Of Consuming Fire (20 page)

Jericho and Eli knelt beside Jayden. Eli pulled the sword from Jayden’s chest, and pain shot through his body. Jayden moaned, much to his horror.

But what was worse was how they all kneeled around him, shouting orders and questions and blocking his view of Grace.

He wanted —
needed
— to watch her while he died.

He twisted his head and managed to catch sight of her through a gap between two soldiers. Even more warm blood seeped over his chest, and he could not help thinking it was because the sight of her made his heart beat faster.

With a cry, Grace wrenched herself from Dahlia’s arms and rushed out of the room.

She took all of the light with her. Black edged in on Jayden’s vision, and despair filled his lungs, robbing him of breath. He could not blame her for leaving. He had attacked her. Become her very worst nightmare.

His vision began to fade and he heard an odd rattling sound that he realized was his attempt to breathe. He closed his eyes and hoped it would come quicker.

“Get the
fuck
out of my way!”

Jayden struggled to get his eyes open as shuffling erupted all around him. It took a moment for Jayden to focus, but when he did, he discovered Grace kneeling by his side, a determined look on her face.

She came back
. Joy surged. Jayden focused all of his energy and managed to raise his hand. To touch her cheek.

His fingers left a smear of red upon her skin, and he dropped his hand in horror, never wanting to see blood upon her. “Proud of … you,” he managed to whisper through clattering teeth.
So cold
. His lids grew too heavy. His head sank to the side.

The smell of peaches perfumed the air. A trickle on his chest. Warmth flooding him.

Breath shot into Jayden’s lungs, and his eyes popped open. Inches from his face was Grace’s hand. It cradled a pulverized piece of fruit.

Jayden slowly raised his eyes to hers. They were laden with hope.
Love
.

Thunder boomed, and Jayden’s body contorted in agony as he screamed with all of his strength.

They all fell to their knees and clapped their hands over their ears as otherworldly thunder rolled throughout the room.

Grace wedged her head against her shoulder, trying to cover her ear that way so she could grope the air in front of her with one hand. She needed to find Jayden, to touch him, but her eyes wouldn’t allow her to pry them open so she could see him.

A blast of energy exploded right in front of her, throwing her back several feet. She landed in a pile of twisted arms and legs belonging to the others in the room.

The blast of energy had come from where she’d last seen Jayden.

Now, she was able to force her eyes open. Her sight traveled the distance between her and the angel.

He writhed on the floor in a pool of his own blood. His hands, fingers spread painfully wide, slid through the slick redness, trying in vain to find purchase of some kind. His back was arched, his head thrown back. His mouth was wide open, and his desperate scream rent a hole straight through Grace.

Terror spiked, and Grace forced herself to move, crawling on her knees to where Jayden twisted on the floor. “No!” she shouted, the noise lost in the thunder and his scream.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. She’d given him the fruit. It was supposed to heal him.

Her hands shoved the ripped and tattered fabric of his robe aside as he tossed and turned. Her hands sought out the wound.

It was …
gone
. He
had
healed. It just hadn’t helped.

“Oh, God,” Grace moaned, trying to embrace her angel. Had she caused this? She had to have. It was the only explanation.

Giving the fruit of the Tree of Eternal Life to the angel charged with ensuring it was never defiled? A sob barreled out of her chest.
Why would I
do
that?

“I’m so sorry, angel.” Her sobs distorted her words to the point where she knew he would never hear them, much less understand them over the pain that demanded so much more. She reached for him, trying to ease whatever anguish he was experiencing. She gathered him in her arms and pulled his head and shoulders into her lap.

He buried his face in her stomach and continued to scream, his body shaking with the pain that wracked him. His left hand grabbed her, digging into her back as he pushed his body as deeply as it would go into her lap. All the while, his screams and that thunder rent the air.

“Jayden, Jayden,” she tried to coo through her hysteria. “I’m here. Shhh … ”

She rocked him back and forth, her tears soaking his hair.

Then, suddenly, the thunder vanished. Jayden’s scream cut off. The world fell into a deadly quiet.

