“I’m afraid that’s above your paygrade, son,” and Zephael with a touch of condescension. “Even if you were still part of Marael’s squad, I wouldn’t take you into my confidence. You’ll just have to listen and trust me.”
“I don’t trust a thing about you,” said Mal.
Zephael clearly didn’t like that, and he stepped forward. Abby was alert enough to realize Mal was courting trouble, so she swayed deliberately to block Mal from surging forward to meet Zephael. “Can we go now?” She sounded hoarse and felt even worse.
“Of course.” Without another word, Zephael snapped his fingers, and they soon found themselves standing back at the portal that would take them to Earth. Abby’s head was still fuzzy, and she had a difficult time standing up, but she was starting to recover.
By the time she’d stepped through the portal and experienced the falling sensation, it helped clear her head. They found themselves back at an Earth portal, one of the few available on Earth. They were several hundred miles from their campsite, at least according to Brax, who used his phone to identify their location, but they were on Earth and seemingly safe.
“I just want to sleep,” said Abby as exhaustion started to overtake her.
“It’s probably a good idea. Let’s just get a hotel for tonight, and we’ll worry about retrieving our things tomorrow.” Dante put his arm around her as he said that, clearly intent on keeping her from falling.
She was thankful for their ability to teleport away from the portal into the nearest town. It was a skill she might have, but if so, she couldn’t remember. She had no idea how to use it, making her uncertain if the power had ever been honed, or if it was simply a piece of knowledge that had been completely lost when her sol was injured. There were probably blank spots that would never heal despite their sol infusions, because there were little cracks that were irreparable.
Mal disappeared inside and returned with two keys, and they walked around the back of the hotel, claiming the rooms. Abby collapsed onto the nearest bed, but she wasn’t tired enough yet that curiosity couldn’t prompt her to push aside the shirt and look at the marks on her shoulder.
She was startled to see the marks matched up with the marks on each of her lover’s shoulders, which showed their name symbols. Each of their marks had formed a neat little circle around her own name symbol. Mal was the closest, so she lifted her hand and wiggled her fingers. “Show me your mark.”
He obliged by bending down, pushing aside his shirt to reveal his shoulder. Her mark rested neatly beside his, though there was no indication Dante or Brax had left a mark on him. She supposed that made sense, since they’d claimed her as their mate and not each other. She looked at Dante. “Is it just your mark and my mark on your shoulder?” At his nod, she looked at Brax and arching her brow, not repeating the question.
He understood anyway. “Yeah, just that. It means we’re mated now, but the question is, why did Zephael care?”
Abby closed her eyes, content to listen to the conversation flowing around her as the men speculated what Zephael gained by their union. “Yeah?” she said when Mal called her name several minutes later.
“What did he say to you before we arrived?”
“It was all kind of confusing.” She recapped as much as she could remember before saying, “I don’t know what he wanted from me, but he seemed content to let you do it instead.”
They were equally as bewildered as she was. It was clear from their expressions.
“I’m sure whatever he wanted will be revealed in time,” said Brax, looking uneasy. “In the meantime, at least we don’t have to worry about demons being after us. We just have to protect her from the angels.”
“Maybe they’ll forget all about me,” said Abby with a hint of hopefulness. She doubted she was that lucky though.
Brax seemed equally skeptical, but he didn’t blatantly argue. Instead he said, “Let’s just get some rest.”
Abby nodded, surprised when the bed dipped, and she turned over to see Mal climbing in behind her. She snuggled closer, laying her head on his arm as she stared up at him. “I’m sorry about tonight.”
He frowned. “For what?”
She put a hand on his chest just above his sol, which emanated a faint red glow in the darkness. “I know this wasn’t what you wanted. You didn’t want to love again, and you wouldn’t have chosen me as your mate. I don’t hold you to anything you promised when you had no choice.”
He let out a harsh laugh. “It doesn’t work that way. We’re bonded now, and there’s no walking away from that. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t without going insane or risking your sanity.”
His tone gentled as he put his fingers under her chin, tipping it up to make sure she was looking into his eyes. “You have it all wrong. It wasn’t anything I didn’t want to do. I didn’t want to under those circumstances, with Zephael demanding proof it had been done, but I was ready to claim you as my mate. You can ask Brax and Dante if you don’t believe me. We were going to talk about it with you tomorrow morning to see if you were agreeable, but I was fully on board…am fully on board.”
She stared at him for half a second, evaluating his expression. He revealed no misgiving or trace of artifice, and she had no doubt he was telling her the truth. She gasped softly as her lips curved into a shaky smile. “You really mean that.” She stated that as fact, not asking him. “I’m relieved to hear that. I don’t want to force you into anything.”
“You aren’t. Zephael’s the only one who interfered with the natural course of events, and we’ll get to him soon enough.” Mal’s gaze reflected rage for a second.
She frowned while she patted his chest. “Let’s worry about survival, not revenge.”
“I keep forgetting how much of an angel you are sometimes,” said Mal with a hint of criticism, but mostly amusement. “All you featherbrains like to pretend you’re above such things.”
