“Listen …” he finally said, put off by her aloofness. “I … I really need you.”
Allison’s face softened a little, but she still didn’t speak.
“You realize how much you mean to me, don’t you, Allison?”
She stopped herself from rolling her eyes. After their passionate kisses the night before, of course she knew that he had feelings for her. And, to be perfectly honest, she had loved every second of it. So what did he want to tell her, anyway?
Jeremy finally took the plunge: “I’m in love with you.”
Allison almost dropped her pillows. OK, she had been expecting just about anything, but not that. She remained on her guard, tightly hugging her pillows.
“I watched you a lot when you were alive, Allison, and I loved everything I saw. You’re so beautiful, and so honest and genuine. You keep your promises, no matter what.” He grinned: “Even if I did have to scream my head off at Frankenstein so that he would stop you and Clark when …”
His loincloth slipped down a notch.
Allison turned beet red.
OK, it probably hadn’t been such a great idea to bring that up just then, but he wanted to lighten the atmosphere. Seeing how tightly she clutched her pillows, and her red cheeks, he figured he’d made a huge blunder. But actually, Allison was doing her best to fight off the urge to look at his hips and his muscular stomach.
“Anyway,” he went on quickly, “that’s what made me fall in love with you. And that’s why I really think the both of us need to just stop and think for a second. About everything that’s happened since we passed over. Listen, Allison, everything I’ve seen and heard about the Reds is bad news. They use the living by luring them along, exploiting their most negative sides. Do you really think you’ll be able to resist once you’ve gotten used to their food? That you’ll be able to become Blue again once you’ve gotten your vengeance? If it were even possible to get in the first place?”
He took one of her hands, forcing her to drop one of her pillows, and placed it on his chest. Allison bit her lip as she felt his firm pectorals beneath her palm.
“I give you my heart, Allison.”
He looked deep into her eyes, which were gleaming with emotion. Both stood still for a moment, deeply moved, gazing at each other. Allison could see the love he felt for her. Love, but also longing, passion, a desire to share his life with her, and that was much more important than all the rest to Allison. She had been so lonely her entire life.
But after a few moments she tensed up again. Wasn’t this the same temptation she’d felt dozens of times before? She’d lost track of all the boys who’d tried to sleep with her (although she had to admit that none had ever proclaimed their love quite like Jeremy had). She had become an expert in the art of resisting, of putting up walls around her heart and choking off her desire. Above all, she had to keep her mouth shut. She knew her voice would betray her.
She took a step back. As Jeremy’s hand dropped heavily to his side, she walked past him into her bedroom without saying a word. She had asked Flint to put up a Mist door between the two rooms so she could have some privacy, and when she slammed it shut, it was like the blade of a guillotine crashing down on his heart.
Still in shock, Jeremy lowered his head and walked hesitantly over to the door.
He stretched out his hand but didn’t dare knock, lightly caressing the Mist barrier instead. He could feel the hair rising on the back of his neck. The all-encompassing fear he had felt when he’d been killed, and during his first few days in the afterlife, had finally begun to go away, but now he felt it come rushing back. It wasn’t for himself this time though, but for Allison.
He decided not to walk through the walls to go see her. It would probably be better to give her some time. After everything they had been through, maybe a good night’s sleep would help Allison understand how wrong she was. The same annoying words kept running through his mind like a whisper: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
He stepped back from the door and trudged back over to his bed. The two old Angels had gone to bed without a word, so he couldn’t even talk things over with Flint. And there was no way he was going to Lili’s room. Just the thought of it made his knees go weak.
Jeremy fell heavily on his bed. He crossed his arms behind his head and gazed fixedly at the ceiling, until his steely blue eyes finally closed. He fell asleep dreaming of Allison, after telling himself again that he had been right not to insist.
But he had been wrong.
Because when he woke up a few hours later, Allison was gone.
And so was Flint.
15
The Taste of Longing
Jeremy ran straight to Lili’s bedroom as soon as he realized that Allison and Flint were both gone.
“Lili! Lili! They’re gone!” he yelled as he passed through the walls.
He was immediately stopped in his tracks by the stunning image that burned into his retina: The red-haired beauty lay sleeping on the bed, in all her glorious nudity. Jeremy had barged right in without even considering the perilous possibilities. He blushed and quickly turned away.
“Excuse me, I … I’m sorry, but …”
He heard a yawn behind him, then a soft sleepy voice.
“Wh … what? What is it?”
“Allison and Flint have disappeared.”
There was a silence, as if Lili were holding her breath. Then Jeremy heard the Mist sheets rustling. He trembled when he heard her soft, sultry voice whispering right next to his ear.
“What do you mean … disappeared?”
He slowly turned, praying that Lili had put something on, or else he didn’t think he’d be able to talk straight.
When he opened his eyes, her firm, perky breasts were right there, just waiting for his hands and lips to caress them. Well then, she hadn’t gotten dressed.
He swallowed hard, screwed up his courage and looked straight into her soft green eyes. If he could keep his eyes off of her breasts, he might just escape with his life.
