by Alexie Aaron
“The victims of the crime will be satisfied with fifteen,” the representative of the violated demons told the court.
Altair pulled Mia to a standing position by the back of her neck. She kept her eyes downcast.
“Mia Cooper Martin, you will be lashed fifteen times. After this, the court considers your debt paid and your honor restored,” the demon judge declared.
She was hung on a hook by her bound wrists. Altair whispered, “They want to hear you scream. If you do not scream, the lashes will be harder.”
Altair moved away from his friend and watched her be lashed. He sensed compassion in the entity who stepped forward to give her the punishment. He didn’t feel anyone in that colosseum got joy from her screams or seeing her perfect flesh flayed. When they were done, Altair took her body down, wrapped her in the cloth, picked her up, and started walking back up the hall.
“Wait! Bring her,” a voice Mia didn’t recognize ordered.
She found herself in a fragrant room. Women dressed in brown ministered to her wounds. “She is demon, but she is other,” one of them complained.
“We should see this as a challenge then,” the woman that placed her head gently to the side said.
“He cried when he heard her scream,” one of the women gossiped.
“Who?”
“The one that paid her restitution, and the one that had to whip her. They are one in the same.”
Mia could bear the pain no longer, and she let herself fade away.
~
“When did she leave?” Orion asked Ted.
“She must have left in the night. I thought she had gotten up to check on Brian, and I fell back asleep. Cid found this note to me on the table this morning. It just says, no matter what happens, restitution would be made. She also gave me instructions if she didn’t return in five days. Five days? I will be out of my mind by then,” Ted confessed.
The landline rang.
Ted picked it up. “Hello?”
“This is Wyatt Wayne’s butler Nordin. Mr. Wayne has asked me to inform you that the restitution has been made. Your wife needs to recover from her punishment, but she is alive. He reminds you that she has done this to make sure no shadow hangs over her, you, or your family. She conducted herself with honor.”
“When will she be returned?” Ted asked.
“He didn’t say. Fear not, she is in good hands. Good day.”
Ted looked at the handset before putting it down. He repeated the information to Orion who sighed with relief.
~
Mia opened her eyes to find herself in a soft bed. Altair was sitting with a handsome man playing chess. “Hello,” she said, her voice damaged from screaming.
Altair looked over and nodded. “You took your time. I’m almost out of reading material. Quentin has been entertaining me by beating me at chess.”
“Sorry.”
Altair walked over. “My butler has spoken to your husband. I will do so personally when I leave…”
“Leave?” Mia panicked and grabbed his hand.
She could see the shock on his face of the realization that Mia had depended upon him to keep her safe.
“Quentin will take good care of you. I can’t be long from my home and my body.”
“Thank you.”
“You thank me for your humiliation, your torn flesh, your pain?”
“Your guidance, your time, and your care,” Mia countered. “It was my choice.”
“Quentin, you honor yourself with this association. Do not take it for granted,” Altair counseled before leaving the room.
“I won’t,” he said, looking at Mia. “What are we exactly to each other?”
“I’m not sure. You said you were my half-uncle. But you don’t seem much older than me.”
“That can’t be right.” Quentin crawled into the massive bed and put his face close to Mia’s. “Crow’s feet.” He pulled back, and Mia focused in on a neatly-groomed, brown-haired man with brown eyes. There were flecks of yellow in them. “Dimples!” he pointed out.
Mia tried not to laugh because it hurt too much.
Quentin laid back against the pillows and took Mia’s hand. “I was your grandmother’s first child. My father took me away, and I never knew my mother. I wonder if you look like her.”
“I think I resemble the Neyers or so I’m told.” Mia winced as she adjusted her body.
“I’m sorry. I tried to save you as much pain as I could.”
“It is what it is.”
“You are a funny child.”
“I’m hardly a child.”
“I am aware, as is most of the underworld, that you are a voluptuous married woman, but you are still a child. You didn’t reject me, Mia. Why is that?”
“You’re family, and you reached out to me. You honor me.”
“I could want a kidney,” Quentin said.
“I have two.”
He turned and looked at her. “You would do that, wouldn’t you? What a strange beast you are. You are a beast, demon, angel, birdman and, I suspect, superhuman, although the only things that are large enough are…”
“Careful,” Mia growled.
Quentin laughed. “So, you would what? Punish me for talking about your breasts? Everyone I know has seen them. You have the advantage that you don’t have to worry if some male is looking down your top because they have already seen everything.”
“Now I’m depressed.”
“Mia, do you want to know what I am?”
“I figure it’s your business.”
“Huh, maybe I’ll keep it my business.”
“Go ahead,” Mia said, tiring from this banter. “When can I go home?”
“When I say you can.”
“K.”
“Good lord, you’ve lost your bite. We have to get that back. I saw you once. I didn’t know we were related at the time. I watched you take on two tribes of Indians with that farmer fellow.”
“Murphy?”
“Murphy.”
“Where were you?”
“Playing Indian.”
Mia turned her head as much as she dared. “Really? Small world. That was a rough week.”
