Fallen (16 page)

He approached cautiously, knowing as well, she probably didn't need a stranger sneaking up on her right now.

Picking up pace to a normal walk, Bruce made as if he was walking down the street. He passed her by, hands in his pockets, ready to cross the street, when he paused and look back at her.

He put on his most compassionate expression, and added his charming smile just for good measure. “Mademoiselle? Are…you all right? Can I get someone for you?”

She turned away from him, crying, her cheek pressed to the tiles.

“Oh, hey there. You need the police?” He stepped closer but didn't touch her. She shook her head in a manner he couldn't tell was yes or no. “Some asshole say something mean to you? I don't want to frighten you, but I can't let you stand here all sad like that. Is it okay if I stand with you a bit?”

She nodded it was okay. He was in.

“Fight with the boyfriend?”

She swiped the back of her hand under one eye, effectively wiping the smear of mascara away, but a black trail slid down the other cheek.

Bruce made to wipe it away, but paused, waiting for her approval. She nodded, and he gently touched her cheek. Man, she smelled great. Fear lingered in her blood, giving it a salty yet savory aroma. He loved fear-laced blood.

But a smart vampire would keep his fangs up. Even if
the Fallen had been wasted by the demon, this muse was still prime. She could lure any number of Fallen to her; all Antonio had to do was conjure another one.

“Merci,”
she said in a tiny voice. “I just… It was so terrible. I couldn't believe it.”

“Tell me. I'll call for help if you need me to.”

“Yes. The police. They might still be in my apartment.”

“I have a cell phone in my car. It's across the street. Come on.”

Like a good little girl, she allowed him to lead her across the street. She even sat in the passenger seat when he offered, tucking her legs in before her and smoothing her torn skirt.

Bruce closed the door behind her, and marveled how easy that had been.

“One muse, coming right up.”

P
yx held Cooper's hand as they flashed to the door outside her third-floor apartment. Someone's apartment. It was hers for now.

Seeing him again in all his angelic glory had once again impressed the heck out of her. Whatever
heck
was.

A demon should not be impressed by an angel. But she was.

So there it was, all out there and ugly and, well—sue her. Good luck getting the money. This demon was walking her own walk, and if that meant walking hand in hand with a Fallen one, then so be it.

But he was wrong about loving humanity. That
L
-word didn't exist for her. She could endure humanity. She could subsist within humanity. But she'd never lo—

“Can I come inside?” Cooper whispered against her ear.

His hands roamed the curve of her hips. The heat of his
breath stirred up her sigh. Pyx tossed aside all extraneous thoughts about how things were not as they should be, and she didn't really care what heck meant.

She walked inside and aimed straight for the bedroom. She was going to have sex with an angel tonight. She was going to have sex for the first time.

There would be no love involved, only want, desire, need and passion. It was about time this demon mastered the sin of lust.

There was one small problem.

Pyx turned abruptly, stopping Cooper with her body.

“I haven't done this before,” she said. The confession felt blatant, but at the same time she trusted he would not laugh or think less of her.

Strong arms wrapped about her and he kissed her once. Perfect collision of want. Two opposites snapping together with a magnetic click. Another kiss melted them like summer reeds under the hot sun. The urgency of their mouths connecting was too sweet. But she enjoyed it. Wanted more.

Instinct demanded a surrender to something that felt so wrong.

You can make a choice
.

It was all about choice. Her choice.

“You're sure you want your first time to be with me? After…” He bowed his head, pressing his forehead to hers. She could feel his tension radiate in the air between them.

After
.

After what she'd seen tonight: Cooper going after his muse and nearly attempting her. After all she knew about him: he could not control his compulsion to mate when around the muse. And also knowing they could never be anything but enemies: the universe had decreed it so.

Sure? Never.

But hopeful and desirous? “Yes, I want to do this, Cooper. With you. You're the only one who understands me.”

“Then I need to let you in on something. Since I've arrived on earth?”

She nodded, expectant.

“I haven't been able to get past kissing women. The sensory experience wraps me up and carries me away. I haven't gone further than second base.”

“So you mean…?”

“Well.” He shrugged his shoulders, straightening. “I'm not a virgin. I've had my share of women back in the day.”

“Biblical times?”

He winked. “About then.”

“So what you're trying to say is, it's been a long time for you.”

“It has. And I couldn't imagine a better first-time partner than you, Pyx. You are a unique and incredible female. And as you said, we understand one another.”

“But not the same understanding we had before, right? About us using each other.”

“Never.”

Whew
.

