Taken by Sin

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Dalton was drinking coffee when Georgie came around ‘the side of the cabin and into the backyard. He smiled at her.

“What are you doing down here?” he asked.

“I came to check on you.”

He’d pulled on jeans this morning, careful not to wake Isabelle. Without his shirt on, Georgie could see his stomach.

“I can’t even tell where you were injured, Dalton. Pretty impressive.”

“Yeah, well, I heal quick,” he said, lowering his voice.

“You haven’t told her, have you?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

He glanced at the back door, turned to Georgie. “I’ve told her all I can.”

Georgie crossed her arms. “If you haven’t told her everything, then it’s not enough. How can you hope to succeed in what you plan to do if she doesn’t know the entire story? Until she knows all, I won’t be able to help her, and neither will you.”

He was hoping it wouldn’t come to that. “Georgie, no one knows except your family.”

“Knowledge is power. Isabelle will need all the power she can wield in order to make it through this trial by fire you have in mind for her.”

“Shit.” He dragged his hand through his hair.

“You don’t trust her?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know. I do trust her. I think.”

Georgie let out a soft laugh. “Well, that’s definite.”

“Yeah, well, I guess I’m not a hundred percent sure. And you can imagine what this kind of information could do in the wrong hands.”

“But she trusts you with her secret.”

“She had no choice.”

“Neither do you. Not if you want this to succeed.”

“I know what I need to do. I’m just not ready.”

“What’s holding you back?”

“I need to be able to trust Isabelle to tell her everything. But I’m not sure the demon side of her won’t somehow use it against me.”

“Trust is a two-way street, Dalton. I hate to be trite, but it’s the truth.”

He nodded. “I realize that.”

“She’s put her life in your hands. You might have to do the same with her.”

“I still haven’t figured out what kind of hold the Sons of Darkness really have over Isabelle, how much control they wield over her. She shot me yesterday.”

“Do you think that was her intent?”

“No. But still, the Sons of Darkness have a hold on her.”

“You don’t think she’s fully in charge of herself.”

“No.”

Georgie sighed. “Then you’re not ready.”

So not what he wanted to hear. “I wish I believed one hundred percent in Isabelle, enough to tell her who I am-enough to trust her fully. But I don’t trust the Sons of Darkness. They could be using her. And if they’re using her, they could use me. I can’t let that happen. We’ll both suffer.”

It was at that moment he caught sight of Isabelle, leaning against the back screen door. Close enough to have heard them. But how much had she heard?

She pushed open the door and came toward them, stopping in front of him. He didn’t need her to say a word to know she’d heard everything. The hurt and anger on her face said enough.

“Things are so much clearer now.”

“Isabelle, before you start-”

“Oh, no,” she said, holding out her hand. “You’ve had your say and I heard it all. Now you let me talk.”

He nodded, knowing he deserved whatever she had to say.

“I always felt you were holding back with me, but I just couldn’t figure out why. Now I know. All those times you told me you believed in me, you trusted me. All bullshit.”

“Isabelle-”

“Not that I can blame you,” she continued, ignoring him. “I don’t trust myself, so how can I expect you to have faith in me? I’m not angry at you, Dalton. Just … disappointed, I guess. I thought we were past hiding secrets about how we felt. I’ve been pretty straight with you and I thought you had been with me. I was wrong.”

She laughed. “I’m always wrong about men.”

She turned and walked back in the house.

Well, fuck. Dalton turned to Georgie.

“Don’t look at me, cher. You dug this grave. Now crawl out yourself.”

After Georgie walked away, Dalton felt more alone than ever. Goddammit, every time he thought he was making the right decision, it turned out to be the wrong one. By not telling her what he was, he was trying to protect her. Was that wrong? Had he failed her by keeping secrets?

He was going to have to fix this, which meant doing something he really didn’t want to do. He went inside the house.

He saw her silhouette on the sofa, her legs pulled up to her chest, her chin resting on her knees.

He went to her, deciding it was probably best to sit in the chair across from the sofa.

Now that he faced her, he didn’t know where to start.

“Is this going to be another chat where you feed me a line of bullshit until you think I’m placated, then I fall into your arms and we have sex?”

He smiled at that. “Well, that’d be nice, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

“You’re right. It’s not. You’re wasting your time here, Dalton. I’m through with trusting you.”

He let out a long breath, knowing that the only way to get through to her was just to get to the truth.

“I brought you here for several reasons. One, because it’s safe here. I know this place. I can defend it. No one can get to you. Second, it’s a magical place where we can all work together to help you. You, Georgie, and me. In order for Georgie to help you, I have to take part.”

