We met, halfway, at the front where a few stairs led up to the ornate podium. And Luke bent down to one knee. Confused, my brows creased.
Taking my hand, Luke said, “I want to do this right.” His voice sounded a bit shaky. “Mercy, I think I started falling in love with you the first time we met.” Air left my lungs as I realized what he was doing. He reached in his jeans pocket. “I’ve had this with me for a while now. I hoped that one day you’d say yes. This isn’t a traditional ring. I didn’t think you would want that. Not right now at least. This is between us. No one has to know other than this priest and God himself. Will you marry me?”
I’d already answered but that didn’t matter, I’d say it a thousand times over. “Yes,” I breathed. Holding out my hand, he slipped on a ring made of three bands, one yellow, one pink, and one silver. They were all gold I was sure. At the top a pearl charm held all three bands together.”
With unsteady hands, Luke pointing to the thin gold band. “This represents my heart. It is pure. This,” he pointed to the pink band, “—represents all my love.” And to the silver band he said, “This is my soul. All three belong to you.” He pointed to the pearl. “You are beauty personified. You are unique and rare, there isn’t another like you. You hold me together. And it is with your love that I exist.”
He slid the ring on my finger and stood. With the pad of his thumb, he brushed away a solitary tear from my cheek. “I will always love you.”
“Forever?” I asked, my word broken with fear for the future.
“Forever.” He stated as if it were fact. And I had no choice but to believe him.
Chapter Fifty Five
A girl should remember her wedding day, but I’ll be honest. It was a blur. The priest came dressed in fancy robes and spoke words from the Bible. He talked about sacrifice and devotion. And I heard every word and didn’t at the same time. My future wasn’t bright. People were out to kill me. Luke’s dad would not be pleased if he ever found out. What about Flynn? Was I going to kill him by not being with him? And I’d sent Sebastian away with an unknown fate. Should I expect demons to knock at my door the moment I got home? Those questions clouded what should have been my joyous day as a bride.
“What’s going on in that head of yours?” Luke asked, giving me a quick glance before looking back at the road. It was hard to pay attention with the knowledge of what I’d just done so fresh in my mind.
“I’m just happy.” I said while I remembered his joy when the priest said “I now pronounce you man and wife.”
“Where are we headed?” I asked, seeing us drive back into familiar territory.
“My house, if that’s okay?” he asked.
“Will your mom be home?” I asked.
“She’s out of town,” he didn’t exactly look thrilled about that. Had something happened?
I pushed aside that thought because if his mother wasn’t home, would I be staying for the night? Nerves pricked me. I’d wanted this for so long. But somehow everything seemed different, new and scary. I was married. Maybe not by government standards, but if God saw me as one of his, I was.
When we pulled up to his house, Luke clasped my hand and with a look told me he wanted me to wait and not get out of the car on my own. So I did. He opened the door, and held out a hand. Helping me to my feet, he scooped me up before I could truly stand on my own. With a shove, he managed to close the door with a foot. He also managed to open the front door and carry me up the stairs without so much of a hitch of breath.
He held me securely in his strong arms until we got to his room. It was like a fairytale until we reached his bed. When he lay me down I looked at my jeans and tee and reality set in. There wasn’t a white dress. Looking up into his blue eyes, I saw light in them again. “You look beautiful Mrs. Bishop.”
Words had the power to soothe. “And you look absolutely pulchritudinous, Mr. Bishop.” His answering smile told me he didn’t have to know what it meant to understand how I felt about him. I smiled but it faltered a little. Would he be disappointed in my lack of knowledge of what came next? Would my demon try and take over and ruin this moment for both of us?
Kneeling beside the bed so that he was looking at me closer to eye level, he said, “We don’t have to do anything. I didn’t get married to you just so that we could have sex.”
That gave me the courage to move. I rolled on my side and took his face in my hands. I marveled at just how lucky I was that he was mine. “I love you. And I want this.”
Brushing our lips together, I wanted to consume him. And consume we did. Like a beautiful song, we kissed, we touched and explored until we were as we had been the day we were born. This time there was no hesitation. This time it was just the two of us. The darkness that lived within both of us stayed hidden.
His knuckles tenderly brushed my cheek. He stopped. “Are you sure?” I nodded. The piercing pain that can next made a tiny whimper escape my mouth. As if I were a bottomless pit of water, a tear escape my eye. Poised over me with concern on his face, he said, “I’m sorry. There was no other way. I hate to see you in pain.”
I shook my head, dismissing what had been enviable. The pain dulled slightly with his lack of movement. “It’s okay.”
His hand slid down my body in reverence. A bit of warmth from his hand took away some more of my discomfort. “I can’t heal it all otherwise—” he said, leaving the sentence dangling with words unsaid. I nodded. I didn’t want him to totally heal me and have experience that pain again.
He kissed my face along the trail the tear had left and then landed on my mouth again. Then he loved me in a way that was so kind, so gentle, so him. He made everything perfect and right to the best of his ability. And I knew I’d made the right choice. I loved the way we fit together. I loved the feel of his skin next to mine.
