When We Were Mortals

by E. S. Mercer

  “I guess,” I returned. “It does kind of fall off my tongue,” I said, repeating the name over and over again.

  Michael found his way back into my arms, “as it should, Eva.” “This is why you are no longer in Caelum,” Samiel offered. “You fell in love with the son of your father’s fallen brother, causing him great embarrassment and anger. The more he cast you out, the more you two would fight to find each other, causing him to repeat his punishment repetitively.

  “All this for forbidden love?” I asked. “That sounds a little harsh.”

  “It was more than that,” Lilith interjected. “Your father feared what an alliance between the two families would mean.”

  She looked over at Samiel who seemed a little worried that she had opened her mouth.

  “But for now, you two need to get to know each other again,” she insisted, pulling at Samiel’s arm. “You two better do it quick.” “What do you mean?” I asked the strange looking woman. She was built like a Viking, with a goddess’s beauty and the height of a small giant, but she had the attitude of mean old man which made her much less attractive.

  “There is nothing more we can do until you regain your memory,” Samiel responded for her. “You must go back home until we figure out how to do that. Until then, the portals will remain closed and we will not be able to get back home.”

  “What does my memory have to do with the portals?” I asked.

  “You are the only other being who can open them,” he replied. “Your father has made sure I can’t.

  I turned and faced the Cimmerian. “And what am I supposed to do when I open them?”

  “Overthrow your father and bring balance back to the universe,” he offered. “Do exactly what he has feared all along.”

  “Do I want that?” I asked, looking up at Michael.

  He looked as stunned as I did by this part of the conversation. He just pulled me closer and shot a chastising glance at his father.

  “Lilith is right,” he said. “We need a little time alone.” “As you wish,” his father returned, giving a little sarcastic bow. “Don’t take too long, you know how time works here.”

  *****

  “Do you have any idea what is going to happen when Evangeline finds out Michael is not the one she’s married to?” Lilith asked once they finally left. “Do you know what Michael will do when he finds out you used him?”

  Samiel grabbed ahold of the towering woman.

  “By then it won’t matter,” Samiel sniped. “All I need her to do is regain her power so I can take back what is mine.”

  “If she knows you lied, she will not give you what you want!” Lilith chastised. “You are going about this all wrong.” “By the time she figures this all out, I will have found a way to reverse Hyperion’s hold on my power and I will be the one with the strength to control her,” he said, stumbling slightly as the color started to leave his face.

  “She is already affecting you more than you know,” she announced. “You are weakening by the second.” “And so is my brother,” Samiel replied. “That is why I need her to remember. I need her to restore the balance so I can destroy him. Lilith stood shaking her head in disagreement.

  “She cannot hurt me Lilith, not once I regain my full power,” he barked, grabbing her. “You aren’t going to regain your power if she remembers,” she said, ripping her arm from his grasp, “You lose your power the stronger she gets. It is in the prophecy!”

  Samiel walked away from her, trying to ignore her warning. “I have it under control, Lilith, don’t question me!” “Well I wouldn’t if you would start making sense, dammit,” she cried, running after him.

  ******

  “I guess it does make sense,” I said, sitting down on chair in the corner of the room. “I remember feeling as though a part of me was missing. And when I was with Ryan, I could never bring myself to love him the way he thought I should. Maybe part of me knew I was in love with someone else.”

  I sat and thought for a moment. “But I really thought Adam had something to do with it.”

  Michael listened for a moment and then walked towards me, with a determination that frightened me just a little bit. “I assure you, I am the reason,” he said pulling me up out of the chair and into his arms. I could barely finish a full breath before he leaned in and kissed me more passionately than I had ever been kissed in my life. It was so intense that the feeling that came with it even caught him off guard.

  “It feels as if I just kissed you for the very first time,” he said grazing my lips with his. “You feel so familiar yet so new to me.”

  “Maybe because I haven’t been me for a very long time,” I offered. “No, not to me,” he replied. “For me, you haven’t been gone that long.” “But I have and I have become a different person in the meantime. That had to account for something,” I said, as if to convince him I was who he said I was.

  Chapter VII

  If this were another kind of story, I would report that I had completely lost all inhibitions and bedded the man I barely knew, a man I had developed an instant attraction and feelings for. However, it’s not that kind of story and I wasn’t that kind of girl; at least not for a lack of trying. The more I fought to keep my hands off him, the more I seemed to find myself intertwined with his feelings, attraction and limbs. And if it wasn’t for me glancing out the window for one split second, this story would have been much racier.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something outside the window I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed before.

  “What are you looking at?” Michael asked, after he had gone in for another kiss, finding my cheek instead of my previously welcoming lips. “That symbol,” I replied, pointing towards the Gateway directly in front of us. “I know that symbol.” I couldn’t take my eyes off it, trying to remember why I recognized it.

  “It is the symbol of Caelum,” Michael offered, releasing me to get a better look.

  “But why do I remember it?” I asked, keeping a fix on it. “You may have seen it tattooed on people’s skin.” He replied. “It is also the symbol of the Praetorian Guard.

  “Yes, Zara had that same tattoo,” I said.

