by Tessa Cole
“It’s rare,” Jacob said, drawing closer from his position at the door.
“It’s a mark that binds an angel’s soul to another soul, mating them. It’s usually between angels, but it can be between an angel and a non-angel,” Kol said.
My thoughts stuttered. I was already mated? How the hell was I already mated? And with who?
“The connection is deep,” Kol said, “intimate. It can make an angel do crazy things to protect their mate.”
“That’s because their souls are so intertwined they’re compelled to protect each other,” Jacob said.
“It only looks like a compulsion to those who’ve had no experience with it.” Gideon glared at Jacob. “If you’re in the bond, you don’t feel compelled at all. It’s beautiful.”
“We’ve seen differently during the war,” Jacob said.
“That couldn’t have been a true bond, or it had been so twisted with evil intent that it was permanently warped. But this…” Gideon’s attention turned back to my arm. “I know it’s a mating brand, I can sense it, but the magic feels wrong. It doesn’t even feel like that twisted brand we came across during the war,” he said to Jacob. “Not to mention a true mating brand would be gold, not red.”
My gaze locked on the painful welt. I had to get rid of this. I couldn’t be bonded with anyone. I couldn’t have anything to do with the supernatural world.
“So what does this mean?” Marcus asked. “There wasn’t anything in her chart indicating she had the brand before, and you,” he said to Gideon, “are you branded?”
“I would have felt it if I was,” Gideon said.
“The only other angel she’s been in contact with is Amiah and Essie isn’t her type. So does this mean our killer, this wraith, has an angel’s magical essence?” Marcus asked. “And did he brand her?”
Gideon’s gaze grew unfocused and he frowned. “According to Officer Shaw’s memory, he did.”
Chapter 5
“That thing branded me?” This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be happening. The words whirled in my head over and over again. “It can’t be true.” I couldn’t be caught up in a supernatural anything. I had to get out of there before Gideon realized what I was, before—
God, no. No no no no.
I staggered back a step, but Gideon’s grip on my wrist tightened, keeping me captive.
“Just take a breath,” he said. “We can protect you.”
“Protect me?” From an intimate magical connection with a monster that would compel me to protect it? “I want you to get rid of it.”
A shadow passed over Gideon’s expression, just a flicker but I saw it and my throat tightened.
The racing, screaming panic inside me froze into icy fear. “You can’t get rid of it.”
“Of course we can get rid of it,” Marcus said.
The muscles in Gideon’s jaw flexed.
Jacob drew closer, but his attention wasn’t locked on the brand like everyone else’s. It was on my face and the intensity of his gaze held me captive, as if he were trying to help me fight my panic. “It’s not a true brand, so anything is possible.”
“Don’t give her false hope,” Gideon said. “This is an angel brand. The only way this kind of soul bond is broken is when one member of the bond dies. And even then the remaining half usually dies soon after or goes insane. Our best bet to help her is to capture the wraith and magically put it in permanent forced hibernation. It would still have a connection to you, but you might be able to have a normal life with it.”
“Might?” This was getting worse and worse. The freeze around my panic cracked, but I mentally clung to the ice. I wasn’t sure if an angel’s icy demeanor was genetic or not, but I was going to pretend it was. I couldn’t let my fear continue to control me. I needed to think. And as much as I wanted to just run and scream and curl into a ball and hide, that wouldn’t help me.
Jeez. Some cop I was, panicking the moment something terrifying happened.
Except that wasn’t true. If I wasn’t the victim, I’d still be calm and collected and working on a solution. Because that would have meant I would have been able to leave the supernatural world whenever I wanted to.
Now? I was pretty sure even if Gideon could capture this wraith and put it in hibernation, he was going to be watching me for the rest of my life.
Which could end sooner rather than later if Gideon’s team found that monster and was forced to kill it.
“How hard is it to capture a wraith?” I asked, but I had a sneaking suspicion I wasn’t going to like the answer.
“Challenging at the best of times,” Kol said. “But this one has ripped apart two angels and a weretiger. That’s more powerful than any wraith I’ve heard of.”
