Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 40901 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 205(@200wpm)___ 164(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40901 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 205(@200wpm)___ 164(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
“Thank you,” I say when I am no longer panting too much to speak.
He smiles at me. It is a knowing smile, one of enjoyment and perhaps even approval.
“You’re a bad girl, Katie,” he drawls, his voice deep with southern charm.
I do hate that he calls me Katie. “My name is Katya.”
“But it’s not, though, is it. You were born Kate.”
The glow of orgasm, and the brazen pride at having taken it for myself both terminate immediately.
“What do you know about who I was born?”
“You were born an orphan,” he says. “Never knowing the loving touch of a mother and suffering an absent father. Your mother was gone before you came. You were delivered into the arms of a nurse and given into to the care of the church.”
I do not remember the times he speaks of. I was not there for them, not really. The prototype of my flesh, that was there. I know where he is driving at with this. He is telling me he knows I am a sad little orphan, conceived of by angels, but deposited on Earth all alone. He wants me to fall into the emotional void of self-pity. But I have faced all these demons already. I no longer mourn the loss of family.
“To be fair, my father was an angel. They’re rarely present. And hardly family oriented.”
“You are wounded, Katie,” he says. “And though your flesh might heal quickly, I am sure those wounds are ever-fresh. You are a woman who was never a little girl. You are forty years of age, and you have never so much as tried to have a child of your own.”
“I have greater purposes.”
“And you are barren.”
He has been thorough. And invasive. I already hated him, so this makes little difference. It is just another reason to loathe him. I say nothing in response to his cutting comment. He is testing me. Toying with me. He is trying to strip me emotionally bare the same way he stripped me physically bare.
“What do you want with me, Starlight? What satisfaction does this give you? This big prison, and I seem to be the only inmate. This impotent toy inside me. This character assassination. What purpose does any of it serve?”
Outside, the day has begun to wane. Darkness is gathering, replacing the burning sun with shadows and mysteries. Twilight has come and gone in the midst of our conflict, and now the moon is rising. It is no normal pale moon, but a blood red disc low on the horizon. Starlight’s chamber has been designed so the main windows face toward that moon and soon we are both cast in a red tinged glow, my naked body gleaming, my hair appearing a strawberry hue.
“You are the most powerful and pureblooded of all the angels currently walking this world,” he says. “You are special, Katie. Your blood is powerful, yes, and I am sure you could have found many ways and means to use it to help those in the profane world. But it was not made for the world of men. It would not help. It would hurt.”
“There is no way for you to know that, Starlight.
He looks at me. “Do you remember the first time we were together?”
“Of course.”
“You had to flee just as much as I had to hunt. You and I are two sides of a coin that does not belong on this planet, or among these people. This prison serves the same purpose all prisons serve. It keeps the general population safe from dangerous elements.”
I laugh at that. “Starlight, I have never been a dangerous element. I was trying to help people.”
“People don’t need help from the likes of you,” he says gruffly. “People need less interference from the divine in general. There’s nothing more dangerous than an actual savior with a savior complex.”
I stare at him, open mouthed. Of all the things I thought he’d say, these words were not among them. “What…”
“Let me be clear, darlin’,” he says, dropping further into that drawl. “People do not need saving. People do not need angels. People need people.”
“I… what?”
“Think about it, Katie. Think about the most profane and mundane things ordinary people do. Think about a grocery store. People in a grocery store are calm and orderly. They go about their business, and in most places, they behave in lawful fashion. That’s how it is when humanity gets left to get along with each other. Now, compare that to where people come into contact with the divine. Sure, you get some nice potlucks, and some worker bees here and there, but you also get civilization-spanning wars. You and your kind are poison to the world. Real peace can only be achieved without you. Not with you. The more you try to influence this world, the worse the consequences for everyone.”