He smiled now. “You do… you deserve someone better than me.”
Amelia looked at him again out of the corner of her eye, uncertainty shining in them.
Marcus swept his hand back to stroke the soft silver feathers at the top of her wings and she turned her face away, casting her eyes downwards, as though ashamed.
“I don’t know how you can look at me now. I wish I didn’t look this way.”
He frowned at those words and the feelings behind them. So much hurt.
“Why?” Marcus caught her cheek again, trying to make her look at him. She refused, keeping her face firmly turned away from his.
Her wings shrank into her back and disappeared.
“How can you feel anything for me when you know what I am… when I dragged you into all of this… when I look like a demon?”
A demon? She looked like an angel to him.
“You are beautiful, Amelia,” he whispered and she frowned, sending tears running over her cheeks. They shone in the moonlight as brightly as her silver hair. He ran his fingers over the long silken lengths. “I love everything about you. Your hair is like moonlight… and your wings are beautiful… you don’t need to hide them from me. You are still the woman I fell for.”
A tiny smile touched her lips. “You really did fall for me.”
He cupped her cheek and lightly swept the pad of his thumb across it, erasing her tears. “I really did.”
“I hope you won’t regret it one day.”
“I will never regret anything when it comes to you. You mean so much to me and that will never change, no matter how long we are together for. I will always love you, Amelia.”
She looked at him at last, fear still lingering in her grey eyes, and he sighed at the sight of it. What could he say to make her realise that he did love everything about her?
Marcus slipped his hand under her chin and turned her head so she was facing him again, looking into his eyes.
“Will you let me see your wings again? I hate the thought of you hiding them from me.”
Hesitation flitted across her face and then her wings slowly emerged.
The stars blinked and flickered above her, a halo of shimmering pinpricks that matched her hair. The silvery feathers that had remained on the top half of her wings shone too, pure and bright, just like her heart and her soul. Beautiful. Breathtaking.
Marcus held her cheek and smiled into her eyes. “You deserve so much more in life than pain and suffering, and I wanted to give that to you. I wanted to be a man worthy of your love… and I… wish that I was… I don’t know if I am, or ever will be, but I want to be a good man for you. I love you, Amelia. All of you.”
She smiled brilliantly and leaned down and kissed him, her mouth playing slowly and gently over his, breathing life back into his weary body.
Marcus wrapped his arms around her and held her close to him, savouring the feel of her body against his and how good it felt to have her in his arms again. He had fallen for her but he wasn’t sure whether that was stopping Heaven from calling to him now or whether it had something to do with where Taylor had sent them.
Amelia was in command in this world. She had total control over him here.
Apollyon had told him that Heaven wasn’t easy to leave and neither was his duty. When they left this world, would Heaven call him again or come for him? Would they try to make him kill Amelia?
“You’re worried,” Amelia said and placed a soft kiss against the corner of his mouth. “I can feel it.”
It wasn’t just because this was her world. It was because she was like him in some ways now and could sense a sliver of people’s emotions when she was close to them.
“I was wondering how long Taylor can keep us hidden.”
“Not forever, that’s for sure. When we go out there, the angels will be waiting, if they haven’t found us and taken our bodies already.” There was such a solemn edge to her tone and Marcus hated to hear it and to feel that she had given up already. He could give her courage at least and a reason to hold on to hope.
“We only need to remain hidden until the end of the planetary alignment.”
Her silvery eyebrows rose. “The one I told you about?”
Marcus recalled now that she had tried to speak to him at the café in London about a programme she had watched on the subject. At the time, he had been so lost in her beauty and in battling his growing feelings for her that he hadn’t been able to focus on their conversation. He nodded.
“Seven days. If we can remain here or out of their grasp for seven days, then your blood will no longer be of use to them.”
“What does it do?” She looked down at her hands where they rested on his chest. “What is it they wanted me for?”
They hadn’t told her? She had her memories back, which meant that if she didn’t know now why Heaven had captured her and had wanted to spill her blood then she had never known. She had died each time without ever knowing what they had wanted from her.
Marcus gathered her closer to him when the ground trembled again and tried to bring her focus back to him rather than on the attack taking place where their bodies were. He had faith in his friends that they would all survive this. Heaven wasn’t foolish enough to start an all out war on Earth. It went against its principles and creed, against its purpose.
It was difficult to bring his own focus away from the attack when the desire to return to the real world and join the fight beat deep in his heart. He wasn’t convinced that Heaven would leave them alone once the planetary alignment ended and he still hungered for revenge for his sake and Amelia’s. He wanted to settle everything once and for all, to return to Heaven and somehow ensure they would never come after Amelia again.
How could he fight them now though? He had no wings to reach Heaven and no power to use once he got there. It was impossible.
Amelia moved in his arms, her heart beating against his chest. He stroked her cheek to soothe her fears and pushed away his impotent desire for vengeance, focusing on her instead.
