Mercy for the Fallen (34 page)

I let out a long breath.  “I think your definition of simple varies from mine.”  If anything, it complicated matters.  

“There’s nothing to stop us from being together now.  Do you realize how rare a thing that is?”

“But what if…”  His lips descended over mine again, effectively shushing me.  I didn’t have the strength to fight him any more, and once I acknowledged that fact, I found I didn’t want to.     

“It doesn’t matter,” Adam said, his hands settling to rest on my hips.  “Nothing matters as long as we have this.” 

“I do love you, you know.  That wasn’t ever my objection.”  I felt it needed saying again, but he was less interested in words, his lips brushing across the top of my cheek, and down to nibble at the underside of my jaw. 

“Nope.  Not gonna hash over it again.  Less talking, more kissing.”  Adam walked me backwards, skillfully avoiding the debris left over from Hurricane Evie.  “I’ve waited so long for this,” he murmured, his breath fanning across my skin. 

“Me too.”

“I waited longer.”

“Fine, you win, you big baby,” I smiled against his lips.  “What do you want, a medal?”

“I’ll show you what I want.”  His hands roamed lower, sliding under the back of my shirt to reach bare skin.  But the teasing touch stilled, the flat of his hand pressing against my lower back and then up a smidge higher. 

“Did you forget what comes next?” I teased.

“You’re really hot.”

“Thanks, so are you.”

“No, I mean you feel like you’re burning up,” he frowned, withdrawing his hands to feel my cheek, my wrist, my belly.

“I’m pretty sure you’re to blame for that.” 

“Are you sure you’re okay?”  His head canted to one side as he studied me, and I reached up to bring his lips back into range.

“Do you want to stop and give me an examination?”

“I did go to medical school for a while,” he grinned.

“You did?  What for?  You can heal anything without breaking a sweat.”

“Nurses.”

“Less talking, more kissing,” I frowned, not wanting to go there. 

“Maybe I should give you some more Grace.” 

“No!” I said, stronger than I’d intended to.  “You remember what happened last time.  I’ll be fine.  Do you want to do this or not?”

“Well, when you put it that way…”  A roll of the eyes was given. 

“I’m sorry,” I laughed softly, leaning against the doorway to the living room.  “No, I don’t feel all that great, but it’s not a big deal, I promise you.  How about you go ahead upstairs and I’ll be up in a minute?”

“Why?”

“I want to check on Evie,” I admitted.

“She’s fine, Mercy.” 

“I know, but I’ll feel better once I know that for sure.”

Adam let out a long sigh.  “Fine, then how about I’ll go check to make sure she’s fine, which I know she is.  You go get into bed and I’ll come and check you out.”  He waggled his eyebrows at me, a big cheesy grin on his face. 

“Sounds like a good plan to me. I’ll see you up there.”

“Not so fast… I need something to tide me over.”  Adam caught me up in another bone melting kiss, reminding me what I’d been missing out on for so long.  I didn’t even notice that he’d brought me up the stairs by the time it was finished, I was so caught up in the overwhelming sense of him.  “Don’t get too undressed without me, I like to have something to unwrap,” he grinned, leaving me by the door to my bedroom. 

Almost from the moment he let go of me, my fatigue returned with a vengeance.  It was like I could barely hold myself up without him there to shore me up.  I stumbled into the bedroom, feeling dizzy all of a sudden.  He’d said I felt hot?  A rush of warmth flashed over my skin, drawing a fine sheet of sweat to my face, my neck, even the backs of my hands felt hot and clammy. 

“Adam?” I called out softly, struggling to get my shirt up and over my head as it became unbearable.

This was not normal. 

I felt feverish and shaky, collapsing back on the bed with the shirt still clinging to one arm.   It was hard to tell how long it took for Adam to make an appearance, the pressure on the bed beside me barely roused me from the light sleep I’d fallen into. 

“Hey, sleepyhead,” he teased, pressing a kiss to my shoulder.  “Why don’t you get some rest, we can pick this up in the morning.” 

“Adam?  Is that you?”  I couldn’t tell, his voice sounded weird, far away.

“Who else would it be?”

“Something’s wrong…” I murmured, the world spinning away as I edged closer to darkness. 

“Mercy?”  Adam took hold of my shoulders, jostling me away from the abyss.  “Hey, can you hear me?”

