by Marie Harte
She twisted her hands and shot him a dark look. Damn, but the way she stoked his libido should have been against the rules. “The Principalities are part of the third sphere, my sphere. Except they’re two choirs above mine. I’m an angel, bottom of the ladder. Then there are the archangels, then the Principalities. They channel positive energy and guide leaders, city leaders and politicians, mostly. They normally deal with larger groups, whereas we angels work more one on one.”
“Right. You did pay attention in school, didn’t you?” Pleased when she flipped him off, he continued with a grin. “Well, Rafe and Seir are definitely Principalities. But they specialize in balance, in protecting humanity as a whole against itself and the current idiots in heaven and hell. I call them the balance brothers. It pisses them off.”
Sapphira frowned. “But they’re angels.”
He shrugged, settling his arm behind her on the couch. “Technically, I suppose they are. But their goal is to keep peace throughout our existence. So, in reality, they’re referees in black and white shirts, keeping us, the black, and you, the white, in line.”
“You talk about black and white, but a lot of what you do is really in the gray.”
He nodded, delighted that she seemed to truly understand him. “As is what you do. For the past few days, you’ve put souls in my hands, effectively giving them to hell. Doesn’t it strike you as odd that Uriel gave you a list of sways who definitely belong to the lower realm?”
She pulled out the crumpled list from her back pocket and stared at it. “I did think it a little weird. That or I’m the suckiest Decision maker this side of heaven.”
“We’ve yet to determine your ‘suckiness’,” he teased, suddenly intent on her mouth. “But I’ve no problem getting to that.”
“Duncan.”
“My point is that you’re being tested. I’m almost certain.”
“Tested?” She looked puzzled, and then as if a light had turned on inside her head, she blanched. “Ah, no. Not tested. Uriel knows I’ll do what I’ve set out to do.” Nerves rang in her voice, and he wondered what she was keeping from him. Guilt seemed to work better on her than anything, so he applied some of his finest acting.
“Sapphira?” He frowned. “Is there something you aren’t telling me?”
“Not a thing.” Yet she wouldn’t meet his eyes, and he knew. His angel had been lying again. He couldn’t have been more pleased.
“I thought we were friends. Friend and lovers, and something more,” he said quietly, willing her to trust him.
Her head shot up, and she stared at him, tears making her eyes look like pools of amber. “I meant to tell you before. That I wasn’t going to go through with it.”
“With what?”
“Uriel sent me with you to…”
“To what, Sapphira?” he encouraged in a soft, hurt-sounding voice.
She sniffed, and he wanted to grin his triumph. For all that his angel could lie, cheat and yes, steal, she was still a softie at heart. “He wanted me to push you to Ascend.”
Of all the things he’d expected to hear, that hadn’t been one of them. “What?”
“To Ascend,” she repeated, a fat tear running down her cheek.
Duncan couldn’t help it. He broke out into laughter and leaned back on the couch.
“Duncan? You’re not mad?”
When he could contain his mirth, he sat up and wiped his eyes. “Hell no, I’m not mad. Come on, Sapphira. You didn’t honestly think you could sway me.”
She flushed, but the guilty look in her eyes faded under a sweep of anger. “Yes, I honestly did think I could sway you. That is, until I realized how incredibly large your ego is, almost as big as your fat head.”
He chuckled again and sought her hand, only to have her bat him away. “Don’t be mad, honey. It’s just that Uriel’s been trying to turn me since I hit my sixteenth birthday. And I’m sorry, but just because my mother’s human and my father’s fallen doesn’t mean squat. I’m a demon. Pure and simple. And I like being a demon.”
“You do?”
“Hell, yeah. It’s my job to hang out in the Ordinary. To eat, drink and be merry.” He eyed her breasts and mouth, and his grin widened. “Honey, I do damned good work for the good of Creation, and I’m rewarded for it on a daily basis. What isn’t there to like?”
She gnawed on her lip, and he had a moment of empathy, realizing she couldn’t possibly understand him. Not with the life she’d lead.
