“It’s okay, but it might be a little tight.”
“It’s supposed to be tight,” said Mal in an abrupt way. “It’s the only thing protecting your head from the asphalt.”
She bit her lip in fear. “Will my head be colliding with the asphalt?”
“Not with me driving, darlin’,” said Dante with smooth assurance.
That line earned a chuckle from Brax and a roll of eyes from Mal, but neither of the other two spoke to her again as they took their places on their bikes. She clung to Dante when he started his, and the other two followed suit. She let out a cry of shock and surprise when the motorcycle darted forward seconds later, and she increased her grip around Dante’s waist harshly enough to make him gasp.
“Relax a little, darlin’,” he said, and she could picture him winking at her again.
She focused and made an effort to loosen her arms slightly, though she was still terrified as the motorcycle left the parking lot of the roadhouse and soon merged onto the asphalt. She clung to him, torn between fear, curiosity, and perhaps a little bit of exhilaration to feel the wind blowing through her hair, at least what was exposed outside the helmet. The landscape seemed to rush by, and she soon discovered she enjoyed the ride much more if she closed her eyes, pressed her cheek against Dante’s warm back, and tried not to think about the reality of where she was.
They rode for what felt like forever, though it was probably little more than twenty minutes. Soon enough, they stopped outside a building she quickly identified as a hotel. No, this was a motel. The sign had corrected her, and the establishment itself looked a little more rundown. She wasn’t certain how she knew that, or when she’d last had a chance to compare hotels and motels, but she definitely knew the terms.
“Get us two rooms,” said Brax to Mal.
Mal nodded and got off his motorcycle while Dante put his feet on the parking lot, but he kept his motor idling. She continued to cling to him, though she knew logically she could release her death grip on him now that they were no longer moving.
“It’s going to be okay, Abby,” said Brax in a reassuring tone.
She managed a small smile and a nod for him, but she wasn’t entirely confident in his words. She still had no answers and no idea what she was doing there, or how she’d arrived in the forest, save for the brief and terrifying memory of falling.
Mal returned moments later holding two keys. “We’re in rooms one-sixteen and one-seventeen,” he said to them as he got on his bike again. He started it, and Brax and Dante followed, both having left theirs idling. She clung to Dante once more until he stopped the motorcycle, this time turning it off. She recognized that as her cue to scramble off, and she did so, but her legs felt shaky again. She thought it might be the transition from the motorcycle back to firm land.
“Here’s a key for you,” said Mal as he handed her the one labeled one-seventeen. She took it and stared down at it for a moment before nodding her thanks.
“She can’t be in there alone. We have no idea why she’s here, or if she’s even what we think she is, but if so…” Dante trailed off, looking earnest.
“It’s not our problem,” said Mal.
Brax heaved a sigh. “I think we established we’ve made it our problem, okay, Mal?” He turned to look at her then. “You’re welcome to have a room to yourself, but if you want someone to share it, we can do that too. Either way, I’d like to know more about you before you turn in for the night.”
She shook her head. “I’d tell you everything, but I really don’t remember anything besides feeling like I was falling. There was a bright light, and then I remember hitting the ground, or at least it felt like some kind of collision. Otherwise, everything is a blank until I woke up this evening in the forest.”
“Which realm are you from?” asked Mal.
She frowned. “I don’t know.”
“Is someone chasing you, sugar?” asked Brax.
She hesitated for a moment before lifting her shoulder. “I really don’t know. I truly don’t remember anything. Just bits and pieces, I guess. I seem to know the terms for everything, but I have very few, if any, personal memories. I didn’t know people called me Abby until you said my name.” She tilted her head then, wondering how he had arrived at that conclusion. “How do you know my name is Abdia?”
“It’s imprinted on you, Abby,” said Brax. As he spoke, his gaze dipped to her shoulder, which was currently covered by her garments, but she recalled he had slipped it down enough to see. “Our Enochian name symbol is imprinted on us all as soon as we’re born or come into existence.”
