Steal Me From Heaven (31 page)

Malachi answers. “Well, unless we are going to go after her in Hell, there is nothing we can do. For his sake, I hope he tells her soon.”

“You will be safer if you stay with others. I do not see your Demon and Vampire bodyguard.”

He laughs. “I will not hide or run from her.”

“Malachi, maybe we should stay here or ask if they want to join us,” Jessica suggests. The three of us answer no at the same time.

“Jacob and I are training tonight. You should ask David and Erin to accompany you,” I say.

“Fine.” Malachi goes back upstairs to find his friend.

“Looks like the two of you are getting along well,” Jacob comments to his sister.

“He seems different today, and I feel different. Maybe I am ready after all.” She looks at me. I do not turn away.

“He is yours, Jessica. Do what you wish with him. You two have my blessing.” I actually smile as I say the words. With Malachi moving on with his life, I feel a change in the dynamics of our relationship. Maybe I can finally let him go and not be torn. I leave and go up the grand staircase towards our bedroom. Jacob is telling her to summon him if anything should happen. I see Malachi above me on the landing. He waits for me to get up to him.

“You okay with this?” he asks.

“Yeah. I believe I am. I never thought we would live under the same roof. The two of them are fools for thinking we could.”

“I agree. It would be easier in a different house without having to hear you enjoying your married life. I don’t think we will all sit down for Thanksgiving dinner anytime soon, especially not at that table.” He smiles.

I laugh out loud and know that they are watching us. “Unless it is a bloody turkey,” I remark, making him laugh. “It’s good to see you smile and hear you laugh again. Go have fun on your date. Thank you for trying. It means a lot to me.” He nods his head and makes it down about two steps.

“Oh, I almost forgot.”

“Yes,” he says as he walks back up to me.

“Can someone go into Hell and bring someone back without being at Lilith’s command?”

He thinks before answering. He cannot lie. “Yes, it can be done. I will not listen to your next question. If I am taken down below this realm, you will leave me there to burn. Do you understand?”

“I understand your wishes, but I am not yours to protect, and I do not have to follow your orders anymore,” I say as he comes in closer to my face.

“You may not follow mine, but I know you will follow his orders. I will see to it that you are safe if it is the last thing I do on this earth.” Before I realize it, Malachi jumps the railing and is at the entrance doors.

“No,” I call after him. As soon as he is done speaking to them, Jacob looks in my direction. I run towards our bedroom, but I hear him close behind me. He catches me and pins me up against the wall. He covers my back with his body.

“You will not offer yourself to Lilith. I will see to that. If Malachi cannot escape in seven days, I will go after him myself. That much I will promise you. If I so much as think you will go behind my back and do something this foolish. I will tie you to the bed until he returns.”

“He had no right to tell you. I was only asking if it was possible.”

“I have every right to know. You are everything to me. Why can’t you see that?”

“Let me go. We need to get ready to train.”

“They are working on the renovations to our room, remember? I moved all our belongings to the other house.”

“Let’s go get armored up then.”

“Not tonight. We are going dancing.”

“But you hate to go out dancing.”

“Not with you, I don’t. Besides, I need to remind my wife why we are together.”

“Jacob, I acted harshly earlier. I’m sorry.”

“I told you not to apologize. You acted accordingly. I sent Shayne to stay in the wine cellar with the others.”

“How many others are there?”

“Enough,” he says. “George and Nadia have been busy keeping them fed with donor blood bags and live donors.”

“No one is a killer, are they?” I ask him.

“I’ve instructed that my staff is not to be harmed. Someone’s husband almost killed Kyle, but that’s understandable.”

”You need to talk to that boy. He thinks every Vampire wants to have sex with him.”

“Yeah, because most of them do.”

“Then he should know who’s married and not push his luck,” I remark.

“Even so, some do,” he comments. “Eternity is a long time. Some couples get bored.”

“You don’t think that we would ever get to that point, do you?”

“Of course not. You are all I want.”

We leave the club, and I am smiling ear to ear. I do not know why he doesn’t like to dance, he looks good doing it. Jacob’s cell phone vibrates.

“Yes,” he answers.

“Jacob, thank God, it’s Erin. We were attacked on the way home. David and Jessica are messed up pretty bad. They took Malachi. I’m sorry.”

“Why didn’t Jessica call for my help?” he asks.

“They knocked her out through the back window before they overturned the car. She never knew what hit us.”

“How many of them were there?”

“About a dozen. We were able to kill five of them. I’m sorry.”

“Where’s my sister?”

“She’s at the house. David is already healed and he is helping her as best as he can.”

“We are on the way,” he says as he closes his phone shut before accelerating the gas pedal.

“I guess you heard both sides of the conversation, and I do not need to tell you,” he says as he puts his hand on my knee. I just nod my head yes.

The scene at the house is one of chaos. George immediately runs up to Jacob, and I go to find Jessica. I do not hear any of their conversation. I charge up the steps and into her bedroom, where it looks like David and Erin are taking turns trying to heal her.

“Why is it taking so long?” Erin asks me when she sees me standing in the doorway.

“Move over and let me try,” I say as I sit beside David on the bed.

“Marion, it will weaken you. Leave her to us,” he says.

“She is my family,” I reply as I call forth my power. When my light grows bright and pure white, they step away from the bed to give me room.

“She was thrown from the car and attacked viciously by four Demons. Has anyone given her blood yet?” I ask.

“You already read what happened? You are fast,” Erin remarks.

“Has she had any blood?” I repeat.

“No, we didn’t think to give her any.”

