The Devil's Due (The Earthwalker Trilogy Book 2) Page 20

  I knew the outfit was missing something, I snickered, grabbing it from its post and shrugging my arms into the sleeves. My phone rang cheerily from on top of my dresser, and I answered it automatically. “Hello?”

  “Hey, it’s me,” Caleb said on the other end and my heart skipped a beat. “I just wanted to let you know I’m on my way up.”

  “Okay,” I breathed. The sound of his voice calmed the butterflies in my stomach. “I’ll see you in a minute.”

  “See ya.”

  I hung up the phone, and grabbed my chunky hobo bag from the closet before stepping out into the kitchen. Lacey’s high school boyfriend, Phil, was visiting from Auburn for the weekend. He’d gone with us to prom in the spring, and even helped out with lighting for the musical we’d been a part of, but since they got accepted to different colleges, it became a long-distance relationship. He’d cut his hair recently, and grown about a foot over the summer, but he and Lacey were still googly-eyed and in love, so I promised to make myself scarce for as long as he was in town.

  Phil looked up from the note he was writing and smiled. “How’s it going, Wynnebago?”

  I grinned and threw the bag over my shoulder before greeting him with a fist bump. “Not too bad, and you?”

  Lacey snickered when she saw me, but didn’t say anything about my leather adornment. “Was that Caleb?” she asked hopefully.

  I nodded. “Yeah, he’s on his way up. Wish me luck!”

  “Good luck!”

  A few minutes later the was a knock at the door. I walked over to answer it, and Caleb was standing there looking handsome as ever in a button up shirt and rolled up sleeves, his dark brown hair brushed over to the side. In his hand was a bouquet of white roses wrapped in a plastic sleeve. “Caleb, they’re beautiful!” I exclaimed when he handed them to me. I thanked him with a kiss and said, “You didn’t have to do that.”

  He grinned. “Of course I did, it’s part of the deal.”

  I blushed furiously and had to bite my bottom lip to keep from smiling. “Thank you.”

  He smiled when he caught me smelling the petals. “You’re welcome.”

  “I’ll go put these in some water,” I stuttered nervously.

  Lacey gave him thumbs up as I went into the kitchen to pull out an empty vase. While I was preoccupied, she got off the couch and went to give him a hug. “So, where are you off to tonight?”

  “Oh, didn’t I tell you? We’re going to tip cows,” I told her sarcastically.

  Caleb grinned, and she waved me off dismissively. “Actually, I cooked something for us back at my apartment. We need to get going if it’s going to be warm when we get there.”

  My anxiety lessened, knowing at least if I tripped in heels, an entire restaurant wouldn’t witness it. I set the vase of roses in the center of the table and smiled. “M’kay.”

  He was thoughtful for a moment, then took out one of the flowers and snapped the stem between his fingers. The large white blossom was larger than my entire hand. He wove it into my hair and placed it just above my ear, adorning the twisted bun.

  “There,” he smiled. “Perfect.”

  I blushed as his fingers lingered on my cheek and we gazed at one another. Lacey grinned and had both hands on her hips as he offered me his arm and I took it happily. “Have fun!”

  “We will. Later, Sis!”

  “Later.”

  I squealed with delight as we walked down the hallway. Dorm boy poked his head out and saw us. His eyes bulged when he saw Caleb beside me and quickly ducked back inside. My heels clacked in an unfamiliar rhythm as we made it to the elevator and out into the lobby.

  “Alright,” I said. “Let’s do this.”

  ~ * ~

  “This was delicious!” I complimented, taking my last bite of the homemade chicken tetrazzini.

  Caleb smiled at me across the table in the open air outside his apartment. “I’m glad you like it. Are you finished?”

  I nodded happily as he took our plates inside, and I sat back comfortably in my seat. He’d decorated the patio with twinkling lights. It was incredibly romantic, all the trouble he’d gone through to try and make this evening magical.

  While I was waiting for him to return, music began playing from inside, drowning out the chatter from the street below.

  He came back onto the patio and said, “You mentioned enjoying blues music. I thought I’d accommodate. Would you like to dance?”

