“Apollyon?” She barely stopped her gaze from dropping down to take him in again.
If she told him to put on something a little less distracting, would he be able to do it? She had seen through whatever spell he had used. Could he ever fool her eyes?
“I prefer my true name.” He cast a quick glance over her.
His eyes lingered in all the places a mortal man’s would and flames ignited in her blood, making it burn and threatening to turn all of her restraint to ashes. She cleared her throat, causing his eyes to leap back up to meet hers, and reined in her wicked feelings.
The banked heat in his eyes lingered, making her question everything.
Surely, she was off limits too? Angels were asexual, weren’t they? Androgynous? Whatever the one was that meant he had no sexual feelings. Zero libido.
The voice at the back of her mind said that the tall hunk of handsome standing in front of her definitely didn’t look asexual or androgynous. He looked like sin incarnate, not like an angel at all.
“Serenity.” She offered her hand to him.
He took it and a jolt ran through her the moment his strong hand engulfed hers. She quickly shook his hand but he didn’t let go when she was done. He held it, his thumb resting lightly against hers.
“My mother thought I could bring peace to a chaotic world,” she said absently, her heart thundering as she stared at his thumb. It grazed hers, stroked it in a way that sent a hot shiver tripping through her and had those wicked thoughts returning. She tried to banish them, fought to focus on anything but him. He made it impossible when he took his hand back, his fingers brushing her palm and sending another shiver through her. “I’m not much good at it.”
“At what?” He quirked a dark eyebrow and tilted his head to one side.
Serenity sighed inside. Did he know how good he looked? Could angels be conceited? She supposed they were all beautiful so he probably didn’t realise that the reason all the women were staring as they passed wasn’t because they thought he was apprehending her or anything of the sort.
They were staring for the same reason she was.
The man was six feet plus of godliness.
“Being peaceful... I’m actually quite chaotic.” She shrugged. “Nothing I do comes out right. I mean... I thought I was casting a simple spell for vengeance and suddenly you’re here telling me that you heard me calling you. I wasn’t asking for an angel.”
“You weren’t.” He placed his palm flat against her chest and she jumped. Her pulse rocketed and she blushed from head to toe at the feel of his wrist against her breasts. “Your heart called me, not your words.”
Serenity smiled, caught hold of his hand with trembling fingers and removed it from her chest before she lost control and threw herself at him.
“So you’re good with revenge?” She released his hand, ignoring the buzz that lingered, vibrating in her chest in the spot where his hand had been.
“Very good at it.” He stood taller, straightening to his full impressive height, looking even more noble and handsome. “I am Apollyon, the great destroyer, king of the bottomless—”
“Wait.” She held her hands up. “Great destroyer? Maybe this isn’t such a good idea. I mean, you’re an angel and your boss-on-high would probably be a little upset if you blew up half of Paris to fulfil my wish for revenge, and I don’t want him dead... just in pain... and I can really take care of this myself. I didn’t mean to bother you.”
“It is little bother.” He frowned. “I will only do as you command. The choice of revenge will be yours and I will exact it.”
“What about your boss?” She didn’t want to piss God off.
No more than she probably already did anyway.
Most witches she had met believed that whatever higher power existed, it was fairly angry that people like them existed on Earth, those that could use magic and make their own miracles.
Not that she had managed anything like that so far. She was better at lighting candles and the small stuff like love potions. Her life as a witch was one big cliché, but it paid the bills.
Serenity glanced up at Apollyon. Would a love potion work on an angel?
She cursed and told herself to get a grip. Angels probably couldn’t enter into relationships with mortals and this attraction to him was purely because she was rebounding, and she was rebounding hard. What better way to get over a man than to find another one? She shook that thought away. It wasn’t her style. None of this was.
Maybe she should just put an end to this before it began and send him home, wherever that was.
“You are my master now.” The serious edge to his expression said that he wasn’t joking. “I do as you bid.”
Serenity’s eyebrows rose as she slowly absorbed the fact that she had her own personal angel and the thought of telling him to go home drifted into the background.
Maybe just a little revenge.
She did need to get her property back after all.
It was humiliating enough that her ex had cheated on her, the fact he had stolen two of her coven’s most precious spell books from her was just… there were no words. If she didn’t get them back before her coven discovered they were gone, she was going to be in serious trouble.
Her coven already thought she was more than useless and dead weight. The only reason she had been invited was because of her family name. They would kick her out if they got wind of what had happened and she couldn’t let that happen. She couldn’t dishonour her family like that.
“Then we should...” She wasn’t sure what they should do. Skulk off and plan something horrible to do to her ex because he had cheated on her? It all felt a little cloak and dagger and not at all like her. She had never sworn revenge on anyone, had always let her anger go and just got on with her life. Not this time though. She wanted him to pay. “Do you drink coffee?”
“I have never tried it.” Apollyon smiled. “But I have been told by others that it tastes strangely bitter and sweet at the same time, and has an interesting effect on the body. I would like to try it.”
