Lost In Time: A Fallen Novel

by Palmer, Christie

  “Never,” she said, pulling him down by his hair so that she could kiss him.

  When she finally released him, he buried his face in her neck, moaning. “Sweet Mother of all the Gods.”

  She pulled back, her smile lighting up the night. “No. Celeste, Sex Demon Reaper.”

  This time he laughed and kissed her again.

  “Marcus.” She whispered his name when he pulled his mouth away to move kisses down her throat.

  “Hmm?”

  “We need to keep moving, we are on a mission, remember?”

  He leaned up on his elbows, a sour look on his face. “Celeste, one of these days we are going to finish what we start before it kills me.”

  She pulled her shirt down and grabbed her cloak, straightening out the long sword. “Haven’t heard of a cold shower?” she teased. “Besides, you haven’t had a woman in five hundred years. What’s another couple of days, weeks, months? Self-satisfaction?” She laughed at the look he gave her. “What?”

  “Celeste I haven’t, I mean… Gods,” he stammered, pulling away.

  “What?” had she done something wrong? Said something wrong?

  “Celeste, when I took my vow of celibacy?” she nodded. “I haven’t been with a woman since then nor have I taken pleasure for myself. Besides wet dreams that I can’t stop. And lately those have involved you in so many different ways I can’t stand it. I haven’t—”

  “Marcus are you blushing?” she asked as he tried to turn from her.

  “You know what? I don’t want to talk about it. Where are we headed next?” he asked. He took her hand refusing to look at her.

  “Why did you take that vow?” she asked, squeezing his hand.

  He took a deep breath in order to answer, and she Flashed them to a bridge overlooking the river.

  “A woman,” he answered. “For a woman I thought I loved and couldn’t live without, but it’s amazing what you can live through.” His voice dropped, and he shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it himself. “For a woman, Celeste. A woman I could never have.”

  She noticed he hadn’t said a woman he didn’t want, but a woman he couldn’t have. Celeste felt like someone had thrown a bucket of cold water on her. If he could have this mythical Jessica would he turn away from Celeste? Forget that she existed again? The pain that caused almost doubled her over.

  “I’m sorry,” she muttered without any real sympathy.

  Marcus stared out into the slow moving river and shrugged. “Nothing to apologize for. You had nothing to do with what happened.” He turned, smiling down at her, and as he had said earlier, she wished he would smile at her more often as well. “You’re here now, and that is all the matters.”

  Celeste backed up as if he had struck her. “So, I’m your second choice because it didn’t work out with the woman you took a vow of celibacy for over five hundred years ago?”

  “That is not what I said,” Marcus growled, but this time it did nothing for her but piss her off. “You took that wrong.”

  “Really?” she asked pushing him as hard as she could. He gasped as he started to tumble over the railing of the bridge. At the last moment, she grabbed his ankle and Flashed them back to an alley on Bourbon Street.

  “Son of a bitch,” Marcus bellowed. Landing on his back, his head cracked against the dirty cement. Celeste actually felt bad.

  “Was that really necessary?” he snarled with his eyes closed.

  She crossed her arms. “Yes,” she said, masking her hurt with sarcasm.

  “I swear to all the gods in heaven and hell, I will never ever understand you.” He finally pushed himself to his feet. “One second you’re moaning to bring down the heavens, and the next screaming like a banshee and pissed as hell. You are impossible to understand.”

  “Then it’s a good thing we won’t be around each other for all that long isn’t it?” she said, turning from him and walking down the alley.

  “Don’t get your hopes up, sweetheart. I’m not nearly done with you yet.”

  She stopped dead in her tracks and turned on him. “Excuse me?”

  Marcus approached and enunciated each word carefully. “I’m not done with you.” He looked her up and down as if she were a piece of meat. “In fact I haven’t even started.”

  She saw red and swung at him. He caught her wrist, smiling at her. “You’ll have to try a little harder,” he taunted.

