Summon Dorn (Archangels Creed) (21 page)

"
Trouble at what convent?" Jessie asked, turning in her seat next to Lucian.

"
Your sister's." Kassern's tone was slightly guarded.

"
What? How is that…what does she have to do with this?"

There was a deep sigh before a muttered,
"Dorn chose her as his wife."

Jessie sputtered on a gasp.
"His
what?"

"
Every archangel in this mission has to select one," he reminded.

"
Oh. My. God. And he chose
Sally?
"

"
Yes."

Karly said,
"And why is this sounding problematic?"

Jessie choked on another round of gasps before facing forward, speechless. Kassern
's answer seemed a little reluctant. "She's…unique."

Jessie barked a laugh.
"Oh my
God.
"

Lucian couldn
't tell if Jessie was happy or upset with the way she'd said that. His instinct said the latter. "She seems like a good choice to me. I mean, she's a God-fearing woman."

"
Ha!" Jessie nodded incessantly now, confirming Lucian's suspicion. "You keep right on believing that." She gave another few
ha's
before repeating, "God. Fearing. Now that's priceless." She jerked around in her seat then. "What kind of trouble?"

"
Enough to have her removed from it." Kassern almost sounded as if he were hiding worry, but Lucian didn't know him well enough to say for sure.

"
Is she okay?" The concern in Jessie's voice prompted Lucian to take her hand. 

"
She will be now."

"
Ohhh my God." Jessie faced forward once more, dropping her head back then jerking it forward. "Doesn't this junk bucket have headrests?" The annoyed but clearly hypothetical question led to a mumbled monolog about Sally screwing up spectacularly even when it looked like she tried to be good. "I cannot believe this is happening."

Lucian wasn
't sure what she exactly meant by the whole thing so he figured he'd better say nothing. Within the next mile, he managed to distract himself with the horrific memory of his helplessness to defend Jessie back there at the hotel. Had that first creature really wanted Jessie? Needing the answer, he gambled and described the whole pointing and snarling exchange to Kassern. "Did that mean what I thought it did?"

Kassern stayed silent for a moment.
"That actually fits with some other details." He didn't elaborate, and Lucian thought that was probably best. "I think it may have been sent specifically to capture Jessie."

Lucian felt Jessie
's eyes on him. "So I wasn't the only one that had that impression."

He glanced sideways
at her before asking Kassern, "Why would they want to capture her specifically?"

"
Possibly because she isn't fully bound into a triumvirate yet?" Troy contributed.

"
There's probably more to it than that. We'll know more when we meet up with Dorn." Kassern stopped further speculation.

"Which is when?" Devyn asked.

"
He's creating a
tuitio
to ensure we're not followed or tracked."

"
I thought
you
did that?" Devyn said.

"
I do and I am, but we can't be too careful can we? Dorn does things different than I do. By weaving both our techniques, we'll create a wool blanket of a shield that won't let anything through. Not to mention, it's harder to shield while moving and I'm not taking a chance on this happening again."

The car went silent for the next five miles before Kassern said,
"Take a right up here." 

Five minutes on a precipitously winding dirt road finally led them to a stone shack in the woods that looked ready to fall in. Lucian looked around at the dense forest, feeling like he
'd stepped into the pages of a story book. Goldilocks and the three bears? They must still be in the Sierra Nevadas, but, Lucian figured, with his lack of familiarity outside a hundred or so miles from what he considered his home, they could be anywhere.

They all filed into the small house and the first thing Lucian noticed was that the inside looked nothing like the outside. He
'd have sworn it couldn't have more than one decrepit little room. The little kitchen and living area combined were dimly lit, but a short hall led off it.

An eerie blue glow at the edges of the wooden door at the far end illuminated the little hallway, highlighting a lone cobweb.

Kassern eyed it for a moment and started for it. "Stay put."

Lucian turned and pulled Jessie into his embrace, glancing around at the neat little room. A woman
's screech split the air and Lucian dragged Jessie closer as terror stole his oxygen.

"Sally
!" Jessie struggled out of his arms and darted down the hall. Lucian ran after her and managed to grab her arm as she threw open the door. She froze and Lucian jerked Jessie to his chest and hid her face so she wouldn't have to see.

On the narrow bed, fiery blue straps bound a nude woman spread-eagled and writhing. Leaning over her, the Archangel Dorn spoke hushed foreign words and hovered his hand over various parts of her body.    

Kassern snapped a glare to Lucian. "Get her out of here." He flung his hand at the door and it slammed shut.

Lucian pulled Jessie into his body, wrapping his arms around her trembling frame. He murmured nonsense to her and stroked her back while she shook and fought to pull air into her lungs, rocking her gently. A door across the hall stood part-way open to reveal the foot of a bed. He led her inside after locking the door and guided her to the bed and sat with her in his lap.

Still shaking, Jessie clung to him, her nails digging into his neck while her tears scalded his shoulder. 

"
Shhh, she's fine, she'll be fine, the angels have her." Lucian couldn't believe this was all happening. He couldn't believe those things existed, couldn't believe they'd wanted to take Jessie from him, couldn't believe how helpless he was to protect her. He
could
believe they'd be back.

Troy, Devyn and Karly had some pretty damn amazing abilities. Is that what waited for them too? Once they formed their… whatever the angels called it?

