by J. E. Taylor
I rounded a bend, and a small patch of hemlock grew right at the water’s edge. I added that to my quarry. This basket wasn’t going to Josiah. I needed to store these somewhere safe. I spun on my heels and then bounced off Lucifer’s chest.
He grabbed my arms to keep me from falling backwards.
I stared up at his perfect grin. Humor and something else danced in his eyes. His touch stirred a dozen butterflies in my stomach, and I was struck dumb by his intensity.
He cocked his head, studying me before his gaze lowered to the overfilled basket. “What do you plan to do with all that?”
“I want to cheat death,” I said. I didn’t mean to blurt out my intent.
He laughed. The music of it played over my skin, heating my cheeks and regions south.
“Oh, little thing, there is no cheating death for your kind. When he comes, there is no recourse.”
I pulled out of his grip. “I intend to find a way.”
I turned and headed back toward the village, still trying to figure out a hiding place for my deadly stash. Josiah would burn it all, and my mother would dump it into the river. If I left it anywhere obvious, the village children would get into it, and I did not want to be responsible for the death of an innocent.
“Silly child,” he whispered and fell into step beside me.
“I am not a child.” I glared up at him.
He just raised an eyebrow at me.
He kept pace, showing no signs of leaving me to fend for myself. As I drew closer to town, my nerves bundled in my belly. I scanned the road for signs of anyone from my village.
I stopped and faced him. “I cannot be seen with a strange man.”
“I am not strange to you.” His brow wrinkled in confusion.
“Actually, you are. I shouldn’t be talking to you or wandering off alone with you like I have. Even though you somehow saved me from that cat.” I nodded in the direction we came from and contemplated my predicament. “I cannot bring you or this basket back home.”
“Why not?”
“These are poison, and my mother will get rid of them so no one gets hurt.” I lifted the basket. “But I need to experiment with the herbs. I think there is a way to mix deadly and healthy herbs to create the kind of elixir I am striving for.” I glanced at the ground. “But my mother and the local medicine man think I’m just as foolish as you do.”
“I can keep them safe for you.”
I bit the inside of my lip, considering his offer. “How do I know you will not throw them out?”
“Are they important to you?”
I nodded and the soft smile that captured his lips nearly sent me to my knees. Something about this man enlisted such trust in me. The only other male figure I had trust in was Josiah. Most of the others were mean and violent like my father.
“Then I will keep them for you, and all you need to do is to whisper my name and I will bring them to you.”
Relief swept through me as I studied his sincere gaze. “Thank you.” I handed him the basket and resumed walking.
He continued next to me.
I stopped again. “I still can’t be seen with you.”
“Do you not like my company?”
I rolled my eyes. Lucifer didn’t seem to understand the suspicion of strangers that ran so prevalent in our village. “It has nothing to do with whether I like your company or not. You are not a part of our community, and they frown upon strangers. Especially strangers who like to keep the company of single women.”
He didn’t seem to be swayed by my argument.
“My father would have a problem with me talking to you.”
Understanding relaxed his features, and he glanced toward the village.
I turned in time to see my father heading in my direction. His face was a mask of anger even from this distance. My heart jumped into my throat, and I turned to Lucifer. The spot where he had been standing was empty. I glanced around with a start. I circled, scanning the sparse scenery, too preoccupied to notice my father’s mad rantings.
Chapter 4
I lay on my cot in my room in our hut. Darkness had fallen some time ago, and I was afraid to get up. My cheek still throbbed from my father’s fist. If I hadn’t been so preoccupied with where Lucifer had disappeared to, I would have recognized an impending beating. But by the time I circled around, my father was within arm’s reach. He didn’t even ask where I had been. No, the first thing he’d done was beat me, and then he dragged me back to the hut by my hair.
My crime—I had left the house before my morning duties. And Unice was horrible enough to tell him she had seen me wandering off with a strange man and even pointed him in my direction. Her next batch of medicine would have some extra kick in it.
