Ablaze (3 page)

Sam shot up and began to pace. “Jesus, stop that!” He threw a look at Penn. “Make her stop that weird stuff.”

“You’re making the boy nervous,” Penn said humorously. “You’re coveted, boy. Get over it, and now we know why.”

“I pledge my life to him; will you?” Hailey demanded to know of Penn.

He would say yes to anything when it came to her, but anger burned through him. She hardly gave him the time of day, yet she asked for something like this.

“Angel, I’m here. That’s as much as you’ll get,” Penn snarled.

“Listen, you two don’t even start this shit, can we just eat?” Sam asked. “Let a kid get used to knowing he’s part angel or whatever. Tomorrow we’ll figure out what we’re going to do on a permanent basis because we can’t keep running like this.”

“You’re smarter than you look, small fry.” Penn reached out and ruffled Sam’s hair, and in return Sam pushed his hand away.

“I’m fifteen not five; jeez, you really don’t know how to talk to people, do you?” He stomped into the small kitchenette and began to unload their food.

They sat and ate in silence as they all contemplated the implications of the new information they had. He’d never heard of a nephilim not going crazy, or even worse, having to live away from humans. This boy had power; it was in his lineage from the archangels. The boys below would love to get their hands on him and twist him to their uses. Before he would have taken him to the higher-ups in hell and just let the good times roll. Now, he looked at Hailey and knew it would break her heart, and something inside him shifted.
Crap.
He hated this feeling and wished he could rip it out of his chest.

Later that night, after dinner, he had Hailey mark the building with protection runes. Now he looked at the boy sleeping on the thin mattress of the old pull-out couch. He opened the bedroom door expecting to see Hailey. She had made up the bed with the bright yellow comforter that he bought and piled the blue pillows on top. He wanted to bring her a little of the sky and the sun in his small way. He closed his eyes and homed in on her and dematerialized to where she was on the roof. Hailey was looking upward, and her face was forlorn as she stared into the night sky.

“Why are you up here?” he asked as he stepped behind her.

“No reason,” she replied but her eyes never left the sky.

“You’re missing up there,” Penn said.

“I’ve never been cut off from them before.” Hailey shook her head. “I only hear silence, and then sometimes I feel the pull, the call to grace, and I cannot answer. Other times I hear those who I care for. They whisper to me even though its forbidden. I know this is for the better good, for Sam. But my heart aches for it sometimes, the peace and the balance.”

“You had no choices up there, just following always doing what you’re told.” Penn grabbed her shoulders. “Tonight you ate Chinese food, and you like chocolate; you love that boy even with his attitude. Why miss it when there is more for you to see and experience?”

“Don’t you miss your version of home, the hell and heat of it?” Hailey glared at him.

“No, I don’t,” Penn said automatically.

“Why don’t you? Is it because you care for nothing, that being in the underworld is worse than death?”

He pulled her hard against him and caressed the chocolate brown skin of her face. “No, because I have you. There’s nothing down there worth more than being with you.”

“Why are you saying this now?” Hailey asked.

“I long for you to touch me, to feel your hands on my skin,” Penn said. He could hear the ache in his own voice. “I long to taste your lips again and see you look at me like how you look at the boy. You shut down when I’m around, and I miss your light.” He slipped his hand into the hair at her nape. “Kiss me, Hailey, just kiss me so I can feel somewhat normal. Even if you have to pretend kiss me like you care. I hate having to feel like this, to beg for just a kiss. But I need it. I need to feel you more than anything.”

“Oh, Penn. I don’t have to pretend,” Hailey whispered.

She cupped his cheeks and pulled his lips down to hers for a kiss. The feel of her, the taste of her was almost too much to take, and he groaned in delight, in pleasure and the ache of it all. She opened her mouth under the probing of his tongue. He molded her to him as he burrowed into her mouth. It was like drinking nectar, and if he could taste sunshine, she would be it. She took his onslaught with moans and whimpers that took him higher and made his cock so hard it throbbed between his legs. This time he pulled away, thinking about not only taking her body but keeping her in his heart. To do that, he had to pull away and take it slow. She was not just an object for release to him. Hailey was everything.

