Her Guardian Angel 4-Her Angel Series (14 page)

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 blazed 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 tell 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.