She lifted her head. “In what way?”

“It’s kind of complicated, and I’ll get to that in a bit. What I’m trying to tell you is that my involvement requires full trust.”

“I don’t understand. I mean I get that you don’t trust me. I really do. Like I said outside, I wouldn’t, either. But what part could you possibly have in eliminating, or lessening, this demon side of me?”

“Georgie will merge the two of us together.”

“What?”

“The darkness in you with the light in me. Our goal is to have my light battle with your darkness, and hopefully my light will vanquish the hold the demons have on you so that the human part of you becomes stronger, the demon side of you weaker. Or at least something you can manage.”

Isabelle untangled her legs and sat straight. “Um, okay, but what the hell are you talking about? Dalton, I believe that you’re a good man. Honestly, I do. But you’re just that-a man. Or at least I used to think that. Now, I’m not so sure. So maybe you need to clarify what you could do to help someone like me who has demon blood?”

Revelation time. He didn’t know why he’d waited so long to tell her. The truth was going to have to come out eventually. And he did trust Isabelle. The human side of her would never betray him. Not consciously, anyway. He had to believe that part of her was stronger. It had been so far.

“Isabelle, I’m not human.”

She frowned. “You’re not?”

“No, I’m not. I look like a human, I’ve lived like a human for hundreds of years. But I’m not human.”

“Then what are you?”

“I’m an angel.”

Isabelle was dumbstruck. Her mouth hung open, yet no words came out.

She laughed. “No, you’re not.”

He didn’t laugh back. “Yes, I am.”

Was he serious? Did he expect her to believe it? “Dalton. An angel? Really? Come on. Angels don’t exist.”

“Demons do. Why is it so easy to believe in their existence, but not in the existence of angels?”

“Because I am a demon.”

“And I’m an angel.”

She stared at him, waiting for him to … to what? Transform or something? That wasn’t going to happen. She had to accept what he said. Why would he lie about something like this?

Angel? Dalton was an angel? What did that even mean?

She swallowed. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

“It’s not like I’d bullshit about something like that,” he said, his lips quirking in a wry smile.

“I can’t imagine you would. But, an angel?” Then it hit her. “The light. The white light around you. The way you healed.”

“Yes.”

She frowned. “This is what you refused to tell me?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, my God.” It was true. Chills broke out on her skin. She stood and moved away from him, suddenly feeling as if she shouldn’t even be in the same room with him.

He frowned. “Isabelle.”

“Do you know what this means?”

He shook his head. “No. What does it mean?”

“We’re diametrical opposites. I’m a demon. You’re an angel.” She wrapped her arms around herself. Talk about a major screwup. Could she pick ’em or what?

“Yes. That’s true.”

Her gaze shot to his. “How can you be so blasé about this? You and me … for God’s sake, Dalton. I made love to an angel. Is that even allowed?”

He laughed. “Typically, no. But … this is kind of complicated.”

Complicated? Understatement. “I’m listening.”

“Okay. I’m a fallen angel.”

Eyes wide, she said, “I’m having this rush of memories. Statues I’ve seen and folklore I’ve heard about fallen angels.”

“It’s not like that.”

“Then I think you have a lot to tell me.”

“I guess I do.”

Dalton could almost have been amused by the enraptured look on Isabelle’s face, if the subject matter wasn’t so serious. He just wasn’t sure where to begin. And maybe this is what had caused his hesitation in coming clean with her before. It wasn’t like he was proud of what he’d done.

“Dalton, trust me, please. I know it may seem like I can’t control the part of me that’s demon. But I’d rather hurt myself than hurt you. Especially knowing what you are now.”

He smiled at her. “I know that. The human part of you fights every minute of every day. That’s what I admire most about you. Your spirit and your generous nature are admirable qualities, Isabelle. You don’t really want to hurt anyone.”

“I don’t know if I believe that. Well, I do believe I don’t want to hurt anyone. But it seems that’s all I end up doing. I need to make it stop. I’m trying to fix it.”

“You’re not as bad as you think you are.”

She cocked her head to the side. “Maybe not. But I could be. And that’s what we have to fix.”

It was at that moment-listening to her, watching her as she came to grips with that revelation about herself-he knew he was in love with her. She had a warm, generous heart, and a willingness for self-sacrifice that even she was unaware of yet. He had great hope for Isabelle. He’d do anything to save her.

“I was once an angel, one of the Guardians. Our job was to patrol the earth, to protect humans, to make sure no harm came to them from the evil ones.”

