She looked up at Marcus. He still wore his silver armour and blood had dried against his skin, flaking in places to reveal deep lacerations. He had his half-feather half-leather wings furled against his back and his twin curved silver blades hung at his hips.
“The angels took him… they… a sword… through his heart.” It killed her to say those words and Marcus’s pale blue eyes gradually widened with each one she spoke, until his expression turned to one of concern and then sorrow. No. Damn it. She wouldn’t believe that look. “Christ, Marcus… tell me he’s alive. He’s immortal… they can’t have killed him!”
He sighed, his broad chest heaving with it, shifting his silver breastplate. “I am sorry, Erin.”
“No.” Tears stung her eyes and her hands heated, skin so hot that her bones blistered. Claws scraped under her skin again and tiny horns shifted over her skull. Her fingernails ached and gums hurt. “I won’t believe you. I won’t!”
She looked to Amelia and found the same look of pity on her face, and then moved on, searching Einar’s next and then Taylor’s. Unshed tears lined Taylor’s blue eyes. Curse the half-demon for believing Marcus. He was lying. Veiron wasn’t dead.
Her strength fell away when she met the sombre blue eyes of Apollyon.
“I am afraid that even angels can die,” he said, voice deep and cold, and she hated him for it.
She shook her head.
“He can’t be dead.”
And she couldn’t be the Devil’s daughter.
She pinched herself and when that didn’t work, she clawed at her arm, desperate to wake up. It was just a vision. She would wake in Veiron’s arms and tell him everything that she had seen and they would never go to Hell again. He would be safe and they would be happy together.
He wouldn’t die.
He didn’t want to die.
Marcus bent, carefully gathered her into his arms, and carried her up the white shore towards the villa he shared with Amelia.
“What happened to you, Erin?” Amelia whispered and Erin refused to look at her or acknowledge that question. She didn’t want to tell anyone because doing so would be admitting she was the spawn of Satan and that was something she didn’t want to believe, even when the evidence crawled beneath her flesh and flowed in her blood.
She tried to push out of Marcus’s arms but he was too strong for her, his grip as unrelenting as the Devil’s had been.
When he set her down on the deck, she immediately paced away from him and Amelia, needing the space. Her eyes kept shifting across to her own villa, the one she had shared with Veiron, and she fought back her tears. Was he really gone? Now, when she needed him so much? He was the only one who would understand what she was going through. He was the only one who could understand.
She couldn’t breathe.
The thought that she might never see Veiron again cut at her, tearing through flesh and bone, cleaving her heart open.
Erin ignored everyone as they tried to comfort her. The only one who didn’t was Apollyon. His gaze tracked her back and forth across the wooden deck and she could see in his eyes that he was wise to her. He knew that something wasn’t right about her now and that it wasn’t just grief over Veiron’s death.
She wasn’t the same as she had been before heading into Hell.
She kept her eyes downcast, a need to escape his knowing stare steadily building within her. The early morning sun was warm as it lit the ocean and a strip of the beach. She wanted to walk in that sun, feeling it soothing her and restoring her hope.
Marcus slid the door to the villa open and went inside. When he came out again, he was wearing his shorts, his wings hidden. Einar and Taylor stood off to one side, Einar comforting his lover, and Erin frowned at her. How could she give up hope so easily? There was no evidence to prove that Veiron was dead. He might have survived and they might only be questioning him in Heaven, detaining him.
Couldn’t someone go to see if he was there, injured but alive?
She looked at Apollyon and then instantly looked away again when his gaze locked with hers. She couldn’t ask him anyway. Heaven wanted him dead too. What had happened to her so-called guardian angel? Had he returned to Heaven? Could he tell her if Veiron still lived?
“We need to move,” Amelia said, shattering the heavy silence.
Erin turned on her and then everyone else as they voiced their agreement.
“We can’t leave.” Erin’s pulse spiked and black desires flooded her heart, urges that she refused to acknowledge. She didn’t want to fight her friends. Violence wasn’t her style. She was an artist, for God’s sake. They were all lovers, not fighters. “I don’t want to leave. If we leave then Veiron won’t be able to find me.”
Amelia gave her a look filled with pity. “That is exactly my reason for suggesting we leave this island.”
“No. I refuse to leave. Veiron will come back. I know he will.” Erin backed off a step when Amelia moved towards her, her hand outstretched as if to comfort her.
Amelia lowered her hand and sighed. “I know you’re hurting, but we can’t stay here. Please, Erin. We must all leave this place before something terrible happens.”
Erin shook her head. “You can leave but I’m staying.”
“I won’t leave without you, and I wasn’t giving you a choice. We’re leaving. Marcus will carry Einar and I’ll carry you, and Apollyon can carry Taylor.”
Everyone nodded.
Erin didn’t. She squared up to Amelia, staring deep into her grey eyes, challenging her. The darkness writhed frantically beneath her skin. Excited by the prospect of violence? That sickened her and she wouldn’t give in to the urge. She wouldn’t. She just needed to give Amelia a piece of her mind.
