Sweet Temptation

by Wendy Higgins

  “Sh, Anna. Those two always fancied each other, yeah? This whole thing is awful, but you can’t stop the inevitable.”

  I hold her a moment longer before she wipes her eyes, pulling herself together. “We’d better go,” she says, standing. “I’ll tell you everything on the plane.”

  “Wait,” I say. “How much does Jay know?”

  “He knows everything,” she says with downcast eyes.

  Everything. That his best friend Anna, along with the girl he’s fallen in love with, are the daughters of demons. That Marna will die in childbirth, because their child will also be a Nephilim. That the baby’s soul will essentially rip Marna’s soul from her body when it’s born. That we’re all fighting for our lives right now. What a thing for Jay to walk into. Poor sodding chap.

  Blake and Ginger, two of the most careful Neph I know, have bloody well lost their minds. They’re bunked up in the mansion while his psychotically envious fiancée rages outside the gate. News vans are there to catch it all. He’s a local motocross celebrity whose fabulously rich father has just “died,” and this is what they choose to do?

  Yes, they’ve wanted each other for a bloody long time and have always held back. Yes, Ginger’s just found out she’s losing the person she loves most in the world, but getting themselves killed is not the answer. Especially now that the prophecy is on the horizon. It’s no longer about us as individuals. Each ally is important.

  I am livid when we finally get inside the gate. I bang on Blake’s front door, but they don’t answer. I bang again. “Open up, idiot! This is bloody stupid!”

  Finally they come to the door. They’re clearly lost to their beasts—Blake is feeding off his fiancée’s envy while Ginger gets her kicks off causing Blake to cheat. They’re both half dressed, showing signs of a shag fest with wild hair and flushed skin. For a moment I am jealous they’ve been able to give in to their need for each other, and that jealousy makes me even angrier.

  “It’s time to go, Gin,” Marna tells her.

  Ginger gives her a malicious stare. “You’re one to talk. I seem to recall that line didn’t work on you.” So, Ginger tried to warn Marna, to get her away from Jay. That makes this all the worse. “I’m quite fine where I am, thanks,” Gin snaps.

  “Like hell.” I shove open the door and stride past them, the others following. I slam the door once we’re all inside. I point at Blake. “Have whisperers seen you together?”

  “Course not.” He sounds far too blasé, and I want to beat some sense into him.

  “You’re bleedin’ lucky!”

  “Back off, brah.” He gets in my face. “What, you’re the only one who can be with your girl?”

  I want to point out that I haven’t even shagged my girl, but I know this is about more than sex. It’s about the danger of even being seen together, as we are now.

  “The Dukes were at their summit when we were together,” I remind him.

  Anna tries to intervene and calm us, but Ginger moves in. “Why do you care?” she asks me. Her eyes are wet and hardened.

  “Because we’re this close.” I lean toward her, enraged. “This close to fulfilling the prophecy, and the two of you are likely to get yourselves killed!”

  “As if you care!” Ginger screams at me. “You only give a shite about yourself. You want everyone to be willing to sacrifice themselves so you can finally be with your precious Anna. Well, I’m not waiting around anymore. I’m taking what I want from this damned life while I can!” Her cheeks have gone red.

  “It’s about all of us!” I shout back.

  “Oh, right!”

  God, this is too like our fights as children, matched in temperament. I’m filled again with a sibling-like sentiment as I let myself feel the ache Ginger must be living with.

  I take her by the shoulders. “I don’t want you dead, Gin.”

  Her eyes fill with tears. My strong Ginger, who, like me, never cries. “I’ve nothing to live for now, don’t you see? She’ll be gone. My sister is dying! And Blake will be married off to that cow. I’d rather be dead.”

  Oh, Gin. I swallow hard and take her into my arms, where she breaks down and lets me hold her up. Marna, sobbing, comes forward, and I open the embrace to include her. I want to fix this for them. It’s all so wrong. Why should mothers of Neph have to die? It’s all shite. Nothing about the life of a Neph makes any sense.

