Sin of the Saints (Between Delusion and Sobriety Duet #2)

Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

Bartimaeus

G od only knows where I found the restraint not to pounce on Belle the first moment we were alone. When her mouth was around my cock I thought I might give in to the madness and lead us both to our doom. What made the sublime sensation even greater was the fact that Belle had given in first.

She looks right at me and she takes my breath away. Her aura is glowing and I brush her silken hair away from her face. She gasps as our touch reignites the passion that continues to thrum within us.

I blink a few times until my brain is able to process everything I’m feeling in my hand.

“What the hell is this?” I feel the metal collar around her neck. There’s a bell attached to it that chimes when I touch it.

She winces in pain. “Libretto…” His cursed name incites the rage flowing through my veins.

“That son of a bitch!” I hiss, trying to get it off her neck to no avail. The fucking thing won’t come off. It doesn’t even have a latch that can be opened. I jostle it, the bell rings and she gasps. “What’s this supposed to be?” I bark.

“It hurts, Bar,” her voice cracks and she crumples in pain.

“He’ll pay for this!” I roar, and the car trembles beneath me. She moans, like my words aren’t reaching her. “I’ll get it off, Belle, trust me.” I feel the need to bolster my promise. “Where did he even get this? This is a sacred bell.” I try to remember if there were reports of a break-in at the Vatican. I don’t recall any demonic incursion being reported for decades, aside from Valentina’s unexpected infiltration.

“It weakens them, Bar, my demonic powers. I heard them say it. But it doesn’t nullify my divine powers. I’m still as invulnerable as I was, but I can use defensive powers.”

“That’s good, Belle, that might be what saved you from Libretto’s wrath while you were there. What happened these past three years? Tell me, how did you end up like this?” My gaze runs over the aura around her gorgeous body, even through the veil of fog. I’m almost melting just looking at her, shifting restlessly on the burning metal of the engine hood, and the heat pools between my legs again. This isn’t the right time, damn it, but I can’t help it. Something about her new form is making me completely lose my mind.

“Can we go inside first, please? I have to clean up. His hands were on me…” Her voice breaks and my muscles tense. He touched her? He fucking touched her?

I force myself to breathe so I can calm down before I answer. “Of course, the cabin belongs to Valentina’s father, but she promised we’d be safe here.” I lift off the engine hood and gesture to the cabin. I follow her aura, having no other choice.

Fortunately, the cabin is unlocked, which just confirms to me that no living soul has been through here. I follow her in and lock the door just to be sure. My instinct to protect Belle is the absolute opposite of the task the Church assigned to me, but I can’t allow myself to be complacent, and my blindness is a problem too.

I hear doors opening, and assume Belle’s in the bedroom and then the bathroom. A few moments later I hear the water running. I follow her, hands reaching out to my sides so I don’t run into walls.

“Don’t turn your nose up, Bar. As soon as this thing is off my neck we’ll be equals again.”

“Let me handle that, Belle, don’t think about that now. We’ll find a solution; I give you my word.”

I approach her, lean on the bathtub and adjust the faucet to a hotter temperature that’s more comfortable to touch.

“No, keep it at its coldest,” she says indifferently.

“Are you sure? The hot water will ease the tension in your muscles.”

She chuckles. “I’m burning, Bar. It’s coming from inside me. From the day Lilith awoke I’ve been trying to get relief for this burning feeling, but I keep failing. Nothing seems to help.”

“If you can’t do so, that means you mustn’t fight it. Embrace it as a blessing.” God knows I’d accept her anyway, I think, but I don’t say that aloud. I feel her hand on the faucet, adjusting it to the coldest temperature. “I’ll give you some privacy.” I struggle to leave the room, almost sending chivalry straight to hell. I don’t give a fuck about her modesty around me, but I manage to pull myself together before I become a beast controlled entirely by my urges.

Besides, she’s not arguing with me. Her body language speaks for her, and I understand she needs privacy.

I close the door behind me, and as I hear Belle’s sigh of relief when she steps into the flow of cold water, I realize that’s my cue to step back, before I change my mind and burst in to claim ownership of what I feel belongs to me.

