As she circled him, she had to smile at the irony. She was stalking her Stalker and he had nowhere to go. Staring into those fiery black eyes of his, aflame and scalding with his anger and rage and something more, it suddenly hit her. Why had she never seen this before? Had she been too frightened by the memory of what he had done to Amber to see it? Behind his black eyes and cocky attitude, he was afraid of her. Well, maybe not afraid but definitely wary. Because he knew she was not just an Ivory. He knew she had angel blood flowing through her veins, even if diluted. Ha. Knowing she was…more, apparently had its disadvantages. And it was a weakness, she would gladly and fully exploit.
“Cat got your tongue?”
In her periphery she noticed her guard and Raz swarming the back yard and rushing his minions. Good.
They circled each other now.
The Ebony shrugged, a little too casually for her taste. “Not at all. Just enjoying my name on your lips. And wondering how good it’ll sound when you scream it.”
His shade in hand he suddenly burst forward. Lillian deflected and then went in on an attack of her own. Lillian knew she wasn’t a match for him once this fight went airborne, what with him having used his wings all his life. If she wanted to get out of this on top, she needed to keep him on the ground. She went at him, her sword just a blur and then after an especially complicated combination she jumped up, using her wings to boost herself, in a movement that would send her flying above him and keep him on the ground at the same time as his eyes tried to follow her. Then she struck and her blade bit into the root of his left wing.
Yes.
The Ebony howled in pain and whirled around, going after her the moment her feet hit the ground. She was barely able to block him in time. His black eyes were ablaze with flickering flames that wanted to devour her soul. He was nowhere near done, but at least he wouldn’t be able to fly and that was all that mattered.
It went on, the old battle of shade against flame, and soon both their blood dropped and trickled onto the grass beneath their feet, the clash of swords and daggers around them drowning out their gasping and wheezing.
Lillian whirled, her blade singing, and suddenly she had him pinned against the wall of the shed with her sword at his throat. If he leaned back even more, he’d be one with the shed. As she remembered the acid pain of the shadow blade she could understand him, as he tried to get away from the flame edging her sword.
“I have some questions.”
“Fuck you.”
She let her sword get a taste of his flesh, the tip pressing into his throat and making him breathe heavily through his gritted teeth as he tried not to scream. His eyes lost some of their fiery light, darkening.
“Let’s try this again, shall we? I want to know who told you about me.”
He hesitated.
More pressure.
He growled, a deep, feral sound in his chest and then the words left him in a rush. “Some angel told me. Right after our fight.” The flames in his eyes flickered to life and a sick smile curved his lips. “Remember the one where we went…through the ceiling?”
“What did he look like?”
“Don’t know. Never saw him, only heard him. Deep voice, rather…elegant.”
Lillian absorbed the information and then stepped away, not liking the thought of killing him when he was already defeated no matter what he had done to deserve death.
Her mistake. The moment she eased up on him, he burst into action.
However before he could reach her Raz was there, coming seemingly out of nowhere with his flaming sword nothing more than a blazing blur and in the next blink the Ebony’s body toppled over, his head rolling on the ground.
Staring, wide eyed, it took her a moment to realize what had happened. The Ebony, her Stalker, was dead. After all this time. A wave of flashbacks rushed her and she saw him standing in her home, clapping. Him killing Amber and liking it. Him ordering his minions around, not caring how many got killed. Him standing on the side lines, evil smile in place.
Raz’s hand on her arm, made her look up. “You okay?”
Lillian blinked a couple of times and breathed, trying to snap out of it. When her voice didn’t want to cooperate, she cleared her throat. “Yeah. Yes. You?”
“Good. What did he say?”
“Uhm…That…an angel told him about me. But he never got a look at him.” Remembering something else, she added, “Said the guy had a deep, elegant voice though.”
Her gaze swept the back yard. Bodies and blood, red mixing with black, stained the lawn and the scent of sulfur was heavy acid in the air. Shit. They would have quite some cleaning up to do.
