Summon Dorn (Archangels Creed) (35 page)

Uriel turned to Salem.
"English is soon to be your mother tongue. Deal with it." 

“So,”
Lassin clasped his hands behind his head. "What side-effects did you have when you bound the triumvirate? Was your memory affected? Or strength? Were you in pain?"

"
My memory was affected. Extremely. But not for long." Dorn prayed they didn't ask how he got it back.

"
How long?" Lyght’s diamond eyes sparkled.

"
Perhaps five minutes."

"
What all'd you forget?" Toren continued practicing his cowboy English.

Dorn found himself admiring
the mercury angel's ballsy courage while wondering just what exactly all he'd been studying. "That I was an angel."

The distress of that news could be heard in the vibrating of
all the warriors' armor. None of them could imagine a more frightening or dangerous condition in which to find themselves.

Grhythe leaned forward.
"Five minutes? How did you regain that knowledge? What technique?"

Ah, dammit. Even Kassern looked at him now, seeming interested to know that as well. The only consolation he got with confessing was they
'd all likely suffer demotion for being unable to contain themselves. "My wife…kissed me."

The pin drop silence was worse than laughter.

"Brother…" Zool's voice boomed ominous.  "Are you speaking of…the magical princess kiss?" His deadpan expression completed the mockery.

Not even Kassern could keep from laughing. Dorn looked at him.
"Thanks."

He clapped his shoulder, really going at it then.
"Sorry…" he threw his head back and howled. "Magical princess kiss."

Uriel stood and turned around, shaking his lowered head. Dorn
suspected it was to hide his inability to keep a straight face. Dorn merely had to think of Sally and suddenly none of it mattered. She was worth an eternity of scorn and ridicule. And he was pretty sure he'd have that. All of them would.

"
Perhaps…she can help me remember—"

A
t the hint of an inappropriate remark, fury flashed through Dorn and he pinned the stupid Vektor to the floor, glaring into his green beryl gaze. "
She
is my
wife.
"

"
Men!" Uriel's shout came with a staggering dose of his gem's inherent power, spearing them with brotherhood loyalty.

The men stood and
Vektor apologized and held open arms for a brotherly embrace. But Dorn's protective and possessive fury for Sally hadn't been dissuaded by Uriel's influence. Neither was Maxwell's. Before Dorn could stop him, Maxwell leapt from his chest and plowed his snout into the green beryl angel, slamming him none too softly against the wall before hiding back inside Dorn.

Dorn held up both hands with a little grin.
"Oops. Maxwell seems to like her." Dorn felt his beast correct him. "Excuse me. Make that
loves
her."

The horrified look on the green angel
's face was priceless. For Dorn's creature to be that affected was better evidence of a woman's power than anything else.   

Vektor
pointed at Dorn while looking at all of them. "Did you see that?" His shock and exasperation added to Dorn's enjoyment. "Even poor Maxwell has been affected by this disease! I am
not
becoming…
that
!"

"
It's not a
disease."
Arith's pearl gaze sliced lazily to Vektor. "It's love. Eros. I understand that you aren't familiar with it but I cannot understand why you slight that which Father has chosen to house the
sempiternitas
power in humans. Perhaps you are jealous and wish to be the next angel in line to receive the kiss of a princess?"

The cavern suddenly reminded Dorn of that
raucous place called a
bar
he'd entered briefly on Earth when scouting.

"
Look," Kassern cut in loudly. "All joking aside, Dorn's symptoms seemed to be more severe than mine, but not as long lasting. It seems that that the effects of forming the triumvirates are as diverse as the members of the triumvirates. I'm afraid the act is turning out to be much like a fingerprint. No two alike."

"
Regardless," Uriel reclined in the large onyx chair. "We will continue to monitor, record, and study. Which means from now on, you will all be required to turn in a
triandría ékthesi̱ epídrasi̱."

Kassern rolled his eyes but Dorn was more than accustomed to filling out reports of all kinds. In fact, it happened to be something he was quite fond of doing.
He was partial to order and everything had a scale by which to balance. Already he'd mentally formed a pleasure scale for Sally, comparing the pleasure she gave him to that he gave her. Currently, he was in serious deficit and in dire need of balancing it. He was anxious to love her in such a perfect and complete way, the way she was intended to be loved by a…man.

Dorn could hardly believe that title was now a part of his angelic identity.

"Daydreaming about your wife?" Lassin raised his hands and widened his blue sapphire eyes. "A sincere question." He didn't wait for any adverse expressions.

Sincere? Dorn decided he
'd play their little game. "Yes, in fact I was. Did you know that the pleasure of the human orgasm is in fact stronger than any power that any of you possess?" Dorn wagged his finger over all of them, relishing in their skeptical slash horror stricken faces.

"
It's quite true," Kassern vouched. "There's nothing in all the Seven Universes that can compare."

For the first time in a
millennium, Dorn didn't want to slap the ruby angel with the broad side of his sword. Dorn realized too that his tie to Kassern was somehow as strong as his connection with Max.
Wait a century
, Dorn thought, looking at Kassern.

The ruby angel turned only
guarded eyes to him. "What?" He sounded as if Dorn had spotted a particularly dark and large hickey. 

"
Nothing I was just…realizing."

"
Realizing what?"