For God’s sake, when did I become so possessive?

From the moment I awoke and was pulled from my grave filled with holy water, I’ve felt something different in me. I feel there’s an entity within me that has a life of its own. Is it Bartimaeus, whose name I bear, or was the Pope wrong and something greater is knocking on the door of my soul?

“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness 1 .”

How many are the Lord’s works! In wisdom he has made them all; the earth is full of his creatures. God is good, seeing and doing only good. He is the maker and creator of everything, and every sunrise is a glimpse of one of His miracles, His creation of a new day.

Hillel flaps his wings, the wind playing in his long golden hair as a huge smile spreads across his face. What more could one ask for? The one who touched him, who gave him truth and faith, whose will Hillel vowed to enact.

“And it was good, and it was good, and it was good!” Hillel screams in ecstasy as he rides the wind, a sublime sensation sending his heart and soul spinning. I’ll protect my Creator, I’ll defend my King sitting on high, who gave me life and light, so Hillel vows in his heart as he feasts his eyes on the many miracles revealed below him. The world He created, in all its splendor.

Suddenly a strange figure appears, walking in a field of flowers, and he pauses midflight. Actual physical pain strikes him, in the special place reserved for his faith, the organ located in his chest.

“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer 2 ,” Hillel mumbles as he examines the stunning creature, awestruck.

She is a miracle in the open…

Long silken black hair, reflecting light like a night strewn with stars, descends to hide rounded, full mounds on her chest, a curved body leading to seemingly-endless legs. The hair between her legs thrills his blood and he feels the pulses between his own legs. He looks at himself and notices his stiff erection. He is awakening for her. He yearns for her.

Hillel is dumbstruck as another creature, similar to him yet different, approaches this amazing creature of his.

“Mine,” he growls. “She is mine!” His beautiful creature looks at the creature by her side with disdain. She turns from him and starts running.

“Run, my love, run like the wind. You don’t know it yet, but you’ll yet run straight into my arms.”

Lightning flashes across the sky and all the land trembles.

“Hillel!” the voice of his Creator addresses him in an unbearably accusatory tone. God is good, it is impossible that He may have another side, Hillel thinks, shocked.

“Father,” he bows his head.

“Mine,” the voice reads Hillel’s thoughts as his eyes wander to the spectacular creature.

No, Hillel thinks. She’s mine, mine, mine.

“In Mine image I created her, in the image of He that sits on high.” His words disturb Hillel. How dare He? Hillel had spent his entire life glorifying His name, serving His creed, keeping His faith. He had earned her, damn it. He was the one who deserved her.

“Then I will be He who sits on high! It will be mine, and then I will claim her for myself!” Hillel raises his fists and his white aura darkens as his wrath wells up within him.

A tempestuous wind spins Hillel around, and he struggles against it, seeking purchase. Heavy clouds, grey and dark, cover the land, and lightning strikes Hillel, and he plummets into the endless abyss.

“How dare you defile my creation with the impurity you have brought upon me? Banished, banished, banished art thou!” Thunderclaps fire off one after the other, drowning out the curses rained upon Hillel by the Creator. “I cast you out, damned one!”

As he falls, Hillel raises his hand and flips his middle finger at everything he’d ever believed in.

“We’ll see about that,” he swears, driven by the purpose of fulfilling his heart’s only desire.

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!

How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven,

I will exalt my throne above the stars of God:

I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit 3 .

I feel suffocated, stifled and I don’t know why, but I decide to step out onto the front porch of the cabin. The sounds Belle is making are undoing me, and I know I have to get a grip on the filthy thoughts rising up in my mind.

I open the door, the old wood creaks. The light of the sun floods me, and I shut my eyes tight at the unbearable burning sensation. I can’t bear the light, and it likes me even less. I blink to take control of my overwhelmed senses, and accept that the light has turned its back on me forever. Never again will it return to me, as I have embraced the darkness. Now the darkness is not just within me, it is all I have left.

“Let there be darkness, and there was darkness.” I lean against the doorjamb.