Summon Dorn (Archangels Creed) (17 page)

He finally broke away and cool air rushed in, leaving her gasping and feeling like a fish floundering out of water. "Wow," she whispered, amazed.

He turned the car off and pulled the keys out of the ignition, angling a grin at her. A grin that said he knew
just how good it was.  And that there was much more that he couldn't wait to do.

****

Lucian was without words. No, not true, he had plenty of words. But the words on his tongue were meant to be whispered in her ear while he drove her crazy with pleasure. He couldn't remember ever wanting anything with a woman so much. But the innocence in Jessie's passion was peeling away the covering over his hard exterior. The one that prevented him from being a whole man. But if he didn't control himself, he'd be too much man all at once, all over her. Although, something told him she would easily be able to handle it.

Oddly enough, the details of their coupling concerned him far more than the fate of the world.
"You ready to meet the other poor humans in this mess?"

She nodded then did that thing that was fast driving him crazy with desire. She bit her lower lip, sinking those small white teeth gently into the plump fullness. He wanted to take over doing it for her every time. Had the blue angel put some kind of hex on him? Some kind of lust insanity? Surely that would be cheating.

Before Lucian could knock on the door, the red angel opened it. "Lucian. Jessie, glad you came."

He reached for Jessie
's hand and led the way in. They came to a stop just before the first double bed, nodding at the couple he'd assumed they were to be meeting.

"
This is Troy and his wife Devyn," he welcomed another petite girl under his arm, "and my wife, Karly."

Wife?

"By the look on your face," the girl named Devyn said, "we'd better get busy explaining what's going on." She glanced back at the man next to her. "You want to or you want me to?"

"
No, you can."

"
You guys can have a seat on the bed." This from the small blonde haired girl with sky blue eyes tucked under the giant angel's arm. She slipped from his hold and walked off while they sat on the edge of the other bed. The sprite girl returned with two soft drinks and they both mumbled their thanks. The angel had taken a seat in one of the chairs at the small table, looking quite comfortable in his own skin, one foot under the chair, the other leg stretched out before him. Lucian tried not to watch as the girl climbed into the angel's lap, but couldn't turn away from the display of affection he gave this girl, leaning in to stroke her shoulder with his mouth, brows drawn in an agonizing savor. How odd. An angel with a human. Surely that couldn't be good.

The Devyn girl gave a light clearing of the throat.
"So yeah, I'm guessing you're pretty freaked out right now." Lucian and Jessie turned a little to face her. "But we're here to assure you that the sooner you get this over with, the better. And trust me, I know it's totally screwed up to have an angel pop into your life and tell you that you need to…to…"

"
Make love," her husband offered in a near whisper.

"
Well, I wouldn't exactly call it making love since they're practically strangers."

"
I'm just trying to find the least offensive way to present it,"

"
Welllll I just think sugarcoating isn't the best thing in this." Her words matched his careful low tone.

"
It's not sugarcoating, it's simply choosing a less crude term for—"

"
Screwing is not crude Troy, fucking is crude. And making love requires people to know one another, be bound emotionally is all I'm saying."

"
Oh for heaven's sakes," the red angel muttered. "Making love, screwing, it doesn't matter, can we please continue, they're here to be counseled not sit through a vocabulary lesson."

The girl received the rebuke as well as any street fighter received a punch to the face.
"Why can't you back me up for once instead of taking Troy's side?"

"
Honey," the gentle but guarded word came from Karly. "He's not taking either side. You're fine."

"Just stay out of it, Karly," the offended party snapped.

The
Kassern giant stroked the girl's arm and she seemed to melt back into his embrace, losing the furrow at her brow. "This is the deal again." Kassern's words were uncompromisingly soft with an interrupt and die edge. "There is one power on earth that far surpasses any other we can harvest. And that is the power of a man and woman's union. We need that to create the warriors necessary to defeat the devil who is creating countless beings via human and animal DNA combined with demonic spirits."

The idea of Satan re-inventing the wheel didn
't make a great deal of sense to Lucian. "Why would they bother creating something new? Can't they just take possession of humans?"

Kassern nodded
"Yes, they can, as long as the vessels are willing, even if their cooperation is gained by coercion and manipulation of the human free will. But demons using sinful, selfish humans with free will to organize a take over the world party is a laughable concept."

"
Why don't you guys just destroy all the demons? Surely Archangels could do that?" Jessie's voice remained low, almost timid, and her hand trembled within Lucian's.

Devyn
's husband, Troy spoke up. "Believe it or not, there are actually rules to the whole Good Versus Evil battle." The handsome blond guy leaned on one elbow. "As long as they haven't broken any rules, the archangels can't just fly in and wipe them out. They have to fight them using the same doorway the demons created, and on their battle field, preferably before they get too far."

Jessie
's hand tightened around Lucian's and he realized she was scared. He put his arm around her shoulder and pressed her into his body. "How many of us are there?"

Kassern sighed.
"Right now? All but Dorn and his female are within this room. Eventually, twelve archangels will come, one at a time, and choose a human couple to create a warrior through. I was the first. Dorn is the second."

Lucian frowned.
"I don't get how the… creating the warrior part works."

"
Easy," Kassern said. "The power of your union is a supernatural life force that we can join our power to and create the warrior needed to fight in this realm. We are basically joining in a spiritual sense with the human couple, thereby gaining access to the earthly realm as part human."

"
Like the opposing force," Lucian said.

The angel nodded.
"Correct."

