by Tessa Cole
Kol knelt beside me, grabbed one of my hands, and rubbed it between his palms, his skin blazingly hot on my frozen fingers. “We need to get you warm.”
“I know.” I knew he wasn’t going to leave me until I was, and honestly I didn’t want him to. I didn’t want to be alone with my thoughts, with the horror that I was mated with an angel. “Can you just hold me?”
His gaze captured mine and a hint of desire uncurled within me, then vanished as quickly as it formed — or at least some of it, but not all — and concentration pinched around his eyes. “I can do that.”
He threw back the covers on my bed. I staggered into it, then he settled in behind me, both of us fully dressed, and pulled the covers back over top.
“It’s going to be all right.” He wrapped strong arms around me and tucked me tight against his body.
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
His warmth seeped deeper into my skin and for a second my brain stalled, as if he was enthralling me. That was probably for the best. I needed to get a hold of myself, break through the panic, and I couldn’t seem to do it on my own.
“Gideon will do whatever it takes,” he said, his warm breath caressing the back of my neck, drawing a shiver of desire.
“Now you’re making promises for Gideon.”
“He said he’d protect you and he’s an angel of his word.”
Another shiver slid through me and that hint of desire uncurled a little more, but a convulsion quickly followed and sliced through it, consuming it and drawing a gasp.
Kol’s arms around me tightened and my brain stalled again, caught between thoughts. There was only glorious nothing and Kol’s warmth and embrace.
He murmured something into my hair, his breath caressing my neck again, but the words muddled before reaching my brain. It didn’t matter, though. All that mattered was his body wrapped around me, his heat melting away the cold, and the room’s temperature thankfully rising.
I floated in that warmth, weightless and without pain. The buzz was gone, the burn of the brand was gone, and the sudden changes in temperature were gone. There was only heat and darkness.
And Kol. It was wrong to be attracted to him now that I was destined to be Gideon’s mate, even if that attraction to Kol probably wasn’t more than a human’s normal response to an incubus. He and Gideon were co-workers. God, it was wrong to be mated with Gideon when it was clear he was in love with Zella and Marcus was attracted to me.
Except I didn’t really know if Marcus was. Yeah, he’d kissed me, said he was terrified for me, but did that add up to a going-to-do-something-more-about-it attraction? Did I want it to?
And really, it didn’t matter. Nothing was going to happen between me and Marcus, no matter what I’d fantasized about four and a half years ago, and nothing was going to happen with Kol.
And absolutely nothing was going to happen with Gideon. Whenever the brand’s magic started to compel me to want to be with him, I would fight it. I would fight it with everything I had.
A laugh cut through the darkness. “You can’t fight the brand,” the darkness said, his voice low and sensual. A tendril of smoke slid across my belly and the buzz crackled under my skin. “I’ve marked you. You’re mine. You will come when I call.”
“If that was the case, you’d be calling me already.”
The tendril broke apart, but another one slid up my leg, the buzz growing wherever it touched. “Give it time.”
“Never going to happen.”
The tendril broke apart again, and the darkness, or rather the wraith, growled. “They won’t understand you.”
“There’s nothing to understand.”
“Don’t kid yourself. You’re… complicated,” the wraith said, and a tendril swept out of the darkness and curled over my wrist.
“Every woman is complicated.” But I knew what he was talking about and my words didn’t dispel the tendril this time. Somehow he knew I wasn’t completely human and knew none of the guys would accept me when they learned the truth.
God, if they didn’t kill me, they’d lock me up for life, or worse, use me as a lab rat to figure out why I existed and was different from the monsters Michael had created. It was my mother’s greatest fear. She’d spent her whole life— given her whole life to protect me. She’d said no one, human, angel, or super, would understand me, and when I was old enough, she’d shown me video clips of the war and just how monstrous the nephilim had been.
“They won’t understand,” the wraith hissed again, and another tendril rushed from the darkness and curled around my thigh.