  That was one of the last things people did: taunt her. Dropping into a squat, she swung one leg out, sweeping his legs out from beneath him, but he refused to let go of her hand, and he took her down as he fell back.

  Celeste cringed as her wrist popped painfully. She flipped over him so she was crouched at his head, and her wrist no longer bent at a different angel then it should have been.

  Marcus immediately let her go. “Celeste,” he said, urgently. “Your wrist.”

  She shook her head as he tried to rise. Elbowing him straight in the temple, he dropped to the cement like a ton of rocks, out cold. “I’m not sure if you know this, Fallen, but I play dirty and stopping a fight for sympathy is a sure way to get your ass handed to you,” she whispered to his unconscious face. Patting him on the chest, she Flashed them back to the house.

  ****

  Marcus woke as he was thrown to the floor. He stared up at the ceiling. How many times had he been in just this position in the last several days? And he owed each time to that crazed Demon/Reaper who he had fallen in love with. And whom he had broken her wrist that she now cradled to her chest.

  “Victor, I need you,” she said to the room.

  The next instant Victor appeared with Cameron. “What?” Victor asked.

  Marcus asked still lying on the floor.

  Cameron looked down on him. “See? What did I say? Ass down on the floor again.” The Tracker just shook his head.

  Marcus pulled himself to his feet. “Don’t make me hurt you,” he growled to the Tracker. Cameron just shook his head and laughed.

  ****

  “What happened?” Victor asked taking Celeste by the arm and gently placing his hand on her wrist. After several moments, he removed his hand, and Celeste flexed her fingers and rolled her wrist.

  She smiled at her brother. “Good as new.”

  “Would you like to explain to me how this happened?” Victor asked motioning to Celeste’s wrist.

  “She attempted to kick my ass again,” Marcus snapped.

  Celeste stepped between Marcus and Victor, facing her brother. “I never attempt as you well know. He is just a sore loser.”

  Marcus turned her by the shoulders. “We have some unfinished business you and me.” He couldn’t ever remember being so pissed off in all his immortal life. “So you have exactly two choices. You can follow me out of this room or I will throw you over my shoulder and carry you out.”

  “The hell you will,” Victor said, pushing past his sister, he glared at Marcus.

  Marcus wasn’t going to back down. “Celeste, the last thing I want to do right now is hurt you. And fighting your brother will upset you. So decide.”

  He could see she was vacillating. “You have exactly five seconds.”

  If he hadn’t been so pissed he would have laughed because Celeste stomped her foot like a petulant child, then turned and walked toward the door.

  “I will be fine, Victor,” she said over her shoulder.

  Marcus followed, Victor stopping him by the arm. Marcus waved him off. “I know, I know, if I hurt her you’ll kill me. I got it already.”

  Victor snorted. “I was actually going to tell you not to let her hurt you. Because you should be a little worried. She doesn’t get this mad that often. Oh, and she totally fights dirty. Be ready for that.”

  Victor grabbed Cameron and Flashed out.

  Celeste was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, her arms crossed over her chest. “First of all, I will not be ordered around by you.”

  Marcus just shook his head, picked her up and threw her over his sho
ulder. “And I will not be told what you will and will not do.”

  She growled as he swatted her on the butt. He walked up the stairs and into his room tossing her on the bed. Celeste scrambled off the other side.

  “What do you want?”

  “Simply put, sweetheart. I want you.” He moved around the end of the bed. “And I’m done playing this cat and mouse game.”

  “We are nothing to each other,” Celeste demanded.

  Marcus stopped for a moment. “Celeste, do you really think that? Do you really think after everything we have shared, we mean absolutely nothing to each other?”

  She shook her head. “We are partners, but that is all.”

  “Who was the man you loved?” he wasn’t even aware he was going to ask the question until it tumbled out.

  “What?” she asked in shock. “This is all because you want to know about a man I thought I loved?”

  “Thought enough you cut your hair for him. He must have meant something.” Uncontrollable jealousy surged through him.

  “Kettle meet pot,” Celeste said. “Why don’t you tell me about the love of your existence? The love you vowed your body and spirit to five hundred years ago?”