Around the room, men and women slowly stood from wherever they had landed after the blast. They looked at one another in the silent, speculating shock that always followed natural disaster.

Grace only had eyes for the angel pressed against her stomach. Tremors shook his entire body, and his gasps and ragged breaths heated her skin.

He was still alive.

Tears still blurred her vision, but Grace forced her hand to move. Her trembling fingers sifted through his hair, gently pushing it away from his face. She needed to see him, to make sure he was still okay.

The angel took one last shuddering breath and slowly pulled back from her middle. He turned his face toward hers. His eyes remained clamped shut.

Unease lurched within her. Grace quickly scanned his body. He still had his wings. They were partially open and gleamed a very ordinary white. They’d lost the pearlescent sheen. Next to them, a soldier picked up a sword, and Grace realized with shock that it was
Jayden’s
sword. The flames were gone.

She moaned. “What have I done to you?” She could never make this right.
Never
. Her fingers sank into his hair as she bowed her head and tried desperately not to break down completely.

His head moved beneath her hand. Her eyes sprang open to find him turning his face into her palm to press a kiss against her skin.

Grace gasped.

His eyelids fluttered open.

His eyes
. That honey green color she loved … the honey was
gone
. He blinked once. Twice. A deep green stare looked up at her.

• • •

Such bliss.

The warmth of her skin. The scent of her. Her arms around him. Her fingers in his hair. The gray, stormy eyes he would spend the rest of his existence losing himself in.

The One. She is yours.

Jayden allowed his eyes to close briefly.
Oh, I know
. Absolute rightness settled down through his body, and his arms tightened around Grace’s middle.

She stiffened within his hold and took a ragged breath. “Angel?” she asked tentatively.

He opened his eyes again and looked up into the face of the woman he loved. For the first time, he noticed the tear tracks down her cheeks, the dark hue in her eyes.

He frowned. “Grace?”

Her face crumbled before his eyes. Sobs burst from her so hard, her body lurched with them.

“Grace!” Jayden shifted as quickly as possible. Sitting up and reversing their positions, he pulled his woman into his lap.

She pressed her face against his throat; her tears coursed down his neck. “A-are you s-still an angel?”

Understanding.

She wept for him. For what she supposed he
lost
.

He had not thought it possible to love her more. With a finger beneath her chin, he directed her to look at him. The devastation in her eyes hurt him so badly he vowed he would never see such a thing in their gray depths again.

“
Are you
?” she whispered desperately.

He shook his head gently. “I am Fallen.”

He felt the dread course through Grace, and he sent up a silent prayer of thanks that he had not lost the ability to read her thoughts. He loved his Grace’s mind.

Before her dread could fully blossom, Jayden cupped her cheek and pressed a chaste kiss against her lips. “And I am so glad I am,” he whispered.

He could sense her doubt, but before he could say anything to assuage it, a litany of words spilled from her lips.

“I am so sorry — if I knew the fruit would — how can you even
touch
me — I am so sorry.
So sorry
.”

His chuckle startled her to silence. She pulled back further to stare at him with a mixture of disbelief and insulted female pride.

Jayden’s grin widened. “Grace, I was going to Fall anyway, love.” Treasured memories of sleeping within her arms flooded him with warmth.
Oh, yes
. He had been at the perch of his Fall.

She sucked in a breath. “What?”

He trailed a finger down her adorable upturned nose and its smattering of freckles. “I could not be with you and remain an angel. I had already chosen you. It was only a matter of timing. And now it is out of the way. We can begin our lives together.” As her relief reached him, his smile widened even more.

And then, Grace burst into loud sobs.

Jayden tightened his arms. “Grace!” He noticed they had an audience and quickly snapped his wings around them. “Grace, speak to me.” She was relieved, and yet she cried. What was he to do to make it better?

She looked up at him through watery eyes. “I l-love you,” she hiccupped.

“And that makes you
weep
?” he asked in horror.

Her sobs grew louder.

