"Mmmm," she sighed, pressing her cotton-clad breasts against his chest.
He held her so tight he thought he might crush her, kissing her as if she could be taken away from him at any moment. She could – she could! But right now, she was in his arms. "Melody. Oh, Melody. I want...I want..."
She laid a warm finger against his lips. "I know, my love. So do I. How about after dinner?"
Luce grinned. "You'll be the sweetest dessert ever." He helped her out of bed and watched wistfully as she wrapped herself in a bathrobe. He made a mental note to switch the heating on when he got a moment, so she'd shed the bathrobe when the apartment was warm enough. The cold crept in quickly of an evening out here.
Together, they decided to cook a selection from each of the frozen food boxes, so they'd know what was best. Luce loaded an oven tray while Mel boiled water for the steamer. Mel set the sauces out in saucers on the table and Luce caught sight of her dipping her finger in a wine-coloured one to taste it. God, he wanted to be the one licking her finger. Later, he reminded himself.
It started out simple – when the food was ready, they dished it up onto a couple of plates in the middle of the table. Then they dipped the bite-sized pieces into the sauce dishes before devouring them. It lasted until Mel let out a moan. "Oh, you have to try one of these." She snagged a dumpling, dipped it in the dark red sauce and lifted it to Luce's lips. "Oops."
Luce managed to get the whole saucy morsel into his mouth, but he followed her gaze to the blotch of burgundy on his grey shirt. Bugger. Oh well, it was just a shirt. He swallowed and said, "My turn." He picked up a tiny spring roll and dunked it into the nearest sauce dish. The roll touched her lips before he lost control of the chopsticks and it narrowly missed Mel's left breast as it landed on the tablecloth and rolled, leaving a streak of brown behind. "Oh Hell, I'm so sorry." Luce swiped at it with the tea towel, but he only succeeded in spreading the mess further.
Mel laughed. "I guess we'll have to do some laundry soon. Not tomorrow, though. Nothing will dry in the rain."
Luce stopped with his sweet-chili-coated money-bag halfway to his mouth. "It's going to rain tomorrow? How do you know?"
"Weather forecasting? Luce, even humans can predict the future when it comes to weather. For me, that's easy." Mel popped the last dumpling into her mouth and smiled.
Could she really read the future? Luce wondered. He vaguely recalled her mentioning it before, but he'd dismissed it at the time. "You can predict what's going to happen?" he asked. At her nod, he ploughed on. "Do you know what our future holds? How you manage to recover and whether it's me that helps you do it? Whether...whether we ever get to be happy together, or will everyone keep interfering until you give me up as a waste of your precious time?" He hadn't meant to say quite that much, but the words had escaped now, to haunt him forever.
Mel patted her mouth with a serviette and dropped it on her plate, then rose and held out her hand. Luce took it without thinking. "Come here, Luce." She crossed to the couch and sat, pulling Luce to the cushion beside her. As Mel tilted her head up, her grey eyes captured his. "I can read the future for anyone but myself – and that means yours, too, for your future is so closely woven with mine that it's nearly impossible to separate them. I know I'll manage to recover because I know you – and you won't let me fade away to nothing. Whether it's here or Heaven or somewhere else entirely, I know you'll take better care of me than anyone else could. As for happiness – I know I'm happy here with you, right now. If you're not, you should tell me because I love you and your happiness means a lot to me, Luce."
Caught, he couldn't deny her anything – least of all the truth. "I love you. I'm the happiest I've ever been because I'm with you, Mel."
They shared a kiss, but Luce pulled her against him before she could move away. "Please. Just let me hold you for a bit longer." He felt Mel relax into his embrace and this time he didn't hesitate. He started healing her as soon as he could summon the energy. Mel didn't protest, so he intensified the flow. It was getting easier every day, but it wasn't enough, he knew.
Dinner was cold and congealed on his plate by the time he tore his focus from Mel. She was limp, lying across his lap, fast asleep. That made it the seventh night in a row he'd started healing her and she'd drifted off, every time. He forced down his disappointment – her health was far more important than how much he wanted sex. Gently, he untied her bathrobe and lifted her out of it, carrying her back to bed.