“Your blood could activate a seal that would close Heaven if it was spilt in the right place in Hell, and Hell if it was spilt in the right place in Heaven… but only if the blood touched the marks at the right time, and it would only last until the moment the last of your blood dried out and left the seal.” He grazed the backs of his fingers along the soft line of her jaw and kept her attention on him, his eyes locked with hers. “If we can keep you safe until that time has passed, then they would have no reason to come after you anymore.”
Unless they wanted to kill her so she would start the cycle of rebirth again. Marcus would never allow that to happen. They would keep moving, remaining out of sight and free of both Heaven’s and Hell’s angels. He would protect her forever if he had to.
That was, if forever was still within his grasp.
“They will always be after me, won’t they?” she whispered and he couldn’t lie to her.
“I will protect you, Amelia. I promised you that, remember?”
Her smile said that she did. He slowly caressed her cheek, absorbing the softness of her skin and her warmth. The sea rolled over his bare feet and up his shins, and it dawned on him that he was nude and had been from the moment he had shunned Heaven.
Amelia didn’t seem to notice. She lay on him wearing a beautiful smile and her ruined dress, her wings grazing his thighs and the sand by her feet.
“I do not know what will happen when we leave this place.” He ran his right hand over her bare thigh down to her knee. “Heaven might still have the power to command me.”
A frown flitted across her face and then melted away. “Serenity commanded Apollyon when he wanted to kill me… if I do the same, would it work?”
He wasn’t sure. She had reached him once and given him the strength to fight Heaven’s orders, and she had power beyond the grasp of most. There was a chance that if she formed a contract with him, that it would overrule any orders that Heaven might send him, even tho
se attached to his eternal duty.
“It might. If you call to me and bind us by contract, it might work.”
“Contract?”
“Serenity called to Apollyon, requesting something of him, and he agreed to it. That’s how they can be together and how Serenity can command him. If you do the same, then there is a chance that it will forge a bond between us… or perhaps something stronger.”
“Stronger?”
She had power beyond an angel’s reckoning. Was it possible that she could call him to her and bind them as master and servant? Marcus’s heart raced at the prospect. It was worth a shot.
“You could call me over to your side. You are powerful, Amelia. You could do more than place a contract between us. You could bring me over, as the Devil can to an angel.”
“You mean… make you like me?” The tremble in her voice betrayed her nerves.
Marcus nodded. “It is what I want, Amelia. I wish to be like you… I wish for the strength to protect you. You can give that to me.”
She pushed away from him and rose to her knees and then onto her feet, a vision with her half-angel, half-demonic wings and her long silver hair shining in the moonlight.
Amelia held her hand out to him. He slipped his into it and she surprised him by hauling him easily onto his feet and then casting a shy glance at his groin.
“I think I should start with your appearance. You’re a little distracting at the moment.” She frowned at his body and Marcus looked down as his feet tingled and warmed. The cuts and scratches on them disappeared, followed by those on his legs and then his torso and arms, and finally the heat touched his face. Amelia smiled at him. “Much better.”
“What are you doing?” he said, trying to grasp whether this was real or just a flight of fancy possible in this inner world of Amelia’s.
“Making you mine.” Her cheeks coloured and then she straightened up and looked deep into his eyes, her grey ones full of confidence and strength that was so familiar to him.
That was his Amelia. Never afraid. Always facing things head on. She had strength like no other mortal or immortal. She had seized his heart for herself when it had long been in Heaven’s grasp, had snatched him from them and changed him so much.
This had to be possible.
He wanted it to be.
“Your knight?” he said and she nodded.
“My knight… should wear armour.”
Marcus marvelled down at himself when familiar boots appeared on his feet, followed by greaves to cover his shins. Only they were different to the ones he was used to. Rather than being blue with raised silver edging, they were bright silver with royal blue edging and bore a raised form of a rampant winged horse on each greave. He was still staring at them when he felt the matching vambraces form over his forearms. A rearing winged horse decorated each of them too. A royal blue loincloth covered him and then beautiful pointed rectangles of pure silver inlaid with blue patterns appeared, attaching themselves to a belt around his waist. His breastplate followed it and Marcus wasn’t surprised to see a winged horse on each pectoral of the silver armour.
What did surprise him was what happened when Amelia looked at his shoulders.
Wings burst from his back.
He looked over his shoulders at them, expecting them to look like hers. They didn’t. They were the same wings he’d had as an angel.
Marcus turned back to her.
“Do you like them?” she said with a smile.
“No.”
Her smile faded and hurt surfaced in her eyes. He stepped towards her, took hold of her hand and looked down into her eyes.
“I mean… give me wings like yours, Amelia… so all will know that we are one and so that you will never feel as though your wings are something that will come between us. They are beautiful, and I want mine to be like them too.”
Tears sparkled on her lashes and she nodded.
Marcus stepped back and power washed over him when she looked at his shoulders. He waited for it to ebb away and then looked at his wings. They were as beautiful as hers were, pure silver feathers catching the moonlight and giving way to reveal a dark leathery membrane and clawed tips.
Amelia looked nervous and then held her hands out in front of her and two curved silver blades similar to those he had once owned appeared on her palms. She looked down at them.
