Beloved Purgatory (Fallen Angels, Book 2) (18 page)

Two gold eyes rested on me. My chest seemed to
simultaneously expand and constrict.
They are so bright. I
should be burning
, I thought, but all I could feel was unheated
air and the cold emanating from the wall of glass. My fingernails
bit into my palms. I'd balled up my hands to keep from trembling,
but I couldn't stop, and I didn't feel stronger.

The gold man's gaze filtered past me. "Camael," he
said, then paused. "You're keeping strange company these days."

I heard something shift beside me--Camael, bowing his
head.

The gold man stepped out behind a table, revealing a
trim, triangular waist and the tiniest loin cloth I'd ever seen. It
wasn't nearly big enough to cover up what was under there and--oh
God, it was flapping like a little flag in the wind as he came
towards me.

I shut my eyes.

The footsteps came closer, closer, then stopped.

A gold chest shimmered before me. Feathers rustled as
he stretched out nine wings. Camael came to my side and stretched
out his wings as well. Camael looked at me, once, before the gold
man took his hands.

"I never expected to see you on this plane," the gold
man said.

Camael nodded.

"You must be tired," the gold man continued. "I
remember the first time I came to Earth after the fall--the sudden
heaviness of my body, the strangling thickness of the air, how
lonely it was to exist in this world without light."

He brushed his gold fingers over Camael's cheek. "You
look especially fatigued tonight. Did something happen?"

He paused. "I'd rather not discuss it," Camael
said.

A chill shot through me. The pancakes.

The golden man's hand flexed, then went still.
"Alright," he murmured. Then he turned those brilliant eyes to me.
"Is this why you're here?"

I shifted my gaze to Camael, but he didn't look at
me. "Yes."

The golden man's eyes narrowed. I had a horrible
feeling I knew the exact place he was staring at--the limp, peeling
slice of "rotting skin" on my cheek. I was suddenly keenly aware
that I'd vigorously applied corpse paint to my face like a
13-year-old on their way to their first
Dimmu Borgir
(or
should I say
Demon Burger
?) concert.

Oh well, at least the cheerleader outfit was
classy.

The gold man pursed his lips. Please don't say
anything, I begged silently.

Kim's laugher saved me. The gold man glanced up at
the source of the throaty, low sound--a latex-laden devil with
small, sharp horns and a dark smile.

She stopped when she saw the gold man. Her mouth
slowly uncurled and fell open, and she stumbled back into the door
frame.

"It looks as if I have competition for your
affections," Forneus noted dryly.

"Wow, no, I'm just, wow," she babbled. Her mouth
still hung open, which made it difficult for her to enunciate, and
she struggled to keep her eyes from staring at his loincloth.

Unfortunately, she wasn't doing a very good job. "Um,
you have a really great costume," she said. "What are you?"

The golden man took a step back. "An angel."

The room went silent. Beyond the tips of his golden
wings, I could see cars moving across the bridge, and the
reflection of their headlights on the Willamette River.

An angel.

My vision grew dark. Had a shadow passed over the
room? No--that couldn't be it--there was no sun here. The muscles
in my stomach clenched. Why had Camael bowed to him? Because he's
an angel. But an angel wouldn't be in a devil's house, coddling a
silver boy with piercing eyes. Angels followed the will of God, and
no part of God existed in that room, void of light and covered with
heathen masks carved out of wood, decorated with nails, and painted
with berries and mud.

Camael's fingers wrapped around my fist. "It's
alright," he whispered. It felt warm where he held me, and where
his lips brushed against my temple. I stared at Azazel. He still
had his back to me. What was going on?

Kim stumbled forward. Her latex décolletage cut into
her breasts with each short breath. "You have too many wings," she
drawled. "Angels are only supposed to have two."

The gold man glanced at Forneus, as if to say:
Do
I really have to put up with this?
Forneus shrugged.

The gold man sighed. "Some angels have two wings.
Some have less, others have more."

"Some like you?" She purred.

I kicked her ankle before she could rub her index
finger down his chest.

Kim bit back an expletive. "Not while I'm wearing
heels, Devi."

