His eyes dried and burned. Breathing was painful, and the memories that rose threatened to drop him to his knees. But it was what had happened to him that propelled him forward. No one else needed to suffer the agony of angel fire.
The director’s dark hair was a stark contrast to the white floor. He was prone, a large pile of rubble had pinned him to the ground.
“Director! I’m coming.” Hearing those words had saved his sanity before. Would they be enough to help the director?
Bryant shaded himself against the blinding white, yellow, and orange flames. The fire ate away the banister and the landing. Bryant edged through a narrow margin of floor that remained unmarred.
Marble shattered around him, as if it was getting smashed to bits. Essentially, it was. As the fire decimated a marble stone pillar, the others came crashing down on top of it. The roof would come down soon.
He squinted to where he had last seen the director. When he finally found the male sprawled on the marble floor, he feared he was too late. The fire was burning a path up the director’s body from his feet where the engulfed pillar had pinned him.
Bryant deftly stepped where no angel fire touched and made it to the director’s side.
He had passed out. It was for the best. The agony was more than a person should ever tolerate.
Director Richter was face down, the fire around him quickly closing in. Bryant’s escape path was disappearing. Angel fire burned clean, but the combustion of the materials it destroyed clogged the air. The heat was worse than being in an oven.
He had to work quickly or the fire would claim both of them. Anchoring his hands around the director’s shoulders, he tugged and yanked until the director body’s inched away from the pillar.
Straining, he roared into one last effort to free his friend. It worked. He dragged the male by his shoulders and ran for their lives, keeping the smoldering angel fire away from his own body.
Without letting go of the director, he dove through the office window, smashing half the frame as they tumbled out. He laid the director on the lawn. The male gasped awake, his mouth stretching to scream. His mouth was stuck open, but terror raged in his eyes.
Bryant had to get him to his mate. Digging his hands under Richter’s shoulders, he launched into the air, spreading his wings out wide. He only hoped he could fly to the director’s mate in time for him to be healed.
Chapter 27
Odessa wrung her hands. She couldn’t leave and follow Bryant, but she wanted to scream at Dionna to hurry up with the others. Finally, Dionna turned to her and Urban. “Check on Vale and report back about Director Richter.”
“I’m coming with you.” Odessa stuck close to Urban as they flew to a tidy little house on the edge of the warrior’s section of Numen. Her relief at Bryant diving out of the window died when she viewed the battered baggage he carried. When Bryant had taken flight, Dionna had barked orders to the rest of the team.
Urban didn’t bother knocking. The stench of burning flesh lingered on the landing. They barreled into the house.
A slight female with long pale hair and wings almost as pale was in the foyer. She spared them a glance from where she was crouched over two forms. Odessa approached, her hand flying to her mouth. The director’s legs were ravaged from the fire.
Bryant was rolling the director over. “We have to let the fire burn itself out.”
Millie stopped short of them, taking in the damage. “Wh-what if it doesn’t stop?”
Odessa’s heart wrenched. The angel was facing the loss of her mate.
Bryant wrestled the knife out of the director’s shoulder and applied pressure. It had been shoved in nearly past the hilt.
It was the most helpless Odessa had ever felt. They all had to feel the same, doing nothing but watching the flame creep past the director’s shins, ash dusting the now sooty floor. Ever so slowly, embers sizzled up the director’s knees, eating away flesh and bone. It wasn’t until the joints were each gone that the bright red glow died.
Silent tears streamed down Millie’s face. Bryant motioned for her to approach. She dropped to her knees as soon as she reached his side and covered her mate with her pale wings. Only the knife wound could be healed. The director’s legs were gone. They would not regenerate.
Millie sat back, sniffling, her hands stroking the director’s hair. He remained unconscious, blissfully unaware at the damage that had been done. “Can you help me get him upstairs to the bed?”
