Crave (Tainted Angels Book 1)

by D H Sidebottom

  My father was sitting in the chair beside the fire when I entered his suite. His head was down and his face was buried in his hands. He looked defeated when he lifted his head to look at me.

  “Sit down, Rax.”

  I did as ordered, taking the chair opposite him. “Is everything okay?”

  He sighed heavily. “I warned you not to get involved with the Empyrean, Rax. I warned you.” He wasn’t angry. He appeared to be upset, or maybe worried. Something made my insides twist uncomfortably. Something serious was coming, I could see it in the way he was struggling to talk.

  He shuffled to the front of his chair and I frowned when he reached for my hands. “I hate to see you hurt, Rax, you’re my son and I love you. I tried to end your relationship with Willa Eden when I first became aware of it.”

  I sat silent, the way he was gripping on to my hands filling me with dread.

  “I didn’t want it to come to this,” he whispered, his face paling further. “But there’s something about Willa that you don’t know …”

  And then it went to hell.

  My throat hurt, fear trying to claw its way out of me. The alcohol that had previously saturated my blood was now too diluted to calm my mind, the anguish riding my system grieving me with numerous scenarios of how he was going to kill me.

  Out of everything, I hated that I hadn’t even been able to say goodbye to my mate. My heart hurt but I battled with my emotions. No way would this bastard witness my tears.

  God sat opposite me in the most luxurious chair I had ever seen. If I wasn’t so terrified I’d have asked him where he purchased it. Snuggling down in that with a bottle of wine and a good book had never felt more tempting.

  He wasn’t aware that I’d woken, my eyes tiny slits as I took a sneaky look around the room from where I had been placed on a long sofa.

  It was completely different than what I had ever imagined it to be. I had thought he’d have lived somewhere more deluxe but the only thing that looked expensive was the chair he sat in. The rest of the room was rather plain and basic – cream walls, a small amount of furniture, and a stereo were virtually all I could see from my position.

  “Welcome back, Willa.”

  I gulped, attempting to lubricate my parched throat as I opened my eyes to look at him. He was rather large, his body round and his neck as thick as one of my thighs. His shock of white hair was closely cropped to his head and his plump red nose made him look like a warm and friendly grandpa. How looks could deceive so much.

  He leaned forwards, resting his elbows on his thighs. “I apologise for bestowing the slumber but I couldn’t risk you screaming and alerting the others.”

  My stomach heaved when I twisted around and sat up. His eyes were soft on me, confusing me. “I’m surprised you didn’t just kill me while I was out of it.” I spoke with a confidence I didn’t feel. “Or is it the pleasure of the torment that appeals?”

  His eyebrows lifted at the vehemence in my voice but then he sighed and shook his head. “I’m disappointed, Willa. I thought my own grandchild was a tad more intelligent than to listen to hearsay.”

  “Hearsay?” I scoffed. “I have it out of the horse’s mouth about what you did to my parents. I’d say that was more truth than hearsay.”

  He flinched as though I’d physically hit him. His eyes clouded over and he nodded. “Yes, I understand your aversion. What I did to my own daughter was unforgivable.”

  I blinked, a sliver of confusion trickling through me. That and surprise. “And now you’re doing the same to your granddaughter.”

  His eyes snapped to mine and his face reddened. “That’s why you’re here. That’s why, for the first time in over two thousand years I left this place. I need to talk to you.”

  “You haven’t left home in over two thousand years?”

  He shook his head, his eyes glazing over. “No. My penance for what I did is to live in solitude. I don’t deserve to be with my people. I don’t deserve to ever breathe the fresh air again, or feel the sun on my face, or …” He shook his head again. “You’re not here to talk about me. I just want you to know that I have never forgiven myself for what I did, and I am paying for that every day. It’s not an excuse, Willa. What I did will never be excusable but I have my own reasons. I won’t beg for forgiveness because I don’t deserve it.”

  “So why am I here?” I whispered, dreading his answer.