I shook my head and winced. Everything hurt. I knew it would be my luck to find the right ingredients for an immortality elixir, and Unice would be my first test subject. That was not a woman who I would like to have share eternity with me.
I closed my swollen eyes. I did need test subjects, and I knew I would fail many times before I finally found the right mixture. After all, most of the ingredients were toxic to the human species, so my early subjects couldn’t be those with a kind disposition.
I sighed and let my mind wander over the possible combinations.
Peppermint had to be an ingredient. That was an all-encompassing healing elixir. Dandelions and sunflower tea would need to be incorporated, too. But which deadly herb should be in the mix. Maybe white oleander or water hemlock? I didn’t know.
Finally, I rolled onto my side, shifting to find a semi-comfortable position so I could fall asleep. It took a while, but I dozed off, only to be gruffly knocked from my bed just as the sun crested the horizon.
“Get up and go do your chores.” My father’s harsh voice broke through my stupor.
I climbed to my feet and tried to open my eyes more than just a slit, but I couldn’t. I found the laundry basket and stumbled to my normal spot far enough away from the village that I would find peace in the cool morning air.
My side still hurt and so did my face. I slowly scrubbed the clothes and wrung them out before I dumped them in the basket.
The air behind me shifted, and I looked up through my swollen slits.
“Lilith?”
I turned away, hiding my face from Lucifer, but he crouched down and gripped my shoulders, turning me towards him.
“Child, what happened to you?” he asked as he raised me to my feet. Concern laced his eyes as they inspected my face.
“My father.” I looked down at the ground. “I did not do my chores before I went on my foraging expedition, and he punished me.”
He hooked his finger under my chin. “Fathers are supposed to be strict, not violent tyrants.” He leaned forward and planted the softest kiss on my forehead.
What followed felt like a spring rain shower. It started from the spot Lucifer kissed and cascaded down my body, tingling wherever I was bruised or battered.
He stepped back and scanned my face again. “That’s more like it.” His gaze went to the basket, and he cocked an eyebrow. “Besides, you should not be doing chores.”
I touched my face, and what would have been excruciating a moment ago did not hurt one lick. “What did you just do?”
He pulled me closer, and his fingers traveled over the skin of my cheek, caressing. “I made sure those shameful marks were erased, and I will ensure that this never happens again.” His gaze found mine, and there was a fierceness there that overshadowed the moment.
“Thank you, but the way to never allow it to happen again is to let me do my chores.” I stepped away and turned to attend to the laundry.
He wrapped his arms wrapped around me and pulled me to his chest. “You should not be doing chores,” he said again.
I blinked up into his bright blue eyes, his grip around my waist tight enough for me to lose myself. “And what exactly would you have me doing?”
His grin widened, and he flexed his shou
lders. White wings appeared behind him, and his grasp around my midsection tightened in a vise grip. His knees bent, and then he pushed off the ground. We soared into the sky as blue as his irises. I didn’t have time to gasp. His lips covered mine in a celestial kiss that would have sent me to the ground had I been standing on dirt.
He landed in a heavily wooded glen. We were surrounded by brush. Soft moss caressed my feet. His lips were still on mine, and his hands threaded into my hair, holding me as his tongue assaulted my mouth in a seductive dance that took my breath from my lungs.
Somehow, I found the strength to push away from him, breaking the kiss. It took me a moment to catch my breath. My chest heaved as if I had run a sprint through town.
Lucifer’s eyes danced with mischief. I stared at his folded wings and then met his gaze. My brain wasn’t functioning properly at either the flight or the kiss. Both sent my neurons into a tizzy. My hands splayed across his sculpted chest, and his heart beat under my palms, confirming he was flesh and blood, but he was so much more than a man.
“What are you?” I whispered.
“I am the first archangel,” he said and dipped his mouth to my neck. “God’s chosen to bring the light.” His words were muffled against my skin. “But I want to share the light with you.”
