Summon Toren (Archangels Creed #3)

by Daniels, Kenra

  Ludicrous.

  “I cannot tell you what a miracle it was that I came across your ad on the computer. I mean I rarely am on it and something just told me to go to the email account I scarcely get on and check mail. That’s where I got the notification. Perfect timing.”

  “Yes, for me too. Us, actually.” Samantha's tone remained carefully distant.

  Skylar leaned a little toward Samantha. "Um, Miss Samantha?" she whispered. "I don't want to be rude, but you got a little something…" Delicate hands fluttered in the general direction of her throat.

  Looking puzzled, Samantha raised one hand to her neck. Her cheeks flushed deep red. "Oh my God! Oh wow. Can't believe…"

  Curious, Toren leaned to see what the commotion was about, having restrained himself from eavesdropping on Samantha's thoughts. A white substance had dried and begun to flake away… Oh. In a rush, he ransacked the glove compartment, desperately searching for the miniature bottle labeled 'hand sanitizer' he'd seen there before. And the little pack of facial tissues. Trying not to be too obvious about it, he saturated one tissue and passed it to Samantha, then followed with a couple of dry ones after she'd wiped his essence from her face and neck.

  Time to change the subject. Fast. “Do you believe in God, Skylar?”

  She hesitated briefly. “Yes, why, is that a problem?”

  Samantha laughed a little too loudly. “Nooo, not a problem. You doin this now?” She leaned and glanced at Toren while bouncing them down the road to the shack.

  “I thought I might. Seems like as good a time as any. Considering.” He reconsidered a moment. “How do you like Ezekiel?”

  She leaned away a bit and looked at him. “How do you mean?”

  “I mean…”

  “He means would you want to like…be his girlfriend kind of like?”

  She turned to Samantha now.

  “Just…hypothetically speaking,” Sam said.

  “Absolutely not. The man is a completely arrogant chauvinist and an intolerable moron. I'm certain he's incapable of speaking beyond monosyllabic grunts when he’s not pretending to understand whatever intelligent words he does muster. And just because he’s so hot he makes the ground sizzle, the fact that he clearly hates American women,” she emphasized the words with hand quotes, “sort of…well it just pisses me off, to say the least.”

  Sam snickered. “Ouch.” She worked the clutch and downshifted to make the final turn to the shack. “Got your work cut out for you sweetheart.”

  Yeah. And the woman had pegged Ezekiel perfectly. Well at least he had one positive component to work with. But there would be no wooing time. He’d have to play hard ball with both of them and pray for the best.

  Toren got out of the truck, searching the horizons for stray visitors.

  Sam climbed out too. “Come on in guys, let’s get warmed up before we…we figure out what we’re uh, we’re gonna be doing.”

  Toren kept his eye on the demon shuffling awkwardly with shifty eyes toward the cabin. Once inside, Sam rattled on about nothing in particular while a plan formed in Toren’s mind.

  Uriel had given them each two miracles to use before both couples consummated to seal the quadumvirate. Regretfully, he might have to use his to convince his human couple instead of to save their asses. He also might have to combine them for a time-saving wow effect. Just what kind of miracle was still not clear. Whatever he did, he’d have to keep a close eye on that demon.

  “Sam, you mind talking to Skylar about our newest job position while I speak with Ezekiel? Hey Rufard,” Toren turned to the jittery man. “You mind going fetch some more firewood in the shed behind the cabin? We’ll be here a bit.”

  “Uh, yeah. I’ll do it.”

  Toren ushered them all outside and as soon as the demon left he turned to Ezekiel, assessing his attitude. Meeting his cocky arrogant gaze, Toren stood just before him and put his palm on the wall next to his head.

  Ezekiel met his gaze with his own unflinching one.

  Open challenge. Hm. His mercury raced, eager to crush it. Toren realized as he looked into his skeptical gaze that he’d have to use Truth for his first miracle. “I have an issue that I need your help with. I’m an archangel and I need you to marry the girl inside so that I can use your consummation to form a half human half angel warrior to fight against demonic abominations that are taking over the world.”

