by Debra Dunbar
She shrugged. “Twenty? They swarm you and it’s kinda hard to count.”
“Sounds like fun.”
She grinned. “It will be. I can’t wait to kick some drop bear butt. They chewed me up last time, but this time I’ll be ready for them.” Then she glanced over at the couch, then back to me. “Guess I should go to bed and get some sleep. Do you sleep? I’ll get you some sheets and blankets.”
I heard the unspoken question in her voice, and I wanted to follow her into her bed and ensure that neither of us got any sleep, but I didn’t want to rush this any more than I already had. Besides, I had a gate guardian I needed to have a word with, and I wanted to do that before Ahia and I headed out in the morning.
“No need for a blanket, I’ll be good on the couch.” I almost changed my mind at her disappointed expression. “For tonight. Tomorrow maybe I’ll get lucky and score better sleeping arrangements.”
Those beautiful lips curved up once more. “Keep cooking for me and washing dishes, and you’ll definitely get lucky.”
Chapter 12
Nisroc looked like he was ready to punch me as I landed beside him at the gateway to Hel.
“How dare you forcibly transport me like that,” he snarled. “I’m not in your choir, and I am temporarily assigned to the head of the Grigori. I’m not your lackey to order away. You were sent here to help with the rifts, not interfere with my work or spend your time trying to seduce a young angel to your less-than-pure ways.”
Micha would have used his immense power to pummel this guardian for his insubordination. Gabe would have demanded the respect due his high vibration pattern. Uriel would have shamed him with blistering words. But I was different. I was far more tolerant of disrespect, of contrary viewpoints. But this angel’s disrespect came from less than pure motives.
“She’s an angel.” I let that sink in a moment so he’d know exactly what the topic of our conversation would be. “How long have you known she was here? And why didn’t you tell her? She’s running around with a bunch of werewolves thinking she’s a Nephilim. Keeping such a thing from the angelic host is understandable, but keeping her true nature from her is a deplorable act.”
Nisroc smoothed his snowy robes and brushed a fleck of dirt from them. “I thought it for the best. After a somewhat rocky start here in Alaska, I befriended the werewolves. They confessed to me that they had a Nephilim among them. I gave them my vow that I would protect her. I was just as surprised as you were when I saw what she was. I’d promised the werewolves I’d keep their secret, so I did.”
That was complete and utter bull hooey. “You promised them you’d keep the secret of a Nephilim from the Ruling Council. That promise in no way excused your continuing to let her believe she was a Nephilim for fifty years.”
“What difference would it have made?” Nisroc shot back. “What possible benefit would it have been to tell her that she was an angel? She can’t go to Aaru. She would be killed the moment she crossed to Hel. The werewolves and humans wouldn’t care — for them a half-angel is pretty much the same as a full one. It wouldn’t have made one difference in her life whatsoever.”
“You kept it from her in the hope that you could woo her, that you’d be her chosen. A Nephilim might be flattered at the attention of a gate guardian, but an angel of her potential would be out of your reach. You lied to give yourself time to make her yours. Well, let me tell you buddy, if you haven’t sealed the deal with fifty years of effort, then it’s not gonna happen.”
She could have her pick of any number of open-minded angels in Aaru who were willing to turn a blind eye to the treaty. And experience had shown me that angels didn’t always choose based on power or status. We were capricious beings, attracted to whomever we wanted, and determined to get what we wanted, too. I wanted her. My blood danced with the thought that I might have a chance, that she might want me in return.
Nisroc glared at me. “I’m taking my time. I’m treating her with respect and recognizing her potential. I’m not swooping in from Aaru, making a huge show of my power and status and trying to dazzle her with false importance.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “You’ve had fifty years. Give me three days, and if I can’t win her affections by then, I’ll leave and not return.”
The guardian narrowed his eyes. “Joining doesn’t count as a win. She needs to commit to you or it’s just a young angel experimenting with her spirit-self.”
