by Azure Boone
“In Jesus name I pray. Amen.”
Micah covered his face with his hands to hide what that did to him. Fuck.
“That’s how I pray.” She stroked his arm. “Just like I’m talking to you. That’s how I talk to him. That’s all you have to do baby.” She kissed his shoulder and Micah pulled her into a tight embrace, burying his face in her neck.
“That was… so fucking beautiful, Sarah.” He kissed her temple and cheek over and over. “I love you.”
“Get a room.”
Micah tensed at the sound of Tabitha’s voice. Sarah pushed to get out of his embrace and he refused her. One glance Tabitha’s way and he jerked his head back at glimpsing long sheer black. Probably nothing beneath it. He put his forehead to Sarah’s temple and whispered, “Un-fucking-believable.”
Sarah leaned to look but Micah moved and blocked her view. Sarah finally managed to get a look and made a sound of disgust.
Micah put his mouth at her ear. “She’s just putting on a show. Ignore her.”
Sarah pressed a hand to his cheek and turned into his mouth and kissed him. Really kissed him. Micah let his moan loose, a thrill shooting through him.
“Go get some fucking clothes on.” Micah turned his head at Shawn’s pissed voice, glad to see it aimed at Tabitha. “This isn’t a Victoria Secret fashion show.” He sauntered to the cabinet and got a coffee cup. “Kind of early for the love birds,” he mumbled, pouring coffee and setting the pot back with a clamor.
A thrill tingled through Micah at the jealousy in the grumpy words. Or maybe it was Micah’s wishful thinking. Micah tensed as he strutted over with his perfectly ripped, scar-free, tanned torso and sat across from them, not caring if he were welcome.
“How’s my baby girl feeling?” Shawn aimed his burnt chocolate gaze at Sarah and lava slithered through his stomach at the endearing term.
“I’m very good.” Sarah smiled at Micah and his breath caught when her hand cupped his cock. “Micah knows how to make me forget everything.”
The joy that surged through him mixed with arousal and he pulled Sarah close to him. “So does she.” Beneath the table, he stealthily slid his hand up her gown until he encountered soft wet folds. No panties. Micah’s cock throbbed and she scratched her nails slowly over it. He put his face on her hair and closed his eyes, stifling a groan.
Shawn let out a snort and looked out the window. “Oh I’m sure she does.”
The implication infuriated him and Sarah opened her legs for more. “Micah is the real master here. An expert.”
Dear God. Was she really doing this?
“I imagine that he is. He’s been around the block in his… life.”
Micah slid his finger inside Sarah.
“Oh! Right!” she gasped and cleared her throat. “He’s had a hellish life.”
“Nice pun,” Shawn said, sipping his coffee.
Micah flicked deep inside her, caught up in the thrill of their little secret beneath the table. An idea occurred to him as he allowed his thumb to masturbate her clit.
“Thank you!” Sarah said too loudly, fanning her face. “Sorry, sudden… hot flash.”
Micah leaned in and kissed her cheek. “You’ve been having a lot of those lately. Are you feeling okay?” Perfect casual concern.
She swallowed. “I’m feeling…” she nodded and covered her face with both hands. “Just a little… hot.”
“Do you need to vomit?” Shawn eyed his panting cousin with real concern.
“She’s always hot, it seems.” Micah kept his pace perfect over her clit. “At least that’s what she tells me.” He kissed at her temple and angled his head to look at her, his other hand on her shoulder, rubbing in matched erotic circles.
She nodded with her hands over her face. “Yes. I am.” Her attempt at casual came in a high pitched squeak. The sound of a woman on the verge.
“Maybe another body massage?” Micah suggested, flicking her core.
“Oh God, um, yes, yes.” She put her head down on the table. “That always helps.”
Micah waited for the cousin to figure it out. Prayed he would. And then the moment came when his gaze narrowed. The priceless moment.
A vague tink of glass came with the silent explosion of Shawn’s brain out the left side of his head. Shawn’s eyes rolled up and he toppled sideways as terror locked Micah’s body in timeless seconds before survival instincts kicked in. He yanked Sarah down and pushed her under the table. Micah pulled her cousin’s limp body from the booth seat to the floor, frantically searching him for a weapon.