Urban rushed over to help Bryant, his face bleak. They each took a side, gently lifting him and they gingerly carried the director up the stairs. Millie led them all to the bedroom.
After he was settled on the simple bed in the plain but homey room, Millie perched on the bed, holding her mate’s hand. Her gaze roamed his body, disbelief mixed with sorrow when they touched upon his mangled legs.
“Lady Richter,” Bryant spoke gently. “Has anyone you don’t absolutely trust ever been to your home?”
Her eyes watery, she shook her head. “No. We don’t get many visitors. Leo works so much and I…” She shrugged. “I’m gone a lot.”
From what Odessa had understood, Millicent Richter had been from an elite family but accepted Leo Richter’s sync offer. If she hadn’t, the director surely would have died from his wounds. Odessa didn’t know what Millie did now. If the director was gone a lot, certainly the angel had to do something all day. The couple didn’t have any children yet.
Bryant’s gaze narrowed on her, targeting the hesitation. “Someone targeted us, ma’am. Is there anything we should know?”
Millie blinked. “It’s nothing that would put us in danger. I’ve been working as a chaperone.”
Her words stunned the warriors. Odessa couldn’t see why, other than they had sorely underestimated their boss’s mate. Chaperones were not faint of heart. They escorted worthy souls to the pearly gates of Heaven, often witnessing tragic, sometimes brutal deaths. No wonder Millie had been so stoic through her mate’s injuries. It would be a long road ahead for them.
“I need to go back and check on the mansion.” Bryant’s gaze flicked from Odessa to Urban, then back to Millie. “Can this warrior and Odessa stay with you? No one knows we’re here, so I think we’re safe for a while, and I’d feel better if you and the director had extra protection.”
“Of course. Help yourselves to anything in the kitchen.” A subtle message that Millie wanted to be alone with her healing mate.
They left as quietly as they could. Odessa followed them back down the stairs, to where they had watched the director’s legs burn away.
“Urban, can you give us a moment?” Odessa asked.
The warrior looked to Bryant for a nod before he did as Odessa requested.
“Look, Odessa—ˮ Bryant tensed, as if prepared for her resistance at him leaving her there.
Yes, Odessa wanted to argue, wanted to stay close to Bryant and go see the damage to her home. She understood his caution about bringing her back there. What she wanted more was Bryant’s comfort.
Throwing her arms around him, she buried her face in his shoulder. He smelled of smoke and the unique gaseous odor she attributed to angel fire. His arms twined around her. If she could melt herself into him, she would.
“I thought I was going to lose you when you didn’t leave the first time,” she whispered out of respect for the director and his mate.
He buried his nose into her hair. She was a mess, but she was alive.
“I’m sorry I made you worry,” he said.
She searched his face. It was a loaded statement.
She brushed her fingers over his scars. His skin was still hot and red, but no fire had touched him. “I don’t like it, but it’s who you are. I wouldn’t have been able to live with doing nothing for the director any more than you.”
His expression didn’t lighten, but he hugged her tighter.
“I have to go and find out what’s going on.” He dropped a kiss on the corner of her mouth and left.
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Odessa stood by herself for a few minutes, letting everything sink in. Her home was likely gone. Was she upset about it? Relieved? It had no sentimental value, other than the memories she had made there with Bryant.
She was almost killed. Again. Only now her mate and his entire team were in danger. She dug her phone out from her robe pocket and texted Felicia a “Hey, how ya doin’?” She left out the “our childhood home is burning to the ground” part until she could speak to her personally.
Then there was the director’s devastating injury. Odessa had just met Millie, didn’t know Leo Richter well, but she wanted to be there for them and help them any way she could.
Glancing back up the stairs, she would wait. Millie needed time alone with her mate until he healed enough to wake. Then she would be the one to tell him the news.
Odessa let out a heavy exhale and dropped her head, closing her eyes for a minute. Never did she image how one assignment at work would change her life so drastically.
* * *
“I couldn’t descend,” the director said woodenly from his bed.