I winced. Ahia was attracted to me. I had no doubt I could join and more with her in the next three days, but would it just be a fling? Could I convince her to give me her heart in such a short time? I’d need to try, give it my all, because I was already half in love with this angel and to walk away in three days might be the hardest thing I’d ever done.
“I vow that if I do not win Ahia’s heart in the next three days, I will leave and not return. I will keep her presence a secret from the other angels, and I will allow you the time you need to present your suit.”
Nisroc nodded. “I vow that I will allow you three days without interference to make an effort to win Ahia’s heart. Although if she comes to see me or requests my presence, then I’m not to be held responsible for any efforts I make to further my suit.”
Three days. I tamped down the panic that I had such a short amount of time to make a favorable impression. I’d made some headway tonight, but so much of our attraction was lust. I needed it to be more. And I needed to know how far Nisroc had gotten in his suit.
“Have you offered for her yet?” Offered for her. I was the naughty one of Aaru and I couldn’t come out and ask if he’d joined with her. Part of me didn’t want to know. Part of me wanted to rip this guy’s wings off at the idea.
“No.” The angel scowled. “She’s young and pure. It would be unseemly of me. And I’d hardly offer for her after only fifty years.”
I hid a smile. Good. She clearly wasn’t going to wait fifty years with me from the way she’d responded in the kitchen. Now I just had to make sure the werewolves, especially that Brent, stayed out of my way.
“Do not sully her with your deplorable vibration level. You might be an archangel by birth, but you’re hardly one when it comes to purity. You’re barely an Angel of Order.” Nisroc’s voice was tight with anger as he looked up at me with narrowed eyes.
I felt a wave of fury at his words. Nisroc might be speaking out of bitterness because I had the advantage when it came to trying to win this angel, but there was truth in his words. We archangels seemed to be falling into the sin of anger, as well as the sin of lust, envy, and pride. Especially pride. Well, except for the perfect Gabriel who never seemed to come within a light year of sin. I was the worst of the four of us, though. I was an archangel. I was so much more worthy of her affections than a lowly gate guardian. That was a horrible thing to think. I might be the least powerful of the archangels, but I still had more than the average angel, and far more than a gate guardian.
But I was tired of angels only wanting me because of my status. I was tired of the passive-aggressive slights, the subtle and not-so-subtle lack of respect. I was tired of mine being the least valued of the choirs. And I was tired of angels trying to woo me who had no interest in who I really was. It would be nice for once to have an angel want me for the crazy, just-barely-an-Angel-of-Order that I was. For the first time I felt I’d met an angel who might appreciate the real me. And I wasn’t about to back off because some gate guardian had discovered her fifty years before I had.
Nisroc raised his chin, eyes flashing. “I’ve vowed to protect her, and protect her I will, even if that means I go against my vow to the heavenly host, or you as a member of the Ruling Council, even if I go against the vow of service I made to the Grigori, even if it means my vibration pattern degrades with sin. I cannot allow you to take her against her will, to hurt her.”
Hurt her? I shook my head wondering what the hell Nisroc was thinking. “I would never take her against her will or hurt her. She’s an angel, for crea
tion’s sake! I vowed I wouldn’t kill her, and beyond that I would never harm her.”
A muscle tightened in Nisroc’s jaw. “You’re part of the Ruling Council. You fought with the Angels of Order in the war. You, of all angels, made the choice to fight instead of use your position to promote peace and reconciliation. You fought them, killed them, and signed the treaty that banished them. You agreed to the treaty. And according to the treaty, she should be either killed or thrown into Hel. That was your vow before all the angels of Aaru. Why would she want you? Why would she want an angel that slaughtered others just because they were of Chaos?”
That hit hard, but it wasn’t anything that I hadn’t already punished myself over. I’d been designated an Angel of Order, but one with enough Chaos that I’d always felt I’d betrayed my own in the war. Plus, Samael…our brother. I was three billion years old, yet had aged more in the last three million years than in my whole lifetime. Things were changing, though. It was time to do the things I’d been too cowardly to do before, time to stand up for who I really was inside.
