He must save her, or a part of him would die with her on this desert rock.
Serena whispered his name. And he shook himself out of his paralysis.
He picked up the snake in one hand, heedless of the danger, and hurled it into the empty space of the gorge. It arced out, hanging suspended in the open air for a moment before it began to fall, disappearing into the depths of the canyon below.
“I can’t die,” she murmured, her chest rising and falling as her lungs labored in their fight for air. “Not again. Not so soon.”
Oh, but Julian knew very well that she could die. Not in a spiritual sense—the soul could never die. But her physical body was very much susceptible to destruction. Yes, she would probably come back to earth. Somewhere. Sometime. But who knew where or when? There were certainly no guarantees. Especially not after what had happened between them….
He had seen this particular trick before, although not used to destroy angels, but other demons. In fact, he had assisted in carrying it out. The snakes Luciana carried with her were just babies, but charged with demonic energy, even a newborn green mamba’s venom accelerated death, able to destroy a body that was otherwise immortal. What would normally take hours would happen in a matter of minutes. There was only one way to stop it.
Antivenom. The only known treatment for a green mamba bite. To be more specific, a particular kind of antivenom that someone he knew carried at all times. She carried it because she was so fond of this particular modus operandi that she would never risk being without it herself, just in case one of her precious little pets decided to bite her. That person, of course, was Luciana.
He cursed himself. He had brought this on Serena. He was the one who had taken her to Vegas, had exposed her to Luciana. If the angel died now, he would never be able to forgive himself. He would kill Luciana. Rip her head clean off her body, and he didn’t care whether he was damned for all eternity because of it.
He dematerialized, reappearing just outside the doorway to Corbin’s penthouse suite. Julian banged on the door until a Gatekeeper opened it. He barged in without the usual formalities, searching for that familiar flash of raven hair. “Where’s Luciana?”
The Gatekeeper, recognizing the Archdemon’s power, cowered and pointed down a hallway. In the spectacular living room, the two demons were lounging on sleek leather sofas. And so was Nick. There was no time to ask what the young human was doing there. Julian simply ordered him, “Go back down to your suite and bolt yourself in. Don’t ask questions. Just do it.”
Nick complied. The second he left the room, Julian went straight for Luciana, dangerously close to letting his rage explode. “What did you do to her?”
Luciana widened her spring-colored eyes, play-acting the innocent as she reclined on a pile of cushions. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Sei pazzo!” You’re crazy. It was something she’d said to him often when they were lovers. It had annoyed him then; now it made him want to strangle her.
He towered over her, hoping his physical presence would intimidate her so that he wouldn’t have to resort to force. “Drop it, Luciana. You’re not fooling anyone. Give me the antivenom.”
Corbin stood and leaned against the wall, watching their interaction. “Julian. To what do we owe the pleasure of your company?”
“Ask her,” Julian said. When the demoness remained silent, he said, “Serena was bitten by a poisonous snake that someone packed in our lunch.”
“Your new girlfriend should watch what she eats. Or what eats her,” Luciana said, a tiny smile playing around her evil little mouth. What he’d ever seen in that woman was beyond him. She might be beautiful, but she was one hell of a manipulative bitch.
Julian sprang forward, grabbed her by the collar. “Give me the damned antivenom. Or I will make sure you rot in hell for all eternity to pay for what you’ve done.”
Her eyes widened then, this time in genuine fear. Corbin didn’t make a move, merely stood by, observing. She choked out her assent and Julian released her. While she disappeared into the bedroom, he stood with his arms crossed, conscious that every second he stood here was a second of life that was draining out of Serena’s body.
Finally, Luciana came out with a small vial and a syringe. “Take it and go,” she pouted.
Antivenom in hand, he turned to leave. “If you ever so much as touch a single strand of hair on her head, I will exterminate you,” he said quietly.
Then he leaped back into the void. Time was his greatest enemy now.
