Lost In Time: A Fallen Novel (22 page)

“I was trying,” Marcus muttered, more to himself than to her as she stepped over him and threw her door open.

“What?” she asked so abruptly even Marcus flinched.

“They need you and Marcus downstairs, but I can’t find Marcus,” Cameron said.

“Oh he’s on the floor.” Celeste thumbed at Marcus over her shoulder, pushing past Cameron he heard her rush down the hall.

Cameron leaned against the door jam and starred at Marcus for a long moment. “You know something?” he asked.

“What?” Marcus snapped. Looking up at Cameron from his position on the floor.

“With a woman like that…” He turned to where Celeste had disappeared. “I think you’re going to end up on your ass a lot.” Chuckling, Cameron turned and walked away.

Marcus let his head fall back on the hard wood floor. He starred at the ceiling thinking of anything but the woman he had just had in his arms. The woman he wanted to bury himself in and couldn’t. He had waited, thinking he was saving himself for something and now knew it was Celeste. But now that he knew that, he wanted nothing more than to be with her, and felt as if he were going to go insane wanting her so damn much.

“FALLEN?” Celeste bellowed from somewhere on the first floor of the house like a vapid fishwife.

Marcus pulled himself to his feet. He knew getting past her walls wasn’t going to be easy, but he hoped getting into her body would be easier, and would pave the way around that damn wall she held onto so tightly.

Celeste stood at the bottom of the stairs waiting for Marcus, only to have Victor come rushing down the hall. He grabbed her by the arm, dragging her ups the stairs.

“What the hell?” she stumbled, but Victor kept moving dragging her when she stumbled.

They ran head first into Marcus as he left her bedroom.

“What were you doing in there?” Victor growled. Then shook his head. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter.” He pushed Celeste into the room.

“What is your problem?” Celeste asked finally, pulling her arm from his.

“Aiden showed up with several vampires, as requested. However, one of them travels with a Demon.” Victor started opening draws and throwing items of clothing over his shoulder.

“Shit.” Celeste’s mind started racing. “I could just wear my cloak,” she offered.

“He already smells you,” Victor snarled, looking over his shoulder. “Damn it, get your hair up.”

Kyra rushed into the room. “Ryder said I was needed up here.”

Celeste was unbraiding her hair. “We need to braid my hair into three sections and wind them around my head.”

Victor finally found what he was looking for. “We need to get a man’s scent on you,” Victor snarled.

Celeste felt blood rush to her face and looked up at Marcus. “What is going on?” Marcus asked.

Victor threw another item at Celeste. “She is an unclaimed female, and on top of that she is a Sex Demon. It drives other male Demons nuts.”

“Tell me he is kidding?” Marcus turned to Celeste.

She shrugged. “It wasn’t necessary to explain because there are not that many Demons in the mortal plane. They aren’t civilized enough, so I didn’t. A small detail like that shouldn’t matter.”

Marcus let out a stream of curses.

Celeste would have laughed at the look that Marcus had on his face, but she was too busy trying to redo her hair.

“We need to hide her hair and dress her down.” Celeste actually felt bad for Victor. He looked like he was about to jump out of his own skin.

“Victor, it’s going to be okay.” She tried to comfort him as she showed Kyra what she needed help with.

“Full explanation. NOW,” Marcus demanded.

This was the last thing she wanted to do, but she was backed into a corner. “Female Demons are subservient to the males. I shouldn’t be seen without a male escort, and my brothers don’t count because they are Reapers.

“You’re a Reaper,” Marcus said.

“Yes, but I am also a Sex Demon,” Celeste said, sitting down so Kyra could wind her hair around her head in a cornet style.

“By going around unescorted I am offering myself to any male that is powerful enough to take me.” This was so embarrassing she wanted to crawl under the bed and hide.

“And with my hair down, it’s another sign that I am single.”

“This isn’t making any sense,” Kyra said.

“Female Demons let their hair grow until they are blood righted to a male. Then they cut it.”

“But you’re five hundred years old,” Kyra said. “Your hair should be dragging behind you.”

Victor snarled. “She cut it a couple of centuries ago, thought she was in love.”