“Sapphira, can I ask you something?”
“What?”
“Are you happy up there?” He pointed above him. “Honestly?”
She stared at him, her gaze measuring. And, with a huff of sweet breath, answered with a succinct, “No.”
“Then what are you going to do about it?”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Well, when my time with you is over, what are you going to do?” Surely she wasn’t going to try to fit back in with the assholes above?
“I’m going to go back to Uriel, take my punishment, and carry on. Do my duty.”
“And what duty is that?” Anger simmered. What the hell was she playing at? Did she really think she could walk away from him and not feel anything?
“To sway souls for…heaven,” she said in a low voice.
“Oh? Like you’ve been doing this past week?” he scoffed.
“But like you said, Uriel’s testing me. He probably wants to see if I’ll do the right thing, not what’s best for heaven.” She nodded, as if trying to convince herself, and Duncan wanted to shake her to make her see reason.
“Sapphira,” he ground out. “Open your fucking eyes. Uriel is using you to get to me. He wants you to sway me, but more, he wants you to fail. He gets off on showing up lesser angels. Trust me. I’ve been around enough of you to know when you’re being played.”
Perhaps that hadn’t come out right, because her temper flared in a heartbeat. “Lesser angels? As in, not on par with you mighty demons? The great big, bad Decision makers?”
“Honey, that’s not what I—”
“You know, Duncan, you weren’t complaining about my ineptitude a few hours ago when you were deep inside me.”
He felt a rush of heat, wanting to be there again. And Sapphira in a mad, well, there was only so much a demon could take.
“Baby, I—”
She turned and closed the space between them as she poked him hard in the chest. “Don’t ‘baby’ me. I may be younger than you, less experienced and physically weaker, but I’m as capable as any demon.” She sneered, and Duncan’s heart faltered on the verge of everlasting love. “So you can go fuck yourself if you think I’ll stand for being treated as some inferior—”
“I love you.”
“—Decision making….what?”
He sighed, long and loud. “You’re too opinionated. You’ve got the potential to be a terrific liar if you’d apply yourself. And you need work on toughening up that image.”
She stared at him, her mouth agape, her eyes so wide she looked cartoonish.
“Now hear me out when I say you’re not going back to the upper realm. You’re not going to let those assholes make you feel less than whole because you clearly don’t belong up there. You belong in the lower realm with me.”
Hell, the longer he talked, the more nervous he felt. And Duncan Sinclair, demon at large, only felt nervous when confronting his father or the Pit. The Pit… Shit. He had totally forgotten about his own task to find out who continued to spy for the angels in the lower realm. But as he absorbed Sapphira’s shock, he realized she couldn’t possibly know. And even if she did, taking advantage of her now would just be wrong… Oh fuck. Had he really just experienced a twinge of conscience? It had to be love. That or he was truly losing his mind.
“You love me?” she squeaked.
“Did I stutter?” he muttered, annoyed that his tough image would take a beating after this. Falling in love with an angel? He might as well have “pussy-wh
ipped” tattooed to his forehead. Yet the joy pulsing from Sapphira only made him happier, and he knew he’d lost it.
Sapphira hugged him tight, and then her lips were on his and reason faded under the build-up of lust consuming him. Her tongue thrust between his lips, and she shoved her hand between them and down his pants, curling her fingers around his cock. Duncan sighed in her mouth, lost in her touch. To hell with everyone else. He’d never felt so damned happy before, and he didn’t intend to give her up. But between one breath and the next, she was gone.
“Release her, demon.” Uriel, that cursed, holier-than-thou shithead, had the gall to stand between them. He held Sapphira back by the arm and glared at Duncan with honest rage.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Duncan had had enough. They were no longer in the upper realm. And bargain or no bargain, Duncan was going to land Uriel between realms, right into forever-death’s waiting arms…
“Not this time, young one,” a husky voice intruded, and Duncan was thrown back hard enough to nearly break his skull when he landed. The brick wall that added so much authenticity and charm to his megabucks penthouse made for a lousy landing. His head bounced off the brick, making him see double. After he hit, he landed awkwardly on the floor, at an angle that popped his knee with sweat-breaking pain. Someone lifted him again and threw him against an opposite wall with as much force as the first throw. Blood ran down his eyes, blinding him, and he prayed he hadn’t just ruined his Gustave Doré Inferno 34. Son a bitch, but that damned engraver’s wood block had cost him a fortune.