“There will be peace. There will be reconciliation. That’s why there is a rebellion in Aaru. The Ruling Council recognizes we made a mistake and wants to rectify it, but others resist. There are changes taking place both here and in Aaru. You’ve met the new Iblis, you’ve seen how Michael’s heart has warmed. I admit my shameful part in what fractured us so long ago, and I will not betray my brethren again. And I hope that she’ll see that.”
Nisroc’s eyebrows shot upward. “You’re frivolous. You’re irreverent. You’re swayed whichever way the wind blows. I doubt you will stand strong for anything of value, that you’ll resist sin and improve both yourself and those of your choir. And I don’t think you’ll be good for Ahia. You’ll seduce her, have your fling, then leave her to go frolic in another pasture. Don’t ruin her potential purity with your smut.”
I hadn’t been an exemplarity angel in the past, and I wasn’t sure I could ever live up to the standards of vibration that pure Angels of Order demanded. But my intentions toward Ahia were sincere. Which is why I’d somehow managed to keep myself from falling into her bed tonight. “I have no desire to make Ahia a casual fling. I tell you now that if she chooses me, I’ll not abandon her to frolic in any other pasture.”
Nisroc eyed me doubtfully. “Don’t ruin her. She’s special. She’s got more Order than any other Angel of Chaos I’ve ever known. I think with proper guidance, she can strengthen that pure part of herself and achieve an admiral vibration level.”
Ugh. He was the one who would ruin her. Let her be as she was created — perfect and pure in her own way. Ahia was on the edge of Order just as I was on the edge of Chaos. She was one of the rare angels that straddled both designations, and her vibration level was just fine as it was.
Already my thoughts raced into a fanciful future. Ahia. It was a beautiful name, although it didn’t really work for an angel. If she attained status, she’d be Ahiael. That was a whole lot of vowels. Although I was definitely putting the cart before the horse on that one. She wasn’t mine…yet. And angels didn’t reach the title of ‘el’ for several million years.
And there was that sticking point of her being an Angel of Chaos and forbidden entry into Aaru. From what I could see, that was just a matter of time, though. Possibly a ten-thousand-year matter of time, but it would happen. I’d told Nisroc things were changing in Aaru and I meant it. Plus, if Micha could get his imp there as the Iblis, I could certainly get Ahia there too. Maybe make her a part of the Iblis’s household.
Yes. Cart and horse. Definitely.
The priority was supposed to be to secure and stabilize this area, to ensure the rifts didn’t derail the positive evolution of the humans, or destroy the ecosystem of the planet or threaten the gateway to Hel. I had responsibilities. And those responsibilities weren’t supposed to include seducing the lovely Ahia.
Screw it. There was no reason I couldn’t do both. Nobody set a time limit on my project up here. I’d already agreed to team up with this intriguing angel, find and close rifts, determine the pattern of occurrence, and before I completed this project, and within the next three days, I had every hope that she’d be mine.
I turned to Nisroc and gave him my honest vow. “I won’t ruin her. I’ll do my best to win her heart within three days, but I can promise you I will do nothing to change who, and what, she is.”
The angel eyed me suspiciously. “Three days. Then you’re gone?”
I nodded. “Three days.”
Chapter 13
Ahia
We were up with the sun, Pop-Tarts consumed, and ready to fly. Our breath clouded in the cool spring air, birdsong filled the sky, and pale golden sunlight filtered through the trees, casting long dark shadows like stripes across the three-acre field that served as my front lawn.
Humans in Alaska had known about us for hundreds of years, but I still tried to be stealthy when flying. My front lawn gave me a nice runway, and my nearest neighbors off the narrow gravel road were over a mile away and werewolves. Once in the air my main concerns were that tourists not see a woman with wings soaring overhead, and that some idiot wouldn’t shoot me out of the sky.
I wouldn’t die, but it would piss me off and I didn’t want to be responsible for a hunter returning home with his rifle melted into a lump.
“Ready?” Raphael revealed his wings and I eyed them admiringly. I did the same and he made an “ooo” noise. “You’ve got some dramatic wings there, Hot-stuff.”