  Toren knew he was being ruthless as he watched the truth sink into Ezekiel's mind. His brows narrowed as he no doubt struggled to call bullshit to the outrageous claim, but he couldn’t.

  “Look, I’d like to stand here and give you some shock time, but I don’t have it. The man who is getting firewood isn’t a man but a demon. So, what’s it going to be?” Toren kept his voice even.

  Finally the prick waded through his shock and looked around before muttering, “Exactly why the fuck would I want to help God? The last time I checked the son-of-a-bitch hasn’t done me any favors for the last…” he shrugged with a harsh sneer, “…twenty-five years.”

  Toren took a careful breath, resisting the urge to rip his blasphemous tongue out.

  “You’re wrong about God, Ezekiel.”

  “Oh is that right?” The human stared him down a few seconds. “Prove it angel.”

  The man couldn’t have uttered more perfect words. “So glad you asked.” Toren grabbed him by the front of his jacket and hauled him in the house and bolted the door.

  He silenced the two startled women and caught Ezekiel’s fist before it hit his face. “You don’t want to piss me off EZ.” He spun him around and held him against his body in a choke hold.

  “Toren?” Sam held a hand out to him. “Easy now.”

  “Ezekiel asked me to prove how wrong he is about God. Thought I’d kill two birds with one stone.” Toren nodded at Skylar “See, poor EZ here has been heart broken by life. I mean no disrespect EZ,” Toren said at his ear, “but not only did you insult my God, you lied about Him.”

  “Your God is heartless,” Ezekiel gritted.

  Toren had to hand it to the bastard. He had balls. “Maybe you can give him yours.” Toren sank his fingers into the man's chest and pulled out his heart, ignoring the hysterical screams from Skylar and angry shouts from Samantha while the human went rigid in his arms. “What do you think?” Toren turned the heart this way and that before him. “I think it looks filthy, in need of purging.” Toren put the heart back in Ezekiel's chest and healed it with a few pats of his hand before shoving the human off him.

  Ezekiel grabbed his chest nearly hyperventilating.

  A low grumble shook the cabin and Toren listened. “They’re coming.”

  “Who’s coming?” Sam wasn’t far behind Ezekiel in panic.

  “Demons.” He looked at Ezekiel. “You need to kiss her.”

  He looked at him like he was nuts. “What?”

  “Kiss her! Until you kiss, I can’t use my powers!”

  ** ** **

  Ezekiel couldn’t believe what was happening. Had he slipped into a worm hole? His PTSD finally conquered him? He glanced from the insane angel/man to the wide eyed horror stricken woman on his right all while the cabin threatened to rattle apart around him.

  One final glance at the being who’d just ripped his heart out of his chest said he’d better act now or suffer worse consequences. The single window on the cabin exploded inward and Ezekiel dove toward the woman. Why in the hell did kissing have to be one of his fucking phobias!

  The roof flew off the shack and the woman screamed next to him. Before he could act, she did. She was suddenly attached to his body tighter than a vice grip. She squealed as she glued herself to him, lips grinding into his painfully.

  “A real kiss!” the insane angel roared.

  Ezekiel grabbed her head and held her so he could really kiss her.

  The second their tongues mingled and he got a taste of her, dormant chemicals kicked in and he tasted her.

  Seconds into the kiss, she gave a whimper of surrender
, her mouth softening beneath his, becoming almost a succulent silk.

  The sweet moment vanished when the room filled with metallic groaning. He looked and realized the angel had wings! Metal wings, like chrome with wicked looking daggers for flight feathers.

  Holy shit.

  Three darkly furred creatures suddenly appeared inside the cabin walking upright, snarling to flash the most ferocious looking fangs. Ezekiel didn’t know if they just materialized or what. One lifted a horribly human-like hand to display five heavily taloned digits. Another made a growling noise that sounded oddly like speech. The other two responded, splitting off to the sides as though to prepare to attack the angel, their clear objective.

  The angel’s arms flashed out to his side and metal bits seemed to explode from the creatures' hides with the force of TNT.

