Lost In Time: A Fallen Novel

by Palmer, Christie

  Marcus lay on the asphalt face down. “Is he—” she choked on the words.

  Victor snorted. “No, but I knocked him out and erased his memory of the events.”

  “Why?” That didn’t make any sense to her. Marcus was on their side.

  Victor nodded for her to follow him, which she did, and found claw marks and scratches embedded into the back of the plane. “Calliope caught a ride.”

  “He’s getting closer to me,” Celeste said.

  “Yes, and I don’t think Marcus is going to appreciate that much. Plus, Christian, Garrett and I are going to stay until we can corner him. Marcus needs to be unaware of this.” Victor looked down at the Fallen.

  “Christian, take care of anyone in the tower. Garrett, blow the plane, and make it look like it had an accident landing.” Celeste felt terrible, she was causing more problems than she was solving.

  “Victor, this is getting more and more complicated.” She wasn’t sure if it was possible to achieve their goal anymore. “I was taught to fight. But to lose so many of those I cared for.”

  Victor pulled her into his arms. “Now is not the time to question. We are in the eleventh hour. And we know he won’t fight more than one or two of us at a time.”

  She pulled away from Victor and she knew her heart was in her eyes. “Have faith, little one.”

  She nodded. “Celeste,” he said her name more seriously now. “Marcus looks as if he has been in a plane crash and he will heal quickly.” She looked over at him lying unconscious and then back to Victor.

  She rolled her eyes. “Do I have to actually be in the damn thing when Christian blows it?”

  Victor smiled. “No, but close. Garrett will have your flank. I don’t think Calliope has a read on him yet. Christian and I will be close, and of course Marcus because he’s done such a damn fine job up to this point.”

  Celeste rolled her eyes again and hit her brother. “He is doing the best job he can considering the circumstances.”

  It was Victor’s turn to roll his eyes. “If you say so.”

  “Ready,” Garrett called from somewhere in the dark.

  Christian stepped up and smiled, which was something rare. “Do we get to blow her up now?”

  “This isn’t funny,” Celeste snarled at her brother.

  “Neither was the beating you gave me a month or so ago. So pardon me if I stand back and watch,” he said with Christian-style sarcasm. He moved into the shadows and disappeared.

  “He needs help,” Celeste said, walking forward with Victor.

  “Don’t we all.” Victor sighed. “This should be close enough.”

  She hugged him. She would survive, she was almost positive.

  “I am one word away, and we will be close,” Victor whispered, and then he melted into the shadows as well.

  She took several deep breaths. This was going to hurt, damn it. The light was the first thing she saw; a flash so brilliant it burn into her eyes, and then the concussion of the blow hit her, picking her up, debris flying by cutting and imbedding into her skin.

  She was out before she hit the ground.

  ****

  Everything hurt. Marcus rolled over, sucking in air, and he tried to figure out where the hell he was.

  The last thing he remembered was telling Celeste to put her seat belt on.

  Celeste!

  He pushed himself to all fours and looked around. The plane lay burning and in pieces. Celeste was several yards from him. He crawled over to her.

  “Sweetheart.” He touched her face gently. “Celeste.” He patted her face.

  She moaned and then sat up abruptly and called out in pain. “Gods that hurt.” Then she fell back down. Rolling into a ball, she held her stomach.

  “What the hell happened?” Marcus asked

  “Calliope,” Celeste moaned. “I saw him out the window as we were landing. He rammed the plane.”

  Marcus staggered to his feet. He heard sirens in the distance and knew they needed to get out of there but, Ricky and his daughters were on the plane, and he had to make sure they had made it out.

  Ignoring his injuries, he tried to get close to the crash but saw no other bodies. Pain swelled in him, Ricky was a good guy’ and Marcus had pulled him from the gutters of drunkenness when his wife had died of breast cancer twelve years ago.

  Now Marcus had killed him and his daughters in one fell swoop. He felt horrible, but knew his mourning would have to wait. Turning back to Celeste, Marcus found her still on the ground.

