by Azure Boone
Dorn shook his head slowly. "You can barely speak about it now. How much more difficult when you were seven? And alone?"
"Difficult?" Lucian's vision blurred as anguish clamped his chest and made him hoarse. "Difficult to help my own mother? She suffered in silence. For me!" The words ripped from his aching chest.
"Yes, she did. For you. And I promise you this. She will never suffer again. Her prayer has always been to protect you. But you have to decide to let me do that. Right now, right here."
Lucian stared at him, wishing he understood, wishing so many things. "I don't know how."
He heard a sob behind him and knew without looking that it was Jessie. He was so pathetic. Crying like a baby. That's all he'd ever known how to do, he never stopped crying, and crying never did a damn thing. Nothing ever did a damn thing.
Lucian suddenly found himself on his back, the wind blasted out of him and Dorn's fierce aqua eyes inches from his. "I don't have time for your childish games," he seethed. "She needs to go to the Holy Mountain to heal. And you are stopping her."
"Stop it!" Jessie screamed. "Leave him alone."
Dorn clenched his eyes and stood Lucian on his feet before turning away from him.
"You don't understand," Jessie cried, embracing Lucian. "He's seen things, heard things. Things nobody, especially not a seven year old should see and hear. Night after night, he was stuck in a horrible silence, listening to his own mother stifling her pain. But she didn’t want her bad decisions to hurt him. Choosing a bad husband and father, not finishing school and taking that job offered to her by the local shoe maker, all because she was sure the man she'd fallen in love with would do as he said and send her money. Because she believed with all her heart till the day she died that Lucian's real father was a good man!" Jessie gasped, tears streaming. "And when the money never came, she was vulnerable to the whispers and slander of-of how she was stupid to believe the American's lies, stupid to believe he ever loved her, so she took a husband so that her son would not be teased, so he could have a proper family." Jessie sobbed, putting her hand over her eyes. "And then the drinking started, then the other women, the insults, the threat to hurt her baby." Jessie looked at Lucian and shook her head. "She didn't know he was hurting you Lucian, she didn't know. If she had known, she would have killed him." She nodded, emphatic. "She loved you more than her own life, she did, you have to believe me, I wouldn't lie to you, I know it."
She clung to him and Lucian stared at her, dumbfounded. "How do you know all of this?"
She stared into his gaze a moment before releasing him and looking around. "I…I'm not sure, I just do." She wiped the tears from her face, seeming embarrassed.
"You just do?" Betrayal boiled Lucian's blood. He looked at Dorn. "Did you really think you had the right to tell her all of this?"
"He didn't Lucian—"
"You'd lie for him?" Lucian turned and glared at her, unable to believe it, pain smothering him.
"Lucian…" Kassern’s voice was low. "You really need to calm down."
Lucian turned his blurred vision to Kassern, panting on rage. "Calm down? Is that all you can say to me, calm down? Don't you have anything to say to that piece of shit right there?" He jabbed a finger in Dorn's direction.
"Lucian?" Jessie's voice sounded fragile and Lucian became aware that blue flames covered his body.
"You don't want to do that," Dorn warned.
"Still reading my thoughts out to everybody I see." Lucian slowly walked in his direction.
"Lucian, you could get hurt," Dorn said.
"Hurt?" Lucian's self-harm scars tingled and ached along his inner thighs where they'd gone far deeper than the surface cuts on his arms. "I'm no stranger to pain."
Lucian launched at the angel only to somehow get sucked into his embrace like a magnet, into arms of steel that wrapped him in a bear hug. The wave of peaceful calm slammed him and Lucian struggled against the feeling. He didn't want it, it didn't belong, it didn't fit with anything he possessed inside him. The only thing he could manage was a scream but as his breath left him, so did all his strength.
"You have to let it go, Lucian," Dorn whispered next to his ear.
I don't know how. Lucian could only think the words. I don’t fucking know how.
"I'll help you."