“Get Jacob. She cannot drink from me. He has the strongest blood here.”

Erin leaves and David starts to tell me everything that had happened. When he mentions Malachi and how he killed three of the five dead Demons, I am not surprised. Lilith herself had to intercede and take him. Jacob enters the room and is already slicing his wrist with his fangs. He kneels beside the bed and forces his blood into her mouth.

With the combination of his powerful life source and my healing abilities, Jessica abruptly opens her eyes and pushes Jacob’s arm away. “Where is he?” she asks as she sits up on the bed.

“You know she has him,” Jacob says as he wipes the hair from her face. She looks at me.

“Save him,” she begs me, and the pleading in her voice tears at my heart.

“I will do everything I can,” I reassure her. She sinks back into the mattress and I pull the covers up over her. Turning to Erin, I say, “When she is stronger, see to it that she showers, and have someone change these sheets.” She nods. I get up to leave and Jacob follows. When I go into the hallway, I see the construction workers and George removing all the mirrors in the house. If Jacob had not been so keen on protecting me from my own stupidity, then I would not have realized that the way to summon Lilith to offer myself to her would in fact be through the mirrors or a reflection.

“Tomorrow, I will charge all day at the hotel spa patio. Do I have a bathing suit here?”

“Yes, but I left it in our bedroom.” We go into the room and see that the renovations are almost completed.

“Can we stay here tonight?” I ask. I do not wish to be at the other house alone.

“If you are sunbathing at the hotel then that is where we will stay so I can take my rest near you.” I nod my head in acknowledgment. He is not going to let me out of his sight. I grab a few of our items and put them in a bag.

“Gerald’s back,” I say.

“How do you know?” he asks.

“I don’t know. I just do. He’s coming through the front door now. Give Harrietta time to properly welcome him home.”

By the time we make it down the three flights of stairs, Gerald is starting to tell his story to the others. He is trying to cushion his ego by overstating how he refused to answer the red-headed Demon’s questions. He was gone for less than a day before returning. Everyone knows how fast he led her to Arthur’s bones. He has a patch covering his left eye. Lilith apparently removed it with a knife. When she threatened to remove the other one, that was the moment when he broke. He can heal himself. I will not touch him.

“Jacob, I need to lie down.”

“We are done here.” I walk out onto the front steps. Jacob picks me up in his arms and takes the bag from my hand. He carries me down the long staircase and opens the car door with his mind. He sits me down in the front seat and walks around to the other side. I see our ally Demons coming across the lawn towards the house. One of them would know how to get into Hell and escape. I will seek Ashley in the wine tunnel before nightfall.
Everyone there will be in their slumber. The other fallen Angels have not yet arrived.

When we get to the hotel, he flies me up to our balcony and unlocks the door. The room is clean and the bed is newly made. There is still an empty spot on the wall where the mirror hung above the desk. We shower and dress for bed. Jacob hugs me tightly as I fall asleep. I know that he will not slumber until the morning.

When I come in from my sunbathing, I remove my swimsuit and climb into bed with Jacob. I want to spend a few hours with him before it is time to leave. He does not stir beside me. His sleep is too powerful. I will have to wait until he cycles into a lighter state of awareness. I close my eyes and rest. When his breathing becomes lighter, I roll over to face him and push him onto his back. He opens his eyes when he realizes what I am doing under the covers and a smile brightens his face.

When he goes back to sleep, I grab some of my clothes and leave. I cannot let another day go by with Malachi suffering in Hell. If I knew I could have done this when Jacob was imprisoned, I would not have hesitated then either. I hope that he doesn’t see my actions as a betrayal, but no Angel belongs in Hell.

Chapter 15

I make the entrance to the well in record speed. I jump down the shaft and try to pinpoint the Demons. Their blood is sulfuric so I inhale deeply. I would think they would be kept in a different location than the other Vampires for their own safety. I notice that I am right. They are behind me in the opposite direction of where I stayed with Malachi in his room.

I turn and sniff them out. I feel like I should get a treat when I arrive at their door. I may never get used to being part bloodhound. It takes several knocks on the door before Gary opens it in a pair of boxer shorts. When he sees me, he covers himself with his hands.

“Is Ashley here? I need to speak to him.”

“Who is it?” I hear him call.

“It’s Marion, I need your help. Please get ready and meet me at the exit.”

“It’s still light out,” he says.

“I know. We will not leave until dusk. I have some questions for you that I hope you can answer.” He says he will be there shortly. I leave and go to wait on him. I turn a corner and see Shayne coming out of Trevor’s room. “I guess you found some company other than my husband,” I say, not being so friendly.

“So I guess he told you,” she remarks. I nod my head yes.

“Marion, he was so out of control when you died. He was a danger to himself. Jessica called me. Jacob didn’t want to live anymore. I forced myself on him. He did not want me, but still I pursued. The first time we made love, he broke down. He had never been with anyone but you. I did not know. He was alive for over thirteen hundred years at that point. I almost didn’t believe him but the look on his face told me it was the truth. He was mortified that he betrayed you even though you were dead and gone. He told me to leave and never come back. He told me that I could never be you no matter how hard I tried. That is when he started to draft architectural plans for this estate. He was going insane. This place probably saved him more than I attempted to anyway.”

I stand there in shock at her story. “I’m sorry,” I say.

“Why are you apologizing?”

“You tried to help him, to be there for him when I couldn’t. He will never admit, but you did save his life. I am indebted to you always, but I will not thank you for returning to his bed when our marriage was pronounced null and void.”