The Forsaken(32)

“Did you know Cherubs are taught how to please a Seraphim in all ways?”

That Nat knew. He swallowed and gave a slow nod.

She swung a leg over the side of the bed. “We are also taught how to please ourselves in all ways. When you are gone, I will use my time wisely.”

She didn’t look back at him as she padded to her private bath. His mind digested what she’d disclosed. “By the path of the holy light,” he said, knowing she’d disclosed that tidbit of information to teasingly annoy him. She didn’t like being ordered about and her little words of wisdom, her sexy secret, haunted him.

Walking down the stairs, Nat wondered who was getting punished. It certainly felt like he was. Between her flowery scent and that damn secret she’d told him, he hoped he got to burn off some energy soon. He welcomed a good, hard fight for a change.





Chapter Ten


I should not have left alone. The warning to herself left her cold. Shea clutched the dark cloak to her shivering form, hating that it had rained yet again. I should have told someone where I was going, or at least left a note. It was too late to be angry at her own stupidity. However, telling a sister she attended a choral choir for the Holy Madonna Church far from their sanctuary would be met with condemnation. Shea quickened her pace, telling her overactive imagination to settle. She’d lived through worse. It was past dusk, and long dark shadows of the night stretched like the occasional tall buildings as she scurried down Huntington Avenue onto a smaller street. If Izzy knew she dared step foot inside a church, a Roman Catholic Church at that, Shea didn’t know what she’d say. Nor did she plan to find out. I need to sing. I need to hear the voices of others, always. It soothes my soul. She’d recited that to herself a dozen times but still lacked the courage to tell any of her sisters.

Shea wished she’d grabbed a hat. The back of her head was drenched, causing her to hunch her shoulders against the shivers. Traveling through the two smaller streets allowed her to cut off almost four long blocks. A shortcut, which forced her to slink along back alleys, saved more than an hour of walking. The essence of time ticked away at her. She didn’t like the alleys but had to get home before her presence would be missed. Questions about where she had gone were to be avoided. Lying to her sisters was something she couldn’t do. None of them could. Omission, on the other hand, was a long-ago-learned tactic.

A dark shape rose from the building. Shea’s heart instinctively recognized the demon morphing into a teen before her eyes. His vision had haunted and soothed her since her exile to Earth. She gasped when he finished morphing into a beautiful dark angel.

Only his two red glowing eyes, which looked eerily like licking flames, told her his true heritage. Shea longed to run, but a part of her also wanted answers. Why had he appeared in her dreams?

He moved silently toward her. Her legs froze in place but somehow she kept standing; that in itself was miraculous. Trembling with terror, she kept her eyes trained on him as he stalked closer. Two beautiful black wings arched him off the ground so that he hovered over the asphalt. His face was far too perfect to belong to a demon. The realization a dark angel—a demon-spawned angel—stood assessing her caused her life essence to boil. A darker thought stole through her. She had dreamt of this angel. He’d been the one to whisper words of comfort in her mind when she’d first landed on Earth.

“Are you Lucifer?”

A quirk of a smile flirted across his lips and this close to her she could easily see he had a dimple on his right cheek. Eyes, as dark as coal, flickered over her. Then he laughed.

“I am the son of Lucifer, my pretty white angel. And it has taken me a long time to find you. Why are you on Earth?”

Find her? He, the son of Lucifer, had hunted for her? His admission and question caught Shea off guard. She bit her lip. “Why are you on Earth?” No way did Shea plan to tell him why she and her sisters were truly in the Earth realm.

He sauntered forward, his feet clad in designer Italian shoes as he hovered above the ground. His steps were full of feral grace, and he was a thing of dark beauty. He was a dead ringer for a model. His wings, as dark as his eyes, actually matched him perfectly. Shea had never seen dark wings on an angel. She quickly reminded herself he was a demon.

“Do you have any idea how long I’ve been searching for you? I can see you don’t remember me. But I am delighted that the rumors are true. Such delight.” He smiled and his eyes held a hint of kindness that she didn’t want to acknowledge.

His voice stole through Shea’s mind and body. Vividly, she recalled that voice: how he’d helped her, offering words of wisdom when she’d felt such Earthly despair. He had comforted her, but why? Shea digested what he said, wisely keeping her mouth shut.

“Now, the question is, what to do now that I have you?” He moved two steps closer to her. Shea knew he paused on purpose, playing her. Shea’s instincts finally kicked in. She scurried around him, only to collide with his laughing form.

He tsked. “Why are you running from me when I’ve offered you nothing but comfort?”

“Let me go.” Spare me.

“Well, I would…but I can’t. You see…” He reached out to swipe a wet tendril of her hair off her cold face. Ice formed inside Shea’s veins. Inside, she screamed. He probably knew it, but didn’t care.

“There is an ancient rumor that the taking of a Cherub soul willingly given will unleash a demon from my father’s realm. Since I would loathe to hurt any of my demons, I shall be the one to see the validation of this tale. After all, you are mine, as well you know it.”