“Are you feeling ill?” The other man this time. His concern surprised her and she slowly looked across at him, causing Veiron’s hand to fall from her face.
Rich brown eyes met hers, golden flakes in them shining in the firelight. He was as large as Veiron, thickly muscled and handsome too, wearing a black t-shirt and dark blue jeans. The man crouched beside her and touched her forehead.
There was strange heat in his touch that sent a hazy warm feeling flowing into her mind.
Erin closed her eyes and sighed, feeling infinitely better. This man’s touch was like a drug, a painkiller that pharmaceutical companies would kill to have.
“The healing is holding but you are tired. You need more rest,” he said and she nodded absently.
No, not rest. What she really needed was Veiron to accept her apology and then some answers rapidly followed by a shower.
“That’s enough, Wingless,” Veiron snarled and the man’s hand disappeared from her forehead.
Erin opened her eyes to see Veiron’s fingers locked tightly around the man’s wrist and his face a mask of darkness, a red glow around his irises.
The man he had called Wingless snapped his hand free of Veiron’s grip and held his glare. The gold in his eyes brightened and swirled. “If you want our protection, you had best start reining in that mouth of yours, Demon.”
“Boys,” Taylor said and shoved Veiron to one side. She sat where he had been on the coffee table, directly in front of Erin, and her red lips curved into a smile that would have had most men’s hearts thumping.
Erin glanced at Veiron.
He was watching Taylor.
What made the tight hot feeling in the centre of Erin’s chest worse was that when she looked back at Taylor, the woman was giving Veiron a look that left Erin feeling horribly like the two of them were or had been more than friends.
Veiron moved off to stand with his back to the fireplace. The flames cast his shadow over Taylor and Erin’s legs.
“I’m Taylor, and this is Einar.” Taylor intimated the man now sitting next to Erin on the fancy sofa, the one Veiron had called Wingless. “And this is our home.”
“And what are you?”
Taylor frowned at her. Erin didn’t apologise for the bluntness of her tone. Veiron jingled and Erin glanced at him out the corner of her eye, not missing the look he was giving Taylor as he toyed with the thong in his hair.
So this was the lover that had cared about him enough to give him a protection charm?
But the woman was clearly with the man beside her.
As if reading her thoughts, Taylor reached over and touched Einar’s hand where it rested on his knee, and looked into his eyes with blue ones that conveyed the depth of her love.
Veiron moved away, circling around the back of the empty couch behind Taylor, and picked up a short sword. He stared at it, murder in his eyes.
Erin felt sick.
“I’m part demon,” the woman said with a soft smile and then glanced back at Einar. “He’s an angel.”
“Like Veiron?”
Veiron snarled, flashing sharp red teeth in Einar’s direction.
Taylor continued as though the interruption had never happened. “No, Einar was a hunter angel until he fell in love with me, and I in love with him.”
Those words had the dark look on Veiron’s face turning blacker. He stabbed the tip of the sword into the table and left it standing there.
“Do be careful of the furniture.” Taylor didn’t look at him. “Honestly, the man is little more than a beast when his temper gets the better of him. Where was I? Einar chose to be with me, so Heaven chose to remove his wings.”
“That’s terrible. I thought Veiron had no wings.” Erin risked a glance at him.
He prowled around the shadowy far corner of the red room, toying with the weapons as he passed, a lethal yet graceful predator. He spun a dagger against his palm, caught it by the hilt and dug it point first into the small lamp table it had been on.
“All angels can hide their wings. It takes effort to hide them in the way Veiron is doing,” Einar said. “There are easier methods open to them, such as using a type of glamour, a spell if you like, that will change their appearance to mortal eyes. Demons and some gifted humans can see through the spell… and some angels choose to hide their wings in the way Veiron is, by putting them away. The angel needs to maintain constant control over them then though, and there is the danger that their concentration will slip and their wings will come out.”
