Kassern (Archangels Creed) (30 page)

"Okay men,"
Uriel
boomed, drawing
Kassern
back to business.
Back to his extremely pissed off commander.
"
Kassern
,
why?
Why did you not
clear something
of such
a magnitude
with me
? Do you
realize
what this means?”

Kassern merely stared at the onyx before him, waiting for it.
Waiting to hear wh
at
it
meant, what sort of punishment he’d face, or demotion.

“Now that you’ve bound her to yourself, she is part of the triumvirate whether she wants to be or not, whether she should be or not, whether she
can
be or not.”
Uriel
blasted the last with a fist to the table.

Kassern couldn’t hide his shock. It was not one of the possibilities he’d considered in discipline. To have Karly at his side as his…as his
wife?

Holy Universes. But then that would mean having her in this war. 

Silence reigned for several moments and
Kassern
looked up to find his commander glaring at him. “
Do
you realize what that means, Kassern!” he
repeated.

Damn. Kassern hated being clueless on every hand, but no, he didn’t know what the hell it meant, but judging by the unusual display of fury from his commander, it was really bad.

“It means you’ve screwed up the balance in the circle we’re creating. A triumvirate, Kassern, is three, not four.” The commander didn’t hide the
moron
in his baritone. “And I’m not sure what your little addition will do to the remaining triumvirates!”

Ohhhhh
shit.

Uriel
leapt up from the table, emerald wings erupting with his elite pissed-off-ness, the swords on his primary
feathers
s
h
ink-
ing
with the urge to rid the worlds of evil.

“So what does this mean?”
Arith
’s
pearl wings
erupted at the commander’s
annoyance
.

“Better not mean what I think it means,”
Vecktor
muttered.

Uriel
actually growled. That was new. “It damn well does mean that.” He stormed back to the table. “The circle must be
perfect,
it cannot be
frankensteined
without creating serious unknowns that we cannot afford.”

The eruption of angelic anger was nearly deafening. Okay, maybe rage.

The yellow topaz
Meron
was the first to let him have it. “How in God’s holy name does our best warrior manage to screw this minor task up?”

Kassern stood, his own anger flaring. “Minor? I had one month to get the right couple together, so that alone demolishes your
minor
.”

“A preacher and a whore?”
Lyight
’s
diamond eyes flashed with his
sarcas
m
.

“Yes,”
Kassern
grated out
, “we were to select one in need of redemption for maximum power, which by the way, I did not remember.”
Kassern
turned to
Uriel
. “My angelic powers were all over the damn place, memory shot to hell,
abilities
skewed, and guess what,
the
female was attached to people that I couldn’t just
rip
her from.”

“Ah, yes, the whore’s best friend. Two whores with one stone, nice,” Salem said.

Kassern launched across the table and blasted the bastard into the wall, pummeling with all he had.

“Enough!”
Uriel’s
command
came with ass-busting power and plastered
them both on their
backs
.

Kassern shook his head and
jumped up
, pointing a finger at Salem. “Her name is
Karly
. Call her anything else and I will kick your
puke green
ass across all
S
even
U
niverses, you have
no
clue what she’s been through.” Kassern couldn’t keep the roar out of the final words.

S
ilence fell in the chamber
and
Kassern
turn
ed to
find astonished gazes trained on him. Like he was a freak and they couldn’t believe they would have to become one too.

Kassern reluctantly took his seat again. “Ask your questions,
Uriel
.”

“Did you use influence on the human you joined with?”

“Not intentionally, no.”

“Not intentionally.” He wasn’t happy with that answer.

“I told you my powers were out of my control. I think she got attached to me when I rescued her from torture and certain death. It was only hours after I’d formed the triumvirate and I was weak and my
abilities
were scattered.”

“Scattered?”
Gry
the
asked.

“Yes, my humans picked up some of my abilities and I suffered with some of theirs.”

“Suffered how,”
Uriel
demanded.

“Hunger, headaches, anger—”

“Lust.”

Kassern bristled at Zool. “Not lust.”

He quirked a brow.

“Love.” Kassern’s voice lowered.

More silence.

“Eros?”
Lyight
finally asked.

Kassern didn’t have to think about it. “Most definitely. Which…as we all know, comes with passions of every
kind.
”

Utter quiet
reigned again before
Uriel
spoke. “I just need to make damn sure you didn’t break any rules that the enemy can use against us. And since you know the rules, did you break any of them knowingly and willingly?”

Kassern
sighed, thinking. “Not that I can think
of
, no.” 

Uriel
rolled his eyes, again not happy with anything but exacts. “What of the enemy? What are we up against exactly
?
”

Kassern gave a dry laugh. “The equivalent of a spiritual dirty bomb? Those things I encountered just before coming here were a breed of their own kind. They’re intelligent, cruel, crave human flesh, strong, and worst of all, they adapt.”

“Adapt how.
”
Uriel
crossed his arms
.

“I’m not a
ltogether sure but during recon, I learned
they
were
connected. All of them, down to their demonic capillaries.”

“Connected?”
Meron
wondered.

“We hacked
thousand
s
of those things, and their parts remained with instinct, continuing with whatever directive the entire
pack
of them had.”

“Disgusting.
”
Arith
raked a hand through purple hair
.

“That’s not all,” Kassern said. “There are other creatures. Soceris has been busier than we thought. Seems he’s offering some of this harvested power to humans who choose.”

“And what of those?”
The mercury warrior,
Toran
,
join
ed
in
at last
.

Kassern recalled that one
creature
. “It’s hard to know the extent of those as well. I encountered one who seemed to possess the
skill
an Over Lord. But then my own powers were all over the place, so, it’s hard to be certain. Suffice it to say, if I had been attacked by more than one at a time, in that condition, it wouldn’t have been
sweet
.”

“Then it’s settled,”
Uriel
muttered.

Kassern turned to him and the commander met his gaze. “I wanted only one triumvirate operating at a time, to keep a low power profile, but with this information, I’ll need you to stick together until we know more. That means
your
…” he twirled his fingers as he searched for the correct term, “
quadumvirate
…will need to protect
the next
until the transition
takes
.”

Kassern snorted. “Do I need to remind you of the chameleon characteristics of these unions? Unpredictable is an understatement.”

“Yes. I don’t mean closely involved, just close enough to guard. If memories are affected, it puts us blind. We can’t risk that.”

He was right. Not knowing things was worse than no power. “Agreed.”

“Not to mention, I’ll need eyes and ears from here on out. I don’t want any more surprises.”

“Who is the next warrior?” Kassern asked.

Uriel
took a deep breath then released it. “Any volunteers?”

Kassern watched the warriors in his peripheral
vision
, wanting to snort at how eager they all weren’t.

“I’ll go.”

Dorn
.
Kassern resisted a smile at the angel’s cocky tone. Like he’d be the one to show everybody how it was done.

Kassern gave in to his grin. This was going to be a
load
of damn fun; watching Mr. Uptight Perfectionist
inherit
humanity, along with all the amazing benefits therein.
And the woman he chooses...
holy
Father, he couldn’t wait to see her reaction. They didn’t come any more beautiful than Dor
n
; jet black shoulder length hair and intense
aquamarine
eyes.
As long as he kept his mouth shut, the angel
could evoke an orgasm with
his
appearance
alone
.

It all reminded him of one remarkable thing.

Karly. His
wife.

The End

If you enjoyed “
Kassern
” the first book in the Archangels Creed series, be sure and look for the second, “Summon Dorn” coming in February, 2013.

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