Iniquity (The Premonition Series Book 5) (23 page)

Atwater replies to me, “It will be done. You will have a love of your own choosing.”

Emil careens forward suddenly. “I want something as well,” Emil growls like a petulant child.

“Ah, it always wants something,” Byzantyne shoots Emil a look of censure.

“As your champion, when I win, I want Simone to cease to be. She doesn’t get to survive in Sheol as your favored pet. I want the ability to erase her soul from existence.”

Byzantyne scowls at him. “You cannot annihilate a soul. It is imposs—”

Atwater’s eyes become milky white once more. When his fit of shaking ends, he faces Emil and says, “Heaven accepts your terms with one stipulation.”

“Which is?’ Emil asks.

“There must be a balance. If you are given the ability to destroy her soul, than she will have the ability to end yours as well.”

Before Byzantyne has a chance to interfere, Emil replies, “As champion, I accept all the terms.” And just like that, the game is on.

“You set this up!” Byzantyne turns on me accusingly, narrowing his eyes at me. “This is what you wanted all along. What did you ask Heaven for in exchange for agreeing to attempt to erase Emil from existence?”

“Love.”

“For Xavier?” Byzantyne asks in rage. I’m being snatched out of his grasp. Either way, if I lose or if I win, he doesn’t get me. That fact isn’t sitting well with him. He looks as if he’s ready to drag me off to Sheol himself.

“What other reason could there be?” I ask.

Atwater gets between Byzantyne and me once more. “It is done. The terms are set. We will each return to our sides and negotiate the finer points of the agreement—time and place, arsenals, abilities—”

“I know the rules.” Byzantyne fumes, trying to rein in his emotions. “Alfred.”

Alfred jumps, startled at being addressed. His iridescent dragonfly wings buzz loudly. “Reap this traitor! Get him out of my sight!”

Alfred turns a wicked grin on Emil. With his golden scythe, he whirls it through the air, cutting a slash in the very fabric of this world. A small hole rends and gapes. Using his booted foot, Alfred kicks Emil, knocking him through the hole where Emil disappears from sight. He seals the gap back up using the same scythe.

Byzantyne notices the look of pleasure in Alfred’s shiny eyes. “Reapers are such worthless maggots. Soon, when every last soul falls to us, there will be no use for them.” he says with a look of disdain. “You will wait for me outside, Alfred.”

Alfred ducks his head. His shoulders round as he slinks off to the door amid growls from the other angels in the room. He slips out into the darkness and downpour. I almost feel sorry for him for having to deal with such a maniacal leader…almost.

“I want all of theses angels’ memories erased, Atwater,” Byzantyne orders. “They will not remember what occurred here.”

“So let it be,” Atwater says. He raises his arms. An invisible force begins to retract the Thrones and Cherubim upward, through the holes in the ceiling out and into the night sky. It only takes moments for Xavier to disappear into the air. When Atwater lowers his arms, the only angels still with Atwater, Byzantyne, and me are the ones holding Reed.

Byzantyne’s eyes fall on Reed. He wants to tear the Power angel apart. The feeling is definitely mutual because Reed studies Byzantyne as if he’s finding out all of his weaknesses. Reed said he was hunting Byzantyne for a while. Once a Power has selected a target, he almost never wavers from it. If he were to let Byzantyne go, it would be a failed mission. By the looks of Reed, I’d say he’s never failed in his entire life.

Byzantyne’s expression grows more and more intolerant the longer Reed stares at him. “Why is this Power still here?” he asks Atwater. “Blind his memory and return him to the hole from which he crawled.”

“You aren’t in charge here, Byzantyne,” I reply. His eyes narrow at me. He’s not used to waiting for vengeance. He exacts pain from whomever he wants whenever he wants. I look past Byzantyne to the angels holding Reed. “It’s done. You have to let him go.” Atwater nods in agreement to what I’ve just said. The angels turn Reed loose. As they do, Heaven draws the Cherubim soldiers from the carriage house, ascending them into the sky.

Freed, Reed flies between the scary monster and me. “You can go now,” Reed orders, dismissing Byzantyne. “You will have your chance at her in her next lifetime…except there, I won’t be restrained.”

“I will bury you in blood,” Byzantyne replies. He growls at Atwater, “You are the only divine one here who will remember these events! You may never speak of them. Am I clear?”

“It will be done,” Atwater agrees, “…unless…”

“Unless?”

“Unless one of you speaks of it first.”

“Be clear, Atwater! Byzantyne’s eyes are so narrow he’s squinting.

Atwater shrugs. “We can’t be held to the agreement if someone from your side were to say something that would jog a memory in Simone. If no one speaks of this night from your side, then Simone won’t know, but the moment any of you say anything about what has occurred here...” He shrugs again.

“So a boast from Emil should be sufficient enough to allow you out of the stipulation in his contract with you.”