  His voice did strange things to me in the pit of my stomach, and I found myself giggling nervously, “Here?”

  “Where else would we go?”

  Caleb offered me his hand and brought me to my feet. I laid my head against his chest and eased into his embrace as his arms wrapped themselves around me. Touching him was like nothing else in the whole world — it was amazing. The music serenaded us as we rocked back and forth in the moonlight on his rooftop. It was like heaven on earth dancing with him beneath the stars. His strong but gentle lead twirled me across the floor. The music was soft here, but you could still hear the people laughing and talking from the street below.

  The last time I was dancing it was with a Demon Lord — this was so much different.

  “It’s still so magical being able to touch you, kiss you…” I told him dreamily, looking up into his deep blue eyes and inviting lips.

  He smiled as he placed the palm of his hand discretely on the small of my back. I was glad for the yellow dress I wore, and the opportunity to feel safe and wanted. “I feel the same,” he whispered softly.

  “Do you miss being an angel?” I asked him quietly.

  “Sometimes,” he confessed, his smooth baritone voice sweeping over me. “I feel helpless because I’m not able to protect anyone. It can be frustrating.”

  I blinked at the note of concern in his voice and was about to say something when a jolt of energy shot out from behind my eyes and I was struck with a sense of vertigo. An icy chill crept around me, and I shivered from the cold. No longer was I standing on the rooftop with Caleb, but spirited away again with another vision. This time, it was a freezing hallway. The walls had been chiseled out of stone like granite with specks of black and gray. It sparkled slightly in the dim candle-light from the sconces hanging from the wall.

  Wind roared outside the barred windows as I peered off down the hall and realized it was a prison. Barred entryways were spaced out evenly down the hall leading to icy holding cells.

  As I considered that for a moment, something in my gut started pulling me in the other direction.

  Urgently.

  I hurried down the corridor until coming upon a heavy wooden door. Footsteps echoed behind me, but it sounded different than what I’d heard before. Ice reflected each step in a crisp, clear sound that reverberated through the air. I could even feel it in my bones. My heart rate quickened as I pushed against the door to escape them. The door opened to a round chamber with shackles hanging from stone walls surrounding an open grate in the center of the floor that looked down on the world below. One creature sat quietly against the wall, his hands still bound with the iron clamps. A pair of beautiful, snow white wings folded gently against his back, but his head was downcast, so I couldn’t see his face.

  My stomach clenched at the sight of him as I recognized the brunet hair.

  The footsteps behind me grew louder, and the door opened again. My nerves were still on edge, so I jumped at the sound of it, forgetting they couldn’t see me. Three angelic leaders stepped into the chamber with us bringing Maya with them. Her eyes were hollow and panicked when she saw him, and it took three guards to restrain her.

  “Are you ready to discuss your actions?” one of the angels asked, his blue eyes flashing.

  “Do as you will,” the shackled creature told them. He looked up at them with tortured eyes, and I felt my stomach drop.

  Caleb.

  His hair was longer and greasy, like he hadn’t cleaned himself in days and scruff of a beard was showing on his face. You could see his ribs �
� and scrapes and bruises from where they beat him. It broke my heart when I saw that, then … then it made me angry. Clothes hung loosely around his gaunt body, failing to hide the abuse covering his skin.

  “Don’t do this,” Maya pleaded with them desperately. “He didn’t mean any harm.”

  “Silence, Guardian, or we’ll deal with you as well,” one of them warned her angrily.

  Caleb frowned. “Let her go. Maya didn’t have any part in this.”

  “No, I don’t think she did,” the angel agreed. “You, on the other hand, have gone out of your way to undermine the Order. There are no shortcuts in the divinity of the Councils wisdom.”

  “I’ve done exactly what was asked of me,” Caleb told them flatly. Maya struggled to break free, but the guards held her captive and kept her from running to his side.

  “You were sent to destroy the Earthwalker, not fall in love with her,” an angel sneered. “I thought you learned your lesson last time. We kill demons, not take them to our beds. The Council will not have you serving in Michael’s ranks if your heart is so easily swayed.”