Bright Angel Canyon. So still, so peaceful. A beautiful place to experience death. Again. Here in this remote part of the earth, her physical body would decompose naturally, returning to the soil as the bodies of other creatures did. As her previous body had. It was simply another part of the cycle of nature, as inevitable as the rising and setting of the sun, the changing of the seasons, the turning of the tides. Dust to dust…
The soul never dies, even if the physical body ceases to exist. This time, she was ready to return to the Archangels, safe in the knowledge that they waited for her above.
She began to let go, drifting up toward the light.
Serena felt herself spiraling upward, sailing into the clear afternoon sky. A sense of peace washed over her. In the distance, it began to rain. Just over the peak of the Buddha Temple, the sunlight refracted in a thousand different colors, each more vibrant and more beautiful than the next.
Julian had disappeared. He had left her to die, alone in the midst of the deserted canyon. It was a fact that would have devastated her if she’d still been incarnated. But now, hovering above her body, she was no longer bound to its sensations and emotions, and she viewed the situation without judgment. Death was simply part of reality.
She floated, watching her physical form sprawled on the ground beneath the blanket Julian had spread over her. The breath had gone out of her, and she lay still, as though sleeping, one hand curled beside her head. A pair of crows circled overhead, sensing the proximity of death.
And then Julian reappeared.
She watched as he drew liquid into a syringe from a small glass vial. He injected the liquid into her arm, then began administering CPR. As he pumped her chest with a strong, even rhythm, he spoke gentle words of encouragement. “Stay with me…don’t leave me now, angel.” The clouds moved closer, and rain began to pelt down, first in fat drops, then in a steady downpour as he worked. The deluge slicked his hair, soaked his clothes. Around him, the dusty red soil turned into mud.
Removed from her physical body, she did not feel the rain. She drifted, still at peace. From above, she heard a rustling of outspread wings. The Archangel Gabriel appeared, radiating pure white light. An overwhelming sense of harmony infused her. She wanted nothing more than to merge with the universal energy toward which Gabriel would guide her.
“He’s trying to save me, isn’t he?” she mused.
The Archangel smiled, his incandescent form untouched by the pelting rain. “Yes. Your physical body is dying again. But you will not leave at this time. You must return to the material realm. You have a divine mission to carry out.”
“Of course. Nick, my Assignee. Won’t Arielle just find another angel to replace me if I don’t come back?” She wondered briefly whether her supervisor would even register her loss.
“Your mission goes far beyond that, little one. It’s not your time yet.”
“What do you mean?” she called after him.
But Gabriel didn’t answer. She looked up at the storm-darkened sky as he surged upward on a single beat of his vast wings. And Serena spiraled back down to earth, landing in her body with a thud.
It was so very cold, so very wet here on the ground. She shivered, her limbs trembling from it. She opened her eyes. Julian was bent over her, hands poised over her chest, ready to compress again. There was concern in his eyes, emotion so real that, for a moment, it made him seem human. How odd for a demon.
“I thought you were trying to kill me,” she said.
Her voice came out as a croak; it hurt to talk. Her teeth chattered.
“Don’t try to speak. Just rest,” he said. He laid a hand on her forehead, and closed his own eyes for a moment. He whispered something that she couldn’t hear, but that she thought sounded like an expression of gratitude.
He scooped her into his arms, carried her to the helicopter. Laying her carefully on the backseat, he spread a dry blanket over her, placed the headset on her. His mouth set into a thin, white line. “I’m sorry this happened. It was entirely my fault,” he said. “I should have known Luciana would pull something like this. But you must know that I would never hurt you.” She shut her eyes, trying not to throw up, and felt his lips graze her hairline before he shut the door.
The vibrations of the helicopter jarred her body, making her nausea worse. Two hours seemed to stretch into an eternity. There was no question of death now, only the intense pain burning in her lungs and stomach. Gradually, though, her shivering stopped. The pain came in ebbs and flows, leaving her wondering when it would stop, how much more she could take.
