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?”