Fallen William (10 page)

When
she got off her shift, he was waiting outside the employee’s door. She flung
herself into his arms and kissed him. He picked her up and whirled her around.
She had never had a man so casual about carrying her. She had to admit his
strength was a bonus, especially when they couldn’t make it to the bed and he
just had to be inside her. He would lift her and take her against the wall.

“Why do
you carry me around so much?”

“I like
you close to my heart.”

His
answer melted her and she laid her head on his chest where she could hear his
heartbeat. It stuttered and then picked up speed. She realized he was reacting
to her being close to him. Looping her arms around his neck, she didn’t let him
set her down. He looked at her and she saw the yearning in his eyes. It wasn’t
just sex that he wanted from her. She was afraid to face what else he might
want.

Could
she take the chance that he wouldn’t break her heart? Was it possible to
believe that he loved her? God, she wasn’t good enough for him and once he
figured that out, he’d leave her. How would she survive it? She heard her heart
begin to beat in time with his. She was beginning to be swallowed up by him.
She had watched her mother live as a shadow that only came alive when her
father came home. Panic swelled in her. He almost dropped her when she pushed
against his chest.

“I need
to be alone.” She dug in her purse for her keys.

“Wrong
answer. I’m not leaving you alone until we know for sure where Thompson is.”

“He
isn’t here anymore. He’s probably moved to Vegas. I need time away from you,
William. You’ve totally overwhelmed my life. I should have known that would
happen when I said yes to you.”

“I’m
not trying to take over your life. If I wanted to, I could do it without a word
of protest from you. You’re running scared and it doesn’t suit you.”

“Doesn’t
suit me? How do you know what suits me and what doesn’t? I’m the only one who
does and you can’t make decisions for me.”

“What
decision have I tried to make for you? What’s wrong?”

“You’re
crowding me. I can’t breathe and I need time to think about everything. So
please, leave me alone tonight.”

He
stepped back and glared at her. “Ok, I’ll follow you home.” He held up a hand
to stop her protest. “I didn’t say I would stay. I’m following you home to make
sure no one else does and then I’ll leave you alone. Thompson isn’t gone and
I’m afraid he’s waiting for another moment like this one.”

She
didn’t say goodbye as she climbed into her car. She saw him standing in the
same spot she had left him in her rear view mirror. How was he going to follow
her home if he let her get that far ahead of him? It didn’t matter right then.
All that mattered was the need she had to get away from him and think. She
concentrated on driving until she pulled into her driveway. She unlocked her
front door and turned to see William drive off.

She couldn’t believe the sense of
sadness and loneliness she felt knowing she wouldn’t be sleeping in his arms
that night. She realized just how much he had become a part of her life as she
moved through the rooms of her house. She could smell a faint hint of his
cologne throughout the rooms. In her kitchen, the coffee mug he always used was
sitting on the counter where he had left it that morning. The novel he was in
the middle of reading lay face down on her coffee table. In her bedroom, his
clothes were folded neatly on the chair in the corner. Tears welled up in her
eyes as she got ready for bed. She slipped under the covers and curled up
around the pillow he always used. Fighting the tears, she was determined there
was no way she was going to cry over him.

*
* * *

She
jerked awake and stared up at the ceiling. It had taken longer than normal for
her to get to sleep because William wasn’t there to share her bed. She rolled
over and closed her eyes. The loose board in her hallway creaked. It only did
that when someone stepped on it. She felt her pulse start to race. She knew it
wasn’t William. He wouldn’t have broken his promise to her about staying away
from her tonight. A scraping sounded right outside her door.

“William,”
she whispered, wishing there was some way she could call him for help.

A
slight flash of light and William was standing beside her bed. She stared at
him in surprise. Her eyes shot from him over to where the door was starting to
open. She wanted to cry out when a black clad figure slid into the room. She
felt William’s hand touch her shoulder for a second before he moved to meet the
intruder.

“Thompson,
we were wondering where you had gotten to.” William spoke as the lights came
on.

Thompson
stood blinking in the sudden brightness. She was shocked to see the man. His
clothes were ragged and dirty. His hair hung in greasy clumps over his
mud-streaked face. There was nothing to remind her of the sleek lounge lizard
he had been. His eyes focused on her and she shivered at the intense look of
hatred and lust burning in them. Without acknowledging William, the man headed
towards her bed.

William
reached out trying to grab the man’s arm as he went by. Thompson spun out of
the way and turned to hiss at him. William’s face registered surprise before
his eyes narrowed and he studied the man. William had studied everything there
was to know about Thompson and his instincts were telling him this wasn’t the
millionaire. It was Thompson’s body but the spirit inside was a totally
different entity.

He
started to weave a net from his power. He didn’t want Thompson to harm Abby
before he could stop him. Tossing the net out, he watched in amazement as the
man dodged it and raced towards the bed.

“Stop.”
He threw up a wall of power blocking Thompson from her.

Thwarted
in his attempt to grab her, the man spun around and snarled at William. His
eyes turned a deep red and his teeth lengthened to fangs. The creature looking
out of Thompson’s eyes was not human.

Shit.
Dominic, I’m in trouble here.
William threw out a line to the other Enforcer.

What’s
wrong?
Dominic’s
voice sounded instantly in his head.

I’ve
found Thompson, or more truthfully, he found Abby. I think I know who that True
Demon was after.

Shit
is right. I’ll be there shortly.

As
quick as you possibly can because I don’t think I can take this one on my own.

