"I wish we could go further, but this isn't the right time," she said.
Gideon nodded, even as he groaned.
"Give me a moment." Gideon was no longer dazed, but he still looked as though he was in agony.
"Are you okay?" She sat up as Gideon rolled away from her.
"Yeah," he said. "Though jumping into the lake might be a good idea after all."
"Is it that bad?" she asked.
"Of course it is. My body has never ached like this before. You do something to me," he said. "I'm not sure all the cold water in the world could calm me down."
"I'm sorry," she said.
Gideon paused for a moment, his back stiff, and then sat up.
"Don't be sorry." He seized her hand. "Now come on. Let's go back to the truck."
"Can you walk?" She raised an eyebrow.
He yanked her to her feet and then staggered against her.
"I might need to use you as a living crutch." He pulled her under his arm. "Is this comfortable?"
"No." She glared at him.
"That's a shame because I'm not going to release you," he said.
"Gideon, stop it," she said, even as she gave a snort of mirth.
"Nope." He smiled down at her as they stumbled.
Yet even as Nora laughed, she had the awful feeling that everything was about to go wrong.
Chapter Seventeen
After Gideon parked in front of his apartment building, Nora hopped out of the truck and stretched. She was exhausted after the long day, but she wasn't sure how much she'd be able to sleep tonight. Her emotions were still running wild. To make matters worse, her knees weakened even at the thought of laying in the dark. Still she had Gideon with her, so she was certain that everything was going to be fine.
As she breathed out a sigh, Gideon climbed out of the truck too. Hand in hand, the two of them walked into the apartment building. After they headed inside, Gideon froze.
"Is there something wrong?" She froze in fear.
"No." He sniffed. "I don't think so."
She sniffed too, but she didn't smell anything.
As Gideon proceeded down the hall, his whole demeanor changed despite the fact he'd said there was nothing wrong. His mouth was thin and a vein throbbed in his jaw. Every few seconds he looked around wildly as if expecting a monster to appear out of nowhere. Even his eyes, which were normally bright, were now dark. She was reminded of the day when they'd eaten dinner in her favorite restaurant and discussed Amon. During that time, Gideon had been protective to the point that it had frightened her. Now was no different. She found herself staring at Gideon, her hair prickling, as he behaved like a wild animal guarding his mate.
"You're lying to me," she said. "Something's wrong."
Gideon didn't say anything. At that moment, she knew she was right. Maybe Gideon thought Amon was around. As her stomach sunk, she realized something horrible. Her animals were still in Gideon's apartment where a heartless Amon could have been waiting for her. At the thought of her animals being trapped with the enemy—or worse yet, being killed by him—she yanked her hand out of Gideon's grip. He hadn't expected it and growled in shock as she sprinted down the hall to his apartment.
"Nora, wait!" Gideon yelled, his voice laced with fear and panic.
Ignoring him, she reached Gideon's door and twisted the knob. She was shocked when the door swung open, even though she knew that Gideon would never leave his apartment unlocked. Just as she was about to charge inside, Gideon reached her and shoved her against the wall with enough force that her teeth clacked together. She stared up at him, half in fear and half in surprise.
"Don't you ever do something like that again," he said.
She shivered, alarmed by the intensity in his eyes.
"I'm sorry," she said.
Gideon grabbed her hand, even though his eyes still burned with rage. Unfortunately, when Gideon turned back around, three people stood at the threshold of his apartment who hadn't been there a moment before. It was Kali flanked by the same two men Nora had seen in the bar ages ago. Kali's arms were crossed and her dark eyes looked like pits that led to the very depths of hell itself. As the woman gazed at Gideon, she gave a condescending laugh.
"You were treating the human you love pretty harshly." Kali's tongue flitted to the corner of her mouth as she gazed at him.
Human? What the heck did Kali mean by that? Nora, trembling so much she could barely stand, searched Gideon's face. He looked like he was ready to attack Kali at any moment.
