Pivane
“YOU were not born of Hell, were you?” Gabriel asked.
“No,” I replied.
“A demon seduced your mother, though?”
“I wouldn’t know. My father was not in my life.” I took in what he was saying and suddenly it hit me. “You have a cure.”
“I’m not sure why I’m helping you,” he groaned as he leaned against the doorway. Dr. Ashworth approached and injected Eliza.
“Technically the good doctor is—you’re just observing.”
“I want you gone.”
“I’m not fond of being this close to you either.”
“Without the woman.”
I stood with my hand still holding tight to Eliza’s. Rage burned deep inside me and the strength I’d found against Lucifer pulsed in my body. Gabriel tilted his head as if he felt the shift in the air.
“Half-breed…something that has become a problem in the world as of late. Are you to return to Hell?”
“I’m pretty sure I’m not welcome.”
“Is anyone?”
“More are welcome in Hell than in your home.”
“Touché. We do have those magic passwords. Where will you go?”
“Telling you would defeat the purpose of running.”
“Leave her. Let her have a life.” Gabriel narrowed his eyes at me.
“What if the life she chooses is with me?”
“What woman, born of Earth, would choose that?”
“She will, I swear it be true. Now free of the bonds of my home she will choose to go back with me.”
“Leave this room.” Gabriel crossed his arm and furled his wings. White feathers tipped with silver reflecting any speck of light. “If she wakes and her first request is to see you, I’ll allow it. If not she is under our protection.”
“You’ll erase her memory. Clear all her emotions for me.”
“You could just as easily dig in her mind and make her beg for you.”
My hand felt a tug and I looked down to see Eliza’s eyes opening slightly. She tried to smile, but the ventilator got in the way. The gray of her eyes didn’t have the dull effect from the drugs. Instead they sparkled when she looked upon me.
“There is no point now. Pivane, I will allow you safe passage out of this town, but understand Lucifer has knowledge of her and that makes the two of you targets. By staying with her you risk her life.”
I looked at my gray-eyed goddess. The bruising had started to heal and was no longer a deep purple. Cuts marred her face and when the little bit of me that was still a man saw a tear slide from the corner of her eye I didn’t know if I could put her through anymore. Even now I was barely standing. My knee couldn’t hold my weight and my spine was in a state of healing that would not allow me to move quickly if attacked. Every motion, from a leaf blowing to a man turning a corner, will have me on edge. Our lives would be spent not living, but running with nowhere to go.
“He will need to return to Hell or chance his sister taking power.” But that didn’t matter. No matter how I tried to spin the reality, Lucifer was the top of the food chain, not the bottom. “You’re right, Gabriel. I’ll leave her.”
Eliza’s eyes widened as she grasped my wrist to the point where I feared bruising. I sat on the side of the bed and used my free hand to brush back her blonde hair.
“It wouldn’t be a life with me. You wouldn’t have a purpose except to keep moving.” Her hand stroked my cheek. “If you stay here, you’ll be free to have fat babies and cure the sick. We can’t even lay together without me sending you into a coma.”
Her eyelids drooped as she shook her head. Frantically she pointed at a dry erase board on the wall. Dr. Ashworth passed it to her. Scribbling with the blue marker, she kept her focus on the board. The marker swiped down three times before she flipped it for me to see.
I LOVE YOU!
“Right back at you. That’s why I need to let you go.”
She shook her head furiously. When I lifted my finger to put her to sleep she grabbed it and bent it back. The look she gave me burned into me with heat of a woman who would not be denied. Was it wrong of me to get as hard as a damn brick?
“Give me the cure,” I demanded of Gabriel. “We’ll take our chances.”
* * * *
Esther Benson
“You can’t,” Kiriana said as we leaned facing each other on the other side of the hidden door leading to the barn. “Not now. The princess has sworn vengeance. She heals and you’re dead. You barely survived. You want to take Vince with you?”
“I didn’t think I wanted to. That girl. She seemed like they were involved. Now he’s outside our compound. I don’t get men.”
Kiriana’s velvet gaze rested on me with compassion as she took my hand.
“I understand. I do. At one time I thought I’d kill Nye, but Gabriel explained I wouldn’t.”
“Then I could—”
“I have a disease Gabriel was able to freeze. You stabbed the princess in the back, literally, before you practically cut off one of her wings and shoved her into a cell.”
“Damarion’s in there too.” I felt that was a bit of compassion I hoped she understood.
“We can’t treat her. If she survives, we all die.”
“Then I have nothing to fear.” I stood resolute. “We should kill her now.”
