Heaven

by Belinda McBride

  “Carly’s got a long road to travel. Her body is badly damaged. She’s also nearly mindless with grief and guilt. When Patrick didn’t remember who she was…” She sighed sadly. “I’m afraid she’s broken. She’ll never be the same.”

  She glanced up at Rion. He knew she was wondering about him. She was wondering if seeing his old enemy had shaken some memory loose. Rion pulled her close, dropping a gentle kiss on her forehead.

  He still had no memory of that time. He didn’t remember their wedding or their life together in that other place and time. It made him sad for Noemi. Oddly, he felt only peace with his lost past.

  “I don’t remember our life, Anahita, but I remember our love.”

  “Then that will be enough.”

  And Rion knew it would.

  Orion Hunter walked forward and stood on the hillside, looking down at the muddy pit where his old nemesis had crashed. He wondered what in hell he was supposed to do now. Turn him over to Patrick? Take his head?

  Bracing his courage, he walked to the edge of the crater. He peered in and froze. Next to him, Rex cursed. Noemi buried her face in his shoulder.

  White feathers caught on the wind and rolled over the green, green grass. In the distance, a dog barked. The smell of singed flesh made the air rancid.

  The crater was empty.

  Chapter Nine

  The field finally had sheep grazing in it again. The spring lambs scampered together, testing their legs in short bursts of speed. Farther up, toward the barn, a lazy cow chewed her cud. Noemi carefully parked the small truck in the new carport next to the workshop that Rion had built for his woodworking. The cat had finally returned. He was still spooky, but gradually warming to their presence. Sometimes Noemi wondered how long he’d been here. Rion had told her he looked just like the cat they’d left behind all those years ago.

  Up on the hill, the cottage looked alive with spring flowers blooming and vines growing up the trellises Rex had built against the walls. They’d added on to the house but left the original croft intact. They still used the cottage as their living space, but the men had designed and built an expansive kitchen plus several bedrooms at the back of the house. It turned out there were expert designers and artisans among the Sidhe, and the results were charming as well as practical. Noemi was particularly fond of the huge, luxurious bathrooms.

  She shut down the engine then jumped in surprise when Patrick spoke from the passenger seat.

  “Tonight’s the gibbous moon. Beltane as well.” His voice held that irrepressible Irish lilt, but there was a new sadness around his eyes. He got out of the truck and looked around the property. He then looked at her, taking in the scrubs she wore.

  “You have been busy. You got your license to practice here.”

  “We’ve all been busy.” She pulled her briefcase from behind the driver’s seat and walked around to join her brother. I’m practicing at a small clinic in town. I tried to talk Rex into going to nursing school, but he wasn’t interested.” She smiled up at Patrick. “He has plenty of clients of his own. They pretend I don’t know.” Instead of heading to the house, they went to the barn.

  “I imagine every farmer in the area will have abundant crops now that Reux has returned.”

  Noemi waited him out. Azrael hadn’t come for small talk. She set the case down and leaned against the fence, looking at a new calf scampering near its shaggy mother.

  “Anahita, I think I know what Michael’s intentions are.”

  She didn’t correct his use of her angelic name. After all, it was who she’d always been to him. “You haven’t been around much, Patrick. I thought perhaps you were hiding away.”

  He smiled at the gentle reminder to use her human name. They’d agreed to use human names unless they were in their true forms. “I’ve been doing that a bit, as well. I was declared rogue, though no one has come to hunt me. In fact, I have company.” He leaned against the fence next to her. “It seems Michael has been secretly torturing and killing dark angels for our skills. He specifically wants to learn to move through dimensions. As you know, he’s figured out how to teleport short distances. He still holds power in Heaven, but all the dark angels have fled and are hiding.” Azrael watched as the sun began to drop over the horizon. Sunset wasn’t far off. “There are rumors that he’s victimizing others for their skills. He’s enslaving vampires and other demonic beings and using them. And he’s committed atrocities.” He sighed deeply. “Do you remember the angel Bune?”