“You are...divine?” I forced the words out instead of swooning under his kisses. Kisses that lit my skin on fire and weakened my knees.
He pulled away from me and smiled. His grin was as bright as the sun. My knees gave out, but he steadied me. His gaze dropped from my face to the cloth covering my form. Without words, he took the fabric under my chin and ripped until it dropped, leaving me naked under the bright sunlight.
My breath quickened. My father would have me stoned for such a transgression. I crossed my arms over my chest as heat filled my cheeks.
Lucifer stared at my body, taking a step back so he could see all of me. “Perfection,” he whispered and met my gaze. His wrap loosened and fell to the ground.
I licked my lips as I took in his angelic form from crown to toe. I could not imagine anything more perfect on earth or in heaven. When he stepped closer, pulling me to him, I allowed him to lower me to the ground and drape himself over me.
My heart clanged in my chest at the intensity of his gaze. His hands caressed my skin, and he gently bit my lower lip before trailing his mouth down my throat, to my chest. He kneaded my breasts, pulling a moan from deep within me.
He slid lower, but I was so enthralled with his touch to care. I was being taken by an angel of the Lord, and he knew how to drive me mad. His hands, his mouth, his body—everything he did fueled a fire within me, and by the time he returned to my mouth, I welcomed his hard thrust inside me.
Wonder filled his eyes, and his smile gleamed as his hips circled languidly. I matched his movement, and he groaned, closing his eyes. His expression matched that of anyone who partook in one of my grandmother’s treats. The kind of treat that melted in your mouth and left a sweet tingle on your tongue.
Even the sigh that escaped him sounded like he had indulged. When his eyes finally opened, desire brewed in his irises.
“You could convince me to turn my back on heaven,” he said, his voice reverent even as his movements increased.
My brain caught up just at the moment my body clenched with a wave of pleasure.
Lucifer was an angel.
An immortal angel.
I cried out with the force of my release, and white lights blanketed my vision.
His groan followed.
Warmth spread between my legs, and the dots filling my eyes faded. I stared at the sky above us, trying to catch my breath. His wings fluttered, and he propped himself up on his elbows, glancing down at me like a child who had found a most favored toy.
I shivered as the magnitude of my actions slammed into my consciousness. My chest tightened, and my eyes widened. I pushed him off and gathered my clothing in a panicked rush.
I couldn’t meet his gaze. Not with his essence dripping down my legs, mingled with the blood of my innocence. Did he not understand what he’d just sentenced me to? Any man who took me as his wife would soon discover I was not pure.
And then I was a dead woman.
I had witnessed the beatings. I had witnessed the group assaults. I had witnessed the stonings. I had witnessed the damages done before death came to take the whores away, and it turned my stomach.
Lucifer grabbed me by the arms, stopping my frantic movement. His eyes were as wide as mine. “Still yourself,” he commanded.
I gaped at him. “You have sentenced me to death.”
His eyebrows arched, and then he laughed. “Why would you think that?”
“Because I am no longer innocent. Do you know what will happen when I am married off?”
“Married? You would marry another?” His tone turned dark and questioning.
“If my father deems it so, yes. I will have no choice.”
He tilted his head back and laughed. “Don’t you know God granted you free will?”
“God is not here. He does not have a hand over those who rule the land, and those men say otherwise.” I crossed my arms over the ripped fabric of my dress. I had no way to explain my current state, and I did not see a pleasant ending to my day. As a matter of fact, I saw a bloody beating waiting for me, especially with the laundry still sitting on the river’s edge and me nowhere to be found.
His laughter wound down and his gaze narrowed. “You will not give yourself to another.” His wings fluttered and disappeared, and he stepped close.
I blinked and met his sharp stare. “You may be divine, but you are a stranger here and the village will never understand.”
“Then I will raze the village.”
I closed my eyes. “No, you cannot destroy my home.”
