“What am I going to do?” George asked, interrupting everyone.
Marcus helped the man to his feet and led him out of the tomb.
When they reached the fresh air, Marcus took several deep breaths trying to catalog everything that had just happened. Calliope had offered Celeste a partnership, and she had turned it down.
“Charles deserved better than that,” George said looking up at Marcus.
Light spread around them, and Marcus sucked in a breath, not having felt the light in over five hundred years. George fell to his knees.
“I failed,” he cried.
“Royally failed,” Christian said, stepping up behind Marcus.
“This has nothing to do with you, Reaper,” the Angel hovering just above the ground said. Her voice was so beautiful it brought tears to Marcus’ eyes.
She held a hand out to George. “You must stand before the Arch and explain what has happened.”
George nodded and climbed to his feet. Christian stepped forward and stopped the Guardian by placing a hand on his shoulder. George paled, and Marcus could actually see his knees shaking. “He failed. His soul is ours.”
George looked like he was going to faint as he looked from Christian to the Angel.
“His soul is not up for debate,” the Angel said.
“You’re right, it’s not. He guarded a Touched. The Touched was brutally murdered, and his soul is permanently damaged. As we speak, the Touched is standing judgment with Dante,” Christian explained.
“That is not the way of things,” the Angel thundered. Her light pulsed around her like a beacon.
Victor moved forward and shrugged. “Things are changing. Maybe you should come down from your lofty perch and check it out.”
The Angel sucked in a disgusted breath. “How dare you speak to me so, Reaper.”
Victor shook his head. “You should check the treaty. A Reaper claimed the Touched soul and therefore the Guardian of that Touched now belongs to Dante.”
“You have no say here. The Touched already belonged to Dante.”
Marcus stepped forward holding up his hands. “If you tell us what other Guardians are watching over the other Touched, we will relinquish George.”
Christian snorted. “He has no say in this matter. He is a Fallen.”
“And his concern is mired in mortal emotion and not in concern for the Guarded,” the Angel accused not even looking in Marcus’ direction.
“We are trying to save them from Calliope,” Marcus argued. “Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
“Yes. We are aware of the situation, and it does not concern us. George?” She held out her hand.
George tried to move forward but Christian refused to let the man go. “So you understand the Infernos are under attack, and you have chosen to ignore the threat? You and your brethren know that souls are going unclaimed because of the unrest in the Infernos?” His only show of irritation was George sucked in a pained breath, as the hand on his shoulder turned white with the grip he had on him.
“It is not a threat against the Angels. It is a threat that was created in evil, and will be dwelt with by evil.” She finally turned and looked at Marcus as she said the last part.
“Why can’t you just tell us who is in danger? Save the souls that are deserving and stop another death like that poor soul down there suffered?” Marcus asked. They knew unconditional love, did they not suffer when innocence was brutally murdered? The scars on his back, where his wings had once been throbbed, of course they didn’t, and his scars reminded him of that.
“Would it ease your curiosity if I were to tell you that Jessica is not involved yet?” she said with a mocking tone.
Marcus stepped forward. Irritation, pain and embarrassment drove him over the edge. “This has nothing to do with Jessica. Besides, after everything that has happened, I wouldn’t believe you. But it has everything to do with the fact if Calliope wins in his quest to take over the Infernos, he will release the souls of the damned into the mortal plane, and your precious Guardians and Touched will be the first to die.”
“Pity, it wouldn’t be the Fallen,” the Angel answered.
“How can you be so cruel?” Celeste asked stepping forward. “Aren’t you supposed to be gentle and kind?”
The Angel took one look at Celeste and hissed, backing away from her. “You are an abomination, and will not be acknowledged.”
“You’re pushing your luck Angel” Victor said coming to his sister’s side. His next words spoken to Christian. “Take the Guardian, she has no ground to stand on, and she knows it. If you have a problem take it up with Dante.”
The Angel sucked in a breath, bringing her several feet above the ground. It didn’t stop as a weeping George was Flashed out of sight with Christian.
“You will regret this,” the Angel warned, and then disappeared.
“I need a drink,” Celeste said.
Marcus couldn’t agree with her more. He pulled a phone from his pocket and called to have the plane readied.
“We are headed to New Orleans,” he said to Victor. “How are things going?”
Victor shook his head. “Once you open the doors to the asylum and let the inmates out, they really don’t want to go back.”
Marcus couldn’t blame them. “At least we avoided Calliope from getting into the Infernos today.”
“And what about tomorrow?” Celeste asked.
“Tomorrow will be another day and another fight,” Marcus said walking away.
“You need to hold yourself together,” Victor snapped as Celeste watched Marcuse move away.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Victor kissed her on the forehead. “Keep your distance with the Fallen. His fate is unwritten and therefore, dangerous.”
Celeste threw her hands into the air in agitation. “You told me to build a relationship with him before I left the Infernos.”