The
power emanating from the demon rolled in waves over him. He wasn’t at full
strength either because he had been hiding his presence from Abby. The creature
leapt at him and he barely had enough time to get out of the way. He felt the
burning of its breath and smelled the awful stench of its body. He hated
fighting True Demons because they never understood they couldn’t win. He always
ended up feeling like he was beating up a stupid animal that didn’t know any
better.

Stupid
animal might be an apt description of them, but don’t forget they are cunning
and dangerous in a different way than our brethren. They will try to survive at
any cost to them. Our brethren will run before they allow themselves to be hurt
in any way.

Why
aren’t you here?
Thompson missed his body by inches the second time. He saw the claws
transforming the man’s hands into lethal weapons.
This demon is strong
enough to change the body he’s using.

I’m
not at full power and I don’t want to use what little I do have by transporting
myself. I’m only minutes away.

Those
might be minutes I don’t have.
He felt the sting as one of the claws caught his arm.

That
wasn’t good. Make sure it doesn’t spread.

He
could feel a tingling already starting to move up and down his arm from the
wound. True Demons had a poison on their claws that could paralyze him if he
didn’t take care of it. He took a little bit of his power and created a
tourniquet to stop the poison from traveling. Thompson was heading towards him
again. He threw out his fist and landed a solid punch to the man’s stomach. The
demon’s fetid breath washed over his face making him gag.

“She’s
mine.”

“No,
she isn’t.” He slammed another punch to its face. Blood spurted from the nose
and dripped on the floor where it left burn marks. He felt the skin on his hand
start to burn.

He
glanced towards the bed to see if Abby was still okay. He felt an anxious jolt
when he saw the empty bed. Where had she gone? Another swipe of claws caught
his attention. He knew he couldn’t let her disappearance distract him. He would
need all of his wits to keep both of them alive.

Another
punch to the head didn’t seem to make any difference to the creature. He knew
the demon didn’t care if the body housing it was destroyed, it would go out and
get a new one. He swung a roundhouse kick to its leg and drove into the
kneecap. The leg buckled and the demon lurched. A vase crashed over its head.
William felt his eyes widen and his heart jump when Abby appeared behind the
demon. She had crept up and hit the thing on the head. Weaving, it swiped at
the blood running down its face.

It
whipped around, reaching out to grab her. He threw his arms around its body
while he ignored all the burns caused by the blood. He couldn’t let it take
her. Dominic appeared in the room and pulled her out of the way while facing
the demon. William let it go and moved to Dominic’s side, placing their bodies
between her and the creature.

“I’ll
not fight the both of you.” It pointed a clawed finger at Abby. “The girl is
mine and I’ll get her someday.”

“Over
our dead bodies.”

“That can
be arranged.” The demon disappeared in a haze of sulfuric smoke.

William
turned to look at Abby. Backed into a corner of the room, she was shivering and
her eyes were filled with tears. He took her into his arms and held her tight,
trying to make her feel safe. He ignored the twinges of pain she caused as she
ran her hands over his arms and up his shoulders to wrap around his neck.
Dominic allowed them a few moments of comforting each other, then he touched
William’s shoulder.

“We
need to get your wounds taken care of. True Demon’s blood is almost as deadly
to our kind as the poison on their claws.”

Dominic
led the couple into Abby’s kitchen. Earthenware bottles and towels appeared on
the table. He gestured for William to take a seat. She sat in the chair next to
him not letting go of his hand. He knew she was scared but she was handling her
fear well. Not many mortals had run-ins with True Demons and it could be a
terrorizing experience. He hissed as Dominic poured some liquid on the burns.

“This
is a distilled mixture of belladonna and opium.” Dominic touched a damp towel
to the large cut on his arm.

“Isn’t
belladonna deadly?” she asked, not taking her eyes off of William’s wounds.

“It is
to mortals. For reasons I haven’t been able to figure out, belladonna is a
healing agent for fallen angels. Our cell structure is different so it might
help us break down the poison differently. I’m an herbalist, not a doctor. All
I know about any healing comes from trial and error.”

“Why
don’t you just heal yourself like you did me the other night?”

“First,
I’m not at full strength. That fight depleted me pretty much to empty.
Secondly, wounds by True Demons can’t be healed using our power. It was the
same when we were angels. Maybe God’s trying to even the playing field a little
bit by giving them this advantage over us.” William drew in a breath as Dominic
cleaned a particularly deep burn.

“So
what was that thing? I know it looked like Thompson, but that wasn’t the same
man that harassed me.”

“It was
and it wasn’t. When a True Demon possesses a mortal, it takes over the body. It
will dig into the mortal’s mind and find old hatreds or obsessions, like
Thompson’s for you, and use them to cause pain. So there are pieces of the
mortal still left in the body, but mostly it’s just the demon running things.”
William watched as Dominic closed all the bottles and then made them disappear.

“What’s
a True Demon?”

He
pulled her on to his lap and hugged her close. “A True Demon is a creature that
has been around as long as there have been angels. The balance of nature
demanded that if there were to be beings of ultimate good then there must be
some of ultimate evil, so True Demons were created as counterparts of angels.
Before the Fall, we would fight them because it is our nature to abhor evil.
After the Fall, there were far more fallen preying on mortals than True Demons,
so the Enforcers focused on them. We have to or nature would become unbalanced
and destruction would follow. The True Demons still cause trouble and we take
care of them when we can, but we tend to ignore them if they aren’t directly
involved in our problems.” He looked at Dominic over her head.

Thank
you.

Dominic
smiled and nodded.
You’re welcome. Take your woman to bed. I’ll keep watch
the rest of the night. You need to sleep off the effects of the poison and the
belladonna.