“I promise this is not a ruse to get you on my side, Pyx. Whatever you ultimately decide to do—if things should come to, well, you know—is your choice, and I won't influence that choice one way or another.”

“What if it is just a need because you couldn't get it on with the muse? Am I your rebound girl?”

Cooper laughed. “Be quiet, Pyx, or you'll talk yourself out of my arms.”

He let down the strap of the dress she had borrowed from
the muse. Cooper trailed his fingers along the neckline, lowering the fabric inch by inch to expose her breasts. Anticipation of where he'd place his touch made her bite her lower lip.

The skim of his thumbs across her flesh tickled up goose bumps, and Pyx smiled and then laughed because the reaction was so…mortal.

“That tickle?” he asked, his eyes holding hers. “I can be more gentle.”

“No, I like it.” She moved his hand lower. His palm cupped her breast. “It feels great. But promise you won't get lost in this sensory experience and not move on to the rest?”

“Promise.”

With a deft move from Cooper's hands, the dress slipped over Pyx's hips and landed at her feet with a
cush
. The angel purred in a deep lion's tone that said he was pleased with what she revealed to him.

Vanity infused Pyx's being and she stretched back her shoulders. The move lifted her breasts, and Cooper was right there with his tongue to greet them. This was better than any kind of food. This was lust at its finest.

Greed took over for vanity, and Pyx caressed Cooper's head, running her fingers through his hair, keeping him at her breasts where his ministrations sent erotic vibrations humming up and down her limbs and focused at her groin.

“This is going to be good,” she whispered. “I can feel it.”

He chuckled and she tripped her fingers over his hard, muscular shoulders. They felt like the steel that designed her bones. So strong and powerful. The woman she had become sighed and squeezed his muscles when he playfully nipped at her.

“Sit down,” he murmured in a breathy voice. “I want to give you all the good you desire.”

He bent before her and she sat on the bed. He kissed her bare knee. She made a little noise of satisfaction. A flick of his tongue tickled the soft flesh behind her knee. It was so sensitive there, Pyx felt her belly twist in the best way.

Cooper glided his thumb up higher, along the satiny skin inside her thigh. The journey was slow, traced with his tongue and patient kisses.

“Yes, there.” She guided his hand higher and put her foot up on his shoulder. Anticipation gasped from her throat. “Please.”

He tickled his fingertips within her nest of curls, planting kisses in his wake. She slid her leg over his shoulder, inviting him to do as he pleased. One hand she threaded through his hair, loosely, no direction, just making contact.

He thumbed the apex of her folds, using her wetness to slicken his moves. Just the perfect rhythm and pressure, right—there.

Pyx whimpered. She clung to his hair and clutched his neck. The scent of his desire undid her in ways she could not comprehend, but accepted with open arms. Cedar and musk, perfectly man.

He kissed her inner thigh without stopping. Steady pace, focused only on her pleasure. Drawing his tongue up and pushing her skirt high, he replaced his finger with his firm tongue. Two strokes across her sensitive peak and she released, crying out softly, her body melting into the bedsheets.

“That was amazing,” she announced.

“You're telling me.”

“I can't believe I'm going to say this, but…I have to.”

“What?” He looked up from between her legs, his chin nuzzling lightly upon her thigh.

“I'm so glad I'm a girl. Because if I wasn't then you wouldn't have been able to do that to me right now.”

“Hallelujah. She's a girl! But we're just getting started, sweetie.”

“Mmm…” She turned on the bed, pressing her cheek against the pillow. With her foot, she coaxed Cooper onto the bed beside her. Using his masterful tongue, he traced along her thigh and around behind her back, directing her to lie on her stomach.

He dashed heart-fluttering kisses down her spine. “Let me take a close look at your tat,” he said. “Hmm… A skeletal angel. On fire. I should be offended.”

“But you don't look like that angel,” she said.

“I can be thankful for that.”

“What about your body art?” She playfully pushed him into the pillows and kissed her way across his abs to find his sigil. It was an interesting design that mirrored itself with long, sweeping curves. The color was reddish brown. “Does it glow when you're around her?”

“It does.” He tilted up Pyx's chin. “More kisses,” he encouraged. “No talking about other women.”

“I can dig it.” She unbuttoned his pants. “Now to the dangly bits.”

“They're not dangling now, sweetie.”

“I need to take a look at what I didn't get when I arrived.”

“Thought you were happy to be a woman?”

“Ecstatic.” She revealed his hard shaft and gripped it firmly. “This is a nice handful.”

“Oh, sweetie…”

“Do you like that? When I squeeze like this?”