“Yes, but not that type of relationship,” he said.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Be careful,” was his only response before he Flashed away. Celeste looked around the empty graveyard. The sun was reaching the peak of the day, bathing her in sunshine and light. Victor was right. Keeping a distance between herself and Marcus was the only way she would be able to walk away from this and fulfill her destiny and save her brothers and father. Her heart twisted, but she turned into the light of the sun and took several breaths letting the warmth of the sun spread through her.
This time she took the bed in the back of the jet. She was exhausted and although Victor had healed her, she needed to get some rest. If she was going up against Calliope again she was going to need as much strength as possible. He was far stronger than she had originally thought.
She left Marcus on the phone with a laptop in front of him. She was asleep before her head hit the pillow. Her last thought was of Marcus’s past and of the mysterious Jessica. It annoyed her she cared so much. Especially after the stern talking to she had given herself in the graveyard.
Chapter 5
“Wake up.” Marcus shook her roughly, and she rolled over glaring at him. He glared right back. “We’re going to land soon, and we have some things we need to discuss.”
Celeste pulled herself into a sitting position wiping the sleep from her eyes. “Really, I can’t imagine what we have to discuss.” She blinked innocently up at him.
“You’re very good at that,” Marcus snapped in anger. Celeste took a deep breath, the smell of Marcus almost making her eyes cross in pleasure. He smelled incredible, like sun warmed skin and the unique smell that was all Marcus and all man. She honestly couldn’t think of anything that smelled better.
Celeste mentally shook herself. Lifting an eyebrow waiting for him to continue. Not sure her tongue would work if she tried to speak anyway.
“You have an amazing ability to turn conversations back on a person with sarcasm.”
She folded her arms, feeling as if he was
just warming up. Her father had done it more times than she could count.
That’s when she felt the slide of passion from deep in the pit of her stomach. It flowed into her lower back and started to pulse. She pushed it away and concentrated on Marcus. The time change from the Infernos to this plane was going to be a problem. Time passed quicker here. She had been here three, maybe four days, and the Sex Demon in her was getting restless. She ignored its whine of attention pulsing in her lower back and attempted to concentrate on the lecture Marcus was working on giving.
“If we are going to work together we need to be honest with each other,” Marcus started.
She laughed. “As a Reaper and a Demon. I’m sure you can understand I have some issues with trust of any kind outside of my brothers and father.”
“But does that include the brother that has gone rouge and killed innocent mortals and Reapers? The same one that is trying, as we speak, to take over the Infernos and unleash them on the mortal world?”
“I will say this one last time, Fallen. I am not working with Calliope. In case you may have missed it, I have a lot to lose if he wins. My home, my family, my very way of life. He also just kicked my ass. That’s not really making me eager to join his team.” What did he think was going to happen to anyone who stood against the Reaper? The half breeds and mortals would be the first to go. She wasn’t an idiot. She had read history from both the Others and from the mortal plane. She had everything to loss here. If he couldn’t put that together, she had strongly misinterpreted his intelligence.
“What exactly are your abilities?” Her mouth dropped open when he asked this question. It was like asking Superman who his alter ego was.
She leaned forward placing her hands on the bed. “You tell me yours, and I’ll tell you mine.” She let some of her Sex Demon pheromone leak out, infusing the room. She hoped it would get him to leave her the hell alone for a moment.
Marcus immediately rose to his feet and left. Well, at least she knew how to clear a room. Unfortunately, he was the one man she wanted to stay, and he really didn’t like her.
****
When they landed, the sun was just rising, and she scrambled from the plane so she could catch it. Marcus gave her the strangest look as she pushed past him in her excitement to exit the plane.
As the door opened, she leapt from the plane before the stairs were brought into place. Landing on the balls of her feet, she oriented herself and turned toward the sunrise, smiling when she realized she was in time. She closed her eyes and breathed in the sight and smell of the new day.
“What are you doing? I thought we were under attack,” Marcus snarled next to her.
She waved him away. “It’s beautiful, and not even your sorry ass attitude can change it.”
“What?” he demanded.
Celeste turned to him in utter shock. She reached out and slapped him upside the head like she would do to one of her brothers.
“The sunrise.” She pointed. “Now shut up.”
Marcus snapped his mouth shut and turned to the sunrise. She ignored him. She had promised herself she wasn’t going to let him get to her. She swore she was going to remain completely aloof when it came to him. He was her partner, and when it was done she would go back to the Infernos, and he would go back to whatever it was he did on the mortal plane. When he owed a pound of flesh, she would be there to care for him as she had been for the last two hundred years.
“Can we go now?” Marcus asked once the sun was fully visible.
Celeste turned to him. “Have you become so jaded in this world you cannot enjoy something as simple as a sunrise?”
Her question seemed to surprise him, and he looked back toward the sun, then to her. “I have no idea what you are talking about. I just watched it with you, did I not?”
She couldn’t help it. All her promises flew out the proverbial window she reached out and cupped his cheek. “But did you enjoy it? Did you feel the majesty of it?” she whispered as if speaking the words too loudly would break the spell that a new sunrise always spun for her.
He jerked away from her touch as if it burned him. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”
Celeste nodded. “I understand.”
