Fallen

by Michele Hauf

  Juphiel the Fallen must have her—now. The urgent sensation crept up his legs, mobilizing him to stand.

  Walking forward, every step he took made the muse scramble backward until she was glued to the wall at shoulders and hips. Shaking her head frantically, but unable to speak, her teary brown eyes silently pleaded against his most base and darkest compulsion. Her neck was red, raw where she must have scratched the angelkiss. The beacon called to him.

  The angel’s footsteps trudged laboriously across the floor as he fought against that compulsion. Muscles stiffening and jaw clenched, Cooper for a moment managed to stop.

  Turn around. Walk away.

  He could not move his hips, but he could turn his head.

  A gorgeous redheaded demon stood in the doorway to this dismal chamber. Her head shook left to right. Her bright eyes were shadowed.

  Why did she simply stand there? He needed her to do her job.

  “Do it!” Cooper shouted to the demon. “Stop me!”

  Another footstep brought him to the dais. The muse screamed. The agonizing sound echoed in his skull but did not dissuade the Fallen angel, Juphiel.

  Where were the vampires? Cooper could smell their greedy observance. They lurked, yet he suspected they would not show themselves until the wicked deed had been accomplished.

  He jumped onto the dais. Want her. Must have her.

  Can’t do it in human form.

  Every muscle stretching his body began to shiver. The bones from waist up began to shift. Cooper knew transformation would occur without his volition.

  He slapped his palms to either side of the muse’s head. His body shook, but he controlled the urge to hurt her. It took all his resolve to hiss out, “I do not want to harm you. I cannot control myself. Listen to me. You will have one chance. I will break the chains. Then run! Do you understand?”

  She nodded frantically. So pretty. Sophia of the lush dark hair and wide, wanting eyes. Don’t want to hurt her.

  Take her.

  “Resist,” he ground between his teeth, tasting bloody spittle.

  Wings grew out between his shoulder blades. His flesh hardened. His form grew adamant yet sinuously flexible.

  Cooper growled and smashed his glass fist upon the bolt where it connected to the wall. It dropped free. The heavy chain coiled at the muse’s feet. “Go!”

  The muse stumbled on the chain. She landed on her knees and palms with a painful scream.

  Completely shifted, Cooper yowled, stretching out his arms and wings and crying to the heavens above that the wicked pact he’d joined would now claim him in its dark truth.

  The muse struggled to clasp the chain and bolt to her chest so she could run.

  The angel Juphiel tilted his head, noting her trouble. He stomped a foot on the chain. “Not so fast, pretty.”

  Chapter 23

  The vampiress and halo hunter huddled together in the doorway watching the Fallen go after his muse. Pyx looked away from the dreadful sight. She was helpless to stop her lover from doing the one thing he had never wanted to do.

  It wasn’t in Cooper to want to harm anyone. Well, anyone innocent. Vampires were not included on that list.

  And even if he didn’t harm the muse now, and simply had sex with her and pushed her aside, the harm would be mentally implanted, and later, as far as Pyx understood, the muse would never survive giving birth.

  She kicked the floor. The damned ward she stood on acted as a steel-barred prison, keeping Pyx from moving outside of the circle, or flashing.

  This was her moment. Her one opportunity as a Sinistari to prove herself to her brethren and claim the task of slaying a Fallen. And she was trapped!

  Not that she intended to shove Joe into Cooper’s chest and take his life. Perhaps for a second or two she had felt all-powerful and determined to prove herself to her Sinistari brethren.

  But that was then. Now she wanted freedom, her own mortality. The ability to choose how to live her life. She wanted to dress like a girl and do girl things, like put on makeup and chatter about lovers with girlfriends. She wanted to make a home with a man and create a family.

  Most of all she wanted Cooper. In her arms. In her life. Telling her she was sexy the way she was, goofy attempts at femininity included. And she wanted to answer with “I love you.”

  A growl from inside the dungeon indicated Cooper fought his vicious innate urge.

  She was not holding up her end of the bargain they’d made.

  The halo hunter toppled as he shuffled around behind the vampiress in an attempt to get a better view. For one moment, his shoulder and left hip swung over the binding ward—it held no power against him.

