Summon Dorn (Archangels Creed) (14 page)

Connie shook her head.
"We don't have time." She dug into a pack hanging by her knee and produced a length of rope. "Use this to bind her arm up to her chest. We'll get her treated as soon as we reach the Abbey."

Astounded, Sally caught the coil of rope and glared at the peaceful nun.

"Let this be her first lesson in suffering for our Lord who bore all things in His flesh for our salvation. Aside from this, we have to continue now or we won't be able to reach the Abbey. We have a qualified physician who will treat her as soon as we arrive. Now prepare her to travel and help her back on the horse."

Sally opened her mouth to argue but a movement to Connie
's left caught her attention. Sister Mary Evangela held a big gun across her saddle, pointed in Sally's general direction. Fear bucked her insides and she looked at the hulking woman and was met with fierce beady eyes. As though reading Sally's mind, she muttered harshly, "It's for the
wolves
."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

This new threat had the girls glancing fearfully around while Sally helped Diana back onto her horse.
A ululating cry off in the distance rang clear in the cold air, adding credence to Sister Mary Evangela's words. The sound also served as a nice little reminder to all that traveling alone in the mountains could be a deadly undertaking.

Sometime after dark had fallen, the little party trekked into a lit clearing, chilled to the bone and soaked. Sally crawled off her horse, exhausted. Numb legs collapsed to dump her directly on her ass in an icy puddle. A growl of frustrated annoyance died, her throat too cold and
tired to make a sound.

Lisa and Diana fared even worse. Practically unconscious from the numbing cold and dizzying high altitude, the nuns had tied Lisa onto her saddle an hour back when she kept dozing off. Suddenly freed, she tumbled to the ground in a boneless heap. Diana cried out in a voice
ravaged by pain when the third nun who hadn't been introduced dragged her abruptly from the saddle.

A shapeless form limped from the shadows, collected the horses
' reins and led them away. Sister Mary Evangela and the others shouldered substantial packs as if they weighed no more than the designer handbags they might have carried had life gone differently, and started walking.

Connie turned to Sally.
"Arouse your Sisters and follow us. Tarrying the night in the courtyard isn't suitable gratitude for the troubles that have been taken for you."

Sheer exhaustion kept Sally from going off on sweet Sister Constance. Tarrying in the courtyard? Like they stood in a sun kissed meadow instead of slop for a ground with freezing rain soaking them to the bone? To the broken bone in Diana
's case.

She looked around at the deserted square surrounded by dark looming buildings. She suddenly had a commanding urge to turn around and walk right back down the mountain. Except she had no idea which way that might be. Then she remembered the gun-packing Amazon/nun and her mention of wolves. As soon as daylight hit, she was hitting the road. This was just pure bullshit. She hadn
't expected a moonlight cruise, but she certainly hadn't signed on for some kind of Holy boot camp for bad teens. She'd have to find something else to break her string of unfinished business. Sorry God.

It took some work, but she managed to get Lisa up. They shakily supported Diana long enough to slog across the courtyard and through a massive door wrapped in wrought iron rails. Dim light flickered from oil lamps mounted on the stone wall to illuminate a sort of cloakroom/entry hall.

The unnamed nun finished hanging coveralls from one of the hooks on the stone wall and disappeared through yet another heavy door. Dripping on the clean floor was the least of Sally's concerns, so she didn't bother removing coveralls, and led Diana and Lisa on through behind the nun.

Walking through that door, her first impression was that they
'd stepped back in time a thousand years. Wood smoke from the bus-sized fireplace at the far end of the room stung her eyes, while she strained to see in the dim light. Several dozen women sat in small clusters around big rough-hewn wooden tables, eating and drinking.

A nun—at least Sally assumed she was a nun—in a dark brown robe and an odd-looking head dress hurried across to them and took immediate charge of Diana. Sally and Lisa took a few steps back at the woman
's shooing. She then proceeded to pinch, poke and prod, pale blue gaze missing nothing. Finally, dark brows drawn into a deep scowl, she released the rope holding the injured arm immobile.

At Diana
's pained moan, the woman widened her eyes in an expression Sally could have sworn was pure alarm. The woman's veiled head-dress, with its modified tri-corn hat sitting at the top, wobbled precariously as she shook her head and took Diana's good hand and led her from the room in a hurry. Through the whole exchange, not a word was spoken.

Connie approached and Sally opened her mouth to ask what was going on, but Connie raised one hand in a signal for quiet, and motioned Sally to follow.

She allowed Connie to lead her through a door so low she had to duck. A match flared momentarily, then the light steadied as an oil lamp was lit and adjusted to reveal a small windowless room that held a desk and a shelf full of rolled papers.

"
Welcome to my office." Connie poured dark liquid from a heavy ceramic pitcher into a pair of mugs, passing one to Sally. "Wine made here on the property." She lifted her mug to sip. "No doubt you have dozens of questions." She sat, spine straight, on the low stool before the desk, and motioned Sally to a straight back chair.

Sitting, Sally sipped the surprisingly good wine while her most immediate questions prioritized themselves in order of importance.
"I was wondering when the first ride to town would be?" For Lisa's sake. She wanted to know.

