Requiem for Darkness - A Paranormal Romance Featuring Fallen Angels, Demons, and Witches

by Shuler, Tara

  “Malachai, please,” she whispered. “You have to stop this!”

  “I’ve lost everything… everything,” he growled menacingly. “To do the right thing. To be a good person. And now you think I’m a monster and that demon is the angel!”

  “What are you talking about? I don’t think you’re a monster!”

  “Liar!” he shouted, the veins in his temples pulsing erratically. “I can see it in your eyes!”

  His lower lip trembled, and Beth watched as his eyes glazed over. He blinked, and suddenly looked confused. The put her hands on his chest to push him away, but she was gentle.

  “Malachai, I don’t think you’re a monster,” she repeated. “I promise.”

  For a moment, he stopped breathing and became eerily still. His lip quivered again, and his eyes were glassy and full of anguish. He exhaled, and a slight groan of pain escaped his lips. He lowered his head slowly to her shoulder, and his hands clasped her waist.

  Beth lifted her hands over his chest and behind his neck, slowly encapsulating him in a gentle embrace. Malachai dissolved into choking sobs, and his arms now clung tightly to her as he sobbed into her shoulder.

  “Shh,” Beth whispered into his ear. “It’s alright, Malachai. I’m here.”

  She held him close as he broke down, stroking his hair gently and telling him everything would be alright. She wasn’t sure how much truth there was in that. In all honesty, she had no idea if anything would ever be alright again. But her heart was breaking. Malachai, normally so calm and in control, was losing it. Something was very wrong.

  “What is going on in here?” Aztos’ voice echoed through the room and rattled everything.

  His eyes bulged and his fists clenched as he watched Beth and Malachai clinging to one another. Malachai’s body pressed against hers, and she was leaning backward over the dresser. The both looked at him with guilty expressions, though they’d done nothing terribly untoward.

  “It’s my fault,” Malachai said quickly. “I had a breakdown. She was only comforting me.”

  “I am supposed to believe that?” Aztos snarled.

  In a flash, Aztos had Malachai pinned against the wall by his throat. Malachai’s bare feet dangled in the air, as Aztos pushed him higher. Malachai clutched Aztos’ hand, trying to pull it away from his throat, but he was too weak.

  “Aztos, stop!” Beth pleaded, pulling at his arm with both hands.

  Aztos steadied himself by placing his other hand on the wall beside Malachai’s head. He leaned in until his face was so close to Malachai’s that their noses almost touched.

  “Stay away from my wife, or I will tear out your heart and squeeze the life out of it myself,” Aztos growled, the amber clouds in his eyes swirling rapidly.

  “Aztos, let him go,” Beth implored. “You’re killing him!”

  Malachai struggled to breathe. His face turned red, then purple, and finally it began to turn blue. His struggling weakened, and Aztos tightened his grip in Malachai’s throat.

  “Please! Aztos, stop!” Beth pleaded. “Stop, before you kill him!”

  Beth noticed the flesh just under Aztos’ right eye twitch slightly, and she placed her arms delicately on his shoulder. He flinched, but he did not recoil from her touch. Still enraged, he continued to choke Malachai.

  “Aztos, please,” she whispered.

  He turned his eyes toward her and saw the pain and pleading within them, and his grip on Malachai’s throat loosened slightly.

  “Let him go,” Beth said gently. “This isn’t you. I know you.”

  His grip loosened more still, and he turned his eyes downward, looking at the floor.

  “Aztos, remember who you really are,” Beth begged him.

  Finally, he released Malachai, who slumped unconscious to the floor. Beth immediately fell to the floor beside him, shaking him, and trying to rouse him.

  “Malachai!” she called. “Malachai, wake up!”

  He was breathing, but he did not stir.

  “Move,” Aztos snarled, and Beth quickly stepped aside.

  Aztos hoisted Malachai’s limp body over his shoulder and threw him onto the bed. He slapped his face a little too hard, and Malachai stirred.

  “What… happened?” Malachai asked.

  “You were attempting to copulate with my wife,” Aztos snarled.