Most nights, he just tucked her in and watched TV until he was tired enough to join her. Not tonight. This time, he was going to try and keep healing her in the hope that he could make a difference. If he couldn't help her regain her strength, he'd have to take her to Heaven and their holiday would be over.
He prayed for help, for guidance and for the guts to do whatever she needed him to do. Even if that meant going away and leaving her forever.
Luce squinted in the light that seemed to beam into his eyes and rolled over so the sun would leave him alone. The curtain confused him, though – where was the bright sunlight coming from, if it wasn't the window? He sat up and realised it was Mel that had blinded him – standing in the kitchen, wearing nothing but her white t-shirt and underwear, caught in a ray of sunlight from the section of window where the curtains were wide open. Even as he watched, the light dimmed so he could see her clearly again.
"Good morning, my love," she said, turning to poke something in the electric frypan. Something that sizzled.
Luce sniffed and recognised bacon. He was in Heaven. Heaven with a near-naked Melody and a future that included bacon sandwiches. Holy Hell, she was an absolute angel. The sweetest angel who'd ever lived. He needed to thank her. And kiss her.
He'd crossed the floor and his arms were closing around her before he'd finished the thought. Luce deposited a line of kisses on the back of her neck until she tilted her head back to look up at him.
"Good morning," she repeated.
"Mm," he responded, not wanting to untangle his tongue from hers to give a more coherent response. He hadn't imagined it. Sunlight hadn't been the only thing making Mel glow – her soul was brighter this morning. He'd finally done something right. Something that had helped her recover.
She laughingly broke the kiss. "I'll burn the bacon!"
"Can't have that," he drawled, reaching into the cupboard for some plates. He set the table while she cooked, so that when Mel brought the plate of bacon, everything else was ready, too, including her coffee.
The bacon was cooked to perfection – like everything Mel did, Luce mused, his mouth full of his Heavenly breakfast.
"So, what's the plan for today?" Mel asked. "With the weather what it is, I'd say our walk to the chocolate factory is cancelled."
He hadn't heard the pattering on the roof over the sizzling bacon, but now he could see the rain streaming down the windows and the skylight. Hell, what had he planned for their trip? "Um...for a rainy day, I'd planned a visit to the caves and some wine tasting." He watched her carefully, hoping he'd picked right.
Mel's slight frown made his stomach churn. "Wine tasting? I'm not sure I could do that right after breakfast. In the afternoon, maybe..."
Luce breathed again. "So we explore the caves this morning and do wineries in the afternoon?"
Mel beamed. "That sounds like a wonderful plan. Tasting to find the perfect bottle of wine to share in the spa tonight." She winked. "When were you planning on letting me use the spa? We've been here a week and I've been dying to spend some time immersed in hot water and bubbles. It looks like there's room for you, too."
Was she well enough to start doing touristy things? Luce wondered. Or would a day of sightseeing only exhaust her further? "Are you sure you're up for this?"
Mel squeezed his hand. "You're not doing it without me, my love. I'm certainly up for this."
Luce waved Mel over, unable to stop staring and unsure what to make of it. "Hey, Mel. It looks like a rhinoceros slept with a wombat. A Zygo...Zygomatu
rus trilobus."
Her head emerged from the collar of her white sweater – she'd insisted on going back to the car to get it, though the guy at the ticket desk had said that the cave wasn't cold – and she burst out laughing. "If I remember correctly, that creature predates them both." She took Luce's arm and lowered her voice. "The ones here didn't look like that, either. They had short, bristly hair and it was more rust-coloured than that. Only the mountain ones were grey."
Luce debated whether to tell the ranger, back at the ticket counter. No, Mel wouldn't let him mess with the man.
"And one of the best spit roasts I've ever tasted," she continued quietly.
"Just how long have you been coming here on your holidays?" Luce asked, trying to match her voice's volume.
Mel shrugged. "Since people first came here, or maybe before."
