Damned and Desirable (Eternally Yours Book 2) (28 page)

Garf brought us through a maze of halls, with so many lefts and rights I would have gotten lost if he hadn’t led the way. This place was massive, with shimmery stone walls illuminated by wall sconces the size of sofas, and shiny slate floors that echoed with each of Garf’s heavy steps. I didn’t make a sound, being that I was still shoeless. Good thing the floors weren’t hot, because we’d been walking forever.

As we neared the sound of thunderous bangs and booming voices, my stomach churned. Wherever we were heading didn’t seem like a private meeting. It sounded as if the whole Nephilim army would be there. I squeezed Aedan’s hand tight as I looked up at him.

“Where exactly are we going?” I asked, my voice waning along with my nerve.

His brow furrowed. “I’m not sure.”

“Garf take you to king now,” Garf said with a smile as he stomped toward a pair of oak doors nearly twice his height. “Nephilim prepare feast in honor of angel.”

I tugged Aedan toward me, hissing in his ear. “I thought you said this meeting was private.”

“That’s what I thought,” he said right before Garf threw open the doors.

We were standing at the threshold of the biggest cafeteria I’d ever seen, with a huge arched ceiling and wood beams that had to have been as wide as Redwood Pines, crisscrossing the diameter. More gigantic wall sconces flanked the walls, which easily spanned the length of two football fields. I stared down rows of at least a thousand rowdy Nephilim clanking their hands and mugs on long wooden tables.

“Angel!” they chimed in unison as they lifted their drinks in a toast, pointing them directly at me.

Oh, so not good. So, so not good.

Behind us, Sarge swore, and Jack’s low whine seemed to be stuck on auto-pilot as we walked down a long row of seats toward the king’s table. Good thing Aedan had a protective arm around my shoulders, or I would have fainted from fright. Those goliaths were three times as tall as me and four times as wide. Why the heck did they want little ole’ me to lead their army when my whole body weighed less than one of their arms?

The hall fell silent and huge faces turned, gawking down at me as if I was some kind of deity. They all wore togas similar to Aedan’s, with lace-up sandals that seemed to go with their Roman motif. I nearly stumbled as I peered down at my bare feet, feeling slightly underdressed, and hoping I appeared up to their standards. I thought back to my college kegger days, how I’d always worried about being underdressed at parties, eager to impress a few cute guys, and I tried to pretend these giants were just another group of drunk and stoned frat boys. It almost worked, except for the part that if a frat boy came onto me and I didn’t like him, I could blow him off and not worry about him eating me or smashing me into an Ash pancake with one swing of his club. Other than that, yeah, these giants were just like frat boys… really, really big frat boys. A few of them might have been sorority girls, but since everyone was in togas, and kind of scary looking, it was hard to tell.

The king’s table was elevated and made out of gnarled wood like the rest of them. The only difference was the rich gold drapery behind it, embroidered in silver and burgundy threads with what appeared to be a scene of Nephilim in battle. I saw a few headless demons, their bodies bleeding out onto the tapestry. Ewww. Nice visual while partaking of the evening meal.

Aedan pulled me along at a brisk pace, and as we neared the king, I saw a tiny man sitting beside him, looking like the head of a pin poking up from behind the dais. I smiled when I realized that pinhead was Callum. He looked too much like his brother, with muscular, tanned arms, dark, wavy hair, and eyes so blue they made my heart go pitter-patter. My gaze tunneled on Callum the rest of the way to the dais. He looked nothing like his old demon self, which made the fact that he was stuck in Hell for eternity all the more heartbreaking. There had to be a way to get him out of here.

Aedan released me as we approached the table. “King Og, if you would be so kind, we wish to speak with you alone.”

The king’s golden star glistened on his neck as he waved to the hushed crowd of giants. “Speak in front of kin. Nephilim have no secrets.”

Aedan worked a knot in his throat as he lifted his chin. “We believe there’s been a mistake. Ash knows nothing of how to fight a war.”

I summoned the courage to speak even though my throat had gone bone dry. “I never got past yellow belt in Tae Kwan Do.”