“Who made you the leader, anyway? What do you know about leading anything? Jack shit, that’s what. So get the hell out of my face about leaving. Go if you want to, but I refuse to leave. I won’t give up on him!”
Her heart pounded, blood thundering in her veins and heating to boiling point. Her fingers burned and she didn’t need to look down to know that her power was leaking from her in deep crimson curls of flame. It caressed her fingertips and licked up her forearms, and for the first time, it felt comforting to feel it there, blazing within her, on her side.
She could protect herself. She didn’t need Amelia to do it for her, or anyone here.
“Amelia, just give her some time,” Einar said, always the voice of reason. She thanked him for it and for standing against Amelia with her. Would he be on her side if he knew the dirty truth about her though? She doubted it. If her secret got out, none of them would remain with her. They would want her gone and she would be alone.
Was this how Veiron felt when amongst those other than his own kind?
It was a cold, debilitating sort of feeling.
“We don’t have time.” Amelia went to grab her arm.
Erin slapped her hand away so hard that Amelia lost her balance and crashed onto the wooden deck. Was she stronger too now? Amelia looked up at her, disbelief shining in her grey eyes.
“Leave me the fuck alone.” Erin towered over her, holding her gaze, unflinching. “And you can drop the big sister act already.”
She stormed down the steps onto the beach, needing the space before she exploded and caused more harm. Her hands were hot, skin burning all over, itching with a need to unleash her power, and she feared she would lose it and succumb to the darkness inside her if she stayed around Amelia and the others.
Erin slowed when she passed the next villa. She kicked her boots off and removed her socks, leaving them on the shore, and headed further down the sand. When she reached the water, she straightened her course and followed the path she had taken with Veiron. Her heart ached but her tears no longer came. Anger burned in her, rage over what Amelia had said. She wanted them away from this island so Veiron couldn’t find her. Amelia had never liked him, had always tried to prise them apart, and she had found an opportunity to do just that. She was trying t
o separate them and Erin hated her for it. Amelia wasn’t doing it to protect her. She was doing it because it was what she had wanted from the moment she had seen Erin with Veiron.
The heat in Erin’s veins slowly subsided, draining from her chest and then down her arms with each step she took, until it finally bled from her fingers, leaving her calm and then numb. She drifted along the shore, the warm water lapping over her bare feet, unsure where she was going and knowing that at some point she would run out of beach and have to turn back.
She wished she had wings like Amelia. If she did, she would fly up to Heaven and see for herself whether Veiron was dead or alive. Either way it would end the torment of not knowing. Apollyon had only said that angels could die. A fact she had already known. It was possible that Veiron had survived and needed her help.
As the sun rose higher, the villas on the island came to life, people opening the doors and heading out onto the decks and the beach. Erin walked to the strip of rocks that speared out into the ocean and sat on a large flat one, staring back along the shore towards the villa where the others awaited her and beyond it to the one she had shared with Veiron.
A couple came out onto the deck of the villa nearest her and glanced her way. Erin looked down at her chest and the dried blood there. If people saw her like this, they would ask questions. She removed her tattered black top to reveal her bikini and frowned. There was no blood on her chest, but there was a scar between her breasts, a single vertical line, as though the sword that had pierced Veiron’s chest had pierced hers too.
Erin touched it, her thoughts with him and everything that had happened. It all seemed like a terrible nightmare when it had once been the sweetest dream. It was so hard to process the events and revelations of the past twenty-four hours. They threatened to overwhelm her whenever she tried, made her want to bury her face in her knees and hide there until the world no longer existed.
She wrapped her arms around her knees and hugged them to her chest. Her hair fluttered forwards in the cool morning breeze that blew against her back and she frowned and raised one hand, catching the strands that made up the coloured stripe down one side of her black bob. It was supposed to be lilac.
Now it was scarlet.
As red as Veiron’s hair.
Had the Devil changed it during her awakening? Had he done so to torment her with what she had lost?
She hated him. She hated everyone right now and she wasn’t sure if that feeling would pass. The darkness that flowed in her veins fed on her feelings, growing stronger whenever she felt something negative and making it difficult to let go of that emotion. She could feel it burning inside her, corrupting her, changing her. The Devil had called her compassionate and that it was a weakness and her sentimentality would be her failing. She felt as though the poison now flowing in her veins had already killed that side of her.
Families began to fill the beach, playing in the water and laughing with each other. Couples strolled along it, smiling and talking. All people who didn’t deserve to get dragged into the fight she could feel was coming.
Perhaps her compassion wasn’t dead after all, but merely numbed by everything that had happened and the changes to her that had taken place. Erin tried to shut out the darkness, the memories of the scrape of horns beneath her skin and the feeling that she held another form within her, just as Veiron did.
Veiron.
She needed to stay here and wait for him, regardless of the fact that she would place everyone in danger by doing so. The others could leave. She didn’t want to see Amelia anyway. She hated her.
Erin sighed.
She didn’t hate her.
She wanted to though. She wanted to be angry with her but she knew in her heart that she was only clinging to feelings that weren’t really hers. She wanted to blame all her pain on Amelia when in reality it was all because of the Devil.
Why had he returned her to the island?
