lukewarm

A body found floating in the water beneath the Wickery Bridge. In a town where dozens were missing and far more (the thought still left Gabriel shuddering) lay in shallow graves or drifted as ash from hastily built pyres, it should’ve come no surprise to any of them. As the sun had dipped below the horizon, though, the bridge and the water below had been bathed in scarlet and blue light.

The call had come in to one of his reporters just as the last of them were leaving Campbell’s. Gabriel hadn’t hesitated, he’d plucked his keys from his pocket and had told the reporter to get in. He’d excused it by telling himself that he was saving her from driving to a scene that was bound to be full of sheriff’s people with a blood alcohol that could see her behind bars herself but the truth was the sheer numbers of these scenes that had come up since he’d moved here had started to bother him.

’This is not human crime. Few of them are. You are safe here.’

Standing on the bank of the river – as close as the sheriff was allowing people to get to the bridge and the boat floating beneath it – Gabriel had let out a strained little bark of laughter. It was cold comfort. A couple of years of dealing with an angel in his head, those odd hops and leaps in time, and those horrifying flickers of memories in his head, had desensitised him to some of what happened in town but how could anybody get used to this?

His reporter made it all of ten minutes before she was lurching aside to throw up the bottomless mimosas she’d been downing all evening into the bushes. Hell, he might have joined her if the angel had not swum up inside of him to settle his stomach. The body that had been hauled into the boat was small, bare limbs marble white and flopping over the edge as it was hauled out of the water. Female if that long snarl of red hair was anything to go by, perhaps a college student, worse, possibly, a high school student. They might have been floating more than fifty feet away but until she slipped bonelessly into the bottom of the boat that gaping red wound where her throat had once been was visible to everybody there.

They’d stayed until the coroner’s van had pulled away from the scene, taking most of the sheriff’s staff with them. Gabriel had trailed back to his car, feeling as pale and cold as they girl must have been as he slipped behind the wheel and brushed off the murmured apology from his reporter. She’d passed out cold again before he’d pulled out onto the road. Connection or not to the sheriff’s office, she wasn’t going to be writing this piece, not if he wanted it on the front page come morning. It was a poor prize to fight over but he would have the jump on this.

Half an hour later he kicked his shoes off outside his apartment door. The scent of mimosa rolled up off of them as he toed them aside, leaving his own gorge rising up his throat. His neighbours on this floor wouldn’t thank him for it but they were staying outside until they could be hosed off – preferably by the hugely apologetic woman who’d stumbled into her building like the entire world had tipped 45 degrees from the usual.

The shirt, tie and pants had made the hamper at least. She’d managed to avoid them, doing her full damage to the toes of the Ferragamo Oxfords, but the scent of the river water had clung to them. Jeans, bare feet crossed and tucked under the banker’s chair in his home office, sleeves shoved up his forearms as Gabriel got to work. Remiel had shot suggestions into his mind, some flashing foul enough behind his eyes that he’d tried to grind them out. ”No help,” Gabriel managed roughly, the heels of his palms a relentless pressure against his closed lids. The angel’s protests cut off with a distinctly human curse but Gabriel shook his head, hunching back over the laptop. ”It might not be what they’re going to say but I can’t splash that across the first page.” Claws were a nightmare enough, the teeth that had glittered in what couldn’t have been a memory of his would be riot inducing.

Fingers rattled, the icon bounced across the screen, tumbling beneath the falling domino speed of the words that flowed out of him. The arms of the clock ticked through midnight, past three am, the Tiffany lamp on the desk burning as badly as his eyes. Remiel strained at the leash he could break with a single thought in their shared mind but it took the shrill buzz of his phone to have that leash snapping and the angel rushing into his mind on a tsunami of power and razor sharp interest.

The office. Invader, invader, invader! Rationality was shoved at him by the human battling to regain the wheel but Remiel had learned just enough about Gabriel’s attempts to raise walls around his castle to know that the alarm was not something pedestrian enough to allow Gabriel to drive there.

