“I don’t know.”
“And how do you run in heels?”
“They are Jimmy Choos.”
“And they match your skirt, right?”
“Look, I’m trying to learn.”
“No, you’re not. The first day you came here you said you don’t work with the hired help.” I glared at her. “Now, KK already hates you, what do you think she’d do if she knew you said that about Nye?”
“I was just trying to bring you something. I saw it was in the greenhouse and I remember my herbalist saying it helped with wounds and veins and stuff. I had, like, a cut and she made it into a lotion, but she said it can be used other ways.”
“What is it?”
“Um…Got…gotu…gotu kola. It’s from India or something.”
“Thank you, Berlin. Could you take it to Gabriel?”
“I don’t talk to Gabriel, he’s kinda scary and sexy at the same time,” she whined.
“Then leave it and go.”
She placed it on the counter and headed for the door.
“I’m really trying…I am.”
“Then attend one of KK’s classes.”
“I’m not really into group learning environments.”
“I wouldn’t suggest asking for a one-on-one with KK, you might not make it out alive. Stick with the group.”
“Right.”
She left and I looked at Jimmy.
“Is that who I think it is?” I pointed toward the door.
“Yes, it is.”
“I thought it was an OD, not a suicide.”
“I wouldn’t know and don’t care,” Jimmy said as if the whole interaction wore him out.
“Can we talk about what’s going to happen?”
“Not now. Maybe later,” Jimmy said and squeezed my hand.
“Jimmy, I need to go home soon. I’ll stay until you’re better, but then I need to lay Colin to rest and…”
“Go back to your life?” His raspy voice told of the pain coursing through his body. “Trish, what did you have beyond Colin?”
“Jimmy,” I pleaded and stood, but he held tight to my hand and pulled me to him.
“Trish, I almost died tonight. I still might, but if I don’t I want the only thing I focus on to be you with me. I’ve been on this planet for over eighty years. I’ve seen and known more than most. Still, when I saw my life coming to a close all I could see was your long chestnut hair and midnight-blue eyes. You were my only thought, and my only regret. I kept you at a distance from my heart because I knew what you could do to me.”
“What could I do to you?” I asked.
“Destroy me with one word.”
“Which one?” I swallowed and held in tears.
“No. Marry me, Trish.” His eyes perked up, the blue sparkling. “Be my Other. Become one with me. I don’t want to go on without you.”
My lips found his as I held onto him while hoping he wouldn’t leave me. Praying I could keep him alive and that I wasn’t the cursed one.
“I…I…”
“Please, Trish…I’ve never wanted someone like I want you.”
“Yes,” I whispered against his lips. “I’ll marry you.”
* * * *
Her Royal Holiness, Princess LaDressa, Daughter of Lucifer the IV
“What is more important, daughter? Our race or your love?”
“Can I not have both?” My wings had tucked themselves away. Although I still did not control them I could at least hide them for the moment.
“No.”
“There has to be a way?” My focus was on the house across from ours. The demons in there were getting ready to go out into the world. “What of the men in the third home?”
“What of them?” my mother said, placing the last wasteful diamond in my hair and fiddling with my tresses to get them under control.
“They are to be released, but could they not help us? Kanga goes out alone to retrieve a bantling only to come back empty handed and sometimes injured.”
“Kanga’s still weak from the tortures of Pivane. She was little more than a block in one direction when the Frozen were injured.”
“Then she needs a protector,” I surmised and took the knife I’d brought up from Hell from the folds of my cloak. “This knife was too strong to entrust Pivane with it. But it is perfect for Kanga’s protector. Now I cannot protect her, but one of them can. She can lull and obtain the bantling and Marcques can protect her.”
“Marcques?” my mother purred. “I wanted to use his body for things, but not protection.”
“Mother, Father has not passed on yet.”
“And aren’t you lucky for that.”
Yes, yes if he’d passed I’d be somewhere locked behind a wall as if I had never existed. I have to overthrow my brother before he destroys me forever. Standing up I shed my bed cloak and strode naked to the clothes chamber in search of one of the leather outfits my Deumos introduced me to. With a small piece of silk over my feminine parts I melted into the buttery leather that seemed to form to my body.
The pants were black with red and orange flames licking down my legs. The bustier held tight to the well-formed globes on my chest. With a coat to keep the cold of this plane off my delicate skin I button it tight around my stomach and hips as it covered my ass. With high-heeled boots that fit under my pants, but went to my knees, I remembered the way Damarion’s hands would cup my calves, then his lips would kiss up from my toes to my knee—the highest he could touch on my body while I was locked away in my brother’s damn dress.
I had to find a way to get him back and protect my gentle bantling children. Tonight I would. The Frozen hadn’t emerged to kill bantlings, or if they did we had not crossed their path. Maybe I had succeeded where all those before had failed.
“I fear the change in the air, daughter. You have angered more than the Frozen. You’ve upset Gabriel. He is more powerful than you know.”
“Know or care. I get Damarion; he can go back to his normal slaughtering of bantlings.”
“Again, you choose Damarion over your people.”