Tabitha’s screamed ripped the air then cut off midway.
“Move, and I’ll torture her for seven days straight, brother.”
Micah froze at the sound of Scythe’s cold words and slowly put his hands up, his body humming with a million reflexes. Micah’s heart lurched at seeing Agony storm forward and yank Sarah out from under the table by her hair. He couldn’t keep his hand from reaching for her, like his body needed to protect her even while his mind grappled for control. But there was nothing he could do. God, there was nothing he could do.
Chapter Thirteen
“What’s going to happen?” Sarah whispered to Micah. They had them chained back to back in one of the holding rooms beneath the renovated castle he’d called home for so many years.
Micah fought to unhinge his jaw to speak to her. Terror had him immobile. He needed to save her and he couldn’t. Panic ravaged his muscles and mind and he panted from the strain of not giving in to the raving lunatic clawing at his insides. “Sarah! Help me pray. Please!” The beg came out broken and desperate.
“Okay okay,” she whispered, squeezing his hands tightly behind her.
Micah fought not to sob, fought to hold back the avalanche inside him.
“How about we-we pray the Lord’s prayer, okay?” Her tone said she was aware of how close he was to the edge and she was being strong for him. The idea burned, her love always fucking burned him that way.
Micah growled through the sobs choking him. “I don’t fucking know it.”
“Breathe baby. Listen to me. If this is how we die, then so be it. I’m going to die without fear, without regret. No regret Micah!”
Grief and agony ravaged Micah until he could only weep with a silent bitterness.
Do you fucking hear me!” Sarah screamed.
He nodded, eyes clenched tight and roared his answer. “Yes! Yes I fucking hear you. Pray with me Sarah, I don’t want you to die, fuck! Pray to your God to save you.”
“I don’t want to be saved without you!” she screamed back. “We’re in this together. If you die I’m going with you, we’re one flesh Micah, you are part of me don’t you fucking take that from me!” Her final words came through childlike wailing that demanded Micah’s strength and sanity.
Her protector. Her husband. She needed him. Micah struggled to focus his mind.
“Our Father… who art in Heaven… Hallowed be Thy Name.”
Micah listened to the words, etching them into his mind like a combination lock to freedom.
“Thy kingdom come… Thy Will be done… on Earth as it is in Heaven.”
When there were no more words, Micah gasped, “Again.”
This time he prayed with her and when they reached the end, Micah sobbed, “Again!”
The doors of their cell opened up and the Hell Hound escorts came in large number. Micah waited and watched for the opportunity as they loaded them into separate sacrificial carrying cages. A Hell Hound unlocked their linking chains and Micah fought with roaring screams as a handful of them crammed him into his pen. “Help me God! Fucking help me!” he screamed. Surely he would. For His Sarah. His faithful Sarah.
Micah’s hope faltered as they carried them underground to the Sacrifice chamber.
“Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil. Thy rod and they staff, they comfort me.”
Tears burned Micah’s eyes at her shaky words. He remembered t
hem but didn’t know it, he hadn’t learned it. He should’ve learned it. How would he save her now, he didn’t know any prayers?
“They’re going to make me sacrifice you first Sarah.”
She stopped praying then whispered, “Oh thank God.” She was relieved. “I want you to do it. If God isn’t going to intervene, then I want to die by your hand. Not the devil’s.”
Pain speared him. “I’m not—”
“Don’t say it. You are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.”
Agony choked him. “I don’t feel fucking redeemed!” he strained.
“That doesn’t change that you are.”
“God will save you, I know he will,” Micah sobbed.
“They can only kill my body. And if they do, the next second I’m in Heaven. Like a blink, baby.”
“Oh God, don’t let her die,” Micah cried, “you can’t let her die, I beg you.”
“Shh-shh,” she whispered. “Please help me be strong Micah.”