“What about his armour?” Erin ran her gaze over Veiron. He wore just his black jeans and his boots but when he had turned into something demonic, he had been wearing black and red armour.
“I am in the room,” Veiron snarled. “No need to speak of me as though I’m not.”
“The mood you’re in, it would be best if you weren’t in the room.” Taylor stood and scowled at him, her hands on her hips. “You stick a knife, dagger or anything into another piece of my furniture and I will stick one in your gut, so help me God.”
Veiron just exposed his red sharp teeth at her.
“That is childish.” She huffed. “I swear, you haven’t matured at all since I had the disappointment of dating you all those years ago.”
He spun another dagger in his palm and then launched it at Taylor. Erin ducked. Taylor dipped her body to one side, neatly avoiding the whizzing blade, and it thudded into the far wall.
“That’s it. Bad dog. Out!” Taylor stormed across the room, grabbed Veiron by his left arm and slung him through the open door onto the landing on the other side. She slammed the door in his face and held onto the handle, bracing one foot against the wall, when he tried to open it. “No. Not until you can form sentences like a good boy and grow up.”
An unholy roar shook the room.
Taylor cringed, gingerly released the door handle and turned back to face Erin. “I would give him five minutes. He’s probably stomping around in his beasty form now. I’m guessing you would rather not see him like that again?”
Erin shook her head but couldn’t stop her gaze from drifting to the door.
Veiron had looked truly frightening when he had been in what Taylor called his ‘beasty form’, standing three feet taller than usual and twice as broad, with black skin, glowing red eyes and sharp red teeth.
But she had known in her heart that he wouldn’t hurt her.
He had lost control because that other demonic angel had cut her and tried to kill her. He had fought to protect her.
Low growls sounded from the hall and she could hear him pacing, frantic heavy steps that echoed through the wooden floor to where she sat.
“He’s a good bloke really.” Taylor resumed her position on the coffee table. She flicked a glance at Einar, clearly met a disapproving look, and rolled her blue eyes. “He is. He helped out when he didn’t have to and for all his noise and swagger, he does have some good bones in his body.”
Erin picked up the black fleece blanket and wrapped it around herself, feeling cold and uncertain now that Veiron wasn’t around to protect her. He had brought her here to these people and knew them, so he must feel that they would protect her, but she didn’t know them from Adam and she wasn’t about to trust anyone without them earning it first.
“Where were we? Armour. Angels can materialise things,” Einar said.
“Like weapons? I saw Veiron make a weapon out of thin air.”
He nodded and a strand of tawny hair fell down from his short ponytail at the nape of his neck. He curled it behind his ear. “We can do the same with clothes, and our armour.”
“Veiron mentioned that when we were in Hell. He wanted to make me boots and clothes, and wanted to try to make me some food and water.” Erin glanced at the door again. The pacing had stopped and so had the growls. She wanted to go to the door and open it so she could see that Veiron was all right and that his anger wasn’t solely because of her reaction. “Is he going to be okay?”
Taylor smiled
. “He’ll be fine in a jiffy. His feelings just got a little dented.”
It was her fault then. “I didn’t mean to react like that. I wasn’t lying earlier when I apologised to him.”
“Tell him again later. I swear it takes three different instances of apologising to get the message through that thick skull of his sometimes. Just say it twice more with a few minutes between them, and I’m sure he’ll finally be glad to hear it.” Taylor touched her knee and looked deep into her eyes. “I don’t know what has happened between you two, but Veiron looked like a man not on the edge but firmly over it when he came here carrying you in his arms. I think you scared him pretty good. He was even nice to Romeo here so he would heal you. Not that Einar wouldn’t have healed you if Veiron had been his usual self around him.”
For a moment, Erin had felt lost but then she had realised that Romeo was Taylor’s pet name for Einar. Like Veiron called him Wingless. Erin thought Taylor’s name was far kinder, and cuter.