  Soon the twins are moving from my arms to embrace each other, their heads buried in each other’s shoulders as they grieve. I rub their backs and swallow again. I know they need this moment, but I turn my head and look around, wondering how long it will take for the whisperers to find us. We can’t stay here. We could ruin everything.

  When the twins pull themselves together and wipe their eyes, we all sit together in the sitting room. It’s an awkward, sad, guilty sort of silence.

  And then my mobile rings and I stare at Father’s name on the screen, feeling ill. I hold it out for the others to see and their eyes go wide.

  “Hallo,” I say.

  “I assume you took care of the girl, then?”

  “Of course, Father. She wasn’t a virgin anyhow.”

  “Interesting.” He pauses and I raise the phone to hide the deep breath I’m taking to calm my pulse. “The spirit I sent to oversee the operation has been sent back to the pit of hell, never to return to earth. Do you know why?”

  My eyes meet Anna’s worried ones. “No, Father.”

  “Because he admitted he did not stay to see your mission through to the end. He says the two of you persuaded him to leave.”

  “Bollocks!” I jump to my feet, my heart in my throat. “That disgusting wanker was distracting. It’s hard enough to try and bang a Neph without a spirit interfering.”

  “A whisperer should hardly distract you from your task, son.”

  I go still, my mind racing. I must make him believe me. “You’re right, Father. But the deed was done, and the whisperer left on his own. Obviously I couldn’t force him.”

  “Hm. I think I’ll pay the girl a visit myself. A lot’s riding on her lack of purity.”

  Over my dead body will I let him near her. I clench my jaw and force polite words out. “Do what you must, Father, but I hate to see your valuable time wasted.”

  “Good of you to care,” the bastard says before hanging up on me.

  Will it never end? Will we never get a bloody break? I yell through my teeth and kick the coffee table, flipping it with a crash.

  I feel Anna’s tentative hand on my shoulder as I pant through the rage.

  “Everything’s going to be okay,” she soothes. “We all need to get back to work. At this rate the prophecy’s bound to go down soon, and we can’t afford to lose anyone.”

  “What about you?” Marna asks her. “Where will you go?”

  Anna looks at me. “I don’t know.”

  “Well, I don’t think you should be alone,” I tell her. Not after that phone call.

  “We’re all gonna have to be alone if we want to convince them we’re working,” Blake says.

  Screw that. I’m not concerned with pretending to work anymore. Father obviously doesn’t trust me, and Anna’s in immediate danger. The others should still pretend, but I need to take Anna with me, make a run for it. We are arguing about the best plan of action when the room suddenly darkens. Sunlight from the arched windows is shadowed by an enormous dark angel pushing through the window and walls, into the room, its wings outstretched wide enough to engulf the lot of us.

  Shite! It’s too late to run. I lean back hard into the chair as I take in the whole sight, its ramlike horns curling wickedly upward and its massive body like a humanesque beast. Then I nearly swallow my tongue as it advances on Anna.

  A dreadful sense of powerlessness overcomes me and I want to throw myself between them and yell for Anna to take out the sword. And then she whispers a single word.

  “Daddy?”

  My eyes bug out. Belial? Holy shit! I’ve never seen a Du
ke outside of its body. Whisperers have nothing on him. And why has he left his body? Things must be getting dire.

  “Thank God it’s you,” Anna says, talking fast. “So much is happening. Pharzuph is hounding me, and I don’t know where to go.”

  “That’s why I’m here.” Belial’s low rumble of a voice fills my mind, so he must be projecting it to all of us. We gather to listen.

  Belial turns his huge celestial horned head to me expectantly.

  “What do you suggest?” I ask him.

  “You have only one safe option,” he says. “Get married.”

  Wait . . . what . . . ? There’s no fucking way he just said that. Everyone is staring back and forth between me and Anna, and Anna is looking at her father as if he’s spoken an alien language. She’s shaking her head in disbelief.

  “We can’t,” she says. “I have to stay a virgin. The sword—”

  “No.” Belial lowers himself so he’s eye to eye with his daughter but projects his thoughts on me, as well. “You have to stay pure of heart, Anna. What’s more pure than committing yourselves in love?”

