Wasteland

by Lynn Rush

  Shattering glass lured my focus back to Jessica. The glass surrounding my contract sprayed over my body. She palmed the scroll, and a milky flame erupted. Its intensity toppled over me like a tidal wave.

  A biting pain sliced my chest as Jessica retracted her hand. Her creased forehead smoothed, her jaw muscles relaxed, and her lips quirked into a grin. Finally, her hand was completely out from my chest, and I felt only the thudding of my heart.

  No more burning.

  No more prickling needles.

  She helped me to a sitting position and knelt beside me.

  “Human,” I whispered.

  “Dear, David, you are more than just human.” Jessica’s gaze veered from my eyes.

  I followed her line of sight. On my chest, over my heart, the mark of the Guardian glowed a ferocious white. No more was Master’s brand inked in my skin. New, peaceful, warmth coursed through my veins.

  “Locien is no longer master over you.”

  “Locien?”

  Jessica grinned. “Master’s real name.”

  “I never knew.”

  “Of course not. There’s power in knowing a name. He wants everyone to view him as master of them to dominate. To control.”

  “What have I become?”

  “The Angel you were meant to be.” Jessica glanced over her shoulder, then back to me. “With a mate who loves you, King.”

  “King.” Doubt seeped in.

  “I have bound you two.” She tapped her forefinger over my new crest. “She, too, wears this mark, showing your marriage covenant. You are only hers and she is only yours. A pure union.”

  Tears stung at my eyes. “Wife.”

  Beka’s wings unfolded from behind her, and she leapt into the air.

  “Go to her.” Jessica grabbed my hand.

  She lifted me with the strength of someone three times her size. Once to my feet, searing pain ripped down my back. Had a sword penetrated me?

  I reached for Jessica to shield her.

  “Just breathe, David. Breathe.” She smiled. “It hurts the first time, but it’ll get easier.”

  “What hurts?” Bones crackled, snapping, like a zipper unhitching down either side of my spine. “What’s happening?”

  Jessica captured my face between her hands. “Relax your muscles. Don’t fight it.”

  Her touch calmed me, and I breathed, filling my lungs with the cool air they craved.

  Ebony feathers expanded from behind me. A tremor rocked my body, bringing with it a burst of sweat. It seemed like an eternity before the agony stopped.

  “Stand tall, King.” Jessica smiled.

  Russell and Abraham filed out from the cabin, eyes wide. Wings spanned out at least nine feet on each side of my body. The wind tugged me back as it met the mass of feathers.

  “Black?”

  “To resemble what you came from. What you survived. You are both of the Light and darkness. Able to relate to both—but compelled by Light because you chose it over darkness.”

  “Why?”

  “To fight against the evil seeping into this world.” She jutted her chin skyward. “Go.”

  Beka fluttered a distance away from me.

  I bent my knees, drew in a deep breath and jumped. On instinct, my wings flapped. I’d never flown, but how to shift my weight, hold my hands, and flex my stomach muscles flooded my brain.

  “Yeah, David.” Russell pumped his fist in the air.

  I jerked to the right, and with one thrust, I streaked toward Beka. She powered away. I gave chase, my blood racing. My wings spanned at least five feet wider than hers, so I caught her in seconds.

  She tilted her head back and met my gaze. “You’re beautiful.”

  I dove down until I fluttered inches above her. Her body heat enveloped me, despite the wind whipping by us. I skimmed her back with my fingertips, between where her wings came out. She gasped and dropped altitude. She zoomed ahead, shot up and came in above me.

  Her soft fingers trailed my spine. A shudder rocked my body. My vision tilted, and my body sprang to life.

  “Sensitive, remember?” Beka teased. “Only for us to touch, Mate.” Her soft fingertips danced across my skin until I feared I would plummet to the ground from the ecstasy.

  She buzzed ahead, then turned over, showing me the length of her body.

  “How?”

  “Thirty-five years of practice, waiting for you.”

  I slowed to a stop and hovered. She did the same. My body pulsed with adrenaline and need. Hunger for my wife.

  Mine.

