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.He started up the stairs and I followed him.I could always kick him in the head and escape, no matter how many Nightmen were lurking around the house.One of the doors was open, and the high bed, similar to mine, was rumpled.This had to be his room, and I tried very hard not to show any reluctance as I walked in.After all, we were both adults—we could hold a discussion in a bedroom as well as in a library.There was an uncomfortable-looking Victorian sofa at one side of the huge room, and I went and took a seat, perfectly ready to cross-examine him.He raised an eyebrow, and I almost thought I saw a quirk of amusement at his formerly stern mouth.I had the sudden feeling that he didn’t hate me as much as he had, though I had no idea what had changed his mind.He settled into a wingback chair that stood at a right angle to the sofa.“Why did he call you an angel?” I launched right into it, not waiting for him to control the conversation.“You’re not my idea of a gentle cherub watching over people.”“I’m not,” he said flatly.“I’m fallen.”For a moment I didn’t move.This I could almost believe, looking at the unearthly beauty of his pale face, the cold anger in his tightly wired body.“When?”“Before time was calculated.”I racked my brain for the snippets I’d read.“Are you Lucifer?”I’d managed to startle him.“What do you know of Lucifer?”“Not much.He was the first fallen angel, wasn’t he? God’s favorite angel, who became too arrogant and fell from heaven to become Satan.”I could practically see the wheels turning behind his cold eyes as he decided just how much to tell me.“Yes and no,” he said finally.“He was God’s favorite, and his name means Bringer of Light.As for being arrogant, that arrogance was simply questioning God’s choice to destroy men, women, and children for one man’s sin, as God had done so often.Lucifer asked questions, and for that he was banished to eternal torment.As for Satan, he is simply an artificial construct used by men to explain the actions of God and the archangel Uriel.”“You’re telling me God is Satan?”He sighed, clearly annoyed.“I am telling you Satan doesn’t exist.He’s made-up.”“So are fallen angels,” I shot back.“I’m far too real,” he said.“Touch me.”I tried not to jerk away at the thought.I’d touched him already, and the feel of his smooth, supple skin beneath my hands was disturbing.“Never mind.I believe you.”“So aren’t you going to ask me about the other part of what Beloch said?”“I don’t remember.” A complete lie.I remembered exactly what he’d said, and his words had sent a shiver through my body, though not, I had to admit, a shiver of revulsion.“He said it’s not everyone who gets to fuck an angel.”That same heated shiver sliced through me.I chose my words carefully.“I presumed he was being facetious.”“And yet you didn’t think he was being facetious about the angel part.”I leaned back, summoning every ounce of control to appear relaxed and faintly curious, when my entire body was tingling.This wasn’t an intellectual discussion.This was going somewhere, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to go along.Then again, I might not have a choice.“Why don’t you explain it to me? Everything.Such as why you’re planning on handing me over to people who aren’t going to leave anything when they’re done with me.”He didn’t even blink.“I wish I weren’t forced to give you to the Truth Breakers.I’d much rather find out what I need to know without bringing them into it.”“What do you need to know?”“It’s really quite simple.I need to know what you know about Lucifer.”“I already told you—”He shook his head, and his silky black hair danced against his pale face.“I’m not talking about the tired mythology you’ve parroted to me.The Lilith knows where Lucifer has been interred.You were imprisoned nearby, as a punishment for questioning the word of God.”“I guess there was a lot of that going around.Is that why you fell?”He didn’t even blink.“No.I was the second to fall, along with twenty of my friends.We had been sent to earth to teach humans about metals and farming, and we made the dire mistake of falling in love with human females.The God of that time was an angry, vengeful entity, and we ended with eternal damnation.”I stared at him, dumbfounded.“That was the last thing I expected,” I said finally.“I would have guessed you didn’t even know the meaning of love [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]