Rogue Angel

by Stephani Hecht

  “Hey, Rachael,” Cam and Bear said in unison.

  “Uncle Cammie.” The male child broke free from her and threw himself into Cam’s arms.

  “Hi, Atar, how is my favorite nephew?” He caught him and gave him a soft noogie.

  “I’m your only nephew, silly.”

  “Why are you hanging out with your, Aunt Rachael? Where’s your mom and dad?”

  Rachael answered, “Abdiel and Gabi needed some, alone time, so I decided to take Atar with me to go find Bear.”

  “Me?” Bear pointed to his own chest. “Why are you looking for me?”

  “I had a dream last night.” Rachael didn’t react to their groans. Not only did all her dreams come true, they usually meant there was trouble up ahead.

  “You dreamed about me?” Bear asked uneasily.

  “Yes, and I came to find you to tell you when Appolion comes to your house, you better be nice to him.”

  “What makes you think he would come to my house? Last time I checked he avoids other angels like the plague.”

  “All except one certain blonde female,” Cam muttered under his breath.

  Bear glared at him before he turned back to Rachael. “That might not be so easy. Do you know what he’s been up to? I saw him and Ana and they didn’t exactly act like they were unfriendly. That’s my sister he was pawing up.”

  Rachael went up to him and started to mop up the blood from his lip. “What are you going to do, Bear? Lock Ana up in a convent? Didn’t it occur to you she would find her mate someday? She’s a very beautiful and intelligent female, the only reason some male hasn’t already snapped her up is because of her eight guard dog brothers.” She stopped and gave him an accusatory stare. “Unless of course, you don’t think my brother’s good enough? Is that it, Bear? Just because Appolion was taken against his will to Hell doesn’t make him evil. I was right there with him, too.”

  Cam smiled down at the ground. Rachael was one smart cookie. She was laying the guilt on thick and it was working.

  Bear started to shuffle his feet and refused to meet her gaze. “You know I would never think anything like that about you, Ray, I love you.”

  “Good,” she said brightly, “then when Appolion does show up, and he will, you’ll be nice to him.” Rachael spun around on her six-inch spiked heels and went up to the empath. “As for you,” she pointed a finger right in his face, “stop picking fights with your brothers and making them do your dirty work.”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” Cam lied.

  “Yes, you do. If you want to be smacked around, then get someone else to do it.”

  “Come on, Ray, it’s not like that.” He knew it was useless.

  “You can’t hide anything from me, anymore than I could hide from you. The link between you, Appolion, Abdiel and me is too strong.” She spun again on her heels and faced Michael. “Which is why he needs to go home with us, where he belongs.”

  “Sorry, Rachael.” Michael shook his head. “He stays with me for a little while longer.”

  Rachael continued to stare him down. Michael wasn’t only the leader of the angel warriors, he was one of the oldest angels in Heaven. In short, he was the biggest and baddest angel out there and there were very few angels that dared challenge him. Unfortunately, Rachael happened to be one of those very few.

  “It’s okay, Ray,” Cam interrupted before there was a big fight over him. He wasn’t worth it. “Really, it’s not so bad living with Michael and Raphael. They even let me stay up past my bedtime on Fridays and get pizza.”

  “Hah, hah,” Rachael retorted dryly as she glared at Michael. “Don’t think this is over yet, Chief. I want Cam home with us.” She held her hand out and Atar took it. The small angel waved a pudgy hand at them as he was led away. The three males watched them for several minutes.

  Michael looked over at Cam. “She’s a very beautiful female. Did you ever think of claiming her?”

  Cam made a face. “Crap no, that would be like doing Ana. Even though Rachael isn’t related to me by blood, I still feel too brotherly toward her to do that.”

  “Too bad Appolion doesn’t feel the same way about our sister,” Bear grumbled.

  The brothers both looked over at Michael. The Chief was still staring at Rachael as she left, the damndest expression on his face.

  Bear mouth, Wow.