"Please contain yourself, for one evening. Please." I
didn't care that the angels could hear me, or that Forneus began to
smirk. Kim, I thought, hoping she could read in my expression what
I didn't dare say out loud, don't get involved with that
thing--whatever it is.

She shook her head and smiled, cheeks almost as red
as her painted-on suit. I bit my lower lip. Why did I have to be so
clumsy about this sort of thing? Why were we even here?

Kim coughed and tilted her head to the side
apologetically. The golden angel said nothing.

"I was just going to ask you about your costume," she
said.

The angel's wings retracted. "It's not a
costume."

Kim's eyes went wide for a second, then she laughed.
"Right," she mumbled. "This color is amazing." She ran a finger
down his arm, then looked at her finger pad. It came back clean, of
course, and she was too entranced by this to notice how his skin
didn't respond to her touch.

"How long did it take you to do this? What did you
use?"

"To do what?" The gold man asked.

She flipped her hair out of her face. "Your costume,
of course."

"It isn't a costume," he responded.

Kim's eye twitched, but she kept her forced smile in
place. Her ankles wiggled in her stiletto heels she crept back.
"Funny," she murmured.

"What is funny?"

My eyes started to water.
Hold it in
, I told
myself, but I couldn't. Kim looked so confused, and why shouldn't
she be? She'd never tried to explain something to an angel
before.

I brought my pompom over my face and started to
cackle into it. The plastic rustled, and it sounded kind of like
one of those cheap stock sound clips you might hear by a graveyard
in a horror movie.

Kim started to smile, too. "And you were telling me
to control myself."

I took a deep breath, trying to regain my composure,
but I ended up inhaling little bits of pompom. It tickled the back
of my throat. I coughed, tossed the pompom down, and croaked out:
"He doesn't think it's funny because he's being serious."

Kim raised a brow. "Right. Let's just have a look at
those wings, shall we?"

"Don't touch them." The golden man's soft warning
hung over my skin like a spider web. I brushed my arms. Was I
imagining it?

No, I wasn't. Kim took a few steps back, her almond
eyes never leaving his. "Let's see how the kids are doing," she
whispered, her tone so apologetic and fearful that she could have
said--stay away from me.

The gold man tilted his head. "They are doing
fine."

Kim turned, took three large steps, then gripped an
empty chair by the table until her knuckles went white. She glanced
back at me, then ruffled the dinosaur spikes on top of Azazel's
hood. "Hey there, T. rex."

The Velociraptor didn't try to correct her. He didn't
even look up. His attention was completely on...
Candy
Land
.

"Okay," she whispered, rocking back on her heels.

Azazel had slid the tail of his dinosaur suit between
the seat and back of his chair. He'd removed his claw-like mittens
and put them on the floor. It would have looked cute if his hands
weren't shaking.

Sariel glanced up at Azazel before drawing a card
from the center of the board. His silver eyes narrowed, as if
looking for a tell. He didn't need to look too hard. Even from
where I stood I could see little beads of sweat forming above
Azazel's upper lip.

Sariel looked at his card. "Orange--green. I get to
ride the rainbow. Have fun in the Peppermint Forest."

Azazel gulped.

"Pick a card," he insisted.

Azazel looked down at the board.

"I was always super afraid of the Molasses Swamp when
I was a kid," Kim noted.

"Take one," Sariel said, ignoring her.

Azazel fumbled as he did, knocking over the deck.
"Sorry." I almost didn't recognize his small voice. I think it was
the first thing he'd said since he'd entered the room.

Kim walked back to where I stood. At some point
during the distressing
Candy Land
scene, the angel had moved
to the corner to meet with Forneus.

"Those are the most intense kids I've ever seen in my
life," she whispered.

"No kidding," I whispered back, aware that everyone
in the room could probably hear us.

"I mean, it's
Candy Land
. You'd think they
were going to shoot whoever lost."

Maybe they would
. A knot formed in my stomach.
"Yeah."

"It's weird. Jasmine's little brother wasn't like
this until we got here."

"You want to leave?" I tried to keep my voice as even
as possible.

I followed Kim's gaze to Forneus, staring in the
opposite corner, grinning. Figures he would be enjoying this. I was
actually kind of surprised he hadn't poured himself a glass of red
wine and toasted us.

