Ashriel frowned. The plate of waffles and sausages looked so tempting and the taste Anniel had given him still lingered in his mouth. So delicious.
That was bad.
He looked at the plate of congealed prinut. That was by far healthier for his body...but after having had a taste of Anniel's food...
He clenched his fists, his eyes going from one plate to the other. He had to eat both. He couldn't let either go to waste. That would be sinful, but the prospect of eating two platefuls of food felt...wrong too.
Confusion and anxiety began to give him a headache.
"The food replicator recycles whatever you can't eat."
Sethaliel's voice startled him from his dilemma. Ashriel still frowned when the young weretigri sat across from him, his pale blue eyes studying Ashriel from a face that held little emotion.
Ashriel still did not know what to make of the youngest Alpha Angel.
His parents had been guardian soldiers three hundred years ago. Ashriel knew Algor Whyte wasn't really Seth's father. The mother had collected semen from past lover's; lovers she'd hand-picked for their physical attributes. Smitten with a lover named Seshmel's fragile platinum-blond looks, she conceived and gave birth to the weretigri before him now.
When she realized her son could shift into a white tiger and had telekinetic abilities, she abandoned him into Devon's care. The boy had only been eight or nine sun orbits old.
Seth's eyes dropped down to the plate Anniel had left. He licked his lips.
"I'll eat it if you don't want it."
Ashriel contemplated Seth's lean, hard-muscled body. "Do you use magic to keep yourself so fit?"
Seth stared, his face blank. "No. I like to work out with Zak. I also train rigorously five hours per day."
"I need to exercise also. I usually rise before the morning sun has begun to caress the skies. I sit upon the altar of offerings and meditate on my vocation, and pray for the strength to stay true to my responsibilities. When the morning sun begins to lighten the skies, I go to the edge of Mount Chielos and pick up a boulder. I hold it between my wings and climb the mountain side. When I reach the top, I hold the boulder in my arms and descend the mountain using my wings. Not an easy task with the strong winds coming off the seas. I do this one hundred times going up and another hundred going down."
The weretigri's mouth went slack. He blinked a few times before saying, "That's a pretty brutal workout." His eyes roved over Ashriel's bare chest and arms. "No wonder you're as big as a star freighter."
Seth's eyes went back to Anniel's plate of waffles and sausage. Ashriel looked too, and his stomach rumbled in the most embarrassing way. "Are you eating that or not?"
Ashriel really wanted to taste Anniel's food again, but letting the young weretigri have it was a good way for him to practice self-control and denial. Just because he was fallen didn't mean he needed to lose his soul completely to the pleasures of the flesh.
Ashriel opened his mouth to tell Seth he could have the food, and had to force the words out. They came out as a strangled whisper.
Seth's eyes narrowed and he eyed the prinut suspiciously. "You prefer that?"
Ashriel looked at the prinut sullenly. "It is very nutritional."
Seth cocked his head to the side. "So is this," he said gesturing to Anniel's waffles and sausages.
Ashriel raised a brow and gave him a dubious look.
Seth pulled the plate of Anniel's food closer. Ashriel almost had to sit on his hands to keep from snatching it back. The weretigri gestured to the food. "These waffles are made with many whole grains. Good for your digestive system, and the sausages are made from a blend of vegetables. She seasons the mix, and it really tastes just like meat. It's loaded with protein too."
Ashriel's mouth watered as Seth cut a piece of waffle and sausage, spearing it with a fork. He swirled it around in the syrup.
"And the sweet fluid it's drenched in."
Seth's lip kicked up in one corner. "A little indulgence. Pure maple syrup from the trees in our enviro level."
Seth pushed the forkful of food into his mouth and closed his eyes with a sigh.
The weretigri seemed to forget his presence until he finished off the entire plate of food.
Ashriel watched him pop the last forkful into his mouth in dismay. Seth rose and retrieved a glass of yellow-orange fluid from the food replicator. He downed it in three gulps, wiped his mouth, and winked at Ashriel. "I'm off to the training room now. You're welcome to come and spar with us if you'd like."
With that, he was gone in a flash of sparkling white.
The silence around Ashriel was like a vacuum.
With a soft sigh, he pulled the plate of prinut to himself and began to eat slowly...until there was nothing left.
There was nowhere to wash his dish, so he slipped it into the same slot Seth had deposited his with a shake of his head. They didn't even wash their own dishes. How lazy.
Exiting the dining hall, he walked down the corridor, the glossy black floor cool against his bare feet. Briefly, he wondered who's black pants he wore. He was naked when he was deplumed and all fallen reapers were cast out of Seraphia naked and within a silver trash cylinder.
He fingered his hair with a frown. He needed to cut it too. He felt disheveled and unkempt, barefoot and poorly dressed. The pants he wore were too loose and rode indecently low on his hips. No wonder Natanael tried to throw himself at him. Ashriel looked very much like a male whore.
"God-I've fallen so low."
He reached the elevators and paused. Turning on his heel, he walked further down the corridor. Round doors flanked either side of the pale grey corridor, but not too much farther away from the elevators, he found a pair of plain metal doors in a niche. Pushing against the doors, he was surprised to find a stairwell.
Ashriel's eyes widened when he looked first up, and then down. The stairs seemed to rise to infinity and descend into a bottomless abyss. Each landing had the number of the level and section stamped upon it.
Ashriel grinned at his discovery and began to ascend the stairs at a quick pace. Fifty floors later, he opened the doors to the level where the training room was.
He entered and was immediately drawn to the fight taking place in the center of the training hall.
Devon sparred with twenty high level demons. The sight of the creatures had Ashriel's body switching into kill mode even though he knew they were nothing more than projected holographic images.
They swarmed Devon like roaches, but he moved so fast he looked like a black and white blur.
In a few seconds, he killed all twenty demons and stood amidst a pile of about fifty more twitching, hacked up corpses.
He breathed a little heavy, holding his sword at the same angle he'd used to behead the last demon. Black hair streamed over his face, and sweat made his pale body shine. Devon lifted his gaze to look at Ashriel.
The insides of his eyes were completely black, like a reaper. It wasn't the first time Ashriel saw Devon manifest traits of a reaper, but it still stunned him. A demon reaper. Could he kill angels the same way Ashriel killed demons and devils?
Devon lowered his sword and motioned to Ashriel with his hand.
Ashriel's eyes narrowed. He advanced toward the center of the training hall, toward Devon. When he was twenty paces away, he reached back and drew his divine sword out. The sword remained at his back, invisible until summoned. His fingers wrapped around the hilt and the weight of the blade made him smile as he swung it once in an arch. Fire glowed off the blade, bright and white. Devon's blade also glowed, but the fire was blue and almost blinding.
Ashriel stopped a few paces from him and squared his shoulders, tucking his wings tightly to his back.
"I will not use my wings, to even the fight."
Devon's eyes narrowed and his lips twisted into a seductive grinβso much like Davariel's insolent grin. "Don't hold anything back, reaper."
From the sidelines, he heard shouts of anger. He looked over his shoulder and saw his precious Alpha Angels banging their fists against an invisible barrier, shouting at them. Their voices barely permeated the strange bubble that cocooned him and Devon.