Amelia stared at him for a few seconds, waiting for him to tell her that it was a joke, and that none of this was real, and perhaps even that it was just a horrible dream brought about by a fainting fit when she had been mugged, but none of it happened.
So she laughed.
His expression remained deadly serious.
This wasn’t happening. The quiet voice inside her said that it was and it was real, and she had better start accepting it or she wasn’t going to survive whatever was after her. Marcus was an angel, sent to watch over her and protect her, to keep her safe from the monsters that were out to get her.
It felt so impossible though.
She looked to Einar and Taylor, hoping to catch a glimpse of humour in their faces so Marcus would give up and tell her that he was kidding, but both of their expressions remained stony.
An angel.
“If you’re an angel, where are the wings—” Her face fell as it hit her and their plunge from the roof came back in glorious Technicolor. It all made a hideous sort of sense that she didn’t like because it meant she could no longer deny what he was telling her and had to admit that this whole crazy scenario was real. “That’s what you looked worried about.”
Marcus turned his head away from her.
He had expected to fly when he had leapt off the roof and it hadn’t happened.
“I had thought you were free of the curse.” Einar’s voice was loud in the silent room even though Amelia was certain he had barely whispered.
Marcus shook his head, dropped his chin, and stared at the floor, despondence flowing from him and into her. A curse? Had something stopped his wings from appearing? Why was she even starting to believe all this?
She recalled the two slits in the back of his blue and silver armour and stared at his chest. Without thinking, she moved around him and touched one of the slits on his back plate, running her finger down the inside of it. It was wide enough to accommodate three of her fingers side by side, if not more. Her fingertip grazed Marcus’s skin and he inhaled sharply and closed his eyes. She frowned at his armour and the fragment of his tattoo that she could see through the opening. Wasn’t it a tattoo?
“Would you like me to take a look?” Taylor said and Marcus nodded.
Amelia reluctantly stepped back, giving Taylor room as she rounded Marcus, and then took another step away when Marcus started to unbuckle his chest armour. Jealousy coiled and hissed inside her as he removed the back plate and the breastplate, revealing his body, and set them down on the nearest dark antique armchair. Einar looked at her, cocking his head to one side, and she glanced away, a blush threatening to colour her cheeks. She didn’t want a complete stranger to see how flustered she was by the sight of Taylor so close to Marcus. It hurt when Taylor moved closer still, her delicate fingertips following the beautiful sweeping and curling design of the grey-blue wings on his shoulder blades just as Amelia had wanted to that night in her apartment. They shimmered as though a wave of light had passed across them and settled again. Amelia narrowed her gaze on Taylor, no longer caring if Einar was watching her. Heat blazed to life inside her chest, anger that collided with the jealousy there and filled her mind with desires to tear Taylor away from Marcus in order to stop her from touching him.
Amelia was so focused on Taylor that she jumped when silver-blue wings erupted from Marcus’s back and stretched across the room, coming close to her face. A breeze washed over her skin, tousling her shoulder-length dark hair and her pale blue dress.
She stared at Marcus’s wings instead of Taylor, eyes darting over each feather, taking in every inch. They were beautiful. Her breath hitched in her throat and awe flowed through her. Was this how those kooky people felt when they witnessed angels appearing before them?
Was she one of them now?
A believer.
Marcus turned towards her as Taylor moved away, and Amelia didn’t hear what they were saying to each other. She stared at him, stunned into silence by his beauty, moved by the sight of him. An angel.
Incredible.
He stood before her, bare chest rising and falling with each breath he took, toned upper arms bloodstained from his battle, and broad pale wings furling against his back. She had never witnessed something so intrinsically male and so enchanting. She couldn’t find her voice to tell him how she felt, how she had always known that he was different, too handsome to be of this world and too good to be a mere mortal, and how she believed with all of her heart that no matter what dangers lay ahead of her that he would protect her.
Taylor moved into view again, running her hands down his wings from behind, and Marcus closed his eyes, as though he enjoyed the feel of her touch. Amelia looked away, darkness obliterating the light that had been in her heart, stealing away the warmth and leaving her icy cold. He had said it himself. She was a mission to him. That was all. That was why he had told her to stay away. He couldn’t involve himself with a mortal.
Was Taylor an angel too?
Amelia laughed inside at how crushed she felt and tried to shrug off the pain caused by the thought that Marcus didn’t like her. She barely knew him. It wasn’t like her to get so emotionally tied up in someone she had only shared a kiss or two with.
But what kisses they had been.
Mind blowing.
She shoved the memory of them aside, bitterness coating her tongue as her heart ached and she tried to convince herself that she was alright. This was nothing to hurt over. It was better it ended now and she pulled herself together rather than continuing to fool herself into believing that those kisses had meant anything. She was nothing but a mission to Marcus.
God, that hurt her so much that she couldn’t breathe, needed to leave the room so no one saw the tears in her eyes.
She took a step backwards towards the door, hoping to sneak out without anyone noticing. She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of seeing her cry. She would find somewhere quiet, pull her shit together and bury her feelings in her heart, and then come back and find out what the hell was happening. Another step backwards and she was close enough to the door that she could make a dash for it.