The king’s wrinkled brow fell, nearly obscuring his eyes as he bore down on us with a scowl. “There no mistake. Prophecy say golden fawen angel free Nephilim from damnation.”

“I can’t even get myself out of Hell,” I squeaked, feeling smaller beneath the weight of his stare.

Og stood, pushing back his chair with a loud clatter. “Look, we show you.” He motioned to the tapestry behind him like he was some fat, ugly Vanna White, and I was supposed to decipher the meaning behind a few demons getting their heads chopped off. But my knees weakened when he pointed to a winged woman in the center of the mural. She had golden feathers and wild hair fanned out in a halo around her head. Thunderbolts were shooting out of her hands, striking down creatures with twisted faces. But what got me were the woman’s eyes, the only threads of green on the tapestry—the Murphy eyes.

Aedan circled his arm under my waist as my legs felt ready to buckle beneath me. I could see why the Nephilim believed me to be their angel, because this woman looked exactly like me in demon form. My gaze traveled along the line of one of the thunderbolts to a black creature with six arms and a tail that curled over his head.

Holy smoke! I was at the heart of this battle between Nephilim and demons. And, oh, yeah, when I’d hit Scorpius with my thunderbolt today, I obviously hadn’t killed him.

“Who designed this?” Aedan demanded, his voice as hard as steel.

“Tapestry is Nephilim-made. Design comes from scrolls Holy Ones gave Nephilim before they called to Heaven,” Og said with a note of reverence in his voice. “Holy Ones come to Nephilim kin centuries ago. They say we must defeat demons. Then we be let into Heaven.” He stood to the side, pointing at a cluster of demons behind my image.

“Look.” I recognized a few familiar faces. “That’s you, Aedan, and that’s you, Sarge.” They were flanking my left and right with scythes drawn.

“So it is,” Aedan grumbled.

Sarge’s mouth hung open as he gawked at the tapestry. “We’re all here.”

I frowned when I noted one demon was not among us. I didn’t see Callum anywhere. What had happened to him? Had he refused to fight? Would he abandon us during our time of need?

“Now you see you must lead us.” Og struck the center of the tapestry with his meaty fist. “We defeat demons and God forgive all two thousand Nephilim and let us go to Heaven.”

“Two thousand giants!” Tremors wracked me when I realized just how many Nephilim surrounded me. That was a whole lot of frat boys. My shoulders stiffened as I gulped back the knot of fear that wedged itself in my throat. “It shouldn’t be that hard,” I reasoned. “I think we smoked most of Scorpius’s demons when we escaped.”

Callum stood on his chair, planting his knuckles on the table and frowning down at me. “Ash, Scorpius has an army of blood slaves.”

I shot Aedan a wary gaze before looking back at Callum. “An army?”

Callum’s eyes darkened. “At least twenty thousand, last I counted.”

A wave of murmurs rose up among the crowd, and I heard words like “never” and “too many” before Og silenced them with a pounding of his fist.

As I gazed at the image of the scorpion demon I had somehow brought to his knees, I realized he’d been a busy demon. Twenty-thousand blood slaves? Where was he hiding them all? I just hoped this portrait of us defeating their army was accurate, because if not, we were all fucked.

I’m fairly certain last time I sat in a booster seat I was three years old, but the giants had fashioned us some sort of high chair made up of an animal hide sling, the same striped fur Callum had in his cave. I blushed when I thought of Callum’s bed. I had no idea why. It’s not like I had anything to blush about since we technically never had sex. Dream sex hardly counted, even though it had felt real, really real and really damn good.

You’re not a cheater, Ash,
I reminded myself for like the tenth time since Callum’s bare leg had accidentally brushed mine. He looked so much like Aedan, I actually found myself getting confused by them. I tried to blame it on the half goblet of wine I’d downed and not that I was attracted to Callum. Speaking of Callum, the king had sat me next to him, and my boyfriend was none too happy. I had no idea why Aedan was complaining since he got to sit on my other side. I felt much better inside a stud sandwich than next to a giant. If anyone had a right to complain, it was Sarge, who’d been obscured by two giants at the far end of the table with Jack whimpering behind him.

