Summon Toren (Archangels Creed #3) (17 page)

“That piece of shit doesn’t deserve your concern.”

She drew back a little with wide eyes. “Am I hearing straight? Aren’t you supposed to be talking to me about mercy and forgiveness maybe?”

He suddenly rolled his eyes shut. A few seconds later, he mumbled, “Please forgive me. I’m not myself right now.” He took her hand and pulled her with him.

CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN

What was wrong with him? She was right, he wasn’t acting like an angel at all but a jealous boyfriend. He couldn’t seem to stop it, he didn’t want her loving anybody but him. Wow. This was far too human for him at this stage, what was going on? Maybe that one kiss was all his mercury needed to begin the bonding process. Still. The feelings he had were borderline childish to say the least.

He wanted to put the human in the ground, not just for hurting Samantha but for still having the nerve to
want
her. Yeah,
that.
That right there was more than he could stand. She was
his.
And the remote idea of them two being anything made his mercury race with a possessive fury he’d never known. He was blessed Toren merely turned the metals in his body up a few degrees and not melted them like he’d wanted. Or force them all into his dick until he wished he’d never been born with one.

The problem with behaving this way
was that one of those beings was right in hands reach. The odd man on the porch hadn’t just smelled of a demon, he
was
one. In a human body. No, not quite human, this one was different than the one he’d killed in the field. That one seemed like a hijacked body, this one smelled more…synthetic. He was sure the thing was there to find answers, to find out why their two amigos didn’t phone home. Toren would keep him close until he knew what to do with him. There were only two options. Use the abomination somehow, or kill it.

Hopefully Kassern or Dorn would
soon let him know what was going on outside the barrier so he had some idea of what his options were. Though part of him despised working in the dark, his mercurial parts thrived on it.

Toren insisted
Skylar ride in the front with them, not wanting her around those other two for now. The only thing good he sensed about the Ezekiel guy was his name. The end. There was a brick ass wall around his heart he’d have to hammer through to get to the rational man he needed for this operation. And he didn’t have a lot of time to do it now. In addition, he somehow, more than ever, wanted to call a time out and make passionate love to Samantha before going a step further.

Ludicrous.

“I cannot
tell
you what a miracle it was that I came across your ad on the computer. I mean I rarely am on it and something just told me to go to the email account I scarcely get on and check mail. That’s where I got the notification. Perfect timing.”

“Yes, for me to
o. Us, actually.” Samantha's tone remained carefully distant.

Skylar leaned a little toward Samantha. "Um, Miss Samantha?"
she whispered. "I don't want to be rude, but you got a little something…" Delicate hands fluttered in the general direction of her throat.

Looking puzzled, Samantha raised one hand to her neck. Her cheeks flushed deep red. "Oh my God! Oh wow. Can't believe…"

Curious, Toren leaned to see what the commotion was about, having restrained himself from eavesdropping on Samantha's thoughts. A white substance had dried and begun to flake away… Oh. In a rush, he ransacked the glove compartment, desperately searching for the miniature bottle labeled 'hand sanitizer' he'd seen there before. And the little pack of facial tissues. Trying not to be too obvious about it, he saturated one tissue and passed it to Samantha, then followed with a couple of dry ones after she'd wiped his essence from her face and neck.

Time to change the subject. Fast.
“Do you believe in God, Skylar?”

She hesitated briefly. “Yes, why, is that a problem?”

Samantha laughed a little too loudly. “Nooo, not a problem. You doin this now?” She leaned and glanced at Toren while bouncing them down the road to the shack.

“I thought I might.
Seems like as good a time as any. Considering.” He reconsidered a moment. “How do you like Ezekiel?”

She leaned away a bit and looked at him. “How do you mean?”

“I mean…”

“He means would you want to like…be his girlfriend kind of like?”

She turned to Samantha now.

“Just…hypothetically speaking,” Sam said.

“Absolutely not. The man is a completely arrogant chauvinist and an intolerable moron. I'm certain he's incapable of speaking beyond monosyllabic grunts when he’s not pretending to understand whatever intelligent words he does muster. And just because he’s so hot he makes the ground sizzle, the fact that he clearly hates
American women,”
she emphasized the words with hand quotes, “sort of…well it just pisses me off, to say the least.”

Sam snickered. “Ouch.” She worked the clutch and downshifted to make the final turn to the shack. “Got your work cut out for you sweetheart.”

Yeah. And the woman had pegged Ezekiel perfectly. Well at least he had one positive component to work with. But there would be no wooing time. He’d have to play hard ball with both of them and pray for the best. 

Toren got out of the truck, searching the horizons for stray visitors.

Sam climbed out too. “Come on in guys, let’s get warmed up before we…we figure out what we’re uh, we’re gonna be doing.”

Toren kept his eye on the demon shuffling awkwardly with shifty eyes toward the cabin. Once inside, Sam rattled on about nothing in particular while a plan formed in Toren’s mind.

Uriel had given them each two miracles to use before both couples consummated to seal the quadumvirate. Regretfully, he might have to use his to convince his human couple instead of to save their asses. He also might have to combine them for a time-saving wow effect. Just what kind of miracle was still not clear. Whatever he did, he’d have to keep a close eye on that demon.

“Sam, you mind talking to
Skylar about our newest job position while I speak with Ezekiel? Hey Rufard,” Toren turned to the jittery man. “You mind going fetch some more firewood in the shed behind the cabin? We’ll be here a bit.”

“Uh, yeah. I’ll do it.”

Toren ushered them all outside and as soon as the demon left he turned to Ezekiel, assessing his attitude. Meeting his cocky arrogant gaze, Toren stood just before him and put his palm on the wall next to his head.

Ezekiel met his gaze
with his own unflinching one.

