Genesis: Falling Angel (16 page)

“I’m touched, Diamond, but I’m taking the girl with me.”

Diamond’s shiny eyes regarded us coldly. “You aren’t going anywhere.”

She let down her long, white hair. “I have one hour to take care of you. I can’t be late for my next appointment.” The floor beneath the furniture low
ered, rising once more with Noah. He looked at his sister, shaking.

“Brother, come help me take care of Adrian.”

Smoke poured from Noah’s nostrils, and he let out a roar that shook the entire room.

Diamond gave a humorless smile. “So, I guess it’s time to play.”

Chapter 20 – Adrian

A million thoughts were racing through my head. Why did Noah look so strange? Why wasn’t he rushing to our aid when he was clearly the only one that stood a chance of beating Diamond? Why did he look so feral?

Then his eyes gained a strange, red glow, and the answer came to me. Nonetheless, I wanted Diamond to confirm it. “What the hell did you do to him?”

She frowned. “Me? He did this to himself. My brother made the mistake of killing our dear Thanatos. The curse of Ira is coursing through his body as we speak. I may have told him a few things about you that set him off, but I assure you that this was his own doing.”

What had she said? What was so terrible that a fire-breathing dragon suddenly wanted to rip me limb from limb? I glanced over to Gabrielle. She was so much trouble. Everyone wanted her, and I always had to save her. It was getting a little frustrating. Still, there was such naïve confusion in her eyes over our words. It didn’t even mask the pain she seemed to feel. She turned to me with wide eyes.

“Adrian, what is she talking about?”

There was no denying the love she felt for Noah. The type of love was unknown to me, but I knew that she loved him anyways. This was merely a betrayal to her. It was a cruel, twisted turn of events. She didn’t understand why he looked so angry or why he seemed so ready to rip us limb from limb. She was too innocent, too naïve to be in Avaritia. There was nothing I could do but fight until the dragons ripped me limb from limb, but then what would happen to her?

Diamond was only second to Pride in strength. She was faster than any of my brothers and sisters and much more agile. She was so beautiful, in the way a lioness or cheetah would be deemed beautiful before they ripped your throat out. Her scales were as hard as her namesake, if not more. She had never lost a battle. She had never even been wounded. When she’d asked me to bed one night, I did not resist for fear of her power. She was so calm and collected, rarely experiencing any rage. Her silvery eyes were looking straight at me, carefully assessing me. She knew my strengths and weaknesses. She could probably tell that I was starving with a quick once-over. If she wanted me dead, I’d be dead.

“You look hungry, Adrian,” she noted.

Well, I had been right. “It’s nothing I can’t handle. I’m in good enough shape. I’m curious, though. Why
do you need Noah?”

She pursed her ruby lips, eyes glancing upwards for only a moment. She looked at me once more. “I despise that name that he chose for himself. He had such foolish reasoning. It was that whore he was with that made him change his name to something straight from the so-called holy book. He is the last royal dragon. I can’t allow him to go around breeding with lowly creatures. He belongs at my side as my mate. He is mine. He has always been mine. Even with his indiscretions, he is mine.”

Wow, that was a bit much. “So you’re after him because you’re respecting your bloodline. I can understand that, Diamond. You have him right where you want him. Why bother controlling him?”

“I can’t control Wrath. I can only endure his violence. My brother is the only one that I know I cannot win against. Now he is at my side where he belongs. If he hurts me, then I will brush it off. I am completely devoted to continuing this bloodline. It will not die with the two of us.”
Diamond closed her eyes. “Do you have any claim on the girl? If she’s so important, I have a feeling you lied to me earlier.”

I had already told her that we weren’t close, but Diamond was female. Perhaps she would understand and believe certain things that my other siblings wouldn’t. “She’s mine,” I said, putting a large amount of pain in my voice. “I claimed her.”

She smiled coldly. “I thought so. So the angel is tainted. That is slightly amusing. Isn’t she worthless now? Why not dispose of her?”

“She’s pregnant,” I lied. It was the first thing that had come to mind.