Still, she thought about how full her existence had been. She’d left her human body at a very young age, and she was still young. It saddened her that there were still so many things she would never experience in physical form, like true love—the kind Andrew had always said she’d missed out on. Yet, it was not herself that she worried about the most. Rather, she worried for her Assignee, her brother and her roommate. If she died again, there was no telling what might happen to them in her absence. She thought of Nick, so vulnerable in the midst of all these demons.
Would Julian still carry out his threats if she were gone? She did not believe he would. Over the past few days, she was beginning to recognize a certain quality about him that she might have described as ‘goodness,’ had he not been a demon. A certain quality that had led him to save her life, when he could just as easily have left her to die on that plateau. The image of his steady hands manipulating the helicopter controls was the last thing she registered before she slipped out of consciousness.
When she next opened her eyes, Julian was placing her between the clean sheets of her bed at the hotel. She was warm, dry and stationary. She gave thanks and vowed never to take those simple things for granted again. She nestled her cheek against the softness of the pillows and allowed her eyes to drift nearly closed.
“Will she die?” An unfamiliar voice spoke in a hushed tone; she turned her head to see a nice-looking black man standing there, his dark eyes shining with concern. Demon, her mind spoke warily. Yet, this one seemed different. Of all the demons she’d encountered, none except for Julian had retained the kind of compassion for other beings she sensed in this man.
Perhaps that’s why he’s here. Because Julian trusts him, she thought.
“No, Harry,” Julian said. “I’ve seen this before. She’s out of danger now. But stay with her. Call me if she shows any signs of distress.”
“As you request, sir.”
Julian turned back to the bed, smoothed her hair with a gentle hand. “I’ll be back shortly. There’s something I need to take care of.”
She turned her head, hating the neediness in her that wanted him to stay. Her mouth was as dry as though it were filled with the red dust of the canyon. Just as well. If she tried to speak, she would not have liked what came out. Please. Don’t leave. Stay with me. Words that were better left unspoken.
Julian lifted a glass of water to her lips, held it while she drank. Then he went out the door. She struggled to sit up, but nausea crashed over her like a riptide, rocking her with a dizziness that she never thought possible on dry land, and laying her out flat again. She closed her eyes for a moment, then tried again. This time she was more successful. The wave of sickness was gentler this time, nauseating but bearable.
Harry rushed forward with an empty wastepaper basket, ready for the worst. “Miss, try to save your strength.”
She sat up, struggling to keep down the contents of her roiling stomach. She had to find the strength to get out of this bed.
If the demons tried to kill me, God only knows what they could have done to Nick.
She imagined the worst. An image of Nick floated up, his tortured body bloodied and torn to shreds. Gabriel’s words rang in her mind: You have a divine mission to carry out. A mission that went far beyond taking care of Nick. She had an awful feeling that mission had something to do with Julian.
But even in her weakened condition, she needed to know that Nick was safe. He was still her Assignee, and he could be in grave danger. Still, the only way to get out of here, it seemed, was to get Harry to help her. How she was supposed to do that, she had no idea. So she did the only thing she could do, and just started talking.
“You seem like a nice guy,” she said. “How long have you been working for Julian?”
Harry paused. Swallowed. “Three months.”
“You seem too nice to be…” She closed her dry mouth, wondering how she could remove her foot from it.
“A demon?” He laughed. “Is that supposed to be a compliment? There are certain benefits to working for Julian,” he said. Some bittersweet memory crossed his handsome face, and she wondered what it was.
“You can leave me. I’ll be fine. We angels have incredible powers of recovery, just like you demons,” she said. In theory, she knew that to be true. Right now, every second she lay in this bed felt like an eternity.
He smiled awkwardly, obviously uncomfortable with his role as her caretaker but committed to carrying on nonetheless. “No, miss. Mr. Ascher assigned me to watch over you, and that’s what I plan to do.”