“I can’t give you back what you sacrificed to be with me. Part of me knows that… on some level… somehow. I’m not sure what I am yet or what I’m going to do, but I know I want you at my side throughout the journey that lies ahead of me. I don’t want to go on without you, Marcus.” She closed her eyes and tears streaked down her cheeks and fell onto the blades. They shimmered brightly and then dulled again. “I believe you are worthy of me. You are the only knight I need… the only man I need. I love you with all of my heart and I want to stay with you this time… I don’t want us to suffer anymore.”
He smiled, eased down to his knee in front of her, and held his hands above his head with his palms turned upwards.
She placed the twin blades into them and he looked up at her, meeting her gaze, and then lowered his head again and offered his blades back to her.
He closed his eyes when she touched them and he felt the power flow from her through them and into him.
“Marcus, I am offering you the eternal duty of protecting me, of becoming my guardian and my knight, and in exchange I offer my heart.”
Marcus’s hands trembled and he drew in a long steadying breath as he heard those words deep in his heart, echoing there and calling to him. He had only ever known the call of his master’s voice. Amelia’s was softer than it but no less powerful. It warmed him as much as her touch did and soothed him more than it ever could.
He raised his eyes to meet hers and the nerves in them tugged at the corners of his lips. He suppressed his desire to smile at how unsure she was. It had been a good speech, although all she had truly needed to do was say his name and let her heart tell him the rest. It said so much more than her words had. Her heart had called to his, filling him with her feelings and her love, and it was that which he sought in exchange for his vow of obedience.
He wanted her heart as forever his.
“I accept, my master.” Marcus lowered his head again and then rose to his feet, coming to stand barely a few inches in front of her. He looked down into her eyes and smiled at last, letting her see and feel what this meant to him. “I love you.”
A smile burst onto her lips and she tiptoed, threw her arms around his shoulders, and kissed him.
Marcus dropped his two blades onto the sand, slipped his arms around her waist and drew her in for a long heated kiss, making the most of this moment with her. Her tongue swept over his lips, teasing him, and he delved his into her mouth so it tangled with hers. She tasted as sweet as he remembered and he had been dying to do this again with her, had thought it would never happen after she had awoken as an angel. It seemed almost too good to be real and he didn’t want to let her go in case it turned out to be only a dream and not Taylor’s doing after all.
The ground shook again and Amelia gasped and hid against his chest when the tremor lasted longer this time.
Marcus looked around him and frowned. The scenery had changed. In place of the sea and the shoreline, a bright green sunlit valley filled his vision. The hill they stood on sloped downwards into it and he heard a river far below, and caught glimpses of it through the trees that lined its bank in the valley bottom. The hills rolled around them, stretching far into the distance.
“Is this your world?” Amelia said and Marcus frowned.
“I do not think so.”
“It’s mine.” A familiar deep voice boomed down the hill and Marcus turned with Amelia, looking up the lush green slope to the owner of it.
Einar stood above them wearing the deep-earthen-coloured armour of a hunter angel with tawny wings tucked against his back. He looked over his shoulder at the wings and smiled.
“Taylor likes to let me fly here once in a while.”
Marcus smiled to reassure his friend. He didn’t have to explain. He had lived for five centuries without his wings and knew how painful it could be. Einar looked him over with raised eyebrows.
“I have a message,” he said at last and his brown gaze shifted to Amelia. “Taylor is tiring but Serenity has moved you to another location. Apollyon has gone to plead your case—”
“Apollyon?” Marcus interjected. The last time he had seen his dark friend, he had been falling from the sky having expended all of his power. “What does he plan to do?”
“He has gone to make a bargain.” Einar sat down on the grass and stretched. It didn’t hide the weariness in his eyes from Marcus. Einar had been fighting for them too. “He has gone to reason that if Amelia is kept alive and under its protection, then Heaven has no reason to fear Hell capturing her and killing her to restart what Veiron referred to as their game.”
“Why would they listen to him?”
“Because if they don’t, he will release the Devil from the bottomless pit and also assist Amelia in ravaging Heaven.”
Amelia’s eyebrows shot up. “I don’t particularly want to destroy the place… I mean… it does have its purpose, and I do hate them for what they’ve done to me and Marcus, but—”
“Apollyon knows that, but Heaven does not,” Einar cut back in. “While it cannot easily track you when you’re in here, it can detect changes that occur within its ranks.”
Marcus frowned.
“That’s nice armour and wings you have there, old friend,” Einar said with a smile. “You certainly gave Serenity a fright when she was watching over you and all those changes happened.”
“They happened there too?” Marcus stepped forwards, took hold of Amelia’s hand, and led her up the hill to Einar, who nodded and his smile widened.
“She ran for Apollyon’s room, dragged him out from under me when I was still trying to heal him, and brought him to you. Apollyon instantly decided to go to Heaven.” Einar stretched his wings and the weary edge to his eyes increased. Marcus could sense his fatigue. It was written in every blade of grass and leaf in this world, flowing through him. “The angels ceased their attack when they saw him, agreed to take him in, and then we moved you so the Hell’s angels would not be able to find you while he was in Heaven.”
Her Guardian Angel Page 30