He narrowed his eyes and walked to a waiting car. She followed, and before climbing into the dark interior, took one last look at the sun and breathed in the clean air. It was enough that she understood.
****
Marcus couldn’t understand the woman. One minute she was spitting mad and hitting him. The next she looked so calm, and still she could have been a statue. Her enjoyment of the sunrise baffled him. When had he last taken the time to enjoy the sunrise?
Jessica’s face popped into his memory, and he pushed it aside. She was his past. She had moved on, and he had as well. Things were better this way.
“Cameron has been here for two days, but as a Tracker he has to almost be within reach of a Guardian before he knows there is one there,” Marcus offered.
“I thought Trackers could track anything?” Celeste asked, not looking at him, but out of the window at everything they passed. She seemed to be memorizing it all as they passed.
“They can, but to get the best results they need to have to have come into contact with something of the entity they are tracking. It must be either by way of a personal effect, or actual contact. They can sense Guardians, but like I said, they have to be very close in order to pick them out,” Marcus offered.
“But you are able to sense and know where the Guardians are, correct?” Celeste asked taking her braid she wrapped it around her hand, playing with the silver tipped ends.
“Yes, and the other way around. We have that unique ability so we stay away from each other.” And for the last several centuries it had worked, but now Marcus was turning it against them. If he ever believed he would one day be redeemed, it flew out the window. By tracking down Guardians, revealing who they were and not just revealing who they were, but revealing who they were to Reapers. Hell was too good a place for him.
She looked thoughtful, and Marcus watched her, unable to take his eyes off the movements of her hands. As the silky strands were wrapped around her wrist, his palms itched to reach out and touch it, to feel it run through his fingers. Was it as silky as it looked? His entire body reacted, stringing him as tight as a bow, frustrating him in more ways than he could point out at the moment.
Celeste dropped her hair and snapped her fingers in his face. “Hello, Fallen?”
Marcus shook himself. “Excuse me?”
“What are you doing?” Celeste asked, confusion written all over her face.
She was staring at his groin, and he shifted, uncomfortable, and looked down. Not his groin, his hands in his lap. He had snapped the pen he was holding in one hand and crushed the cell phone in the other.
“Damn it.” He threw the objects across the vehicle.
Celeste rolled her eyes, her brow creasing as if she was thinking really hard. “So you can sense them? The Guardians? So we send you out to scout them, and then we move in?”
Marcus wished it were that easy. “They don’t really trust the Fallen, Celeste. And like in Australia I can’t just move on them.”
She rolled her eyes, and he realized it was a form of communication with her. He had seen her do it so many times in the last several days he was beginning to at least understand her eye rolling and sarcasm. It was little help, though, because everything else about her was a complete and utter mystery. That particular eye roll meant she had just told him she wasn’t an idiot.
“Duh. You sniff them out, and then we’ll send the Tracker in. If he can get a lead on them, then we just need to watch and see who the Touched is.” She shrugged as if it were really going to be that easy. “I can tell when a mortal is Touched. Or, we could do like we did in Australia and wait for Calliope to find and disembowel the Touched and lose another Guardian. Oh, and of course, the possible chance to stop Calliope from entering the Infernos, but
really I’ll let you decide.” She said picking up her braid she toyed with it again. But her shoulders were tense, and he understood now she was just as uptight about the situation as he was. She just showed it differently.
“Sarcasm much?” Marcus quipped to put her at ease.
She actually smiled at his flippancy, but otherwise kept her mouth shut. She must think she had gotten her point across, but all she had done was irritate the hell out of him.
“The Trackers have a home here. We will be staying there,” he snapped.
“Where is it?”
“What?”
“The home? It is close to the city, close to Bourbon Street?” Marcus smiled, his irritation immediately forgotten at her obvious excitement. She couldn’t keep it out of her voice. “Celeste, have you never been to New Orleans?” He actually felt the wall fly up between them and had to control the urge to lean away from her.
“No.” Her voice was calm, but he saw emotions pass through her violet eyes.
“It’s a wonderful place. I think you will enjoy it. I am sure, as we search the city you will be able to see a great deal of it.”
She pursued her lips together and turned back to the window. “That would be nice.” But he heard the quiver of excitement, the thrill of the possible. It made him wonder what else she had missed out on while being raised in the Infernos with only men to teach her anything.
She was such a contradiction; one minute a spitting mad Demon. The next an excited woman on her first visit to New Orleans. He was definitely going to have to consult Kyra on this issue. Either that, or kill Celeste in a fit of rage because she seemed to touch his every last nerve, and he did the same to her. In fact, this was the longest they had gone without arguing since they met three, no, four days ago. They passed the International Date Line twice, and now he wasn’t sure even what day it was.
“How old are you, Celeste?” Marcus scolded himself. He didn’t want to know that information. He wanted to maintain a distance from this woman.
“Why?”
Well, he had stuck his foot in his mouth. He might as well continue. “Just that keeping you a secret must have been a great ordeal. I can’t imagine it has gone on that long.”
Lost In Time: A Fallen Novel Page 8