I did feel better once he had a hold of me, my eyes fluttering open.  “Whoa, I guess I got a little woozy there for a moment.”

“Jesus, that was more than a little woozy.  What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know, I felt all weak and swoony there for a minute, but I’m doing better now that you’re here.”

“That’s what I like to hear,” he replied, but I could still see the worry behind his eyes.

I felt drawn to him, even more than usual, my body craved contact with his.  The more I touched him, the better I felt, and from the sounds he made, he felt it too.  I had his shirt off, his chest pressed to mine, my fingers fumbling with his jeans in no time.

“Are you sure we should be doing this?” Adam’s hands closed over mine.  “Maybe you should take it easy.  We’ve already waited this long, what’s one more night?”  That patch of insight was followed by a groan of disgust.  “Christ, you’ve turned me into a woman.”

That left the role of the man to me.  “Shut up and kiss me,” I growled, pressing my lips to his.  His objections forgotten, Adam returned my kiss with a hungry passion, his Grace flaring as it reached out to mine.  Only my Grace was a bare flicker compared to his, and my body craved more. 

The next thing I knew, I felt his Grace surge into me, filling me with healing light.  I wanted to object, to tell him to stop, but it felt too good after feeling so crummy for so long. 

Adam suddenly broke the kiss, pulling away, his eyes wide.  “How did you do that?”

“Do what?”  I felt the best I had in over a week, like a normal person again.

“Steal my Grace like that.”

“What?” I blinked at the accusation.  “I thought you gave it to me.” 

“You told me not to.”

“Maybe you gave it to me without realizing.  I didn’t do anything to your Grace, all I did was kiss you.”  I would know it if I was stealing Grace, wouldn’t I?

Adam didn’t shake it off so easily.  “No one can do that.  Grace can only be given.” 

“See, then it was probably you.  Just be more careful next time.”  I kissed him again.  Adam’s response was hesitant, but soon he forgot to worry and the urge to get skin to skin took over.  Feeling stronger, I was far too distracted by what his hands and lips were doing to worry about the Grace until it started flowing into me again.  This time I could feel it was me doing it, drawing it out of him with my kiss, as if I was stealing his breath. 

“Mercy, stop,” he said against my lips. 

I wanted to, but my body had other ideas.  The more Grace I took, the stronger I got, and the easier it was to hold him still.  On one level I could understand what I was doing was wrong, but the power could not be denied.  It filled me with light, filled me to bursting and I felt whole and strong for the first time in weeks.  I felt amazing.  I felt like I could do anything. 

I felt like I was being ripped in two as the mark over my heart blazed and it was all sucked away in a long exhalation that felt like it dragged away part of my soul with it.  I must have blacked out because the next thing I knew Adam was hunched over me, begging me to wake up. 

“I think I’m going to…” was all I got out before I rolled over and was noisily sick all over the bedroom floor. 

“Jesus, Mercy… what happened?  One moment we’re kissing and the next you’re practically raping me and then it was like you died. I couldn’t get through to you at all.  What the hell is going on?”

“I’m sorry,” I cried weakly, tears leaking from the corners of my eyes.  “I don’t know what happened.  It was like my body needed your Grace so it took it.  But then I couldn’t stop and Dahlia…”

“She sucked it away again,” Adam said sourly, sitting back on his heels.  “We can’t keep doing this.” 

“I know, I won’t do it again, I promise.”  While I was left in better shape than I had been before I’d stolen his Grace, the whole experience of Dahlia feeding soured me on the idea.  It was far too painful, not to mention wholly unfair to Adam.  “Are you alright?”

“You’re not getting it.  I’d give you my Grace in a heartbeat. I’m talking about you keeping things from me.  Why didn’t you tell me how bad off you were?”

“Oh, I didn’t want you to worry.”

“And you thought this was a better solution?”  His brows lifted skyward.

“I didn’t know this would happen.  But now I know what to look for.  I’ll just keep my Grace from yours when I’m like this, and maybe you can give me a tiny taste to keep me going.”

“This is not a way to live.”  Adam rolled off the bed, tossing a towel over the mess on the floor. 

“Leave it, I’ll clean that up later.”

He ignored me, mopping up the mess.  “Mercy, we have to find another solution.  You can’t keep letting Dahlia feed from you and I have to know that I won’t get my Grace sucked out every time I kiss you.”

