AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Seeded?” she blurted. “What the fuck is seeding?” It sounded sexual, perverse.
Agone paused. “A poorly chosen word,” he conceded and amended with, “Gifted with powers.”
A breeze swept around the room, raising the hair on the back of her neck and sending an ominous shiver down her spine. Next to her, Agone had gone still. Statue still. Separated by the middle cushion, yet she could feel the change in him. Feel the change in the room.
He told her she wasn’t supposed to be afraid, but... “What’s happening?”
“Company’s coming.”
The words had just left his mouth when a pinpoint of light gathered in the center of the room. She wouldn’t have noticed it if Agone wasn’t locked on to the light. What he looked at, she looked at. Almost against her will. It expanded in the middle of the room until light coated every surface. Blinded, she shielded her eyes from the glare and turned her head toward Agone.
She watched him rise, watched the suit peel away like the skin of an onion to reveal another being beneath the layer. A being with reddish leathery skin, black wings, sharp black claws, and h-h-horns!
The dream of the beast turning into a man as Harry finished her tattoo rushed back. But this was no dream. It was real life in real time and in front of her disbelieving eyes. Her lips parted, a scream rising fast only to choke on it because another being appeared in the center of her living room.
Chapter 5
The air around Agone electrified, and a hint of ozone scented the air. A precursor to an unpleasant arrival, a meeting a millennium overdue. His gaze cut to Eden, and he had to ask why him? Why her? Why now? Fate was the answer to all three questions. Even supernatural beings bowed to the whims of the universe. Some things were out of the hands of Heaven and Hell. Having the doppelgänger of the woman you loved and betrayed a millennium ago in your presence—yours to protect, and love once again — was a blessing. And a curse.
By all in Heaven and Hell, she was beautiful. More beautiful than Ayleth. It meant something that until he saw Eden, Ayleth’s memory hadn’t just faded, it was gone. He’d blocked it and reduced her to a footnote in his immortal life. Briefly, Eden brought the memory back, then overshadowed it.
One eye blue, the other black. The result of her brush with a Seraph and a Prince of Hell. Downturned lips made it seem like she never smiled, but she did. He saw it many times when he spied on her with Harriet. A lush figure she hid behind loose clothing. Long dirty blond hair kept in a ponytail because it annoyed her, but she couldn’t cut it. A well-placed subliminal suggestion prevented her from ever taking a pair of scissors to the heavy mass. Curvy, with thick thighs and an ass to make a human beg and a demon claim, she was a cock tease in a flesh suit. She had an affinity for religious tattoos as if she knew a demon lay in her future and she needed all the protection she could gather. Not from him. He would never hurt her.
The electrical charge in the air increased, zapped his skin in warning. He wanted to respond in kind but checked the impulse. Shit. He stalled time as long as he could. Now, it snapped and Seren, in full shiny battle armor, appeared in front of him, pristine white wings extended in righteous fury.
“You will not have her!” Seren attacked.
Agone was ready for the warrior. Seren was one of the warrior class angels, and Agone had faced the Archangel Gabriel once, during the Demon Wars at the cusp of humanity’s birth. He had survived Gabriel with just a scratch. Seren... the wound he inflicted during their one and only battle took a century to heal. The site still itched now and then.
Seren swung his empyreal blade. Agone blocked it and planted his fist in Seren’s jaw. The resounding crack echoed but didn’t stop the angel. Not one bit. Seren broke Agone’s hold and darted to the other side of the room. It took seconds to heal and seconds for Seren to own his mistake. Never lead with anger. After a millennium, he should’ve learned it. Agone was always willing to give instruction to those in need.
This time Seren banked his rage. A quick student, he lunged at Agone, withdrew faster than he could respond, and knocked Agone to the floor. Agone vanished and returned in a single breath. He shackled Seren in manacles forged in Lucifer’s pit.
All decorum gone, Seren snarled, spit, lunged at Agone’s throat with his teeth bared. “Release me!”
“So you can attack me again? You do know you can’t kill me? Especially now.”
Another snarl. “You finally came up from the bowels of Hell. I can kill you. I will kill you. Today. Tomorrow. Next century. You will die by my hand. Under my blade.”
Agone nodded. “Almost the same promise you made before.”
“That was for Ayleth. This promise is for the female,” he gritted between clenched teeth.
“Female? Can’t say her name? Is that because she’s beneath you? A lowly human?”
Seren growled and struggled against the shackles. Shackles strengthened with Lucifer’s blood after he fell. “Eden.” He grimaced when he said it, as if it left a bitter taste in his mouth.
Agone slapped him. The blow whipped Seren’s head to the side, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. “You say her name with respect.”
“I will say her name however the hell I want,” Seren growled and licked the blood away before a drop landed. “Because she is nothing to me.”
Agone’s fists curled. Before he could check the impulse, he pummeled the arrogant fool in front of him. He wasn’t a sadist—well, not when fully dressed. Not true, anyway—He released the shackles because everyone deserved a fair fight.
Seren came at Agone now, all fists of fury. Agone blocked and dodged each one until a knee to the stomach doubled him over. Then an elbow planted into his spine flattened him. He rolled in time to avoid impalement at the end of Seren’s blade and kicked Seren’s knee. Another crunch. Another stifled cry. Seren stumbled away but returned with an uppercut by the time Agone regained his feet. They brawled, trading blows. Uppercut, right, a roundhouse kick to the temple, not weapons, just fists, as it should be when you’re trying to beat someone to death or beat some sense into them.
Each determined to get the upper hand, they blinked in and out of existence. Agone didn’t keep track until his back landed on a car, crushing the vehicle beneath him. From the corner of his eye, he spotted Eden running away from him, them. In the heat of the battle, Agone forgot to block Seren from transporting them away.
Forced through the conduits by the angel set his teeth on edge. The angel could transport him anywhere in including one of the few places he couldn’t escape.
