Kassern (Archangels Creed) (3 page)

Devyn hardened her mind and jaw with the sudden surge of emotions. Quick confession, no break downs. "Okay. So after the guy was bounced, he waited in the alley."

Karly went to the fridge, took out one of their ancient metal ice cube trays and hurried back. "How did you get away?" She pried cubes from between the separators. "And don't tell me Carlos got rid of him
, 'cause w
e both know he's perfectly happy to toss someone out of the club, but Helena would have his hide if he left the premises
. E
ven to rescue the headliner."

She couldn't argue with that. "Well, believe it or not, some guy out front, trying to save all the poor exploited whores, rescued me. He must have been on his way back to his Sunday School class, because he dragged the jerk off me, and knocked him out, or something."

Karly put the ice in a threadbare dishtowel and pressed it against the tender spot on Devyn's jaw. "Did the
Good Samaritan
give you that?"
She
nodded
at Devyn's throat.

Conscious of a slightly unfamiliar sensation, Devyn lifted her right hand to her throat, as if by habit, only to jerk her
head
down in surprise. What the hell?

Warm metal met her fingertips. A smooth chain with broad, open links circled her neck, looping to just below the notch between her collar bones. Following the chain, her fingertips encountered a
heavy
pendant, a cross, dangling against her skin.

"Well? Where'd you get it?"

"Oh, I just found it." At least that much was true. She left out the part about finding it right that instant. Where had it come from?

The Sunday
School
teacher must have put it on her while she was so upset after the attack. Odd, though. She couldn
'
t imagine allowing him, or anyone else, that close to her after such an attack.
Vaguely she remember
ed
swatting his hand away when he tried to help her stand.

She reached to unclasp the chain but her fingers refused to obey the order. Some part of her scarred mind
insisted
,
D
on
'
t
take it off.
The warmth of the pendant penetrated her chest, loosening it. Devyn wanted to be afraid of the odd sensation, but her body clearly hungered for the soothing comfort. How could a piece of jewelry do that?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

****

Kassern sat on th
e chair in the corner of the living room, watching Devyn
toss and turn with nightmares
on the narrow couch
. How long since Kassern had been
so
close to humans?
They hadn't known about electricity
,
and internal combustion engines had yet to be dreamed up.
The only thing really familiar was the urge to smack them upside their heads.
He'd never quite mastered the virtue of p
atience,
so
he was chosen to be a warrior and not a humanitarian wiener.

He went to her
makeshift
bed and rested one finger on her sweaty forehead.
"
Be still, girl.
"

He watched her mind grasp for the life preserver and two seconds later, Kassern had a ruby fingernail embedded into the demon tormenting her. Before the black fiend could struggle and whine, Kassern blew a breath of thin ruby
mist
, sealing the demon
'
s disgusting pore
s
, especially that abyss of a mouth. Kassern sliced a slit in the air with his finger tip and chucked the thing into a holding cell.

He angled his head at the
sleeping
female, watching her breathing calm and her hand move to the crucifix he
'
d planted there. So far his little matchmaking scheme was a success. His male human was a little eccentric to the point of
being
entertaining, but he had solid qualities. His female had some hang-ups, but no
humans
were untainted in this realm.
The
se two
were perfectly incompatible and that would make
it easier for
Kassern
to
strengthen their weaknesses.

If he could just
get them to answer his call. And then get them to fall in love. He snorted at the second task
-
unfamiliar territory for him. What did he know of human love?
 
Well,
other than
how unpredictable
and flaky
it could be
, zero
. 

A disturbance
on the metaphysical level
caught his attention
and
Kassern tuned his ear to the angel guarding the human named Karly. What was he going on about? He formed a spirit link and gave a rhetorical knock on the angel
'
s armor. The angel immediately let him in
without words,
and
Kassern looked at the girl sitting on the bedside and saw the source of the guard
'
s concern. She held a razor
blade
between trembling
fingers
. She was tired on every level. Ready to make it all go away. Her second
serious
attempt.
No one knew about all the dozens of times she backed out at the thinking or planning stages.

He didn
'
t get it. She believed in Heaven and Hell and she was sure the latter was her deserv
ed
destiny. Why would she hunger for death?

Kassern created a second circuit and connected directly to her, annoyed with the illogic of her need. Annoyed that he didn
'
t know and especially annoyed that her guard didn
'
t allow him access to the information. But then Kassern hadn
'
t asked. Didn
'
t plan on it, either.