****

Marcus felt rage surge through him so quickly he wanted to kill someone. The last thing he wanted to talk about was the man she thought she had been in love with him. “What do we have to do to keep this damn Demon off of her?”

“She needs to smell like a male, and then we need to cover her up. Her hair has to be pulled up, and she needs to stay close.” Victor nodded as Celeste pulled a large t-shirt over her close fitting clothing and then strapped the sword to her back, swinging her cloak around her shoulders. The handle protruded through a special opening at her left shoulder.

“What are we going to do about your scent?” Victor asked.

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Celeste said, not looking at Marcus.

Marcus smiled. Damn straight he had just licked her stomach, kissed her neck. If his scent wasn’t all over her, he was doing something wrong.

Victor looked from Marcus to Celeste and swore. He stepped forward, slamming a fist into Marcus’s face. “You bastard.”

“Victor,” Celeste stepped in between them. “We so don’t have time for this. And for a moment just remember you forced him on me the other night so I would heal.”

Marcus didn’t take that as a compliment, nor did he like the tone in which she had said it. She had wanted him as much as he had wanted her. Why couldn’t she have just said that?

Victor opened and closed his mouth several times. “That was different.”

“Get over it. I’m a big girl,” Celeste muttered. “Now let’s go see if we can avoid a riot in the living room.”

She left the room, Kyra directly behind her.

Victor stopped Marcus. “You hurt her, and I’ll kill you.”

“So you’ve said.” And then he took pity on the Reaper. “Her life for mine, I will do nothing to hurt her and everything in my power to protect her.”

“Stay close to her. And be ready to fight. I don’t care if you don’t want her, your scent is on her right now, and if that Demon decides to fight you, you better win.” Marcus nodded. He had never in his time as a Fallen worried about his ability to fight.

They followed the girls, and Victor stopped them before they entered the room, letting Kyra go in first.

Marcus turned to Celeste and kissed her, rubbing his hands along her cloak covered arms. He kissed her until they were both breathless. He leaned back and looked down into her lovely violet eyes. “Just making sure.”

Celeste shook her head but there was humor in her eyes. “You have to go first.”

Marcus smiled. “I might like this.”

He turned, and she punched him in his right kidney. He stumbled a step before he straightened up and was able to walk into the room upright.

“We aren’t done,” he said over his shoulder. She had pulled up her hood so he couldn’t see her face.

“We’ll see.” Her voice drifted from the darkness of her hood.

He stumbled, and flashes of times he had spent in the Infernos assailed him: a slight figure leaning over him with bright kind and loving eyes. That figure had him going back over and over for punishment just to feel that soft touch. It was the only touch he allowed himself. Was that who Victor had been talking about? He smiled. She felt something for him, Otherwise she wouldn’t have been his caretaker all these years.

****

Celeste could smell the flood of testosterone in the room as she entered. She kept her head down, but looked around. The Demon stood in the corner next to a vampire with dark brown hair and rugged looks. The Demon was large and his eyes locked on her and his nostrils flared, his eyes taking on a red glow, he rumbled deep in his throat.

His Vampire friend put a hand on his arm. The Demon turned to the vampire. Celeste knew if something was going to happen, it would be now and every muscle in her body tensed for the fight. But then the vampire whispered something to the Demon that seemed to calm him he nodded and turned away from her and back toward the vampire.

Celeste stumbled into Marcus when he stopped she was so shocked. She had never met a Demon with control enough to not even approach her.

Marcus stepped back to steady her. “I think it worked,” he whispered and winked at her.

Celeste didn’t believe it, but was keeping it to herself. That Demon was either already mated or had control she had never witnessed exhibited by a Demon before.

“Now that we are all here, I will need a blood sample from each of the Reapers,” Kyra said, standing next to Eric, her brother.

“Why?” Christian asked, stepping forward he opened his palm and cut his palm.

Kyra gave him an endearing smile, and Celeste knew that Kyra had just earned herself a friend for life. “The protection around the house can’t be completed until I add the blood of the Reapers. That way, you can cross it, but Calliope can’t, and neither will any other Reaper that isn’t in the room here tonight.”

Garrett and Victor stepped forward also cutting their palms with a knife they pulled from their cloaks. Celeste stepped up and nudged Marcus. “You must do it,” she whispered.

