Thief (44 page)

“Please, please, let me survive.” No matter how bad the injuries he knew he wanted to survive if only to be with Sherial, to do his duty by her. “I’ll go to church every day. I’ll stop lying, stop stealing. I’ll never eat meat again. I’ll do anything. Anything at all. Only let me live with Sherial at least till old age takes me.” And yet even as he begged for that he knew it wouldn’t be enough. He lied even as he begged. He couldn’t ever be separated from her even by death. It could not be allowed.

The look in the gardener’s eyes wasn’t what he’d prayed for. It spoke of compassion and love, infinite mercy and absolute understanding, but it also spoke of the natural order of things. It said volumes about his being where he was and accepting his fate. It told him his old life was over and he had to move on. Mikel the human was finished. He had a new life to live, a new place that he was expected. It was something he had to accept. But Mikel could never do that. His terror multiplied like puddles in the rain. It was a deluge.

“Only let me stay here, until its Sherial’s time too.” He screamed it, too torn apart with fear to think straight. This garden was the only hope he could see, and he allowed himself to hope, maybe for a fraction of a second it would be enough. But it wasn’t.

“I give my wings for Mikel.”

For an instant Mikel didn’t understand her, and then he did and a new level of horror opened in his heart. An express elevator straight back down to Hell. Sherial wanted to become mortal simply to be with him. There was a gone feeling in his guts to match the horror.

“No”, he screamed his denial with every fibre of his being. It was an abomination to even have suggested it. Sherial was an angel. It wasn’t just a winged body, or some special powers. It was what she was. Her soul, her essence was angel. To become a mortal would destroy her, as turning him into a cockroach in body, mind and soul, would him. And the truest horror of it was that she knew the cost, she feared it as nothing else she could imagine, and still was willing to pay it for him.

The gardener stared at her for the longest time, a look that Mikel couldn’t understand. But then he held out his hand for her and she moved to accept it.

“No.” The word was torn out of his throat in his mindless terror. Mikel could never allow it. He understood instantly and without a shadow of a doubt that if she held his hand the bargain would be made. He threw her to the ground and pinned her with his body, desperation in his move. Sherial was far stronger than him, and he knew it.

Before he had her arms properly pinned she’d used her wings to flip him over and was suddenly straddling him. Sherial too was desperate. She wanted him to live as much as he wanted her to be whole, and she was far more powerful than he. But she’d moved too fast, and reckoned without his weight or the years of jujitsu.

Before she could rise he’d twisted her hand cruelly, and flipped her once more. This time he managed to get both of her arms underneath her waist before a series of devastating punches with both wings told him he was in serious trouble. His nose broke under the impacts, and blood poured out of his mouth in rivulets.

Finally one punch dazed him too much, and he let go a hand.

It was all she needed. In an instant he found himself flying chaotically in a dazzling arc towards the distant hills, while Sherial was rising quickly, her destination certain.

Rivers of adrenaline suddenly became storm charged floods. Landing in a rolling dive, he turned and sprinted faster than he’d ever moved before, tackling her this time from behind, wrapping his arms around her feet and tripping her before she’d made more than a few steps. His weight on top of her again he pinned one arm and one leg together in a classic wrestling hold, and held on for dear life; hers.

“No! Let me die!” He screamed it at her, knowing she heard, and that she would never agree. But there was nothing else he could say. How long could he hold? Already her wings were lifting both of them off the ground. How could she possibly be so strong? In the end it didn’t matter. She was and he simply had to be stronger and that was all there was.

“Live. Love me.” Her cries tore through him like a tornado, bringing him to his knees. They were the terrible crux of it. If she won he might live, for a while, and she might live, for a while. But that life would be too horrible for words. She would be so much less than she was that it would destroy her, while he would be torn apart by guilt and shame in turn. In time she might even become as those they had just fought, something he couldn’t even stand to think about. It wouldn’t be a life, it would be a living hell for them both, and they both knew it. At least if he died she could be who and what she was.

A sudden movement nearly undid him totally as she used her wings to flip them both. Still with her arm and leg pinned behind her, she started lifting them both. He understood her intent even before she started the plunge, her body slamming his into the ground. Her wings lifted them both off the ground and then let them plummet like a stone, while her body weight impacted squarely on his lungs driving out the air. He felt flesh and ground give and wondered which hurt most. He held on regardless of the pain. What else could he do?

It quickly became a contest of endurance. Could he hold on long enough to wear her down? He had mass on his side, and a nearly unbreakable hold. Sherial had wings and the strength of an angel. They both had adrenaline born of desperation.

With each slam he felt himself being drained a little more, as the breath kept rushing out of his lungs and not enough replaced it. But with each lift he felt her tiredness growing as wings not used to this sort of load - least of all in reverse - struggled. Neither of them knew who would win.

“I love you”. They spoke the words, the thoughts, together, each knowing that they both meant them, and that it changed nothing. The slamming continued like an insane demolition derby. Surely Mikel thought, even the grass underneath them must be suffering.