“It is rather unfortunate for you, given his arrogant nature,” Atwater replies.

Byzantyne turns his anger on me, pointing his finger. “You will beg me in your next life to save you from Emil.”

“I always beg…in every life. I’ll pray this time will be different.”

“Still so naïve.” He shakes his head in disgust. “Until we meet again, Simone.” Byzantyne folds in his crimson wings. He falls to the stone floor below, landing on his feet as if it were nothing at all. Without a backward glance, he strides toward the door. His booted feet make almost no sound as he slips outside and vanishes into the night.

Atwater’s gaze travels from Reed to me. “I will give you a moment to say goodbye, after which I have to send Reed out into the night without any memory of this.” Atwater retracts his wings and falls to the floor below. He leaves the carriage house.

I shift my eyes to Reed, knowing that we don’t have much time left together. I’ll be called home to Heaven soon. Strategy and the details of my mission will be undertaken and debated by high-ranking Seraphim. They’ll work out angles of pursuit and arsenals in which to endow me for survival. Upon my return here, my memory of this event will be erased. I need to discover a way to survive him when we meet again.

“Do you—did you find me attractive?” I ask. “My former body—Simone?” Reed just stares at me, clearly reluctant to answer. “I’m not looking for compliments.” My words come out in a rush. “I need to know what about me made you want to help me so that I can try to replicate it in my next life.”

“I did—” he closes his eyes as he misspeaks, “—I do—” he opens them, “—find you attractive.” I could lose myself in his green eyes.

“Me too. I’m attracted to you, too.” I’m so glad I don’t have a body. If I did, I’d be blushing.

“I promise you, if you’re anything like you are now, I’ll want to help you.”

“You like what I looked like?”

“It’s more than that. I’m attracted to your radiance…not just your beauty, it’s you.” He places his hand over his heart. “It’s as if there is an invisible string wound around my heart and you control its beat—with a look—with a gesture. I feel the mark of you here.” His finger traces his skin above his heart. “But there’s nothing there.”

“The sensation is more like butterflies for me.”

“Oh, I have those, too,” he admits. “They threaten to consume me.”

“What should I do when we meet?”

“Just be you. I’ll be unable to resist you.”

I stare at him. “Be…me?”

“It’s rare for me to notice humans anymore. I go out of my way not to see them, but I couldn’t help seeing you. You smile and I feel as if I’m living on the edge of Paradise. There is no one like you, Simone. You are unique. I will always notice you.”

Atwater returns from outside, his blond hair soaked again with rain. He calls to us above him. “A Reaper has arrived outside, her name is Suni. She’s here to help Simone ascend. It’s time for you to leave, Reed.”

Reed nods and folds in his dark wings. He drops to the stone floor below, landing on his feet. I have the most peculiar feeling. It’s as if I’m losing my heart as he walks away toward Atwater. I call to him, “Why does it suddenly feel like the end of the world, Reed?” I fight the urge to go with him.

He pauses. He turns back to me, his smile radiant. “It’s not the end. It’s just the beginning, Simone. It’s the beginning of us.”

I
open
my eyes to Reed’s breathtaking green ones. My head is in his lap. He stokes my long hair, smoothing it away from my brow, just as he’d done for me when I was Simone. He exhales in relief when he sees me focus on his face. “Love, you’ve come back to me,” he whispers. Leaning down, his lips skim mine. Primitive hunger awakens inside me. I return his kisses, drawn in by the soft glide of his bottom lip. All too soon, he straightens to look at me. Touching my cheek with the back of his hand, he caresses it lovingly.

I stare at him, unable to speak. My eyes blur and cloud with tears that I can’t see past as my bottom lip quivers. He’s a virtual stranger to me in terms of the hollowness of time we’ve spent together. I hardly know him at all. He barely knows me, and yet, he’s become such an essential part of me. An all-consuming ache squeezes my heart, contorting it with indescribable anguish. No matter what I do now, I’ll lose Reed. If we fail to kill Emil and Byzantyne, we cease to be. If we manage by some stunning twist of fate to beat all the odds and accomplish our missions, we lose one another. Reed will be called back to Paradise as part of the deal I made. I don’t know what will happen to me, but I know Heaven. I know they’ll never take me out of the fray here while I live. I knew that going in. Once I accepted my role as an archetype being, there was no going home until my angelic body dies and my soul ascends. I am their pawn for life here.

Covering my eyes with my hand, I feel the burn of tears in them. I thought I could save this stranger who, on a whim, had rescued me from Emil. But I didn’t know—I didn’t see that I would come to love him so desperately—would need him more than I’ve ever needed anyone or anything.

I sit up, tears falling onto my cheeks. Crawling onto Reeds lap, I wrap myself around him, burying my face in the hollow between his shoulder and his throat. I choke back a sob. He wipes a tear from the edge of my jaw. “Shh…Evie, it’s okay. Tell me what happened. What did you find out?”