“Why did you stop? Why didn’t you take me?” she whispered when he stepped away.

“I’m giving you the choices you earned in more ways than one,” Penn replied. “When you want me to love you, you’ll come to me. I won’t take you otherwise. Your body is your own.” He pulled her close and kissed her gently. “Come downstairs soon. I don’t want the boy to wake up and not see you.”

It was the hardest thing he ever did, but Penn walked away from the pleasure that he knew he could find in her body and with her kiss. For the first time he understood what humans experienced when they felt love, what they were willing to give up just to keep it. Why the sacrifices were so unimaginable, yet they paid the price hand over fist to keep what they’d found.

Chapter Three

My choices.
Those were words that she never thought would be used when it came to her life, her path. In the heavens she was a guardian, protector of her charges. But when they told her to leave Sam to his fate, she could not. This boy had been hers since he was a baby; she’d comforted him while his mother abused her body. Hailey whispered in his mother’s ear that she should send Sam someplace safe so he could be better taken care of. Granted the human version of safe eventually led Sam to living on the street to getaway from the group homes, but she was always there watching over him. He was never hungry or slept in the cold; she found ways to get him what he needed. Now she knew why they wanted to leave him to whatever hand he was dealt. It seemed that even angels had secrets because he was the child of the warrior cast. Unlike Penn who could twist and wrap men’s mind to sign sinful deeds, Sam could change the world with a twist of a few words. Why would they leave him to the demons to get ahold of? Maybe they thought he would be killed outright. Hailey firmed her lips in a determined line. There was no way she was about to let that happen.
With Penn fighting beside me…

Thinking about the demon who now lived with her and Sam made a hint of a smile cross her lips. He’d spent so long doing what he wanted with no repercussions that she understood this new role bothered him. While he would never admit it, she could see a change in him, honor maybe, or just plain need to claim her. She wondered about where they were going and what would happen next. That night when he took her body, she knew he would love her. From there she was as innocent as a newborn babe at what to do. Hailey didn’t know if she could truly trust him, yet she looked into his eyes and felt an ache she didn’t quite understand. She longed to feel his touch again, and that bothered her as well. How could one like her from the heavens feel such a need for a dweller of hell? She looked up at the sky once more, reaching out just to feel a small piece of the grace she missed. Again there was silence and a whisper in her head, one simple word …
No
. There was the finality to it, the determination to barring her. Her choices were made.

Hailey closed her eyes and thought of where she wanted to be. In an instant she was back in the bedroom where the bedspread was a bright yellow and the pillows were blue.
What will become of me?
She had no idea what was to be done after they made sure Sam was safe. The thought of wandering the earth alone was unbearable. She wrapped her arms around her waist and lay on the pillows. Who knew that choices left you so alone? Yet in asking herself if she would change anything, her answer was no. Loneliness filled her being, so much that she felt tears spill from her eyes. Getting accustomed to this new role would be difficult for her, an angel who always had the heavenly hosts joined with her soul. Penn appeared into her room and sat on the bed. Silently, he picked her up in his arms and sat her on his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and rocked back and forth gently. Amazed, Hailey knew that he was offering her comfort without her even having to ask. She linked her arms around his neck and pressed her face against the skin of his neck. When he took her she expected him to smell like sulfur, and she was still amazed that his skin felt warm and held a hint of the spicy musk of the aftershave he used.

“Why are you doing this?” she asked.

“I felt your pain, your sense of loneliness. It was more than I could bear.” He was gruff, and she could hear the uncomfortable uncertainty in his voice.

“Thank you. I’ve never been an outcast… I don’t know how to deal with it all yet,” Hailey murmured against his neck.

“There’s no going back, Hailey, not from this, so you learn to survive,” Penn said. “For yourself and for the boy. It doesn’t mean your duty has changed. You can still protect your charge, but you’ll do it in a different context. You’ll have to learn to fight.”

She looked up at him and shook her head. “I can’t do that. I’m not from the warrior cast.”