“Except her brother who was stabbed in the leg by Vince right before you attacked his sister. I doubt either of you are his favorite person.” With a squeeze she released my hand. “If I thought you loved him I’d say screw it, but Esther—”
“I can still feel his hand on my back,” I choked out as the phantom touch warmed my skin. “The way his lips tasted when he last kissed me. I know I wasn’t supposed to…not before a marriage, but Kiriana, I felt more of a loss from leaving him at the hospital then losing my claustranima. My heart is still with him. It may always be.”
“Esther…one of the hardest things a person can do is admit another has their heart. The only thing harder is telling the person.”
My hand rested on the panel and the door slid open. Cool air rushed in the foyer, but as I looked in the barn Vince was gone. Running from the barn, I saw his car stuck in the snow. His tires spun, unable to find traction. The cold air hit my lungs without a hint of pain. He was still here, I could still be his. I slammed against his car door and he jumped. His hand slowly put his car into park. The gray-green of his eyes were circled with red. Not crying, but on the verge. He stared at me through the window, but didn’t move. Had I misjudged him once again?
Laying his arms on the top of the steering wheel he rested his head on them. No longer could I see his eyes. His back moved with heaviness as if breathing was difficult for him. Had he passed out again? He couldn’t have. Dr. Ashworth had removed the root dispensing the sedative.
Opening the door he turned to me.
“You’re here?”
“Yes. I…” Tears streamed down my cheeks as I took in the pain in his face. He got out of the car and pulled me into his arms. “I did something…it will put us in danger.”
“I’ve known nothing but danger from the moment you stepped into my life.” He cupped my face and when our lips met my world once again felt whole. “Stay with me, Esther. This town will need someone like you.”
“I can’t. I have a sentence. I’m set to go to Nigeria. The next Hell’s Mouth to close is there.” The wholeness dissipated as I saw him question my very existence.
“When are you leaving?”
“In the next few days. We have to close up this home. The Frozen who are not permanent residents have already returned to their compounds. It is just for us to decide what part of our lives here we’ll need in the next assignment.”
“So the house is full of boxes? You’re stuck taping and renting a U-Haul?”
“It’s not really like that…” I pulled myself from his arms. “We set our rooms to be moved since they are going to different compounds. Zarmina’s greenhouse is holding us up. But any compound will love it.”
“Is she not going with you?”
“I don’t know. She and her Other are still waiting on their assignment.”
“So there are no more demons here and you leave?”
“There will always be demons,” I said, suddenly feeling the cold. “They just won’t emerge from here anymore.”
“The town is safe then?”
“As safe as any other town. In a few weeks things will die down. Return to normal. Sometimes it happens overnight, other times the city needs to grieve. I can’t tell you what will happen here for sure.”
“But it should settle?”
“It should…unless it’s like Chicago, but I don’t see that.”
“When did Chicago have a Hell’s Mouth?”
“The Red Summer…in the early nineteen hundreds. I wasn’t alive yet.”
The formality between us had returned and again my heart ached. Travelling to the other side of the world was a good idea. I’d miss Vincent, but that is the chance one takes when they bring a person into their life.
“That all happened because a Hell’s Mouth closed?”
“It was a larger area, it was hard to round up the demons.” I stepped back and looked over my shoulder at the barn door where Kiriana stood watching. “They blended in.”
“Oh.” He rocked back on his ankles and shoved his hands in his pockets. “So, this is your life?”
“Yes.”
“What about Kiriana? She’s…”
“Married. Sealed. We call it sealing. She sealed with Nye and now they will have a child.”
“Is she immortal like you?”
“I’m not immortal. You stab me, I die.”
“But if you’re not hurt…then you live forever.”
“Until my sentence is up. Then I ascend to heaven.” I turned to walk back to the compound when Vince caught my arm. His hand slipped down to my wrist, then my hands. The most unfeminine part of me. He used them to pull me closer.
“Don’t leave me.” He brought my hand to his lips and kissed the inside of my palm. The warmth of his lips against my hand sent a reaction up my arm. As if I’d been pierced as Jesus had on the cross. His kiss told me of the sacrifice I’d need to make. Kiriana’s words echoed in my head.
“I love you, Esther,” he said. “My world is nothing without you.”
“I love you too. You’ve become the beat in my heart.”
My hands cupped his cheeks as his slight beard tickled my palm, which still burned from the touch of his lips.
“You always make me warm,” he cooed in my ears.
“Warm?” I questioned.
“Is that a problem?”
“I’m not ashamed of my feelings.”
“You’ve lost me.”
“When a member of the Frozen is ashamed or upset, we can drop the temperature in a room.”
“But with me, I feel heat.”
“How hot do I make you?” I asked, and he answered me with a long deep kiss that heated up more than my lips.