“There is nothing else.”  I sat in silence while he wrapped the towel in another towel and crammed it down the laundry chute.  Man, I hoped that didn’t get jammed somewhere inside the wall.

“Maybe we need to talk to Oriana again?” he said when he was done cleaning up.  “There has to be a way to hide Eve’s Grace without this constant drain.  Maybe if we can get a bunch of witches together, or I could call some of my brothers.  If we pooled our Grace together so no one person had to shoulder the whole burden, maybe we could make it work.”

I was skeptical he’d find a solution, but I recognized his need to try.  “Okay, go talk to her.  Maybe she’ll have some new ideas once she knows how Dahlia went about the binding spell.”

Adam sat back down on the bed beside me to pull his discarded clothes back on.  I watched, resisting the urge to reach out and touch him.  “Are you sure you’ll be okay here?”

“We’ll be fine, I have Nelo and no one knows we’re here.  Not even Sam, right?” 

“Right.”  He let out a long breath.  “This is not how I saw this night ending.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” he smiled, leaning over to kiss my forehead.  “We’ll figure this out, even if it means I have to give you every last drop of Grace I have.”

“That’s not a practical solution.”

“Who’s talking about practical?  I told you before, I’ll do what it takes to keep you safe.”

I wanted to kiss him, but settled for squeezing his hand, it was safer that way.  “Killing yourself in the bargain is not an option.”

“It wouldn’t be my first choice either.  That’s why I’m gonna go talk to your witch-in-law.  I’ll call you when I find anything.”

“You’re leaving now?”

“Yep, I think a brisk flight is just what I need to take the edge off.” 

“Are you really alright?  I didn’t take too much Grace, did I?”

“Nah, I’ll be fine as long as I stay away from trouble for a while.”  His aura did look the same as always to me.  “I wonder though…”

“What’s that?”

“If we could get around the whole Grace sucking thing if you didn’t use your mouth,” he teased, running his fingers down the curve of my bare shoulder.

“I thought you liked it when I use my mouth?” I threw my most sultry pose back at him. 

The hungry look was back in an instant.  “It might be worth it,” he grinned, leaning closer, but I stopped him with a hand to his chest. 

“You’d better get going or we’re going to end up on dangerous ground here.  But hurry back.  If Oriana doesn’t turn up anything, we can always do some experimenting.” 

“You got it,” he grinned, turning to leave. 

“Call me later, okay?”

But it wasn’t Adam whose call woke me shortly after dawn. 

Chapter Thirty-Three

“Mercy?”

“Daphne, is that you?  How did you get this number?”  As far as I knew, the only one who had it was Adam.

“I really need to see you, where are you?”  She sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

“Why, what’s wrong?”

“It’s, um… it’s Sam.  He’s really sick.”

“Oh, honey, I’m so sorry.  What is it?”

“I don’t know, but it’s bad, super bad.  I tried to reach Adam but it went straight to voicemail.  Listen, I really need you right now.  Where are you?”

“I’m not that far, but it’ll take me a while to find someone to stay with Evie.”  While we talked, I threw on a pair of pants, juggling the phone with one hand.  It was too early to pop her into the daycare we’d found, and I was trying to figure out if I had time to find her another temporary sitter or if she’s be okay with Nelo for an hour or so.  A quick peek into her bedroom showed her still sacked out under the covers. 

“We can come to you, where are you at?”

Something about the way she said it made me stop.  “You know I can’t tell you that. But relax, I’ll be there. I promise.”

She made a sound between a yelp and a sob.  “But this is an emergency.  I seriously think he might die.”

“Then it makes more sense for me to come to you.  I can travel a lot faster than you can.”

“Mercy, please. I won’t tell anybody, I swear.  Where are you?”

“What’s going on, Daph?  Why do you want to know so badly?”

“Mercy… he’ll kill me.  He’ll kill us both,” she sobbed.

The breath left my body in a rush.  “What?” I managed to get out. 

“She’s quite right, you know,” a polished voice came onto the line.  “I won’t hesitate to kill her and the unborn child if you don’t give me what I want.”

“Luc…” I stopped myself before saying the rest of his name, knowing it’d give him a bead on where we were.  “If you hurt her, so help me…”

Lucifer cut me off, unimpressed by my threats.  “You said you were close by, so I’ll be generous.  I’ll give you a half hour to bring me the girl or your loved ones will pay the price.”