Silence shattered with that flutter of wings, light bathing the dark office bright enough that all was revealed. The desk, the untouched computer … ”Demon!” The hiss bit out as viciously as the demon’s warning. Asleep on the floor of Gabriel’s apartment she had looked delicate almost, but the shell of the human hid a vile corruption within. He had spared her once but her forked, hissing tongue proved that she had not done as he had asked. ”My torment?” Remiel laughed, pressing in close to her as though he would pin her to the wall. ”You come into my space, foul beast. Was our rescue of you not enough to drive you to do what I asked? You were supposed to leave the girl be, not slink in here to wave temptation at my host. Do you believe him stupid enough to fall for this?” His hands drifted in the air in a mocking echo of her own. The dress was new … not as tailored as the last. Modern, cheap enough, a definite step down from the glory of her last.

Tagged: LAMIA * Word Count: 1069

The creatures were damned, they had to be to end up in the pits of hell to be moulded into these things in the first place. Most angels wouldn’t have the arrogance to say it aloud but they believed that those who got to walk through the heaven their father had created were blessed. His sons and daughters were blessed. Remiel wouldn’t have called himself a perfect creature – he had made far too many mistakes with his host to have that level of self-belief but again there were those amongst his kind who still held on to Lucifer’s believes even without admitting where they came from – but until the demon had come into his life he had not considered himself damned either.

Now, as she shrank back from him, now it felt like it. Damned to keep rescuing her, damned to listen to the buzzsaw edge of her tongue and her continual hissing protests. As though she had not managed to bring it all upon herself the first time and quite possibly this time. Something had her scared and Remiel doubted it was his presence in the office belonging to his host. With that quiver in her gut and a look of imperiousness – what he would do to see it wiped away – she had come to find him.

And to deny it.

She pushed back, verbally, physically. Slender hands, far too delicate looking to do the damage he knew these creatures were capable of, shoving at his chest as though she had a hope of moving him. Remiel lifted his hands, had one around her wrist and the fingers of the other just kissing the skin of her forearm. ”Our space,” he growled, meaning he and Gabriel. ”I suppose you found some joy in the thought of…” Coming to torture him again, or throwing herself at his feet, pleading with those big blue eyes for him to remedy whatever situation she had gotten herself in.

Light spared past the two of them, leaving his mouth hanging open as the angel stared at it. A searchlight, seemingly wielded by something, or someone, who needed the aid of it. Their own kind – neither of them – would have bothered with such things. Trivial situations like darkness posed no difficulties, but for humans? ”Who have you bought here? My host’s space should be free of your foulness but it seems as though you have come with your tail between your legs again. Do you hope that I’ll have developed enough of a soft spot for you to see them off?” Remiel didn’t ask who they were. The fact that they were here in search of the demon meant that they had some mutual feeling towards her at least.

For a moment the demon’s hands had pulled free but now she was crawling back in, like a terrified child in a thunderstorm. The image of his sister trailing into Gabriel’s room as a child came to mind. The huge house rattling with the thunder, a child curling up in a corner of his bed with a thumb in her mouth and an arm wrapped around the toy her brother had shared with her, going back to sleep as though his mere presence made it all better. Not so different with the demon this time.

Remiel made a small, disgruntled sound as Lamia pushed back in. His brows rose, a laugh trickling out as he angled his head just enough to try and caught sight of who she had led to his door through the window she cowered away from. ”Perhaps I should dangle you instead and rid myself of a problem,” Remiel shot back coolly. The laugh rolled through him as he pushed at her again. Pressing back until he felt the cool plaster of the wall press against his knuckles. There was little room between him and the wall for her but that was certainly the point. ”You came here” Remiel hissed. ”It would seem as though the moment were of your choosing.” Regardless of whether or not she knew who the place belonged to, she had found it and he had been drawn here like she had yanked upon the string she believed he dangled from. ”Who are they and why does one such as yourself cower from them? They are just human, yes?” As though his father’s favoured creations couldn’t be dangerous.

Tagged: LAMIA * Word Count: 730

For someone who wanted nothing more than to be free of him, this beast spent a lot of time holding on. It suited her to look for rescue in him now after all those threats in Gabriel’s home. Remiel took her denials of what was wrong there in front of him on the chin, snorting out his disagreement. There were a million places in this town to run to, to hide from the hunters if she didn’t have the power to turn around and take them down, and she’d picked this one. Him.

