Fierce Angels: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Lilith and her Harem Book 2)

by May Dawson

  “I guess one of us has to be.” Not broken, that was.

  His lips curled up slightly, but he didn’t sound angry when he asked, “Are you really insulting me right now?”

  “You’re the one making things weird.”

  “No, you’re making things weird, with that limp. It’s annoying.”

  “Fine,” I said. “This is ridiculous. Fine.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said.

  I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, reluctant to jump on his back and press my inner thighs to his waist like I was dry-humping the angel. But without making that jump, I couldn’t quite wrap my legs around him enough. He stood up, and I slid off his back. My feet hung for a second, and then I found the road with my toes.

  “What is your malfunction?” he asked, squatting down again.

  “It’s weird to ride you like a pony,” I said.

  “You’re not riding me. And if you were, it definitely wouldn’t be like a pony.”

  “It’s exactly like I’m riding you. That’s what I’m doing.”

  “You’re not riding me. I’m carrying you. Where I want to go. If I were a horse, it’d be a stallion.”

  “You’re bossy too.” I told him, shaking my head. My hands still rested on the slick leather of his jacket as I debated whether to try again to mount Mr. Stallion or to just let my feet turn into bloody stumps. It was kind of a toss-up. “You’re all bossy.”

  “And you’re the only girl in the world who would come into a completely unfamiliar world and be stubborn and headstrong and ridiculous!” he said back to me.

  “I thought you were on my side for once,” I said tartly. I still couldn’t understand why he was, and the words hung between us. I’d said them like our usual sharp-edged banter, but I meant them.

  “I’m trying to be on your side, but you won’t even take help when you need it.”

  The words made my chest warm. Forget the second half of the sentence and Jacob being typically critical. I’m trying to be on your side.

  It was just what I wanted him to say. I felt tears sting my eyes, unbidden, and I glanced up at the blurry stars, glad that he couldn’t see my face.

  “Because you’re such an open and vulnerable kind of guy,” I said, blinking those tears away. I felt them hang on my lashes for a second, and then they were gone.

  “Would you just get on my back now?” he said. “And no talking.”

  I leaned in towards his back, preparing for another jump, but I couldn’t quite make myself do it. “This feels so weird.”

  “You know what’s weird? Bleeding from your feet. That’s what’s weird.”

  “It’s just that I think of this as being something you do with someone where it’s playful and fun.” I finally hoisted myself up on his back, wrapping my thighs tightly around his waist.

  He lumbered up to his feet. I felt my hands slide on the slick leather of his jacket before I looped my arm around his neck in a stranglehold.

  “Are you trying to kill me?” he asked, wrapping his hand around my wrist and yanking it down. My hand brushed over his chiseled pecs under his open jacket. “And I could be fun.”

  “I’m sure you’re many wonderful things, Jake—accomplished demon hunter, honorable man, kickass Nephilim wielding his supernatural powers to save humanity—but I don’t know that I’d call you fun.”

  I heard the softest exhale of breath, almost like a laugh, as he loped along the road. I bounced awkwardly on his back. Like I was dry-humping the stallion.

  “What?” I demanded, craning my head slightly over his shoulder, looking for the tell-tale rise of his broad cheekbones that meant he was smiling.

  “You called me Jake.”

  “Yeah. Ryker and Levi call you Jake.”

  “But you always call me Jacob.”

  “And you always call me Princess, when you mean asshole,” I said. “So what?”

  “I don’t always call you Princess,” he said, “and I don’t always mean asshole.”

  I wracked my brain. Yeah, there was the read the room, Ellis, when he’d been pissed at me for bringing up his mom’s murder. And when he’d told me that his last name wasn’t Alexander like Ryker and Levi. And when he’d agreed with me that our destiny was a terrifying fucking thing to live up to.

  “What’s your last name?” I asked.

  “Why do you care?”