“That’s understandable.” Hang on. “When did you try to descend?”
Two days had passed since the fire. These were the first words the male had said to Bryant since he’d been allowed in the bedroom. Millie announced when he’d come to, but the dark circles under her eyes and the way she’d sigh and trail off told Bryant a lot about the director’s condition.
His boss had only looked at him when he had first entered the bedroom, but after that he stared at the ceiling. Millie said that was status quo. When he woke, writhing in pain, she had broken the news to him. She said he had looked down at what was left of his legs and flopped back. He mostly slept and barely tolerated the cooling packs she would put on each stump. Where his skin wasn’t blackened, it was a fiery red. The angel’s natural healing response slowed from the extent of the injuries. His body was going wild trying to correct the wrong the fire had caused. The director would be inflamed for weeks.
Bryant’s eye twitched and the skin on his injured side tightened. He hoped the director maintained his sanity through it all.
“I. Couldn’t. Transport,” the director repeated. “When we got outside. I didn’t want Millie to see… I didn’t want her to…” He turned his face away to stare at the wall opposite Bryant.
The male was going to run away? To another realm? He would’ve let himself die over letting his mate see him hurt? It wasn’t for Bryant to understand. He clung to the descending detail. “I understand. As for the descension, with the extent of your injury—”
“It wasn’t the injury. There’s no way I would’ve put this”—his lip curled—“on Millie’s shoulders.”
“How is that possible?” Bryant didn’t want to argue with the male, but it had been a tumultuous time for both of them.
“Did anyone else get hit by the flying knives?”
“No. I don’t think they were aiming for us as much as distracting us. They escaped as soon as they started the fire.”
The director’s mouth tightened. “Then I would assume Jameson Haddock or his demon helpers found a way to keep us from ascension. It’s tied to the knives. It’s the only thing I can think of. It’s the only thing I’ve been thinking about.”
Bryant released a hiss of air. So much for the director being out of his mind from his injuries. He hadn’t been able to descend, and he’d been the only one hit with a dagger. No one else had reported an issue with their ability.
Bryant nodded. “I’ll get the one we dug out of you tested for anything unusual. Sierra, Bronx, and Harlowe sifted through the remains of the mansion. We’ll test any others that were missed by the fire.”
He needed to get what was left of his gear and any of Odessa’s belongings they had been able to recover.
The next subject was necessary, but one he dreaded. “I need to report to the senate. I’ve already held them off, saying I had to talk to you first.”
Millie had deftly turned away senators pounding on her door, demanding a report on what happened. But Senator Montclaire had been strangely absent. Bryant hated him just for how that made Odessa feel.
The director didn’t flinch. Perhaps he appreciated the reprieve from the senate hounding him while he recovered. “Tell them everything, but leave out that you know there’s a traitor.”
“Yes, sir. Stede also found me when we were searching the rubble. Said his enforcers were ready to guard your home and Millie, and wherever Odessa made her home next.”
His leader sneered at that. “What did you say?”
“I told him to fuck off. I don’t trust him or any of his enforcers after the mansion was so thoroughly decimated.”
“Good.”
Bryant shrugged. “Word has spread through the warriors that they are being targeted and to be on heightened alert when they’re out hunting. I’m waiting for you to tell them the rest. After that, I suspect the direct danger to Odessa, Felicia, and Millie will be decreased. Haddock’s grand plan won’t be a secret anymore and all of Numen will know.”
“Loved ones that threaten the identity of the traitor in the senate will be used against us.”
Bryant inclined his head, fully agreeing. He was all in the hunt for Haddock, his demon helpers, and anyone who has given their alliance to them.
“Vale.”
“Sir?” Bryant didn’t like the director’s tone.
Before the director could say anything, there was a tap on the door.
Director Richter kept staring at the ceiling. Bryant turned to see Millie poking her head in.
