She waited patiently for him to continue.
“We met in prison.”
Of all the fucking possibilities under the goddamn sun, this particular one did not even make the list. In prison? She couldn’t even picture either of them in prison with a bunch of murderers and gangbangers and rapists, although she knew without a doubt that anyone and everyone in that prison would learn damn quick to stay well away from the two. But really? Happy, cheerful Dax in prison?
“Are you fucking serious? How the hell could the two of you end up in prison? What, were you part of, like, an angel gang?” Clapping her hands, she suddenly sat up straighter and giggled. “Oh my god. Were you guys Hell’s Angels?” She slapped the table repeatedly, far too amused by her own joke.
Shaking his head, Jace smiled at her softly. “Not that kinda prison, Ria. Prison in heaven, which, I promise, is a far worse place than those you know here on Earth.”
This was a little more sobering than Ria would have liked, and she turned her now solemn gaze towards him. “Heaven has a prison? Wow. I mean, I guess even angels can do bad things, especially now that I’ve learned they’re basically a bunch of assholes. But how’d you two end up there? Of all the people I know, which, granted, isn’t many, you two would be the last two I would ever entertain the idea of going to heaven’s prison.”
“The only reason why an angel would be sent to heaven’s jail is because they refused to follow an order. That’s all heaven and the angels are about, you know—following orders. Keeping the status quo by being good little soldiers in heaven’s quest to gain and maintain control over the humans of earth. Most of heaven’s angels are not the kind, guiding beings humans believe them to be, as you’ve learned. They’re cruel, heartless, and bent on total control. All they can see of the future is power over humans and the annihilation of demons. They have no forethought, no empathy, and no soul.”
“But you’re different.”
“Unfortunately, yes, Dax and I are different. And that’s what lead us to being imprisoned. We both refused a direct order from above. You know that Dax is a reaper angel, right?”
Ria nodded solemnly. She’d learned that the first time when he brought a dead mourning dove back to life, and it was instilled upon her even more when he brought Tallen back from the dead. Now, the fact that he was actually able to do it…that was a new occurrence. One most likely related directly to her.
“Well…he fell in love. With a human. That in and of itself is a rule-breaker. But what made it worse, was that the human he fell in love with? Was a human he was ordered to reap.”
Chapter 4
“Reap. As in…kill? Dax kills humans?” She was aware that her voice was becoming a bit shrill, but she couldn’t help herself. This was shocking information and she had no idea how to process it. Dax wasn’t a killer. He was sweet and funny and lively and loved to go hiking and tease Tallen with her and he couldn’t possibly be a killer.
Then again, I guess Ted Bundy was charming, too.
“No, not kill. He doesn’t put their death into action. Reapers are psychic—they know when and how a person will die. He just waits for their natural death, and then claims their soul. See, a soul is like an endless battery. It can never be destroyed. It just keeps going and going—“
“Like the Energizer bunny?”
Jace chuckled at her comparison. “Exactly. In the last roughly four hundred years, the archangels have begun to harness the power of a person’s soul to power themselves. Prior to that, a reaper’s job was to take the soul to the Source and throw it in, where it would be reborn into a new human. Many souls are split inside the Source, because again, a soul can never lose energy, and that split becomes a new human soul. That’s why there are so many humans on the planet. The souls are always able to be split.”
“So, basically, I can blame over-population on the Source? That’s nice. Takes some of the misplaced guilt off.”
“Oh no. You humans can definitely keep a hold of some of that guilt. A soul has to have a body, after all.”
“Well, on behalf of horny humanity, sorry.”
Shaking his head with an amused smile, Jace continued. “Dax was a reaper, but when he met the girl he was supposed to reap, he ended up falling in love instead. On the day that was supposed to be her death, he convinced her to run away with him to another village. This was in the south of France in the early 1600’s.”
“Ooh-la-la.”
“Your knack for inappropriate commentary is astounding.”
“Ain’t nothing inappropriate about it, bruh.”
“Not your bruh.”
She rolled her eyes. “So sorry, oh great minstrel. Please continue.”
“In the end, running away didn’t help. Three months after they had settled into their new home, the archangels sent a seraph to wipe out the entire village, including the girl Dax tried to save. After the village was destroyed and amidst the destruction, the angels found Dax holding her dead body, lost in grief, knowing he couldn’t save her. Another reaper had already claimed her soul, preventing him from bringing her back. He didn’t even fight when they threw him in his cell. Coincidentally, his cell was right next to mine. It was a solid two or three months before he even spoke to me, to anyone. He just sat in the corner silently, almost blending in with the wall he leaned against. Weeks, and he didn’t even move.”
The look in Jace’s eyes spoke to the misery and heartbreak he had witnessed Dax experience. Ria could barely comprehend it. The pure, gut-wrenching loss that man had gone through, and she would never have even guessed. He was all smiles, all joy, all laughter and happiness. She couldn’t imagine the pain he felt, holding his lost love in his arms, with all his power to revive the dead, and unable to do a thing. Powerless. Powerless to save someone he cared about. Her heart broke as she pictured his laughing face in her mind. Rage filled her chest as she thought of the creatures who had ripped something so precious from such a beautiful man.
