by S. J. West
He leans into me and quickly releases the hooks from the eyes on the back of my bra. He slips it off my shoulders and tosses it where my underwear landed.
Unexpectedly, Malcolm pushes me back on the bed and leans over to kiss the sensitive flesh across my belly. I feel the warm, wetness of his lips and tongue as he works his way down the planes of my stomach, over one hip and down my left thigh.
“There’s something I want to do to you tonight,” Malcolm tells me, lifting the leg he’s kissing until my toes are pointed in the air. He continues to kiss the leg past the delicate skin behind my knee and up my calf until he reaches my ankle, which he nips lightly with his teeth.
“What?” I ask breathlessly. It doesn’t even matter what Malcolm says next. I know I’ll let him do whatever he wants to with me.
“I want to kiss every inch of you from head to toe,” he says, kissing the tip of the big toe of the foot he is holding.
“As long as I’m allowed to do the same thing to you,” I say, thinking this a fair compromise.
Malcolm smiles and continues on his pleasurable quest.
I block everything out of my mind except for the way Malcolm teases my body with both his mouth and hands. He’s a master when it comes to knowing exactly where I want to be touched and how hard. On this night, I need the gentle side of Malcolm to weave his spell across my flesh and help erase everything from my mind except for him. I want to feel cherished and adored by the love of my life, which is exactly the way he makes me feel that night. His fingers dance across the soft core of me like a maestro knowing when a soft or hard chord needs to be played. Over and over and over again, he brings my body pleasure yet holds back on finding any for himself. Finally, I roll him over and take him deep inside myself so we can enjoy the climax of our intimate love song together.
And then it’s my turn…
By the time we decide to cuddle and find at least a little bit of sleep, it’s almost morning. In my mind, our lovemaking was time well spent. I needed to feel completely connected to Malcolm, and making love to him always makes me feel that way. How can you not feel a deep connection while making love to someone, especially when that someone is the love of your life? The sensation of having Malcolm inside me, propelling me to the heights of ecstasy, and then slowly bringing me back down to earth is beyond any words I could attempt to use to describe it. In those few seconds, when the sensation is most intense, I feel as though our souls intertwine with one another and we both reach a heaven of our own making.
After I know Malcolm has fallen asleep, I turn around to look at him. I’ve never felt so much love for one person before. Sometimes I feel like my heart might burst at the seams when he smiles at me or calls me ‘my love’. Since the very first moment I saw him, I knew our love for one another was destined to be since the beginning of time. I make a silent promise to my husband that I will do whatever it takes to stay true to our love for one another during the days to come.
Finally finding peace, I allow myself to close my eyes and take in a deep, cleansing breath to let the previous day’s events fade away.
The day ahead of us will be new and filled with endless possibilities. I pray that it will simply be better than the day before.
I’m awoken sometime later by someone screaming my name.
I sit straight up, clutching the bed sheet close to my naked chest.
I hear scratching at the bedroom door.
“Anna!” Vala yells, making me realize her scream is what awoke me.
I use my power to turn the door’s knob. Vala’s added weight on the other side of the door swings it all the way open.
“What’s wrong, Vala?” I ask as she runs into the room. Malcolm sits up beside me looking at our early morning visitor.
“Anna,” Vala says, sounding on the verge of hysteria, “Lucas is missing!”
Chapter 4
There are moments in life that you will never forget no matter how much you want to. I stare at Vala, hoping I’m still dreaming and simply trapped inside my own worst nightmare. I pray Malcolm will wake me up any minute now because I’m screaming at the top of my lungs. I’m faintly aware when Malcolm phases out of bed, but I feel as though I’m frozen into place. I can’t move. I can’t even breathe.
“Anna,” Vala says, running up to me and standing on her hind legs to lift herself up and place her front paws on top of the bed. “Anna, snap out of it! We need to search for him!”
Malcolm phases back into the room, quickly closing the bedroom door. It’s only then that I notice he’s still naked and realize that I am too.
I throw the bed sheet off me and pick my clothes up from the floor. Hastily, I pull them on. Malcolm does the same thing with his own discarded clothes from the previous night.
“I didn’t see any signs of a struggle in his room,” Malcolm tells me quickly.
“I didn’t even know he was gone until I woke up this morning,” Vala tells us. “I ran down to the kitchen to see if he was with Millie preparing breakfast, but no one was in there.”
“Where else have you looked, Vala?” Malcolm asks urgently.
“The sitting room and dining room. I couldn’t open the doors to look anywhere else or outside.”
“I’ll wake Jered and get him to help us,” Malcolm tells me. “You start searching through the house, and I’ll search the workshop and outer courtyard.”
I nod so he knows I heard him but hear myself give an involuntary whimper as tears begin to cloud my vision.
Malcolm takes precious seconds to bring me into his arms.
“We’ll find him,” he tells me, trying to sound confident but failing miserably.
“Lucas would never go somewhere without telling someone,” I say.
“Maybe he went to see Bai this morning,” Malcolm suggests. “That’s the only thing that’s different about today. Daniel and his family aren’t usually here. We should probably check there first. Do you know which room they’re staying in?”
