Waiting to attack her.
Nevar wouldn’t let it happen. He was here now. No one would touch her.
He brought his right leg down, swiftly kicked off the ground to change direction without losing speed and shot upwards. He flapped his wings and stared up at her head over a hundred feet above him. She was far bigger than he had ever dreamed possible but it wasn’t going to deter him. He would reach her.
Her violet gaze swung his way, the elliptical pupil flaring for a moment before thinning again.
“Lysia,” he called above the noise of a thousand wing beats, the sound of angels preparing another wave of attack. “Look at me, Lysia. I am here. I am alive.”
She reared back and swung her left paw at him. He pinned his wings back and dropped beneath her blow and unfurled them again, giving one hard flap to bring him shooting higher on her defenceless side. She snarled and snapped at him, and he beat his wings and shot backwards, beyond the reach of her fangs.
“Lysia!” He stopped right in front of her, at eyelevel to her, and held his hands out. “Recognise me.”
She stilled.
His hope soared.
Fiery cracks appeared between the broad black plates across her chest, a dull glow at first but rapidly becoming fierce white. She arched her head back on her long neck and the light rushed up her throat. Not good.
The moment she opened her jaws, Nevar dropped, his wings tucked hard against his back to streamline himself. Heat chased him downwards. He wouldn’t make it.
He desperately threw a portal beneath him and fell into it, reappearing in the air above her.
She shrieked and the spikes down her back shimmered violet.
He had the distinct impression he had just pissed her off even more.
“Lysia. Listen to—”
He grunted as six guardian angels barrelled into him and quickly called his black blades to his hands. A bright blue orb exploded below him and his breath hitched until he saw it was Amelia defending Lysia, driving back the wave of angels coming at her from all directions. More blinding bursts of blue light lit the darkness, coming faster as Marcus joined the fight.
Nevar wrestled with the angels, trying to break free so he could gain enough distance to take them down.
Pain exploded across his back and he shot downwards with the angels. He crashed into the basalt and tumbled across it, his wings twisting beneath him, taking the brunt of the damage from Lysia’s blow.
The moment he stopped rolling, he pressed his hands into the dirt and shoved himself up, his blades at the ready to deal with the guardian angels.
Einar beat him to them, taking on all six with a single silver sword, his tawny wings tucked against his back as he fought with skill that awed Nevar. He would thank him later, when Lysia was back in his arms and safe again. He wasn’t sure how he was meant to get her to transform back, but he would find a way. He kicked off and grunted with each beat of his wings that sent fire arcing along his bones.
Lysia swung a meaty paw at the Hell’s angels now attacking her. Nevar snarled and flew harder, setting his sights on them. He had to drive them away before he could try to get through to her again.
Golden light shone in the left side of his vision and he briefly looked there. It lit the area around the prison and screams rent the air from that direction. Apollyon. He could feel his master there too.
Focus on Lysia, not me. Reach her. We will hold back the reinforcements.
Nevar was tempted to snap back at Asmodeus that he was focused on Lysia but he did as his master instructed and turned his gaze back to her. Apollyon and Asmodeus were fighting to hold back Heaven and Hell’s reinforcements. Amelia, Marcus, and Einar were taking down the current wave of several legions from both sides. They were all fighting to give him this chance, risking their lives for Lysia. He hoped he could make her see that.
She wasn’t alone.
The world wasn’t against her.
They were with her.
He swung his black blade at the first Hell’s angel, catching him across the patch of exposed skin between his obsidian back plate and the strips protecting his hips. The immense black-skinned demonic angel turned on him, his eyes glowing crimson, and bared his sharp red teeth.
Nevar swung again and the male blocked him with one red blade and drove the other one he held at him. Nevar shoved with his first blade, knocking the angel off balance, and slashed with his second one, clashing with the red one aimed at him. Sparks showered as they struck each other and Nevar pressed forwards, beating his wings to drive the demonic angel backwards.
His senses pricked and he twisted towards the demonic angel behind him, swinging wildly with his left blade to block the sneak attack. His sword struck the red blade of the black spear the demonic angel wielded but didn’t block it completely. It bounced off his blade, scraped over his vambrace and sliced into his biceps.
Lysia roared and turned furious violet eyes on him and the Hell’s angels. She launched her right paw at them, her huge black talons cutting through the air. It struck the first angel and she curled her talons around him and crushed him in her fist. Blood rained down from her closed paw.
The nostrils on her beak flared and she bared her black fangs as she dropped the first dead angel and swung again.
Nevar dodged her blow and her paw slammed into the angel who had cut him, sending the male careening like a rocket to the ground and crashing into a low black hill.
“Lysia,” Nevar shouted and turned towards her as she reared again, rising up onto her hind legs and beating her wings.
Wind blasted against him and he furiously flapped his wings to keep from being thrown away from her as he called a portal. He let a gust send him into it and reappeared behind her, safe from the gale.
The Hell’s angels didn’t fare so well. They tumbled through the air and slammed into other angels, creating a swirling mass of them as they collided and struggled to maintain flight. His side didn’t fare much better. Amelia and Marcus made an awkward landing and Einar ended up hurled into a group of five hunter angels, who all glared at him, evidently unimpressed that their kin was fighting against them.