  Cam nodded in agreement. If he didn’t know better, he could have sworn Michael had it bad for Rachael. But that was impossible, Michael always kept to himself and never showed any affection. Still, the look he gave Rachael said something entirely different. It dawned on Cam that the Chief was giving Ray the same dopey look he gave Amadeaha a few minutes ago, which just went to show what losers they both were since they were yearning for something neither one of them could have.

  Cam’s cell started to ring. He looked down at the caller ID and saw it was Uriel, Bear’s archangel. There could only be one reason he was calling. Things were about to get real damn interesting. He gave his brother a nervous glance before he went out of earshot to answer it.

  Chapter Seven

  Appolion lay on the bed next to Ana and watched her sleep. He did this certain activity for several hours actually. Little, lame, stalker that he was. Long after she drifted to sleep, he just looked at her and drank in every single feature. He memorized every single line and angle of her body and, when the early dawn light had come through the window and brought out other features, he memorized those, too.

  Appolion wanted something to remember when he no longer had her. Lord knows he wanted to keep her. He wanted to so bad it hurt. But he didn’t even dare entertain the thought of happily ever after with her. He lost everyone in his life that ever meant anything to him. So why should it be different with Ana?

  She had kicked off all the covers, exposing her long slender legs. Their silky goodness just seemed to mock him. Unable to hold himself back any longer, he trailed his fingers up and down them. Her lips slightly parted and she gave out a small sigh, but didn’t open her eyes.

  “Wake up, sweetie,” he whispered. Since when did he start using terms of endearment? Yeah it’s official folks, the bad Destroyer is becoming a big softie.

  “I don’t want to wake up,” Ana complained, still not opening her eyes.

  “You have to wake up.” Appolion leaned down and lightly nipped her ear. Her response was the closest thing he ever heard to a cat’s purr coming from an angel. “You promised Jean you would go to her daughter’s wedding today and you have to go get something to wear.” Her light blue eyes slammed open in alarm.

  “Oh no! I completely forgot. We’ve got to get going.” Ana started to scoot off the bed.

  Appolion reached out, grabbed her waist and pulled her back. She refused to meet his eyes and ducked her head, a light flush appearing on her cheeks. He gulped down the bile of dread gathered in the back of his throat. “You’re not regretting what happened last night are you?” He didn’t know if he could take her answer and was further sickened to realize her opinion meant so damn much to him.

  She met his gaze, her smile shy. “Of course not, it was the best night of my life. I’m just hoping you don’t think I’m some tramp.”

  Appolion gave her a long, deep kiss. “You a tramp? Never. Besides it’s not like we went all the way and I marked you. We just fooled around a bit.”

  “I have a confession to make.” She looked down at the bed, her long dark lashes feathering her cheeks. “If you had tried to mark me, I would have let you. Just so you know, that’s not like me, I’ve always been the good girl and never broke a rule in my life until recently. But with you, I want to break every rule.”

  Before he could comment on that bombshell, she hopped off the bed and ran to the bathroom.

  * * * *

  Later that evening as they were driving from the church to the reception hall in the car he rented, Appolion barked orders. “When we get there, keep all conversation to a minimum.”

  “Well, won’t your
friends think I’m a snob if I don’t say anything to them?”

  “You know what I mean, and no mentioning how much better the food there is than manna.”

  “Like I would be that stupid. This isn’t going to be the first time I’m around humans.” Ana shot him a surly look.

  “Yeah, I could tell when we walked into the church and you asked where the baptismal pool was and how you can’t have a proper mating ceremony without one.”

  “I’m sorry, at our mating ceremonies the bride and groom are both baptized. It symbolizes washing away their previous lives so they can begin anew together. It really is quite beautiful. I should have remembered humans were different. I’ve seen their mating ceremonies on television before.”

  Appolion rolled his eyes. “That’s another thing, Ana, stop calling it a mating ceremony. Humans call it a wedding.”

