by Zoey Derrick
CHAPTER FOUR
Give Me Love
ONE
“What have you done to me?” His voice cracks, the effect like gargling gravel. The last thing he knew, he’d come to the cave to tell him about Vivienne. There was a girl with him, but all he can remember is a flash of light and the pain.
The growl comes from across the room. “I have given you life anew! Do not make such inquiries of me again!” From deep in the shadows emerges a man – no, not a man, something far more sinister than anything any man has ever laid eyes upon. Skin the color of charcoal and flame. Two horns at the peak of his skull, and wide, black and red wings even taller than he is flared out behind him.
Understanding immediately that he is once again in the presence of the devil himself, the human kneels in submission. “I’m sorry, my lord.”
“Your apologies are weak and unnecessary. A servant of mine does not express remorse.” The devil takes two more steps. With each step his body changes, morphing into a body like any other man’s. He is tall with long, black hair and deep, dark eyes.
“Rise!” he growls, and the human rises, still looking at the floor. “Look at me.”
He raises his head, and shock etches his features. He knows by his voice that the man standing before him is the same demon, but now the demon’s features are, well, normal. But the human is not fooled; he knows the demon is still just as menacing as he was a moment ago.
“What I’ve done to you is bring you back to life.” The devil laughs. “I’ve brought you back because your drive is unparalleled to anything I’ve ever seen before.” He takes another step toward his lesser. “I’m giving you one chance, and one chance only, to bring her to me, dead or alive. If you fail you will spend eternity with the ghouls, who would love nothing more than to torture you after I kill you.”
TWO
Mikah has found his own personal heaven on earth: There is nothing sweeter than kissing Vivienne. Her scent is like flowers on a warm summer day. It’s heady, and he can’t stop himself from kissing her as if his life depends on it.
His hands roam, slowly and gently, up and down her body while his mouth moves along her jaw, down her neck, onto her shoulder. Her head falls back and she squirms under his touch. Her desire for him has grown hotter with each passing touch of his lips. She’s never experienced anything so sweet and kind. She understands that what he’s doing is proving that she is all that matters, right here, right now.
Her breathing begins to spike as his mouth moves down to her breasts, skirting her nipples. The ache in them is scorching hot and she wants his tongue to ease her need.
Instead, his mouth moves lower still, over her bump to the junction of her thighs. He kisses her there. Licks, and then teasingly drags his teeth along the flesh, and she moans at the sensation. He’s yet to make any real contact with any intimate part of her; he’s only showing her and her body what he’s capable of.
Then his wings blaze at the same time a knock on the door interrupts their heavy breathing. “Mikah. Vivienne. Please, we need to go. Now.”
“What? Where?” Mikah moves off of Vivienne, and she instinctively reaches for the covers.
“We need to go into Elysium. Now.” Red’s voice is stern, unwavering, as Mikah scrambles to his feet.
His eyes meet hers, wary. He wants to explain to her what is going on, but then he sees in her eyes that this is unnecessary; she knows of Elysium and knows more than he thought she knew.
“Mikah, it’s alright. Red, give us a moment, please?” She turns her head toward the door but never breaks eye contact with him. “You have nothing to be afraid of. Let’s get dressed, okay?” she asks, nodding at him.
Though he’s looking at her, he’s not entirely sure what he’s seeing.
Only a few moments ago they were in the heat of passion. Both their wings have made an appearance, and while he understood then that she knows what he is, he didn’t fully understand what he was seeing. Confusion had wracked his brain as he tried hard to decipher whether he was awake or dreaming. But now reality hits him: This is no dream, and she fully knows and understands who and what he is.
He’d noticed when he laid her down that she was without her wings. Asking her seemed like the appropriate thing to do. She’d be his best teacher to show him. “How do I, um…” His voice is gravelly and unsure. “How can I pull these back in?” he manages to finish, and she smiles.