He dimly heard, “Mother, don’t you dare! If you kill him, I’ll never talk to you again for the rest of my eternal life.”
Before “Mother” could answer, a wall of windows shattered and glass fragments filled the room. Dragon roar merged with demon anger, and in seconds his potential defeat changed into a shot at victory.
Sucking up the pain, Duncan swayed on his good leg and steadied with the help of… “Eve?”
His vision wavered, and then he was hoisted off his feet by a fire-breathing dragon, Eve’s new husband, Ranton. The dragon stood in human form, his giant wings flexing, and breaking every damned piece of glass within a fifteen-foot range.
“Nice place, Duncan,” Ranton grumbled. “But your visitors don’t seem to go with the décor.”
Eve blazed with blue fire, and Duncan deliberately knocked her off balance, afraid she might hit Sapphira, who continued to struggle against Uriel and her mother for freedom. In doing so, Duncan’s knee hit one of Ranton’s rock-hard legs, and he sucked in a breath as his vision blanked and pain took hold of him.
“No, don’t hit…” He tried to stay focused, but he couldn’t think around the throbbing in his knee and the agony vibrating through his head. Shouts and ethereal blaze erupted around him. “Sapphira,” he slurred before losing consciousness.
Chapter Six
After two days spent locked up in Charmeine’s private dwelling in the second sphere, Sapphira felt ready to scale the walls. She constantly worried about Duncan. He hadn’t looked at all well when she’d been forced to leave him, and fear that his body might have been beyond salvaging haunted her. Yes, she loved the spirit within her demon. The way he made her laugh, took pride in his work, and accepted who he was combined to draw her to a strong individual. No, losing him didn’t bear consideration. And she couldn’t deny being fond of his outward trappings. Duncan was hot, and that body of his...
God willing, he was okay. What an absolute mess. Her mother, Uriel, Duncan wounded, his penthouse destroyed. All of which led Sapphira to thoughts of the strangers who’d entered the fray. That woman and…
An honest-to-God dragon. For years Sapphira had studied them, reading as much as she could about the dragons, blood elves and mysterious havoc who also dwelled in the lower realm. Of the three races, only the dragons ever left their realm. But she’d never anticipated seeing one. They rarely frequented the Ordinary, or so she’d been told.
To have seen the giant male in his black scales and surprisingly human form would have been momentous had she not been so concerned for Duncan’s welfare. Fretting for his life, she’d missed most of what the dragon and the female had said. Hell, he might have breathed fire and she wouldn’t have noticed, too concerned with Duncan. A total waste of an opportunity, thanks to her mother and Uriel.
Moping, she flopped into the white lounge chair facing the window, through which a harmonizing singing choir of angels could be both seen and heard. Their beatific chanting gave her a headache, and Sapphira craved the scent of stale beer, greasy fries, and spicy demon more than she would ever have thought possible.
Are you happy up there? Duncan had asked. And she’d answered honestly. No, she wasn’t. As hard as she’d worked to belong, as much as she wanted to make her mother proud, Sapphira finally admitted to herself that life in the upper realm was slowly destroying her. She couldn’t do it anymore, not after seeing what her life could truly be like. Swaying souls to keep balance, a variety of vices to occupy her time, and most importantly, love and laughter with a demon who loved her. True love, she’d always been taught, was blind, and a thing to be treasured. Charmeine chose that moment to throw the locked doors open and enter in a flap of billowing white robes and flying braids. “Sapphira, I won’t have it. No angel of mine is going to dally with a demon. It’s not seemly, but more, it’s not safe. This sulking has got to end.”