“Couldn’t be worse than last night.”
“A woman who I thought was a good friend slept with my boyfriend and tried to have my parents commit me. I had an aneurism burst in my head and was taken to a place where I had most of my emotional memory stripped. That was a bad week.”
“Well, Mia, I have to agree with you. Are you hungry? I’m hungry.” Quentin reached over and pulled an expensive piece of tapestry.
A maidservant came in.
“Tell cook we want a feast you can eat in bed.”
“You’re staying?” Mia asked with amusement after the maidservant left.
“I figure we can get to know each other better this way. I’ll tell you my stories, and you tell me yours. I’ll read to you… Oh, I see a frown forming.”
“I’m sorry, just a memory of something stupid I did on painkillers.”
“Ah, am I dealing with a junkie here?”
“No, just a fool.”
“Fools run in my family too, Mia.”
He went to grab her hand. “Quentin, don’t touch my hand if you want your secrets to stay hidden.”
“How sensitive are you?” he asked, putting his face very close to Mia’s.
“I see you as a young boy, standing in shorts, looking at the water. I can count the sand specks on your cheek.”
Quentin moved back. “I’ll get you some gloves.”
“Quentin, I’m not at my best here. I know you satisfied my debt, and I will repay you, but is there more you want from me?”
“You mean, do I want to bed you? I would if they hadn’t sterilized you. Can you imagine what kind of monster we could create together? Fear not, Mia, I want family. It may only be remote, but you’re my family. I’m lonely. Beings such as I don’t make friends.”
“How did you know I was sterile?”<
br />
“I have my spies. Do you think those bitches did that to keep you from conceiving a nephilim with Sariel?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“No. They feared you would mate with me.”
“Aside from me ruining my fragile marriage, why would that have worried them?” Mia asked.
“I am very powerful, as are you. You would bear me many babies as your sexual appetite is impressively high. Our children would rule both sides of the ether.”
“Ah, it’s that old balance of power thingy,” Mia said, closing her eyes.
“You don’t like power?”
“Not especially. I don’t like being subservient, but I can take second chair. I’ve been working on my patience.”
“I like power. I’ve been raised to crave it. I lack compassion.”
“I disagree,” Mia said.
Quentin looked at her sharply. “You’re different. You’re the only one that was pleased to hear I existed. You were careful but not dismissive. When I heard about your trouble, I couldn’t get there fast enough. I wanted that group to know whose blood you were.”
“Thank you, Quentin. It means a lot.”
There was a polite knock before the doors opened and a multitude of people walked through the door carrying plates of food.
“I hope it’s enough,” he said. “I’m always hungry.”
~
Ted paced the library. He didn’t bother looking at the books because his anxiety was too high. Wyatt walked into the room. “Sit, you’re wearing out a very expensive carpet.”
“How is she?”
“She’s alive and mending. Mia asked me to tell you what happened. She wants to keep no secrets from you.”
Ted sat back, listened, and was horrified by what Mia had gone through.
“Is this the same Quentin that sent the Others?”
“I imagine so. He claimed blood right, and they are blood related.”
“So she is with him now?”
“Yes.”
“When will she be coming home?”
“When she can stand. You have to understand, the lashing was brutal yet restrained. She needs time to heal. Quentin can afford the best to heal her.”
“How dangerous is this Quentin?”
“Very.”
“To Mia?”
“She is safe. She is blood. Brian is safe because he is blood. You and I are not safe. Quentin’s father was a compatriot of mine. He mated with Mia’s grandmother because she was magical and could bear the birth.”
“He’s not planning on mating with Mia is he?”
“No, she is sterile,” Wyatt said. “Otherwise, he would have killed you and taken her to his bed. This is the nephilim way.”
Ted put his hand to his head. “My poor wife. She just wants to be normal.”
“It’s sad, but she’ll never have that. Her best resource is you, Ted. Her love for you will keep her sane in the days to come. Talk to her, hold her, and help her to heal. She took fifteen lashes so no Other would come and take your child from you. When that vault opened up in her head, it actually was a good thing. Had she been dragged in there for her crimes, she would have been killed. She did everything right. Right now, she is considered honorable in the eyes of the demon race.”
“I wish that gave me some comfort.”
“Go home, be busy. I’ll bring her home as soon as I’m allowed.”
“Thank you, Wyatt.”
“That’s what she said,” Wyatt said. “After she was humiliated and beaten, she thanked me.”
“Mia trusted you to keep her alive, and you did. That’s why she thanked you. She believes in you.”
Ted left. The butler returned to the library to clear away the refreshments. He found his master staring at something in a tiny, square, glass case he had on a chain around his neck.
“If I may inquire, sir, what is that?”
“It’s a tear. The closest I’ve been to humanity in a long time.”
“Whose tear is it?”
“Mia’s. She shed it when she heard how the theft had frightened the demons. It was her tear of compassion for the beings that were possibly going to kill her. Not since the gentle one have I witnessed such empathy.”
