I looked down into her panicked face and I wanted to comfort, and I wanted to feed, and I wanted to fuck. All of the needs I kept locked away. She didnt need anything from me. If she did, shed have to make do without.
But the stronger her panic, the stronger my hunger, and I gave in to the safest of my urges. Dont be afraid, I said, using the voice given to me to soothe frightened creatures. It will be fine. And I pulled her forward, spinning her out into the darkness and releasing her as I stepped back.
It was only at the last minute I saw the flames. I heard her scream, and I grabbed for her without thinking, dragging her back. I felt the deadly fire sear my flesh, and I knew then what had been waiting for me, out there in the darkness. Fire was death to my kind, and the flame had leapt to my flesh like a hungry lover. I pulled the woman out of the dark and hungry maw that should have been what humans referred to as heaven, and I sealed my own trip to a hell that would have no end.
We tumbled backward, onto the ground with her soft body sprawled on top of mine, and I was instantly hard, my rebellious flesh overruling everything Id been trying to tell it for decades, overshadowing the pain as a pure, unspeakable lust flamed through me, only to be banished a moment later.
An inhuman howl of rage echoed up from the flames. A moment later the rocks slid closed with a hideous grinding noise, and there was nothing but silence.
I couldnt move. The agony in my arm was unspeakable, wiping out my momentary reaction to the womans soft body sprawled across mine, and I could
almost be glad. The flames were out, but I knew what fire did to my kind. A slow, agonizing death.
It was one of the few things that could kill us, that and the traditional ways of disposing of blood-eaters. Beheading could kill us as surely as it would kill a human.
So would the minor burn on my arm.
If Id only stopped to think, I would have let her go. Who knew how shed spent her short life, what crimes shed committed, what misery shed inflicted on others? It wasnt my place to judge, merely to transport. Why hadnt I remembered that and let her fall?
But even as I felt the pain leaching away any semblance of common sense, I couldnt help but remember Id brought any number of innocent souls to this very place, seemingly good people, cast them forth, assured them that they were going to the place of peace theyd earned. Instead it had been hell, the same hell to which Id taken the lawyers and stockbrokers. This was no temporary glitch. I knew Uriel too well. Hell and its fiery pit were Uriels constructions, and I knew, instinctively, that wed been offered no alternative when wed delivered our charges. I had been dooming the innocent ones to eternal damnation, unknowing.
The sin of pride, Uriel would have said placidly, with great sorrow. The cosmic hypocrite would shake his head over me and my many failings. To question the word of the Supreme Being and the emissary hed chosen to enforce it was an act of paramount sacrilege.
In other words, do what youre told and dont ask questions. Our failure to do that was why we had fallen in the first place. And I had done more than questionI had just contravened the word. I was in deep shit.
Night was falling around us. The woman rolled off me, scrambling away as if I were Uriel himself. I tried to find my voice, to say something to reassure her, but the pain was too fierce. The best I could do was grit my teeth to keep from screaming in agony.
She was halfway across the clearing, huddled on the ground, watching me in dawning disbelief and horror. Too late I realized my lips were drawn back in a silent scream, and she could see my elongated fangs.
What in Gods name are you? Her voice was little more than a choked gasp of horror.
I ignored her questionI had more important things to deal with. I had to gather my self-control or I was doomed. If I didnt, I wouldnt be able to save myself at this point, and I couldnt save her either, not that I particularly cared. She had gotten me into this mess in the first place.
She was going to have to help get me out of it, whether she wanted to or not. I shuddered, forcing the agony back down my throat. In a few minutes I wouldnt be able to do even that much; a few minutes longer and I would be unconscious. By morning I would probably be dead.
Did I care? I wasnt sure it mattered one way or the other. But I didnt want to leave her behind, where the Nephilim could get her. Id rather finish her myself before they tore her body into pieces while she screamed for help that would never come.
I sucked in a deep bite of air, steeling myself. Need . . . to make a . . . fire, I managed, feeling the dizziness pressing against my brain, feeling the darkness closing in. I could hear the monsters out in the night forest, the low, guttural growling of the Nephilim. They would rip her apart in front of me, and I would be paralyzed, unable to do anything but listen to her screams as they ate her alive.