“It’s the same problem, Jonas. Back then, you delivered a child. You did not deliver the kingdom.”
“But how could I have done this?
“By fighting for the monarchy in the uprising. Instead, you fled.”
“After my family had been slaughtered. I had nothing to live for.”
“But look at you, for having nothing to live for you manage quite well as a dark angel.”
“It was the only option available to me.”
“Yes! An now you are facing the same choice again, Jonas. Deliver the kingdom of the Underworld and earn your freedom.”
“I am not sure even I can do this. It is not within my power to do so.”
“Try,” she had said coyly. “Or do you think you can live out your days peacefully in the human world and just run away? I have alliances up there too who will make your life a living hell on earth. Perhaps you need a little demonstration to convince you.”
He worried for Audray’s safety without him by her side. It also confirmed his suspicion that Catarina’s plans went beyond a takeover of the Underworld.
In the end, she dismissed him, which was a surprise until she mentioned she wanted a face to face sit-down with Audray. He didn’t swear an oath he’d help her achieve her goal, but the suggestion was laid thick: Audray might come to an untimely end if he didn’t cooperate. They expected he’d help them convince Audray to give up the Directorship, just like he’d agreed to comply with the family’s demand he deliver an heir to the king. And the fate of the woman he loved was once again in his hands.
Jonas shook his head to be rid of the memory of the meeting this afternoon. The smelly alley of Undertown at last broke through the fog of his thoughts. Standing alone under the dull light of a streetlamp, he ran sweaty fingers through his hair, retying his ponytail. His forehead was damp, and he wiped it down with his palm. He was grateful they let him go, but knew it was only to deliver their message. He felt like a dog on a leash. And someone was following him.
Jonas moved further down the steamy wet street with the awful odor gurgling through the cracks as it had for centuries. How did I survive down here for all that time? Coming to a more populated area, he searched around him yet did not see anyone who took special notice of him, except for the walkers. He could smell the layers of perfume and sex all over them, permeating their clothes, their hair, and their skin. Jonas could tell how old they were and who they had been with just by standing within ten feet of them.
“Hey there, angel. You look mighty lonesome,” she said as she stepped out of the shadows and linked arms with Jonas, her short red hair blazing in the light of the streetlamp. She was beautiful, but overly made up and young. Probably not even twenty. Jonas felt sorry for her. He pushed her away and walked on but she persisted in following behind him, her little feet encased in stilettos, tapping on the stones like a bird as she tried to catch up.
“Come on. I know how to put a smile on that handsome face.”
He kept walking.
“You got a hole in your soul? I can fill it, you know.”
Jonas continued down the soggy street without turning.
“Hey, something wrong with you, big guy? You like boys? You don’t like me?”
That made Jonas stop and look back at her, hands on his hips. His eyes swept up and down her body. She ran to him with little clawing steps, making all her luscious parts jiggle. He held her at arm’s length and studied her innocent face.
“You could have another life, you know. Why do you do this?”
She leaned back and started to laugh.
He saw movement in the shadows to his left. Good, let them think I’m interested.
He squeezed the face of this dark angel, with one large hand, puckering her cheeks and red lips. She seemed drugged, oblivious to any danger. He saw the flawless face of a young girl who had given up on life, her human life. But then, she wasn’t human any longer.
Audray, forgive me.
He tenderly lowered his mouth and claimed a kiss. He felt a jolt run through her body and she started to pull away. “Who are you?” Her eyes were large and round.
“That’s a good sign, my dear,” he whispered as he refused to loosen the grip on her arm, keeping her close, but not touching the length of her body. “You still notice the difference, don’t you?” He leaned into the side of her face and added, “That means you are not completely evil. There is a kernel of hope they didn’t rob you of when you turned.”
“Hope? I hope you can fuck me silly, that’s what I hope.” She recovered and became the walker again. “You look like the kind of guy who can make a woman forget herself. I like to lose control…”
“Then let’s go.” He motioned down the street and dragged her behind him. Her little footsteps faltered, her four inch steel-tipped heels had no traction. She was no problem to hold up with one arm.
And in the old days, exactly his type.
He stopped a few times as if looking for a doorway, but took the advantage to search behind him. Not detecting his tail, he abruptly ran back down the road in the direction they had just come from, and took her into an unlit doorway.
“This is fine,” she said as she began to hike up her short skirt.
“No. I have another place in mind.” He blew on her face and saw her eyes flutter.
“Oh, God, you’re one of those?”
“You will tell me the truth.”
“Of course I will. Do it again, and I’ll tell you anything you want to hear.” She looked up at him with eyes of need.
He blew on her face again as she tipped her head back to inhale all of it. “You know how to get a girl primed and ready, my big new love.” She gripped his package and he removed her hand quickly.
“Who do you work for?”
“No one. I’m an independent.”
“Nobody down here is independent. Who is your maker?”
“Well, that is why I’m independent. My fucking sponsor went and got himself humanized, and now all of his girls have to fend for themselves.”
“Say his name.”
“Joshua Brandon.”
Jonas was thrilled his former boss and friend was her sponsor. That also meant he might be able to trust her, just a little bit.
