Snowscape Trilogy Page 11

  Frank cleared his throat and knocked again. “Sir, they are ready.”

  “Wonderful! Has our guest of honor arrived yet?” Nicor opened the door and allowed me to step barefoot over the sill before he quickly closed the gap between us and placed his arm around my waist, holding me tight against his torso. As general rule demons talk too much and they’re bragging often led way to revelations that they would prefer not spoken. Although this new revelation of Nicor’s did nothing but make me firm up my escape plan, foolhardy as it was.

  The generic ting of the elevator caught the attention of all the rooftop witnesses. The elevators doors opened and Samandiriel confidently walked out. Still streaked with dried blood, he held a firm stance now and clearly someone had washed the blood out of his eyes, which burned with a new blue-fired intensity that was no longer hidden behind his glasses. Despite his injuries he walked proudly towards us as the angel I had first encountered and I could see that they had given him a clean shirt and a new pair of pants as requested. I looked to Nicor, who was appraising my reaction, and I nodded in acquiescence. It was then that I noticed Sam’s arms were bound in a rope of blue ice tied so tightly that the skin beneath was cut. My heart wept at his injuries and as our eyes met, I had to look away before the tears started to erupt. I could not get through this if I was broken. And dammit, Nicor would not be siphoning anything off of me.

  “Samandiriel! I am so happy you can join us. I have news that simply cannot wait to be told. You good friend, Violet, had unfortunately been not willing to join us on this happy occasion. We had to terminate her from the guest list as well as from this earth.” Nicor laughed abrasively and I could see Sam tense in reaction to the news, but did not react.

  “You killed her?” I blurted out.

  He nodded once. “Although untouched by the passage of time, even she could not withstand a demons killing blow.”

  “How?” I asked.

  “It doesn’t matter,“ Sam answered back taking a moment to look deeply into my eyes. He had received my message and knew that Violet’s death would just be a distraction for me now.

  Holding myself together by a single thread I pulled Nicor towards me. “Come. Lets get this over with,” I said as I headed toward the makeshift alter that had been set up on the west side of the roof.

  Chapter 19

  The stage was a simple wooden platform that had been hastily crated into a centerpiece. Already standing there was a demon dressed in his most formal priestly garb. My mind unraveled at the possibility of it, but the mere fact of a demon priest did not somehow surprise me. I stood opposite Nicor as Samandiriel was brought to stand close by me.

  The priest started speaking in ancient Latin as my mind raced over the different escape options I was given. They were few and mostly haphazard, but I refused to stand by and just let myself be cursed to death and supplication. There was a small glint in the corner of my eye that brought me out of the negative reverie. I looked down and could see that Sam was now wearing the wedding ring I had left in his palm. His hands were bigger than mine and he had placed it on his pinkie finger and was now turning it in the last dying rays of sunlight. I longed to look up into his perfect beauty, but I knew the demons were watching us carefully for any signs of communication.

  Nicor said the words ”I do so vow” as a plan formed itself sharply in my mind. The priest looked towards me next and after a few lines of Latin and he paused clearly expecting the same response.

  Instead I spoke, “Undo his shackles.” Unsurprisingly, Nicor appraising the situation carefully was hesitant to answer. He was clearly close to getting what he so desperately wanted, but age had taught him caution. It had also given way to pride. “Why?” he asked.

  “I know full well that you have no intentions of releasing him as sworn. I will not bind myself to you without Samandiriel at least being given a chance to fight back. You will not slaughter him like a lamb on my wedding day.”

  Nicor pursed his lips with a hint of a smile. “Perhaps I will keep you around longer.” With a wave of his hand the rope fell from Sam’s arms and hit the ground with a shattered clash. His arms still held the marks of their tautness and it reminded me of the very marks Nathaniel had left on my wrist what seemed like eons ago, but was mere days. Nathaniel had taught me the power of my ability. Every human was mine to control. One such as Nicor would not subjugate me. I would rather die.

  In a flash of inspiration, I looked Sam in the eye, pushed away from Nicor and before the demon could catch me, I used every once of my remaining strength to throw myself off of the rooftop as the last rays of sunlight dipped below the horizon.

  Chapter 20

  My body was shaking with exhausting and emotional overload. I could feel my eyes water and my knees begin to buckle into themselves. The impending explosion of my full power coming into being was not helping as my body raced towards the earth. I could feel every molecule of air swirling around my head and the blood begin to drip off of my face. I closed my eyes and waited, vaguely wondering why I was bleeding as the ground rushed up to meet me as I fell to the city street. Despite the shaking my body endured I was at peace for what seemed like the first time in my life. I felt whole, complete and encompassed in a sense of freedom and purpose. I may well die, but it would be the first time I had done something on my terms.