“Like a guardian angel?”

“Not really. We were there to keep evil out, to prevent them from gaining a toehold on humanity. There are rules.”

“Really? What kind of rules?”

“Just as we were forbidden to interfere, so was the other side.”

“The other side, meaning demons, or the dark side.”

“Yes.”

“How did that work?”

“The Guardians were here to help keep the balance, to keep the demons from interfering in the outcome of human decision-making.”

“Of course. Because the other side doesn’t play fair.”

“No, they don’t.”

“You said you were a fallen angel. What happened?”

“I interfered. I broke the cardinal rule.”

“How?”

“The reason I brought you to this place is that this is where it happened. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, Georgie’s family owned this land. There was a rival landowner who not only wanted to take over the land, but coveted Georgie’s great-grandmother, Celine.

“Celine was fifteen, the oldest child of four children. She was flawless. Beautiful, bright, innocent, but she was in love with someone else and they were going to be married.

“This older guy-Ratineau-owned the neighboring land. He bid for Celine’s hand but her father said no, that she was promised to another. Ratineau was furious. He wanted Celine and the Labeau land and he’d stop at nothing to get both.”

“Did you think this Ratineau was being influenced by the other side?”

Dalton nodded. “I was convinced of it. Celine was perfectly beautiful, possessed of magic, with a serene, ethereal quality about her. What man wouldn’t fall in love with her?”

Isabelle’s lips quirked. “Including you?”

Dalton’s gaze lifted to hers. “I wasn’t a man. I was an angel. I was supposed to be above those human emotions.”

“But you weren’t, were you?”

“No, I wasn’t. I fell in love with Celine. And it clouded my judgment.”

“In what way?”

“I was convinced Ratineau was possessed by darkness. And then he did the unthinkable. He killed Celine’s parents and her brothers, and kidnapped Celine. He chained her up in his cellar and told her she was going to agree to marry him. She cried, brokenhearted over her family. She refused and told him she’d rather die than have anything to do with a murderer. He was so angry at her. He tortured her, raped her. Over and over again. He told her he’d keep her there until she died, but she’d be his and so would her land.”

Isabelle covered her mouth. “Oh, God. No.”

Dalton nodded. “For the first time in my existence I felt fury. Hatred. The need for revenge. I had to save her. So I used my power to strike him down.”

Isabelle’s eyes widened. “How?”

Dalton hesitated, remembering the moment as if it had just happened yesterday instead of over a century ago. “I used my sword and ran him through.”

“You killed him?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, Dalton. But what choice did you have if he was possessed?”

“Well, you see, that’s where I failed. He wasn’t possessed. Not by demons, anyway. Mad with desire, power-hungry, evil in his own right, yes. But the other side hadn’t taken control of him. And in my hazy, lovesick mind, I failed to see it. I only saw him hurting my beloved Celine and I had to save her. I was the one who decided that he had to have been taken over by darkness. I broke the rule.”

“But you loved her. And you saved her. Who knows what he would have done to her if you hadn’t. I’m so sorry, Dalton.” Isabelle crawled onto his lap, curled her fingers into the front of his shirt and held tight.

When she lifted her head, her eyes glistened with tears.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“You have nothing to be sorry for.” She swept her hand across his face. “I love you.” She leaned in, pressing her lips to his in a gentle kiss that made him ache inside. “I always knew there was something special about you.”

He smiled. “I’m not special, Isabelle. I’m damned. I broke the cardinal law of the Guardians. I interfered. I took human life.”

“It was deserved.”

“That wasn’t my call to make. Only the Creator can do that.”

She shook her head. “So unfair. You did the right thing.”

He shrugged. “I had reached my limit. It was my weakness. Because I couldn’t stand to see those innocents murdered, even if it meant my own damnation. The guy deserved what I gave him. So even though I was punished for what I’d done, I was able to save Celine. That was good enough for me and well worth my punishment.”

“What was your punishment?”

“I was cast out as a Guardian, forced to live in darkness for one hundred years.”

“In darkness? What does that mean?”

“I served the Sons of Darkness.”

She leaned back, a look of horror on her face. “Oh, no. Oh, Dalton, I’m so sorry. From heaven into hell.”

“Something like that.”

“You spent a hundred years with demons? As a demon?”

“Yes.”

“So you’re … intimately familiar with the Sons of Darkness.”

“Yes.”

“How did you end up back here? Couldn’t you return to your life as an angel once you served your punishment?”

