“I think you’re my guardian angel,” she murmured and his fingers froze against her face.
She didn’t notice. A soft snore broke the heavy silence.
A guardian angel. He hadn’t been one of those in centuries and he had no desire to ever become one again. Not a guardian angel. He was her demonic angel, a man driven by cold fury to pursue something that might end in his death and inevitable rebirth.
Veiron stared into the hazy heat filled distance.
When that rebirth came, he would make sure it was into a different world, one devoid of the Devil and God. They would both pay for the vicious game they played with his life against his will.
Veiron growled under his breath and then inhaled slowly, trying to calm the anger surging through his veins and threatening to seize control. It didn’t matter that he was in Hell right now, under the Devil’s nose, close enough to reach the bastard’s fortress and have the fight he had been itching for these past centuries.
He slid his gaze to Erin where she slept softly with one hand and her head on his thigh.
He had wanted to leave her earlier when she had voiced her hatred of his kind but he hadn’t been able to convince himself to go beyond the reach of his senses. He had needed to know that she was safe.
The Devil would have to wait.
His mission would have to wait.
Erin was what mattered.
Until he got her safely to her sister, she was his primary concern.
His anger subsided as he watched her, calm settling over him that only increased when he set his hand on her bare arm and felt her heat against his palm.
He watched over her, his fingers lightly running up and down her arm, waiting for a sign that her nightmares had come to rob her of sleep and torment her. She slept soundly, as still as she had been when he had carried her, as though his touch really could keep her bad dreams at bay. The only disturbances were a few deep sighs that could have been moans in the right situation and the odd flush that heated her cheeks.
Veiron grinned.
Looked like good dreams to him.
He inhaled slowly. Centuries of service in Hell had rendered him immune to the stench, letting him smell beyond it to the remnants of Erin’s soft warm perfume and the undeniable hint of desire.
Very good dreams indeed. The best sort.
Her lips parted and she sighed again.
He wished that he could join her but angels didn’t need to sleep when they were in their natural environment. He could close his eyes and hope that sleep would come. It wouldn’t.
Veiron watched her instead, putting every pale freckle visible on her dirty skin to memory and listening to her soft steady breathing. Minutes ticked by and slowly turned into hours. Time moved as strangely in Hell as it did in Heaven. A few minutes here was hours topside. He would have to wake her soon.
A sense that they weren’t alone prickled down his spine.
He stilled right down to his breathing.
Someone was close. He leaned further into the cave, hoping to conceal himself and Erin. Three Hell’s angels flew by, barely two hundred feet from him and staying over the basalt slope to protect their wings from the intense heat of the boiling lake beyond. They didn’t look his way but it was only a matter of time before they came back. The demon in the black plains would get their attention and tell them what she saw.
“Erin,” he whispered and nudged her arm, feeling guilty for waking her. “We have to go.”
“Just a few minutes more, Mum.”
“Mum?” He pushed her arm again and her eyes opened.
She lay there for a few seconds and then groggily looked up at him. “I was having a really good dream.”
“Tell me about it later. We have to move.”
A frown creased her dirty brow and she yawned. Veiron moved his thigh out from beneath her and her head hit the dirt.
“Ow.” She rubbed the side of her head and pushed herself up onto her knees, looking more alert now. “Did the bad guys find us?”
Veiron nodded. “They will soon. I’ll carry you. We can head for the nearest gate.”
“I thought that was a day away?” She crawled forwards and Veiron turned away so he wasn’t tempted to look down her black tank top at her breasts.
He reached the ledge, stood and offered his hand to her. “The gate we should have exited through is... but this is an emergency.”
She slipped her hand into his and he pulled her onto her feet and then straight up into his arms. He set her down again.
“You’re not carrying me?” she said with a sleepy frown.
“I am but I can’t run with you like this.” He unbuckled the straps of his scabbard and let the sword fall into the cave. Erin rubbed her eyes.
“Don’t you need that?” She nudged the discarded sword with her bandaged foot. “How are you meant to fight without it?”
“I’ll think of a way but I’m not planning on this coming down to a fight.” Because that would be a very bad idea. He didn’t want Erin anywhere near a fight with one of his kind, let alone three of them. Even if he had his sword, he would still lose control if anyone went after her and then she would see him for what he was.
Erin picked up the scabbard and struggled with it, trying to get the straps on over her arms.
“What are you doing?”
“Arming myself. I don’t have fancy powers.” She managed to get one strap around her shoulder and started on the other.
Veiron didn’t have time for this, but arguing with her would probably take longer than strapping the damn sword to her back. He tugged the straps until they were tight and the sword lay flat against her back, and buckled them. The sword was almost as tall as she was. She didn’t have a snowball’s chance in Hell of wielding a blade this size but the steely glint in her amber eyes said that if it came to a fight, she was damn well going to try. He had to admire her tenacity.
He crouched with his back to her. The moment she lifted her right leg, he grabbed her under her thigh and swung her up onto his back. She slipped her arms around his neck, her supple body pressing into his back, and sighed right into his ear.
