Oriel_Paranormal Romance

by Alisa Woods

  When he didn’t respond to her aggressive appeal, she shoved him away. “Ugh. You light boys are so soft. All you want is love, love, love.”

  He fought his grin. “I thought that’s what you liked.”

  She snarled at him. “I like it when you figure out fucking is more fun.”

  He sighed. He truly wouldn’t have made it this far without her. And the time in her bed was an education, even if the decadent kind. He reached out to stroke her hair.

  Her eyes went wide as if that were the most alarming thing he could do.

  He stepped closer, took both of her cheeks in his hands and gently kissed her on the forehead.

  Uncertainty flashed across her face, a touch of innocence he hadn’t seen before. It moved him to whisper, “Thank you. For everything.” Then he pulled back and dropped his hands.

  “Oh, no,” she said, shaking her head. “I meant what I said about those threesomes.” But she looked more alarmed than insistent.

  “That’s not going to happen, Terah.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “You love her.”

  “Yes.” He gave her a small smile.

  “And you’re bringing her here?” she asked. “Have you lost your damn mind?”

  His smile faltered. This couldn’t go sideways, not now. “I’m bringing down the light angels. Elyon will let me have what I want. And what I want is Lizza.”

  “Yeah, he’ll give you what you want… until he doesn’t.” Her eyes were wide now. “Listen to me, fresh meat. You don’t want anything you love in this place.”

  That speared pain through his chest. Because he had the distinct feeling she’d had something she loved here… and lost it.

  He dropped his gaze to the floor. “I can’t help it, Terah. I need her.” Truth, even though it wouldn’t result in him bringing Lizza to the shadow realm. So Terah needn’t worry, but he couldn’t tell her that. Not now. And there wouldn’t be a later. She’d figure it out, though, he was sure. She was blazingly smart that way. But that Terah cared was affecting him.

  “Idiot.” She stepped back and groaned. “Fine. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  He gave her a grateful smile that seemed to unsettle her further.

  “Well, if we’re not going to fuck,” she said, seeming flustered, “then Elyon wants to see you. Seems you’ve gotten another email from your hot human girl.”

  “Wha—why didn’t you say so?”

  She shrugged as if it didn’t matter in the slightest to her. “Just wanted to bang you one more time, light boy. I knew this might be my last chance. Given you’ll probably get yourself killed in the battle, being the love-sick puppy you are. Come on. Let’s go.” Then she twisted and vanished.

  He scrambled to follow after. They both reappeared on the balcony outside Elyon’s palace. He was standing in front of his throne, surrounded by a flock of his dark angelings. His Magis. Oriel recognized the magical tattoos of their rank beyond the simple one he bore, marking him as belonging to Elyon’s Regiment. Micah was absent, still away on his mission. The ones remaining, like Oriel and now Terah, were dressed for combat. Most had their blades sheathed, but Elyon held one that looked small in his oversized hand.

  Oriel frowned. Angels had a hurricane’s worth of power. They had no need for weapons.

  Elyon spied him and beckoned him over. “Oriel. Come.”

  Terah gave him a pinched look, which he ignored as he strode confidently up to the angel. No room for doubts now. “I hear you’ve received the signal we’re waiting for.”

  He nodded at one of the angelings—Oriel recognized her as the one flitting to the human realm to check for Lizza’s email. “Your human pet has rung the bell for the attack. But I trust her less than even you, Oriel.”

  He swallowed. “Which is why I’m going first.”

  “Indeed.” He handed the pulsing black angel blade to him.

  It was heavier than a standard blade and pulsed with power in his hand.

  “My blessing makes it strong,” Elyons said. “If your human pet has not betrayed you, go to her. Drop the wards, smite her Guardian, and summon me with the blade. If the angelings of light kill you, well…” He chuckled, and smirks lit the faces of the Magis around him. “The loss is minimal. But if you lead us to triumph over the light angelings today, I’ll want not only you and your human in my Regiment, but your angeling child, too.”