  She had a point. He turned and sat down on the bed. What was he doing? What had come over him? Then she moved so she was standing in front of him.

  “Can we agree to leave the past in the past?” she asked.

  Marcus looked up into those violet eyes. He wasn’t sure he could just turn his back on the fact she had been in love before. Something in him demanded he be the only one. But he knew he couldn’t ask that of her, not after Jessica.

  “Explain something to me,” Celeste said, sitting down next to him on the bed. “You took that celibacy vow for a reason. Why doesn’t it matter now?”

  He looked at her, incredulous. “Have you looked in the mirror lately, Celeste? I would have to be dead not to want you.”

  As soon as the words were out, he knew he had said the wrong thing. He could physically feel the wall come back up. “So because I have the ability— No, it’s not even an ability. It’s something I was born with like my red hair, my requirement for sex and the pheromones I excrete inciting men who are around me for any amount of time to arousal. You want me? Something I cannot change, by the way. You’re attracted to me because of what I am, not who I am. Frankly, Marcus that sucks.”

  She tried to leave the bed, but he put a hand on her shoulder holding her down.

  “Celeste, if I wanted any good looking woman, I could go out and find one.” He turned her face so he could look into her eyes. “I have had plenty of opportunities to break my vow, but never a good reason.”

  She pulled away from him. “You’re not making any sense.”

  Marcus snorted. He wasn’t making any sense, and he knew it. “When I took my vow, at first it was difficult. I had led a lifetime, no several lifetimes, of debauchery. I was a Fallen. I had nothing else to lose, so I gorged myself on what the human body had to offer. Taking the vow was one of the hardest things I had ever done. But after a time, it became a way of life. It became who I was, but I have come to realize I have become the vow. Am I a Fallen or am I am man, just Marcus? All of the above, but a man?”

  “Still not making any sense.”

  Marcus stood and started to pace. “Don’t you think that if she had been the one I was meant to be with, then it would have been harder? I would have gone back, never given up? I didn’t do any of those things. I took my vow and lived the life of a monk until you. I became that stupid vow. I don’t want to be a vow anymore. You were right, Celeste, I want to feel alive. With you in my arms, I feel more alive than I have since I fell.” He stopped pacing. “And as to the vow, I haven’t kissed a woman since then, touched a woman in the way I’ve touched you.” She didn’t move, could barely breathe. “Never wanted to, but you? You drive me mad with need and wanting. Not just the sins of the flesh, I want to see your smile.” He rubbed a thumb across her lips. “I want to see the sun rise in your eyes.” He leaned forward and kissed each eye.

  “I love to fight with you. I go to sleep at night hoping to wake before you just so I can see you open your eyes in the morning. Because you greet each day with such zest and glee.”

  “I never know where I stand with you, and it frustrates the hell out of me.”

  “I love how you can take care of yourself, how you give so much more than you take. The way you love your brothers.”

  “Did I mention I even love fighting with you?”

  “Fallen, how many times have you actually won a fight with me? Verbal or otherwise?” she asked, and he noticed that her voice was just slightly breathless. He was getting to her, and he knew it. He couldn’t give up now, he wanted her and damn it, he was going to have her. For now and forever.

  He pounced, drawing her back on the bed. He rolled so he took the brunt of the fall even though they were landing on the bed. “Sweetheart, there is always a first time.”

  She pushed away from him. “You realize that everyone is out there hunting down Calliope, and you want to stay here and have sex?”

  Marcus thought about it for a moment. “Actually, you have a point. And yes I would rather stay here and have sex with you. Then go fight a creature who is trying to destroy the world and take you away from me.”

  With that said, he brought her down for a searing kiss, fussing his lips to hers as if his life depended on it. It was true. A monster was roaming the earthly realm, hell bent on killing the woman in his arms. He’d be damned straight to hell if he was going to miss the opportunity for his piece of heaven while it was here.

  He leaned back, pulled his holster off, and pulled his t-shirt over his head.

