Angeli Trilogy: Angeli Books 1-3

by Amy Vansant

  “It’s another saying, like the sugar thing.” She thought about Rathe talking to the man and giggled. “I can’t believe you asked that man for some sugar.”

  “You said it was something people say.”

  “Yeah but—” She felt the giggles coming on again. “Nevermind. It’s—”

  Tyannah stopped. In the woods twenty feet before them stood a girl wearing a white dress. Her pale skin glowed beneath a nest of raven hair. Her lips blazed crimson, as if she’d been playing with her mother’s makeup. The image of such sweet innocence standing alone, deep in the midnight forest, made her skin tingle.

  The girl watched them, unmoving.

  Reaching with slow deliberation, Tyannah moved her hand from Rathe’s arm to his chin, pushing it to face him forward.

  “What?”

  She kept her eyes locked on the girl. He followed her gaze and they stood silent for several more seconds.

  “Alida?” she whispered.

  She heard him exhale.

  “Yes.”

  She squinted at the girl.

  “Is she wearing cowboy boots with that fancy dress?”

  Chapter Eleven

  Anne sat in the Angeli’s great hall, waiting for Leo to collect the details of their mission. Part of her longed to be assigned to Rathe, to kill him for what he did to Michael. Part of her worried about the effect his death might have on Tyannah. The girl talked as though she had no attachment to the Cherub, but Anne could sense her confusion. Perhaps that was why the Angeli created Sentinels from a shared pool of power. So no sentinel could become attached to a maker or Angelus to a charge. Or—

  Anne felt herself blanch. If Rathe were to die, would it affect Tyannah? Were they connected?

  “Anne!”

  She turned at the sound of her name and spotted Alexander running toward her.

  “There’s a new Cherub!”

  “What? Who?”

  He reached her and stopped. “D.C. Charles. Do you know him?”

  “He’s an Angelus?”

  He nodded. “He works in Washington. Not the state—”

  “D.C. Got it. He’s dead? I thought the Angeli were hiding here?”

  He scowled. “I don’t know if hiding is the word. It’s a strategic—”

  “Yes, yes. I’m not implying you’re cowards.” Though maybe the Sentinels have been doing your dirty work for too long. “I mean why was D.C. Charles out there?”

  “He has a very high-profile job. He needed to be there.”

  Anne sighed, unable to understand the logic of enacting half a plan. If Michael was in charge—

  “I need you to kill the new Cherub that came with his death. Now is the time to strike, when it’s new and confused. If it finds one of its brethren...”

  She nodded. “Of course. I’ll get Leo—”

  “No time. He’s busy. I’ll take you.”

  Anne considered the offer. If this Angeli was once Alexander the Great, he might be a good person to have in her corner.

  “Okay. Let’s go.”

  Alexander wrapped his arms around her, and following the usual, stomach-churning turmoil, she found herself on the surface.

  “It’s there,” said Alexander, pointing.

  Anne gazed across a snowy plain. A woman stood fifty yards from them, naked in the freezing air.

  “She’s naked.”

  Alexander nodded. “See? There’s your advantage. You’re wearing clothes.”

  “But you could have told me to pack a jacket,” she said, wrapping her arms around her body.

  “Sorry about that. Shouldn’t take you long. I’ll be back to pick you up in, what? Fifteen minutes? Half an hour? I guess I can just keep an eye on her power signature.”

  Anne squinted at him. “What? Where do you think you’re going?”

  “Back to HQ.”

  “You’re not going to stay and help?”

  He glanced in the direction of the Cherub. “Eh. You’ve got it.”

  “But—”

  “Back in a bit!”

  Alexander disappeared.

  “Son of a—”

  Anne turned to where she’d seen the woman.

  She was gone.

  Anne released a small scream of frustration and whirled, searching for her foe. The whiteness of her surroundings was disorienting and both the snow fall and wind seemed to be increasing.

  “Why don’t they ever just hold—”

  The blow struck her on the back of the head and sent her sprawling. Head ringing, Anne rolled to her back expecting to find the woman standing over her.

  No one.

  A ball of ice and snow struck her in the left eye like a tiny, icy freight train.

  She screamed in shock and pain, raising her forearms in front of her face fast enough to block a second volley that nearly broke her wrist.

  She squinched her eyes against the wind and peered into the driving sleet.

  “So we’re doing this.”

  She stood and extended her aura, feeling for the Cherub’s presence. She detected a tiny disturbance to the north and blazed forth an energy sword in time to slice an advancing iceball in half. Two more came and she shattered them in midair.

  She shivered. The extreme cold made it difficult to concentrate. Had she been human, she’d be dead. Either the cold didn’t bother her opponent or she was really committed to being naked.

  Anne spotted a flash of something small and pink in the distance.

  Nipples?

  Another shower of snowballs rained upon her as she blocked one after the next. One penetrated her defenses and detonated against her rib cage.

  “You can’t just pepper me with snowballs all day!” she screamed into the rising blizzard.

  Projectiles whizzed through the air and she squatted to let them fly overhead. Staring at the snowy ground, the urge to make her own ammunition nibbled at her freezing fingers.

