The Devil's Playthings (19 page)

She looked down, unaware if her eyes were blue or red.
And then she looked over at the angel, and knew why he had a protector looking over him. And then Emma choked back tears. God should have sent an army of angels.

“Oh, God Emma, what did you do?” As she looked down he did too, at her wrist. “Emma, when did you do this?”

“I… um…” she stumbled. She didn’t want to think about that right now.
And she didn’t want to have to think of a lie to tell this amazing, caring man.

“Emma, if you’re hurting yourself, you can talk to me,” Father Peter offered. “I’m a very good listener.”

At this point, she had no idea what to do. She could play up the victim card, get him to fall in love with her like a wounded bird. But she’d seen his future, she saw what he could be; not just a priest but a hero, a savior even.

“I can’t tell you.” Her voice grew low. “There are some things that can’t be said.”

He put his arms around her, pulling her against him. “Emma, I want you to know, whatever it is you can trust me. I will never tell anyone.”

“I know,” she said as tears fell down her cheeks. He wiped her tears, and without warning he kissed her cheek. Softly and lovingly he pressed his lips to her skin. His heart started to pound again. He moved slightly, and his lips found hers. He kissed her slowly at first, but he became more aggressive in just moments. “You can’t,” she reminded him as she used all her strength to pull away.

“I’m sorry,” he stated falsely. His heart still pounded, and his breathing was ragged.
He wasn’t sorry. He wanted her too badly to be sorry.

“I should go now. Thank you for meeting me today,” she called over her shoulder as she ran down the steps, grabbed her coat, and ran out the door in no time at all.

“He kissed you today,” Luc exclaimed cheerfully as she exited the elevator. “Let’s celebrate!”

“I don’t want to celebrate,” she answered smugly. “I want to be alone. I think I’ll go for a drive.”

He glared at her as she stormed through the apartment, found the keys to her new car, then went back down the elevator. For some reason she
couldn’t leave, she felt a pull she’d never experienced before; like a magnet to metal. She felt it pull her to the floor she had not yet seen, and when the elevator stopped there she descended into his hell. It was dark, black, no light at all. But she could still see somehow; she could see the mirrors that filled the walls and tortured him with his appearance
. And she found him, on a huge
woo
den
bed.

He was his animalistic self, the creature that should frighten her beyond anything. And she crawled toward him, finding his grey cracked hand and clinging to it. She felt his anguish, and his torture, and the torment of all the human souls who had yet to turn toward God. The feeling washed over her like a tsunami, and she breathed out loudly to remind herself that she could still breathe.

“It’s horrific,” she groaned, “how can you stand it?”

“It feeds me,” he growled in his guttural voice. “It sustains me.” Tears fell down her cheeks as she clung to him, wrapping her leg around his hard, thick waist. Her pain, so close to him, drowned out the rest, and her sobs were
more beautiful than a chorus of angels. He felt whole, and even in the horrific body, with her grasping onto him, he felt human.

She
awoke
late in the night and they were
enveloped in each other. His skin was soft and smooth again, his
human form returning sometime in the night.

“I have to go,” she whispered, and ran out of the room and up to her own. She dressed quickly in a soft plaid skirt and white sweater, and took her keys.
She drove to Father Peter’s cottage on campus, and ran to the door. She knocked loudly, waking him from his sleep. It was 3 am and she didn’t even feel the cold or the dark.

The Angels

“Emma, what are you doing here,” he whispered as he pulled a robe around himself.

“I have to talk to you,” she implored, and pushed past him into his small, modest home. “I need to tell you something,” she exclaimed, but she gasped for breath.

She felt like she was having an asthma attack, her lungs closed up.
She knew this was Luc’s doing, but she could not stop it any more than she could coerce her lungs to breathe.
And just before her eyes closed she saw the angel lingering over her, grasping at her hand.

Emma passed out, and Father Peter ran to her. “Wake up, Emma,” he cried out as he shook her shoulder. “Emma, wake up.” He sat on one side of her, and the angel sat at the other.

And then Lucifer was there, in the doorway of his small home. He was bigger than life, and Father Peter trembled at the sight of him.
“Oh, God help me,” he whispered as his hands went to make the sign of the cross over his body. “God help me. Get behind me, Satan.” He fumbled for a crucifix, but Lucifer merely swatted it out of his hands.

“Sleep, now,” Lucifer called, and Father Peter collapsed beside Emma. He picked them each up easily, then placed both of them on Father Peter’s bed.
This was much easier than he expected, he thought as he pulled off their clothes and threw them on the floor by the bed.

He spread his wings and flew through the night, back to the apartment, and landed on the terrace. He opened the door to the pool room and he was again human and naked, again the form of
Luc Reinhold.

He dialed a phone number and dressed quickly. In a panic he spoke to the headmaster. “This is Emma Reinhold’s guardian. She left suddenly earlier and I haven’t been able to find her. She isn’t answering her cell phone. She’s grown particularly attached to Father Peter, and I was wondering if she might have gone to his house. I’m on my way over there as well, but I was wondering if you could go over there and check to see if her car is there.”

