A Witch's Beauty

by A Witch's Beauty (lit)

  Spinning, he found Mina and the remaining Dark One circling each other below, the water churning like Charybdis. His witch had blood on her face, but the Dark One was panting, its fangs visible. It was saying something to her, but David didn't catch the malevolent words before Mina struck again.

  It was a paralysis spell, and the effort of holding it on the Dark One apparently cost her, because her face went rigid with the strain. However, she floated forward, one foot, two feet, while it tried to get away. Its shrieks intensified the closer she came.

  David's first instinct was to drop and finish the creature before she got anywhere near it, but he experienced a peculiar immobility himself, watching her face. She showed no fear. None. Though his own natural revulsion to their evil was great, he preferred his kills clean, quick, with minimal suffering. So in a way it seemed almost pitiable, how the creature screamed and struggled while she moved toward it, steady, no hurry. The inexorable purpose mapped on her face was so clear he could almost hear her saying it.

  You are about to die, and it means nothing to me.

  Stopping before it, she stared into its eyes. No words, just that stare, as it hissed and made its shrill whimpers. Then she placed her hand on its forehead and spoke two sharp words.

  The flash blinded him, but the smell of burning flesh reached his nostrils, one last, horrendous shriek reverberating in his ears. When he could see again, the water was swirling with ash and Mina was sitting on the rock, her hands folded into her cloak, tentacles wrapped around the stone, looking like a disconcerting cross between the statue of Buddha and the many-limbed Kali. Her hair floated down around her shoulders, shifting like graceful sea fronds as she looked up at him.

  David dropped down until he was in front of the rock. She studied him in the same dispassionate way she'd just dispatched the Dark One, but if he still felt the reverberations of the sudden battle thrumming through his nerves, he suspected she did, too.

  "All right?"

  She blinked. "As beautiful as ever."

  David ignored the caustic tone. "What did it say to you, right before you killed it?"

  "The usual name-calling."

  "You're lying."

  "Yes, I am." While her face quickly shifted back to dispassion, he saw the weariness.

  "You're tired."

  "I'll manage." She looked around the cavern, the remnants of Dark One ash still floating about like lost plankton. He noticed none of it approached her protected books, veering off as if directed away by current.

  "I'm sorry your home was invaded like this."

  "I hate this place. I've always hated it. But all the answers about who I have to be are here. It protects and destroys me at once. Does that make sense?"

  While he wasn't sure of her motive in sharing such a remarkable insight, David settled down next to her and considered their surroundings. Though they should get moving, he couldn't do it yet, watching her pale face, her bicolored eyes staring at the items representing her life. He also admitted he needed a mental breath to deal with how effectively she'd just handled herself. "Yeah. I understand that. It's part of who you are, and you have to accept that to be more. But in some ways, it also tries its best to make you less."

  Mina turned her head then, looking at him. He thought he saw surprise that he understood. Giving her a sidelong glance, he offered her what he couldn't deny she'd earned. "You fight well. I knew that from the first time we met, but you can hold your own against Dark Ones. I apologize for doubting your skill."

  "So you'll go now?"

  He wished he could tell if there was regret in the flat tone, and then chided himself for acting like a lovesick teenager. "No. I said you can hold your own. You couldn't have taken all four of them." When she started to open her mouth, he turned, just put his over hers to silence whatever sharp thing was going to come out of it next. He wasn't surprised when she bit him, but he put a hand on the back of her neck, held her firmly to deepen the kiss, letting her taste the blood she drew, even as he teased her so that one hand fastened itself to the strap of the weapons harness across his chest, her fingers caressing his skin.

  It brought back all the things they'd been doing just before the Dark Ones arrived, but it didn't dispel the upper concern in his mind. When he drew back, he had a cut lip. The blue and red mix of his blood, a small stream of it, wafted away in the water, seeming to distract her, but he flexed his hand on her neck. "You couldn't have held your own against all four of them. Admit it."

  Mina shifted her grip, and had the dagger out and beneath his throat. "What do you thi-"

  He knocked it from her hand in a movement so swift, Mina didn't see it, but he still captured the blade in its flip through the water, bringing it back so the tip was pressed to the left of her sternum. A tiny prick, one that drew blood.

  He was apparently tired of her forgetting what he was. He was different with his human mannerisms, disarming in many ways. But it was an abrupt, oddly thrilling reminder that, just like any angel, he would only suffer so much defiance.

  Staring into her face, the brown eyes dark as battle lust, he closed his fingers on the cloak's neckline. While he pulled it a mere inch to the side, the way he did it, as if daring her to stop him, felt like he'd ripped it away, baring the scarred area entirely. Bending his head so his chestnut hair wafted across her face, teasing her flesh, her throat and gills, he put his lips to those areas and tasted her. Rivulets of sensation shot through the other thin lines she'd inflicted on herself from his weapon.

  She was glad for the reminder, for gods, she couldn't deny she hungered for this side of him. It was simple, violent, overwhelming her mind and will. The strength of the angel with the balancing darkness of the human-that made it all right to want him, for now. But even as she had the thought, she thought of the orange and chocolates and knew there was a larger part she was denying herself, a part she feared. For if she came too close, her Dark Blood would jealously destroy the carefully crafted part of herself that wasn't total darkness, sear that away and prove that darkness was her true soul.