A burst of masculine laughter sounded over Jayden’s left shoulder, and he turned his head to find Eli and Jericho looking upon them with mirth. Jericho clapped a hand on Jayden’s shoulder. “Welcome to our world, man,” the blond giant said. “Welcome to our world.”

Eli chuckled. “Women do that. It’s okay.”

Jayden felt his body clench. “You can see us?” He rippled his wings to ensure himself that he had, indeed, enclosed Grace within them. And yet, the two men looked upon him and spoke to him.

The two men stopped laughing, and Jayden knew the look upon his face was grave, for his heart was so heavy he nearly joined his woman in her tears.

I can no longer make her disappear
.

Of all of the things he could have lost in his Fall —

Her greatest wish, and I have failed her.

He felt her cool fingers on his cheek, closed his eyes, and braced himself for what he must tell her.

But when he turned his eyes upon her, she was gifting him with a wobbly smile. Jayden’s words stalled in his throat as she trailed her fingertips across his lips.

“I’m going to tell Abi and Dahlia on you two,” she said to Jericho and Eli while not taking her eyes from Jayden’s. “‘
Women do that.’
” She snorted. “They’ll kick your hineys.”

Jayden stared mutely at her as her eyes brightened and her tears dried. He quickly scanned her thoughts. She
knew
his wings no longer hid her. She did not care.

I do not take what you need.

The deep resonant Voice rippled through Jayden’s mind, causing him to gasp.

Jayden tentatively sent out a return thought:
Most High?

I am here, son.

Now tears choked
Jayden’s
throat. He snatched Grace even tighter, burying his face in the place between her neck and shoulder as emotion shuddered through him.

And with the love of the Most High echoing in his head, and the love of his woman warming his heart, Jayden knew that allowing himself to love had been the least weak thing he had ever done.

One Month Later

Jayden stared at the beginnings of spring out of the window of his office — he could still not believe he had one. The humans had quickly embraced him as one of their own, a demonstration of the love and charity he did not deserve, but vastly appreciated.

His office was right next door to Eli’s. They had not given him a job description, really. He assumed he was the equivalent to “hired muscle.” But this day, he might begin to earn his keep.

An uneasy feeling settled into Jayden’s chest. Something in Heaven had shifted. While he had lost the invisibility of his wings, the rest of his powers had remained, and with it, an undeniable connection to the heavenly realm.

Something had happened. Someone had been given Jayden’s job. He was sure of it. And if he could sense him or her, he could warn the others and help them prepare.

The Most High spoke to him:
Their mission does not come from me. An innocent is being used as a pawn.

Through the happiness communion with the Most High always brought, Jayden nevertheless felt a pang of worry. He knew who the innocent was.

Anahita.

She was not headed toward them, however. Thankfulness that Jayden would not have to fight a dear friend filtered through him.

Jayden turned toward the door, ready to stride into Eli’s office and share the news, but he stopped in his tracks.

His wife stood at the door. She was wearing that soft expression — a tantalizing mix of love and lust — that she always wore when she had been looking at him without his knowledge.

His heart lurched in his chest. Oh, how he loved this woman. “Wife,” he whispered, beckoning her forward.

She came willingly into his arms and immediately raised her face for a kiss. He was more than happy to oblige. The kiss quickly launched out of control, as their kisses always did, and Jayden had to pull away to catch his breath. “What shall it be this time, love,” he asked her with a smile. “Hard or soft?”

She tapped her chin for a moment and then answered with a sparkle in her eye, “How about hard,
then
soft?”

Jayden growled and swept her up into his arms, rushing off to their quarters. He could tell Eli about Anahita in an hour. Or two.

When she’s not writing or teaching, Micah Persell spends time with her husband and menagerie of pets in her Southern California home.
Of Consuming Fire
is her fourth novel; she has also published
Of Eternal Life
(Operation: Middle of the Garden #1),
Of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
(Operation: Middle of the Garden #2), and
Emma: The Wild and Wanton Edition
. Learn more about her at
www.micahpersell.com
, or visit her on
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