Authors: Debra Anastasia
“That’s him.” She was quiet, reverent.
She sighed with relief and Jason gave her hand a comforting squeeze. They watched together as the eagle that had been Sam dove for the water. He returned victorious with a fish clasped in his talons.
“Do you see that, Jason? He doesn’t have guilt. He just has instinct.” She squeezed his hand back, realizing this could be a teachable moment after all.
I should have more willpower. Last longer between feedings.
She turned from the eagle to look in Jason’s golden eyes. “Do you take more than you need? Do you hunt recklessly?”
He shook his head. He wouldn’t dream of doing such things now. But in the beginning, the learning had been vicious.
But my impulses — they’re far from pure or respectable.
Emma searched for the eagle again, and upon finding it she smiled. She let go of Jason’s hand.
“That just makes you alive, Jason Parish, not bad,” she said. “Impulses are only sins when you act on them, even though you know they’re wrong.”
Emma went as close as she could to the edge of the cliff, her new vantage point giving her a clear view of the bright yellow construction vehicles below. Jason joined her, mesmerized at the merciless slaughter of the trees.
“That’s his home. His mate is there.” She pointed to a clump of tall trees that were obviously next. Emma touched her hand to her mouth, stricken with grief over the eagles’ future.
They mate for life, don’t they?
“Yeah, he was a monogamous kind of guy.” She watched the bird again perform his aerial show.
The eagle was obviously disturbed by the noises below. He couldn’t figure out how to get to his nest. Jason had a thought, and he knew he was on to something as soon as Emma looked hopeful. He reached for his phone and dialed Dean. The investments Jason’s mother had hidden around the world for them might finally do some good. The wealth had offered him little emotional comfort until now.
“Hey, I was wondering if you could do a little research for me.” Jason gave his brother the exact location of the proposed condos. After a few minutes, he smiled. “Can you go ahead and buy them for me? Tell them all construction is to be ceased immediately… Thanks… No, I’m doing great.”
They waited for a crystal silence, an end to the distant rumbling and banging. Jason tried his best not to stare and to stop thinking about what an angel might look like naked, but it didn’t matter. Emma’s eyes tracked her eagle love’s anxious looping path through the sky, and her mind focused solely there.
Ninety minutes later, when the machines ground to a halt, the eagle circled once, twice, and was finally able to land. Emma turned to Jason and hugged him so quickly he was almost thrown off balance.
“Oh, thank you! Thank you! I can’t believe you did that. It means the world to me.” Emma bit her lip and wrinkled her nose, making Jason want to buy for her every condo ever built.
“I don’t need them all,” she said, smiling. “Half-breed, you
are
truly kind.” She looked at his lips, and he could tell she was thinking about kissing him in thanks.
She looked over her shoulder, watching as her eagle returned to the sea to hunt. “I think he’s getting food for the little ones. They have two of the cutest eaglets.”
Emma turned to watch the free, flying Sam, safe now.
Jason couldn’t help but feel smug.
Take that, Everett. Maybe money can buy some eagle love.
Suddenly it seemed easy to change fate. He felt powerful and light. Jason wrapped his arms around his personal angel’s waist. She allowed it and hugged his arms in her joy.
Then Jason heard a sound that tightened his arms into a restraint instead of an embrace. He put all his concentration into holding her, for he could tell she heard the same sounds as she tensed and flapped her wing. A hunter had stumbled into the clearing below.
The sheer cliff walls amplified the gunshot that rang out. When Sam was shot, his wings folded quickly. He fell like a rock. He fell like a broken dream into the choppy water.
Jason let Emma fall to her knees and claw the ground, sobbing Sam’s name.
And he cursed Everett. He cursed Everett to Hell.
Emma heard screaming, but she had no idea the noise was coming from her mouth. The half-breed patted her and quickly ran by, launching himself off the cliff. Emma crawled to the edge, shocked at Jason’s apparent suicide. But when she found him again he was already making effortless strokes toward Sam’s eagle body.
Of course. He’s not human.
She wished she could fly out and hover to help pluck her lover from the sea. Jason disappeared under the water and soon emerged bare-chested. He held his shirt as a makeshift shroud around Sam’s body.
Emma knew she would be grateful for Jason’s altruistic act, but she was dying inside, cursing and hating. Her feathers fell off in a deluge behind her. Only compassion would stop the flow, and she had none available.
The half-breed was fast, and soon he stood before her, cradling the lump in his arms. He was thinking, and Emma knew she should try to pay attention.
