“Stay in touch.” After he hung up the phone, Samuel went over to the couch and sat beside Thalya. “You heard?”
“Of course, both sides.” She shook her head. “Idiots to think soulless can be created like that, but sounds like Chris might have been out of control for some time. So, what now?”
“I have a few things in mind.” And none of it business. He couldn’t do anything more about Chris or the soulless this minute, but as long as she remained with him he’d make the most of it. He couldn’t go on like this, putting his sanity on the line. Thalya had to decide soon and they both knew it.
He stood up and held out his hand to her. “I need you to stay. With me.”
She didn’t say anything, just took his hand.
He’d brought her overnight case in from the car and picked it up where he’d placed it on the floor. It seemed to take forever to climb the steps to his bedroom but finally, they got there. He dropped her case near his closet and led her over to the bed. Sitting down, he held her in front of him.
Not satisfied to remain passive, she placed her hands on his shoulders.
Samuel reached up and pulled her sweater over her head, revealing one of those low-cupped dark colored bras she seemed to favor when she bothered to wear one. This one lifted her firm breasts and presented them to him as a gift. At least that’s the way he saw it.
Before he could unhook her bra and worship them, she leaned down, grabbed the bottom of his untucked shirt and pulled it up over his head. She untied the leather strip holding back his hair and the strands fell over his shoulders. Thalya ran her hands over his chest. She traced the circle of his nipple ring.
He inhaled sharply at her fingers on his body. “I will never tire of your touch,” he whispered just before he cupped one breast with one hand and put his mouth over the fabric to suckle on the other. Without releasing her, he scooted back on the bed, taking her down with him.
She landed on top, her hair spilling around them like a soft cloud.
Her tits hung in his face, wanting their freedom. Of course, he helped her remove her bra. He released her nipple only long enough to get the material off, so he could savor her skin. His tongue swirled around her left nipple before covering one darkened areola and sucking it again into his mouth.
They both moaned.
He held onto her slender hips and helped raise them. She grabbed his cock and held it still while she lowered herself fully onto him, taking all of his length into her body. A feeling of immense satisfaction overwhelmed him. Her sex muscles clamped unto him. Claiming him. Owning him. At last, they were joined. He stayed perfectly still, content being in her tight sheath for the moment and not wanting it to end.
As Thalya eased down on Samuel’s hard length and his very essence surrounded her, engulfed her, the feeling of completeness could not be denied. She knew one thing. Her decision had been made. There could have been no other choice for her. They were one.
Samuel looked up at her with his heart in his beautiful eyes. “This had better mean you’re staying because I am so not letting you go.” His voice filled with emotion…the same emotion filling her.
Tears of joy gathered in her eyes. Nothing felt more right than being part of this male, than being one with this man. She could help him in his quest to keep the world safe, innocents free from harm. It is what angels do, so she’d do her good deeds without wings. She’d remain by his side until the day he took his last breath and she’d follow right behind him. Unfortunately, she would have to watch him die, because she would promise never to leave him. A promise she would keep. “I will not leave you, Samuel,” she whispered. “If you’ll have me, I wish to stay with you until I am called for the last time. This is my promise to you. I love you.”
She moved her hips up until she was almost off his dick but then slowly pushed back down. He placed his hands on her thighs to still her movements.
“I can’t believe I’m even saying this, but last chance. Are you sure?” Samuel moved one hand to the side of her face and stared into her eyes. “Are you sure I am what you want? You’re giving up eternity for me.”
She stared right back at him, seeing his soul in his eyes and knowing he saw an answering reflection in hers. An existence without him was unthinkable. “Yes, I’m sure. And I’m giving up nothing. What good is living forever, if I am not with you? You are my home, my soul, my heart. But are you sure?”
She could feel him pulse inside her swelling within her even more.
“You already own my soul and my heart and home for me is where ever you are. I will give thanks to God all my days you feel the same.”
Samuel would spend the rest of his life making sure she never regretted her decision. Starting right now. All of this she heard in his thoughts and more. He wanted to bind her to him in all ways, under the laws of God and man. Even he knew no law could keep someone who didn’t want to stay, but she had chosen him and would stay because she wanted to do so.
“Stay with me,” he urged, as he flexed up into her core.
She smiled. “Yes, Samuel I will.”
Then they kissed to seal their promises to each other. He took the kiss deeper, drawing her body down on his chest, taking as well as giving and receiving so much in return. “No regrets,” he whispered against her mouth.
“None.”
He pulled back a little as his hand stroked up and down her back. “What about your wings?”
“They’re gone. I felt them leave the moment I made my decision.”
“When did you know?” he asked, surprise in his voice.
“I knew I belonged to you from the moment you sat across from me that night at the bar.”
“Really!” he grinned. “But you’d been so unsure.”
“Not about our love, but what I thought I was supposed to do. I realized I could still do good here, be with you and help you.”
“I’m sorry, babe, you had to choose.”
“It’s all right,” she said, touching the side of his face. “I will always choose you.”