This was fast becoming a day full of grand mistakes. He had thought that she would wreak less havoc if he carried her on his back, not more. The way she pressed into him and the feel of her inner thighs against his hips and her arms around his neck had him thinking about her in a reversed position, against his front, and naked. He growled at the thought of sliding his cock in and out of her hot sheath, her breathy moans in his ear and body trembling with pleasure.
“Veiron?” she murmured.
Veiron struggled to clear the image of making love to her from his head.
Something shrieked in the distance.
That did it.
He bolted up the slope to the path, clutching Erin’s hot soft thighs as she clung to him for dear life. The moment he hit the flat, he broke into a sprint.
Erin moved against his back, twisting away from him.
“Veiron?” she said, a note of panic in her voice. “Can you run any faster?”
“Three of them?”
She buried her face against his back.
“No... it’s more like twenty.”
Veiron growled. Fuck it. Desperate times and all that shit. They already knew where he was. Maybe he could lose them or at least slow them down.
He released one of Erin’s thighs and held his hand out in front of him, focusing a short distance ahead. The landscape there shimmered and distorted, and then disintegrated into curling black smoke. Erin’s arms tightened to a death grip on his throat that choked him.
“What the hell is that?” she shrieked close to his ear.
Veiron grinned as the portal erupted into fierce white flames.
“Our ticket out of here.”
CHAPTER 7
Erin had screamed at the top of her lungs from the moment Veiron had leapt headlong into a flaming vortex until they had exited it in another area of Hel
l. He hadn’t stopped there. He had produced another wall that had the look of a painful death if you made even the slightest mistake and leapt straight into that one. They had done the sickening jump several times and had eventually ended up next to another of the small groups of buildings that were scattered around the black and fiery landscape of Hell.
Veiron didn’t make another vortex this time. He ran with her through the village, heading up a winding wide road that led towards a plateau that had a sheer drop into the buildings on the left and a huge wall on the right.
Erin felt sick.
With all the jumping from one place to another and the fear that churned her stomach to acid, she was close to throwing up all over Veiron. She didn’t think he would appreciate it.
He set her down on the wide ledge that overlooked the village and walked towards a huge stone arch cut into the sheer black wall that rose up into the endless darkness above her.
“Is this a gate?” she said, unwilling to let herself believe that she was this close to freedom until Veiron confirmed it.
He nodded. Erin’s knees weakened. Veiron was there before they gave out, his arm around her waist, holding her steady. She cursed herself for looking so weak in front of him and clutched his biceps, breathing slowly to calm her feelings. A gate. She couldn’t believe it. She had thought her nightmare would never end and now she was on the verge of escaping Hell.
Erin slowly raised her eyes to meet Veiron’s dark ones, waiting for him to call her weak again. He didn’t. His expression remained soft but intense, edged with warmth that sent her temperature rising and tempted her to drop her gaze to his mouth, lift her lips to his and kiss him.
“It isn’t the gate we were supposed to use. Your sister isn’t on the other side.” His deep voice sent her insides trembling and increased the temptation to look at his mouth.
“Why can’t you zap us to that gate?”
He shook his head, released her waist, and a solemn look entered his eyes. “Amelia and Marcus are waiting there. If I teleport to that gate, then I’ll be leading the Devil’s army straight to her location. I came here to save you so the Devil wouldn’t find her, so he couldn’t kill her.”
“I get it.” Erin took his hand, marvelling at how small it made hers look, and squeezed it to let him know he didn’t need to explain. She understood. If they went to that gate, the demons would follow them and find Amelia. She would have to wait to see her sister again.
She stroked her thumb along the length of his. Maybe waiting wouldn’t be such a bad thing, if Veiron stayed with her until he reunited her with Amelia. Erin could certainly think of some delicious ways to pass the time. Would he stay with her? His mission had been to free her from Hell. When they reached her world, that mission would be over. Wouldn’t it?
“What happens when we go through the gate?” she said, struggling to get her voice above a whisper when fear of his answer squeezed her heart.
He glanced down at their joined hands, and then back into her eyes.
“When we reach the other side, we can’t stop running. Hopping around might have thrown them off my scent for now, but it won’t take them long to discover which gate we used. They will come after us.” Veiron led her towards the huge stone arch. Liquid darkness filled it, inky and rippling, reflecting the fires of Hell that glowed behind her. “I will find a way to get you safely to Amelia.”
Erin nodded and took comfort from his words. He was going to stay with her and help her and she was glad because she wasn’t ready to say goodbye to him yet. The more time she spent with Veiron, the more she wanted to get to know him and unlock his secrets. He had risked everything to help her escape, had revealed himself by using his powers and placed himself in danger. She was grateful to him for that, but it wasn’t the reason she wanted to kiss him as she looked up at him, lost in his dark eyes.
He had tasted so good in her dream, had felt so good as he moved above her, his eyes locked on hers, body gliding in and out, taking her to Heaven.