“You concentrate, then visualize them locking back into place. Give it a try.”
He steels himself, afraid of what might happen if he isn’t able to pull them back in. Then he flexes so that he can feel the point where his wings and body come together.
She watches his wings flare slightly and flap while his face shows that he’s concentrating.
Steadily his wings pull in, shrinking moment by moment as he concentrates. Then a furrow appears on his brow, and his wings stop retracting and instead expand.
“Relax, you’re doing great,” she encourages him.
The furrow softens and he concentrates again. This time he doesn’t stop until he feels the click and his wings are locked down.
Opening his eyes, he sees a bright, warm smile on her face. Then his gaze drifts downward and he realizes that she is still topless. The sight of her looking up at him causes his breath to hitch. She really is beautiful; her fair skin, bright red hair, beautiful blue eyes and luscious pink lips drive his desire deeper than it was only a few minutes ago.
The knock on the door comes again, and Vivienne stands and reaches for her shirt. He takes it from her and helps her into it.
She senses his worry, but it’s unclear to her whether it is coming from the fear that he thinks she doesn’t know about Elysium or if it stems from the fact that Red also seems to know more about what is going on than he does. She tries to ease his worry. “Please Mikah, it will be alright.”
He doesn’t say anything right away, but he knows deep down that she is right. “I don’t have any clothes in here,” he says. “Are you good to go in what you’re wearing?”
“Yes, I just want to pull my hair back,” she says as she slides past him toward the bathroom.
“Don’t, I like your hair down.”
She smiles and turns toward him.
Tonight they’ve reached a turning point in their relationship. Everything from here on will be different. That invisible barrier separating them has dropped, and somewhere inside she knows that Mikah is who she wants and what she needs, and that everything is falling into place.
Mikah smiles at her as he heads toward the door. His smile is warm, genuine. That hint of something she’s seen before slides over his features again, that something she’s yet to figure out but he knows to be love.
He opens the door to find Red standing about two feet away.
“We must hurry,” he says, his eyes avoiding Mikah’s.
Vivienne comes to stand on the threshold of the bedroom door.
“How is it that you know about Elysium?” Mikah asks. He’s not sure he wants to know the answer, but the question will bug him until he knows.
“Mikah,” Viv interjects before Red can answer, “I think it is best if we do what he says. I’m sure you can get the answer to that question while we’re there.”
Mikah strides past Red toward the other bedroom, his body language betraying a mixture of determination and frustration. Vivienne can understand why. He thought he knew all the secrets of those surrounding him, and that is proving to be wrong. Vivienne was the primary secret; he never expected Red to be part of it too.
As Mikah enters the other room, Red says, “Mikah, we will explain everything to you, but right now, we need to go to Elysium.”
Vivienne and Red exchange a look. Vivienne starts to follow Mikah, bu
t just before she makes it to the doorway, he comes back out, wearing a black t-shirt and his pajama pants.
“Lead the way,” Mikah says.
Red turns and heads back toward the front door, but he stops short at the guest bathroom. He swings open the door to reveal not the expected bathroom but rather the room in Elysium where Vivienne and Mikah have spent so many nights in their dreams.
Mikah stops dead in his tracks. “What the hell is going on here?” he says, confusion radiating off him. The only way he’s known how to get into Elysium is through dreams; now all of a sudden his bathroom has been turned into a portal.
Vivienne turns to him and takes a hold of his upper arm. “Mikah, look at me.”
He looks at her, his face screwed up with confusion, seeking comfort and explanation.
“It’s alright. Let’s go do this, and then I will explain everything I know about all of this to you. Okay?” Her voice is sternly sincere.
“Okay,” he says, his resolve setting in.
She can see the shift in him as the protector he was born to be returns. She completely understands his reaction; it’s similar to her own yesterday morning, when everything she thought she knew was twisted into something else.
He takes her hand from his arm. But rather than brushing her off, he intertwines their fingers, and together they step through the doorway into the white room.
