by Lisa Hughey
The desire to reach for her and beg her forgiveness burned inside him. To beg the Universe’s forgiveness. But she would have no idea what he was talking about, and Zach was never going to tell her that he was the one who killed her all those years ago. He would hold tight to that secret for eternity.
Cosmos help him if she ever found out that he had killed her.
He needed to consult with Michael. Just because he thought they’d found Uri didn’t mean that they would be able to rescue him. He refused to give Nora false hope. The head of the Thrones was tortured enough. And he would not contribute to her anguish.
“Are you trapped?” Zach asked, seeking an answer from Uriel.
But there was no response.
“Can you go get him?”
He wished he could just translocate beneath the surface and bring Uri out, but he couldn’t go into a solid mass. Unless he knew the precise coordinates of the pocket within the Earth’s mineral crust, he couldn’t translocate inside. “Not exactly.”
Was there another way to get Uri? Zach closed his eyes, concentrated on where his feet connected to the Earth and tried to channel the energy. It had felt muddled.
The fire was burning hot. This fire was a message. If they found the original flashpoint perhaps there was a way to communicate with Uri.
“I think he’s here.” Zach swallowed. His mission was to locate the Grigori and stop them, but if Uriel was trapped, imprisoned underneath the surface, he had to try to rescue him.
Ultimately they needed Uri to re-imprison the Grigori. They needed him.
It appeared as if he had been lead to another lose/lose situation. Continue to search for the Grigori and abandon Uri…or rescue Uri and lose the trail of the Grigori.
Eleven
“Uri!” Zach had thrown back his head, his neck muscles strained with the force of his bellow. His arms were wide, lifted up to the sky, his thigh muscles strained against the worn denim of his jeans, and his whole body was rigid with tension. “Uri!”
Shasa didn’t know what to do so she stood mute and wished there was some way she could absorb his pain, anguish, the emotion poured from him, like blood from a mortal gaping wound.
Zach’s black lashes were dark against the stark lines of his face.
For a few minutes all was silent. Even the birds and animals had stopped chattering and clicking. The woods paused expectantly, as if the entire world were waiting for…something. Some response. Some confirmation that Uri was near.
Suddenly the ground beneath their feet rumbled. The clearing seemed to roll in an endless wave that pushed Shasa off balance. Her body followed the wave, and she fell head first into Zach’s chest.
He hadn’t moved, his body planted to the earth like the thick redwood trees that circled them. Zach caught her, his reaction lightning quick as he scooped under her arms and held her steady against his chest. His heart thumped at triple speed as he tilted his head to meet her gaze.
“He’s here,” Zach said simply.
“You’re sure?”
Zach nodded. But his gaze was already far away, clearly thinking of something else as he muttered, “That’s how they are planning to jump start the tsunamis.”
She had an inkling of what he meant. “Earthquake?”
“If it was strong enough, and placed properly, they could instigate the tsunamis without much power.” Zach thought aloud. “They are testing faults, searching for the most volatile, most vulnerable.”
“They wouldn’t have much control over where the water went.” Shasa argued.
“They wouldn’t need to.” Zach countered. “As long as the Nephilim in league with them knew to get away from the coasts, they would be fine.”
“Is there really an organized group of Nephilim?”
“Yes.” Zach gritted out. “According to our sources, some of the Nephilim are in league with the Grigori.”
“Sounds pretty fantastical.”
“We don’t have time to debate the intricacies of Grigori and Nephilim allies.” Zach visibly shook himself. “We’ve got to rescue Uri.”
So time was of the essence.
“We’re going to have to shut down this fire.”
Shasa blinked. “They have every firefighter in the state of Oregon and half the firefighters of Northern California fighting this fire. How will we shut it down?”
Zach’s mouth flattened. She tried to keep her focus on his assertion, but instead, her thoughts drifted back to that moment when he’d pressed his lips to her soft belly. It had been a very long while since she’d had sex. She hadn’t been interested. She could take it or leave it.
She’d felt more arousal in those few moments with him than she had in…years.
And though it was wildly inappropriate right now, her sex tingled and her body came alive at that memory.
He just gave her a hard, intense stare. “We need to get to the origin of that fire.”
Right. The origin. Likely still the hottest spot in the entire area and that’s where he wanted to go. A premonition, a burst of concern, skittered across her spine. As if she knew she wouldn’t survive. Which was crazy. He was some super, all-powerful being. Surely he wouldn’t suggest this if he thought she would be injured. Of course, relying on someone else to make sure she’d be okay went against every single decision she’d made in her life.
The heart of the fire. Sure. No problem.
“You do realized it’s like a gazillion degrees in the heart of that fire?”
Zach nodded. “I’m going to need you.” His reluctant admission and grudging hesitation apparently wasn’t enough to stop him from asking her to go, and still she could sense the conflict within him.
Shasa had a momentary feeling that whatever she did next would determine the rest of her life. This wasn’t an uncomplicated or effortless decision. His impatience simmered as he waited for her response.
Why did the simple words, I need you, send a shiver down her spine and a pang of longing in her heart?
