“What are you doing?” Her heels strike the back of my thighs. “Damn it! Can you give me an answer? Let me go!”
“No.”
“Let me down!” she screeches, thrashing in my arms as I swivel away from the museum front.
I carry her to the back door where the ensorcelled lock obeys my command, easing my passage in and out of the warded collection.
“Zuriel, let me down!”
She invokes me, and my name burns my ears, demanding I do her bidding. Only she didn’t specify when. I’ll set her down later, somewhere else. “Do not speak my name.”
I spring into the alleyway.
She stops fighting and clutches me instead.
Expanding my wings, I take to the sky. She looses a tiny shriek, digging her face into my chest when the wind whips her hair. Taking to the air calms me—a peace I try to send her. She succumbs to a quiet mutter, her lips caressing my skin as she chants, “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. I’m going to die.”
I abandon the town, looking down from a height where the settlement becomes a dense pattern of streets and lights. A wide paved road stretches to both ends of the horizon, lit by vehicles that scurry along like bugs, connecting to the distant lights of other civilizations. I’m searching for a stronghold, a citadel, a fortress. A tower in which to lock her away, to keep her by my side until she understands the magnitude of the world she’s now a part of. The castle I keep erected within my deepest thoughts is where I would prefer to sequester her.
Unfortunately, it does not exist, and there will be no such place nearby. I examine the land, ashamed I have no home to take her to.
There is a thick forest, beyond which are flat plains for farming. A large lake is near, and mountains loom on the horizon, forming craggy cliffs that give way to caves.
A cave would be safe—there would only be one entrance to guard—but my attention is drawn elsewhere.
The church’s spire glints as the holy space draws me near.
I descend upon the grounds, relaxing my grip on Summer. She loosens her arms from my neck and huddles them at her chest. Her sweater isn’t enough to protect her against the dark fall night, and she shivers, cold and shaken from our flight. I huddle my wing close to her, protecting her from the breeze.
I release my grip on her hips, and she scowls up at me, squeezing her thighs tight to support herself. I’m entirely aware that her crux is inches from my pelvis, and pressure builds, priming my cock to spring.
She seems to notice too, and her body shudders with something more than cold. Her cheeks flush, and she shoves me away. “I can stand,” she says defensively. I release her, finally obeying her earlier command. Her brow furrows and cheeks flush as she swallows, looking to the ground as she asks one more question, “What’s happening to me?”
I gaze down at her mutely, hiding my confusion.What’s happening to me?It is something I’m asking too. I have not been so close to another since the monk. I swallow it down and give her a warning. “I need to check and make sure we are alone.”
Her lips part like she still has more to ask, but she stops short and nods, wrapping her arms tighter against her. Leading her with my draped wing, we approach the church’s front steps.
She drags her feet.
Her thundering heart pounds wildly in my ears.
She does not want to follow me. She does not trust me, nor am I certain if I can trust her. She did not share my name with Adrial earlier, though she did not seem to understand his visit. My ears twitch, listening to her every movement, trying to understand what she is about.
She gasps when a gust of wind whips past us as we reach the large wooden doors.
“Demons do not trespass on consecrated ground. Even if that ground is no longer used by humans,” I say to end the tense silence growing between us.
The surrounding land is overrun, the grasses tall and weeds aplenty, with rusted tools to suggest that someone once cared for it. The property is surrounded by a broken white picket fence, encompassing the small church and crumbling graveyard. The moon peers between thinning branches of an old oak tree, scattering dusky light on the first of its fallen leaves. An unkempt dirt road leads into open farmland.
The church’s white facade has seen better days, and thick chains wrap around the iron handles of the double doors, locking them close. The spire rises above the entryway, an empty bell tower beneath its peak. Surrounding the tower, bats flood the sky.
The smell of decay and earth permeates the place—no one comes here, not anymore.
Summer’s shivering subsides as she takes in the deserted, overgrown graveyard. “Are you sure we’re safe here? I was taught the night is dangerous and wild.”
“While you’re with me, I won’t let anything hurt you. Otherwise, yes, avoid the night, especially the forest.”
Taking the chains in my grip, I tear them apart. The thick metal clinks.
