Destroyed by Onyx (A Dance with Destiny Book 4) (32 page)

“Nor does his jealousy,” Daichi added, pulling her back to him, wrapping his healing arms around her as she rested her cheek upon his hard stomach.

Jophiel laughed. “Well, now that I have finally met her, spoken with her in person, I no longer hold doubt,” he said. “Anyone can clearly see… darkness doesn’t stand a chance against that tiny ball of fire.” His celestial eyes sparkled as he stared at her back, a satisfied smile upon his lips.

“Yes. Something I’m certain our fallen brothers find most maddening,” Uriel said. “Now come, Jophiel. I believe it is past time to put some needed distance between you and our little sister.” He cut his eyes toward the other Arch. “Your thoughts are straying again.”

“Oh, don’t act like you didn’t enjoy them, Uriel.” Jophiel held Daichi’s glare as he spoke. “Fear not. I was only playing with her.”

“Be that as it may,” Uriel continued. “They need time to heal, and we have much to do.”

“Yes, but none of it is quite so entertaining as is this.” Jophiel laughed as they took to the skies.

Ugh, I hate Angels
, she thought.

Chapter 34

Gabriel

(GAE-bree-ull)

“Are you feeling better, Kagi Naga? Are you feeling more like yourself?”

She tried to open her eyes. Her lids felt so heavy. The very first muted rays of the new day were beginning to paint their magical colors across the heavens. The quiet beauty brought a smile to her white lips.

“I’m fine now. Joy lifts my heart… I have been healed.” Her tiny sleeping voice was weighted with exhaustion. “Yet, I am weary. I need your arms about me, my love.” She could hold her eyes open no longer.

“Kagi Naga… little one. You must rise now. You must answer a crucial question for me.”

She listened to his soft, tender voice. It wrapped her in warmth, caressed her in healing love. Smiling, she snuggled within the heavenly feeling of this wondrous sensation.

“Mmm… Speak more. I will happily abandon all other wishes if you will but continue to talk.”

The loving chuckle massaged her heart. “Little sister, if you will but open your eyes, I will happily speak to you thusly for all eternity.”

“Do not make promises you have no intention of keeping. If I open my eyes and behold the owner of this most magical voice, you will be bound to me for the already sworn eternity. You shall speak me awake with the dawn, every morning, until time is no more.”

She could hear the smile in his ethereal voice. “Very well, little Naga. If you will sit with me and drink in the dawn, I will wake you thusly until the end of all things.”

Jenevier giggled. “Deal,” she said, opening her eyes.

The man sitting on the edge of her bed wasn’t what she was expecting to find when she finally forced her heavy lids up. She had believed she was either dreaming, or her beloved Daichi was teasing her awake. Neither was true. The angelic voice had a very real body attached to it, and he was a complete stranger.

She blinked twice and shook her head a little. Yet the smiling man with the golden eyes remained… more regal than any Prince, surrounded by a pure white light, elegant and ethereal at but a glance.

“I thought I was dreaming,” she whispered. “Yet a nightmare is my reality.”

The man’s eyes smiled when his lips turned up. His hair wasn’t short and it wasn’t long. As golden as hers once was, it fell lightly, airily down over one eye. He casually tossed his head and ran his long slender fingers through it. She watched as his hand glided gracefully through the soft strands now falling gently back down over his right eye.

“Are you friends with Jophiel?” The words had barely formed in her mind before they spilled out of her dazed mouth.

His lips quirked up again. “Are
you
friends with Jophiel?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No. I like him not.” Jenevier didn’t mean to answer quite so quickly. Her words came forth, unbidden.

“Then, no,” the man said. “I am not friends with Jophiel.”

She tilted her head to the side, narrowing her eyes. “Are you teasing me?”

“Perhaps.” He smiled again, it was mesmerizing, brilliant. “Do you mind being teased?”

“Not really, I don’t suppose. I mean, it doesn’t bother me when
you
do it. But I’m not extremely fond of being teased by mean people,” she grumbled.

“Well, I’m glad you don’t mind it from me. I rather enjoy it. You make me smile too much. Tell me. Did Jophiel tease you?”