Sapphira glared at her mother, teetering on real dislike. Had Charmeine ever listened to what Sapphira wanted? Or had she been too busy ordering her daughter around? Be this, do that, make me proud. Well, how about making me proud? How about loving me for who I am, not who you want me to be? She would have spoken until she noticed Uriel behind her mother, watching them both with keen attention.
“What the hell do you want?”
“Sapphira. Really.” Charmeine looked on the verge of fainting, and Sapphira sneered.
“Typical. I’ve tried, Mother, I really have. But I just don’t care how embarrassing I am to you anymore. I can’t be you. I’m not a good angel. And I’m definitely not a Virtue.”
“You got that right,” Uriel muttered, earning frowns from both Sapphira and Charmeine.
“I’m not embarrassed.” Charmeine sighed. “Well, maybe I am. But Sapphira… I didn’t want to tell you this, because you’ve been through so much. But your demon isn’t who you think he is.”
Sapphira would have snapped back, when she noticed the discomfort and strain bracketing Charmeine’s eyes. A sixth sense told her that her mother was concerned more about something Sapphira didn’t know than that Sapphira had slept with someone so unsuitable.
“He’s your brother.”
“What?” Sapphira looked to Uriel for clarification, but he rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. “Who’s my brother?”
“Duncan.” Charmeine wept, her sobs growing louder as she explained. “Your father wasn’t an Ethereal, Sapphira. He was a human. A human possessed by Asael.”
Sapphira stared at her mother, completely mystified. “Are you kidding me?”
“I wish by all that’s holy I was.” Charmeine collapsed on the ground, crying so hard she shuddered.
“You’ve spent my entire life demeaning humans. Warning me away from them.” With an insight that surprised her, Sapphira realized what Charmeine said might have a ring of truth. If the woman truly loved Sapphira, she might have been trying to spare Sapphira from making the same mistakes she’d made. “So my father was a human.”
“No, a demon.”
“A demon? But I’m an angel.” None of this made sense. If Sapphira had in fact been created by a demon and an angel, she would have known. Demons were very possessive of their young, as they had so few. And she’d never heard of a demon giving up a child, unless he didn’t know. “Did he know about me?”
“He,” Charmeine paused to catch her breath, and she stared at the floor in shame, away from her daughter. “He said he did.”
“Okay, this has gone far enough.” Uriel huffed with disgust and took a step closer. But before he could say anything more, the chanting outside the window collapsed into terrified shrieks and prayers for salvation.
A multitude of demons filled the area outside Charmeine’s window, and then Duncan suddenly appeared directly before Sapphira. He took one look at her face and cursed. He turned to Uriel and blasted him with a blue ball of demonic flame so fierce it threw Uriel off his feet.
Sapphira cried even harder when Duncan lifted her into his arms and hugged her, because she still loved him, and now that love was tainted, wrong. Yet she couldn’t help herself.
“What did they do to you, sweet?”
Uriel muttered under his breath as he stood, glaring at Duncan with righteous indignation. Charmeine continued to weep on the floor, uncaring of the disturbance. But when two dragons, one green and one black, tore through the white brick of Charmeine’s walls, she finally stirred.
“Dragons? In the upper realm?”
“And demons, Charmeine, let’s not forget them,” Uriel said on a huff.
A shrill cry echoed in the air, and everyone froze as the upper realm declared war on the intruders in their midst. Through the break in the wall, Sapphira could see angels and archangels pouring from the clouds. Masses of winged warriors from the third sphere, and a few from the second sphere, flocked around the foreign demons desecrating their realm. Uriel cocked his head and held up a hand, and the loud yelling around them ceased.
“A battle, then, for an angel?” he asked, his smirk as unwelcome as his presence.
“For Sapphira, yes. She’s mine.” Duncan stated in no uncertain terms. The dragons with him snorted, and Sapphira stared in awe at the creatures in their natural forms. At least twenty feet in height, the two mighty beasts towered over everyone present, and their respective shiny green and black scales shimmered under the holy light in her mother’s home. The demons with Duncan, however, waited outside, probably shielding the goings-on in here from outside interference.