  I rested my elbows on his broad shoulders so I could tick things off in front of his face. “One, we live together and it’s weird I couldn’t even send you a letter in the mail.”

  “You don’t need to send me mail. Like you said, we live together. And we have magic. Why would you send me mail?”

  “I’m just saying. And two, if you don’t tell me your last name, I’m going to find a different name for you. Like Pony.”

  “Here I’m being nice to you—gallant, even—and you’re so ungrateful. Such a Princess.”

  “That time you meant asshole.”

  “Yes, yes, I did.” He shrugged slightly, wiggling his shoulders, as if he were adjusting under the burden of my weight. “It’s Kerr. It’s Scottish.”

  “It’s pretty.”

  “Wendy’s maiden,” he said. “She married Duncan Alexander.”

  “But she never married your dad?”

  “Angels aren’t the marrying type.”

  “How do angels end up with humans, anyway?”

  “Lord if I know,” he said. “I’m only half and I’m not sure I can manage a human relationship with a human girl.”

  “Would you feel that way if the human girl weren’t me?” I bit down on my lip as soon as I’d said it. Too much honesty in one night. I should slow my roll.

  For a few long seconds, I didn’t think he was going to answer. Then he said, “It’s nothing personal, Ellis.”

  “It feels personal.”

  “Well, it’s not. I’ve told you that before.”

  “You were just reunited with your brothers a year ago and you’re willing to give them up to get away from me. Hard to take that any other way.”

  “They’re a pain in the ass too.” His voice was gruff.

  I wanted to ask him how they were a pain in the ass, if it was because they pushed him to love and to be human. But it was a cheesy question and I couldn’t think of a way to ask it that wouldn’t make him snort. It felt intimate here, the two of us not looking at each other but my voice close to his ear, as if we could ask questions and share secrets in a way we normally didn’t. Even if I felt like the waistband of my jeans was gaping in the back. I was supposed to be a sophisticated reincarnation of the first woman, but there might be a half-moon of my ass showing as we walked down the night-shadowed road.

  “Do you really want to leave us?” I asked. It was the most serious, impossible question, one that told him far too much about me, and I wished I could take it back the second it hung in the cool silvery night air.

  “No,” he said shortly. “I don’t want to leave any of you.”

  I nodded, and then realized he couldn’t see me, but maybe he’d felt my head bob, my hair brushing over his shoulder.

  “But I’ve never just been on my own, Ellis,” he said. “All my life, I did what I was told, lifted cars, mostly, and killed geists, until I ran away from home. I wanted out of the life, and then I found my brothers, and it was right back to hunting. And I just want something else. Just once.”

  “What’s the else?”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “Being a Nephilim’s brought me nothing but grief. Why would be one of the Four be any different?”

  “Well, you aren’t alone anymore.”

  “I wasn’t alone,” he said. “I got my mother killed. Trust me, Ellis, that’s worse than being alone.”

  I didn’t know what to say to that. I squeezed him slightly, since my arm was already around his chest, but I didn’t know if I’d even done it strongly enough for him to feel it.

  “Don’t feel sorry for me, princess,” he said. “I’
ll find my something else. And then maybe I’ll come back. See you all for the holidays and a good geist-slaying every now and then.”

  “Cheaper than family therapy,” I said.

  “Exactly.”

  I rested my chin on the smooth leather of his jacket, breathing in his scent. For the first time, I knew that having Jacob with us might make me crazy. But being without him would make me lonely.

  But I had to help him break the curse. He deserved his something else.

  Even though I wanted my something to include him.

  14

  I was pretty sure that my mom was going to discover that I was alive and out of the reform school (what did she think had happened to me? Had they left her believing I was still there?) only because I was convicted of car theft and sent to federal just-let-the-soap-melt prison. Jacob took the same logical, cool approach to explaining to me just how to lift a car from a parking lot outside a bar, despite the time pressure I felt to get out of there before we were discovered.

