Summon Lyght (Archangels Creed)

by Daniels, Kenra

  She giggled. "You're really stupid enough to think I'd ever believe that bullshit?"

  He looked at her, his anger kicking in. "Apparently I am. Stupid, I mean. To believe in you."

  He walked to the door.

  She followed. "Why the fuck would you believe in me? You don't know me."

  Hand on the knob, he paused and looked at the floor between them. "I didn't just taste you tonight…" He raised his gaze, locking it firmly to hers. "I devoured your essence, Abigail. I devoured all that you are. All that you aren't. And all that you long to be, will never be, and will someday be. I drank it in to my soul. To make you mine. To cherish you. Honor you. And protect you. The way you deserve."

  "You're fucking crazy if you think I'm just going to fall into your arms and trust you." She snorted. "In-fucking-sane."

  "If that's your definition of crazy, then yes. I'm crazy. Crazy and stupid for loving you."

  "You can't love me you barely know me!" She slammed her palms against his chest, pushing him into the door. "What is wrong with you?"

  "Me?" Francis met her stare, anger taking him at her obstinacy. "Sweetheart, I'm going to be straight up with you. You're the strange one. You sit in your miserable life pretending the darkness isn't choking you, pretending you're not struggling just to fucking breathe around that shit you got in here." He pointed to her head then, her chest. "And this? In here? You guard your every shattered dream and nightmare. Who does that? I'll tell you who does that. Somebody who's weak. You can fight with your fists. Big fucking deal, that's nothing. You can't even lift your head to the past that haunts you, the broken dreams that keep you hiding away from hope and love, the darkness that embraces you like a sick lullaby and you suck on that tit like a newborn infant nursing greedily, because you would rather mope along, limping on injured limbs for the rest of your pathetic life instead of taking one chance on somebody that actually gives a real fuck about you. So, no, I'm not the strange one. You are."

  Francis knew he was taking a chance going this route, but he also knew he was very close to losing her if he didn't. And too much was riding on it. Like his sanity. Just the brief moments of imagining what he shared with her as meaningless was crushing. And judging by the fury in her eyes now, he'd better pray for help.

  "Who do you fucking think you are, you don't know my life!" Her words came slowly and her voice dropped like an animal about to go wild. She shoved him into the door again and pointed in his face. "Weak? I'm weak? You were the one about to cry because I didn't want to love you. You're the weak one here you bastard."

  ****

  Dare couldn't believe he'd said those things. He was pissed, that was why, he was just pissed, what the fuck did he know and why was he staring at her that way, like she'd just slapped his face?

  "Bastard?"

  What? Did he not know what the word meant? "Yes, bastard, as in your father is a useless piece of shit---"

  Dare couldn't finish her sentence because Francis had pinned her to the wall by her neck. Suspended. She clutched his hand and stared into his eyes that had gone eerily red. "My father…" whatever he was going to say never made it past his lips that had gone hard. God his lips. She wanted to taste them again.

  Panic suddenly flooded her system as her need for oxygen grew. By the time he released her, fury had replaced all the good feelings and she launched a physical assault on him. Only he blocked every attempt with no effort, even seemed to enjoy the nude show she put on. She finally screamed in frustration. "What are you? What the fuck are you? What do you want from me?"

  He suddenly launched his own attack and in two seconds had her on the bed, pinned beneath him.

  "I want you Abigail. That's all. I want you." The words were hot on her lips before he crushed them with a passionate kiss. He gripped her lower face with iron fingers and forced her jaw open, his raspy tongue plunging in, demanding against hers. He punctuated the daring act with furious growls, the full length of his body pressing her into the bed, pressing into her mind until the hardened bitch in her withered to fragile whimpers.

  With only a kiss, he filled her till it felt like he reached the bottom of her soul, his fingers tangled in her hair, pulling, his mouth feasting fervently at hers. She arched into his body, clawed him closer, locked their perfect union tight with her legs, silently begging him to stay and never leave.

  "I want you God damn, I want you." The words croaked out of his beautiful lips and then he leapt off the bed.

