Aequitas Betrayal

by Mason, a. c.

  He ignored the embarrassment of having to undress in a public park. God, he hadn’t been naked in front of a woman since his wife left him three years ago. Once nude, he glanced up. Her lustful gaze lingered midway down. Did she like what she saw? Ablaze with intensity, her eyes told him she did. A more private viewing might be in order. Oh no. For all he knew that was her entire M.O. to ending his mortal life.

  The new pants were too large in the waist and ended halfway down his calves. Shit. Who wore these, a dwarf?

  Marching toward him, she quickened her pace, a blue mist thickening around her with every stride. “Crouch down.”

  He complied at once, and her fingers wrapped around his shoulder with an acute sense of power. Her left hand pulled the side of her coat up, using it to engulf him beneath its fabric. The heat from her thighs pressed against his chest. His lips hovered near the exposed skin of her midriff.

  A hard breath escaped against the glimmering flesh beneath his mouth.

  The oddest vibrations penetrated him, like the toll of a large church bell, and his body trembled.

  The coat snapped against the air as she yanked it back and released him. Etienne looked around and rose to his feet. His bare chest felt the leather of her shirt against his skin. For a moment, he looked down into her mysterious eyes. What transformation might occur in them in the throes of sex?

  She pulled away from him.

  Rock surrounded him, a carved out passage that cocooned with the ceiling eight stories above. The damp smell tickled his nose. Large metallic torches lit the sides of the cave, hanging on the wall about four feet above his head. He hoped he didn’t get the job of lighting those: he had a thing about his feet being on the ground. The cold wet flat rock beneath his bare feet caused cramping in his muscles. In front of him stood two stone tablets arched like a doorway, ending midway to the ceiling. Impressed, yet fearful of what awaited beyond, he squeezed his hands closed into fists.

  “When we enter, stop, and kneel when and where I do,” she commanded.

  The stone tablets moved forward and a blinding light shone from within.

  Chapter 2Etienne followed as she walked forward at a brisk pace, but even with his long legs, struggled to keep up. The chill off the stone stabbed into his feet. She stopped, knelt and bowed her head.

  As commanded, he did the same.

  “Rise, General,” came in sexless, melodic tones from above them.

  Leather swished as she rose. “Yes, Gabriel.”

  Two firm legs moved forward and froze in place. In front, bare feet dangled from under a white robe, not quite touching the stone floor. He wanted to look up and see what the hell was going on. Why would they just stand there looking at each other?

  Of course. They must be communicating telepathically. Maybe he could tap into the conversation. Crap, no luck. A few moments passed in silence before her legs turned. As they moved back toward the door, he wanted to gaze up at her face one last time, but resisted the temptation.

  Well, that hadn’t gone so well. Why the hell did he kneel down to some odd creature, where was he and what did these things want with him?

  Thunder echoed, startling him, and he resisted the urge to turn back. Ah, the doors. The idea of looking up had no appeal at this very moment. Fear filled him. A plan was in order.

  “Please stand, Etienne,” said the person in a tender tone. As he rose and lifted his gaze, a glowing, tall, androgynous creature hovered before him. Unbelievable.

  Sparkling white-feathered wings arched behind the being’s back. Skin that radiated pure light from the inside out shone onto his body, warming him. Muted facial features, barely apparent, gave the being an awkward beauty. Soft, drooping eyes peacefully gazed at him.

  “Are you...?” An odd sense of déjà-vu plagued him.

  “An angel, you mean? Yes.” It glided away, and he followed. “Your next questions will be about the General. She is what you are about to become. Part angel, demon and what you are now.

  We call your kind aequitas or equalizers because you hunt higher level beings that break the rules. We honor only the strongest of humanoids with this task.”

  What should he make of the angel’s revelation? By no means did his strength surpass other humans.

  “Not that kind of strength. It’s the mastery of one’s self. Many spend a lifetime learning to control what is primal to all physical nature, but you’ve achieved internal balance. This is key to what you’ll become. Even though you will have equal parts of angel and demon soul within, the demon is always the dominant.”

