“It is a simple question, Celeste,” he prodded.
“No it isn’t,” she bit back and pulled her hand from his. She stomped to the back of the plane and through the door Marcus had pointed out earlier. A small bed was set up bolted to the wall, but it the last thing she wanted to do was lay down on a bed. Not with Marcus feet away.
Tears stung the backs of her eyes and she kicked the bed. Which left her foot hurting. Celeste leaned against the door and slide to the floor. She was furious at her reaction to Marcus, she knew it was going to be hard but as she stared at her hand his touch still burning her skin. She wondered if being forced to work with Marcus might be more difficult than actually killing Calliope.
****
Marcus watched her walk away and slam the door, he couldn’t trust her but he also felt drawn to her.
For the first six hours of the flight he had sat in the same room she was in now going through ever single memory he had of the Infernos but nothing came to him. He had never been introduced to her. But something in him told him he knew who she was. He pushed a hand through his hair trying to figure out what he was going to do with her. Working with someone he could not trust didn’t sit well with him.
He leaned his head back and closed his eyes, trying to pull a picture of Jessica up in his mind’s eye. He started with her blond hair and then her blue eyes, her pert nose that would wrinkle when she laughed or was thinking really hard.
With the image in his mind he let himself drift to happier times. Jessica in the small house they had, her kneading bread. She would turned to him as he had entered her smile feeling the dark hole that had been consuming him since he had fallen.
As he moved toward her though something changed, her features hardened and her clear sky blue eyes narrowed filling with hate. The look took his breath away.
“You are unworthy,” she stormed.
And then the figure changed shrinking down. Violet eyes stared at him rimmed in red, accusing fire stared back at him. “What is it you seek Fallen?”
Marcus shot up from his chair stumbling into the ail he gasped for air and glared at the door that separated him from Celeste. “Who are you?” he asked knowing the answer wasn’t going to be as easily had.
Chapter 4
“Why are we checking into the hotel first?” This didn’t make any sense to her. They should have gone straight from the airport to the Touched. Checking into a room was a waste of time and she had said as much to Marcus.
“Because, you cannot just go out and grab the Touched, Celeste.” She was shocked at the hostility in his voice.
“Have I done something to irritate you?”
Marcus finished at the front desk and turned to her. He looked her up and down. She looked down at her red leather pants and vest she was wearing. She took the key card and stuffed it into her breast pocket. Marcus shook his head. “We need to blend it, Celeste.”
“No we do not,” she countered.
He took her by the elbow and led her over to a bank of elevators. “The Guardians in the city were alerted the moment I stepped off the plane.”
“Then we need to act before they take their Guards and hide them.” Celeste started to walk back toward the front door. She wasn’t going to stand by while the people they had come to protect disappeared.
Marcus stopped her by grabbing her elbow and shoving her into the elevator. “We will allow the Guardians to do their job. If they can protect their Touched they will be doing it now.”
Celeste snorted. “And why would they feel the need to protect them from a Fallen?”
Marcus didn’t look at her as he answered. “Because I taint everything I come into contact with.”
She was glad he wasn’t looking at her when her mouth sagged open in shock. And when she realized her mouth was hanging open she snapped it shut and followed behind Marcus as he made the way out of the elevator and down a hallway lined with doors.
“The rooms are connected inside,” he said walking into his room. “Get some rest we’ll head out an hour before sunset.”
“How long?”
Marcus checked his watch and looked back to her. “Three hours.”
“What the hell am I supposed to do for three hours?” she demanded. A vein twitched in Marcus’s temple. “Well we just spent what? Like a million hours on a freak’n plane, and now we are just going to sit and wait for sunset?”
“Do you have a better idea?” he demanded crossing his arms over his chest. “Because we have plenty of time to share information or Gods forbid learn to trust each other.”
“I have nothing to share,” Celeste snapped surprising herself with her venomous answer.
“No I didn’t think so.”
She was so frustrated. “What do you want from me Fallen?” she demanded.
“I want to know that if the shit hits the fan, that you will have my back Celeste.”
“That doesn’t even make sense. But if you are talking about working together and protecting each other. You can trust that no matter what happens I will protect you against Calliope.” This time it was his turn for his mouth to fall open, and she was glad that she had been watching.
“You will protect me?” he asked incredulously.
Celeste didn’t understand his shock. “Of course I will.”
“Celeste, you have no idea…” he stuttered.
“Marcus, we are here to work together we need to protect each other.”
“What were you doing when your eyes flickered back at the Staten?”
Celeste knew exactly what he was talking about but wasn’t ready to share, but she also knew if she didn’t share then he would take that as her not being trustworthy. She should just come out and tell him with her Demon side she was able to catalogue body movements. It was part of the survival mechanism of a Demon.
Her hesitation was obviously answer enough. “That’s what I thought. I can’t trust you Celeste. So how when it comes to a fight how the hell can I depend on you?”
“Because I won’t let you down,” Celeste insisted.
“And how do I know that?”
“Because I say so.”
