He beat his wings and lifted off the tarred roof only to be struck by a shaft of brilliant white light.
Marcus closed his eyes and waited for the tingling sensation caused by the light to pass before opening them again.
He sighed at the sight of the white double doors ahead and the reception room surrounding him.
All he had wanted was to fly for a while. Couldn’t they have waited? By the time they returned him, it would be deep night. These things never moved swiftly and while they could return him to the same moment they had taken him, they never did.
Marcus pushed the double doors open and marched straight to the dock, facing the same three angels who had questioned him the last time they had brought him here.
“There has been a development.” His superior sat at the head of the triangle closest to Marcus, his sandy hair as neat as his blue armour and the large silver-blue wings tucked against his back.
The dark haired mediator and white-blond haired angel of death murmured in agreement.
“May I ask what this development is?” Marcus hid none of his displeasure at having his plans for the evening ruined. They had brought him here and he would make the most of it. While they hadn’t answered direct questions about his mission, perhaps they would answer one about the date of the event if he asked it in such a way that linked it to this development. “Does it mean my mission will end soon?”
All three angels nodded.
“Your final task approaches.” There was no lie in his superior’s expression, or that of the other two angels. “Soon your mission will end, Marcus.”
“You have been patient in your duty and we appreciate everything you have done for us. Once this final task has been completed, you will be free to return to Heaven.” The mediator to his superior’s left smiled at him and then looked across at the angel of death.
“You must be relieved to know that your final task will be over soon and you can return home,” the white-blond haired man said.
Marcus nodded and his shoulders relaxed with the relief that swept through him but he didn’t quite feel as he had expected to on hearing such good news. There was something about the appearances of all three angels, and the soft way they spoke to him, that set him on edge and filled his head with more questions than ever before.
“What is my final task?” All three angels had mentioned it so all three knew what it was, but the moment the question left his lips, their expressions turned stony and closed.
“You will find out soon enough.” His superior leaned back in his chair on the raised platform. The other two angels seated slightly behind him looked at each other and then at his superior, and then at Marcus.
“In the meantime, you must continue to protect her from the world.” Those words leaving the mediator’s lips startled Marcus into looking straight at him.
It was more than he had been told before.
“Am I to believe that there is someone who seeks to harm her?” It had always been there at the back of his mind. Why would a mortal need an angel to watch over them until a certain point in time? Why would they need a protector unless someone intended to hurt them? He had never been told to guide her on her path. His mission had always been phrased in a way that made him believe it was physical protection that she had needed in order to achieve her destiny.
“You must not allow demons to interfere with her existence.”
Marcus’s gaze snapped back to his superior and he stared wide-eyed at him. “Demons?”
The sandy-haired man nodded. “You must keep the female safe until the event that we have witnessed comes to pass.”
“And what is this event?” Marcus knew he had pushed too far again when darkness crossed his superior’s face.
“It is not necessary for you to know that right now, Marcus. We need you to focus on your mission. It has become critical that you gain her trust. Your attempt failed. Your mission was clear. You will get closer to her by any means. Do you understand?”
Marcus wasn’t sure that he wanted to understand.
“What are you implying exactly?” He frowned at his superior, wanting him to say the words so he knew exactly what they were ordering him to do. So everyone here knew and acknowledged the order they were giving him.
“The female is enamoured with you. You are to use that to gain her trust.”
Marcus’s heart raced, anger curling through his body as he looked at all three men seated before him and searched each of their faces for a sign that this was some sort of sick joke. Their expressions remained cold and fixed, hard as they stared back at him. He reined in his outrage and stifled it, unwilling to allow it to control him and give away how much he despised the thought of what they were asking of him let alone the reality of it.
He had no desire to be false with Amelia or hurt her, and they were ordering him to do just that.
“Why is having her trust so important?” he bit out the words and then clamped his jaw shut before he could add that it was despicable of them to do such a thing to a mortal. He had no love for the mortals himself but he had principles. He was an angel, born into a race created to protect humans, not deceive them and lead them into sinning. That was the job of those in the service of the Devil.
“Silence, Marcus.”
He glared at his superior, barely restraining his fury and desire to argue. Using Amelia’s feelings in such a way went against everything he stood for, all of his principles and his honour, and was callous and cruel. He had no desire to hurt her.
“Follow your orders.”
Marcus went to speak but the light engulfed him again. When it faded, he was standing outside the café where he had shared coffee with Amelia.
He tilted his head back and frowned at the colourful evening sky. They had returned him to the exact moment in time that they had taken him. Why? It wasn’t like them.
He looked down at himself and noted that he was dressed now, wearing a dark blue shirt and dark jeans with his boots. It was a little smarter than his usual attire and it was his true appearance, not a glamour they had cast upon him. They had even neatened his hair for him, combing the unruly black lengths back out of his face. Why? They had to be up to something.
The answer became apparent when Amelia walked past him, heavy white plastic grocery bags hanging from her arms.
