by Lisa Olsen
What was with the walk down memory lane? I love ducks? He wasn’t getting it. To stick with the band-aid analogy, I was gonna have to rip it off. “I am in love with someone else.”
“Adam,” he said succinctly.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. In fact, it was the last thing I wanted to happen, but he kinda snuck up on me.”
“Adam will drop you the first time someone else dangles a piece of ass in front of him.”
“Hey! You don’t know him at all, he loves me too, he told me so.”
“And you believed him?” His tone was pitying, and it grated on my nerves.
“Why shouldn’t I believe him?”
“You’re going to take the word of an angel who was kicked out of heaven for breaking faith with God, and who has spent the past few millennia debauching himself with anything that moves?”
That seemed a little harsh, but I couldn’t blame him for being upset. I wished I hadn’t had to blurt it out like that, but he’d forced my hand. “I know he’s not perfect, and I’m not saying he doesn’t have his faults, but I know he loves me.” My faith in that was unshakable.
“Where is he then? Or is he hiding in the bedroom? Is that who you were talking to when we first got here? Keep the new boyfriend tucked away while the old boyfriend comes to call?”
“No, he’s not here, I was making sure we’d have some privacy.”
“Oh, then I applaud your discretion. Were you planning on giving me a pity fuck before you cut me loose?”
“Excuse me?” I thought I must have misheard him, there was no way Ben would talk to me that way.
“What, no last go for old time’s sake? Come now, Mercy, I think you owe me that much, don’t you?”
“I think you should go home now.” I rose to my feet, but he caught hold of my arm and yanked me back down to the couch again and my heart fell into the pit of my stomach.
“I don’t think so, I’m not done with you yet.”
“Ben, I know you’re upset…”
Strangely enough that made him smile. “Am I? Do I appear upset? How good of you to notice.” I was still reeling from the rapid shift of emotions when he backhanded me across the cheek. I’m not talking a little love tap either, I mean the fucker hit me hard enough to make my head rock back against the arm of the couch and I lay there, too stunned to move. Never in a million years would I have imagined Ben hitting a woman, especially one he claimed to love. And that’s when it hit me with more force than the blow to the head.
It wasn’t Ben.
“You screwed up. Ben would never hit me like that,” I managed to get out, my hand going to my cheek, which throbbed something fierce.
“No? I can’t imagine why not,” Azazael smiled out of Ben’s eyes. “What a little tease you are, inviting the man back to your apartment to break his heart. Why didn’t you do it at the club if you weren’t going to give him one last thrust?”
“Not that I expect you to understand, but I was trying to spare his feelings.”
“How sweet. Lucky for me you decided to secure the privacy I need to get what I want.” Ben grabbed a handful of my hair, dragging me closer, and a whimper of pain escaped my lips despite my best efforts to keep my fear from showing. Unfortunately it shone from every pore as the Grace made my skin start to glow.
“You can’t force me. It has to be freely given. That’s what the prophecy stipulated, remember?”
“I’m willing to do a little experimenting. You’re the one being difficult. I could have made this beautiful, special. You’re the one that’s making me hurt you.” His free hand came up to stroke the cheek he’d hit tenderly and I shrank away from his touch, making me wince as his fingers tightened painfully in my hair.
“I’m warning you. Let me go.” I didn’t want to hurt him, not while he was in Ben’s body, but I wasn’t going to let him attack me either.
“Let’s see if we can’t put that pretty mouth of yours to better use, shall we?” He smashed his lips against mine in an obscene mockery of a kiss, and I blasted him good with my Grace while I scrambled out from under him. But instead of going down, he merely absorbed the blow, and with a roll of the shoulders he came right for me again, shoving the couch negligently aside with one hand.
“You’ll have to do better than that while I’m in this body. That was barely more than foreplay.”
So much for my preferred weapon against humans. That left me one other option besides screaming bloody murder and having the neighbors call the cops. I called the sword to my hand, gratified to feel its comforting weight in my grasp. That gave him pause, and he halted his advance, watching me warily.
