Normally she would have been a little put off to see Aaron descending into what, from this vantage point, looked like vast nothingness, but on the way here he’d explained more about his home.
“I can’t believe you live in a cave,” she shouted over the flapping sound of the wind.
He laughed. “Just wait until you see it.”
They lowered far enough that she began to make out a stream below them. Shades of deep blue glimmered in the light of the moon. About twenty feet or so above the stream, Aaron landed on a narrow ledge. He set her on her feet, holding her by the waist until she steadied.
“You expect me to go in there?” She pointed at the vast black hole cut into the side of the mountain. In this lighting, it appeared to be a gaping maw, waiting to swallow them whole.
Aaron grabbed her hand, wrapping his fingers tightly around hers. “It’s not so scary.”
“Speak for yourself.”
Chuckling, he started forward, dragging her alongside him.
The inside of the cave was even scarier than the outside. Pitch-black, it offered no indication of how far back it went, or whether there was even a floor up ahead.
Samantha pressed herself tight against Aaron’s side. “How do we know where to go?”
“Stay in the center of this cave,” Aaron replied. “It’s the only place where the floor is clear.”
“How do I know where the center is?” she retorted.
He only laughed. Jerk.
After what seemed like an eternity, she caught the glimmer of dim orange lighting.
Blood pumping fast in her veins, she pressed forward by Aaron’s side. The light grew brighter, until at last the path opened up to a separate cavern. She stepped inside, jaw dropping to the floor.
“It’s...a living room.”
An honest-to-goodness living room, built right into the side of a mountain.
“Told you,” Aaron said easily.
He released her hand and she let her gaze sweep throughout the entire room. The small chamber held a leather sectional and two matching recliners. Mounted on one rough-hewn wall was a large flat screen television. The far end of the room contained an exit leading further back into the mountain.
“What’s down there?” she asked, pointing to it.
“I’ll show you.” He grabbed her hand once more and led her through the space. It held another corridor that ended with a wooden door. Amazingly, it also housed a staircase leading up and down. “The bathing quarters are below, and we have six levels of bedrooms above.”
“Holy shit.”
Aaron had explained to her that all twelve of the surviving Fallen lived here, but she’d had no clue it would be this big. Eight freaking floors, cut into a mountain!
“Come. I’ll show you the remaining rooms on this level.” He directed her to the wooden door, which swung open to reveal a fancy kitchen, complete with stainless steel appliances. With the exception of the stone walls, this kitchen looked like it could belong in the most luxurious of homes.
“Holy shit!”
“You said that already.”
Laughing, Aaron led her through the kitchen and into a room that contained a huge, rectangular stone table and matching benches. The sheer size of the table was unbelievable. No doubt it could seat each and every Fallen and then some.
“I...I can’t believe how big this place is.”
“It is our pride and joy, the product of a decade of labor,” Aaron said with a fond smile. “It would truly pain us were we forced to leave here.”
“Wow.”
“You must be hungry.”
She mutely followed Aaron back into the kitchen, taking a seat at one of the barstools lining the large, rectangular island that stood in the center. The counter was crafted in a shade of stone that matched the walls, though the surface had been smoothed out to a dull polish. Aaron stalked over to the refrigerator and opened it, rummaging through. He withdrew a platter of what looked like honeyed ham and several varieties of cheeses. Barely taking note of what he was doing, she watched him slice the items, placing slivers onto a plate.
God, what would it be like to live here? To have so many other people as roommates? To some she supposed that might be a nightmare, but she’d only ever had her mom and Harry. And ever since he’d died, she’d been alone. The thought of having so many other people to talk to appealed to her on some basic level.
Funny, she hadn’t consciously realized until now how lonely her life was.
The soft murmur of voices made her stiffen in her seat. She placed her hands on top of the island, preparing to rise. “Aaron?”
