by Lisa Olsen
“I made a deal with Raum to keep you safe.”
“What kind of a deal.”
“I agreed to pinch hit in exchange for his promise to leave you alone.”
“Which means what exactly?”
“I agreed to stay in Midian for a while in your place.”
“You did what?”
“It’s not for that long, and he agreed no one under his command is to touch you ever again. It seemed like a good deal at the time.”
“Are you totally deranged? You volunteered to let Raum feed off of you? For how long?”
“For a year and a day.”
My eyes closed, as if I could block out the meaning of those words that damned us to a year apart. It was a long minute before I trusted myself to speak again without screeching like a fishwife. “And you intend to go through with this? Or are you planning on escaping once you drop off Ben?”
Adam managed to look offended at that. “No matter what you’ve heard, I keep my word once it’s given. I intend to hold up my end of the deal, it’s the only way I can make sure he holds up his.”
“Do you seriously think you can trust him to?”
“Yes, I’ve had dealings with him before. He’s bound by his word, the same as I am.”
“Honor among the damned…” I murmured, feeling like I was drowning. “What am I supposed to do, sit here and go on with my life while I know both you and Ben are going through unspeakable torment?”
“Pretty much, yeah.” Adam nodded and I caught his hand, panic welling within me as he rose to his feet.
“Don’t do this, Adam. Please. We’ll find another way. Don’t leave me like this.”
“It’s just for a year, it’ll be over before you know it.”
“How can you say that? Don’t you even care that we’ll be apart?” My spirit fell in the face of his indifference and he framed my face with his hands, thumbs brushing against my cheeks.
“Of course I care, how can you even ask me that? Being apart from you has been killing me for these past months, and this will be… worse,” his throat worked as he swallowed. “But if this is what it takes to keep you safe, then this is what I’m gonna do. That’s all there is to it.”
“And I don’t get any say in the matter?” I turned my face into his touch, pressing a kiss to the palm of his hand.
“You’ll be fine.” Adam leaned down to press a soft kiss to my forehead. “You’re right you know, you’re stronger than you look.”
“Adam please…” The rest of my plea was cut off by the crush of his lips against mine as he branded me with a searing kiss, as though he was afraid I might forget him in the coming year. I clung to him, determined to change his mind the only way I knew how, but it wasn’t enough.
Finally, he pulled back. Holding me tight, he whispered into my hair. “I will always love you, Mercy.”
“I love you too, Adam, even if I feel like breaking your legs right now to keep you here.”
His warm chuckle rumbled through my body before he released me and I instantly felt the loss of his touch down to my soul. “Good. Try not to forget that. If I come back in a year and there’s somebody else in your bed, there’ll be hell to pay.” His voice was light as he tugged a coat on over his bare chest.
“Oh, I dunno, if another fallen angel stumbles into my bed I might keep him around for a while. How else am I gonna keep myself out of trouble?” I teased back. It was either that or cry, and I didn’t want our last moments together to be weepy and sad.
“I’m pretty sure that’d be the opposite of keeping out of trouble,” he gave me a sour look as he hauled Ben up to his feet, tossing him over his shoulder with ease.
“What can I say, I’m a trouble magnet,” I shrugged, trying not to wince when I saw Ben’s face contort with pain before he slipped back into oblivion.
“Good thing I like trouble,” Adam grinned, pausing by the door for one last look, he turned to go.
“Be careful,” I called out, chasing him to the door but by the time I got there he was gone. “Yeah, as careful as you can be turning yourself in to a demon lord to be fed on for a year,” I murmured to myself in the empty hallway. With leaden feet I returned to the living room which was a complete mess. The couch was still shoved out of its normal spot and Adam and Ben’s blood mingled on the floor next to Ben’s discarded gun.