"Leave my apartment at once," Gideon said. "You know that I have more power than you and your friends combined. I can rip you to shreds if I have to."
"Unfortunately for you, I'm not going anywhere." Kali's expression hardened. "Not until this woman dies."
The words were a punch to the face. Nora heard someone make a high-pitched squeak and realized a moment later that it had been her.
"Leave Nora alone," Gideon snapped. "There's no reason to hurt her."
"No reason to hurt her?" Kali's eyes lingered on him. "Don't you see who she is? God sent her to change you. She's dangerous."
Gideon ignored her comments and sneered.
"I gave you more than enough time to leave this place." He took a step toward Kali. "I'm going to count to ten. If you don't leave by the time I'm done counting, I'll rip you to pieces."
"You'll do nothing of the kind," Amon said from behind her.
She gazed down the hall at the man she feared the most. Amon was in a black suit and his cruel eyes glistened with amusement and irritation.
"What are you doing here, Amon?" Gideon asked.
"You know exactly what I'm doing here. I came for that woman," Amon said. "I gave you more than enough time to tempt her. You were supposed to make her sin, but you did nothing of the kind, not even when she was splayed out on your bed ready for the taking. How can you let a human weaken you? They're all the same anyway."
The words made her flinch, even though she had no idea what was going on.
"Nora is like no one else I've never met," Gideon said. "You won't lay a finger on her."
"It's as I feared. She's already changed you." Amon sighed. "She really has to die."
"Why?" Gideon asked.
"It's as Kali said—this woman is extremely dangerous." Amon's gaze lingered on her again.
"Me?" she blurted out before she could stop herself.
Amon seemed to find her shock amusing.
"Yes, you," Amon said.
She stared, unsure of what to say.
"Don't listen to anything he says to you." Gideon squeezed her hand.
"Oh, but I'm sure she'll want to know why she has to die. After all, you've barely told the woman anything. I can't wait to see how she reacts when she learns you've been deceiving her from the start," Amon said. "Don't you want to hear the truth, Nora?"
The words were like knives to her ears, but she longed to know what was going on. She hesitated, her eyes wide with horror, before giving a tiny nod. Gideon groaned as if she'd driven a dagger straight into his heart.
"Gideon isn't even human. He was one of God's beloved guardian angels. Unfortunately for him, he messed up and let a human woman die." Amon grinned wickedly as Gideon hung his head in shame. "Naturally, he couldn't go unpunished, so God threw him out of heaven for five hundred years as his retribution. If he doesn't repent by the end of his punishment, then he'll be damned forever."
Wait, what is Amon trying to tell me? That Gideon is some sort of demon?
"I don't believe you," she snapped. "This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard."
Amon waved off her comment and continued.
"Gideon has sixty-five years left of punishment, but he's shown no signs of wanting to return to God. I'm grateful for that. Gideon is good at what he does—tempting women to sin. Having him on our side has been quite effective." Amon's grin became crueler, his face more twisted. "Gideon even enjoyed hurting the humans…That is, until he met you."
<
br /> "What?" she said, aghast.
"You changed everything," Amon snapped, taking a step in her direction. "The moment you showed up, Gideon no longer tempted women to sin. That was when I realized that God hadn't forsaken him like I'd come to believe. No, God moved with discretion, trying to earn back Gideon's trust through a single seemingly insignificant human being—you. God disguised you, his weapon against us, as a normal female, but he armed you with the only power that could bring Gideon back to him."
"Which is?" She looked down at herself in confusion.
"Love," Amon said. "God gave you love."
She gasped, not even sure what to say. Her weariness must have shown on her face because Amon smirked.
"The power of love doesn't sound like much to you, does it?" Amon said. "Yet love is the most influential force on the planet. Because of love, humans join hands with God."
"So I have to die just because Gideon and I love each other?" Her stomach churned.
