Divinity: Transcendence: Book Two (The Divinity Saga) (48 page)

S
he playfully held half a strawberry in between her teeth for me to take. I gladly rose forward and pulled it from her, using my teeth, which purposefully ended in a deep kiss. She giggled as we erotically shared and savored the delectably, sweet flavor of our favorite fruit.

Naked still, she
lay on top of me with her chin resting in her hands. She chewed on the last bit of the strawberry that she managed to keep and wrestle from my mouth and tongue.

R
unning my fingers through the length of her silky curls was relaxing for me. My desire to return to heaven had been granted. Simply being with her like this, in love and sharing love, was the equivalent for me. It was all I had ever wanted as a being, from the very beginning of my existence.

“Your arm
looks practically brand new.” She whispered, as she gently ran her fingertips along the healed skin.

I smiled.

She paused for a moment with a soft sigh.

“What’s wrong
?” I asked her.

She shook her head
but I wasn’t accepting that answer.

“It’s evident on your face.” I said tracing the outline of her full, soft lips.

Her eyes met mine. “It’s nothing. Really.” She whispered.

I paused and eyed her suspiciously with a smirk.
“You regret remembering anything, or being with me?”

“Neither
. But I’m afraid of what could happen now.” She admitted.

“I’ll b
e honest. I don’t you to return to the divine hall. I want you here with me.” I told her.

She smiled
but there was conflict in her eyes. It seemed as if she were actually thinking about that possibility. As much as it would hurt me, I knew that she needed to go back.

I sighed softly,
“If you go back now, you’re good. Any longer and they’ll assume that you’ve been infiltrated by darkness. In this case, that darkness would be me.” I said.

She smiled
and then her brows furrowed. “Don’t the divine warriors realize that you and those in your circle of friends are on our side? I mean, especially after this last incident?” She asked me in confusion.

“Starling
, as much as I hate the word…I am a demon. It doesn’t matter what side it appears we’re on, divine warriors are trained demon slayers with divine backing, and that will never change.”

Her eyes widened. I knew what she was thinking now.

“I can’t stop or control the actions of the others and that scares me.” She then said.

“I don’t expect you to
and you’d better not do anything to sacrifice yourself for me ever again.” I told her.

She rolled
off me with a sigh of frustration. “That’s not fair. You can but I can’t? That’s not the way it goes.”

I sat up.
“Well in this situation, it will have to be the way it goes. I don’t want to lose you, or risk never being able to see you again. Promise me that you won’t.” I told her.

She shook her head and looked at me, “Not unless you promise me something in return.”

I playfully eyed her cleverness, “Okay…what do you want me to promise you?” I asked carefully with a smirk.

“That no matter what, you
won’t attack or hurt any of the other divine warriors if it has something to do with me. That includes ordering or asking any of your friends to do it too.” She then clarified.

I narrowed my eyes at her curiously, “Expand on that statement a little.” I replied.

She smirked and sighed with a playful shove against my shoulder. “You know what I’m saying, Cam.”

I loved hearing her say my name, even the shortened
version.

I
shifted and sat up, “No. I can’t make that promise.”

She pressed her lips,
“Then I won’t make the promise either.”

I knew she wouldn’t. She was s
tubborn if anything. Even as an immortal, some things hadn’t changed. I couldn’t risk her putting herself in danger for me ever again.

There was no way
that I wouldn’t give her anything she wanted. Anything she asked of me, was hers. I would give her this promise because she had no idea that I was the master at finding a way around…everything.

I sighed deeply
and rolled my eyes teasingly, “Fine, I promise that I won’t attack them over you.” I said tightly.

She
smiled and eyed me this time, “I’ll make the exception if it’s in self-defense though.” She then said.

I gave her a wry smile.
“I appreciate that. And…” I trailed off.

She bit her lip and smiled. “I promise that I won’t sacrifice myself for you.” She finished my statement.

Sealing the deal, we kissed intimately.

I then rose from the bed. “I have some things that I kept for you. Or stole from your apartment, however you want to look at it.” I began as I headed for my bookcase.

She
chuckled and looked at me wryly. “ You mean other than the album?”

“Yes
.” I answered

I retrieved the rest of her
belongings, which included a sweatshirt with the red and gray, ‘University of Bloomington’ logo on the front, a journal that she had started, which was titled, ‘Bucket List’, her driver’s license, and her student ID badge.

I returned to the bed and laid it all out for her to see.
You would have thought I had shown her the Holy Grail itself, the way she looked over all of it incredulously. She picked up the license first and read it over.

“I did live in Indiana.” She whispered to herself.

“You knew that?” I asked her in surprise.

She looked up at me as I sat down across from her on the bed. “I’ve been getting random flashes of memories ever since I arrived here.”

That was odd. Yet another peculiar thing about Starling that separated her from the other divine warriors.

“You remember…everything?”
I asked her carefully. I wondered if she remembered Drakael and her friend Joel, past the photos of him.

“Not everything I’m sure, at least not yet.” She shook her head.

I watched as she ran a hand over the sweatshirt, and then began flipping through the spiral, stopping to read a few pages.