The buzz in my body increased. The tendrils thinned then thickened again, as if struggling to maintain substance.
“They’ll fear you. They’ll sentence you without due process. You’re an animal. You don’t deserve the same rights as them.”
They would be my monsters, like I was theirs. Except there were more of them. They were more powerful than me. I was a nephilim without magic. I could barely summon a blast of divine light. Most humans who could cast a light strike were more powerful than me.
“But I don’t fear you.”
Another tendril curled around my waist.
“I don’t think you’re an animal.”
His words slid across my senses and his tendrils tightened. I could sense the promise of desire from him, but also deep-burning rage.
“I crave you, Essie. With me, you’ll have unimaginable power. Power enough to protect yourself and to wreak vengeance on all the hurt they’ve forced on you.” The tendril around my wrist slid up my arm and curled around the wraith’s brand, framing it and drawing my attention to the red sigil seared into my skin. “I understand you.”
The buzz in my body increased, and my muscles twitched as if zapped with electricity. I gritted my teeth against the pressure of the tendrils and the lure of his words. There might be truth in what he said, that the world would never accept or desire me. That they would always fear me and because of that I’d always live in fear. But I didn’t want the vengeance he promised. It didn’t even hold a hint of allure. I just wanted to live a normal human life.
“But you don’t,” the wraith said. “I can feel your true soul struggling to break free. Your angelic nature has imprisoned you. Your fear has imprisoned you. I’m trying to set you free.”
“By branding me and permanently bonding our souls together?”
“Because I love you.”
“I doubt you do.” I could feel it in the smoke and darkness. What he felt wasn’t love, it was madness, a need for power, and for some reason he saw power within me that he could possess and control.
“I do love you. I need you.”
“Yeah, to fulfill your need for vengeance.” His reason for vengeance fluttered around in my head, but I couldn’t grasp onto it. There was only his smoke and his hatred.
“You will give me what I want.” More tendrils swept out of the darkness and wrapped around me. I jerked against them, but I couldn’t break free. “We’re the same,” the wraith hissed. “You belong to me, your power belongs to me, and we will reap justice for the slaughter of our people.”
A spear of smoke sliced into the ugly red brand on my arm, and the wraith’s essence poured into me, flooding every cell, suffocating me from the inside out.
I screamed and thrashed. I had to get free. I couldn’t let it control me, command me, possess me. I couldn’t let it use me to do horrible things.
My elbow slammed into something solid and someone yelped, then a strong hand pinned my arm to my body.
“Essie,” Kol gasped.
The darkness clung to my mind.
Get out. Get the fuck out, I screamed at the wraith, no— the nephilim.
“Essie, wake up.”
I jerked into a sitting position and my eyes flew open. The darkness within me exploded into smoke and my mind swept it away with a ferocious wind. Nausea churned in my stomach and the buzz crackled under my skin at pre-nicotine levels. The wraith had been in m
y head, and I could feel its sickening darkness still clinging to me as if it had just poured down my throat.
“Essie.”
I jerked my attention to Kol. He sat beside me, his arms around me, hugging mine tight to my body. A red welt marked his cheek. I must have elbowed him in the face. Behind him, sunlight streamed through the window, the curtains having never been closed for the night, and the sky was beautiful and clear, like Gideon’s eyes.
“It’s okay,” he said.
I shuddered at the memory of the wraith in my head. Then the weight of yesterday’s events slammed into me and panic squeezed my chest. I struggled to breathe. It wasn’t just the wraith. It was so much worse than that. I was mated for life. To an angel. It wasn’t going to be okay.
I shoved that thought aside before my panic took over. I’d deal with it later, after I’d dealt with the wraith — because I doubted I’d be able to avoid it completely.
Kol’s eyes narrowed and he frowned.
Yeah, no one could maintain a positive attitude in the face of everything that had happened, but then I realized his attention wasn’t on my face, it was lower.