  That moment was all Pyx needed. She grabbed the messenger bag slung over his shoulder. He tugged on the leather strap, but Pyx managed to overturn it and the halos spilled out around her feet, inside the binding circle. One wobbled and fell against the wall, out of her reach.

  “You’ve had them all along,” Pyx said. “You’ve probably got Cooper’s halo here.”

  Kneeling to gather the halos into her arms, she threaded her hand through them and strung them over her wrist like oversize bracelets. None of them glowed. Where was her halo? She couldn’t reach the one by the wall.

  “Give them back!” Donovan yelled. He made no move to reach for them. The hunter knew his place. “She’s got the halos! The one Antonio gave you.”

  Ah-ha. So one of these was Cooper’s. Pyx took the first from her wrist.

  “Too late, the Fallen is moving in on his prey,” the vampiress reported.

  Prey? Pyx winced. So not Cooper.

  She had to help him. She would even if it meant…yes, killing him. But she was yet trapped and too far away to plunge a dagger into his heart.

  She held a halo before her. There was one other option.

  “You will not harm the muse. I won’t let it happen!”

  Pyx threw the first halo into the room. It landed near the dais, far from Cooper’s grasp or notice. It didn’t glow.

  Gripping another halo as if to throw a Frisbee, she sent it flying. Nothing.

  She tried three more in rapid succession. One hit Cooper’s hard glass abdomen. It bounced to the floor and rolled toward the doorway where the vampiress reclaimed it. It didn’t glow, so Pyx wasn’t upset about the nab.

  The last one she gripped and held above her head. As Cooper clutched the struggling muse’s chain to drag her onto the dais, Pyx saw the sigil on his abdomen glow. The design flashed blue, getting brighter and brighter, as if a fresh brand.

  “Please let this be the one.” Kissing it for luck, she aimed and threw the halo.

  The vampiress jumped, her fingertips snagging the center of the halo and upsetting its course. The halo wobbled midair, glowing blue, and landed on the dais but inches from the muse’s groping and bloodied fingers.

  It glowed. It was the one!

  “Get it!” Pyx yelled. She beat fists against her invisible cage. “Sophia! It’s the one!”

  She was sure the muse did not understand her desperate pleas. And if Cooper did hear, in his state he was focused only on one thing, and that was not claiming his earthbound soul.

  “Go in there and get it out of the way,” the vampiress urged Donovan. “Hurry!”

  The halo hunter dashed inside the chamber, ducking and trying to sneak up behind the Fallen who lifted the muse by a shoulder and turned her over onto her back. The muse was still conscious, but she looked defeated, close to surrender as her eyelids fluttered.

  Pyx bit her lower lip and tasted acrid blood. She clenched her fists until it felt as if her adamant bones would tear the human skin. Stepping from foot to foot she beat upon the binding walls. Clawing her nails down them did nothing but bring her own pain. Fine runnels of black blood trickled down the invisible walls before her, unable to permeate the ward.

  But what was that?

  The muse had the halo in hand. Yes! But she was not in control, and the angel easily moved her about, dr
agging her close to the edge of the dais. And yet, she was trying to utilize the halo as a weapon, her fingers curling about the innocuous circle of ineffable substance.

  The sigils glowed brightly on both the muse’s forearm and Cooper’s stomach.

  Suddenly the muse swept the hand holding the halo through the air before her. The halo’s curved edge neatly cut through Cooper’s cheek. Blue blood drooled down his jaw and spattered the muse’s dirty white shirt.

  The Fallen yowled and grabbed the halo, dropping the muse in a sprawl. The muse lifted her hand from the puddle of angel blood and marveled at the odd color.

  Noticing the halo hunter creeping up behind him, Cooper set him back with a mere shoving gesture. Donovan hit the wall, spine flat, arms spread and head lolling. He dropped in a heap on the floor.

  “Yes,” Pyx hissed. “One down.” She reached for the vampiress but her knuckles slammed into the blood-spattered invisible wall. “Just take a few steps back, bitch. Come on!”

  Vinny remained oblivious to the demon’s struggles. She eyed her boyfriend, and the angel who stood, staggering.