Forming a finger with the ruby tendril of power, he began at the source.
H
is power spiked
when he entered her heart
,
reacting to
the evil
clinging
there
and
wound
ing
her soul-deep
. From her subconscious past to her present.

Looking closely,
Kassern
paused. She
'
d not let it change her. She
'
d resisted the evil
'
s persuasion to become like the monsters that hurt her. From her cruel mother and sexually abusive father, to the jerk that hurt her in every way imaginable. The one she called boyfriend.
Their evil covered her
, often hiding the real her
, but it hadn't yet
possessed
her
.
Astounding.
 

Poking around,
Kassern finally beheld the life source of the
demonic
power over her. She saw herself as filthy. Not worthy of Heaven, deserving of Hell.
It had been beaten into her, over and over, throughout her life by the very people who should have protected her.
The emotion was so strong, it drove her to kill herself and give in to th
e
punishment. And though it was a lie, the fact that she believed it with all her scarred heart, made it a power even her guard could not legally expel.

Kassern
'
s anger bristled further
with the
discover
y that
no
one
pray
ed
for her. That alone would give her guard an opening to act
, to at least place a buffer between her and the poison pouring into her from every quarter
.

The human sobbed and placed the blade on her vein. She was ready. No demons hovered near
to
press her on.
They didn't need to.
They had put some of their best work into
her,
s
he was a finished product, operating her own destruction now. All their wicked persistence paid off.
 
 

Strictly speaking, he shouldn't interfere, since she wasn't directly related to his mission
.
The suicide of her best friend
w
o
uld have a
bad
effect on Devyn, though, and might change her to such a degree she would no longer be suitable.
S
av
ing
the girl
may prevent him from losing the world
.

Time to cash in on one of
the
perks that came with wooing his humans. Kassern created a third circuit to
Devyn
and channeled the desperate girl
'
s pain right into to her peaceful mind.
 

Devyn woke with a gasp and flew o
ff the couch
, heading straight to
Karly
'
s room. Kassern broke the connection and the ruby tendrils of power returned to him, syphoning back through his open palm.

He listened to the sobbing girls, satisfied. Deed accomplished. For now.
It would
take more than one call down from the ledge for that one. He
'
d have to make sure his male met her.
Troy's
prayers would buy passage for her
watchman
to work. Speaking of which. Time to go see how his nerdy male was handling the returning demonic, toxic red panties.

Religious little nut.

Chapter Three
 

Troy paced up and down the sides of the bed, contemplating the
Satanic
panties oh so neatly on the pillow and not in the
trash
can.

What
could it
mean?
Maybe his subconscious was behind it and he'd taken the panties from the trash while he slept. But what sort of message
could he be trying to give himself?

Inspired, he hurried to the kitchen and brought back the broom, and used the handle to fish the offending garment up. With the speed of a caterpillar, he walked to the trash, half expecting them to launch onto his face. Why fear such a ridiculous thing? He wasn
'
t sure, but that exact fear threatened to overwhelm him in that moment.

Before he made it to the kitchen doorway, his feet tangled in something
that wasn't there
. His upper body torpedoed to the floor with immense momentum, as if shoved. To his holy horror he landed with his nightmare come true
, f
ace planted in that fabric from the pits of Hell.

He tried to hold his breath too late. Instead he gasped and inhaled the scent. Scrambling to his feet, he induced a series of loud gags. Maybe he could stop the contamination from fully entering and defiling his physical temple. My
God
what had he done?

It was too late. The scent was there. And it
lingered
in his nostrils and no doubt forever in his psyche. He spun left, then right, heart pounding. What to do? How to clean?

Tearing his clothes off as he ran, he jumped in the shower, turning the water to ice cold. Frantic, he let it fill up his nose. He sputtered and choked when some made it into his windpipe. Eyes tearing, he welcomed the burning sensation, spewing out the filthy memory.

T
he light bulb moment hit rather bluntly
and
Troy felt incredibly foolish for not recognizing the real wickedness. The evil wasn't in the scent of those panties. It was everything else about them, what they stood for, what that woman reduced herself to because of that life.

His breathing slowed a bit as he realized even more. What he
'
d smelled was innocence exploited. The most precious thing God had given a woman to give to a man
she loved
.

What he
'
d smelled was--or at least should have been considered--
divine.

That was a tall order for his body. He shuddered at the idea of considering that scent in a divine light. Another light bulb moment hit him. He shut off the water, contemplating it, not happy. Ashamed. He
'
d become tainted by the sin. And had forgotten the truth. Like the stigma of a black cat.