the first day because the whole staff threw me a Welcome Back party. Lauren even brought her sweet little daughter Lily to see me. I couldn’t believe how big she’d gotten. Michael had been right. Life had been passing by, whether I noticed or not.

Michael’s band has been doing well throughout the city. He got gigs more and more often, and I actually went with him to many of them—sometimes just so he wouldn’t worry about me and sometimes because I liked hearing him play. He even had groupies now. I found it utterly hilarious watching him try to slide past them to get to our table at the club. Maybe it was a little mean, but after all, I was only human.