Tempted (15 page)

She moved through the tall double doors of the building, and continued on down the long corridor slowly. Part of her was curious about what was going on; part of her was dreading the entire thing.

Once she had entered the throne room, she raised her wings to shield her eyes and went down onto one knee. She felt the eyes of the elders burning into her. Their expressions were blank, but Sarah couldn’t help but wonder if they knew. What did they think of what was about to happen? How could Sarah even begin to figure it out, when she didn’t know what was going on herself? There was only one way to find out.

“
Father,” she said, once she’d found her voice. “You sent for me?”

“
My daughter,” he replied, his voice the warm blanket it always was. “I have called you here today out of concern for your well-being. You have not been yourself, and I wondered if there was anything that I could do to help you.”

Sarah could have pretended not to know what he was talking about, but was not stupid enough to try it. Father knew everything, saw everything. She remained silent.

“
Your heart is heavy, and when you are not on an assignment, you remain in seclusion. You have become distant and I have sensed that your heart is no longer in your work.”

“
I remain your servant as always,” she said in response. What else could she say? While she remained faithful in her duties, her heart was elsewhere and he knew it. The way she’d been acting lately, everyone around her knew it.

“
I have watched you, Sarah. You live in heaven, yet long for earth. I cannot have an angel who longs for earthly things. You know as well as I do how it will end.”

Tears filled Sarah’s eyes as she realized what was happening. “Please,” she pleaded, folding her hands in front of her. “Please, I’ll do anything. It’ll pass, Father, I know it!”

“
My daughter, why do you cry?”

“
I’ve lost my wings, haven’t I? You are going to send me out of heaven.”

“
Daughter, it is not what you think. While I have decided that you shall no longer inhabit heaven, your destination will not be hell. You have not fallen. I merely wish to give you your heart’s desire. I wish to send you to earth permanently.”

Sarah’s breath caught in her throat. What was he saying? She knew of only one other angel who had been given an opportunity similar to this one. He was now living with his wife and first child, and was aging like any other mortal. He even held down a nine to five job and had joined a baseball league. Was this the sort of thing Father had in mind for her?

“
But what about our cause?” Sarah asked, her heart torn between the man she loved and the cause she had been devoted to for centuries. “I will lose everything I’ve ever known, everything I’ve ever worked for. My part in the war between heaven and hell will be ended.”

“
Sarah, it is not my will to punish you for anything. You must understand this. You will continue to be a part of our cause; you are too precious and valuable to me, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s just that I wish for you to serve in a different capacity. In this way, your heart will find its happiness, and you no longer need to fear punishment.”

“
How will I be of service to heaven as an ordinary human?”

He smiled. She
felt
the warmth of it. It sparked a matching warmth inside of her.

“
Who said anything about being ordinary?”

Sarah’s eyes flew open, and with a puff of white smoke an object appeared within her field of vision. It was a Guardian’s medallion. It hovered in midair in front of her face, sparkling brightly in heaven’s white light. She reached out to grasp the cool gold and held it against her chest. She smiled.

“
I don’t know what to say.”

A sensation like a tight hug surrounded her and Sarah felt peace.

“
Then don’t say anything,” he said as another object appeared in field of vision. It was a crystal vial, filled with an object suspended in liquid. As she took a closer look, Sarah recognized what appeared to be a strand of human DNA. However, it was much different from the double-stranded helix that she was used to. This helix had a third strand running down its middle. It was the hybrid DNA of the hybrid humans…Guardians.

“
Open the vial and drink it. You will awaken in your new life.”

Sarah slipped the medallion around her neck and pulled the golden stopper out of the top of the vial. She paused, staring down at its contents. Once she’d swallowed it, there would be no going back. Here was everything she wanted, right within her grasp. She’d be a fool not to accept it.

“
Thank you,” she whispered right before she tipped her head back and swallowed.

“
You’re welcome, daughter.

They were the last words she heard before losing consciousness.

Chapter 19: Revealed

Jackson glanced up from where he sat at his kitchen table with little Jack. The glass door leading to the balcony slid open and Reniel’s broad frame filled the doorway. He waved to the angel who had become a friend of sorts over the past weeks. Whenever Reniel wasn’t on assignment and had some spare time, he came to check up on his latest protégé.

Little Jack now lived with his father, as a grueling round of surgeries would have Rochelle in the hospital for weeks. Because no one knew if she would be strong enough to survive the operations, it was decided that Jackson should take their son for the time being. The rest would have to be figured out after Rochelle was better. If she even got better.

As saddened as he was by Rochelle’s illness, he was happy to have his son back in his life again. He glanced down at Jackson’s childish scrawl—the boy’s English homework—and smiled; it was a lot like his handwriting at that age.

“
Good,” he said, nodding his approval at Jack’s neatly written sentences. “Is that everything?”

Jack nodded. “That’s it. Can I watch TV now?”

Jackson nodded and little Jack ran off toward the living room, slapping Reniel a high-five as he went. If the boy thought it was strange that his father’s friend came and went using the fire escape, he didn’t mention it.

“
Pepsi?” Jackson offered as he neared the fridge.

“
You know it,” Reniel responded, accepting the cold twenty ounce bottle. “How’s the father-son time going?”

“
Great,” said Jackson, glancing over at Jack as he turned to the Disney channel. Something about a teenage boy band flashed across the screen.

“
He showing any signs yet?”

They had discussed the possibility of Jack manifesting powers, even at his young age. Vivian had said she knew about Jackson’s time-bending skills when he was a child.