  “Maybe just one.”

  She formed a snowball, holding it tightly until it felt hard as a diamond, and searched for the Cherub.

  There.

  She threw the iceball and heard it strike someone with a startled yelp.

  “Take that!”

  She was so amused she didn’t see the tackle coming. What felt like a small rhinoceros slammed into her side and she grabbed for it as she fell, syphoning energy as fast as she could.

  The woman realized her mistake and struggled to escape, Anne clawing to keep a grip on cold, wet flesh.

  “Oh no you don’t, Frosty the Snowbitch,” said Anne, wrestling to maintain the upper hand. The Cherub weakened and Anne pinned her, straddling her waist. The woman stared up at her, eyes wild as a frightened horse’s, her lips blue.

  “Say hi to Michael for me,” she said, her swords firing into the woman’s pinned arms, anchoring her to the ground until she burst into a star shower of white light.

  Anne rolled on her back, chuckling, enjoying the flare of warmth generated by syphoning away the Cherub’s power. She closed her eyes.

  “Hey.”

  Someone nudged her hip and she opened her eyes. Alexander stood over her.

  “Come on. Let’s go.”

  Anne stood and brushed herself off. “What? I just obliterated a Cherub in ten minutes flat and that’s all I get?”

  “It was more like thirteen.”

  “Oh, sorry, you’re right. I’m the worst.”

  He clapped her on the back. “Nice job. Atta boy.”

  She scowled. “Cute. Thanks.”

  He was about to wrap his arms around her when she stopped him.

  “Can you tell where the Angeli are?” she asked.

  “What?”

  “The way you locate the energy signatures of the Cherubs. When Angeli return, can you tell? Did you know Leo had returned?”

  “We knew someone had returned, yes. Not that it was Leo. It’s not an exact science. For example, that Rathe guy, we can’t find him. He doesn’t show for some reason. ”

&nb
sp; “So whoever comes back after this Cherub, you’ll know someone is here?”

  “Yes. Can we go now?”

  She nodded and embraced him, giddy with the hope Michael would soon arrive.

  Chapter Twelve

  “I’ve got her,” said Rathe.

  Alida glared at them from the woods.

  Tyannah scoffed. “You can’t get her. You can’t kill her. You’re both Cherubs.”

  He shook his head. “No. But I can hold her. You do your thing. Our original plan.”

  Rathe took a deep breath and flew out to meet Alida. He was five feet away from the girl when she gripped her fists into balls and screamed at him, projecting a new burst of energy that not only stopped his progress, but sent him flying back against a tree as if he’d walked across train tracks at the most inopportune time.

  He tried to rise. Only then did he realized he was lying on the forest floor, wrapped around the trunk of a pine tree like a dog’s collar. He couldn’t feel his legs.

  Rathe shifted into his energy form and then back to human, fully healed. Alida stood in the same spot, staring at Tyannah. He flew to Tyannah’s side.

  “That sucked,” she said when he arrived.

  “Yes. I’m going to try again.”

  “Are you sure? It looked painful.”

  “It was. But yes.”

  Rathe took a deep breath and opened his red wings. He wrapped them around himself like a shield, levitated, and glided towards the young Cherub.

  “Alida, we just need to talk,” he said in his most reassuring tone.

  She remained unmoving.

  “We’re here to help you.”

  When he’d reached two car lengths from the girl, she again released a burst of energy that spun him up and away. His laser-like wings flailed out, slicing the trunk of a sizable pine.

  He fell to the ground and skittered several feet on his back. The severed pine rocked and then fell, the top fifteen feet rocketing toward his supine body. He held up his hands to prepare for the blow, but the branches tangled, hooking the tree moments before it impaled him. He opened his eyes to find it hanging several feet above him, swinging harmlessly.

  He exhaled and crawled out from beneath the suspended trunk. Alida remained unchanged, but for a smirk.

  He retreated to Tyannah.

  She sighed.

  He nodded.

  They stared at Alida.

  “She wants me,” said Tyannah.

  “She’s made it pretty apparent she doesn’t want me.”

  She licked a corner of her mouth. “That’s cool. It means I don’t need you to hold her still. She’ll come to me.”

  “I don’t know, I’m telling you, she’s like a wild demon creature.”

  Tyannah turned and stared at him, her jaw set and eyes blazing with fury. “So am I.”

  She strode forward four steps, paused, and strode back to throw her arms around him.

  “Thanks for everything.”

  Then she turned and pounded toward Alida as he stood, stunned, watching her go.

  Alida leaned forward and broke into a trot. Tyannah did the same. As the gap between them narrowed, Alida sent forth the same energy blast she’d used to send Rathe spinning.

  Tyannah stopped, braced herself, and absorbed the burst.

  “Oh, wow,” mumbled Rathe.

  Who is this beautiful creature I’ve created? And how did I do it?

  Alida stopped and they squared off again, now twenty feet apart.

  Tyannah broke into an inhuman sprint, a missile heading for the girl.