“I can’t believe he’s the way he is after all that. I’d be shattered.”
“Oh, he is. But we learn how to hide behind carefully constructed masks, don’t we?”
The conversation was beginning to hit a little too close to home as she glanced away, unable to handle the pointed look Jace was giving her. She never thought of herself has broken or damaged, even after all the shit and all the scars—both physical and mental—that she had experienced. She was still living, still had maintained a job and an apartment…but she had nothing meaningful. She’d kept everything that could really touch her at a distance, subconsciously afraid to let anyone close enough to hurt her. It wasn’t something she really dwelled on, because, again, it felt like a weakness, and she didn’t like to feel weak. She wasn’t weak. She was a fucking badass and fuck anyone who said otherwise.
But it was true. She was damaged, broken in such a way that she didn’t even see her own cracks. She’d been shattered and then rebuilt herself so that anyone would think she’d never been hurt before.
Even her.
After a moment of quiet, Jace continued softly. “I spent most of that time talking to him, telling him random things, bits and pieces of my life, thoughts that would drift through my mind and opinions on the guards who came through every so often. Heaven’s prison isn’t a place you escape. It’s a place where you wait until they decide you’ve had enough. There was no reason for them to watch us. For months, the only people we would see were each other. When he finally did speak, it was to softly ask me why I was there.”
Interesting, because this was the exact question Ria was asking herself. What crime against humanity—er—angel-kind had Jace committed to be thrown into such a gods-forsaken place?
“And what did you say?”
“I told him the truth. I disobeyed a direct order. He was quiet for a minute, then he asked me what order I was given. I told him I was sent to destroy a small village in the south of France.”
Ria’s head snapped back.
Th
ey…they sent him? To kill Dax’s lover?
“They said it was necessary to set an example to all angels never to disobey, but that the most important reason…was to punish a reaper who had fallen in love with a human. Who…had created life with her. An unborn Nephilim.”
Oh gods. Oh gods no.
She had been pregnant. With Dax’s child. Dax had not only lost the woman he loved, but also his unborn child. To be honest, when she’d first learned what happened to Tallen, she couldn’t imagine anything worse.
This information was trying damn hard to contest that original opinion.
“You said no. When they gave the order, you said no. Why?”
He sighed heavily. “I’ve followed orders for my entire existence, and I thought there seemed to be a valid reason behind them from what I could see, but this…this seemed petty. So very petty. Destroying a village of 300 plus people to punish someone? It just felt wrong. It didn’t make sense to me. It didn’t feel right. They threatened me with prison, but still, I said no. It was the first moment I ever truly trusted my instincts, and to this day, I’m glad I did.”
In that instant, Ria was so very proud of her Jace and the man he’d become. So very proud.
She grinned at him.
“What?”
Still grinning, she shrugged at him. “Nothing. I’m just really proud of you.”
He blushed. He actually blushed!
“Oooh, do that again. You’re adorable when you blush.”
Giving her an irritated look, he moved his gaze out the window, seemingly avoiding her grinning eyes as she watched his blush ratchet up a notch. “Eventually, they released us, but not until after years of seeing nothing but the darkness of our prison cells. They said we had two choices—follow orders or fall. So we chose to become fallen.”
“How long were you in there?”
His gaze travelled back to hers. “230 years.”
“…I’m sorry, it sounded like you said they left you in there for 230 years.”
“I did.”
“…two hundred…and THIRTY…..YEARS.”
“That’s a drop in a hat to an angel.”
She blinked a few times. “Okay…I’ll buy that. I suppose. But if that’s true, then I would think they’d want to keep you in their even longer, not give you the option of becoming fallen. You know—punish you until you give?”
“I agree. To this day, I have no idea why they decided to give us an option. Angels have become fallen before, but they’ve never been given the option of it. They just did it. Not many, might I add.”
“What exactly does becoming fallen entail?”
“We ripped our wings out.”
Holy shit. “You mean…you literally ripped them out of your back? With…like…your hands?”
“Yes.”
“And…did it hurt?”
He rolled his eyes at her. “What do you think?”
“Oh, that’s a hell fuckin’ yes if I ever heard one.”
He nodded.
Wow. This was all so much to take in. One would almost say too much, but then, that one wouldn’t be Ria, badass extraordinaire with her own history that would make most people run home to their bed and crawl under the safety of the covers. An entire history of abuse and terror, at least up until she’d gotten full control of her powers. And now she did…er…well. She had…and she would again, she was sure of it.
Jace glanced back out the window again. “I’d make the choice all over again if it was given to me a second time. I’m not going back to that soldier mentality again.”
“I’m guessing there’s a lot of guilt to go along with that history.”
His eyes flickered back to her before resuming their stare out the window. “Yes. A lot to make up for. Stuff that I look back on and wonder why I didn’t question then.”
Reaching across the table, she gently took a hold of his hand. His gaze flew down to where their hands were joined before peering up at her. She smiled softly at him. “Hey, big guy. You’re not the same person you were back then. Hell, I’m not the same person I used to be, and I’ve only been around for 20 years. Things change all the time, situations shift, and we learn from them. We’re always learning, always evolving, as long as we let it happen.”
