Salvation in Darkness

by Nicole Edwards

  When Penelope was the only one remaining, Obsidian moved toward her. She stared up at him, eyes wide, and he felt like a complete ass for his reaction. He’d been out of line, but truth was, it was a natural response.

  “I’m sorry, ayreme. I shouldn’t have reacted that way.”

  “We all want to find her,” she said, gripping his forearms.

  “And we will,” he assured her.

  “What about Taayin? You can’t just lock him up.”

  “I can and I will. He’s no good to anyone right now. Least of all Asmia. Until he can calm down, he’s safer where he is.”

  Obsidian could see she didn’t believe him.

  He could feel her need to help find Asmia, her concern for the female. Every single soul in the mansion felt the same way. With the sun about to come over the horizon, they were trapped for the time being. But as soon as the sun went down tonight, Obsidian would have every able-bodied soul on the streets.

  And they wouldn’t stop searching until they brought her home.

  Michael hated to break up the party, but…

  Okay, he didn’t so much hate it. And he knew it wasn’t a party. More like a wake based on all the frowns.

  He could’ve told them all was not lost. Not completely. Yet.

  Maybe tomorrow.

  Fine. He wasn’t a pit of fucking sunshine. Never had been, never would be.

  Though it wasn’t appropriate for the humans to see him, Michael made the trek through the main floor in his corporeal form while he peeked in the various rooms for Obsidian and his boys. While the heurosp weren’t technically human anymore—it was a long story, really—he did his best not to interact, ignoring the deep bows and greetings.

  Why couldn’t Obsidian simply tell him where he was going to be? That would make it significantly easier. On everyone.

  Thankfully, he had unparalleled hearing and he pinpointed their location relatively easily. It wasn’t a picnic getting his wings down those damn stairs though, but the fault was on him. He’d opted to walk a few steps in their shoes, and by the time he reached the bottom, he was deeply regretting the mood he was in.

  “Fucking hell,” he grumbled, stumbling out of the stairwell as he flapped one wing to bring it back to its uncrimped glory.

  “Oh, my God,” a female voice squeaked.

  “Not Him, sorry,” Michael rumbled, taking stock of all the souls in the room.

  Looked like everyone had showed up for the festivities. Close to a hundred angels and Fae crowded into one space, a few humans sprinkled about.

  “Michael,” Obsidian greeted, that stern, not-at-all pleased expression firmly in place.

  The male’s acknowledgement had the same effect it always did. Pride and something akin to love filled Michael as he peered over at his greatest creation.

  “Obsidian,” he returned, waving a hand. “Someone care to offer me a drink?”

  Unlike in Heaven, there was no one rushing around to do his bidding. Also unlike in Heaven, there was quite a bit of animosity being launched in his direction. Damn warrior angels. Didn’t they know it wasn’t healthy to hold a grudge?

  “Why are you here?” Stygian questioned.

  At least he was relatively cool. He knew Hell would freeze over before Shadow or Piceous would direct a question his way. Without being prompted, anyway. Those two had been harboring a deep-seated anger for centuries, and based on their dagger-glares, Michael didn’t think they intended to turn those frowns upside down anytime soon.

  “No refreshments?” He rolled his eyes and moved deeper into the room. “Fine.”

  It wasn’t like he could imbibe in their earthly victuals and libations anyway. But would it kill a guy to offer?

  In an effort to keep his restlessness at bay, Michael wandered through the open space, eyeing the fiestreigh interspersed throughout.

  “Nice jacket. Looks good on you,” he told Raksa. “Brings out your eyes.”

  The male’s gaze swung over to Malak briefly before lowering.

  So he was feeling some heat for a co-worker. Good for him. Michael always wanted them to find happiness. God knew they deserved it considering they’d devoted their entire existence to keeping his father’s creations safe from the evils of the world. A Band-Aid fix, his ass. Fifteen hundred years in, Michael would have to say his father had been wrong about one thing. Those angels knew how to get shit done.

