Read Online Fallen Angel: Mythic Series, Book 2 by Abbie Zanders - Free Book Online

looks at you as if you’re shit on his shoe. You should have let Karthik have him.”
    Ryssa sighed. This wasn’t the first time they’d had this conversation. “I didn’t do it just for him, Jax. His mother is dying. She’s a really nice lady, and she shouldn’t have to deal with this kind of ugly stuff in her last remaining days.”
    “That’s the only reason?” he said, narrowing his eyes.
    “What other reason could there possibly be?” she asked, exasperated, hoping he wouldn’t look too deeply to reveal things she wouldn’t even admit to herself. “Like you said, the guy thinks I’m shit. Every time I’m over there he watches me like a hawk, trying to catch me slipping the silverware into my pocket or something. I bet he has the hired help count the spoons the minute I’m out the door.”
    Ryssa didn’t really believe that, but it wouldn’t have shocked her to find out he did, either. For some inexplicable reason, that hurt. David Corrigan was an arrogant, self-serving mortal. She had encountered scores of them over her time in this plane. Why should she care one way or the other what he thought of her?  Just because she couldn’t seem to stop thinking about him didn’t mean he had the same problem.
    Jax frowned, but she could sense his relief. There was no way she was going to tell Jax about David’s offer of a temporary room at the Corrigan mansion. Ryssa was quite sure he hadn’t really meant to say that anyway; the look of horror she’d seen on his face the moment after he suggested it was more telling than his spoken words.
    “And when the mother crosses over, you’re done with him, right?”
    “Of course. The only reason he hasn’t gotten a restraining order on me is because she wants me there. He’s a dick, but he’s a dick who loves his mother.”
    “Okay,” Jax said grudgingly. “But if he comes into the club again...”
    “He won’t,” Ryssa assured him. “I told Gunther not to let him in again.”
    Jax nodded, slightly appeased. “Fair enough, baby. Now hork some of those donuts, will you?  My fangs are aching here.”
    * * *
    “D avid.” His stomach dropped at the sound of his name, spoken so softly in Ryssa’s voice. Not Gilligan. Not dickhead. Not even Corrigan. But David .
    He lifted his gaze from where he sat outside his mother’s room. Wishing. Hoping. Praying.
    If Ryssa’s voice hadn’t clued him in, her face would have. There was no trace of the rebellious badass now. The sympathy in her eyes was almost more than he could bear.
    “It’s time. Would you like to be with her?”
    No!   It was too soon. It couldn’t be time already. So what if Ryssa had warned him when he’d opened the door earlier, spouting some bullshit about it not taking long now?  How the hell could she possibly know? He was the one who had sat by his mother’s side all day, feeling his heart stop each time she seemed to stop breathing. He was the one who had begged to take her to the hospital, only to have her stubbornly decline.
    But instead of ranting and raving like he wanted to, he simply looked at her blankly and asked, “It’s time?”
    “Almost. She wants to say goodbye.”
    He nodded, pushing back the pain scoring his heart at those words. His mother had had bad spells before, and she’d always pulled through. This was just another bump. Yesterday, she’d been laughing and smiling, telling Ryssa embarrassing stories about him when he was little. Yeah, he’d been a real handful.
    When he walked into the room, he was sure he was right. Already his mother was looking better, more peaceful than she had all day. The oxygen mask was off. Ryssa had dressed her in a lovely pale blue silk dressing gown that showed off her eyes; she had brushed her snowy white hair until it shone.
    “Hey, Mama,” he said, reverting to his boyhood address. “You look so pretty.”
    “Ryssa helped,” she said, beaming at the young woman who had followed David in but now stood in the far