  He gazed at me, his eyes reflecting so much sadness that I found it difficult to look at him. “You’re in danger, my dear girl.”

  My eyes popped wide open and I couldn’t hold back the bitter laugh. “No shit, Sherlock!” I winced then, remembering who I was talking to but he just smiled.

  “I love that you’re such a feisty little thing, so much like your mother.” Pain slid over his face with the mention of Delilah. “You’ll be a good leader for the spiritual world.”

  My head was spinning. He seemed so different to what I had expected. For one, I’d expected him to slice my throat open within seconds of meeting me, and for two, he seemed almost gentle, genial, and I couldn’t help but query his warm blue aura. I sensed no threat from him whatsoever. And that got my heart beating like crazy. What if we all had things wrong?

  “I can understand your beliefs, Willa.” He watched me carefully. “But I’m not going to hurt you. I would never hurt you, you have my blood, dear girl. I can understand why you think I would. I’m the person who broke my own child, but …” He leaned even farther towards me. “I’m not the one that’s trying to take The Almighty’s place. That is solely your destiny and if I’m honest, I know I don’t even deserve to live. It’s only for the fact that I care for my people that I would never abandon them.”

  I reared back, staring at him in astonishment. “What?”

  “I’ve watched you, Willa. I’m always watching you, but that’s only because I love you. You’re my granddaughter, my daughter’s child that I have forfeited a life with because of what I did. The reason none of my people have ever seen me is because I don’t warrant to be looked upon by them, not knowing what I did.”

  “I don’t understand.” My voice was quiet, the confusion and the unease merging together until I struggled to talk.

  “I’m not responsible for the new breed, Willa. Or your friend’s death. Or everything that has been happening. However, I did bless you with your angel.”

  I frowned. “My angel?”

  “Yes. I took your mother’s wings from her, so I made sure your angel was granted with them.”

  “Wait,” I mumbled. “What are you talking about? My demon has wings. I don’t have an angel.”

  He smiled, his white teeth mesmerising me. “That’s not your demon, Willa. That’s your angel. Your demon has been trying to free himself but you’ve subconsciously been fighting with him. The pressure in your head is because you’re not allowing him to summon.”

  “So,” I peered at him in both amazement and uncertainty, “What you’re saying is … the thing that I’ve been morphing into is … an angel?” He nodded and smiled. “So … I have a demon too?”

  He chuckled at my shock. “Well, you are both Empyrean and Gehenna, Willa, so yes, you have been blessed with both.” He glanced down then gulped when he hesitantly took my hands in his. “You will need him for what is coming. As much as I bestowed on you your angel, you will need to allow the other half of you free. He will protect you at all costs.”

  We both silenced, staring at each other for a while until God whispered, “How is she?”

  He didn’t deserve my pity, that was for Delilah to grant him, but my soul also ached for him. We all made mistakes and I knew that his was so colossal that it could never warrant forgiveness but the pain on his face made me answer. “She’s doing okay. She’s with me and in a way we’re there for each other.”

  His smile was wide and genuine. “I have no way of making it up to her. What I did will banish me from all your lives but I do take comfort in knowing that you are together, a
s you should be.” He lowered his eyes to our joined hands. “I’m so very sorry, Willa. I have protected you as much as I can but …” He chewed on his lip. “Now it’s time to end it. You will have no choice in the matter anymore. Things have been set in motion and now it’s up to you to face your fate.”

  I nodded, knowing he wouldn’t disclose any more. He stood, squeezing my hand and leaning forwards. Brushing a soft kiss over my cheek, he pulled me into a hug. Still not sure how I felt, I left my own arms by my side. “Good luck, my dear girl. Remember you have a strong heart. Use it to fight what is coming.”

  Just as I was about to ask him to clarify his words, the red walls of my own room stared back at me. I blinked, looking around. I hadn’t even felt a ripple in the air. One minute I was in God’s presence, and the next, I wasn’t.

