The Darkest Joy (8 page)

Her driveway seemed to come up way too soon. The lights of her small patio beckoned and welcomed her home as she pulled in and turned off her car. She sat there for a few minutes, trying to compose herself, but then fear caused her to move quickly. What if Belial was still out there stalking her from the dark? That thought sent her racing to the front door and unlocking it with trembling fingers.
Caim
stood at the far window looking out into her side yard. He seemed focused on watching the leaves fall from the tree to coat the ground in a blanket of color. He turned when he heard her close the door. The smile of greeting that was on his lips faded when he saw her face.

“What are you,
Caim
?” Bliss asked softly. She put her bag on the table next to he door and walked to the center of the room. “What are
you!
”

“Bliss, I-I . . .”
Caim
sighed and stood in front of her. He let his forehead touch hers, and his gaze met her tear-filled eyes. “I can’t just tell you, my love. I have to show you, okay?”

Bliss nodded and closed her eyes. Instantly, she felt the sun on her face. Slowly, she lifted her lids, and instead of her living room, she was standing on top of a mountain. Around her, she could hear the call of birds, and when she looked down, the tops of trees were like a carpet in the sky. She was on a mountain in the middle of a rain forest. The breeze carried the smell of vegetation and exotic flowers. Bliss’s eyes widened with incredulity as she looked around at the beauty around her.

“The natives call this
Deus
Janela
,
the window of God,”
Caim
said quietly. Bliss turned from the exquisiteness around her to stare at him silently. He continued talking as he walked closer to the edge. “I feel closer to home here, as if I could reach out and touch heaven. It’s like it is so high that I can feel it and talk to them even though they don’t hear me anymore.”

“What do you mean,
Caim
?” Bliss asked. She hesitated coming closer to him.

“Long ago, I was one of them.”
Caim’s
voice was subdued.

“One of
who
,
Caim
?” Bliss shouted in exasperation.

“I was an angel in the high courts of heaven before I was cast out over a thousand years ago,”
Caim
explained. “I sinned, and for that, I was sent to hell. I became a fallen one.”

“A demon.” Bliss gasped and stepped away from him. Her mind tried to grasp but was unable to believe what she was hearing. “Belial said you were the same!”

“When did you see him?”
Caim
asked urgently. “What did he say?”

“He tried to get me to sign away my soul to save you. He said it was the only way. He said you worked together!” Bliss cried out and turned away.

“Bliss, we are nothing alike!
Caim
took her by the shoulder and forced her to face him. “He was created in hell, a demon spawn. I retain my soul, except there I have to fight so hard not to be corrupted. I am nothing like him, and I never will be!”

Bliss could see the sincerity of his words on his face. She needed to know it all. “How did you fall from grace?”

“Long ago, when the world was still young, I saw an injustice that I thought should have been punished, a woman stoned for her convictions and her faith in the Almighty. I begged the Father not to let it happen, but he said it must be done for the world to understand.”
Caim
turned his face away from Bliss in shame. She reached up her hands and cupped his cheek, bringing his face back to hers. “My heart filled with vengeance, and day after day, it got worse until I could no longer stand it. I took my vengeance against those who stoned her. I took their lives, and for that, I was cast out.”

“But why? Everyone should be allowed forgiveness.”

“I was granted my forgiveness, but I could no longer live in heaven. You see, I was a pure creation, a being made by God’s hands. For my sin, I was punished to a thousand years in service to Lucifer. This is the last year, tomorrow is the last day, and you are my salvation.”

Bliss shook her head. This was so much to take in all at once. “How can I be your salvation,
Caim
?”

 
“I fell from heaven, and after a thousand years, I can fall once more, leave the realm of angels and demons and become human. You have to be there to catch me when I fall, Bliss, to save me from eternal death.”

“Catch you how? Do I stand under a tree and hold out my hands?”

Caim
smiled gently. “No, my love, when I fall, I will be leaving my immortality behind. I will be human, hurt, and on the precipice of death. Your love, your heart, and your voice, as long as you are there with me, will bring me back.”

“And what if I can’t?” Bliss wanted to know. She could feel the dread surrounding the question.

“I believe you can.”

“But what if I can’t?”

“Then, my darling Bliss, I will be lost. I will die just like any other human would. And even that is better than being in hell with the likes of Belial.”

Caim
stepped away from her and let his true self show. Wings burst from his back in glorious beauty spread against the wind that caressed and ruffled each feather. Bliss gasped as she remembered the feather she found in the hallway of the hospital.
It was his!
she
thought, watching how the light reflected off the pure black wings of her fallen angel.

“This is who I am. Can you accept me?” he asked. His eyes pleaded with her earnestly.

“Oh God,
Caim
, this is so much to take in, such a big burden to put on my shoulders.” Bliss moaned and covered her face with her hands.

Caim
took her hand in his and looked into her eyes. She could feel herself falling into the jade green stare. “I collect souls for the Devil, Bliss. Demons like Belial get innocents to sign their most valuable possession away to Lucifer. They gave me this duty because they knew it would eat away at my own soul, watching humans go to eternal damnation for nothing more than trinkets. The few who sign it away for the love of family, well, those are the ones that destroy me. I saw you for the first time at
Merry’s
summer fair, wearing those yellow shorts and the white shirt that had flower-shaped cutouts. You were laughing with your friend, and I was there to collect a soul.”

