The Book of Tartarus (COMPLETED PREQUEL TO MY VALENTINE)

Valen

Only 20 years have passed since Episkopos' fall. Nearly 20 years of peace within the amorini court. Time has a strange way of changing in Tartarus. A full day on Earth is a week in the cold realm. Valen had learned that the hard way when he spent too long in the mortal world. He had crossed back into Tartarus feeling tired and heavy. He had only been gone for a few days but nearly a month had passed once he returned.

He closes his eyes and breathes in, holding the breath deep within his chest.

Unlike the other fallen angels the amorini did not ask permission from God before striking someone down. They didn't have to. It was the one thing that the other angels hated them for. The amorini were created for mankind to guide them and teach them what it was to love. God could not sever that bond from them even though their arrows had turned black with hate, no longer the pristine ivory of innocent romance.

There was no rhyme or reason to how the amorini drew names, they just did. Like drawing a name out of a magic hat they plucked a name from the sky, snuffed out a star.

Valen's mouth twists, his teeth flashing.

Mankind had their night sky and the Fallen had theirs. In their world the stars were holy, twinkling with wisdom and soft protection. In Tartarus the stars were mortals, mocking them with their light. Look at us, they seemed to shine. We are more important than you.

Valen chose a star at random, drew his arrow back and shot the star down until it dropped in his hand. The soul had moved him in a way he had never felt before. The star's name meant temptress and what a temptation she was. He had moved the light between his fingers, puzzled for only a moment but a foreign feeling flitting across his chest and crossed over.

Lorelei Avis was the first mortal to still his arrow. It was neither her exceptional beauty nor the desire to end her life that drew him. There was an attraction, deeper than even the amorini, the cupid, could understand. That is not to say he was attracted to her the way a man is to a woman but simply Valen was drawn to her. There was an air about her, almost a natural glow that screamed holy and yet no mortal, no woman, had ever been created holy.

The shroud around her shoulders is still there, shining vibrantly, mocking him just as her light in the sky had. Valen sits in the corner of her room deliberating. He is wasting time trying to fit the pieces together, figure out what Lorelei is. He knows that if he waits too long he will be tired just like he was the first time. He needs to go back to Tartarus to heal his body, to give it the energy he needs to survive but he can't. Not yet.

He cannot go when she screams to him to come closer.

Lorelei looks up, her clear eyes meeting his, looking right through him as she stares off into space. She's writing something when her pen comes to an abrupt stop and taps the back end on the notebook. She works her bottom lip between her teeth.

Valen stands beside her, looming over her like a dark shadow. He can't kill her, not yet. There is weakness inside of him, curiosity, and it is getting the best of him.

Perhaps the light around her is God's hand, holding her close. Valen had noted the Bible sitting at her bedside with the worn leather cover. What a naïve little thing.

He smirks.

Not even God can protect her from what is coming. Taking her life will be so much sweeter because of it. Those most precious to the Enemy were always the most delicious, the ones you could savor on your tongue. The heat of their blood was satisfying.

Valen's teeth sharpen and he runs his tongue over a pointed canine. He has never been one to take part in passing appetites but it is tempting. He could take a bite right out of her shoulder and she wouldn't even know what was happening. Her head would tip to the side and she would sigh, falling back into his arms. She would not question whose arms she was in, nor would she consider why there was someone else in the room.