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The wry observation drained some of her tension, though she remained wary as he turned with a muffled grunt to lie down next to her. Gathering her close, he let her lie across his chest. "Did Lucifer and David tell you how best to handle me?"
"They respect you too much to do that, my lord. And I am yours to command."
"Oh, really?" The incredulity in his voice, the underlying humor, clear now, brought with it an overwhelming rush of relief to her. The worst had passed, for the moment. "Perhaps you'll tell me one command of mine you've obeyed thus far. Unless memory escapes me, you've ignored anything I've told you to do."
"I suspect you should be getting sleepy now, my lord," she evaded. "The human male form does tend to require sleep . . . after."
He squeezed her in light reproof. "You seem to have lost your terror of angels, little one. Standing up to Lucifer himself."
"You all are not so fearsome. A lot of grumbling and bluster for the most part. Much like blowfish."
That of course was a lie, on many different levels. Lucifer aside, Jonah had been fearsome during the battle with the Dark Ones. The way he'd taken their lives with such fierce, single-minded precision. It had been awesome and terrible to watch how he fought even as he got overwhelmed. It was obviously what he knew best. He was at home in battle, more comfortable than anywhere she'd seen him yet. Even in her arms.
But she hadn't truly feared him until he sank his teeth into her breast and she saw that trace of malicious light in his gaze. For that second, she'd wished Lucifer and David hadn't left.
No. She couldn't think that way. It wasn't Jonah. It was the darkness she feared, the emanations a cold echo of what she'd sensed from those terrible creatures tonight. That Jonah could succumb, become one of them . . . Was that what Lucifer had hinted the poison could do to him? No. She would get him to the shaman, and everything would be all right.
Winding her arms more closely about him, she buried her fingers in his hair, held his face to her throat, felt his breath there. She did love him. She didn't know if she simply loved the amazing idea of him, or the man himself, but it didn't matter. The man and the idea were the same. She believed in that, believed in him. She had to help restore him to that if she had any meager ability to do so. The two angels seemed to think that was the case. Even Mina had intimated it.
Okay, so Lucifer had said she was the only one who could do anything with Jonah, which was a little different. But she was going to take it as a bolstering thought.
He'd fallen asleep while Anna held him in her arms. She propped herself on an elbow, studied his face, traced the strong bone structure, the sensual fierceness of it. If David and Lucifer had stayed, traveled with them, the next time Jonah wanted her, would he have taken her this way before them, the way he implied that angels often did, sharing women together?
She remembered Jonah's possessive reaction when Lucifer had looked at her. But could what she'd interpreted as a protective, singular attitude been simply part of the poison gripping him?
"Mine," he'd said just now, as if she were a slave, his property.
For a moment she felt swamped by doubts again, terribly alone. But with him in her arms like this, how could she feel lonely? When she held him against her heart, a childish fantasy it might be, but she felt the clasp of the other half of herself.
Settling down next to him again, she held him as he muttered, called out in his sleep. Holding him in her arms and stroking him as needed, both for his comfort and her pleasure, her fingertips lingered on his broad shoulders. She followed the line of his chest down to his hard abdomen and remembered its weight pushing her own legs open. His cock, even in its replete state, still looked able to fill her. Perhaps angels weren't the only ones who craved this for grounding, for nourishment of the soul. She couldn't imagine what she was going to do without it when it was gone, but that would come whether she tried to prepare for it or not. Her task was before her.
It was time to rouse him and continue their journey. She had to get him to the shaman.
Sixteen
THE day's heat had long since passed oppressive. When Anna glanced at Jonah, she saw that, despite his human form, his core was still angel, for his skin barely gleamed with sweat. He seemed relaxed, walking and taking in the landscape around them, whereas she was certain every cell along her skin's surface was gasping for air.
As they moved deeper into the state, the occasional sign told them they were headed into the Mojave Desert, moving toward the Black Rock wilderness area. Even without the signs, their surroundings reflected the change in topography.
