Chapter 37
Jasper roared his anguish, shaking knick-knacks off the fireplace mantel. “Where. The. Hell. Is. She?”
He leaped over the vacant sofa to grab Maeve by the shoulders and shake her violently until her large hazel eyes blinked and a large exhale burst through her lips. “What?” She continued to blink, her hand flying to her chest as if every breath were a struggle. “Wh…”
“Where is Savannah, witch?” He growled with more menace than he would’ve shown any other supernatural creature. It was obvious the witch had played them. She was responsible for Savannah disappearing to heavens knew where.
“I… I don’t know. What happened?”
Jasper jerked the pale librarian over to the empty sofa. “What did you do? Where did you send her?”
Her eyes rounded and her mouth fell open. She sank to the floor, her hands splayed along the cushions as if searching for something her eyes couldn’t see.
Thomas attempted to shove Jasper away from Maeve but found himself on the wrong end of Jasper’s fury. Without breaking his stare from the witch, Jasper grabbed Thomas’s shirt with one hand and threw him to the other side of the living room and through the heavy wooden closed front door.
“Stop this nonsense, now, guardian. Or you’ll be too late.” A soft voice danced through his mind moments before the darkened room lit up like a bright summer morning at the beach.
Without knowingly taking the action on his own accord, Jasper released Maeve from his brutal grip. He turned to face the light emanating from the center of a gild-framed portrait of angels over the fireplace. A picture he had never noticed. He recalled a rough-wood frame around a scene of galloping horses having graced that same wall.
Out of the brilliant light stepped a tall, beautiful woman with rose-colored hair that fell past her waist and a flowing white stola that revealed more than it concealed. Jasper felt the overwhelming need to kneel in respect but was too stubborn to do so. He had no idea who she was, but he would kneel only to the one true divine God. Not to pure-blooded angels, not even to archangels. Certainly not to whatever she was.
“It’s okay, guardian. I don’t blame you. The era of lesser gods and goddesses has long since passed into myth, not even accorded its rightful place in history.” The lovely woman motioned for him to stand and take her hand.
“Lesser what?” Jasper’s voice croaked, his throat and mouth too dry to form coherent sentences.
She waved her other hand. “It makes no difference now. And to explain this whole horrid misunderstanding would take too long and then we’d risk not reaching Savannah in time.”
“In time for what?” Icy panic washed over his heart; his entire body trembled, and his knees buckled. Fear. An emotion he’d never allowed to control him—until Savannah had ridden into his life—threatened his sanity.
Her answering smile slowly began to melt away the fear like the flame from a fireplace thaws frozen hands and toes after playing in the snow for hours on the first snow day of the year. “Before the baby is born.”
The baby? It was too soon.
A warm hand cupped his chin, forcing him to look into her shiny eyes. “All will be well with the little one and his momma. Where they’ve gone, time passes differently. A minute here could be a month there.”
Panic gripped his heart again. “Then, we gotta go. Now!”
He had no idea where they were going or who this woman was, but he trusted her. Jasper never trusted anyone, not as completely and absolutely as he trusted her. In the back of his mind, a flickering thought questioned “Why?” but his intuition pushed it away.
“Hold on, my dear.” She gripped both of his hands tightly. “The ride can be a bit bumpy.”
***
The strange woman had not exaggerated. A swirling hole opened, starting from the picture over the fireplace mantel and growing until it encompassed the entire room. With a jerk of her chin, she pulled him along with her into the vortex.
The ride had indeed been bumpy. When they finally stepped out of the portal, they were in a beautifully expansive room with pristine white marble floors with Greek-styled columns raising up to an impossibly high ceiling. Sheer curtains billowed around them. Glancing around, Jasper realized they were standing on the cusp of a vast balcony looking into the room. Inside the room was an ornate, round bed with more sheer curtains draped over its tall posts, cloaking the occupant on the bed itself.
The portal closed abruptly behind them, making Jasper leap forward in sudden fear he’d be sucked back in.
He sensed rather than saw Savannah on the bed. Without a side glance at the woman beside him, he sprinted to Savannah’s side and pushed back the hanging fabric.
Her beauty astounded even him. Jasper had always known Savannah was gorgeous, but with a sparkling light surrounding her, she was truly divine. His instinct was to reach for her, pull her close, and never let her go. But oddly, he could only stare in wonder.
Indeed, her belly was rounder than when he’d seen her only moments ago.
“Ah, good. We are just in time.” The mysterious woman appeared at his shoulder. “Don’t worry, she’s sleeping for now. That’s best for her and the baby.”
“Why is she here? How did she get here?” Jasper could not take his eyes off Savannah, but he deeply desired answers to their predicament.
A soft sigh had him turning his head to the woman who had brought him here, and most likely had also been responsible for bringing Savannah here, too.
“Long story, but I’ll give you the abbreviated tale.” Tears glistened in her eyes, making them shine and appear almost opaque.
