He slid his focus back to the angel and held Lysia closer to his chest.
“Heaven and Hell are the reason she was created and the reason she awakened… it was because of the war you waged with the demons that she awakened last time.” He stepped forwards to tower over the angel and held his gaze, forcing the male to look up at him. “And it was because of the four angels you created, princes of Hell who are now free in the mortal world, that she awakened this time. Heaven and Hell will no longer play with her life and torment her with her death.”
Nevar narrowed his eyes on the angel, his irises swirling violet as he unleashed more of his power, using it to warn the seven present that he would crush them if they tried to come after Lysia.
“It is time someone else was responsible for her, someone who loves her and will do all in their power to keep her safe from harm. I will ensure she never awakens again.” He reined in his power and the others followed suit, allowing the seven angels to regain their feet and smooth their ruffled feathers.
“In exchange for your compliance in this matter,” Apollyon said, drawing the attention of the seven around to him. He stood over them still, atop the cell opposite Nevar, his blue eyes swirling but his power gradually lessening back to the usual level he emitted. “We shall assist you in any way we can in capturing the four fallen angels. We will protect the mortal realm from them.”
Asmodeus nodded. “You have our word that we will aid your five angels in seeking out the four fallen and sending them back to Hell and my master before they can carry out their plans. He will put an end to them.”
The sandy-haired guardian angel bowed his head. “We will accept your terms. Our four angels have already gone in search of them.”
“Four?” Nevar frowned.
The male looked over his shoulder at him. “Lysander has been captured by the fallen. Our four will be able to sense him and may discover his location before anything happens, but the fallen will attempt to destroy his conduit in order to release his power and weaken his brothers.”
That didn’t sound good.
“What conduit?” Apollyon said, the fire in his blue eyes dying as he looked down at the seven angels. Their expressions turned grave and Apollyon’s followed them, his black eyebrows drawing down into a frown.
The guardian angel closed his eyes and lowered his head.
“The female linked to his soul.”
CHAPTER 31
Black. It was everywhere.
A slash of red. Small at first. Growing. It flowed like a river, a stream running downwards.
Silence, and then a roar.
The sound startled her, so loud and vicious, and flooded with pain.
Agony that beat inside her.
Inside the river of blood that flowed over deepest black.
White. It pierced the red and severed the black. It glowed so brightly that it blinded her and she tried to reach out to touch it, but it shrank, sinking into the river of blood.
Into her.
She threw her head back and screamed out her agony as white flames ripped through her chest.
“Did it work?”
That voice swam around her in the darkness, a light ethereal sound that she tried to grasp but it slipped through her fingers and sank into the black. A second voice answered it, as soft and warm as the first, appearing as a delicate ribbon of purple that danced across the obsidian sky.
“I don’t know… I hope so.”
Silence. With more confidence.
“I think so.”
She reached for that voice too and the violet ribbon. It curled around her fingers, turned crimson, and dripped from them like blood, fat drops that shone and fell into the endless dark below her.
The pain lessened, drifted away with each drop that fell.
Colours emerged, startling orange and deepest red, splattered across black. Blue and gold followed them, and dusky earthen tones. White streaked across her vision and she reared back, fearing it.
It shimmered before her, twin spots on an inky canvas, crowned with silver-white.
The distorted figure came into view, slowly gaining form and sharpness.
“Did it work?”
A male this time, the deep timbre of his voice familiar and comforting.
Come back to me, Lysia.
The words echoed in her mind, shimmering brightly in flashes of violet as she stared at the figure forming before her. He stood with his hand outstretched towards her. Red with blood.
We have a way to restore the bond between us.
Great black wings beat the air, holding him before her, and black covered parts of him. Edged with violet.
We can be together again, and I swear to you, I will never leave you…
His form sharpened. Black horns. Silver-white hair. A flash of an image of her hand running through that hair. A sensation of savouring the silken feel of it beneath her fingers. A brief flood of warmth that poured into her weary soul.
Because…
His violet eyes held her transfixed, his heart shining in them, every emotion that his words relayed straight to hers.
I love you.
Love. A thousand flashes of images careened through her mind. All of this angel who hovered before her, his hand stained with his own blood, pressed against her beak. Not an enemy to be destroyed. An ally.
She pushed and reached for him too, fighting her body, willing it to move. She battled for a voice, a way of telling him the words that beat in her heart.
I love you too.
Sharp fiery pain lanced that heart and she looked down. White. Red. Black.
She threw her head back and screamed.
Warm arms wrapped her in a tender embrace, holding her as she wrestled and lashed out, clutching her chest.
“It is over now. I am here.” The deep voice curled around her, coaxing her into calming, soothing away the pain. “Open your eyes and see, Lysia.”