As if he'd picked up that she was having some difficulty adapting to their decidedly nonoceanic environment, Jonah was goading her natural curiosity about new things by pointing out features of interest. She was surprised to find that, while she didn't know the names of her own wildflowers, Jonah was a rich resource on the vegetation of the area, patiently telling her the names and histories of the different bizarre-looking plants. Joshua trees with their upraised limbs like a supplicant prophet, which had given them their name. Saltbush with tiny clusters of shell-like leaves and crusty surface. Thorny, tall greasewoods whose leaves had a salty taste. Yucca with their thick white blooms.
In the distance, smooth gray formations of what she thought of as mountains were the remnants of volcanic craters. Jonah noted they would find no vegetation in those areas. But he told her mammoths and saber-toothed tigers once roamed there.
"You were alive when . . ."
Jonah chuckled. "No, little one. Their time was far before mine. But angels do have very regimented occasions to move through time doors, and it was a period I was allowed a brief glimpse of."
She stopped, stared at him. "You've gotten to see and do so much. How . . ." She bit it off, realizing at once the error of going down that road, but he'd already sensed what the question was. He looked out at the volcanic formations, the remnants of volatile things.
"Because I have seen numerous wonders, little one. Experienced and learned every philosophy, seen the way they cycle into one another. And yet the nature of evil is never changed or healed by any of it. Never wishes to do anything but destroy the wonders of the universe. Believe me"--his lip curled in a bitter sneer--"blissful ignorance is the closest friend of faith."
She cursed herself for bringing the shadows back into his face. He'd seemed better today, the despair that had gripped him after their encounter with Lucifer and David going dormant behind his apparent enjoyment of her insatiable curiosity, her excitement over things that were so commonplace to him.
Resolutely, she turned her gaze back to the landscape. "It's like we're about to walk on the moon, isn't it?"
"Astronauts have trained in this area for just that reason."
Fortunately for her gasping skin, it was also the type of area where the sparse population and fierce conditions meant that the infrequent passing drivers automatically stopped to ask if they needed a ride. Jonah had therefore offered most of his explanations to her as they bounced along in the backs of the pickups or other off-road vehicles that were the predominant transportation for this remote area.
Anna was quietly relieved, for the area was also rife with breathtaking mountain ranges that would have made for difficult travels. Every step she took on the hot asphalt, even with the sunscreen and hat she now wore, and the ample supply of drinking water they carried, seemed to be dragging down her limbs
. She had no desire to show Jonah how the heat was affecting her. Just a little farther . . . Another day's travel at this pace, with these many helping hands, and they'd be there.
She saw the gas station as a paradise when their latest hitch dropped them there. The two surveyors turned off on a highway toward California, away from where she and Jonah were going. Anna went inside to buy something else cold and wet for both of them while Jonah stayed outside, still preferring open spaces.
As she went up the stairs of the wooden porch of the trading post, Anna noticed an old man sitting on a straight-backed chair at the end of it. There was a rocker next to him, but he'd chosen the chair that didn't move, which she thought was odd, when she would take any opportunity to increase the air movement around her. She couldn't tell if he was sleeping or just staring out at the desert landscape, but he was so motionless, she at first guessed the former. Then she realized his head was not touching the back of the chair, nor was it bowed forward.
Then Jonah passed her, his fingertips grazing her lower back, distracting her with his absent smile before he headed in that direction, apparently planning to take a seat in the rocking chair.
She wondered if he'd ever sat in one and if she should warn him about the unexpected motion. Suppressing a smile, she decided to let him make that discovery himself. Despite the heat, she couldn't help but take an extra moment to watch him. The way he walked, the invisible sense of those wings, though he was much steadier in his human form now. Shaking her head at her foolish crush, she made herself open the screen door to enter the store.
A middle-aged woman with tired eyes and a lined face but a pleasant smile was running the place. She introduced herself as Pat, offered Anna any help, then continued working on receipts. Anna wandered, finding some ironic merchandise options, including a T-shirt with the familiar saying, "Never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly." She utilized the restroom to change into it, as well as a pair of light cotton shorts and sneakers that she knew would be better for the area than her dress and sandals. There was also a bobble-headed angel she couldn't resist. She tied it to the top of the backpack, which she'd brought in with her to pack whatever supplies she bought.
