Her Guardian Angel 4-Her Angel Series (37 page)

Did this
curse have something to do with her?

His wings
had returned when he had been assigned to watch over her and the
curse had remained ineffective until he had met her. The more he
thought about it, the more he realised that the times when the
curse had hindered his wings, stopping them from appearing, were
all related to her.

Something
else dawned on him and he didn’t like it one bit.

When he
had defeated the Hell’s angels and had leapt with Amelia, expecting
his wings to come when he called them, he had been thinking about
leaving with her, taking her somewhere far away where it would be
difficult to find them. The moment his wings hadn’t appeared, his
plan had changed. He had decided to go to Einar instead.

When
Amelia had died and awoken as something angelic, she had mentioned
that she knew them all.

A shiver
rushed down his back.

The curse
had changed his plans and led him to Einar. Einar in turn had led
him to Apollyon and Lukas. Heaven had used the curse to bring all
four of them together so Apollyon’s duty would come into effect and
he would have no choice but to follow his orders and kill
Amelia.

Marcus
stared into Veiron’s red eyes, struggling to comprehend what he was
thinking.

“I used
to do work like that fancy curse you bear.” Veiron sighed wearily.
“Now you can understand why I switched sides. I was already doing a
demon’s work.”

“I need
to know what’s going on, Veiron, and I need to know how to get rid
of this curse.” Marcus took a step towards him and ignored the
black voice that curled out of the pit, offering him assistance
with it.

“Have you
seen Taylor?” Einar said and Marcus couldn’t believe that he had
forgotten about her. He had been so caught up in his own problems
that he hadn’t thought about the fact that she was wandering around
Hell searching for the very man standing in front of
him.

“No,
why?” Veiron frowned at him. “I figure she’s playing house back in
London, Wingless.”

“She
isn’t. She came down here with us and went to find you. You haven’t
seen her?”

Veiron’s
look darkened and his red eyes brightened until they glowed like
embers in the low light. “What do you mean, she’s down here? How
could you be so irresponsible?”

Marcus
intervened when Einar started towards Veiron and placed himself
between them. “I am sure she will be back soon, Einar… we are here
to find out what’s going to happen to Amelia now that she has died,
so—”

“She
isn’t dead yet.” Veiron’s words dropped on him like lead weights,
each one dragging his insides down a little further, and he turned
slowly to face the demonic angel.

“What the
hell do you mean?” he whispered and took another step in his
direction. “I saw her die and I saw her reborn as an
angel.”

“An
angel?” Veiron laughed. “She isn’t what you could call an angel and
she isn’t dead yet. I’ve seen her death, remember? Do you think I
would be standing here hindering you with idle conversation if it
had already happened?”

“Hindering me? Not dead?” Marcus spat out another dark curse
and the Devil laughed this time, his voice booming out of the pit
and mocking him. His army was almost within reach of Heaven.
Veiron’s kind was going to attack it to retrieve Amelia.
Why?

Marcus
growled in frustration, ran at Veiron, and tackled him to the
ground. The rough basalt scratched at his knees as he straddled
Veiron and then scraped his back when the demonic angel used his
leathery dark wings to knock him away. Before Marcus could get back
onto his feet, Veiron was kneeling astride him, his hands pressing
down hard into his shoulders, pinning him to the sharp
ground.

“Tell me
what the hell you’re talking about!” Marcus struggled, trying to
get free, causing the rocks to cut into his back. The scent of
blood joined that of brimstone in the choking hot air.

Apollyon
tore Veiron off him and held him off the ground by his neck from
behind. Veiron beat his wings and Apollyon snarled and grabbed one,
twisting it behind Veiron’s back and tearing a growl of pain from
the demonic angel. Veiron’s teeth sharpened and turned the colour
of blood and his eyes glowed brighter, burning as fiercely as the
pit.

“Enough.”
Apollyon cast him aside, sending him tumbling across the black
charred ground.

Veiron
was still a moment, laying on his side, and then slowly pushed
himself back onto his feet. Marcus took Einar’s hand and hauled
himself onto his feet too. He scowled at Veiron who returned it a
hundredfold.

The
Hell’s angel kept his distance this time, warily eyeing him and the
three angels flanking him.

“Why
isn’t Amelia an angel?” Marcus had wanted to believe that she was
because then Heaven would have no reason to harm her, at least he
had thought that at the time they had taken her. Now, he wasn’t so
sure. They had done something terrible to him, cursing him in order
to keep him in check and to control his actions. What was their
objective? Were they going to kill Amelia?

Panic
lanced his heart but he refused to surrender to the need to fly out
of Hell and go to her. He needed to know what he was dealing with.
He needed a plan if he was going to save Amelia, and that meant
staying where he was until Veiron told him the truth about her, no
matter how much it hurt him to remain.

“There
are no female angels. I thought this was something everyone knew?”
Veiron looked at each of them in turn and then settled his red gaze
on Marcus.

“We
knew.”

“She may
look angelic, but appearances can be deceiving can’t they?” Veiron
smiled and stretched his wings out, and black feathers began to
grow on them, hiding the leathery membrane. When the feathers were
all in place, they turned crimson. He stared into the distance
beyond Marcus, his expression turning thoughtful. “She once had
wings like ours… they were beautiful and dripped with blood that
was fatal to us. A female angel. The original creation. Our
forebear. God believed that women would be perfect angels, gentle
and caring, mothering and protective. God gave her everything,
endowing her with power the likes of which no angel has ever been
blessed with since. He realised his mistake too late. Instead of
helping mankind in its earliest form, she drove them to sin and to
the point of destruction. God destroyed her, but angels are
eternal. He could not undo his mistake.”

“So she
is an angel like us.”