  “My… angeling child.” He blinked. What the—

  “You do plan to fuck her, don’t you?” Elyon and his Magis were having a fine laugh at him now.

  “Y-yes.” What was happening?

  “At my instruction, you will get her with child. And that child will be raised in my nurseries.”

  A child of his raised in the shadow realm? It was a good thing Oriel planned to die today.

  At his lack of response, Elyon’s voice boomed louder. “This is not optional, Oriel.”

  “No, of course not.” He tried desperately to appear as if he knew this all along. “I understand.” He knew that most shadow angelings were born into their fate, just like Terah—he’s simply never pictured what such a life must entail. Oriel had been snatched from his mother at birth and whisked away to be raised with his cohort in Markos’s Dominion. It was not the home that humans were blessed with, but then he wasn’t human. And while he’d never known his mother’s love—nor any inkling of his father’s identity—it was a life of righteousness and Virtue. But for those bred in darkness… Oriel shuddered at the thought. It seemed a small miracle that Terah was not more riddled with Sin than she was—or that she had survived at all.

  Terah had stepped up to his side, a warning on her face.

  Oriel gave her a nod and turned back to Elyon. “I’ll break their wards and smite Lizza’s Guardian,” he repeated back. “When I claim Lizza for my own, I’d gladly grow the strength of your forces, my Lord.”

  A low and deep angelsong rumbled in Elyon’s chest. “Once you summon my forces with your blade, leave the fight and return here to me. I’ll bless your dark and unholy union.”

  Oriel gripped the blade and nodded. “My Lord.” He gave a short bow then turned to Terah. “Will you be joining us?”

  “I’ll be awaiting your return,” she said tightly.

  He tipped his head then twisted to leave them and the shadow realm behind. He was even more determined to perish in the fight.

  He appeared in front of Lizza’s apartment door, on high alert for the trap she had set.

  There was no one.

  The wards were up—he could sense them draped over her dwelling. Was he supposed to pretend to bring them down? He quickly said the spell she sent him in the video, and even though he felt sure they contained no magic, the wards fell anyway.

  He hesitated… and then opened the door.

  A shadowling lay within.

  Before Oriel could react, the angeling grabbed hold of his blade-arm and yanked him inside. The door slammed closed, but the wards stayed down. And in the center of the room…

  Razael.

  “For the love of magic!” Oriel spat, but relief coursed through his body. Tajael had made a temporary alliance with this dark angel before, and Razael helped defeat Elyon before, keeping him from Razael’s daughter and her baby.

  The angeling released him, shoving him away and keeping his eyes trained on Oriel’s blade. Only then did Oriel recognize him—an angeling named Asa.

  “He’s armed,” Asa said to Razael. “And with a blessing from his dark lord.” He snarled this like it was an indictment of Oriel.

  He put his hands up, including the one with the blade. “I come in peace.”

  “You come for war,” Razael said, his voice a rumbling angelsong that shook the walls.

  Oriel lowered his hands. “I come for war,” he admitted. “But I am on your side in it. Have you secured Lizza’s safety? And what is the nature of your trap?”

  Razael lifted his hands. “Do you not sense our power?”

  And now that he
said it, Oriel did—the room was filled with shadow angelings, cloaked. Their magical presence was hidden in the power emanating from Razael, but Oriel could feel them moving around the periphery of his wings.

  He stowed them, nodded, and held up the blade once more. “I’m to summon Elyon after smiting Lizza’s Guardian. Let me see that she’s well, and I’ll call him into your trap. And join you in battle.” He flicked a glance at Asa. “And however else this proceeds, I ask only one thing. Do not allow me to survive this. Elyon’s plans for me are beyond enduring.”

  “Well, it’s good that you won’t be fighting, then.” Razael flicked his fingers. The blade wrenched from Oriel’s grasp, sailed the air, and landed in Razael’s hand.

  Asa gripped Oriel’s shoulder. “You’re with me,” he said and pushed his way through the invisible crowd of dark angelings, towing Oriel along.

  “Where are we going?”