  Things didn’t make sense. Just as I’d been accepting that the guy had been a jealous arsehole who was trying to take my fate from me, it turned out that he had actually been helping me all along. He’d given my angel her wings, allowing me the freedom of flight. By the sounds of it, my demon had yet to make himself known. If Rax had liked my angel, goodness only knew how he would react to my dark side.

  And if God wasn’t the guy who had created the new breed of dredgen, or even the wispy green thing that had drawn me into his dream, killed Marie and so nearly taken Sadie from me, then who in the hell was it?

  After fetching Herb from my parents’ suite, I sank deeply into the depths of a hot bath, my body sighing in pleasure as my strained muscles relaxed.

  Rax wasn’t back and the guys were still at Fred’s, according to Frannie’s frantic link half an hour ago. I did wonder why it had taken my friends over two hours to realise I was missing … pfft.

  “You okay out there, Herb?” I shouted when I heard the long pitched whimpering coming from outside the bathroom door. When he wildly started head-butting the door, I quickly tried to soothe him and climbed out of the bath, pulling my robe around me.

  On opening the door, the huge beast jumped into my arms, his large tongue kissing my face like he owed me his life. “What’s wrong, baby?”

  His eyes widened and he peered down at the floor, his body trembling in my arms. The tiniest spider hurried across the floor, its eight miniature legs scurrying behind the toilet until he disappeared between a crack where the wall met the floor.

  “You have a spider phobia, Herb?”

  He panted, his eyes fixed on the spot where the spider had departed the room, and his body vibrating with fear as he waited for it to reappear.

  “He won’t hurt you, baby. It’s just a weeny spider.”

  The door to the apartment opened and Herb jumped back out of my arms and went to greet whoever had just walked in.

  “Rax, is that you?” I shouted as I pulled my robe tighter around my body when I shivered in the cool air. “Rax?”

  I heard Herb’s low growl, the sound strange since seconds ago he’d been whimpering in my arms, and the hairs on the back of my neck sprang to attention. But on cautiously entering the main area, no monster greeted me as I’d expected, but Rax stood stiffly in the room, a dark mood eclipsing his usual soft expression whenever he saw me.

  “Rax, didn’t you hear me shout?”

  His eyes were full of a fury I’d never witnessed in him before. His body was tense as he glared at me from across the room.

  “Baby?”

  He sneered at me as his eyes roamed over my body coldly, the effect making me pull my robe tighter around me. His eyes narrowed further as he walked across the gap between us.

  “Rax, what’s wrong?”

  Herb growled louder, shifting his large body in front of me. I couldn’t help but back away when a terrifying Rax prowled closer. Nothing felt right, even the air around him shivered and appeared to flee from his body. The heat in the room was stifling, making it difficult to breathe as a pulse in my head started to blur my vision.

  “Rax?”

  He grew even closer but when Herb snarled, his fierce teeth warning Rax not to come closer, Rax lifted a hand and Herb flew across the room and crashed on to the glass table that sat across the back wall. The whimper that left him had me scurrying across the room to check he was okay.

  “Have you gone crazy?” I shouted as I dropped to my knees before Herb, my heart dropping when I saw the large shard of glass embedded into his stomach. “No,” I cried. “What the hell have you done?”

  Still Rax remained silent but I was too busy attending to Herb to pay attention to what he was doing.

  “Hang in there, big guy!”

  I quickly linked with Lincoln. “Linc.” Silence answered me. “Lincoln? Frannie?”

  Something wasn’t right. My mouth grew dry and I froze when my ears picked up movement right behind me. The rush of my blood slowed down and dread trickled around me, making me shiver when my brain finally slotted the puzzle together.

  Praying with everything within me, I turned slowly to find Rax stood over me, a cruel, cold smile on his face as he brought down a small silver dagger and plunged it straight into my chest.

  Sgt Grant Miller blew out a frustrated breath, his shoulders sagging with exhaustion. It was late into his shift and he was just about to dive into the greasy burger that Jenny, the waitress who always gave him extra pickles, had brought over for him when a call for assistance came over his radio. An ambulance and back-up was requested at Fred’s bar.

