Wasteland

by Lynn Rush

  “Part of the agreement. By contract, your Master had to allow you to come here. He awoke you a few years early of your sentence, did he not?” Beka asked.

  “He did. I never knew the reason.”

  “That is why. He knew the sensory deprivation would leave you hungry and thirsty for worldly pleasures, including finding comfort in a woman’s arms. My guess is he’d hoped you would fall before you retrieved Jessica. Be too weak to face another sentence by turning her over to us, or letting her go. Therefore, your choice made, you wouldn’t step into your destined role.”

  “He’s known this all along.” I kneaded the back of my neck. My limbs felt heavy, like iron rods, lead flowing through my veins. “The timing of my punishment, to leave me vulnerable. Sending me to that club hours after my release. Everything.”

  “He’s deceived you this entire time. If he would have gotten you to give in, chosen your demon side, making it to Michael’s choice wouldn’t have mattered. Lucifer would have mated you with Master’s Queen and you would rule the demonic world instead of Master.” Beka gripped my forearm.

  “He never would have allowed that.”

  “Right,” Russell said. “If you were demon, he would be able to kill you; therefore, remaining in his position.”

  “No wonder he wanted me to convert so badly. He would have killed me outright.” So often he’d tempted me. Gage, too.

  I bolted to my feet and ambled a distance away. I’d preserved my humanity, hoping for a way out of my contract. To become human. Never had I expected this. I could not be a King of the…I’d killed so many Guardians. Brought innocent people to Master. This couldn’t be true.

  The further I got from the camp, the more the burn settled in. I stopped. The blazing needles punctured my heart. I allowed some of my evil to surface and analyzed the ebony nails slicing through my fingertips.

  Something like me could never become king of the Guardians. No being had the ability to purge four centuries of darkness coursing through my veins. The things I’d done.

  Don’t hope for redemption.

  “I know it’s a lot to take in, David,” Beka said. “I’ve had thirty-five years for the truth to sink in, and sometimes I still can’t believe.”

  “There has to be a mistake.”

  She stood shoulder to shoulder with me. “No. It’s not a mistake. Can’t you feel it?”

  “What?”

  “How did you feel the first time you saw me?”

  “I thought you were an angel. Dancing on that floor. I joked that two hundred and fifty years of confinement would be worth a few minutes in your arms.” I studied the ground. “And here you turn out to be an angel.”

  Fingers twined with mine. Her light skin sharply contrasted mine. She brought my hand close to her face and brushed her cheek against my knuckles.

  I retracted my talons. “How can you stand to be so close to me when some of my demon is surfaced? How are you not repulsed?”

  “Because I know it’s not your true self. Something your mother cursed you into before you were even conceived.” Her jaw muscles twitched. “She had no idea what she’d done when making that deal.”

  “I’ve hated her for centuries.”

  “But, despite what she’d done, she’d started the prophecy. Your prophecy, David.” She closed her eyes and faced skyward. “Our destiny. As mates.”

  Light strokes of softness tickled my arm. I turned to find feathers massaging my skin, cooling the demon inside of me.

  “Where do the wings go?”

  She rested her head on my shoulder. “They fold behind me and dissolve into my skin when not needed. That is why I must have two slits in everything I wear, in case I need them quickly.”

  “Does it hurt?”

  “Somewhat. But nothing like what you’ve endured for all those centuries in captivity.” A single tear slid over her cheek and dripped off her jaw. “I can only imagine the agony, the—”

  “Don’t.” I swallowed the bitter rage. “I am strong. I choose you, Beka. Take me to Jessica. If I am to be your mate, I would like very much for that to happen soon.”

  Her arm snaked around my waist, and her wing encircled my shoulders. “As would I, but you can hardly stand on your own volition. You need to rest, then we will move quickly.”

  “How far are we?”

  “You slept many hours in the car, but we are still outside Arizona’s borders. The Guardians are on the move toward us, with Jessica, to a blessed spot in the northern corner. We were to meet there tonight. I will take to the sky and scout ahead, looking for a town from which we can procure a car and get you more food. We need you strong.”

