Lead Me From Temptation (Divine Darkness Book 1) Read online

  Gasping for air, I grabbed my mouth to hold in my scream. He didn’t turn to look at me and when I caught my breath I called out to him. “Mike, what are you doing here? How did you get in here?”

  He stared straight ahead in an eerie silence. I walked to him. Something was wrong. I didn’t have the same warm feeling. Where was the light? Where was the love?

  I stood in front of him and stared into his face. “How did you ever get past security downstairs?”

  Suddenly and without so much as a knock, David burst into the room and walked right up to Mike who stood and faced him.

  “Just hang on a second,” I called out to them. “Let’s talk about this. David, he’s my friend. I don’t know how he got up here but—wait. You can see him?”

  I tried my best to get into David’s face and turn his attention. It wasn’t working.

  “If it isn’t the great and powerful Michael.” David ground the words out of his clenched teeth. I’d never seen him like this before and the wild-eyed look he had frightened me.

  Mike stood his ground but said nothing as he stared through David without so much as a blink.

  “How did this happen?” David asked as he circled Mike’s body. “You’ve been found out. I know your greatest weakness Michael, and her name is Indriel.”

  “You have no idea what you’re doing.” Mike was direct and void of emotion as he stared into nothingness.

  “I know what you’re doing,” David shouted as he pointed in Mike’s face.

  “Let’s just all calm down here.” I looked at them one at a time. David’s face was wild, crazed. Mike seemed calm but I could see the muscles in his arm begin to twitch as his tattoos moved involuntarily.

  “She’ll never do it.” Mike spoke of me as if I wasn’t in the room. “Move on, David.”

  “You don’t get to tell me what to do. In fact,” he said with a smirk as he pointed into Mike’s chest, “you don’t get to tell anyone what to do. I’m not moving on.”

  “Don’t do this.”

  David stopped and I tried to get his attention. It was as if I wasn’t even in the room. “What if I’m falling for her, Michael? Did you ever think of that, you self-important bag of shit?”

  Lightning flashed outside the window of my office, quickly followed by the boom of thunder. I jumped and covered my head, afraid of both David and Mike. It felt as if the world were about to rain down on my shoulders.

  “You? Falling in love?” Mike asked as another clap of thunder rolled through the building.

  David moved dangerously close to Mike’s face but Mike didn’t falter—his fists clenched by his sides. Twisting his face tightly, David looked as if he was insane—a lost man on the crazy floor at the hospital. As quickly as his distorted face came, it went and he softened into the David I knew—the man who two hours ago had swept me off my feet on the dance floor. “Don’t forget, almighty Michael, I’m not all bad.”

  Mike stepped back, pulling a sword from what seemed to be the very air around us. In the split-second that followed I didn’t think as I jumped in between the two men and shouted at the top of my lungs.

  “Noooo!” I sat up in bed, clenching the sheets in my fists. I was soaked from head to toe and all the bed covers were wet. I quickly turned on the light beside the bed and noticed that the television was still on. I tried to calm myself but it wasn’t happening. I was hyperventilating and ready to pass out.

  I struggled out of the bed and into the kitchen, looking for a paper bag. I opened the cabinet under the sink as the room began to spin and found a plastic Target bag. Cupping my hand around the plastic, I breathed in my own carbon dioxide, trying to decrease the oxygen and anxiety riddling lungs as my legs twitched under me. I pushed off the floor over and over again as if the struggle of moving my body would alleviate my terror. Slumped in the corner of my little kitchen, I reminded myself to breathe in and out as slowly as I could without panicking.

  When I’d finally calmed myself enough to think, I pulled the bag from my face and curled up in the floor and cried, my body jumping at each clap of lightning and thunder that roared with the storm outside my window.

  “God help me,” I sobbed. “God help me.”

  The alarm by my bed buzzed promptly at six fifteen in the morning and I pulled myself from the cold tile floor of the kitchen where I’d spent the night. The hip and shoulder I’d slept on ached and it would take take a hot shower to shake the soreness.

  I looked around the room and knew if I was going to survive any more nights like the last one I was going to have to fill the prescriptions Dr. Nabi had given me. I walked into the bathroom and timidly hit the lights. The last thing I wanted to see this morning was a tub full of water.

  The bathtub sat empty and all the towels were hanging perfectly. There was no evidence of the night before. I turned on the hot water in the shower. If I hurried I could take my prescriptions to the twenty-four hour pharmacy down the street and be back before I needed to check on Lewis.

  I showered quickly and dressed in a black Armani dress and matching suit coat. It was a far cry from the old polyester suit I wore into GlobalTech for my first meeting. With minimal makeup and damp hair, I grabbed my sparkly bag from the night before, looking for my keys and found the slip of paper I’d scrawled on in the ladies room.

  Snatching my keys from the tray on my desk and my messenger bag from the drawer, I slipped on a pair of black heels from my new shoe collection and rushed out. I had forty-five minutes.

  I walked into the morning air and was surprised at the chill. The heavy rains had washed the steps clean of anything and everything, and as I rushed down them Six met me.

  “Off early this morning, ma’am?”