  “My feelings for Wynn have not kept me from fulfilling my duties responsibly. The Council gave her a year, and I intend to protect her throughout that time.”

  The angel scoffed as he began to circle him like a cobra. “Yes, and during your time with her, she was able to fool you and train with Lucifer right beneath your nose. You’re so willing to believe she’s innocent, you’d give her anything.”

  “I trust her,” Caleb muttered. “She has to master the powers she already has.”

  Fire blared in the angel’s eyes as he knelt beside him and hissed, “Don’t!”

  The other angel lowered his hood revealing the tattooed Elder who had spoken at my trial. The markings on his skin exposing ancient runes which were impossible to decipher. “Enough!” he told the other angrily. “Caleb, speak to me, child. You used to be so happy here. What changed?”

  Caleb shifted on the ground. “My eyes were opened. I discovered a new way of thinking and I can’t … I can’t agree with the Council’s ruling.”

  The angel nodded solemnly, the tattooed skin of his face and hands illuminated starkly in this icy prison. “Do you feel that given time, you’d be able to return?”

  “I have no desire to hunt down innocent children and slaughter them whenever the Council asks me to. I’ll not stand idly by while an injustice is being served. Elyse should have been allowed to stay. The Council should have protected her. She had so much to offer.”

  “So, no,” the angel clarified.

  “I’m sorry, Remiel.”

  “Very well, then your time with us has ended. I will not bind you to a life of service you don’t believe in. That’s not how the Order functions. However, I cannot allow you to stay here and corrupt the hearts of other Guardians, it’s time for you to leave.”

  “NOOO! You can’t do this to him! Caleb!” Maya screamed drastically. They dragged her away, and she bit one of their hands before they had to slap her in the face. All I could hear was her caterwauling in the distance as she flailed against them wildly.

  When the prison door fell shut, Caleb turned to the Elder and asked, “What will become of me?”

  It was a true and honest question, he was scared and didn’t know the answer.

  “What would you like to happen?” Remiel asked him kindly. “We still have options. You could extend to the world beyond and join the others in paradise, or—”

  “Corporeal form,” Caleb interrupted him.

  All eyes turned to him in shock, as if he had just spoken heresy. “You would choose to Fall?”

  “I choose a mortal life, away from this, away from … everything.”

  The other angel snarled. “Then a vessel will be chosen for you, and you’ll be birthed in a matter of months. Enjoy your exile, traitor.”

  Remiel eyed Caleb curiously. Caleb swallowed hard, and it made me feel nervous on his behalf — I’d never seen him scared before. An understanding passed between them, and he said, “I don’t think that’s what he means. Caleb wants to go there with his memory intact. He wants to be with Wynn. We will send him there as he is and let the pieces fall where they may.”

  “But you know what will happen, Great One. We shouldn’t—”

  He silenced him with a wave of his hand. “Caleb has served us for many years. We owe him a debt of gratitude. Reuniting him with the Hendricks girl and sending him into retirement is the least we can offer.”

  “Thank you, brother,” Caleb told him.

  Remiel placed his hand on Caleb’s shoulder and said, “This is not meant as a punishment, child. I wish you every happiness in the Mortal Plane.”

  One of the guardsmen pulled out his keys and went to unlock his chains from the wall. They unhooked him and stood for a moment in the chill, gazing down through the open floor.

  Caleb breathed out nervously and reached around to grip the wall with his fingers tensed in anticipation.

  The angels nodded and took a step towards him and I heard one ask, “Are you sure this is what you want?”

  Caleb nodded against the wall, and the Elders both reached up to grab his wings firmly and ripped them from his back.

  As the bone and muscle snapped, Caleb and I cried out an excruciated howl. I felt it. A searing pain rocked through me as I felt the bone and tissue separate, leaving bloody stumps on the top of his back. “AUGH!”

