The Gift She Gives Ch. 10

"She is of the light." He stressed in a hissed breath.

"Yes."

"She couldn't have risen from darkness." Mr. Hughes shook his head.

"Seeds can be planted that can take quite a lot of time to mature, you've heard about the Judaean date palm seed the humans found, right? The one that was 2000 years old and was then germinated? Think of your ayperi as-."

"A date palm seed?" Mr. Hughes sighed, was that what had happened? Had a 'seed' been planted in one of her ancestors, ages and ages ago, that had finally taken root inside her mother? It would have had to be pure, there would have been no human parent. Was that another reason her mother had seemed so cold to the girl as she grew up? Had the woman known that she'd not born the child of another man? It was quite possible that she'd not even been intimate around the time of conception.

"You are not the only angel that felt that we had been...given false hope." Fezekial said a little more quietly, his voice almost soothing as he spoke to the angel at his side.

"But how could he have done it?" Mr. Hughes shook his head. Lucifer had been an angel, he'd had no ability to create.

"We'll never know, Arc, it's not up to us to understand. But He is aware of her presence here, and He has been for some time."

"She can't know how she came to be, it would hurt her." He breathed easier suddenly when he saw the girl open her eyes and she looked at Samir as her mouth fell open to take a deep and much needed breath.

"It must be very frustrating for you, to know her, to have her in your grasp, but not to be able to do anything about it." Fezekial watched as Mr. Hughes sighed and arched a brow at him.

"If I touch her, will it kill her?"

Fezekial looked away, back towards the patio.

"I don't know. You're quite damaged. I don't know why you would be so stupid as to cut off your wings. It might prove too much for her."

"So I'm to be cursed with a concubine that I cannot touch, everything else He has taken from me is not enough?"

Fezekial frowned and the air around them seemed to hum and vibrate for a moment, "He has taken nothing that you have not freely given, and you have given Him nothing despite his own offering. Tread carefully, Archimendes. Not all of your brothers are kindly disposed towards you. I don't think that you want to lose the one friend you can count on."

Mr. Hughes shook his head more gently and looked to his left, away from both Fezekial and the woman who was now sitting up a little straighter in the chair.

"I didn't ask for this need to fuck, Fezekial. I didn't ask for this need to dominate humans, to bend them to my will sexually. He has forced this on me." Mr. Hughes growled, but then turned towards the angel and shrugged, "I am not complaining, I have long since learned that my complaints fall on deaf ears. But she hates me now for a compulsion that I never felt before coming down. I don't know how to get her to not hate me."

"I would like to meet her. Have her taken up to the roof. The center. I will meet you up there." Fezekial ignored what he said and Mr. Hughes frowned, watching as the angel took off and disappeared in the air.

Closing his eyes, he waited a few moments before walking towards the patio. She was still in pain, or from the after affects of it, at least, but it didn't look like Vesper was getting ready to run again. He spoke softly to Samir, who nodded and picked her up again, and then Mr. Hughes followed the two of them into the mansion. He didn't know what Fezekial wanted with Vesper, and quite honestly, he was suspicious of him. His god would already know everything there was to know about Vesper, there would be no need for him to question her. But it seemed as though Fezekial was curious, and that worried Mr. Hughes. She was an ayperi, after all. A creation made to service angels. His motivation to meet her could be extremely selfish.