  “It is dark, how will you see?”

  She turned into me. “My eyesight is quite good now.”

  I absorbed the sensation of her body formed to mine. A flicker of doubt fanned to life in my stomach. Everything I’d ever dreamt of in a female stood beside me. A precious woman to cherish and make love to. A chance to remove my demon rested in Jessica, a young girl hiding only hours from me. Waiting to help me.

  Even though I was new to this century, disarrayed from thirty-five years of captivity and plagued with the constant twinge of Master’s punishment, I was still aware of the phrase too good to be true.

  CHAPTER 33

  “Hurry, my king, we’re close,” Russell said.

  “Don’t call me that.” I stomped toward him.

  He chuckled and pointed ahead. I peeked around the corner of the building. Beka’s slight frame stood proud as she talked to a tall man, with dark hair. He leaned in over her.

  A thundering rumble rolled in my chest.

  “Going to be one of those possessive-type husbands I see,” Russell said with a snicker and waved me to follow him. “Relax, she’s just wooing him with her angelic charm. We need a car quickly. She said she saw a bunch of demons combing the woods and this small town, looking for you.”

  “A bunch of…your language has changed.”

  “Hanging around a teenager will do that.” Russell smiled. “Jessica is a unique mixture of teenager, adult, and ancient. It’s quite intriguing.”

  “Teenager? It’s been thirty-five years.”

  “You’ll understand when you see her. She may be the prophesied Merus and nearing fifty years old, but she looks no more than eighteen.” Russell slapped my shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. Just trust us. We’ll get you to her.”

  “So, Master has known this entire time that should I choose Light, I would become something different?”

  So much had changed while I was away. “Yes. Lucifer is his boss, after all. He’s the one who made the deal with Michael and put you in his care.”

  “Care.” I wouldn’t have chosen that word to describe how Master treated me.

  We came to a stop, and squatted behind a thick tree trunk fifty feet from the rental lot. Behind us, cars sped by. Sun sifted through the swaying branches sheltering us, and the breeze carried a fruity scent from nearby citrus trees.

  “He’s not winning any Daddy awards any time soon that’s for sure.”

  “No wonder he always sought to punish me and to tempt me. Yet, had I given in, I would have dethroned him—if he couldn’t kill me.”

  “I’m sure Master would have tried, yes, but I truly doubt Lucifer would have allowed you killed.” Russell stared straight ahead. “Who is Master to argue with what Lucifer wants, right? You demons are sick creatures.”

  I dug my elbow into his ribs. “Careful, I have been away from my Beka’s cooling touch for some time now. I could morph and end you in a second, you realize that, don’t you?”

  He faced me and crinkled his forehead. “It’s nice to see you have your humor about you. The nap and three meals must have helped.”

  “Yes. I’m feeling better.” I glanced at him. “The burn worsens when I’m separated from her, though.”

  “All the more reason to fully believe the prophecy to be true, is it not?”

  But I’m evil.
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  “How can you doubt? You’ve loved Beka since the minute you saw her. I saw you in the bar that first night watching her.”

  I nodded.

  “Your body has craved her touch as hers has for you since that meeting.”

  “She tells you such things?”

  “We’ve been together for centuries, I know a little about her. I could tell. That was what frightened me so deeply. How could Light be attracted to darkness? But now I see it clearly, my King.”

  Another growl.

  “Growl all you want, Demon. I’ve watched her agonize over being separated from you for thirty-five years. It’s been agony witnessing her disappointment every time we thought we’d found you.”

  “I did notice the darkness beneath her usually bright eyes.”

  “Indeed. Many hours of sleep sacrificed thinking about you, tracking you.”

  I sat on the dirt, back against the tree trunk. My knees ached as did the muscles in my back and neck. I needed several more meals to work through the knots in my human muscles from thirty-five years of punishment. I didn’t dare stay in my demonic form long to speed the healing.