  “What? No! I wasn’t…” Malachai attempted to explain.

  “Stop! I am no fool!” Aztos shouted. “I know what I saw!”

  “Aztos, it wasn’t…” Beth tried to interject.

  “Enough!” Aztos shouted, and he disappeared.

  “Damn it!” Beth snapped.

  “I’m sorry,” Malachai said weakly. “I… I don’t understand what happened to me. I wasn’t in control of myself. I’ve never felt that way before.”

  “It’s not your fault,” Beth said confidently. “Something happened to you. I don’t know what it is, but I’m going to find out. Just get some rest.”

  Beth cleaned up the mess Malachai had made when he hurled the tray of food across the room, and she took the remains into the kitchen. She heard a breeze and a rustling sound behind her, and she turned to see Aztos standing behind her. His face was tense with agony.

  “Elizabeth, you are my wife. I am well within my rights to expect you to remain faithful to your vows,” Aztos snarled.

  “I have been!” Beth shouted. “Malachai is my friend, and I can’t just abandon him!”

  “You will do so,” Aztos demanded. “You must! I want him out of this house tonight!”

  “He needs me, Aztos!” Beth said, her eyes pleading. “You have no idea what he’s going through!”

  “I need you!” Aztos shouted, slamming his fists into the kitchen table so violently it crumbled to pieces.

  Beth’s eyes widened, and for a moment, she was breathless. She blinked – her mouth hanging open in shock. Could it really be that he felt something for her, after all?

  “Aztos…” she whispered, her hand reaching gingerly toward his arm.

  He recoiled, the storm in his eyes shifting violently in turmoil. He stepped backward, his knees buckling. Aztos clutched his chest and fell to his knees. A knot formed in the pit of his stomach and began to swell. It felt as if he’d been kicked in the stomach, and his abdomen were filling with blood – as if it might burst at any moment. His heart pounded, and his throat began to swell. Never had he felt such a violently strong emotion. Never had he believed he could.

  “Why?” he asked her, his voice barely audible – dampened by the excruciation emotional agony that twisted inside him.

  Beth stared at him, her eyes wide, and her mouth hanging slightly open. Why was he reacting this way? She couldn’t understand.

  “I… I don’t understand, Aztos…” she barely managed to say. “You said… demons don’t feel emotions the same way. You told me… our marriage was nothing to you… that I was nothing to you.”

  “Clearly… I was wrong…” he panted, struggling to draw air into his lungs, which threatened to collapse.

  His eyes squinted, stinging. He clenched his teeth and squeezed his eyelids together tightly in a vain attempt to conceal the emotions that threatened to rip him apart. Everything he’d experienced – the horrific abuse at the hands of his father, the horrifying things he’d been forced to do – none of it could have prepared him for pain of such excruciating intensity.

  “Aztos, I didn’t know. I never thought…” Beth began, kneeling down beside him and trying to embrace him.

  “No!” Aztos shouted, flinging himself backward to escape her touch.

  “Aztos, please,” she begged. “Nothing happened! I was comforting a friend, and nothing more! I would never break our vows! Never!”

  Beth’s vision blurred as her own tears threatened to spill. Her heart ached, and she desperately longed to prove to him that nothing had happened between her and Malachai. Aztos had jumped to his feet, and she followed him as he backed away from her.

  “Aztos,
I didn’t know you felt this way. I thought you…” Beth went on.

  “You had to know,” Aztos groaned weakly, interrupting her. “You had to.”

  “You told me, Aztos! You told me I meant nothing to you! You said our marriage was nothing but a sham – a thorn in your side! You said I was a mere annoyance that you’d be forced to deal with until…”

  She couldn’t finish the sentence, remembering how deeply the pain had wrenched at her insides when he’d said it.

  “You do realize he is no better than I am,” Aztos snarled, lashing out in the only way he knew how.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I realize I am nothing but a demon – an evil monster, detestable and undeserving of love,” he growled, pain burning in his eyes like fire. “But he is fallen. Your precious angel is every bit the monster I am!”