Marcus gave her a strange look. “Give my blood?” he asked.

She wanted to hit him. “No you must be the one to bleed me.”

“Dammit,” Marcus growled, stepping forward with her, she offered her hand over the bowl like each of her brothers had made and pulled a knife from her sleeve handing it to him.

He held it for a moment. “I’m sorry,” he whispered so that only she could hear, then sliced into her palm. She forced herself to not make a sound as her blood dripped into the bowl.

Once that was done Eric, picked up the bowl, Celeste turned to Victor who took her hand and healed her. Marcus felt helpless. He had injured her, and he couldn’t even heal her.

“Everyone needs to pair up. As many with a Reaper as possible,” Kyra said. She handed out small bags to each person, except the Reapers.

“This concoction will simulate a Reaper Flashing, even the opening of a portal,” Kyra explained. “You need to be prepared to get out of the area as quickly as possible. From the contact we have had with Calliope, it is obvious he is sitting on a precarious line between sanity and complete madness. So don’t hang around. Trust me when I say that in the small groups you will be in you will not be able to defend against him. He will kill you, regardless of being immortal or not. Does everyone understand?”

When everyone agreed, Victor and Garrett pulled out the map. They worked on showing everyone where they needed to be and each destination. “Six hours. That is all the time we are allowing, and then everyone must be back here.”

Everyone nodded and then left. It would take a half hour to get everyone where they needed to be besides the Reapers.

When they were ready, Celeste offered her hand to Marcus. “Ready?” she had pulled her hood down so he could look into her eyes.

He placed his hand in hers. “Yes.” He sucked in a breath and blew it out as she Flashed him. They ended up in a dark park where swings hung fluttering in the wind. The darkness oppressive and thick.

“Who did you think you were in love with?” Marcus asked as soon as he had his breath back.

Celeste just looked at him for a moment. “Seriously?”

Instead of answering, she Flashed them again, this time Marcus reappeared and fell to his knees, sucking in cool air. “God Dammit, Celeste.”

He swept her legs out from beneath her so she landed on her butt next to him.

“Do you enjoy picking on woman?” she asked.

Marcus growled, and Celeste growled back. “Just stop doing that.”

“You know, you ask me that a lot. But never once, have you explained exactly what it is I do that you want me to stop doing.” He looked up into the night sky trying to figure this woman out.

“Ready?” she asked, irritation lacing her words. It was the only warning she gave before they Flashed and landed in a cemetery.

“You know this Flashing thing isn’t getting any easier. In fact, I feel sick.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Celeste said with little emotion.

Marcus pulled himself to a standing position. “Sometimes I wonder if you even have a heart.”

She grabbed him, not warning him at all as they Flashed again, ending up in an alley. He knew where each Flash would lead them and where they would end up. He stumbled out of arm’s reach. She wasn’t going to pull another Flash out without him knowing it.

“STOP.” He was done, and they were going to have it out whether she wanted to or not.

“What do I have to do to get past that damn wall you have built between you and the world?” he demanded.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She reached for him, but he side stepped her.

“Celeste, talk to me.”

“I have nothing to say, Fallen.”

Marcus wanted to shake her, but knew that if he did, she would Flash them somewhere, and he wasn’t ready for that. His ability to shift was a much more comfortable way to travel. “Who were you in love with?”

“None of your business, Fallen. He wasn’t the man I thought he was, and what I thought I felt for him is gone.” He could tell it hurt her to just say it, which could only mean she still had feelings for him. Rage surged through him, and he felt as if he was going to internally combust.

“He was an idiot.” Marcus couldn’t imagine a man walking away from her. She was beautiful strong and took joy in things people took for granted.

“I agree completely. We need to move.” She reached out a hand, and he took it.

They Flashed to a business district. Empty buildings stood like avenging Angels in the dark with sad windows that were broken out, and black shadows hid behind them. The mortal world was falling to darkness, and the mortals didn’t even know it. He wondered briefly how many would care?

“How did you fall?” Celeste asked, shocking Marcus back to the here and now.

He looked at her. Her violet eyes glowed in the darkness. He could brush her off, refuse to answer, but he didn’t. He wasn’t going to hide from her. He hoped his honesty would help to draw her out.