They were. I spread them out, brushing the tip against Raphael’s. Mine were nearly the opposite of his — iridescent black on the tops, like an oil slick in a midnight ocean, then fading to light gray at the bottom. The flight feathers were a shocking pure white, a dramatic contrast against the dark background. His wings reversed the shading, although instead of black and gray, his were a muted purple. And next to mine, the color appeared richer and deeper than when I’d first seen them.
“Back at cha’, Pretty-boy.” I ogled his wings, rubbing mine against his.
“Keep that up and we’ll never get out of here.”
He was right. I sighed, pulling my wing from his and stepping forward. “Ready?”
I didn’t wait for his reply before I started to run, angling my wings so that I could get enough lift to be above the tree line before my front-yard runway ended. Eight steps in I felt hands on my hips grab me from the ground and launch me straight upward into the air. I tumbled ass over wings, my ascent slowing. Righting myself, I held my wings tight to my back, dropping down nose-first, then spreading my wings and swooping upward on a thermal. I squealed. He laughed and pulled in just off to my left, following my lead.
We took the scenic route northwest, swooping low to feel the splash of water off whale tails as they dived, and hovering at treetops to peek into eagles’ nests. Seeing some dark shapes on a buoy, I took us on a slight detour to harass a huge bull seal and his harem. Swinging toward the shore, we wove in and out of trees, banking close to see where the old mines and trails had been.
All too soon I landed, my feet becoming soaked from the dew still on the grasses and scrub. I’d sensed the rift just as we’d rounded the last copse of trees, and now could clearly see it close to where Brent had indicated, just a few hundred feet from the icy waters of Goat Lake. The energy coming off the rift was sharp and cold. It reminded me of the way frozen iron pipes taste. And yes, I knew what frozen iron pipes tasted like. Rafi landed beside me, his grin huge. Shaking his wings, he folded them close to his sides and walked over to admire the sunrise barely visible through the trees.
“Pretty, isn’t it?” I loved my home, and showing all this to Raphael was my version of peacocking.
“Well, it’s not quite a nude beach at Cannes, but Alaska clearly has one of the greatest beauties of the world.”
He flashed that adorable dimple at me, and I felt the brush of his spirit-self against mine. Flirt. But I was more intrigued by the other part of his statem
ent.
“Is there really a nude beach at Cannes? Have you been there? Is everyone nude, or just you? And do you sunbathe with your wings out? Do they bring you drinks with little umbrellas in them? Do you party on movie-stars’ luxury yachts?”
His eyes grew warm. “I’ll take you, then you can see for yourself.”
Was this one of those things people said on impulse or out of politeness that they had no intention of ever following through on? I hoped not. “I’ve never been out of Alaska. Would I be safe?”
It was as if a shadow fell across his face. “Probably not. There are extremists in Aaru, and while I’d protect you with my life, I wouldn’t want to take the risk that something would happen to you. Soon. Soon all this will be done and you’ll be free to do as you please. When that happens, I’ll take you to Cannes, and anywhere else your heart desires.”
Soon might never happen, but at least I had now. I could show him my world, enjoy his company and hopefully more. I could create memories that would carry me until ‘soon’“.” So I smiled and extended my arms. “The rift is here. Go on. See if you can figure out where.”
“Here?” Rafi turned and put his hands on his hips. He was facing a completely different direction from the rift.
“Yep. Right there.” I couldn’t help it. I was a troublemaker, and seeing him stare intently at a pine tree was just too funny.
He patted the air in front of him and shot me a perceptive look. “Do I look like a fool yet?”
I snickered. “Yep. It’s actually over here. Warm. Warm. Warmer. Hot. Smoking hot.”
“I know.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me and I smacked his shoulder.
“Here, silly.” I stuck my hand into the rift and shrieked as something bit me. When I yanked it out two fingers were bleeding and it was Raphael’s turn to snicker. Before I could chastise him for his unfeeling mirth, a giant chicken head shot through the rift, grabbed me by the arm, and yanked me to the other side.