Chapter Nineteen
Quentin had left so the maids could help Mia take care of her personal needs. They had changed her dressings and helped her on with an oversized, sleeveless t-shirt and, what she could only assume were, Quentin’s castoff sweatpants. She was left sitting at the edge of the bed.
Quentin came back in. He wore a black racer-back top and leather pants. Mia was startled by how muscular his legs were.
He smiled. “I think you just checked me out.”
Mia blushed.
“No time for that, child. We have to get you flying so you can activate that bird healing thingy.”
“K.” Mia slid off the bed slowly, not trusting her legs to hold her. She ended up on the floor.
“Well, that’s disappointing,” Quentin said. He sat on the floor next to her. “You see, I may have damaged your spine.”
“Well damn,” Mia said.
Quentin picked her up in his arms. “We’re going to go out on the patio, and perhaps, once you get the wings moving, you’ll be able to take off. I can carry you, but you need to do this yourself.”
“I agree. I hate to be carried around.”
Quentin set her down at the edge of a low wall.
Mia rubbed her wrist and winced. The tattoos hurt, she could only imagine what releasing the wings would do. She took a deep breath and brought them forth.
Quentin watched as the most beautiful pair of archangel’s wings sprouted from his niece’s small body. They lifted her off the ground. He activated his mighty dark-blue leather wings, watching her face as he did.
“They are magnificent. Can I touch them?”
“Yes, although I’m disappointed. You did not draw back in terror.”
“Why?”
“Nephilim are considered horrible creatures.”
“You’re a handsome creature, Quentin. So you’re my first nephilim. I would not be horrified to have such a child,” she said honestly.
“Come and fly, brat,” Quentin said, obviously pleased.
Mia took off slowly, testing her wings. “Never fly higher than you want to fall,” Orion had said.
Quentin blew by her. She turned and gave chase. She caught him miles out over Lake Michigan. She moved up and under him, drafting until she got her second wind. She moved higher and higher. Quentin followed. They broke through another cloud layer, and Mia stopped.
Quentin moved closer. “Why have you stopped?”
“This is my favorite view. I can see the curvature of the earth.”
“Oh my god! The earth is round!” Quentin joked.
Mia laughed. She looked over at him. He looked more bat than bird, more demon than angel. He was not some horrid giant putting a blight on the world. He was just an entity in search of family. She felt a great sense of loss, loss for the years they could have been together. She wouldn’t have been so tortured. She would have been loved by her kind.
“Careful, Mia. Don’t see something that isn’t here,” Quentin warned.
“What do you see when you look at me?” Mia asked.
“My beautiful niece, my family.”
Mia moved closer. “Where were you when I needed you?” she asked, her eyes filled with pain. She turned her wing and let herself fall.
He caught her before she hit the water. He carried her to the farmhouse and rang the bell. The farmer came.
“She’s broken, I’m sorry,” he said and flew off.
Ted ran out of the house. Murphy didn’t know what to do with her wings. He couldn’t pick her up.
“Here,” Ted said gently. He tapped Mia’s wrist, and the wings moved inside her. They were replaced with mending but torn skin. Ted lifted her into his arms and carried his wife into the house.
Mia seemed to sense where she
was. “I’m broken, Ted. I can’t stand.”
“I’ve got you, Mia. I’ll take care of you. Brian’s here too. Murphy’s gone for help.”
Ted laid Mia down and took off the borrowed clothes. He counted the fifteen lashes and saw where one of them had broken her back.
Ted felt him before he saw him. Sariel put a hand on his shoulder. “May I look at her?”
“Please.”
“Demon restitution,” Sariel said as he examined Mia’s back.
“She says she can’t stand.”
Sariel moved his hand along her spine. He stopped. He moved his other hand and took the flat edge of his sword and pressed. He then pressed it on every lash mark. He took a length of soft flannel and wound it around her body. He got up and shook his head. “Give her time. Don’t send her to the aerie. This is beyond them. Ted, Mia will survive this. I worry about her emotional state though. Because she’s a sensitive and has been in contact with evil for a prolonged time, she may become depressed or carry a black mood. Don’t give in to that. She’s strong, and she’ll come around. I’ll be back tomorrow with something more powerful.”
Sariel walked out of the house as Angelo landed. He waited. “If you want to help her, come with me. We need to go dragon hunting.”
Angelo looked at his nemesis and nodded. “Elemental or mythological?”
“Elemental of course.”
Murphy watched as Sariel took off with Angelo close behind him. He moved into the house and up the stairs. He motioned for Ted to follow him outside the room. “Angelo and Sariel are going hunting for a dragon.”
“Well, that’s not something I would have anticipated.”
“Mia told me, blood from a freshly-killed elemental dragon’s heart has healing properties.”
“So the boys are going to round up a dragon and separate its heart from its body for Mia? Some guys just bring flowers.”
“But they aren’t those guys,” Murphy said.
~
Mia felt her eye being pried open. She looked at Brian studying her. “Uccellino.”
“Doctor Brian,” Mia said, trying not to move too much. “Did you come alone or did you bring a tall, handsome man with you?”