"
Just that we're the first archangel human brothers."

Kassern looked fully at him and raised his brows.
"Are you going to buy one of those gadgets that take still images and paste the two of us into books with lace?"

Dorn slowly grinned.
"Wow. For the first time in our existence, your joke doesn't make me want to pull your head through your smart ass."

Kassern laughed before mumbling,
"Karly wants to make one of those, you know."

It was Dorn
's turn to laugh. "And will you?"

"
Would you?"

"
If it made Sally happy, yes."

Kassern gave a casual shrug and nod.
"Same here."

Dorn realized it was quiet and turned to find e
leven pairs of eyes staring in shocked horror at the abstract species carrying a human disease that would soon take over their bodies. It was the worst form of demotion ever, and seeing it up close in two elite warriors clearly made it a harrowing reality.

"
Back to business at hand." Uriel was one shade short of sounding depressed. "What about this news of…a girl having
bugs
for babies and Toren's…" Uriel, flicked his eyes at the mercury angel as though uncomfortable with having to say it. "Adopted offspring becoming their mother."

Kassern and Dorn looked at Toren then Dorn suggested,
"Perhaps you would ask Toren that sir. I have no knowledge of what actually took place in that respect." Dorn regarded Toren, not wanting to offer more than the angel was prepared to give.

Uriel turned to the mercury angel.
"Well?"

"
I reckon I'd like to be the next angel to go sir."

Uriel stared at him a moment,
concern creeping into his perfect face. "I figured as much, considering you've left your adoptive offspring there. Tell me what happened."

"
I got a few glimpses of things through Peggy."

Dorn still couldn
't get over that name, Peggy. Another Earth name. One more link in the Archangels' chain of suspicion that at one point in time, their creatures had somehow been connected to the planet. The mystery was still being solved, but Dorn's hunch was demon trafficking, plain and simple. Some demons were notorious for stealing beings from their home worlds, moving them to another to serve as slave labor.

The creatures were stripped of
their bodies, and the angels were able to house them in their own in order to rescue them from the planet Sahhker of the Third Universe before it was destroyed by the Over Lords.

“Peggy?” Uriel asked, perturbed.

Toren kept his mercury gaze locked on the onyx table, not offering more. His pet was a sensitive subject. While all their creature's spirits inherited their angels' gems' properties, allowing them to take on their choice of forms, Toren also absorbed some of his creature’s spirit due to his mercury characteristics. But the most Dorn got out of Toren concerning their beings origin was
I’m not sure. I only know bad things happened.
Judging by the pain Dorn could only sense buried deep in Max's spirit, the guilty needed to be brought to justice.

"
Okay. Then what did you glimpse through Peggy.” Uriel’s tone turned patient, no doubt remembering Toren’s situation. 

"
Seems as though the critters Peggy has adopted hold little tid-bits of information within their DNA that she picks up on. I reckon that's how I see things."

"
And…what do you see." Uriel stated more than asked.

"
The new pope is what I seen. 'Fraid somethin' ain't too right with him." Toren sucked his perfect teeth before drawling, "Reckon he's gonna play a role in the upcomin' shenanigans."

"
Oh for Heaven's sake." Zool looked at Uriel, disgust twisting his perfect mouth. "Can you please tell him to stop speaking like a zoo keeper, at least for this meeting? I left my universal jargon translator back at the barnyard."

"
What is wrong with the pope?" Uriel ignored Zool, deepening the onyx angel's disgust.

"
My guess? Special breed of reanimation."

Salem
stopped the droning rhythm he’d been tapping on the table with his green hiddenite nails. "This is not good."

"
Pilfering dirty bastards." Azen didn't hide his disgust.

Uriel sighed, and pressed his thumb and middle finger to his eyeballs.
"I suppose it's good you go then." He looked at each angel. "I want you to all step up your studies. I sense that our time restraints may become a little more stringent. I want you all prepared ahead, with your couples chosen and your wives selected. That means all of you need to know how to be the best human if you're going to convince a woman to marry you in less time." He looked at Dorn. "How did that go for you, by the way? Did your human accept you eagerly?"

Dorn recalled their dialogue before and after he
'd come into his humanity and couldn't stop his grin. "I think she took it well considering. My biggest advantage with her I think was…how desperate for love she was."

"
Ah yes." Uriel glanced at the mercury angel. "Toren, make a note of that. Find a desperate female human."

"
I already have," he said.

"
You have?"

The entire congregation turned to stare into the brooding eyes of the mercury angel.
"The woman who delivered Soceris' offspring."

The sounds of disgust were poorly stifled and Toren
's hard gaze lowered.

"
But Brother, surely…"

"
She kissed me." Toren cut off Lassin's gentle call for reason and eyed all of them boldly. "I'm hers," he said, quietly.

A few moments of quiet passed before
Meron bravely but carefully said, "Such a thing does not—"

"
It does and it has." Toren's quipped interruption followed with a slight shrug of his massive shoulders. "I'm hers." That fact reflected clearly in his mirror bright gaze. "And she is mine."

Dorn exchanged glances with Kassern and sighed inwardly at seeing it in his
ruby gaze. Toren had wiped her mind of the entire demonic nightmare she’d endured. If the girl remembered him it would be a miracle.

~~ THE END ~~

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