“And his essence doesn’t feel like a wraith’s,” Gideon said. “He’s enhanced somehow.”
“Yeah, with an angel’s magic,” Marcus said, his attention still locked on the brand.
“I’ll be blunt with you,” Jacob said, his voice a soft rumble. “It would be easier to kill it.”
“We’re not killing it,” Marcus growled. “We just need a plan.”
“We can’t even find it,” Kol said. “How are we going to capture it?”
“You said the brand creates an intimate connection.” God, this was the stupidest thing I’d ever done, but I was in the middle of this whether I wanted to be or not, and I didn’t do well just sitting on the sidelines. “Can the wraith use the connection to find me?” And I still wasn’t convinced it was a wraith.
The temperature in the room turned frigid and Marcus jerked closer. “You’re not using yourself as bait.”
A hint of frost tickled the back of my hand and I tugged against Gideon’s grasp, hoping he’d release me before he noticed it.
His grip remained firm. Shit. “I agree with Marcus. I can’t endanger you like that.”
“Except he’s branded her for a reason,” Jacob said. “He’s going to come after her. We should use that to our advantage.”
“We might do a lot of things, but we don’t use humans as bait.” Gideon shifted close to me, pulling me against him as if he wanted to protect me. Heat from his body warmed my back and the frost on my hand evaporated. His scent wrapped around me and for a moment I wanted to forget who I was and who he was and take comfort in his presence.
But that was just as terrible an idea as volunteering to be bait.
I turned to face him, forcing myself to put a few feet between us. “You saw that thing.” A hint of panic shuddered in my chest. “You felt it. It’s going to keep killing and it’s going to come after me. The smart move is to pick the battleground and have the advantage.”
“She’s right,” Jacob said. “And she’s not completely helpless. She has some training.”
“The Union City PD isn’t trained to deal with a super like this,” Gideon said. “She didn’t even know it was a wraith.”
“That’s why I’m just the bait.” I bit back a huff of frustration. “I’m not spending the rest of my life under this thing’s influence. Come up with a better plan and I’ll happily oblige.”
Gideon glared at me and I refused to break eye contact. It was a dangerous game, but I was already on his radar and bonded with a monster. My situation couldn’t get much worse.
Light radiated from his eyes, white, crystalline. Icy. A shiver swept over me and his gaze dipped to my arm, the brand covered again by the sleeve of the hospital gown. I had no idea what he was thinking and I had no idea what he saw when he looked at me.
Please let it be a normal, boring human.
But not quite so normal that he thought I couldn’t handle this… as much as I worried that I couldn’t handle this.
“Fine. But we’re not doing this without protection.” He released me and strode from the room.
“I’ll, ah…” Kol shifted from foot to foot, looking at a loss for what to do and only knowing that he needed to take action. “I’ll get a room made up.”
“I’ll arrange for pr
oper clothes and your personal affects to be sent over from the hospital,” Jacob said.
“I can go get my purse myself.” I wasn’t helpless. And I really needed a patch to ease the buzz.
“It’s safer if you stay here for now,” Jacob said. The intensity in his gaze softened. “This won’t be for long. You’ll get back to your normal life soon enough.”
He, Kol, and Yadveer left. The moment the door clicked closed Marcus turned on me.
“Bait?” he growled, the room’s temperature flickering between hot and cold. “Now I know you’re crazy.”
“I didn’t see you coming up with a better idea.” I turned to leave and catch up to Kol or Jacob. I wasn’t going to be able to figure out what Marcus’s emotions meant, and I didn’t want to deal with hot flashes.
He grabbed my wrist and yanked me around to face him, but I jerked free and opened the door.
With a growl, he slapped his hand against the door and slammed it shut. I turned to face him and he leaned in and slapped his other hand against the door, capturing me with his body, his arms on either side of my head.
