“I said, I’m fine.”
Alexa sniffed and looked at Val who was surprised to see tears in her eyes. “He won’t admit it to anyone but he’s gravely ill.”
“Alexa,” he growled.
She shook her head. “You are. You can’t fool me. I can see the disease eating away at you.
I’ve tried to ignore it, but I can’t anymore. I won’t ignore it. You’re sick. You need to use my gift before it’s too late.” She moved toward him again, but he held his hand out to stop her from getting any closer.
“I’m not promising anything. Leave.”
She sniffed. “I’ll return.”
“I know.”
She glanced at Val. “Try to talk some sense into him, would you? He can either finally agree to come with me and I will take care of him and ensure nothing bad ever happens to him, or he can make use of the key. There isn’t much time left.”
Val opened her mouth to say something, although she wasn’t sure what, when Alexa disappeared behind a column of flame leaving Barlow and her alone.
He’d pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and coughed into it some more. When he took it from his mouth Val could see a spot of red on it. Her heart clenched.
“You need to see a doctor.”
“No doctors. I’m fine. Just a bit of a cold is all,” he murmurred and wiped his mouth. “Sounds like your cold has cleared up finally. It was a bad one, wasn’t it?”
It was true. Ever since Nathaniel healed her ankle last night, her head cold congestion had become less and less . . . congested. She felt almost completely healthy again.
“You’re a fallen angel?” she blurted out.
He didn’t say anything for a long moment. Then finally, “Yes, I am.”
“And you knew who I am? What I was?”
He nodded.
She let out a long, shuddery sigh. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“There was no reason to.”
At first, Val felt incredibly angry that he hadn’t told her. Two months and he hadn’t said a word when it must have been obvious how distraught she was over her situation. But the anger passed as soon as it had appeared, replaced with a overwhelming wave of complete and utter joy.
A wide smile spread across her features and she ran to him to hug him tightly. “This is so wonderful,” she gushed. “I’ll never forgive you for not telling me, but now I know. Now everything is going to be better.”
Barlow struggled to free himself from Val’s grasp and crooked an eyebrow at her. “Is that so?”
“How long have you been here, anyhow?”
“Fifty years.”
“And you’ve known Alexa for that much time?”
“She made her presence known to me almost immediately.”
Val’s mind raced. “And in all that time you’ve been able to resist her?”
He looked thoughtful. “I suppose I’m a very stubborn person. Once my mind was made up that I did not want to buy into her fictional tales of how perfect an existence I would have in
Hell, there was nothing more she could say to me that would have convinced me otherwise.
Frankly, I’m quite surprised that she’s never given up despite my absolute determination to deny her. Now I must simply tolerate her attentions.”
Val almost grinned. “Yeah, that must be difficult. She’s so ugly.”
“I won’t say that it hasn’t been difficult at times. And I’ll admit that I’ve come close to allowing her to affect me—to tempt me. Mostly in my younger days. But I will say that I am lucky. Demons are gifted with the ability to charm their prey to a certain extent. It’s similar to hypnosis. It isn’t enough to make the fallen one agree immediately, but it can tilt the scales to the Tempter’s benefit. Thankfully I have been mostly immune to this particular demon ability.”
Val nodded her head. “Yes, I think Nathaniel tried something like that with me last night.
Made my head all cloudy. Made me think that being tempted might be a good thing.” She frowned. “I should be mad at you, you know. You could have warned me.”
“If you were meant to be tempted, than you would have been. No warning would have made a difference. I am proud that you were able to resist him. Very proud indeed. But you’ve only seen him the once? Do you think you’ll be able to continue in your resistance?”
Resistance is futile, Val thought.
Star Trek. Very addictive television show.
“Probably. I mean, yes. Definitely. No problem whatsoever.” She sighed heavily. “What’s the deal with these Tempters, anyhow? What’s in it for them if they bring one of us over to the dark side? I don’t get it.”
Barlow cut himself a piece of the anniversary cake and began to pick at it. “It’s their job. Tempters tempt.”
“I don’t want to see him again,” Val said. Would she be able to resist him again? She thought she would. But fifty years? That was too much. Barlow was obviously much stronger than she was, or ever would be. “I want to go back. I didn’t have any problems like this in Heaven. It was perfect and wonderful, and I loved my job . . . not that I don’t like working for you, but it’s not the same. I know my memories are fading. They probably fade on purpose so we don’t miss it so much, right? Is that how it is? Well, I don’t want to forget! I don’t want to forget any of it. Now that I’ve found you, we can go back together. There has to be a way.”
Just thinking about it made tears start to well up in her eyes and she fought to hold them back, but it was too late. Big salty tears coursed down her cheeks like the Falls themselves, and she found that Barlow was hugging her, patting her on the back, and telling her everything would be okay while she sobbed against his shoulder.
Finally, she released him and took a step back. “Sorry. I don’t know why I’m even bothering anymore. There’s obviously no way to go back. It’s all just a waste of time. You’ve been here for fifty years and you’re still here. Maybe I need to just give up. Accept being human. Maybe it’s not as bad as I think it is after all.”
“Oh, it is,” Barlow said, as he tucked a long strand of Val’s blond hair behind her ear in a fatherly manner. “Being human sucks the big one, pardon my language.”
She sniffed. “This is not helping.”
“Sorry.”
“So you’re saying it’s useless. That I should just give up.”
“No, I’m most certainly not saying that. We’re going to go back to Heaven. The both of us.”
Val’s eyebrows shot up. “What did you just say?”