by Maya Nicole
I bit my lip. He was smart. “I had to pee so bad I wasn’t paying attention.”
What I was really asking him was, if I screamed, would anyone hear me. The door he had come through appeared to be thick, solid wood.
“Are you on something?” His eyes narrowed again.
“On something?” He took a step toward me and I held the knife in front of me. “Get out or I’ll scream.”
He threw his head back and laughed, but backed up a step. “No one will hear you. How about this… tell me your name and why you are registering as an angel but clearly aren’t.”
He looked me up and down and his eyes stopped on my breasts. I rolled my eyes. Men were the same there. I pulled my jacket closed around me.
He nodded at my breasts. “What are you carrying?”
I guess he hadn’t been looking at my breasts. “My bag.”
“What’s in it?” He stepped forward, and before I could scream or stab his ass, he had my wrists pinned to the wall and a hand over my mouth. “Now why would a sweet woman like you be carrying angel feathers around?”
My eyes widened, and I screamed, but it only came out as a muffle. I worked my teeth to try to bite him, but could only barely rub my teeth on his palm.
He pressed me to the wall so I couldn’t move and the knife dropped to the floor. Whoever he was, he was well trained in the art of preventing someone from kicking him in the balls.
“Now listen carefully.” His voice was low and made me whimper. “I’m going to take my hand off your mouth and you’re going to tell me why you have Oliver’s feathers in your possession. Do you understand me?”
Who the fuck was Oliver and how did this guy know I had angel feathers? I nodded and he removed his hand.
“You fucker!” I spit on him and he raised a shoulder to wipe his cheek, never losing his grip on me.
“Answer the question.” His face was red, and a vein appeared on his forehead.
“I found them,” I whispered.
“Where did you find them?” His voice was clipped.
I took a deep breath and then let out a breath. “On the ground.”
“You know what? Fuck this.” He kicked the knife across the bathroom and let me go.
He backed up, his eyes never leaving me and pulled something rectangular out of his pocket. He looked at it and then pressed a few buttons.
“Hey. It’s Raph. Where did Oliver lose all of those feathers? I have some chick here who has a bag full of them.”
I stayed pressed against the wall. He wasn’t taking his eyes off me and I wouldn’t be quick enough to get into my jacket pocket.
“Fucking Inferna?! And none of you idiots thought to mention that he left all of them behind?... No, Reve, I will not calm the fuck down… do you have any clue-”
“Reve’s my brother.” I choked out. I didn’t know what he was doing with the rectangle, but he sounded like he was talking to my brother.
The man held the rectangle away from his ear and I could hear muffled sounds coming from inside of it. When it stopped, he put it back to his ear again.
“Would you like to talk to her now you have that out of your system? I will put her on speakerphone. I don’t trust that you aren’t planning on taking over Earth.” He pressed several things on the box and then held it in front of him. “Talk.”
“Sammy?” I had to press myself into the glossy tiled wall to keep from collapsing at the sound of his voice.
“Reve?” I looked at the rectangle and then up at the man. He was watching me closely, his brown eyes not trusting me. “What is this? Who is this guy?”
“We’re talking on a cell phone. The guy is an archangel… Raphael.” He let out a long sigh. He sounded tired. “What are you doing on Earth?”
I bit my lip.
Don’t cry. Don’t cry.
Tears spilled onto my cheeks. “Everything is fucked up. A whole demon village is missing, a council member is missing, vacants are acting crazy, the council voted to make me pay for you deserting the crown.”
“Fuck.” I could picture him running a hand over his face. “I’ll come back there with you. It’s not like I have anything here right now.”
“What about your mate?”
Raphael cleared his throat. “She's facing judgement in Heaven and must decide if she wants to come back to Earth. As for the other males, they're healing in Heaven.”
I blinked. “Heaven?”
“Where the good souls go.” Raphael was staring way too intently at me. “Reve, I will go with her back to Inferna. It might be best since it sounds like they want your head on a spike.”
He let out a sigh of relief. I was supposed to just trust this angel who had threatened me in a bathroom?
“I don’t know if I feel safe with this guy.” I didn’t look at him as I said it.
“Raphael is a good guy. A bit of an asshole, but-” Raphael loudly cleared his throat, cutting off Reve. “It will be fine, Sammy. Maybe once everything with me is good…”
“Take care of yourself. I love you.”
“I love you, too. And whatever happens, remember that you are my sister. You are strong and badass.”
I let out a small strangled laugh and shut my eyes. I could do this.
“I don’t see why we can’t go right now.” I sat on the couch in his living room with my arms crossed over my chest. “This isn’t something we should just be sitting around for. We could be there, trying to get information.”
Raphael was moving around his kitchen, ignoring me for the hundredth time. After the bathroom incident, he had forced me to drink some awful beverage. Of course, he took the feathers from me, even the one in my jacket.
Then they were gone. The fucker did something with his hands and they floated into the sky.
“Do you want a beer?” He opened the refrigerator and pulled out two bottles. I was watching him in the reflection of the shiny rectangle above the fireplace.
