Amelia set her jaw and straightened in the face of the challenge.
“What’s up?” Taylor said and pecked Einar’s cheek before draping her arm over his shoulder and looking Marcus’s way. “Romeo said there was trouble. I was getting ready to gear up.”
Romeo? The unimpressed look on Einar’s face suggested that it was a nickname for him that he didn’t particularly like.
Amelia didn’t particularly like a few things about Taylor herself. Namely the fact that she had now left Einar’s side and was stalking across the room towards Marcus, her sultry smile directed straight at him.
“I need to know about any demon activity in the city. Especially about any black skinned demons that can materialise weapons,” Marcus said and Taylor’s pretty face turned thoughtful. Amelia looked across the room at Marcus. Had he gone crazy at the same time as she had? Demons? She took in all the weapons again and then Marcus and decided that demons were actually looking like a reasonable explanation for what had happened tonight.
She had always been sceptical about the supernatural, but Marcus had killed two black creatures with flame red eyes and sharp teeth right in front of her. Demons were real. These people clearly knew about them and Marcus had come to get more information on their enemy. Which was insane.
Taylor looked cagey and fiddled with one of the knives strapped to her sides below her arms. Each knife had a ring on the end that Amelia supposed was so the beautiful woman could quickly unleash them.
“Taylor?” Einar said and she closed her eyes.
“I know them,” she whispered and a nervous edge entered her blue eyes when she fixed them on Marcus. “Angels.”
Marcus and Einar both stepped towards her.
“Hell’s angels? I thought they had a human appearance?” Marcus said and Taylor nodded.
“They do normally… but that isn’t their true appearance. In reality, they’re black skinned, with red eyes and sharp teeth, larger than human, and can materialise objects in much the same way as you boys. I guess that part is left over from being an angel.”
Amelia found it difficult to keep up with the conversation. Angels. Hell’s angels, but she suspected they weren’t the sort who rode motorbikes. Materialising things like Marcus and Einar could.
Marcus had made a tissue appear in the street, and had changed the handle of the blade at his waist into a staff, creating a spear. Supernatural powers. What had she gotten herself into?
“They came after Amelia. I need to stay here a while, not for long. Just until I know it is safe and we can move again. I need to know that she is safe.” Marcus’s words warmed her heart and she wanted him to see how much they had affected her.
She stepped forwards and all eyes were on her.
Taylor raked a quick assessing gaze over her and then looked back at Einar. “You didn’t mention mortal female in the Marcus-has-a-problem report.”
“You could consider her the source of the problem.” Einar picked up a crossbow.
Amelia’s eyes shot wide, locked on the weapon, and her pulse rocketed. “Now wait a minute.”
She held her hands up and Marcus stepped forwards, towards Taylor and Einar, placing himself between her and them.
“No one here will hurt you, Amelia,” he said without looking at her and Einar eyed the crossbow, an apologetic look entering his dark brown eyes as he lowered it.
“I wasn’t meaning to shoot you. I was just checking it over before patrol tonight.”
She wasn’t sure whether to feel relieved or not. The flood of adrenaline caused by the thought of coming under attack again swept her along.
“What the hell is going on?” Amelia moved further into the room, defiant of her fear and resolved to face whatever insane suggestions they spouted.
It was Marcus who spoke.
“You are in danger.” The soft tone of his voice would have soothed her if she hadn’t been hanging on every word.
“Danger?” She turned towards him. The warmth in his icy blue eyes calmed her a little but not enough that the tremble running through her body stopped. The thought that she was still in danger brought everything back and she wasn’t sure that she was strong enough to face more of the creatures that Marcus had fought let alone anything worse. Would other demons be coming after her? Why? What had she done to deserve this? Her life was bad enough already.
Marcus moved closer and took hold of her hand again, his fingers pressing into her palm and his thumb resting gently across her knuckles, and nodded.
“It is my mission to protect you, Amelia, and has been from the moment you were born…” His hesitation sent her blood thundering and breath stuttering.
She wasn’t sure what she had expected him to say but the words that left his sensual lips dropped on her like a tonne of bricks and the shockwave carried away her fear, leaving her empty inside.
“I am an angel.”
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 blaze
d 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.
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 te
ll 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?”
Her Angel: Eternal Warriors Romance Series Complete Series Box Set (Books 1-5) Page 10