He settled into a chair in the corner, sitting down to wait as if he expected to be there for a long time. Inside her, the urgency built. She could think of no other tactic than to simply blurt out the truth.
“I need to go, Harry. I need to check on someone.”
“Nick. I know all about it,” he said. His voice sounded almost as tired as she felt.
“He’s my responsibility. Don’t you remember what it’s like to be human? And scared? Underneath all his bad behavior, Nick is both of those things. I need to find him. To see if he’s okay.” Without knowing why, she added, “He’s just a kid.”
The last word seemed to soften something in Harry. His expression shifted. “You’re just a kid yourself. How can you look after him?”
He was so close to the truth that she wanted to cry. But she would not. She swallowed past the lump in her throat and said, “That’s just the way it is, Harry. Sometimes we don’t question these things.”
“I can’t help you,” he said softly. “I’m sorry.”
“Of course you can’t,” she said, closing her eyes as another wave of exhaustion hit her. “You’re a demon.”
There was a long silence, broken only by the creak of Harry’s chair beneath his shifting weight. In that small sound, she could hear his increasing discomfort.
With her eyes still closed, she spoke, barely a whisper. But a whisper she hoped would be enough. “Perhaps I was sleeping. Perhaps you went into the living room, and the door was left open. Perhaps I snuck out of the suite so quietly you were unable to hear me. Perhaps that’s what you would tell Julian if he found out.”
Another long pause. Another creak as Harry shifted again. Finally, in a tone as quiet as hers, he whispered, “Perhaps.”
Her eyes fluttered open and she saw him looking at her, regarding her from his corner chair. He felt sorry for her. And she felt so sorry for him. Because in that instant she knew what utter hell it must be for someone like him, someone who had a heart, to do what he did. She had no idea of Harry’s circumstances, but she imagined they must be dire if they had brought him to this.
She licked her dry lips and closed her eyes again, gathering strength. “Thank you, Harry. I won’t forget this.”
His chair creaked as he stood. “This conversation did not take place. If you tell Julian that I helped you, I will deny it. All I know is
that I was sitting in the living room, and I had no idea how you got out,” he said.
She wanted to leap from the bed, to hug him, to kiss him on the cheek, but he had gone from the room by the time she opened her eyes. Serena stood up, taking in a deep breath when dizziness threatened to overset her. Serena got her balance and, discarding the nightgown she wore, she pulled on jeans and a T-shirt. She crept out of the bedroom, mouthing a silent thank you to Harry, who was engrossed in a book in the corner of the living room, pretending not to see her. From there, she slipped out the front door and into the hallway.
Serena had already thought of the worst that could happen. She might run into Julian, who would bark and growl. But he had saved her life today, and she was beginning to doubt that he was really capable of hurting her. She might run into Luciana. But she needed to make sure Nick was safe.
What she had not anticipated was the weakened condition of her own body. Beneath her, her legs wobbled. She collapsed onto the floor, bracing herself with her hands. Taking a few deep breaths, she willed herself up again. Pushing herself to standing from the floor, she stumbled into the elevator and leaned against the wall, panting as she watched the illuminated numbers creep downward.
The journey two floors down might as well have been a trek across the Sahara. Every step was excruciating. She tried to walk upright, not wishing to draw attention to herself. But passersby looked at her with worried expressions. A bellboy stopped her, concern etched on his face. “Ma’am, are you all right? Do you need assistance?”
“Thanks, I’m fine,” she murmured. She could not risk asking for help—every employee in this hotel reported back to Corbin.
Finally, she made it to Nick’s room. She raised her hand to knock. Laid her head against the door frame as she waited for him to open the door.
Luciana was still in Corbin’s suite when Julian found her, lounging across the hotelier’s lap. He wanted to destroy her, to send her back to the depths of hell for the pain and fear she’d caused Serena.
Where Demons Fear to Tread Page 17