The Falling (Book I)

Exchange

"Salt?"

"Uncomfortable, but it does not kill us. Can you possess humans?"

"No. Can you?"

"Only Human-Turned-Demons have that ability. What is Falling?"

"I have never seen an angel Fall, so I do not know. Hmm, silver?"

The weeks trickled by and I grew accustomed to William's presence. Often, he would wait with ambrosia, we would eat, and he would shadow me as I either read or examined plants and trees. The flora was dead as the days grew shorter and colder, but I enjoyed touching them all the same. I discovered William had many misconceptions about my type of demon when he tried to exorcise me. All the exorcism succeeded in doing was annoying me. That led to us asking each other questions about our species. For his questions, I would either answer vaguely or outright lie if I saw the query as damning to demons. I suspected he did the same and took most of his answers at face value.

While he did not try anything, I did not trust him. Still, I could not deny my growing affection for him.

"We do not like silver. Were you ever human?"

William shook his head. "Humans cannot become angels. Only God has the power to create angels and he has not done so in many centuries. There are many of us. How old are you?"

The personal question caught me off guard. We usually avoided asking about each other as individuals. "I just turned 804."

He balked at that. "You are a child."

In human turns, I was barely out of adolescence. I supposed I looked around seventeen. I refrained from glaring at him for calling me a child. "How old are you?"

"3,321."

It should not have surprised me, given his combat experience, but I still could not help but gape at him from the tree I sat under. He was a little more than six hundred years younger than my brother. If he were human, he would be in his early thirties.

Demons cared little about age past 800, the age where we could marry and be recognized as adults. Many couples, my parents included, often had a few thousand age difference.

Not that I intended to court him. He did not know of my infatuation and I meant to keep it that way.

I studied his expression. He looked paler, his expression as close to stricken as I had ever seen it. He was lost in his head and I felt some pity for him; he told me once before the thought of harming "any kind of child" sickened him.

"How long do angels live?" I asked, hoping to distract him.

"We are immortal," he replied quietly.

"That hardly surprises me. We are lucky to see 15,000. It seems to be a demon comes with the price of mortality." I frowned.

The smug grin I associated him with returned. "Demons are somewhat mortal? How sad."

I crossed my arms and looked away from him. "Only Lucifer has the privilege of boasting of immortality, unfortunately."

William mimicked me in folding his arms across his chest. "I have seen a Human-Turned-Demon regenerate a lost limb. Can you do that as well? Luke almost took your arm and it seems to be in working order."

I stared at my almost lost limb. "I have never been in that position before. I am not certain, but I do not think I can. The healers and Lucifer healed me. Death was not kind."

"He never is when a demon is involved. For what it is worth, I am sorry for the pain we caused. You must have been frightened."

The contrition in his voice made my eyes sting. I averted my eyes and plucked at a free thread on my leggings. "It is in the past. I learned early on I would always be hated for the hand destiny gave me."