  “Cool it, Princess,” he said as he put the car into drive. “We’re just preventing a DUI. We’re practically heroes.”

  “Yeah, practically.”

  “You think you could do that on your own next time?”

  “No.”

  “Well, you might not be quick, but at least you’re honest.”

  “You might not be honest, but at least you’re quick,” I said testily.

  He grinned slightly at that. “You’ll get the hang of it next time, I’m sure.”

  “Planning to turn me into a hardened criminal like you?”

  I had meant it teasingly, but I could see the conversation take a wrong turn, the slight shift on his face. Like I’d reminded him of where he’d come from.

  “You’re not a hardened criminal,” I said. “You’re like a moderately-crispy chaotic-good.”

  “You are such a nerd.”

  “You’re calling me a nerd? You’re British!”

  “What does that mean?”

  “You use terms like warrior food.”

  “Which that pizza was not. Thank god for the…” he glanced at me sidelong, as if he’d been on the verge of saying conditioning. “Exercise.”

  “Oh my lord.” But I was gratified that I’d diverted the conversation from the wrong turn it was taking and we seemed to be back on solid ground. Solid for Jacob and me, at least. He wasn’t threatening to shove me under a cold shower, so that was progress.

  An hour later, Jacob slammed on the brakes. I rocked forward against my seatbelt and braced my hand on the dash, watching as red brake lights lit up like a radioactive sea in front of us. Then I looked up, past the traffic, at the bright D.C. skyline strung out in front of us, the lights like diamonds along a necklace. I could see the Lincoln Memorial rising like a white coliseum above the traffic.

  “It’s so pretty,” I said. “I always love coming here.”

  “Enjoy the view while you can. We’re going to the seedy part.”

  “Of course we are.”

  “Sorry, Princess, Hunters don’t get to be part of the ritzy country club world. Not like where you come from.”

  “It’s not all it’s cracked up to be,” I said. “Families still fall apart. Some people still need drugs or booze to get through their day. And everyone still secretly picks their nose.”

  The angel looked scandalized.

  We drove past the theater and the waterfront and turned deeper and deeper into a warren of city streets. Finally we rolled down a long street where the windows were barred and metal garage doors covered storefront windows. I stared out the window, feeling out of place.

  Jacob parallel-parked on the street. “Good thing the car’s already been stolen,” he said, pocketing the keys.

  We got out of the car, and I hurriedly threw my sword on and then my jacket over it, brushing my thumbs over the buckles to release them so the sword hilt would hang below the collar of my shirt. Jacob brushed his hand over the back of my neck, pulling up the collar in the back, and his touch raised goosebumps along my skin. Nice goosebumps.

  His breath was a soft tickle against my ear. “Just remember. We’re the scariest thing out here tonight.”

  “Scarier than the demonist?” I said back softly.

  “Much, much scarier,” he promised. “You’ll see.”

  We walked down the street to an alley, and then to an alley off an alley.

  “Is this some kind of test?” I asked.

  “Not to me,” he said. “But I hope we beat Ryker and Levi back home. They’re going to be pissed.”

  “Do you care?” I asked, bumping my shoulder into his. Jacob seemed so defiantly disinterested in what anyone thought.

  “They’d feel betrayed, Ellis,” he said.

  My sense of playfulness ebbed away instantly. He was right. I rubbed my shoulder that I’d bumped into him; even through our jackets, I felt a spark when we touched. But this spark had just made me feel, like I so often did around Jacob, like an asshole.

  “Well, we’ll beat them back,” I said. “We’ll be back by morning.”

  “Hopefully they find Duncan,” he said. “Hopefully he’s useful, for once.”

  “What’s he like?”

  “I’m too biased to answer that question,” he said.

  “What’s your father like?”

  He turned to face me, exasperated. “Why do you want to have this conversation now?”

  I stared back at him. I had thought maybe the two of us could get into personal territory.