  “I have never seen you as a monster, Aztos,” Beth argued. “Never! You’ve never given me a chance to show you how I felt!”

  “Felt?” he spat. “Past tense? As in… you no longer feel anything for me?”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “That is what you said!”

  “And you said I meant nothing to you! Was that the truth?”

  “I told you the truth as I saw it at the time,” Aztos hurled at her.

  “But you’re saying you don’t see it that way now?”

  “I… no! That is not what I am saying at all!”

  “It sounds like that’s what you’re saying!”

  “I told you, demons do not feel emotions the same way as humans.”

  “But you do feel them, don’t you?” she asked, stepping forward and placing her hands softly on his arm.

  He opened his mouth to say something, but the words did not come. For a moment, he looked weak, even vulnerable. Then his gaze became stony, and he looked away.

  “Aztos, please,” Beth begged him, her voice breaking. “Tell me how you’re feeling. There’s nothing wrong with having emotions. If you feel something for me… anything… I need to know.”

  Her hands still rested lightly on his arm, and the tension in his muscles managed to relax slightly. Still, he said nothing.

  “Please talk to me,” she implored once more.

  “Why? Why do you care so much for a demon – one who has done unspeakable things and has made you so miserable?” he shouted.

  “Do you want to know the truth? The silly, yet completely undeniable truth?” she asked him.

  “Yes,” he said hoarsely.

  “Because I love you, Aztos.”

  For just a moment, his dark heart softened. Never had anyone said those words to him, and he never thought anyone would. In fact, it had never really occurred to him to expect it, or even to care. Now, however, it was the only thing that mattered. Then he remembered Malachai.

  “No!” he shouted. “You love your precious Malachai! He is what matters to you.”

  “I care about him. I don’t deny that. But I have never loved him. I have always loved you.”

  “You lie.”

  “I swear it’s the truth. I have no reason to lie to you, Aztos. If I wanted to be with Malachai, I could have left a long time ago.”

  “But he loves you. I can see it in his eyes. And his heart is pure. Why would you not choose him over me?”

  “Your heart is pure, Aztos. I know it. I’ve felt it all along. These things you are compelled to do don’t come from you. These are things you would never think to do on your own.”

  “Why does it matter when I cannot do anything about it?

  “What if there was something you could do?”

  “There is nothing.”

  “But what if there was?” Beth pressed.

  “Why do you care, anyway?” Aztos scoffed. “I am a demon, and you deserve far better than me.”

  “There is no one better than you,” she admitted. “Not in my heart.”

  Again, he scoffed.

  “Everyone is better than me.”

  “That’s not true!” Beth insisted vehemently.

  “The things I have done have precluded me from deserving love, and I would not want it even if that were not true.”

  “You know that’s not true, Aztos,” Beth argued. “And whether you deserve love or not, you have it… you have mine. Aztos, I love you with all my heart. How can I make you see that?”

  Aztos was unable to think or respond. The pain of seeing her with Malachai had been unbearable. He’d wanted to tear his own heart from his body and destroy it to make the agony stop, but not before doing the same to Malachai. Now, he was almost believing what Beth said might be true.

  “I want to believe you,” he said quietly.

  “Anything… I’ll do anything you ask if only you will believe me,” she pleaded.

  The scene of Malachai and Beth embracing flashed in his mind. It tormented him, and he knew it would never stop. There was only one thing she could do to get rid of it.

  “Kill him,” Aztos demanded.

  “Wh… what?” Beth asked, unsure she’d heard him correctly.

  “You heard me,” Aztos mocked. “If you love me as you say you do, then kill him.”

  “You want me to… kill… Malachai?” Beth gasped. “How can you ask that of me?”

  “You said you would do anything,” Aztos spat. “I am telling you what I need you to do if you want me to believe you love me.”

  “Please, Aztos,” she begged. “Don’t ask me to do something like that. You know I can’t.”