  “Celeste, the police are coming. We need to get out of here.” She waved him off.

  “Don’t care, let me die here.” Marcus rolled his eyes and turned her over, then gasped when he saw the large piece of shrapnel from the plane imbedded just above her right breast.

  “Dammit Celeste, why didn’t you say something?” he barked.

  “Hurts,” she gurgled, spitting out blood.

  He picked her up, cradling her in his arms. He headed toward the hanger where he kept a SUV. The way she was acting made him think that part of the metal had pierced her lung. He wasn’t about to pull it out, but he knew someone that would be able to.

  He laid her on the backseat. “I’m going to take you to a friend.”

  She grabbed his hand. “I live in the Infernos,” she muttered. “And I’ve been hurt here more than there in the last five hundred years. I want to go home,” she said quietly. He almost missed it, but the words cut into him like a knife.

  He climbed behind the wheel. He only had scratches and a bump on the head. She was impaled, and just wanted to go home. But he didn’t know if he would ever be able to let her go. He wasn’t going to tell her that. He needed to get her to trust him completely first.

  It took an inordinate amount of time to get to Evelyn’s, and Celeste had passed out half way through the trip. He pulled up to the security box and pressed the button.

  A very British and proper voice replied. “May I be of service?”

  “I need Evelyn, is she in residence?” Marcus asked trying to be calm.

  “She is, however at this late hour I fear I am unable to disturb her.”

  Marcus wasn’t in the mood to play this game. “You have exactly five minutes to tell Evelyn that Marcus is here and needs help. At the end of those five minutes if these gates haven’t opened, I will break them down and come up there and beat the holy shit out of you.”

  There was no answer so Marcus looked down at his watch, exactly four minutes and forty-three seconds left.

  “Marcus,” Evelyn came over the speaker as the gate buzzed and started to open. “What do I need?”

  “Plane crash, one wounded.” And then he floored it, driving down the lane as fast as he could.

  Evelyn was waiting with the door open. She was a beautiful, dark-haired gypsy he had known for several hundred years. This century she had decided to become a doctor and worked days saving lives at the local ER. But at night she saved the lives and worked on the Other population.

  She waved him to stay in the vehicle and climbed in the back seat. “Drive around back. I’ve had a little clinic built there with everything that I need,” she said as she bent over Celeste.

  When he pulled up to the entrance a gentleman stood there with the door open and a gurney. “It’s a good thing you didn’t pull it out, it’s punctured her lung.”

  She motioned for the man to pull Celeste from the car, but Marcus pushed him out of the way and gently picked Celeste up before he laid her down. She moaned. “I want Victor.”

  Marcus actually looked around. Every time she had asked for Victor before, he had appeared. But nothing Flashed and they wheeled her into the clinic.

  “Wait here.” Evelyn motioned to a small waiting area.

  “No,” Marcus said. Evelyn gave him a hard look and shook her head before she led them into a room that would rival any ER. Just as Celeste woke up, with strength he wouldn’t have imagined, she vaulted off the gurney and into the corner as far from every
one as possible. Blood was starting to trickle down her brow, and he realized that she also had a head wound.

  “What the hell is going on?” She wobbled on her feet, catching herself against the wall.

  “Celeste, the plane crashed. You’re,” Marcus said calmly. He held up his hands and took a step toward her.

  Celeste looked at him and then down at the piece of metal protruding from her chest. She gasped and yanked it out as both Marcus and Evelyn screamed no.

  Her wound made a sickening sucking sound, and she tried to take a breath, but it only made the sucking noise worse. With what she was sure was the last of her breath she muttered, Celeste said, “Victor, god damn it.”

  Victor caught her as she fell to the floor. Marcus snarled at the Reaper. “You couldn’t have shown up half an hour ago?”

  “I was busy,” he snarled back, holding Celeste close. Marcus saw them both take deep breaths. Victor shuttered.

  Celeste didn’t open her eyes when she spoke. “I love you.” She put her arms around her brother, and Marcus knew she was out again as her body went limp.