“So you don’t know if you’re in danger or how you came to be here. Sure sounds like you didn’t arrive on your own.” Mal looked annoyed at that.
She licked her lips and shrugged. “I guess maybe not.”
“We’ll keep you safe for now until we figure this out. Would you like the room to yourself?” asked Dante.
After a moment, she shook her head. “I don’t wish to be alone.”
“In that case, you can share with me,” said Dante as he started to step closer.
“Nah, she’ll be sharing with me, kid,” said Mal.
She frowned at him, both at his surly expression and grumpy tone. “You don’t seem to desire that, Mr. Mal.”
He frowned. “Just Mal, and I don’t, which means it’s far safer for you to stay with me than with Dante.”
The younger man started to splutter. “How dare you. I would never—”
“I didn’t mean it that way, kid. I meant you’re more likely to get attached than I am.” His tone made it clear this all was temporary.
She had no right to feel upset at that, for they hadn’t been required to help her at all, yet she couldn’t help feeling a tiny sense of abandonment, and a shudder went through her entire body.
“Don’t be afraid. We aren’t going to just throw you out into the world on your own. You can stay with us while we unravel what’s happening to you,” said Brax in a reassuring manner.
Abby smiled and then yawned.
“You look dead on your feet,” said Mal with grudging care in his tone. “You’d best grab some sleep, Abby.”
She nodded her agreement and took the key Mal had extended to her. She opened the door for one-seventeen a moment later and stepped inside, almost engaging the deadbolt before remembering Mal would be sharing the room when he came to it later. She left it unlocked instead and fell onto the bed as exhaustion overtook her. She was asleep in seconds.
Chapter Two
Brax focused his attention on Abby in her room, ensuring she was asleep. When he focused, he could hear the slow and steady thump of her heart along with rhythmic breathing from the next room. The hotel rooms were adjoining, and he nodded to Dante. “Go ahead and close the door.” While she appeared to be sleeping, he wanted to make sure they had complete privacy for the discussion ahead of them.
Dante looked reluctant as he stood up and moved over to close the door, not locking it before returning to the scarred table in the moderately priced motel room. He reached for another beer, and Mal nodded at the cooler, saying, “Pass me a fresh one.”
“You’ve been nursing that one for the last hour,” said Brax as he took a pull from the neck of his bottle. It was some cheap crap Dante had picked up earlier in the day so it would have time to sit in the cooler and be cold by the time they stopped for the night. It wasn’t to his taste. He preferred craft brews or dark lagers, while Mal had a greater appreciation for aged wine. Dante was young though, and at only two hundred twenty-one, he could hardly be expected to have developed a sophisticated palette just yet. He grimaced at the bitter aftertaste as he set down the bottle, staring at his friends.
“Well?” asked Mal after a long silence.
“Well,” said Brax as more of a statement. “What do we all think she is?”
“She feels like an angel,” said Dante, and there was a clear shine of admiration in his gaze. “Except not entirely.”
“That�
�s ‘cause her sol is damaged, kid,” said Mal. “I’d bet anything she’s an angel too though. I don’t how she came to be so weakened and damaged, but she feels like one of them.” His voice was dripping with disdain when he spoke the last word.
Brax had no love for angels either, just like the rest of his race, so he could hardly fault Mal’s reaction. “I concur. She has that angelic vibe about her, without all the taint of some of the older angels.”
Mal nodded. “She doesn’t seem to have developed her brutality yet. She feels almost like a newborn in some ways.”
“She doesn’t look like a newborn,” said Dante with a chuckle of appreciation.
Brax rolled his eyes, though he could hardly fault the younger man for noticing how attractive Abby was. “You must know how angels are born, kid.”
Dante shrugged a shoulder. “I know the featherbrains take all the fun out of it.”