THREE
In front of them is a bank of windows, only this time they can actually see through them into a luscious green garden. In front of them are two couches, one longer and one shorter, that form an L shape around a empty space where a coffee table would normally be.
Off to their right is the outline of another door, only there is no handle or knob to open it. Every other wall in the room is solid white, broken up by small windows.
They come to stand behind the long couch, and on the other side of it is a woman. As they approach, she turns toward them. She is beautiful in a youthful way, with long hair and soft features.
“Hello, Mother,” Mikah says with a curt nod in her direction. The tension in his body is visible.
Vivienne recalls that Mikah’s mother passed away some years ago, but it is obvious that this isn’t the first time he’s seen her since then. She wonders why he’s so cold toward her.
“My son,” she says. “Vivienne, I am Elizabeth,” she says and moves a step forward, though she appears to be floating more than walking. “It is an honor to finally meet you.” She reaches out her hand and Vivienne steps around the couch to take it. Mikah follows her.
“The same to you,” Vivienne says, unsure how to greet her, but Mikah’s mother doesn’t seem to take any offense.
Elizabeth looks over to Mikah. “It is time for you to learn and to understand all that is going on around you. What I need to tell you is no doubt going to make you angry, but I need you to be calm and listen.”
“I cannot make any promises. I’m already upset and confused. How in the world does Red know about all of this?”
Elizabeth’s eyebrows shoot up, and she looks at Vivienne with a question in her eyes. Vivienne shakes her head.
“Vivienne?” Mikah says with a hint of menace in his voice.
Vivienne turns toward him. “Maybe you should sit down.”
Mikah’s eyebrows draw together and his lips purse.
“Don’t be mad at me. I’ve only just learned all of this within the last twenty-four hours or so. Hardly enough time for me to tell you about it.”
His features thaw and he takes a seat.
Vivienne lets out a breath, and her shoulders relax.
“Yesterday morning when I woke up, the dream I’d been having filtered into reality, much like it did earlier tonight.” She blushes as the memory of Mikah on his knees, his wings spread wide, and the—
She stops the thought but not before she sees his eyes light up with excitement as he too remembers what happened. She blinks, desperate to concentrate.
“When I woke up, I went into the bathroom and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and I almost screamed. Once I began to realize what had happened, Zirah, my teacher—” His eyes snap up to hers; he, too, has a teacher. “—came to me and explained what had happened and how to fix it. She also told me that those closest to us are our greatest allies and protectors. Red—” She gestures behind Mikah to the man standing behind him. “—Andrew, Connor and Celeste are all guardians of Elysium.” She pauses to give him a moment soak up the information she’s giving him.
While he processes it, Vivienne, too, is struck by how strange this all sounds. Now that she hears herself say it aloud, the thought that none of this is real flits through her mind.
“How... Why?” he says.
Vivienne turns toward Elizabeth.
“When you chose the business path you did, you put yourself in the public eye. I had no choice but to help protect you, not only from evil, but from yourself.” Elizabeth starts to pace. “When I died, Shannon knew nothing of angels, knew nothing of what you were or were to become, so the stories stopped with me. We feared that, should your inner angel make himself known, we would be exposed to the world. But it would also expose you to the demons who wish to harm you.” Elizabeth continues to pace. “Demons seek out angels on Earth to either destroy them or convert them.”
Mikah has a flash of intuition that this information is important, but before he can ask about it, Elizabeth goes on. “When you started looking for bodyguards, we sent Red in. Then the rest of your staff. Andrew and Connor are just as he is, and Celeste too.”
Elizabeth continues to pace around the room. Viv looks to Mikah, who is sitting still as can be, his head in his hands. The tension in his shoulders could shatter a boulder to a million pieces. This is not what he was expecting to hear tonight.