Finally a rib went twang and Mikel suddenly knew he was in trouble, deep trouble. Sherial’s heavenly strength was winning out, and her free arm was taking a terrible toll on his rib cage, and together with each slam the broken rib was making it harder for him to breath. Red and green danced in front of his eyes. Soon things would start to go black. Desperation gave him a little more strength, but it wouldn’t last long and they both knew it. It was time for desperate measures. Mikel had only one chance.

On her next lift, he surprised Sherial by letting her go, and propelling her suddenly backwards with his arms and legs. Even as she was flying backwards he was landing in a roll and running towards the gardener.

“End this”.

In a running dive he hurled himself at him like superman on a bad day, while Sherial screamed in his soul, causing him greater pain than all the demons of hell put together. She finally understood his intentions but she wasn’t fast enough to stop him. She wouldn’t have guessed his goal until it was far too late. How could she, she’d never even understood the concept of death let alone suicide? His entire being was pushed into that one final move, knowing it was the last he would ever make. But at least he knew he’d make it.

Love and joy that Sherial would live was all that remained to him as he made contact.

Then even that was gone.

Against all the laws of creation, Mikel awoke, and the universe reeled around him like a thousand dancers spinning around a drunken ballerina. Nothing made sense, and the ceiling was moving faster than the eye could follow. His face was a giant mass of pain, and his ribs ached as though they’d been run over by a Mac truck. He would have been sick if there’d been anything in his stomach.

He was in his bed. He finally found just enough sense to recognize his own ceiling. He’d painted it often enough. Recognition led to recall and in a moment of horror his memories came flooding back.

“Sherial!”

He screamed her name with a strength born of uncontrollable panic. Dread assailed him, as he thought of the barren horror that his life would be without her, or the shear hell it would become if she had mutilated herself for him. He panicked and reached out with everything he had, heart, mind and soul.

He didn’t have to reach far as he found her lying on top of him.

“About time you woke up.” He couldn’t see her, in fact he couldn’t see anything at all until the room stopped spinning, but he knew enough to know there was laughter in her voice, even though she wasn’t using her voice. For his ears heard her cooing while his heart heard her thoughts as clearly as he knew his own. Much more clearly.

Despite the comfort of her thoughts, he couldn’t still his dread. His panicked hands ran over her bare skin, hunting, searching, and with infinite relief, finally finding feathers. Glorious, soft, luxurious, perfect feathers, covering her like a thick downy blanket. Covering them both. He hugged them to him, almost unable to accept their reality in the giddiness that threatened him.

“Oh thank God!” And then after a few seconds thought. “Thank God?”

She just laughed. “Who else?” He laughed with her, not understanding a thing, but who else indeed? He was alive when he should be dead, or at least he thought he was alive, and Sherial was still an angel. He laughed some more, the emotion welling up from somewhere deep inside and the release from fear brought tears of joy to his eyes. The laughter quickly became hysterical, and the tears torrents. Distantly he realised he had become a complete emotional wreck and finally couldn’t care less. All he knew was that Sherial was in his arms. That was much more important than the need to remain in control. More important than life itself.

His hands uncontrollable in their joy ran freely over her body. His heart was uncontainable in the wonder of having Sherial with him once more, while he let his emotions run free. Joy exploded as unceasingly he found and kissed every inch of her wonderful body, while his arms and his heart held her as tight as possible. As she held him.

The Lord had saved him to be with her, for their lives. Sherial told him that repeatedly, and he accepted it without question. She almost didn’t have to tell him. That much he seemed to know from the second he found her, almost as though he had been commanded to do so. Perhaps he had been. He would obey.

He gave thanks endlessly as he gloried in the wonder of Sherial, finally knowing that the Lord wanted him to. For when he loved her he finally understood that far from sacrilege he was really praising the Lord. Giving thanks for the wonder of his daughter. God had created both of them, given them both the ability to love, and brought them together for that very purpose. Besides what father wouldn’t want his children to be happy? After all, that was why she’d been given the duty of watching out for him.

More bouts of hysterical laughter assailed him as he thought of their relationship, how it was and how it would always be. As she watched over him, he promised to watch over her, her very own guardian human.

It was a laugh that wouldn’t end, as the two of them overcame their glorious shock to rediscover each other. It was like the turning on of a light switch, though it must have been someone else who toggled it. His eyes met hers and in an instant they knew hunger once again. Her beautiful skin, so warm and soft under his hands, suddenly started reminding him that she was a woman; his woman. He was her man. It wasn’t a choice for either of them. They had to be together.

They kissed, long and hard, a promise of things to come. Bodies began moving together automatically, acting and reacting as they both wanted. Her hips and his, almost without thought, started moving together in the oldest of dances, while hearts started hammering in both their ears. As one they suddenly discovered that they were going to make love, and the thrill of that discovery ran through them. A short circuiting lightning bolt of desire followed it. It had been too long.

His pain, her pain - all were forgotten in the growing heat of the moment. They had been apart for too long, and they had needs. They would always have needs. Hands and hearts began exploring, enjoying, arousing, and above all shouting out their love for the entire world to hear. Every touch, every caress, every thought was enjoyed by both of them. Enjoyed, and acted upon.