She’d been on the verge of falling asleep, but his teasing tone prompted one of her eyelids to open as she glowered at him with halfhearted effort. “It’s all a façade. It’s probably because we’ve made such a concentrated effort to distance ourselves from our emotions, but let me tell you, angels can feel just as deeply as demons or anyone else. I didn’t realize it until my sol was damaged, and I lost connection with that part of me. When I lived like a human, I learned to love and feel like one too. Angels have missed out by doing what they’re doing.”
“Emotions are messy.” That came from Brax, who sounded relatively unconcerned by that fact. “From what I recall of angels, they’re all kind of regimented assholes big on obedience and order.”
Abby grinned at the definition. “I can’t exactly argue with that. We have our good parts too though. We believe in compassion and kindness, though I suppose that’s been lacking ever since angels in the past expelled you all from Caelum.”
“Not us personally,” said Dante. “Even Mal, the old man, isn’t that old.”
When Mal chuckled, she smiled as she snuggled closer, closing her eyes and pressing her forehead against his chest. She swore she could feel the soft hum of his energy frequency and the warmth of his sol where her skin touched his. It was a comforting, soothing feeling, and she allowed it to lull her into sleep.
Chapter Fourteen
They spent the next two weeks traveling, and Abby was pleased that they only ran into one ordinary angel in that time, and he was easily scared off by her demon protectors. It probably helped that they stuck to backcountry and avoided civilization as much as possible, but when she woke feeling ill for the third day in a row, she was unsurprised when Brax said, “I think she should be looked over.”
“By whom?” asked Mal with a twist of his lips. “She can’t pop into Caelum to see an angelic healer. Do you think the average human urgent care doctor is going to know how to treat an angel?”
“They might know for this,” said Brax in a cryptic way, but he didn’t say anything more.
Abby was curious, but m
ostly she was busy fighting the war to keep down the dinner she’d eaten the night before. Forget breakfast. She couldn’t even think about it, because she couldn’t stand the smell of it, let alone look at their plates. She turned and moved away from them, going to the edge of camp while they finished eating.
By the time they were ready to ride, her stomach had calmed down some, and when Brax handed her a few crackers in a package, she took them and started nibbling. They settled well enough, and she was able to endure the ride behind him on the motorcycle despite the road rushing by increasing her nausea.
They had to ride for more than an hour before they reached civilization again, and then it took a half-hour to find a large enough city to have an urgent care. Brax signed her in, and Abby was amazed when he produced a driver’s license from the state of California with her face and the name Abby Smith to give to the clerk signing them in.
She was dying to know how he’d acquired it, but she did recall him taking her picture almost a week ago. He’d simply told her to smile but not too much, and he’d taken a picture with the camera on his phone. At the time, she’d thought nothing of it, because they’d been at a monument in Utah, and she had assumed he was simply making a visual record of their memories.
Now, she suspected there had been more to it. She made a mental note to ask him about it later, but she didn’t have a chance to yet. It was probably a conversation that should be discreetly handled, and there were too many people in the waiting room to make it possible to have an entirely private talk. Besides, they were already calling her back, and she went with some apprehension. She knew to pretend like she was a human, but she wasn’t certain if her vitals would be different than a human’s.
Apparently, they were close enough, because the nurse who checked her temperature and blood pressure seemed to have no concerns. He led her to a room, and she waited for a few minutes until a doctor appeared. She was a younger woman, looking only a few years older than Abby, though humans had a significantly shorter lifespan, so she was likely quite a bit younger. She gave Abby a cheerful smile and said, “I’m Dr. Rhodes. It says your tummy is feeling yucky in the mornings.”
“Is that really what Brax wrote?” She couldn’t picture him using such babyish language.
The doctor glanced reflexively at the chart for a moment and shook her head. “I’m just paraphrasing. Sorry, I just got finished with a pediatric patient, so I might have to switch gears into adult mode again.” She grinned as she said that before she started asking questions. Abby was able to answer most of them until the doctor asked, “When was your last period?”
Abby stared at her, not even sure what that was. “I don’t know.”
“Are you regular?” Dr. Rhodes asked as she made a notation.
Abby shrugged. “I don’t think so.” She was still bewildered, and she wished she could take the phone from her pocket that Mal had given her a few days ago and look up more information about it on the Internet. She’d spent a lot of time just learning about everything around her, and the Internet provided the perfect conduit to do so.
“I think we’d better get you to take a test then.”
She titled her head, trying to recall her last exam. It had been in self-defense almost forty years ago, and she was rusty. “I haven’t studied for anything.”
The doctor laughed in a polite way. “That’s a good one. I’ve probably heard that only a few times.” She walked over to a cabinet and extracted a cup. “You know what to do?”
Abby stared at it apprehensively before shaking her head. “I don’t have a clue.”
“I just need a little urine.”
Abby frowned. “How?”
“I need you to pee in the cup.”
Abby blinked. “I can’t pee.”
The doctor looked sympathetic. “I understand. Sometimes, it’s difficult when you’re under pressure. Would you prefer we do a blood test instead?”