  I sensed his nearness before I could feel it and within seconds I was cradled in Samandiriel’s strong arms as he flew me away from the shattered tower. My senses reeled in his scent and his caress. My angel, how had I forgotten the love we had once shared? How had I looked into his flaming blue eyes and not rushed in? The answer was clear. His eyes had not burned before. He looked out to me in a pearl iris. He was a different man then. And I was a different woman. I took one more moment to appreciate his beauty and smile at the rhythmic beat of his wings before tumbling into the darkness and passing out.

  I awoke in the middle of a warm snowstorm. The wind rushed around my face in cold, sharp contrast to the warmth that now radiated my body. I raised my hand and the snow stopped suddenly. I held out my palm and the remaining particles fluttering about and landed in a soft pile that I molded into a ball and threw as hard as I could into the air above. It all seemed so effortless right now. The snow began to drift down again and I knew it was not of my doing.

  I felt him there behind me, rubbing his hands up and down my naked forearms. It was then that I realized I was still wearing the wedding dress Nicor provided. Simple, elegant and designed for a summer elopement, I changed it to something more palatable to my mood. I wore it when Sam and I ran off to the wooded area behind my families home. We had not a priest or a witness, but Sam had brought two rings and there we kneeled, not before God, but before each other and promised one another our souls for all eternity. It was on that soft bed of clovers that we consummated our love.

  “Ambrosia,” my name came fearfully whispered out of his lips on the edge of my ear as he wrapped his arms around me and held my fragile human form close to his. I rubbed my hand across his black velvet robed arms and entwined my fingers with his. Every memory came back to me in an instant, but I had not lost the new ones I had made either. I was not the simple girl that Samandiriel had fallen in love with so many years ago. I was this new person. The master of the snowscape. The keeper of human dreams. I could feel the power coursing through me against my pulse in waves of desire.

  Nathaniel kissed the back of my neck and I purred against him, pressing my back into his front. All of the emotional turbulence that had been wracking my life for the past few days disappeared as I turned to face him and coursed my fingers through his hair. I could see the passion in his pearl colored eyes and returned it with a deep unhindered kiss. I pressed myself against him and could feel his member pressed against me in the most glorious way. He reached around and pulled me closer to him until I found myself on my back against the ground. He held me down in deep resounding forcefulness and kissed me with such tenderness and passion I almost c
ame from the sensation. I moaned as his hand cupped my breast through my cloths and I pulled him closer to me, relishing in the fire I felt beneath his skin. His hand traced the line form my ear to my chin and as he tenderly kissed my eyelids I slowly began to sob. Suddenly his weight was gone and I felt the cold stinging realization of what I had just almost done.

  The snow still fell gently and I sat up slowly, overwhelming confusion racking my body and I rocked myself back and forth in frustration. Sexual, emotional and spiritual. I sat there crying for what felt like hours. Pondering how much of what I experienced was real and what was brought on simply by my own emotions. Suddenly the crunch of snow in front of me caught my attention and brought me out of the mind numbing turmoil.

  “I do not wish to see you cry.” Nathaniel kneeled directly opposite careful not to let our bodies touch.

  “Why didn’t you tell me”?

  “It was not my place. I was only meant to guide you.”

  “And instead you….”

  “I… “ His hesitation said all I needed to hear. I looked up at him, no words coming to mind. “Ambrosia, your power is coming on strong. You are emotional and unpredictable right now. I do not think I can hold myself back from ravaging you much longer. I no longer know what is my will and what is yours.” The hint of smile he held made me forget myself and laugh on the edge of hysteria despite the situation.

  “I don’t know what to do.”

  He held my hand in his and gently kissed it before fading out into the new oncoming storm. “You will choose. Or you will not. Samandiriel is caring for your body right now as we speak. You should get back to him. You have about 6 hours until sunrise. If you wish to choose a mate for this new life that you have, then time is running out. I will be here should you require me.” With that he was gone and I was left alone in an altogether different snowstorm.

  Chapter 21

  I awoke with a sudden jerk into an upright position. Looking around I was once again in a bed, but this one was in a small hotel room containing a mini kitchen, small TV and another bed directly across from the one I lay. Upon which sat one truly pissed off former angel.

  “What the hell were you thinking jumping off of a roof like that?” Sam asked. He looked as though he had been run over by a truck and left to die on the side of the road. An option I had not put passed Nicor at all. His jeans, although new as I had requested, were already torn and battered and he was once again shirtless. I could see were the bruises had already begun to heal. The cut over his eye was scabbing over and I could now clearly focus on burn marks the scrapped across the top of his shoulders. I was angry at his audacity, but wanted to weep for his pain at the same time. Fucking love.

  I turned towards him fully with trepidation running through my veins. I could feel my body ache with exhaustion and I glanced at the typical red hotel alarm clock numbers glaring back at me from the bedside the spring mattress. It was now 9:30. In the distance I could hear nothing but crickets joined by the wind blowing fiercely against the trees outside and could only assume I was now out of the city again. Funny how what state I found myself in was becoming less and less of a concern. “You didn’t have any better ideas?” I asked, a hint of a smirk coming out through the gushing sarcasm.