The temperature jumped to sweltering and stayed there, a stark contrast to the cold metal door pressing against the parts of my skin exposed by the hospital gown. His clear green gaze locked with mine and a shiver of desire slid down my spine. The sizzling attraction between us burned so hot it made my breath catch in my throat. My thoughts stuttered, going blank. All I could think about was his lithe-muscled body and how close he came to pressing it against me, closer than he’d ever done before. Jeez, something about Marcus Diaz made me lose all sense.
His breath caressed my cheeks, and I bit back a groan. I had no doubt he knew how he affected me. He wouldn’t be standing so close if he wasn’t trying to use it against me. Gideon had already agreed to the plan and left. I was pretty sure that meant the discussion was over. But that meant if Marcus wanted to get rid of me, the only way to do that was to get me to back out of the plan.
Except without the plan, the wraith was free to murder more supers and come after me.
“Why do you do that?” he said, his voice low, dangerous. His pupils dilated and a hint of humidity thickened the air. “Why do you throw yourself into the most dangerous situations?”
“I only did that once.” Guilt twisted in my chest. Over four years, and I still hadn’t forgiven myself for that. “I learned my lesson.”
“It doesn’t look like that to me.”
“Do you honestly think I wanted this?”
“I think you don’t consider the consequences.” He leaned closer, his lips curling back in a snarl. “And now you’re branded by a serial killer.”
“Yeah, no shit.” I needed to get out of this conversation. If he got any closer, I was going to scream or kiss him, and both would draw unwanted attention from the rest of the team.
I planted my hands on his sculpted chest and shoved.
He didn’t move and his snarl deepened.
“God damn it, Marcus. What do you want?” And a tiny voice hoped he’d say me.
“For you to gain some sense of self-preservation.” His breath came fast and he squeezed his eyes shut, as if struggling for control. But over what? I had no idea. “Let the team find the wraith. Don’t use yourself as bait.” His eyes opened and while his snarl was gone, the sense that there was something ferocious inside him remained and all that power was focused on me. “We can’t protect you if you do.”
“I know that.”
“I can’t protect you.”
My pulse stuttered and a mix of emotions churned within me. I wanted that to mean he felt the same attraction to me as I did to him, but I also feared that. “Marcus—”
A phone rang and Marcus jerked away, turning his back to me and pulling his phone from his pocket. He answered, gave a grunt of affirmation, and hung up.
“Your room is ready,” he said, the sense of ferocity vanishing, leaving him tense and suddenly cool toward me. He jerked his chin to the door. “I’ll take you.”
“Sure.” I opened the door and stepped into the hall.
Marcus stalked past me and headed deeper into the building, his walk liquid and powerful, as if there were something dangerous inside him. His stride had always been confident, but there was something more to it now, something that matched the ferocity I’d just seen. If he’d transferred right away and became an agent of the Joined Parliament, then what I was seeing was four years of experience on a job that was seriously dangerous for a human.
We reached an elevator just past the threshold between the original warehouse and the new high rise addition, and took it up to the fifth floor. The door opened into a plain hall with a utilitarian gray carpet, cream-colored walls, and wooden doors stained a dark chestnut. Each door had a card reader like the kind found in hotels, and the third door down on the right had a card sitting in the holder.
Marcus used the card to unlock the door and strode inside. The room looked very much like a hotel room done in blue-grays, creams, and sky-blue accent pieces. It had a door leading to a bathroom, a queen-sized bed against the left wall — the T-shirt Kol had picked up for me lying at the foot — and a panel TV on the wall across from it. A small seating area — also against the left wall — of couch, chair, and coffee table lay beyond that. Behind the chair stood a massive window that took up almost the entire back wall, the curtains drawn open revealing a spectacular view of the park ringing the Supers’ Quarter.
“Jacob will be up in a bit with your purse and clean clothes.” He tossed the keycard onto the bed. “There’s a cafeteria on the first floor. Continue past the elevator and you won’t miss it.”
“Thank you.”
His gaze jumped to me then jerked away and slid over the room, looking anywhere but at me. “Gideon doesn’t like to drag things out, so be ready to go within the hour.”
“Go?”
“If he means the kind of protection I think he means, you’ll need to come with us. The witch who makes the best protection charms doesn’t leave her apartment.”
