Fall From Grace (19 page)

“I bet you make that taste like heaven,” he said.

I placed my glass back on the bar and looked down at it.  I turned back to him, tilting my head up, our faces so close.  “Shane, I watched you before.  You didn’t have to say no to those girls because you think you have to stay with me tonight.  You don’t have to stay over to babysit me instead of doing your usual thing.”

His face paled.  “That’s what you think?”  He turned around to face me; shifting his body closer to mine.  He blinked back a sullen look.

My cheeks burned.  “It’s what Conner said when he saw you standing here letting those girls walk away from you.”

“You didn’t answer my question.  Is that what you think?”

“I didn’t think about it at all.  I just don’t want you to do something you don’t really need or want to do.”

Shane leaned in closer, our cheeks brushed against each other.  His breath tickled in my ear, “Funny thing is, Grace, needing and wanting is exactly what I am doing.  And, just for the record, it is not those girls I need or want.”

Without saying another word to me, he delicately took my arm and sprinkled a small pinch of salt on the soft skin of my inner wrist.  He raised my arm to his mouth and I watched him lightly press his tongue against my skin, skimming it across the surface.  My breath caught.  He downed his tequila and squeezed the lime into his mouth, smiling.  Oh. My. God.  “God, Grace.  You do taste like heaven,” he whispered breathlessly.

I felt a delicious heat rise all over my body.  “I think I should go home now.  I’m...really...tired.”  I whirled around and practically ran towards the bathroom.  I had no idea where Conner and Lea had gone.  They were probably headed home already.  I just needed to splash cold water on my face.

“Then I’m going too,” he yelled after me.

I pushed through the crowds of people and ran into the back hallway.  I headed for the women’s room, but hesitated when I touched the handle of the door.  Dread crept over my body.  The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, eradicating all of the burning desperate hunger Shane’s touch invoked.  Of course, I opened it and walked in anyway.  I am in a bad horror movie.

The only window in the bathroom was wide open, and a fine layer of snow covered the tiled floor.  I scanned the room.  I heard a soft movement in the one stall that was closed.

“Are you really stupid enough to believe, Gabriel?  Do you really believe after thousands of years, all the lifetimes, he’ll get his little human prize?” a voice growled.

The door slowly swung open.  My heart thudded to a stop.

Looking intensely at me was Carl Sumpton, or at least Carl Sumpton’s body staring at me though ancient blue eyes.  His hands clung to the sides of the stall as if he needed the help to stand.

“No human has eyes the color of an angel, who are you?” I whispered.

“Shamsiel always did say you were a smart one,” he hissed.  His body tried to step closer to me, but it only managed to slump back and fall against the toilet.  Its flesh was transparent and bluish.  The skin around its eyes was bruised and swollen; its cheeks were sunken in.

“It looks to me like that body is about to send your soul elsewhere, who are you?  I’ve never heard of an angel who shared the same punishment as me.”

The body trembled, taking great pains to continue breathing life through it.  “Azazel, child, and my punishment was far worse than yours, and I’ve grown too tired of the burning fires of hell,” it coughed.  A fine trickle of deep red blood spilled from the corner of its mouth.

I lurched forward, grabbing his face in my hands, searching his eyes.  Blood splattered on my arms.  “A Grigori?  One of the Watchers?  That Azazel? Where is Shamsiel?  I’ve been in hell here searching for him!”

“You will never find him.  I won’t let him get what the rest of us can’t have.  Do you really think, child, that we could possibly be forgiven?  We have fallen, and there are no second chances.  And I sure as hell won’t let him get what I can’t have, when his sin was no better than mine.”

“We did nothing wrong.  Our only crime was in loving each other.  You, the rest of you, you’re the ones that created the Nephilim!  You’re the ones that tore the earth apart and helped bring chaos down.  You taught the humans war!  Shamsiel and I were children; all we did was fall in love.  He never even touched me, but for one kiss!”