  “Hey, Six. Yeah, I have a couple of prescriptions I want to fill before we leave day after tomorrow and this morning seemed like the best time to get it done. How are you?” I asked, brushing the hair tossed in my face by the wind away from my eyes as I clung to the pieces of paper.

  “Fine, thank you,” Six replied.

  I nodded and the wind kicked up again. I tried to push away the hair stuck to my lips as the papers slipped from my fingers and blew into the wind. I panicked. “Oh no!” I cried as I rushed to chase them down. I grabbed two of them while Six ran after the third.

  I looked to my hand and realized if I had the prescriptions from Dr. Nabi, what did Six have?

  “Here, madam,” he said as he placed the small square note in my hand with one word—Nephilim.

  “Thank you,” I gasped, out of breath from the wind and the chase.

  “Interesting word.”

  I paused and cocked my head as I looked at Six. “It is. Do you know anything about it?”

  “Genesis six four. I believe that’s what you’re searching for, Miss Indie.”

  “It’s a Bible verse?”

  “Clever girl. Hurry along now. You’ll not make it back before your morning appointment with Mr. Thornbury.”

  Pulling the pen from his exposed shirt pocket beneath the usual black suit, I scribbled G 6:4 on the back of the paper. Handing him back the pen, I glanced at my watch and gave him a nod. “We’ll talk later.” I said as I hurried down the steps.

  Six smiled after me. “No need.”

  I sat at my desk, my newly filled prescriptions stuffed inside the white paper bag staring at me from inside my desk drawer. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to take an anxiety pill or not. I was tired enough from sleeping on the floor and didn’t really feel anxious at the moment. I did have a nervous buzz in my head that I couldn’t shake, but I worried if I took the medicine I’d be napping and not working.

  The knock at the door startled me and I realized I was jumpier than I’d thought.

  “Come in.”

  Lewis opened the door and I stood as soon as I saw him. He looked slightly pale considering how tan his skin always seemed to be. “How’d you sleep last night?”

  “Restless.”

  I nodded. “Well, if it makes yo
u feel any better I was restless too. I think the rain and the storms aren’t helping.”

  “To say the least.” He was short and direct and I wanted to get his morning vitals over with. I knew he had better things to do than chitchat with me. There would be plenty of time for that when he was bedridden and I was one of the only people who’d see him in his weakened state.

  “Let’s get your vitals and you can be on your way.”

  I opened the doors to the exam room and he sat in a chair instead of the table. It wasn’t a big deal to me, but it was different so I asked. “We giving up the table this morning? I can lower it if it would make it easier to sit.”

  “Chair’s fine.”

  I sat on the rolling stool and pushed myself closer to him as I pulled the stethoscope from my neck. “This might be a little cold,” I said as I tried to warm the pad with my fingers before unbuttoning his shirt an extra button to listen to his heart.

  With each breath he took I could tell he was tired—more than usual. “Any nausea?”

  “No.”

  “That’s good. I still want you to take the meds. Is easier to stay ahead of the queasiness than it is to play catch up.”

  I took his pulse and looked at my watch as I counted the beats of his heart. He stared into nothingness.

  “I need to draw some labs this morning. Dr. Beaman wants to see if the temozolomide is affecting your blood counts. You okay with that?”

  “Do whatever you have to do.”

  I pushed myself across the floor on the stool and opened a drawer containing the rubber tourniquet, empty vials and Vacutainer. Pulling in close to him, I felt him breathe in deeply as if he was sucking every bit of oxygen from the room.

  I took three vials of blood from his arm expeditiously, knowing he wanted out of the room and on with his busy day. With a cotton ball and a Band-Aid I sent him on his way.

  “Lewis, I need you to let me know if you feel any new or worsening symptoms. You hired me to help you. I wish you’d let me.”

  He turned as he opened the door, looking me in the eye for the first time all morning. “You do help, Indie. You may not know it, but you do.”

  Just when I thought he was gone he came back into the office and pointed. “You should shut that window.”

  I whipped my head to look at the corner window I’d opened in my dream—the heavy curtains billowing in the breeze.

  “Shut the window,” Lewis said. “It’s going to get ugly.”

  TWENTY-ONE

  I sat on the couch in my little house and looked at the open suitcases lying all around me. The sweat pants and t-shirt I wore were a stark contrast to the pile of clothes I’d brought home with me from my office wardrobe. Still, I was uncertain as to how I would ever fill them. David said I should take one empty suitcase in order to bring things back.

  I’d been taking half of a magic Klonopin each morning and it seemed to be keeping me calm and in charge of my own life. I was also sleeping with Prince Trazodone each night and my nightmares had ceased. I woke each morning with a slight hangover, but it was worth it not to be curled up in the fetal position gasping for air after the nightmares.

  David had been completely apologetic for not coming back to my office the night of the party, saying he got tied up on an overseas phone call. To make it up he’d been leaving me notes. Each day he’d left me a new Italian phrase on my desk and would come back later to have me try it out. I was actually looking forward to the trip.

  Today a beautiful soft leather messenger bag was delivered to my office. I found it wrapped in a silver box with a pink bow and waiting on my desk with a note. It’s time to retire the old saddlebag. –David

  The box sat on the coffee table in front of me along with my phone, iPad, notebook, a Fodor’s Italy guide and all the various chargers I would need while abroad. My passport sat alone and I was excited to be traveling on my first private jet.