Abby nodded, and soon, the nurse was taking blood from her arm with a needle. It hurt, but it was over with quickly. The doctor returned and said, “It’ll be a day or two before we have results since you couldn’t do the urine test, so you’re free to go, but I’m giving you a prescription for nausea. It’s perfectly safe to use if you are pregnant, so you can get it filled now, and we’ll call with results.”
“Pregnant?” Abby’s mouth felt like her jaw had unhinged. “I can’t be.”
“Never say never,” said Dr. Rhodes with a breezy smile, though she was clearly anxious to be off to her next patient.
Abby wanted to continue arguing with her, but it seemed fruitless. She allowed the doctor to leave without further questions and soon followed the nurse from the room and out to the waiting room again. The men gathered around her, leading her outside to where they’d parked their bikes. There was no one nearby, so she looked at Brax, who seemed to have some clue what was going on. “She tested me to see if I’m pregnant.”
Brax didn’t seem all that shocked. “Are you?”
She frowned. “She wanted me to pee in a cup. How am I supposed to do that? Angels don’t urinate. Do demons?”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know that’s how they tested. So, you don’t know?”
She shrugged a shoulder. “She took some of my blood instead, and we’ll know in a day or two. It’s impossible though. Angels don’t even reproduce this way.”
“They don’t anymore, but they did in the past,” said Dante. “That’s in the history books. We could take her to The Pit.”
Abby took a step back, instinctively afraid. “Why would you do that?” Even if he didn’t want her to have his child, which she still thought was completely impossible, why would he want to throw her in a pit?
“We can find all kinds of information there.” He seemed oblivious to her fear as he climbed onto his bike. “Come on. We’re only a few hours south of it.”
She looked at Mal, and he seemed to read her uncertainty and fear. He stepped forward and put his arm around her. “I don’t think it can happen, but maybe we’ll find more answers at The Pit.”
“I still don’t understand what The Pit is.”
“It’s a receptacle for Enochian history and goes back from before the time when angels and demons split after the angels ambushed and expelled the demons. If anyone’s ever been in this situation, they might have information about it. It’s just one of the places where they store such information.” He grinned. “This one just happens to be demon-controlled, so we can gain access.”
She was relieved now that she knew it wasn’t an actual pit, so she nodded her agreement and climbed on behind Mal a moment later after he handed her a helmet. Her stomach was queasy again, but she thought it was from anxiety this time rather than whatever had been plaguing her in the mornings. She didn’t see how it could be possible that an angel could conceive, let alone with demons, but she was surprised to find she didn’t mind the idea all that much.
As the miles passed, and she started really thinking about it, Abby realized she didn’t mind the idea at all. In fact, she was kind of excited by the thought, though she knew it would be difficult if she really was pregnant. The angels still wanted her just as dead, and Zephael wanted her for some purpose, so the demons might become foes in the future as well. It felt like the four of them against everyone, and the idea of trying to protect a child in the midst of that was terrifying, but she still couldn’t find it in herself to hope she wasn’t pregnant.
* * *
Several hours later, they arrived outside a modern-looking building that could’ve been any kind of library, though it emanated a hum of energy that Abby hadn’t experienced with any human-built dwelling before. It was a place of great power, and it felt vaguely hostile to her as she stepped inside. She shuddered at the sensations washing over her, filled with despair and a complete lack of hope. Tears came to her eyes, and Brax put an arm around her waist. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s like all joy has been disappeared.” Sh
e even sounded dull and dead to herself.
“Is that an angel?” asked the woman as she rushed toward them, her heels tapping on the marble floor. She sounded shocked by the idea.
“Yes, she is.” Mal sounded defensive.
“I wish you’d told me before bringing her inside. I could’ve arranged for an easing of the wards.” The attractive brunette closed her eyes and seemed to focus for a moment.
She whispered a word in Latin that Abby couldn’t quite make out, and as quickly as the crushing despair had consumed her, it fled. She felt completely normal again as she looked around before staring at the woman. “What was that?”
“Demons aren’t the biggest fan of angels. You probably know that.” Despite her words, she sounded friendly enough when she stepped forward and held out her hand. “I’m the curator, Belinda, and you’re the first angel to ever step foot in The Pit.”
Abby took her hand slowly, half-expecting that same dark energy she’d experienced upon stepping into the building to be housed in the woman, but nothing happened when they shook hands. She breathed a sigh of relief as she let her arm fall back to her side. “Thanks.”
Belinda nodded. “What are you here for?” She addressed the question to Brax in a crisp tone.
“Is there somewhere we can speak privately?”
Belinda tilted her head, looking intrigued when she nodded and gestured for them to follow her. She led them into a small study room with a table that had six chairs and a rolling cart that was currently bare of books. She closed the door, putting her hand against the wood while she said another word. The door glowed faintly for a moment, and then it returned to normal as she turned to them. “I put up a warding spell to silence this room. What do you need?”
Apparently, they had decided to allow Brax to take the lead, as neither Mal nor Dante spoke. Abby was content to allow him to be the spokesperson for now as well.
“We think Abby might be pregnant.”
Sanctimalus Serial: Parts One-Three Page 13