  “I have seen that symbol before too,” point towards another Keystone.

  “Like this?” he asked, lifting his sleeve. “Yes,” I exclaimed. “Yes,” he replied. “This is the mark of my father and The Praesidian Guard.”

  “Ryan,” I said under my breath. Still loud enough for him to hear me.

  “No,” he said, “Ryan would have the Praetorian tattoo.”

  “No,” I said, running out the door and towards the large ingress. “I see Ryan.”

  “Wait! What?” Michael asked, running after me. “What are you talking about?” “I need to talk to him,” I bellowed, picking up speed. I need to find that Gateway. I may have seen it out the back window of the house, but the front door faced a totally different direction and the streets were a maze. But finally, after sprinting down random alleys and around a few unknown curves, I found myself exactly where I needed to be.

  “You can’t go through there!” Michael cried, catching up with me. “The portals have been closed and the shock alone will kill you!” But it was too late. My hand had already connected with the force field that stood between me and Ryan, causing time to slow down drastically around us. The disturbance of my hand touching the force field slowly started to cause a shock wave to develop from the Keystone above us, but time move slowly enough for us to get a few words in before it affected me.

  “Eva,” he said, with tears in his eyes. “I am so sorry.” He couldn’t look me in the eye.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked, feeling his hand touch mine. “I needed to know who I was.”

  “I couldn’t,” he cried, finally looking up. “I’m so sorry.” “Ryan, listen please,” I pleaded. I could feel we were running out of time. I was about to ask him if he was in any danger, when suddenly the force field started to crackle and glow, as bolts of
light shot down from the Keystone, traveled up my arm and straight through both my shoulder blades, forming a wing like pattern before it knocked me out cold.

  I found myself not so much waking up, but appearing in a place of exorbitant light, with a whole lot of nothingness and a chill that penetrated the soul.

  Then a porcelain man, much younger than I, appeared directly in front of me. His alabaster skin and ivory waist length hair were the closest thing to perfection that I had ever seen. I knew the moment I saw him, who he was. He was opposite of his brother Samiel in skin tone and hair, yet identical in most every single way.

  Whether it was fear or awe, only one word escaped my lips. “Father.”

  “Evangeline,” he said in a gentle yet booming voice that did not match his face at all. “I don’t understand.”

  He reached out for me, as if to validate that I was standing in front of him.

  “Don’t understand what?” I asked, backing away from him.

  “Where you have been,” he replied.

  “What do you mean where have I been?” I barked, “Aren’t you the one who sent me away?”

  “For your own good,” he said, reaching out again. “I did it for you!”

  “What are you talking about? Samiel said…” I started. But he lunged at me, grabbing my hands and cutting me off. They were colder than the air that surrounded us, sending a violent shiver down my spine. I felt a strange sense of fear coming off him. It was masked by his surprise and confusion, but the scent of it was still strong enough for me to detect. The slight tremble of his knees, sent a solidified vibration through his hands to mine, assuring me I was right.

  “You are afraid of me?” I asked tearing away from him. “Why are you afraid of your own daughter?”

  “I’m not afraid,” he said, desperately trying to hide his thoughts. “I have nothing to be afraid of.”

  “Then why send me away?” I asked.

  “You betrayed me, that is why!” he exclaimed, changing from the concerned father to a disappointed one. “You chose a Cimmerian.”

  I was almost disturbed by the harshness of all this for a crime that seemed so simple and innocent “That is honestly what this is all about?” But before he could answer, I could feel a warm hand on my back. I glanced over my shoulder to see who it was, but saw nothing more than a hand.

  Then, everything went black. *****

  The sounds of thunder and pelting rain, shook me awake, stirring a panic in me I still can’t explain. Whether it was the momentary confrontation with my father or being jolted into a blackout more than once, I couldn’t resist the adrenaline that surged viciously through my body.

  Thing is, as strong as the adrenaline surge was, it didn’t dull the pain I felt in my back when I bolted from the bed I was laying on. It was severe enough to drop me to my knees.

  “Your wings,” Michael announced, catching me mid fall, “they overloaded with the surge, burning your back. You must be careful.” “My wings?” I choked. “But I don’t have wings.” “I didn’t think you did,” Michael replied, leaning me back cautiously on a fluffed pillow.

  “I can’t see them,” I interjected, turning to catch a glimpse. I even reached my hand back and couldn’t feel anything.

  “I couldn’t either,” he said sitting next to me. “Not until that moment. Then they disappeared from my sight again.”

  “But you are saying they are there?” I asked, leaning on him. “That is what my father said, before he and Lilith fled back to Cimmeria,” he responded, “but I am as mortal as the rest of them now, so I can’t see them either.”

  He then informed me that my little stunt back in Aljann worked, causing the realms to open again. Problem is, it forced them open, which nearly destroyed the city itself. Samiel escaped to his realm while Michael brought me topside to avoid my father. Apparently, when Hyperion requested the mortals be cast from his sight, he meant it literally. If I remained in the mortal realm, he could not see me himself.

  “Where are we?” I asked, looking around the oversize bedroom.