Gabrielle looked at me, but to my relief, she did not deny it. Her hand even fleetingly touched her abdomen. For once, she may have actually been saving her own ass. I put my arm around her waist, pulling her to me.

“Lilith will certainly want to see this strange hybrid,” Diamond said. “This changes nothing. Brother, come take care of these pests.”

Well, that plan didn’t work for even a second. She was before me in the blink of an eye, ripping Gabrielle from my grasp. She opened her mouth to display rows of sharp teeth. “You may deal with my brother.”

Noah was approaching me with the slow, steady steps of a predator. His teeth we
re bared, his eyes still glowed that chilling red. He growled lowly as he began to shift. The room was big enough for him to fly in, so I knew he had the advantage. I was still unwilling to give up my identity to Gabrielle. It was probably obvious at this point, but she hadn’t said anything. Part of me wanted to keep the charade going forever.

This time, the sight of the massive golden dragon nearly stunned me. I had never realized just how imposing he was. I had never noticed the heat that he seemed to radiate. I had certainly never noticed how sharp
his black claws were or how many pointy teeth he had in his massive jaws. He lifted his head, breathing out a jet of flame. Oh, I was screwed.

Diamond had vanished off to the side with Gabrielle, holding her with one arm wrapped around her fragile neck. With one quick movement, Gabrielle’s head would be torn clean off. I felt the need to run over to her and rescue her, but what could I do with a giant monster keeping its golden eyes locked on me?

He spoke, then. It was the first time he’d spoken in dragon form. He was incapable of making the sound for human language. His language was a series of snarling, harsh words that made me shiver in fear. I actually knew quite a bit of the language, and what he said made my heart nearly stop.
Son of Lilith, lord of Lust, know this: your death shall not come swiftly.
That was lovely.

The first stream of fire flew forth from his mouth, and I ran as fast as I could. I could feel the heat of the flames. They roared behind
me, though nothing seemed to damage the pristine carpet. Of course everything except me would be fireproofed. I was completely vulnerable in an open space.

There was really only one thing to do. I turned in direction, heading toward Noah. It must have stunned him for a moment because he stopped spewing fire. I launched myself onto his side, clinging to his scales. He began to notice what I was doing and he roared. He shook himself, but I clung on as if my life depended on it.

The only way to escape Noah was to climb on his back and grab hold of one of his horns. His fire would not touch me. Wrath was reckless, never giving up. If he was enraged, then nothing would calm him down. If I just held on until he began to wear down, maybe I could talk some sense into him.

I’d read stories of humans that rode bulls for fun. They would try their best to keep from falling off of the bulls for as long as they coul
d. The bulls would buck, trying to toss the humans off their backs with frantic rage. Eventually, the humans always fell. Sometimes, the bull would harm them the second they hit the ground, if the fall didn’t get to them first.

Riding a dragon was definitely no easy task. I gripped hold of one of his horns, and he bellowed with rage. He crashed about, knocking Diamond’s oh-so-perfect furniture about. The desk smashed against the wall. The filing cabinet crumpled under one of his massive feet. The chair was burnt to a crisp. Apparently not everything was fireproof.

He stilled sooner than I expect. He lied down, and then panic struck. He was going to roll over and grind his horns into the ground. A deep rumbling that I assumed was laughter came from within his throat. Well, if dying at the hands of Judas was embarrassing, this would be mortifying. A demon lord was going to be crushed to death by a dragon. I wished that I had a sword. At least then I could fight. Perhaps one day I would be in a fight where I didn’t have to pull stupid stunts to get by.

“Noah, listen to me!” I yelled. He paused, one large eye rolling up to look at me. “You don’t want to do this.” As cheesy as it was, I added, “I’m your friend, remember? We fought a whole pack of werewolves together. If that isn’t f
riendship, I don’t know what is.”

He growled softly, but he was looking slightly less enraged.

“Brother, don’t let him trick you. Remember what he did,” Diamond called.

This sent Noah into a new rage, and he rolled over. As he ground his horns into the carpet, I retreated down his neck a bit. Hanging on was a chore, but I didn’t want to die so I wasn’t going to complain. Eventually, he froze. Then, he began to shrink. I jumped off of his back, rolling onto the carpet I was beginning to hate. I was breathing heavily.

