The Darkest Joy Read online

  "Why are you on your knees, Caim? You know you should never bow to me,” the deep voice said gently.

  "Raphael, it seems only proper. I have not been in your presence or so close to the gates in a thousand years. I am not worthy to face you for all I have done.” Caim spoke while he was still on his knees.

  "No one faults you for what you have done. You carried out your sentence with honor.” Raphael touched him on the shoulder. “Rise, brother. I cannot talk to the top of your head."

  Caim stood and raised his face to the angel. With one hand on each shoulder, they greeted each other, and he smiled. “It has been too long. I never thought I would set eyes on your face again."

  "Even though you were in the pits, Caim, we always kept watch over you, and he always saw you.” Raphael smiled with affection as he spoke. “We saw how your heart bled for the souls of the innocents. We saw you find love with Bliss and how you fought valiantly to climb from the bowels of hell."

  "It didn't work, because here I stand outside the gates of heaven, and my love cries for me back on Earth.” Caim heard the grief in his own voice. “Am I to exist in purgatory now?"

  "No, you are here for a gift, Caim, nothing more,” Raphael explained. “You are free, human now, and the Almighty has given you his blessing. Your crime has been forgiven a thousand times over for each year you spent in hell.” Raphael pressed his hand over Caim's chest, and a jolt hit him like the shock from the paddles when the doctors were trying to restart his heart. Raphael stared at him intently. “One more gift for you, heal yourself and heal others as you walk on Earth. You are needed more than you think. Belial may be gone, but another will rise in his place. Where they steal souls, you will take them back and even the scales on Earth once more. Do you accept this gift?"

  "I do, with every fiber of my being,” Caim replied solemnly. A smile broke across his face. “I get to be with my love and still serve as I did in heaven. I cannot ask for anything more than that."

  Raphael smiled. “Then go with our blessing. Go to your Bliss and live!"

  With those words, Caim felt himself being pulled back to his own body that lay in a hospital bed. His body began to heal itself. Bones knitted slowly while skin bonded itself back together.

  He heard Bliss speaking to him softly next to his bed. “I need you, Caim, and you said you needed me. I'm always going to love you, so why don't you open your eyes and let me know you are okay?” She took a shaky breath, and he felt a tear hit his hand that she held. “I wish you could see that my heart belongs to you, that it would stop beating to save you if it could. I miss your touch and your smile. I set you free. Now you do the same for me. Come back and take the pain away from my heart. Don't leave me lonely, without your love."

  He could have never imagined that someone would love him this much. Caim opened his eyes and whispered her name. When her soft, tear-filled eyes met the his, she gasped and began crying all the more.

  "Don't cry. I'm here, my love,” Caim said quietly. “I'm not going anywhere ever again."

  "I thought I lost you. I thought my love wasn't enough to save you!"

  "Bliss.” Caim caressed her face. “Your love is what kept me from going over into the darkness. Even in the pits, you were and always will be my joy."

  Bliss climbed onto the hospital bed with him, and he pulled her into his arms. She lay against his chest, and he pressed kisses into the top of her head and inhaled deeply of her scent.

  "Even after all this, you still smell like honeysuckle,” Caim said against her hair.

  Bliss giggled and raised her head to look at him. “So what is the first thing you want to do now you are human?” He raised his eyebrows at her teasingly, and she laughed at his unsaid innuendo. “Other than that, I mean."

  "I want to try chicken fingers with honey mustard,” he said with a grin. “They looked good when you were eating them, and after a thousand years, I am starved."

  "Chicken fingers it is,” Bliss said with a smile that left him breathless at her beauty. Their lips met in a kiss that held promises of the future to come. He had fought his way out of the darkest corners of hell to find her, and now the sun would shine on his future with his Bliss.

  The End

  [Back to Table of Contents]

  About the Author

  Dahlia Rose—author, mother, lover, friend, she is a rainbow of openness never to be defined. Defining her would be like trying to block a bullet. But, if you tried and happen to stumble upon her in wikipedia, you would find that she has lived nine lives and has warmed a million hearts. She has done more than most and navigated everywhere, loving freely and forever changing her hair. A light to this world who uses her being to unfold secrets and keys that lay beneath destinies and blessing. She worships the moon and tattoos her dreams in books. A lioness brought here to conquer the sun with a pen ... no war ... with love as a weapon to win and love as her sweater constantly warming you and I with words.

  * * *

  Visit www.amirapress.com for information on additional titles by this and other authors.