by Nicole Thorn
He sat up, and pulled me to his lap. “I’m not going to say it’s okay, because it isn’t. I understand why you did it. I would have done the same if the roles were reversed.”
The guilt over that would never leave me. I’d carry it for eternity. But it got us here, so I couldn’t regret the decision.
Night had fallen and Ezra looked tired. His day had been longer than mine, and he didn’t have the healing fire to give him a boost.
We got into bed, and I nestled up to him.
“Anna,” he said. “Since we’re married now.” I grumbled, and he ignored it. “That means we get a honeymoon. We can go to Disneyland if you want. Maybe we can stay in another one of those special rooms you like.”
“The Adventureland one! It’s got a bathtub in the master bedroom. We can take a bath… and watch TV.” I slipped under the blanket enough to cover my nose. “How cool is that?”
He answered by getting on top of me again. He kissed me and then yawned.
“Sleepy?” I laughed.
“A little.” Ezra moved onto his back and turned his head to me. “Since we’re married now—”
“Doesn’t count.”
“—can I go back to sleeping naked? I think it’s only fair.”
“If you insist,” I sighed.
He wiggled under the covers and pulled his boxers off, throwing them to the ground. “All is right with the world.”
“Maybe if I got you a ring, then you’d warm up to the idea of being married,” he said after a half hour of silence.
“Doubtful.”
“Well, we’ll find out.”
Super. Now he wanted to mark his territory with a ring. I’d lose that battle.
“Are you going to wear one?”
“Of course. Will you wear yours? Even of you don’t think we’re married?”
How could I say no? “I’ll wear it, but we’re still not married.” Dammit… now I looked forward to the ring.
It was dark, but I just knew he rolled his eyes. He could call me his wife all he wanted. He’d earned far more.
I started thinking of the long day waiting for me. My friends didn’t know where I went or if I was okay, and we still didn’t know about the attack on Oswald.
I’d deal with that tomorrow. For now, I’d just lie there on my sort of husband, and enjoy the sound of our heartbeats.
Chapter Thirty-Two: The Meltdown
Ezra
I woke up to the sound of my wife eating a bag of cookies in bed. My eyes opened all the way, and she just sat there, her hair wasn’t even out of place.
“Did you sleep at all?” I asked in a groggy voice as I sat up.
Anna looked over at me. “Nope. I wasn’t tired. Still not tired, actually.” She wrapped the bag up and set it on the floor. Then she slipped down further on the bed.
“Ah, I think that had something to do with the fire. When I was changed, I didn’t sleep for a couple days. It heals everything. Gives you energy.”
She smiled. “Yup, I feel that. I think I could run ten miles.”
“Well.” I moved to put a hand on her leg and run my fingernails lightly across her bare skin. “Probably shouldn’t let that energy go to waste. We should find something to do with it.”
“Hmm,” she hummed. “How? Maybe a run? Or we can go on a bike ri—”
I got on top of her and covered her mouth with mine. I almost cursed when I felt the clothes that kept us apart.
Her hands went to my back, and I nudged her legs apart with my knees. I let her know what I thought with one rough movement against her.
“Or this’ll work,” she said before she tangled her fingers in my hair and pulled me to her.
After a good couple hours, we realized there were things we had to get done. I personally didn’t care what Anna’s friends thought, but she seemed to. Something about empathy or something like that. I agreed to go with her, not wanting to be away from my new wife.
“This can only end with a ton of questions,” Anna sighed as she zipped up her dress.
“Well, to be fair—” I pulled my boots on. “—they didn’t see you leave in the dress. They have no way of knowing that this will be a Walk of Shame.” I smiled. She didn’t.
“You need to teach me that teleporting thing soon. If I knew how, I’d just pop into my old room, and change.”
I stood from the bed. “Later.” I kissed her forehead. “I promise.”
Her blue eyes looked heavy with worry. “I have so much to tell them.” Anna covered her face with her hands. “They’ll hate me for killing myself.”
“They won’t,” I assured her. “They love you. And if they’re mean, I’ll just hurt them for you.”
