“Erin saw something in a vision. I need to go to Hell to see if it will come to pass and I’ll poke around while I’m down there, see if I can figure out what the Devil really wants with Erin.” The thought of leaving her didn’t sit well with him but Marcus and Amelia would protect her in his absence, and Taylor and Einar would join them soon.
“Not yet,” Marcus said and scrubbed a hand across his face. “Give her a day to settle in with Amelia again and then go if you must.”
Veiron frowned. He was sure that Amelia would prefer him out of the way given the fact that she had discovered he was intimate with her little sister. Was Marcus willing to go against the wishes of his woman for Erin’s sake or Veiron’s? He couldn’t believe it would have anything to do with him so it had to have everything to do with Erin. Veiron despised the thought of Marcus becoming protective of Erin. That was his job, not the angel’s. He couldn’t protect her from Hell though and she needed to remain here on the island, hidden from his world and that of Heaven.
“What about Heaven? If they have a guardian watching her, he will know where she is. We can’t hide her from him... and that means he knows where we are if he turns his attention back to her,” Marcus said, his face a picture of darkness as he scowled up at the blue vault above them.
“Shit... I wasn’t thinking. I should have delayed our meeting. I’m sorry... I fucked up. I just—Erin was in danger and I had to get her out of there. I thought only about the Hell’s angels and getting her to Amelia so she would be safe.”
Marcus patted Veiron’s shoulder again. “Don’t beat yourself up about it. Erin sent the angel running, so there is a chance that he is licking his wounds and will not be looking to come back down and confront her until he has more information about her and her powers from his superiors.”
“What if he gets that information... what if he tells his bosses about what happened and they send a whole bloody army to retrieve her and take her into custody for questioning?”
Marcus’s expression turned grim, his eyes brightening and swirling, rich blue puncturing the paler silver in his irises. “They took Amelia from me like that... I will not let them take Erin. With you, myself and Amelia here, and Erin exhibiting a power of her own, it would be foolish of them to try to take her from us, and it would take more than an army to achieve it.”
Dark words from a man who had once upheld everything that Heaven decreed and obeyed his master without question. The game that Heaven had played with Marcus, forcing him to do things against his will, had broken him but Amelia had given him a new life.
That same game had broken Veiron too and he hadn’t felt whole again, hadn’t truly felt anything, until Erin had entered his life and shaken his black world to the foundations and given him a new purpose and reason to end the game and seize his freedom.
“Taylor and Einar will be here in a couple of days. Once Taylor comes, I will make her send Erin to sleep so she drops off the radar.” Veiron dug his fingers into the edge of the deck. They still had to make it to then though. He wasn’t sure what would happen should the guardian angel make an appearance before they could conceal Erin’s location. It would be war. Amelia wouldn’t stand for her little sister coming under fire from the realm that had tried to force her lover, Marcus, to murder her and spill her blood. “What we really need is someone who can go up and see what’s happening up there.”
Marcus tipped his head back, the unruly waves of his short black hair brushing the nape of his neck. “Impossible. Lukas is the only angel left among us who could enter Heaven without raising suspicion and he has his hands full as far as I know. Annelie and Serenity are going through the trials.”
“They want to become immortals?” Veiron found that difficult to digest. The trials were diabolical and few survived, but they were the only way for a mortal to achieve a lifespan long enough to match an angel. If a mortal was serious about their love for an immortal, like an angel or a demon, then the temptation of the trials was probably too great to resist. Immortality and an end to their aging were the rewards if they survived.
He had always thought it was a foolish thing for a mortal to do and that the immortal they loved was cruel to ask it of them rather than convincing them to part ways and give up on their dreams of a future together. Mortals were so fragile and fleeting.
Veiron looked across at Erin, watching her talk to her sister, feeling it right down to his bones. She was mortal. He had never desired to involve himself with them before. In barely two decades, she would look so different, and he would not. She would come to despise him and what love could survive that?
The voice at the back of his mind said again that it was better to end it now, before he was in too deep to save himself. Two decades was a blip in his existence and the thought of watching Erin die, either because of old age or because she decided to face the trials and failed, was too painful to contemplate.
What future was there for them? Even if aging wasn’t an issue, he was. She tried to hold her tongue around him but she had shown the feelings for his kind that she hid in her heart, and he couldn’t blame her for hating them. Hell’s angels had abducted her, tormented her, hurt her and chased her. They deserved her wrath and her hatred.
She would always hate them.
And that meant a part of her would always hate him.
It hurt whenever she turned on him now. It would tear him apart if he let himself fall in love with her.
“We should join the females.” Marcus dropped to the sand below them.
Veiron nodded, shook away his painful thoughts, and followed him.
He would do as Marcus had asked. He would wait a day and then he would leave Erin and return to Hell.
He had to. Not to continue his mission, but to discover his fate and the truth about Erin.
She needed answers.
And he would get them for her.
CHAPTER 17
Erin had barely seen Veiron since Amelia had come in unannounced and interrupted what had promised to be another very wicked moment with her demonic angel. A moment she had needed with every ounce of her being and all of her heart.