  But he was dangerous to her on other levels as well. Since she'd dedicated herself to study most of her life, she knew the puzzle of him was intriguing to her. As a human he'd dealt with something so hopeless he'd taken his life over it. Yet there was something so strong about him the Goddess had recognized his potential and made him an angel. He was light and dark, his power possessing a flip side, a vulnerability that would draw her ever closer as he used his own darkness to bind them together this way. Whether he realized it or not, it could give her the key to destroying him.

  Pushing that away, she touched his hair as the thick strands drifted in the water and wound around her fingers. His lips at her breast went from hunger to worship, moving over to the mound of cratered flesh to kiss and tease her there when she laid her chin against his temple. Letting some of her weariness have her, she gave herself a quiet, stirring moment to just feel his movements, marvel at how it translated into her body's response.

  "I don't know if I could have taken all four of them, any more than you know if you could have," she said at last, watching the way his wings held his balance to let him lave her body, the feather tips trembling in the water's movement, glowing white with the tips of light brown.

  David lifted his head. "Mina, we surprised them. They didn't expect us to be here, and they were moving with purpose. They were headed for this chamber. That's the access to your portal."

  "They don't know of it. This cave is warded."

  "Those wards discourage earthly creatures from venturing in here. They're a disguise, not a weapon, right?"

  She lifted a shoulder, refusing to answer, but he continued. "What if the Dark Ones can feel that portal if they get close enough? They've been trying to pin you down since the Canyon Battle. It's possible they did some reconnaissance on this cave and found it. These four might have been a contingent sent to try and use it as an escape route from the angels."

  "I may have be
nign wards on the cave, but those are complicated protections over the portal itself. You just unraveled them because you're an angel, and the only magics that work on you are non-earth-based."

  "Oh." He considered her. "So that's what it is. The spells you've used to blast me, they're using your Dark One blood?"

  "Yes. But your Inert spell neutralizes even them. For now." Mina shot him a withering glance, which he returned with a challenging one of his own.

  "But is it possible the Dark Ones could unravel those complex protections?"

  "They have some high-level magic users," she admitted grudgingly. "But I would know if they'd done it, if anyone had passed through."

  "So no one has. Yet. It needs to be shut down, Mina. Destroyed."

  "No."

  Sighing, David reached out and pried open the hand she'd balled into a fist. "At least, I need to let Jonah know about it."

  "And once he finds out, he'll order you to destroy it, and you will." She moved back from him, her tentacles unfurling. "Don't be a coward about it. If you're going to just destroy it, try it, and let's be done with the fight. Don't put me off with an evasion about going to Jonah."

  His jaw firmed, those brown eyes now snapping with temper. "Damn it, I'm trying to make you understand without using force. Mina, we can't-"

  "This is my life, who I am. You can't just turn that upside down and change everything. What about free will? Aren't you all so devoted to that concept? Yet you'll just-"

  "I'm not taking away your choices-"

  "Just something that helps me make them, every day."

  "Find something else that helps you. I can help you. Anna can help you."

  She scoffed, sneering at him with an unattractive curl of her lip. "You say you want to understand me, but you don't. You just want to make me into something you can comprehend." She pointed toward the doorway with the three-fingered hand. "That's a part of who I am. Like your wings."

  "And the items of dark magic down here. What are they?"

  "Years of dedicated study and experimentation by me, my mother, and her mother, and so on." She shrugged. "I use what will work. Dark magic is a danger for humans who are taking steps too far from the light. I'm already part of the darkness, so it's rather pointless for the magic to try to corrupt me."

  David frowned, but bit back his automatic protest. He was dealing with a creature with a different relationship to evil, and before he went with his instinctive desire to try to dissuade her, he would think it through.

  "If I destroy the door, what will you do?"

  "Fight you as the enemy you are."

  He stared at her for a long moment. Her upturned face, thinly held lips. The intriguing map of depressions on her face, both the beautiful and destructive sides. The light flutter of her gills at her neck, as if she was holding her breath, stilling herself.

  "Even after my body was in yours, my mouth on you, you would see me as an enemy," he said quietly. "You would fight me to the death."

  "As you would kill me if I proved myself a Dark One in truth. I won't betray who I am for ten minutes of fleeting pleasure."

  MINA saw the flicker of hurt. Maybe she would have missed it, for he was good at not showing his feelings, but she'd spent her life studying and paying attention to the details. Setting her jaw, she willed herself not to react to that, though gods, it was getting difficult. His human qualities could disturb her more than the angel ones.

  "You don't know me," she said, the silence grating on her nerves. "You don't get inside of who I am just through my cu-"

  "Don't." The word was sharp enough to stop her. Suddenly he was close enough for his hand to clamp on one wrist. "Don't do that."

  "Let go of me, then."

  David surprised her by complying, though she felt the loss of his touch. The water's coolness was settling into her bones, and the spell with the Dark One had taken strength from her. Magic in this world was barely a passing thought to her, but working against Dark Ones was draining, because there was a resistance to it, as if it tore pieces of herself away as she fought them. It was why preventing the archery attack on Anna had nearly killed her.