Tears swam in his eyes and sorrow pierced his heart. "Why didn't you help?" He let his head fall onto Dorn's shoulder. "I prayed so many times," he wailed.
"Lucian," Dorn began. "I chose your brother for this mission, but I was wrong. And when I met you, I knew that immediately, you were the one. And not just by chance, but by choice, you were prepared long ago for this moment, right now."
"To help save the world," Lucian cried.
"You, Lucian…" the words caressed him somehow, "you mean the world to God. And if there was only you left in all the world, He would still do what He is doing."
A sob tore from Lucian's chest and he clutched the angel tight. At the first crack in the steel cocoon around his heart, the angel's aqua power surged in and Lucian lost all his strength. He let it all go, wailing out all the anguish and grief. And the relief. God the relief that flooded him, lifted him, there was nothing like it. He was so light, so happy, so free.
The amazing moment shattered with a horrific scream.
****
Kassern jerked toward the sound coming from the hotel suite's bedroom and followed Jessie to it. When Dorn entered behind him, he explained, "We found Jessie with her in the cavern next to where we fought."
"We couldn't just leave her." Jessie seemed worried they'd blame her for something.
"What's wrong with her stomach?" Devyn went to stand on the other side of the bed, taking the girl's pale hand.
Jessie sat on the bed next to her and touched the huge bulge under the brown woolen garment that could have passed for a monk's robe. She looked up. "Babies."
"Babies? Plural?" Troy's face paled. "But she didn't look pregnant when we left."
Toren suddenly appeared in the room and without words gave Dorn his report. Operation Demon Crush was a success and he was on his way back to the Third Heaven to give report to Uriel. Toren's gaze narrowed and he strode to the bedside, his attention centered on the girl writhing in agony.
"Is it…growing? Her stomach?" Devyn frowned and stared as if trying to measure the change.
The girl opened her mouth and screamed again.
"I'm assuming you have a sound barrier around this place." It was more a statement than question as he reached down and touched the girl's forehead, no doubt using the mercury properties of his shield to learn something. But why the interest?
"Getting anything?" Kassern arched one brow.
Toren slowly sliced his mirror gaze to Kassern. "No, but Steve is…"
Judging by Toren's perplexity, he wasn't sure what was up with his pet, as some of the archangels referred to their adopted beings. Genderless, nameless pet, in Toren’s case. Toren had resorted to calling it Steve in hopes to provoke the thing to name itself. He was the only elite archangel whose pet behaved this way. Toren had informed Kassern he was tired of being wondered over as if it was something he was doing wrong. The pet wouldn’t assume a name? Then he'd assume it for him.
The girl suddenly reached a hand out and grabbed Toren's. The angel's wings erupted behind him, mercury feathers trembling with whatever she'd done to him. Kassern rushed forward and Toren shot a hand out and knocked him on his ass with a blast of power.
"Father!" Toren gasped, dropping on one knee.
"What's happening?" Devyn stood and backed away from the bed as Toren's mercury energy leaked out everywhere.
"Yes, an update would be helpful," Dorn all but demanded.
Movement drew Kassern's attention to her bloated belly, which was appreciably larger and now heaving and rolling. Kassern went to the bed and with his fingernail, burned an incision in the garment blocking his view of what was happening the
re.
When her belly came into full view, sounds of shock and horror filled the room. The skin had taken on an odd, almost translucent quality. Combined with the movement from within, the translucence gave the impression of a flesh-colored bag of moving marbles. Even while Kassern watched, the belly grew larger and the skin thinner.
Jessie moved to the foot of the bed and lifted the girl's brown robe and screamed, jumping back. Kassern stepped back as well, and the human part of him wanted to retch as a wriggling blob of blood and mucus the size of a calf oozed out onto the bed.
"Jesus," Devyn grabbed Troy. "What the fuck is that?"
"Oh wicked hell, everybody get back," Toren whispered.