“So, your little toy works here as well, does it?”
“And I’m guessing yours doesn’t. Definitely not in Ben’s body, am I right?” I could tell by the look on his face that I was, but he wasn’t disturbed enough by it to back off. Instead he circled around, watching me carefully. “Leave now, and don’t ever come back.” I circled too, leaving him a clear shot at the door.
“I haven’t gotten what I came for,” he protested, the smile returning to his lips as he started in closer again, moving slowly.
“Don’t be stupid, I know how to use this,” not a lie. Okay, technically it wasn’t a lie, only my skills were rudimentary at best. He didn’t seem to be too worried about it as he continued his slow advance, but I held my ground. “Don’t make me do this…”
“You wouldn’t want to hurt sweet, dependable, old Ben, now would you?” His hands came up in a supplicating gesture, but still he advanced. I flashed out with the tip of the sword, nicking him in the side. “Ow, that hurt, you bitch!” He seemed more surprised than anything else.
“I told you to back off.”
“I’m through playing games. Sword or no sword, I will have you on your back.” He stepped forward again and I was forced to respond, managing to hit his shoulder that time instead of his heart as I’d been training to do. It was both easier and harder than I thought it would be to run a man through, especially one I cared about. That time the sword cut through flesh and bone alike to reappear behind him. Ben froze on the end of my sword, his eyes wide with pain before he staggered backwards and I pulled it free.
“Please, just go…” I begged him, worried about the rapidly spreading stain on his shirt. If Ben died because of me, I didn’t think I would be able to live with myself.
“Alright, you’ve made your point,” he laughed with a raspy cough and I eased my stance a little, until I saw him come up with the gun in his hand. “I believe a gun trumps the sword. Marvelous little weapons, these. So easy to use. Even without the detective’s skills, I’m fairly certain I could cause you all manner of damage from this distance.”
“You won’t shoot me, you need me, remember?” I put all the bravado I could muster into those words.
“I need parts of you, not all of you. It would serve my purpose perfectly well if you ended up a feeble minded idiot in the hospital. They might even give you into my care, me being the doting boyfriend and all.”
His words painted a frightening picture and I backed away until I came up against the kitchen, the corner of the breakfast bar digging painfully into my side. “If you shoot that thing, people will come.”
“No one is coming for you, Merceline. Now yield to me, or find out how far I’m willing to go.”
“I wouldn’t say no one,” Adam drawled, looking cool and collected as he leaned against the wall. “Sorry I’m late, babydoll. Traffic was a bitch.”
“Adam!” A wave of relief swept through me so strongly, I thought I might pass out. Did he not see the gun, or did he not care?
Adam looked between the two of us, noting the growing bloodstain on Ben’s shirt. “I’m guessing the talk didn’t go so well, huh?”
“That’s not Ben, it’s Azazael,” I retorted, hoping to God that made some kind of a distinction to him.
“Even better. I get to kill two birds with one stone.” Adam’s grin turned posi
tively bloodthirsty. A flicker of worry crossed Ben’s features at the interruption before he regained his easy smile.
“Very fortuitous timing, Brother. But before you start gauging the strength and speed you’ll need to overpower me, know this - I will shoot her with this contraption before you silence this body. If I have to remain in torment for all eternity, so shall you.”
“That’s assuming you live long enough to pull the trigger,” Adam growled.
“Even in this human shell, I doubt you could get here fast enough to stop me. Even in death the muscles would contract, carrying out my last orders.”
“How about nobody kills anybody?” I interjected. “Azazael, you can’t win this round. Why don’t you let Ben go and we’ll forget this happened?” It wasn’t that I was worried about getting shot. Not with Adam there. I knew he’d do whatever it took to keep me from getting hurt. But I was pretty sure even he wasn’t strong enough to survive getting shot in the head or the heart.
“I will not simply let this go,” Ben replied, his eyes a little wild.