Finally, when he received no response from her, he spoke. “Emma, I’m so sorry.”
She sat on the ground. She barely noticed the thick, white blanket that now protected her from the cold. He was imagining things for her still.
Like the elements could affect me.
“What can I do?” He turned his attention back to the sopping wet bundle in his arms, tucking his shirt around the dead animal so she wouldn’t see the carnage.
She put her knuckles to her lips. Seeing Sam cut down in front of her had brought back so much of her human pain.
Just as Everett intended. He set me up. He used Sam to throw me off the path back to Heaven.
“Half-breed, my Sam is no longer in
that
body. The reverence with which you handle his corpse speaks to your good heart.” Emma stood and decided to offer the being in front of her some of the kindness he’d shown.
With a flick of her wrist she forced the snow to form an eagle-sized sarcophagus. Jason stepped to the opening and placed the bundle inside. Emma summoned the strength, the courage, it took to defy Everett’s intentions that she crumble, and she walked to the body. She removed Jason’s shirt and felt her mind convulse with shock and pain. When she handed the shirt back to him, it was dry and clean. Emma took one feather from the bird’s breast and tucked it in her hair. Her talisman. She would use the pain it held as the key to lock Everett in Hell.
She closed the snowy confines over the bird and stepped back. The same fiery snow that had transported her and Jason through time now took the remnants of a once glorious eagle somewhere else entirely. Jason bowed his head as if in prayer. Emma didn’t bother to sneak into his mind to see if he actually was.
“Will he go on to the next life?” Jason watched as the smoke from the snow fire glittered and rose.
“I don’t know. The time between lives is changeable. Right now Everett is in a place of great power. If Sam comes up for Judgment…” She couldn’t put the horror she felt into words.
“He’s doing your job? Is that what he said? What did you do, Emma?” She turned to face him, his golden eyes so earnest in their desire for an answer.
She felt numb; she had nothing left after working to contain her anger. She could feel her faith dripping from her wound. She didn’t want him to notice, to worry again. Emma nodded so he’d start walking. As she began to move, part of her heart tore away to stay with Sam in the last place his soul had felt joy.
They walked a distance before Emma answered. She was looking for something, looking for someone.
“I was a seraph. We’re in the circle closest to God. It’s a huge honor and a great responsibility. I have failed Him in my weakness. But maybe I can change that.”
Finally, she heard what she was listening for: the mind of the hunter. That evil bastard who could take a father out of the sky and deny his eagle mate her forever with Sam — she would kill that man now. End him. Send the hunter to his Judgment.
Jason watched the hunter as well. His mind wanted to heal her, help her. She would use that to her advantage now.
“Jason.”
His mind perked up because his name was on her lips.
“Can you run back to your house for a moment? I think your brother is having a problem. I’ll meet you outside soon.”
No, he’s fine. What are you up to?
“Nothing. I just need a minute alone with that hunter.” Emma touched the feather in her hair, and her plan made perfect sense: If she murdered this man, she’d go to Hell. If she went to Hell, she could tell God what was going on. And she could save Sam’s soul from Everett’s delusional wrath.
Jason’s thoughts revealed his hurt. He’d figured out her intentions. “You can’t. I won’t let you,” he said. “I’ll take him down myself.” Jason was on the hunt immediately.
“Half-breed, stop. You feed on humans, but you don’t kill them like the others do. I know this. If you murder him, I won’t be able to redeem you or myself.”
He stopped and turned to face her.
You’re in so much pain. You’re willing to go to Hell to make things right. Will God take you back to Heaven if you murder this man?
“That’s nothing you need to worry about right now. Just don’t be here for it. I don’t want you to see what I can become.” She hovered closer to the hunter. She could hear the man’s thoughts now:
I can’t believe I did that. I would never hurt an eagle. My God. Maybe I had a seizure?
Emma lost her nerve. Everett had touched this man’s free will. He’d made the hunter do something he normally wouldn’t.
“Everett’s going to tear this joint up. God help me. Seriously.” She turned her back on her almost-victim.
Jason followed at a respectful distance, letting her burn off her pain and anger. She heard him thinking of her dripping wound and praying for its healing.
She sighed deeply. Finally, in a clearing in the woods with the sun high in the sky, she tried again. She wasn’t a quitter — never had been.
“Maybe I need to try something more immediate,” she pondered. “I need something in the present I can take you to that will make you see the beauty of your soul.”
