One Soul Book Two

Chapter Twenty-Four

Zeev POV

My ears rang and blood dripped into my eyes.  My first instinct had been to cover Cael with my own body.  Harlee’s ridiculous instinct to treat him like a human child was rubbing off on me.  Cael blinked up at me, dazed and I grabbed him into my arms with a growl.  Ash’s tail had disappeared from the room before the roof fell on us.  I hope Sands or Ash had managed to protect our daughter in time, but right now I had to concentrate, even as my heart told me to tear the world apart to save my family.

“Cael, how are you doing son?”  I tossed a beam off me and struggled into a more upright position.  I was healing quickly.  Harlee’s body no longer held us back, with so little human frailty left in it, and Sam must have healed her because I felt the familiar burn of his power zing under my skin.  My back suddenly locked up, informing me I must have some damage to my spine, and Cael wiggled as I groaned, panting for a moment, unable to move.  With a roar of rage, Sands tossed a wall off his shoulders and his word and wings appeared instantly.  He was surrounded in white light that made even me wince, but also left me with a grin.  Somebody’d pissed him off.  I looked up as Sands burst through the rubble and the grin slid from my face.  Then I remembered he’d been holding Leila when the roof came down.  I hoped with everything in me that she was safe.

‘Harlee, Ash, I love you.  RUN!’  I broadcast along our links as loudly as I could.  I looked across the lawn to catch Sam’s eye, and then Harlee’s.  She looked terrified and was shaking her head no.  I met Sam’s gaze again and he simply nodded once and they were gone.

“Sands!”  I bellowed, clutching Cael even tighter to my chest.  I couldn’t stay.  Staying put Harlee in danger, which endangered us all.  Fighting free of the ruins, I took several stumbling, running steps forward and willed myself away from the house, stepping out of the yard to the beach Harlee and I had once hidden out on.  Our best chance of survival was either to split up and make it hard for them to find us, or build an army of our own and fight back.  Harlee’s emotions were crushing me through our link, and I could barely sense Ash.  I fell to my knees in the sand.

“Papa.”  Cael’s small hand landed on my cheek.  “Lu, Sands..”  Cael murmured  “Ash, Leila?”

“I know kid, I know.”  I muttered, closing my eyes.  I traced along my link with Ash, feeling the Mark light up, only to hear them curse in my head.

‘Can’t talk right now, Leila and I are sort of being chased!’  Ash exclaimed.  I nearly collapsed with relief, and a small sobbing laugh escaped me.  I let myself merge with Ash’s consciousness to see what they were seeing.  Three Angels were hot on Ash’s tail, almost quite literally, as Ash zoomed through the tunnels of Hell.

‘What the f**k are they doing down there?’  I screamed.

‘That’s what I’d like to know!’  Ash yelled back.  I could feel Leila clutched in Ash’s claws.  Ash had put her in a dreamstate to keep her calm and relaxed.

‘Take the next left!’  I shouted.

‘It’s a dead-end!’  Ash bellowed back.

‘You breathe fire don’t you?’  I asked and felt Ash’s grin echo on my face.

‘Indeed I do.’  Ash responded and I watched and I watched and felt the turn as Ash flipped at the dead end, waiting for the Angels to turn down the corridor after them, and then the fireball was bursting from our throat and two of the Angels were screaming while the third tried to backtrack, but Ash was on them in a second, holding Leila tight to their chest, severing heads from necks with the talons of their free hand.

‘Take care of our girl.’  I murmured as I withdrew from Ash’s mind.

‘Love you too Zeev.  Be careful.  Tell Cael Zaza loves him.’  Ash made a mental kissy face at me and I rolled my eyes, but I was grinning slightly when I opened my eyes to see both of Cael’s hands on my face and his little head bowed.  He slipped from my mind like a shadow, his presence almost imperceptible by me.

“Well I guess you know your Zaza and Leila are safe.”  I grunted, Cael grinned, but then sobered.

“Sands?  Lu?”  Cael repeated.