  "All right," he said at last. "Here's what we're going to do. You make sure your wards are in place. I'm going to ask three of my platoon to guard the entrance to your cave. I'll tell them that I'm expecting Dark Ones to try and scope it periodically for your presence. I'll tell them not to go beyond the first cavern, where you met with Gerard."

  "What if they don't listen?"

  "They follow my direction."

  "So they're better at that than you?"

  "Don't push it," he warned. "In exchange, I want you to do something for me."

  "Why should I?" she demanded.

  "Christ, you're a pain in the ass," he said with an exasperated sigh. "Because all I have to do is communicate with Jonah, and that doorway is gone."

  "So you're blackmailing me."

  "I'm trying to negotiate a temporary solution we can both accept." He crossed his arms, hovered in front of her, giving her a raised brow.

  "What is it you want me to do in return?"

  "Wear pink, put ribbons in your hair and kiss puppies."

  "I look horrid in pink, and I have no sense of humor," she said without missing a beat. "I've never met a puppy. What do you really want?"

  David found he wanted to touch her then, but he didn't. Because she was right about what would happen if he told Jonah. He needed time for her to trust him, and the hourglass on that would run out if he followed that course.

  "I want you to go to the Citadel with me."

  Nine

  HE anticipated she'd say no. Absolutely no, and by the way-hell, no. But he got her wary acceptance of an interim step. After they took care of dispatching the Dark One remains properly and posted the guard from his platoon, he would take her to the surface, though their agreed-upon destination was a tiny strip of sand under a night sky. A sandbar that existed when the ocean tide was lower. It was where they'd had their volatile first meeting.

  So he'd sent the message about guarding her home to his three most trusted soldiers, via the mental communication angels used. They were only minutes away from the cave when he and Mina departed. While it still bothered him, he didn't feel he was sending his men in blind, for he'd communicated the strong possibility of Dark One attack on the cave holdings to keep them vigilant.

  But not telling Jonah about an engineered doorway to the Dark Ones' world, hidden beneath the ocean's surface, was a different matter. He could delay on that only a day or two at most, and even that made him uneasy as hell. Hopefully he'd make adequate progress toward winning her trust by then, such that she'd react more calmly to the idea of telling the Prime Legion Commander. Maybe they'd even figure out an alternative to destroying the door. Though he doubted it, for his own gut said it needed to be done.

  Well, he was an angel. He was professionally required to believe in miracles. And he hoped the Citadel would provide answers. He'd told her he needed to make a face-to-face report to his battalion captain, a daily requirement, and he refused to leave her unguarded. The latter was true.

  Yeah. Lying. That's a great way to build trust.

  It wasn't lying. He was putting off telling her the truth for the exact same reason he was delaying his report to Jonah. A strategy to gain more of her trust.

  He winced, his mind invaded by a fleeting memory of his mother. "David, I know you're only seven, but I'm going to teach you another word for a lie. Rationalization." Her hands on his shoulders. Soft, loving. Motherly.

  "David?"

  They'd been swimming toward their destination. Or rather, she'd been swimming, and he'd been moving in the way angels traveled through water. He'd curtailed his speed for her, because of course the seawitch hadn't been willing to let him help her. Now she'd been dropping back. Reluctance, he'd assumed, so he'd kept a steady pace to keep urging her along, holding her in his peripheral vision. Now he turned to see her hovering. Well, sinki
ng. The contours of the seafloor were rising like hills under a watery sky, signaling that they were drawing close to the spit of land.

  "I want to stop a moment."

  He pushed aside his own thoughts, not without relief, for they were going places he didn't want to visit. As he gave her a more thorough appraisal, he realized with shame her slowing pace wasn't due to orneriness.

  She was capable, yes. A hell of a fighter. But while her magical skills were uncharted, her physical body had limitations, though she did a damn good job of covering them. She was just too damn proud to tell him what he could now see-she was worn-out.

  "Here." Sliding an arm around her waist before she could attempt to slither away, he guided her hands to his neck. "Hang on and I'll take us the rest of the way. What do you say to a short flight?"

  "I think I'm against it."

  The first smile he'd had in the past couple of hours twitched at his mouth. He had to admit he was a little frayed at the edges himself. Up to his ass in Dark Ones, then an ethical dilemma that could impact his integrity with his Legion Commander, followed by a flashback to his mother. All that after he'd had one of the most powerful experiences he'd ever had with a female. Which she'd crossly told him meant nothing more than a ten-minute release of tension and bodily fluids. It had been a busy day.

  He knew it meant more than that to Mina. It was part of her enigma, how she kept him at arm's length and yet he could feel a desperate need emanating from her to do just the opposite, an unstable and unseen force.

  Focus on the primary objective, be ready for the unexpected and everything else would work out. It was a soldier's strategy he'd lived and followed, from the first moment Jonah put a weapon in his hand and pointed him toward a battlefield. He used it now. Protecting her was the most important thing. Caring for her. He viewed the two as one and the same, in a way her other guards hadn't. Guardian, not just guard.