Connie took another sip of her wine and smiled, setting her mug precisely atop a circular stain on the wood surface of her desk.
"I said I knew you had questions. Not that I would answer them."

Sally
's stomach tensed at her words. "What?"

Another of those smiles, followed by a soft knock at the door. It swung inward to admit a thousand year old nun carrying a tray. With frail movements, she deposited a beautifully polished wooden platter on the desk and lifted a finely woven cloth back to reveal a small selection of artisan cheeses and breads arranged around a shallow dish of dried fruits. Without speaking, eye contact, or otherwise acknowledging Sally and Connie, the nun backed out of the office and closed the door.

Connie gestured to the platter. "All completely produced here, beginning to end. Platter, cloth, cheese, bread, and fruit."

Sally couldn
't care less but gave a nod. "Impressive. But why did you bring me back here?"

Connie smiled, her joy bubbly.
"We have few needs with our simple life. God teaches us grace to abstain from idolatrous passions and other sins of the flesh." She placed a thin cheese slice between pieces of tender flat bread. "You're here so I can assess you further. Have some?" She tilted the platter toward Sally.

Sally
's stomach chose that moment to voice its opinion with a loud growl. She'd have preferred to refuse the hospitality, but stubbornness would get her nothing but an emptier stomach. "Are you going to tell me what you're assessing me for?" She helped herself to the food.

"
I wasn't. But I've decided you have what it takes." She paused for a sip of wine. "I'm going to let you meet our special visitor. He'll be here in a few hours."

Sally pushed back the little swell of pride at being chosen for something out of the ordinary. It wasn
't as if she'd accomplished anything. "Who is it?"

The woman sighed dreamily and clasped her hands before her.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. But you'll meet him yourself in just a few hours." She stood. "Now, I'm sure you'd like to clean up from the ride and rest a little." She led the way back out to the large room.

****

Sally came to sprawled flat on her back and cold. Moaning, she started to turn to her side and pull the blanket up. Except she couldn't move. Her wrists and ankles were bound tightly with some material that cut into her flesh. Intense cold leached into her body from the hard surface beneath her.

"
You were right." The masculine voice echoed. "She is indeed worthy. Prepare her."

Chapter Fourteen

"Glad to see you've made the right decision."

Jessie flew out of Lucian
's embrace at the silky deep voice of the blue eyed man. She eyed the red guy, thinking he looked as uncomfortable as Lucian suddenly did. God. Was this really happening?

Jessie swallowed and decided it was a good idea to pray.

God? Are you there? Some kind of sign would be nice right now. Besides scary angel men. I want this to be true, I do, and probably not for good reasons. But if I'm losing my mind and somehow don't know, please wake me up. I don't want to go crazy God. I don't want to end up like Aunt Rita, please God.

"
Jessie."

Jessie jerked to the blue man and stared into his eyes. Had he just spoken to her?

"I'm sorry you're frightened.
Ooookay, he was speaking to her mind.
But I need you to believe that this is real, as unorthodox as it is to you. You're not going crazy like your Aunt Rita. You have my word."

Another thought occurred to her.
If you're an angel, why are you encouraging us to have sex before we're married? Isn't that a sin?

The marriage ceremony is for man, a way of claiming one another publicly, to let others know of the commitment between the two. All God needs is love between the two and acknowledgement of commitment, a solid vow to cleave unto one another—physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually—for as long as you live on this earth.

The entire concept seemed natural and right to Jessie. But did she love Lucian? Did he love her? Could they commit like that?

Oh. My. God. So it was all real. She could handle that. Right? As long as Lucian was there and…on board with it all. Her stomach flipped at what was required of them. Sex. It flipped three times with the memory that Lucian would do it even if it weren
't required. That, somehow, seemed like the bigger miracle.

"
Well," the blue angel said, lightly. "We'll…wait outside again while you two…"

"
What?" This from an incredulous Lucian. All eyes turned to him. "Look, I get that this is important and shit, but no way am I doing it with her like that."

Jessie
's heart cracked.

"
You just agreed to—"

"
Yes, I did, but I'm not going to do her like some slut in a crack deal. She deserves better. You said you have thirty days, and I plan on using as many as I can to make this meaningful for her. It's the least you can allow seeing as you've imposed such an intimate will on her."

Jessie couldn
't stop her grin as she lowered her head. Wow. How frikn sweet was that? It didn't get any more heroic than a man standing up to an archangel for her. No way she could wait thirty days to have him. She wanted him yesterday as it was.

Jessie noticed the red angel grinning as well. He seemed much more understanding than the blue angel.

"Well…" the blue angel began, seeming at a loss for words, something he didn't seem accustomed to. "Very well. I shall make other preparations while you court her properly." He turned to the red angel and muttered. "Perhaps introducing them to your triumvirate would make this whole process a little less painful for all of us."

The one named Kassern grinned and nodded.
"Happy to help with that brother."

****

"God, Troy, I'm going crazy in this hotel."

Heat prickled her skin as he wrote romantic messages on her stomach with his finger.
"We'll be moving soon."