  Ezekiel dove to the floor and covered the woman’s head burying her in the center of his fetal curl. Then he realized they hadn’t been hurt from the blast because the metal shards hovered in the air.

  The angel swung his arms right and the shrapnel exploded the walls of the cabin out. Ezekiel scrambled to a far wall with the women under his arm as the metal bits slammed into a herd of the same monsters. The angel had taken down an entire front line of the creatures with his little explosion trick but there remained a seemingly endless mass that barreled down on the cabin like an ominous dark wave of growling thunder.

  The angel shot into the air. He landed on one knee with bone rattling force, delivering one massive punch to the earthen floor. Countless blackened spears erupted from its surface, skewering the entire herd of demonic beasts like bugs on pins. Howl’s pierced the air and Ezekiel saw the sky rippling, like they were in some kind of metallic bubble.

  The angel slowly straightened and brought his palms together in a loud clap. Each of the metal spikes somehow expanded to encase the impaled creatures, saving the screams to seal off last. The cocoons shrank until the cries stopped and they were the size of spikes again. The angel swiped his hand at the earth and the surface opened as though he’d held an invisible giant blade. A metallic groan filled the air and the entire mess was swallowed up as though the hole suddenly became a supersonic vacuum.

  The angel turned and headed toward the cabin, twirling a finger in the air as he did, shutting the earth with a wicked boom.

  As the angel entered what was left of the cabin, his wings folded into themselves, every feather sounding like metal doors being slammed closed.

  Ezekiel became aware of his heart beat as he stared at the dude, never having been filled with so much holy fucking shit in his life.

  But this…angel was one…bad…ass!

  ** ** **

  Skylar gawked at Sam, who gawked at the angel before repeating, “Flash?”

  “You know, travel? From here to someplace else really fast?”

  “In what?” Sam asked.

  “My angel spaceship.” The few seconds of are-you-for-real speculation ended with the angel’s chuckle. “I’m kidding. It’s a technique I couldn’t explain.” He held his hand toward Sam. “You hold on to me, Skylar holds on to you and EZ can hold on to Skylar.”

  Sam looked at his outstretched hand seeming hesitant to take it. But she did. “Where are we…flashing to?”

  “I need to get all of you out of harm’s way. I was planning to take you to meet the other humans.”

  “Other humans?”

  The angel didn’t even pay Ezekiel a glance for the man’s curiosity. But he was sure looking mighty hard at Miss Samantha. If Skylar wasn’t mistaken, she was seeing some rather extreme fondness oozing from those mirrored looking eyes.

  “If we don’t leave here now, everybody here will be in jeopardy. Us leaving is the safest thing. The people remaining here have their angels here to protect them to the extent that they are allowed once the barrier is lifted.”

  “What barrier?” Sam reached her hand toward Skylar, still staring at the angel.

  “The one we erected to hide my presence from the demons.”

  This was insane. All of it. Just nuts. An angel? Demons? Them expecting her to just be with a man she didn’t know? Do things with him? Things you only did with a man you loved? She didn’t even know him. Or like him.

  She glanced his way and her stomach flipped when she ran right into his gaze. She reached for Sam’s outstretched hand. Insane as it all was, she wasn’t crazy. She believed what she saw. And she believed in God. This was it. The end of the world. She always wondered if it’d come in her life time. Always had a feeling somehow that it would. She couldn’t deny having daydreamed about her role in it either. She knew she was meant to be something besides cowboy lust fodder.

  She was basically being asked to help save the world. Far cry from a stupid rodeo queen. But then there was the what they were asking her to do. She regarded the foreigner out of the corner of her eye, standing there, not nearly so cocky looking as before. Having his heart pulled out of his chest must’ve cooled his jets a little. She chewed her lip at how funny that was and yet so not. Because when an obviously real bad-ass like him looked overwhelmed in a pool of trouble—then things were serious.

