ForsakingEternity (10 page)

“You didn’t keep me waiting, lovely human.”

Adam spun at the feminine voice. A woman stood by the door.
Her hair picked up bits of light, shining like spun gold in the darkness of the
office. One ring glinted in her lip and another at the tip of an eyebrow.
Despite the piercings, she reminded him of a model, thin and lithe, with a
figure guaranteed to make anything she wore look good.

She should have been lovely, but something about her felt
wrong. There was an ugliness about her. Adam was struck by the urgent need to
make her leave. He jerked into motion, grabbing the box to lock it up.

“I’m sorry, I was expecting someone else. It’s past office
hours and I’m not available. You can call for an appointment—”

“Can you read it yet?”

Her words stopped him dead. “I don’t know what you’re
talking about and I really don’t have time to discuss it now.”

“Your lies sound so sweet.” She stalked across the tiny
office, her hips rolling suggestively with every step. She perched one hip on
the edge of his desk and her batlike wings gave a delicate flutter.

He blinked and looked again.

She had wings. Not some cheap costume prop, but real living
and moving wings. They were small, her wingspan less than her outstretched arms
would be, but they were there; thin skin stretched between fragile bones.

Adam’s knees gave out and he collapsed into his chair. The
woman on his desk giggled, a throaty and mirthless noise. She carried with her
an aura of foreboding so thick he choked on it.

Not human. Whatever she is, she isn’t human.

“Who are you?” The words were forced past his fear. He
glanced at the door behind her, judging his escape options. There were none.
She had effectively cornered him behind the desk. He clenched his teeth and
tried to hide his frustration.

“Ren didn’t tell you about me, did he? I’m hurt.”

Ren knew this…creature? He studied her with renewed interest
and even more apprehension. A smug smile curled her pouty mouth and she
slithered off the desk to circle behind his chair.

The path to the door was clear. Adam tensed, ready to make a
run for it, to get to Ren, to get them both somewhere safely away from this
thing.

“I can read the box.”

The hiss in his ear stopped him and snapped Adam’s attention
back to the woman. Her hands cupped his shoulders and moved down to stroke over
his biceps. Goose bumps of revulsion crawled across his skin. Everything within
him screamed to get away from her.

He curled his hands over the arms of his chair, holding on
until his hands ached and his knuckles lost their color. Insidious whispers
seemed to come from somewhere inside his skull.

Read the box. It’s what you wanted. Ask and I’ll share
the secrets Renatus won’t. Just ask me.

“How can you read it?” Adam’s eyes narrowed and he studied
the intruder.

“Easily. I have a stake in what’s inside. So do you.”

“Then why can’t I read it?”

“You can. Just ask and I’ll reveal its secrets. Ask and
receive.”

Ask me. Invite me into your head. Let me in. Read the
box. Ask. Just ask.

The words filled his head in a pervasive murmur, a demand
that clouded his mind. He tried to shake it off, but the voice grew louder,
more insistent. Word overlapped word until all he would hear was a garbled hiss
spurring him to ask, to speak. It consumed him, obliterated all other sounds.
His office was gone. The box was gone, everything outside her voice ceased to
exist for him.

There was only the woman with wings and the need to ask her
something, to beg her. She could make this all stop.

Ask…

He opened his mouth, helpless to resist her, desperate to
make the roaring in his head stop.

“Be silent, Adam!”

The woman’s spell over him shattered. The voices in his head
vanished. He swung to stare at the door, disoriented by the abrupt silence.

Recognition was slow to come. He blinked at the man by the
door, scrambling to place him.

“Ren.” Yes, that was his name. It was Ren.

Yet it wasn’t. Not the Ren Adam knew. Gone was the quiet man
Adam loved. This Renatus was a warrior, sword in hand and ready to do battle.

And he had wings, too.

* * * * *

Ren couldn’t spare Adam more than a quick glance before
focusing his attention on Meela. It was enough to assure him that his lover was
unharmed.

His lover. The words shook him more than he would have ever
thought possible. He had a human lover. A male lover.