There shouldn’t have been a pang of pride in the pit of his stomach at it. Irritation? Yes, the swimming of his stomach Gabriel had sworn was distaste, not that little burst of something else. It lasted no more than two minutes though. The demon hadn’t come alone, there were others out there, perhaps brought to do what she had not been able to the first time around.

Remiel scowled down at her as she hushed him. His head tilted in warning, his mouth pursing. He would not be silenced when all of this was her doing. She looked away from him, around the space as though she were suddenly seeing it again, her brows furrowing as tightly as her own. ”His?” he echoed dumbly, snatching for that proving finger as she jabbed it at him. ”How did you not see? Yes. You came crawling here, just as you did to my side before. Do you honestly believe that we will take pity on you like a stray animal every time when all you bring is … this.” Remiel lifted his chin, indicating the motion still going on beyond the windows. Trouble and damnation, the latter swimming in the air like perfume.

The lure didn’t lower his face close to her throat this time. Instead Remiel tried to hold himself back, his hand plucking to keep hers from trailing between them, sending those bolts of pleasure through a body that certainly didn’t want the touch of her kind. ”And that is all there is for your kind, hmm?” the angel said tightly. ”You ignore the rules and just play, teasing until something turns to bite back yes?” There was certainly no room for fun and games and softness in all of this. Dear lord. Remiel’s eyes fluttered shut as the words she tossed out like dares were whispered into his throat. Lips warm as the fires of hell themselves skimming his skin until … he snapped.

Hands closed around her upper arms, pushing her back into the wall. Not in an attempt to hide, the hunters surely wouldn’t find their way through the building to this very spot, and even if they did, he could be gone in a moment, either taking the demon with him or leaving her there to their mercy. The laugh that rolled out at the thought was cool in his throat in comparison to the heat of a moment before. ”I thought you believed my kind incapable of being amusing,” he said tightly, cursing as her fingers tightened in his hair, pulling his head around as though he were nothing more a stubborn mule.

Remiel frowned, not fighting her. There were tears in her eyes again, as there had been that first time. As though she trusted that the sight of them would have him caving to her again. Last time his host had offered the sanctuary of his home and by the next morning this creature had run. She was devoid of gratitude and undoubtedly would be again. ”I don’t believe it was such an accident,” Remiel crooned. ”Trouble seems to find you often in this town and somehow it is always here you run to.” He peeled his hand from the wall, meaning to press it to his chest but hers was already there, trailing down from his hair, over his jaw, to his chest, like she could wring compassion from the heart that beat there.

The laugh rumbled beneath her touch, although only for a moment. Not her sort of fun, although he imagined the hunters saw it another way. They were ridding the world of an evil, the way he would have done if the girl was not still being held hostage by this thing. Remiel looked down between them, at the alabaster skin that looked untouched to him. ”Holy water, blessed and pure, unlike your kind.” A defence against things like her, used to protect humanity. ”You stole,” he squawked, outrage burning for a moment as she confessed to breaking one of the commandments. Remiel’s hand fell to her hip, plucking up the fabric that clung to it like a second skin, rubbing the fabric between his fingers as she looked up at him, all guileless now. ”A queen? You expect me to believe that and to tear them apart because you were unable to behave yourself? Allowed them to live?” That brought a fresh bark of laughter, one perhaps too loud.

Remiel shook his head, lowered it. No matter how many lessons he’d tried to press upon her the last time she obviously had not learned. The Queen had taken what she had wanted and now cowered from those who would punish her from it. ”You are superior to none of them. Humans do not have to bow to your kind, royal or not. Expecting them to leads to … this.” He eased a hand between them then, pressing two fingers hard against the bodice, over her heart. Death. As easy for her kind as it was for the hunters she wished for him to slaughter now. As their voices grew louder for a moment, Remiel grumbled, pressing his face close to hers to avoid that sweep of light that again came for the office windows. He would be lucky if he didn’t end up having to kill them because she had put him in an impossible position.

Tagged: LAMIA * Word Count: 993

The humans had some adage for how they ended up down in Lucifer’s realm, tortured and toasted for an eternity – the road there was paved with good intentions. If he hadn’t personally seen so many willingly tumble low Remiel might have found more truth to it than his host did. It had been Gabriel’s steady, quiet pressure on his conscience from within that had stopped him from dealing with the demon the moment he realised what she was out on the street. That same pressure had risen against his skin from the inside as Lamia’s temptation had pressed against him, flesh on flesh from the outside. Gabriel’s intentions had always been good, but surely by now he should’ve learned how dangerous they were.