  “But . . .” Anna’s head slowly swivels to mine. His words replay in my ears and the only ones I hear are purity and marriage.

  “No.” I stumble back. Those words are Anna, not me. They can never be me. “It won’t work.”

  Belial is wrong. He’s desperate and he hasn’t thought this through. If I join myself with Anna, I will be one degree of separation from the Sword of Righteousness. It will sense me through her. It’s smart.

  “I’m sorry, Duke Belial. I can’t marry.”

  I cannot even believe he’d think this was viable. Does he not remember how he’d wanted to keep me away from her? His reasons, the acts of my past, still live inside me. I can’t let this mistake happen.

  “Don’t be stupid, Kai,” Ginger says. “There’s no time for this. If it can save you both, you need to do it.”

  No. They’re all watching me like I’m being unreasonable, but they don’t get it. I’m too ashamed to even look at Anna, but surely she’ll understand. The stakes are too high to take this sort of chance.

  “Duke Astaroth will be able to see the bond of marriage,” I remind them.

  “Well, he’ll see the bond of love between you, which is just as bad,” Gin says.

  Has the entire world gone mad? A million pounds of pressure are suddenly stacked on my shoulders and I turn, shoving my hands into my hair, struggling to breathe.

  Marrying Anna . . . being with her in all the ways we so desperately want . . .

  Blake steps closer. “Dude, come on—”

  “Don’t pressure him,” Anna says, hurt in her voice. “If he doesn’t want to do it, he shouldn’t have to.”

  What? She’s got it all wrong.

  “Anna . . .”

  “It’s okay,” she says. “It was a bad idea.”

  Does she understand, then? Or is she being passive-aggressive? Am I the only one who sees the danger here?

  “It’s not a bad idea,” Marna pipes in. “Really, Kai. Why the hell not?”

  I don’t want to argue with her. “Marna—”

  “That’s pants!” she shouts. “What’s the problem?”

  I turn to face her. “She can’t tie herself to a bloke like me and expect to come out of it white as snow. It won’t work!”

  Marna’s eyes soften as if she’s finally getting it. But then she says, “She loves you. And you love her. You’re not going to soil her soul, babe.”

  What if I do? “My past has to be taken into account.”

  “Your past is in the past,” Anna says. “And it’s not going to . . . rub off on me or something. You know it doesn’t work like that.”

  Do I? Because I’ve always had the Midas touch, only the things I touch don’t turn to gold. They turn to ruin and brokenness and depression. It’s one thing to dream of being with Anna, but to actually take that chance is too much. I feel the eyes of the room on me and realize I’m alone in my way of thinking.

  In the next moment, Belial is in my face, his horned head large and fierce.

  “Don’t play games with me, boy. Do you love her or not?” he hisses.

  One glance at the others in the room and their wonder makes it clear I’m the only one hearing this conversation.

  “Yes, I love her.” I press this thought at him silently.

  “Then what is your fear?”

  I swallow. “That once she’s been with me, she’ll not be able to use the sword. Because of who I am, because of what I’ve done.”

  “You have to let go of that fear. Let go of your past, and focus on your love. You are changed, and it’s time to embrace your future. You’re not that same self-serving boy I drove away from my daughter. Marry her and buy yourselves time to fulfill this prophecy. Otherwise Pharzuph will find her and learn the truth. This is what will keep her safe. Do you understand?”

  He sounds so certain, but it feels impossible. A wedding? Anna deserves the whole nine yards, but that can’t happen.

  “With all respect, Duke Belial, we don’t have time for a wedding.”

  “Leave the details to me.”

  “But—”

  “If you love her,” his voice rumbles in my ear, “you will marry her. End of discussion.”

  Everyone’s eyes are still on me, suffocating me. “I need some time to myself,” I mutter. I need air.

  I turn and make a beeline for the back door, flinging it open and letting the sea breeze blast me with its warmth. I stand on the edge of Blake’s deck, staring out at the magnitude of the Pacific Ocean, and allow myself to feel small.