With our fingers tangled between us, we lay under the covers in peace. Everything in that moment felt right. My world was everything I could have hoped for.
Tightening my fingers around his, I turned to him with a smile on my face. I was so happy that I’d been able to dictate this part of my life despite all the people around me who had tried to take my choice away.
“Mercy.” He wasn’t smiling. I feared his next words. “I still have to go. There is something I must do,” he said. He looked troubled adding to my cause of concern.
“Where are going? What’s so important?” I asked, tossing out questions fast from fear.
Turning on his side, he mirrored me. He drew lines on my face with his fingertips as if he was trying to remember me. Alarms were now ringing. “I have a few places I need to check.” A second later, he added, “And honestly, I don’t want to be here to watch.”
Frowning, I asked, “Watch what?”
“You and Flynn,” he said.
The big O formed on my lips. I fell to my back covering my face with my hands. I’d assumed that nightmare was over. “I don’t want to be with him. What more do I have to do to prove that to you?”
Sliding me over to him, he said, “I know. But my father… We still must convince him that we aren’t together officially.”
He took my hand away from my face so that I would look at him. “He won’t believe either of us. We must convince Nina.”
“Nina?” I cried.
“Yes, Nina. My father will no doubt ask her about it after I tell him. She won’t trust it either if I just break up with you. But if you and Flynn act like you’re together, she will believe.”
Rapidly, I shook my head. “I can’t do that. I won’t do it.”
“Would you rather Sebastian claimed you?”
My mother’s words rushed back at me. Belial could come for us. “No,” I answered. Despite my words and actions, I didn’t think Sebastian was a bad guy no matter his stony exterior. But he was subservient to his father.
“Flynn is dying. And as much as I want to kill him for whatever happened between the two of you—”
“It—”
“Don�
��t. I really don’t want to know. I can guess. It was a dream. I don’t want to think about it or why you might have done it. So let’s drop it.”
I nodded.
“Flynn was right when he said I knew the truth. I think I knew all along but I chose to ignore it. And I think it might be too late to stop it.” That stopped me dead, he was referring to the bond. “He doesn’t need to die for it. I don’t think either one of you set out to do this. And a huge part of me wants to believe because you’re so different from others of your kind that this has happened without you truly being in love with him. And I can’t in good conscious let him die. That’s not the stuff I’m made of. Until we can figure out another way, you need to feed him.”
“I won’t.” Everything about this plan spelled bad news.
“I’m not asking you to have sex with him.” We looked at each other. “Feeding him serves two purposes. It saves him and protects you and your mom.”
“When?” I asked. I hadn’t made up my mind to do this, but it was something I needed to know.
“Tomorrow.”
He laid out his plan. He would break up with me in a spectacular way. “You have to trust me and promise not to believe the things I’ll say or do.” He went on to tell me that he wouldn’t share exactly what he planned to do because he needed my reaction to look as authentic as possible. He would handle Flynn and inform him of what would go down. Of course then, Flynn and I would need to shortly but not necessarily the same day, get together for appearances.
“You are my heart,” Luke began, leaning over me. “You have my heart,” he said and kissed the heart charm on the necklace I wore before kissing me.
“How long?” I asked.
“Forever.”
I nodded but that hadn’t been my question. “How long do I have to pretend to be with Flynn?” I asked again.
“I hope to find something about that too while I’m gone.”
“Prom?” I asked. Would I still be his date?
“I’ll be back by Prom. And you will go with me.”
That meant two weeks. “My mom is planning for us to move.” I told him everything she and I had spoken about.
His fingers stilled on my arms where he’d been following a path to my elbow. “Maybe that’s for the best,” he said.
“No, I don’t want to leave you.” Panic had me gripping his arm.
“So having your mother believe that we’ve broken up and you’re with Flynn will work in our favor with her as well.”
He was right. But could I pretend for two weeks and not succumb to the hibernating feelings that lay in wait like a predator at my heart’s door? I had to be careful and bury deep what must remain dormant. Flynn would not be my undoing.
Chapter Fifty Six
I’d texted my mom the night before that I was staying at Maggie’s. She’d been slated to work, but I’d covered my tracks anyway when we’d headed to get married. I’d even given Maggie explicit warnings to cover me if my mom called.
Of course, Maggie wanted to know why. I promised to tell her later. That turned out to be a good choice because in this scheme I wasn’t allowed to tell Maggie the truth of things. Not right away at least.
Luke talked to Flynn on the phone while I watched TV trying my best not to hear what was said. I really didn’t want to hear if they were bargaining over what activities Flynn and I could or couldn’t do like I was some object. It was all too bizarre, even in this crazy life I lived.
Instead, I thought about Sebastian again. Had he done all those things he said as my friend and protector or just to gain my affection? What was his end game? Why risk his father’s wrath for me? Was my mother right? Had I put the whammy on him like I did with Paul? For that matter, had I done the same to Luke and Flynn?
“You ready?” Luke’s voice snapped me out of my musing.