“Is it the same as in Inferna?” I didn’t know if I trusted the man to feed me. He might spit in my dinner, which he claimed was coming soon. Pizza. It sounded like poison to me.
“It’s alcohol.” He came around the counter and handed me a brown bottle. "Isn't it all the same?”
Inferna and Earth were similar, but vastly different. There were a lot of the same things, except their technology was far superior and ran off electricity which was created with fossil fuels and the sun.
Inferna ran off magic.
I sniffed the rim of the bottle and scrunched my nose. It smelled like Nico’s feet after a long trip. I sighed, thinking of him. He was probably shitting bricks worrying about me. Had they found him?
Then there was Val and Amari. Those guards were after all of us, but they were his father’s. I wasn’t born yesterday; it didn’t sit right with me.
I put the bottle to my lips and took a sip. I cringed and Raphael laughed from his spot in a chair. It was a behemoth of a chair with a footstool that came out of the bottom with a push of a button.
“It’s an acquired taste. Sorry I don’t have any wine.” He shrugged and took a long gulp of his beer.
I looked around his living room. It was fairly plain, with mostly brown furniture, but there was a window that looked out onto the hillside and the Hollywood sign. He told me it was an iconic landmark people came from all over Earth to see.
Seemed a little ridiculous to travel so far to see giant letters.
“Are you a dream demon as well?” He had been quiet for a few minutes.
“Me? If you are asking if I have the same capabilities as Reve, no, I don’t.” I ran a hand through my hair and inwardly cringed at how dirty it felt. “The female dream demons have the ability to cause sleep with a touch.”
His eyes widened, and he took another drink of his beer. “Why didn’t you do that to me in the bathroom then? Seems like it would be useful in a situation like that.”
“I don’t have that ability either. I’m what's called a null.” I didn’t
like to refer to myself as null; it was condescending.
“That must have been hard growing up.”
I snorted. He had no idea. While my brother was developing his ability to gain power from people’s nightmares that he caused and could cause visions, I was in my room whittling soap. Added to the blow of having no powers, Reve also developed a phantom form since he was the alpha male and heir to the throne.
“So, you’re actually an angel? Like the one that tortures souls in Hell?” I put my beer on the table in front of me. “Like Lucifer?”
“I wouldn’t call it torturing, more… rehabilitating.” He crossed his ankles that were on the footrest of his chair.
“I heard all the souls are kept in tiny boxes and filed away until it’s their turn to be tortured. I don’t really get the point of it. They’re dead.”
I wasn’t well versed on what went on with the angels that came to Inferna. Lucifer had commandeered a large section of Inferna long before I was born. It was surrounded by tall fencing that had some type of magical shield to keep things both in and out. One of the sides was right up against the edge of Inferna.
“The point is, being in those boxes gives them time to play back through their life and repent for their sins.” He finished his beer and put the empty bottle on the floor next to the chair. “Want something else to drink?”
I had a lot more to say about Hell, but a bell rang and he lowered the footrest.
“Pizza’s here." He walked down a hall and I heard him talking to another man.
He came back into the room a minute later carrying a large, flat box with a smaller box on top. The smell immediately hit my nose. My mouth watered and my stomach growled.
I didn’t even remember when the last time was that I ate. That morning before the council meeting?
I stood and headed toward the dining table.
“I don’t eat there.” He was getting plates out of cabinets.
It was odd having everything, and I mean everything, in one room. The bedrooms and bathrooms were separate, but the living room, kitchen, and dining area were all in one big open room.
He pulled open the lids to the boxes and made an audible inhale. “Oh, pizza, how I love thee.”
He filled a plate, grabbed a napkin and new beer, and headed back to the chair he had been in. He grabbed another small rectangle off the table next to him and pointed it at the reflective rectangle over the fireplace.
What was with Earth and rectangles?
“Help yourself.” His eyes were glued on the rectangle as it lit with light and people and voices came on it.
“What is that?” I stared at it wide-eyed. “Does it use dark or light magic?”
He laughed. “It’s a TV, short for television. You can watch shows and movies on it. They’re like plays. It uses no magic.”
“Surely it has to use magic.” I watched as men ran across hardwood floor and threw a ball into a hoop.
I walked around the island and grabbed a glass plate and looked around for the serving utensil. I looked over at Raphael and he was eating with his hands. I sighed and served myself a slice of pizza and a breadstick.
“It’s a shame you don’t have pizza delivery in Inferna.” He didn’t look away from the TV as I sat down on the couch with my plate.
I felt his eyes on me as I lifted the slice and took a bite. I shut my eyes. Sweet baby hell serpent; it was delicious. A tiny moan escaped and Raphael laughed.
We ate the rest of our dinner in silence. He was staring at the TV like his life depended on it and occasionally cursed under his breath.
I tried to relax back into the soft cushions of the couch after I put my plate on the table, but found it difficult. I needed to get back to Inferna. The council could implode for all I cared, but there were three, no four men, that probably needed my help.
“Are you tired?” Raphael picked up my plate and beer and put them in the kitchen. “I can show you to the guest room.”
“I won’t be able to sleep.” I grabbed a pillow and hugged it to me. “They need me.”