“Is that—?” His frown deepened and he grabbed my wrist, turning it to expose the inside of my forearm. “Is that Gideon’s brand?”
Oh, shit.
I tried to jerk my arm away, but he held tight and shoved my sleeve up higher, exposing the whole brand. It glimmered as if it were real gold reflecting bright sunlight. The lines were crisp and delicate — the complete opposite to the wraith’s brand — and they swirled in a complicated design from mid-forearm to my elbow. It was beautiful, and it made my breath hitch in awe and fear. Gideon had said the connection between branded mates was deep and pure. That it grew stronger with time, transforming each angel’s soul, bringing them closer together than even a vampire’s claim. At the root of it all was an attunement, fitting souls perfectly together and creating a yearning that they had to be together. That they belonged together.
“It’s a mistake.”
“A mating brand is never a mistake.”
“This one is.” I tugged at Kol’s grip but he still refused to let go, his gaze locked on my arm.
“It’s destiny.”
“It’s a disaster.”
His attention jumped up to me, surprise in his eyes. “How could this possibly be a disaster? This is fate, the universe bringing you together.”
“And did you see the way he looked when he thought the bond was with Zella?”
Kol pursed his lips. I could see he wanted to argue with me, but knew I was right.
“He’ll be heartbroken when he realizes fate has mated him with me.”
“I don’t think he will.” Kol raised a hand to caress my cheek but stopped before making contact, as if suddenly realizing I belonged to someone else.
God, that thought made me want to scream. I didn’t belong to anyone. I didn’t want to belong to anyone. And I sure as hell didn’t want that someone to be an angel.
“I want my life back.” My words came out small and soft.
“Being mated doesn’t mean your life is over.”
I was pretty sure it did.
Realization flashed in his eyes. “In fact, if your bond with Gideon is stronger than the one with the wraith, I think it might actually save your life.” He threw back the covers and hopped from the bed. “We have to tell Gideon, confirm if I’m right.”
I scrambled from the bed and grabbed his hand, stopping him before he opened the door. “We’re not telling Gideon.”
“We have to tell him. He’s going to find out soon enough. He said he’d know who his mate was as soon as the bond gets stronger.”
“Kol, please.” Yes, it was inevitable, but I wasn’t going to be running around proclaiming it from the mountaintops just yet. Probably ever. “I need time to process this.”
He pursed his lips.
“I need time to process everything.” And make peace with how all of this was going to end. “It’s all so complicated.”
“It’s your bond,” he said, his tone soft, reluctant, then gave a tight nod. “It’s your news to share.”
I grabbed his hands and gently squeezed them. “Thank you.”
He leaned toward me, as if he was going to hug me or kiss me or something, but pulled away before finishing the move. “We still need to figure out what to do about the wraith… angel… whatever it is. Are you up for that?”
“God, yes.”
“Then let’s go find the rest of the team.”
I yanked my shirt sleeve down and opened the door. Marcus sat on the floor against the far wall, his knees up, arms across his knees, and forehead on his arms. His hair was tousled, making him look even sexier, and his clothes, the same as when we’d fought the wraith, were disheveled. He hadn’t changed even though, unlike me, he’d had a chance to.
“Have you been here all night?” I asked.
His head jerked up. The agony in his eyes melted to complete, desperate relief, and he rushed to his feet and wrapped me in a tight embrace. “Oh, thank God.”
His lean-muscled body pressed against mine, strong and sure and warm, and I melted into his hug. For a second I was going to pretend my life wasn’t a complete mess.
“Thank God, thank God.” His hands moved from my back to my head, his fingers tangled in my hair, and his lips captured mine in a fierce, possessive kiss, so intense it stole my breath.
Then he pulled back before it had really started and pressed his forehead to mine. “You’re never doing that again. Please say you’re never doing that again.”
I cupped his cheeks in my palms and urged him to make eye contact. His fear licked cold across my skin and nearly broke my heart. “You know I can’t make that promise.”