  “Why couldn’t Jessica just figure out where I was if she is so powerful?”

  “Doesn’t work that way. When she sees someone, she sees the truth. The only knowledge she came to supernaturally was that of the prophecy. Beka to unite with an angel. Jessica saw you as the angel.”

  I was hardly an angel.

  “She looked into some of the demons we’d captured trying to find you, but they knew very little.” Russell sat up. “Okay, I think we’re getting close.”

  Beka eased away from the man and offered her hand. He plopped something into her palm and walked away.

  “Come on.” Russell stood. “We must hurry. Many demons in this town.”

  “Where is Abraham?” I asked as I followed Russell to my Beka.

  “Here,” he said from behind us. “Just checking the premises.”

  Beka’s green eyes flared at me. “How are you?”

  “Feeling better.”

  She stepped toward me, hand outstretched. “We will be to Jessica by nightfall. Come, let’s go.”

  I slid my hand into hers and reveled in the cool feelings she sent up my arm. It chased the burn away, yet left me pleasantly warmed. She tossed Russell the keys. Gentle hands guided me to the back door and cranked it open. She waved me in.

  The small car shook as Russell and Abraham filed into the front seats. “No SUVs available, My Lady?”

  “Be thankful we got this one. Drive.” She skimmed her knuckles down the side of my neck. “We’ll get you more food and some clothes at the first gas station we stop at.”

  I patted my chest. I’d almost forgotten I was bareback and barefoot.

  She gathered me close. “Rest until then.”

  Her cool arm coiled around my neck and coaxed me to her soft body. Her fingers combed through my hair. The car jostled over bumps and turns of the city. Distant horns blared. The air carried a hint of exhaust and gasoline, but the scent of lilac dominated them all, calming me. The gentle sensation of her fingers caressing my scalp lulled me into a state of hypnosis.

  “How can you want someone like me?”

  “Your soul is pure, just tainted by an evil contract. I see your soul. Jessica sees your soul.”

  I nestled closer to her neck. Her pulse thumped against my forehead. “You sound so sure.”

  “I am.”

  I didn’t share her confidence. “How did you know that before Jessica said I was to be your mate?”

  “I can’t explain it. First saw you in the club, so stiff and tense, cringing every time someone touched you.” She let out a chuckle. “But you were so beautiful. So innocent looking.”

  “Hardly.”

  “My heart, soul and body had never reacted so intensely to a man before. Well, to be honest, it never had.”

  “How can you care for someone who has killed your kind before?”

  “You sound like Russell now.” She kissed my hair. “That was the contract. You wouldn’t have done that otherwise.”

  Fatigue tugged my eyelids closed, but I wanted to stay awake, to feel her close to me. “Tell me more about you.”

  “My family members were the Guardians in Bulgaria. We’d guarded the area for centuries. I was born to my parents already a Guardian. Usually we go through the transformation at puberty or shortly after, but from birth, I was magical.” She settled in the seat and let out a long sigh. “My dad—I can still remember him even though so many centuries have passed since I last saw him.”

  She combed her fingers through my hair and nuzzled her cheek on the top of my head.

  “He and my brother were called to the north. I stayed back to watch over our city. Demons had infiltrated the area, killing innocents frequently. I begged to go with them, but they said no. I was the younger Guardian, despite being fully developed. So, I honored their request.”

  She cleared her throat.

  “Stayed with your mother?” I asked.

  “No. Mother died nearly seventy years earlier doing battle with a legion of demons invading a nearby town. Anyway. My father and brother didn’t return for many moons so I defied their orders and rode my steed toward where they were headed.

  “I found the camp, burned to the ground. The remains of their bodies near a fire pit. I recognized the shoes and belts they’d worn amidst the dust. Many humans littered the ground as well.”

  I opened my eyes and tilted back. “Demons.”