  Someone cleared their throat and he got the feeling it was Obsidian. Probably attempting to get him to pick up the pace.

  Fine.

  Turning toward the male he’d created with his own two hands, Michael nodded.

  “What the fuck?” Obsidian grumbled when they took form in their third-floor … whatever this room was.

  “We need to chat. Privately,” he said by way of explanation.

  “The proper way is to say so,” Obsidian countered. “Give a male a chance to tie up his previous engagements.”

  “Yeah, well. No time for pleasantries,” he told him.

  “So what’s the rush?”

  “We’ve got a situation.” Michael picked up the eight ball that was sitting on the red felt, studied it for a moment. He’d never understood the allure of this game, but his warriors seemed enraptured by it. Had to be since they had two of these tables in their residence.

  “We do,” Obsidian confirmed. “And if you’d let me get back to it, we could address bringing Asmia home.”

  Michael set the ball down and made a trip around the table. “It’s not about bringing her home, per se.”

  Oh, he understood their desire to. He would’ve had to be an idiot not to feel the eager anticipation that had been thick and frothy in that lower-level room. And Michael was a lot of things, but an idiot he was not.

  Obsidian’s silver glare was pinned right on him. “Then what’s it about?”

  “Well…”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Oliver wasn’t too proud to admit he’d almost shit his pants when that … fucking angel appeared, all winged and tatted like some holy badass.

  “You okay?”

  The words were spoken softly from his right and it took a second to register Bijou’s voice.

  “No,” he said at the same time he nodded an affirmative.

  A fucking angel.

  With wings.

  Seriously.

  “I take it you’ve never seen one in their feathered form?” Bijou teased.

  “No.” He peered over, aware his eyes were like saucers.

  Her smile was so damn sweet, it was almost enough to put a kibosh on the weirdness factor. But not quite.

  “You know your sister has them too, right?”

  Oliver’s gaze shot across the room to land on Penelope. “Wings?”

  Bijou giggled. “So that’s a no.”

  What the fuck?

  “Hey, man. You think you could give us a hand?” Reidar asked, stepping right in front of him.

  Peering up at the angel, Oliver cocked an eyebrow. “With?”

  Reidar nodded in the direction of the war room. “You’ve got some mad skills and I was hoping you could see if you could hack some traffic cams.”

  “Why can’t Miklós do it?” It wasn’t that he was opposed to helping out, but Oliver usually took a back seat to the experts. “Or Søren?”

  “Miklós is … he’s out of commission at the moment. And Søren’s taking care of something else. If you can’t, it’s no big.”

  “I’ll do it,” he announced.

  Reidar had been cool with him after all. Well, after their trip to the mansion, anyway. Oliver couldn’t say the guy was his favorite considering he’d hog-tied him in the back seat of his Camaro and hauled his ass all this way. But considering he’d plucked Oliver straight out of what he hadn’t realized was a fucking nightmare, he felt a tad indebted to him.

  “Cool.” Reidar led the way to the war room.

  “Do all of you have wings?” he blurted, the words simply tumbling right out of his
mouth.

  Reidar peered over at him, smirked. “Yeah.”

  Leaning back, Oliver gave the guy’s enormous back a quick scan. No way was he hiding that shit under that tight T-shirt.

  “If we flaunted them, wouldn’t do much for keeping on the DL, now would it?”

  “Guess not.”

  “Here we are.” Reidar motioned toward a fancy setup on one of the back tables.

  “What’s this?”

  “Your new workstation. Like?”

  Oliver’s head snapped over to the angel. “Mine?”

  Reidar nodded, his gaze scanning all the fancy shit laid out before them.

  Oliver checked it out, eyes greedily raking over the cool new toys. Looked like an Apple store had hacked out a hairball of amazing right there.

  “Figured you’d need a place of your own.”

  “For?”

  “Helping out.” Reidar frowned as he turned toward him. “Considering all you’ve done, I just thought…”

  Oliver waited.

  “Thought we’d bring you on full-time. That is if you’re looking for employment.”