He hissed through his teeth and could only nod his head,
so Pyx continued to stroke him slowly, bringing her cupped hand up over the thick head and then down to the base.

“Mortals are supposed to get married before they do stuff like this,” Pyx whispered, fascinated at the small bobs and movements his penis made at her direction. “Marriage seems so foreign to me.”

“Demons don't marry…” He gasped and the muscles of his abdomen tightened.

“Angels?” she finished for him. “You want me to stop?”

“Oh, no. Faster,” he managed to say.

It seemed his ability to talk slipped away as she quickened her movements, so Pyx decided to concentrate and watch his reactions. It was amazing how she could control him with one hand. One hand! Go, demon!

“Go, me,” she whispered, and bent to kiss him at the base of his erection. “Oh, yeeeessss.” He came, flooding over her fist in a marvelous display. Cooper slapped his hands to the bed and cried out an exhilarating shout.

Pyx slid up alongside him and watched as he rode the climax just as she had done moments earlier. His face was flushed and he gritted his teeth. And then he relaxed, sighed and sank into the pillow.

“That was impossible,” he muttered, huffing breathlessly.

“No it wasn't. I just did it. Not so hard. Well, I mean, it was hard.” She glanced south. “But not so much anymore.”

“I mean…” He chuckled, still breathless, and slipped a hand into hers to bring it to his mouth for a kiss. “What you just did to me? That isn't supposed to happen unless I'm with my muse.”

“Oh.” Right. The angel only received pleasure from his muse. “What in Beneath?”

“I have no idea why that happened, but I'm not going to question it. Come here.” He pulled her in to hug against his warm and heaving chest. “We'll think in the morning. Now is not for thinking, or discussion. We're going to speak with sighs and fingers for the rest of the night, okay?”

“Works for me.”

T
he old man led him to what Stellan decided was a form of domicile beneath the city of Paris in the 16th arrondissement. He'd jumped down a manhole and followed his guide about two hundred yards through a snaking sewer tunnel. Limestone and crumbling cement formed the seeping walls. Dirt and the occasional slab of stone, beaten down from centuries of footsteps, formed a path. It stank down here like a rotting animal corpse covered in maggots. Stellan knew the smell distinctly.

“Here it is.” The clank of a fingernail against metal lured Stellan from his deliciously morbid thoughts. “Just like I told you.”

The vampire leaned in and inspected the object embedded in the rough-shod tunnel ceiling a foot above his head. The headlight helmet the old man wore beamed sharply upon the curve of what looked like dirty tin.

“Indeed, it is as you told me,” Stellan said. “But it's not glowing.”

“Every so often it glows blue. No specific time or length. Just flashes. You want it or not?”

Stellan reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a few euro notes. “Will you take twenty-five euros for it?”

“Well, now, that's not a lot of money.”

“Make it fifty then.” Stellen handed over half the money.

The old man swiped the bills from his hand—all of them. “Hundred's fine. But you'll never get it loosened from the stone. It's stuck in there tight. Even tried to chip it out with my lucky horseshoe.”

“I can see that.”

Stellan examined the chipped limestone hugging the two places where the halo fit halfway into the wall. Had to have been down here since the original Fall to fit in so tightly. But he'd found others in tighter situations.

He gripped the halo and worked it back and forth.

“You'll bend it!” the old man yelped.

“Shut up. These things don't break. Go spend your money before you die, old man.”

In proof, the limestone began to crumble and bits of it exploded onto Stellan's leather coat. He pulled out the halo and held it high, as if that might make it glow. Didn't work. Didn't matter. The old man couldn't have possibly lied about something so unique as the halo glowing.

Stellan hooked the thing about a wrist and stomped away from the stench toward the surface. He detected the old man had turned a corner behind him, and decided it had been a few hours since he'd last fed. And really, snatching the whole hundred after Stellan had offered fifty was rude.

He turned and smiled to reveal fangs at the startled geriatric.

 

“Michael Donovan was here earlier.”

Pyx sat nestled in the pillows, her garnet hair spilling across Cooper's shoulder like a bright winter scarf. They hadn't slept. They'd passed through the night making love and sharing quiet talk about things like mortality and companionship, and the possibility of sharing those two things together.

Cooper sat up in bed and stretched his back from side to side. His muscles were lax and every bit of him felt terrifically spent. The woman may have been a virgin yesterday, but she'd made up for lost time. Whew!

“Donovan. The halo hunter? What'd he want?” he asked over his shoulder. “Did his girlfriend go after the vamps? He said he was going to sic her on them, or something like that.”