  “I know I ask questions you don’t want to answer,” I said. “I don’t want to talk about what happened with my sister, I get it. But I live in this weird new world now. You and Ryker and Levi are at the center of it. So understanding you all seems pretty key to understanding that world. And staying alive.”

  “We’ll make sure you stay alive,” he promised me. “No talk necessary.”

  “Then I guess I’m just curious,” I said. I bumped his shoulder again. “After all, you don’t have a shower to threaten me with today.”

  “I could find one.” He stopped at a back alley door, and I took a step past him before I turned.

  He rapped his knuckles against the door. Nothing happened.

  The night sky began to drizzle, a soft mist that beaded on my hair. He leaned against the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest.

  “What’s taking so long?” I asked him.

  “It’s always slow. He wants to know who we are.”

  “Haven’t you been here before?”

  “With my brothers, once. They trust this guy.”

  “But you don’t trust anyone.”

  “I’m about fifty-fifty on my brothers.”

  I nodded, and he said, more softly, “And you.”

  “You about fifty-fifty trust me?”

  He nodded.

  “I’m unexpectedly touched by that,” I said. “I’ve never been so happy that anyone thought there was only a fifty percent chance that I’d betray them horribly.”

  “I mean, fifty-fifty is decent,” he said. “From Ryker and Levi’s perspective, they’d probably think we betrayed them. I said I’d protect you. They’re trying to take care of you. And here we are, doing something we know they wouldn’t much care for. Two somethings.”

  “I’m trying to take care of my sister,” I said.

  He nodded. “Sure.”

  I ran my fingers through my damp hair. I felt restless with frenetic energy. I jumped, my heart suddenly racing, at a flicker of movement. A man passed by the end of our alleyway.

  Jacob followed my gaze. “He won’t notice us. Blinding spell. We can get in because I know it’s here, but no one else can see it anymore.”

  “Really?” I was always curious about how the magic worked; I could really use an Intro to the Magical Universe for Dummies book. “Can I learn how to do that?”

  “If you want to, of course you can, Princess.”

  I quirked an eyebrow at that if you want to.
“Of course I do.”

  “You do?” He crossed his arm over his chest. “You want to spend every day training in the dojo for hours, studying the Mythos, practicing spells until your voice goes hoarse? Callouses on your knuckles and dry reading? And then the job itself, an endless round of thankless work and the constant possibility of dying bloody? Or do you just want to rescue your sister and get back to a normal life, as much as you can?”

  I glanced away. “You’re really selling it.”

  “I don’t want to leave the life for no reason, Princess. I’ve been part of it since I was a kid.”

  “I know,” I said. “Well, hopefully he has the stuff we need for the spell.”

  “Hopefully he opens the goddamn door soon,” he said. His eyes were on my hair, and he brushed the droplets away, the palm of his hand gentle. “That’s not rain, by the way. It’s magic.”

  I brushed my own hand over my hair, more roughly. “What? How?”

  “He can’t read minds, but he can get a general impression of your intent. Your feelings.”

  I felt myself blush faintly. I hated for anyone to get even a general impression of my feelings when Jacob was around.

  Jacob stuck his hands in his pockets. The movement drew my eyes towards him and that was why I saw the door, open a crack behind him.

  “How long’s the door been open?” I asked tartly.

  “Guess the wizard’s ready to see us,” Jacob said. He pushed the door open. “Stay behind me.”

  “I thought your brothers trusted him.”

  “They do. But I’m not even at fifty-fifty.”

  15

  Jacob walked with certainty into the darkness ahead of us. I could barely see his dark outline, and although my instinct was to take tiny, faltering steps so I didn’t trip over something unseen, I didn’t want to lose him. So I took big strides behind him, trying to keep up. I barely resisted the urge to reach out and grab the hem of his jacket to hold him close to me. Like I was a little kid.

  “Can you see in the dark or something?” I muttered.

  He turned back to me, his golden eyes glowing bright in the dark. I gasped.

  “Oh,” he said. “Yes.”