Brax couldn’t help but chuckle as he nodded his agreement. “Yeah, they do at that. Angels aren’t big on messy emotions or physical interaction. They meld pieces of their sols together to reproduce, and the angel comes out fully formed and already grown. It’s a handy tool when you’re making more soldiers for cannon fodder, though I imagine they aren’t pumping out nearly as many these days since Earth became a neutral zone, and Zephael seems content to bide his time before launching a full-scale invasion.”
“He knows he can’t win against their numbers and ruthlessness,” said Dante before asking, “Why would they decide to make angels that way?”
“Don’t know and don’t care, but it isn’t natural,” said Mal firmly.
Brax nodded his agreement with that again. “Demons and humans have a lot in common, particularly when it came to their reproductive processes. If you’re going to end up with a kid, you might as well have fun making it.” Realizing he’d allowed himself to be distracted from the original topic, he shook his head slightly. “The question, gents, is what will we do about the angel?”
“There’s clearly something wrong with her. I don’t mean that in a bad way,” said Mal as he lifted a hand, obviously realizing Dante was about to object. “I just mean she’s damaged in some way. It could mean nothing, or it could mean the other angels are after her. Hell, even our own kind might be hunting her, and we’re just out of the loop since we keep to ourselves here on Earth.”
“That’s true enough.” Brax drummed his fingers on the scarred tabletop for a moment. “She seems pretty vulnerable.”
“She is,” said Dante with passion. “Uzrael would’ve hurt her or worse. She seems lost and clueless. It would be unfair to leave her to the mercy of the world.”
“You’re such an idealist,” said Mal with a hint of accusation in his tone. “Do you really want to get dragged back into the war? You hardly experienced it at all before you had the sense to ditch the whole thing and come to Earth, but I can tell you how ugly it can get.”
“As can I,” said Brax with a sigh. “I lost my father, mother, and siblings to the conflict with the angels before I decided to hell with all of it. I’m not sure I want to get dragged back in, particularly for an angel.”
Dante crossed his arms over his chest, looking vaguely sullen. “I think we should keep her.”
“She isn’t a toy, kid,” said Mal with a hint of irritation. He scowled at the younger demon. “You can’t just keep her.”
“Imagine if we could,” said Dante with a sigh that revealed where his thoughts were. They had clearly taken a carnal direction judging by the way his pupils dilated.
Reluctantly, Brax shifted in his seat when his faded jeans, worn from age, suddenly felt too tight. He could easily imagine what it might be like to touch her soft skin or stroke her silvery blonde hair. He had no trouble seeing the appeal of keeping her in that context, but he was also experienced enough to realize she likely would have no interest in carnal matters anyway.
Angels considered themselves above such things, and none of the three of them were the type to force any sort of interaction a woman didn’t want. They had shared in the past, but only with willing women capable of giving their full consent. That had never included an angel. To his knowledge, there had never been any kind of relationship of that sort between angels and demons even when they all lived on Caelum, before the angels betrayed them.
“I’m not saying we should toss her to the wolves,” said Mal. He seemed to be moderately affected as well, for his cheeks had taken on a ruddy hue. He cleared his throat. “I’m just saying she can’t be with us for long. I don’t want to get dragged back in, and I’m not interested in fighting for either side. I just want to be left alone here on Earth. The angels can keep Caelum, and I couldn’t give two shits about Infernum.”
Brax winced, though he didn’t entirely disagree. After losing his entire family in the fight to regain Caelum, he’d realized it didn’t matter. One realm or the other, it was all about the same. True, Caelum was practically a paradise compared to Infernum, which had been a second-rate sanctuary chosen by a desperate group of refugees trying to avoid genocide from the angels, and he had no interest in living there, but he didn’t care about Caelum either.
The expulsion of the demons had happened well before his birth, so he had never lived there like some of the original demons. He didn’t feel the compulsion to return to it, and he was pretty happy with his life here on Earth. It was mostly peaceful, and he no longer needed to kill or be killed on a daily basis. Was he willing to risk the balance of that just to help a girl who might possibly be an angel with a mysterious past and shrouded future?
