Redemption (32 page)

He took a deep breath. She made the pain vanish, made him forget. When Mara was around, nothing else seemed to exist. What had he felt since meeting her? He hadn’t felt much of anything, which was pretty darn apathetic. Bryan swore. He’d been sleeping with a freaking demon.

Yeah. That sounded like something only he would do. He swore again.

“What did she do to me?” Bryan asked, the anger he felt saturating his words.

“She’s been at this for longer than you can comprehend, Bryan. She has methods - the lotus powder, the charmed stone. She does whatever it takes. Thank the Maker you took that necklace of hers off!” Bastion said.

Bryan lifted the stone around his neck. “Cassidy asked me to wear this; it’s the only reason I took the other one off. And speaking of stones, what’s with the weird vibrating action going on ever since you arrived?”

Bastion showed him the stone he wore around his neck. “Your Sardonyx is responding to mine.”

“Listen, Bry,” Miranda said. “I know that this is a lot for you to comprehend right now. The most important thing is to stay away from Mara. Bastion, you’ll be keeping her from him, right?”

“Yes, as much as I can,” he answered her. “Unfortunately, Mara has a tremendous stronghold in him. Six months of her will do that. To be honest, it’s incredible that he’s as
whole
as he appears. Most mortal men would be in much worse shape.” Bastion studied him. “Though I suppose Cassidy is to thank for that. When he arrived -”

Bryan cut him off. “Sitting right here. And how would Cass be able to do anything? She’s a person, not an angel.” The entire group was silent. “Right?” he asked. He thought back to the many times he’d told himself that she was something more than human.

Leave it to him to go from sleeping with a demon to falling in love with an angel.

“Cassidy is fully human,” Luscid replied. “She embodies the peace of God, and her peace has helped you.”

He breathed out in relief. “Okay, because you scared me for a minute there. I’m all about the human women.”

Miranda smirked and Derek chuckled quietly.

“You know what I meant,” Bryan said, smirking back. “So, what happened to Cass earlier today?”

“That was Rhys,” Bastion explained. “Your friends here are right. They want you, and she is a threat.”

Bryan narrowed his eyes at the angels. “So, if you’re supposed to keep her safe, keep me safe, where were you? How was this Rhys guy able to get close to her?”

“We’re not omnipresent or omniscient or omni-anything,” Bastion explained. “And sometimes, they get there before we do.”

“I am going to make sure Rhys pays for his actions,” Luscid said, his eyes glowing. “You can be sure of that.”

Glowing eyes. Freaky.

“Good. Good to know,” Bryan replied. “One more thing. What’s so important about me that these demons are so eager to get me?”

“That’s simple,” Bastion smiled. “You’re the Breastplate.”

“B
reast. Plate?” Bryan asked, smirking. “Am I supposed to know what that means, or should I just run with it?”

Bastion laughed. “It means that you’re part of their Circle.” He indicated Miranda and Derek with a nod. “As are Carrie, Nick, even Cassidy. And you are the guardian of their emotions, of their hearts.”

Now it was Bryan’s turn to laugh. “Guardian of their emotions? Their hearts? Have you been paying attention to my life, man? I can’t guard my own, much less do anything to help
them
.”

“If you weren’t the Breastplate, Lucifer wouldn’t have sent Mara for you,” Luscid explained. “He missed his chance with Miranda. He had to get to you before the Circle could, and after the way you left last summer.” He shrugged one shoulder. “You gave him the perfect opening.”

Bryan scowled. “Yeah, well, sometimes staying is too hard. Sometimes all that’s left to do is leave.”

Miranda lowered her head, and Derek took a deep breath. It didn’t matter to Bryan if they understood or not, if they agreed or not. They got their happy ending; he didn’t. Not yet, anyway. Maybe, just maybe, he’d found it in Cassidy; and nothing human, angel, or demon was going to take that away from him.

“And sometimes you need to stand and fight. Tell me how we’re going to stop them,” he continued, his voice firm, his jaw clenched, muscles flexing.

Bastion’s blue eyes shimmered, and he smiled. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

 

An hour later, Bryan let the door to Starbucks close behind him and with it a part of his past. He felt more confident after talking to Bastion. Though he was still trying to process the entire concept of angels, demons, and some role he played in all of this, he didn’t feel as confused as he might have only last week. He had to admit that deep inside, he knew that God was there; he just hadn’t ever done anything about knowing. He pulled his keys out of his pocket and approached the Jeep. Maybe it was time to change that. If God gave him an angel to help him, if He cared enough to get involved in Bryan’s life, if He sent him someone like Cassidy, well, maybe he should start to figure out who God might be to him. Figure out where God fit in his life. Cassidy would help. She had a faith that he still couldn’t understand, but the peace it gave her was something Bryan knew he desperately wanted.

Desperately needed.

And this might be his last chance to do anything about it.