  We would first go to New Jersey to fuel up. Our six-hour trip across the Atlantic would allow us to land right outside of Rome at Ciampino International.

  I carefully folded the expensive lingerie from my stash at the apartment and then went into my own drawers to add my basic whites. I did this for each category of clothing—expensive silk nightgowns and a couple of old t-shirts, designer dresses, and a couple of my own sundresses. The new and improved Indie was heading to Italy, but I didn’t want to make the trip without the old one.

  The phone rang and I saw Jonathan’s face pop up. I immediately smiled. “Where have you even been?”

  “Me? You’re the one who never has time to see me—never has time to call me back.”

  “Why do I even need to call you? You and David have been in my house more than I have lately.”

  “Girl, that boy has got it bad for you. Are you aware of this situation?”

  I cradled the phone under my chin and continued to pack. “You’re crazy. We’re just friends.”

  “Honey, with a friend like him who needs a lover?”

  “Jonathan.” I scolded him but still had a smile on my face.

  “So I was calling to say have a good time and I told ya so.”

  “I told ya so?”

  “Two weeks ago I had a haughty little girl in my office who didn’t even want to look at the position with GlobalTech. Now you’re packing your new Vuitton bags for Rome. So, I’m waiting…come on, let’s hear it.”

  “Hear what?”

  “My thank you. You didn’t think I called just to tell you to have fun with your gorgeous new boyfriend, did you?”

  “He’s not my boyfriend, but thank you for making me look at this opportunity.”

  “Oh honey, you’re so welcome. You know I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  “Bring me back something wonderful from Italy. Like a hot Italian man who can cook and owns his own winery.”

  “I’ll keep my eyes peeled for that very thing.”

  I hung up the phone. Did David really care for me that way? Or was he just being himself? He was such a player I didn’t think he knew how to act any differently around women than he did. I was certain most of it was to get into the willing woman’s panties, but that wasn’t happening with me. There was no way I was crossing that line between work and romance. It could never turn out well.

  I opened the big box that I knew held my beautiful messenger bag. Clipping the tag off the side, I folded it back and breathed in the leather. I would miss the old saddlebag. It was the last remnant of my previous life still held together by duct tape. As I cleaned it out I felt a little sad knowing it had been on a very long journey with me.

  I filled the new bag with everything I deemed important out of the old one. My Advil, a tiny pill case that held three anxiety pills for emergencies, my Altoids, a couple of pens and a stack of scraps of paper, each with something important written on them—at least at the time it seemed important—and a prescription bottle of Lewis’s medications for the plane.

  I shuffled through names of restaurants David wanted me to try in downtown Atlanta, notes with Italian phrases, dates of funerals I’d already attended, and a small square of paper from the night of the benefit.

  I turned it over and found where I’d written G 6:4. “Genesis six four.”

  I stood as everything I was organizing slipped from my lap and on to the floor. Walking to the bookshelf in the corner, I began searching for Grandma Indie’s Bible. Brushing the dust off, I pulled it from a stack of other books and brought it to the couch with me. The spine cracked as I opened the front cover and saw her signature on the line beneath the This Bible Belongs To passage.

  I ran my fingers across her signature and so wished she were still alive. If I could only talk with her about everything I’d been experiencing.

  Thumbing through the beginning, it didn’t take very long to find the sixth chapter or the correct verse.

  “There were giants on the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the dau
ghters of men, and they bore children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”

  I opened my computer to Google. Who were the sons of God? A long list of queries came back and I clicked on the first blue link. Sons of God: Fallen angels who did not keep their own domain—going after strange flesh—bearing offspring with humans and producing giants of men—Nephilim.

  I tore a piece of paper from my new journal and began to scribble down everything I could remember. Aunt Sally wanted me to beware of Nephilim but said Rachael and I were both marked.

  I Googled marked in the Bible. A laundry list of things came up. Marked by the beast—Revelation. I searched again—marked the book of Revelation.

  “Then I looked and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads, And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. What does this even mean?”

  I folded the paper inside Grandma Indie’s Bible and slid it into my new bag. I couldn’t deal with it tonight. I needed to pack. I popped a quick anxiety pill and finished up, falling into bed. One sleeping pill later I was gone to the world.

  I awoke the next morning to find all my suitcases packed and waiting by the door, just as I’d left them. I took a quick shower and dressed in comfortable yet beautiful navy slacks and matching jacket. I’d packed all my jewelry and as I gazed at myself in the mirror, I felt the Hamsa around my neck as it showed through the tight white shirt I wore beneath my suit coat. I opened the top drawer in my dresser to find the small black box that contained my Grandma Indie’s diamond earrings staring up at me. I never wore them, but I decided this was the time to begin. I slid them into my earlobes and paused only for a moment to admire them.

  A knock came at my door and I opened to find Six and David standing on my front porch. “Italy awaits, bella.”

  I nodded with a big smile. “I’m ready. Was everything stacked on my desk brought along?” I asked as I gave Six a glance.