She peaked at me through her fingers. “So not funny, Ezra.”
“Very funny, Pet.” I smiled.
I held her, and we left for Hell. We were only there for a second before we appeared outside Poppy and Benjamin’s front door. She insisted on knocking.
The door opened, and Poppy stood on the other side. Her green eyes opened wide as they locked on me. I smiled, and wiggled my fingers in a wave. “Hello.”
Anna smacked my arm. “Quit teasing.”
“Sorry.”
“Heeeeeey, guys. What’s up? You’ve been gone, Annie,” Poppy said as we stood in the doorway.
“Yup.” She nodded. “I had a big day.”
“Yeah. Dying. Getting married. Coming back to life.”
Poppy’s mouth dropped open, and Anna hit me harder than before. “Tact, Ezra! Get some.”
Anna pulled me through the door and a shaky Poppy followed. Benjamin sat in the living room, and his eyes popped when he saw me. “Sup?” He nodded.
Ugh.
“Wh… what…. the… fuck…” Poppy breathed. “Died? Got married!”
“No!” Anna waved her arms. “Doesn’t count at all.”
“It does.” I half shrugged. “We are legally married.”
She turned to me, and her clenched fists went to her hips.
“And it’s been consummated. Twice.”
Anna full on punched my arm before spouting loud words in Russian.
She calmed down when Poppy started hyperventilating. “Pop? Calm down.” Anna led her to the couch, and we stood in front of them.
“Okay, so…” Anna started. “Lotsa stuff to tell you. First… I killed myself yesterday.” Poppy whimpered and pressed her lips together in a hard line. The humans looked freaked out, but Anna stood in front of them, so they had to understand that everything worked out. “Then I went to Hell. Lucifer made me what Ezra is. A hellion. I work for Lucifer now.”
Poppy groaned. “You died yesterday, and me and Ossy felt a super weird little tingle in our bodies around late afternoon. When did you die?”
“Around then.”
She made a face. “Huh, so I guess we should have paid more attention to that.”
“Um…” Benjamin held a hand up. “Real quick… So, Ezra isn’t supposed to kill Annie anymore? You’re okay?”
“I am. I’m alive. My heart is beating.” She smiled. She couldn’t get enough out of her heartbeat. After we slept together again, she stayed quiet and listened to it slow back to normal. Her eyes lit up whenever she felt it.
“But you work for the Devil?” he asked.
“Yeah. That means I’ll be gone a lot. I’m going to stay with Ezra, and he gets assignments all over the world. I can come visit you any time I want. I just need to learn how to use my teleporting thing.”
“Teleporting?” Benjamin smiled.
“Yup. I can teleport and apparently I’m immortal.”
“Cool.”
Poppy blinked and rejoined the conversation. “You got married, and didn’t invite me?”
“A little…” Anna sighed. “We didn’t get married. Lucifer needed me to pick a new last name for my new papers since I’m still legally dead. So, I have Ezra’s. Then the Devil decided that it would be funny or something to make us legally married.”
“So, you are married?” Poppy asked.
“Yes.” I stepped in. Anna grumbled loudly and crossed her arms.
“Why did you kill yourself?” Poppy’s face looked sad and frightened.
Anna tensed, and I imagined I seemed scary at right then. “So that Ezra wouldn’t have to do it. I needed to die so that I could become a hellion. The Devil decided that a while ago apparently.”
“You know the Devil…” Benjamin said. “Cool!”
They had a few more questions that Anna answered. It went on for a while before she got tired of Benjamin saying how cool this all sounded. If he held his love while she died, he’d see this differently.
“I need to get my stuff to Ezra’s loft. I’m going to get all of the important stuff now. I can’t move the rest without your car, Os,” Anna said as she started walking. She left for her room, and then I stood with her friends.
Benjamin circled me. “So, you married my best friend… tell me, do you love her?”
Oh great. No father to berate me, but I get the friend. “Yes,” I told him. “I love her very much.”
“Good, good…” He kept circling me. “And she’s safe now?”