Because she wanted desperately to be needed like that. To have someone counting on her. But what if he asked too much? Her whole life she’d run away from complications. Run away from her fears. Could she be what he needed? Could she take the leap and stay and help him? She believed she’d been comfortable in her own skin, believed she’d found her center by living in the desert and painting, but now she realized that she’d been hiding. Sick and alone for a very long time.
As she stood in the smoky clearing, the rain misting on her skin, she realized she felt better than she had…in forever. She could either go back to hiding or she could move forward and choose to help him. She wasn’t even sure she could go back.
“How will I, we, be able to stand the heat?”
“I will protect you,” he said it like a vow. As if nothing in the world would stop him from shielding her from harm. His words were fierce but the expression on his face was even fiercer.
Instinctively, she leaned closer to Zach. Her arm brushed against his and everything within her stilled. Shasa tilted her head, listening to her body. Which was telling her to lean closer and press her mouth to his. The rat-a-tat of her heartbeat echoed in her ears and slow chanting in her head whispered, do it, do it. With more effort than should really be necessary, she pulled away.
She blurted out, “Do you have some sort of magnetic force in your body?”
“What?” he barked.
“Never mind,” she muttered. Turning away from him as embarrassment stained her cheeks a bright red. She was an idiot.
Better an idiot than crazy.
So she did it. She took a deep breath, gave herself over to the moment, and took a giant step forward. “What exactly are we going to do once we’re in the middle of this fire?”
***
Zach needed to call in reinforcements. He hadn’t exactly been truthful with Shasa. There was an element of danger going into the heat of the fire.
What if they couldn’t pull enough moisture from the earth to
quell the magical flames?
It had to be enough. Fuck.
Zach shook his head to clear it. For a moment there he’d thought she was going to kiss him. And he wouldn’t have protested. He was dying to taste her and see if she tasted like she had long ago.
But he didn’t need any more trouble. He needed to remind himself that he was on Earth as a punishment. Sure, Nora had told him that this task wasn’t punishment but she’d been wrong. And if she had any idea that he’d be thrown together with an old love, his only love, she would probably be thrilled to know that spending time with Shasa was its own special form of torture.
The truth was he wouldn’t survive loving her again.
He’d only partially survived the last time. He was still alive. Sort of. But she didn’t deserve the very real possibility that he could kill her again and he couldn’t bear the heartache that came from connecting with a human. Forbidden. Off limits.
He didn’t want to remember all of the reasons why he’d loved her the first time around, and he certainly didn’t want to discover new reasons to love her. She was much more ornery than she had been three hundred years ago. And her sass actually made him want to laugh again.
“Let’s do it.” He shook off the ancient memories. The sooner they got this done, the sooner they would find the Grigori, and he could send her back to her safe place on Earth while he destroyed their mortal enemies.
She placed her hand in his with an absolute trust and Zach translocated them to the heart of the fire.
An inferno raged around them. The fury of the fire roared like the ocean in a squall, the flames ebbed and flowed with a ferocious rage.
“Close your eyes and sense the water beneath the surface,” Zach demanded.
Her skin was crinkling and crisping as the fire licked at the protective bubble he’d circled around them.
Shasa could feel the water, a weak, flowing trickle beneath the surface. She didn’t know how that mere dribble of water was ever going to stop a fire of this magnitude. Not to mention, she had no idea how to retrieve it.
“How do we get the water to the surface?”
“Do the same thing you did with the map.” Zach commanded. “Clear your mind. Visualize it rising to the surface.”
The strain burned her lungs and lay heavy on her chest as she pictured pulling the water up as if she were the well and her thoughts, her spirit was the bucket. In her mind the water rose upwards, rising toward the surface like an upside down rain.
All around her she could feel Zach’s presence like a protective blanket, he was her shield against the immense heat. He was pulling water too but even she could see that just the two of them wouldn’t be able to douse this fire.
“We aren’t going to be able to do this.” Her voice was thin, her throat raw from the acidic burn of the ash that was far thicker than quickly diminishing air.
She could feel the strain in his arms as he physically tried to make impossible happen.
“I need to call another Archangel brother. Our leader.”
“Do it.” Shasa couldn’t hold out much longer.
Zach closed his eyes. “We need his might in order to amp up our powers. Michael,” he roared.
A giant of a man, with flowing silver hair, and dark slashing brows over ice blue eyes appeared.
“We need you to augment our power,” Zach ground out.
Michael’s brows rose. “Plan?”
“Stop this fire.”
Shasa didn’t think they had time for Zach to explain but as she looked at the giant, she knew he was going to have to give Michael something.
“And?”
“Check your senses. I think, somehow, somewhere, Uri is here.”
Michael’s eyes brightened with a flash of joy. Shasa could see that the loss of one of his men had weighed heavily on him. “Grab my hand.”
Michael reached for their hands, and they connected immediately. The zap of power was like a bolt of lightning as they quickly formed a loose circle.
This guy instilled a sense of both obeisance and fear. She held Michael’s hand in her right and Zach’s hand in her left. Michael’s hand was solid, commanding in hers. Zach’s callused fingers curled around her palm and a tingle shot from her fingertips through her body. That immediate and primal connection was undeniable.