“Yeah,” I said, getting up. I’d already showered and changed. Luke had taken me to get my car last night and followed me home to get a change of clothes before we returned to his house. Yawning, I thought about all we done again, how much our relationship had changed. I was a bit sore and tried not to show it. He wrapped an arm around me and walked me out of his room. He hadn’t made his bed, which still held our impressions in the pillows. I thought about how it would be for him when he returned home without me, knowing I’d be in his best friend’s arms soon after.
At the door of his house before we exited, he kissed me with so much fire I didn’t think we could ever extinguish the flames.
“So,” said a female voice. We broke apart. My face took on the cadence of one that had been burned. I stared into his mother’s hard eyes. “It seems you’ve finally achieved what you wanted.”
I wasn’t sure who she was speaking to. It could have gone either way depending on her meaning. “Mom, I thought you were out of town.”
“I was until this morning.” She eyed us suspiciously. Those eyes of hers found my hand. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Mom, let it go,” Luke warned.
Today, I found his mother more frightening than a hellhound. “Is she worth it? You are starting a war with your father by doing this.”
“I’m living my own life,” Luke explained.
“I know better than most that you were thrust into a world not of your making. And I sympathize with her. She didn’t ask to be demon anymore than you asked to be angel. But there are things that are unchangeable and unfair. This can only bring you harm.” She clasped a hand over her mouth after the last of her strangled words let her mouth. All the wrath left her body when she cried out and fell to her knees. Luke gave my hand a quick squeeze before he rushed over to her to take her in his arms. She looked so tiny and vulnerable next to him. “You are my only son. And I don’t want to lose you.” It seemed that there was a lot of that sentiment going around.
“You won’t,” he promised.
“But I already have. I’ve lost you to her.” She pointed at me like I was the monster in the room. And I supposed she was right.
He followed the straight line of her finger like a bull’s eye directly to me. He mouthed I’m sorry. And I steeled myself for the next words.
“What will you do if they find you?” Her question didn’t make sense. I paid very close attention to Luke’s reply.
“They won’t. And I was just telling her goodbye. We know we can’t be together. We just wanted one night. Please,” he begged, “don’t tell Dad.”
His words cut only because they had so easily dropped from his mouth. Were they truly lies or was there some truth in them? Adding to the illusion that he was crafting, I left the house. There wasn’t any need to stay and hear any more. I got in my car and headed to school. There would be no more kisses between us. His mother was home. He’d set the stage. I didn’t want to hear whatever else he would tell her to explain away my presence.
At school, I parked and snagged my backpack out of the passenger seat where I’d tossed it in my haste to leave. Maggie was flagging me down by the flagpole no less. She stood hand in hand with Brent. Tom stood off to the side talking to a girl whose back was too me. I rarely saw Tom with a girl, so that was puzzling as I stood for a minute longer trying to figure out who she was.
After I began moving, I hadn’t paid attention. I found myself next to Flynn’s Hummer. He reached out and maneuvered me so that my back was up against his SUV and he was plastered to me. “What are you doing?” I gritted out.
“The plan starts now,” he said before kissing the hell out of me. I was unable stop him from gripping my waist and pressing me flush to him. I felt the power transference and stopped fighting for just a second. He needed this, I told myself. Still, he was doing this in front of the whole school. I bit his lip shortly after and he pulled away.
“Mercy,” an anguished voice called out.
Flynn’s head turned but his weight kept me prisoner against the car. I saw Luke’s pain-filled eyes meet mine and my heart sank. “Luke, it’s not what you think.” I blurted.<
br />
“It isn’t?” his voice broke.
“No!” I cried. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized that everyone nearby was watching. I looked around to see all eyes on us. It should have hit me like a semi tracker trailer. But this wasn’t how I imagined it happening.
“Because it looks like you’re all over my best friend.” He spit. Blue eyes suddenly inflamed, he turned to Flynn. “And what are you doing?” Flynn pulled away from me them, shoulder back and fists at his side, he didn’t flinch when Luke got in his face. “What kind of friend are you?” This was no longer my Luke. “She was mine. And you couldn’t stay away from her.” His hands slammed against Flynn’s chest. Flynn only took a step back before they were nose to nose again. As much as my conscience screamed that was an act, I couldn’t ignore the fact that something about this scene was too real.
“I tried, don’t you think I tried?” Flynn growled.
“I’m sick and tired of always having to watch my girls around you?”
“When have I taken another one of your girls? Mercy wants me as much as I want her.”
They were inches from throwing their clenched fists, from grappling on the pavement and beating each other within inches of their lives. And the darkness in Luke told me he wanted it.
“I don’t have to fight you over her. You know who she really wants. We belong together,” Flynn bellowed. And that was an iron fist that had Luke staggering back with very real pain on his face. After a couple of moments, Luke could only stare at Flynn in a mixture of disbelief and hate. Flynn returned it with a smug grin before Luke turned to me.
“It’s over Mercy. I can’t do this anymore,” he said, resigned.
“No, please,” I called out in vain. But he only gave me his back as he strode away towards the school entrance. All eyes focused back on Flynn and me. For just a split second his smile faltered before it rose big on me again. I moved to slap him. He was faster, pinning my hands to my sides. “Don’t,” he warned.
Angel Of Mercy (Cambions #3) Page 27