Marcus shook his head and walked into his room letting the door almost close so only half his body was showing. “Sorry but that doesn’t reassure me.”
He let the door swing shut, Celeste stood there staring at his door for several minutes. She didn’t know why he didn’t just trust her. She would do anything to keep him safe, but she didn’t know how to make him believe that. Should she knock on his door and do or say something to make him understand?
She took a step toward the door. “They won’t understand you.” Dante had said to her. She stepped back to her door and went into her room and let the door close behind her. She would just have to prove herself to Marcus.
****
“There isn’t anything Other here,” Celeste accused looking around the dark streets. They had seen nothing, nor felt anything except pure torture in the thick silence between the two of them. Marcus hadn’t said more than a handful of words to her since her comments or lack of comments at the hotel. She thought he was acting like a child, but wasn’t about to say that to him after the way he had reacted to the other advice she had given him. It surprised her and she chewed on that thought while she waited for sunset. He was a Fallen, and she pictured him as a calm and serene man. But since they had met, he hadn’t lived up to any of her expectations.
“Are you sure your intel is correct?” she accused. Her irritation got the better of her.
Marcus didn’t even turn to her. “Sometimes being quiet and watching gives you more information than an informant.”
Celeste bit her tongue, refraining from telling him exactly what she thought of that idea. “Fine, we shall do what you want and wait.” She launched herself up onto a fourth floor balcony and away from Marcus. She needed to get away from him; his smell was driving her nuts, making her a lot more agitated than usual. They had been together for twenty-fo
ur hours and had pissed each other off several times. And her feelings were tossing from irritation to sexual awareness and back to irritation. How was she supposed to work with Marcus? She glared down at him as he blended into the shadows.
Celeste played back the last conversation she had with Victor before they had all come to the mortal plan. “You’ll need to build a relationship with him,” Victor had explained.
“This from the man who told me to stay away from him?” Celeste had thrown back.
“Things have changed, Celeste. I won’t lose you. You will do as I ask,” Victor said with feeling.
So here she was with a man that didn’t trust, because she had breed distrust with him by refusing to answer his questions. And to top it off they were in a deadly situation. It would be nice to have back up she herself could trust. She racked her brain trying to come up with a way to build a relationship with Marcus.
Easier said than done. She had lived her entire life in the Infernos. Either creatures where terrified of her, or they had no idea who and what she was. She remained in the background. She was a shadow lost in the Infernos. Now she was at a loss as to how to communicate with her new partner, much less how to build a damn rapport with him. She cursed Victor and his stupid ideas.
Crouching down, she blended into the shadows of the metal balcony she stood on and watched the dark street below her. She couldn’t see him, but she knew exactly where he was. The smell of a car exhaust and day old trash mixed with the smell of the water off to the east.
They didn’t move as darkness swept through the city and Celeste was focused completely on Marcus, so the warning bells of something moving in on her came a little too late.
She froze as the feeling eclipsed her own musings; something tingled at the base of her brain. It shivered down her spine. She breathed out; calming herself she focused on the feeling. Something or somebody was perched on the edge of the building directly above her. She could almost feel the brush of Calliope’s black wings as they swayed in the salty sea infused air.
She heard him draw in a breath and then a gush of an exhale as he realized who and what she was. His cold exhale chilled her to the bone. She couldn’t control the shiver that worked through her body.
“Sister.” The words oozed over her like burnt oil. “Are you sure you fight for the right side?” The words whispered over her right shoulder, but she knew he hadn’t moved from his perch. He wanted her to turn to the right. He was testing her.
“And what is right, Calliope?” she asked not even trying to deny who and what she was.
“Ah now that is the question of the day is it not? Father was smart in hiding you from me while in the Infernos. I could have feasted on you.” He chuckled and the sound made her stomach roll. She thought she was going to vomit.
“You are too young. Dante has kept you sheltered from this world. A world that should belong to us. A world that would find you an abomination.” He dropped silently down in front of her, his wings encasing them both. She was pitched into complete blackness.
Celeste had been trained to fight this kind of evil, but seeing it face to face was something utterly different from what she expected. He was a Reaper, a brother, but his features were nothing like what she knew of as Reaper. His eyes were wide and slanted at the corners. Black hair swept around his bare shoulders. He had a pointed chin and hard cheek bones making his face seem skeletal and inhuman. His collarbone protruded out into his wings. He was shirtless, but wore a nice pair of slacks. Stolen no doubt, but she guessed she couldn’t quibble about that. After all, he had killed two of her brothers. Shoplifting was the least of his sins at the moment.
“Do you have any idea how long I lived in that box?” Each word whispered against her making her shudder. “You have no idea what being trapped in a box with that evil and filth can do to a person. I used to be responsible for wiping those atrocities from this plane.” He leaned in close. “You will end up in one of those boxes one day, Sister.”
Celeste shook her head. “I’m not like you, Calliope.”
“Really?” he asked. “You’re so different from me? Created by a man obsessed with power? You don’t think he won’t feed you to a Pandora’s box, and all the evil it contains in the end? You’re just as much an abomination as I ever was and am.”