“I’m going to take you out of Undertown, up top. How would you like to conclude our business in the human world?”
Her eyes surveyed him carefully as she leaned in, and pressed her lithe body against his chest. She wound both arms around his neck, pressing her sex against his thigh, and whispered, “You can take me anywhere, dark lover. I am yours for whatever you want to do with me, for as long as you want. I got all of eternity, and so do you.”
Works for me.
He grabbed her upper arm firmly and almost carried her down the street and up the stairs, out of Undertown. The night bustle was getting underway. Neon lights lit the eccentric array of showy dress, people parading in bright silks and feathers, some with just feathers, and some with nothing at all. Excesses of every sort assaulted his eyes. He mounted the steps of the transport station and took the next driverless black limo.
The girl snuggled next to his body in the back seat. He put his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. He had just met his twenty times great granddaughter. This one could have been one as well. Damaged and hopelessly flawed, he would protect her nonetheless. He sighed.
Fuck, I miss Audray so much. Thank God they let me leave.
The girl looked out the windows of the limo when they arrived at the human transport side. “A warehouse? You live in a warehouse?”
“No. It’s a run-down area humans wouldn’t find interesting. It’s easy to defend.”
“Defend? Defend from what?”
“It’s a very long story.” He took her hand and helped her step from the limo. The instant her second stiletto hit the concrete pavement, the limo took off in a streak.
“Jeez. Remind me to be more careful. That one didn’t even have a driver.”
<
br /> “Do you think they really care about you? You think they’d care if they ran over one of your legs? No, they’d send someone to come clean you up. It would be a minor problem. Only that.”
The girl shuddered.
“Now, see that street over there?” She looked.
“See the bench right there?”
She nodded her head, eyeing the bus stop bench.
“I’m going to call you a taxi, have him take you to a store to get some decent clothes.” He peeled off a wad of hundred dollar bills. He looked her straight in the eyes. “They don’t do trades for sex up here, or if they do, it’s definitely not a place you should be. They do money. So you have to have some. If you don’t, you’ll get into trouble.”
She took the money, tucking it in her bra. Her face fell; her eyes swept down to his lips.
She can clean up. She’d be a pretty little thing. He wrote Joshua’s address on the back of a note sheet and tore it off, extending it to her. Before she could grip it, he held it up in the air, out of reach. “You don’t tell anybody about this, okay?”
She nodded.
“You sure? This is a one time offer, Missy.”
“It’s Judy.”
“Okay, Judy. This is the address to Joshua Brandon’s house here. But I’m going to warn you, he has a jealous woman.” Jonas smiled. “You want to talk to Joshua first so he can break it to her. I don’t want you dropping in and ruining something good he has made of his life. You understand?”
“Yes,” she said softly. She studied him as Jonas pulled out his sat phone and called a cab.
“You have close to two thousand dollars there. That won’t get you far, but it will get you properly dressed and to Joshua’s. And you don’t tell anybody until you find him, hear?”
“Why are you doing this?”
Jonas had to think about that. “Because I made a lot of mistakes in my life and now I’ve begun to see how I can change it. I didn’t save my own child. So, I’m going to help save someone else’s.”
He watched as she sat her little body tentatively on the bench, swinging her legs, her tiny ankles crossed, like the young girl she was, as if she were waiting on a playground bench at school.
Chapter 15
Jonas waited for the waif to speed off in the night air, red brake lights coming on just as they rounded the corner.
Perhaps I should have written him a note. But, in case she was caught, she’d be caught with a wad of cash and no name to pin it on. Joshua had turned hundreds of souls in his centuries as a dark angel before his conversion. Someone might even think a grateful patron sent her up top to snag him again.
Cute little redhead. Hope you start making better choices. Though Melanie was light brown haired, Josh’s preference had always been redheaded Guardian angels, until he met Melanie. “This little one could tempt the pants off him in the old days,” Jonas chuckled under his breath, “maybe even now.” He hoped he was doing the right thing.
He scanned the area, making sure he was alone. Sounds of a small town, with the occasional siren, highlighted an ordinary evening on a Saturday night. He ran up the steps to Audray’s home which was close to the transport entrance. He unlocked the door and made it upstairs to the bedroom. No one had disturbed a thing. He felt slightly relieved. He could smell his lover, and he wore it like an elixir. He opened her closet doors and inhaled the sweet scent of her body lingering on her clothes. He needed to feel her warm flesh undulating under him as he took her. His groin got hard thinking about it.
Best keep my wits about me. He checked the windows for signs of a tail, but he appeared to be alone.
Jonas put some things in a canvas bag, showered quickly to get rid of the Underworld stench, and changed into his black long-sleeved tee shirt and leathers for the ride to San Francisco.
His beast was the only vehicle in the garage, since Audray had the Maserati. Stuffing the bag into the carriage box he kick-started the bike, punched the garage door opener and took off down the gravel road in a trail of dust. Before rounding the corner he took one last look at the home they shared, waiting for the metal garage door to slowly close.