  “Okay, okay.” She held up her hands. “I’ll be a good little angel, I promise.”

  “If you do,” he reached over and rubbed a finger on her chin, “I’ll let you eat some cake.”

  “Oh that’s right, they have cake at their mating er…weddings.” She bounced in the seat. “I can’t wait.”

  “You do love your food.” Appolion laughed at her child-like enthusiasm.

  “Don’t you?”

  “No, it can be used as a weapon.” As soon as those words slipped out, he wanted them back. He didn’t know what it was about her that made him tell her everything.

  Ana looked saddened before she tilted her head to the side thoughtfully. “When we got Cam back from the demons and took him to the infirmary the first thing he wanted was food. I remember sitting there, watching, while he shoveled it in as fast as he could. He was down there a month and those demons didn’t feed him once. They knew since he was immortal, it wouldn’t kill him, but he would still suffer from hunger pains. They did the same thing to you, didn’t they?”

  “Hey.” Appolion wiped a tear away from her cheek. “No sadness allowed today. I’m sorry I even mentioned it.”

  “No, it’s okay. I want to know everything about you.”

  “Believe me, you don’t. I could tell you some things that would make your pretty blonde hair curl.”

  “That’s okay, I’ve always envied Rachael’s hair. It’s so pretty with all its curls.”

  “You’re perfect the way you are,” he told her. And she was. After what seemed like the ten millionth outfit she tried on at the mall she finally found the perfect one. It was a deep blue cocktail dress that flowed gracefully around her knees. In the back were two big bows, one at the waist, the other at the neck, tying the yoke neck in place. The best part about it was it left her best assets out for view, her long glorious legs that seemed to go on for miles.

  While keeping his eyes on the road, he started to make lazy circles on her leg with his fingers. She didn’t pull away from him, instead she leaned her head on his shoulder and gave out a happy little sigh. It felt so right having her there and it scared the hell out of him that he was even thinking such thoughts. You can’t keep her, she’s not yours. But it sure felt like she was. “You keep dressing like that and I might ask you to run away with me,” he said, only half joking.

  “I would go anywhere with you.”

  His heart thumped in his chest. If only it were true. “Yeah right, like you would leave your brothers behind.”

  “Two days ago I’d have never have thought I could. But for you I would.”

  Appolion looked over at her to see if she was really serious, but she had her face buried against his arm. “Is this all some joke, Ana, or would you really give up everything for me?” She finally raised her head and he was shocked by what he saw in her eyes. It was love and it was for him. He had always thought nobody could love him because nobody ever had. Yet the most beautiful angel in the world did. For the first time in his life, he actually felt like someone.

  “Appolion, I would do anything for you. I lo—” She bit her bottom lip nervously. “I love you. I know it’s stupid because we have only been together a day, but I know I do. I think I probably have since you left me the first note three years ago.”

  They arrived at the reception hall and he parked the car before he pulled her face up again to look at him. Appolion saw the fear in her eyes, fear he would reject her. Not bloody likely. “Why would someone as perfect as you care about me? I’m not worthy of you, Ana.”

  She started to open her mouth to protest.

  He put his finger over it. “Look sweetie, there are some things about me you need to know. Things I’m not proud of. If after you hear all that, you still want me, we can talk about us.”

  Ana responded by kissing him.

  He pulled her into his lap and took the kiss one step further. Trailing his fingers up and down her bare back, he swirled his tongue in her mouth. Appolion both tasted and heard her little moan. He slipped one hand under her dress and caressed her thigh. They were interrupted when his car door was opened. It was Frank and, judging by the look on the human’s face, he knew damn well what he was butting in on.

  “Hey, Brian,” Frank drawled. “You two coming in or what?”

  “Hi, Frank.” Ana tilted her head back and smiled. “Of course we are coming, but only if you promise to dance with me.”

  “Sure thing, sweetheart. Then you can tell me where Brian has been hiding you all this time.”