  I leaned against the wall and watched his bloody wings being tossed carelessly to the side. As he bled, the silver blood morphed into a thicker crimson ooze. His blue aura flickered for a second, then they kicked him through the opening in the floor below. I didn’t even think after he went down, I jumped after him — the instinct to save him was too strong. Dizzy and almost blind with pain, I jumped through the hole behind him and fell through the sky and clouds. Vertigo overtook me as the wind whipped past my body, my hair and clothes blowing against me furiously. “Hang on, Caleb! I’ve got you!” I called out, reaching for his body through the emptiness.

  Another wave of nausea hit me, and I was returned to where we stood before, standing back on the patio with Caleb.

  When I regained my footing, I gasped out in agony. “AAUGH! Caleb….”

  I stumbled away from him, gasping and crying uncontrollably as he stared at me in panic. “Wynn, what’s wrong?”

  I swatted him gently away and collapsed into a chair. I could still feel the jarring pain of having broken wings forcibly removed from my back, the raw and visceral reaction to ligaments being torn without empathy or hesitation. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t feel anything except the cruel and heartless torture.

  “I saw your fall,” I told him in a gargled sob. “I felt it this time … when he pulled the wings from your back. You keep down-playing it, making it sound like no big deal, but it is a big deal. You want me to open up to you, but you still haven’t told me the truth about what you sacrificed for me.”

  The visions were getting stronger — I wasn’t just witnessing anymore, it was happening to me.

  “It would just upset you,” he insisted as he knelt beside me. “I’m sorry, you shouldn’t have had to see that.”

  “Stop trying to protect me, Caleb!” I spat out angrily. “We’re in a relationship. You don’t get to cherry pick what information I am, or am not, privy to.”

  “If I don’t, you’ll just pull it out of me?” he shot back cruelly. “I’m not so keen on you rooting through my memories either — they’re personal. I should have the right to choose when, where, and who I share them with.”

  The accusation hit me like a slap in the face. “That’s not fair! I don’t have control of all my powers yet, you know that! I would never intentionally invade your privacy.”

  “Exactly! I know that, but you can’t yell at me just because you saw something in my past I hadn’t decided to share with you yet. Maybe I don’t want to talk about it! Maybe it hurts, did you ever think of that?”

  I se
t my jaw stubbornly as tears continued to stream down my cheeks and we stared at each other in silence. “You’re right, I’m sorry. It was awful, though,” I gargled in a sob. “I felt everything, even the wings as they ripped them from your body. I had no idea you went through that.”

  Caleb cradled my face in his hands and kissed me on both cheeks where tears had left fresh tracks upon my skin. “I love you,” he told me fervently.

  I nodded, trembling as I laid my head against his chest and he held me like a child. “I don't know how to do this! I don't know how to be a girlfriend, I’ve never done this before.”

  “You think I do?” he laughed. “This is new for both of us, we'll figure it out together. “You’re half of me.”

  My breathing was still ragged when I pushed away from him. “Don’t say that! It’s too much pressure. I don’t want you to be defined by our relationship, I want more for you than that. Relationships end in one of two ways: either the couple breaks up with an emotional, messy fallout, or they get married. I'm sure as hell not getting married anytime soon and I can't stand the thought of losing you again.”

  Caleb threw his arms up in frustration. “What do you want from me?”

  “I think … I think I should go home, we’ve both got a lot to process. Thanks for the meal,” I told him. “It really was delicious.”

  He nodded stiffly as I grabbed my purse off the chair and left him on the patio by walking down the stairs.

  When I finally did go home and crawled into bed, I cried myself to sleep. I was messing everything up, and I couldn’t help it. Lacey was out with Phil, and I was actually glad because she wasn’t there to ask me any questions. I just needed some time alone to cry.

  Questions would have to wait till morning.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Four Letter Word

  Lacey sat on the couch beside me as we finished watching Phantom of the Opera, waiting for our nails to dry. Charley was on the floor in front of us, eating popcorn with a pair of chopsticks and enraptured with the movie. The tattooed watercolor sleeve was bright and visible past the dainty shoulder of her tank-top. A few flyaway pieces of her thin, blonde hair fell out from around her ponytail and down around her face. We’d invited her for girl’s night, and the coffee table was littered with junk food and nail polish. I was down to a t-shirt and sweatpants in über comfort mode.