Her brows furrowed. “Yes. He is horrible. I don’t like him.” She thought for a moment. “Near the end of his disturbing visit, he was quite tender and kind. But it didn’t last long.”

He chuckled. “Why did you ask me if I knew him?”

“Your eyes. They’re the same as his and Uriel’s. Yet yours are kind and beautiful. How is that? How can his look so cold and hard… while yours radiate tenderness and warmth?”

“Perception, I believe. Some people prefer me. Others prefer him or one of my other brothers,” he said warmly. “Naga, we need to talk about some extremely important things. Will you come sit with me?”

“But… where’s Daichi?”

“He yet sleeps.” The man motioned with his head to the spot behind her.

She casually turned to where her angelic healer and Blessing had fallen asleep as he held her. His perfect face was glowing in the early dawn. She couldn’t help but smile. He looked so peaceful, so happy.

“I love him,” she whispered absently.

“I know you do. He knows it as well.” The deep baritone voice startled her.

How did I not see him sitting there, nor feel his presence in any way? A stranger at my side, yet I knew it not,
she thought.

His rich, brown shoulder-length hair fell across his back as he turned to face her. He didn’t look anything like the man on her side of the bed. His eyes were the same color, yes, but that was all. The dark-haired baritone man with the chiseled jaw line wore a stern expression as he stared down at her sleeping Blessing.

She followed his cold glare to Daichi’s beautiful face. But when her gaze came back up to meet the stranger’s, her claws slowly extended, unbidden.

“What have you done to Daichi?” she demanded.

Confusion clouded the stranger’s golden eyes.

“You hate him,” she said. “I smell it on you, taste it in the air about you. You will give answer, Angel. What have you done to my Daichi?”

“I have done nothing to him,” he hissed, his rare eyes flashing with the terrifying fire of the Otherworld.

Jenevier’s mind disengaged and her body took over, almost like she blacked out. When her vision returned, she was on the opposite side of the room from the darker Angel still sitting beside her Daichi.

The warm voice that had pulled her from sleep now whispered in her ear. “Be calm, little sister. I do not wish to hurt you. Strife is not the intent of our visit. I fear you may be bruising in my embrace, for I must hold you too tight as it is. Apologies, little one. Restraint is not my purpose.”

“Please,” she pleaded. “Don’t let him hurt Daichi.” Tears burned the backs of her eyes. “I will do whatever you say, Golden Boy. I will gladly submit to your torture—hold my tongue or scream for your pleasure—whatever you wish. Just, please,” she cried. “Hurt him not.”

His lips were against her ear. “Naga, can you feel my heart? Be still and listen. Blend yours with mine, little sister. Let me be your strength, just for today.”

She listened. She trusted him—a natural, comfortable kind of trust. His strong heartbeat echoed against her back, vibrating and humming. Slowly, her chest rose and fell in tandem with his. Calm and steady.

“Naga, my rare little sister, do you think you’re in control now? Are you now master of your actions? If I sit you down, will you stay at my side or will you try to tear our brother’s throat out?”

“He is my brother?”

“As am I.”

“Will he promise not to do anything to harm Daichi?”

“I promise,” the warm voice whispered.

“No.” She leveled a cold glare at the other man. “
He
has to promise. I want to hear the words from
his
mouth.”

The baritone whisper came, “Very well.”

The unyielding arms holding her in a vise-like grip relaxed. When her feet touched the floor, she turned and bowed in her Dragon manner to her captor, who inclined his head in return.

Jenevier turned as she spoke. “Very well,
what
?”

The other man narrowed his golden glare. The hard set of his jaw twitched, yet he spoke not.

She took one step in his direction. A strong hand clamped down upon her shoulder.

She continued to hold the dark-haired man’s gaze. “Very… well…
what
?”

A lethal threat, although not spoken, was evident in his response. “Very well. I vow not to harm the mirror image of my serpent brother.” His low growl remained once his words had ceased.

“Serpent brother?” she asked, confused. “Who are you?”

“Who do you think we are, little Naga?” the gentle one answered. “Does your heart not sing out our names?”

“My mind calls you Golden Boy and Cold One,” she said. “You are named thusly in my heart as well.”