“
So far nothing I can see,” he answered, “but I’m watching.”

Reniel nodded, taking a long swig of his soda. He set the bottle down and looked up at Jackson. “There’s something I think we need to discuss.”

“
What’s that?” Jackson asked as he absently scratched Mason’s head.

“
Sarah—“

“
No.”

At the very sound of her name, goose bumps pimpled along his skin, and his heart raced. As always, the mingled feelings of longing and anger swirled together in his stomach. Reniel had been trying to broach the subject with him for weeks. Jackson always cut him off.

“
You don’t understand—“

“
I don’t want to understand,” Jackson insisted, pounding his hand against the table. “Not unless she wants to come explain to me herself how she could be so incredibly selfish.”

“
Is that what you think?” Reniel’s voice was suddenly high and sharp. His hands clenched into fists on the table and his jaw hardened. “You have no idea what she did. Not only did she save you from yourself, she kept you from knowing what kind of hell your love could bring. More so for her, but for you too if you had any idea what the consequences are.”

Jackson’s eyebrows fused together out of frustration and confusion. “What the hell are you talking about? What consequences?”

Reniel sighed. “Angels are forbidden to lay with humans, you dolt! If Sarah had allowed things to go much further between the two of you she would have been stripped of her wings and become one of the Fallen.
That’s
why she handed her assignment over to me! Because she knew that being around you was too much of a temptation to resist. She didn’t want you to know, because if you did it would only torture you to know that you two could never be together.”

Jackson clutched his middle as if he’d been punched in the gut. He could barely think through that explosive revelation. Reniel’s angry stare filled him with guilt.

“
Why tell me this now?” he asked, his heart aching for Sarah. She had been right. Now that he knew the whole truth he was tortured with knowing he could never have her the way he wanted. He’d been such a fool to think she was capable of hurting him the way he’d imagined. If he’d been able to think past his own hurt, he might have seen it for himself.

“
Because she wants your forgiveness,” Reniel said, the sharpness of his tone lessening. “She wants to know that you can forgive her for hurting you. If you can, then there is something else I’m supposed to tell you. Something important.”

“
Of course I forgive her,” Jackson said, a slow smile creeping over his face. In his mind he could see her face as she stood on his roof in the rain, with her wide doe eyes and parted lips. “I love her,” he said, his mind lingering over their first kiss. He’d never look at rain the same again.

“
Good,” said Reniel with a chuckle, “because I’ve got something to tell you.”

Sarah paced the living room nervously, her hands worrying the skirt of her sundress. It was the same dress she’d been wearing the night Jackson had kissed her on the roof. She smiled at the memory, knowing that he would remember when he saw her in it. If he even came.

She hoped that Jackson would be open to hear what Reniel had to say. She’d been too afraid to go herself, afraid that Jackson would reject her. She ran her fingers through her newly cut hair and continued to pace.

It had taken her days to get accustomed to her new body. Even in its human form, her angelic body had never experienced hunger or thirst. The gnawing pain in her middle had continued for hours on the first day before she’d recognized it as hunger. She’d never been tired before either. Sometimes she would sleep to pass the time, but never because it was necessary. Now she was learning that rest was essential to the human body. As was food and water.

Clothing no longer materialized out of thin air, so after buying groceries she’d had to find a department store. The wallet she’d found after she woke up in her apartment had been filled with enough cash to get her through until she found a job. Yet another gift from Father.

The day before she’d found a salon and had had her hair cut to the shoulder length she now preferred. She’d even had her eyebrows arched and her nails painted. Now that she was human, she found herself actually caring about the way she looked.

Other emotions surprised her too, and often times she found herself crying for no reason. She supposed her mind was still adjusting to the influx of hormones and feelings that came with being inside a human body.

Right now, though, her fears were anything but irrational. What if Jackson was still angry with her? What if he didn’t care that she was now human and his for the taking? What if—

A sharp knock on the door snatched her out of her thoughts. She held her breath as she practically ran to the door and threw it open. Her breath escaped her lungs noisily and relief flooded her as she found Jackson on the other side.

“
Sarah,” he whispered, as if he could hardly believe it was her. He was through the doorway in a flash, slamming it behind him and yanking her into his arms.

“
Reniel told me everything,” he said as his eyes traveled over her, taking her in. “You look the same.”

Sarah smiled, reaching up to pull the top of her sundress down. Nestled just above her breasts was the Guardian’s crest. Jackson returned her smile, pulling at the neckline of his own shirt to show her his matching mark. Sarah knew that there was a small population of people in the world bearing the mark, but in this moment she wanted to pretend that it was just them, united by it, two halves of the same whole.

“
It’s true,” he whispered, tracing his finger over the smooth tattoo. “You really are real. I mean, you were real before, but now…”

He trailed off and their eyes met. His arms tightened around her. “Now you’re mine.”

“
I’m sorry I hurt you,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck. It was nice to savor the feel of his body against hers without fearing the repercussions. It was nice to allow her thoughts to wander to what could happen next with freedom.

“
You didn’t want to, and even if you did I’d forgive you Sarah. I love you.”

She smiled and rested her head against his solid chest. She inhaled his scent—that spicy scent that was uniquely his and that she’d missed so much—and tightened her arms around him. “I love you too,” she said. “You taught me everything I know about love. Before I met you I’d never felt anything in my life, not even a single ounce of compassion or kindness. You gave me all of those things, Jackson.”