Mechanically I pulled the couch back into place and picked up what was left of the roll of paper towels to clean up the mess, but my legs gave out before I could get up the nerve to swab up Adam’s blood. Instead I sank down onto the floor and wept, feeling utterly and completely alone. Even Nelo’s gentle touch at my shoulder didn’t pull me from the chasm of despair I found myself at the bottom of. I was vaguely aware of him moving around the apartment, the sting of disinfectant hitting my nose as he cleaned up the signs of the struggle and then silence as he left me to grieve in peace.
At the sound of sirens in the distance, I realized I had to pull it together. While no one had come running at the muffled sound of the shots fired, a neighbor might have called the police. Drying my eyes, I was surprised to feel a sting of pain in my hand and looked down to find the two bullets I’d pulled out of Adam’s chest tightly clenched in my hand, hard enough to leave little welts in the skin. Sticking them in my pocket, I picked up the gun and debated what to do with it.
If the police searched the apartment there weren’t many options for keeping it out of sight. The toilet tank trick was sure to be the first place they looked and under the mattress was out of the question. In the end I gave it to Nelo, asking him to keep it in the shadows until I asked for it again. Nelo agreed without comment, his eyes wide and solemn.
It turned out I’d been worried for nothing. The police never even knocked on my door. The cruiser was parked outside for less than ten minutes before it left. It was a good thing I wasn’t lying on the middle of my living room floor bleeding to death; I’d have been a goner for sure.
I crawled into my cold bed in my work clothes, too bone weary to undress, but sleep didn’t come. Some time later I heard Daphne and Sam come back from the movies, their voices full of animated energy until they realized my bedroom door was shut and I must be home. Briefly I thought of going out to tell them all about what had happened, but it was all too raw. If I started crying again I didn’t think I’d ever stop.
When the morning sun turned the dark gray shadows on the walls to a lighter gray, I took a long, hot shower, letting the sorrow that hung heavy over my heart run down the drain with all the worries and fears for the things I couldn’t change.
Adam was gone.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t steal him back.
Epilogue
In general I like to throw dinner parties, I just don’t have much opportunity to in my small apartment. Most of the gatherings I have are informal, grab some food off the breakfast bar and sit around the living room watching movies on TV kind of affairs. But for Thanksgiving, Christmas, pretty much all the big holidays, I liked to go all out, scooting the couch out of the way to set a folding card table next to my tiny dining table to make room for my guests. I’d invited Matty and Daphne as usual, but I’d also invited Sam and Parker which I was betting would make for interesting conversation.
Since I love to cook, I made everything from scratch, the whole shebang from mashed potatoes to the stuffing, two kinds of pie and a ginormous turkey made with Dijon mustard, fresh herbs and cut lemons (I’ll share the recipe with you if you want, it makes the best gravy in the world). Even though we weren’t going to eat until about three, the whole day was pretty much wrapped up in cooking and making the house presentable. It was better that way, keeping busy helped me not to dwell on what I had planned for after the meal.
In the back of my mind, I wondered if I should try and track down a phone number for Ben’s parents, who would probably be showing up at his house about then, but what would I tell them? Ben was carted off to a demon prison to keep the spirit of a dangerous f
allen angel trapped inside him until he dies? Still, I felt bad for not reaching out to them, as far as they knew I was still his girlfriend. Or had he told them we’d broken up? In the end I decided to leave that can of worms alone. I had other things to worry about.
While the police hadn’t come up to my apartment to investigate the shots fired, they did stop by after Ben didn’t show up for work a few days in a row. I’d had the presence of mind to move his car back to his place the next night. If anyone saw me dropping the car off, well there wasn’t much I could do about that. But so far no one had asked me about that, they’d asked the standard questions like, when was the last time I’d seen him, things like that.
Since plenty of people saw him giving me a ride home that night, I stuck as close to the truth as possible, only I told them we’d broken up, and I hadn’t seen him since, which was technically not a lie. I just left out the part by where I knew exactly where he was and why he’d disappeared.