He shook his head. “Once I had served my time, I was doomed to live as an immortal, in neither light nor darkness, until the day I find redemption.”

She smoothed her hand over his chest. “So after all those years of living hell, you couldn’t go home.”

“No.”

“Wow. They take punishment pretty seriously, don’t they?”

“They take the rules seriously. Otherwise, there would be chaos, as you can imagine.”

“It must have been so hard for you all this time. Living as a human. But still, you’re not really a human, are you?”

“Yes and no. I don’t age or get sick and I can’t be killed.”

“Which is why when I shot you with the laser, you recovered so fast.”

“They want to make sure I serve out my sentence. Death is easy, you know.”

“What a lonely existence. Hard to make friends, since you can’t get too close to anyone.”

“Yeah, it can be difficult.”

“But you found the Realm of Light.”

He smiled. “I did. So now I can battle those I used to serve.”

“Is that your redemption?”

His smile died. “No, Isabelle, it isn’t.”

“What is, then?”

“I once took a life. I’ll be redeemed when I can save a life.”

She frowned. “But don’t you do that as one of the hunters? Don’t you save lives every time you kill a demon?”

“Indirectly.”

“So what is it going to take for you to earn your redemption?”

Her brows knit together as she pondered what he had said.

Come on, Isabelle. You’re smart. You’ll put it together.

He felt her tension as soon as she connected the dots. “Me. You mean me.”

“Yes.”

Isabelle slid off Dalton’s lap and backed away from him. Too much information to soak in all at once. First finding out he was an angel, putting all the pieces together about the white light she’d seen, the miraculous healing after his injury. Then hearing the story of his heroic deed, how he became damned, the terrible and beautiful sacrifice he’d made, and the unfairness of it all. And the hideous punishment he’d suffered because of it.

And now, to discover that he meant to obtain his redemption through her? Had he always felt that way, from the first moment he’d discovered she was a demon?

She stared at him, not knowing what to say. She wasn’t even certain what she felt.

“Tell me what you’re thinking.”

He hadn’t moved from his spot on the chair. Part of her wanted to crawl back in his lap and give him comfort. What it must have cost him to tell her his story, the pain that had to be gutting him inside, the horrible memories his tale had dredged up.

The other part of her was afraid-because she realized she might be nothing more than a means to an end for Dalton, that he was quite possibly using her to obtain his own redemption, to once again become the angel he used to be.

She thought he felt something for her. That maybe he loved her, like she loved him. When she told him she loved him, she meant it.

Was she a fool?

“I’m thinking a lot of things,” she admitted.

He came to her, grasped her hands. Warm. Alive. Human. But he wasn’t, was he?

“Talk to me. Don’t let the questions eat you up inside.”

She let him lead her to the sofa and sat next to him, needing the comfort of his body next to hers. Weak, she knew, but right now he was all she had, even if his motives were suspect.

“How do you know I’m the one you need?”

“The life I save has to mean something. Saving you from the Sons of Darkness … stealing you from their grasp … that’s meaningful.”

“Okay. That makes sense.” So was she his target? Had she been since that night in Sicily? Maybe he was using her. Then again, maybe she was using him, too. Maybe she needed this redemption as much as he did. But could you build a love based on ulterior motives? Did that even matter anymore? How could they even have something together now, knowing what she knew about him? And what happened …

“What happens if I am your redemption? If this works and you …save me?” she asked. “Do you become an angel again and disappear forever?”

He looked at her for a while before answering. That meant she wasn’t going to like what he had to say.

“Ideally, yes. When I redeem myself, I become a Guardian once again, and everything that entails. It means I’m invisible to the human realm.”

She would not cry. It wouldn’t be the first time she lost someone she loved. She’d get over it. She’d be human again. Or at least human enough that she’d have control over the demon inside her. That’s all she wanted, right? “I see.”

“No, you don’t see.” He picked up her hand, squeezed it. “I hadn’t counted on any of this when we started.”

“What?”

“Falling in love with you. I love you, Isabelle. I don’t want to leave you. But it may be the only way to save you. So what do I do? Let myself love you and let the Sons of Darkness have you? That would be the ultimate selfish act, and it would only allow us to be together a short period of time.”

Damn. He loved her. Or maybe he was just saying that to get her to agree to all this. Why couldn’t she believe in him, or in herself?

“You don’t believe me,” he said.

She almost laughed at the look of shock on his face. “I do. I mean I’d like to. Oh, hell, Dalton, it’s not like I get declarations of love every day.”

He pulled her against him, swept her hair away from her face. “You should. Goddammit, you should.”

