CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Layla watched as Tanus swung a giggling Annabelle into his arms after her attempt to sprint away from him in the snow. He chuckled low, growling against her neck, and she shrieked in childlike joy. A smile spread on Layla’s lips watching the pair together. Sitting back against the granite rock face, she let the sun warm her as Tanus put Annabelle back down on the snow She immediately turned and tried to tackle the giant demon to the ground. He fell back with a groan and lay there not moving. Annabelle jumped on his chest. Tanus made a low death-like rattle and Annabelle giggled.
“Come on, Daddy, I’m not that heavy!”
He made a wheezing sound. “Dying…” He lifted an arm and let it drop back in the snow.
“Daddy! Mommy, he’s being silly!”
Layla grinned and shrugged. “I’m sorry, baby girl, I can’t help you. You are going to have to restart him on your own. Be careful though. When he wakes up, he turns into a tickle monster.”
“No, he doesn’t!” Annabelle looked down at him warily, then back at her mother who nodded. Then she started to back off his chest.
She was nowhere near fast enough. Tanus lifted his arms and started tickling her sides. The mountain erupted into little girl giggles. Tanus sat up, the little girl in his lap tried to get away, but he kept hold.
“Mommy! Make him stop!” Her laugh was more healing then any hot spring or energy from the earth any day.
“Too late, little Bella!” Tanus laughed deeply, keeping the little girl rolling over with endless giggles.
Layla smiled. She could not fathom the depth with which she loved this man. Sin of Wrath he might be, but right now, with her child in his arms he was as far from Wrath as anyone could be. A sudden chill came over her. She frowned and covered her cheeks with her hands. Her smile faltered, the cold getting worse moving from her cheeks to her neck, then down to her heart.
“Tanus…” Oh god. She could feel a cold hand around her heart. Gripping her chest, she felt his arms around her, sweeping her up.
“Layla, what’s wrong? Speak to me.” She looked up into his flaming eyes. Worry warred with his Sin, and he was battling to keep it at bay.
“Daddy, what’s wrong?” At the sound of Annabelle’s voice the anger left him. Seemed she was not the only one who held power of that dark Sin of his. Tanus reached for Annabelle, pulling her with him.
“She’s okay, Bella, we’re just trying to figure something out. It will be okay. Layla, tell me what’s going on. I can’t fix it if I don’t know.”
Layla closed her eyes and reached inside herself. This was not her, this was something else. She reached for her power, finding the Source, that energy her mother said called out to her. She tapped into it easily, now following it back along the trail of cold chilling her heart.
The scene expanded before her eyes—the cabin, Lexi was there with an unconscious man she didn’t recognize. Two angels, and Richard? Wait was that James and Ian from town? Were they dead? Ignoring the fact her ex-boyfriend happened to be at the cabin with two of his old friends who were now very dead, she was filled with panic that Lexi was facing down two angels alone.
Layla knew she had left her body. Somehow she had travelled along the Source back to the cabin and was now watching what was happening to her sister. She could feel her sister’s terror through their bond. Rubbing over her heart she tried to reach for Lexi, anything to show her she was not alone. But she knew she was but an astral form, an observer to the macabre scene now playing out before her.
There he was, the angel from the dream. Some part of her wished this could all be some messed-up vision. But you couldn’t mistake those eyes and that cold calculated gaze. This was the man who had tortured her Wolfman and now he had her sister.
“Let’s get this game started, shall we? Chamuel, restrain our ‘guest.’” Michael nodded to the other angel with him.
Layla watched helplessly as an angel with eyes like the sun grabbed her sister around the throat and dragged her kicking body to the cabin. He pressed her against one of the large pillars that made up the structure. The wood came alive, creating makeshift restraints that held Lexi upright, hands above her head. Layla watched her sister spit directly into the face of the angel, and she smiled. Go, Lexi.
“No game is complete without some kind of wager, am I right, Seer of Healing? What will our wager be?” Michael walked toward her, his hands behind his back. “I know, the human soul, how about that?” Layla watched him gesture with his hand, and a limp Richard floated from the floor and hung in the air beside him.
“Say I ask you this. Can all human souls be bought with money, hypothetically speaking? The key word here is ALL. Well, Seer, can they?” Lexi, hold on, I’m coming. Layla closed her eyes trying to send herself back to her body, but nothing happened. She had no choice but to watch what was unfolding before her.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Layla watched her sister pulling at the bindings. She turned her head, catching the brown-haired angel restraining the unconscious man who had been bleeding in the snow. Who was he?
“You disappoint me, Seer. I guess the answer is there are times when you can, and times when you can’t. Wouldn’t you agree, Richard?” Michael turned his head to the floating man.
“Yes, my lord.” His voice sounded drugged. Layla frowned. What had the bastard done to him? Michael gestured, and Richard landed on his feet, his head lolling forward.
“Funny thing about humans. Sometimes they will maintain their morality, even if you offer them a billion dollars. Then, of course…” Michael tilted Richard’s head back with a twisted grin. “There are times they will murder someone over one measly note. So, I guess you could look at it this way, Seer. The human soul is random, and in that case, you can bet on a random outcome, right?”
“Stop talking bullshit, you twisted fuck!” Lexi pulled at her restraints. Layla could see red trails of blood rolling down her twin’s arms.
“I’m coming to a point, my dear, try to be patient. It’s a virtue, you know. I know people will argue that the human soul is not random. That you can’t place bets on whether someone will murder another, or commit acts of rape… that morality prevents people from true acts of evil.” Michael’s eyes flashed copper, turning to Lexi. “You see, sweet Lexi, you can’t truly know someone until you see what’s inside, until they’re faced with their ultimate test.” Michael placed his hand over Richard’s heart.