  “Is it a paid position?”

  “Of course.” Reidar grinned. “I mean, you’ve got some cool digs to chill in, but the rest … we don’t expect you to hide out here forever. Just try to keep a low profile for a while longer.”

  A month ago, Oliver would’ve still been on the kiss-my-ass bus, but after watching them work for the past few weeks, it’d become clear they weren’t simply blowing smoke up his ass about being in danger. Hell, Søren had gone so far as to pull up an image of Seraphina in all her natural glory, and to think he’d dipped his wick in that… A chill raced down his spine.

  “You cool?”

  Pulling himself out of the gutter thoughts, Oliver nodded. “I’m cool. Traffic cams.”

  “Yep.” Reidar tapped a bright yellow Post-it stuck to the top of the table. “This is Orianna’s address, which is the last place Asmia was seen. Considering she wouldn’t have gone willingly, Perfidious couldn’t rely on her to vapor-it to his hideout, so we’re hoping the cams got a glimpse of them. According to Orianna’s vision, they’re holed up in a warehouse. Don’t have a clue where.”

  “But if I can tie in their movements…” Oliver dropped into the chair, pulled the keyboard toward him.

  He couldn’t stop the smile that formed. Back before he’d been dragged kicking and screaming to Angel Central, he’d merely dreamed of a setup like this. Now … now he was getting into the thick of it. Being useful for the first time in a long damn time.

  “I’ll be back to check in,” Reidar called out. “I need to follow up with Obsidian. See what Michael wanted.”

  Oliver nodded, not even sure what the angel said. He was too busy getting acquainted with his new baby.

  Acadia could feel Kaj’s eyes on her, knew he was tracking her as she moved across the room. She did her best to ignore him, but it wasn’t easy.

  It dawned on her that he might be thinking about the last time they were together in this room. On that particular sofa, in fact. He had been on top of her, his big, strong body pushing deep in—

  “Hey, you got a minute?”

  As she came to a full stop, Acadia’s gaze collided with Eclipse. It took a moment to eject that erotic image from her head as she focused on the male’s face.

  “Acadia?”

  Yep. That was her name.

  She gave her noggin a mental shake to free herself from her thoughts, then focused on Eclipse. “Something wrong?”

  “Maybe.” He canted his head toward the far side of the room, started walking.

  Hoping she could prove useful in the efforts to find Asmia, Acadia followed the male.

  “I need you to do something for me,” Eclipse said softly as he tucked into an empty corner.

  “Anything, sire.”

  For a moment, Eclipse’s attention drifted over her head, locking on something behind her. When he glanced back, she could see the concern in his eyes.

  “It’s not my place to pry, but…” He exhaled heavily. “Look, I had a chat with Kaj, and he told me flat out that you’re his mate.”

  Acadia narrowed her eyes, gearing up to tell him that was nonsense, but Eclipse stopped her when he held up his palm.

  “Like I said, not my place to pry, but for the sake of … safety … I was thinking it would be best if you refrain from your duties for a little while.”

  By duties, she knew he meant feeding the males. Angels required the blood of a Fae to survive, unless, of course, they could feed from their amsouelot. Since most of the males in the mansion weren’t mated, that meant she was a necessity. She wasn’t even sure he realized the repercussions if she did agree to bow out. If he knew her entire existence was on the line, surely he wouldn’t be making such a suggestion.

  “Thank you for your concern,” she said softly, holding his gaze, “but Kaj is not my mate. I have no loyalty to him, and if the males need me, I’ve a duty to support them.”

  Eclipse leaned in, careful not to come in contact with her. “Acadia, the last thing we need right now is for a vampire to go apeshit with everyone in residence. I get that they don’t bond with their females the way we do, but … have you ever met a mated vampire?”