  “In a closet, right next to his winter clothes and his hockey equipment.”

  Frank laughed and helped Ana out of the car. The two of them then walked into the hall, leaving Appolion behind.

  * * * *

  “So, Ana, how exactly did you and Brian meet?” one of the nurses asked.

  If Appolion had had any hopes of tucking Ana away in a corner away from others, Frank had dashed them right away. He led Ana to a table full of co-workers and hospital staff. Every one of them seemed to have a million questions, too.

  “Actually my brother Cam introduced us.” Ana winked at Appolion. “Our parents have known each other for ages, but Brian’s family left when I was really young.”

  “Left where?” another female piped up.

  Ana looked panicked for only a second. “Amish country, we grew up in Amish country.”

  Appolion choked on the soda he was drinking. Amish country? Was that the best she could do? He squeezed her knee under the table as a warning. She kicked him in retaliation. You’re talking too much, shut up. He sent her.

  Give me a break. It’s not like I hang around with humans every day like you do.

  Really? You could have fooled me. I thought the Amish country thing was pure genius.

  Ana looked over and hissed softly.

  Appolion grabbed a piece of cake off a passing waiter’s tray and set it in front of her. She positively glowed at him before she started to dig in.

  “Are you trying to tell me that my partner, Brian, is Amish?” Frank jerked his thumb in Appolion’s direction.

  “Yup,” Ana never looked up from her cake. “You should see how cute Brian looks in overalls and a straw hat.

  “So, why did you leave, Ana?” a nurse asked.

  “I just love zippers.” Ana shook her head sadly. “The call of the zipper and the cell phone was just too strong.”

  “So that’s why Brian never drinks.” Frank nodded his head in understanding.

  Maybe you should just tell him booze makes angels sicker than dogs, Appolion snapped sarcastically. While you’re at it, tell him your uncle is none other than the archangel Michael, that you’re an angel, too, oh and don’t forget the whole fighting demons part, too.

  Quit being snarky. By the way, your hand is still on my leg. If you’re going to leave it there, the least you could do is move it higher.

  You’re being a very naughty angel. Watch it or else I’ll have to spank you.

  “Promises, promises,” she said low, so only he heard.

  Several of the females got up to dance, a couple of them pulled on Ana’s arms and she
got to her feet. She easily picked up the steps and soon it seemed like she was having the time of her life. Appolion sure knew he was just by gazing at her. Settling back in his seat, he watched her move in time to the music, her soft curves beckoning him. Then it happened.

  Ana turned and smiled.

  Appolion knew then he was lost. He loved this female and there was no way in hell he was ever going to let her go. Hell, he had loved her for three years, he’d just been denying it to himself.

  A slow song came on and he started toward her. She must have been able to read what he was thinking by the look on his face because she nervously licked her lips. Her eyes darkened with desire and he could see the pulse in her throat quicken.

  Appolion pulled her into his arms and she tucked her head into his chest as they began to dance. He stroked her back while he breathed in the smell of strawberries and champagne. Ana felt so right in his arms that she had to of been made for him. There could be no other explanation for such perfection. Hey, Cam, you there? For the first time since Ana arrived, he opened up that channel.

  Oh, look who’s finally talking. What the hell do you want?

  Cam sounded so annoyed, Appolion smiled into Ana’s hair. It’s about your sister.

  Ah crap, I don’t want to hear this do I?

  I’m keeping her. As soon as he made this admission, Appolion felt relived. There was no going back now.

  News flash, buddy, she’s a female, not some stray puppy. You can’t just keep her.

  Now his friend sounded a bit pissed. I’m not asking for permission. I’m just telling you out of respect for our friendship. She’s meant for me, I can feel it and I’m not letting her go. Appolion tightened his arms around her.

  Holy crap, you are serious. Look, I’m fine with it. It’s going to be my other seven brothers that are going to be a hard sell.

  Bring them on. I’ll take on all of them at once if I have to. Mocking laughter rang in his head.