  “The quiet one?” They were all quiet, but Bune had little to say…ever.

  “Dark angels don’t Fall physically. We know how to avoid that. But Bune… He was maimed and corrupted. And Loke… He was damaged. Badly. He may never be the same.”

  Loke had been such a kind man. Mischievous, as his name suggested. He had been bright, golden and just a good man. Noemi let her head drop and watched as tears hit the dirt at her feet. She wiped her eyes and nodded, sensing her brother’s consternation.

  “We’ve begun to gather in secret. Now that more of us have accepted his corruption, we can begin to devise a solution that will not lead to civil war. I suspect he will soon target Sidhe like Carly and her brother who have skills he covets.”

  Noemi sighed. It all seemed so far away. Right now, there was a fire in the hearth of her cottage and dinner was waiting, as were Rex and Rion.

  “I fear for you, Noemi. His anger against the three of you is great. Rex seriously damaged him. He has not recovered.”

  “Good.” She reached out and squeezed his hand. “I worry for you, Patrick. You’ve been alone far too long. Are you now planning to go to war against Michael and his followers?”

  “It seems I must. He must be exposed to all. I followed him blindly, as have my peers. We may not deserve the happy endings you have earned.”

  “Patrick.” She dropped his hand and stepped to face her brother. “Not long ago, I was told that Anahita’s story was a tragedy, but that Noemi’s story would be happy.”

  “I pray that happens. I want that with all my heart.”

  “Well, you’re part of my story. And I insist you be part of that happy ending as well. Whatever it is you’re planning, remember that always. Eventually, I’ll be giving you nieces and nephews. I want the same in return.”

  He grinned, but it quickly faded.

  “How is…the woman? The nymph?”

  “Carly?” He nodded. Clearly, he’d forgotten her name, but not the horror of that day. “She’s healing physically. The blow severed her spinal cord. If she was human, she’d be facing her future in a wheelchair. Fortunately for Carly, she’s not human, so she’ll eventually recover. Mentally, she’s not doing so well.”

  He nodded. His face was drawn with guilt. “This also is my responsibility.”

  “Don’t be so self-important, Patrick. Her breakdown was a long time coming. If it hadn’t been you, it might have been Rex or Rion—or some poor human.”

  He flushed slightly. “Did she ever say…?”

  “How you met? I get the impression you had a one-night stand. She already knew who you were and found you in a despondent moment. She was drawn to your need, and of course, you were drawn to what she had to offer. She sought you out afterward. My guess is you rejected her offer of forgetting. Rion did as well.” Carly had been as much a parasite as Anahita had ever been. She’d fed off Azrael’s misery and confused addiction for love.

  He folded his arms and gazed up toward the sky. A dimple appeared in his cheek. “Well, I suppose I’m glad it was good for her.”

  Noemi burst out laughing. The Patrick side of his personality certainly had his moments.

  “Will you have dinner with us?”

  “No, Anahita, it is the gibbous moon, after all. And Beltane. I think my presence would be uncomfortable this evening.” A dimple played in his cheek and the wind ruffled his black hair. “I think I’ll go home and read a book tonight.”

  He stifled a grin.

  “I’ve seen
your home, Patrick. I have to say, it’s not particularly lovely.”

  He looked at her in shock. “But how?”

  “You’re my brother. I can find you in my sleep.” She hugged him. “Maybe soon I’ll be able to locate you when I’m awake as well, since I’ve gone dark. I can’t move to you physically, but Anahita was able to take me to you in my dream state. I’ve been keeping tabs on you that way.”

  For once, he hugged her back. “I’ll teach you to teleport. If you learn that easily, you should have no problems with dimensions. And I’ve seen you fight.”

  “I don’t know if you understand this, Patrick, but you aren’t alone anymore.”

  “I never was, Anahita. As long as you remained alive, I knew I wasn’t alone. Even when I was hunting you, it was more to reassure myself that you were safe and well.”

  “Ah. He admits it at last.” She smiled up at him. “You will come and visit us more often?”