Veiron
shook his head. “She had been tampered with during her creation.
While her body had been born in Heaven, her soul had been born in
Hell. The power that flows in her blood has rendered her a pawn in
their eternal game.”

Veiron’s
focus came back to him.

“She’s a
pawn, Marcus, just like you and me, only she’s a divine instrument.
A weapon.”

“A
weapon?” Marcus’s heart started at a pace, beating hard against his
ribs, and the desire to leave Hell now and go to her flowed through
his veins and burned in his soul so strongly that he couldn’t
ignore it this time. He tried to call his wings but they wouldn’t
come. The marks on his back blazed and he flinched at the intense
heat, grinding his teeth together in an attempt to endure it
without the others noticing.

“Marcus?”
Einar touched his shoulder. He looked at him and saw that he was
staring at his back. Marcus gave up his fight to hide his pain and
growled. It was useless. The changing colour of the marks would
give away what he was thinking and that his curse was active, and
they would know his pain. “Stop it.”

Marcus
shifted his focus back to Veiron and away from his desire to leave
Hell and go after Amelia.

“She
can’t be a weapon,” he whispered, his heart aching at the thought
of Heaven using her to that end. He didn’t care where she had been
spawned or what she was. She was Amelia to him. The woman he
loved.

“I’m
afraid she is. She became a weapon the moment both sides realised
the potential of her blood. She was the first, born of both God and
the Devil, a union of infinite strength and power. Her blood is
sacred. Within it she holds phenomenal power, more than both had
thought possible.”

“What
power?” Marcus said and Veiron smiled as the Devil’s voice rose
from the pit.

Marcus
couldn’t understand what he had said but Apollyon clearly could
because he moved forwards, his gaze locked on the pit, a flicker of
shock in his blue eyes.

“What?”
Marcus caught his arm and Apollyon looked back at him, his black
wings partially obscuring his face.

“It’s a
seal.”

“A seal?”
Marcus looked back at Veiron and the demonic angel nodded. “Her
blood can seal this realm?”

“Not just
this realm.” Veiron pointed upwards. “It has sealed your own in the
past. If her blood is spilt in one realm, it will seal the other
until that blood loses its power. Eventually, she is reborn and the
race to find her begins again.”

“They’re
going to kill her.” Marcus turned his back on Veiron and cursed
when his wings wouldn’t emerge. Veiron was right. Amelia wasn’t
dead yet. She had only been awakened. The event surrounding her
death was still to come. That was why his mission hadn’t ended with
Amelia’s death at Apollyon’s hands.

“Not
them,” Veiron said. “You.”

Marcus
froze to his core. His heart beat loudly in the silence echoing in
his mind. His hands shook. He stared blankly ahead into the black
field full of belching pits of magma, trying to take in that single
innocent sounding word that held such pain and
foreboding.

“You,
Marcus,” Veiron repeated, his voice lowering and filling with
darkness. “I said that you were there at her death.”

“No… I am
not going to kill her. I love her! I am going to save her.” Marcus
spun on his heel to face him. “I won’t kill her.”

“Strong
words considering that you killed her last time.” There was
conviction in Veiron’s red eyes, belief in the words that he was
saying, and Marcus covered his ears.

“No. You
lie. I have never met her before. I don’t know what you are talking
about but I am not going to kill her!” Marcus scowled at him and
then turned to his fellow angels. “Apollyon… tell me he is lying.
You were alive when I was reborn.”

Apollyon
stared at the broken ground, his eyes gradually brightening until
they were vivid blue and Marcus could feel his anger.

“I have
no memory of killing her or of anything that followed, but… now
that I am thinking about it, I have a feeling that something had
happened then… only I cannot remember it.”

Marcus
fell to his knees. This wasn’t happening.

“You were
reborn in a time of peace?” Veiron said and Marcus hung his head
forwards and nodded, his hands resting between his
knees.

He had
been reborn at a time when the world had been serene and beautiful,
and Einar had been reborn then too.

“A time
of peace always follows her death if Heaven spills her
blood.”

“I didn’t
do it.”

“Your
proof is right there. See it for yourself.” Veiron pointed to the
small pool in the distance near a rugged semi-circular outcrop of
black rocks. It shimmered brightly, changing colour as it reflected
the events occurring on Earth.

Marcus
hesitated. The pool would reveal the truth but he wasn’t sure
whether he wanted to see it. It had hurt him when he had realised
that Heaven had betrayed him. He wouldn’t be able to cope with the
pain if he discovered that Veiron was right and he had killed
Amelia in his previous life.

“It is a
terrible fate we endure, Marcus,” Veiron said on a sigh. “Each time
I am reborn, I succumb to the Devil and do his bidding in this
game. I grow weary of it and the memories that return as the game
goes on. You are not the only person who has killed
her.”

How many
times had he killed her though? He wanted to ask that question but
he feared it. It was bad enough knowing that he had killed her
once.

“I had
never thought they would take things this far though.”

Marcus
wasn’t listening anymore. He stared at the pool, building up the
courage to accept his fate and what he might have done in his past.
If he had killed her last time, had betrayed her, that didn’t mean
he had to repeat history and follow his destiny and do it all over
again. He didn’t want to see the terrible things he might have done
to her, but he dragged himself to his feet and crossed the uneven
ground to the pool, shunning Einar and Apollyon as they attempted
to stop him.

He
collapsed to his knees at the edge of the small oval pool and held
his trembling left hand out over it, focusing on the point of his
rebirth two thousand years ago and then taking the images back
beyond that. He focused on himself and his existence at that time,
and stopped when he saw Heaven stained with blood.

Marcus
looked away, unable to bear the sight of himself in the pool. He
covered his mouth with his hand and stared at the ground, shaking
his head and cold to the bone. He had killed her.