“Works for me,” Adam shrugged. In the space of a heartbeat, he rushed Ben and the two crashed to the ground. The sound of gunfire muffled by bodies went off once, twice… three shots, and I stood in a shocked stupor, expecting one or both of them to get up and keep at it.
But neither of them moved.
I couldn’t breathe.
I couldn’t think.
The pounding of my heart sounded loud in the resulting silence as I stared at the pair of them gone still on the floor. And then there was the faintest of groans, too low to distinguish which one of them made it. Tears pricked at my eyes as I ran to Adam’s side, pulling him off of Ben, a rush of relief flooding me when he groaned in pain at the movement. Twin spots of blood emerged on his chest, on either side of his heart, spreading faster than I liked. Grabbing the bottom of his shirt, I pressed it against the wounds to get the bleeding to stop, because I couldn’t think of anything else to do.
Adam’s face contorted with pain, but the corner of his mouth still twitched up in a semblance of his usual smirk. “What are you trying to do, kill me?”
“I’m trying to save you, you moron.”
“Then heal me, genius. Don’t just lean on my wounds.”
“Oh, right!” Feeling like an idiot, I took a few precious seconds to center myself, because I wouldn’t do either of us any good if I was too scattered to focus the Grace. Satisfied I was as grounded as I was going to get, I pushed the healing power out of my hands and into his chest, blocking out everything else. I’d never tried healing anything so difficult before, and for the first time, I felt some resistance, as if the wound was so grave, it didn’t want to be healed. Dimly, I was aware of his breathing becoming more labored, and grunts of pain as I pushed through the barrier and felt the healing Grace start to knit his wounds together. It felt like it went on and on, but when at last I opened my eyes, the skin was smooth and unblemished, the crust of drying blood the only indication he’d been hurt at all.
My vision swam as a wave of dizziness hit me with enough force to knock me onto my back. “Mercy?” I heard Adam calling to me, but it sounded far away. Through the fog I tried to puzzle out why I was so affected. I’d grounded like I was supposed to, why did I feel like I was nailed to the floor?
“Here,” I replied, turning my head weakly to find Adam bent over Ben’s body. “Is Ben okay?” With a pang I realized I hadn’t once thought about healing Ben first, Adam’s safety had completely consumed my thoughts.
“He’ll live.”
Adam blocked most of my view of Ben, busy doing something I couldn’t quite manage to figure out. “What are you doing? Does he need healing?” After he sat back on his heels, I could see he’d bound Ben’s arms behind his back with thick ropes. He looked incredibly uncomfortable, even in his unconscious state. “Is that really necessary?” I tried pushing myself up to a sitting position, but thought better of it as a new wave of dizziness hit me.
“This… is the only thing keeping Azazael in there when he wakes up,” Adam replied smugly, nudging him with his boot before he came back to me. “Are you okay?”
“I’m… kinda woozy, but I think I’m fine. That took a lot out of me. What about you? Did I get it all? You’re not still bleeding on the inside are you?”
“No, I’m peachy keen, jellybean,” he grinned cheerily. “You did a bang up job there. I think you might have a real gift for healing. I’ve never seen anyone push these babies out that fast before.” Adam opened my hand and laid two lead slugs in the palm, the bullets that had been in his chest minutes before.
I stared down at the little lumps, so small, but capable of so much damage. What a weird souvenir to end up with. “Where’s the third one? I heard three shots.”
“Oh, that one’s still in old Ben’s belly.”
I sat up, despite the dizziness to stare down at Ben in alarm. “What? You left the bullet in there? We have to get it out!”
“It’ll keep for now.”
“What do you mean it’ll keep for now, he’ll die if we leave it in there.”
“I need him docile for transport, but don’t worry, I won’t let him die. If he dies, we have to start this all over again.”
“Huh?” I had the makings of a headache, but I was starting to feel a little stronger at least.