“He had some halos to show you. To prove he would stand good on his word to help you. I suspect he wants to keep tabs on you.”

“Who doesn't?” He scrambled off the bed and grabbed his jeans. The waistband was torn, rendering them unwearable. “Where is he?”

Cooper stood and with a thought, assimilated the kilt, a crisp white shirt and combat boots laced neatly.

“At the Regina in the second quarter.” Pyx leaned forward and toyed a finger along the hem of his kilt. “I do like this look on you. You've sexy legs.”

“So the demon finally indulged in lust.” He leaned in and kissed the top of her breast. “Hold that thought. I'll be back soon.”

“You going to leave me, just like that?”

“He's got halos, Pyx.”

“I just thought…” She spread an arm across the sheets where he'd lain.

Don't do that. That'll make me want to crawl back in bed with you to inhale your bubble-gum perfume
.

Pyx sighed. “Don't mortals snuggle or something like that after they've had sex?”

Part of Cooper wanted nothing more than to snuggle up to Pyx and repeat everything they'd done last night. And then repeat it again.

But if Donovan had his halo and was willing to give it to him? Pyx could never understand. And she probably didn't want it to happen. If Cooper got his soul that meant she was tough out of luck to kill him and claim her soul.

Cooper wanted his lush, gorgeous demon who came wildly and let out her joy at the top of her lungs to have whatever it was she desired. Another part of him didn't want to sacrifice his happiness when he knew she had the opportunity to find another Fallen, while he did not have the opportunity to live again if she killed him.

“I have to go see them,” he said. He knelt on the bed and kissed the curve of her spine there, where it was so sweet, just below the fiery wing of the tattooed angel. “Mortals do snuggle. But we're not mortal yet.”

“I know. Snuggling would be too much like a commitment.”

“Er, right. Wouldn't want to do anything so dangerous as commit.” Especially after they'd discussed that very thing last night. Must have been the endorphins.

“You got that one right. Let me get dressed. I'll go along with you.”

“To keep an eye on me?”

“You know it.” She retrieved the muse's black dress from the floor and tugged it over her head. The hem stopped just low enough to cover the treats she'd offered him last night, and Cooper wanted to tug the skirt lower so no man would even think about what he was thinking. “And because I'm
not sure I can function for any amount of time now with you away from me.”

“Hey now, sweetie, don't fall in love with me. You know that's a no-no for the Sinistari.”

She scoffed, but it came off as lackluster. Did the demon question herself? “I don't know what that word means.”

“What word? Love? Say it. Come on, I dare you,” he teased.

“No.”

“Because you don't want to?”

“Because I don't want to bring Raphael's wrath upon me for succumbing to the one Sinistari sin.”

Raphael was the archangel who commanded the Sinistari ranks. Yep, an angel led the demons. Didn't she question that? Was now a good time to tell her his suspicions about her origins? It could either bring them together or force them to opposite poles.

“I'm having a good time, is all,” she said. “Aren't you?”

Right. Just a good time. Nothing intense or even resembling commitment.

“Having sex with the woman who intends to slay me? That's about as good as it gets.”

And he meant it. This was one seriously screwed-up relationship. But he'd take it. Because she spoke to him on a level no mortal could ever understand.

And most important, it kept his mind from other women—specifically, his muse.

Damn, he'd come close to harming her yesterday. He could not have guessed how strong the compulsion would actually be. He'd not been able to stop himself from attempting Sophia.

His plans for leaving the city stood, but if a halo was in the vicinity, he wasn't going to flash away from it until he held it in his hand.

Pyx could find another Fallen.

“Let's head over to the hotel. I'll buy you something to eat on the way.”

“Crepes with bananas and chocolate,” she said.

He kissed her on the head, then bent to lick her neck. She squealed, but didn't move away. Instead, she sat on her knees and pulled his head down to pay both her breasts due attention.

They left for the hotel three hours later.

 

Striding down the hallway in the ultra-lux hotel put up Pyx's hackles. Fancy paper lined the walls. Gold frames caressed centuries-old paintings. Crystal chandeliers tinkled overhead. This fancy lifestyle wasn't her. Much as she'd take the human soul, she figured if human, she'd live on a farm somewhere chasing goats and eating fresh eggs for breakfast.

But winning a soul meant only one thing, and she was conflicted now regarding that ending after having made love to Cooper. Make that having sex. The
L
-word had not been involved. No way.

“Did he tell you what room number?” Cooper said over his shoulder. “Wait. He's close.” The Fallen put out his hands, palms flat, as if reading the air. “Two doors down.”