“Damarion and I can spawn a whole new race. One that travels between two worlds.”
“It is better to rule all.”
I turned to my mother.
“You spoke of this before. Are you truly suggesting I not just take over Hell?”
“You have family on all three planes. Your uncle has already shown his weakness by allowing Kiriana to become one of the Frozen.”
“There is more than my uncle to contend with.”
“Those in Hell would follow a leader who showed an uncontrollable blood lust. Massacre this group of Frozen and a rumble will start from below.” Mother crossed to me and placed her hands on my shoulders. Squeezing hard her fingers dug into my flesh and my skin burned again. “We shall rise, the House of Ryeal. You will take your place on the throne as it was to be in the beginning. When time had not even started to tick.”
Her eyes swirled, the irises liquid with orange frames circling inside her once gray pupils. The blood lust she spoke of became infectious and my wings sprouted once again. Then her back arched and I heard a tearing noise that had her screaming as well. Her wings that had been clipped were trying to emerge, but only the jagged bones where they had once been attached appeared.
“He took my wings,” she growled. “Took them. All because I loved the wrong angel. Your father is a descendant of God’s most precious angel, the one he loved more than any other. The beautiful one who put us all to shame. The one who was to be on the throne. The one who did not want to merge the House of Ryeal with the House of Cearns. But I did it. I made my way to the house of Cearns and now you will bring the two houses to their rightful place.”
“I’m still a pawn.” I attempted to shake myself from her hold, but she did not relent. “Leave me.”
“Do not be frightened, child. Your blood swirls and strains against being barred.
That is why you sought out Damarion. It is why you made your way up to me. And it is the reason you shall triumph. Damarion was just a treat I sent to you to bring out your powers. It worked. Remember the fear in your brother’s eyes? He had sat with your great grandfather when he was but a child. The bastard spoke of me to him. Warning him. Luckily your father did not heed the ramblings of the old fool. I was able to tempt him.”
“Why, Mother? Why would you do it?”
“The first Lucifer told me I was too dark to marry. I wasn’t good enough. He went and married an angel who had no worth. They said I had no worth in Hell, yet this female was a step above a meanialite. A meanialite!”
“You’re crazy. You have the blood lust. I do not.”
“Then tell me, dear daughter…when you had to kill demons to get here did you stab them and walk away? Or did you savor the kill? The blood, did you let it trickle between your fingers?”
“If I did, what does that mean?”
“It means you are ready. Tonight you need to kill humans.”
“They are not worth my effort.”
“What effort? Kill them. Bring those from above and below here. Break the Earth apart with the rush from below. Make the stars in the Heavens disappear behind a cloud of angel wings.”
“It is not time for the Hell’s Mouth to open.”
“Time is set by those above. You can reset it.”
* * * *
Trisha O’Driscoll
“Kiyoshi, we need to narrow the search down to a handful of places. You still have too many choices.”
KK was in the living room barking out orders. I’d gone to the kitchen to get some broth for Jimmy. He wasn’t getting better. His eyes had grayed since I’d agreed to marry him. I feared it would be the last sparkle I’d ever see from him. At least they let him move to his room so he no longer had to lie on the hard slab.
“What’s going on downstairs?” I asked as I sat on the bed next to him.
“I’m not really in the loop,” he groaned, as he seemed to be searching for liquid in his mouth.
“Can you sit up?” I asked. “I’ll help you eat, but will it hurt your belly?”
“Life hurts my gut. Are you sure I can eat that?”
“Dr. Ashworth said we needed to test your stomach.”
“Like will I eat and spring a leak?”
“Exactly. I have a bucket and a little Dutch boy in the hallway to make sure we block the gusher just in case.”
“Where is Doc? It’s not like he has other patients.”
“KK’s husband is very sick.”
“Huh?”
“He got cut and Berlin’s herbs aren’t as helpful with him.”
“Yeah,” Jimmy said as he swallowed hard and tried to push up. I placed a pillow behind him. “I remember when I got stabbed he flew across the field and knocked the demon down. He saved my life.”
“Did he?”
“Yep, if he wouldn’t have done that I’m sure the guy would have gutted me to my throat.” A chill shot through me upon witnessing his calm demeanor at the thought of being eviscerated. “I didn’t even know Nye got cut. It must have been when the demon pulled the knife out. Doc said Berlin’s herb worked?”
“Your skin is healing and I guess your last blood test was better.”
“How’s KK?”
“Fine. Her arm is a little funky, but other than that she’s fine.”
“That doesn’t make sense. She should be dying too.”
“Do you want her to be?”
“No, it’s just…” Jimmy hesitated, then laid his head against his headboard. “I should have told you from the start, but when you get married to a Frozen you take on their injuries.”
“What?”
“Souls combine. When Nye got cut so did KK.”
“Then that’s how that happened,” I determined. “She jumped up and had to clean a wound. I didn’t understand it.”
“Now that makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is her not being as sick as Nye. Or why Nye is sicker than me.”
“If we were already married…when you got stabbed…”
“You would be here beside me with a matching hole.”
