Sin of the Saint

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: RETURN TO THE VEIL

Liv instinctively reached for her staff, but Cupid caught her hand and turned her around to face him. She was met with the sharp features she remembered from their first meeting—down to his pallid skin, chiseled frame, and his deep violet stare.

"Lovely to see you again. I was beginning to miss you, Caritas," Cupid said, grinning with his thin, pale lips.

Liv looked quickly between his curling lips and his amethyst eyes. In his pupils, she caught her reflection. Her now golden hair and darkened skin nearly glowed in Cupid's void-like darkness.

"I wish I could say the same, but you're too ugly and unsettling," Liv said, resisting his own hand while trying to reach for her weapon.

"Ouch," he said, sucking sharply through his teeth. "That comment was not very becoming of the Charitable Saint, don't you think?"

"If we're here to fight, then let's get to it," Liv spat. "I don't want to spend this whole time talking to you."

He shrugged, a dismissive look flashing across his features quickly before he forced her hand down to her side with his own. He neared his face to her own and put his lips against her ear, "I'd love to fight, darling. But we're not here for us, so you can stop reaching for your weapon now."

The goosebumps that raised on her skin from his nearness and his hot breath in her ear made her want to shrink. The immense force of his power against her own puny strength forced helpless tears to well in her eyes. She still was so, so weak. How could she ever hope to beat him?

The earth was doomed.

"We've got a fight to watch...along with many more of our kind," he said. He leered over her, grasping both her hands to ensure she didn't try attacking him again. "What do you say we stand next to each other, hm? We could get nicely acquainted while observing the fight—maybe we can even work out a compromise—"

"Take your hands off of her, Greed. I won't ask so kindly again," another male voice sounded from behind Liv.

She turned her head and saw another figure in the mist a short distance away, walking furiously towards she and Cupid. This saint looked very similar to Liv...or, Caritas, her alternate identity in this realm...dark tan skin, blond hair, wearing the white robes of the Saints over his immense body. He wore a golden headband across his forehead and a set of dangerous-looking weapons on his hands...like gold-tipped spikes coming out of his knuckles.

Cupid released her hands and held them up. "No need to be so nasty, Modesta—I have a proper name, you know," Cupid said.

Caritas finally breathed properly at the mentioning of Auden's alternate identity—The Humble Saint Modesta. She would be okay for now. He'd kept his word after all—he would be with her.

"Cupid is hardly a name as much as it is a stain on this earth," Modesta growled. "Caritas, come over here."

Caritas removed herself quickly from Cupid's presence and joined Modesta, nearly curling into him. She was frightened as well as relieved. Frightened that Cupid stood there in front of her, but relieved that Modesta was now beside her, and she was no longer alone.

"You will observe the fight from your place across the battlefield, Cupid. I won't want to break the rules and engage in combat with you," Modesta said, gripping his fist in Cupid's direction, allowing Caritas to finally make out the spikes on his knuckles.

She discovered that that's exactly what they were...knuckles—brass knuckles. But these looked like they could easily kill a man with so much as one blow. The spikes, serrated in a backwards direction, were nearly six inches long!