“Mikah?” Vivienne says quietly as she comes to stand next to him. Looking down at him, she sees his shoulders relax and the tension wash out of him. He lazily raises his head, and when their eyes meet, everything seems to stop. Nothing matters but him. She senses that need he feels for her, and her heart swells.
Their connection is broken by a clicking sound, like a door closing behind Vivienne, and she turns quickly in that direction. A momentary fear causes her heart to start racing. Striding toward them are two women more beautiful than anything Vivienne has ever seen before. The woman in front is blond with hair that flows out behind her. The second one is red-haired and fair-skinned, much like Vivienne. They wear matching white dresses befitting Grecian goddesses.
The red-haired one smiles at Vivienne, who takes an involuntary step back. “Do not be frightened,” she says, bells for a voice, and Vivienne immediately recognizes her.
“Zirah?” Vivienne asks. The redhead nods enthusiastically at her, and a warm smile spreads across Vivienne’s face. Vivienne feels Mikah move behind her, and her eyes go to the blond woman, whose face lights up.
“Hello, Mikah,” the blond woman says. “I am Seraphina.”
Though he doesn’t smile back at her, Mikah’s eyes register recognition. “Hello, Seraphina.”
Once again there is a click behind them, this time from the door they’d entered through a few minutes ago. Mikah and Vivienne watch as Zirah and Seraphina quickly look past Mikah and Vivienne toward the noise.
Standing in front of the door are Andrew, who is smiling of course; Connor, who looks pissed off as usual; and Celeste, who gives her usual impression of Mexican jumping beans bouncing around inside their shell.
“Now that we’re all here it is time to discuss the real reasons I’ve called on you. Vivienne, I have some rather sad news to share with you. Your mother—”
Vivienne’s ears begin to ring, and she does not need to hear more to know that Elizabeth is trying to tell her that her mother has passed away. Her body goes limp, but Mikah catches her quickly and carries her to the sofa.
“Vivienne.” Elizabeth tries again to gather her attention. “Vivienne, your mother, Rebecca, did not die of natur
al causes.”
“What?” Mikah and Vivienne say in unison, his more of a growl.
“How?” is all Vivienne can manage to say, but then she realizes she already knows the answer to that question. He’s back.
“Riley.”
FOUR
“I always knew that little shit wasn’t done,” Mikah snaps.
Vivienne’s body begins to shake with silent sobs, and Mikah does the only thing he thinks he can do to console her: He gently strokes her hair. She leans deeper into him. Her gesture is silent assurance that she needs him as much as he needs her.
Vivienne always knew that this day would come, but she never expected it to come at the hands of Riley Bennett. Vivienne had been sure that Riley knew nothing of her mother. In fact, he never so much as showed an inkling of interest in her. So how had he found her?
“We’re not entirely sure it was Riley,” Elizabeth says, and Vivienne and Mikah both look up at her.
“How are you not sure?” Mikah asks the question that Vivienne can’t.
“Well, we simply haven’t had the time to investigate what happened, and Rebecca has been no help.”
“What do you mean?” Vivienne asks. Her voice is full of emotion and the words are hard to understand.
“We mean yes, we suspect as much, but we are unable to confirm it just yet. We have a small team on their way to investigate and report back,” Elizabeth is quick to answer.
“But you said something about Rebecca being of no help,” Vivienne says, a little clearer now.
“We’ve brought Rebecca to Elysium.”
“She’s here?” Vivienne and Mikah both say at the same time in nearly identical flat tones. They both look to each other.
Mikah can see the fear in her eyes, and he squeezes her hand slightly, just to let her know that he’s here for her no matter what.
“Yes, she’s here and we’re trying to talk to her. However, it takes some time for the departed to adjust to what’s happened, and I’m afraid she hasn’t been much help.” Elizabeth begins to pace back and forth again in front of the bank of windows near the couches. “We also have to take into account the fact that your mother was not of sound mind prior to her death. We’re not sure if we will get any information from her at all. But we’re going to try.”