When Luc arrived the headmaster was already there, standing over the sleeping, nude bodies of Emma and Father Peter.
Also there were two guardian angels, two Powers, and the Archangel Michael.

“Wake up,”
the headmaster’s
voice became progressively louder.

Luc came in
, looking much too cocky as he stared at his old friend Michael, who was now his archenemy.
He turned his attention quickly to the couple in the bed and
grabbed Emma, shaking her wildly.

“Emma, what are you doing?” He looked over to the headmaster, fiercely crying out. “He’s seduced her. He’s ruined her. What has he done?” Emma awoke, and then Father Peter did as well. Emma was shocked, but not nearly as shocked as Father Peter.

She saw the five angels in the room, the one that was with Father Peter at mass and another just like it. She saw two more, different. These were male, and had swords at their side, and shorter robes.

T
he final angel
looked just like what she’d seen in pai
ntings. He was not white light.
H
e looked as human as Emma. He was blonde, with hair as golden as the sun. His skin was so white it was translucent. He wore golden armor with a blue sash over his chest. And the sword he pulled out of the sheath was of a pure blue
light. He looked ready for battle
.

She looked up at Luc, who merely smirked at him. In no time at all at least 20 demons were in the room as well. The other
two angels pulled their sword
, but they were out numbered. They held their ground, though, standing guard over Peter. When a demon got too close to him, an a
ngel was immediately in front of them blocking their way
.

“The devil was here,” he uttered, sounding crazy. “The devil was in my house. I saw him.” That’s when he looked around the room and saw Mr. Reinhold holding a nude Emma, and the headmaster looking at him accusingly. “It was the devil, he was here,” Peter called out.

“Emma get dressed, we’re leaving. You’re never coming back to this school again,” he shouted, and Emma did as instructed.
But she couldn’t take her eyes of
f
Michael, whose eyes were as blue as the sky. He stared at her, as if wanting to say something.

“Emma, tell them,” he begged. “Tell them nothing happened. Tell them the devil was here. Emma, please tell them.” She couldn’t speak, she was in such distress.
That’s when she heard the sirens.

A police officer rushed into the room, and Father Peter stood quickly to grab his robe. “What happened here,” the officer asked the headmaster.

“Nothing,” Father Peter began. “It was the devil, he was here.”

“I came in and found him with the girl, and they were naked in his bed,” the headmaster confirmed in just as much shock as Peter was in.

“He was here with my ward,” Luc insisted. “They were in bed together.” Emma broke down in tears, knowing that he had succ
eeded in using her to bring shame on
Father Peter.
She’d only want
ed to warn him, but Lucifer used their proximity to make it appear they had done much more.

“Is this true, miss,” a female officer came toward her, but she turned away and into Luc’s body.

“Yes, it’s true, I saw it as well,” the headmaster affirmed.

Father Peter became incoherent, and the male officer handcuffed him. He broke down crying as the man tried to read him his rights, and the female broke in and said, “We’re going to have to take him for a psych eval
uation
.” The male officer nodded, and they both had to pull him out of the room and to the waiting police car.
Four of the angels left with Peter, surrounding him with their light.
By then he was screaming at the top of
his lungs for God to help him
.
He couldn’t see the angels who were with him.

“You’ll hear from my lawyer,” Luc snarled at the headmaster as he carried E
mma out of the house. In his arms she turned to look over his shoulder, and Michael was followi
ng right behind him.

Once they were far enough away from the other Luc spoke.
“You can
join me, Michael,” he said in that
language that Emma
now understood
. It was just as musical
as when he’d spoken to her in her bedroom
.
But it sounded like a symphony and all the instruments were playing different songs.
“When I win the war, you can join me and you can feel what I have felt. It’s better than you can imagine.”

“I will never join you,” Michael said as she watched huge white wings unfurl from his back. “I will never be what you are. You are an animal.”

“So are the humans you protect so dearly,” Lucifer whispered.

“You were supposed to protect her,” Michael spoke this time in English, to be sure that Emma understood him. “What have you done to her? You’ve made her into a monster.”

Emma tore her gaze from Michael to Lucifer, whose bright red eyes bore into hers and into her mind. “You’re not a monster, you’re a goddess. He fears you. They all do.”

“Fear is not an emotion I feel,” he said as his wings began to move. She was surprised no one else could hear, the sound of the huge wings flapping was enough to make her cover her ears.
Emma watched as Michael ascended into heaven, and Lucifer heard his wings flapping. He knew
Michael
was gone.

W
hen they were inside her little Mercedes he
transformed again. “We did it.
” He
stated calmly
, and reached over
to kiss her lips.

They sped back to the apartment with the driver in the limo behind them.
She wondered what Michael meant by protecting her, but she refused to ask Luc.
He made love to her quickly and violently when they arrived and he carried her into her room. And when he was spent inside her he began to laugh. It was an evil, maniacal laugh that sent chills down her spine.