He left, the door clicking shut behind him and the temperature dropping to normal. Which now felt chilly.
I hugged myself, trying to fend off the cold and all my other churning emotions. The sun still sat high in the sky and the clock on the bedside table read just after 2 p.m., so I hadn’t spent a lot of time having my memory read. My stomach growled, reminding me I hadn’t eaten since that morning and I was more hungry than nauseous now.
I contemplated heading down to the cafeteria while still in my backless hospital gown and borrowed scrub pants. To hell with what anyone thought. I’d just had the shit beaten out of me by a wraith and now had the monster’s brand on my arm. Marcus already thought I was crazy. It didn’t matter if everyone else here thought I was, too.
Except I wasn’t sure if Marcus really thought I was crazy or not. One minute he was yelling at me, the next he was so close the attraction, or whatever it was between us, set my nerves tingling… and he’d still been yelling at me.
This wasn’t the same Marcus Diaz who’d been my partner. He was more volatile now, more intense, and that turned a part of me on even more. Not that anything would or could ever come of that. It couldn’t have happened before because we’d been partners and I’d almost gotten him killed. And it certainly couldn’t happen now because he was fully immersed in all things supernatural, and I was going to get as far away from this as possible.
Once this thing with the wraith was dealt with.
If this thing with the wraith could ever be dealt with.
How the hell had things gone so wrong? One minute everything had been perfect, and now…
Now I was going to pull myself together and deal with the situation. Maybe if I focused on that, I’d be able to ignore the fear still whirling inside me. I couldn’t do anything about what had happened. All I could do was try to fix it. And that meant I needed to clean up, put on proper clothes, and grab a bite to eat.
I didn’t kn
ow how long Jacob would take getting my things, so I decided to have a shower first. If what Marcus had said was true, Gideon would want to head out soon and the angel didn’t strike me as the kind of guy who’d wait for me to have a shower first.
The bathroom was decorated to match the bedroom with a mix of cream, gray, and blue tiles, plus chrome fixtures. The shower-tub combo took up one side, while the vanity and toilet took the other. It wasn’t fancy, but it was better and fresher than the no-tub shower-stall-only bathroom in my one bedroom apartment.
Folded white towels in a variety of sizes sat on a rack on the back wall, between the toilet and the tub, and a full complement of toiletries were displayed on the vanity, including a toothbrush and toothpaste. Thank goodness, because while I’d been ignoring it, my mouth felt gross. In fact, my whole body felt gross.
And I looked gross. My long brown locks were disheveled and not in the sexy ‘I just had sex’ kind of disheveled. More in the ‘I just went toe to toe with a wind storm and lost.’ While pain didn’t scream through me any more, I still looked like I’d lost a fight, except now it looked like I’d lost the fight a few days ago. A mottled purple and green bruise colored my cheek and jaw, and when I pulled off the hospital gown, I found more bruises. Most of the right side of my body where the wraith had slammed me into the alley wall was one giant bruise.
Bands of brighter purple wrapped around my chest and I shuddered. That was where the thing had squeezed me, so it could hold me while it poured into me.
Bile burned the back of my throat and my left inner biceps burned. It wanted me for something and I didn’t doubt it knew I was a nephilim. How could it not when it had been inside me, flooding my cells with its essence? I didn’t want to know what it wanted and I could only hope that this plan to win my freedom wouldn’t expose my secret.
Chapter 6
I took a quick shower and avoided looking at my bruises in the misted mirror as I dried off. I pulled on the baggy T-shirt Kol had gotten for me, put the scrub pants back on, turned on the TV, and sat on the bed while I waited for the promised real clothes to arrive. There was nothing on any of the all-day news channels about the wraith, not even on the news ticker at the bottom of the screen. That surprised me, but I suspected Gideon had made it clear to my captain that the attack in the alley needed to be kept under wraps. That was what I’d do. Having a super who crushed people beyond recognition and was roaming beyond the Supers’ Quarter would cause panic and most of the human population still feared supers, or at least were extremely uncomfortable with them.