Summon Dorn (Archangels Creed) (26 page)

She lifted her hips to meet him, everything within her paused in anticipation.

Dorn moved his hips, letting his erection quickly drive her back to that desperate point. Sally held his solid hips and helped move him, enjoying the growl with every breath he took.

Chapter Twenty Five

Lucian woke from his mind blowing orgasm nap thinking about his brother. The one he'd left behind, abandoned. He needed to go see about him. What was he thinking? He hadn't been. That was the problem.

He gave Jessie a lingering kiss on the forehead then headed to find the bathroom. Judging by the place, he worried there might not be one inside. Then he
'd find that Dorn angel and let him know he had to go check on his brother.

Yes, there was a bathroom. Hallelujah. Lucian blew a kiss to the saints. After relieving himself, he made his way to the door across the hall from theirs and knocked softly.

A deep growling resonated through the door and Lucian jumped. Had those things found them after all? The idea they could be right there on the other side of that door, feasting on Jessie's sister, hit him.

Dorn opened the door as quietly as possible and peered inside. Nothing looked out of place, but harsh breathing and moans came from someone out of sight at the other side of the room. Damn, he needed to ask Dorn for a weapon. Too late to worry about that now. He made his way stealthily, confused over the sounds he heard. Sounded…sexual.

Lucian immediately rounded the sofa and leapt backward. "Oh crap! Sorry!"

On the floor in front of the sofa, the archangel Dorn and Jessie
's sister were getting their honeymoon off to an early start. Apparently Sally had agreed to marry Dorn, though Lucian was a little surprised after what Jessie said about her sister.

Dorn finally accepted Lucian
's apologies, though not happily. "What was it you needed?"

Lucian looked up into piercing aquamarine eyes, but before he could ask, Dorn shook his head.

"Absolutely not." The angel turned and dropped to the sofa, pulling Sally down close beside him and turned to her as if he considered the question settled.

Lucian frowned.
"What?"

"
Leaving here is out of the question, it's too dangerous. But I assure you, your brother is in the same condition as when you left him."

"
How do you…" Lucian realized the stupidity of the question only to ask another stupid one. "Are you sure?"

"
Positive."

Lucian went back to the bedroom and found his cell phone. A signal, what a surprise. He searched his phone book for the hospital number and hit send, going to the window and looking out. He
'd feel a lot better once he got confirmation on what the angel said. God forgive him, but Dorn wasn't exactly thinking about Leo. Or anything else for that matter. He held through four minutes of automated message hell before a live person finally spoke. "St. Joseph's General, switchboard. How may I direct your call?"

"
Yes, I'm calling to inquire about the status of Leo Dade. He's my brother." A keyboard chattered in the background.

"
Your name?" Four more minutes of verifying his identity, he finally transferred to someone who could answer his questions.

The soft feminine voice on the line identified the speaker as Carol Mason, RN in the Neurology Department. Lucian gave his name yet again and asked how Leo was doing. "Oh. Mr. Constantin, we've tried to reach you. Can you come down to the hospital? I'd prefer not to discuss the case by phone."

What should he do? Dorn had been pretty clear about him not going anywhere. But this was his brother. And Leo needed him. The nightmare image of one of those monsters dragging Jessie away flashed through his mind.
"I'm sorry, there's simply no way I can get there"

"
Sir, I don't think you understand-"

"
And you definitely don't understand. There is absolutely
no way
I can come to the hospital." Inspiration struck. "I was called back to Romania for an emergency. I can't get away for weeks, at least. So, can you please just tell me what updates there are concerning my brother's condition?" Hopefully his long dead grandmother would forgive him for what he was going to say. "I wish I could tell our grandmother that her prayers for happiness and prosperity have been answered. It would make her last few hours on Earth more peaceful."

Carol Mason, RN, sighed and Lucian had to fight back his grin of victory at her capitulation.
"Okay, Mr. Constantin. I'll make an exception for your circumstances. My own grandmother recently passed, and she would certainly have wanted to know this kind of thing too." A deep breath. "Are you sitting?"

"
Yes."

"
You're brother has completely recovered."

Lucian
's jaw dropped. "But… The doctor said he would never really recover at all."

"
The doctors can't understand it. It makes no sense and should have been medically impossible."

Before Lucian could respond or ask to speak with Leo, Dorn towered over Lucian and zapped the phone out of his hand with one foreign syllable.

In the next heartbeat, everything blurred. When his vision cleared, Lucian stood in the living room with Dorn. Kassern and Troy appeared a second later, all geared up for battle.

"
Something's happened," Dorn said.

A double
no-shit
expression met his announcement.

"
Yes, I think I've gathered that much with the alarm you just nearly knocked me on my ass with." Kassern arched a perfect brow. "What's going on?"

"
Somehow they've found Leo Dade and broke the binding. Apparently, he's completely recovered. No longer essentially brain dead."

"
What?" Kassern sounded floored. That couldn't be good. "How is that possible?"

"
Good question. We need all the current updates to figure out how and why they managed to breech the binding of an archangel." Dorn gestured toward Lucian. "And he used one of those communication devices. I thought we had prohibited them."

"
We did," Kassern said, "but he's your human, not mine."

Dorn shook his head at his reckless behavior.
"I…" Was he about to say he'd forgotten? Maybe he just couldn't bring himself to utter the sacrilegious word. "My apologies. We need to be prepared. Our location may have been compromised."