"How long?"
"I don't know for sure. How long have those things been extinct?"
Luce leaned over to read the sign. "Fifty thousand years."
"A while, then."
He pulled her to the edge of the boardwalk, away from the statue of the extinct creature that Mel had eaten as a spit roast. "You can't just throw statements out like that and expect me to ignore them. Mel, I've only been here five. Five, since...since I fell." He swallowed and continued, "How did you manage to stay here that long and not be corrupted? I mean, after what happened to the first Grigori...they went native after only a few years! And yet you...you..."
Her eyes held sadness. "I watched, I lived and I learned. I experienced but never let it consume me. Humans are my responsibility and I sought to understand them better so that I could provide appropriate advice. One of them, yet always apart because I knew I wasn't one of them. Always."
"Like me in Hell," Luce breathed. "Surrounded yet alone. Never being a part of their society because what you are sets you apart. And they can never know." He hugged her tightly, finally understanding the loneliness that had driven his precious angel into his arms. He wasn't perfect or even good – but he was a kindred spirit of sorts.
Mel's unsquashable smile returned as she pulled away from him. "Yes, we have our similarities, my love. But I wouldn't call sleeping with thousands of them alone, by any stretch of the imagination." She winked and approached the cave entrance, where the aging stalactites looked like grey teeth about to devour her.
Luce hurried to catch up. "It's not like they were all at the same time. Sometimes two, rarely three and on one, glorious occasion, four. I bet you never got that close to any of them."
"What will you bet, Luce?"
He faltered. "I don't believe it." Mel wouldn't gamble when she knew she'd win, surely. "Not you. Not the untainted angel."
Her blush was just visible as they entered the cave. "I advise those in power or those who will be on how best to use that power. And for one man, that included...his...skill for enchanting women." She strode into the dark.
No. She wasn't getting away with dropping this bombshell and walking away. "Mel, please tell me his name." Don't let it be Patrick. He liked the saint well enough, but he wasn't sure he could tolerate him if he knew the man had been Mel's lover for centuries, let alone her one and only, legendary human lover.
"Gaius. His praenomen was Gaius."
Not Patrick, though still a Latin name. "Is he an angel?"
"No."
Luce breathed again. "So tell me his nomen and the rest. A legendary lover and leader wouldn't have less than three names in the Roman Empire."
"Republic. He was a man of the Roman Republic. There was no empire in his lifetime."
"Mel..."
She sighed. "All right. Gaius Julius Caesar. He was young and he didn't believe he'd ever achieve his ambitions, though he hid his feelings well. He was also a very eager student. A rare human, but he didn't understand how short-sighted other humans can be. Politicians still make decisions in the heat of the moment, without considering consequences. He believed me to be a goddess, of sorts."
Luce snorted. "Venus, I'm sure. Isn't that incest? He was descended from Venus, or he said he was."
Mel shrugged. "He wasn't my descendant, so what does it matter? I've never had a child. Never needed to. I have enough to care for."
"Never wanted to, either?" Luce pressed. Curiosity had dug its claws into him and with Mel in a communicative mood, he was happy to give his desire for answers a long leash.
"No. I inhabit a body that's perfect in every way, except that. I cannot commit to the nine months it will take to bear a child to term, then the twenty years after to properly raise it to adulthood. And it would be human – mortal, until its first life is complete. Only after death would it be able to understand what it truly was. I'm lucky if I know where I will be required from week to week, let alone two decades. If circumstances required me to give my life for someone, I would do so – my body is replaceable. But a baby is not. It is a small sacrifice, perhaps, but not one I think on often. I have cared for children of all ages – I don't need one born from my loins." She sighed.
"I bet they're all paragons of angelic virtue, too."
The pain in her eyes told him he'd guessed wrong for the second time. "I raised Michael and I was responsible for Persephone after Hades...after...I...I'm sorry, Luce. Can we not discuss this? I want to enjoy this cave in your company and not think about all that awaits me when our holiday is over. Can we talk about the cave instead, please?"