  Asa didn’t answer, just moved through the room and turned down the hall to Lizza’s bedroom. Was she here? He couldn’t sense beyond the door. A second set of wards.

  “Pay attention,” Asa said tersely. “You’ll want to know how to release these.” Then he performed a quick series of incantations to bring down the wards around Lizza’s bedroom. Asa stepped back to let him open the door.

  “I’ll just be a minute,” Oriel said to him. “Just let me say goodbye. Then I’ll join you.”

  “Boss says you stay and protect the girl.” Asa’s dark brown eyes held little room for objection. “We need someone on the inside to lower the wards afterward. You know, in case things don’t go according to plan, and no one’s left out here to do it.”

  Oriel’s eyes went wide. “But—”

  “Get in there and raise the wards,” Asa growled his impatience. “So we can do this.”

  Oriel frowned and swung open the door.

  A gasp pulled his attention immediately to Lizza.

  She stood in the corner by the head of the bed, his blade gripped in both hands. “Oriel!” she exclaimed, but stayed where she was.

  He turned his back on her and conjured the wards once more, Asa watching his every move to make sure he got it right. Once they were up, Asa gave him a short nod then turned his back and marched to the end of the hall. He took up a station there.

  Oriel quickly closed the door. “Lizza.” She had to have orchestrated this. What was she thinking? But he knew. She was hoping there was a happy ending to this—for both of them.

  “Oh, my God, you’re alive!” She went to hug him, and he had to dodge his own blade made of light.

  He caught her wrist and held the blade far away. “That’s poison to me now, Lizza.”

  “Oh, sorry.” She frowned and then retreated to place the blade in a black box. She closed it and shoved it under the bed.

  She was further from the door now, but he wanted her farther still. And him between her and whatever non-magical thing might come through. As she stood up again, he grabbed her hand and towed her back to the corner. They were in a small space, hemmed in on one side by the bed and on the other by the wall. Behind them was a nightstand that was bare. His wings were already stowed, so he could easily sit back on it and pull her into his arms.

  “Oh, Lizza.” He let his hands find her gorgeous red hair, its infinite softness loosening something inside him. She peered at him with her beautiful blue eyes. He needed to tell her the Truth—that he couldn’t outlive this battle, and if he did, he couldn’t stay—but he was loath to ruin the moment. “I want so badly to kiss you.”

  Like magic, her lips pressed against his.

  This kiss was urgent, just like in the café. Time was their enemy, and they would conquer it with hungry lips and twisting tongues and her sweet, soft cheeks in his hands. She stole his breath and his heart, and the way her hands clutched at him made everything in him burst with happiness. Just as he pulled her deeper into the kiss, her body melting into him half-seated on the end table—

  A tremendous roar shook the walls.

  They jolted apart, and he cursed himself for leaving her back to the door. He swiftly pivoted her against the wall, unfurling his wings as extra protection, only then glancing back at the door.

  Still closed.

  But the explosive roar just rolled on and on—as if a thousand ocean waves were crashing against the walls of Lizza’s apartment. Then the screams began—full of rage and pain and angelsong.

  “Oh, God.” Lizza’s voice was a whisper, and she quailed against him. He gathered her closer to him—his hardened chest to her soft one, his armor against her t-shirt—but they both kept their eyes on the door.

  He should be out there, in the battle, slaying the dark angelings who threatened all he held dear—Lizza, his fellow angelings of light, all of humanity. But he was trapped until the fight was won, one way or the other. To pull down the wards now, even for a split moment, would mean death for Lizza.

  Then the battle lightened, or perhaps thinned. The sounds seem to carry from further away.

  “What’s happening?” Lizza asked.

  “I don’t know.” He released her and turned, now protecting her with the sweep of his shadow wings behind him. “Stay there,” he said over his shoulder, then edged forward, just enough to peek through the blinds. The skies were clear, so the battle hadn’t moved outside—which made sense. Angelings of the light took care to not reveal themselves to humanity. The shadow forces had no such restraint, but they also had no interest in humanity except to occasionally kidnap them off to the shadow realm for breeding. Which was more difficult to do if the human population was vigilant to angelings in their midst. It was in no one’s interest to encourage the human realm to know they were surrounded by a magical one. But the shadow realm had become increasingly bold. It was not beyond believing that they might try to execute the war in plain sight. They’d been fighting more and more openly as time went on.

