The Second Sign Read Free

face morphed into something with rows of long, white
     teeth. His flesh, like wax, melted onto his red clothes, dripping
     around him. Gabby couldn't bring herself to look away.
    The front door burst open and the thing exploded.
     Gabby dropped to her knees under the explosion of ash and whatever
     the hell that thing was, trying not to breathe in the particles
     around her. Strong arms lifted her and she looked into the clear
     blue eyes of her twin.
    Max and Gabby were nothing alike. When they turned
     six, Max saved a kid from getting trampled in the train yards and
     got the power of persuasion, while Gabby, who had saved a snake,
     which happened to poison Mrs. Elias’ mongoose soon afterward, had
     her eyes turned purple and got the ability to see angels and
     demons. When they turned twelve, Max gave a bully the other cheek
     and got wings. Gabby punched the bully on both cheeks, nose, eye,
     and lip and got the ability to feel impressions people leave
     behind. Her brother graduated high school at the age of fourteen
     and went off to fight in the war against evil, and they called her a freak.
    “Are you all right?” Max asked.
    She shrugged out of his grip. “Yeah, I’m fine. Are
     you bringing your work home with you?”
    Gabby dusted herself off. For one, she wanted to
     make sure she was still in one piece, and two, she didn’t want any
     of that guy on her. She motioned to the pile of ash on the floor.
     Demons didn’t particularly do well in front of angels and usually
     opted to go poof instead of being sent back to Hell.
    “We were tracking a legion of demons west of here
     when”—he looked at the pile of ash as it lifted up into the air,
     sparked, and turned to nothing—“when Adler called me.”
    “I don't even want to know what that was and why
     it's here,” Gabby said just before she bolted up the stairs to her
     bedroom and the conversation of Adler came up again.
    Finding a demon in her house she could handle. Some
     souls who strayed on the edge of realms came looking for reprieve
     with Max. She’d seen three try in the last year. Hell couldn't keep
     its minions. But Adler talking to Max meant Max already found out
     about her fight. And that was way bad. She launched herself inside
     her room and slammed the door behind her. It did no good. Max was
     already perched on the windowsill outside her bedroom. Invisible to
     everyone else in this form, her gift allowed her to see him.
    She lunged for the window, but supersonic speed gave
     him an unfair advantage and he swept inside her room.
    “Adler called me today,” he repeated. He sounded
     like someone's father. He wasn't hers. She actually never met her
     father. But the veins on the side of his neck and forehead bulged.
     At sixteen he intimidated most linebackers.
    “And what did our fine guardian have to say?” Gabby
     stepped back, already looking for an exit.
    “He says you got into another fight today.” Max
     stepped closer. He swept his blond hair from his bright blue
     eyes.
    He obviously got all the good genes.
    “I did not. I never had a chance to fight.”
    “Gab, you’re supposed to lay low. No attention.” He
     lowered his voice, almost to a whisper.
    He sounded desperate, sorry for something he didn’t
     even do. It was as if he were negotiating with a suicidal jumper by
     apologizing for a world that sucked. It was the voice of influence.
     Too bad it never worked on her.
    “I know. I just can't help it. It's not like I look
     for it.” The urge to flee left her, and she sank onto her bed.
    “It isn't?” He cocked a brow, and her heart leapt
     for him.
    He looked human. Like the boy who untangled her hair
     from pines as she sobbed silently in the woods, or the boy that
     helped her with her homework when she was ready to give up on
     kindergarten and become a ninja instead. His eyes softened and he
     unfurled his wings. They glistened in the stream of light like a
     million tiny diamonds. It was a