He scared her but he fascinated her too, and spoke to everything that was woman inside her. He was lethal beauty and deadly grace, vicious yet tender, a world of contradictions wrapped in a body that was all honed muscle and masculine strength. A body she wanted to touch and a soul she wanted to taste in a passionate kiss that she knew would ruin her to all other men.
Veiron’s hand shifted. “Take a deep breath.”
Erin did, but purely because it hitched when his long fingers entwined with hers, locking their hands tightly together.
He stepped into the wobbling wall of black and slowly disappeared, swallowed by it. Erin followed him, their linked hands disappearing first and her arm following it. The inky liquid was hot against her skin. She sucked in another sharp breath, closed her eyes and stepped into the gate.
Cool air froze her bare skin.
“You can open your eyes now.” Veiron’s deep voice curled around her, chasing the chill away.
Erin slowly opened her eyes and couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
London.
She would recognise this city anywhere.
Home.
She stared out from the mouth of a narrow alley at the mixture of building styles that lined Oxford Street, the wintry cold night lost on her as the sight of her city warmed her. White lights twinkled in the leafless trees dotted along the pavements and decorations hung from lampposts that stood on small islands in the centre of the road. Shop windows declared fantastic savings in the Boxing Day sales.
When she had been taken to Hell, it had been early November. How long had she been gone?
Erin stepped out onto the wide path that lined the street and then looked back at Veiron.
“Time moves strangely in Hell,” he said as though he had read her thoughts.
A passing group of men raked confused but hungry eyes over her and then raised their eyebrows at Veiron. The chill came back, numbing her bare legs and arms. Veiron didn’t seem to notice the cold.
Erin looked over her shoulder at the men just as they looked back at her. Their eyes widened when they saw the sword strapped to her back.
“We should keep moving,” Veiron said and before she could agree, he scooped her up into his arms.
Erin couldn’t stop herself from snuggling into him, as close to his chest as she could get. He was warm, radiating heat that kept the chill off her exposed skin and she liked it. He held her close to him and strode down a side street, heading away from the main road and into the heart of the Soho district.
“Where are we going?” she said and looked up at him, studying his focused expression. He had looked stern enough when they had been in Hell. He looked even more alert now and something told her that it wasn’t because he was waiting for the demons to find them again. Didn’t he like it on Earth? “We could go to my place and I could get some clothes.”
That got his attention. He looked down at her, eyes black in the low light from the streetlamps. She didn’t need to see them clearly to feel the heat of his gaze and she didn’t hide her desire from him. Getting clothes wasn’t the only reason she wanted to convince him to come back to her loft apartment. In fact, they were last on the list of things she wanted to do when she got there. Number one was getting naked. Number two was getting Veiron naked. Three would take them to the shower under the pretence of getting the ash of Hell off their skin. Four would lead that passion party into the bedroom. Five was getting fresh clothes on her body, preferably the morning after a marathon lovemaking session with the sexy hunk of fallen angel who had his arms wrapped tightly around her.
“No way,” he grumbled and strode on as though she had never mentioned hitting her place or suggested with a wicked smile that she would make it worth his while.
Erin blew out a sigh. How could someone so good-looking be so damn stubborn? He was fallen so he couldn’t pull the virtuous thing. Surely all those morals and things people associated with angels had burned to ashes during his time in Hell?
&
nbsp; “So where are we going?” she said and he turned down another side street, a darker one this time that had her edging closer to him. His legs hit the sword strapped to her back whenever he took a step. He wanted to avoid the bad guys but it would be the police they would have to avoid if many more people saw her walking around with a huge sword. Or being carried around anyway.
By a bare-chested dark beauty.
Her toes curled and warmth purred through her. Damn, there had to be a way to convince Veiron that hitting her place would be a really great thing.
“Veiron?” she said.
“No. Remember what happened the last time you were there? They will be monitoring your apartment.”
When he put it like that.
“Will I at least be able to get some clothes where we’re going? And some food and water? Basic necessities?” she snapped and his dark gaze fell to her bare legs, slid slowly over their lengths until they reached her bandaged feet, and then raked back up, lingering on her sleep shorts and top.
“I will do all I can.” He didn’t sound very inclined to make a sincere effort.
Erin supposed that should please her. Veiron liked her scantily clad, and freezing. It was one thing dressing like this in Hell, where it was warm and dry, but completely another when wandering around the streets of London in the middle of a cold damp winter.
“Thank you... and again, where are you taking me?”
He grinned down at her, pure sex and sin. “Cloud Nine.”
Now that was a look she liked on him and a place she would gladly let him take her.
He picked up the pace, passing several clubs and bars where patrons spilled out onto the streets despite the frigid weather. They gained a few curious looks from men and women. Erin ignored them. It wasn’t every day that a sword-wielding barely-dressed woman was carried past you by a topless man with the body of a god. She would have stared too.
Her Angel: Eternal Warriors Complete Series Box Set Page 39
