No matter how badly I wanted her, no matter how badly everything in me screamed she was mine, I could never take her in such a way. I couldn’t take her then abandon her. My body recoiled against the idea of leaving her at all. If I took her, I would never let her go, but as a mortal, I could never keep her.
Turn her.I immediately shut the startling impulse down. That couldn’t be a possibility, not with my River.
Adjusting my erection, I took a deep breath and slowly regained control of myself enough to resume her training.
“Try again,” I said quietly.
She shot a look at me over her shoulder before dropping the bottle and resting her right palm against the trunk of a tree. Her back remained to me as her attention focused on the valley I knew lay beyond this hill. Walking over, I stood beside her to stare down at the ruined town nestled below. The blackened remains of the homes and the giant crater in the middle were all I needed to see to know it had been a victim of the war. Most of the residents probably hadn’t survived the devastation unleashed there.
“Have you ever gone down there?” she inquired.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Why would I?” I demanded impatiently. “They’re dead, and it’s a wasteland. Come, we must practice.”
The look she gave me was one of pure exhaustion. Her lids hung heavily over her shadowed eyes; her shoulders were slouched and her face strained. It was good to know I hadn’t been the only one tossing and turning for the rest of last night. The only difference was I’d been kept awake with fantasies of her plaguing me and a stiff dick that refused to be eased by my hand. She’d probably been contemplating my murder.
Throwing her shoulders back, her chin jutted out. “It’s not getting me anywhere. You have to be able to tell me something that will help me do it.”
I ran a hand through my hair, tugging at the ends of it. “I know only the rumors about the ability. Angels are able to harvest energy from other living things and use it against their enemies.”
“Well, if they’re not fighting you, like popularly believed, then who are they fighting?”
“Each other. Satan didn’t throw himself out of Heaven.”
“Why are they fighting each other?”
“What else is there to do in Heaven? Hanging out on clouds and playing harpsichords gets tiring for everyone after a century. Just as hanging out in Hell does.”
She frowned at me before her gaze slid back to the town. “The demons did a lot of infighting?”
“There was some before Lucifer arrived and turned it into an all-out war. Mostly the lower-level demons would try to launch an uprising that was quickly squashed. Now battling is an everyday part of our existence.”
“Why wouldn’t God put a stop to the angels fighting?”
“I have no idea. Perhaps God likes a good fight too.”
“It all sounds so silly.”
“You humans enjoy your battles too. Look at all the wars, fights, and murders of which your species has taken part. It is the way of all of our worlds.”
“I suppose,” she murmured. “It’s all so sad.”
“Come.” My hand fell on her arm. When my cock jumped again, I realized immediately I never should have touched her. Gritting my teeth against the urge to place her hand on my erection and have her ease from me what I could no longer do on my own, I turned her away from the town. “You must concentrate.”
“It would probably help if you told me more than concentrate and focus. What did Lucifer do to get this ability to come to life?”
“I don’t know; he was unable to use it once he became more of a demon. It’s the only ability he was never able to channel again.”
She looked tempted to punch me when her head tilted back to look at me. “You’re yelling at me to use a power you’ve only ever heard about being wielded!” she accused. “And you have no idea if I’ll be able to do what you’ve onlyheardof.”
“You can use it.”
She slammed her hands on her hips. “And how do you know that?”
“Because you are the strongest, most capable human I’ve ever met. This ability has been brought forth in you already; it will come forth again.”