The tip of his sword wavered ever so slightly, but Meela
noticed. Her eyes narrowed and a smile bared her fangs. The air around her
rippled. The illusion of skin and clothing vanished as her human facade gave
way to demonform. Her blackened scales seemed to absorb the light, making her
little more than a shadow.

“Renatus, how kind of you to join us.” Meela pressed against
Adam’s back and stroked her fingers over his arms. Adam jerked away,
shuddering. The fabric of his shirt caught on her claws, shredding under their
lethal tips. Those points could do much more damage to his vulnerable human
flesh.

“Adam, stay still,” he warned.

“She has claws.” One of those claws trailed over his
shoulder and up his throat. Adam’s face went stiff with terror and he drew a
tremulous breath.

“Stay still. Her claws have venom.”

Adam sat as motionless as a stature, his fear palpable. A
righteous anger rose in Renatus. How dare Meela touch him? She had no rights to
him. This man was his.

“Get away from him, Meela.” Ren’s feathers prickled with
fury. He lifted his wings, spreading them as much as the cramped confines of
Adam’s office would allow.

“Protective of a human? How very unlike you, Ren. What
happened, did you get demoted to guardian?”

He raised his sword, pointing its tip at her throat, and
took a step toward her. “I said get away from him.”

Her crimson gaze narrowed. “Or maybe you are confusing
yourself with a warrior. If you fight me, all the Heavens will know. They will
find out you were with the human, that you have a male lover.”

Guilt and shame braided his gut, feelings which did not come
from within him. Meela was projecting, using them to weaken him. He gathered
his power into a shield, trying to block her influence over his mind. Still,
his confidence wavered. The tip of his sword dipped and Meela took advantage of
the opening. A burst of demonfire caught him, knocking him back against the
bookcase-lined wall. Its sulfuric heat blasted across his face and singed his
wings while the power behind it pushed at him.

For several panicked heartbeats he was pinned, wings
splayed, the edge of a shelf pressing into his back. He tried to fight back, to
use his power against hers. He shoved, but wasn’t strong enough. His shield
faltered and fire hit the vulnerable underside of his wings, wrenching a shout
of pain from him.

“No!” The shout drowned out his own cry. Then Meela’s fire
was gone.

Ren stared in shock as Adam tussled with Meela on the floor
of the office. The human had taken on the demoness. For him.

The thought barely had time to register before Meela swiped
her venomous claws at Adam, raking him across the face. He dropped to the
floor, screaming and writhing in pain.

Fury ripped through Ren. He sent his power through his
sword, making it blaze with the golden light. Two steps and Meela was in reach.
He swung.

Meela sent up a shield of her own blackened energy and Ren’s
blade hit it with jarring force, sending pain knifing through his shoulder. He
didn’t ease back. Shoving harder, he held her in place with his blade.

His fire began to burn at her shield. Fissures appeared in
its dark surface, glowing with a molten flame as his essence seeped past the
surface. All he had to do was hold her, just hold her, until it gave way.

She fought against him and his muscles screamed in protest.
She was strong, filled with the corrupted power of the damned, able to counter
his brute strength.

Still, Ren didn’t need to overwhelm her, just maintain. He
sent another wave of pure power through the sword, forcing the flow into those
tiny chinks in her defense. The cracks began to glow golden, to spread.

He could feel her gather another surge of dark power but he
sent a wave of his own before she could reinforce her shields. He had her. All
he needed to do was outlast her. One stab to her body would shatter her ability
to keep physical form and send her back to the bowels of Hell, where she
belonged.

Movement from the floor caught his eye. Adam. He was moving
toward the desk, toward Meela.

No! The other way, love. Get away from her!

He didn’t dare say it aloud, didn’t dare draw her attention
to Adam. Instead he poured everything he had into his sword.

Meela’s eyes narrowed. Her power pulsed, pushing at his in
waves. Heavens help him, she knew he was close to his limit, was testing him,
waiting for one of those waves to ebb so she could break his hold on her.

Adam shifted, and the buttons of his jacket scraped noisily
against the wooden floor. For a split second, all three of them froze. Then
Meela’s mouth curled in a wicked smile and she flicked her forked tongue over
her black lips. With a burst of motion she rolled, tossing Ren to the side.
Claws extended, she dove for Adam, throwing her body on top of his.

