"I'm ready. Take me." The weak voice was barely discernible but Lesedi had no doubt the demon heard the words loud and clear.
The demon shifted to its real form and leaped at her. She screamed as it landed on her chest. Too late. Lesedi watched in horror as the thing melted into her writhing body that convulsed in agony. Then she stood, appearing in perfect health.
As the screen faded to dark, tears rolled down Miya's cheeks unnoticed. "Oh dear God," she whispered, her voice strained. "What will happen to that poor woman now?"
One of the women, Devyn, he thought, dried her own tears. "Oh she'll live forever alright." Her hard voice shook. "A prisoner in her own mind, watching every atrocity the demon commits in her name." Emotion overtook her again and more tears flowed unchecked. How much of that type of horror had this woman seen? And yet her heart remained unhardened. "It will unleash some of the vilest and sacrilegious shit on her children, her family. And they'll believe she's doing it. And she'll be powerless to do anything but watch."
"But that thing tricked her, that's not fair." Miya's anger came through. "Surely she can't be penalized for wanting some relief from that kind of suffering. The demon took advantage of her pain."
"All human actions are judged in righteousness," the blue angel said. "If she is truly innocent, God will know, and justice shall come to pass once this fallen world has been entirely restored."
Something shifted in Lesedi. "Is this what we are trying to stop?"
Toren, nodded. "That and far worse."
Miya took hold of Lesedi's hand beneath the table. "Tell me what to do. I'm in."
Lesedi regarded her. She looked up into his gaze and it felt like looking at himself in a mirror. The need to help others, to do what was right, burned inside her. The same as it burned within him. He had never been able to name the hunger inside him. But in that second, he knew exactly what it was. The diamond business was fraught with defiling events that left him wanting, and feeling so eternally soiled in his spirit that he could hardly lift his head. That was what had changed in him, where the innocence and freedom of childhood had gone. Smothered by the wages of his own sins.
He looked around the table and found all eyes on him as though they knew he sat at a crossroad of redemption and damnation. Waiting for the verdict. He nodded slightly. "My name is Lesedi." He aimed his gaze at Lyght. "Son of a whore and a king. Use me in whatever way that you can."
The angels looked at one another, flames arcing between them. The fires died back, but the angels' eyes continued to glow with the preternatural light. It was Lyght that turned his glowing gaze on him then stood and placed his hand on Lessedi's head. "You are Lesedi. Son of Deshtorah, a holy woman who sacrificed herself to save a divine lineage. Though she is called a whore among men, she is a queen in our realm." He bowed his head, as if in deference, and Lesedi looked around, shocked to see the remaining angels bowing their heads the same.
Kassern turned a speculative gaze on Lesedi. "You are thought, by the ignorant, to be a man of both lowly and noble birth. The latter is the truth, but the former is a lie that has rooted in your soul and cursed you. And now, we will forge strength from this weakness after the bonding is complete. However, you will always have to be on guard for those who will seek to corrupt you."
Lesedi realized that the angel had just divined his past and spoken prophetically about his future. Just like that. Just like that, he was in the midst of the impossible. The supernatural. The very stain he spent his life running from, even despising. And like his forefather who led his people out of Egypt, Lesedi felt the urge to remove his shoes. For surely the place where he sat, was holy ground.
Chapter Eleven
Lyght finally managed to draw a full breath again when Miya announced her cooperation. Sure he'd still be the laughingstock of the Brotherhood for getting his ass chewed by a woman like that. They might not have said it, but everyone in the room was awed by her courage and durability. Not many humans handled their first flash without at least a little motion sickness, even after being prepared for it. She hadn't gone the least bit green and she certainly hadn't been rendered speechless. Prickly nature aside, having her in his Quad would be an asset.
While his Brothers and their team members filled his Quad in on exactly the sorts of things they would be fighting, Lyght stayed quiet next to Kassie at the long table. So this would be his and Kassie's home for the duration of the operation? He didn't appreciate the lack of lavish detail he was accustomed to in Third Heaven, but what more could he ask of Earth's environs?