“I will escort you home, and if your father sees fit to punish you, he will meet a very nasty end.” He decisively nodded as if that was the end of the conversation. He put his hands out, his fingers splayed. “Just wait here.”
One minute he was before me, and the next, gone. I now understood why I wasn’t caught before. I gripped my clothing, trying to figure out how to mend the un-mendable.
He popped back with his wings unfurled. He carried a sheath and knelt in front of me to secure it to my thigh. “For your protection when I am not with you.”
I stared at the ornate blue obsidian handle in the sheath that seemed to refract light even when there wasn’t any. When I touched the smooth surface, a thrill ran through me, like a tremor deep in the earth. I pulled the knife out and gasped. The blade curved like a bow, and both sides gleamed sharp. But it wasn’t steel. It looked like what I would envision as the ocean. Clear blue crystal, but more deadly than a cobra.
I glanced at Lucifer, raising an eyebrow.
“It is forged from heaven’s light. It will obliterate anything you use it on. Including me.”
I sheathed the weapon and met his sincere gaze with a nod of thanks, even though I didn’t know if I could raise a weapon to my own father, despite the beatings.
He leaned down, ripped a strip of fabric from the bottom of my dress, and handed it to me. “Will this help?”
I crisscrossed the torn fabric around me and tied the makeshift sash around my waist. It would have to do until I could retrieve the clothing by the side of the river.
He stepped close and clasped an arm around me. This time when he took flight, my stomach dropped at the height. I found myself clinging to him. We landed on the bank of the river. It looked like where I had been this morning, but the clothing basket was no longer there.
A cold certainty bit at my skin, along with a healthy dose of fear.
“Do not worry, child.”
I laughed, a high-pitched one, and wrapped the ripped fabric of my dress tighter. I didn’t know whether to flee or not.
Lucifer placed his hand on my lower back and pushed me towards the town, stopping my run response dead.
Be
grudgingly, I fell into step beside him as he led me down the main street of our town. People stopped to watch us, and their gazes narrowed at my disheveled state. By the time we reached the hut, the rumble of the murmurs behind us had reached a consistent hiss.
The minute we stepped inside, my father turned his glare in my direction. He was up and moving with violent intent, and as he approached with fists already cocked, Lucifer raised his hand. My father stopped mid step.
“Lilith is not to be harmed.”
In his frozen form, my father’s eyebrows rose, and his face transformed from anger into fury. “Who are you to dictate how I rule my home?”
Lucifer dropped his hand and stepped in front of me. Whatever magic he had exercised dissolved and my father’s flying fist resumed until Lucifer caught it in his palm and squeezed.
My father cried out and fell to his knees.
Lucifer leaned down. “I will end you if you harm her again.” His tone was feral and harsh.
I shivered, wrapping my hands tighter around my midsection. I hadn’t agreed to his claim on me, but I wasn’t opposed to it, either, especially if he protected me from my father’s wrath.
My father did not assent to Lucifer’s will, but he also did not argue with the man standing over him. He sent a glare in my direction, one that promised as soon as this stranger was out of our home, I was going to pay for this humiliation.
“Lucifer,” I whispered and put my hand on his shoulder.
He released my father’s hand and glanced back at me. “If for some reason this fool thinks it is wise to beat you again, I will revisit each and every brutality on him threefold.” Lucifer sent a look toward my father that should have shriveled the man in his skin, but my father was too preoccupied with his mangled hand to notice. “I will see you tomorrow.” He gave me a nod and stepped out of our cottage.
I swallowed the lump of fear that had formed the moment my angel stepped out of the hut. Hatred oozed from my father, blanketing me in discomfort.
His gaze fell to my torn dress and his face turned bright red. “I may not be allowed to touch you, but you have disgraced this family and this community.” He climbed to his feet and pointed towards the door. “Whore,” he screamed and tore the shredded material from my shoulders. “Get out of my house!” He pushed me out the door wearing only the sheath on my thigh.