  The idea intrigued him.

  “We angels and demons live between realms. Once you have been changed, you will be able to move amongst worlds and planes and inhabited planets.”

  If he’d followed the conversation, and he wasn’t sure he had, the angel just told him he’d become a member of a higher realm, a police force with jurisdiction on every planet. Right now, he questioned whether he was tripping out on acid.

  “Inhabited planets?” Not once had he considered such an idea. Little green men. Aliens. For real?

  “Yes, many others. You can’t truly believe ‘The Creator’ managed to create a whole universe, but only made earthlings to inhabit it?” It smiled. “Males of earth go through their Critical Crisis upon their conversion. The other males may have a hundred to two hundred fifty years before they hit their own.”

  “Critical Crisis?”

  “Once you’ve changed, you’ll need a female half. She alone can stabilize you. You must choose her at the ceremony shortly, but first you will be prepared.”

  Reason really wasn’t their strong suit if they believed a woman could have a stabilizing affect on anyone.

  Footsteps sounded, and he turned. Three attractive females beings came his way. Not one of them human.

  “Prepared? Look, it’s kind of you to offer me this gig, but I’ve got a job.” He glanced back, but the angel had vanished. He’d been talking to himself.

  Two of the females took his hands and tugged him along. What the hell kind of organization was this? Obviously they hadn’t done their homework about him. No news flash, he was already a freak and didn’t want to be changed further.

  ****

  The General walked away from the closing doors. A strange feeling gnawed at her about

  Etienne. Something about the man reminded her of someone.

  The long northern corridor stretched before her, lit for those other beings who had not the abilities needed to see in the dark, the low glow a relief to her sensitive eyes. As she came upon the common area to the quarters, she took a deep breath and her body tensed. She loathed being near others.

  Deimos stood ahead, sexy as usual. Though he spoke to two beauties, his gaze ravaged her, sending a shiver up her back. She wanted to ignore how exposed his hungry eyes made her feel.

  The demon within him didn’t bother to hide its lust for her and rather enjoyed toying with her, mentally revealing the illicit things it pictured.

  He had the eyes of a pure predator. His own soul grew weak while the two other spirits that resided within his body grew stronger. The demon frantically searched to feed its insatiability as the angel lost its restraints and lusted for pleasure. An intoxicating elixir brewed inside his frenzied mind. Thrilling. She allowed him to find his fix in her, calming his hunger, helping him push back his instability a bit longer. A delicious dance of anguish and torment.

  Irritated by Gabriel’s insistence she retrieve Etienne, she had no tolerance for games tonight.

  She wanted to be alone.

  Someone else crept into her thoughts. A dark haired, blue eyed cop. Ridiculous. She couldn’t be bothered with males from Earth.

  Stares lowered as she walked down the dimly lit cave corridor past Deimos and his two companions. Most of the females hadn’t the nerve to look her in the eyes.

  Entering her quarters, she closed the door and leaned on the stone for support, hating this plain square room. It only contained the
basics: a cube table, chairs, a bed and a dresser. Not a home.

  She sighed. A night of peace from Deimos’s need was what she required to think. The tangled web of sexual games had gone on for too long, and he grew more desperate after each encounter.

  He wanted her complete submission, which she would never give him. Toying with him was more amusing. Never would she offer to become a male’s concubine or wife. What was the difference?

  Knocking at the back door startled her. Anyone but him.

  As she pulled the door open, the breeze carried in Deimos’s musky scent. She lowered her eyes and stepped back. Not this night.

  His massive frame entered the room, elegantly proportioned at its nine foot height. The fairness of his skin and hair equaled a kiss of snow, cool and calming. Luminescent ice blue eyes stared at her body, making her feel bare.

  “Auria, you hide from me?” The pure heat invoked from his voice burned her from the inside.

  “No, and call me General.”