  He frowned, listening to the numerous despatches as his eyes slowly moved out of the window to the building across the road from the café.

  No people milled about, no shouting could be heard and nothing out of the ordinary attracted his attention. However, Miller placed his burger next to the uneaten fries on his plate and stood up. The fact that Fred’s bar was bathed in darkness was suspect. Fred’s was a popular hangout and never before had Miller known it to be locked up tight at such an early hour.

  Calling in his attendance, Miller muted his radio and grabbed his gun from the glove box in his car, his instinct ramped to such a level he somehow knew he’d need it – he’d explain his ownership with the boss later, but right then he needed the security it always provided. Checking the ammo, he slid off the safety before he meandered casually across the road and slid through the shadows to the rear door.

  The first one came at Sadie like a lightning streak across the room. The busy bar had suddenly become a bloodbath, the numerous humans, or what Sadie had thought were humans, all at once mutated into dredgen.

  Pulling out her machete which she kept hidden with her mystical powers, Sadie swiped across the air, her blood tingling with the smell of blood when she decapitated the creature quickly and cleanly.

  Various humans screamed as Sadie took a quick glance around the room to check on her friends who were all embroiled in their own fights. Bobby, remarkably, whirled a large kitchen knife in front of him, doing really well at warding off an approaching dredgen.

  Sadie ran to his aid, severing the throat of the beast who was after the pure blood of her human friend.

  “What the fuck is going on?” Bobby panted as he turned to take a stab at another.

  There were too many. And where the fuck had they all come from she didn’t know. It was like the clock had struck a certain time and then hell had descended upon the bar – where coincidently she and ALL her friends were. Sadie suspected this was planned by someone, everyone in one place at once. But that was implausible because it had been Willa who had arranged the gathering to celebrate her coupling with Rax.

  Sadie scanned the room; Willa and Rax were both missing. Willa had been there earlier, that Sadie was sure of, although Rax hadn’t turned up.

  A shriek grabbed her attention and her head turned just in time to see Delilah wrap her whip around the throat of a dredgen who was just about to take a stab at Bobby.

  Sadie frowned. Oh no. Oh no, no, no!

  “Delilah!” she shouted across the room. Delilah’s eyes shot up to meet Sadie. “Where’s Wi
lla?”

  Delilah looked around the room, her face paling with every square inch that Willa could not be seen. “Oh no.” Delilah gasped.

  They’d all been played so well. So fucking well.

  Lincoln caught Sadie’s eye as four dredgen started to circle him. She ran to help him as Jaron and Dex battled with several of their own enemies. Zak was fighting three as he tried to protect Frannie who was just a cleanser and wasn’t skilled in fighting, but she was holding her own, a small blade stabbing at a dredgen that was trying to jump her.

  One by one she and her friends managed to lessen the numbers until only a few dredgen remained. But Sadie couldn’t concentrate. She attempted to link with Willa time and time again but was met with nothing but silence. And if Delilah was in Fred’s then she wasn’t with Willa, protecting her.

  Sadie suspected this battle was a diversion, a distraction that kept all Willa’s friends busy whilst something greater was at force.

  “We need to find Willa!” she shouted across the room when all the lights cut out.

  “Damn!” Delilah cursed when a faint groan told them one of the dredgen had gotten to Bobby. “Bobby?”

  Sadie turned on her heels to the noise. Her heart ceased and she knew she had taken her last breath when out of the corner of her eye she caught the glint of silver, the moonlight streaming through the window lighting the blade’s path as the dredgen brought it down towards her.

  A gunshot rang out, and as if in slow motion, the dredgen thudded to the floor in front of her, its wide dead eyes fixed on her as her own sight adjusted to the dim light.

  Silence rang out as the lights came back on. At least twenty dredgen covered the floor, each dead body turning to dust and dispersing through the slats in the floorboards. Frannie was aiding Bobby who had taken a blade to his shoulder but appeared to be okay as Frannie started the healing process, and the rest of her friends were either seeing to their own wounds or trying to gather their breaths.