Frightened at his sudden appearance, I jumped out of my seat, clutching my handbag. “You can’t sit here. That seat’s taken.”
“It is a sin to lie in church, Jacqueline.” He gave me a soft smile.
My jaw dropped; so did my purse. “How do you know my name?”
“I am sorry if I startled you.” Again, the self-deprecating smile.
“Who are you?” I began to suspect my new friend wasn’t your normal garden-variety churchgoer. “And why are you dressed like something from Jesus Christ Superstar?”
He laughed, a sweet, gentle sound. Weird or not, there was something appealing about his manner, and I relaxed. “Is that what you think, my dear Jacqueline? Look closer.” He obligingly leaned forward to show me.
I gasped. What I had taken for a fluffy fur coat was actually feathery down: massive wings cascaded around his shoulderblades and swept down his back.
“Holy shit, you’re an angel.”
His smile faltered as he sat upright. “Please, your words.”
I gasped and covered my mouth. “Ohmigod, I’m so sorry.” When he flinched again, I winced. “Oh crap, I did it again, didn’t I?”
“God understands the vagaries of human language, but I confess it is a bit hard on my ears.”
I collapsed on the pew next to him again. “I’m so sorry,” I repeated, not knowing what else to say. “What are you doing here? Are you cast out, like Noah?”
He looked a little green at the thought and shook his head. “No, no. I am not like your Noah.”
I blinked hard. “You’re still an angel, then. Like, a real one, not a Serim. Wow.”
The angel gave me another softly sweet smile, and I immediately felt trampy and unworthy in my Juicy sweatsuit and overly bountiful new body.
“I am glad that you have come here. I wished for us to … talk a moment. My name is Uriel. I’ve heard of your plight.”
Uriel-it even sounded angelic. I was in awe: a real live angel, here with me. My hand reached out to touch a ringlet of his white-blond hair to make sure that I wasn’t dreaming, and it felt real and baby-fine. “I can’t believe I’m meeting an angel. I never thought it would happen to me.”
“Most likely it would not have. Only the deceased may gaze upon us, and we rarely exit Heaven. Humans with regular lives never see our kind.” He cocked his head at me and took my hand in his. “But that was stolen from you, was it not? A regular life?”
To hear someone else state it like that made me pause, uncomfortable. “I guess so. The succubus thing is a little hard to get used to, but it could have been worse.” I pried my hand out of his-not that I didn’t love touching him-but my hormones were keeling toward overdrive and I didn’t want to think nasty thoughts about the beautifully pure man before me. It seemed … wrong. “Remy’s been really great, though,” I defended. “Noah, too. I’m lucky that I have them to fall back on.”
He gave me another knowing, pitying look and clasped my hand in his. “Is that true?”
I slid my hand back out of his once more. I liked his touch way too much for my own good. “Look, I’m feeling a bit under the weather right now, so I’d prefer that you don’t touch me, if it’s all the same to you.”
His brows drew together in a faintly puzzled look, then acknowledgment dawned, and he shied away from me like I had a wad of snot hanging off my nose. “Ah.”
“Yeah.” I blew my bangs up off my face in frustration. “It’s the downside to the whole shebang-the constant maniac sex drive.” I dug through my purse for some aspirin for the throbbing that was bound to turn into a headache soon.
“Don’t forget eternal damnation.”
I choked on the aspirin that I had just flung into the back of my throat. “What?”
“Eternal damnation,” Uriel repeated and turned innocent eyes on me. “Did your new friends not explain that to you?”
I spat out one of the aspirin, my throat suddenly dry as a bone. The other had lodged itself to the roof of my mouth and I had to fish it out with a finger. “No one menshioned efernal damnashion,” I said around my finger.
He gave a knowing nod. “I thought not. Their kind prefers to gloss over the negative details of their hedonistic lifestyle.” Uriel had a hand to his heart, a sad look on his face. “I seek to help you return to your normal, mortal life. Don’t you fear what paths you will take if you follow your friend Remy’s lead?”
“Her lead?”
A line formed between his brows. “I refer to the Afterlife.”
Now that threw me for a loop. “Uh, I thought I already died?” I looked around. Yep, still New City. I could smell the smog even from inside the church. “It’s not exactly what I pictured, but it could be worse.”
He shook his head, white-blond curls moving in a symphony that made me long to reach out and touch them again. I picked up my purse and clasped my hands around it to keep from reaching out. “This is not your Afterlife. You were scheduled for greater things, had not you been forcibly detained upon this earth.”
He had my interest all right. “Forcibly detained?”
Uriel arched a delicate eyebrow at me. “Do you mean to tell me that you planned this?”
Well, no, I hadn’t exactly. “Er …”
He nodded, as if that was the answer he had been expecting. “Precisely. It is lucky for you, Jacqueline, that I have decided not to hold your current status-or the company you keep-against you. Most of my brethren would not be so enlightened.”
My feelings hurt, I resorted to the oldest of defense mechanisms: sarcasm. “So what makes you so special?”
Uriel’s lips thinned, a sure sign I was irritating him. “I see I must get straight to the point with you. Very well, then. I need a favor.”
“From me?” There was a squeak in my voice, despite my best efforts. “What could Heaven possibly want with me?”
“Not Heaven itself,” he corrected me. “Just me. Uriel.” He sent me a smile so warm, I thought I would melt right there in my seat. “Your friend.”
“Oh,” I breathed, scooting closer to him. He had the most beautiful face. Even Noah’s amazing looks didn’t compare with Uriel’s perfect, sculpted beauty.
“Watch the wings,” he reminded me in a gentle voice.
I shied back in embarrassment. “Sorry.”
He touched my cheek, and I felt my knees go weak. “It is all right. I know you do not want to harm me.”
“Oh, I don’t,” I said, breathing hard.
“I know,” he repeated, the smile looking a little more … forced at my adoring gaze. “Especially when I have heard of your situation and decided to help you.”
“Help me? How?” My ardor turned to puzzlement. How in the world could an angel help me with my current situation? Unless … I slid a glance over to the confessional. “You mean … I thought angels didn’t do that.”
“And how is it that you think Noah got into his predicament?” Uriel tilted his head at me like an inquisitive bird.
“Sex?” I blanked for a moment. “Really?” Noah had mentioned that, come to think of it.
Uriel leaned in, his voice soft. “It is not my story to tell, but perhaps you should ask your friend the next time you see him.”
I noticed that the angel scrupulously avoided Noah’s name. I almost asked about it, then changed my mind. I didn’t want to make him angry. He seemed so … sweet. Wholesome.
I wanted to do dirty, nasty things to the man. His scent was wonderful, like cookies and baby shampoo-an odd, but fresh combination. And he was leaning very close to me, his gaze intent on my face.
“You shouldn’t lean in to me,” I warned him, recognizing the signs. “I’m sort of …” There wasn’t a delicate way to put it. In heat? About to tackle him in a fury of lust? I just pointed at my eyes, which I’m sure were bluer than his own. “You know … this.”