“No, Millie was taking care of settling them for us. We should ask her first to save time.”
“You go get her, and I’ll get Jered. Meet me in the sitting room after you have her.”
Simultaneously, Malcolm and I phase to our separate destinations.
I knock frantically on Millie’s door and call out her name but receive no response.
“Millie I’m coming in!” I yell to her in case she’s getting dressed before answering me.
When I walk into the room, I see that her bed is unmade. Millie would never leave her room without making her bed. Not unless she had no choice…
I phase down to the kitchen praying I’m mistaken and hope to find her there starting breakfast for everyone. Instead, I only find Giles in the kitchen preparing a pot of coffee.
“Good morning, Anna,” Giles says with a smile, which soon fades into a look of worry when he sees me. “Is something wrong?”
“Have you seen Lucas or Millie?” I ask him.
Giles puts the glass carafe he’s holding down on the counter.
“No,” he tells me. “And that’s odd because Millie is usually the first one up and in the kitchen. I thought she might be sick this morning or just extra tired after last night’s excitement. But you say Lucas is missing, too?”
My heart begins to pound faster inside my chest with the discovery that something may have happened to Millie as well.
“It’s probably a long shot, but could you go look in the stables and make sure he isn’t there for some reason?”
“Of course,” Giles says, making his way out of the kitchen and to the stables.
I phase to the sitting room and find Malcolm and Jered there waiting for me. Jered is pulling a blue sweater on over his head, which tells me they must have arrived just a few seconds before.
“Millie wasn’t in her bedroom,” I tell Malcolm. “And I can’t seem to find her either.”
“Hey,” Daniel says walking into the room with Linn and Bai by his sides. “We heard V
ala yelling. What’s wrong?”
“Have any of you seen Lucas or Millie this morning?” I ask.
“We haven’t seen either of them since last night,” Linn answers, looking concerned that I would ask such a question. “Why? What’s happened, Anna?”
I briefly explain what we know. Afterwards, everyone takes a section of the property to search for our lost loved ones.
I have a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that our efforts will be in vain. Deep down in my heart I know Lucas and Millie have been taken. But by whom? I didn’t think it was Cleo and her group. After my command to them the night before, it seemed as if they would all comply with my order never to return to our home.
Who else would want to cause me this much pain and worry?
Levi was an obvious choice, but so was Helena. She was the one who actually orchestrated the small battle last night. Perhaps the errand the rebellion angels were sent on to test me was simply a ruse for something even more sinister. Had her real motive been to gain access to our private sanctuary? With all of us preoccupied at the front of the house during the fight, the back was left completely vulnerable. It would have been easy for someone to just walk in and gain access to both Lucas’ and Millie’s rooms. Then, when we were all asleep, they could have come in and snatched them out of their beds.
After a futile search through the basement, I phase back to the sitting room and wait for Malcolm. I don’t have to wait long before he returns to our designated meeting place. I quickly tell him about my suspicions.
“It makes sense,” he says, running a hand through his hair in frustration. “Levi may be looking for more leverage against you since you’re becoming stronger. I’m sure he knows what you did to Belphagor and Botis by now. He could be acting out of fear. On the other hand, Helena is determined to turn you into the new master of Hell. What better way to do that than take the ones you love? If what we are assuming is correct though, I hope it’s Levi who has them and not Helena.”
“Why?” I ask.
“Because Levi won’t harm them. Helena might, depending on why she took them in the first place. What better way to make you give into your anger than kill the people you love most?”
Oddly enough, I end up hoping Levi has them too. Helena is evil in its purest form. To her, killing would simply be a way to achieve her ultimate goal.
“Let’s go see Levi first to rule him out,” I tell Malcolm.
I take hold of one of his hands and phase us directly to the palace in Cirrus so we can confront Levi together. If our interrogation of him proves unfruitful, I’m the only one of us who can confront Helena with any measure of safety. Malcolm has already told me that phasing into Hell might be a one-way trip for him. His guilt over what he did in his past might overwhelm him and trap him there forever. It’s a risk I’m not willing to take with his soul.
I phase us directly into Levi’s private chambers, hoping to locate him quickly.
The door to Levi’s bedroom is closed. Christopher and Clark stand on either side guarding it.
“Empress Annalisse,” Christopher says in surprise. “Why are you here?”
“I came to see Levi,” I answer. “I assume he’s in his bedroom?”
“Yes,” Christopher says, looking troubled. “But I don’t think you want to go in there right now.”
Without saying another word, I phase Malcolm and I directly into what was once Auggie’s bedroom. It was a room I had been in many times during my childhood. As children, Auggie and I used to play in his room often and have sleepovers until we came to an age when such a thing was deemed improper. It was a place I knew well. Yet, I barely recognize it after we phase in.
The once eggshell colored walls are charred now beyond recognition. The slash marks across their surface is indicative of Levi’s lightning whip. The bed in the room is overturned and broken to pieces like most of the furniture still present. The white granite floor is now blackened with a thick layer of ash. The only thing of color in the room is the pale-skinned body being held up by leather straps attached to the ceiling in the center. The woman is naked and large strips of her skin have been peeled back from the muscle underneath. Her feet are stuck in a pool of her own dried blood in the middle of the floor.
