Of Consuming Fire
Book Three in the Operation: Middle of the Garden Series
Micah Persell, author of
Of Eternal Life
,
Of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
, and
Emma: The Wild and Wanton Edition
Avon, Massachusetts
This edition published by Crimson Romance
an imprint of F+W Media, Inc.
Blue Ash, Ohio 45242
Copyright © 2013 by Micah Persell ISBN 10: 1-4405-7032-9
ISBN 13: 978-1-4405-7032-2
eISBN 10: 1-4405-7033-7
eISBN 13: 978-1-44057033-9
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, corporations, institutions, organizations, events, or locales in this novel are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used fictitiously. The resemblance of any character to actual persons (living or dead) is entirely coincidental.
Cover art © 123rf.com
For Forest —
An amazing man and top-shelf friend
Acknowledgments
As always, a wellspring of gratitude goes to my first readers. Christine, Tiffany, Joyce, and Nathan — I couldn’t have done this without you.
Compulsion
: A phenomenon specific to angels. Once an angel plans out his or her mission, free will is not a possibility. At a certain point, the Compulsion will take over. The angel will complete the mission regardless of whether he or she wants to.
Daughters and Sons of Men
: Humans.
Fall, the
: A heavenly being who succumbs to his or her Temptation, Falls: a phenomenon through which the heavenly being loses divine status and some or all of his or her powers.
Impulse Pair
: Anyone who eats of the Tree of Eternal Life will experience the Impulse — a phenomenon in which the human pairs with his or her intended mate. The humans in an Impulse pair will experience intense longing to be with their Impulse mate, and the longer they abstain from each other, the more intense the side effects of the Impulse. Impulse pain will grow until it become debilitating. Impulse pain can only be cured and avoided by the Impulse pair’s consummation.
Knowledge, the
: The ability, provided by the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, to determine upon touch whether someone’s intentions are
good
or
evil.
Sons of God
: Angels; not always “sons,” which is an archaic reference used to encompass all of a species. Angels can also be female.
Temptation
: Each heavenly being will at some point encounter his or her Temptation — the one thing that will tempt them to Fall. Temptations can take several forms, but the most common is a daughter (or son) of man.
Tree of Eternal Life
: The tree in the Garden of Eden that bears fruit that turns living beings immortal.
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
: The tree in the Garden of Eden that caused the Fall of mankind. The fruit of this tree counteracts some of the effects of the Tree of Eternal Life. The fruit gifts humans with the Knowledge.
Voice, the
: A mysterious, disembodied entity that speaks directly to the minds of those who have eaten of the Tree of Eternal Life.
The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground — trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2:9-10
After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Genesis 3:24
Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves …
Genesis 6:1-2
Dr. Grace Tucker pulled herself deeper into the corner and tucked her arms tighter around her unshapely belly. As her hands and arms touched her large middle, it repulsed her nearly as much as it seemed to repulse the opposite sex. No, there was no disappearing a plus-sized woman, but her sloppy appearance got most people to look away quickly, which was as close as Grace was ever going to get to being blessedly invisible.
And, not for the first time, she desperately wished to be invisible.
Grace huddled in the main room of the top-secret government facility where the Trees stood. As always, she ignored them. She was never awed by the ancient trees. She’d taken one cursory glance at their branches that most described as majestic. Their fruit — covered in glittering diamonds for the Tree of Eternal Life, swirling black and white for the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil — was interesting only in that it loosely related to her work. She didn’t stand there and stare at them for hours as she was told was the expected behavior for new employees.
And yet right now, Grace wasn’t the only one ignoring the Trees. The somber mood in the facility was nearly suffocating. Not one of the dozens of employees had spoken in hours. They moped from room to room, desk to desk, casting great, wide-eyed glances upon everyone they crossed. But that wasn’t the reason Grace retreated to the corner.
They were
touching
one another.
Any person they came into reaching distance with. A hand on the shoulder. A hug. A squeeze of the arm or lingering pat on the back.
It was only a matter of time before one of them tried to touch
her
. And that simply was not going to work. End of story.
And, so, she was in the closest thing to a corner the domed room provided.
A young soldier in army fatigues walked by, and Grace went rigid, holding her breath until he passed.
He didn’t once glance in her direction. Grace’s breath flew from her frozen lungs even as her heart seized at the casual snub. She hugged herself tighter as she cursed her weak emotions. Without fail, every time her carefully cultivated armor of acerbic wit and slovenly appearance actually worked as she’d meant it to by keeping others away, her irrational side would come up bruised, as though it didn’t know perfectly well the reasons human contact was not in Grace’s cards.