Demon power exploded in a burst of molten red light,
engulfing Adam and Meela.

“Adam!” Ren threw himself at the bubble of power only to
bounce off it. The bubble swelled, grew brighter, pushing Ren across the floor.
He couldn’t penetrate it, couldn’t get to Adam.

He was flooded with a helpless rage he hadn’t experienced in
seven thousand years. He could still see it, feel it like it happened just
yesterday. He knelt in the center of town, by the well, the dusty ground
transformed to a thick mud by the innocent blood of children. Michani’s blood.
He held her in his arms as she took her final pained breath, unable to save her
despite his gift of healing.

In his mind, the image of his daughter faded and he instead
held Adam’s lifeless body as he screamed to Heaven.

No. He could not do this. He could not lose another person he
loved to death.

With a cry of rage, he gathered every last shred of strength
he had and blasted the bubble with a bolt of power. It shattered, wrenching a
screech of anger from Meela.

She turned on him. Raising her hand she conjured a ball of
demonfire and pulled back.

He threw his hands up, tried to gather his power into a
shield. Nothing happened. He’d used everything he had and now he was
defenseless.

Meela smiled in triumph. “Ah, this will be sweet, angel.”

She pulled back her hand and Ren drew his wings forward,
ready to block the fireball. He braced himself for the broiling heat, the
stench of burning feathers.

The fire never came.

Meela gasped and he opened his wings. The demoness stood
before him, a look of shock on her face as the fire vanished from her hand.

“The human,” she choked out and fell to the floor.

Her body melted away into a puddle of black ooze, leaving
Adam standing before him, a letter opener in his hand. The puddle screamed as
it rolled across the floor, looking for escape. It found a small knothole and
seeped through it to find its way back to the depths of Hell.

“Did I kill that…thing?” The letter opener dropped from
Adam’s hand to clatter across the floor.

“No, but close enough,” Ren answered, his eyes hot with
unshed tears.

Adam dropped the letter opener and collapsed into his desk
chair. “I don’t understand what just happened. What was that?”

“Your questions will be answered, but first we need to get
you home.”

“I can’t drive. My face hurts. And I can’t see. Everything's
blurry. I think she got my eye with a claw.”

“Do not worry. I’ll take care of you,” Ren assured him. He
managed to make his way to Adam before falling to his knees. His lover’s face
had been ravaged. Demon venom had raised welts and left his skin streaked with
blood. He raised a hand, ready to use his healing power to take away Adam’s
pain.

But he couldn’t. He wasn’t strong enough.

Swallowing his pride, he found a remnant of power and
summoned Evangelos.

* * * * *

A man Adam didn’t know was kissing him.

He jerked away from the gentle lips and scrambled to sit up.
A quick glance told him they were in his bedroom. How had he ended up in bed
with a man that was definitely
not
Ren?

“Who are you?” he asked, pressing his spine against the
headboard so hard he would probably have a line of bruises down his back.

“Evangelos. I am a friend of Renatus.” Like Ren, Evangelos
had an unearthly beauty about him. His hair was a burnished mahogany that fell
about his shoulders like the flow of rich chocolate. His skin held a deep golden
sheen that seemed to glow a little in the faint light of his bedside table.
Only one thing seemed to be missing.

“If you are Ren’s friend, does that mean you have wings,
too?” He certainly hoped so, or else this man would be convinced he was either
high or insane.

Evangelos smiled and the air behind him wavered, shimmered
like the air over hot summer roadways, then coalesced into a pair of deep brown
wings.

“I really had hoped I dreamed that.” Adam shoved a shaky
hand through his hair and took a deep breath. “You’re angels.”

“Yes, and as you may have gathered, Meela was a demon. I
must commend you. I’ve never seen a human banish a demon by the sword before
this.”

“Why are you here? Where is Ren?” Adam swung his legs over
the side of the bed, but he was too weak and dizzy to stand.

“Please, lie down, Adam. You are suffering from the effects
of demon venom. I’ve removed most of it but you will be weak for a little while
yet.”