“He growls and snarls but that’s only because he has a warm heart beneath that vicious exterior and he’s protecting it,” Taylor said.
Erin wanted to mention that it was a heart that clearly still belonged to Taylor but held her tongue. She couldn’t believe that Taylor wasn’t aware that Veiron harboured feelings for her. It was as clear as day to Erin, and she was no competition for the beautiful, part-demon woman sitting in front of her.
Suddenly Erin wanted to be alone too.
“I think I’ll feel better when I’m cleaned up. Do you have a shower I can use?” she said and Taylor’s expression softened.
“Sure. There’s a room free upstairs. I’ll take you to it and I’ll find you some clothes while you shower.” Taylor’s red lips curved into a playful smile. “I have to say, you both stink.”
Erin was sure that she did, and that it would take more than just one hot shower to get the rank stench of Hell off her skin and out of her hair.
She thanked Taylor with a smile and stood. Einar held her arm to steady her. She smiled at him too but she couldn’t hold it.
“I’ll contact Marcus and tell Amelia you’re safe. Anything you want me to pass on to your sister?” he said and rose to his feet.
“Just that I’m fine and I’ll see her soon.” She wanted to speak to Amelia herself, wanted to tell her all the crazy stuff that had happened and hear her sister tell her that it was all going to work out in the end. She had never needed her sister so much.
Taylor opened the door. Veiron stormed in looking one hundred percent human and one thousand percent mad but Erin kept her head down, passing him in silence.
She followed Taylor up the rectangular wooden staircase to the next floor, and into a large pale green bedroom with a double bed and a single table beside it. The lamp there was on, casting warm light around the room.
“There’s a shower through there.” Taylor pointed to the door on Erin’s left. “Should be towels and things. Einar likes to keep it stocked up for visitors. We never know when one of his friends might drop in.”
Erin presumed friends of Einar’s would be angels. Did all angels have red wings like Veiron, or did they have white wings as they did in stories? Or black wings like the man she had met in Hell?
“Thanks,” Erin said and sighed when Taylor flashed a smile and left the room, closing the door behind her.
Erin couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a shower or taken care of things that were high on a woman’s list of priorities. Like shaving. She entered the pale green and white bathroom. It was nothing fancy but it looked like the finest hotel suite bathroom to her. She opened the doors of the white cupboard that supported the sink in front of her and a smile spread across her face when she spotted the razors.
She stepped over to the large double-width shower cubicle, slid the glass door open and turned on the water. Erin slipped out of her skanky black shorts and ruined tank. She grabbed the razor, walked into the shower cubicle and slid the door closed. Hot water beat down on her body. Bliss. She took her time showering, scrubbing every inch of skin three times over with the strongest smelling gel she could find. When she had done that, she took care of her legs and armpits with the razor. Three shampoos later and her hair felt somewhere close to normal. She sighed.
Water was the sweetest ambrosia now and a shower was a gift from the gods. All the things she had taken for granted before her captivity in Hell were now the things she craved most.
Erin shut the water off and stepped out of the cubicle, dripping water all over the white floor tiles. She grabbed one of the large white towels and wrapped it around her body, tucking it closed under her arm, and took one of the smaller towels for her hair. She scrubbed it against the wet black lengths and moved in front of the mirror.
The room in the reflection had a new addition.
Veiron.
He sat on the bed, hands splayed out behind him and bare torso on view. Tempting. Terribly tempting. Water dripped from his scarlet hair onto his chest and he had shaved, revealing a strong jaw that only made him even sexier. The thought of him naked and wet, showering at the same time as she had been, put thoughts into her head about water conservation and doing her part for the environment by sharing the shower with him. Erin pushed them away, not in the mood for such thoughts right that moment, not when so many things were playing on her mind and ninety percent of them involved the gorgeous man reclining on her bed.
When she turned, he picked up a tray of food and offered it to her. Her stomach turned at the gesture, mind flashing back to the food the Devil had offered with a similar flourish, and she took a step back, her bottom hitting the vanity unit.