“How'd you do that? I thought I was the only one capable of reading paranormal vibrations, and the halo hunter is mortal.”

“I think I'm sensing the halos.” He grinned widely, a little boy nearing the end of his quest for the buried treasure. “Come on.”

He held out his hand for her to take. Kind of old-fashioned, like boys and girls often did decades ago. Pyx slapped her hand into his.

But she wasn't sure how she felt about Cooper finding his halo.

The idea of him claiming his soul sat well with her. He deserved it. The angel fit humanity well.

But then that ruled out
her
getting a soul. Unless she could find another Fallen and slay it. It wasn't as though the Fallen were walking the world in numbers. As far as she knew a Sinistari was only summoned when a Fallen walked the earth. And she knew for a fact her brethren were not out in population in the world. Again, vibrations.

Cooper knocked, then drew up Pyx's hand and kissed the back of it. He winked at her. She guessed he was excited for what Michael Donovan may have, but wished it were because he was with her and was thinking about what they'd shared last night.

So this was emotion, she thought, focusing on the weird stir in her belly. It was complicated, but not so bad. She preferred it by far to memory of Beneath. And it could only increase after she'd claimed her soul—from this interesting, kind and sexy man.

A petite woman with bright green eyes to match her shirt and an even brighter smile answered the door. “You must be the angel and the demon,” she said. “Come in, Michael's in the shower.”

Cooper paced the elaborate room. Two twin beds had been pushed together, the sheets and comforter spilling onto the floor in evidence of good use. Marble-topped vanity, a writing desk and a television table were placed amongst the damask fabrics on the wall, windows and even the floor.

Pyx hung by the door, eyeing up the vampiress while Cooper tugged aside a curtain to look outside. The Tuileries gardens were in view and the bright evening settled a heavy golden glow across the emerald foliage.

“So you're Michael's girlfriend?” Pyx finally asked.

“Vinny.” She offered her hand, and Pyx shook it. She sensed the shimmer, innate to vampires. The weird electrical tingle startled her and she pulled free.

Not going to trust this chick. Not after what she'd seen the vampires do to Cooper with their injection gun.

Vinny bowed her head. “You are a powerful demon to have recognized me. I am at your disposal. Whatever I can do for you, I will.”

The deference was nice. The Sinistari were the most respected amongst the demon realm, simply because they were so powerful and fearless. They were angel killers. Nothing could kill an angel, save the Sinistari.

“Where are they?” Cooper asked, clapping his hands together in expectation.

Vinny pointed to the messenger bag on the striped Louis XIV chair and Cooper opened the flap top. He didn't reach in, but clasped his hands expectantly.

Michael strode out of the bathroom wearing jeans and no shirt. His short, dark hair and shoulders glistened with water droplets. “Cooper. Pyx. I see you found what you're looking for. Did introductions get made?” he asked Vinny.

The vampiress nodded and stepped behind him. Interesting, Pyx thought, the vampire being submissive to the mortal. But what had been normal since she'd arrived on earth? No one was playing to character.

Most especially, the Sinistari demon and her prey.

“Will you take them out so I can look at them?” Cooper asked Michael.

The halo hunter did so, laying five halos on the marble writing desk. Cooper, arms crossed high on his chest, winced as each was laid out. The halos were each about a foot in diameter, the outer circle two inches wide and
fashioned from what resembled unpolished tin. They clattered as they were laid on the marble.

Pyx had no idea if the Fallen could sense his own halo, or if he were so eager he didn't know where to begin.

She dug her fingers into her palms and sucked in the corner of her lip. If she had a heartbeat, it would be thundering right now.

Cooper glanced to her. In his eyes lived worry. Or maybe it was a question. A request.
Is this all right with you?

The look set her back, and Pyx looked aside, out the window. Of course it wasn't all right. But it was his choice to make. And that he'd silently conveyed that question to her meant so much.

She would never tell him what to do. She respected him as much as she expected others from the paranormal nations to respect her.

Without touching them, the angel looked over the five disks before him. Nothing fancy, that was for sure. How they could be wielded as a weapon was beyond Pyx.

“Go ahead,” Michael offered, “pick them up, look them over.”

“Not necessary,” Cooper said. “None are mine.”

“But how do you know?” Pyx argued. She approached the table, ready to grab a halo and stick it on top of his head.

“I just know!”

Affronted by his angry response, Pyx felt a cold shiver move from her breast to her belly. The demon did not care to be admonished. “You didn't even touch them.”

“I don't have to. I…can't. They're not mine. Put them away,” he said to the halo hunter. “Thank you for showing me them.”