“I mean … they’re both gone,” he whispered, furious with his rampant libido that couldn’t resist Lili’s charms.
Her full lips arched like Cupid’s bow into a mesmerizing smile, revealing her little white teeth.
“They’ve probably just gone out for some air. Your little friend was quite upset after our night out. Maybe Flint took her somewhere to help her change her mind; who knows?”
She raised her shoulders in a graceful movement, setting the rest of her body in motion as well. Jeremy had to close his eyes again.
When he opened them, her firm young body was against his, and he could feel the heat rising from her like a hot oven.
“What would you like to do … while we wait?” she asked in a theatrical whisper.
Her soft voice conjured up fantasies filled with indescribable pleasure.
“I … I’ll wait for them in the living room,” Jeremy backed away. “I’ll let you … let you get dressed.”
And he was gone.
Her melodious laugh accompanied him out the door, as he cursed himself for being such an idiot. The most beautiful woman in the world was holding her arms out to him, and here the boy genius had gone and fallen in love with a stupid kid obsessed with getting revenge and saving humanity. But now he was the one who needed to be saved—and in a big hurry, or he was going to make a big mistake.
They waited for them the whole day.
Allison and Flint didn’t come back.
And so they waited all night as well. That is, Jeremy waited all night. Lili eventually left, saying she refused to spend another second in Flint’s apartment, bored out of her socks. But the next morning, Allison and Flint still didn’t come back. Jeremy was more than just anxious now. He could feel terrible pangs of jealousy gnawing at him. He forced himself to get a few hours of sleep, tossing and turning all the while, and helped himself to all of Flint’s food without the slightest twinge of regret. And he waited. When Lili
finally came back, she told him that she had asked around among Flint’s friends, but no one knew where he was. It was as if the old Angel and Allison had disappeared from the surface of the … of the afterlife.
The next day, Jeremy decided that he had waited long enough. He went to Ventousi’s house, expecting to find him there on a Sunday. But he was at work in his laboratory. He spied on the man the entire day, hoping that Allison would show up to haunt him. No luck. Jeremy found it strange that no red Angels were there to feed off Ventousi’s emotions, since he was like a chimney stack, producing thick clouds of Mist due to his anxiety and fears.
His son, Peter, was back at home, but when Jeremy went to see him he didn’t find Flint or Allison. He went back to Flint’s apartment, then back to Allison’s (former) place. No luck there either. Someone must have taken Frankenstein because the clever little dog wasn’t there either. He had learned Clark’s address and stopped by his place as well. He was relieved when he saw little Frankenstein, who immediately sensed his presence and began barking, waking Clark from his torpor in the process. The top model hardly looked his handsome old self. He had deep rings under his bloodshot eyes. Clark was in mourning. Kind of like Jeremy, who couldn’t fight off a sinking feeling inside: that he had lost Allison forever.
He looked on as Clark brushed his teeth, his mind elsewhere: He thought about the investigation again. Clark had told the police that his best friend had been killed by the mafia. By accusing Tachini of being behind Jeremy’s death, the investigators had followed a red herring. But at the same time, it had given them good reason to take a closer look at Allison’s apartment, and they had found the microphones. Unfortunately, the discovery had only gotten them even further off track, but at least they had been able to rule out the hypothesis that Khan was a serial killer. His methods had been too sophisticated.
Jeremy threw up his hands in despair and decided to give up his search. He didn’t know where else to look, and Allison hadn’t even come back to see her friend Clark. To get his mind off his troubles for a while, he decided to stop by Rose’s & Blues, hoping to run into Einstein. But he was out of luck again, as the old scientist was nowhere to be found. Jeremy cursed his bad luck. Where the hell was everybody? As he was brooding, he saw a small Angel who was enjoying a multicolored Mist liqueur as he ogled the breasts of a full-figured living woman nearby.
“Signor Galileo, if I’m not mistaken?” Jeremy ventured.
The young boy gave him a scornful look, the type the old Angels reserved for the Cherubs. He might not have been nearly as old as Flint, but the Italian had passed over more than 350 years ago. Flint had told him that Galileo was about to gain acceptance to the club of the Ancients, so maybe he would have an idea where Allison and the centurion had disappeared to.
“Cosa?” he snapped.
Jeremy, who didn’t speak a word of Italian (besides pasta, pizza, and chianti) refused to be daunted.
“I’m a friend of Flint’s,” he explained. “Or should I say, Decarus Pompei.”
Galileo gave him a suspicious look.
“And also a friend of Lili’s,” Jeremy added.
When he heard her name, Galileo perked up immediately. A lustful smirk flashed across his boyish face, which was both discomforting and repugnant.
“Ma si, why didn’t you say so right away! Ahhh, la bella ragazza! A feast for the eyes, our Lili. The fairest of the Angels, aye zink. But what she doing with a Cherub like you? Is she starting to bottle feed these days?”
“My friend Allison and I are seeking vengeance from someone. I think Lili probably finds us … amusing.”
“Ah yes,” laughed the Italian, waving his finger in the air. “A cure against boredom, I understand, molto bene. I no see that hotshot Flint for some time now. He doesn’t come very often to New York. He usually spends his time with all da big shots. He likes places of power, where they make da big decisions. That’s where you need to go, Cherub.”