“It is not as if I have one hundred percent control over the human soul, mind you. All I do is open the door to what’s really inside. What happens then is a random act of fate, or is it destiny?” Richard’s body convulsed, a glow appearing on his chest. Layla watched in horror, unable to do anything. In this vision, she was tied to this spot, not here, but not back in her body. She needed to leave, needed to get back. They needed to get to the cabin. She had a sick feeling she knew what Michael was doing. She had to get to Lexi.
The glow vanished from Richard, and Michael stepped back, his eyes locking on Lexi. “There now, a human soul, devoid of all the restrictions of morality. I wonder what he’ll do. Will he remain noble? Was he ever noble? Or will he indulge? Fulfill his darkest desires? Unrestricted by the chains of human morality?”
Layla looked between Richard and Lexi, her sister’s eyes were wide in fear. Right now, Richard leaned forward as if passed out, but she didn’t know how long this would last. She had to get back, and get back now.
TANUS! She screamed for him inside her mind as loudly as she could, anything to reach out for him.
Suddenly she was pulled back. Sitting upright, she threw her arms around him. “We need to go, now! We have to go!”
“Easy, baby! What’s going on? Speak to me.” His eyes locked onto hers. Tears spilled from her eyes as panic rushed through her. She needed to get home. Now! She felt his hands on her cheeks, holding her head still. “Breathe for me, Layla. Tell me what’s going on.”
She sucked in a breath and covered his hands with hers, a sob leaving her lips. “He’s here. Michael. He’s got Lexi at the cabin. He did something to Richard! Something horrible! I don’t think he’s all human anymore!”
Layla looked up at Tanus. He was in his full demon form, his wings flickering with blue flame. She held Annabelle tight in her arms. He was breathing deeply, nervous energy flowing through him. She reached up and touched his face, and his eyes met hers.
“You’re sure about this?” she asked.
He lifted a clawed hand and covered hers gently. Her arm looked so delicate in his palm. “I should be asking you that. Transportation this way is difficult. But it is instantaneous, it will get us back to the cabin. We will not leave your sister alone to face Michael. I won’t let him touch her, I swear it, Layla.”
She went on tiptoe, pressing a kiss to his lips. “Do it, get us there, Tanus.”
Annabelle whimpered, burying her face against her mother’s neck; she was shivering a little.
“Hey, Bella?”
She pulled back and looked up at him, her eyes wide.
“Have you ever been out in the sun for a long time and gotten a little sunburned?” She nodded slowly. “I swear, it won’t even be like that. I won’t allow it to touch you.” Tanus lowered his head so it was level with her. “You trust me?” She smiled gently and nodded quickly. “Good girl, close your eyes, keep your face hidden, okay?”
“Okay. Daddy?”
“Yes, Annabelle?”
She chewed on her bottom lip, then she took a deep breath and looked him right in the eye.
“Kick Michael’s butt.”
He snorted a laugh and Layla looked at her daughter, raising an eyebrow. Tanus pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Don’t you worry. I intend to, Bella.” He breathed in her gentle scent, committing it to memory. He had never thanked a god, but now he thanked his father, Hades—thanked him down to the bottom of his wrathful soul that he had found a woman who loved him and a child who looked through his walls to the man, not the monster.
Pulling back, he pressed his forehead to Layla’s and closed his eyes. It had been a very, very long time since he had called on the flames as a mode of transportation. He had not needed them, so he quit using them. It took a great amount of energy to open the gateway that energy came from, tapping into his Sin. The irony was, with his shields gone between his Sin and his soul, he had direct access to the power. Opening the gate would be easy. He had sworn he would not allow a lick of flame to touch his family; he would take every ounce of it.
“Stay within my wings, hold onto me at all times.”
Layla nodded and Annabelle tightened her grip around her mother. Tanus bent down and gently picked them both up in his arms. To him they weighed nothing. Waiting until they were adjusted, he spread his wings wide, the blue flame flicking against the wind.
He slowly wrapped one wing then the other around them, sealing out the light, only the flicking blue of his fire lighting the cocoon he made for them.
“Ready?” He heard Layla’s mumbled reply, her voice muffled by his wings. Letting out a shaky breath, a trickle of trepidation at what he was about to do threaded through his mind. He had never transported people this way. This was not shadows, this was fire teleportation, a whole different animal.
Calling on the Sin that writhed in his soul, it came readily to his summons. He kept Layla in the forefront in his mind, determined not to let it swamp him. He called on the fires that burned within him, forcing them from his skin and concentrating only on the parts of his body that he wanted the fire to appear on. The fire rained down from his skin, hitting the snow-covered ground and growing around him until he was surrounded by sparkling blue fire that singed his flesh.
The flames began to rotate, growing until they were higher than his body, becoming a tornado of blue and black wildfire sealing around him. Gritting his teeth against the burn he focused his mind on the cabin—his target was Lexi. He built her form in his mind, ignoring the biting of the angry flames wanting him to rage with them.
In truth, this whole process took less than five seconds, but to him it took longer—concentrating past the desire to let the fire claim him and let the fury take his soul over. His arms tightened around the two bundles of precious cargo wrapped in his protective wings. No, he would not give in to his rage, not with their lives in his hands. With a forceful push of his mind, he gritted his teeth against the painful burning. He demanded the fire take him where he wished to be.
On the mountain, the air crackled with the heat, the roar drowning out the sounds of nature. The wind raged and wood cracked as the fire-nado raged on the mountainside. Then it closed in on itself with a pop, vanishing from the mountain, leaving behind a steaming circle of melted snow.