“Are you all right?” Veiron said and a frown pinched his red eyebrows together. “I just thought you might want to eat something. There’s water too.”
Erin wasn’t a fool. She knew a peace offering when she saw it and she appreciated the gesture and hoped it meant he had accepted her apology. She nodded.
“The last thing someone offered me like that turned out to be the final unicorn,” she said as way of an explanation for her reaction and Veiron grimaced.
“You didn’t eat it did you?”
She nodded, still feeling a little sick from the knowledge that the Devil had made an entire species extinct just to feed her.
“Bet that was nasty.” Veiron smiled, causing subtle dimples in his cheeks, and she was glad to see his teeth were white and blunt. “Taylor only had fruit and healthy rubbish. I don’t know how Einar eats this crap.”
He picked at the grapes in the platter.
Erin’s palms sweated and her heartbeat picked up. “So, how long have you been nursing that broken heart of yours?”
His head shot up, eyebrows raised high on his forehead. “Excuse me?”
“I saw the way you looked at her... how you couldn’t bear to see her with him... how you played with that charm you love so much.” Her voice hitched on the last sentence. Damn. She had almost got a perfect score from herself for sounding so calm about it all.
She took the plate of fruit from the tray and nibbled on a slice of apple, trying to look unaffected and fine with the fact that Veiron had brought her to his ex-lover’s home and was clearly still crushing on her.
“I was the one who left her.” He rose to his feet.
She didn’t like it when he towered over her so she moved away, taking the fruit with her. Her heart leapt around all over the place in her chest. Her fingers shook.
“And?” She turned to face him, keeping the bed between them so she didn’t feel as small. From this distance, he didn’t look as tall or imposing. “I’ve been there and done that too, and it still hurts to see the bloke with another woman.”
He frowned, crossed the room in three long strides and took the plate from her. He set it down on the bed and settled his hand against her cheek. His dark eyes met hers, flitting between them, soft with understanding.
“You want me to take care of it for you? If it was the guy at the club,
just say the word and he’s dead.”
It was a poor joke considering the things she had seen him do but she laughed anyway. “No, I’m over it.”
“Just like I’m over Taylor.” He sighed and ran his fingers down the curve of her jaw, and then combed them through her wet hair. “I am, Erin.”
“I’d like to put that to the test.”
He frowned. “How?”
Erin tiptoed, placed her palms against the granite slabs of his bare chest and slid them up to his neck. His gaze darted between hers, watchful now, a touch of wariness battling the hunger that she could see rising within him. She felt that hunger stirring deep within her too, and she wanted the taste of Veiron that she had been waiting for. She caught his nape with one hand and lured him down to her. The moment he was within reach, she meshed her lips with his, closed her eyes and kissed him.
His hands captured her waist and dragged her against him, bending her into the hard steel of his body. He growled, slanted his head and pushed his tongue past her teeth. Erin moaned and melted into him, surrendering to the dominant force of his passion.
Veiron pulled away, hands clasping her waist, elbows locked tightly and holding her at a distance.
“We shouldn’t,” he said, shooting her down from her passion high. “You don’t really know me.”
“I know you enough to know that I’m attracted to you.” She smoothed her palms over his bare shoulders and he groaned, his eyes squeezing shut.
He released her waist, grabbed her wrists, and brought them down between them, holding them captive there.
“You screamed bloody murder at me less than an hour ago, Erin.”
“It was shock and I apologised, didn’t I?” Erin wrenched out of his grip and sat on the bed. “You might have warned me that you were a demonic angel. Maybe I would have taken it a little better!”
He sighed. “Maybe... but it doesn’t change the fact that it scared you.”
“It did not.” She glared up at him, meeting his hard look and not wavering. “I swear... and I’ll prove it to you.”
Her Demonic Angel (Her Angel Romance Series Book 5) Page 11