Dark Admirer (16 page)

“No.”

Sariel’s blue eyes went wide with rage. “You’re screwing with the balance of the world. You have a duty to the one who has called you. Get him the woman.”

Anael’s eyes narrowed. “Just what the fuck are you doing down here, Sariel? Why are you walking amongst the mortals? Why are you taking an interest in anything they do?”

“Because he’s sowing the seeds of a prophecy.”

Anael whirled around and watched the figure of a giant emerge from the black shadows of the bar. “Gadriel,” he whispered, his voice sounded awed as he watched his brother, the Angel of War appear before him.

“Brother.” Gadriel nodded in greeting.

“Why are you here?” Anael asked. “You hate the humans.”

Gadriel’s gaze shifted to the left, to a table where a woman was seated, trying to soothe a fussing newborn. “I’m here to talk some reason into you.”

Anael saw the hardness in Gadriel’s eyes change to utter adoration and love as he watched the woman with her baby. She had draped a blanket over her shoulder and had offered her breast to the babe, who was busy suckling greedily.

An empty, hollow feeling pitted deep in Anael’s gut. This was not just a newborn. This was a Nephillim. A child of a mortal woman and an angel. This, Anael realised, was Gadriel’s child.

And the way Gadriel looked at them both, the fierce energy Anael felt pouring off Gadriel told him that his brother had found something that had always eluded Anael. Love and acceptance.

“This is not your path, brother.”

“Yeah, well, a wife and kids wasn’t yours, either. Yet here you are, Gadriel.”

Suddenly Gadriel pinned Sariel with a glare. “You haven’t told him?”

“He’s been harbouring a grudge against me,” Sariel sneered as he crossed his arms over his massive chest. “He doesn’t want to listen. He doesn’t want to hear.”

“That’s right,” Anael snapped. He reached for his coat and pulled it free from the back of his chair. “I’m not interested in anything you have to say, Sariel. Frankly, I don’t give a shit.”

Gadriel blocked his path. “Then listen to me.”

“Why should I?”

“You’re walking down a path that was not chosen for you, brother.”

“Right. I forgot. The path that was chosen for me was to be thrown in a dark pit and raped day after day by two demons who got off on my cries of pain.”

“That was your punishment.”

Anael shot Sariel a glare that conveyed in one look exactly how he felt about his
brother
.

Gadriel put his big palm on Anael’s shoulder. “Come back to us, brother.”

Anael glanced at the woman, watched her long hair cascade over her shoulder as she rubbed her hand over her infant’s black, curling hair. “Go back to
her
,” he commanded Gadriel.

But Gadriel, persistent as the damned devil, only tightened his grip, holding Anael prisoner. “You have a destiny to fulfil.”

“Not interested.”

“It doesn’t matter if you are or not. The prophecy has been set and you are a part of it.”

And Eve he silently wondered. “Is not,” Gadriel finished for him. “This woman is not your future. This woman belongs to the mortal you were wanting to kill.”

“No,” Anael couldn’t stop the denial, despite knowing how telling the word was. His brothers would know, would understand what that simple word meant. He would not give up Eve. And he would not return to them, his brothers.

“Your paths were never meant to cross each other’s,” Samael said, his voice quiet next to him. “If you continue down this path, it will destroy not only you, but her. Think on it, Anael, do you really want to ruin the woman’s future?”

No, he didn’t. But he didn’t want Richard having her. Perhaps he could tolerate it better if it had been a mortal with a conscience. A man who would care for her. Love her. But Richard Stokes only cared for himself, and Eve’s money. She deserved more. Deserved to be loved and cared for. Protected. Desired.

“You will change her destiny,” Samael said to him. “You are altering her future, and what if it is not for the better. What if you are leading her down a dark and dangerous path?”

“I would never harm her.”

“Perhaps, brother. You already have.”

“Leave the woman, brother, and join us. Find your own path. Your own destiny and leave the woman to hers.”

“You can say that, Gadriel because you have found a destiny that suits you. You have that woman, a woman you obviously love and cherish. You have a child. You have what you want. Is it so wrong for me to want? Why can’t I have what you have? Why can’t I have a woman looking upon me like your woman looks upon you. Why can’t I see flesh of my flesh in my lover’s arms, pulling at her breast? Why can’t I fall into bed at night with a lover I can feel deep inside me. Why am I denied? Was my fall that much more reprehensible than yours? Than Samael’s?”

“Come back to us and you’ll discover his plan for you.”

“And watch you with your lover? You want to me to have to see the secret looks that pass between you? You want me to endure and suffer and know that what you have, what you’ve found is forever denied me? Forever is a long time, Gadriel, and I’m not that strong.”

“Brother,” Samael whispered, “you tempt fate by chasing this woman. You are altering her future. You can’t know or forsee what could befall her.”

“I’d keep her safe.”

“But what if you can’t?”

“I have my ways. I’d suffer anything for her.”

Anael pulled his coat on and nodded to his brothers. “This has been a nice little family reunion, but I’m done here. Consider your mission fulfilled, Gadriel. You tried to get me to come back home. I’m not. I’ve already found what I’m looking for.”

“Anael—”

“Let him go, Gadriel. He has chosen his path. Now he must learn to live with the consequences. We can only hope that God will have mercy on our brother.”

Chapter Nine

She was dreaming. In the dark recess of her mind, she heard his voice, whispering to her, calling her. It soothed her, that familiar velvety voice. It made her feel less empty.

Only in her dreams, and her wicked fantasies could she hear him talking to her. Never when she was awake.

It must have been the dream that awakened her. It was a dream so vivid, that she had risen from her bed and walked to the window and opened it. The wind should have been cold and biting—it was winter, after all. But in this dream, the wind was warm, sultry, humid like a July night. The window suddenly became a bank of French doors and opened them, just as the voice in her dream had commanded.

In her dream, she saw herself standing before the doors, the wind blowing the hem of her thin nightgown up around her legs. Her face was tilted upwards, until she could feel the warmth of the moon.

“I will not let you go to him. I will find a way.”

She heard the voice of her stranger in the quiet of her thoughts just as the doors were slowly opened, allowing warm air to rush in until it enveloped her body, sifting through the fine fibres of her gauze gown.

The dream was so real that she felt the smooth soft silk of her nightie against her thighs. Felt the wind on her face, and the slickness of the humid air dampen her skin.

A shaft of silvery moonlight shone into the room, and Eve reached out to touch it. It was like it had a life of its own, that beam of light. She could not look away, but instead walked towards it. Something was drawing her to that spot.

“Come to me, beauty,”
the voice whispered again. This time, though, she felt the words wrap around her body, warming her until she felt the sexual need begin to take over her actions.

This was no longer a dream, but a reality. A reality made possible by her mysterious stranger.

“No, no longer a stranger. But your admirer. Your Dark Admirer.”

“An Angel,” she murmured, lifting her hand to the beam of moonlight.

“A fallen one.”

“I don’t care what you are. I only know I want you.”

A moth suddenly fluttered in through the open doors, its delicate wings flickering, sounding like paper oscillating in the wind. She reached out to touch it as it landed on the curtain, but it flew away, its red and black wings quivering wildly in the silver light. Lifting her face to the breeze, Eve closed her eyes, relishing the air as it whispered along her fevered skin.

“This is our Garden of Eden,”
the voice said
. “And you are my Eve.”

“I tempt you so much, then?”

Her eyelids fluttered open when she felt something soft touch her hand. A moth landed on her finger and she smiled, raising her hand to the moonlight so that she could study its glimmering black and red wings.