He had sent her back for a reason. Something told her that it was because he wanted her to suffer and be alone. He wanted everyone to find out what she was and leave her, so all her ties to this world were broken and she lost hope and every shred of positive emotions she possessed. He wanted to break her and rid her of her compassion and sentimentality.
He wanted her to embrace the darkness inside her and then return to him of her own accord, accepting him as her father.
It wasn’t going to happen.
She would never do such a thing.
She would never be alone.
Erin touched the scar between her breasts and stared at it.
No matter what happened, Veiron would always be with her.
Erin sighed again. She was confused and hurt, and being alone was only worsening those feelings, allowing doubt to grow in her mind and fear to spread poisoned tendrils around her heart. She was already on her way to doing just what the Devil wanted. She couldn’t let that happen.
She stood and brushed down her backside.
She had to leave with the others.
When Veiron returned, he would find her wherever she was. He would come for her and he would be fine, and she would feel like a fool for doubting him and believing that he had been killed. Together they would laugh about how silly she had been and what a close call it was, and they would tease everyone for leading her astray.
Erin sighed. He would. They would. She was sure of it.
She tipped her head back and looked up at the endless blue sky, hoping that everyone was wrong about Veiron and that he wasn’t up there now, an angel again.
And that he hadn’t forgotten her.
CHAPTER 28
Veiron beat his wings and couldn’t contain the smile that curved his lips. Hot sun streamed down on him from high above, warming his skin, his armour and his feathers, relaxing every muscle in his body and imbuing him with a sense of peace. Endless sea stretched below him, glittering in the strong light, a beautiful reflection of the cobalt canvas above. The warm air teased his scarlet hair and flowed over his feathers, tickling them as he glided a short distance. He beat them again, a stronger flap this time, taking himself higher above the world.
It was so quiet.
He had never realised before leaving Heaven that it was noisy there. Wherever he went, there were fellow angels talking, discussing everything from their last mission to the latest inventions in the mortal realm. He didn’t miss the constant background noise. He liked this silence. It soothed him as much as the gentle wind and the warm sun.
A bubble of excitement rose up in him and popped, birthing more bubbles that widened his smile.
A tiny green dot marred the sea ahead of him, embraced by turquoise waters.
His first mission.
Veiron looked down at the guardian angel below him. The pale-haired male’s silvery-blue wings beat the air at a steady pace and his rich blue armour reflected the sun, the silver edging dazzling Veiron. Nevar had spoken barely a handful of words since their superiors had introduced them at the gates of Heaven and given them their mission.
Veiron couldn’t believe that they had sent him out on his first mission so soon after his rebirth. He had only been back for a few months and had barely completed the first round of retraining. It was unusual for Heaven to send a newly reborn angel on such an important mission too, but his superiors had told him that he was perfectly capable of handling this and that they had every faith that the mission would be a success. Pride swelled his heart and he grinned. He would prove their faith in him was correct. He would see this mission through and it would be a success.
Veiron banked left and spun in the air, rolling down in an arc until he was flying next to the angel assisting him on the mission.
Nevar didn’t even look at him. They weren’t from the same division of guardians but Veiron had expected him to be civil at the very least. The angel seemed to detest him. Veiron had questioned him during their long flight but Nevar had shrugged and said he had no reason to hate him or anyone. Maybe he just was
n’t talkative. Maybe it was because his superiors had reassigned him from another mission to this one with Veiron and he was angry about it. Either way, Veiron wasn’t going to let it get him down. This was his chance to prove himself strong and capable, worthy of his superiors’ belief in him.
“There is no sign of mortals on the island,” Nevar said, deep voice battling the wind. “We are good to go.”
Veiron nodded and swept lower, gaze scouring the white beaches skirting the small island. He spotted their target on the far side, in a curved shallow bay. She walked the shore, and she was alone.
Without a word to his companion, Veiron beat his wings and shot down. Wind buffeted him but he held his course, his wings pinned back to speed his descent. He landed hard in a crouch on the beach, sending white sand exploding upwards and shaking the island.
His target turned to face him, her short black hair swaying with the speed of her reaction. She stood before him dressed in only small black shorts and a tight t-shirt. Red flames licked over her hands. They stuttered and banked, and then died completely.
Veiron rose and straightened to his full height.
Her eyes widened, her shock rippling through him, and then tears filled them. She was afraid. Veiron smiled. This was going to be easier than he had thought.
Her hand covered her mouth.
“No… it can’t be. No!” Her fingers shook and the tears in her eyes spilled onto her cheeks.
It wasn’t fear that she felt after all. Veiron frowned, confused by the threads of emotion that he could sense in her. Her distress seemed genuine, as did her pain. It wasn’t an act, and something wasn’t right. He should only be able to sense hints of her feelings, detect them and pinpoint them. He could feel her pain. How?
It didn’t matter how. He had a mission to complete.
Veiron held his hand out and called one of his curved silver swords to him. He grasped the blue and silver hilt and swept the blade downwards, slicing through the air. Her amber eyes widened further and she took a step back.
Her Demonic Angel (Her Angel Romance Series Book 5) Page 28