  Patrick looked up at the house. The sun had sunk beyond the horizon and soft lights illuminated the windows. “Aye, I’ll come visit. But not tonight.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Don’t keep Rex waiting. Not tonight.”

  Noemi didn’t wait for him to vanish as he usually did. She picked up her briefcase and started up the new stone-paved walk to the cottage. When she turned and looked back, her brother stood watching her, his dark figure silhouetted against the gibbous moon. The door opened and before she stepped into waiting arms, she looked one more time.

  He was gone. She turned to face the waiting men.

  “Welcome home, lass. Dinner’s on the table.” Rion took her briefcase as Rex wrapped her in a spine-crushing hug. “It’s the full moon tonight, Noemi.”

  She smiled first at Rex then at Rion.

  Full moon on Beltane. Maybe tonight was the night. Rex had waited for far too long, and there was a reason they’d built extra bedrooms.

  She headed for the kitchen and the dinner that Rion had so skillfully prepared. After all, she’d need her strength for what was to come.

  Also available from Pride Publishing:

  Bad Angels: Burn

  Belinda McBride

  Excerpt

  Chapter One

  Who knew that ice could burn like fire?

  Miles beneath the surface of the Earth, she lay, slowly waking. Panic came hard and fast, her eyes were glazed and frozen. Ice invaded every orifice of her body—nostrils and ears and mouth—preventing her from seeing, hearing…screaming. Hell wasn’t fire. No. Hell was ice.

  She burned. Demon fire licked her skin even as the ice held her captive in its grip.

  Her frozen body convulsed and long-stored energy exploded from her innermost being. Above her, the slowly thawing permafrost buckled and groaned, the landscape altered and shifted. Trees fell, lakes drained and animals fled for safety.

  An old woman stood. She was heavily cloaked in skins and furs. Her bright brown eyes gleamed like polished obsidian in her deeply creased face. As though she was much younger, the woman rode out the Earth’s pains, waiting patiently as water began to bubble from a sheet of ice. As soon as it touched the frigid air, the water froze into elaborate formations that were the expression of nature’s finest art.

  The agonized shift of ice sounded like a scream in the old woman’s ears. Pain and fear resonated through the air. Before the imprisoned creature came forth from the grip of the glacier, her energy burst from within, swirling in a red, turbulent cloud. She was desperate…starving.

  Before the woman’s eyes, the creature’s spirit vanished, seeking a path to the energy it needed to live and survive this torturous rebirth. Ahnah looked across the great chasm in the ice and faced the demon who stood leering at her. He also waited for the rebirth of the ice-bound creature. He’d been the one to send demon fire down to awaken her.

  She supposed he looked pleasant to most people. Even handsome. But Ahnah gazed at him with knowing eyes and saw only twisted malevolence. He was a parasite who delighted in the taking of others. And he waited for the powerful female locked in the ice beneath their feet.

  “She’s not for a cannibal such as you, Kelet.”

  The demon grinned and waited. His human façade melted until he crouched on his haunches, clawed fingers scratching impatiently at the surface of the ice.

  For endless hours they faced each other there in the frigid, whirling winds. It was a long walk home, and would be longer since the cold was creeping steadily into her bones. But Ahnah knew her responsibility to the Fallen. She’d long heard stories of the star-colored woman who’d crashed into the ice, fleeing the great monster who pursued her. It hadn’t been Kelet, but another. One who’d tortured and twisted the angel into an unwilling mockery of herself.

  She’d fled to save others. That’s what Ahnah had heard. She’d fled to escape the dark ones who wished to use her, to consume her soul. The wise woman reached into the folds of her clothing and drew out an amulet on a leather cord. It was her most powerful medicine, whalebone carved by the skilled hands of her grandmother’s grandmother. It carried the power and magic of every woman who’d owned it. She smiled inwardly when the demon’s power wavered slightly in the presence of the sacred object.

  He frowned and looked down in bewilderment, shaking his clawed hands, which slowly became the same colors as the gray and white landscape. For the first time, fear showed in his eyes.

