My Fallen Angel

I stretched my arm out sleepily, feeling cold, but my fingers brushed empty sheets.
I let my eyes ghost open, seeing his side of the bed was empty, and I raised my head with a frown.
I listened, and I could hear his voice drifting back to me, sounding harsh and worried.
"Ashlan?" I called, sitting up and holding the sheet against my chest.
He quieted immediately, then spoke another few moments before hanging up the phone and appearing back in the bedroom, his face white.
"What is it?" I asked, getting to my feet, keeping the sheet wrapped around me as I moved to his side.
I cupped his face, forcing his bleak gaze to mine worriedly.
"I messed up, Kenali," he whispered.
"What do you mean?" I asked in concern, feeling his muscles tremble.
He was scaring me.
"Ashlan?"
"That was Kacy," he said after a moment, turning his face away from my touch. "She's pregnant."
I stiffened.
Oh no.
As angels, us being together there was no worry in my becoming pregnant, it just didn't work that way. But he could father a child through a mortal, just as I could mother one.
It was rare, but that was how nephilim were created.
"Perhaps it isn't yours," I said after a moment.
"I won't know till I see her," he sighed, his gaze dropping. "I'll have to smell her scent before I can tell if it's mine. But, Kenali, if it is..."
"I know," I murmured, wrapping my arms around him.
It would be a problem.
He couldn't be in its life, not when it had a mortal lifespan and he would live forever; it would have the soul of a human but some of the abilities of an angel, and so would its children, although it would weaken eventually to a point where unless the blood was triggered, they would just be average.
But that would take generations.
And Ashlan was one of the strongest. If the child was dark, it could wreak havoc upon the world.
Some of the earth's greatest villains had been half-angel.
"I'm sorry," he whispered in my ear, his arms clamping tightly around me, holding me to him as he sought comfort. "She doesn't even mean anything to me..."
"Accidents happen," I mumured, my face against his chest. "It's okay. We'll figure it out. It might not even be yours, and even if it is ---."
"She'll drain me for money like a leech," he muttered, his jaw clenching. "She'll make sure the world knows it's mine and I'll never be able to escape it."
"You can always glamour yourself older."
"That gets so tiring," he sighed. "And I'll slip up. And I don't want her around you. She's a vile human, Kenali, she'll make you lose all your faith."
"Then why were you with her?"
"Because she fed me," he mumbled, pressing his lips against my shoulder. "I didn't have to feed as often when I was with her."
"She's one of those then," I sighed, stroking his back. "It makes no difference, Ashlandil. The child makes no difference. Just see if it is yours before you worry, okay?"
"Okay."
I stroked his hair soothingly.
"I've never fathered one before," he muttered, unhappy. "Surely I wouldn't slip up now after a thousand years."
"It's probably not yours," I assured him, but my stomach tightened uneasily.
What if it was?
What were we going to do?
We could always get rid of the mother, raise the child ourselves and then --- who was I kidding?
That would never work.
I sighed, and kissed his chest.
"We'll figure this out," I whispered.
"I hope so, love."


I watched him board the plane anxiously, my arms crossed.
That stupid mortal.
If it wasn't his, I would be overjoyed, and then I would rip her head off for causing us such worry.
I frowned at myself, and shook my head at the dark thought.
I kept getting those, and I wasn't sure why.
I was starting to wonder if going dark for that one moment had changed everything. I'd seen Ashlan go dark, though not fully, and he always seemed to return to his bitter self easily.
I watched through the glass as Ashlans plane disappeared into the sky, feeling cold.
I didn't want him to go to her, I didn't want it to be his.
I pressed my lips together tightly, then moved to the plastic chairs, sitting down slowly and dropping my head in my hands.
Please, I prayed, don't be his.
"Kenali?"
My head turned, and I stared.
I rose to my feet with a jerk.
"Cronus?"

Notes