“Oh,” I gasped and covered my lips with my hand. “That’s a bit of info you might have shared.”
“I couldn’t figure out how to slide it into the proposal.”
“Right…Um…Jimmy.”
“Don’t go.” He reached for me and pulled me to his side. “Even if you change your mind, just don’t go.”
“I haven’t…yet. It’s just—maybe I’m rushing things. I just lost Colin and well…what if I’m trying to replace him?”
Jimmy’s eyes darkened then became distant.
“I’ve set Colin’s funeral for two days from now. I hadn’t given the location of the burial. The funeral home’s card is in the nightstand.”
“Jimmy, I’m not saying no,” I explained, but the room became as cold as his gaze before he checked out and closed his eyes.
“I need rest.”
* * * *
PFC James Schmitt
The old ’46 Buick pulled down the gravel road toward Walled Lake. The woman behind the wheel was stone-faced as she drove in the dark until she reached the end of the trail and looked at the grass that normally would be filled with picnickers. Although when she started this trip the child in the seat beside her had been awake and jabbering away, now he was sleeping soundly. His round cheeks helped his little pink bow lips pout out. Blond wisps of hair were brushed to the side of his head.
The dark hair of the young woman was pulled back in a ponytail as she closed her eyes. Her heart was broken even though she was too young to even really know what love was. Her car drove over the grass to the edge of the lake. Placing the parking brake on, she turned to her son and kissed his forehead. It would be better for him, she told herself, before she exited and released the brake.
The car rolled forward into the water and she turned, walking away without even watching the submersion. Cold water rolled into the car and the child woke with a cry, but still she didn’t turn. Instead her blue eyes stared straight into mine.
“It’s all your fault.”
My hands covered my face as I fought to escape the dream. Fucking Sarah. How was I to know she was that far gone? Men didn’t talk about that. Men worked, they provided. She was supposed to protect him. Nurture him.
Opening my eyes I noticed Dr. Ashworth standing over me examining my wound.
“Sorry if I hurt you,” he said as he placed a thin strip of paper on the ooze and then placed it against a plastic tube.
“I didn’t even feel you.”
“You didn’t?” he asked with a cocked eyebrow. “What’s your pain level at right now?”
“Um…” I was about to place my hand on my belly, then remembered my injury. “I’d say a three…maybe.”
“Whatever was on that blade was acidic,” he explained. “At least it was until it interacted with your blood, then it became basic. I have no idea what I’m dealing with.”
He collapsed in the chair next to my bed and lifted my bandage again. A putrid smell wafted up and I gagged a little.
“It’s not burning quickly. I’ve tried vinegar and a dozen herbs.” He pulled out a blue vial and placed a few drops on my forehead. The smell of lavender infused my senses and the pain dissipated more.
A knock came from my door as Esther walked in.
“I’ve turned this St. John’s Wart into a fine powder. I thought we could make him a tea. Possibly mixed with golden seal leaves to help cleanse the blood.”
“It can’t hurt,” Dr. Ashworth said as he took the teapot and added the necessary leaves. “James, I’m going to have to cut away more of the skin from your belly.”
“I thought Berlin’s herb helped?”
“It was a stopgap only. When I see the infection’s gone I’m going to graft from your gluteus.”
“My ass. You’re going to take skin from my ass to cover my stomach.”
“It’s either that or leave you with a mesh belly.”
“I guess there isn’t any Dap to patch the hole.”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“Will I still be an inny?” I asked, referring to my belly button.
“I’ll miss your humor when I have to leave.”
“Is that why I’m still sick? You trying to stay around?”
“I have to stay until Kiriana has her baby. At least that’s what Gabriel told me. Either way I’d be here for the Closing soon.”
“James,” Esther said, drawing my attention to the other side of the room as she placed the warm cup of tea in my hand. “I took your woman to the greenhouse. Zarmina is with her right now. Would you like me to call her back here?”
“No, she just lost her child. The last thing she needs is to sit by my side as I…heal.”
The night had me sweating and craving a strong shot of liquor. I was unsure if it was the stab wound or the DTs. Either way I’d never wanted death as a means to end physical pain before, but I needed something to escape to.
A cold compress was placed on my head and through blurry eyes I could only make out one image—beautiful midnight-blue eyes. The blood that had been swirling in my body went to one southern location at the sight of Trish’s dark hair haloed by the lamp on my nightstand.
“Wanna make out?” I croaked.
Trish’s pink lips curled into a smile, but I could see a tear tumbling down her cheek.
“Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, what am I going to do with you?”
“I’ve got a few suggestions.”
“I have a feeling you wouldn't be able to hold up your end.”
“You underestimating me again. Haven’t you learned your lesson yet?”
Her head turned down to see the rise in the thin sheet over my hips.
“Well damn. Maybe you are feeling better.”
“Only because you’re in here. Thank you for not leaving me.”
“Running isn’t the way I do things.”
“You like lost causes, huh?”
“You’re not lost. Not by a long shot. I changed your dressing about an hour ago. The smell and rot is gone.”
Redemption of Blood Page 17