Sweet Evil (The Sweet Trilogy #1)(20)

He let out a long, angry sound like a rumble.

“Listen, Jay. I want you to let it rest for now. Please. Thank you for sticking up for me, but I don’t want you to go after him. I’ll deal with it myself when the time is right. ’Kay?”

“Fine,” he grumbled to placate me. It hadn’t sounded believable.

“Thanks,” I said anyway.

“Hey, wait a minute,” he said. “What the heck was up with you and Kaidan? I was looking for you when I first heard the rumor, but someone said you left with him.”

My tummy wobbled and I looked toward Patti again. She was seriously lost in thought. I whispered now.

“Nothing was up with us. We were talking on the dock. He remembered me.”

“Talking about what? I can barely hear you. Is Patti next to you or something?”

“Yeah, sorry. I don’t know. We talked about drugs, and our parents. Trying to have a conversation with him is really difficult.”

“You two are polar opposites, but it might be good for you. You could use a little fun.”

“Oh, please!” I said, forgetting to be quiet for that one second. “It’s not like that. I can’t explain it.”

“Do you like him?” he asked.

“I’m... intrigued by him,” I confessed.

“All right, all right.” He sounded happy. “That’s a start.”

A start of what, I didn’t know, but I wanted to find out.

CHAPTER SEVEN

IDENTITY

Patti was acting so weird that I shut myself in my bedroom with my book. I would read a few sentences, then think about last night, then read more, then wonder what was up with Patti.

She was not usually a hoverer, but for more than an hour she paced back and forth past my bedroom door.

“Are you okay?” I finally called out to her.

She came in looking sheepish, a nervous gray around her. She sat on the edge of my bed. I crossed my legs to give her room and my full attention.

“Anna.” She cleared her throat. Her eyes were full of moisture and ringed in red. “The day I picked you up from the orphanage—no, let me go back further. This is all going to sound so strange.”

She knew something about me! I grabbed her forearm, greedy for information.

“My whole life has been strange, Patti. If you know something, please tell me. There’s nothing you can say that will scare me, or—”

She let out a huff through her nose and shook her head. “Everything that I’m going to tell you will scare you. Honey, I’ve been scared for sixteen years.”

I didn’t respond. I let go of her arm. The look on her face and the dark gray fear surrounding her made my heart thump harder.

“You’ve always been a spiritual person, Anna, but I wonder how much you actually see—how much you believe.”

“You mean God? I believe—”

“I know. But what about... other spirits?” she asked.

“Like ghosts?”

“No. I mean angels.”

My neck and scalp tingled.

“Sure,” I said slowly. “I know scripture talks about angels up there—singing and trumpets and all that.”

“It also talks about angels coming down here to earth. And demons, too.”

“O-kay. I know that stuff happened back in the day, or whatever, but what does it have to do with us?”

“You know I was married,” she said. I nodded, confused about where this was going. Patti stood up and paced the floor as she talked. “For three years we tried to conceive. He eventually went to the doctor and found out he wasn’t the problem. That was the beginning of the end for us. I prayed my body would be fixed and we’d be blessed with a baby, but months passed and I never got pregnant. Then one night I had this dream. Actually, I told my husband it was a dream, but I knew it was real.”

She stood still and stared at me. I nodded again, wishing she’d just say it, whatever it was.

“An angel came to me, Anna. He told me there was a baby waiting for me at a convent in Los Angeles.”

A prickle went up my spine. She came and sat down, putting her hand on my knee as if holding me there, as if I would run from her. She spoke faster now.

“I woke up the next morning and told my husband about it, but he said I’d lost my mind. And, in a way, I had. All I knew was that I had to get to you no matter what. I bought a ticket for myself and I begged him to come with me, but he wouldn’t. By the time I got home with you, he was gone. He remarried a year later. But I had you and that was all that mattered to me. Do you believe me so far?”

“Yes, of course.” But even so, my brain was rapidly firing denials against the irrational ideas. I took her hands in mine, hoping to calm her.

“Before they let me take you, one of the nuns who ran the orphanage talked to me. Her name was Sister Ruth. She was the oldest person I’d ever met, at least a hundred years old at that point. She told me she’d been waiting for me and she could sense I was the right woman to raise you.”

“What was that supposed to mean?” I whispered.

She paused, studying my face. “Raising you would require extra care, because you’re more than human, Anna.”

I’d always known I was different, so why did it sound like complete madness?