More bursts of golden light exploded in the distance, followed by bright flashes of paler light as Heaven reclaimed the dead.
Lysia kept beating her wings, driving the angels away from her. When they were almost as distant as the immense grim long building of the prison, she slammed back down onto all fours and lumbered onwards.
Nevar flew in front of her and she pulled her head back, snarling at him.
“Lysia… you cannot go that way. I will not let you.” He spread his arms and his wings, uncertain whether she even understood him as she was now. He could feel the fury in her, the deep rage, and the hunger for violence.
Smoke curled from between her fangs.
Nevar prepared to teleport, his heart thundering against his chest and his hands shaking against the hilts of his blades. If she unleashed her fire on him at this distance, he wasn’t sure he would be able to escape it, but he had to stand his ground. He wouldn’t run from her.
Her huge violet eyes darkened and she swung her head to her left, away from him. She stared into the distance there, beyond the plateau. What had she seen?
He squinted and tried to make it out, and his stomach dropped when he saw it.
A gate, carved into a sheer wall of rock.
In front of it stood the four angels who had taken him.
They drew their weapons and Lysia roared, turned and thundered towards them.
He cursed the vile bastards for goading her into attacking a gate, but thanked them at the same time for luring her away from the area around the Devil’s fortress, beyond the sphere of his power.
He wouldn’t let the four angels get what they wanted. He wouldn’t let Lysia destroy a fourth gate and set them free.
“We need to stop those angels,” Nevar hollered at Amelia and Marcus where they stood below him to his right. He pointed towards the
gate and they swung their heads in that direction.
They both nodded and spread their half-feather half-leather silver wings. Einar cut down the last of the hunter angels and rushed over to them, blood covering the front of his armour. Nevar hoped it belonged to his enemies. The male was a valuable asset and they couldn’t afford to lose him.
A scruffy blond mediator angel flew towards the group and Nevar flexed his black clawed fingers around his blades and switched direction, heading towards them instead of the gate. The male approached from behind the group, unseen by them, wielding a long white and gold spear that matched his armour.
He landed and Nevar hit the ground between him and his allies, blocking the male’s path to them.
Someone placed a hand on his shoulder and he tensed, swinging his gaze towards them. Einar.
“It is okay. This is Lukas, another friend.”
Nevar looked back at the sandy-haired angel as he furled white wings against his back. The male nodded.
“I take it you are Nevar?” Lukas’s green gaze ran over him. “An interesting appearance. Like your master’s.”
“How long have you been here?” Einar moved around Nevar, placing himself between him and Lukas.
The staff of Lukas’s spear shortened, transforming it back into a sword. “I was assigned to the area around the prison. When I saw Apollyon arrive with Asmodeus, I knew I would find you all closer to the beast.”
“She is not a beast,” Nevar snapped and narrowed his violet eyes on the newcomer. “She has a name. Lysia. I will not let you and your kind harm her anymore.”
Lukas’s green eyes darkened. “I am not here to harm her. I am here to assist you. Lysander and the others are with me.”
The angels of the apocalypse.
Nevar didn’t believe they would be on Lysia’s side. Their mission was to stop the apocalypse from occurring. He had no doubt that they would employ any method that would bring them success in that mission, including killing Lysia.
“Where are they?” Nevar said and stumbled when the ground bucked beneath his feet.
He swiftly turned to face Lysia and growled when he saw she had reached the gate and there was a swarm of angels heading towards her.
“If you meant to delay me, I will have your head,” Nevar growled at Lukas and kicked off, beating his black wings hard as he tried to gain enough speed to reach her before the angels could.
“A touch distrustful, isn’t he?” Lukas’s voice drifted into the distance and Nevar had half a mind to shout that it wasn’t that he had no faith in anyone; it was that he knew Heaven and he knew their tactics. That realm wasn’t above forcing Lukas to delay them without him realising it.
Nevar flew harder, staying low and using the thermals coming off the cracks of lava that formed a web across the basalt to boost his speed and conserve his strength.
Lysia unleashed an enormous fireball at the gate, her focus seemingly turned to it now rather than Astaroth and his band of fallen angels. They fought the army of Heaven and Hell, keeping the angels away from her as she wreaked havoc on the gate.
Nevar shot beneath their radar and came up below them, his sights set on them.
He grunted as someone slammed into him and sent him tumbling through the air. He spread his black wings to stabilise himself and growled when he saw the blond angel hovering in the air between him and Astaroth, his blue eyes filled with cold fire.
“Stay out of this,” Lysander said, his golden wings beating the air, shimmering in the light from the fires raging below them, devouring the black land. “I will deal with them.”
The blond angel turned, gave one hard beat of his wings and shot towards the four angels.
Samael turned flinty silver eyes on Lysander and said something. Leviathan looked down, his golden gaze flickering with something akin to amusement, and beat his crimson wings. He took off and the others followed him, leaving their assault on the angels. Astaroth was the last to leave, fending off four angels with only one hand and half of his attention on them. The rest was pinned on Lysander as he approached.