Things had been off kilter between them since she had unleashed some sort of power on the rooftop back in London. She had tried to get it back on track, tried to shove her worries to the back of her mind, and had even tried to speak to Veiron about them a few times, but none of it had worked.
How could she have been so stupid as to say all that stuff on the boat? She hadn’t been thinking. Sometimes, it was so easy to forget that Veiron was from Hell, that he lived there and was a part of that place. She needed to start watching what she said around him or he was going to end up leaving her. Now that she was back with her sister, it was only a matter of time before Veiron made his excuses. Her heart ached at the thought of him leaving, casting aside what they had together, but her conversation with her sister had given her a clearer understanding of his reasons for trying to keep some distance between them and wanting to leave.
He had a mission, a vow to destroy the game that Heaven and Hell was playing with him, Marcus and Amelia, and to free himself of it forever.
From what Amelia had told her and what she now knew of the Devil, Erin wasn’t sure that was entirely possible. The Devil was powerful. He had killed a demonic angel right in front of her and hadn’t even broken a sweat, and the man had been strong and huge. If Veiron went after the Devil, things would end as they had in her vision, and that was something she didn’t want.
Marcus talked to Veiron at the edge of the deck of his and Amelia’s villa. It was smaller than the one she shared with Veiron but it had the same luxuries. Amelia had offered to share a dip in the hot tub with her but Erin had turned her sister down. She wanted to take a dip, just not with Amelia.
Her gaze roamed over Veiron and she made the appropriate murmurs and grunts as her sister continued to speak to her, telling her all about everything that had happened.
Marcus was good-looking, tall and
athletic, his muscles honed to the point where he looked like a fitness model on the cover of one of those health magazines in his black shorts. He wasn’t a patch on Veiron though. She loved Veiron’s dark sensuality and his possessiveness. She was sure that Marcus was just as lethal as the man stood beside him, but Veiron broadcasted danger and it drew her to him.
The only thing she didn’t like about Veiron was his mood swings. It annoyed her when he shut down his feelings around her and turned cold, especially when she was burning for him.
Veiron glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. Erin smiled at him, gaining a tight smile in return. Whatever they were talking about, it had Veiron on edge. Or maybe that was her. She hadn’t exactly started off their time on the island in a good way and she had wanted to tell him that, and apologise, but she had ended up kissing him instead. When she had tried to offer up a heartfelt apology and an explanation, it had come out sounding weak. After that, he had joked with her as though everything was fine but she had seen his playfulness for what it really was—a way of covering his hurt.
She longed to escape Amelia and take Veiron somewhere quiet so they could talk but it wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. Whenever she so much as looked at Veiron for longer than a few seconds, Amelia started reminding her that he was a Hell’s angel, as though she cared about that.
Veiron was a good man.
He had protected her, had been gentle with her for the most part, and had even saved her life.
She didn’t care what Amelia thought about him. She only cared that she was falling in love with him.
Erin turned away to talk to Amelia where she sat beside her on a reclining lounger and felt Veiron’s gaze shift to her entirely. She wanted to look at him again but settled for enjoying the feel of his eyes on her, locked and focused.
“I’m never getting used to the hair.” Erin combed her fingers through Amelia’s long silver ponytail. It was like looking at a different person. “It doesn’t suit you, you know? It’s too wild for you.”
Amelia smiled. “You’re one to talk. When did you do that to your hair?”
Erin fluffed up her own much shorter black hair. “About a year ago now. You don’t like it? Dad loves it. He says it makes me look artistic.”
“How is dad?” There was a sombre note to Amelia’s voice and it was there in her grey eyes too.
When Amelia had first told her about everything that had happened, she had felt a little jealous of her sister’s powers and the fact that she could fly. Now, Erin didn’t envy her at all. Amelia was constantly on the run with Marcus, moving from one hideaway to the next, hoping to live to see another day.
Was that how Veiron had been living since turning his back on his master and siding with the enemy?
Her gaze slid back to him. Amelia patted her knee.
“I was speaking?” she said and Erin smiled, returning her attention to her older sister.
“He’s good. I tell him whenever I hear from you. He thinks you’re off travelling, which I guess you are. It must be a nightmare.”
Amelia shrugged and cast her gaze downwards. She picked at the hem of her pale dress and sighed. “It’s been difficult. Marcus takes care of me though. I’m lucky to have him.”
As if he had heard her, Marcus looked across the deck at Amelia. Erin looked to Veiron to find him walking down the wooden steps to the beach. The sun was setting now, sinking towards the infinite horizon, and it cast warm light over him. Erin went to stand but Amelia’s hand on her arm stopped her.
“We’re still talking.”
Erin frowned at her and then at Veiron as he strolled along the shore, heading away from them. She wanted to go to him. Couldn’t her sister see that and let things be? Couldn’t she see that Erin was happy with Veiron?
Marcus dragged a chair across the deck and set it opposite her and Amelia. He sat down in it and leaned forwards, resting his elbows on his bare knees. “Veiron says that you have some powers.”
Erin swallowed. “I do. I don’t know what they are or where they came from. I had thought maybe I was like Amelia, but Veiron says that isn’t possible.”