"
Can we move?" Troy asked. Lucian had a hard time not staring at the man in uniform, or whatever it was. He was impressive and resembled a modern version of what a medieval holy warrior might have looked like, hood and all.

"
We can if Dorn is ready." Kassern eyed the other angel critically, as if looking for weaknesses.

"
I'm…close."

Kassern rolled his eyes.
"Are we having cold feet? Do you need any pointers?"

Dorn snapped his eyes to him.
"Distractions," he muttered.

"
Well, I don't want to rush a great thing, but can you go ahead and knock it out of the park so we can get the hell out of here?"

The urgency in Kassern
's tone triggered Lucian's panic. "What's going to happen?"

They all tur
ned to him, but Kassern replied. "I'd rather not find out."

"
You'd rather not find out? You're an archangel. You both are." Lucian shrugged and spread his hands. "Why are we worried? I'm just…trying to get a feel of what's going on."

"
Weren't you there for the demon party at the hotel?" Troy's suggestion said he thought Lucian might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer.

"
But we have Dorn—"

"
Dorn is not in any shape to fight right now." Kassern took a few steps and turned to continue pacing. "After the transformation, we're depleted." He looked at Dorn. "How are you holding up? Any symptoms?"

"
Memory loss."

"
How much?" Kassern's eyebrows rose.

"
I remembered Sally but…I forgot I was even an angel."

Kassern whistled and grinned at Lucian.
"Must've made the earth move." He turned back to Dorn. "What else?"

He shook his head.
"Maxwell took all the
amatorios potentia
."

"
What?" Kassern's eyebrows nearly disappeared under his hairline. Lucian had to bite his lip to keep from laughing at the ludicrous expression.

Dorn nodded and threw his hands up.
"Jumped right out, pounced and devoured it."

"
I sure as hell hope you're on good terms with that stubborn ice fire lizard son of yours."

"
Of course. I arrived at an understanding with him long ago. Unlike you."

"
That's because Francis is an unpredictable hot headed tom cat brat." Kassern hissed and grabbed his chest, his face turning furious as he seemed to glare at something invisible. "Oh
now
you want to randomly come back home after a millennia? Scratch me again and see if I don't yank your ass out and remind you who the captain of this ship is! No, do not purr, you know I hate that crap. No you don't miss me, you lying little shit."

Dorn laughed out right.
"Like father like son."

Kassern
's gaze snapped to Dorn, eyes wide. "Wait a minute. Was that a laugh? The noise that just came out of your
mouth?"
He suddenly cracked up before saying, "Man, what a
strange
sound to hear from you." He jerked up peaceful hands. "But nice."

Dorn ignored the taunt.
"I need to do too many things in this exact instance for this impossible mission of ours."

"
What can I do?" Kassern offered.

"
Can't you call other angels?" The idea made sense to Lucian, at least.

"
We could but we shouldn't," Dorn said. "The fewer angels we include, the more power we gain. And judging from what I've gathered of this mess, we're going to need all the power we can get our hands on."

"
And calling others will disturb the balance of supernatural energies and draw unwanted attention." Kassern said
.

"
What about me? Do I get any powers?" The question might make him seem a little… greedy for the wrong thing, but Lucian didn't want to be defenseless or useless to Jessie.

Dorn
's blue gaze flicked over Lucian's body. "Hopefully. Not sure what, how, when, or why however." The angel's voice went hard and dry, showing how that bothered him.

"
Great." Lucian tossed his hands.

"
Kassern?" A sleepy female voice called from one of the other rooms.

The ruby angel glanced behind him then looked at all three men.
"I'll go get Karly up. Troy, get Devyn. Lucian, Dorn, bring the women. Time for a group huddle."

Dorn
's head snapped around with a growl. "Sally's gone."

****

All Sally knew was she
had
to get to the sound of his voice. It was life. Warm, peaceful, beautiful. And pulling from inside her eye. Feeling the source embedded in her head, she was sure she would be able to touch it if her skull weren't in the way, the line of it passing through her eyeball and extending out to where he was. And the pull was uncompromising, like a migraine about to go super-nova if she refused it. 

But that
's not why she followed. She followed for the promise of what lay at the end, not the threat of pain. Well that too, but getting to that pleasure source was all she could think.

After a bit, her surroundings intruded on the echo of pain through her skull. She stumbled through woods with no shoes. No clothes. Body numb with cold. Another reason she needed to follow. The warmth. She craved it. Needed it more than air.

A dark mass of plant material blocked her way, but she couldn't go around. The pull in her eye wouldn't allow deviation from the path. So she pushed on, not minding the savage burn of deep scratches across delicate skin when supple briar whips struck her flesh.

Shadows drew near, all around, walking with her. Closer. Close enough to tell they weren
't shadows at all, but… what? Strange Neanderthal looking things. Had they been there all along? Or had they just appeared? They moved with her, toward the same source. No, they were leading her. Guiding her?

She turned to see and cried out from the pain it created. The tension on the line became so taut it felt like half her brain would be ripped out of her skull if she strayed even the least bit. The line tightened and she gasped, hurrying, stumbling.

She began to cry, forgetting the warmth, forgetting the pleasure, all a distant memory. Only the painful urgency remained. Reality eroded away the initial motive of pleasure until she sobbed with the realization of her nightmare.