“She is.”
“And you didn’t try and kill me?”
“No. I don’t know who did, but I’m going to find out. If someone is after Anna, then I’m going to kill them.”
“Anna?” Poppy smiled. “That’s cute.”
And I won over the girl. Surely that would be it for the boy too. I only had to worry about Elisa
“Thank you.” I nodded once.
The front door swung open, and we all looked at the girl who walked through. Elisa slipped a key back into her purse and closing the door. Her eyes went up and she saw me, her smile fading into a look of hatred. The purse dropped to the ground, and she held her hands up.
I went flying backwards into the wall. She pinned me.
“What the Hell?” Poppy said. “Let him go!”
“No,” Elisa said, calmly.
Anna came running in as my air supply cut off. She went to Elisa, but her eyes stayed on me. “Let him go!” she ordered the girl.
“Don’t be stupid, Annie. He tried to kill you and Oswald. Do you really want him to live?” Her eyes looked cold, and her hands stayed steady.
I felt like my neck had been crushed. Anna looked scared as she kept pleading.
“Yes! He didn’t do it.”
“Then who did?”
Anna grabbed the girl and shoved her to the ground. Her concentration broke, and I fell to the floor. I choked as the air burned my throat.
Elisa looked up at Anna with betrayal and fury. “He needs to die.” The hatred poured through her voice. She went to lift her hands, but Anna beat her to the punch. Elisa’s hands went behind her back and she froze. I didn’t think she could do anything else.
Anna held her hands in front of her, and Elisa said, “How the Hell did you get so strong?” She sounded more envious than angry.
“Calm down and I’ll tell you.”
Elisa relaxed and appeared to be all ears. I stood and went to stand by Anna as she told the story of her death and resurrection. Elisa seemed to perk up when Anna said that it made her stronger.
“You’re a demon witch?” she asked.
“Guess so.” Anna shrugged.
“And you married the serial killer?”
Anna’s eyes narrowed, and not because of the married part of that. I knew what I was. I’d made peace with it, but Anna seemed to be quite protective of me. As Benjamin would say, cool.
“Yes,” she growled at her friend. “If I let you go, are you going to try and hurt him again?”
“I can’t now that you’re stronger than me.” Not a no… Still, Anna released Elisa, and she stood up. She glared at me, and I kind of wanted to stab her.
“I can’t believe you killed yourself for him,” Elisa said, sounding disgusted with my wife.
“I love him. Of course I’d sacrifice myself for someone I loved.”
“You’re just lucky that you didn’t stay dead. Do you even care about the waste of power that would have been?”
Poppy scoffed. “And our friend would be dead, Elisa… Kinda feel like that would have been the loss.”
Benjamin clicked his tongue and pointed to Poppy. “Yeah, I’ve gotta agree with her on that one.”
Elisa rolled her eyes. “That’s a given.” She crossed her arms and stared at her feet.
Her whole stance looked odd, and I didn’t buy it for a second. There was something off about her. I’d caught her collecting dirt from Anna’s grave, and that seemed too specific for my likening.
I thought about saying something to the girl, but it would’ve been pointless. She hated me, and I hated her. She acted cold and strange in a bad way. I sensed something in her that felt too familiar.
Elisa looked up at Anna. “You clearly got to keep all of your powers. Did becoming a hellion give you more?”
“Um, I don’t know. Other than the teleporting and the immortality. Oh, and the bumped-up senses.”
Elisa took every word in. “So then, yes.”
The comment sounded condescending to me, but no one else seemed to notice. Or they had gotten used to it. The witch bitch wouldn’t stop staring at me. I knew I had been a real bastard to Anna, but I didn’t think that made her angry. I saw murderous intent in her eyes, and something green.
“So.” I rocked up on my heels. “Shall we get your things, Anna?”
“Excuse me?” Elisa interrupted. Her eyes narrowed at me. “Where the fuck to do you think you’re taking her?”
“Home with me. I’m taking my wife home. That’s what you do when you’re married. You live with them.” Elisa flipped me off, and I smiled. “That the best you’ve got?”