Astaroth’s mouth quirked into a cold smile and he crooked his finger.
Lysander flew harder, giving chase.
He was strong, but not powerful enough to defeat the four angels if they fought together.
Unless he only meant to fight them long enough for Nevar to calm Lysia and stop her from destroying another gate.
Nevar snapped his gaze to her as she raked at the gate with her talons, screeching at it and stopping from time to time to attack the angels swarming around her.
He readied his blades and flew at the angels, determined to force them away from her so he could try to reach her again and stop her from taking down the fourth gate.
Twin blinding blue spherical explosions swallowed the angels ahead of him, leaving holes in the swarm. The angels closest to him turned their focus away from Lysia and towards Amelia and Marcus as they approached with Einar. In the distance beyond them, the golden bursts of Apollyon’s power were growing closer. He and Asmodeus were coming to join the main fight to protect Lysia.
Nevar veered left, towards her, leaving the others to deal with the angels and hold them back for him. He had to stop her.
Lukas broke away from Einar, gaining his attention for a heartbeat.
“If you had given me a moment earlier, I would have told you this then,” Lukas said, his green eyes swirling as he extended his spear again and halted just a short distance from Nevar. “She is different now. I was watching from the plateau. I saw you injured. I saw her react to it.”
A cold chill skated down Nevar’s spine and arms.
Lukas was right.
When the Hell’s angel had cut him, she had turned her wrath on them, aiming specifically for the two he had been fighting and not launching an attack that would swat at the whole group of them, including him, as she had been before that moment.
He nodded his thanks to Lukas and the angel returned it and joined the fight beside Einar.
Nevar looked across at Lysia as she clawed at the air, battering the angels who dared to fly in front of her and attack her head on.
He could reach her.
He flew towards her and over her great black form. He maintained a few metres between him and the spikes along her tail and then her back, flying between her furled enormous wings and up towards her head.
She swatted the final group of angels between her and the gate away and stilled.
Her immense head turned, her violet eye swivelling towards him, and smoke curled from the nostrils in her beak.
“Lysia,” Nevar whispered and sent one blade away. He pressed his left hand to his chest, wishing he still bore the mark that had connected them. He missed feeling her emotions in his heart, but felt sure that she was afraid somewhere deep beyond her rage.
He flew above her head and she tracked him, keeping her eyes locked on him but not attacking him.
Nevar moved his hand to his injured arm and palmed it, squeezing more blood from the healing wound.
Her nostrils flared again.
Her elliptical pupils widened.
“Recognise me,” he said and breathed through his fear, not wanting her to sense it. It wasn’t a fear of her. It was fear of losing her. “Follow me.”
He flew sideways, heading off to his right, intending to lure her away from the gate and the battle raging behind her. Apollyon and Asmodeus were fighting together, cutting a path through the forces of Heaven and Hell, but the two realms had sent reinforcements.
The angels of the apocalypse had joined the fight.
Lysia snorted and stomped towards him, her chest beginning to glow behind the wide plates of her armour that spanned it.
She still wanted to attack him.
He drew in a deep breath, making it last five seconds, and then exhaled it just as slowly.
When the last of his breath had left his lungs, he stilled, beating his wings to hold himself steady in the air ahead of her.<
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Her huge violet eyes narrowed on him and she snarled.
She didn’t trust him.
“Look at me. Am I not like you?” He looked down at his black form and then back at her. “You told me that once. We share more than a similar form, with similar eyes, Lysia. We share a need and we share a desire, and we came to share a heart.”
He drew his hand away from his bleeding arm.
“And we share blood.”
Her nostrils flared as he held his hand out to her, his palm facing her, coated in his blood.
“Remember me.” His violet gaze flickered to the fight beyond her. He was running out of time. The others were struggling to hold back the angels of the apocalypse and the other angels.
He swallowed his thundering heart and gave a single soft flap of his black wings to propel him slowly forwards, towards her huge sharp black beak.
It would be easy for her to capture him now and snap him in half with the crushing force of her beak.
“I am here with you,” he whispered and kept staring into her violet eyes as he slowly approached her. “I will never leave you alone again.”
Her pupils narrowed into thin vertical lines and he swore her eyes had widened.
Nevar carefully placed his bloodied hand against her hard beak.
She exhaled, her breath hot and fierce, threatening to blast him away from her. He beat his wings to counter the wind and stroked her, feeling her warmth beneath his palm and sensing her fear as it went through him.
He closed his eyes and focused on her, on his blood and hers, searching for a connection to her. Heat travelled through his limbs, spreading outwards from his heart, as he savoured the feel of her and that she allowed him to come this close to her.
She huffed again and he soothed her, running his hand down her beak between her nostrils, and looked at her.
“Come back to me, Lysia. We have a way to restore the bond between us. We can be together again, and I swear to you, I will never leave you… because… I love you.”
Something shone in her eyes, something that reached deep inside him, right down to his heart, and he swore she was looking at him. Not as a beast who didn’t know him, but as the woman he had fallen in love with. That emotion reflected back at him, warming the cold violet of her irises.
Her Angel: Eternal Warriors Romance Series Complete Series Box Set (Books 1-5) Page 140