“Don’t worry,” he said without a hint of concern in his voice. “That’s only some of the others. We have surveillance cameras posted at the entrance to the cave and throughout the first level. They would have been warned of our approach the moment we landed.”
The wooden door swung open with a squeak, and Samantha whirled just in time to see two women and two bare-chested men walk through. The women were both beautiful; one had shoulder-length dark curls and the other blonde hair. The men both had dark hair and they were almost as breathtakingly handsome as Aaron. The sinfully muscular build of their bodies told her they were probably other Fallen like him, too.
One of the men stepped forward. He, like the dark-haired woman, looked like he’d just crawled out of a bath. His long, dark hair fell past his shoulders in wet tangles. He made eye contact with Aaron and let out a huge grin. “Welcome back, brother.”
“Good to be back, Michael.” Aaron returned his smile, walking around the island to grab him in a quick, manly hug. He turned to the dark-haired woman and snatched her in for a hug as well. “Eva.”
Gripping her fingers tightly into her palm, Samantha ignored the irrational burst of jealously as Aaron turned to the blonde woman and hugged her as well. He clapped the second man on the back and then turned to her.
“Everyone, I’d like you to meet Samantha."
Samantha’s jealousy melted away as she took in the proud look on Aaron’s face. She shyly slid off the stool and stepped forward, offering her hand to the person nearest her, the man Aaron had addressed as Michael.
“Nice to meet you.”
“The pleasure is all mine.” Michael gave her a wide grin as he gripped her hand tight then turned to the dark-haired woman. “I’d like to introduce you to my mate, Eva.”
“Nice to meet you,” Eva said, giving her a welcoming smile.
“I’m Tayla.”
The blonde woman strode forward to offer Samantha her hand, and Samantha couldn’t help but note that she wore a pair of pajamas. The man who stood beside her did as well. He gave her a friendly nod. “I’m Ethan.”
“Nice to meet all of you. I’m sorry if I woke or...uh, interrupted you.”
Tayla shook her head. “Don’t worry about that. We’ve all been anxiously waiting for your arrival. It’s not every day a nephilim comes to the compound.”
Aaron stepped forward and grabbed Samantha’s hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “Samantha, Eva and Tayla are nephilim as well.”
“Oh.” He’d told her that two other nephilim had recently mated with Fallen and moved in, but seeing them in person was another thing. She studied them both, looking for any similarities that would indicate they were in fact like her, but there were none to be found.
“Nope, no wings,” Eva said with a gentle smile.
“Oh, I didn’t...” Samantha felt herself flush. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to stare.”
Eva laughed. “It’s okay. I understand you weren’t aware of your angelic blood. I’m sure this is all hard to process. It certainly was for me.”
Finally! Someone who understood where she was coming from. “How did you...you know, deal with it all?”
“Come on, let’s have a seat.” Eva motioned toward the counter, and Samantha headed back to the stool she’d just vacated.
While Tayla and Eva hopped up onto stools, Samantha watched out of the
corner of her eyes as Michael muttered something to Aaron. He nodded and looked her way. “We’ll be back in just a moment, beloved.”
The men were gone before she could respond, escaping out the swinging door that led to the main part of the compound.
Tayla rolled her eyes and said, “Never mind them. I’m sure they’re off to plot something or other. We’ll hear about it later, no doubt.”
‘Don’t worry about it.“ Eva waved a hand in a dismissive gesture. “As I was saying, when Michael first told me I’m nephilim, I didn’t want to believe it, but it made some of the things I’d wondered about too easy to explain.”
“What do you mean?”
Eva leaned forward onto the counter. “Tell me, Samantha, have you ever been sick? A day in your life?”
“Uh...” Now that she mentioned it, “No.”
Tayla absently drummed her fingers on the counter. “Can you sense others’ emotions?”
Samantha’s breath caught. Even though Aaron had explained this to her, it still felt strange to hear others admit it. Others who’d grown up as human.