She took a step forward, her eyes challenging me. “You wanna fight, old man? I can turn you inside out like it’s nothing.”
“Bullshit,” Oswald laughed.
Elisa shifted her icy stare to him. “Really, Os?”
“Yeah,” he said, hostile. “I know you’ve been trying to boost your powers up, but if I were you, I wouldn’t go threatening people with things I couldn’t do.”
Elisa threw her hands up. “Am I the only one here who hasn’t lost their fucking mind? He’s a serial killer that works for Satan. Does no one care about that?” She looked around the quiet room.
Anna took a step to her. “Elisa, you need to calm down. There were an awful lot of misunderstandings and issues that have been worked out. Accept it,” my wife said.
Elisa huffed, and her eyes almost turned red with rage. “He tried to kill you, and Oswald.” She started backing away. “If you guys want to be morons, do it without me. I’m not sticking around with a bunch of people who have death wishes.” And with that, she walked out the door.
I took a deep breath. “How… how have you people been friends with that bitch for half a decade? I just don’t get it…”
“She wasn’t always like this.” Poppy sat on the arm of the couch. “She used to be a lot nicer. Still bitchy.” She shrugged, “But not as much. The witch stuff really makes her angry sometimes. She’s got a Hell of a set of crazy eyes.”
“That she does, babe,” Oswald said before he collapsed onto the couch. “You think she’ll be mad for long?”
“Dunno.” Poppy looked at him. “She’ll down a glass of wine and take a nap. Maybe that’ll fix it. In the meantime, I’m not waiting by the phone for her.”
“Good,” Anna said “Too much has happened for me to worry about a hissy fit.”
I rubbed her arm. “It’ll be fine, Pet.” I turned to Benjamin. “I promise you that I didn’t have a hand in what happened to you. I don’t know why the girl insists on blaming me—”
His hand went up and I stopped. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve already decided that you didn’t do it. I mean, if you wanted to kill me, how would you do it?”
“Am I supposed to answer
that?” I asked Anna.
“Yes,” Benjamin responded.
I sighed. “You’re human, so it wouldn’t be difficult. I’d just find you, sneak up behind you, and stab you. Not that I would.”
“But,” he said, “If you wanted to, you said it wouldn’t be hard. And you’d just stab me, like I thought. That wasn’t what happened to me. My almost murderer failed and knocked me out.”
“Yup,” Poppy agreed. “Couldn’t have been you. Annie said that you would never do something like that.”
“You believe her?”
She smiled and nodded. “She’s a good judge of character. When she said that she loved you, I knew that there had to be more to you than what we saw. She wouldn’t love a bad man. Just take care of my girl and we’ll be A-Okay.”
I looked down at the girl that was every good part of me. “Till the world stops turning.” And far after.
“Good,” Benjamin popped up and pulled his girlfriend to her feet. “Then I suppose we have a bedroom to move, don’t we?”
Anna said, “We do, but we’re gonna have to move twice. Are we going to be able to get my stuff to Scotland?”
“Of course.” I held her tighter. “Just need to master teleporting. Then you can go wherever you want, and you can bring things with you. To some extent.”
“Like us?” Benjamin asked with hope in his eyes.
“Sorry.” I shook my head. “We have to use Hell as a weigh station and humans can’t go. Your head would burn until you went crazy. Or died. Or both.”
“Aww man.” He hung his head.
“S’okay, Ossy.” Poppy held his hand.
We all moved to Anna’s room and started moving her into the loft with me. The whole time, I wore a smile on my face.
Chapter Thirty-Three: When the Other Shoe Drops
Anastasia
I woke Ezra up by crawling on top of him. I kissed his neck, but he didn’t open his eyes. I heard his heart change, but he didn’t move an inch. I tried saying his name, still nothing.
I sat up, annoyed, and crossed my arms. I grumbled, and he stayed put. I was just about to give up and move onto the floor when he shot up with lightning speed. Ezra had me on my back in a second. I yelped and stared up at a smiling Ezra.