"Sure." No wonder she didn't want to talk about children – she'd dealt with the most difficult people he could think of. He could feel her weariness as she took his arm. Please, not yet! he prayed. Their day together had barely begun. It was much too early to end it. "Did you know the water in caves has filtered through soil and rock for thousands of years before it becomes the pure pools inside the cave? Come swim in it with me." He nodded at the pool inside the entrance of Mammoth Cave and made short work of his shirt buttons. Mel's eyes lingered on his chest as he slid his shirt off.
She blinked and shook her head. "I'm not swimming in that. It's shallow, seasonal and full of mud. Not one of your pure, filtered pools." She grabbed the tiny torch she'd been given at the ticket office and flicked it on. The light beam played across a distinctly brown pool that was only a few inches deep.
"Maybe deeper inside, then," Luce insisted, pulling his shirt back on. "The photos of this place showed plenty of water."
Each pool Mel shone her light on was as disappointing as the first. Luce had seen his fill of stalactites, stalagmites and...he still wasn't convinced that the weird conglomeration of flowstone looked like a mammoth, but he hadn't taken Mel for a swim and it was chafing at him. When they reached the exit sign, Luce stomped down the steps. At the base, he finally found the source of the water – not a spring or centuries of ceiling drips, but a stream running down the collapsed doline and into the cave. No wonder it was shallow and muddy – it was recent rainwater runoff.
He sighed, trudging along the stream until daylight blazed overhead, illuminating the maze of stairs that led to the world above. For a moment, he felt like he was in the lowest levels of Hell, looking up at the distant circle of sky, rimmed by tree-topped cliffs. The warmth of Mel at his side made him itch to break out his wings and fly her to the surface in his arms. He could bear to take her to Heaven like this. Secure in his embrace, maybe he'd be able to let her go.
Damp lips touched his cheek. "No," Mel whispered. Luce was surprised to see tears streaming down her face. "We're taking the stairway. Together."
Luce chuckled. He hadn't realised Mel was a Zeppelin fan. "Only if you're sure." He gave an extravagant bow. "Ladies first." He watched Mel's slow ascent, staying a step below her in case she faltered, but she didn't stop until they reached the heavy metal gate at the top, marking the end of the steel and timber staircase and the start of the stone steps cut into the cliff.
The path ended abruptly in gravel and bitumen – the highway, Luce realised. They hurried across before a car could come around the corner. Th
e track on the other side forked into a scenic walk and the direct path to the exit, the sign said, but the difference in distance was only a few hundred metres. "The scenic route?" Luce asked and Mel nodded. He curled his arm around her waist and they took the left fork.
Rounding the first corner, they were greeted by a length of rope tied between two bushes. A hastily handwritten sign swimming in a sodden plastic folder said:
Track closed due to rain.
The clearing skies belied the words – it wouldn't rain again until they were well past this place.
Luce looked at Mel. "Well, that sure looks official," he said, lifting the rope to let her pass underneath. He followed, brushing aside a spider's web that stretched across the track. Evidently the other visitors had fallen for the sign and taken the boring route back to the car park.
Birds chattered loudly overhead, invisible in the canopy far above. Were they laughing at him or warning him? He looked askance at Mel.
"Ring-neck parrots," she said, raising her eyes. "Noisy!" she addressed them and they responded with another melodic chorus that made her laugh. She stepped into a patch of sunlight and time stood still. Her mussed hair and fluffy white sweater caught the light, haloing her like the angel she truly was.
Too good for him, Luce told himself, forcing his feet to move forward. The track turned oddly green and blue and Luce didn't have time to process what that meant before he was ankle-deep in the pool that had reflected the sky until he splashed into it. He squelched out just in time to stop Mel from making the same mistake.
"Look, there's stepping stones," Mel said, pointing.
Not stones so much as sawn-off sections of tree trunks, but they probably served the same purpose, Luce decided. He hesitated for an instant before sweeping Mel off her feet and into his arms. Over her laughter, he said, "I want to be a gentleman and carry you across. Now, are you going to let me or not?"
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