“So neither of you have been sick?” she asked the two women. “And you both have the ability to sense emotions, like when someone’s lying?”
They both nodded.
A ball of dread knotted her stomach. “So that means the angels—the Consortium—they’re really...”
“Evil,” Eva said flatly.
The truth of her words struck Samantha like a brick. She took a deep, fortifying breath. “And this prison Aaron told me about?”
“Oh, it exists,” Tayla said in a dark tone. “In fact, Aaron doesn’t even know this yet—it’s probably what Michael and Ethan are briefing him on—but...I found it.”
Samantha blinked at that startling bit of news. “You found the prison?”
Tayla nodded. “In a remote part of the Alaskan wilderness.”
Eva’s eyes bored into Samantha’s face. “The only problem is the building is very secure. From our reconnaissance, we know it has a state-of-the-art security system. Breaking in there will be very difficult.”
Which is where I come in handy.
For the first time since she’d met Aaron, the severity of this situation hit home. This wasn’t just conjecture anymore. These people—these Fallen—they knew exactly what was going on with the Consortium. They’d likely been keeping track for the entire decade they’d been in hiding. Which meant she had a very difficult decision to make...
Stay here and agree to help the Fallen infiltrate the prison and risk the possibility of being caught and killed.
Or go back home and resume her normal life, knowing that her refusal to help might very well cost the lives of every human being on the planet.
Even though Samantha’s body ached with weariness and from the evening’s long flight, something told her sleep was going to elude her tonight.
After all, who would be able to sleep with the weight of such a difficult decision on their hands?
*****
Aaron followed Michael and Ethan down the corridor and into their makeshift living room. Michael waited until they arrived before speaking.
“Congratulations on finding and wooing your mate, brother.”
An angel’s ability to sense an unmated person of the opposite who had angelic blood meant that both Michael and Ethan, and all the others, would know that he and Samantha had mated. But that didn’t mean she’d agreed to be his mate...an uncomfortable fact he was all too aware of. In fact, just earlier this evening she’d withdrawn when he’d complimented her, the guilty expression on her face indicating she had no plans to stay with him permanently.
That hurt. More than he cared to admit.
Would he forever be cursed to love women who didn’t love him back, or at least not as deeply?
He hoped, no prayed, that Samantha would be different, but only time would tell.
His hypersensitive ears, a trademark of all angels, picked up the soft scrape of bare feet along the rock floor. A second later Zach appeared, shirtless, as was the way of most of their kind. Rumpled and sleepy-eyed, Zach threw him a grin.
“Glad to see you finally made it back.”
“Likewise. How was your final leg of the journey?”
“Not nearly as eventful as the middle part,” Zach said dryly.
Aaron chuckled. “Thank you. For accompanying me to Chicago. For throwing the Consortium off our scent.”
“That’s what brothers are for,” Zach said simply. His face took on an expression of intense excitement. “Have you heard?”
“No. Heard what?”
Michael gave Zach a wry glance before turning back to Aaron. “As I was about to say before we were interrupted...Tayla has found the Alaskan prison.”
Aaron’s eyes widened as his words. Yes, he’d known Tayla and Ethan had taken a few exploratory trips to Alaska. Tayla was one of very few nephilim born with a unique gift...the ability to find things that were lost. So it only made sense she acquaint herself with the area. But he’d never expected her to uncover the prison so quickly.
“Yes, my mate’s skill at finding objects is so great that she was able to pinpoint the location from miles away,” Ethan added, his chest puffing up with pride.
That was indeed something to be proud of. Since angels could sense other angels or nephilim, they’d all feared they would inadvertently reveal themselves to the other angels while searching for the prison. But if she’d found it from miles away, that meant they’d been able to remain outside the detection zone.
“This is quite a stroke of luck,” Aaron said to his brethren.
“Yes, a change in tide is arriving,” Zach said, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet in unrestrained excitement. “I can feel it. We are going to find a way into that prison and get all the information we need to reveal the Consortium and the Tribunal for what they really are. We’re going to win. I know it.”