  Cooper studied the halo, glowing brightly in his clenched grip. Did he know what it was while in his altered state? He must. But did he know how to use it beyond as a weapon?

  “Do it, Cooper!” Pyx shouted. “Step away from the muse. Take your freedom. You can make that choice!”

  The angel turned a look on her. Their eyes held across the distance.

  Pyx’s heart boomed. Memory of their lovemaking deepened her conviction, the longing that her lover have the one thing he desired. Could he remember that desire now? Would it help?

  Suddenly, the angel nodded. Pyx didn’t know if it was an “I will do the right thing” nod, or a “this will serve to cut off someone’s head nicely” nod.

  She slammed her palms against the warded walls and gasped down her heartbeats. All she could do was wait. And hope.

  Cooper raised the halo high above his head. The circle glowed brighter, changing from blue to bold silver. A bell-like ringing echoed off the walls, drowning out the muse’s cries. And when he let go of the halo, it hovered and found position above and behind his head, locking into place.

  The room filled with light so bright even Pyx had to look away. But as she did so, the light forced the vampiress from her feet, and she collided with the limestone wall outside Pyx’s prison. Her hand landed a grasp away from the stray halo, but the vampire didn’t notice it in the shadows.

  The muse, scrambling along the wall toward the door, stopped and blocked her eyes with a hand. The sigil on her forearm glowed bright silver to match Cooper’s halo.

  Donovan woke and cowered at the sight, tucking his head against the wall and tugging up his jacket to cover his face.

  The vampire swore and kicked the door frame.

  And Pyx sniffed away a tear. She stepped back, arms hanging loose at her sides. Sound had ceased. Frustrated anger ceased. Wonder eddied through her veins.

  She had never witnessed a sight more eloquent and perfect.

  The angel’s wings stretched high and flapped a few times as if to take flight. Like a grand peacock, the blue, emerald and violet glass shimmered. The entire angel glowed as if sunlight burst out through his pores. It was an angel complete, shaped as a man, but not human by any means.

  Cooper’s feet left the ground. Arms and head flung back and chest lifted, he rose two feet from the dais as if being drawn Above by a guiding hand. He closed his eyes as he tilted his head skyward. He’d never been able to look up for his crime of falling.

  Tears streamed down Pyx’s face. She sputtered and hugged herself. Joy infused her heart and she cried happily for her lover.

  And then the stained-glass wings began to crack.

  Stretching out his arms and releasing his voice, Cooper shouted at the immense pain as his glass flesh crackled and chipped away. At once the ineffable substance glowed molten red then cool blue.

  The wings shattered and shards of glass sprayed the room. Donovan dashed for the muse to protect her, and managed to drag her out from the room.

  “What’d you do that for?” his girlfriend asked, eyeing the muse.

  “We don’t want her dead.”

  “Yeah? We don’t want to stick around here anymore either. I can feel them.” She looked around and down the long dark hallway. “They’re getting closer.”

  “The vampires? Then let’s go.” He grabbed her hand. “We tried, Vinny. There’s nothing more we can do now.”

  “Let me out!” Pyx insisted, beating the invisible barrier.

  “You’ll kill us,” Vinny said.

  “I won’t. I want to keep the muse safe. I promised Cooper. I can flash her away from him.”

  Michael stepped on the chalk-drawn sigil and shuffled his feet over it. It broke the circle. Pyx sucked in the air as if she’d been deprived. With that, he grabbed his girlfriend’s hand and took off.

  Pyx plunged down to scoop the trembling muse into her arms. She glanced up to see Cooper lying amidst a pile of glass shards on the floor, half-naked and not glowing.

  “Maybe you’re safe now,” she said and set the muse down. “I think he’s done it.”

  “No, don’t leave me!” The muse grabbed Pyx’s leather skirt. “They’re coming back!”

  Indeed, she smelled the vampires before she saw them. With a decisive nod, Pyx scooped up the muse and flashed to her apartment. They arrived in the living room. She set the muse down on the green velvet sofa. The stuffing exploded out of one end where Pyxion the Other had stepped on it with her hoof.

  “I can’t stay. I have to get back to Cooper. You’re safe from him now, but not the vampires. I suggest you move away from Paris. Fast.”