He turned off the light in the kitchen and sat next to me on the couch. The only lights in the room were the glow from the television and the flames from the fire.
I had a sensation in my lower belly and wanted to smack myself upside the head. He was just getting ready to go to bed, he wasn’t just turning the light off to create a more romantic atmosphere.
I pulled the pillow tighter as he propped a leg on the couch, bent at the knee. He put his elbow on the side of the couch. “Let my contacts get some information so we know what we’re walking into. There are quite a few demons in Hell that could help us if we need reinforcements.”
He looked at me thoughtfully and I felt my skin heat up from his stare. He wasn’t watching the basketball game any longer, but now I was staring at it. There was a similar game in Inferna.
“You are still registering as an angel.” I kept my eyes locked on the TV, because he sounded more serious than made me comfortable. “Did you ingest any angel blood or lick the feathers?”
I scrunched my nose and looked at him finally. “Yuck. No.”
He reached forward and moved my hair behind my ear, but left his hand against my cheek. I was going to pull away but then I felt his hand turn warm and my body relaxed.
He was putting me under a spell, I was sure of it, but I couldn’t bring myself to pull away. Every muscle in my body relaxed, and I sank further into the cushions and leaned into his hand.
“You’re worried about… four men.” His eyes searched mine. “Interesting.”
“What are you doing to me?” I felt like I was drunk all of a sudden and my lids grew heavy. I wanted to lean over and lie in his lap, but I couldn’t move.
“What are you?” He yanked his hand away suddenly, as if he had been shocked. He looked at his hand and then at me. “Let me show you to your room.”
I tried to stand but was going nowhere fast. Whatever he thought had happened didn’t seem to bother him because he scooped me up, my head immediately going against his shoulder.
He smelled magnificent. It was unlike any scent I’d smelled before. I could only describe the scent as clean.
“Don’t think I’m forgetting this,” I muttered as he opened a door to a bedroom.
The room was pristine white with a large bed in the center. It looked luxurious. He carefully held onto me as he pulled back the covers and set me down.
I moaned as I sank down into the softness and could have sworn his eyes flashed darker. He cleared his throat and then slipped off my shoes. He moved my legs under the covers and pulled them up to my chin.
“Good night, Samara.”
I was so tired I couldn’t even respond.
Chapter 14
Raphael
I shut the guest room door and leaned back against it. I rubbed my hands over my face and shook my head.
What have I gotten myself into?
I should have known she would be trouble the second I laid eyes on her. All I wanted was a late afternoon jolt of caffeine. I hadn’t even been tapped into my ability to sense other angels, but the second I opened the bathroom door, she lit up like a Christmas tree.
A very beautiful, purple-haired Christmas tree.
Getting rid of the angel feathers she had in her possession didn’t get rid of the light though. When I touched her face to get her to relax, I had been overwhelmed by her light.
She had more than me.
It was impossible.
I pushed away from the door and took the stairs to my bedroom. I was due in Heaven for a healing session. I opened the French doors to my balcony and stepped outside. The night was clear and all the stars could be seen from my little slice of Heaven on Earth.
My wings snapped out, and I flew towards Heaven.
Being the archangel of healing was a tough gig. All day, practically every day, I healed. Sometimes it was too late for the person and I had to watch them die in front of me.
Sometimes I wanted to fly somewhere and hide.
In the past week, I had only been summoned to heal Lucifer, who had been an idiot and used most of his light. It would take him a while to regain full strength.
It was a vacation of sorts, except now it appeared I had a babysitting job as well.
I landed back on my balcony and stopped short as I went toward the still open French doors. Samara was asleep in my hammock, with the duvet from my bed wrapped around her.
She looked so peaceful. I sat down in a chair and just stared. I’m wasn’t sure how long I watched her like a creeper, but she stirred in the hammock and her eyes fluttered open.
“You came into my room.” My eyes didn’t move from hers. They were mesmerizing with gray around outside and a faint golden hue around the pupil.
“I couldn’t sleep, even though I was exhausted. In my defense, I did knock.” She pulled the duvet tighter around her. “It’s so cold here.”
I stood and leaned on the railing of the balcony. The sky was starting to turn gray with the rising sun. “I don’t really feel the temperature. It's not that cold here, though.”
I heard her get out of the hammock and then she was standing next to me. “Where were you?”
“Heaven.” I turned my head to look at her and she was staring at me.
She looked away and adjusted the large duvet around her. Part of it was dragging on the ground.
“I hope you don’t mind me using your blanket.” I did, but I wasn’t about to tell her that.
“I need to get some sleep. In a couple hours, my contact is supposed to text me with information.” I walked into my bedroom and waited for her to follow so I could shut the doors.
There was a very awkward moment of silence where we just stared at each other. Stupidly, I glanced at her lips and then looked away. She was a demon; I shouldn’t have been lusting after her.
But I was, wasn’t I?
“I’m going to need my blanket back. If you’re cold, there’s a few extra ones in the chest of drawers in the bedroom.” I walked to the side of my bed and pulled off my shirt, throwing it in the armchair in the corner.