A growl rumbled in his chest, but he swallowed it back. “I know. I just— God.” He hugged me again, clutching me to him as if he was afraid to let me go.
Kol cleared his throat. “So I am into watching, but if I’m going to get a decent meal out of it, you guys need to be a little more… active.”
“Shut up,” Marcus growled without letting me go. “And thank you.”
“Sure,” Kol said. “Ask me to spend all night with a pretty lady—”
Marcus’s head jerked up. He glared over my shoulder at Kol and for the first time I truly saw the wolf within him, feral, protective, ferocious.
I slid my hands to his chiseled chest and gently pressed, easing a step back. “And, fully clothed, he helped me raise my body temperature.”
Marcus’s piercing green gaze slid back to me and the wolf released a soft rumble. I was safe. It was happy.
And I was seriously confused.
Guess kissing me yesterday had meant something.
“Now let’s find Jacob and Gideon and figure out plan B,” I said.
“When we left Gideon last night, he was with Zella. He’s probably still there. I’ll call Jacob and tell him to meet us in her room. Gideon won’t be wanting to leave his mate right now.” Marcus pulled his phone from his pocket and turned slightly away from me.
Kol stared at me with wide eyes and he mouthed the word complicated to me.
No shit, I mouthed back.
Marcus’s free arm snaked across the back of my waist and tugged me closer to him, as if he couldn’t stand to be away from me.
Jeez. Complicated didn’t begin to explain the mess I was in.
Chapter 13
I slipped back into my room, using the excuse that I needed to visit the bathroom before heading down, and replaced my nicotine patch. I was going through them faster than I should, but these were extenuating circumstances. If I survived what was about to come and continued to burn through the nicotine at the same rate, then I’d start to worry.
The new patch brought the biting buzz back under control — or as under control as it ever got. I returned to the hall, and Marcus stepped close to me and stayed close as we got into the elevator and headed down to Zella’s room.
If I was smart, I’d tell him right away about Gideon’s brand. Letting him continue to hold me and kiss me like that could only lead to heartache for all of us. But if I was being honest with myself, I was thrilled at being held by him and the promise of satisfying the sizzling desire between us.
And maybe I was crazy. Fate said I belonged to Gideon. If I stayed in Marcus’s world, I’d be Gideon’s whether I wanted to be or not, and even if I wasn’t, constantly being with supers guaranteed that someone would notice the truth about me. Hell, it was a miracle no one had noticed so far.
It didn’t matter how comfortable and safe and turned on I was in Marcus’s embrace. As soon as the wraith, or rather nephilim— Nope, I couldn’t think of him as the same kind of super as me. We weren’t the same. Not even close. As soon as the wraith-angel was taken care of, I had to leave — barring, of course, being insane or dead, and if I was either, then being a nephilim in the world of supers was the least of my worries.
The elevator door slid open, and Marcus’s phone rang. We stepped into the hall as he answered it, and he stiffened at whatever was said.
“Change of plans. We’re meeting Gideon and Jacob in the garage. Union City PD has found another body.”
“Shit,” Kol said. “And we’re going to the scene? Can’t forensics confirm it was the wraith?”
“I thought they could, but apparently not,” Marcus said. “And I have no idea why, so we’re going.”
Kol frowned. “So who’s staying here with Essie?”
“No one.” Marcus shoved his phone back into his pocket, not sounding happy about that. “Gideon doesn’t want to separate the team until the wraith is dealt with and she’s safest with us, so she’s coming along.”
Given how we’d had our asses handed to us last night, I wasn’t certain I was safe with anyone, but I had to agree that I had a better chance of not being captured by the wraith-angel if I was with all of the guys instead of just one of them.
That, and I wasn’t going to argue with Marcus right now. I could still sense his wolf, barely contained within him — now that I knew what the fury radiating from him actually was — and didn’t want to push him.