Hunter's Edge

Chapter Thirty

One second will change a person. One heartbeat. One moment.

"You gave up awful easy."

Angel recognized the voice. She wished she didn't. She wished she could forget the past week of her life. Up to and including Kel. It had been exactly seven days since he'd walked out on her. Seven long days. "Easy," she murmured, shaking her head. Angel didn't even understand the meaning of the word anymore.

She turned her head and stared at Ness—no, Nessa. Toronto called her Nessa. "You know, most people don't come to up to somebody sitting by a grave. It's generally recognized as private time."

The girl turned her head and studied the headstone. "Kel's father, I would guess. You were close."

Angel's mouth twisted in a bitter smile. "After Kel disappeared, his parents were pretty much the only family I had. His mom died a few years later...Jake died last month."

"I'm sorry." She said it softly, but sincerely. Nessa tucked her hair back behind her ears. All the silver rings were gone now. She didn't have a single pair of earrings on. No makeup either. A pair of baggy jeans, an even baggier T-shirt. Her eyes cut towards Angel and there was a blatant challenge in them. "You did give up too easy."

Shaking her head, Angel said, "I can't make him take something he doesn't want."

"But he does want it. He wants you. He's just afraid. Terrified. He fears he would hurt you. Or perhaps he fears what will happen when years go by, he never ages, but you do. It's a hard thing to live a long, empty life knowing the one you love is naught but dust." A haunted look entered her eyes and she added in a husky voice, "Believe me. I know."

It faded as quickly as it had come, replaced by a caustic tone. "But he's young and even if he wasn't, people often don't see the obvious until it's pointed out. He isn't what he once was...but neither are you. Not entirely."

The weird look in Nessa's eyes had Angel shifting uncomfortably. "Twelve years will change a person."

Nessa replied, "One second will change a person. One heartbeat. One moment. That, too, is something I know very well." She hunkered down in front of Angel and reached out, touched the spot on Angel's neck where Kel had bitten her.

It had healed completely. Not one sign remained. All she had left to remember that one night were her memories...and a busted window she still hadn't replaced. Boards had been nailed over it, but she just didn't care enough to worry about messing with having somebody repair it.

But when Nessa touched her neck, it burned. Throbbed. Almost like it had that night.

"People do change, girl. Some of us more than others. Some of us change in ways we don't even realize."

Angel batted the girl's hand away. "Oh, believe me. I get the fact that he's changed. I get the fact that I've changed."

Nessa smirked. "Child, you haven't got any idea on just how much you've changed—and how very little you haven't."

"Tell me something, does Kel know anybody that doesn't speak in cryptic riddles?"

The smirk on Nessa's face bloomed into an all-out grin. "Well, short, bossy, blonde brats need to have their fun somehow."

Angel cocked a brow. "Nice to know you can recognize your faults."

"Hmmm. Well, I've had a lot of years to learn that skill."

Angel frowned. "You don't look old enough to drink."

The other woman chuckled and shook her head. "And still you can't see it...things are too often more than they appear, Angel. Including me." She sighed and slid Angel a sad smile. "I look like a juvenile delinquent. But that doesn't even touch what I am."

Curiosity got the best of her. "Exactly what are you? Toronto said you were a friend." Angel touched her throat, remembered how just one touch from this girl had taken away her physical pain. Remembered how Nessa had touched Toronto and Kel and the men's injuries had faded away like fog under the sun. "Some kind of... I dunno, witch or something?"

"Witch." Nessa's eyes closed and she smiled. "Aye. Or something? Aye, that, too." She shoved to her feet then and jammed her hands deep into the baggy pockets of her jeans. "Everybody makes choices, Angel. Some aren't the wisest. Some aren't the right ones. But usually, if you act on what is in the heart, you'll come out okay." She gave Angel an enigmatic smile and then murmured, "Tell me...what is in your heart?"

Then, as Angel sat there trying to find an answer, the girl disappeared.

Into thin air.

What is in your heart?

It wasn't a simple question, and Angel discovered through the rest of the night, it didn't even have just one answer.

She had love in her heart.

She had anger.

She had misery.

She had confusion.

She had doubt.

She had questions.

But above all else, there was love. No matter what Kel said, she did love him. And she didn't love some imaginary man or a boy who had long since grown up. She loved Kel. Twelve years apart, but too much of her had recognized him. So many dreams about him that weren't really dreams, but subconscious echoes of the life he lived. Echoes that showed just how much he hadn't changed.

In the end, the love won out. But the anger was a close second.

Decision made, she lay down on the couch and grabbed an hour-long nap. She hadn't been able to sleep in her bed since the night Kel had left and she wouldn't be surprised if she never slept in it again. It seemed like his scent surrounded her and laying down on the bed seemed to make phantom hands course over her flesh.

Washing the sheets didn't help.

Burning the damn mattress probably wouldn't help either.

She had one chance to exorcize her ghosts. One chance. And it wasn't a good chance, either.

But Angel wasn't too concerned with odds. If she didn't at least make the attempt, she'd have the rest of her life to regret it. She'd make the attempt. And if she failed, then she failed and she would find a way to get on with her life.

Despite what that seriously strange guy, Toronto, had told Kel, Angel wasn't going to let this end her life. If Kel didn't want her, fine. One thing he'd been right about was that she'd never let herself get over him. Somewhere deep inside, maybe part of her had known he was still alive, and she'd just been waiting.

She wasn't going to wait any more.

If he turned her away, that was it. She may never be able to keep from loving him, but she'd sure as hell stop sighing and crying over a man she wouldn't ever have.

Angel would find a way to get on with her life and it wouldn't be an empty one.

She loved Kel. But she had her pride and she had a heart full of anger—and one question to ask.

She didn't bother to take anything more than a change of clothes and some toiletries thrown into a duffle bag. She wasn't exactly sure where she was going but if by some slim chance fate cut her a break, maybe it would be a while before she came back. Of course, there was a better chance she'd be heading back here within a day or so.

Once she did, she'd get the window fixed, hire a few guys to do the repairs on the house and sell the damn thing. Only one person had kept her in Greenburg all these years, only one thing. Caring for Kel's dad. But Jake was dead now...and when he died, he'd made her his sole beneficiary. A certain percentage of his estate went to the church, but the rest was hers and she was going to use it. For...something. To help her find some sort of life without Kel.

But first, she was going to get an answer to her question.