  “You can, and you must,” he demanded. “It is the only way. If you kill him, I will believe what you say is true, and I will be able to protect you from my father, and from Lucifer. I will be able to tell them you were only getting close to the angel in order to find his vulnerability and destroy him. They’ve undoubtedly already heard he is here.”

  “I can’t,” she whispered, shaking her head slowly.

  “You have the dagger,” Aztos reminded her. “You know how it is done. He trusts you. You will be able to get close enough.”

  “No. I mean… I can’t do that to him,” she argued. “He’s my friend. He’s a good person, Aztos! He trusts me!”

  Aztos felt violently ill. To hear his wife, the woman he… he couldn’t bear to listen.

  “Stop!” Aztos shouted. “Either kill him, or I will!”

  “No! Aztos, please don’t do that! You’re not that kind of man! I know you!”

  “I am nothing! I am a demon, and you will do well to remember that!” he snarled. “That angel is as good as dead. I hope you’ve said your goodbyes!”

  With that, he disappeared, leaving Beth behind, screaming his name. As she knelt in the floor beside the space he’d once occupied, she hid her hands in her face and began to sob. She couldn’t allow Aztos to kill Malachai. Malachai had done nothing wrong.

  She also couldn’t allow Aztos to darken his own soul my committing murder. Everything he’d ever done had been at the behest of his father or Lucifer. He was a good person, born under horrible circumstances. She had to save them both.

  She rushed into the bedroom, but Malachai was gone. He must have overheard their conversation, and he’d fled. Beth burst out of the house and rushed toward the clearing. She only hoped she could find Malachai before Aztos so she could warn him. Malachai had been stripped of most of his powers when he was cast out of Heaven, and he would be unable to defend himself against a demon as powerful as Aztos, especially in his weakened state.

  As she rushed across the yard toward the forest, she ran straight into Malachai, who had appeared before her without warning. She would have fallen if his strong arms had not caught her and held her tightly.

  “Beth, what’s wrong?” he asked, sensing her urgency.

  “It’s Aztos!” she cried. “He’s coming to find you… to kill you!”

  “Perhaps that is for the best,” Malachai agreed.

  “What? No!” Beth shouted. “How can you say that?”

  “I don�
��t deserve to live,” Malachai explained. “I disobeyed a direct order, I am fallen, and I have…”

  Malachai paused. His mouth was still open, but he did not continue.

  “What? You have what?” Beth asked.

  “I have fallen in love with you.”

  Beth could not speak, and she could hardly breathe. She tried to take a step back, but Malachai’s grip was like iron.

  “I knew it!” Aztos snarled from behind them.

  “If you’ve come to kill me, just get it over with,” Malachai said, releasing Beth and turning toward Aztos.

  Malachai stood between Beth and Aztos, his arms instinctively spreading outward to shield her.

  “Just don’t hurt her,” Malachai added.

  “You think I would…” Aztos stammered. “You think I would hurt her? My own wife?”

  “She has already told me you don’t love her,” Malachai said. “She told me you said your marriage was a sham, and she was but a thorn in your side.”

  “That is none of your concern!” Aztos shouted, his voice echoing through the forest so loudly that birds took flight and rushed away in terror.

  “It is my concern when I love her and you don’t!” Malachai snapped back at Aztos.

  “She is my wife!” Aztos reminded him.

  “And you said yourself your marriage is a sham!” Malachai growled.

  “My marriage may be a sham, but it is a bond that cannot be broken. She is mine for eternity, and you will never have her.”

  “I believe that should be for her to decide, not you, demon!”

  The disgust in Malachai’s voice when he spat out the word demon was palpable, and it certainly did not escape Aztos.

  “I know you do not dare to behave as though you are any better than me, angel. Oops! I mean fallen angel!”

  “I may have fallen, but I would never do the things you do!”

  “Please stop this,” Beth begged. “Just stop!”

  “Did she tell you she loves me?” Aztos asked, a sly grin sneering on his lips.

  “She doesn’t have to tell me, Aztos,” Malachai said pointedly. “I can feel it. I feel her love for you every time I talk to her. Although, why she loves someone like you, I cannot begin to understand.”