“I can only hope bud, my connection to them is not as strong.”  Well, not to Lu anyway.  I sighed and stood, tugging Cael to his feet.  “Let’s get a room, then contact your mom.  She’s not going to be happy.”

Harlee POV

Not happy was an understatement.  I knew all my Demons and Angels were alive because all the Marks survived.  I could touch each one and sort of concentrate on the individual and ‘feel out’ how they were doing.  Sam had me in the middle of a one-room freakin’ cabin somewhere surrounded by snow.  I paced the small room again.

“Every time you do that the room gets smaller.”  Sam called lazily from the bed.  The fire popped in the fireplace and I glared at it, then at Sam.  My breasts were sore from not feeding Leila, I was worried out of my mind about my children and all of my family.  It was ironic that I had gone from angry and withdrawn to terrified I’d never see them again so quickly.

“Sometimes it takes a tragedy to do that.”  Sam drawled.

“Stay out of my head.”  I growled.

“Stop broadcasting so loudly.”  Sam retorted.  One of his legs slid off the side of the bed to swing idly.  “You know, I could help you burn some of that nervous energy off.”  His eyes glinted at me from the shadows.

“You know, I could always slice your d**k off.”  I snarled back.

“Ouch.  Bad kitty.”  Sam purred.  I growled again and resumed pacing.  “You really do look like a caged cat doing that.”  Sam observed and I froze.  Damn, he was probably right.  Like a damn zoo animal, I was pacing back and forth along the wall.  I flopped onto the couch and let my knee bounce instead.  My communication with Zeev had been brief.  He, Ash, Cael and Leila were alright.  No news yet of Sands and Lu, however, I relayed the Marks were still active and hadn’t alerted me to serious injury.  Sam was suddenly in front of me, a hand on my knee, stilling it.

“Honestly, humans.”  He ground out and then his lips were sealed over mine as he leaned over me, stealing not only my breath, but my panic and worry as well.  I felt the pressure rise up to meet him and coughed.  Sam absorbed it all, and gripped my face tighter between his hands, tilting his head to get a better latch in my lips as if it would help him draw the agony from me.  One hand dropped to my chest and he thumped me lightly on the sternum, the fingers of his other hand digging into my temple and chin and I felt the anxiety bubble up out of me in a choking mass that had me hacking and coughing as Sam swallowed a trail of dark smoke that leaked from my lips.  I felt the tears running from my eyes before Sam kissed them away.  I was still worried and knew if I concentrated I could build it back up again, but the relief of suddenly having my whole body and mind just relax was formidable.  I slumped forward onto Sam’s chest and he rubbed my back soothingly, sitting down next to me to pull me onto his lap.

“I thought you weren’t any good with that.”  I mumbled against his shirt.

“I’m not very good with pain.  I’ve been having Sands teach me.  Fear though.. Fear I understand.”  His voice grew quiet at the end and I sense what he wasn’t saying.  He understood it because he used to inflict it, had in fact inflicted it on me once.  I reached up and stroked his cheek, looking at his profile.

“I forgave you Sam.  It was hard, but you’re different now.”  My fingers ghosted down the side of his neck and hovered over his chest and above where his heart would be, if he were truly human.  “That’s what you guys have been trying to tell me, isn’t it?”  I murmured.  “You’re gentler now, kinder.”  I plucked at his shirt and Sam’s fingers wrapped around mine.

“We love.”  Sam’s voice was a soft rumble and I looked back up to meet his gaze.  I thought, for just an instant, I could see it.  A tiny spark of something deep inside him.  I ran my lips across his jaw in a feather-light kiss and felt him shudder.  His hand tightened on mine.  “Harlee..  I don’t know if..”

“Show me your love.”  I spoke over him.  A fire lit in the back of his eyes, the challenge accepted.  He stood with me in his arms and paced to the bed.  He kept eye contact, ducking his head to bring his lips to mine before setting me on the mattress on my knees. His shirt hit the floor and my hand hovered over his scar.  I never wanted to cause him more pain, and yet I kept doing it.  Sam gripped my hand and placed it against his chest, settling it over the old wound.