“Hailey, you don’t have a cast anymore, and you’ve cut down demons to save me and the boy in the past few weeks. So as time progresses, you learn how to fight better. We need it; if I’m going to have your back, you have to have mine, so we can protect the boy.” He cupped her cheek. “If not, all this is for nothing, and we gave it all up just to watch him die.”

“Will you teach me?” Hailey asked.

Penn kissed her soundly. “Anything you ask of me is yours.”

Hailey sat up in his lap and put her hands on his chest. “Then teach me to give you my body the right way. I know the first time was not as good…”

“What the fuck are you talking about? That night in the sky while the rain poured down was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Penn replied. “It was out of this world.”

She smiled. “That’s just the heart binding talking. When you took me, it forced you to love me. Why do you think so few of your kind has ever even touched an angel?”

“I understand that now, but it has gone past the binding when I’m with you,” he admitted gruffly. “I was thinking how coveted you would be in hell, and the thought of someone else touching you made me want to rip it apart rock by rock. I’m even jealous of the boy when you hold him. You’re what I want, what I need.”

She held out her hand to him. “Then let’s become a unit, a pair in all ways.”

“The boy…”

“His name is Sam. You’ve really got to start using his name; we’re kind of a family now,” she said gently. She knew if he kept using the boy it would keep some distance between him and caring for a human. She didn’t want that; she needed him to care, to put his life on the line like she would for her charge.

“Sam.” He used the name as if it was uncomfortable coming from his mouth. “He’s out front, and I don’t think I can take you and be quiet about it.”

She waved her hand and a pulse went through the room like a shock wave. Hailey stood and took off her clothes without haste while he watched. She could see hunger in his eyes as his gaze roamed her body; he hadn’t even touched her and yet she felt breathless.

“We are completely alone now; he can’t hear us. No one can,” she said as she stood between his legs. “Make love to me, Pennemuel.”

“You say my name like a caress instead of a curse,” he moaned and pulled her to him.

“To me you are no curse. You’re unique, and good lives inside you.” She bent and kissed the dark hair on his head. She wanted to comfort him.

“There’s no good in me, Hailey. If you knew the things I’ve done, you would run screaming from the room,” he said huskily.

“I may be naive about pleasures of the flesh, but I do know what happens in hell.” There was humor in Hailey’s voice. “I still care for you and find you a most redeemable individual. Now kiss me, Pennemuel, and show me how to fly without wings.”

Hailey was tired of trying to find the right foothold in her new life. Instead she just wanted to feel and hold onto Penn. She kissed him softly, and he took control of the kiss, taking her lips ravenously. She felt his hand slip behind her neck, and then with a soft groan he pulled her onto his lap.

“Take my shirt off and touch me,” Penn ordered against her lips.

She did as he asked, and with nervous fingers she worked the buttons loose. His chest was just like she remembered, hard and contoured. She felt his hands slide up her thighs, to her waist and then farther to cup her breasts. The heat of his hand against the full globes of her breasts sent pleasure infusing through her body. Hailey arched, pressing herself more firmly into strong fingers, moaning softly against his lips. Penn used his fingers to bring her nipples to hardness, and each sensation just made her want more.

Penn set her away from him and removed the rest of his clothes. His eyes never left hers as he slid the dark slacks down his muscular hips. His gaze was almost like a caress as it traveled along her body, as if he was visually remembering every curve. Hailey took his hand as he held it out to her. She knelt on the bed with him, and their upper bodies met in a heated rush. She returned his intense kisses and traced her hands along his body, memorizing the muscular contours. His cock was hard between them. Penn kissed his way down her neck and to her breasts. He took her nipple into his hot mouth, and Hailey trembled. The way he tasted her was hungry, and with a guttural sound, he filled his mouth with the smooth globe. He wrenched away from her and gave a harsh moan as he nuzzled her neck.

“Let me touch you, Hailey,” Penn said roughly. “I want you to watch how I can please you.”

“Yes, Penn do it,” she gasped. “I feel as if I’m on fire.”