Jeremy was about to ask him for more information, but Galileo had spotted a slender young Adonis with long curly hair and called out “Leonardo, caro mio!” and ran over to greet him. Jeremy had gotten the information he wanted. He should have realized sooner: Where was the best place in the world to meet a bunch of old Angels hungry for power and intense emotions?
Washington, D.C., of course!
He found Lili when he got back to Flint’s apartment. Jeremy told her about his conversation with Galileo, and was stunned when the young girl began to clap her hands with delight.
“Oh, goody goody! I’ve been gone for much too long, and I miss my little pets so! Yes! Let’s go back to Washington; that’s a wonderful idea!”
Jeremy had no desire to find out who her “little pets” were.
“You live in Washington?”
“Actually, I live all over the place. But that’s where all the power is, so of course I have an apartment near the White House.”
“So you think Galileo might have been on to something? Flint might have taken Allison there to meet an old red Angel? I mean … after he turned her Red?”
“I don’t know, but we can always go have a look, can’t we?”
Jeremy didn’t hesitate a second. In some mysterious way, he felt as if he were connected to Allison, and he could feel that she was far away. He didn’t understand how or why he knew, he just knew it, and that was all that mattered.
Lili and Jeremy left for Washington the next morning. Jeremy thought the voyage might be a hassle, but it turned out to be a piece of cake. They hopped on the first plane, and despite how worried he was about Allison, Jeremy actually found the ride exhilarating. Especially when Lili took him for a walk on the wings of the Boeing. At thirty thousand feet.
Once they arrived, Lili brought him straight back to her place. Like Flint, she had decorated a huge apartment with furniture and works of art. She had also painted the place with red and gold Mist, which gave the walls a beautiful peach color.
But there was something waiting for them that Jeremy found much more astonishing.
Her “little pets.”
Men. A good half dozen of them, all magnificent physical specimens. Their perfectly sculpted bodies would have made even the superb Clark green with envy. They may have been “pets” but they were hardly “little,” because all of them were well over six feet tall. Almost before Lili had even stepped through the door they were crowded around her. It was as if they had been freezing to death, and she was a warm fire that had come home to heat them back up. They began to fondle her reverently, as if she were a goddess, and she seemed to feed off their devotion, like a bright flame of vitality. Some began to kiss her, while others ran their hands over her body, until Jeremy began to find all the heavy petting a bit embarrassing.
It was like some weird fantasy was being played out before his eyes. All the men were dressed like Jeremy in simple loincloths, proudly displaying their perfectly sculpted bodies, and all had long, multicolored hair that fell nearly to their ankles, tied into sophisticated gold and silver knots. One was wearing tight-fitting pants made of red braided Mist, which he had tucked into shiny black thighboots. His hair was silvery white, even though he had the face of a twenty-year-old. Faced with such stunning beauty, Jeremy couldn’t help but be impressed. Even if he had never been interested in men, he had to give them their due: Here was the perfect incarnation of the dominant male. Suddenly, the man bent over Lili and pulled her up tight against him, leaving no doubt as to his intentions. He kissed her hard on the mouth with a husky groan.
Jeremy couldn’t stand it any longer and finally cried out.
The noise was so out of place that the man, who looked like he was about to have sex with her on the spot, jerked up.
A heavy silence filled the room when the Angels finally realized that Lili hadn’t come home alone. The silver-haired man took a step back, one hand still tarrying on the small of her back.
“A new pet, oh fair and enchanting Lili?” he growled angrily. “Are we no lo
nger enough for you?”
Fair and enchanting? The guy talked like a knight at the round table. Jeremy had to make an effort not to crack up laughing.
“No, he is not one of my worshippers,” Lili whispered regretfully. (How could Jeremy possibly resist her charms?) “He has come here to find a girl, a Cherub who’s lost her head and wants to become a Red. Not like us Blues!”
Her “worshippers” all laughed. If Lili had said something funny, Jeremy certainly wasn’t in on the joke. One of them, a man whose skin was so black it almost looked blue, and whose ears stuck out from beneath his long hair held in place with finely sculpted silver bands, looked familiar to Jeremy. He couldn’t help but stare. The man looked back at Jeremy and gave him a dazzling smile. Then Jeremy suddenly realized where he’d seen him before: He was a well-known actor! An actor who certainly hadn’t died yet.
He took a closer look at the other Angels. Now he understood why he thought he had seen them all before. They were all upgraded versions of the most handsome men in the world, from the past and present. They were so enraptured with Lili that they had physically transformed themselves just to please her, which told him two things: first, that they must have been very old Angels. And second, that Lili was much more dangerous than he’d originally thought, because all of them were acting like drug addicts waiting for their fix. The red-haired goddess must have realized what he was thinking, because she suddenly pouted.
“Boys!” she ordered. “Leave us alone. Jeremy and I are on a mission.”
The disappointment and disbelief was easy to read on their manly faces.
The man with the long silver hair clenched his fists with rage.
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