Jasper nodded, afraid his own voice would be too brash in this divine setting, and not wishing to startle her. He felt an odd sort of protectiveness for this woman, who he did not know, and whose intentions he could not read.
“Manea is…was a goddess, despite being a complete and total bitch.”
The harsh words were jarring from her lips.
“Your witch meant well, so please do not cast blame on her when you return. If she’d told you half of what she thought she knew about the situation, you’d have not trusted her to get this far.” She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “For the most part, Manea had been vanquished by Savannah in the prison world.”
Okay, this Jasper already knew. A sliver of impatience began to slink up his spine.
“The part that didn’t go away embedded itself into Savannah’s own soul. As it should.” Her emphasis on the last word startled him.
“Should?”
“Yes. Savannah is part goddess. A demigoddess, actually. By killing her goddess mother, she absorbed Manea’s essence. It became part of her. Not something that can be cleaved from her physical person like a demon possession. To have completed the exorcism, the process would have…for lack of a better term…killed that part of her, thus…”
“Killing her.” Jasper’s knees buckled and he collapsed to the floor. They had nearly murdered Savannah!
“Yes.” The woman kneeled beside him on the icy hard marble floor. “Maeve suspected this but could not determine for fact, so she built in a spell to call me forth if Savannah or the child were placed in grave danger.”
A rush of tears brimmed in Jasper’s eyes, blurring his vision. “And that’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? Who are you exactly?”
“The goddess of childbirth.” She didn’t elaborate.
“Goddess? Well, that explains a few things, I guess.” Jasper turned to lean against the bedframe. “Which one, precisely? All the gods and goddesses confuse me. And since I am a guardian angel, they’re not exactly in my wheelhouse of knowledge. I’m only familiar with Manea for all the wrong reasons.”
“None of that matters, right now.” She stood, pulling on his arm to bring him up as well.
“Inquiring minds want to know.” Was it rude to joke with a goddess? Jasper couldn’t stop the sarcasm lacing his words.
“Maeve knew enough to call for me, but I would’ve intervened regardless. I may not have been on friendly terms with Manea, but that wouldn’t stop me from helping another goddess in distress…especially when a child is at stake.”
“Of course not, my dear.”
They both jumped at the deep, smooth voice that had interrupted the sanctity of the room. Jasper didn’t need to turn around to see who stood at the open balcony doors.
Lucifer.
He glided into the room as if the breeze itself propelled him. “Diana, darling. I was wondering where you had gotten off to.” Then he turned his inky stare to Jasper. “It seems we meet again, guardian.”
“Get out of here, Lucifer. You are not welcome.” The goddess—Diana, was it?—growled.
“Oh, I am not here to disturb the sleeping beauty.” Lucifer pulled the edge of the curtain that enshrouded the bed.
Jasper’s fury unleashed. He smacked the Devil’s hand away. “Get away from her,” he spat.
Lucifer’s smile faded and a spark of red lit his eyes. “After all we have been through, you still do not trust me?”
“No way in hell!” A primal protective instinct erupted in Jasper’s chest and raced like lava through his veins.
A thought flickered. Had the goddess tricked him? Had she purposefully delivered Savannah and his unborn child to the Devil? His eyes slid to where she had placed herself in between the bed and Lucifer. Fire sparkled in her eyes; her fists clenched at her side. No, Jasper didn’t believe she’d betrayed them. By the thunderous expression on her face, she’d gladly gut Lucifer if he so much as took one step toward Savannah.
“Your presence is not required here, Lucifer. You should leave before I allow the guardian to unleash his pent-up stress and frustration on you.” Her lips quirked up on one side ever so slightly.
Jasper made to step forward, to punch Lucifer in his smarmy face, but discovered he couldn’t move. Was Diana magically controlling him? If so, that was completely out of line and unacceptable.
Lucifer’s gaze slid from Diana to Jasper. He put his hands up in a sign of surrender. “Fine. Fine. I just wanted to be a part of this momentous occasion. It is not every day a child of goddess and angel is born. Actually, it is quite unheard of, unless of course…” He turned his head back to Diana.
The goddess whose complexion had been perfection itself blanched a sallow, sickly shade. “You’re wrong.” Her words were so soft Jasper barely heard them over the percussion of his own heartbeat.
“Oh, really? Am I? Please do tell.” Lucifer stepped away from the bed to sit on a plush bench made of cloth of gold. “I am waiting, my dear.”
Jasper feared to breathe. Was Lucifer alluding to a prophecy? Perhaps the one Thomas tried to tell him about in the kitchen?
The damn devil was obsessed with prophecies, after all.
A child of goddess and angel?
A shriek pierced the room, so strong it rattled the ornate vases filled with wildflowers on the nightstand.
“Savannah!” Jasper threw back the curtains to find her clutching her belly and the silk ivory bed sheets stained crimson.
Her eyes, no longer human in nature, were opaque like when she’d been possessed by Manea. “The baby!” she screamed through parched lips. “It’s time!”