I shake my head. My throat burns with unshed tears. I kiss his neck then trail my lips along his jaw. Claiming his mouth, I recklessly stroke his tongue with mine. A groan of desire emits from him. Reed’s arms encircle me. He rubs his strong hands up my back touching the soft material of my sweater. His palms slip beneath the fabric to set fire to my skin. He guides my top over my head. I lift my arms from him only long enough to help, and then my hands are on his arms, pulling his shirt off over his head. I toss it away, uncaring where it falls. Running my palms over his shoulders, my urgent fingers warm from the contours of his skin. I move them up to his nape and splay my fingers in his hair. Reed’s nose grazes my neck. It has an incendiary effect, scorching my angelic flesh with wild sensation. My fingers tighten in his hair. I lean into his kisses, my senses raw. “I love you,” I whisper. “I always will.”

Reed rises from the floor with me in his arms. My legs wrap around his waist. He holds me, his hands cupping my bottom as his wings unleash from his back in a
whoosh
. Mimicking the extension of his feathers, mine unfurl and spread out, a red sunset against the dark night of his wings. I cling tighter to him, knowing that one day soon he’ll be taken from me. “I am yours, Evie—yours and no other’s until the end of time.” His powerful wings slice through the air. He flies forward until my back is forced against the wall. Far from being hurt by the impact, pleasure rushes through me at the contact against my wings.

His chest presses against mine. Raising one hand to my wing, his fingers curl in my feathers, a fragmenting ache of desire surges inside me. His cheek grazes mine. My body reacts, becoming dewy at my savage need to be possessed by him. He tears a red feather from me. Holding it between his fingers, he runs the silky tip over the flesh of my throat. A soft moan slips from me, making me suck in my bottom lip. Trailing the plume lower over my curves, my skin quivers from his relentless torture.

“Reed,” I breathe his name. The feather floats from his hand. His arm around my waist lifts me from the wall as he pops open the top button of my jeans. His hand slides over my bottom, pushing the denim and lace from me. I lean into him, finding his earlobe. I nip it between my teeth before sucking on it. His body tenses. His sharp intake of breath is followed by a desperate groan. He starts speaking to me in Angel, “It’s impossible sometimes not to touch you.”

“I need you to touch me, Reed. I need you to never let me go,” I whisper in Angel as I undo his belt. I suffer the loss of his skin against mine for a moment as he leans back so he can see my eyes.

“You spoke Angel.” His mouth curls into a heart-stopping smile.

My blood hums in my veins. I hunger with a potent ache for him. “I gave you a stolen heart, Reed,” I confess in Angel.

Reed loses his smile as his body stills. “Stolen?”

My eyes grow shiny again with unshed tears. “I’d given my heart to someone else before you. How could I know you’d be everything to me, Reed?”

“You’re my air, Evie. Without you, I drown in breathless sky.” He peels the rest of our clothing from us; his lips find mine once more. Dissolving into feverish intoxication, I vaguely realize that Byzantyne may have been right about something. Reed may truly be the one to shatter my heart and destroy me forever.

I
don’t want
to move. I don’t want to tell him what I saw. We’d found one of the guest rooms on the fourth floor. We managed to destroy most of it. Only one lamp is left unbroken, but the lampshade is askew. Reed leisurely strokes my hair, waiting for me to work up the courage to explain everything to him. I don’t know how. There are no right words. Words are feeble. My mind works franticly, trying to figure out a way to win and still keep Reed. If I kill Emil, I lose Reed. If I don’t kill Emil, Emil kills me—I’m dead and I lose Reed. It’s a catch-22. And then there is Xavier, and all of the dangerous feelings that now radiate through me for him.

I squeeze my eyes shut and rub my aching forehead. An unwanted tear slips down my cheek. Hastily, I scrub it away with the back of my hand. “It’s that bad?” Reed asks.

“Yeah, it’s that bad,” I murmur.

“Can you talk about it?”

“No.”

“Can you show me?” I move my cheek over his chest so I can see his eyes better. He raises his eyebrows. “Can you send me a clone of you? One that contains the memory of what happened in your past?”

I look away from him for a moment, thinking. Sitting up, I face him, pulling the sheet with me. “Okay. I’ll try.” Concentrating, I begin by remembering playing the piano as Simone with Emil behind me while Emil’s men were murdering the staff. I try to incorporate every detail up to the point where Suni, the Reaper, helped me to ascend from my life as Simone. The room spins. Light glows from me as I appear to be cut in half. A radiant image of me launches out of my body. Without far to travel, she enters Reed in a split second, disappearing inside of him. He glows for a moment as he absorbs the memory I sent to him. My emotions ravish him. He grimaces, unaccustomed to the intensity of my raw humanity. Or maybe it’s what he’s seeing that makes him flinch.