“Vivian?” I ask, recognizing the girl who had at one time been one of my lady’s maids. She was the one who conspired with Levi in the first place to cast suspicion on me as a traitor to the crown. To see where her treachery has brought her brings me no pleasure.
“She didn’t last very long,” I hear Levi say in disappointment.
I look away from Vivian’s body to find Levi leaning up against the doorframe leading to the bathroom. I have to hold back a reflexive gag at the sight and smell of him. His rotting stench is almost overpowering even from a distance.
Levi has finally turned into the grotesque form of a decomposing corpse. His skin, at least what hasn’t rotted off, has lost all its color and is whiter than a sheet now. The muscle peeking out of the ragged edges of worn away skin is black and seems to be oozing putrefied blood. His eyes are completely white, making me wonder if he can even see out of them anymore. His thin lips stretch into a smile revealing the loss of more than a few teeth. His nose is slightly caved in making it appear almost non-existent. As Levi tries to breathe through it, I can hear a wet whistling sound that sends shivers down my spine.
“Where are Lucas and Millie?” I ask Levi, not even bothering to ask about Vivian. It may have been cold hearted not to even acknowledge her death, but I truly didn’t care what happened to her. She betrayed me, and I felt no need to grieve over her loss. I had people I actually loved who needed saving.
Levi squints at me. I can’t quite tell if he’s just trying to see me through his dead eyes or if he’s confused by my question.
“Shouldn’t you know the answer to that yourself?” he asks me.
“Do you have them or not?” Malcolm demands, showing his lack of patience with Levi trying to turn the question around on us.
Levi stares at us briefly before he begins to chuckle.
“Lost more loved ones have we?” Levi asks, mockingly. “My, my, little dove, you do seem to have a hard time keeping track of the ones you profess to care about the most. You really should take better care of your pets, wife.”
“Are you denying that you have them?” I ask.
Levi shrugs.
“When would I have had time to abduct two people from your home? Can’t you see I had some redecorating to do?” Levi says as he waves a limp hand around the room. “I wouldn’t risk coming to your home anyway. Lucifer told us not to, and I really want him to release my soul from this rotting human skin one day. So, no. I did not take your little boy or maid. Though, I wouldn’t mind having the boy. He’s quite interesting you know.”
“What do you mean by that?” I ask.
Levi shakes his head at me. “Nothing. It’s not important enough to share. So, who do you think has sickeningly sweet little Lucas and overbearing Millie?”
“We have one other person to speak with,” I say.
“Well, why don’t you scurry along, my dove, and go speak with this person? I’m rather busy at the moment.”
“If we find out that you’ve lied to us,” Malcolm says, “you’ll regret it, Levi.”
“Such theatrics shouldn’t be wasted on me, Malcolm. I freely admit that I have Andre. Don’t you think if I had your son I would gloat about the fact? I mean that is my way.”
I hear Malcolm sigh because he knows as well as I do that Levi is telling the truth. If he had Lucas, he wouldn’t waste an opportunity to taunt Malcolm with it. He already had a track record of doing that very thing.
“Let’s go,” I tell Malcolm, squeezing his hand.
Malcolm phases us back home to the sitting room. We find everyone else waiting there for us. Of course, no one had luck finding Lucas and Millie in the house. We tell them about our visit to Levi and who we think has our loved ones.
“Lucifer was here,” Jered informs us.
“I totally forgot he was coming over for breakfast this morning,” I say. “Where is he?”
“He left after we told him everything that happened. He actually reached the same conclusions that you did, but he seemed confident Helena is the one who has Lucas and Millie.”
“I’m guessing he went to Hell to confront her,” I say.
Jered nods his head. “That’s where his phase trail led to.”
I turn to Malcolm. “I have to go.”
“I don’t want you to go there alone,” Malcolm says, looking worried about my safety.
“And you can’t go with me,” I tell him. “Plus, Lucifer is there. I won’t be alone.”
“That doesn’t make me feel any better about you going,” Malcolm admits.
“It’s the only option left open to us right now. Don’t worry,” I say, trying to sound confident. “He won’t let her hurt me. I know it. You need to put a little faith in him.”
“It’s not particularly that I don’t trust him where your safety is concerned,” Malcolm says. “I just don’t think he’s in control down there anymore. Helena seems to have more influence on what happens now than he does. She’s the one who sent Cleo and the others here last night. I don’t even think Lucifer knew they were coming. He’s lost control of her, Anna.”
“Trust me,” I tell Malcolm. “Let me go down and get the information we need. If she knows where Lucas and Millie are, I’ll get the truth out of her.”
“How exactly?” Malcolm questions, looking troubled. “If you let your anger rule your actions while you’re in Hell, I may not get you back, Anna. I can’t live with losing you too.”
I lean in and hug Malcolm, wrapping my arms around his neck.
“I promise you won’t lose me. I’ll be careful. If I feel like I’m losing control of myself, I’ll come straight back here. It’s not like she can follow me.”
Malcolm hugs me tightly to him.
“Ask the bracelet what I’m feeling right now,” he whispers to me. “I want your heart filled with my love before you go down there.”