His words elicited a wellspring of hope within Aaron’s chest. “I hope so brother.”
He truly hoped so.
Chapter Ten
The soft chime of a clock roused Samantha from a restless sleep. Aaron lay beside her on the bed. From the steady rhythm of his heavy breath, it was clear he was nowhere near awake. After they’d spoken with the others, he’d led her up here and they’d both lain down in the bed, only to fall into an exhausted sleep.
She squeezed out from beside him and hopped off the bed. The rough brown rock that comprised the walls of the room made it close to pitch-black, but the clock on the nightstand provided a little illumination. It read 9:30.
How the hell had they managed to get electricity inside this rock, anyway?
She pushed that thought aside as she reached for the clothes Eva had lent her: a black tank top and olive-green cargo pants. As she dressed, her gaze surveyed the room. Who would have known that someone would be able to carve into the side of a mountain and make it into a serviceable home? Aaron’s bedroom held a queen-sized bed with a mahogany headboard and two matching nightstands. The bed had been made up with some of the softest sheets she’d ever felt. Of course they didn’t begin to compare to the man who slept between them. A now-familiar surge of lust rose within her at the sight of Aaron’s bare chest, but she averted her gaze. This was not the time for more lovemaking.
She needed to think.
Once dressed, she stepped through the gauzy curtain that separated the bedroom from the rest of Aaron’s space, which could only be classified as a den. A comfy, brown corduroy loveseat sat against one wall, and directly across from it was an entertainment center with a small flat screen television and a camera monitoring system. She stepped to the monitors, six in total, which showed the common grounds: kitchen, dining room, ground level corridor, living room, and two showing the outside of the cave from different angles. There wasn’t a soul in sight, which supported her hunch that most of the people who lived here were of the ‘late to bed, late to rise’ variety.
Slippin
g on her soft, black boots, she tiptoed out of Aaron’s so-called bedroom and down the hall. Aaron’s bedroom was on the sixth floor, if you counted the bathing facilities, and last night he’d told her on the way upstairs that he shared it with Lucas. She didn’t hear a peep from the other end of the hallway though, so she silently made her way toward the staircase and started down.
She hesitated on the ground floor. A bath would really be nice right now, but she longed to see the outside in the daylight, which she’d gotten only a glimpse of through the monitoring system. Decision made, she walked through the living room and into the pitch-black cavern leading outside.
Her heart rate skyrocketed, ingrained fear of the dark making the tiny hairs on her arms stand on end, but she followed what she imagined to be the center path, as Aaron had directed her. After a few harrowing minutes, sunlight began to peek into the cavern. Finally she emerged from the cave...and stepped right into a world of beauty and sunshine.
“Oh my God.”
She’d known it would be beautiful, but the spectacular view surpassed even her wildest imagination. The lush green trees lining the mountain directly across from the cave’s entrance were interspersed with trees that had begun their Autumnal change. Hues of yellow, orange, and red shocked her senses. A cool breeze bit her shoulders, but it wasn’t at all unbearable.
Two large, white butterflies floated up to the ledge from below, crisscrossing each other in playful flight before shooting off toward the side of the mountain directly across from her.
The sound of trickling water prompted Samantha to walk to the edge and peek over. About twenty feet down was a slow-moving stream. She could practically smell the freshness of the water, and ribbons of steam curled up from the surface.
“Hot springs,” she gasped. How would it feel to go swimming in there, with the cool bite of the fall breeze kissing any exposed flesh?
A quick glance around and up confirmed that no mere human would be able to reach this place. A helicopter wouldn’t fit in such a narrow valley, and they were so far down that climbing the wall of the mountain would be harrowing, if not downright impossible, for the average person. The thought that so much beauty existed right here, out of the grasp of most humans, made her sad in a way she couldn’t explain.
For Want of an Angel Page 7