“Someone certainly wanted to seal your powers,” Taylor said and the dark haired woman’s eyes lit on Amelia. “Because of her?”
“I do not know.” Marcus moved away from Taylor.
Amelia refused to look at him, her focus on the door at her back and escaping. He came to stand toe-to-toe with her, caught her cheek in his palm and raised her head, and she couldn’t avoid looking at him. He frowned into her eyes and she felt as though he was searching for something or trying to see inside her heart.
She closed it off to him by shutting her eyes.
He blew out a sigh and then stroked her cheek.
Amelia hated the warmth that caress caused and how her body betrayed her, flushing with desire as it had done when they had kissed.
“Amelia,” he husked and she fluttered her eyes opened and looked back into his. There was hurt in them again, darkening his strange silver-blue irises, and she felt as though they were reflecting all of her feelings. His dark eyebrows pinched together in a frown and he swept his thumb over her cheek, erasing the moisture gathered below her eye. He sighed again and a deep desire to cup his cheek in return filled her. She wanted to take away the pain in his eyes, and wanted him to take away the hurt in her heart in exchange. “I must report what happened. Will you be alright here without me? I won’t be long. Promise.”
Amelia wasn’t sure what she would be if he left her alone with two people she didn’t know. She wasn’t in the mood for company at all. Her head and heart were at war over him and she couldn’t deal with it at the same time as trying to come to terms with what was happening and all the crazy stuff that she had seen and heard tonight. She wanted to sit on one of the dark sofas in the cluttered room and stare into the distance until everything had soaked in and she had made sense of it.
And she wanted Marcus to stay with her while that happened.
<
br /> She wanted to feel his arms around her again and have him tell her that everything would be okay, and that she was wrong about him and he did feel something for her. She wanted him to kiss her again, because then she would know that what had happened between them last night hadn’t been a lie and she wasn’t the only one who felt something.
The look in his eyes said it couldn’t be though. He had emphasised ‘must’. While it warmed her to know that he didn’t want to leave her, the knowledge that he was going to left her cold at the same time.
“What’s happening?” She couldn’t let him go without knowing. She wasn’t sure what she was asking about. What was happening between them or what was happening in the world and why did it involve her?
He closed his eyes, sighed, and then met hers again.
“I only know that it is my destiny to protect you.” He caressed her cheek, his fingers travelling down it to her jaw, and then lowered his hand to his side. “I will try to find out more from my superior. The men tonight were meant to stop me. I sent one of them for questioning. Perhaps Heaven will know by now what they wanted with you.”
He smiled and there was so much sorrow in it that she wanted to take hold of his hand to comfort him.
A bright shaft of light like the one that had encased the demon on the rooftop shot down over him and her heart skipped a beat before smashing hard against her ribs. She reached for him, afraid that the light would hurt him. He closed his eyes, tilted his head towards the ceiling, and then disappeared. The beam faded, leaving her vision dull.
“What the hell was that?” She stepped forwards into the spot where Marcus had been and looked up as Marcus had. “Is he hurt?”
Einar shook his head when her eyes lit on him. “It is merely the most expedient method of travel to Heaven. I take it Marcus used something similar on one of the demonic angels?”
Amelia nodded absently, her focus split between listening to Einar and trying to figure out what had happened to Marcus. Had he really gone to Heaven? It seemed incredible that it actually existed. All of it was incredible and hard to believe, but she could no longer deny it was real. Angels. Heaven. God and the Devil. Hell. All of it was real.
Her head felt as though it was going to explode.
“Heaven will question the Hell’s angel and Marcus may discover why they are targeting you. He might be gone a while though.”
She didn’t like the sound of that. Her gaze swept across the room to Einar where he stood near a low coffee table cluttered with weapons. Her pulse throbbed in her temples, fear threatening to rear its ugly head again as she looked from the weapons to Taylor and back to Einar. Marcus had said she would be safe with them. She hoped he was right.
“Why don’t you make yourself comfortable?” Taylor’s soft and soothing tone did nothing to allay Amelia’s growing fears.
Only Marcus’s safe return could do that.
She looked down at her right hand.
She hadn’t managed to touch him. She had wanted to. She didn’t like to see the sadness in his eyes. Whenever he looked like that, she wanted to hold him and tell him that it was all going to work out and that they would make it through this.
His armour was gone from the armchair. Amelia walked over to it, sat down, and curled up, holding her knees to her chest and staring at the wooden floor.
A moment later, she lifted her head and looked across the room at Einar and then Taylor.
“So where are your wings?”
***
Chapter 8
Taylor laughed. It wasn’t an awkward giggle or shy chuckle. It was a full-blown laugh.
“I don’t have wings. Silly. I’m a demon.”
Amelia leaned back in her chair and eyed the woman closely. She didn’t look like those demons she had seen on the rooftop, but then they had looked human originally too.
“She isn’t like them,” Einar said as though he had read her mind and her attention shifted to him. “As for me, I was an angel.”
“Was?”
It was Taylor’s turn to move forwards. She stood close to Einar and took hold of his hand. He briefly met her gaze, offering her a dazzling smile.