  Her blond locks shifted forward as she dipped her head, and her hand guided my face back to her neck. “My father had been the oldest of our kind, my brother next in line, but since both were killed, that left me. A young Guardian, a handful of centuries old, but the eldest of our kind. Abraham and Russell found me less than a century later and have been with me ever since.”

  “We guard our Queen with our lives,” Russell said. “The house of David lives on in Beka.”

  The name House of David sent me jolting upright.

  “What is it?” Beka glanced out the windows.

  “House of David?” I inched away from her.

  “Yes. You know of it?”

  Dread struck me like a sword to the chest. I knew something would happen to come between us. I knew I could never deserve a woman like Beka. I was demon to the core.

  “What is it, David?”

  “Nothing.” I shook my head. “I—well—I have heard of that name from Master. I remembered the name so vividly because it was mine.” Total lie.

  “Yes. They had a long line of Guardians. I am the last, though, until I produce a child.” Her thumb grazed my cheek. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “Just hungry again.” I faced forward, staring at the road approaching us as Russell sped on. My world fell into a blur.

  I could never tell Beka that I, per contract, was the one who had murdered her father and brother that day in Constantinople.

  CHAPTER 34

  I sat in the backseat of the car, watching Beka through the gas station store windows, as she navigated the aisles. She disappeared behind an aisle, then popped up, holding a bag. She glanced in my direction.

  Always guarding.

  She would no longer share those feelings when she learned I killed her brother and father. The last of her line. I remember the day like it happened yesterday and not so long ago. My second assignment. To bring young Alexander Malka—a demon to be—to Master. I’d tracked the young kid to this camp and within minutes of my arrival, two Guardians showed up.

  Master’s Seers had warned me about them. Even gave me their names. Now I understood why.

  They fought gallantly, but when faced with a creature such as me, it didn’t matter how gallant. They perished at my hands. I studied my fingers, and a tremor of regret and anger rattled through them. The burn intensified, and my nails darkened. I picked up the acidic scent of fear emanating from my body.

  Beka will reject
me.

  I cranked on the handle and dashed out of the back seat. My knees creaked with stiffness from sitting. The thermal desert-air hit my bare skin, adding fuel to the invisible flame beneath the surface. I faced a single lane road that paralleled the gas station. Past that, only treetops. Probably another cliff. The sun hung in the bright sky, indicating late afternoon. Sweat popped from my forehead beneath the stifling heat.

  One other car next to the pump beside ours sat empty. The woman and child who had occupied the vehicle were in the store. No houses or buildings within sight. Only trees on either side of the meager gas station and a deserted road behind me.

  “We’re almost there, David,” Russell said over the top of our car. “Is it tough to fight the flame?”

  “Getting tiresome.”

  “Hold Beka close, she’ll ease the pain.”

  I nodded. My heart cracked at the thought. She wouldn’t want to touch me ever again once she found out I nearly obliterated her bloodline. How will she ever forgive that? How will she ever accept me?

  “What is it, my King?” Russell said.

  “I told you to quit calling me that.” I glanced around.

  “No one is nearby.”

  “It is not that. I am nobody’s King.” I tunneled my hand through my hair and stomped toward the road. Three cars zoomed past. The wake of wind flapped my hair back and sent sand and rock pinging off my skin.

  “Not yet you aren’t, but you will be. We’re only an hour from Jessica.”

  “It is just weird to hear of Kings and Queens in the twenty-first century, isn’t it?”

  “Indeed. But, who are we to fight destiny, my King?”

  I growled but a scream thwarted my attempt to intimidate Russell. We whirled.

  “Look, mommy.” A little girl pointed to the sky. “Wings.”

  Beka’s bright wings flapped, holding her fifteen feet above the gas station while Abraham rolled on the ground with two large figures.

  “They found us?” Russell sprinted toward Abraham.

  Beka darted in my direction, then veered right. A high-pitched squeak rang in my ears. A demon grabbed the little girl. The mom lay on her back unconscious next to the car. Beka drew a dagger from her pant leg.