  But no one was in the air, and the sounds of fighting were diminished, which meant they had already fled… or they were dead. It wouldn’t be long before he knew. He couldn’t be certain the light forces had won, but if the shadow angelings had taken the day, they’d be trying to beat down the door to the bedroom already.

  Either way, he had just moments left with Lizza.

  “What do you see?” She’d stayed right where he asked.

  He turned back. “Nothing. The shadow angelings must have fallen quickly. Or retreated. Which means I’ll be leaving soon.”

  “Leaving?” Her eyes went wide. “Why?”

  He loosened his battle armor and pulled it back, showing Elyon’s tattoo on his chest. “I’m marked. Elyon will come after me.”

  “You can run away,” she said, hope lighting her eyes. “I can come with you.”

  “Lizza, no.” He grimaced. How could he make her understand?

  “Why not?” Tears glassed her eyes, and her hands curled into fists. “Is it that angeling? Terah? Do you love her?”

  He couldn’t help the laugh that escaped, but he quickly killed it when he saw the anger in her eyes. “My love, my love…” He cupped her cheeks with his hands. “All my love is with you. But I’m in shadow.”

  “I told you, I don’t care!” Her distress was wrenching his heart.

  He shook his head. She had no idea what the shadow realm was like—how could she?

  Lizza grabbed hold of the loose pieces of his armor, where he’d exposed his chest—his heart—and she pulled him closer. “I don’t care if your wings are white or dark.” She lifted her chin towards the door, but still held him close. “Those angelings out there are in shadow, and they’re good guys. You could be one of them. And then I could see you, and we could be together, and… and… I got you free, Oriel.” A small tear leaked from the corner of her eye. “Why would you leave?”

  “Shhh…” His hand automatically wiped away her tear. “If there were any way to stay, I would. You have to understand, Elyon will hunt me. Even if Razael would take me into his Regiment—which wou
ld be hard to manage, given I bear Elyon’s mark—I couldn’t come back to the lab. I can’t stay anywhere near you, my love. I can’t endanger you like that.”

  “I don’t care.” The tears were threatening again.

  “You have to care.” His smile felt like it was tearing holes in him. “Everything depends on you.”

  “It’s not fair,” she whispered. “I just got you back. “ Then she sobbed, and it about ripped him in two.

  He wanted to kiss her, comfort her, ease this heartache from both of them—a banging at the door almost stopped his heart. Lizza jumped, too.

  “Oriel!” It was Asa’s voice.

  He held her closer in his arms. “It’s okay. Stay here.” Then he released her and strode to the door. He wasn’t bringing down the wards for anyone… not yet. But he could open the door and see what had transpired.

  Asa was covered in blood—it couldn’t all be his own, or the angeling would be dead. But there were visible slashes all over his armor and one in particular across his brow that contributed heavily to the drenching in red.

  “It’s done,” Asa said roughly, wheezing slightly.

  “How many?” Oriel asked. He should have known the shadow forces were doomed once a dark angel was involved. Unlike an angel of light, the dark angels were already Fallen. They were as unrestrained as Warrior Angels. Razael’s destruction of so many of Elyon’s angelings marked him a target, but then, the two were already mortal enemies. It was surely Oriel with the most urgent target on his back now.

  “A hundred down, by my count,” Asa said, wiping the blood from his face. “A few escaped.”

  Oriel could see some of the slain at the end of the hallway. He wouldn’t know Elyon’s forces from Razael’s—both were in shadow. Either way, the toll made him cringe. He had no love for Elyon, and many who served him were just as horrible, but then there were those like Terah. And Razael’s angelings were in shadow but still served noble causes. Ending the war would be the only true victory. He prayed this would be enough to dissuade the other dark angels from sending their angelings to help Elyon in his insane ambitions.