"Yes. Your love has made Gideon waver, so this is the way it has to be." Amon gnashed his teeth. "I've spent over four hundred years teaching Gideon how to drag humans to hell. I won't let a woman like you, who has only been in his life for a few measly weeks, ruin all of my work."
"Don't you lay a hand on her." Gideon leapt forward, ready to strike.
"So you're going to fight me, are you?" Amon asked. "To do that, you're going to have to show your true self. Right now, this woman doesn't believe a word I've said. She thinks I'm crazy. But the moment you show her what you really are, she'll hate you. You and I both know that. Why don't you just let her die still in love with you? I think your heart will find that much easier to take."
Her breathing was ragged as she glanced at Gideon.
"Never," Gideon said. "No matter how Nora feels about me, I'll never let her die."
"She's done a fine job of manipulating you, I'll give her that." Amon wrinkled his nose in disgust.
Nora was frozen in place, unable to think coherently. As she grasped the wall for support, Amon made a throaty growl. In a heartbeat, blackness covered his eyes, leaving him with two pits for irises. She heard a loud ripping sound as Amon's shirt was torn from his body. Massive ebony wings shot from his back, knocking against the wall. A scream burst from her lips as she stared at Amon's new form. This isn't happening. I must be in a nightmare. She pinched herself, trying to wake up from the terrible dream.
Unfortunately, she didn't wake up.
As she dug her fingernails into her skin, Gideon stared at her with sad eyes. In the end, his expression told her without words that he truly was a fallen angel—or more rather, a punished angel—who'd spent the last four hundred years attempting to make human women fall to hell.
And she'd been one of the women on his hit list.
"No," she said in horror.
"I love you, Nora," Gideon said. "Maybe my intentions were bad in the beginning, but not anymore. I've changed because of you."
His words didn't register. She stumbled backward into the wall as she thought, Heaven help me, demons. Demons! Her knees clacked together and she could barely breathe. Even now, she prayed that this was all a hallucination.
As she hyperventilated, Amon chuckled.
"She's going to spend her last moments thinking about how you betrayed her." Amon's gaze was burning with intensity. "Remember that you could have stopped this, Gideon."
One moment Amon stood five feet away, the next he crashed into Gideon, sending him tumbling against the wall. The concrete crumbled and a ceiling tile fell, shattering upon their bodies. Sometime mid-tussle, Gideon's wings came unfurled from his back.
Gideon's wings didn't look like Amon's, but they weren't angelic either. His wings were black and white, each separate feather vying for dominance. Even as she watched, black feathers fell, sprinkling the carpet below. That's why I always saw the black feathers. They were falling from Gideon's wings. Yet that only made this more frightening. Gideon had been a fallen angel the entire time, but he'd kept it from her.
Choking on her own horror, she stumbled down the hall, desperate to make an escape. Unfortunately, Kali jumped in front of her, blocking the exit.
"Going somewhere?" Kali asked menacingly, her two black wings sprouting from her back as her eyes became the color of the darkest of nights.
Nora did the only thing she could do—she screamed. As her voice echoed throughout the hall, Kali lunged. The demon's long, cold fingers tightened around her neck. There was nothing Nora could do to evade the attack. Terrified, she writhed beneath the demon's grip. Luckily, Gideon appeared out of nowhere and threw Kali against the wall with enough force to leave a dent.
Gasping for air, Nora stared at Gideon, hardly able to look at him without flinching.
"Nora, please," he pleaded.
Please what? Please forgive him?
She shook her head and gazed at his wings. At that moment, she did the only thing a woman could do when discovering that her boyfriend wasn't human—she ran out the door in sheer terror.
****
Nora didn't know how long she ran. All she knew was that she sprinted and didn't stop. The fact that she barely felt pain as her feet pounded on the sidewalk was a true testament to the earth-shattering terror that pulsed within her. Every time her foot struck the pavement, she thought, Gideon is a demon.