“My Romeo doesn’t have any wings right now. We’re in a bit of a pickle since Heaven frowns rather heavily on demons and angels having a relationship.”
“You’re fallen?” Now Amelia had heard it all. Einar was a fallen angel. What else awaited her out there? The angel of death? Gabriel from the bible? The Devil himself?
“In a way.” Einar patted Taylor’s hand and she nodded as though receiving a silent message.
“I’ll make some tea. You could probably do with a cuppa. I’ll find you something warmer to wear too. This old house can get chilly even in summer.” With that, Taylor left the room.
Amelia waited for the sound of her footsteps on the stairs to disappear before returning her attention to Einar, who was busy clearing weapons off the furniture and stacking them on the large oak table near the fireplace.
“Where has Marcus gone?”
Einar stopped tidying, paused for a moment, and then crossed the room and sat on the sofa beside her armchair. He took a deep breath, sighed, and then rubbed his long tawny hair, a thoughtful shine to his brown eyes.
He pointed at the ceiling.
“Heaven?”
When he nodded, Amelia looked up, picturing the night sky beyond the roof of the townhouse. Heaven really did exist, and a fallen angel had confirmed it for her. If she’d had a shrink and had told them about the past few hours of her life, they would have thought she was crazy. Part of her still thought she was insane.
“I don’t mean to sound rude, but I don’t believe in God or Heaven or anything supernatural... really... so this is all a little hard to grasp.”
Einar smiled. “Not even when you’re staring it in the face?”
An image of Marcus dressed in armour with his pale wings stretched out shot into her mind.
Not a parlour trick.
“Have you been to Heaven?” Amelia already knew the answer to that question but hearing Einar say it would go a long way towards helping her shed the last of her disbelief.
He nodded. “Many times. I have even been in the presence of our master.”
Amelia swallowed. Was he talking about God? That was too much too fast. She held back the questions that sprung to the tip of her tongue and narrowed her focus to her immediate situation, pushing away thoughts of the universe, higher powers and the fact that humans had been right to believe someone was watching over them.
She stared at her knees. Someone was definitely watching over her. Marcus had been there for her whole life. He had seen everything she had done. Her cheeks flushed with fire. God, she hoped he really hadn’t seen everything. No wonder he hadn’t wanted to get involved with her.
“I understand that it must be difficult to take it all in,” Einar said in an intentionally soothing tone of voice and touched her hand. “Marcus was under strict orders not to reveal himself to you or I’m sure he would have mentioned something before things got this far.”
“What do you mean, got this far?” The look on Einar’s face suggested he was talking about their relationship rather than Marcus’s mission to protect her.
“Marcus has watched over you since your birth. He has always been there for you.”
Amelia frowned. He was ignoring her question.
“So where was he when I was going through Hell with my mum’s death and all those bastards… why didn’t he protect me then?” Tears rose into her eyes but she sniffed them back, unwilling to crumble under the weight of hurt and the fear that filled her whenever she thought about her mother.
It had killed her to wake one morning three years ago to a phone call from her father telling her that her mother had been murdered during a robbery at their home. Since then, she had felt as though her life had been slowly circling a plughole, ready to slip down it into oblivion at a moment’s notice. Recently, she had been thinking more an
d more about her mother, and the terrible things that happened in the world, and that she was never going to find her feet in life and be truly happy.
Things had gone downhill almost three weeks ago when someone had broken into one of the ground floor apartments in her building. Everything she had felt when her mother had died had come back full force. The fear. The pain. She no longer felt safe in her own apartment and feared that if she slept in her room, someone would break in and she wouldn’t be able to escape. If she woke and the television was off, she panicked. She was petrified of dying.
If Marcus had been watching over her when her mother had died, why hadn’t he done something to take her pain away or protect her from it by stopping it from ever happening? If he was an angel, why couldn’t he take all the fear and the hurt away?
“We are not omniscient. We cannot see the future and know what will happen, or change the past. Marcus’s mission was to protect you without influencing your life. He watched you from Heaven. When his superior deemed it necessary to watch over you from Earth, they sent Marcus here.”
Hadn’t they given Marcus a choice in the matter?
Maybe she had been wrong about him. He wasn’t distant because he went from one bad experience to the next like she did or because he was an angel. He remained detached from everyone because he didn’t want to be here.
He hadn’t wanted to come to Earth.
Where did that leave her?
Marcus had been different around her these past few days. He hadn’t kept his distance as he did with others.
She looked down at her knees, wishing it was Marcus here telling her these things so she could ask him the questions burning in her heart. She touched her lips, the memory of their kiss seared on them, and frowned. Had it been real to him?
Einar’s gaze bore into her mouth but she couldn’t bring herself out of her thoughts about Marcus in order to look at him.
The kiss had been real to her.
“How close have you got to Marcus?” Einar’s tone was low and cautious, as probing as his stare.
Amelia looked up at him through her lashes, her fingers still resting against her lips. It seemed it was all the answer Einar needed because he frowned and a flicker of surprise crossed his handsome features.
Her Guardian Angel 4-Her Angel Series Page 10