Lost in thought and what-ifs, he stroked Jessie's back and arm softly, pulling her closer to him. He wasn't sure when things changed, or why, but Jessie's mouth suddenly scorched his neck.

He concentrated on keeping his reaction under control because, God help him, if he didn
't, he would devour her. Sparks raced across his skin, a fresh burst with every nibble of her perfect teeth along his neck. When she sucked hard drawing his skin between her lips, she groaned, and his blood erupted in flames.

He moved her legs to straddle his waist and locked his fingers in her hair. Need quickened his heart and he held tight, with his other hand pressed to the small of her back.

If she stopped, he would die. If she didn't, would he be able to?

"
Take me Lucian," Jessie whispered in his ear, nibbling the lobe.

Heaven. His hands fell to her waist and he looked into her gaze.
"What about—"

She rose up in his lap and held his face between her hands then kissed him stupid.
"Consummate," she breathed in his mouth. "Make love to me, make us one. Make us married."

The breath he sucked in whistled a little between his teeth.
"Jessie, you know I want to."

She sat back and caught the hem of her pretty little pink blouse and peeled the top off in one smooth movement. Before he could think, she pressed his face in the valley of her breasts.
"Then do it. Please." She shifted her seat, bringing her delicious heat closer to his groin. "It's right, Lucian. I don't need a ring and papers and a priest to make me your wife. All that's for other people."

Lucian raked his hands up her sides and cupped her fullness, groaning under the explosion of hunger. Her words and the truth of them set his entire being aflame.
"Am de gând să te fac să țipi numele meu." He yanked the fragile lace of her bra away from one of her breasts to capture her nipple in his mouth.

"
Oh God, what did you say?" she moaned, raking her nails in his scalp.

He laid her down on the bed and took off his shirt.
"I'm going to make you scream my name."

Chapter Twenty One

Sally couldn't take her eyes off him. He looked so ill-at-ease sitting there in the little mauve side chair with his ramrod straight back. His shoulders were too wide to fit the chair and his long legs folded into an impossible angle to fit behind the coffee table.

She
'd offered him the sofa, but he'd insisted she sit there and put her bruised feet up then shoe-horned himself into the too-small chair.

A slim blonde came in from the next room with a tray of sandwiches and soft drinks.
"Hi, I'm Devyn." She put the tray on the coffee table and offered her hand. "Sorry it isn't more. We just got here ourselves." She turned away, then kind of rocked on her heels and turned back. "I know everything must seem pretty insane about now. If you need to talk, I'm around." She nodded and hurried out the way she'd come.

Sally turned back to him, processing the perturbed part of her feelings since he rescued her. Ever since she
'd heard the term
chosen,
well, she'd been a wee bit…concerned. Might have had something to do with going to a convent where God was supposed to fix her horrible past and ending up playing potential bride to a demon. She'd been accustomed to trauma all her life, but this had her little mentally numbing capabilities stretched taut.

"
What is going on?" Sally's tone was void of the panic and anxiety she should be feeling. So far so good.

The ridiculously handsome…man, cleared his throat and shifted his shoulders, no doubt trying to make them fit more comfortably in the chair.
"Perhaps you should rest before we burden your psyche further--"

"
My psyche is fine. Now what I want to know is…why is a convent being run by the devil. Why is he pumping women full of whatever the hell he's doing. Why did he pick me to be the mistress of hell. And last but not least, why did you say you chose me."

Each non-question was formed in light sing-song statements. The kind of tune that preceded shrieking and postal behavior, and judging by the alarm on the face of the beautiful man before her? Oh, yeah. He felt it.

He stood and paced. Now that couldn't be a good sign.

"
How about we start with who are you?" Sally tilted her head in her best impression of a TV shrink.

He paused and faced her like he was glad for such an easy question.
"I'm Dorn."

She raised her brows, encouraging him to go on and tell her something besides his damn name.

No such luck.

"
Dorn," she repeated, dry irritation coming through. "I'm inclined to think you're an angel, but your inability to answer simple questions tells me no. But you did do some pretty inhuman things back there so, you must be something and I'd like to know what, I mean I think I'm entitled to know—"

"
Archangel." He threw the word lightning fast as though to put out a fire.

Sally
's mouth remained open with silenced ranting. "So the demon dude wasn't lying," she finally said, not hiding her flabbergasted shock.

"
For once, no."

She sort of fell back entirely against the couch and looked around unseeing.
"This can't be real, I mean, I must be…hallucinating, I must be still at the convent. Drugged." She looked at him, feeling like he were a very real apparition. "I'm still there, aren't I and this is a dream? You're just a dream, a fantasy because I want to be free." She sucked in her breath, widening her eyes. "I'm about to die, aren't I? You're like the light at the end of the tunnel, but…different. That would explain this…  It's all just me getting my dream come true of… some amazingly sexy guy wanting me, although…" she thought a moment, "he was a demon, but now you, …" she body-scanned him, "you're even more amazingly sexy…so this must be my life flashing before my eyes only…" she thought about it. "Only I'm getting a break since my real life sucked. Right?"

He stared at her like he were watching a third eye sprout on her face with every word she spoke.
"You're not dreaming. I'm real."

Sally was sure she
'd heard regret in his tone. Which bothered her. "Is it me or do you sound a little disappointed."

His beautiful blue gaze narrowed then searched her face a little.
"Why would I be disappointed that you're alive?" He sounded truly baffled, but more from being unaccustomed to not knowing the answer to a question it seemed.