****
Toren strained to hold in Steve. He'd never felt the thing so eager for anything and Toren worried over what it might want so badly. And what in God's Holy Name had just come out of that poor girl's body? Moreover, why did he keep possession of her hand? But it wasn't like he could release it. Her gaze locked to his, like a holy war missile, and Toren couldn't break the connection.
He stared into her sky blue eyes, shiny and wide with more pain than any human should ever endure, especially a human woman. But what troubled Toren was the demanding urge to kill that cause. It roared through his mercury powers until he could see it swirling in the reflection of her eyes. Then he heard her whisper. Help me.
It was as if God himself had given him a direct order.
"God, it's those things!" Troy gagged and clamped a hand over his mouth.
"Kill them, they're growing!" Devyn backed up with Troy.
Toren could feel Kassern's eyes on him. He prayed Kassern didn't interfere; he could do nothing but hold the dying girl's gaze while Steve fought to come out. Toren formed a link of mercury chain and attached it to her soul through her chest. Stay with me, he whispered in her mind. Don't go. Hold on for me, I have you now, you're safe with me.
"Oh God, kill them!" Karly ducked behind Kassern.
"Toren, come on, what are you doing? I need to do something." Kassern backed away from the dozen now rapidly crawling larvae.
Toren felt her teetering on the edge of life and death and his soul link suddenly loosened, filling him with panic.
Her spirit sat up out of her body. Keeping her gaze locked to his, she raised up until they stared at one another, face to face. In a matter of five seconds, her sweet spirit gave up all its secrets to him. He stood frozen as each torment floated like strands of soft silk around his heart. Loneliness…self-loathing…depression… She stroked his cheek with her hand. "Thank you," she whispered. Toren held his breath as she leaned in and placed the softest kiss on his lips.
She lay back down in her body and shut her eyes. The moment life returned to her, he gasped, and at that second, Steve shot out of the doorway on his chest with a scream of twenty banshees on fire.
Toren staggered back, watching in confusion as his creature came into contact with the larva and quickly underwent a series of evolutionary changes until it resembled a mother version of the now cockroach humanoid looking things.
Reminding him a lot of a centipede with arms, she purred, petted, and hissed over each infant that now burrowed into folds of her fat underbelly. Toren couldn't believe his eyes. Seemed the creature had figured out how to manipulate its own biological makeup in the same way Toren used it to fashion various weapons. Barks issued from its cookie monster mouth that housed as many teeth as its body did hands, sending a clear stay back message.
"Toren?" Kassern's what the hell is going on was barely audible.
Toren shook his head. "Looks like the thing has finally chosen a gender. And she wants to be…a mother."
"Steve wants to be a mother?" Devyn whispered.
"Her new name is Peggy." Toren didn't bother hiding his awe and confusion.
What are we saying here?" Dorn asked. "That we're supposed to let those things live?"
The now female cockroach slash centipede roared directly at Dorn, and Toren looked at him. "I think you have your answer."
Kassern's eyes widened. "Wait…that's right, these things are pure at birth. Well, sort of. Though evil is inherent in them, they can be taught."
"Like a human?" The question nearly squeaked out of Toren, an odd sound even to his own ears. But it was certainly shock-worthy.
"Remember I'd learned that bit during my little trip through the adult one's past?" Kassern eased his wife from behind him and pulled her body against his, wrapping both arms lovingly around her. "Though they are inherently evil, it still had to be trained or cemented into them. Which means they must also have the potential to be good."
Silence reigned as that info was considered.
"Wow," Kassern's human male mumbled. "So you're saying…we can teach them how to be holy instead of evil?"
Toren nodded absently. "She seems to damn well think so." He watched as the adopted pet purred and licked over the now Neanderthal looking infants. "Look at how she's morphing with them." It was rather disgusting, really. His pet had become like a huge female human slash ape but with a long torso and…nine breasts. One for each infant.
Dorn looked at Toren. "I guess we know which of our brothers is coming next."
Toren looked down at the girl in the bed, sleeping peacefully now. "Yes," he said. He slid a finger gently over her brow, knowing she'd have one hell of a time getting over this otherworldly trauma. Maybe she wouldn't remember it. He took a deep breath and sighed. Maybe he could see to it that she forgot it, in fact.