“Child,” he cooed.  “He was thrown into the abyss with the rest of us. Do you really believe with a punishment of that magnitude he’d still want the love of a human?” he sneered.  “Besides, do you think he knows you still exist here?”

I stepped back, wiping the blood from my hands on his shirt.  “Why are you trying to kill me?”

The body convulsed.  “You’re the only one,” it seethed.  The body collapsed in on itself and stilled.  I was the only one of what?

Someone in the hallway knocked on the door to come in.  I stood above the dead body, confused and needing a hell of a lot more answers then what I was just given.

I didn’t want to be found in the bathroom with Carl Sumpton’s body, so I hoisted myself up to the open window and jumped into the alleyway below.  Thank God, the bar was on the first floor or I would have broken a few bones.  I ran through the darkness trying to carefully step in places where I’d leave no footprints in the snow.  There seemed to be enough garbage and crap strewn throughout the alley to make that possible.

My mind ran in circles.  Why in the world was Azazel around?  Wasn’t he stuck in some supernatural prison somewhere? I was the only one of what?  And really why was the freaking place on my arm that Shane licked still making me tingle and giddy like kid in a toy store?  I needed to talk to Gabriel.

I ran to the apartment, praying in my mind that Gabriel would be there waiting.

I could hear Conner and Lea murmuring and giggling in the living room when I opened the front door.  I locked the deadbolt behind me, which echoed a loud click throughout the apartment; silencing their sounds.  I quickly walked through the hallway without stopping to speak to them.

“Gray?” Lea called out.

“Yep, just me.  I’m beat.  I’m calling it a night.  Goodnight, guys!”  I called back as I closed my door. My room was empty.

I leaned my forehead on the hard wood of the door.  Tears stung at my eyes, but I blinked them back.  I pressed my hands against the door and spread my fingers across the grain of the wood.  I felt the coarse grooves, ran my fingers over the knotty uneven surface of it.  My head spun.  Shamsiel.  Would I truly never see him again?  Azazel?  What would he get out of killing me, and how would he, when I’d only be thrown into another body?  Gabriel?  Could I trust him?  He was one of the angels who helped to destroy the Nephilim and helped bind the fallen ones to their prisons.  Last one?  Am I the last of the human souls?  I thought it was just me, I hadn’t known any of the others were punished along with me. I thought they were destroyed along with the Nephilim.  Shane?  Why did I keep thinking about him when he had nothing to do with any of this?

Someone started banging at the front door.  Shane.  Voices raised; footsteps thundered down the hallway.

I heard the floor boards creak on the other side of my door.  I could hear his breath, “Grace...”  Then something hard thumped against the door right above my head.  I pictured Shane in the same position as me with our faces almost touching but for the inch of wood between us.

“Grace.  Please let me in.  I’m...sorry.”

I lifted my head and walked away.  There was way too much...intensity, too much tension between us; this body was not capable of handling Shane.  He’d probably eat me alive. Unfortunately, that sounded so very delicious to me.

I heard his foot kick the door and his body slide down to the floor.  “I’m sleeping on the floor then.  Right here.”  His head thumped against my door again.  “Oh.  Man.  This is so comfortable, Grace.  Really.  Very.”  His sarcastic tone made the butterflies in my belly flip around again. There was no meanness to his voice.  It was raspy and silky and somehow made all the crazy thoughts in my head blur and only focus on him.

I walked to the window and pushed the curtain aside.  The walkway below was pristine white and glistening.  I clicked off my ceiling light and clicked on my bedside lamp.  I rummaged through my drawers and found my tank top-boy shorts sleepwear. Pulling off my rock goddess outfit and pulling on my sleepwear, I wished I could wash my makeup off in the bathroom.

From out in the hallway I heard some rustling.  Maybe he was leaving?  A few bumps and curses.  Laughing at the noise, I settled myself under my covers and closed my eyes.

Shane cleared his throat, kicked at my door again and the sound of my guitar filled the room.  I sat straight up in my bed.  Those beautiful caged butterflies were thrashing their delicate wings against my harsh dark insides.  Every single thought of Azazel’s visit flew from my mind, each note embracing a thought and hiding it in the darkness.