Emma looked down at the fresh snow, seemingly littered with diamonds in its quiet. Only Jason’s footprints led to the spot where they now stood. She listened to his mind. At the word “beauty” he’d pictured her in his arms. She arched an eyebrow, coming up with a quick fix. A sure-fire way to bliss? Sex.
“Kiss me, half-breed. Make me want to wrap my legs around your waist.” She gave him a sensual stare.
Instead of melting him, her words gave him confidence. He closed the distance between them and pulled her to him with one strong arm. Jason kept his eyes on her lips as he let his unfiltered fantasies dance from his imagination to hers. She gasped at his creativity.
He trailed up her arm with his fingertips, stopping at the hollow of her throat. “Are you doing this because you want me? We just buried Sam.”
Sam’s name was a knife. Pain.
And then it was exactly what she wanted. She wanted this half-breed vampire to pound the torment out of her. She wanted him to bite her neck and feel every part of her body. Pleasure to combat agony. Kisses to heal the bleeding.
Emma hovered a bit higher so she could take his bottom lip in her teeth. His mental moan exactly matched the one he breathed into her mouth. She grabbed a fistful of his hair, tugging on it, demanding everything from him.
Say my name, angel
.
“Jason…please.”
Her lips tasted like vanilla and something — he laughed a little when he realized it was angel food cake. He hadn’t thirsted for anything other than blood and knowledge for so long that wild passion kicked him in the teeth.
She wrapped him in her arms, massaging, insisting he join her in her frenzied arousal. His body was more than willing to cooperate. But his mind could still hear her crying for her lost love. Her wails echoed in his conscience. He opened his eyes.
Maybe he could have taken her, slid the soft velvet away from her legs and felt her thighs with his hands, but then he saw the tear she was ignoring.
It shone with touches of metal, leaving a dusting of gold leaf on her cheek. He stopped kissing her and pulled her arms away from him.
She opened her eyes, angered. “Stop stopping! Kiss me again.
Don’t
you pity me!” She stomped her foot, and the snow below her propelled into a little cloud.
He couldn’t stop the kindness coming from his mind, but he knew she was misconstruing it.
I don’t pity you, but an angel who’s used to endless time might need a moment to breathe after…that.
He saw the eagle falling into the ocean again, before he could remind himself not to remember. Emma looked over Jason’s shoulder, avoiding his crisp recall as best she could.
Meanwhile, Jason got busy putting her in something a little less tempting. He visualized her in a pair of flannel pajamas, complete with covered footies and zipped all the way to the top. He added whimsical bunnies, making sure each had a sweet face and pointy ears.
Maybe she’ll smile at the bunnies.
But she didn’t even register the outfit change. Her gaze over his shoulder solidified from pain to hate. Revulsion and anger rolled off of her in waves. It was the same way she’d looked at Everett in Heaven.
Everett?
Jason spun and sure enough the angel, resplendent in a white tuxedo and fire red wings, was advancing on them. Jason had to shake off the blurring, uncomfortable feeling of being in the dark, being weaker. Everett headed for Emma with a single white rose.
Is he really here? Can he hear my thoughts like you?
“Yes and no.” She stepped next to Jason.
She wanted to move in front of him, to put herself between the delightful-looking evil and her ticket to Heaven, but Jason held out a hand, warding her off.
“Well, jackass, sorry to see you here. What’d you do to Seraph Gabriel?” Emma was full of moxie, but as Jason looked at her, she and her new footie pajamas rapidly became transparent.
The sight of Everett on Earth was causing her to lose faith — again. A quick glance behind her revealed a pool of mercury, expanding by the second.
Everett smiled like an excited groom. “Emma, sweetheart. Don’t lose all hope. Surely you can still stop me, right? Right?”
Everett swooped closer as Emma fell to her knees. She was fading. Anger whipped through Jason. He hated Emma kneeling before Everett. Jason placed himself between the angels.
Can I hurt him?
There was no response from Emma.
“Jason Parish. Look at you! Are you chivalrous or were you just looking to get laid?” Everett’s expanded his wings even further, showing like a peacock.
“Step back from us. How are you here?”
Jason needed time. He needed to restore her hope, get her advice.
“That’s the reason your pretty angel slut collapsed. She knows I’m in charge now. Which is pretty hilarious, because God is in Hell. And the Devil? He’s hanging on to God for a bit.” Everett ended his tirade with a victorious chuckle.