She sighed almost silently, and forced herself to look cheerfully upon the fact that standing in the corner was working. She would make it through this. She
would
. It wouldn’t be like all of the other times. There would be no scene. No gut-wrenching screams shooting from her body without her control. No hysterical sobs. No sedation. No awkward return to work. No inevitable summons to the boss. No starting over with the knowledge that this was her life — on repeat.
She closed her eyes. The sad truth was, this
was
her life. And right now, she was huddled in the corner, praying to be invisible, worrying with all of her strength that someone would touch her.
But her friend’s impending death? Not even a blip on her emotional radar. Jericho Edwards was dying, and Grace was worried about herself.
Jericho was everyone’s favorite, but for a reason Grace couldn’t explain, he was
her
favorite as well. It had been thirteen long years since Grace considered a man as anything other than something to be avoided at all costs. Thirteen years since Grace had carefully erected a wall around her heart. And yet, somehow, Jericho found his way around that wall the tiniest bit.
It might have been the very obvious fact that Jericho would never, ever pose a threat to her. She’d known two seconds after being introduced to him that he was head over heels in love with someone: his Impulse mate, Dahlia. Jericho was nice to
everyone
, men and women alike. In fact, Grace had never met anyone so good.
And he’d taken one look at her — her frumpy clothes, excess body weight, bird’s nest of red hair, black-rimmed glasses, and man-hating glare — and deemed her a friend, working tirelessly at cultivating a relationship with her when everyone else just avoided her.
And now, he was dying. Worse, his survival depended upon
Grace
and Grace’s work.
Three months and a week or so ago, Jericho cut his finger on the sword — the artifact that Grace was commissioned to work on. It was a flesh wound that should have healed in seconds given that Jericho, Dahlia, Eli, and Abilene were all immortal after eating the fruit from the Tree of Eternal Life. But the simple wound hadn’t healed. And things came to a head a few days ago when Jericho returned to the facility with his brand new wife, Dahlia. In the process of moving, Jericho managed to rip the tiny, unhealed wound wide open from the tip of his finger into his palm. It had been bleeding profusely ever since, and his body couldn’t keep up.
And suddenly, Dr. Grace Tucker was very much in demand. She couldn’t count the number of times she had to remind them “I’m not that kind of doctor.” Their situation was so unique that her PhD in dead languages made her much more qualified to help Jericho than an MD would on its best day, but her work took more time than medication or surgery ever would.
She’d made her breakthrough this morning.
The ancient, dead language on the sword said
What the Tree gives, the Sword takes. What the Sword takes, the Tree gives.
At least, she was ninety-nine percent sure that’s what it said.
Grace gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, and reassured herself that she was never wrong when it came to her work. Never. She was wrong when it came to everything else, but her work was infallible.
That’s why she was here. She was the single most prestigious language expert in the world. And it was going to change her life. That was the plan. She’d worked hard to make sure no one noticed her. The weight she’d gained, the fashion-backward wardrobe, the overt hostility — when she couldn’t disappear into her surroundings, she kept people away with every weapon her extensive intelligence and vast vocabulary could come up with.
But Grace’s secret dream
was
recognition. She just wanted it on her terms. She was going to make
the
discovery of all time with this sword. It was the work she’d been waiting for her entire career. And now it was here. And, as long as her translation was right, it was about to save one of only four immortal human beings on the planet.
Career. Made.
Everyone would know her name; everyone would know she was something. And the best part? She’d be absolutely untouchable in a way she could not dream of cultivating on her own. No one walked up to the winner of the Nobel Prize and gave them a hug. They got the recognition without all the messy social baggage associated with being members of the human race. They were members of a class considered above such things. And Grace couldn’t wait to be admitted into their ranks.
Grace’s eyes snapped open when she heard the sharp clack of men’s shoes on the hard floor of the facility. Sergeant Collins was approaching.
Grace shrank back further into her corner, her shoulders bending in on themselves, but it was too late: he was looking right at her, and double damn, he’d noticed she was trying to turn into wallpaper if the arch of one of his salt and pepper eyebrows was any indication.
He stopped before her, and Grace couldn’t prevent the hitch in her breathing. Reaching distance. The man was within reaching distance. She bit her bottom lip to avoid a whimper.
“Dr. Tucker?” Sergeant Collins asked in his smooth, Southern whisky drawl. He then looked her over once more. His eyes softened. He took a step back and crossed his arms behind him, effecting “at ease” posture.
Relief flooded through her so strongly it momentarily overshadowed the embarrassment she felt at having someone else recognize her reticence at human contact. But only momentarily. Damn it, why couldn’t she be normal?
She straightened to her full height — a whole five feet five inches — and worked her hardest to look as un-crazy as possible. “What can I do for you, sir?” A lock of her frizzy, red hair fell over her glasses, blocking Sergeant Collins from sight. She shoved it out of the way, tucking it behind one of the pencils stuffed into her “style” of the day.