"So what about…her." Lucian didn't know how to ask about the girl in his lap, but she seemed like an odd piece in the puzzle.

"
Karly is human," Devyn said, answering the wrong question. "It seems that when Kassern gained humanity, he gained the desires of the flesh."

Lucian detected an almost mocking tone in her voice and regarded the angel with amazement.

"It was an unexpected variable. None of us had worked with humans in this way before, and while expected to gain some human characteristics, we had no idea of the scope," Kassern said, once again doing that mouth rubbing thing on Karly's shoulder. His tone was nearly reverent and surely without regret.

"
And that unexpected variable upset the power formula being used in binding the twelve archangels' triumvirates." Devyn arched a brow at Kassern as if to ask if she had explained correctly. At his nod of approval, her mouth curved into a satisfied-looking smile.

For people bound into such an important mission, they seemed to have an odd mixture of love and hate going on.

"Triumvirates?" Jessie's voice sounded timid but Lucian admired her courage for asking questions even in such a tense atmosphere.

Troy seemed eager to answer ahead of the others.
"It's the term for our threesome." Maybe his way of trying to keep peace?

"
You mean foursome," Devyn said.

Troy raised his brows.
"Uhhh, yeah."

Lucian sensed a world of trouble and complication in Troy
's tone and regarded the angel. The angel/human now. Clearly, the underestimated complication created by Kassern's unexpected variable must have caused quite a commotion. "So…that changed things, I take it?"

Devyn
's exasperated laugh sounded hollow. "Ohhh yeah, it changed things alright."

"
How?" Lucian asked.

"
For one," Devyn laid back next to Troy, "all the other angels have to do the same." She looked at Kassern, brow raised again. "To keep the power ratio even?"

Kassern gave one nod.

"So each angel will have to…"

"
Take a wife." Devyn's matter-of-fact tone and words seemed far too simple for such a complex issue.

Lucian could hardly believe it.
"And the angels are…are all okay with that? And God, He's—is that lawful?"

Kassern
's dry laugh gave all the answer Lucian needed. "It's lawful because I'm part human now and while I could have chosen not to give in to my…humanity, well…" he smiled a little. "It's not like I could resist her."

Lucian found himself wanting to chuckle at that. He looked over his shoulder and found Troy grinning with Kassern. As absurd as it should sound, an angel unable to resist a woman somehow made perfect sense. And by the beaming look on Karly
's face, she found that to be quite the compliment.

"
As angels," Kassern said, "it was a hard pill for them to swallow. But when they gain their humanity?" He kissed Karly's hand, "They'll see."

The confidence in his words nearly calmed Lucian, until Devyn chuckled.
"Problem is, not only do they have just one month to find their couple and get them on a super-sonic path to falling in love and join their powers together to form their warrior, they now have to find a suitable woman to marry and accomplish all those other things with her, as well." 

Jessie spoke up.
"One month? Why?"

"
That's the time limit when forming
Duodecim Archángelis ligatum et in puritate.
"  Kassern stood so quickly he nearly dumped Karly onto the floor. "Oh shit, they found us."

Chapter Seventeen

Lucian's body tensed and he instinctively pulled Jessie close to him. In the same milli-second, a shimmering ruby trench coat covered Kassern's body, the huge red crucifix on his torso glowed. Troy appeared at his side in a floor-length hooded robe of the purest white, except the blood-red cross on the front and trim along the edges.

"
What's happening?" Lucian's heart leapt as he stood, still holding Jessie against his side. The others ignored him as they made ready for… something. An attack? By whom? Or what?

"
How'd they find us?" Troy whispered from the station he had taken to the left and slightly behind Kassern.

Kassern looked at Jessie.
"Her." His head snapped to Troy. "Here they come." Kassern pointed a seven-foot ruby-looking staff, thin as a toothpick, at him and Jessie and a wall of red fire shot from it.

Lucian gasped
at the sudden liquid bubble surrounding him and Jessie.
It's a shield,
Kassern's voice echoed in Lucian's head and did nothing to alleviate the fear threatening to consume him.

He
clung to Jessie as the angel and three humans braced for battle. Lucian did a double take when he noticed the women. Both were miniature replicas of their husbands. Devyn was Troy's smaller twin; two knights in glowing white robes. A massive ruby cross-bow sat across Troy's back and a glowing ruby shotgun with a leaf-blower-sized barrel hung from Devyn's right forearm as though it were welded on.

Lucian
's panic sucked all the air from the room and sat on his chest like a malevolent Sumo wrestler.

Jessie screamed as t
he entire right wall blasted in. Kassern pointed that stick and a wave of shimmering red air met the blast and exploded the wall in reverse. A noise like an entire ocean being forced through an immense drain clogged with aircraft carriers, filled Lucian's ears.

T
he four of them flashed right into that grinding scream, leaving Lucian and Jessie alone in their little red liquid bubble.

Some property of Kassern
's ruby liquid caused it to waver periodically, allowing Lucian to see the battle somewhat.

What were they fighting?
Black shadows flashed at inhuman speeds, engaging the four of them like bionic human-sized gnats. Troy shot flaming crossbow bolts rapidly in various directions while Devyn fired a spray of red bullets from her massive shotgun.

The angel and his
wife
fought back to back, him with that toothpick and her with some kind of weapon on a red rope. He spun the weapon so fast it left red streaks in the air, while periodically the tip erupted with a wave of red air that sent those black shadows exploding back.