“Emma?” he continued. Everett leaned to his left so he could look at her.
Jason didn’t dare take his eyes off the thing in front of him.
“Sweetheart? Come with me now. You can sit at my right hand. I’ll give you whatever you want. Sam back by your side? Done. World peace? Done. You naked with me? Done.”
Jason punched Everett so viciously in the face that his red wings rippled with the force. Jason didn’t wait for relief that he could touch the angel to set in, he just jumped on Everett like he was prey. The white rose tumbled from Everett’s hand and was lost in the snow. Jason used his speed and ridiculous strength to land several punches, but he knew he was outmatched.
Darting away, Everett flapped his massive wings and rubbed his mouth. Jason backed up to reassess. Everett hovered just above the height to which Jason could jump.
“You pack a wallop, parasite. I hope you enjoyed those hits, because you’ll never get another,” Everett growled.
Jason had to fight the urge to run as Everett powered up. Energy pulsated around him. His wings and hands crackled with lightning and dominance.
Stand still
, he told himself.
For every second he fights me, she’s safe.
Jason risked a look at her, wanting her beautiful form to be the last thing he knew in his mind.
Emma was gone.
Oh God, please, no! She’s already gone?
He turned. The jet-engine noise emanating from Everett demanded cowering, but Jason stood proud. Suddenly Emma hovered in front of him, arms thrown wide, using herself to protect him. She was hit instantly — a river of hot blue current lighting her like the electric angel on top of a Christmas tree.
Though she deflected the current Jason still felt like he was being electrocuted; he was powerless to move at all. Then it stopped, and the silence was as loud as the cracking sound the deadly angel had produced.
Emma collapsed at his feet. Jason moved as soon as he could, knelt and pulled her head into his lap. Everett flew angrily above their heads, the beat of his massive wings causing Emma’s hair to blow away from her face. Her gray eyes opened slowly, painfully.
“I wake up to your face a lot lately.” Her voice sounded strong.
Are you okay? What the hell just happened?
She shook her head, as if to say “not now.” Instead she said, “Heads up.”
Everett was lower now, reeling and angry. “You stupid, stupid girl! Well, guess what? That won’t work either. You protect
him?
That thing? It’s like a tick, a gnat, a sponger.”
Emma lifted her hand to give Everett the finger. Jason leaned over and gave her insulting gesture a light kiss. She switched her focus from the outrage above her to Jason’s face. Emma let her other fingers join the middle one and laid them on his cheek.
As she spoke, her eyes filled with the same gold-colored sheen that had been in her tears. “Don’t listen to him. You’re a miracle. If nothing else, I’m so very glad we’ve met.”
Fire began to rain down, with little flames in place of water drops. Jason covered her body from the onslaught.
“My half-breed umbrella, it’s okay. He’s already done the worst he can do.”
Jason tried to reassure himself with her permanence, her solidness in his arms.
Everett hollered with rage, the ground shaking from the verbal onslaught. “You think so, Emma? I offer you everything and you think the worst I can do is send your soul to Hell?” Everett arced the sky with lava. “Wait until Sam comes to Judgment! Ha! It’ll be spectacular — the pain I’ll give him to live through, over and over again. Your heart will explode in your chest, Emma. You don’t even know what pain tastes like yet. But you will. You will.”
Jason was mesmerized by Everett’s just-out-of-reach anger. He looked ludicrous in his tuxedo now, the veins popping in his rage-filled neck.
“Don’t look at him, Jason. Kiss me. Nothing will hurt him more.” Emma moved her hand to Jason’s neck and pulled his face to hers.
Jason felt like he was trying to ignore a natural disaster, but he did so because she asked.
“That’s right. Good. Now kiss me
hard.”
Emma smiled and licked her lips.
Jason pulled her whole body closer, supporting her back and cradling her head. She’d told him one time too many in his book, so he took great care to kiss her deeply. She still tasted like angel cake, which delighted him — and his loins — immensely.
He could almost forget that Everett was cracking the atmosphere like an egg above their heads. Jason held her close, pulling her into a hug. He ended their kiss and looked at the blood red sky. Everett’s fury had tinted the blue out of the horizon. Emma’s breath was hot on his skin, and she cuddled deeper into his chest. The wallop of Everett’s wings echoed as he beat them against the air, taking himself back to Heaven.
Where’s he going?
“I don’t know.” Her words moved like a pulse along his neck.
What gave you back your faith? Your anger that God’s a prisoner in Hell?