But then…that would mean forgetting him.
****
"What is this place?" Sally didn't really care, but she needed to speak just to breathe with Dorn approaching the bed completely nude and all.
He stopped next to it and just stared at her. She stared back, wondering if he could see the tremble in her body. "You're nervous." Guess he could then.
"Little bit."
Her eyes felt permanently attached to his, she couldn't avoid his look if she'd tried. He slowly lowered his gaze and the blue gown he'd dressed her in after their quickie in the sphere, disappeared. All that remained was the dainty aquamarine ring on her wedding finger. Instinctively she drew her legs up and brought her hands under her chin, covering her breasts with her forearms. She couldn’t help hide her shortcomings from his perfect, predatory gaze.
A purring growl filled the room and Sally wondered if maybe it belonged to that dragon animal that occasionally burst from him. His head slowly tilted as he took in all her visible parts before his brilliant pale gaze slid up to hers. He barely shook his head, his seductive stare burning her. "I have to see you." He swallowed hard. "All of you."
Her heart dropped to her lower belly and she gasped when his intimidating arousal jumped with his words. And his tone. Like he'd die the worst angelic death if he didn't look at every single inch of her.
The air around her gradually transformed and became misted with aqua and Sally instinctively resisted the warm gravitational pull it placed on her arms. The tug became stronger and she let it move her arms down and away from her breasts.
Heat flared in Dorn's eyes as her breasts were revealed.
The air encased her wrist and drew her fingers to graze over her hardened nipples. Her flesh began to tremble with anticipation.
Dorn angled his head, watching, that growling vibration filling the air again. "I liked seeing you do that."
The aqua air caressed over her body and along her legs, exerting warm pressure to pull apart her ankles. "Oh God." The now hot tendrils lifted her knees and opened them to his view.
Dorn knelt at the foot of the bed, his face filled with a tortured erotic anticipation that sent Sally's pulse sky-rocketing. He slid that liquid blue gaze up to her breasts and that hot pressure at her wrists eased her arms above her head, all the while caressing the sensitive skin on the insides of her arms.
Dorn's eyelids lowered, the look of one mesmerized. He moved fluidly to
ward her until his face stopped inches from her breasts. Sally closed her eyes in dread. Why did he have to scrutinize her biggest imperfection? She drew a deep breath and concentrated on minimizing her reactions.
He sighed with a groan and her nipple tightened under his warm breath. He did the same to the other. "They're so beautiful when they do that."
Sally moaned and shrank back a little.
He drew away enough to see her face. "They're perfect."
It should have made her feel better, but somehow it only embarrassed her more that he knew her insecurity. She looked away and bit her lip. How could an archangel want a woman who was less than perfect? That made no sense to her.
He leaned and licked with flawless precision around the hard tip of her nipple before hungrily covering half her breast with his entire mouth. Sally cried out and arched into the succulent heat. "Mmm. Impeccable." His growl vibrated through her skin, making her womb clench with the memory of him making love to her for the first time. "Do you trust me Sally?"
Trembling, she nodded.
"Your body is exquisite." He kissed the valley between her breasts. "It was made to be exactly as I need it. And my needs were made to be exactly what you provide. If you were made like some other man's idea of perfect, you wouldn't be you. And you wouldn't be who I need." He nuzzled along her collar bone. "And I definitely need you."
He slid his hands over her sides then hips, making Sally feel like a prized creation under the hand of a master sculptor. He moved to her other breast and lavished it with adoration until Sally's moans came with every breath.
His fingers found her folds with a teasing touch and her breath hitched. "Oh God!"
His lips left her breast and he suddenly stared down into her face while tracing intricate patterns over her sensitive flesh, his growling returned. Her mouth flew open when he glided his finger in slow, very slow circles over the erect little nub hidden within her folds.
"Oh God," she cried again, the pressure at her knees pulling her wider.