“I can’t!” he roared, only to immediately regret his fury. “I’m sorry, I can’t be strong for this, don’t make me, please don’t make me.” Micah looked around at the Sacrifice Chamber. The circle was prepared and the alter was lit.
“Please Scythe!” he screamed. “I’m sorry, I’ll do anything you want. Trevor, I beg you! Agony! Agony I’ll marry you, I’ll love you!”
“Stop it! Stop it!” Sarah screamed at him. “Don’t Micah, please, please be strong! For me!”
Micah struggled against the chains and roared at the coven who stood silent in ritual holiness. “I hate you! All of you! You’re all liars! God is good! You lied about Him! You lied! You told me He didn’t care about me! That He didn’t have power! That He didn’t love me!” Micah threw himself into the cage wall. “You lied! He does love me! He does have power! He cares! Sarah is proof! She is proof of God! You’re not gaining anything—it’s all a lie!”
His screams fell on deaf ears. They dragged Sarah to the Sacrifice Stone and stripped her naked. Micah saw the tremor in her body from twenty feet away and screamed in fury. Screamed like a mad man.
The Hell Hounds approached his cage when she was secured and again Micah waited for his chance. The second they opened the door he exploded like an insane animal on a leash, yanking at the chains, fighting to get just one of the Hell Hounds near him.
Micah braced for pain when the electrical prods surged forth in a wall of blue. Sarah’s scream echoed through his head as his body submitted to the white hot power.
“That’s enough,” Agony commanded. “Or else he won’t be able to cut her heart out for me. I don’t want a sloppy job! This whole debacle is ruined with all this noise. For once I wished we’d require gags!”
Micah stumbled forward, his muscles lagging and jerking in confusion. “Micah.”
The gentle whisper latched itself to his mind, a silky tugging. He looked down and met the gaze before him. Sarah.
He gazed around then down at his hands. At the knife in it. The un-holy blade forged in pure and perfect evil. Tears gushed from his eyes and his hand trembled.
“Do it Micah,” she whispered. “I love you. A blink and I’m in heaven baby. I’ll be so happy there. You’ll be there right after me, okay? We’ll be together and nothing will be able to tear us apart.”
Micah let out a roar of pain and agony. Why? Why did it have to be this? “I don’t want you to go!” he screamed at her. “Pray! Please pray, I beg you!”
“Oh God, do it Micah! Now!” she screamed back before sobbing. “Only a second, I promise you! You’re putting me right in God’s arms.”
He wiped his tears on his shoulder. “Are you sure? Are you sure it’s fast, Sarah? God is there?”
“Yes, yes, yes, I promise, you know I wouldn’t lie about this, not one bit! Do it baby.”
Chanting filled the air like a sick thrum of voices. “Mark the fucking sacrifice,” Agony screamed at him, “You disgusting, pathetic man.”
Micah regarded the bowl of blood next to Sarah’s head. He took it and threw it at Agony’s head then took the blade and slit his wrist. “My blood will be given to prepare this sacrifice!”
Micah marked Sarah’s body with his blood and began praying the only real prayer he knew. “Our Father, who art in Heaven. Hallowed be Thy name.” Strength and peace entered him as he locked gazes with Sarah. She nodded and prayed with him quietly beneath the now deafening chant that called forth ancient demons. All her life points marked with his blood, Micah raised the blade above Sarah. She smiled. “For Thine is the Kingdom. The Power. And the Glory. Forever and ever.”
Micah’s arms trembled and he grit his teeth.
“Amen,” she whispered and closed her eyes.
“Hold the fuck up.”
The deep voice came from his right and he looked.
“Don’t hurt her.” A huge man walked up to him. Black wings. Black eyes. And a smoking black three pronged staff in his right hand. “Sorry it took me so long. It’s been a hectic week.” His deep voice rumbled with ominous doom.
A huge shiny black panther padded up next to him. “Can we hurry up? This place fucking stinks.”
“You caused quite racket in the spirit realm with that last prayer,” the giant man said. “Impressive. I’ve had my eye on you both. Was wondering if maybe you would want to work for me.”
The large cat mewled up at him. “For you?”
The man rolled his eyes. “With me.”
