Patch

I stood hunched over the decaying bodies that lay strewn around the cemetery and cursed in a fervent, hurried way. The words caught on the tip of my tongue, over and over again. I felt nothing but a fresh wave of panic in my chest, making me sick with fear.

I'd gone to hell and back to be with her but now she was nowhere to be seen. Even when I tried to push away the most terrifying thoughts that crept inside my mind and haunted me, I couldn't stop them all. She was gone...she was gone...

No. No. No. No. No.

I wasn't going to give up on her, I had to find her.

Running through the tomb stones and the grass that was slick with pure red and tainted blue blood I braved the images of the lifeless body of Nora Grey that was waiting in my head. Tears sprung to my eyes and I bent at each body I saw, inspecting them. Would she be one of the lifeless, decaying bodies I found in the matted down grass? No. She couldn't be gone. Not my angel.

"Patch?" Nora said. Her voice was the same, beautiful and melodic as it had always been. Airy and husky. Two great contrasts that only she held. Another reason why I loved her so much. Another reason why she was beautiful.

I froze.

My heart beat wildly in my chest and I thought I might possibly in another kind of hell. The kind of hell where I could hear nothing but her voice and not be able to touch her for the rest of eternity. Her ghost. But that couldn't stop me from turning around.

Nora.

Oh, Angel...

Her gray eyes, her curling red hair, her flushed skin...her.

There's dirt all over and a cut on her cheek bone and her jeans are ripped apart beyond repair and her hair is tangled and windblown but she is all and everything I'll ever need to see.

My Angel...

She ran towards me and threw herself into my arms. Her fingers dug into my shirt and her face buried in my neck. She shook so hard that I thought she might fall apart with the rest of the decaying bodies and the world around us. "Let this be real. Let this be you. Don't let me go. Don't ever let me go." She cried and she inhaled, as if she didn't need air. As if she just wanted to breathe me. "I fought Dante. I killed him. But I couldn't save Scott. He's dead. Devilcraft is gone, but I failed Scott."

I murmured softly in her ears and held onto her like a lifeline, afraid that letting her go would be like letting go of my own soul. I guided her to sit with me on the bench, never letting go.

"I saw Rixon."

"He's dead," I told her. "So are the rest of them. Dante released us from hell, but not before taking our oaths of loyalty and injecting us with a devilcraft prototype. It was the only way out. We left hell with it swimming in our veins, our lifeblood. When you destroyed devilcraft, every fallen angel being sustained by it died." The world was so quiet between the two of us that I could hear her heart beating loudly and hear the sharpness of her breath.

"How did you survive?"

"I didn't swear an oath to Dante and I didn't let him inject me with devilcraft. I possessed Rixon just long enough to escape hell. I didn't trust Dante or devilcraft. I trusted you to finish them both off."

"Oh, Patch," her voice shook and trembled and she climbed onto my lap, snuggling closer to me and sobbed into my chest. "You were gone. I saw your motorcycle. You never came back. I thought-" her voice broke. "When I didn't save your feather-" She pulled me closer and I rocked her gently in my arms, never letting her go for a second. Angel, I murmured softly into her mind. I'm right here. We're together. It's over, and we have each other.

She stared into my eyes and I saw all of the love and grief that she had felt in the passing hours. She wiped her eyes with the sleeves of her shirt and pushed herself to her knees, moving to straddle my hips. Her fingers combed through my hair, locking my curls between her fingers, drawing me closer to her. "I want to be with you," She said, her voice husky with a deep, impending desire I had never seen before. Only then did I understand how wrong I had been about loving her more than she loved me. She loved me equally, with a passion that I had only wished for before. Until now. "I need you close, Patch. I need all of you."

Then she kissed me.

Our mouths crush together, forceful and needy pressure. My hands tightened around her back, pulling her closer.

Her hands mapped me out; she ran her hands over me. My thighs, my shoulders, my arms, my hands, my fingers. She never stopped touching me and I didn't want her too. She was so beautiful and strong and fierce and alive. I was never going to let her go again, not ever.