“Those are painful words, little sister. They tear at our souls. Especially his.” Her golden brother pointed to the man beside Daichi. “He has proclaimed your birth name throughout the heavens since before you were marked. It was hardest of all of us for
him
to start calling you Kagi Naga when Father changed it. But I can read his heart, as he can mine. You are still his lovely little Jenevier.”

“Do not fill her head with nonsense,” the other man snapped. “If you insist on teasing her, use someone else as fodder. I will not abide it.”

“Why does Daichi not wake with our words?” she asked, ignoring their play.

“Naga, Daichi sleeps because we will him to sleep. Only harm can come with his waking. He loves you too much. We do not wish to destroy him. Let Raphael extend Daichi’s dreams until you and I have finished speaking.”

She turned back to the golden-haired one. “Raphael? So… you’re both Archs. Did you come to force me with the same matter Uriel and Jophiel failed in?”

“We cannot
force
you in anything, Kagi Naga. You were not made such as that.” He smiled at her again, throwing her off guard with his tender warmth.

“Who
are
you?” she asked, mesmerized.

“Ahh, now we shall see to our chat, Milady.” He bowed low, extending his hand toward the balcony.

*****

She numbly sat in the same soft chair she had once used when she held her precious babies. She inhaled deeply; nervously awaiting the storm she knew was coming.

He took the seat beside her as he sighed. “I never tire of drinking in the lovely dawn. Jinn’s is one of the rarest… so beautiful. You have the perfect view from where you rest your head at night. I am jealous. You only have to open your eyes to receive such a glorious miracle.” He cast a sideways glance at her profile and smiled. “And now because of my forced vow, we can do this daily, Little Fire.”

“Hmm? Do what daily?” she asked absently.

“Stop playing out unknown horrors in your mind. Things are not always bad. Are they? Turn your thoughts to me, little sister. Surprises don’t always leave scars, now, do they?”

She snorted out a sardonic chuckle. “Hello? I’m the little girl turned Death Angel turned Princess of Hell. My priceless wings are irrecoverably stained with the foulest of blood and I slaughter demons on my days off. I thought you knew. Nice to meet you, Golden Boy. I’ll be expecting an invitation to your next dinner party. Nothing gets a party started like having the Queen of the Nether cross your threshold.”

He reached over and took her hand as he continued to stare at the horizon, smiling. “You are my brand new favorite. I never wish to be parted from you. No wonder Jophiel was beyond consoling when he returned. You outplayed the player, didn’t you, little Naga? Will you come with me and tease him further? I would never tire of it. You are the very breath of life we tired old Archs have been needing.”

“Gratitude for the invitation, but I must happily decline. I have no desire to see your kind on a regular basis, especially Jophiel.”

He squeezed her hand, still smiling. “Do you no longer wish me to speak you awake every morning until time is no more?”

“When I said that… I thought you were a dream,” she whispered.

“And when you beheld me, you no longer felt my warmth?” He chuckled softly. “I cannot break a vow, Little Fire. It’s not in me. I do not make them lightly. Will you hold me to it? Will you demand Gabriel come to you daily, whisper in your lovely ear and raise you with the sun?”

“Gabriel?” Her stomach turned in knots, her captive hand trembled. “Why would Gabriel and Raphael be in my bedchambers? Did you come to cease me? I know I am unpolished and vile most of the time, but have I sinned past grace? Have I pushed my temper too far with the celestial blessed?” Silent tears burned her eyes. “Will you grant me but one favor? Will you give me but one hour with my only son? And… will you let me bid a final farewell to my undeserved Blessing?”

“Naga, why do you tremble at but a name? Did you act thusly with Uriel and Jophiel?”

“No… but—”

“We are the same. Yet you cry over me when you swore to deliver death unto them.”

She swallowed hard, unable to meet his adoring gaze. “I saw a movie about you once, on layer eight,” she whispered.

He chuckled lightly. “They don’t even believe in me on layer eight, not anymore.”

“You were terrifying,” she continued. “Scary beyond imagining.”

“And now, as we sit here holding hands, bathed in the glorious light of a new day, what’s your opinion of me now? Do I seem a monster to you?”

“Nay,” she said, casting him a sideways glance. “But I’m not certain. Perhaps you are. The scariest monsters are usually the ones who don’t look it. The ones you never see coming.”