Micah looked around.
“They can’t see me. And as soon as you say yes, they won’t be able to see you either.”
Micah glanced down at Sarah.
“She can’t see either. Yet. And yes, she comes with you. I need both of you.”
Micah stared incredulous at him. “Dear God. The black angel.”
“Onyx” The man held his hand out in greeting and Micah finally realized he expected a handshake. Not wanting to piss him off, he shook it. “I’m Zool,” the man said. The Onyx Warrior.” He tossed his head right. “This is Kcearn. My faithful pussy cat.”
Micah swallowed, joy and relief finally finding its way into his psyche. “Well I’m Micah. And fucking dumbfounded.” He realized he was shaking the angels hand rigorously but couldn’t seem to stop. “And I am… forever at your service.”
“Good. Kcearn? I smell a rat.”
In that second, the air above Micah split open. He watched in frozen horror as a spindly legged red spider the size of a truck crawled out.
“Can I have it?” The large cat’s growl vibrated the air around them.
“Don’t be sloppy, will you?” The angel sounded annoyed. “So, what’ll it be? You with me, or what?”
Micah stared in wide eyed awe as the cat grew in size during its leap on the creature. Holding it between massive paws, it bit the things head off and shredded its body like a ball of yarn then padded lazily toward them, his size shrinking back down with each step.
The dark angel pointed to the floor next to him. “Don’t. Touch me. You need to get clean in the tank.”
The cat’s tail swished eagerly behind him. “I hate that stupid thing.”
“Well, that’s the breaks, we’re not in Kansas, Toto, make fucking do.”
“You want me to grab the old man?”
“Oh would you?”
“Anything to get the hell back to my room.”
“To your Delphinus, you mean.”
“Yeah and I’m sure you’re missing Tina.”
“No, you see these two?” he pointed at Micah. “That’s my anti-Tina toxin. You can’t ask for two better people to form a warrior. They were about to sacrifice their lives,” the angel bragged.
“You still need a wife.”
“Go get the old man and leave that business to me.”
The cat walked off repeating the angel’s words in a mousy voice.
Micah stood frozen in shock. “Am I… in another world? Dreaming? Stuck in limbo?”
He waved his hand. “No. But look,
seriously. There’s this early Armageddon fiasco on Earth that’s required the attention of the Elite Brotherhood of War,” he said casually. “I need a couple in love. That would be you two. I have to use your bindings to form a warrior.”
“Bindings?”
“You know, your passion. Lovemaking?”
Micah crimped his brow, worried now.
“It’s the greatest power on Earth between couples. The Archangels Brotherhood of War are using that pure passion—harnessing it. In exchanged for some of my angelic power. It’s like a trade? We become a team?”
Micah felt his head shaking and the man sighed. “Look. Yes or no. Yes, then we need to get the fuck out of here. No, then I’ll return you to your regular scheduled programming here.”
Micah looked at Sarah. As nuts as it seemed, the terror of returning to what he was about to do answered for him. “Yes. Yes absolutely.”
The large angel let out a sigh of relief. “I’ll need to get her yes as well.” He walked up to Sarah and Micah suddenly wanted to hide her nakedness from him. But the man blew a dark mist over her body and covered her with shimmering… onyx? Then he touched her. “Wake up, love.”
His deep voice changed to rough silk, the sound at odds with his enormous frame. Sarah sat up like she’d woken from a restful sleep. She looked at the man, then at Micah, confused.
“No, you’re not dead,” Micah helped. “Remember the… dark angel the little boy told us about?”
Sarah’s eyes popped with a gasp. “Holy shit!” She slapped her hand over her mouth. “Sorry.”
Micah listened in rapture as the man explained to her everything he’d explained to him, only in softer, gentler, even plainer terms. Micah couldn’t deny it. Rabid excitement ate him up at what was happening. It was fucking insane but yet…
“Micah.”
Micah spun around at the familiar voice and met the sparkly gaze of Revyn. Seeing him there, alive, made it all possible. He hugged the man fiercely, gasping at feeling he was real. “This is happening?” Micah whispered.