Page 13 of Seraph's Tears
“Are you always this cheerful?” he demanded.
“No. But today’s a good day because I’m full and warm. And I didn’t have to clean up dirty footprints tracked into church by the men and I didn’t have to attend the daily chapel at dawn. Nor did I have to worry about public confession this week.” I took a deep breath, grimacing as I realized I’d said all of that out loud.
“Public confession?” Gabriel frowned as crossed his arms against that massive, muscular chest. “That sounds worse than the seraphim military.” He edged closer to the table and eyed the plate suspiciously.
I poured him tea. “No milk yet. One scoop of sugar or two?”
He grumbled something under his breath and rubbed his chest.
“Two it is.” I prepared the teacup and handed it to him.
I took a breath and decided to be brave. If everything went wrong a supernatural being who had the power of the god of death would be furious with me. That, and a very angry reverend tracking me down to punish me for failing to charm the seraph—if Gabriel didn’t kill me himself.
“So.” I casually eased into the chair at the dusty table and gestured for him to do the same.
He perched on the edge, letting his wings fall to either side. I hadn’t considered how awkward human furniture could be for beings with wings. Gabriel ignored me, picking up his fork and stabbing at the eggs with a scowl.
“You were in the military?” I held my breath, waiting to see if he would answer or kick me out of his bedchamber.
Chapter Six
Gabriel
I sniffed the yellow gooey mess on my fork and harrumphed. I avoided most human food. Back home we ate several meals a day and feasted on special days. We often ate animals from the rivers and streams, sometimes birds, and always vegetables and fruits—either grown in the high, rocky spurs of our land or the flooded banks of our rivers. My sedge and I accidentally discovered we didn’t need to eat much here in this world. I didn’t know why—maybe the atmosphere was different, maybe we used less energy to fly in this air. Maybe the sun renewed us. Regardless, most of the seraphim were not interested in developing a palate for human food. Not when the loss of our homeland was so great.
But…if it would make this chattering human leave me alone…
I took a bite. Flavor burst across my tongue: salt, cheese, butter, and whatever egg tasted like, I suppose. It was good, actually. Very good. She must be a good cook, because eggs had never tempted me before. Seraphim rarely ate bird eggs.
She shifted in her chair opposite me, resting her elbows on the table.
A wave of attraction swept over me. For her. This human. This Eve. It made little sense, but nothing had made sense in fifty years. I eyed her as I took another bite of the eggs scrambled with cheese, ignoring the magnetic pull that made me want to pick her up and shelter her in my wings. Eve seemed to be waiting for something.
I grunted. “The seraphim military? I was a part of it for all of my adulthood. My parents sent me to the youth academy, designed for second children of nobility, when I was seventy-five.”
Eve jerked backward. “Seventy-five? Seventy-five years old?”
I nodded, taking another bite. We’d done a better job of hiding our nature from the humans than I thought, if she had no idea of our lifespan. “Seraphim are not considered adults until they are near one hundred. A normal seraph lifespan is a thousand years, though there have been some to see higher.” There had also been rare instances of seraphim with defective ayim, and they lived far shorter.
Her jaw dropped.
I had the sudden urge to kiss her mouth. The jolt of desire was so unexpected I sucked in a breath. Desire for a human? I shifted in my seat, clearing my throat and continuing. “After I turned one hundred, I graduated from the academy and joined our military. It was good timing, for another war was underway.”
What would her mouth taste like? What color were her nipples? Would she sigh or scream when I licked her?
“War?”
I blinked, trying to remember our conversation. “There’s another race in our world, the Gar. We have been enemies for hundreds upon hundreds of years. Perhaps thousands. At the beginning of the war I was second in command of an auxiliary sedge.” My erection pressed against the seam of my trousers, which bit into my hard flesh. I gritted my teeth against the pain. “But later, as I grew into my military command, I led a sedge of twelve seraphim, including myself, into battle. We would typically hide behind the mountains, within caves and shadows, and ambush any Gar that came our way. We were in the middle of a skirmish that—that day.”
The food in my mouth soured, and I had to fight to swallow. Images of that last day were burned into my mind. They appeared frequently in my nightmares. The screams of the falling. Daniel’s wide eyes. Castiel’s bellow. Azrael’s torn primary feathers. The rage and confusion in the eyes of the Gar as they fell with us.
“The stories say a black hole just…appeared in the sky,” my housekeeper breathed.
I nodded jerkily. “Somehow we Fell. More than a score of us, total. Our enemy was so confused they didn’t attack as we Fell to your world. We hit the ground.” Among other injuries, Haniel had broken his back and had to be carried away by the two seraphim closest to him. Evangeline had landed on a fence post, chest impaled. It was only the ayim flowing through her body that had kept her alive.
“We separated, retreating deep into the country as quickly as we could.” I shot her a wry smile. “Your land doesn’t have mountains. It baffled us. We didn’t know how to hide from the native population.”
“Native population? You mean humans?”