“Coffee it is.” Serenity led the way towards the fountains and glanced across at Apollyon as he fell into step beside her.
She really hoped that people weren’t seeing him as she was.
“What do you look like to them?” She looked at a few people to make her point.
“A man dressed in a black suit.”
“No wings?”
He shook his head. “Do not worry. It is only you who are unaffected by the image I project.”
“Can it affect me?”
He stopped and looked at her. The breeze tousled his fine long black hair, teasing the strands of his ponytail and causing them to flutter over his left shoulder.
“You wish not to see me as I am?” His dark eyebrows pinched, and a hint of something filled his eyes, something that looked a lot like displeasure.
Or perhaps disappointment.
When he said it like that, it made her feel bad. His blue eyes darted between hers, as though he wanted to see the answer in them before she said it.
“No.” She stepped towards him, her heart beating faster again as her palms sweated, and drew down a deep breath before smiling up at him. “You’re fine just the way you are.”
The wind blew again, catching her blonde hair and sweeping it across her face.
She tensed when he brushed the strands from her face, smoothing them behind her ear, and his fingertips caressed her cheek as he trailed his hand off her.
Did he know what he did to her with that touch? What just looking at him did to her on the inside?
She kept telling herself that he was an angel and he was off limits, but her body wasn’t getting the message. It burned to feel his hands on it, to feel his lips against hers and have him hold her close.
Which was insane.
She had only just met him and she wasn’t the sort who threw herself at men. Her ex, Edward, had pursued her for months before she had finally given in
and agreed to a date with him, let alone anything else.
Now she was ready to throw herself into the arms of an angel and pray that he caught her and kissed her just as she wanted him to.
“He really hurt you,” Apollyon whispered.
Serenity blinked and her desire deflated at the thought of what Edward had done to her. She really had to clear her head of whatever ridiculous attraction she felt to Apollyon because it wasn’t going to happen.
He was an angel.
This time, she reminded herself of that fact one hundred times and then once more.
She started walking again, not waiting for him to follow because she needed a moment to breathe.
Since setting eyes on him, her head and heart had been at war and it was time she gave both of them a reality check.
Apollyon was here to help her get revenge and that was all.
She couldn’t throw herself at him, or make a move, or do anything that would only end in her getting her heart broken again or winding up as miserable as Edward had made her.
“I said something wrong?” Apollyon strode beside her, his long lithe legs making easy work of her hurried pace.
She was quiet a moment, lost in her thoughts and unable to find her voice as her gaze drifted over the pale stone buildings that lined the narrow street.
“No.” She moved through the crowd at a busy intersection, crossed the road and then walked along another narrow road to the street where her favourite café was. “It just caught me off guard. I mean, I get this sense that you know what you’re talking about... as though you... it’s silly.”
“Can feel it?” he offered.
She stopped dead outside the café and looked back at him.
He stood a few paces behind her, his black wings still tucked against his back and the gold decoration on his obsidian armour reflecting the sun.
She nodded.
He walked up to her and looked down into her eyes. “I can feel it. It is part of the reason I agreed to help you. You do not deserve such pain. You always seemed so happy until recently.”
Always seemed so happy?
Wait.
“You’ve been spying on me?” It came out louder than she had intended.
A pair of well-dressed dark-haired women sitting at one of the round dark metal tables in front of the café looked her way and then started talking in hushed voices.
“I am an ang—” He frowned when Serenity slapped her hand over his mouth.
His warm breath bathed her skin, tickling her and sending a shiver dancing up her arm, rousing those wicked thoughts she kept trying to vanquish.
Serenity snatched her hand back. “I don’t think that’s a good word to use in public.”
“We all watch. It is what we do.”
She grimaced. That had probably sounded even worse. The two women were deep in conversation now, furtively glancing at her and Apollyon. They probably thought she had a harem of stalkers.
Serenity grabbed Apollyon’s hand and dragged him into the small café. It was quieter inside, only a few people at the round wooden tables and in the armchairs. She chose a spot away from everyone, near the window, and sat Apollyon down in a low brown armchair next to a small table.
“Wait here,” she said and hoped that he would.
What had she gotten herself into?
She should have sent him away. She shouldn’t have allowed herself to get caught up in the idea of revenge and the hope of regaining the coven’s property before they realised it had been taken from her.
She needed her coven though.
All witches did.
They were an extension of her family and the thought they might kick her out left her cold inside. Not only because her family would be disappointed, but because she had passed so many happy years with her coven, had learned so much from them and had made friends there.
So, damn it, no matter what happened, she was willing to do whatever it took to get the books back and prevent her coven from kicking her out.
Even making a deal with an angel.
Serenity ordered the coffees and looked over at Apollyon while she waited for them to come. His cerulean eyes remained locked on the world outside, a soft edge to his expression that looked a lot like longing to her.