Noah had returned to his fake human form. His hands were clawed, his teeth were sharp, smoke was pouring from his nostrils, and his eyes were glowing red. Other than that, it was the same Noah I had come to both like and despise.

He raced toward me with speed that I could actually match. Unlike his sister and Judas, he was fairly slow. Male dragons were stronger, but not quick. So I dodged each of his swipes with relative ease. At some point, I managed to find a piece of wood from the desk that I could use as a weapon. This hope was shattered when he knocked it from my hand, turning the board into mere splinters.

He swiped at me again, and this time he managed to cut into my chest. My shirt tore, and blood welled up from the gashes. They would heal in a matter of minutes. Gabrielle would be watching. I could only hope that the blood would give the appearance of wounds.

I was doing fairly well for an incubus fighting a powerful dragon. One set of scratches, still alive. I wasn’t dead yet, which was a plus. I had expected to fight both dragons at once, but Noah was easier to handle. He was clouded by Ira. His focus was probably limited. In fact, he was probably only seeing red.

I stopped his hand midair. My arm shook as he grinned and slowly began to put pressure on my hand. He could break my grip with ease, but he was just toying with me now. “Noah, you’re going to help Gabrielle, right? You can’t protect her alone. How do you expect her to trust you if you kill something she cares about?” The words were merely a whisper so that Gabrielle couldn’t hear, but the mention of her name had made him pause. It was a stretch to say that she cared about me, but I was trying to be optimistic. Considering the odds, optimism was all I had.

Gabrielle cried out then. Apparently Diamond was growing tired of my ability to defend myself. Her hand grasped Gabrielle’s throat, digging her claws into the flesh and drawing beads
of blood. Terror gripped me. Noah had even stopped to look. When he turned back to me, his eyes were golden.

He continued to attack me, and I continued to dodge. Something about his movements was more composed. He seemed to have complete control of himself once more. It was amazing how all he needed was that little push.

Gabrielle was still in danger. If the fight went on much longer, Diamond would tear her head clean off and lick the blood off of her claws. Noah finally managed to grab me while I was thinking of Gabrielle, and he pulled me close enough to whisper in my ear. “When I throw you, don’t get up.”

He tossed me against a wall. My vision went black for a moment. I would have no problem with following his orders.

I lay there, eyes wide open. I only dared to blink once Diamond had turned her attention away from me. Either she thought I was dead or close enough to death to no longer matter.

Noah held out his hand to her, and she took it. She shoved Gabrielle to the floor. Noah pulled her closer. Her eyes closed as though she expected more than the claw that pierced through her chest.

She screamed in rage, shoving Noah away. She was breathing heavily. Blood poured from the wound. “
You fool!
” she screeched. Her body began to morph into her true form. I immediately jumped to my feet, rushing to Gabrielle’s side as the monster grew bigger and bigger.

Her wingless form was silvery. Her legendary scales gleamed in the light. A large hole was still right through her chest, gushing blood at a disturbing rate. She looked more like an overgrown lizard than a dragon, but she was still terrifying. She was maybe half the size of Noah, but her teeth would be sharper and she would be able to move at a fast
er pace.

Noah didn’t let her. He had already transformed, and he tackled her the moment she turned to him. She breathed a gust of icy wind at him, causing him to stagger back and swipe at the ice forming on his face. She jumped at him, burying her teeth into his shoulder. He let out a bellow of rage.

Gabrielle was watching with a morbidly curious look on her face. She eyed the blood on my shirt, and pulled me closer. “You’re alive,” she acknowledged.

“Yeah.”

She smiled slightly. “I’m glad.”

Before I could respond, I caught sight of Diamond rapidly approaching. I made to knock Gabrielle out of her path, but Noah came out of nowhere and tackled her once more. He pinned her down, digging his claws into her wound. It was the only way to get past the unbreakable scales. He steadily opened the wound further, letting the blood pour onto the flawless carpet. Gabrielle was looking slightly ill, and to be honest, I was feeling a little nauseated
as well.