They certainly weren’t wasting any time. They had dressed him up and sent him back to the moment they had taken him so he could seduce Amelia tonight.
Marcus shook his head. He couldn’t do such a thing and he doubted she would go for it even if he tried. His actions the other day had driven her away and she hadn’t even looked at him the two times they had passed each other today.
Although, he suspected that her reason for ignoring him just now was because she literally hadn’t seen him.
He waved at another passerby, his hand close to their face, and they didn’t even flinch.
When the person had passed him and there were no others in sight, he lifted the glamour that made him invisible to mortal eyes and hurried towards the entrance to his apartment building, determined to reach it before Amelia stepped into the lift. The dull silver lift doors were closing just as he stepped into the foyer and he raced for them.
“Hold it,” he hollered and was surprised when the doors opened again and he stepped inside to find that Amelia was alone.
Had she known it was him and that was why she had held the doors, or hadn’t she realised? He pinched the bridge of his nose. A man could go crazy trying to figure out the inner workings of the female mind. It was little wonder he had never bothered to try before now.
The journey up to their floor passed in uncomfortable silence and it was only when they were stepping out of the lift that inspiration struck Marcus.
He couldn’t disobey his orders to gain her trust but that didn’t mean he had to play the cad and seduce her. He would try the friendship thing again and hopefully this time he wouldn’t mess it up. Rather than using her attraction towards him, h
e would do something he had never done. He would lower his guard and let her in instead, and gain her trust that way, as a man would, not a devil. No deception.
Marcus reminded himself that he was already deceiving her. She had no idea what he really was and why he had been living next door to her for a month now.
“Amelia,” he said and she stopped at her door and turned to face him. Her beauty arrested his steps and his breath, chasing away some of his anger. He hesitated and then walked over to her, broadcasting as much confidence as he could manage given the unfamiliar situation. “I apologise about yesterday. Can I make it up to you somehow?”
She smiled. “Dinner would be good.”
Like a date? That didn’t sound good at all. That sounded like what his superior had ordered him to do. Marcus squirmed for a few seconds, battling the part of him that said it wouldn’t be so bad to seduce her. She was beautiful and he was finding it increasingly difficult to get dancing Amelia out of his head and his dreams.
“How about dinner at my place?” he said without thinking and the way her face lit up was all the answer he needed. It had been impulsive but it had avoided taking her out to dinner and therefore any sense that this was more than platonic.
He frowned.
Or had he only made it sound more like an offer of sex?
Dinner in his apartment could easily be classified as more intimate than dinner in a restaurant.
“Great. I’ll be over in half an hour.” With that, she opened the door to her apartment and closed it behind her, leaving him standing in the cream hallway trying to figure out what he had offered her.
Perhaps he should call for assistance. He knew one angel in London. Einar was fallen thanks to his forbidden relationship with a female half-demon but that very fact only meant that he was qualified to answer Marcus’s questions.
Marcus opened the door to his own apartment with the intent of calling Einar and interrogating him about women and whether he had just offered something a touch more intimate than anticipated but halted halfway to the telephone. The apartment was a mess.
He had never really paid much attention to his living quarters but it certainly didn’t look like the sort of place a man should invite a woman into. He swapped calling Einar for a quick sweep of his apartment, using his supernatural speed to toss all dirty clothes into the laundry basket in his bathroom, straighten furniture, and clear the dust away before Amelia knocked on his door. If there was any time left on the clock, he would phone his friend for advice, but it wasn’t looking promising. The bathroom was a mess too and so was the kitchen, and she was likely to visit both of those places.
Dinner in a restaurant suddenly looked more appealing.
Marcus stopped dead in the middle of the kitchen, turned on his heel, and gingerly opened the white refrigerator. The only thing in it was some old cheese he hadn’t particularly enjoyed the taste of and a half eaten melon that had seen better days. There was no need to inspect the dark wooden cupboards. He could definitely recall eating the remaining half a box of cereal this morning whilst thinking and the carton was still on his bedside table to prove it.
Someone knocked on the door.
Marcus spun to face the kitchen doorway and looked through it to the entertainment centre in the living room. He glared at the clock on his DVD player. Amelia was ten minutes early. He cursed. No time to correct the food problem or call Einar. He scanned the pale apartment en route to the door and, satisfied that it now appeared far less like the bachelor pad it was, opened it.
His greeting fled his lips the moment he set eyes on her.
She had changed out of the short jacket, t-shirt and jeans she had been wearing in the lift and into a rather alluring little dark red dress that had him clearing his throat and searching for a compliment.
“You look…” What would she like to hear? The expectant shine to her eyes and the tentative smile curving the corners of her glossy cherry lips said that she was hoping to hear beautiful or similar, and he would be a liar if he said anything less. “Stunning.”
Stunning was apt. He certainly felt as though she had clobbered him.
“You don’t look half bad yourself.” She smiled and he went to follow suit but then she held up a bottle in front of her and he froze. “I only had rosé. I know it’s a bit girly but it would’ve been rude to bring nothing.”