“You’re my champion,” he assesses. This strong, virile Power doesn’t know what to make of that.

“As you are my champion,” I reply.

“I thought…” his voice is hollow, “…I convinced myself after we met in Crestwood that we were meant to be—that you’re the love of my life. I couldn’t have been more right—” he laughs self-effacingly, “—and I couldn’t have been more wrong. You are the love of my life. I’m just not the love of yours.”

“Reed,” my voice breaks.

The look he gives me is one of despair. “Do you remember him?”

“Xavier?” I ask. He nods. I can’t look in his eyes, so I look up at the ceiling. “There’s so much time…when I think back…I can’t see a time or a memory without him in it.”

“You’re still in love with him and I’m still in love with you.”

“I came here to find you, Reed—”

“I found you. I didn’t slaughter you because I love you.”

“When we finish this, you’ll get to go home to—”

“Then we finish it.” He turns away from me, shifting me off of his lap. He swings his legs to the edge of the bed. Rising from the mattress, he walks from the bedroom.

“Wait!” I drag the rumpled sheet with me as I scramble off the bed and follow him. I pull my wings inside me so the sheet fits snug.

“You don’t have to say anything. I know how it is.” He’s already up the stairs and in the library room at the top of the house.

Rushing through the doorway, I find him buttoning his black pants. He picks up his shirt off the floor and retracts his wings into his back. “Then you know I don’t want to finish this!”

“Why not?” he asks, all business now. He’s acting like the Reed I first met at Crestwood and it’s scaring me. “It’s what you asked for, right? We kill your inescapable and his wicked guardian and you and Xavier are together for eternity.”

“That’s not what I want!”

Reed balls up his shirt. “No? Did I miss something?” His handsome mouth twists with anger. “I thought you made it all clear in your negotiations.”

“It’s what
Simone
wanted! It’s not what
I
want! I’m not
her
anymore.”

“I’m sorry,” he says cuttingly, “if you’re not Simone, then who are you?”

“I’m me, Reed!” I put my palm to my chest and pat it. “I’m Evie! I’m not just a soul anymore! I have this angel body!” I hold up my hand, letting him see the angel shine of it. “I have fire inside of me.” Opening my hand palm up, I ignite a ball of fire in it. “Simone is only a small piece of me! She may still love Xavier, but Evie—me—I love you, you stupid angel!” I let the fire go out in my hand. “You have no idea what losing you will do to me, do you?” I turn away from him.

His voice is rough as he says, “I’m not stupid. I’m stubborn and I’m not going anywhere without you.”

My shoulders round. “You won’t have a choice. It’s part of the bargain. You ascend if we win. Period.”

“Not
if
we win—
when
we
win.” I feel Reed’s arms wrap around my waist from behind. “And you don’t know for sure what will happen when we do.” His voice resonates through me like sex.

“I do know,” I whisper, leaning back against him. I may be a new being, but I’m also ancient and I know how things work.

“Heaven could allow you to ascend with me.”

“Reed, they’ll never allow me to come with you.”

Reed places his hand on my chin, turning me in his arms to face him. “You’re my
aspire
. I’m not leaving here without you. We’ll end Emil and Byzantyne, and then they’ll have no reason to keep you here.”

“If we win, I’m here until something kills me,” I murmur. “You know it as well as I do.” He knows I’m right. I’ve traded places with him. He knows Heaven will never call me back as long as I live and can fight for them.

“You asked for a love of your own choosing. You could choose me.”
Could I choose him? Could I deny him Heaven? It’s the only thing he had ever wanted before he found Simone broken on the floor of the carriage house.

My hand reaches out and touches his cheek. “I do choose you. You’re everything to me. It’s your wings that are branded into my flesh, Reed,” I say, tugging the sheet lower, exposing the binding mark of his wings above my heart. “I chose you.”

“There is no heaven without you, Evie. I cannot say it any plainer than that.”

“So we fight?”

“We fight and we win.”

And then we say goodbye,
I think, because I know it’s true and my heart bleeds because of it, but aloud I say, “We win.”

Reed leans down near my ear, “This
is
the beginning of us. I won’t give up. Not ever.” He nuzzles my earlobe. The seductive feel of his body pressing to mine is almost more than I can take. He loosens the sheet around me. His fingertips trace my skin, but his hand stills as a golden light bursts into the room in the form of Russell.

The clone of my soul mate slows when he nears us. His brown eyes, although made of light, shoot daggers at us. “Seriously, Red? I’ve been worried ‘bout you since you left Crestwood and now I find you two goin’ at it.” He throws a disgusted look at Reed. “What happened to ‘Wait for Evie, she’ll contact you’? Meanwhile, you two are gettin’ freaky and I’m a mess ‘cuz I can’t find either of y’all. So thanks! Thanks a lot for that!”