  “It was dangerous and foolhardy. You had no way of knowing that I could have caught you. As it was, I barely made it in time.”

  “Would you have preferred I married Nicor?” I slashed back at him, but the pain that crossed his face caught me off guard and I immediately felt appalled at my tone. But I was angry. Samandiriel had known since the moment his eyes laid on me, who I was, what had happened. And he thought it best I didn’t know. My emotions were eating me from the inside and the thought fluttered by me that the demons could leave me be and I would explode from the sheer upheaval Sam and Nate had brought to my life these past few days.

  “No.” He said simple cutting me off before I was about to speak. “You are right that I had no better plan.” He got up and walked across the small room as far away as he could be. “We should be safe here for at least another hour or two. We must only make it until three and you will be safe from their seduction.”

  “Three? I thought it would be midnight.”

  “You were born in this form on the west coast of the US and as such you will not turn 26 until we reach that time. I did not have enough strength fly you there.” As he spoke his shoulders slumped. I could see that his wings were gravely ripped and bleeding now. The silence surrounding us, I could hear the blood drip slowly onto the coarse rug beneath us.

  I walked up behind him and could see the stiffening in his stance. Caught in their majesty I placed my hand on his broken right wing and slowly stroked the feathers. Blood and dirt came flying off of them, as did the anger from my soul. Samandiriel sighed in contentment and longing at the touch. “They look broken.” I said simply.

  “Beyond repair, I fear.” Echoing the sentiment that fell between us.

  Once again tears threatened to overtake me and I continued to gently caress their soft crevasses. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. They were a small price to pay for your life.”

  “Samandiriel…” Word would not come out as the emotion overtook me. The tears that had been threatening me did not arrive, but I felt my body collapsing onto its self as the warmth within my torso began to grow warmer. My power was beginning to rise and I placed my hand on his shoulder to steady myself and turn him towards me. As he moved I could see his attempt to avert his eyes and the demon fire that burned within. He did not want me to see him like this. I tilted his chin up towards me and as he finally succumbed, looking me in the eye I said, “I remember.”

  He collapsed against me, tears falling in torrents from his eyes as I cradled his chin into the crook of my neck. I could smell the sulphur coming off of him in waves mixed briefly with that scent that was all his. Marjoram and clovers. With simple human need I kissed him passionately, wrapping his arms around my neck to hold me close. Desire overtaking us he turned and pushed me against the wall and I could taste the saltiness of his tears mixed with the pleasure of his mouth. Not wanting to lose even a second of contact, I wrapped my legs around his waist and lost myself in the passion of his embrace.

  Memories flooded through me. The woods, the demons, my stark terror when I saw what Nicor’s men had done to him. I could taste the sulphur in my mouth now as I kissed him and I wanted more. I wanted to be on fire. I was on fire. Every fiber of my soul overwhelmed me and he pressed me against the hard cold wall. Grabbing his face in my hands I kissed his cheek, his chin, his soft lips as his hands found themselves all over my body. My breast, my back my hips. I could feel him grow excited as I pulled myself on to him harder and rubbed my body against his warm friction. He forceful pulled me down on to the bed that I had awoken on and I straddled his perfect body. I could feel the passion inside of me want to explode as I rubbed up and down against him through our cloths.

  His hand gently cupped my own as we lay and kissed and caressed as he removed my now torn dress. I could feel the feathers of his broken wings gently rub against the peaks of my shoulders and top of my breast in the most tantalizing way. The passion rode through my body in waves and I thought I was going to burst in heat and delight. I reached for the button of his pants and he gentle took my hand back in his own and draped it around his neck. Holding me firmly in place and yet as close to him as possible.

  “Stop”, he said suddenly and although still in his embrace he lifted his head away from my own. “We cannot.”

  I squirmed and pushed against him but he held me steady. I stopped struggling and looked into the perfect gleaming blue fire eyes he bore up at me with. “This is my choice. I choose you.”

  He pulled me close and I could breath in the scent of sulphur and feel his heart pound deeply though his neck. Suddenly a sigh against my temple and the cold air of the room was all that touched my skin. “We cannot.” He spoke from the other side of the room. “We
chose this path long ago an it only lead to pain. I have been searching for you, Ambrosia for millennia. Waiting for the dream weaver to be born, and that is the path we both must walk. I love you more than you will ever be able to fathom in your human heart, but…. “

  “But what? I am not allowed to be happy in any life!” He had once again turned his back to me. “I am human for one more night. I am me for one more night. After that my life is a sacrifice. I will choose to do whatever I damn well please, Samandiriel.”

  Sam turned towards me, a gentle smirk on his face. “I love you Ambrosia Ross. I always will. But I will not fuck you.”

  Abruptly the power went out, and we were thrown into blackness before I could argue.