  Ahnah had no mercy for the demon and watched without pity as the ice grew up to trap his feet in place. “You should not have come to this place, Kelet.” The demon wasn’t a stranger to her, normally she’d accept him as part of Nature’s balance and allow him to live. But now, today, the stakes were too high. She showed no mercy as ice slowly claimed his body.

  Time stretched out meaninglessly and Ahnah waited without becoming weary or afraid. In time, the Fallen’s spirit would return to her body, well-fed and healthy. And so the old woman waited, her back hunched to the wind, her careful gaze on the broken, crumbled crater in the ice.

  * * * *

  Anahita shrieked in pain. She screamed in long forgotten fear, and her starved, frightened essence escaped her corporeal body. Her spirit broke from the glacier even as her panicked body remained entombed.

  In desperation she fled, searching instinctively for what she needed. Without physical eyes to guide her, she perceived bright dots of energy on the Earth below. Any would serve as food, but none would be enough.

  Lights flashed and died out quickly…too quickly for her to capture the energy being released. She cast her senses farther, over the continent, over the ocean.

  On the horizon, three lights glowed brighter than most. They almost lit the sky with pure, unadulterated energy. That energy would be hers if she could only capture it.

  Swiftly she arrived and hovered over those three beacons, bathing in their glow and allowing the energy to fill her, shape her, to give her form. She could very nearly see now, though her sight was not through her eyes. Three forms were lying on the ground.

  Three male forms with energy that was raw and possibly limitless.

  Not really knowing what she did, the creature cast herself over all three, instinctively drawing her power to the cradle of their manhood, drawing them to arousal. One cried out in fear…and pleasure. His dreams had been erotic, his body primed for release. The energy that escaped at his rapid climax soaked into her, filled her, and tamed the insane hunger just a bit.

  Again she drew him to release, spreading her essence to include the other men. One lay sheltered behind a shield she could not penetrate, so she turned from him to the others. Mindlessly, blissfully she fed, deaf to their cries of fear and pain. Deaf and uncaring.

  She fed, and as she fed, one male found the strength to break her hold. He was a gleaming light in her mind’s eye. He was beauty and light and goodness.

  He was knowledge and truth. And Anahita knew him.

  Horror lanced through her. She loosened her grip and a second male slipped free. His light was as bri
ght as the first and she retreated in fear.

  She was nearly sated, her mind coming slowly to grips with what she was…what she had become. She remembered what she had once been.

  Knowledge. Truth.

  It tore through her, thrusting her away from her prey like a stray dog under the boot of a farmer. She withdrew, casting a single, lingering glance on the third man, the one who fed her in such abundance. His taste was different than the others’. Perhaps his energy was a bit sweeter because it was freely given. This one knew sacrifice lead to great rewards.

  He fed her, but he’d taken something of hers.

  His flavor was that of life and growing things. It settled, warm inside her, spreading like a comforting blanket. She let go and rose, allowing her body to call her back to its icy grave and all-consuming blackness. As she settled into that frozen shell, she carried a seed…a memory. And that memory would grow to overtake the darkness that had threatened her soul all those many years ago.

  In some way, Anahita knew the circle had been closed and she had been saved.

  * * * *

  The Fallen shivered in the frigid wind. Her ice-seared eyes opened to see an elderly female hovering above her body, looking at her in concern. Beyond her were a hard gray sky and an ice-locked landscape. The woman helped her rise, quickly wrapping her feet and body in warm furs. She looped something around Anahita’s neck. Automatically, her trembling hand settled over it and the object gave her great comfort.

  The woman spoke, but it was no language she’d had ever before heard. Yet the meaning was clear.

  “Don’t be afraid, little one. Let your old mother take care of you.” Every instinct Anahita possessed told her the woman spoke true and that she was finally safe.

  Together they walked away, two stooped figures bending against the ice-laden wind. They quickly vanished into the coming night, leaving behind a frozen figure that slowly disappeared into the ice where Anahita had lain for so many years.