  “Mon Dieu,” the muse cried and grabbed Pyx’s arm. Tears spattered her neck and chest.

  Pyx slapped a hand over her burning flesh. It sizzled. Mortal tears. The agony of contact stretched a scream from her mouth. Each tiny droplet burned through her tender flesh and began to eat away at the metal bone beneath.

  Grasping for something—anything—to support her, Pyx blacked out and collapsed on the floor before the stunned muse.

  His hand shifted over the rubble of glass shards. The scattered tinging noise sweetened the air and the odd aches and pains in his limbs segued to the background. Even sweeter was the dull, steady thud that sounded so close. Ta-dum. Ta-dum. Thud.

  Inside his ears? Where was it coming from?

  Pushing onto his forearms, Cooper shook his head and blinked. He lay on a pile of broken glass, but didn’t appear to be cut.

  Where was here? The room was a huge cavern of stone. To his side an open doorway exposed the dark maw of what must be a hallway.

  The thud, thud continued. And suddenly he knew.

  Cooper slapped a palm to his chest. “Heartbeats?”

  He’d only heard the sort when he’d press his ear to a mortal’s chest or held them and traced his fingers over the pulsing vein.

  “It worked.”

  He shuffled his palms over the glass shards and found the cold, dull halo. It didn’t glow when he picked it up. It didn’t have to. It couldn’t now.

  “I’m human.” He savored the word, the meaning of it.

  All he had ever wanted—dreamed about for millennia while imprisoned in the Ninth Void—now it was his. He had a soul. And he’d gotten it—

  “Sophia?” He scanned the room. The muse was nowhere to be seen. Nor was Pyx. Where was everybody?

  “I didn’t hurt her.” Pray, he had not hurt Sophia.

  Pyx had come to the rescue, as promised. Though he’d expected her to plunge Joe into his heart, instead, she’d put his halo in his hands.

  He heard footsteps scuffling down the dark hallway. More than one person. Clutching the halo, Cooper pushed up to sit, but that was all he could manage. He looked down the kilt and over his bare legs. These mortal bones felt as though they’d just run a marathon.

  A smear of red dashed his leg below
the kilt hem.

  “Blood?”

  Real, red mortal blood. With a shout of joy tickling his tongue, Cooper’s elation was interrupted.

  Bruce paused in the doorway, arms outstretched to stop the gang behind him from charging inside. The vampire sneered, revealing fangs.

  Cooper cursed. He thrust out his hand, an intuitive move, and wished the vampire away. But the command did not work. It couldn’t work.

  He was now mortal.

  Facing down a gang of hungry vampires. He had no stake. No means to defense.

  “What’s up?” someone behind Bruce asked.

  “I think he’s done it,” Bruce said. “He’s mortal now.”

  “Where’s the muse?”

  “They’re all gone. Except him.”

  “What do we do with him?”

  Bruce threaded the fingers of both hands together and flexed them out. “Let’s take him out!”

  This could not end well.

  Cooper clutched a shard of glass in one hand. Blood spilled down the edge of it, and even as he braced himself to be pummeled by vampires he couldn’t help but marvel.

  Red blood. Coming from him!

  But now he was mortal, he had to stay alive if he wanted to enjoy that prize.

  The first vampire lunged. Cooper lashed out with the glass shard, catching the vamp across the jugular.

  Pyx gasped breath. The mortal tears ate at her flesh. She had to get away from Sophia. She flashed outside the cavernous room where she had left her lover upon the heap of shattered wings. Colliding with the wall, she staggered and swept low, almost falling, but caught herself with a hand to the floor.

  “Cooper,” she managed to say.

  Everything hurt. Her skin sizzled. Sophia’s tears were eating along her arm and up her shoulder.

  A fog of ash dispersed before her eyes, and before she could think dead vamp, Cooper knelt before her. A glass shard had been utilized as a stake; it dripped with blood.

  “Hey, sweetie. Killin’ some vamps.”

  “I can see that.”

  “Are you okay? Did one of them get you?”

  “No, I’m fine. Just a little weak after flashing the muse away.” She sat up against the door frame, and it was easier to breathe. Yet her neck burned now.