  Having been sheltered within the fiestreigh for most of her existence, she hadn’t had much interaction with other races or species. However, Acadia was all too aware of what it meant to bond with a vampire. It was all she could do to ignore the twenty-four-seven need she’d been plagued with for the past year and a half. Never mind the fact it had intensified tenfold since Kaj had returned to the mansion. She blamed that overwhelming heat for the reason she’d surrendered to him the last time. Right here in this very room.

  “I know how to be discreet,” Acadia assured Eclipse. “My duty is to the fiestreigh, not to Kaj. They need me, especially now.”

  She knew he couldn’t argue with her there. Despite the fact the other Fae had returned to the mansion, they were still thirty-nine to eighteen, which was roughly two to one, in favor of the angels as far as body counts went. And while Fae could replenish with the energy cast off by the angels without the need to feed for weeks at a time, there was still only so much blood the Fae could spare. With the angels needing their strength for the fight ahead, Acadia wasn’t willing to hide in the shadow of Kaj’s misplaced affections. Perhaps she wasn’t up to speed on the bonding rituals of all species, but she knew more about vampires than she was willing to let on. And there were a few key characteristics Kaj hadn’t displayed, which made her question his intentions.

  Eclipse exhaled heavily. “Then I ask that you proceed with caution. Safety’s paramount. For all of us right now.”

  Acadia nodded her agreement. She had no desire to push Kaj’s buttons.

  Lifting her skirt to keep it from dragging the floor, Acadia curtsied respectfully to the male, then turned and headed toward the stairs leading up to the main house. She’d promised to meet Torak, and the last thing she needed was for the male to think she wasn’t available. It wouldn’t take much for rumors to spread, and having everyone believe she was off-limits because of Kaj was not on her list of things to do.

  A sharp squeak escaped her when the Alpha vampire appeared not two feet in front of her on her ascension into the house. The already cramped stairwell felt even more minuscule with him in it.

  Her hand instantly went to her chest, as though her heart needed the pressure to remain in place.

  As usual, Acadia bowed appropriately. “Good evening, tresmar.”

  Her heart hopped right past her hand and into her throat when Kaj stepped in close, effectively blocking her path and sandwiching her between his big body and the stone wall.

  “Good evening, balisra.”

  Acadia couldn’t quite prepare herself for his touch, so the instant he brushed a stray curl away from her face, a traitorous shiver ran down her spine, warming her from the inside out.

  Kaj’s green
eyes brightened, as did the sinful smirk on his mouth.

  “Despite your denial,” he said, his voice little more than a gruff whisper, “it is true, Acadia. I have bonded with you. The only reason I have yet to make it official is for your benefit, not mine.”

  Acadia narrowed her eyes. “If you would excuse me, I have an appointment.”

  Kaj’s thumb brushed over her cheek. “Don’t think I’m not aware of where you’re off to. Or the fact that you’re feeding the angels, allowing them to sink their fangs into your vein. I feel it, balisra. There’s a dark echo in my soul every time I share a part of you with one of them. Pain unlike anything I’ve ever known blooms within me, rocking me to my core. Yet I’ve endured in an effort to keep you safe.”

  Acadia stared up at him, shocked by his admission.

  “And while I’m stepping aside for the time being, that doesn’t mean I can hold back forever. Eclipse is correct, a bonded vampire is a dangerous beast. At some point, I will require your ultimate surrender, and when that day comes, I assure you, all those characteristics you believe are absent will be front and center, making me a danger to every male in this household, be it angel, human, or vampire.”

  Kaj’s lips were a mere breath away from her own, and it was all she could do not to lean forward just to get a brush of their warmth.

  “Kaj … please.” She didn’t know if she was asking him to kiss her or pleading for him to step away.

  He clearly believed it was the latter, because the male took a single step back, his touch falling away.

  Rather than give in to her traitorous desires, Acadia latched onto the pain her heart had endured when he’d walked away the last time. Without so much as a goodbye, she drifted off, reforming on the second floor. But rather than meet Torak in the library as she’d promised, she avoided everyone by racing to her own room, closing the door behind her.

  If only she could shut out her feelings as easily as she could the souls.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Cold and dark…