Even contemplating what Gideon was made her mouth taste sour. Though Gideon wasn't a full-fledged demon, the idea of him being so cruel to women made her legs as heavy as boulders. And then there was also the fact that she'd laid eyes on such supernatural beings to begin with. Yeah, she'd always accepted the fact that angels and demons existed, but she'd never expected to see them right in front of her. She found it so hard to believe, no matter what she'd witnessed.
As she came to Main Street, she stumbled to a stop right outside of a convenience store. People were staring at her, but she didn't care. She was so scared that she kept glancing over her shoulder, certain that she was going to see Gideon in hot pursuit. If he found her, she wasn't sure what she'd do. She felt betrayed and hurt, but mostly she was just terrified. No matter what his feelings were for her now, she wasn't sure she could ever look him in the eye again.
The thought made her heart crack into pieces.
She hadn't cried when Amon had approached her in the hall, she hadn't cried when Gideon had revealed himself as an inhuman, and she hadn't cried when Kali had wrapped her cold fingers around her neck. It was only now, as she stood in the middle of a crowded street, the dam within her broke and all of the tears came pouring out. As she recalled seeing Gideon with wings over and over again in her mind, she let out a desperate sob. She crumbled to the ground, her knees drawn up to her chin, feeling truly alone in the world. None of the people who walked up the sidewalk had any idea what she'd just been through. They didn't know that demons could be in their midst, tempting them to do horrible things.
She buried her face in her arms.
After some time had passed, she felt somebody tap on her shoulder. She jumped to her feet, prepared to run again. Fortunately, she had no cause to flee. The person who'd touched her was a woman she didn't know. Nora stared at the stranger suspiciously, half expecting the woman to sprout wings. At that moment Nora realized that her trust in humanity had been shattered. Even if she managed to live through this—and she wasn't sure how she could—she would never be able to look into somebody's eyes and not flinch.
"What?" Nora stammered, wringing her hands.
"I'm sorry that I disturbed you, but I noticed that you were crying for quite a while," the woman said. "Are you going to be okay?"
For a moment Nora considered lying and saying yes, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She wasn't sure that she would be okay ever again.
"No." She sobbed harder. "I'm not going to be okay."
"Do you want to call somebody?" The woman dug a phone out of her pocket. "Surely there's somebody who can take care of you."
For a moment she studie
d the woman's face and searched for a secret agenda, but she saw none. She strained her mind, trying to think of somebody who could help her. She could call Robert, she realized. Gideon might know she'd gone to him, but it wasn't like she could stand on Main Street like a dimwit. Sooner or later, Amon would find her and that would be even worse than coming face-to-face with Gideon again.
"I would like to call somebody." She sniffled. "Thank you."
After she accepted the phone, she dialed Robert's number. He answered on the second ring.
"Hello," Robert said.
She was so relieved to hear his voice that tingles spread through her limbs.
"Oh, Robert." She started to sob wildly all over again, unable to control herself at the sound of his familiar voice. "Help me. I don't know what I'm going to do."
"Nora?" Robert said, his voice laced with concern. "What the heck happened to you? I've been trying to reach you for the past two days."
"My phone was destroyed." And that was the least of her worries. "Please just come get me as fast as you can. I'm so scared."
At the thought of her fears, she looked over her shoulder, half expecting Amon to come soaring right at her. Her teeth chattered.
"Where are you?" Robert asked. "I'm coming right away."
"I'm on Main Street," she said. "I'm by the Italian diner that your ex-girlfriend likes."
"I know where you are," Robert said. "I'll be there in a few minutes. Hold on."
"Thank you," she said.
After Robert hung up, her arm fell slack at her side. She couldn't believe this was really happening to her. Still quaking, she handed the woman her phone, noting that the screen was now covered in fingerprints because her hand was so sweaty.
"Thank you," she managed to say, even as she choked on her own emotions.
"Don't mention it." The woman nodded sadly.
"My friend is coming," Nora said when the woman still didn't leave.
"I'll stay with you until the person comes, if that's okay," the woman said. "I don't like the idea of leaving you all alone like this."
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