She pulled away from him, looking into his face with more softness than he could ever have hoped for.
“No. But that does suck.” She put both hands on his face like he meant something, like he was precious and fragile.
Was it the punching? If he didn’t fly away I would have pounded him some more
. Jason smiled, pleased.
“Not that either… No, don’t be sad. It was thrilling, really.” She sat up straighter. “It was when you thought about saving me a few seconds of his wrath. That made me whole. That made believe.”
She leaned forward and kissed him because she wanted to — not to piss off Everett, not to forget Sam. She kissed Jason to kiss Jason.
He stroked her hair and smiled. It felt so much better this way.
With the evil angel gone, the blue crept back to the sky. Everett’s anger was far away, at least for now.
What did that blast do to you?
She stood up and dusted off her footie pajamas. “Although I love these, can I have something else now?” She held her hand out to help him off his knees. He didn’t need assistance, but indulged in her touch anyway.
He kissed her hand once he was standing.
You’re avoiding an answer. Please tell me?
She looked reluctant, but maybe it was her nature to be honest. Maybe she didn’t have a choice because of her wing, her physical connection to Heaven.
“That blast was meant to take you to Hell.” She pulled his fingers to her mouth, taking a turn at kissing his hand.
And you stopped that? I’m surprised he gave up so easily.
She nodded and motioned to her outfit. Jason put her in white jeans and a soft sweater, topping the outfit with a soft faux-fur coat. Her hiking boots were white with gold shoelaces.
She held out her foot, laughing. “These are pimp.”
Angels are allowed to say “pimp”?
“Probably not.” She stepped into his arms again.
He held her, kissing the top of her head.
What did the blast do to you?
She sighed, and he waited.
Finally, she gave him the answer he sought. “When my time’s up here, I’ll be taking your place in Hell. Everett was determined to send someone there, and since he hit me, rather than you…” She took a deep breath before continuing. “He left because he’ll need to power up again.”
Jason squeezed her tighter. “Why did you do that? That’s not fair.
I
was trying to protect
you.”
He switched to thinking, a little afraid to hear his next question out loud.
Emma, what are we going to do now?
“I don’t really know. This is unprecedented. Seraph Gabriel was the failsafe. I don’t know how he lost control.” Emma sighed and stepped away from Jason’s comforting embrace.
Is Everett planning to end the world? Could it possibly be that bad?
Jason wanted to keep her in his arms. This talk of Hell and angels made him want her close.
Emma let her feet touch the ground. Her hiking boots left scrolling, star-shaped treads in the soft snow as she began to walk. Jason followed as if she had his heart on a leash.
“Everett wants Earth to be Hell. He wants Heaven to be Hell. He’s like a Devil’s minion.” Emma tilted her head back, and her long, blond curls skimmed her rump. She held her hands to her mouth as if the simple motion would deliver her words to the clouds. “Everett is the Devil’s bitch!” She turned her hands into tight fists. “I can’t think of a way to stop him, Jason.”
Jason hated his next question, but the filter his mouth gave him did not apply to his thoughts.
Will you know when your time is up?
Emma reached behind her almost thoughtlessly and stroked her remaining wing. Her hand was covered with glitter when she pulled it away.
“My wing will be gone, and after that I’m on the express train to Hades.”
Jason tried to ignore the fear in her eyes.
Everything seems normal now. Is your task with me finished?
“No! No, it’s not. You’re a genius. Of course! We’ve been to your past, and we’re looking at your completely sucktastic present.”
Some things here are very fantastic.
He interrupted her with his thought. He pictured her kiss again — the last one, the one that had tickled his barren soul.
She walked forward and put her glittering hand on his. “The future! The future’s next. We’ll get to see if we’re successful or not!” She curled her wing around him.
Before he could become enveloped in her scent and her power, Jason shook his head.
Can Everett stop this?
“Everything’s up for grabs, but the mission is always the same: three capsules of time to be investigated. We have to try.”
He held on to her hand more tightly, knowing the disquieting time travel was about to hit. She put her lips on his and they watched as the snowy, blue day inked up with darkness. Twirling, whooshing, and the feeling he might come out of his skin surrounded him. The thud was violent this time, and Jason fell onto his back. Emma landed on top of him. The smell from the future was overwhelming. The odor of rotting bark filled the air.
The winter scene was a topsy-turvy kaleidoscope of color. The snow was greenish with gray tints. The sky was a deep, red velvet. The silence hurt their ears.