I hadn’t told anyone about what had happened that night with Ben and Adam, I’m not really sure why. At first I was in a bit of a daze, going through the motions of living. And then I was so busy trying to work out how to get around the deals Adam made with Raum, I didn’t talk much at all. Looking back, I think I probably should have called a little pow-wow with my friends sooner instead of blindsiding them with it on a full belly of holiday food, but at the time it seemed like a good plan.
After all, I needed them calm, relaxed and ready to help, and turkey has that relaxing thing in it, what’s it called… trypto-something. I don’t know, like I said, it made sense to me at the time.
After dinner, when the tables had been put away again and we all sat around with pie and coffee, I committed the cardinal sin.
I turned off the TV.
Matty and Parker were the most vocal with the protests. They’d been avidly flipping back and forth between two games that I had no idea who was even playing. Even Sam had a baffled ‘what the heck?’ expression on his face as if he couldn’t fathom why I’d done such a thing.
“Sorry guys, I need to talk to you,” I began, sitting on the edge of the coffee table to face them.
“Oh come on, Merce, can’t you at least just mute it so we can watch the scores?” Matty leaned forward to pick up the remote, but I snatched it out of reach.
“Nope, I need your full attention. Now, some of you know a little about what’s going on, and some of you don’t. But you guys are my family, and I need your help.” I could see varying levels of acceptance from my little speech. Matty clearly thought the game was much more interesting than whatever problem I was having. Daphne and Sam nodded, each interested, but probably thinking they already knew everything there was to know, not terribly concerned. Surprisingly Parker looked the most receptive, maybe he was happy about being included as part of my ‘family’.
“Go ahead then, sweetheart. At least you bought us dinner first,” he winked.
“Alright then, I’ll start at the beginning.” I went back to the attack in the alley outside work, even though they all knew a version of what had happened that night. At first I had just Parker’s rapt attention, but then Matty’s as I went over things he’d been pretty clueless about. Then Daphne was interested to hear a little more about pieces she’d missed out on along the way. But I had them all hanging on my every word as I talked about what went down in the apartment the other night. By the time I finished talking, my coffee had cooled enough to drain the cup in one thirsty swallow. “So, questions, comments, emotional outbursts? What I really need right now are ideas on how to get them back, because I’ve got nothing.”
The all stared at me as if I’d grown another head, with equally skeptical looks from Matt and Parker to Sam who squirmed under the attention. Parker was the first one to break the silence. “Did you slip some acid into the pie? Because I’m thinking we somehow side-stepped into a show on the CW.”
I’d been anticipating that since he was the only one who hadn’t seen proof of my angelic abilities before. “Nelo, can you come out here for a minute?”
“As you wish, Mistress.” Nelo stepped out of the shadows behind the TV where he’d been watching us, waiting for his cue. I felt a little bad trotting him out like a sideshow exhibit, but it was the quickest way I could think of to prove my point since I knew Sam would be averse to showing us his wings.
Everyone stared at the demon with various degrees of surprise, except for Sam who only looked nervous. “Okay, just because you hired a midget in a costume…” Parker looked less than convinced at his own words though, especially when Nelo disappeared into the shadow under the breakfast bar in plain sight.
“Hey, I know it’s a lot to take in, but I need you to focus for me, okay Parker? You too, Matty,” I added because he looked a little bewildered.
“I thought you said you lost all your magic powers?” Matty frowned.
“I might have led you to believe that, yeah,” I hedged. “Only because I didn’t want you harping on going to Las Vegas to exploit them.”
Parker got a thoughtful look on his face at that. “You know, that’s not a bad idea…”
“Hey, Adam and Ben trapped in demonland, remember?” I interrupted before he worked up too much steam behind that idea.
“Ooh Demonland, that would be a badass addition to Disneyland, don’t you think?” Matty snickered and I lost it.
“Can we please focus?” I started to regret the decision to include them all and Daphne could see my nerves were badly frayed. She hopped off the couch to sit next to me on the coffee table, giving me a comforting pat on the shoulder.