  Before she could move or say another word, he was gone. Just gone.

  Dare laid there as despair came. But it came from without, instead of within, sinking slowly onto her body until she strained with all her might to resist the crushing force. But this pain was different from any she'd ever felt. This despair was bright, not dark. A perfect blade slowly being driven into her heart until her body trembled.

  Longing. Promise. Forever. That was its strength. That was its power.

  And its beautiful name was Francis.

  She finally caved beneath the devastating force and screamed from the agony wracking her body as it left its eternal mark on her.

  Francis had marked her.

  And all she had to show for it…was regret.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  "I'm sorry sweetheart, I'll explain on the way." Lyght immediately sifted through the connections in Sam until he found the one that would lead him to her mother.

  "I had no idea you meant this when you asked for my help." Sam looked around the endless empty white space. "Where are we?"

  "Good question. At the moment, I only know that I'm stuck here somehow. Found it." He took hold of the silvery biological connection Sam and Kassie shared and began following it.

  "Oh, I can feel that." Sam walked with him. "Wow, is this really connected all the way to her?"

  "Yes."

  "How long is it?"

  "As long as she is away from you."

  "That could be long."

  "I know. And my guess is, she flashed someplace safe to her. Which means someplace in Montana." He stopped and looked at Sam. "Can you flash us there? It beats walking."

  "You can't?" Sam looked confused.

  "I can't. I literally feel like I'm in a straitjacket where my powers are concerned."

  "Why?"

  He shook his head, not sure. "I think I might be having a bad reaction to the humanity I gained."

  Her mouth dropped open. "Like…you're allergic?"

  "Wouldn't that be funny?" And not surprising given how things were bloody going for him.

  "No, it wouldn't. I can try. To flash us, I mean. Just tell me what to do."

  "Close your eyes and think of a place in Montana where you think she would feel safe. Then gather your power into the center of your body and then visualize yourself there."

  She closed her eyes and nodded. "Okay."

  "I need to hold your hand for that."

  She looked at him, held out her hand, then closed her eyes again when he took it.

  "Now—" Things blurred before Lyght could finish his sentence. "Wow." He looked around a second later at the real landscape. "What do you see?"

  "Our home."

  "Good, then we're seeing the same thing. You flashed me out of that strange nowhere cell I was in, thank God. Very good, sweetheart." Lyght felt strange calling her that. But she was the daughter of the woman he was in love with. Which made her like his daughter too.

  Lyght took hold of their biological connection until it revealed a direction. "She's east of here. What's in that direction?"

  Sam looked. "Town."

  "Flash us there. Someplace that nobody will see."

  Sam concentrated for a second then nodded and offered her hand. A second later, they were beneath something.

  "Holy shit." She laughed a little. "Flashed us under the damn feed store."

  "That's perfect, love." Lyght found the connection again. "That way. She's that way." He began crawling and Sam followed.

  When
the coast was clear, they exited from beneath the building. It soon became apparent they weren't visible. "Nobody sees us?" Sam waved her hand in the face of a passing man.

  Lyght sighed, not happy. He'd thought Sam had broken him out of that strange prison. But she'd apparently just added another setting to his world, via hers. And why was his world just a huge white nothing? A cocoon of light.

  He confirmed he had the silver cord connecting her to Kassie and followed it. "Let's just find her. I need to know she's okay."

  "Where should I go next?"

  Lyght felt useless. He looked around, trying to see more than what she showed him. Another angel in the vicinity even. Nothing, not even darkness. "I don't bloody know." He raked a hand through his hair and pointed. "In that direction."

  Sam looked and chewed on her lower lip. "Maybe…she's gone to…"

  "Which way is Miya's home?"

  "That way."

  Hope surged through Lyght when she pointed in the direction the cord went. "Go there. Maybe she's there."

  "Why would she be?"

  "Because…" Lyght looked down, feeling foolish. "We shared our first real kiss there." As if she gave a bloody hell about that. Probably the last place she'd be.

  "It's worth a try. Come on."

  Lyght put his hand in hers and she squeezed it reassuringly before flashing them to the front of the little house.