He hadn’t really taken in anything she had said whilst he had been staring at his nemesis.
Alcohol.
Of course she would bring alcohol. It was the right response to the situation, wasn’t it? A man invited her to dinner in his apartment. She brought something to make the evening go without a hitch.
He forced a smile and reached out to take it, but she drew it back to her chest, clutching it there and eyeing him closely.
“That’s not a good smile. I’ve seen that smile before,” she said with a small frown and looked down at the bottle. “It’s really all I had but then I guess you’re probably a beer drinker.”
“No.” He snatched the bottle from her, accidentally brushing her cleavage at the same time. Could someone in Heaven reverse the past thirty minutes for him and give him a second chance in which not to make a complete idiot of himself?
The blush on Amelia’s cheeks and the way she was staring at her breasts said it all. He had practically groped her. Considering he had wanted this evening to be little more than just opening up to her and gaining her trust through friendship, he was certainly sending out the wrong sort of signals. Were his superiors in Heaven tampering with him or something? He didn’t feel at all like himself and he was currently on course for gaining her trust the way they wanted.
Still, the feel of her soft breasts beneath his fingers in that flash of a caress had his heart racing and palms sweating. He was a stranger to physical intimacy but had witnessed enough carnal matters as a watcher to know the sordid things humans did. It hadn’t interested him much in the past, but the more he focused on his hand and the area that had brushed her chest and on how beautiful Amelia looked tonight, the more appealing interacting with her physically became.
Cad.
The object of tonight’s mission wasn’t seduction. It was forming the foundations of friendship.
She stared at him, making him heavily aware that he should have said something to explain his reaction rather than drifting off into a fantasy world.
“The wine you have brought is not the problem... and it is most appreciated... but... I just don’t really drink.” He shrugged and hoped she would let it go and not pursue the subject. He wasn’t sure what he would say if she asked him why he didn’t drink. Could he play the role of recovering alcoholic? Would that dampen Amelia’s desire for him?
Marcus wasn’t sure whether that would be a good thing or a bad thing.
“Oh.” Her eyebrows rose, bringing her head up with them, and he wished she would stop looking at him in a way that left him feeling emasculated. She nodded a few times and then said, “So you don’t drink coffee and you avoid alcohol. Are you one of those vegan types too?”
“Hell no.” He stepped back, horrified at the suggestion. He could eat a whole cow in one sitting when on Earth. In Heaven, he didn’t have to eat at all, but that certainly didn’t place him in the vegan category. There was nothing wrong with abstaining from certain substances that didn’t agree with your lifestyle choice, but this wasn’t one of those times and he would be happy to prove it to her.
Amelia closed the door behind her and walked into his apartment, casting her gaze over everything and then him, and he felt the challenge in her look. She was trying to figure him out and he didn’t particularly like the tone of her expression.
In a fit of desire to prove himself a man, he strode into the kitchen, unscrewed the cap on the wine and set it down on the counter. Another flaw in his plan produced itself as he searched the dark wooden cupboards for wine glasses but he overcame it by using two short tumblers instead. If anything, rosé wine could only look m
ore manly in such a glass, surely?
He poured two healthy glasses of wine as Amelia approached the open double doors and then held one out to her. She took it without questioning his choice of glass and then raised it towards him.
“Cheers,” she said in a low sexy voice that had his gaze drifting towards her lips so he could watch her drink and then added, “Cheers?”
Marcus realised he was supposed to respond in kind, so raised his glass too. “Cheers.”
“Or bottoms up.” Amelia giggled, turned and walked back into the living room.
Bottoms up.
Marcus’s eyes dropped to her backside. The deep red material of her dress clung to it, emphasising the shape of her bottom in a way that had his blood pounding through his temples again. He took a deep breath and joined her in the living room. Amelia sipped her drink. Marcus stared at his.
Alcohol hadn’t passed his lips in five centuries, not since the one and only time he had dared to drink it and had awoken with a demonic curse scrawled on his back. Back then, it had been a forbidden item. Now, any angel could drink it without castigation.
Marcus had no desire to do such a thing.
He took another deep breath and blew it out, trying to psych himself up. He could feel Amelia’s gaze on him and he hoped she didn’t think he was spacing out again or had noticed his fear of what might happened when he finally took a sip of the wine. Blood whooshed through his ears, drowning out all sound as he stared at the innocent looking pink liquid in the glass. Alcohol released inhibitions. It would be a good way of lowering his guard so he could grow closer to Amelia and gain her trust.
Marcus lifted it to his lips and breathed in, catching the fiery hint of alcohol in its scent, and then continued. The moment it passed his lips, a shiver raced down his spine and along his arms, and heat followed it down his throat.
The effect was instantaneous. He had spent the whole day thinking over his mission and had ignored his body’s cries for nourishment, leaving him ravenous and his stomach empty. The wine rocketed straight to his head, sending it spinning, and a second sip only made the situation worse, lessening his control over his body.
Her Angel: Eternal Warriors Complete Series Box Set Page 6
