Pulling on some clean panties after a quick shower was about all I could muster up the energy to do. I fell to my bed, yanked the comforter over my head and sighed with pleasure.
"Hello Dixie."
WTH? How could a bad day get worse? Let me see. . .the Angel of Light could show up in my bedroom when I was wearing nothing but panties.
"Leave," I snapped as I secured the comforter around me.
"Now that's just rude," he replied.
"No. It's rude to show up uninvited when I've had a shitty day."
"I didn't think I'd get an invite," he said sulkily.
"You were correct, Angel boy."
"So I invited myself."
"Look, Elijah. Hayden is my soul mate. You’re hot and all, but I'm good with the man I love," I told him.
"You kissed me," he informed me triumphantly.
"No, actually you kissed me," I shot back.
"Semantics," he said dismissively.
"Elijah, I love Hayden."
His eyes flashed and he advanced on the bed. "You think the Angel of Death is capable of love?"
"Yes, I do."
"You never had a chance," he said sadly. "You have so much good in you from your mother, but it's been tainted by your evil side."
I could certainly tell him a few things about my mother's goodness, but I was too pissed off about the rest of what he'd said.
"You think you're not evil?" I raised an eyebrow and waited.
"I'm the Angel of Light. I am goodness and love," he insisted.
"Blah, blah, blah. It seems a little evil to me to hit on your brother's soul mate."
He was taken aback at either my snarkiness or my accuracy.
"I never had a chance with you," he pouted. "You could have been perfect and good."
"Give me a break." I rolled my eyes and groaned. "There is no such thing as pure good or pure evil."
"Of course there is," he huffed indignantly. "I'm pure goodness."
"Nope."
"I am."
"Nope."
"Yes. I. Am," he roared and knocked all the pictures from my bedroom walls.
"That wasn't very good," I muttered and grinned.
"All right. Fine. I'm just pissed that I never had a chance." He crossed to the other side of the room and dropped into a beanbag chair.
The simple fact that the Angel of Light was sitting in a rose-colored beanbag chair was enough to keep me giggling for a while.
"What?" he demanded.
"Nothing. Is it because I'm a True Immortal?" I asked. "Is that why you want me?"
"No. Yes. I don't know," he admitted. "You're beautiful and you're Balance. I was hoping to tip the scales."
"And that's good?"
"No," he said sheepishly. "I suppose not."
An alarmingly depressing thought crossed my brain. Did Hayden want me for the same reason?
"No, he doesn't," Elijah ground out morosely.
"Did I say that out loud?" I gasped.
"No. I can read minds, especially when they yell as loud as yours does. As much as I loathe to admit it, my bastard brother loves you. The evil part and the good part."
"Was that so hard?" I asked, smiling. A huge weight lifted from my heart and if I wasn't mostly naked I would have hugged the Angel in my room. As annoying as he was, I did kind of like him.
"Actually it was. However, he will be pissed." Elijah grinned evilly.
"Why?"
"He'll be able to scent that I was here."
"Now that is evil," I informed him and wondered how angry Hayden would be.
"It is, isn't it? That was fun." He threw his head back and laughed. He really was beautiful, but he wasn't for me. "Dixie, I may not win your hand, but I will do my duty to help you keep balance. If you ever need me, just think of our kiss."
"Are you for real?"
"No, but it is fun being a little bad." He grinned like a naughty child. "You simply have to call my name and I will always come."
"Thank you. Elijah, are your wings black?"
"You're most welcome and, irony of all ironies, they are. It figures that the Angel of Death would get the golden wings. I have to go. I do believe evil is on his way."
He stood and vanished in a shower of golden mist.
I sighed as I realized that it was very true that he and Hayden had been the ones who had fought over me as a child. I pulled my covers tightly around me and wished the other part of his statement had been true, but there was still a week before Hayden was permitted to see me.
"Where is he?" a furious voice demanded.
"Oh my Hell," I shouted as I jumped up and banged my head on the lamp next to my bed. "What are you doing here?"
"Is he under the bed?" Hayden demanded, his eyes narrowing.
"Are you being a dick?"