He watched her closely before responding. “That applies to you, too, you know. You’ve changed.”
Pulling her hand away, she reached for her watered-down lemonade and took a sip, avoiding his eyes. Yeah, she knew that. She didn’t like it, but she knew it.
Things would always be changing.
“Come on, let’s head home. I believe Dax is expecting a massage from you.”
The memory of yesterday’s bathroom encounter with Dax and Tallen popped into her head, and she laughed nervously. “Yeah, I bet he’s already forgotten about that.”
Jace laughed. “Dax, forget about one of his infamous scavenger hunt missions? Not likely.”
“Does he do that with you guys too?”
“Yeah, but ours are less fun. Mostly focused on cleaning and doing his chores for him.”
“Sneaky little slacker.”
“He is, isn’t he?”
But he was hot, so she’d forgive him. Probably.
Glancing out the window, Jace reach behind him and grabbed his wallet from his jeans pocket. “Let’s go.”
*****************************
“Hey, Jace?”
“Hmm?”
“Where are you going?”
They were walking away from his car and heading towards what appeared to be a back alley between several buildings. It looked shady as shit, and she wasn’t exactly sure if that was trash she was smelling or the remains of a dead body.
“Just checking something out.”
“What, are you planning to kidnap me? Cuz I kinda already live with you. I’m thinking it’d be a little pointless. I won’t fight though, if you are planning it. Just stop with the early morning torture and I’ll go quietly. Oh—and offer me food. I’ll hop in the back of your ’89 Rapist van like a kid running into a candy store.”
Jace almost stumbled at that before glancing back at her. “That’s all it takes to kidnap you? Some good food?”
She just shrugged.
“Remind me to keep a closer eye on you.” He responded without an ounce of sarcasm.
Skipping, she kept pace with him up until they reached the entry of the alley, where his arm flew out in front of her, stopping her forward momentum mid-skip. The collision forced her to bend over his arm a little to keep from falling over, and he held her up with that one arm as though she weighed no more than a two-month-old little kitten. Which is exactly what she felt like leaning against his massive, well-muscled arm. A tiny little kitten going ‘meow, love me, please’.
Using that same arm, he pulled her behind him as he slowly and cautiously stepped into the dark side alley. Alarms went off in her head. Something about this wasn’t right. Okay, clearly everything about this wasn’t right. Why were they going into an alley? Why did she have to stay behind him? Why was he being so cautious? The amount of why’s and the number of answers was irritatingly disproportionate.
“I know you’re in there. Stop being a fucking pussy and come out.”
Whoa. Okay, that was not really a move Ria would have recommended in this situation, but hey, she wasn’t running this show. And thank the gods for that.
She peaked out from behind his back, eyeing the alley warily. A moment or two passed before three young looking guys stepped out from the shadows, their faces cold and hard. They eyed her and Jace with a look of pure hatred. No, not her and Jace. Just her.
She gasped.
They were the college-aged guys who had been looking at her when she and Cade were dancing at that restaurant! She recognized them instantly.
“Jace…I think they’ve been following all of us.”
“I know.”
“Not all of you. Just you.” One of them, the dirty blonde, spoke in her dire
ction, leering at her just as the other two were doing.
“Did Azeros send you?”
The three shifted their attention to Jace, eyeing him disdainfully, clearly sizing him up in their minds and finding him lacking. Ria had no idea why they would ever find him lacking. Wasn’t he one of the seraphim? One of the fiercest warriors in existence? And a freaking general, at that? Why weren’t they afraid of him? Were they idiots?
Yeah. They were most likely complete idiots.
“Of course, he did. Jerrick ran back to daddy and told him all about how your little pet destroyed a group of Chaos demons. Now Lord Azeros is very interested in your pet and wants to know more about her.”
Destroyed? Uh…pretty sure I didn’t.
She cautiously began raising her hand before Jace grabbed it and glared at her. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Uh, raising my hand. I’d think that was obvious.”
He heaved out a frustrated sigh. “I’m aware of that. What I meant is why?”
“Because I want to ask a question?”
“You’re not in a damn classroom.”
“No, but mama raised me to be polite.”
“For the last time, your ‘mama’ didn’t raise you and why are you asking them anything?”
“Don’t you get testy with me, mister, I know where you sleep. Now, shush. Excuse me? Mister demon guys!” She leaned out from behind Jace even as he attempted to shove her back behind him. “Just to be clear, I didn’t destroy anyone, so…I feel like this is all just a big misunderstanding and that maybe we all should just go our separate ways and get home in time to watch World of Dance. Whataya say?”
They stared at her in bafflement. She didn’t mind. She was used to that reaction from people when they got the full-force of her weirdness.
The dirty blonde was the first to recover. “Not true, pet. You did destroy them. They are a shadow of what they were, having once been the strongest of all demons. You drove them insane. They can’t speak, can’t comprehend anything anyone says to them. Their minds are lost. And Lord Azeros has taken notice of that.”
Demon Bones: The Soul Series Book 2 Page 4