  Marry Anna.

  Perhaps that is what Belial had in mind all along. For someone, hopefully Kope, to secretly marry Anna and keep her safe from my father. But Anna and Kope didn’t fall in love, did they? No, it was me.

  All my life I’ve been selfish. I don’t trust the instinct inside me, shouting, Yes, make her yours and finally be with her! What if I only want this for selfish reasons? I press my thumbs into my eyes and think of Anna up there on the stage at the summit in New York so long ago. I remember the fear when I was so certain Duke Rahab would kill her. My only thought was that my knife would be through his head before his finger could reach the trigger.

  I am capable of selflessness.

  I close my eyes. Time to sort out the facts.

  I’m the only man who Anna loves. And I’m the only man who loves her. Therefore, only I can do this for her. The fact that it will fill me with immeasurable joy does not make me selfish. It makes me a living, breathing man with something worth living for.

  I’m tired of being ruled by fear.

  I fill my chest with fresh air and turn to go back inside and face my future. Anna meets me at the door, and the sight of her is exhilarating. I take her hand and she twines her fingers between mine. I lead her down to Blake’s theater room, my favorite place in this mansion.

  We sit in the red velvet chairs and I turn to face her, still holding her hand. I’m nearly bursting with all I want to say. But Anna opens her mouth first.

  “Look, I don’t know what my dad said to you, but don’t let him pressure you. You don’t have to do this. I’ll find a way to hide from Pharzuph.”

  Before I address what her father said to me, I need to make something clear. “You can’t hide from him forever, Anna.”

  “Yes, but I don’t want that to be our sole reason for getting married.”

  I look down at our joined hands. Fear may have prompted this decision, but is it the driving factor behind it? Would Belial give his blessing if we weren’t in peril? Would I care?

  “I’m telling him no,” she says.

  My eyes snap to her. I’m doused with loss. She tries to stand, but I grip her hands. “You don’t want to get married?” Is she having doubts?

  “Of course I want to, but you have to want it, too. And it has to be for the right reasons.”

  “I’d do anything for you—to keep you
safe,” I try to explain. “When I think of what those sons of Thamuz could’ve done—”

  “Wrong reason,” Anna whispers. “We can’t do this.”

  She tries again to pull away, and I want to curse myself. I’m not explaining myself well. I’m better at talking in facts than feelings.

  “Anna—”

  “Let me go, Kai.” Shite, now she’s upset. I’m mucking it up.

  “No, please,” I beg. “God, I’m just not good at this, luv. Any of it. I know this is something you’ve always wanted.”

  She closes her eyes. “That was a long time ago. When I thought I was normal. I never wanted it to be like this.”

  I don’t want it like this for her either, rushed and secretive. I want her dreams to all come true.

  “That’s what I tried to tell your father. We’ve no time to plan a fancy ceremony or to have a gown tailored—”

  “Whoa, stop.” She holds up a hand and gives me a strange look. “I don’t need any of that fairy-tale stuff. It’s the marriage that matters to me, not the wedding. As long as our hearts are in the right place, we could be in pajamas for all I care.”

  “But . . . I wanted to give you all that.” I watch her pretty face, trying to figure out what can make this right. What does she want?

  “Kai, please, tell me what you’re thinking. We don’t have much time, and we have to make a decision.”

  A decision? Does she think I haven’t decided?

  “I . . .”

  She’s watching me, searching my face for something. The only thing I can think to give her is so simple. So traditional. So not me. I slide down to one knee, still holding her hand, and look up at her. “My sweet, lovely Anna. I love you . . . and I want to marry you.” Wait, I don’t think I said that bit right. Shite, I was supposed to ask her, not tell her, as if it’s all about me. “But only if you want to. Do you? I mean, will you?” Spit it out! “Marry me?”

  She breaks into exultant laughter and falls to her knees with me, grabbing my face and pressing her soft lips to mine. We kiss over and over, but still she hasn’t responded.

  “Does it always take this long for someone to answer? It’s making me bloody nervous.”