Bryan pressed the button on the key fob and climbed into the Jeep. He sat back and relaxed into the driver’s seat. When he got back to the room he’d call Cassidy and ask her to explain this whole “faith thing” to him. He’s also tell her about what happened at Starbucks.

And then he’d wait to see if she hung up on him.

There was always the possibility that he’d prove to be more work, more effort, more trouble than she cared to deal with. He couldn’t dismiss that. Ignoring his reality had done only led him to a place of vulnerability. It led him to Mara.

Bryan swore and punched the steering wheel. A demon. He’d spent six months having sex with a demon. What kind of person does that? Now that he was being honest with himself, now that his head felt clear, there had been times when he wondered if she had some power over him. Times when things didn’t feel quite right
.
But then she’d made those feelings vanish, and he hadn’t wanted to
feel,
anyway, so he kept ignoring the warning signs. Maybe that unease had been Bastion trying to break through. Maybe it had been God. Maybe Bryan himself. Whoever it had been, he’d never listened, and now he’d dug himself a deep hole filled with all the things that go bump in the night.

Cliches. Damn you, Nick
.

Worse than all of that was the fear he could sense building in him.

How would Cassidy ever be able to look at him, much less touch him, after hearing any of this?

“Hello, Lover.”

Bryan’s head jerked in the direction of the voice. “Mara?”

“I think it’s time we had a little talk.” She leaned forward and placed a kiss on his lips. “If you thought I was letting you go, you were sorely mistaken.”

 

Cassidy looked at the clock. So Bryan hadn’t called...she wasn’t going to read into it. He was probably just tired or eating or taking a nap or something. She certainly hadn’t been able to get much rest. The image of the man from the lake hovered before her every time she closed her eyes. She rubbed her head gingerly, set her book aside, and pushed herself up from the chair. It was time for another painkiller.

She limped toward the bathroom and ran through the incident one more time. She wanted answers, and there was only one place to find them.

“Lu, I know you’re there. I need to talk to you. Now,” she said to the empty room.

Cassidy waited a few seconds.

“Now doesn’t mean ‘make me wait’, Lu.”

The room remained silent. She remained alone.

Luscid never ignored a call from her, not one time in her entire life. Cassidy bit her bottom lip. This was bad.

 

“Mara, you need to go. There is nothing I want from something like you,” Bryan said, reaching for the handle and backing away from her.

She narrowed her eyes, and they began to glow red. She held her hand up and twisted it into a fist. Bryan was unable to move, held motionless by invisible bars of steel, barely able to breathe. Somehow she was crushing his chest, and the more tightly she clenched her fingers together, the harder it became for him to get any air.

“You have wanted a great deal from some
thing
like me over the past months, Bryan Roemer. You are mine. I
own
you,” Mara said through clenched teeth.

She touched the ignition and the motor roared to life. Mara blew some kind of powder into his face, and with one flick of her fingers, his hands were freed from their invisible handcuffs and on the steering wheel.

“Mara,” he gasped, still struggling for air. “Stop.”

“Take me to your room, Love,” she began. “We’ll talk privately.”

Bryan had lost all control over his body. Whatever Mara was doing, whatever power she possessed, moved his limbs like he was a puppet.

I’ve been her puppet for a long time,
he thought.

The ride to the hotel took only minutes. Mara stopped outside the door to the room, seemingly unable to step forward.

“Move the stones he’s placed at the entry,” she demanded. “You’ll see them near the door.”

Bryan obeyed, his movements robotic.

All he could control were his thoughts, and Bryan knew even that was temporary. In a short while, whether Cassidy wanted him or not wasn’t going to matter anymore. He could already feel it; Mara was stealing her a bit at a time. He focused on Cassidy, trying to commit everything about her to memory, fearing that he’d fail, that Mara would wipe her completely from his mind.

“Stop fighting me,” Mara growled at him. “You can’t win, anyway.”

She stood in front of him and placed one hand on either side of his face. The power of her powder still kept Bryan from moving. Mara tilted her head to the side and studied him with the eyes of something inhuman. She traced the outline of his jaw with one finger, her eyebrows pinched together as if confused.

“I don’t understand why you’re so difficult for me to destroy,” she said dreamily. “You’re not one of us. There’s nothing you can give me that I can’t take on my own.” Mara drew in a slow, deep breath before leaning her forehead against his. When she resumed speaking, she was talking more to herself than to Bryan. “Nevertheless, I will keep you. Lucifer wants you, I know that; but I can work alongside you, help you accomplish his tasks. We can be together. For now, I have to keep them away.”

Mara kissed his lips gently and slowly turned to walk across the room, confident in her power and plan. Bryan narrowed his eyes in fury. Together with Mara was never going to happen. He had to hold tight to Cassidy, to whatever he felt for her, to whatever he could remember of her.

Her eyes, they were...brown? No, that wasn’t right...they were blue? Green? The muscles in his jaw flexed. He had to remember.