Marcus shook his head and a lock of his dark hair fell down. He preened it back. “It isn’t possible. There was only one female angel. Veiron would know if it was any different.”
“How?” Erin said and found herself leaning forwards too. How much did Marcus know about Veiron and how much would he be willing to tell her? Taylor had told her things but nothing about his past.
Marcus looked as though he wouldn’t answer.
“Please... tell me how he would know such a thing. Is it because he’s fallen?” She reached out to touch his hand and then thought the better of it. If Amelia touched Veiron, she would probably kill her sister in a fit of jealousy. Amelia might feel just as strongly about Erin touching Marcus.
“When angels die, we are reborn in the same physical form but everything else about us is wiped clean and often our positions alter. Mine does not. Neither does Veiron’s. Whenever he dies, he’s reborn as a guardian angel.” Marcus drew in a deep breath and exhaled it on a sigh.
“You make it sound as though he dies quite often, and that he isn’t an angel when it happens.”
Marcus frowned. “Erin... whenever Veiron is reborn, he is destined to become a Hell’s angel. It is part of the game. He is the Devil’s knight... and I am God’s. It doesn’t matter what he does in his time as an angel, or how dedicated he is to his duty... he will fall.”
That was terrible. Her gaze sought and found Veiron standing on the shore with his back to her, the water lapping over his bare feet. What was he thinking as he stood there alone staring out at the ocean? Did he want her there with him, holding his hand, speaking to him? She wanted to be there with him. She wanted to hear these things from him but she knew that he would never tell her. If she asked him, he would close himself off and push her away.
“When Veiron found me in Hell, he said that Amelia couldn’t come to get me because if she died, he would die too... when I pressed him to explain that to me, he said he meant it literally.” Erin’s heart thumped and she swallowed to clear the dryness in her throat. “Is it true?”
Marcus nodded. “If Amelia were to die, then both myself and Veiron would die too. The game would be reset and because we had been reborn, we would not remember anything that had happened.”
Erin felt sick. Being reborn on death hadn’t sounded too bad but coming back into the world without knowledge or memories of things you had done in your previous life? That sounded horrible and she couldn’t stop her mind from chanting a single question.
If Veiron died, would he forget her?
Images from her nightmare flashed across her eyes. Veiron bloodied and beaten, lying broken under the Devil’s feet, watching his master as he came to end him and trying to fight for his life. Her blood sank to her toes.
Erin shot to her feet. Amelia’s hand circled her wrist and held her firm. She looked down at her sister, the low light from sunset barely illuminating her face, and silently pleaded her to stop trying to intervene in her relationship with Veiron. It wasn’t protecting her. It was just hurting her. She needed to see him. Couldn’t her sister see that? The thought of Veiron dying tore at her soul, cleaving her heart open until she felt as though she was bleeding inside, and only looking into Veiron’s eyes and hearing him tell her that everything was going to be fine would heal her.
“Amelia,” Marcus said and her sister looked across at him. Whatever look he gave her, she would have to thank him for it later, because her sister released her hand.
Erin hurried down the steps to the white sand. She had removed her boots and socks while talking to Amelia and the sand was soft between her toes, still warm from the day. The sun had set and the sky was already turning inky above her, the moon rising higher into it to shine down on the island and light her path. Erin rolled her jeans up and headed towards Veiron where he walked the shore.
He stopped as she app
roached but remained with his back to her. He must have sensed her because her footfalls were silent and she was barely breathing, her chest too tight and throat too dry.
“Veiron,” she whispered and he slowly turned to face her, his expression as dark as she had ever seen it.
“What is it?” he snarled and she froze mid-step, confused. Was he still angry because of what she had said earlier?
She took another step towards him and wasn’t sure what to say to him or where to start. The muscle in his jaw tensed and the edges of his irises burned crimson.
“Nothing,” she said and felt weaker than she had ever been. She straightened a heartbeat later and looked him in the eye. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he parroted and she frowned at him, unwilling to take that as his answer. He looked away from her, towards the sea and the dark horizon.
“You left us.”
He shrugged. “I wanted to walk... I needed some space.”
Space from her? She reached out to take his hand but he moved, angling his body so her attempt failed.
“I thought I would enjoy what little time I had here,” he said. “No offence to Marcus and Amelia, but I’m not exactly interested in going over old ground with them.”
Erin had failed to hear what he had said after his first sentence. “You’re leaving?”
Her heart pounded in her ears, loud enough to drown out the sound of the gentle waves breaking against the shore.
“I have to.”
Erin grabbed his hand this time and forced him to face her. If he was going to leave, he could at least do her the courtesy of looking her in the eye and telling her why. It wasn’t as though they were just friends. The time they had shared with each other had to mean something to him. It had to. It hadn’t just been casual sex that had meant nothing to him, or her. It had been something incredible.
“Why? Where are you going?” she said and he looked down at his feet and then finally met her gaze.
“Home.”
Erin dropped his hand, shock rippling through her. “You can’t go back there! What about what I saw?”
Her Demonic Angel (Her Angel Romance Series Book 5) Page 19