Watching the world go by? Did angels really do that? If he said they did, then they probably did all watch over the mortals.
He shifted his shoulders, frowned and then his black wings unfurled, sending a breeze through the room that had people grabbing their papers, napkins and anything else that had tried to escape in the wind.
Serenity stared open-mouthed at the sight of him. He sat with his black feathered wings outstretched behind him, almost reaching back to the other side of the room. How big was his wingspan? Each wing had to be at least ten foot long.
She grabbed the coffees when they arrived, went back to him, and sat in a daze in the armchair opposite him, staring at his wings.
Apollyon shifted his shoulders and his wings furled again, the longest feathers curling around and grazing his boots.
“I needed to stretch,” he said with an apologetic look and then smiled. “It has been a long time since I have had so much freedom. It feels good to stretch my wings.”
She bet it did. He looked like the cat that got the cream, smiling ear to ear, a twinkle in his blue eyes.
“What does it feel like to fly?” The words had left her lips before she could even consider what she was asking.
His smile widened. “Bliss. The wind on my face, the feel of it in my feathers, and the way I can see everything and go anywhere. There is no feeling like it.”
“It sounds nice. I’ve flown... in a plane... but it’s still flying, right? Something in common.”
“Would you like to fly?” He canted his head again, a dash of curiosity lighting his eyes as he studied her.
Was he offering to take her up? The thought made her stomach feel tight but something inside her made her nod.
“I am sure we can do something about it.” He picked up the white mug of coffee and raised a dark eyebrow at it.
He sniffed it first, peered at the frothy top, and then took a sip.
His feathers quivered and his eyes widened, darting to hers. “What drug is in this?”
Serenity picked up her own mug of latte and sipped. “It’s not really a drug. It’s caffeine, a natural stimulant. Humans are addicted to it.”
He eyed the mug suspiciously. “A stimulant?”
He looked as though he was going to take another sip and then set it back down on the round table between them. His gaze met hers again and his pupils dilated until his irises were almost as black as them. He shifted uncomfortably and crossed his legs, settling his hands in his lap.
“I do not think I should drink any more. It would be unwise.” His voice was tight and the unmistakable spark of desire in his eyes wasn’t going anywhere. “I will be having words with my fellow warriors when we next meet. They did not explain the effects well enough.”
Effects? She looked down at his hands in his lap and then back into his dark eyes.
Viagra for angels?
“I thought you were all asexual,” she blurted and then covered her mouth when he turned horrified eyes on her.
She blushed ten shades of crimson and tried to think of a spell that would take back what she had said. It probably wouldn’t work on him anyway. Magic didn’t affect gods and goddesses, so it was unlikely to affect other supernatural beings.
“I am not asexual.” The way he said that made it clear that he would be happy to prove it to her right now in the coffee shop.
Serenity gulped her drink and kept her focus on it, avoiding the smouldering look he was giving her and wanting to crawl under the table and hide.
“I have not had a woman in many centuries but I am in no way an impotent creature.”
Did he have to say it loud enough for the whole coffee shop to hear? She sunk into her chair, trying to avoid the looks s
he was getting.
“I take it back,” she whispered into her mug and peered at him over the rim of it.
He glowered, passion no longer reigning in his eyes. A dark malevolence shone there and the sense that he wasn’t exactly a good angel in the way she had imagined them returned.
“Some people say you’re the Devil,” she whispered.
He leaned back into his chair and sighed. “First I am the angel of death, and now the Devil? The rumours do spread and stick, don’t they?”
“What are you then?” She emerged from her mug, sat forwards on the edge of the armchair seat and looked him over.
He was sin made flesh, that was what he was, luscious in every way imaginable, and she was sure that angels weren’t supposed to be so tempting.
“I told you. Apollyon, the great destroyer... angel of the Apocalypse, responsible for raining hell down on Earth when everything comes to an end.”
That wasn’t comforting at all.
“You’re not a good angel then?” She hoped he would say that he was, that he was merely teasing her and she hadn’t just summoned a very dangerous warrior to do her bidding.
He smiled and there was a sexy sort of darkness in his look. “I am good, if by that you mean I do not work for the Devil, but I can be very bad.”
She could imagine. She shouldn’t be, but she was picturing him in every position possible and he looked wicked from every angle.
“So what does my mistress command?” His smile held and something about it made her feel as though he was encouraging her to say the things that were raging through her head.
What didn’t she want to command?
She couldn’t though. She was sure that it was wrong to order an angel to commit sin. For now, while her conscience was still functioning and she could resist the temptation sitting across from her, she would focus on getting her revenge.
“Nothing involving death. I want him to suffer. I want him to feel jealous and hurt and unloved... as though he doesn’t matter to me.” Her voice gained a bitter edge as those words left her, stirred anger in her that rolled back to a swift boil, as potent as it had been the night she had realised what Edward had done to her.
Dark Angel Page 3