  A light glowed at the back window and Lyght ran up the steps, threw open the door, then hurried to the kitchen. He gasped when Kassie ran out at the same moment and passed right through him. "Shit." He spun and watched her go to the front door, look around and shut it back, locking it.

  "She can't see us?" Sam whispered.

  "Or hear." He followed Kassie back to the kitchen, his body hurting from being so close to her and not able to touch. She shuffled to the room they'd shared, climbed in the bed, and curled up under the covers. Lyght laid next to her, watching her. And then he couldn't watch because she was crying. Then sobbing. He sat at the edge of the bed feeling like he was being tormented in the deepest part of hell. God, help her. Please. Help me.

  It seemed like an eternity before she quit crying. Lyght laid next to her when she was asleep and stared at her beautiful face, longing to touch her. Kiss her. He closed his eyes finally only to snap them open when he heard her whimpering again. Shit. Not another round of torture, please.

  She moaned and fretted and Lyght realized she was dreaming. She tossed and turned and then it happened. The unthinkable. Her hand connected with him. His heart froze as he watched and listened. Kassie let out a sigh and slid her arm over him, drawing close to his body until she clung tight, her limbs wrapped in his. He fought not to breathe and wake her. He couldn't bear it if she stopped.

  With every second, her moans became more content and soft. Lyght carefully moved to hold her closer. He could actually feel her. God. Thank you. Tears filled his eyes and he pressed his lips to her hair. "I love you," he barely whispered. How long he'd waited to tell her. He should have told her before. He hadn't wanted to scare her away more than he had. And now he didn't care, he just needed to tell her like a wound needed to bleed.

  She responded with a soft moan and slid her leg up his. His heart raced madly as her hand stroked over his chest becoming firmer. His clothes suddenly disappeared off of him and for a second he wondered if he had his powers. Then he realized it hadn't been him, no power had moved inside him. This was her.

  Afraid it would vanish any second, Lyght laid still and let her have her way, praying she wouldn't stop. "Lyght," she whimpered, her lips joining her fingers now, kissing along his chest like she'd been searching the world over for him and thought she'd never find him again. Lyght couldn't keep his hands off of her. He pulled her lips to his and took them with a disgraceful hunger. He flipped her beneath him, his manhood finding her warm entrance and sliding in. Their gasps were one and the sound reminded him of two lovers denied too long. She clung to him with a fervor that renewed his spirit, set his pace to desperate and furious. "Kassie, God, baby!" Lyght plunged in and out of her, amazed with her strength, amazed with the glorious way she met his feral thrusts.

  "Do it, do it, yes," she cried in his ear. "Oh God, yes, fuck me Lyght, fuck me harder. I love you, I love you!"

  She screamed the words and shattered Lyght's world. He released a roar of ecstasy unlike any he'd ever known or felt.

  He became aware that his power had returned to him. He gasped in relief and kissed her, laughing.

  Tightness suddenly clamped his chest and slowly leeched into the rest of his body. He realized she was crying.

  "No," he whispered. "Kassie, don't, please, don't cry, baby, please, stop." Lyght felt the tightness grow through his body like a hand squeezing him slowly. And then she was gone. She was there, but he couldn't touch her. She was there, sitting at the edge of the bed, holding her head in her hands.

  Shock slowly took him as he realized it. This wasn't a bad reaction to his humanity. This was Kassie. This was Kassie's reaction to his angelic power. She was causing this. She had him in this prison. And she had the power to take him out.

  She suddenly stopped crying and jerked her head to the right. "Tyler," she cried.

  She vanished before his eyes and Lyght flew off the bed, his clothes intact again, thankfully. "Sam! We need to get back to the compound, I think Kassie is headed there!"

  ****

  The blue angel swept his arm toward the wall and a huge monitor materialized on the slick black surface. "Time to assess."