Caim
smiled as he replayed the memory, and Bliss gasped because she knew exactly when he was talking about. He continued to speak almost wistfully. “I kept coming back to this town each time I could because of you. I watched you in the hospital and in your office when you cried over the children you worked on. I knew you were the one, Bliss. My heart fell for you even when you were outside twirling around as the leaves fell. I never saw anything so beautiful in a thousand years. Even if I was still an angel and I saw you in my journeys, I would have fallen just for you.”

No words could convey what Bliss felt at that moment. On top of a mountain, in the middle of a rain forest, listening to a fallen angel with a soul express his love for her. Belial was wrong.
Caim
was nothing like him. She would save him or give her last breath trying.

“I’ll catch you,
Caim
. When you fall, I’ll be there.” Bliss held on to him tight and spoke in earnest, “You better fight,
you
hear me! You better fight because I will not lose you, not now.”

“I’ll fight, my love, for you. I will battle every demon in hell just to be with you.”

“Won’t they try to stop you, Belial and the other demons?” Bliss questioned.

“I have no doubt they will, but I plan to be human and in your arms before they ever know.”
Caim
smiled and tweaked her nose.

“Good, because I don’t want to have to come to hell to find them and kick their asses for
my boo
,” Bliss said firmly.

“You won’t have to, sweetness.”
Caim
took her lips in a soft kiss that shook her to her core. This was love in its pure form.

“When do we do this?” Bliss asked when the kiss ended.

“Tomorrow, my love, on the final day of my one thousand years is when I fall.”

“Well, tomorrow, I will be there to love you for the rest of your human life. Until then, let’s go home and make love as if there are no tomorrows,” Bliss let her lips trail down his neck.

Caim
wrapped her in the security of his arms, and she rested her head against his chest. He took them off the mountain and back to Merry with both their hearts filled with thoughts of the future.

Chapter Six

They phased back into the warmth of her home, directly back to the living room where their journey had started. His lips were on hers as soon as their feet touched the carpet. Bliss kissed him in return, and she closed her eyes at the first contact of their lips. She didn’t care if they were on top of a mountain or if they would tread on clouds, all that she could feel was
Caim
. His arms wrapped around her, and he took the kiss even deeper. Bliss felt his tongue graze her teeth before he slipped it into her mouth to taste her. She could drown in his kisses. She loved how he sipped at and teased her mouth. She pressed herself more intimately against him and felt the bulge of his arousal.

A groan rumbled deep in his chest as she felt herself pressed against him, which let her know it affected him the same way. “Bliss, let us go to the bed before I lose whatever thoughts I have left, which are quite few right now.”

“No.” She nibbled his lips as she spoke. “Right here, right now.”

Caim
groaned and devoured her mouth while his hand caressed her through the cotton material of her scrubs. It was a barrier to keep him from her full breasts. Yet, he filled his hands with the soft mounds and massaged them with a strong, firm motion. Her nipples beaded to hardness under his touch.

“Yes,
Caim
, just like that, I love how your hands feel on me.” Bliss whispered the words and pushed herself more firmly into his palm. His touch was something she craved.

She pulled the shirt off in one smooth tug and flung it aside.
Caim
sank his hands into her hair. He pulled her back so he could bury his face into her chest and took her nipple into his mouth. He sucked and played with one before moving to the other to give it the same attention. Bliss held his head to her, and her head fell back in pleasure.

“You taste so good, Bliss. I can never get enough of you,”
Caim
said against her skin.

He took her lips again in a hot, hard kiss, which melted Bliss to the core.
How can his lips
make me this hot?
she
wondered vaguely in the back of her mind. She could feel her body react to him by the wetness that pooled between her thighs. Pressing herself against him, she tried to ease the ache he created. His groan of pleasure told her how much he approved of what she was doing. His hands traveled up the back of her neck, and he sank his fingers into her hair once again, holding her head while he feasted on her lips, swollen from his kisses. She took the lead from
Caim
and caressed his muscled chest. She pressed her body against him, letting her nipples touch the thatch of hair on his chest, and she gasped against his mouth as pleasure flowed through her. She rubbed against him like a sleek cat asking to be petted, enjoying the sensations of flesh touching flesh.

She tore her lips way from his and trailed kisses and tiny licks down his body until she reached the waistband of his pants. With deft fingers, she unsnapped the clasp and undid each button with a torturous, slow movement while letting her fingers graze his hard cock through the material.
Caim
jerked in response to her touch, and a sexy smile crossed her lips.

“I want to taste you. Can I, please?” Bliss asked with a sexy purr. She watched as he swallowed and only nodded. With his help, they got his pants and boots off the rest of the way, and he sat with his length hard and rigid. On her knees between his legs, Bliss leaned over, flicked out her tongue and licked the tip of his cock as if she was testing the flavor of him. She licked and kissed her way down and then back up his manhood while watching the pleasure cross his face and his hands clench and unclench against the cushions on the sofa. She took his hard cock in her mouth and slid her soft lips down and up with a gentle sucking motion.