Read Online The Blood of Angels: Divine Vampires by Selena Kitt - Free Book Online Page B

fill with heat at that hungry look in his eyes. My body does things all on its own, especially in relation to him. Right now it’s heating up like a tea kettle set to boil.
    “You want to do the honors?”
    He takes the angel from me, looking at it thoughtfully as he sets it on top of the tree. I turn out the light in the living room and gasp. From the time I’d opened the box to the time he put the topper on, something’s happened. It’s been transformed into something bigger than the sum of its parts. Instead of something artificial, it’s become magical. And I don’t even believe in magic.
    “Like it?” He smiles, taking my hand as I approach the little tree. I just smile and nod. “Now I just have to find a present for you to put under it.”
    “ You’re my present.” I squeeze his hand.
    “I do have something to put under it.” He reaches for the blanket on the couch, the one he’d first covered me with, and spreads it out onto the floor. “Have a seat.”
    I sit on the floor with my back against the sofa, looking up at the tree. I’ve seen human Christmas decorations throughout my whole existence. I’ve seen them change over the years, from real trees draped with popcorn and dried fruit strings, littered with candles—oh how many lives I’d saved in those days from house fires!—to these artificial things with blinking, multi-colored lights, but I’ve never really paid this kind of attention before. Maybe because it’s never been mine—my own, personal experience.
    Is that the thing about being human? Is it that personal connection to things that makes them so sweet? Or maybe, I think, looking up at the angel tree-topper, it’s the blink of time humans spend here in this realm. And even they have longer than I do, I realize, glancing down at my exposed legs, feeling my body, familiar and yet not. My skin’s flushed but feels cool.
    “Still hungry?” Zeph carries out a tray loaded with food, putting it in the middle of the blanket. I clap my hands in delight, reaching for a handful of wasabi peas. Zeph shakes his head and says it’s a strange array of food, but I want to try it all. There’s liverwurst and little shrimp with cocktail sauce. The brie is warm and the crackers salty. Zeph’s put a bowl full of a colorful cereal called Fruit Loops in the middle of the tray that I eat by the handfuls—I’ve already made it clear I don’t want any more milk.
    “Christmas isn’t complete without ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’,” Zeph says, turning on the television.
    “What’s that?” I ask through a mouth full of marshmallows. They’re pillowy, soft and sweet.
    “It’s a movie,” he tells me as the music starts and the title comes up on the screen.
    But I’m already lost in the story of a man who wants to change his stars, alter his destiny. By the time the movie’s over, I’ve sampled everything, including the amazing stuff called popcorn that started as hard little kernels but magically exploded into something white, fluffy, and crunchy. It’s absolutely delicious with butter. And I won’t let Zeph tell me where butter comes from either.
    “See, his life was exactly as it was supposed to be,” I say as Zeph turns off the television and we’re left under the blinking lights of the little Christmas tree. “You can’t change your fate. People don’t get to decide.”
    “Sure they do.” Zeph’s arm goes around my shoulder and I rest my head on his. “They always have free will.”
    “But what about fate?” I glance up at him. “That’s what we do. We push them in the right direction.”
    “Or the wrong one.” His eyes darken.
    “It’s never the wrong direction,” I protest, frowning.
    He shrugs, turning an almond over in his fingers, studying it.
    Something occurs to me, and I have to ask. I want to know.
    “Were you one of us?” I whisper. “Is that how you know so much about us? That's it, isn't it?
    “No, little one, I was never one of you.” Zeph shakes