  “We are at the Annunaki’s lake house, outside Heaven City,” he offered. “Ryan sent us here after the Gateway collapsed.” “The Annu what? I asked, sitting up too quickly. “Is Ryan ok?” “He is ok,” he answered, laying me back down. “He escaped Caelum and Aljann before the roof began to collapse. Thankfully the archways are still intact, so the realms will not merge.”

  “Realms,” I muttered, adjusting myself. “Magic, dueling gods. This all just seems crazy!”

  “But it is our crazy,” he said, sitting next to me. “There is so much more than what people see. A whole other world outside the mortal one.”

  “And my father rules it?” I asked. “And we are cousins?”

  “No, I mean yes, he rules it,” Michael replied, “but no, we aren’t cousins. You were, um, what’s the word?”

  I looked up and him, riddled with even more confusion. “Adopted?”

  “Found, is a better word,” he said. Just then the flare from a bolt of lightning pierced the partially drawn drapes, highlighting fresh cuts and bruises all over his bare back and shoulders.

  “What happened to you?” I asked, hovering my hand over his back.

  “When the force field exploded, it caused a lot of destruction,” he answered. “I’m quick, but I wasn’t able to dodge all the falling stone.”

  “And these?” I asked, running my fingers down the mirrored vertical scar on his left shoulder blade. I already knew the answer. I just didn’t understand why his scars were visible. And, by the look on his face, I realized I shouldn’t have been able to see them. But my attention was less on his concern and more towards the desire I now felt as I began tracing the lines between each convex muscle on his back. I could feel the friction as the touch of our skin begin to heat the tips of my fingers, as it drew me towards him, in an irresistible temptation to ignore the pain I was in and lose myself in the moment. I chose not to fight it any longer as his breath, tasting as sweet as his lips, pulled me in so deep I gasped with every breath I took. The intensity of the moment elevated even more when he slid his hand from the center of my chest to the side of my neck, grabbing forcefully enough to cause me to arch my back and dig into his arm, pulling him on top of me.

  The thunder and lightning played percussion to our exquisite harmony, making it even more epic than I could describe.

  “Are you ok?” he whispered between labored breaths, as he started to sit up. “Better now,” I responded, grabbing ahold of his back to pull myself closer. I didn’t want any distance between us. He followed my lead and with one fluid movement of his arm, he pulled me into his lap.

  As I straddled him, I realized my back wasn’t hurting at all. I shook the numbing pain off as pleasure but it wasn’t that at all. It was something quite magical, literally. Somehow, in the midst of our entanglement, I had healed myself and then, began to heal him.

  As the palm of my hand touched the back of his bronzed neck and my gaze became firmly locked with his, I could see the reflection of a beam of light crawl over the top of my shoulder, down the veins of my left arm and into the back of his head. Next thing I knew, he began to glow from the inside out and shiver uncontrollably. In order to control the pain, he pulled me closer as he pressed his ear against my chest in a desperate attempt to match his breathing to mine.

  The light now radiated through him and back into me, warming me to a level that burned ever so slightly, but I did not react to it as pain. Instead, I found myself slightly aroused by it. My heart began to race and with it, the rate of his breathing until he was on the brink of hyperventilation. Then, the light vanished allowing his pain to subside and his body to feel the same pleasure I did.

  With no more pain and an insatiable lust, I chose to become that woman. A woman who gave into the feelings I didn’t understand and couldn’t control. And Michael, a man driven by the same ravenous urges, welcomed it as any man would, tearing into me with more passion than I was afraid
I could handle, as I found myself convulsing much like he had earlier. It was profoundly indescribable and to this day, a night I would never forget.

  As the storm ended, so did we and I now laid with my back towards him, staring out the window, trying to figure out what just happened.

  “Eva, your burns,” he exclaimed, interrupting my though process, “they are gone.”

  “You healed us,” he continued, pawing at his own shoulders. “I don’t understand. You shouldn’t be able to.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” I asked, turning towards him. “It means I am really confused,” he said, before he became distracted by the movement of my lips. He leaned in and started kissing me again with the same intensity that started things the first time. I pushed him off me to get a second look at his eyes. I swore before he leaned in, I had seen them glaze over for a moment.

  “How long have we been together?” I asked, second guessing our feelings.

  “Since we were young,” he responded. “but I know I’ve loved you since the moment I saw you.” “Loved me yes, but I mean how long have we actually been a couple,” I shot back. “This insatiable appetite both of us have for each other seems a little too intense. Almost like we have never been together.”

  “It’s just been a while,” he retorted. “Trust me, intimacy has always been something sensational with you. Put some time and distance in the mix and it becomes magical.”

  He hit me with another intense kiss hoping it would be enough to shut me up so I would go for round two. “I want to go outside,” I said, brushing him off. I didn’t want him seeing how hard it was to control myself, but I needed to get a grip. Instead I just told him that with the storm gone and the night conceding to the petulant sun, the desire to bask in its warmth was driving me to flee the comfort of the room.

  I could tell he was hesitant about my request, but I didn’t give him much of a chance to challenge it, as I got dressed and rushed out the bedroom door quickly. I made a beeline for the front door, but as I made it to the bottom of the stairs, I met resistance from two very large men in dark suits who guarded it.