Then she saw Joshua, holding his stomach, apparently hurt. She ran towards him.
“Let me see.” Without waiting for his answer she pushed up his shirt.
Abby and Matt hurried to their side.
The cut wasn’t lethal and not that deep but was bleeding rather freely, and knowing that any wound could get serious if the bleeding wasn’t stopped soon, she ordered, “Let’s get him inside.”
Since Lillian’s arm was hurt Matt and Abby took him between their shoulders, rushing up the stairs to the house. She meant to follow them when Raz’s deep voice stopped her, freezing her in place. “Lillian?”
Oh God. Her heart sank. Would he do it now? Right after he saved her life?
Deep, elegant voice, huh? Yeah, that certainly fit, Raz thought. He had thought Lillian’s alleged involvement with the angel’s murder was bad enough, but even he hadn’t guessed how truly screwed they all were.
“Can I talk to you a moment?”
It took her a second before she turned around and walked up to him. Looking him straight in the eyes, she nodded subtly and then said, “Okay. Just do it.”
Somehow Raz knew she meant more than just for him to tell her what was on his mind, but he didn’t know what exactly she expected him to do. “Do what?”
“Kill me.”
He nearly recoiled. “What?”
“I didn’t kill the angel, but I can fly. Which means I can go up into heaven and… spread evil. That’s why Ivory’s aren’t supposed to fly, isn’t it? So, do what you have to do. Let’s get it over with. Kill me.”
She stood there, proud and with her head held high although she was pale, ruffled and panting and wounded from the battle she’d been through…and was asking him to kill her.
Fuck. If he hadn’t been in love with her ever since she made him laugh for the first time, he certainly would have fallen now. Everything had changed when all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place, and he had to thank a witch of all people for the sudden clarity.
He couldn’t resist and reached out with his hand to cup her cheek, his thumb caressing her soft skin. “Never, Stargazer.”
She sucked in a breath and closed her eyes as tears threatened, not able to hold in the relief that swamped through her like a palpable thing. He could feel how every muscle in her suddenly slackened, her knees almost giving out.
God, how stupid he had been thinking she was screwing up his life, when in reality he and heaven did a damn good job at screwing up hers. “He made a mistake twenty years ago.”
Lillian frowned, gazing up at him through watery eyes, a frown creasing her front. “Who? What are you talking about?”
“My boss, Micah. The angel of the divine plan.” It was the only logical explanation.
Lillian, an Ivory with Fallen blood in her, should never have been born, which meant his boss had made a mistake when pairing her parents up with an angel. Micah had probably hoped she would die the usual Ivory way – fast and in battle – without any questions asked. He had probably thought telling an Ebony that her sigil wasn’t working due to her mixed heritage would speed things along. But when Lillian proved to be made out of tougher stuff, he had lost that hope and sent an angel to kill her, most likely goading that nearly Fallen fool with redemption. And when that failed, Micah made it so that she was suspected of killing that angel. It made perfect se
nse now.
“You shouldn’t have been born, not as an Ivory anyway. And yet here you’re. Your existence is an error in the divine plan. Something that shouldn’t be.” The thought of a world without her turned his next words into a fierce growl, “I won’t let you pay for his mistakes.”
Knowing what he had to do and without wasting another minute, he slipped his arms around her waist and took them both away to the only place where he knew they would be safe.
As soon as the rustle and breeze of his wings died away, Lillian’s eyes, which she had closed out of reflex, snapped open.
“Where the hell are we?”
“My house. In Ireland. ”
Her eyes were wide as she looked around, trying to take in as much as possible and for a moment he wished he knew what she was seeing, what she was thinking. Raz had had a few guests here, his last one being Amber shortly before she died, and never had he given a thought…had he cared what others thought of it. But for some reason he wanted Lillian to like it.
“Why?” She whirled around. “And what about the others?”