  Victor glared at Marcus. “How many times are you going to get my sister killed?”

  “She isn’t dead, you dumb ass.” Marcus snapped.

  Victor nodded. “Okay, let me put it this way, how many times are you going to put her life in such danger so if I don’t show up she will die? Is that better?” he bellowed.

  Marcus got right into Victor’s face, leaning over Celeste to do it. “You and your brothers and father put her in danger. Let’s not forget that part.”

  “But it was you and your friends that let Calliope out in the first place. She would be safe and sound in the Infernos right now if it wasn’t for that,” Victor bellowed, his eyes bleeding to black. “She is the most beautiful, kind and strong creature in any plane and she has spilt more blood in the last week on this plane than in her entire life in the Infernos.” The words cut at Marcus because they mirrored what she had said to him at the airport just an hour before they hurt all the more.

  Victor gently placed Celeste back on the gurney and turned back to Marcus. “One job, Fallen. One simple fucking job: protect her until she finishes her mission. Is it possible to do that without killing her?”

  His words hurt, but Marcus wasn’t about to admit it. “Get out,” Marcus growled. “You healed her, now get out.”

  Victor shook his head and Flashed out.

  “What the hell is going on?” Evelyn asked from behind him.

  Marcus sighed he was tired and his injuries from the plane crash hurt like hell. He couldn’t remember the last time he had felt so torn up, both on the inside and out. His mind reeled for a moment and then pinpointed it. The day he had fallen was the last time he had felt like this mentally and physically.

  Shaking his head, he turned and froze, so shocked he wasn’t even sure he was breathing.

  “Marcus,” Jessica breathed. She seemed just as shocked as he did. So many things ran through his mind he couldn’t pinpoint any one thought.

  Evelyn saved him. “Marcus please explain to me why you brought a Reaper into my home?” she asked, angrier than he had ever seen her before. “I do NOT treat Reapers.”

  Celeste snorted from where she lay. “Bitch, nobody asked you to.”

  “Celeste,” Marcus warned. He turned, Celeste was pulling herself to a sitting position. She was pale and covered in blood, but otherwise looked like she was going to survive and Marcus sighed with relief. At lease he didn’t need to worry about her any longer. “I brought you here to be cared for, and the least you could do is be polite.”

  One shapely eyebrow shot up to her hairline, and she sighed like she was just too tired to argue. Leaning around him, she addressed Evelyn. “Sorry, thanks for trying.”

  As apologies went, it totally sucked, but considering it was coming from Celeste, it was the best she was capable of.

  He turned back to Evelyn. “I do not accept your apology,” she said and turned to Marcus. “I hope this will not affect our relationship, Marcus, because it is one I value, but get her off my property.”

  “You haven’t changed at all have you?” Jessica asked, looking unsurprised.

  Marcus looked at her trying to see the woman he had loved so much so long ago and saw nothing. What he saw now was lacking in what he wanted, what he needed, no spark no light. Not anything like Celeste. He turned as Celeste eased herself off the gurney. She held onto his arm. “Thanks.”

  To Jessica she said, “You know Fallen, idiots and fools the lot of them. Why else would they have Fallen?”

  She was joking, he saw it in her eyes, but when he turned to Jessica he realized Jessica believed every word.

  “You disgust me,” Jessica spat out.

  “Who are you?” Celeste asked obviously ready to come to Marcus’ defense.

  “His…” She motioned to Marcus with such repulsion it was palatable. “…wife.”

  Chapter 13

  “Shut the fuck up,” Celeste shouted from beside him. Marcus turned to Celeste, ready to explain, but she was swinging a fist at his temple at the moment and her furious eyes were the last thing he saw before he was knocked out.

  Again.

  “I’m leaving,” Celeste said to the women, before Marcus’s body had even hit the floor. “How exactly did he bring me here?”

  “There’s an SUV out front,” Evelyn said, obviously more than ready to see the back of her.