It was silent for a while.
I wondered if she were starting to remember her college life now.

“Why woul
d you take and keep these?” She then asked me.

“Does any of it seem familiar
?”

“Somewhat.” She frustratingly shook her head.

“No one else can tell you about these things but I can. I’m not bound to any rules, none of the dark ones are in the spirit realm. I had hope, because even with all of my hints you should have never been able to remember any of it, especially me. You remembering me…us, is like a gift…” I trailed off in my own thoughts.             

The gift or reward that Elohim granted me.
The one that the seraphim soldiers mentioned to me, when I carried out the request of releasing the two chosen for Elohim. The same one that the angel in the University parking lot was talking about too. She said that it hadn’t been given yet.

This had to be it.

Elohim knew that Starling was the only thing that I wanted, and the only thing that meant anything to me. He allowed her— to remember me. The one thing that should have remained blacked out of her memory for sure.              

This was yet another
coincidence, like everything else that Edanai had comprised at the dining table, regarding me and Starling.

“
A gift? Is that strange? Me remembering?” She asked.

I snapped out of my thoughts, looking deeply into her eyes this time.
The closest I have ever come to returning to Heaven, had been during all of my climaxes with her. It was even more prevalent now, looking into the striking, dark, deep blue of her eyes.

“A lot about you has been
— unique, not strange. I’m still trying to figure some of it out but I guess that’s why I’m so drawn to, and in love with you.” I leaned forward and kissed her softly on the lips.

She smiled.

I decided to go ahead and tell her everything that I knew of about her life. She needed to know and I wanted her to know.

“You have friends that still c
are a great deal about you in Indiana. You were a college student; a junior at the University of Indiana at Bloomington. Your biological parents are deceased. They both perished in hurricane Katrina, which was a major hurricane that destroyed much of Louisiana. You lived there up until then, but you came to the University from Florida, where you lived with your grandmother until she passed on too. I was posing as a police officer when we met at the hospice where you volunteered. Your friends met me on our first date. The auburn, short- haired girl is your best friend, China. You two were roommates. The story I gave her, was that you went to visit relatives in Jamaica, which is where you were born and originally from.”

I purposefully left Joel out
, hoping she wouldn’t ask about him.              

H
e was a chosen scout, she’d come to see him eventually anyway. He’d notice the changes in her and be able to see her brandings too. The same way that he had seen mine.

She gaped at me while I spoke.
I don’t know if she was more in shock of how much I knew, or saddened by the fact that her biological family was deceased.

Maybe both, understandably.

“By
saying that I was visiting relatives, you mean you left it open that I’d be back?” She surmised.

“Sort of. I know many of the more seasoned warriors make their homes in the human realm eventually. I wanted you
to have the option of returning and having friends that cared about you like family, waiting for you there.”

It was silent.

She stared down at all of her things scattered across my bed in thought. I hoped that I hadn’t hurt her more by revealing all of this. I would never forgive myself.

“
Thank you.” She paused, inhaling a breath as if thinking of her words.

“Not just for this
but for making sure that I didn’t die alone.” She then whispered.

Her words surprised me. She didn’t have to thank me, it was a given.
I caressed her face and kissed her again. “I would have gone to the ends of the earth to keep you alive if I could have. I can’t interfere with fate and destiny, just like the angels. As long as I exist, I will always be there with you…where I’m allowed.” I added with a smirk.

She smiled, knowing what I meant.

She sighed and pushed a curl behind her ear, glancing back down at her album, which sat next to her journal. She ran a hand over it in thought.

“Where do souls go
? Would it be somewhere in this realm?” She wanted to know.

I stroked her arm softly and pulled her into my lap, where she rested her head
against my chest.

“No. That’s an entirely differ
ent realm. The realm of souls lies in another dimension. There they wait to be either reincarnated or they may linger for all of eternity, but they’re safe from darkness and Morning Star.”             

Though she accepted that explanation, I could tell that she was saddened by the
thought. I didn’t like seeing her like this.

“That doesn’t mean
that you’ll never see your family again. I have no way of knowing that for sure but it’s something to hope for. If I had given up all hope for myself long ago, we would have never met. You may not have made it over to become a divine warrior and we certainly wouldn’t be here now.” I then added.

She smiled
and turned her face to look up at me. “And what if I didn’t remember you?”

I raised a brow. “Then
…I’d more than likely be dead right now.”

We both laughed.
             

“Actually,
if by some small chance you weren’t hell bent on killing me, then I’d take a chance in hoping that you’d want to get to know me. Even if we had to start all over again. We still have a date to finish in the human realm.” I then said sincerely.

This time she tilted her head back, rose up
and kissed me tenderly, lingering on my lips as if I were her last breath.

I stroked her soft c
heek once she pulled away.

“There’s a lot I want to teach you.”

She smirked. “I’m sure there is.”

I chuckled,
“Not sexual…well, not just sexual. I’m sure that you’ll receive somewhat adequate training with your blades at the hall but it will be nowhere near what you’ll need to know in order to fight against the fallen. I and those in my group can more effectively teach you how to slay demons and fallen. In my opinion, I think that all of the divine warriors would benefit from being trained by us.” I offered.