“Let’s do this,” Michael said.
Shasa blocked out all the physical discomforts of the ever thickening smoke that burned her throat and the sizzling heat that crisped her skin. She visualized the water she could sense far below the surface wending its way through the layers of magma, rock, dirt and roots to rise to the surface and dampen the ash laden air.
She could literally feel the moisture surround them, eliminating, dousing the fire as the crackles began to sputter.
The power in Michael and Zach flowed through her, their touch like a conduit as they worked together to pull the water into the air. The process was slow, painstaking, and difficult. The effort took a toll on her body and mind as she tried valiantly to help them contain the fire.
She vaguely noted her surroundings as the roar began to quiet. She dug deep within her energy stores to help finish putting out the fire. She could hear the firefighter hot shots just over the ridge as they tamed the rest with chemical measures.
The sharp whap-whap-whap of helicopter blades cut through the smoky, muffled air as they dropped massive buckets of chemical extinguisher on the area. Within another twenty minutes, the fire disintegrated with hiss and sizzle and then finally petered out.
They had done it.
Shasa’s strength was fading, the ever present nausea and dizziness had returned like a body blow.
Zach and Michael dropped her hands.
“It’s done.” Zach smiled grimly.
She was covered in ash. Gray and black specks coated her body, decorating her arms and neck and face. When she frowned she could feel the ash crack on her forehead like some bizarre facial mask. She lifted her hands to brush the coating from her skin and the shirred waist of her top pulled high on her belly exposing a swath of skin. The light brown was an odd contrast to the white ash. As she breathed, she could feel the ash trapped in her nose restricting her air flow. “I’m like a hybrid ash zombie, half ash, half human.” She tried to laugh but it came out as a croak.
A sudden rustling in the burned out forest dragged her attention from her contemplation of her own physical discomfort. A man was stumbling toward them.
Zach did something with his hand and her clothes and face were clean, miraculously devoid of the ash that had coated her.
“Okay that really kind of freaked me out.” She wanted to say more but she was having trouble articulating and her words were a slurred mess. Shasa looked down at her clean clothes and then back at Zach and Michael. Her skin was still an odd color, the gray must be from the ash. But her thoughts skittered back to the approaching man. “Is that him?”
“Who?” Michael was staring at her rather than the forest.
“Him.” She pointed toward the man who was squeaky clean, blond and compact. Not a speck of grime or ash marred his pristine features. Just like her.
“Uri,” Zach breathed softly beside her.
“You found him,” Michael declared.
Twelve
Uri stood before them, swaying like a drunk on a three day bender, his blue eyes glazed and unfocused. He’d lost weight. The strapping Archangel who had disappeared months ago was gone. In his place, the Archangel was stripped of his bulk, his body shrunken in, his muscles defined but without the burly trademark of his Russian ancestry.
He blinked slowly and stared at the three. His brows arced down into a fierce frown as his gaze skittered between them. He lingered on Zach the longest, his frown intensifying until his mouth pursed into an inverted U. Zach was filled with a hard remorse. He needed to apologize to Uriel. He owed him for whatever had happened. Clearly Uri had suffered.
“Damn, we’re happy to see you.” Michael clenched his
fist to his forehead and bowed formally. The relief in his voice was unmistakable.
“I am not….” He glanced back and forth between Michael and Zach.
Zach tensed. Waiting for Uri’s condemnation. Waiting for the biting edge of Uri’s tongue. The last time they had been in the same vicinity, Zach had accused Uri of conspiring against the humans. He’d pushed the Realm Council to sanction Uri. And he’d been wrong.
“Look, Uri,” Zach started. “I am sorry for my accusations.” Even though he knew this was necessary, the words still stuck in his tight throat. “I should have known that you would never harm the humans.”
“Humans.” Uri’s confused gaze shifted fully to Zach. “Do I…know you?”
A silence so absolute it was crystal descended over their tense little circle.
Michael took a step toward Uri. “Who are you?”
This person was definitely Uri. That’s not what Michael was asking. He wanted to know what Uri knew.
Uri opened his mouth, frowned even harder and pursed his lips tightly.
“Zach?” Shasa said softly.
“Give me a sec.” He dismissed her. What the fresh hell was going on here? Was Uri pretending? Was he not in his right mind? His standard, brash, bigger than life demeanor was absent. Instead he was a faint shadow of his prior self.
She tugged on his sleeve. “Can’t wait,” Shasa said.
“What?” Zach barked.
He shifted his attention to Shasa. Her skin was stark white and she was shaking so hard she practically jerked back and forth. Shit. She was having a reaction to her labors to extinguish the fire.
“I don’t feel so good,” she whispered.
“Okay.” Zach curled his hand around her forearm.
Uri shifted slightly drawing his attention again. Zach’s focus was split between Shasa and Uri who hadn’t said a word since his bombshell question. Why hadn’t he answered Michael? An Archangel did not ignore their leader.
“Do you know who you are?” Michael asked again more urgently.