Her voice was calm, her gaze was anything but. “Bryant, can I speak with you?”
He stood. His boss showed no interest in whatever the problem was. That bothered Bryant more than seeing his damaged body.
“I’ll come back after I talk with the senate.”
Director Richter uttered nothing as Bryant left. Odessa was at the bottom of the stairs, wringing her hands.
“What’s going on?” Bryant asked quietly. He didn’t want Director Richter to hear anything and get upset. If anything could get to the male right now.
“Stede.” Millie’s face was drawn. “He’s looking for you. Insisted on coming in here. I told him over my dead body, and I meant it.”
Bryant’s brows shot up. Over the last two days, he’d learned he’d severely underestimated Millicent Richter. She appeared weak and mousy, when in actuality, it was quiet confidence.
Odessa’s wrought look broke for a quick smile. “She told him more than that, and not as pleasantly.” The grin faded. “He’s got other enforcers with him and insisted I come out while waiting for you.”
Bryant clenched his jaw. He had enough going on, he didn’t need Stede interfering. Like buying fresh clothes for one. He and Odessa had been washing and wearing what they’d been in the night of the fire. There’d been no time for shopping in the aftermath, and Bryant didn’t want to let Odessa out of his sight.
He yanked open the door. Stede waited with three other enforcers. Bryant recognized them as ones he’d interviewed for mansion guarding duty. Three he had rejected. For good reason.
“What?” Bryant growled, letting his rough voice express his full irritation.
“Warrior Vale,” Stede announced. “You are under arrest for the murder of Kreger Montclaire.”
Shock and disbelief rocked Bryant. His next thought was for his mate.
Odessa stepped up beside him in the doorway, nearly pushing him out of the way. “Excuse me?”
Stede turned his ruthless gaze on her. “Your father was found this morning, decapitated.”
Odessa gasped and stumbled back. One hand went to her gut, the other at her mouth. Her gaze was horrified, but wary, like she hoped Stede was lying.
“Is this how you break the news to his daughter? Have you no compassion?” Bryant abandoned the door and gathered her in his arms. Her body shook, and small strangled noises were wrung from her as she fought
sobs.
“It is when she’s also a suspect.” A smug glint entered Stede’s gaze.
“What are you talking about?” Then Stede’s first words after he’d opened the door sank in.
“Warrior Vale, the murder weapon has been traced back to you.”
Chapter 28
Odessa’s heart hurt. Her eyes were red and puffy. She had snot caked all over her sleeve. Looking around the cell, despair washed over her once again.
Stede had dragged them to the holding cells. She was thrown into a small cell and Bryant was sent…somewhere else. She wasn’t allowed to know.
Odessa huffed. She refused to give the enforcers any fodder for thinking she was guilty. It was best to ride this out. How bad could it be? Of course, Bryant hadn’t killed her father. Of course, she had nothing to do with it, either.
Tears welled and she started weeping again.
She hadn’t been close with him since the first attack. Before that, though, they’d been a happy family. The past weeks’ events had shown her that while she hadn’t agreed with what he’d done, he’d done it to protect her and Felicia.
“Ode?” Felicia was on the other side of the cell, dressed down in black yoga pants and a neon-yellow running shirt. Her sister was pale but not nearly as distraught as Odessa. She couldn’t blame her.
“What are you doing here?” Odessa hissed. “Where’s Jagger?”
Felicia waved her off. “He’s waiting with the guards, comparing dick sizes or something.”
“It was no comparison,” Jagger said. Filly stiffened and shot him a glare. He was unaffected. “We have five minutes.”
“Did they let you see Father?” Please say no. It was a stupid fantasy, but the lack of confirmation let Odessa think it could all be a dream.
Her sister’s mouth flattened and she nodded. “It was him.”
Sniffling, Odessa tried not to break down again. “It’s a lie. I didn’t kill him. Neither did Bryant”
Angel Fire: Angel Fire, Book 1 Page 26