Kim sighed. "How about when they're done with their
game."

I started peeling the sore on my cheek. Forneus'
smile faltered, and I realized that I should have told him that I'd
dressed up as him for Halloween. Maybe I still could.

"Damn," I hissed.

"What is it?" Kim asked.

"Nothing. I have to use the restroom."

She frowned. "Well, go."

I grabbed her wrist. "Will you go with me?"

She pushed me off. "What?"

"This place is kind of creeping me out."

She looked down.

"Kim!"

"Sorry, Devi. Do you really want me to leave T. rex
alone with those people? I mean, his uncle's okay, but I think
something's wrong with that other kid." She wet her lips. "My mom
used to make me play with this creepy kid when I was younger--"

"Alright, alright." I bit my lip. If Azazel was
really Jasmine's little brother, and not, well, Jasmine, I guess
she would want Kim to stay. "Just don't leave Jasmine's--I mean,
uh, Azazel's--side."

Kim didn't even comment on my slip-up.

I slunk out of the room. Once we were out of
ear-shot, I turned to Camael. "Watch Kim."

"I'm coming with you."

I grabbed his hand. "No."

"Devi, I can't let you wander around this house
alone."

"I'm going to the bathroom!"

"It doesn't matter," he whispered. "I'll wait outside
the door."

I glanced at the doorway. If I didn't keep it down,
someone would hear us. "And what about Kim?"

"The demon will watch her."

"The demon is currently in a coma," I muttered,
remembering those little, shivering hands I wanted to hold. "What
the Hell is going on? Who are those people?"

"The angel is Shamsiel. The demon is--"

"So that kid is a demon? What is a demon doing with
an angel? Wait, what the Hell are they doing with Forneus?"

"I don't know. I haven't seen Shamsiel or Sariel
since the fall."

That didn't sound good. "I don't like leaving Kim
alone in there, or Azazel, for that matter."

"The demon can take care of himself."

His voice was oddly hard, and his eyes flashed blue.
For a moment, I felt as if he weren't an angel. Camael put his hand
on my shoulder. It tightened, briefly, as if he wanted to pull me
into his chest.

But of course, he didn't.

I stepped out of his lose grip. "Forneus can't lie,
right? He said he wasn't going to hurt me, or do something like
make a deal, when we got here--but he didn't make any promises
about Kim."

Camael grabbed my shoulders. His skin began to
shimmer faintly, like the stars behind the clouds, almost drowned
out completely by the city's lights. His eyes glowed--deep, blue,
piercing--and for a second I felt as if we were both drowning.

"Devi, don't make me leave you."

The pleading tone my mind assigned to his soft voice
broke the spell. "Can I make you leave, Camael?" I whispered. "Do I
have that much power? You've been ordered to protect me, haven't
you? Doesn't that mean you'll do just that, no matter what I
want?"

I didn't know where the words came from. It was a
stupid question--of course I didn't--but it seemed to affect him.
His shoulders shuddered as he drew in a deep, haggard breath of air
his perfect body did not need in order to survive.

"If there was a time I had such power, I wish it was
now. I love Kim, Camael. I know you can't understand that, but I
love her, and so for the next five minutes, as I go do my business
in a bathroom that I wouldn't let you follow me into anyway. I want
you to watch her."

Beneath my palms I felt his hands seize up, then he
gripped mine.

"Five minutes," he whispered. He leaned forward, as
if he were going to press his lips to my hairline, stopping just
before contact. "If you get into trouble, say my name. If you feel
frightened, even for a second, call for me. I will come."

I nodded, bumping into his chin. "Ouch," I said.

He frowned, raising his fingertips. "Does it
hurt?"

"No, it just startled me. Go to Kim. She's been alone
for too long."

He nodded and walked back alone into the room we'd
just left.

***

I probably should have realized that it would be
difficult to find the bathroom in a house this large. It had taken
me more than ten minutes to find one, and now I couldn't find my
way back. I had a horrible feeling that if I didn't get out of here
soon Camael was probably going to pop out from behind some corner
and give me the biggest scare of my life.