“Maybe we could just help her get somewhere safe,” said Dante, though he clearly wanted to do more.
Brax shared a look with Mal, who sighed and nodded after a moment of contemplation. He looked at the younger demon and nodded as well. “Yeah, we’ll do that. That’s all though. After she’s safe, we all walk away. You okay with that, kid?”
Dante scowled at him. “I’m not a kid. I’m two hundred twenty-one.”
Mal snorted. “When you get to be four hundred, then we’ll talk age, kid.”
Brax grinned in spite of the seriousness of the discussion. “I’m only three thirty-two, but I’ve reached a level of wisdom and maturity as well. You’re going to be the kid for a while longer yet, Dante, until you learn to think with more than just your emotions and instincts.”
“And little Dante,” added Mal with a snort.
Dante scowled at both of them, but he didn’t stalk away. He just reached for his beer and kept sipping it, not looking at either one of them for a while. “You’re sure just leaving her and walking away is the right thing to do?” he asked after setting down his beer.
“It feels like the only thing we can do,” said Brax, realizing that wasn’t a full answer, but how could he give one? The idea of leaving her as she was didn’t sit well with him, but neither did he want an angel or demon magnet that might draw him and his friends back into the fight. It was a fight he’d walked away from long ago, and he had no intention of returning to it now.
Chapter Three
Dante approached Abby the next morning before either of the other two could. “You can ride with me, darlin’.”
She smiled, though she seemed a little awkward. There was aloofness about her that definitely made him think she was of angelic origin, but she didn’t seem to have the stick wedged as firmly up her ass like most of the angels he’d met. Maybe there was still hope for her, if she truly were an angel.
“Thank you,” she said with a slight stutter as she looked down at her dress. “Can I really ride in this thing? I’m a little sore from just yesterday’s short ride.”
He frowned. “Sore?”
She touched her butt in a seemingly unconscious fashion. “Here, and here.” As she spoke the last word, she started to lift her dress to show him her inner thighs.
He was temporarily transfixed by the honey undertones of her beige skin and the shapely thighs revealed by the lifting dress. It was only
when he realized she might continue to lift up the clothing that he stopped her by putting a hand on one of her wrists. “Yeah, your inner thighs can get kind of sore from riding. We’ll stop and get you something more practical.”
She smiled at him, turning her hand so she was holding his instead of him holding her wrist. “Thank you for being so kind to me, Dante.”
He cleared his throat at her innocent touch, though it left him feeling anything but sweet. Her aura hummed with a faint hint of power, and he was more convinced than ever that she was an angel just by the frequency she emitted. It didn’t make him want to stop touching her though.
He was oddly drawn to her and the intensity of her frequency, but he forced himself to take a step back as he recalled the decision they had reached by consensus the evening before. They would see she was somewhere safe and move on.
If she were an angel as they suspected, she’d have no interest in messy emotional matters like human interaction or sex anyway. He certainly didn’t want to get attached to someone who was incapable of feeling anything for him. He cleared his throat and pulled his hand away gently. “Come on.”
She followed behind him obediently, and he couldn’t help imagining another scenario in which she might obey him and his every direction. That made his groin tighten with need, and he deserved every inch of the punishment he got when he sat on his motorcycle minutes later, starting it up and feeling the thrum through his overly sensitive shaft in a painful way. It was his own fault for getting so worked up by the woman who was sliding onto the bike behind him. When her arms wrapped around him, he felt like his whole body lit up from her touch as he tried to remind himself to ignore whatever feelings she evoked.
Brax was walking by him, so he waved a hand, and his friend approached. It was obvious Brax didn’t approve of the girl riding with him, but Dante wasn’t about to leave her to ride with the gruff Mal, who clearly didn’t want her there. That left Brax, with whom he was reluctant to share her as well, even though her attention was mostly platonic. “She needs to get some gear for the road.”
Sanctimalus Serial: Parts One-Three Page 2