  “Only in the presence of others will I address you by your title. Alone, you are my Auria.”

  Glaring eyes told her of his disgust. “I smell the scent of male human.”

  “So?”

  Deimos turned, closing the stone door behind him. “Do not test my restraint.” The door’s clanking sound echoed. “Answer the question.”

  “I was sent to collect a host.” She backed away.

  “By whom, Gabriel?” Displeasure saturated his tone, and he advanced towards her.

  Nodding, she paused. “What do you want, Deimos?” She tried to maneuver her way around him, but even her stealth was no match for the large grip of his hand.

  Towering over her, he pulled her small form against him. “You ask the question as though it does not have the same answer every time I come.” He lifted her from the floor, walked over to the stone seat next to a small cube table and set her on his lap.

  “I will not break the rules.”

  “No, only play with them, and me.” Cool fingers trailed along her collarbone, causing her nipples to harden. “Why do I call on you, my Auria?”

  Frustration burned in her core. “Because you have no self-control and neither do I.”

  Deimos shook his head. “You don’t want me to show you, my version of self-control. What is troubling you?”

  “Nothing is troubling me. Maybe I just hope we’ll stop.” But she couldn’t stop. The payoff was too great. Her mind drifted to how with mere thoughts he could make her scream his name.

  Gently, he pressed his lips to her neck. Damn him. Exhaling on her skin, he moved his hand across her breast, lightly teasing her nipple through the leather. Her lower lips moistened in response.

  His mouth crept to her ear. “Do you really hope what we share will end?” He grazed the flesh behind her lobe with his teeth. “That is not what I sense when I am inside you or when you are in me. You crave the relief I provide. Your need equals my own.”

  Her skin burned from the heat he stirred within. She closed her eyes while turning her face from his, not wanting him to see the effect he had on her. “And what is your point?” She shrugged.

  “We are not to couple. The council refused your request. We are too different for a full union. These indulgences we’ve allowed are forbidden and dangerous. What will happen when I am selected? I have already exhausted my three passes. The next time I am chosen, I will have to submit.”

  Using only his index finger on her chin, he guided her face back to his, then lowered the same finger and used his nail to cut an opening in his neck by his throat. A dark trail of blood pooled in the wound. The smell of his lusty fragrance taunted her senses. Her mouth opened, lowering her lips and tongue to his flesh. The fullness of her lips met with his smooth, hard skin and the collision thundered through her. She savored his enthralling taste—strong, metallic, and decadently sweet—as its thick warmth coated her tongue.

  Gripping her forearms with both hands, trapping her against him, he groaned. With his fluid, the gates of her mind opened and as he penetrated, warm waves crashed within her core. “Auria, I will not give you up.” His steady voice resounded before his lips hovered above hers. He tightened his clutch, restraining her. The demon within commanded the brutal force of his mouth as it pressed on hers.

  Jerking away, she gazed into his eyes, rippling orbs of tar. The slanted curve of his lips widened as he swooped in, opened his mouth and exposed sharp teeth.

  Pushing the palms of her hands into his muscular chest, she blocked the advance. “You cannot feed from me. Foolishness.”

  Wickedness lit his expression as he pressed his body forward against her hands.

  A knock at the front door caught their attention. His eyes shut as he took a slow breath, and then he gazed at her with those shimmering baby blues.

  Arms lowered from his chest, she stared into his kind face.

  “I will return.” He warned. “To satisfy our hunger.”

  Hesitantly, she rose from his lap, then walked to the door and opened it.

  Usha, a member of Deimos’s home world, stood in the doorway, appearing delicate though she towered, fair and elegant.

  “Gabriel has requested you,” she said. “You are to be prepared as an offering at the ceremony tonight.” A smile gleamed in her eyes though she tried to keep her face mute of expression.

  The woman despised her, and Deimos was the most recent cause. “Thank you.”

  Usha turned on her heel and left with dainty fluid steps.