  Celeste took several steps and then stopped. This had to be Jessica, the one person Marcus wanted above all others. She looked at her blond hair curled around an angelic face, but her eyes shown with anger and revulsion.

  “You’re Jessica aren’t you?” she wasn’t going to pass this opportunity up for anything in the world. So, he had been married to her? The lying bastard.

  The woman sniffed and flipped her perfect blond hair over her shoulder. “So he’s told you about me?” she asked with a little too much arrogance in her voice, as if she knew she had been torturing Marcus for the last five hundred years and found pleasure in it. Celeste had the strongest urge to punch her in her perfect nose.

  “A little,” Celeste said, emotionless, as she bent down and started searching Marcus for the keys. She sighed and stood. If she knew him, he probably left them in the damn ignition. “The marriage thing was a bit of a surprise.”

  “I couldn’t tell.” Jessica’s voice was waspish, which put Celeste on the defensive; that was a bad thing for everyone. She felt her skin heat and knew she was turning a shade of orange. If they hadn’t known she was a Demon before they were getting their proof now.

  She ignored the surprised looks of the woman at her physical change. “Since you haven’t seen him in what?” Celeste tapped her finger against her chin as if in thought. “Oh, that’s right, five hundred years. I’ll let your sarcastic bitchy attitude pass. But for your information, you have no idea who this man is, so why don’t you take all your notions and ideas about him and shove them up your tight condescending ass. That is, if you can remove whatever it is you already have up there.”

  She pushed past the two women and headed for the door. The first thing she was going to do was find Garrett and kick his ass. A little less explosive wouldn’t have been too much to ask for regardless of the fact she was immortal. Being impaled by bits of plane still hurt like hell. Christian could expect her wrath as well because he was probably somewhere still laughing his butt off at her expense.

  At least Victor had showed up to heal her, but he was getting really close to being on her list as well. What the hell had he been waiting for?

  “And what do you know about my feelings for Marcus?” Jessica barked, raising Celeste’s hackles even higher.

  Celeste told her feet to move forward, told herself this woman didn’t matter to her. But her body had something else in mind altogether, and she turned and moved so fast Jessica gasped as Celeste pressed her nose into the other woman’s face.

  “Five hundred y
ears, he has loved you. Five hundred years he has fought evil and the sins of the world just so he could be worthy of you,” Celeste growled, trying to not let the tears threatening spill down her cheeks. She felt her small quills stab through the skin of her palms, which meant, at the moment she was a whole lot more Demon than Reaper. The quills could kill a mortal, and the Demon venom in them could cause an Other sever pain for days. She fisted her hands, stabbing herself instead of slapping the stupid out of the Guardian in front of her. She was immune to her own venom.

  “All for what?” Celeste spat, forcing herself to step back. “For you to turn your back on him once again. You make me sick.”

  For the love of all the gods, she just wanted to go home. She turned back to the door. She wanted to get away from this mortal plane of pain and love and a man that made her feel things she had never shouldn’t feel.

  “You are not a full Reaper,” Evelyn said, following her.

  “Nope.” Celeste didn’t even turn around, but kept walking.

  “What’s your other half?”

  “That would be—” she paused for effect, but still didn’t stop walking. “None of your damn business considering you despise the Reaper side of me. I could care less of your other interests in me.”

  A black SUV stood in front of the Clinic, and she threw open the door. Yep, keys in the ignition. She climbed behind the wheel and took a deep breath. She had been taught to drive seventy years ago, but had never really needed to drive anywhere. This was going to be interesting. Plus, she had absolutely no idea where she was going. She needed Marcus, and that frustrated her so much she couldn’t hold back the scream of rage, she shook the steering wheel as she did it.

  “I’m going to kill him when this is done. Cut him into bits and feed him to Cerberus one piece at a time,” she stormed. Climbing from behind the seat, she slammed the door. It made a strange crunching noise she ignored as she pushed through the women.

  “Are the two of you attached at the hip or something?” she asked as she pushed past them.

  “Of course not. I volunteer here nights to help out Evelyn,” Jessica snapped.