Echoes of the pain pounded through his skull like a drum still resonating years after it was hit. The dual puncture wounds in his throat throbbing for a moment before Lamia washed them away. Those innocent looks might have convinced others that there wasn’t an ounce of good left in that patently human body. He had felt her tricks, he knew how she would turn given the opportunity.

The hunters had obviously seen much of the same and in, perhaps, a misguided effort, they had tried to drive the evil out of her with holy water, as though it would be that simple to free the woman the demon had clawed her way into from that corrupting presence.

The angel’s sandy brows rose, his teeth flashing as looked down into those wide eyes. Amusement still wrapped around him lit like one of those garlands that the humans threw up around themselves at certain times of year to bring light to the nearly ever present dark. ”You truly do not see,” he said almost smugly. ”How much ego have they filled you with for you to believe that it is merely too foul a substance to touch the perfection of your flesh?” How much of ego had been hellborne, and how much had the poor woman now trapped in those delusions possessed first? Was that how she had become trapped in the first place? Those good intentions layered with just a touch too much arrogance to realise what was happening.

Guile dripped from every cell of the creature he held pinned against the wall. She radiated indignation, scoffing at the notion of her having done any wrong. How could she when she reigned over the creatures in this town? Including him. ”Of where?” Remiel asked, snorting as he continued to pull that scrap of fabric tight between his fingers. ”This new world has no Queen. They cast their royalty aside. If you truly believe you can have them bow at your feet you are more deluded than I thought, demon.” And that had been a high bar in the first place. None would fall at her feet now, if any had in the first place.

The hunters certainly were not prepared to. Remaining outside, they continued to sweep the place with light. They did not yet believe that their quarry had left this place, which meant that the danger still remained outside, rather than here with her. Or the majority did anyway. The demons skin was warm against his own, that tiny fresh contact leaving something inside of his host’s body going still and hot. Up close his eyes remained on hers, his amusement continuing to show in the crinkles that sprung up around his eyes, the twitch of his mouth, the tap of his fingers against her chest. ”Believing it to be so does not make it true,” Gabriel said tightly. So that had been her downfall, someone had tried to force her to bow and in the tangled mess it created, the soul that was now black as the night sky had fallen. ”The one you should return it to is out there, past those men.” His voice went tight, but the adjustment to her words came too late.

A slither of fabric and there was nothing between her and him now. Remiel’s hands tightened on her arms, his eyes held on hers, refusing to drop and see what temptation she was against laying in her path. Lashes fluttered, the frown carving its lines deep into him again. Sensation tightened everywhere, that same heat he had felt as he had hovered with his blade at her heart in Gabriel’s apartment. It sang beneath his skin as she turned her head and her mouth found his. Need like this was purely human, but so was part of him now, was it not? Being above humanity had gotten the angels nowhere for centuries, now they were among them, their species seemingly melding more with every day.

Fingers tightening, Remiel slid his hands down to the demon’s elbows as though he would push her away but when the break came, it was just to pant a breath out against her lips. ”Stop,” he whispered hoarsely. Although she did not, of course. Her kind were deaf to his. Slaves to temptation, to the sins that had lain them all in hell’s torture chambers to begin with. ”You believe you can corrupt me with this?” Remiel asked. His lips twisted beneath the brush of her tongue before they parted, capturing it in that deeper kiss, the one to disarm. One palm shifted to her waist, sweeping up until he held the bounty that had been framed so perfectly by the dress she had stolen. This was the sin that had carried humanity down paths he doubted his father had imagined but it was not their greatest one.

Turning them both as the lights returned, Remiel took the demon to the floor, pressing her down atop the dress the way he had done the chaise langue in the apartment. He would not fall, not drown, but he would not give the demon the satisfaction of seeing him have to kick hard to avoid that fate either. ”Quiet,” he breathed against her mouth before he took it again. Outside, somewhere in the building, there was a sound, doors thrown open, the sweep beginning.

Tagged: LAMIA * Word Count: 1020