He kissed her, and she sensed his anguish, his un certainty, and all his regret. It equaled everything she felt, which somehow eased her. She leaned into him, wrapped her arms around him, needing to lose herself in something that had nothing to do with what was going to happen between them in the future, and everything to do with right now.

All she wanted, all she could handle, was this moment. She no longer wanted to think about the future. The future didn’t seem full of hope and promise, or full of anything to fear. It was simply a place she didn’t want to go-not if that future was without Dalton.

She loved him. No matter what his reasons for being with her, for saving her, for bringing her here for whatever kind of otherworldly merger he had concocted with Georgie, she loved him. That wasn’t going to change. And if the demon inside her could give him his redemption, she’d make that sacrifice. For him.

As she moved against him, touching him, memorizing every part of his body under her hands, she was filled with a sense of wonder.

So this was love, this all-encompassing sensation of being filled to bursting with so much emotion she felt she couldn’t contain it all. She felt like she could explode, like she couldn’t sit still, yet there was nowhere else she wanted to be but right here next to Dalton.

They spoke no words, just pulled at each other’s clothes. Isabelle wanted only skin against her, his heat touching hers. Consumed by a sense of urgency, she wanted access to his body. Who knew how little time they had left? The clock ticked, the sound echoing in her mind.

When he stood and dropped his shorts, she scooted in front of him, rolling her palms over the angled planes of his hips and buttocks.

“I should have known you weren’t human,” she said, her voice a whisper in the darkness. “No man is this beautiful, this perfect.”

There wasn’t a single mark on him, nothing to mar the perfection of his body. The wound on his stomach was gone, as if it had never happened. She’d never noticed before that he didn’t even have scars on his body. He really was perfect. Ideal coloring, ideal body shape, and as she encircled his shaft and it slid into her hand, pulsing with life, she smiled.

“Yes. Perfect.”

She stroked him with both hands, deriving the greatest pleasure at watching his head roll back, his lips part and a wild groan escape his lips. And when she took him between her lips, he focused on her with a fierce gaze of utter possession, his hand cupping the back of her neck to guide her movements. He was like satin over steel, the softest skin over hard stone. She cupped the sac that hung between his legs, squeezing him gently while she rolled her tongue over his shaft.

Dalton muttered an oath and pulled away, knelt down and pressed her against the sofa, then spread her legs with his shoulder. He kissed her inner thighs, his silky hair tickling the skin there.

But she didn’t laugh. Not when his warm breath caressed her sex, not when his mouth covered her. She gasped, arching upward against all that wet, hot delight, reaching for more of that sweet pleasure. He held her hips and licked her, his tongue loving every part of her until she was shaking, hanging on a ragged edge. And when he slid his finger inside her, she rolled over that edge, gripped his wrists, and bucked against him, completely out of control.

Dalton didn’t let her regain an ounce of that control. He flipped her over on her knees, her face against the sofa, and slid inside her with one swift thrust. She tilted her head back, embedded in sensation as he rolled his hips to give her the perfect angle.

He bent over her, his chest pressed to her back, and nibbled her ear.

“I love you, Isabelle.”

The words whispered were dark, inviting, his fingers threaded through her hair and pulling as he pushed.

“You’re mine. No matter what happens, you’re mine.”

Thrilled by his possession of her, she couldn’t speak, could only react with her body, pushing back against him with every move he made. Every time he sank into her, he drove his meaning home.

She was his. She would always be his, body, heart, and soul.

“Yes,” was all she could manage as he licked the column of her throat, his fingers tight in her hair, refusing to let her budge, possessing her in every way possible. He lifted her up and one hand covered her breast, surrounding her nipple and tweaking it with soft, measured strokes until she cried out with delight. He moved his hand down, over her ribs, her belly, stroking her hip and moving inward to cup her sex, rolling over the taut bud to massage the burgeoning ache that threatened to devour her from the inside out.

Gripping, swelling, she was only pleasure now. Whatever Dalton wanted from her she would gladly give. Lost in sensation, she was mindless against the assault of his body, his mouth, his teeth grazing her shoulder as his hand worked its magic along with the rhythmic strokes of his shaft. It was too much; unintelligible words spilled from her lips as she catapulted into orgasm. Dalton pressed tight against her and shuddered, going with her over that wave as they held together in a wild ride where nothing existed but the two of them.

When they collapsed against the sofa and the white light surrounded them, she felt no shock. This time, she was at peace with the knowledge that this man was something incredibly special.

And he was hers.

For as long as it lasted.