  We hung suspended fifty feet above the trees. Foothills surrounded us, but the silence, besides my thumping heart, was refreshing. No inner battles. No pain. Serenity.

  Beka fluttered near me. The mark on my chest ignited, and hers pulsed, visible through the fabric. Her finger outlined my new symbol. Her touch branded the skin almost as much as the sizzling mark.

  She gently pinched my chin between her thumb and forefinger and urged me close. Her soft lips brushed against mine. Our wings found a rhythm that kept us steady. I threaded my fingers through the belt loop of her jeans and jerked her close. She palmed my chest and moaned.

  My tongue beckoned entrance. She opened and drew me in deep. My mark flared.

  She trailed to my ear. “Follow me.”

  She darted away, and I zoomed after her. The wind clipped through my hair, and in two powerful pushes, I flew above her, but close. Our wings flapped in time, and she veered to the right. A grassy meadow, past the last grove of trees.

  She slowed the pace and dove. Before her feet touched the grass, she gave a last push of her wings and landed gracefully. I stumbled, but stayed upright.

  I left my wings extended, not sure I wanted to experience retracting them so soon. Beka’s soft hand traced my spine, and for the second time, the gesture forced the wind from my lungs. She ducked beneath my wing to face me.

  “My king.” Her voice was low, soft as a feather to my cheek. “I give myself to you.”

  She covered my mark with her mouth, and her tongue flicked. Her wings retracted. I had to sample her mouth again. Needed to. I pulled her flush against my body. My wings encapsulated us like a dark blanket.

  Her fingers grazed my feathers. She may as well have been touching my skin. I half expected the burn of the demon to seize my heart in response to the passion gripping my body, but it didn’t. Only peace and comfort at the touch of my wife.

  My mate.

  Her mouth found mine, and she filled me with her warmth. The scent of lilac and sweet flowers from the meadow swirled. The heat of her body wrapped around me urging me on. I traced the grooves of her spine, over the curve of her backside and up her hips. She arched her back, opening herself to me.

  I worked down the side of her neck to her chest where the fabric began. I eased the zipper down, grazing on her sweet skin inch by inch until the zipper was all the way down, and I knelt before her.

  I captured her gaze. Her pupils swallowed her sea-green irises. “I love you.”

  “David,” she whispered. “I need you.”

  My hands grazed up her body, indulging in every dip and valley offered. “Beautiful.”

  “Yours.”

  I nipped at her shoulder and slid her garment off. I covered the glowing mark with my mouth.

  Her slender fingers unbuttoned my jeans. “I’ve waited a thousand years for you, David.”

  Freed from our clothing, I lowered my wife to the plush grass bedding. Our flesh met, and my mark sent a shudder of electricity down my spine. Her skin slid like silk against mine. In four hundred years I’d never felt anything so soft. So tender. Never allowed to for fear of eternal damnation.

  But no longer.

  Beka was my wife, my mate for the rest of our immortal lives. I was free to make love to her, to protect her, to cherish her without fear of my demonic curse.

  Her mouth found mine again. Her fingers feathered against my spine as she cradled me between her legs.

&
nbsp; “My Queen.”

  My wings tightened behind me, a dark shelter hiding us from the universe as I explored my wife’s body, becoming her husband in every way possible.

  CHAPTER 37

  “I’ve never known such love.” Beka’s breath skimmed my ear.

  “Nor have I.” I combed her hair with my fingers as we lay on the grass, cuddled together under the cover of my wings. “I dreamed of it, but never believed I would actually have it.”

  I leaned into her again, outlining the soft contours of her naked body, memorizing every freckle. Such beauty lay beside me, and she was my mate for life.

  “Thirty-five years I searched for you. I knew I would find you.” A single tear rolled down the side of her face and onto my bicep. “I had only the nightmare of your pained face as the guards yanked you from Jessica’s grasp.”

  “I, too, replayed that memory, coupled with the agony of the fire beneath my skin.” I pressed my lips against her cheek, absorbing the trail of salt. “No more tears, my Queen.”

  “Only those of joy.” She took my mouth with hers as if she’d been doing so for a lifetime.