She didn’t want to. She was too afraid of what she would see. The spear. The white spear. The red river of blood. Her black scales drenched with it.
But the arms wrapped around her felt like life. It beat through her. Drummed in her heart.
The scent of salt filled her senses as she gasped down another deep breath. The ocean.
“Come back to me, Lysia.”
She would.
She slowly opened her eyes and all she saw was bare skin. The bump of an Adam’s apple. The sensual curve of a strong shoulder. The powerful bulge of a tensed biceps.
The delicate form of inked violet wings.
How was it possible?
She breathed through her fear, forcing herself to believe what she was seeing. She was back with Nevar, in his arms, in her mortal form, and the mark that linked them was back too.
She could feel their bond and it was strong. It ran deeper than ever, so all of his emotions flowed into her together with all of his incredible strength.
“That’s right, breathe, in and out.” His deep voice soothed away the last of her fear and she settled against him, listening to the steady hard beat of his heart against her ear. Tears lined her eyes, burning them. “I’ve got you.”
He did.
She wasn’t sure how he had come to have her, but she knew he had fought for her. What she could see of his arm and chest bore more than one set of healing dark pink marks made by weapons.
“Let’s give them a moment.” Erin’s voice held a commanding note, one that drew a smile from Lysia.
She was coming to like the Devil’s daughter.
When everyone had drifted far away on her senses, Lysia slowly emerged from Nevar’s arms and looked up at him, meeting his soft jade eyes.
There was love in them again, deep and endless, and she wasn’t sure how to react to it.
So she kissed him.
He was quick to respond, gathering her against him, and she waited for him to unleash his passion and master her mouth, dominating her as he always did. He did the opposite, keeping the kiss
light, mere brushes of his lips across hers that left her hazy and feeling as if she was floating. When he drew back, she didn’t fight him. She looked at him, taking in the fact that he was real. He had kept his promise and had come back to her.
He raised his hand and swept his knuckles across her cheek. “What is that look for?”
“You kept your promise.”
He smiled, as beautiful as she remembered him, stealing her breath away. “I always keep my promises.”
She should have believed in him. She should have had faith that he would return to her, but instead she had allowed despair into her heart.
Lysia lifted her fingers and stroked the mark on his chest. “I thought our bond broke.”
“It did.” He caught her hand, the pad of his thumb against her palm and his fingers against the back of hers, and brought it up to his lips and kissed her fingers one by one. “Liora and Serenity went into action when I came around in Asmodeus’s fortress and said our bond had strengthened when we exchanged blood. Liora found a spell. We think it worked.”
She touched the mark shining on her chest between the two sides of her beautiful black robe, one that she knew Nevar had made for her. “It did work. I can feel you. It’s stronger than before.”
“I know.” He dropped another kiss on her fingers.
“What happened after I…” she trailed off when pain flickered in his green eyes, not wanting to hurt him by mentioning her death, just as she didn’t want him to talk about his.
“Heaven took you and we took you back.”
“We?” She looked beyond his right shoulder, to the group of angels all milling around by the fire pit, pretending they weren’t using their superior hearing to snoop on her and Nevar.
Nevar looked there too. “Yeah. We. I had some help. They fought to protect you in Hell too, and Erin has said you can live here.”
She stared at the group of angels and then at Nevar, unsure how to respond to the knowledge that they had all come to her aid. They had fought on her side.
“I wasn’t aware,” she said and frowned. “In Hell… I wasn’t aware anyone was on my side… until you…”
She held her hand up, her palm facing him.
“You reached me.”
She stared at the back of her hand and swallowed hard, unable to get the words out while he was looking at her with such intense eyes.
“You recognised me?” he said.
She nodded. Hesitated.
A blush climbed her cheeks. “You told me… you love me.”
His hand tensed against hers. Her gaze shot up to meet his. She caught the brief heat that flared on his face before he cleared his throat and sat a little taller, adopting a hard expression that made him even more masculine and alluring.
Behind him, Asmodeus nudged Veiron and the two of them grinned in Nevar’s direction and began mocking him, pressing their palms together and holding their hands against their cheeks as they fluttered their eyelashes at each other.
Lysia glared at them.
Nevar looked back over his shoulder.
The two of them broke apart and went in opposite directions, acting nonchalant.
Just as he began to turn back to face her, Lysia blurted.
“I love you too.”
His eyes widened and he tugged her into his arms, dipped his head and kissed her hard, as fiercely as she had craved it before. She clutched his bare shoulders and the mark on her chest hummed as they came into contact. He moaned as if he had felt it too.
He drew back again and stroked his fingers over the mark on her chest, tracing the dragon that curled around the pentagram.
“I won’t leave you again… I swear it.”