"I want to wake up with you every morning and wake up beside you every night," I told her, my voice rough with emotion. "I want to take care of you, cherish you, and love you in a way no other man ever could. I want to spoil you -every kiss, every touch, every thought, they all belong to you. I'll make you happy. Every day I'll make you happy." Her eyes flickered with surprise as I pulled the ring from the pocket in my jeans and held it up for her to see. Her eyes caught mine and I wanted to kiss her so badly. "I found this ring shortly after I was banished from heaven. kept it to remind myself of how endless my sentence was, how eternal one small choice can be. I've kept it a long time. I want you to have it. You broke my suffering. You've given me a new eternity. Be my girl, Nora. Be my everything."

"Patch," She whispered, softly.

I scraped the rough edge of the ring on the palm of my hand. A thin trail of blood rose on my hand and I looked into her eyes, more sure of what I was going to do then anything else I'd ever done before. "I swear to you, Nora Grey, on this day, from now and forever, to give myself to you. I am yours. My love, my body, my soul -I place in your possession and protection."

I held out the ring to her, "Patch," she whispered softly, her voice all air and beauty.

"If I fail my covenant, my own misery and regret will be my endless punishment." My eyes met hers with an unfaltering certainty. I won't fail you, Angel. I won't fail you.

She took the ring and I saw that her eyes shone with tears of joy. She looked like she was about to scrape her palm but then she brought the ring higher so that it was at the mark on her wrist and she slashed her Nephilim heritage mark on the inside of her wrist.

Her incision fit with mine and she looked into my eyes with only one emotion. Love.

"I swear to you, Patch, to take your love and cherish it. And in return to give you my body and my heart -everything I possess, I give to you. I am yours. Wholly and completely. Love me. Protect me. Fulfill me. And I promise to do the same."

I pushed the ring onto her finger.

I jerked back and saw the confusion in Nora's eyes. "My hand," I said, my voice low. "My hand is-" I stared deep into her eyes with confusion. "My hand is tingling where you mixed our blood."

"You feel it," She said, shakily.

I stared for a moment longer and saw the hopefulness in her eyes and felt it flicker on the inside.

The sound I made was a trap between a groan and a laugh. I could touch her. I could feel her. "I feel you." I ran my hands over her, running my hands up and down her arms and over her skin. She felt so...so...warm. Yes, warm. I caught her face between my hands and kissed her hard on the mouth. I felt myself shudder with pleasure.

I gathered her up in my arms and heard her let out a sound of pure joy. "Let's get out of here," I murmured, at last, breathing against her soft skin. I felt her body and her love and her warmth and everything I had ever wanted. Nora was everything to me. Everything I could ever want, everything I would ever need. I could never ask for more.

Her eyes lit with a deep desire and she wrapped her arms around my neck and let her head rest on the curve of my shoulder.

My fingers idly played with the curling ringlets of her red hair and gently kissed the curve of her neck. "I love you," I whispered against her skin. She moved in my arms to look in my eyes.

"Love you back." She pulled me to my feet to stand with her and she looked into my eyes. I saw the desire so clearly in her eyes. She kissed me gently on the mouth and when she pulled back I watched her pull her sweater over her head and she was left in nothing but a spaghetti top and jeans.

"Are you sure?" I whispered against her skin.

By way of answer she kissed me on the mouth, hard and I pulled her against me. My fingers threaded in her hair and I kissed her deeply and I pushed her up against the wall, drowning in her taste.

I slid my shirt over my head and let it fall to the floor as I pulled Nora into my arm. She wrapped her legs around my waist and kissed me hard as I helped pull her top over her head and she was left in a dark bra. I stopped, relishing in her beauty that I had already known was there.

"You're so beautiful," I whispered against her skin and I felt her lips pressing against my skin, running up my collar bone and my shoulder.

"I love you," She said, her voice husky..

And there was nothing left to do but kiss her and kiss her until I forgot about the rest of the world.