  “There is much joy to be had. I will never tire of the feel of your body.” I rolled her beneath me.

  A scorching pain pierced my heart, robbing me of my breath. Oh, God. Was this a horrible, torturous nightmare?

  Beka’s body tensing beneath mine alerted me that she, too, felt the pain.

  “It’s Jessica.” She clutched her chest.

  “How?”

  “We’re connected to her.”

  I pushed myself from Beka, spreading my wings. “What’s happening?”

  “We must hurry, she’s in danger.” Beka reached for her clothes.

  “We are very far from her.”

  “But we are quick.” She snatched her jeans from the grass.

  Within minutes we donned our clothes again and took to the sky. “Which way?”

  “Close your eyes, David. Sense her,” Beka said as her eyes closed. Her chest expanded with a deep breath while we hovered above the trees surrounding our special spot.

  I pulled in a lungful of fresh air and focused on Jessica’s illuminated face. It flashed before my eyes, and her mouth moved, calling out my name. David, hurry, she whispered yet it pounded my chest. I knew her to be east, I wasn’t sure how, but I knew.

  I opened my eyes. “East.”

  “That’s what I felt as well. Come, we must hurry.” She turned, and vaulted upward.

  “You felt it, too?” I asked as I flew above her.

  “Yes.”

  “Is that how it is with your charges?’

  “Our charges.” She smiled. “But no, it’s not like that with everyone we’re charged with protecting. Jessica is different. A treasure to be protected, but you and I are linked to her in a unique way. Always able to sense if she is in trouble.”

  The wind whipped through my long hair. The descending sun’s golden rays baked my skin and sent my long shadow over Beka flying below me.

  “Why do they want her still? She’s broken my contract and changed me, what more could they want?”

  “Other than revenge for your conversion and to kill her?” Beka’s pace increased. “They want to end her so she does not save those who are undecided.”

  “Are there others with contracts such as mine?”

  “Not exactly like yours, because yours had the Archangel’s bond on it as well, but contracts in general, yes. Lucifer and his minions tempt many souls with worldly goods. Jessica can expunge those contracts with only her touch. She wouldn’t need to touch the actual paper like she did for yours.”

  “But before I was taken, she said she needed to touch me, my contract was not with me at that time.”

  “Right. She could have made you human at that time, but with the contract, she could fulfill the prophecy that gave you wings.”

  “Amazing.”

  “Indeed.” She pointed to the left. “There.”

  Flames engulfed the cabin. Black smoke spewed into the darkening sky. Russell, Abraham and two others battled several demons on the ground. Their swords sprayed sparks as they met strike for strike.

  “I don’t see Jessica,” I said.

  I dove toward Russell and flapped out my wings at the last second before colliding with the demon battling my Guardian friend. I palmed the red-skinned monster’s head and soared up into the air. Too bad I no longer had my lethal nails. The second I thought that, the black weapons extended.

  My breath hitched. I swiped. The demon was dust.

  Light and dark. Jessica’s words rang in my head.

  Beka charged the demon advancing on Abraham and buried her blade in his back, then dodged his sword. Abraham finished by detaching his head.

  “Where is Jessica?” Beka yelled.

  “She ran into the trees,” Abraham bellowed.

  Beka waved me to follow her. I banked left and circled, squinting my eyes. Every leaf and branch was detailed to the point I made out the individual veins on the leaves.

  A break in the treetops revealed two demons darting through the woods. I dove and gathered my wings close to avoid the pine needles. I dropped to the forest floor with a thud in front of the demons.

  The bald one struck. I bent backward. His sword whooshed over my head, leaving a wake of wind against my skin. I kicked his wrist, and the blade scattered into the dead leaves littering the ground. I swiped my nails at his face, and he ducked, landing a punch to my ribs.

  He plucked a dagger from his boot. I jumped, my wings vaulting me high. I flipped my legs over my head and landed behind the attacker. One slice and he melted. The other demon had continued running. He must have Jessica in his sights.