Shane played a slow melody I had never heard before.  Its beginning was low and wistful, transforming into a passionate yearning melody.  His awe-inspiring voice hummed along with the tune, whispered words tickled against my ears.

I opened the door.

Shane stood in the hallway, eyes wide, devouring me with his stare.  The music faded or stopped, I had no clue.  I focused my eyes on my guitar, my divine instrument in his hands.

He pulled the strap over his head and carried the guitar into my room, closing the door behind him.

“Please, look at me, Grace.”

Sliding the guitar out of his hands, he leaned it against the wall.  My eyes stayed on the instrument.

“Grace, please look at me.”  He stepped closer to me, blocking me from staring at the guitar.  So I stared blankly at his crotch, or where the guitar was located behind his crotch.

I couldn’t even say how he got so close to me.  I hadn’t noticed his movements. I tried not to even notice him, but there he was so close that I felt the heat from his body.  He touched my chin with his hand and I finally lifted my eyes to his.

“Grace...I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to...”

I suddenly felt the cool wall press up against my back.  I hadn’t known I was backing away from him, but I leaned against it for moral support.  And, just like he’d done twice before, he rested his forehead against mine.

“Tell me.  Tell me, Grace, that you don’t feel this.  Please.  Tell me and I will walk right out of here.”  He touched his lips to my jaw; his words were hot on my skin.  My heart skidded in my chest.  No reasonable thoughts came to my mind, only the warm sensation of his lips moving gently down my neck.

He pressed his body against mine, one hand slowly sliding down to my waist, tracing his fingertips along my skin.

“Talk to me, Grace, please,” he begged pulling back.

My body moved with him. I placed my hands on his chest and grasped his shirt in my fists.

His hand tightened on my waist and with his other, he twisted fingers through my hair. “Grace...One kiss, please.  Let me taste you,” he pleaded, pushing his body harder against mine.

A small moan escaped from my lips.  “Shane...”  I stood on my tiptoes and brushed my lips past his.  Both of us hesitated, breathing in each other.

“Say my name again,” he begged, as he slid his hand down my hips and pulled my leg up around him.  My body ached, pounded, and spasmed; I was almost delirious.

“Shane,” I whispered, moving my lips over his mouth.  He trembled.

He growled low, crashing his lips into mine.  Every single inch of my body pulsed against his.  His fingertips skated beneath the lace of my panties. I grabbed at him, sliding my hands through his hair.  I dug my fingers into his shoulders, which only made him kiss me deeper and harder.  I spun out of control.

He pulled his lips away, panting, as he stared into my eyes.  His fingers slipped deeper under the lace. I stopped his hand before his fingers could press inside me.

“Shane.  Stop.  I can’t...”  I felt the tears brimming in my eyes.  It was killing me to tell him to stop.

He let my leg slowly slide down his hip from where he had placed it.  His soft fingertips traveled up to my neck, until both his hands cupped my face, searching my eyes.

“Grace...I think,”

I stretched my fingers across his chest.  “Please.  Shane...don’t.  This was a huge mistake.”  Even though I pushed my hands against his chest, my body still arched towards his.

His eyes frantically searched mine.  One foolish tear escaped down my cheek. I quickly turned my face, not wanting him to see anymore.  Both his hands flew up to his hair, grasping at it.  “Grace...please.  You would never be a mistake to me.”

Turning my back on him, I walked to the window and pushed the curtain back.  “Shane, drop it.  I’m not one of your groupies that you just met at the bar, I wasn’t screaming for you and throwing my clothes at you, and I don’t give a crap how good you play or how sexy you look on stage, none of it will make me sleep with you.  So just keep the normal line you feed to your skanks to yourself,” I snapped.

Grabbing me by the waist, Shane lifted me easily off the floor and tossed me on my bed.  He dove on top of me, straddling me, pinning my arms above my head.  Dear God, I wanted to scream, but it was so freaking erotic that every inch of my body screamed for his.