  Well? It was one thing to marry a stranger under her stepfather's dictatorship but an entirely other under God’s. And this guy was at least easy on the eyes, even if he was chauvinistic swine dung. Her lips tingled at the vivid memory of his lips on hers. Not the right at first part but at the point when he’d held her head and taken over her sorry attempt to kiss him. She’d done it merely to save their asses when she saw him go all wimpy. She allowed herself to dwell a moment on the way it had felt. She really needed it to light a fire in her heart and soul and body. To carve a path of purpose in her spirit.

  Ten seconds of waiting and she threw in the towel on that miracle. Might have something to do with how he’d kissed her. Like a little nervous reptilian. Surprised she didn’t choke on his tongue. And yet she still couldn’t deny there was something exciting about the aggression he’d shown, even if it lacked expertise. But then it wasn’t like she was an authority, either.

  She sighed and stuck her hand out toward him. Maybe if she talked to the angel, he could work a few miracles in the how to department.

  Ezekiel looked at her hand like it were a deadly asp. Seeming to swallow his lifelong plans of…being a pussy?—he put his hand in hers, not meeting her gaze. She took a breath of courage and squeezed his fingers. “You okay little Soldier?”

  He quirked his upper lip while squinting his eyes briefly at her, clearly not liking the little reference. Wasn’t her fault he was little. And sorta feminine.

  She smiled sweetly at him then remembered what his body felt like under hers during that demon debacle. Okay, feminine was a tremendously erroneous word. He was rock solid muscle.

  “Might be a good idea for you to hold her around the waist,” the angel said.

  At his pathetic hesitation, Skylar sighed and put her arm around his hips. “Am I going to have to do everything in this relationship?”

  She smiled up into his frown, seeing he only had maybe four inches on her five foot two. “There is no relationship,” he muttered.

  “Aw. I promise not to break your heart.” She raised her brows. “Much.”

  He put his finger on her chest and slowly pushed until her breasts weren’t touching him. What an odd man. Almost like he didn’t like women. Now why did that make her want to…be one all over him?

  He snaked his arm around her waist and jerked her tight to his lower body. Skylar stifled a gasp and a giggle. Calling his little manly bluff, she lowered her hand to his butt and pressed his groin even tighter to her. She whispered in her sultriest voice, “I knew there was a man underneath that little girl act.”

  Before she could enjoy the pissed off shock in that cute face of his, her world blurred. Skylar was a little surprised and relieved that he’d had the ballsy reflex to protectively press her head to his chest. At least at his core, there was something there. She’d have
to figure how to dig it out if they were going to work together in this endeavor. She was all for helping mankind, but she wasn’t going to do it with a little bitch for a partner.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  What a disgusting woman. Typical American whore. She didn’t fool him. He remembered quite clearly how terrified she was when she dove on him and kissed him. More like hammered him with lips.

  He still couldn’t believe this was all happening. Nor that he’d actually managed to kiss a woman. He’d done pretty damn good too. Which was likely why she had her claws all over him, he’d turned on all those hormones. The idea this…angel wanted him to consummate with her was just…preposterous. Surely he had meant that in some metaphorical sense. There was no way he could keep an erection with a woman like that. She was everything he despised and she stood for everything people like him died for.

  The American Way.

  Ezekiel didn’t even let himself dwell on the God issue. If he’d been wrong about God, then fine, he could deal with that. But this woman? He’d be burned alive before defiling himself with her. Since he met her he knew the expanse between her ears was wider than that Montana sky.

  All that beauty was supposed to impress him, no doubt. But little Miss America would have to learn that he was far out of her league in so many ways. If he was ever supposed to truly give himself to a woman, it’d be the bride of his destiny, chosen since childhood. But he’d been called to more. Something exactly like what the angel had brought to him. Minus that woman.

  Metaphorical. Had to be.

  He ignored the little voice that whispered how very un-metaphorical that kiss was.

  He’d draw the line there. If they wanted him to cooperate, then he had a few requirements as well. They would meet them or find somebody else. Amana—the end.

  The world stopped spinning finally. He thought.

  Where were they? In a field of lilacs?

  “You can open your eyes now.”

  At the angel’s deep voice, Ezekiel cracked his lids and was met with the interior of...a hotel?