  I ordered my wings close to my body and ran. The earthy scents of wood, fresh wild flowers and pine cones swarmed my senses. Knobby roots, jagged branches and sharp briars shredded my feet. Finally an opening. I took to the air and popped above the trees. Beka zoomed toward me.

  “South.” She pointed. “Cliff edge.”

  Oh no. Would Jessica see the edge in time to stop? I zoomed south and within seconds the treetops ended. I scanned the ground. A fleck of light followed by two dark figures darted between trees.

  “There.” I pointed. “Two in pursuit.”

  Beka plunged into the woods. I surged forward. The trees ended. The bottom was so far away, the river looked like a thread of blue yarn. I hovered fifty feet from the edge scanning for Jessica.

  “David,” Beka screamed.

  A streak of light burst out from the trees and over the edge. Jessica put her arms out to her sides as if doing a swan dive into a pool. I bolted to her. Two dark figures leapt after her. Their flailing arms did nothing to prevent them from descending to the ground.

  One demon fastened onto Jessica’s ankle. Her graceful dive vanished as she plummeted with the added weight of the beast.

  I curled my wings in and fell toward her like a rocket. She reached for me, her face radiating confidence. No fear, no screaming, only peace.

  Our fingers connected, and she smiled. The skin prickled on my arm. I grabbed her wrist and let my wings out slowly as to not jerk her too much. Beka zipped by and with a flick of her blade, the demon’s head rolled. The fingers clasped around Jessica’s ankle turned to ash and sifted away.

  The sudden loss of weight slung us up higher, and I hefted her into my arms. She kicked her legs up and over my outstretched arm. We soared upward.

  “That was close,” Beka said.

  “I knew you’d find me.” Jessica winked in Beka’s direction. “Let’s go down to the bottom.”

  Beka drifted closer. “To the river?”

  Jessica nodded. “I need time to regenerate. And we are no longer safe in this area. Well, and the house went up in flames.”

  “You are injured?” I asked.

  She nodded and rested her head against my shoulder.

  Beka fluttered to me, hand outstretched toward the treasure lying in my arms.
Her fingers brushed Jessica’s forehead. “What of Russell?”

  “I didn’t see,” Jessica whispered. “Can’t see much now. So tired.”

  Beka pinned me with a worried gaze. “Time to regroup.”

  CHAPTER 38

  “She is not immortal?” I asked as I lay the unconscious Jessica on the sandy shore next to the river.

  “Not like you and me. She is not meant to live eternally so she still ages,” Beka said.

  I brushed my fingers over her forehead, pushing strands of hair to the side. A tint of darkness dusted the corners of her mouth. “I noticed she was older than the last time I saw her.”

  “Her aging is slower. Thirty-five years have passed since you last saw her. Her sister, Elizabeth, has moved on, married and has children, living a human’s life.” Beka peeled up Jessica’s shirt, revealing a gash across her side below the bottom rib. “But Jessica has only aged a few years.”

  “Yes. The young looking fifteen-year-old I remember is gone. She is taller, has longer hair, and her face slimmer.” I brushed her hair off her forehead.

  “She’s got quite a wound here.” Beka lowered the shirt. “We have no supplies here to clean this.”

  “I will scout for some aloe vera. Clean it best you can with the stream water, then tear some of her shirt to make a bandage.”

  Beka’s jaw gaped. “You know this?”

  I cradled the nape of Beka’s neck. “I will hurry and see what I can discover.”

  “It will be deep darkness soon, be quick.” Beka clasped her hand over mine while keeping the other on Jessica’s shoulder.

  I pointed to my eyes. “Excellent sight, remember?”

  She grinned. “But no more protection over your neck is what I’m more worried about.”

  I dipped my head, conceding to her logic.

  With one push, I was airborne. The cool wind rustled through my hair and tickled my bare chest. Centuries of restriction and control, the freedom my new wings allowed sent my blood soaring.

  I hugged the riverbank, hoping the water would allow for the vegetation I needed. A handful of Aloe Vera would help facilitate healing. Hiding a day or two while Jessica recovered would provide a chance to talk with her, be with my wife, and learn more about what I’d become.