  “Gods you’re beautiful,” Celeste whispered, running the tips of her fingers down his chest, causing the muscles to jump in reaction. Just that simple touch, and he knew he was putty in her hands. If she asked him to jump straight into the fires of hell, he would do it if she would just touch him one more time.

  She leaned up on her elbows and replaced her hands with her lips. Marcus wound her braid around his fingers, the strands bound together felt like a rope of silk.

  Just this moment, this one moment in time, he knew he had more feeling and more love than all the moments he had shared with Jessica. And he knew, without a shadow of a doubt, Celeste was the one. He leaned back and tilted her head so he could look into those eyes that held his future, and he wanted to drown in them forever.

  “Celeste, this isn’t just sex,” he said, as he moved to pull her tight body armor off. “This isn’t just sex.”

  ****

  Celeste was speechless, the practical side of her brain was screaming for her to run. But the part of her that was in love with this man she had imagined him to be, was screaming to stay. She pressed her cheek against his six pack, trying to calm her breathing.

  She had to make a choice: take his offer and give up all other men. Because just after the few encounters they had had she knew she wouldn’t be able to go back to random men. It would mean being damned to Lust for eternity. Wrapping her arms around him, she listened to his strong heartbeat, enjoyed the warmth of his skin. His hands pressed her closer as he caressed her skin, making her feverish to the point of breaking.

  She knew he had no idea what he was asking, but she did. “Not just sex,” she agreed and leaned back, taking all of him. His lips searched for hers, kissing every inch of her neck and face with his on his way to her lips.

  She grabbed handfuls of his hair, trying to find purchase in a world that had suddenly spun out of control. “Fallen,” she whispered, running her tongue along the shell of his ear.

  He backed up. “Marcus,” he growled, turning her belly to Jell-O. “Say it. Say Marcus.

  She smiled. “Fallen.”

  He growled again, her hips thrust up without her permission. “It’s a simple name, Celeste,” he said. “Or is it—” he growled low in his throat, and it vibrated over her chest. O
ne of his legs had worked its way between hers, and his thigh rubbed at her as he growled her name.

  Celeste threw her head back and moaned as an orgasm racked through her body, making her shake all over. She thought she saw stars, and she bowed her body into his, trying to touch every inch of him as she could in that moment. Finally, she drifted down her hips, still riding his thigh, moving back and forth, causing friction that was almost unbearable.

  Marcus smiled and leaned away from her. “So, that is what has you so worked up all the time?”

  She blushed and hid her face in the crook of his arm. “I’m a Sex Demon. When you growl, you show dominance, and it drives me a little nuts. The Sex Demon in me wants to be claimed.”

  Marcus leaned down, licking the shell of her ear and sucked her earlobe into his mouth before growling. “I’m not going to forget that Celeste.”

  She arched up into him again. “If we don’t get naked soon, I’m going to go a little crazy.”

  “I agree.” Marcus leaped off the bed and grabbed her pants at her hips. She barely got them unzipped before he was pulling them and her panties off.

  Seconds later, he stood naked in front of her. She stared at his very large, very engorged manhood. “Damn.”

  He leaned down, pressing against her, chuckling. “I’m going to take that as a compliment.”

  His hands were everywhere. She just lay there so engrossed in how he was making her feel, she forgot she could participate. This was Marcus, the man she had dreamed of making love to, the man she had imagined was all those empty faces from her past. The Demon in her surged to the surface, and she flipped him over. The civilized part of her brain screamed for her to take it slow and stay in control. But the Sex Demon was in control.

  “Celeste?” he asked breathless.

  “Gods, Marcus.” She couldn’t say any more as she rubbed herself against him. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  He cupped her face, forcing her to look at him. “Isn’t that what I am supposed to say?”

  She nodded. “But I need you. I want you.” She leaned back, positioning herself for his entrance. “And the Sex Demon in me can’t wait.”

  Celeste impaled herself onto him. Her head fell back, and she let out a primal moan as she sank to the hilt.