He pushed her hair back behind her ears. “But without your abilities as a soulless you’ll be vulnerable.”
She smiled again. “Not true. I still have a lot of abilities. I’m probably a lot like you now, and besides, I got something much better in return.”
He frowned. “What?”
“Don’t you know?”
“Your soul?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Guess again.”
He frowned. “Then what did you get?”
“You. I got you.”
He hugged her to him. “Yes, you do. I’m still sorry, babe. You can no longer fly.”
She wrapped her arms around him. “Now, that’s where you’re wrong. I still fly. Whenever I’m in your arms I soar.”
She demonstrated by flexing her inner muscles and shifting her weight up, then downward while he flexed his hips up. All talking stopped. Only emotion and intense pleasure remained and the joy of knowing they would never have to part. Their love could be experienced for as long as they each held breath.
They continued thrusting together in perfect unison. Each striving to take the other higher and in turn, the shared satisfaction became greater. The physical connection felt like a conduit running emotion back and forth between them, taking them further than they’d ever gone before. Her eyes stayed open fixed on his and she knew the moment he’d seen heaven in her eyes, because she saw the reflection in his.
Shutting her eyes, Thalya soared.
Samuel’s hips bucked lifting entirely off the bed while he grabbed her hips to keep her firmly impaled on his flesh. The explosion rose from the very depths of his being, rushing into her waiting canal. Filling her with all that he was. Spent at last, he fell back into his own skin, yet no longer alone. Samuel wrapped his arms around her and he rolled them to lie on their sides. Never once, did he slip out of her. He raised her leg over his thigh and began to move again. Slowly at first, but soon he wanted more and she
wanted him. He would always give his woman what she wanted. After all, she held the other part of his soul.
The day had already started, but neither of them moved. So much to do. They hadn’t gotten much sleep last night or during the twilight hours. But they didn’t just make love either. They talked in between. They’d decided to take Wilhelmina and her sisters up on their offer. They’d go see them later today, if they could just get out of bed.
Thalya had her finger wrapped around a strand of his hair.
“I will never be able to get enough of you,” he whispered as he lay on his back.
She used his arm as a pillow for her head and her arm rested across his stomach. “I hope not,” she said. “You’re long lived and still I feel like it will not be enough time.”
He kissed her head. “Forever not long enough for you?”
“No,” she replied. “I want you for forever and beyond.”
Samuel rolled on top of her. She’d already parted her legs. He paused, not quite ready to enter her yet, so he lifted his lower body and cupped her mound. “Oh, so wet.” As if they hadn’t just spent the night making love. Yet, she was ready for him again. He wondered if they’d be able to have children. A rush of love infused him at the thought of his child growing inside her. “Then have me,” he said. “Have me.”
She wrapped her hand around him, guiding him into her, and he slipped effortlessly into his love. Who needed rest, when there was always later?
Epilogue
It took Adam a week to finally hunt down Abel and another day to subdue him. I’m was getting too old for this shit. He would be able to hold him for at least a year.
Adam stared at the figure lying on the other bed. A mirror image of his brother, except where Abel had golden hair favoring his father, Cain’s sprouted dark locks like his mother. Twins. Who when awake must forever be kept apart. If they were both loose in the world at the same time, there’d be hell to pay. Both literally and figuratively. Cain would slay his brother again and this time, there’d be no redemption for either.
Adam would do anything to prevent that, including risking his own soul by continuing to confine them like this. The reason he seldom ventured far or for any length of time from his home. He couldn’t. His presence and power kept them here and with them both in residence, he could not leave the premises at all.
He smoothed the cheek of each son’s face as he’d done when they were boys. Back at the beginning of time. That was then, and this is now. They were boys no more, but men full grown who must choose their own path. And in truth, already had.
Yet, he couldn’t allow it. Thus far, the paths they were determined to pursue led only one place and it wasn’t upward. Soon, Cain would wake up and Adam would let him leave, at least for a while. Maybe the next time Cain woke, he’d find his own redemption. God knows he, Adam, would never find his. Although, he knew the exact requirements necessary to achieve his redemption, they were forever denied him. It was the price he paid. So be it.
He kissed each son on the forehead—something he dared not do when they were awake—before walking out of the room and pulling the door shut. He stood in front of it and falling to his knees, he brought his palms together in front of his chest. Bowing his head, he began to pray. As he did, the door, the very room—with his sons inside—disappeared. A window appeared in its place, overlooking the forest beyond the house. Hiding a room neither in this world nor the next, but somewhere in between. There, it would stay until one of them awoke and summoned him to open the door and let one brother roam free. For a while.
Each instance, hoping this would be the age they would be free of their past sins. This time with Samuel’s and Thalya’s help, he’d put a stop to whatever new horror Abel had started. Or, so he hoped. At least Thalya had found her redemption. If he could feel envy, he would envy them. But he could not, must not allow himself to feel.