“You could never hurt me like this Harlee.”  Sam held my hand, pressed to the flesh, playing with my fingers gently.  “Perhaps I’m mistaken.  If you were to die or withdraw our Bond, it may be as painful as the wound that caused me to do this.”  Sam pulled my fingers to his lips and kissed them, looking deep into my eyes.  “Stay mine Harlee.  Forever.”  Sam murmured and I felt my heart melt.

“I will be yours, Zeev’s Ash’s, Sands’ and Lu’s for Eternity, and you’ll be Mine.”  I swore.  I could feel the Bonds between us all tighten at the words and Sam inhaled, closing his eyes and squeezing my fingers tighter.  I lifted my other hand to his cheek.  “I do love you Sam.”  I told him.  “I may get stupid sometimes and need reminders..”  I pulled his hand to my own chest.  “..but here, I never doubted it for a minute.”  Sam smiled softly and cupped my face, leaning in for a kiss.  It started slow and built to something frantic and wild.  Sam was halfway out of his pants before I even had my shirt pulled up.  He broke our kiss, panting, to kick free of his shoes and pants, and to tug my shirt over my head.  I struggled free of my own pants and shoes, still stained with dirt from the garden, and the cold hit me like I’d stepped into a cold shower.  I crossed my arms over my chest and Sam rubbed my upper arms briefly

“Don’t worry Harlee, in a moment, you'll be much warmer.”  He purred, his hands seemed to trail the heat along my skin as his lips crashed down on mine again.  He maneuvered me backwards so he had space to move onto the bed as well, still gripping my upper arms.  When he unhooked my bra and plucked at it, I squealed, the cold air hitting my damp skin a complete shock.

“Aw f**k, I’m sorry Sam, I haven’t fed Leila and now I’m leaking.”  I apologized, trying to scoot away from him to find something to clean up with.  Sam held me still for a moment.

“Stay.  I’ll be right back, this must be painful.”  He moved across the room to the tiny door that led to the bathroom, and came back with a wet cloth.  As I watched he heated it in his hands, the steam rising from it abruptly, so I was relatively certain the water must have been cold.  Kneeling on the bed beside me, Sam pushed me back, forcing me to lay down and then began to wipe me off.  He ran the cloth between my breasts, under and around them, teasing me, turning it into a seduction, before moving in slowly, settling over one aching n****e.  The heat made them throb and I arched as his thumb grazed over the cloth.

“Do you want me to express some of this for you?”  Sam asked softly.  I looked at him curiously.

“Are you seriously asking to nurse?”  I demanded and Sam’s face nearly went red.  I covered my own mouth with a hand.  I’d flustered Sam.  That was a first.  I tried to hide my smile.

“That’s one way to go about it, but I meant more like..”  And with that, Sam tightened his grip and the cloth and the breast beneath it were suddenly soaked.  I squealed slightly.

“Gentle, gentle!  Damn, don’t squeeze so hard boy!  They’re not cow teats, and I think even a cow would have kicked you for that!”  I yelped.  Sam muttered an apology and his grasp lightened, but the relief was palpable and I sighed.

“Other one too?”  Sam murmured and I laughed.  The whole situation was ridiculous.  He dried the cloth with a touch of his hand and moved it to the other side, then gave another squeeze without waiting for an answer.  I gasped as the liquid pooled out again, soaking the cloth.

“Damn Sam,”  I cursed, grabbing his wrist.  “A little warning might be nice.”  He chuckled softly and tossed the rag to the floor, already dry again. Sam hovered over me.

“Better?”  He murmured, leaning down to bite my lower lip gently.  I tilted my head on the mattress.

“A bit.”  I acquiesced.  Sam chuckled again and kissed me, the scorching heat seeping beneath my skin.  I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer, running my tongue along his, moaning at the brown sugar scent and flavor of him.  The room suddenly lit up like a searchlight had been centered on it and I suppressed a scream as Sam ground out a curse, trying to hover over me protectively and twist to see the threat at the same time.  Sands fell through the ceiling and landed in a bloody heap on the cabin floor.