STRANGE ANGELS Strange Angel series, book 1 Lili St. Crow
PROLOGUE
I didnt tell DadTheres that space between sleep and dreaming where thingsnot quite dreams, not fully fledged precognition, but weird little blends of bothsometimes get in. Your eyes open, slow and dreamy, when the sense of someone looking rises through the cotton-wool fog of being warm and tired.
Thats when I saw it.
The owl ruffled itself up on my windowsill drenched in moonglow, each pale feather sharp and clear under icy light. I hadnt bothered to pull the cheap blinds down or hang up the curtains. Why bother, when weDad and meonly spend a few months in any town?
I blinked at the yellow-eyed bird. Instead of the comfort that means Gran is thinking about meand dont ask how I know the dead think of the living; Ive seen too much not to knowI felt a sharp annoyance, like a glass splinter under the surface of my brain.
The owls beak was black, and its feathers had ghostly spots like cobwebs, shadows against snowy down. It stared into my sleepy eyes for what seemed like eternity, ruffling just a bit, puffing up the way Gran always used to when she thought anyone was messing with me.
Not again . Go away .
It usually only showed up when something interesting or really foul was about to happen. Dad had never seen it, or at least I didnt think so. But he could tell when I had, and it would make him reach for a weapon until I managed to open my mouth and say whether we were going to meet an old friendor find ourselves in deep shit.
The night Gran died the owl had sat inside the window while she took her last few shallow, sipping breaths, but I dont think the nurses or the doctor saw it. They would have said something. By that point I knew enough to keep my mouth shut, at least. I just sat there and held Grans hand until she drained away; then I sat in the hall while they did things to her empty body and wheeled it off. I curled up inside myself when the doctor or the social worker tried to talk to me, and just kept repeating that my dad would know, that he was on his wayeven though I had no clue where he was, really. Hed been gone a good three months, off ridding the world of nasty things while I watched Gran slide downhill.
Of course, that morning Dad showed up, haggard and unshaven, his shoulder bandaged and his face bruised. He had all the ID, signed all the papers, and answered all the questions. Everything turned out okay, but sometimes I dream about that night, wondering if Im going to get left behind again in some fluorescent-lit corridor smelling of Lysol and cold pain.
I dont like thinking about that. I settled further into the pillow, watching the owls fluffing, each feather edged with cold moonlight.
My eyes drifted closed. Warm darkness swallowed me, and when the alarm clock went off it was morning, weak winter sunshine spilling through the window and making a square on the brown carpet. Id thrashed out of the covers and was about to freeze my ass off. Dad hadnt turned the heater up.
It took a good twenty minutes in the shower before I felt anything close to awake. Or human. By the time I stamped down the stairs, I was already pissed off and getting worse. My favorite jeans werent clean and I had a zit the size of Mount Pinatubo on my temple under a hank of dishwater brown hair. I opted for a gray T-shirt and a red hoodie, a pair of combat boots and no makeup.
Why bother, right? I wasnt going to be here long enough for anyone to care.
My bag smacked the floor. Last nights dishes still crouched in the sink. Dad was at the kitchen table, his shoulders hunched over the tray as he loaded clips, each bullet making a little clicking sound. Hi, sweetheart.
I snorted, snagging the orange juice and opening the carton, taking a long cold draft. I wiped my mouth and belched musically.
Ladylike. His bloodshot blue eyes didnt rise from the clip, and I knew what that meant.
Going out tonight? Thats what I said. What I meant was, without me?
Click. Click . He set the full clip aside and started on the next. The bullets glinted, silver-coated. He must have been up all night with that, making them and loading them. I wont be in for dinner. Order a pizza or something.
Which meant he was going somewhere more-dangerous, not just kinda-dangerous. And that he didnt need me to zero the target. So he mustve gotten some kind of intel. Hed been gone every night this week, always reappearing in time for dinner smelling of cigarette smoke and danger. In other towns hed mostly take me with him; people either didnt care about a teenage girl drinking a Coke in a bar, or we went places where
Dad was reasonably sure he could stop any trouble with an ice-cold military stare or a drawled word.
But in this town he hadnt taken me anywhere. So if hed gotten intel, it was on his own.
How? Probably the old-fashioned way. He likes that better, I guess. I could come along.
Dru. Just the one word, a warning in his tone. Moms silver locket glittered at his throat, winking in the morning light.