Callum leaned into me. “Ash, you should eat something.” His breath reeked of the sweet wine. Not that I’d been purposely counting, but I’d seen him down four goblets full already, and dinner wasn’t even half finished. Good thing the giants had found smaller cups for us, although I doubted Callum would have complained if they’d given him a fishbowl full of booze.

How could I possibly eat when my gut was twisted in knots? Scorpius had expected me to start an apocalypse, and Og wanted me to wage a war against a demon army. Somehow, I got the feeling the war and the apocalypse were related. Sheesh. I didn’t think my life could get more complicated.

“I’m not that hungry,” I lied. Truthfully, I was famished, but it was kind of hard eating while trying not to barf at the same time.

“Yes, you are,” he said, before picking a piece of fruit off my tray. “Eat. You’ll feel better.”

I frowned down at what appeared to be chunks of purple and pink kiwi fruit swimming in some sort of creamy sauce. “What is this stuff?”

“Ambrosia,” he said as he popped a large bite in my mouth. “Food of the gods.”

I held the fruit on my tongue, afraid to swallow even though my mouth practically burst with fireworks of flavor. “Is there gluten in it?” I asked with my mouth full. Guess it was too late if there was, since I felt some of the sauce slide down the back of my throat. I hoped they had port-a-potties on the battlefield.

“Gluten?” He winked, flashing a dimpled smile. “Not sure what that is, but ambrosia is made of fruit.”

I chewed my food, and then my taste buds were transported to another dimension, one of goodness and light and ripe, tangy perfection. Flavors assailed my senses unlike anything I’d ever known, like fudgy chocolate, spicy cinnamon and roasted almonds all rolled into one, plus some other sweet flavor I didn’t recognize. This stuff was as amazing, as divine as heavenly cheesecake. My taste buds were practically having a food-gasm.

“Mmmm,” I said as I swallowed. “This sure beats roasted spider.”

Callum laughed.

I hadn’t noticed Aedan had stiffened beside me until he threw down his fork.

I jumped in my sling, looking over at him with wide eyes. The fork was like ten pounds of silver, and it was lying in the middle of his Ambrosia stew.

My shoulders fell when I caught his sideways glare. Okay, letting Callum feed me was not such a good idea. Duly noted. I only hoped Aedan would keep the rest of his mantrum to himself, because the giants in the great hall had all gone silent, giving Aedan cold glares. I would hate for my boyfriend to end up in their sorbet because he was pissed off at their “angel.”

Og leaned forward and flashed a lopsided grin, breaking the tension Aedan’s outburst had created. “You like Nephilim food?”

I nodded. “I love it.” I shoveled another bite into my mouth, hoping he wouldn’t be offended I’d used my fingers, but there was no way I was wielding my silverware without a crane.

“Humankind call it forbidden fruit,” Og said.

I arched a brow. “Like the kind Adam and Eve ate?”

“Yah,” he said as a bit of cream spewed from his lips and thankfully missing my plate by a few inches. Honestly, this stuff was so good, and I was so famished, I would have probably eaten it anyway. Gross, I know, but I’d already passed up petrified spider and headless rat, so I deserved a pass.

“I don’t remember eating this on Earth.” I took another huge bite, amazed to see my plate was already half empty. Where the heck had my ambrosia gone?

“Forbidden fruit banned from Earth,” Og answered before downing several gulps of wine. “Only Nephilim grow it now.”

“It’s amazing.” I relished the soft, spongy texture on my tongue. It was more fun than cotton candy. “I could eat this all day.”

Aedan had finally come around and started eating again, wielding that huge fork as if he was a pro. I was glad to see his appetite had returned, hoping he’d get over his jealousy. I made a mental note to get him alone tonight and explain everything, even the strange sex dream and how Callum had refused my advances. Yeah, it was crazy stupid of me, but I didn’t want there to be any secrets between us. Besides, I had to get it off my chest.

Hopefully, Aedan would be understanding when I explained the deal with the water. Hopefully. Either way, he had to understand that Callum had not tried to seduce me at all, and Callum’s loyalty to his brother was the reason I had survived my first few nights in Hell. I only hoped Aedan could find it in his heart to forgive me for flirting with his brother and then dreaming about him. Stupid hormone water.