“Am I going too fast for you, kitten?” He brushed the hair away from my face and tucked it behind my ear which was partially infuriating and partially soothing. And if that makes any sense to you, I wish like hell you’d explain it to me…
Catching his hand and pulling it down into my lap, I silently willed him to make sense. “Please tell me what’s going on, where are you transporting him?”
“I made a deal to keep him out of our hair for good, and I’d rather he didn’t try to take my head off along the way. So, the weaker he is, the better for now. Trust me, if he starts to slip away, I’ll hit him with a dose of Grace and he’ll be fine.”
“Out of our hair, where?”
“In Midian.”
“In Midian,” I repeated, sure I must have misheard him. “You made a deal with Raum to take him to Midian? For what?”
“Raum agreed to keep him on ice for us. No more Azazael, no more Ben, no more problem,” his smile was beatific.
“You went to see Raum? Is that where you were this whole time?”
“Well no, I had to go upstairs to steal the ropes first. Sorry, I kinda forgot about the time difference.”
“Why didn’t you tell me where you were going? I was worried sick!”
Adam stroked his thumb over the back of my hand soothingly. “I’m sorry, Mercy. I didn’t want anyone else to know what I was up to in case Azazael figured it out, and worked out a way to counter it.”
I accepted that with a nod, taking a moment to digest everything before coming up with my next set of questions. “What’s to keep Azazael from jumping out of Ben’s body the moment he wakes up?”
“The ropes have been specially blessed, he won’t be pulling a Houdini on us as long as we keep him tied up.”
He sounded so reasonable, I was at a loss as to why the morality of the situation completely eluded him. “You can’t keep him trapped in Ben’s body.”
“The hell I can’t, do you know what a rare opportunity this is? I was just getting back from making the deal and I was gonna have to lie in wait until he tried something like this. This is a phenomenally lucky break.”
“But what about Ben? He doesn’t deserve this. He didn’t do anything wrong, why should he have to spend eternity in Midian?”
“That’s the way the cookie crumbles, baby. Maybe it’s karma…”
“It is not!” I started to lose it as things spun out of control. “I can’t let you do this.”
“It’s already done.”
“I won’t let you keep Ben locked up forever because of me.”
“It’s not forever, it’s just until he dies. But under the right con
ditions, I think we’ve got at least a fifty year window to work with and come up with something else.” Letting go of my hand, he started to peel off his sticky shirt. “Damn, this shirt cost me a hundred and fifty bucks.”
“This isn’t funny.”
Adam looked up, losing his glib tone, his eyes deadly serious. “No, it’s not. But it’s the only thing I could think of to keep you safe. This way Azazael is trapped in Midian. He can’t hurt you here, he can’t hurt you in the Ether, and no demons will be coming after you either. Now I wish I could say I was sorry about this happening to good old Ben, but I’m not. As far as I can see this is a win/win scenario.” With that he got up, tossing the shirt in the garbage can and grabbing a handful of paper towels to clean up the mess on his chest.
There were so many things wrong with that statement I wasn’t sure where to start. But one detail caught my attention. “Why are no demons more coming after me?”
“What?”
“I understand why Azazael will be trapped, but what does that have to do with demons coming after me?”
“Because of the deal I made with Raum.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I knew, I knew there was even more to it that I wasn’t going to like at all. “What did you do?” My voice was barely above a whisper.
“I made a deal for your safety, that’s all.” Adam tossed the sodden mess away and reached for the dishtowel to dry off.
“What did you do!” I demanded, pushing myself to my feet, swaying only slightly as I refused to let him brush it aside.
“Hey, sit down before you fall down and hurt yourself.” Adam wrapped an arm around my waist, but I refused to let go of him when he would have deposited me on the couch, pulling him down to sit beside me.
“Please Adam, tell me whatever it is you think I can’t handle, I’m stronger than I look.” I didn’t necessarily feel that way inside, but I couldn’t stand waiting for the other shoe to drop any longer. Adam sighed, and I felt my stomach clench. It wasn’t my imagination, there was something else he didn’t want to tell me.