“What can we do though? Even if we could get past the gate guard, how can we get both of them out of there? And then once we have them out of Midian, how do we get Azazael out of Ben without him attacking you again?”
“You’re not saying we should leave them there, are you?” I turned to her, stricken.
“No, of course not,” she shook her head, looking to Sam for support. “What do you think?”
Sam had remained silent for the duration of my story and his silence stretched for long seconds before he replied. “Mercy, Adam did strike a fair bargain. He gave his word, that is not something to be broken lightly.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t make a deal, why should I be bound by the terms of it?” I pointed out. Were none of them willing to help me?
“I’m in,” Matty said suddenly, whatever thought process he was going through coming unstuck. “Whatever it takes, I’m in. I’ve got your back, Merce,” he grinned and Daphne spoke up next.
“I’d make a great distraction, don’t you think? I could probably get that Nobby guy to pay attention to me long enough to slip past him.”
“Thanks, you guys,” I breathed in relief, teeth catching my lower lip in worry as I turned to Sam.
“I will help you,” he said decisively. “Adam is my brother and you are my sister. I will get your back as well.”
That just left Parker. I honestly wasn’t sure which side of the fence my boss would land on. It was a lot for him to process in a short amount of time, and he had the least involvement in any of it of anyone in the room. He leaned back on the couch, stretching out comfortably. “Give me a half hour, we’ll figure something out. I’m gonna need thinking food though. What do you guys think, pizza?”
“Hell yeah, pizza gets my vote,” Matty bumped knuckles with him.
“You guys are hungry again?” Daphne shook her head when Sam nodded.
“I could eat.”
I watched them arguing back and forth over what kind of pizza to get, blinking away the rush of emotion that brought tears to my eyes. I wasn’t alone. And we would get them back. The only problem was, how?
A sharp knock at the balcony door made me jump, and Sam instantly rose to his feet, inserting himself between us and the door. Seeing as how we were three stories up, that put a limit on the options for who it could be. “Go ahead, see who it is,” I nodded at him in encouragement. Sam pulled t
he slider open, shoulders stiffening when he saw who it was. “Who is it?” I still couldn’t see past him to the figure obscured by my drapes.
Sam stepped back with a frown, revealing the tall form of Raziel, impeccably dressed in a charcoal gray suit with a black turtleneck. His eyes sought mine out and he bowed his head respectfully. “I apologize for the interruption, dear lady.” Giving the others a brief nod of acknowledgement, he stepped into the room, kneeling before me. “We have to talk…”
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Read on for a special preview of Lisa Olsen’s novel, The Touch, available now!
Books by Lisa Olsen:
Pretty Witches All in a Row
The Touch
The Fallen Series
Angel of Mercy
Mercy for the Wicked
Mercy for the Damned
Forged Bloodlines Series
Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down
Meet Me When the Sun Goes Down (Fall 2012)
For more information, visit the author’s website at http://www.lisaolsen.net
Preview - The Touch
Chapter One
Despite popular belief, Lexi wasn’t a psychic. She couldn’t tell the future or produce the winning lotto numbers (or she wouldn’t be driving a beat up VW bug a year older than she was). Nor was she a medium who talked to the dead or saw ghosts. Her talents were a little ambiguous for most people to understand; what they did recognize was that Lexi Morgan was a little unusual. She preferred quirky to bat-shit crazy, but people weren’t always that kind.
Peculiar, weird, strange, none of these were new to her ears. Even for such a laid back place like Santa Cruz California, Lexi was considered odd in most social circles. Eccentric was her favorite one; it made it seem like it was a deliberate choice to be the way she was instead of being born to a set of circumstances completely out of her control. Distracted, crazy, spooky even; those usually came from spending more than a few minutes in her company, but usually only after she opened her mouth. Even after years of practice, it was hard to keep track of what she saw and what people revealed voluntarily. While it sounded easy enough to promise herself to keep a muzzle on her outbursts, time and again things she had no right to know just slipped out in normal conversation.