“You don’t need to worry about them. I have a plan and Maion will take care of them for the time being. Besides, if they should be questioned it’s better for them to truly not know anything about our whereabouts. It’s you Micah is after. He wants to correct the mistake he made which means eliminating you and not the whole guard.” That was as long as Micah didn’t suspect them of knowing more than they should, Raz thought. “We’re safe in this house.”
“What if they summon you? You can’t ignore that.”
“I will as long as I have to. Until then let’s hope Maion will be convincing enough to buy us a couple of days. He’ll tell Micah that you’ve run off and that I’ve gone after you.”
For about a second Lillian seemed to accept it, but then she shook her head as if to will her thoughts to get ordered and in line. “How come we’re safe here? You’re an angel so what is keeping the others from coming here?”
“Oh, angels can come here.” With a devilish smirk he added, “But only when invited or with good intentions. It’s a kind of…sanctuary, I guess you could say. Every angel is given …a piece of heaven to use as his own. No ill-intentioned behavior or any act of violence is allowed inside this house and within a mile radius. Training’s an exception of course.”
“Training?”
“Yes, training. While Maion will take care of diverting Micah, I’m going to teach you how to fly. We’ll probably only have a couple of days so we’ll have to make them count.”
“And then what?”
“Then we’ll bring a stop to the divine plan.”
“Stop the divine plan…” Even when she whispered the words he could see when it all snapped into place, her eyes widening just a fraction. “We’re going to kill him?”
“It’s the only way.”
VI
WING IT
“But you've slipped under my skin, invaded my blood and seized my heart.”
- Maria V. Snyder
TWENTY-THREE
Rain started to tap against the windows, filling the sudden silence between them and drowning the last light of day.
Lillian stared at Raz as he moved to switch on a lamp beside the sofa, not quite certain she wasn’t dreaming all of this. Anger rose quickly, fueled by emotional exhaustion and residual adrenaline. “Sorry, I’m pretty sure I didn’t hear right. You want me to kill an angel?”
“Yeah.”
“And then what? Won’t I have the whole of heaven on my ass once I kill one of them?”
“Either you kill him or he’ll kill you. It’s as simple as that.”
“No, it’s not, Raz. Heaven wants to kill me not for something that I did but for who I am.”
She started to pace the length of the room, her confusion and fear pouring into her every move. Throwing up her arms, she faced him once again.
“If I’m so wrong and touched by evil or whatever, then why create me in the first place? There had to be some reason for it, Raz. You guys had to know what my mother was and the consequences! What a bunch of hypocrites you are!” She was on a roll now and couldn’t stop, all the frustration and doubts and questions that had worried her for the last year came out in a wave of angry desperation. “From the beginning you guys never tell the whole story and keep us in the dark. You treat us like kids, basically saying ‘when you’re older, you’ll understand’. And then it’s ‘oops, sorry you didn’t live long enough to get older’. What do we Ivorys really know about the angels, about God, about this eternal war you’re fighting? As far as I can tell, we are cannon fodder, pawns at best. All I know is that angels and God have no qualms about breeding with humans, even blackmailing them and using their weaknesses, their deepest desires. They have no qualms about creating and then enlisting young Ivorys to fight for the greater good. But what is the greater good? Is it really worth the sacrifice, is it worth us killing innocent people?”
“What innocent people are you talking about?”
“Demons, Raz. Not all of them are bad. You know, the funny thing is I never regretted my decision. Never regretted letting Becca and others get away.”
“Now that you mention it, care to explain how that came to be? They’re demons, Lillian.”
His voice was hard when he asked and Lillian tilted her head to the side to stare at him, sure he had lost his mind. “Do you even listen to yourself? How much of what you say is heaven’s doctrine hammered into you? ‘Cause if you’re really so damn narrow-minded you better kill me now. Birth doesn’t define us, our actions do. That’s why you want to save me, isn’t it? The same goes for Becca and who knows how many other demons. It’s not Becca’s fault she was born a witch either. She could hardly do anything against it. From the first moment she stepped out of the hellhole she has done nothing but help us. She saved Matt’s life when she could have run for it. So, no, I won’t feel guilty about working and even becoming friends with her. I won’t judge her for what she is but rather by what she does with the power she holds.”