Adam headed back downstairs to answer the knock at his door before he’d even heard it. He already knew whom he would find on the other side. He’d sensed their approach as soon as they’d stopped at the gate and had opened it before they could press the intercom. As one of the oldest of his kind, his senses ranged further than most. Not something to be particularly proud of, just another fact of his damned existence—having to watch others cease to exist.
Shaking off his thoughts, he opened the front door wide and let the women in. He also knew why they had come.
Wilhelmina and her sister, Winfred, entered first, then their niece, Evangeline. He’d never met her but he knew her instantly, yet he felt nothing for her. Her soul did not house the one meant for him, the one reborn countless times and had at last, been reborn into the body of her twin. The one meant for him he could never have…Never touch.
Adam closed the door behind them. “Come in, ladies,” he said, bowing his head to them. “I’ve been expecting you.”
“We won’t stay,” Wilhelmina said. They remained in his foyer.
From past experience, he knew they would come no further into his domain. He suspected they were forbidden. As so much was forbidden to him.
“We know how you value your privacy,” Winfred agreed. “But we needed to remind you of your promise to our sisters before us and that it still holds.”
His gazed unblinkingly back at her. “I have not forgotten. The promise stands.”
“Did you stop Abel?”
The reason for their visit and his purpose, to make certain the end of days would not be this day. “Don’t I always?”
“It will be for the best, Adam, you’ll see,” Wilhelmina said.
He almost snarled but that would be an emotion, so he didn’t. “Best for whom?”
At least the older women’s faces flushed and they looked a little guilty.
Evangeline, on the other hand, just kept staring at him. She blocked her emotions. They all did but being stronger than most, if he wanted to, he could strip the blocks. He didn’t, still he could sense her curiosity. And her fear. Just as her aunts feared him.
Damn right, they should.
He turned his attention to Evangeline. “We have never been formally introduced,” he said.
“I know who you are.”
He raised his eyebrows at her. “Indeed. As I you.”
“Where’s Abel?” Wilhelmina said, as if wanting to head off any further discussion between the two.
“He’s contained for now. That’s all you need to know. But I can’t hold him forever. The periods are getting shorter and this new wave he’s started amongst the soulless is only the beginning. Samuel and the hunters merely stopped it this time. But the soulless are growing in number and it’s just a matter of time before the shit hits the fan again,” Adam explained.
“Why would there be more soulless now?” Evangeline asked.
Once he focused on her, really looked at her, he had a hard time taking his eyes off her. Even though she was not the one, she wore the image of her twin and it hurt so much to look at her. So very beautiful. He had to remind himself it was not she. Yet, she was as close as he’d come in a thousand years. He forced himself to answer her question, “I don’t know. I don’t exactly have a direct pipeline into heaven anymore. I’m told what I need to know and not much else.”
“Well, that’s why we’re here, to see if you have any clues,” Winifred prompted.
He shrugged. “Don’t know. You all are in a better position to know or find out more than I am. You all chronicle our history. This is not the first time this has happened. The last time, I took all of the memories of the banished and bound their wings.”
“But you did all of that before the Chronicles came into existence,” Winifred stated. “We hadn’t even realized what had happened until you told Thalya.”
“Did it? Are you sure?” He could see Winifred wanted to answer but stopped herself.
However, Wilhelmina did. “It’s possible there may be an older volume, maybe something that wasn’t part of the Chronicles. Something that p
redates them.”
He shook his head. “It might not have been an original account. It would have been something passed down by word of mouth and at some point, written down and forgotten. Thought of as the ramblings of a mad man or woman.”
“History is full of those,” Evangeline scoffed.
“Well, you all are the keepers of the chronicles. Search them, see what you can find out.”
“What good would that do?” Evangeline asked.
“I don’t know for sure, but history is about to repeat itself. So, it would help to understand the past in order to face what’s coming and defeat it.”
“He has a point,” Wilhelmina agreed.
Adam raised an eyebrow at her concession, getting the impression she disliked having to agree with him. He didn’t really give a fuck since he had no emotion. But he wasn’t done with them. “Another thing for you all to consider this may be the point in history where the Chroniclers will have to choose.”
No one answered or responded, but the fear emanating from all of them spiked at his comment, which they knew to be true. They had to keep an accounting but they were also subject to judgment, just like everyone else.
He and others like him had been banished because of indecision, indifference and the chroniclers’ attitudes weren’t far from those first banished. Best, they be reminded of that.
“Thank you for your time, Adam,” Winifred said. “We’ll contact our sister in Rome and see what she has to say. We’ll let you know if we find anything.”
“One more thing,” Wilhelmina added. “We’ve partnered with Samuel and Thalya. They’re going to help us keep the chronicles in my care safe.”
“Not a bad idea,” he agreed. “They’re a good choice, a fair representation from each side.”
“Exactly,” Wilhelmina agreed. “Could you let the word out we are protected by hunter and soulless both?”
“I will. And I see you all have found a way to preserve your neutrality in this war.” He grinned. “Why am I not surprised?”
She inclined her head slightly. “It is the right thing to do.”
Angel Rising_Redemption Page 28