His heart was racing faster than the bike all the way to the City. Across the Golden Gate Bridge the lights of San Francisco glittered like jewels. The ocean air calmed him. He raised his head and tried to pick up her scent, imagine her tightly gripping him from behind. He was starved for her touch. He was starved for the feel of her flesh all over him, peeling off the layers of fear and regret. She could make him soft again. He chuckled. She was such a powerful dark angel, she could almost make him feel human again.
Down Van Ness he tooled, turning down Geary after going around the block. At last he made it to Union Square and the St. Francis. He pulled up to the entrance, two red-suited doormen standing guard. They were boys, really. Only armed with a whistle to summon a taxi. They couldn’t keep a dog out of the lobby if their life depended on it. So funny, humans were. How they carried such a false sense of security. Only interested in appearances. For years he had appreciated the honesty of the Underworld. No pretenses; cheating and lying were expected. There wasn’t any such thing as disappointment, character or honor.
And there is no hope.
He handed one of the red boys a twenty. “I’m going to go inside and make arrangements for this,” he pointed to his bike. “There’s another twenty you can share if I come back and find not a soul has touched it, understand?”
“Yessir,” they said in unison. The taller one took the twenty.
The bell captain, Watts, was an old acquaintance. His chocolate skin and slicked back, curly hair made him look like a French dandy. He wore too much cologne, a little blush and sported a gold cravat with a diamond stickpin, which was unnecessary as far as the St. Francis was concerned, but very important when it came to Watts.
“Watts, my man. Good to see you.”
“Hey, Holmes! Been a while.” Watts looked out the glass doors and asked the question, “You bring the iron maiden?”
“Yes, sir. She’s primed and ready to ride.”
“Oh, she and I gon’ get some one-on-one time, my man. When she done wid me she gonna purr real sweet and not let your hairy legs straddle her again.”
“Yeah, she likes a good time. She’s been a bit jealous of late.”
“So I heard. So I heard.” He leaned into Jonas and whispered in his ear, “My friend, you let me know if you needs any help with that one too, okay?”
Jonas chuckled and nodded before he lifted Watts up with one hand at his throat, careful not to hurt the man but left him dangling six inches off the floor. “No help needed.” He set Watts down gently.
“I feel you. No problem.” Watts straightened his jacket and cravat. He lengthened his sleeves with a healthy tug at each gold braided cuff. Jonas thought he looked absolutely ridiculous.
“Do you know if she’s here?”
“Don’t think so. Check with Estelle at the front desk. She’d know.”
“Thanks.” Jonas patted the lean black face of his friend and tucked a hundred dollar bill into his hand without anyone being able to see. “Gas money,” he whispered and winked. And give the boys this.” He handed Watts another twenty.
He walked across the thick gold and red carpet of the lobby, anxious to get upstairs.
Audray could still smell the smoke on her clothes and in her hair, the charred remains of her mother mingled with twisted metal and plywood. She also hadn’t stopped crying, feeling a lump of coal in her soul at the thought she had planned and plotted the demise of the angel, her sister, who had saved her life. Did Claire know this? Somehow, she didn’t think Claire did.
Then she thought about their mother’s death. She hoped the woman was already dead by the time the flames hit her. Audray had grilled the policewoman who was first on the scene, informing her she who she was.
“You have any idea how it happened?”
“No. We just got the fire out. We gotta wait for the arson investig
ator.”
“You suspect arson?”
“It’s routine.”
Audray thought the cause of the fire had been her mother’s cigarettes, but the fact that they were doing an investigation, though they said it was routine, made her worry. Everything was happening so quickly. If this was arson, someone had been one step ahead of her. Had that someone also found out about Burt?
She stormed up the freeway and made it to San Francisco close to ten o’clock. Jonas had not answered his cell, and she was annoyed and worried at the same time. She was in need of his strong arms. She needed to bury her head in his chest and let him take her away someplace.
Watts came out the glass doors when she pulled up to the entrance to the St. Francis.
She fished for some money, but Watts stopped her. “He already paid me well.”
She handed him the keys. “How long’s he been here?”
“About two hours.” He picked up her scorched scent. “You been to a barbeque?”
“Hardly.”
She ran through the lobby and then remembered she’d left her bag in the car. As she whirled around, Watts was standing behind her with a smile, holding the black leather satchel. He gave her a smirk. “Unless you were willing to stay naked during your stay, I’m thinking you’ll need this.”
Audray managed to eek out a smile and took the bag. “Thanks.”
“Course, the look on his face, I think he’d be happy just the same if you didn’t have any clothes. And the robes are nice, I hear.”
She picked up her room key, although she was hoping she didn’t need it.
The elevator took her up to the tenth floor. She sniffed the sleeves of her jacket and a lock of hair, then sighed. She felt like she’d been at the bottom of a coal mine.
Before she could turn the handle, the door flew open and Jonas stood there bare-chested wrapped in a towel hung low on his waste. He lifted her up off the ground, and carried her into the room. She wrapped her arms around his neck and smelled the soap and muskiness of her man. She held him, trying to eliminate all the memories of the last two days. He put her feet on the ground and let her slide down his frame until he could gaze into her eyes and claim her mouth. Audray knew he read everything inside her when he did this.
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