She looked down at his hand and the mark that linked them. “But Heaven—”
He lifted his hand and pressed his finger to her lips, silencing her. “I took care of that. We took care of that. Heaven will leave you in my care, where you belong. Nothing will happen to you. I’ll keep you safe.”
“And I’ll keep you safe.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and pushed her fingers through the shorter hair at the back of his head.
She sighed as she looked at him and recalled everything that had happened after the fallen angels had taken him from her. Nevar seemed certain that Heaven would leave her alone, trusting him to take care of her, but she wasn’t so sure. The only thing she felt certain about was that they blamed her for the destruction she had caused.
“I never wanted it,” she whispered and Nevar’s silver eyebrows dipped above his jade eyes. “I told Asmodeus when I lost control… I didn’t want to become that thing and I didn’t want to destroy everything. I wanted to live in this world… with everyone here… with you.”
His frown faded and he took hold of her hand and helped her onto her feet. She squinted against the bright light as he led her out of the small hut and closed her eyes as she felt the warm softness of the sand beneath her feet.
“And you will live in this world,” Nevar said and she opened her eyes, looking up into his. “With everyone here… with me. You weren’t responsible for what happened. The four fallen angels behind this will pay for what they did.”
He had that look again, the one edged with steel and as sharp as a blade.
It told her everything she needed to know.
He had struck a bargain with Heaven, pledging his sword to their cause if they left her alone and in his care.
He drew her against him, lowered his head and caught her lips in a soft kiss that sent heat radiating outwards from her heart, pulsing through her and filling her with light and hope that chased back the darkness and fear. He kept his promises. He would never leave her side again. They would be together now, inseparable, forever, just as both of them wanted and needed to be.
“Come on… everyone wants to see you’re alright and then I think we’ll see if you float or sink in water.” He took hold of her hand, linking their fingers, and she looked down at them.
Her eyes drifted up the length of his arm as they walked towards the group, over the strong curve of his shoulder and to his profile.
He had fought for her in Hell. He had fought for her in Heaven. He would never stop fighting for her. She could see that and it touched her, warming her heart and strengthening her love for him.
That love would never die.
It was as eternal as the mark that now connected them.
A bond that had filled them both with a new purpose—to save not destroy.
A bond that had given them strength.
A bond that had given them hope for a future filled with light and not darkness.
Lysia clutched that future in her hand.
The hand of the man who had stood by her side and who would always be there, who had captured her heart and now held it within his grasp, forever.
The hand of a warrior who had fought for her and would now fight to avenge her.
The hand of an angel, one not of darkness nor of light, but a perfect blend of both.
He looked down at her, smiled, and twisted her into his arms for another long slow kiss. She surrendered to him, just as she always would, and vowed that nothing would part them.
Never again. Not even death could separate them now. It had tried and it had failed. It hadn’t been an ending for them.
It had been the start of their forever.
The End
Her Sinful Angel
Cast out of Heaven and now the king of Hell, Lucifer is a powerful fallen angel warrior with a heart as cold as ice and soul as black as the bottomless pit. For millennia, he has ruled his realm with an iron fist as he plots the demise of his ancient enemies. When one of those enemies dumps an unconscious mortal female in the courtyard of his fortress and leaves her there, Lucifer finds himself entranced by the beguiling beauty and tempted beyond all reason. But is the enchanting Nina an innocent pawn in the eternal game or part of a plot against him?
Table of Contents for HER SINFUL ANGEL
C
hapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
CHAPTER 1
It had started out like any other day in his kingdom.
He had risen at seven sharp, based on Greenwich Mean Time, and had crossed the black stone floor of his expansive bedroom to his equally as impressive bathroom. There he had showered and carefully attended to his grooming. With a black towel slung low around his hips, he had ventured into his wardrobe to select one of the black tailored suits that hung from numerous rails.
It had gone downhill from there.
As always.
He had found the suit he had desired to wear, only to discover a crease pressed into the finely woven wool fabric.
That had led to the first death of the day.
The impudent fallen angel who had been responsible for ensuring his wardrobe was perfect had been sent back to Heaven.
With his wings missing.
And in pieces.
The last part wasn’t his fault. The idiot should have remembered to teleport before hitting the pavement of the courtyard far below the black fortress in the bottomless pit of Hell.
Of course, it might have helped if he had allowed the maggot to retain his ability to teleport.
Lucifer smiled grimly to himself and flicked a speck of dust off the right sleeve of his newly-pressed suit, his golden eyes fixed on the black cragged lands beyond the window of his study.
Breakfast had been a rather sober affair this morning. His attendants were on edge around him today, more than they usually were anyway. He couldn’t think why. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that they had narrowly avoided being hit by the falling angel when they had been crossing the courtyard.
Her Angel: Eternal Warriors Complete Series Box Set Page 144