Celeste looked up into his coal black eyes. How many Others and mortals had looked into that face and seen eternity for the last time?
“This is your opportunity. Kill the Fallen and take me into the Infernos. We will rule there together. They will regret the day they thought us abomination. The day they looked past the fact that THEY created us and cannot turn from that in the end.”
Celeste finally sensed Marcus moving in toward them. It was about damn time. Was the Fallen waiting for Calliope to kill her or something? “I won’t help you kill my father and brothers.”
A cold and calculating smile spread across his face. “Oh, but I would never ask that of you. I will be happy to kill them, watch their blood run through the stones of the Infernos. Where is the Blood Rite Dagger?” He demanded. She shook her head making him snarl. “It is past my reach. The souls will take me there and I will kill your brothers and Dante with my bare hands.”
And then in a flurry of wings he was gone, the gust of wind caused by his wings nearly pushed her over the edge of the railing. Strong hands wrapped around her upper arms, pulling her back to safety.
Marcus’s beautiful and furious green eyes glared down at her. “Exactly whose side are you playing on?” Celeste didn’t fight as his forearm pressed against her throat cutting off her blood and air supply to her brain. It was a matter of seconds before darkness swamped her. The last thing she saw were those beautiful green eyes.
****
Marcus watched as blood vessels burst in Celeste’s eyes just before they rolled into the back of her head. The last thing he had intended was to hurt her. Now he was swamped with remorse as she crumpled beneath him. She was so small. He would need to remember that and the fact she was a female and treat her accordingly, regardless of what she said and how she criticized him.
He swept her up into his arms. She hadn’t even fought back. Gods, if she had fought back, did or said anything to contradict what he had seen. He wouldn’t have totally lost his shit with her. But to just look up at him with those amazing violet eyes almost daring him to finish what he had started.
Dante was going to have a fit over this one. More than a pound of flesh was going to need to be paid. She was worth it. Damn. Where had that thought come from?
He held her a little closer remembering the conversation they had had in the plane. She had looked at him then like she had known exactly what he felt. No one had ever looked at him like that. Not even Jessica, he snorted especially not Jessica.
He shook those thoughts away. He had more to worry about then the way she looked at him. He scanned the skies but Calliope had disappeared. Frustration coiled in the pit of his stomach. Why had she done nothing but stare at the Reaper, listen to him?
They had lost the opportunity to take Calliope. And he pulled Celeste closer trying to figure why she tripped up his mind like she did. There was something about her that made him want to touch her. To caress her skin? If he could, he should slam his own head into the stone of the building. He needed to get away from her. She was driving him nuts. Never in his life had he raised a hand to a female and now he had choked one unconscious. For the love of all the gods, what was he becoming?
He vaulted down into the dark alley and took her back to their hotel.
What was he going to do with her? He had been searching for months for Calliope and the minute he hooks up with the Demon, Calliope pops out of the air.
Literally.
Marcus wondered for a moment whose side she was on. But Dante’s daughter? He couldn’t imagine she would turn against her father and brothers. The Reapers were a lot of things, but loyal to each other was their highest priority.
If this had ha
ppened with any of the Tracker brothers, they would have killed her on the spot and walked away with a clear conscience. Marcus couldn’t kill like that. He had to have reason and proof. It had to be justified. He looked back down at the woman. She was beautiful. He had let that sway him. That utter look of innocence, not beguiling or cunning, just innocence had starred back at him as he tried to choke the life right out of her. He had the proof he needed, had seen her talking to Calliope. She hadn’t even attempted to pull her weapon out.
Marcus pulled his gun out and pointed it at her. She was a Demon. They were the most untrustworthy Others. They killed and maimed, ate raw meat. They survived like scavenger, and she hadn’t even tried to stop Calliope, he reminded himself. That was the most damning. But the look in those violet eyes, rimmed with dampened eyelashes as if she had been crying, swayed him.
Swearing, he put his gun away. Just shooting her wouldn’t kill her. Besides, she was Dante’s daughter. There would have to be more to it than just pulling a trigger. He slammed his hand against the wall. He never felt helpless, never was at a loss. He swung around and glared at her.
“Who’s side are you on?” he growled.
The sound drew a moan from the bed. Her eyes opened, not quite focused and were slightly glazed. Dark bruises were starting to show on her throat. Blood vessels had burst in her eyes. When she was finally able to focus, she glared at Marcus.
“What the—” she tried to say, but her voice was scratchy and she reached up to touch her throat. She opened and closed her mouth several times. No words came out. She gave him such a pitiful look he couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for her. He went to the phone and ordered a very rare steak. Food would increase her ability to heal.
When he was done, he turned back to her. She was still looking at him like she had never seen anything like him before, like he was the Demon.
“What did you expect? You stood there talking to the enemy for ten minutes.”
She shook her head. “Not ten,” was all she was able to get out. He couldn’t stand to listen to her scratchy voice and went into the bathroom he got her a glass of water.
Lost In Time: A Fallen Novel Page 6