Open challenge. Hm.
His mercury raced, eager to crush it. Toren realized as he looked into his skeptical gaze that he’d have to use Truth for his first miracle. “I have an issue that I need your help with. I’m an archangel and I need you to marry the girl inside so that I can use your consummation to form a half human half angel warrior to fight against demonic abominations that are taking over the world.”

Toren
knew he was being ruthless as he watched the truth sink into Ezekiel's mind. His brows narrowed as he no doubt struggled to call bullshit to the outrageous claim, but he couldn’t.

“Look, I’d like to stand here and give you some shock time, but I don’t have it. The man who is getting firewood isn’t a man but a demon. So, what’s it going to be?” Toren kept his voice even.

Finally the prick waded through his shock and looked around before muttering, “Exactly why the fuck would I want to help
God
? The last time I checked the son-of-a-bitch hasn’t done me any favors for the last…” he shrugged with a harsh sneer, “…twenty-five years.”

Toren took a careful breath, resisting the urge to rip his blasphemous tongue out.

“You’re wrong about God, Ezekiel.”

“Oh is that right?” The human stared him down a few seconds. “Prove it
angel.”

The man couldn’t have uttered more perfect words.
“So glad you asked.” Toren grabbed him by the front of his jacket and hauled him in the house and bolted the door.

He silenced the two startled women and caught Ezekiel’s fist before it hit his face. “You don’t want to piss me off
EZ.” He spun him around and held him against his body in a choke hold.

“Toren?” Sam held a hand out to him. “Easy now.”

“Ezekiel asked me to prove how wrong he is about God. Thought I’d kill two birds with one stone.” Toren nodded at Skylar “See, poor EZ here has been heart broken by life. I mean no disrespect EZ,” Toren said at his ear, “but not only did you insult my God, you lied about Him.”

“Your God is heartless,”
Ezekiel gritted.

Toren had to hand it to the bastard. He had balls. “Maybe you can give him yours.” Toren sank his fingers into
the man's chest and pulled out his heart, ignoring the hysterical screams from Skylar and angry shouts from Samantha while the human went rigid in his arms. “What do you think?” Toren turned the heart this way and that before him. “I think it looks
filthy
, in need of
purging
.” Toren put the heart back in Ezekiel's chest and healed it with a few pats of his hand before shoving the human off him.

Ezekiel grabbed his chest near
ly hyperventilating.

A low grumble shook the cabin and Toren listened. “They’re coming.”

“Who’s coming?” Sam wasn’t far behind Ezekiel in panic.

“Demons.” He looked at Ezekiel. “You need to kiss her.”

He looked at him like he was nuts. “What?”

“Kiss her! Until you kiss, I can’t use my powers!”

** ** **

Ezekiel couldn’t believe what was happening. Had he slipped into a worm hole? His PTSD finally conquered him? He glanced from the insane angel/man to the wide eyed horror stricken woman on his right all while the cabin threatened to rattle apart around him.

One final glance at the being who’d just ripped his heart out of his chest said he’d better act
now
or suffer worse consequences. The single window on the cabin exploded inward and Ezekiel dove toward the woman. Why in the hell did kissing have to be one of his
fucking phobias!

The roof flew off the shack and the woman screamed next to him. Before he could act, she did. She was suddenly attached to his body tighter than a vice grip. She squealed as she glued herself to him, lips grinding into his painfully.

“A
real kiss!
” the insane angel roared.

Ezekiel grabbed her head and held her so he could
really
kiss her.

The second their tongues mingled and he got a taste of her, dormant chemicals kicked in and he
tasted
her.

Seconds into the kiss,
she gave a whimper of surrender, her mouth softening beneath his, becoming almost a succulent silk.

The sweet moment vanished when the room filled with metallic groaning. He looked and realized the angel had wings! Metal wings, like chrome with wicked looking daggers for flight feathers.

Holy shit.

Three
darkly furred creatures suddenly appeared inside the cabin walking upright, snarling to flash the most ferocious looking fangs. Ezekiel didn’t know if they just materialized or what. One lifted a horribly human-like hand to display five heavily taloned digits. Another made a growling noise that sounded oddly like speech. The other two responded, splitting off to the sides as though to prepare to attack the angel, their clear objective.

T
he angel’s arms flashed out to his side and metal bits seemed to explode from the creatures' hides with the force of TNT.

Ezekiel
dove to the floor and covered the woman’s head burying her in the center of his fetal curl. Then he realized they hadn’t been hurt from the blast because the metal shards hovered in the air.

T
he angel swung his arms right and the shrapnel exploded the walls of the cabin out. Ezekiel scrambled to a far wall with the women under his arm as the metal bits slammed into a herd of the same monsters. The angel had taken down an entire front line of the creatures with his little explosion trick but there remained a seemingly endless mass that barreled down on the cabin like an ominous dark wave of growling thunder.

The angel shot into the air
. He landed on one knee with bone rattling force, delivering one massive punch to the earthen floor. Countless blackened spears erupted from its surface, skewering the entire herd of demonic beasts like bugs on pins. Howl’s pierced the air and Ezekiel saw the sky rippling, like they were in some kind of metallic bubble.

The angel slowly straightened and brought his palms together in a loud clap.
Each of the metal spikes somehow expanded to encase the impaled creatures, saving the screams to seal off last. The cocoons shrank until the cries stopped and they were the size of spikes again. The angel swiped his hand at the earth and the surface opened as though he’d held an invisible giant blade. A metallic groan filled the air and the entire mess was swallowed up as though the hole suddenly became a supersonic vacuum.

The angel
turned and headed toward the cabin, twirling a finger in the air as he did, shutting the earth with a wicked boom.

As the
angel entered what was left of the cabin, his wings folded into themselves, every feather sounding like metal doors being slammed closed.