  Tyler fought not to fidget in his seat while sitting at the giant table in the compound's conference room. The place could easily hold ten times as many people as were there at the moment, which was every member of the operation, eighteen, not counting himself. But why count himself when he didn't really fit into the action? He should fit though, he had assets they needed. Knowledge of the world for one. His grandfather had taught him a lot about survival of all kinds. Just in case, because you never knew what tomorrow held. His grandmother said he was paranoid, but none of it bothered Tyler, he was too excited learning new things with his Gramps. But if they wouldn't let him do anything, why had they brought him to this meeting?

  With only his peripheral vision, Tyler looked at the doc sitting on his immediate right. The man was responsible for helping to change his game and he was grateful. Course he didn't know he'd helped, but Tyler planned to do exactly as he'd suggested in his note taking. Perfect his gift.

  He still couldn't believe he actually had a gift like that. How rare was it, exactly? He needed to find that out. Tyler wasn't sure exactly how, but he was definitely sure he'd learn to use the gift to be more useful in this operation.

  "We're moving out teams." Mr. Dorn moved to the far end of the map. "There's no reason we need to wait around here twiddling thumbs while we figure out Lyght's situation." The angel pointed at one, two, three red sections on the map, his moves snapping. "These areas of evil grow in intensity every day at an alarming rate." He turned to face the group, his dark brows drawn hard and his brilliant blue eyes nearly glowing.

  "Despite our abilities, our few numbers mean we need to be extraordinarily creative with our time. Since there are so few of us, we'll focus predominantly on North America for the next few days until we gain reinforcements." He turned to Mr. Kassern. "You will take your team to the southeast United States. The reconnaissance we've obtained for the region shows heavy prostitution and sex trafficking, among other things. Your team possesses the knowledge and experience to deal shrewdly with this." He turned to Mr. Toren. "I know you—"

  "Give the orders." Cold impatience encased Mr. Toren's words. A shiver of awe passed through Tyler. That angel was a total bad ass warrior. Boy, would he love to see him in action.

  Mr. Dorn nodded once, not seeming bothered. "I'm sending you and your team to dismantle that little operation where the boy was found. I want it obliterated, nothing to be pieced back together. We want a clean demise, no evidence
for the local news, apart from meteorological or geological manifestations. Natural disasters are our friend. Do not engage the enemy at all if possible. Stay off the spiritual map. Use what's there, move what exists."

  "If I might add?" The doc raised a hand and waited for Mr. Dorn's nod before continuing. "Your humans are spiritual filters or deflectors on the supernatural radar. Spiritual energy passes through them and dissipates, or bounces off entirely. A few can be used as magnifiers, batteries, or focal points, as well. I've already assessed most of your teams' abilities and will give you the full reports. You want to use your humans when possible to channel power. Even the powers they've inherited do not show up like raw angelic movement."

  "We've downgraded?" Mr. Kassern exchanged looks of concern with the other angels.

  The doc turned to him. "Yes, in a sense. And one would expect the same type of deflection to occur, but the opposite is true. The inheritance of humanity seems to have created…a sort of new blip on the radar, making you extremely easy to spot."

  Mr. Toren gave a dry chuckle. "Of course."

  "Why aren't the demons as incandescent?" Mr. Dorn paced before the table.

  The doc aimed his gaze at him. "They are. But they practically cover the entire radar, making it difficult to see the trees for the forest."

  A brief silence followed, then the guy with the tattoo on his neck…Lucius maybe, spoke up. "So it's like they're just one festering color."

  The preacher—Troy?—nodded. "And hard to discern."

  Mr. Dorn's wife huffed and shook her head. "So our angels stand out like beacons. That's not fair."

  A light snort came from the preacher's wife. Tyler guessed she wasn't partial to the girl's dramatics. Maybe wasn't partial to the girl's anything.

  "Then we use our humans." Mr. Dorn shrugged. "Easy enough."

  "As long as they're cooperating. Otherwise we'll be demon shit." That angry retort came from Mr. Toren as he glared at his couple. Uh-oh. Must be trouble in paradise.

  "Skylar can handle that part, she's made of true grit." Mr. Toren's wife patted the hand of the woman next to her.

  "Well, so can I," that Ezekiel guy said, seeming pissed.