Raz was frowning, a deep scowl marring his beauty, and then muttered as if to himself. “How could I, even for a second, have believed you were a malleable bookworm? You surprise me at every turn.” A rueful smile tugged at his lips as he shook his head. “You’re right. Despite how much I had thought otherwise, I’m still blinded by age-old prejudice and heavenly doctrine, as you so fittingly put it.”
Her shoulders sagged, as she was overwhelmed with the turn of events. “I’m sorry I took this all out on you. It was just that…finding out I’m not an Ivory…it made me realize that I don’t want to be one anymore. The others, and I, have…grown tired, I guess.” Her hands ran through her hair. “I don’t know what we’re fighting for anymore, Raz.”
“I know that feeling.” Stepping closer, he rubbed her arms with his hands. “How about we take it one step at a time? Let’s take care of Micah and then we’ll move on from there.”
“Which brings us right back to what I wanted to know in the first place. You’re here, hiding me from your boss and heaven in general. Why? You show up, after two years of absolute radio silence, and accuse me of murdering an angel, which I didn’t do. Still you insist and think otherwise. And now, you’re helping me and even want me to kill an angel. Raz…” Lillian sighed and stared at him, “You’re turning coats so fast I’m having whiplash for God’s sake.”
“I never believed you did it.”
Guess that qualified as taking the wind out of her sails. “Huh?”
A smile curving his lips he brought them nose to nose, swiftly turning her anger into another kind of heat, and spoke very carefully. “I never believed you did it.”
“But…?” Full sentences, or even words, were too complicated right now.
“I knew you hadn’t gone off the deep end. I left, yes, but I kept tabs on you. Through Maion. When I found out that heaven wanted you dead, I just got angry, I guess. I had to do something. But coming back to yo
u…it screwed it all up.” Looking away he shrugged. “I had left so I would never see you again. I left so I would never be…tempted again.” He swallowed and then his eyes found hers, caressing her face.
They were staring into each other’s eyes, a silent battle of wills and hearts.
“Hey, I thought I might find you here. So what’s the plan?”
Maion suddenly appeared in the room, and for one moment Lillian almost had the feeling Raz seemed to welcome his brother’s bad timing. A wide grin almost split Maion’s face in half as he wiggled his eyebrows at them. “At least I hope that’s the reason why you two disappeared and that I’m not interrupting some much needed and strongly advised alone time.” He threw a bag at Lillian. “Here, Abby thought you might need this.”
It turned out to be filled with some of her clothes, her toothbrush and all the other essentials of an overnight bag.
“Thanks. How’s Joshua?”
Plopping down on the couch Maion waved a hand through the air. “Fine. Just a cut, nothing to worry about.”
Thank God.
Raz cocked his head, his look not something Lillian wanted to be at the receiving end of. “Of course there’s a reason. Did the others clue you in?”
“Yeah. Lillian is more than she appears to be. Not that that’s any news.” He winked at her and brought a smile to her lips, as did knowing that for the first time in quite a while the angel wasn’t drunk – maybe a little tipsy but definitely not approaching alcoholic poisoning. “You thinking what I’m thinking? Micah?”
“Yup. He screwed up and wants to take care of the problem.”
“So what’s the plan? And here I’m assuming handing her or any part of her body over, isn’t part of it.”
“We’ll stay here. While I teach Lillian how to use those wings of hers, you’ll take care of her guard and tell Micah that she has run off and that I’ve gone after her. It’ll buy us some days, maybe even a week if we’re lucky. And then we’ll pay Micah a visit.”
Maion took it in, serious now. “That’s gonna bring some changes.”
“I know.”
Ivory Guard Page 20