  The bitch blamed her for Deimos’s disregard, and now all the females thought her a seductress. If only they knew the lengths she went to push the males away, the many times she’d dismissed Deimos’s advances in the past. Wasn’t her fault the males loved a challenge. When she closed the door, her place was empty.

  Deimos was her closest match in agility and strength. What could he be thinking? She paced back and forth. A chill shivered over her skin. Until tonight, he’d never tried to push her boundaries on this matter, given the consequences were irreversible. What had changed?

  A heavy breath escaped her lips as she exited her quarters and closed the door. Marching down the deserted west corridor to the higher beings’ side of the mines, she rubbed her arms for warmth. Images of tangled limbs and naked bodies flashed in her mind, a time when she’d served on her back or whichever way requested. Numbness helped drown out the past.

  When she entered the preparation chamber, the servants halted, apprehension plain in their expressions. Not that she’d expected anything else. They knew she hated this type of ceremonial behavior. As she moved farther into the chamber, their gazes dropped and they returned to heating water and the preparation of robes, shining the three silver chalices.

  Drifting deep into her thoughts, she disrobed.

  Chapter 3

  One hand over his genitals, Etienne backed away from the two women in the small waist-high pool with him, then glanced up at the one who stood along the edge, a shadowy outline in the dim light cast by flickering torches high on the cave chamber’s walls. A sulfur smell rose from the water, like a natural hot spring, stung his nostrils and hung heavy in the air. An awkward situation, but if he didn’t cooperate, they’d threatened to let the large, pale, male creature outside the door assist him with bathing.

  “Don’t be shy,” the shorter female said. Less than half his height, she had short thick limbs that were exaggeratedly round and stumpy, and a youthful face, sweet and kind.

  “I’m not. I’m capable of washing myself.”

  The more voluptuous one spoke. “But why do that when we can do it for you?” Reaching for him with a large hand, she flashed an innocent but awkward smile.

  “I guess I’m a traditional kind of guy. I like to get to know a woman before she starts bathing me.”

  Why was this an issue? Any other man would be happy to have two very willing and attractive women in a tub with him. Whatever his problem, he wasn’t into this scene.

  The older-looki
ng one of them sat at the side of the tub. Her white hair hung in braids on either side of her narrow face. Thin and long, with willowy limbs, she appeared stretched. “Leave him. This has no appeal to him.” Hiking up her frock, she placed her feet in the water.

  “Ah. Taj, you ruin all our fun. He’s cute. He can’t have this type of prudish attitude with his wife. Only three days before he will break,” the shorter one said.

  “Break?” He needed to talk to the angel who seemed in charge of this operation and explain that they’d got the wrong guy.

  “Myna means that you will hunger for the carnal seven inexorably. These vices will destroy you if you do not join with your bride, a full physical union within three days,” Taj said.

  “Whoa, don’t you mean the cardinal seven?” Damn it, he wouldn’t! He’d spent his life suppressing his fleshly desires.

  “Different names, but the same vices,” Taj said. “And why you need a bride.”

  “Wait. Let’s back up a minute. She never said anything about this, only that my mortal life would end. ‘Death,’ nothing about me getting married.”

  He would have remembered that. Dying to become immortal was one thing, but marriage? Out of the question. They couldn’t offer him immortality only to imprison him. Though a prison with the General wouldn’t be too bad, now would it? Nor would a full physical union.

  Taj motioned at the other women. “Come, Myna and Zeta. Out of the tub so he can bathe.”

  Zeta strutted to the stairs with Myna a few steps behind. In single file they climbed. Once the women reached the top they covered their naked curvaceous bodies with blue frocks.

  Zeta turned. “Who is this ‘she’ you speak of?”

  “I think the Angel called the creature ‘the General’.”

  He picked up a cloth and soap from the ledge, submerged them and worked up a good lather.

  The General was something, all right. The face of an angel and the body of a she-devil. And naughty to the bone.

  “They sent the General to retrieve you? You must be special,” Myna said, smiling.