  Alida appeared too shocked to move until Tyannah knocked her down and grabbed her by the throat, syphoning her energy. Rathe could see his Sentinel glowing with new power.

  Alida spread her wings and used them to thrust upward, but Tyannah clung to her, draining. The Cherub clipped a tree to scrape away the Sentinel and Tyannah’s hold broke as she fell.

  Rathe saw his chance to help. He flew forward and caught his Sentinel, settling her and himself on a large branch several trees away from where Alida perched.

  “Thank you,” said Tyannah still flush with the energy she’d stolen from Alida. “I feel so amazing. I feel like I can fly.”

  “But you can’t. Remember that. It’s kind of important. You can only fall so many times before your body starts to complain.”

  She nodded. “Gotcha.”

  They turned their attention back to Alida.

  She was gone.

  “Where’d she go?” asked Tyannah.

  Rathe reached out with his energy, searching for her aura. “I can’t feel her.”

  “Dammit!” She slapped the branch with both hands, breaking it. They spiraled toward the ground before Rathe grabbed her, spiriting her safely to the forest floor.

  “I had her!” screamed Tyannah, the moment she found her balance.

  “I know.”

  “Do you? I mean I had her. A second more...”

  Rathe smiled, welling with pride. “I know. Why do you think she ran? It would take a lot to make that little imp run.”

  Tyannah sighed and leaned against a tree. “Now what?”

  Rathe propped against the same tree, breaking and re-breaking a twig he’d found in his hair.

  “I don’t know. I should be able to feel Alida, track her, but there’s nothing there. It’s like she’s blocking me.”

  He rolled to his left to continue his thought and found Tyannah had turned toward him as well. They faced each other, their noses nearly touching.

  “What are we going to do?” she said softly.

  Rathe felt a wave of panic; a need to safeguard Tyannah and all the insecurities that came with that protective instinct. He reached up and brushed a soft, springy curl from Tyannah face.

  “I love you,” he said.

  For a moment he was shocked to hear the words, but when he replayed the moment, he knew he meant it.

  He thought his confession would shock her, but her expression didn’t change.

  “I love you, too,” she said, taking his hand in hers.

  Oh no. She’d taken it wrong. I should have known better.

  “But,” he blurted out, pulling his hand from hers. “I, I don’t think this crush you have on me is— appropriate.”

  She retracted her neck like a turtle tucking into her shell. “What?”

  “It’s just, I’m a Cherub and you’re a Sentinel who’s switched sides—it’s so complicated—and I think of you more like—”

  “Wait.” Tyannah held aloft a palm.

  He felt his face twitch, nerves jumping. It was unsettling to tell someone who could kill you that you loved them, but not the same way they loved you.

  She reached out and he flinched.

  “What’s wrong with you?”

  “I thought you were trying to, you know,”

  “Syphon you?”

  He nodded.

  “Rathe! You’re technically my enemy now, but I could never kill you.”

  He grimaced. “Right. Because I’m stronger than you, but—”

  She laughed. “No, I could kill you. Like, if I wanted to. I’m sayin’ I couldn’t kill you because I care about you.”

  “Oh. But—”

  She put a finger over his lips to shush him.

  “But—”

  She pushed harder and he stopped trying to speak.

  She took a deep breath.

  “I love you. But like a brother.”

  “A brother? Really? Like you said back at the cabin, but for real?”

  She nodded.

  “You don’t have a crush on me?”

  “No! You’re...” She squinted one eye. “You’re not my type.”

  He put his hand on his chest. “Really? Aren’t I adorable, by human standards? I don’t look wildly dissimilar from the people in that boy-band you showed me.”

  “You are cute! It’s just...” She tilted back her head. “I never said this out loud before.”

  “What?”
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  “I, I like girls.”

  He straightened. “You do? You mean as opposed to Cherubs or as opposed to any male?”

  “Any boy. Human. Angel. Cherub.”

  “Wow. Well, you know what that means.”

  “What?”

  “It means we have even more in common now.”

  She scowled. “You’re gay, too?”

  “No. I like girls, too.”

  She laughed and threw her arms around him. He hugged her, their opposite energies creating a warm buzz between them that made him smile all the harder.

  “You know what we don’t have in common?” she said in his ear.

  “What?”

  “I sorta have a crush on Anne.”

  “What?” He pushed her to arm’s length and tried to appear as horrified as possible.

  “I know it ain’t a thing. She likes boys and she’s hundreds of years older than me and all, but someone like her. I’d like to meet someone like her. She’s strong and smart and—”

  He held his stomach. “Oh please. You’re going to make me sick.”

  She giggled. “So now what, brother Rathe?”

  “I don’t know, sister Tyannah.” He poked her with his elbow and she elbowed him back, both of them grinning to the point of shattering their faces.

  He sighed. “Well, now that we have our interpersonal relationship situated, we still find ourselves in a bit of a tickle.”

  “Huh? Oh, pickle. We’re in a pickle.”

  “Isn’t a pickle a brined cucumber?”

  “Yes. I guess. I dunno, it’s a pickle.”

  “How can we be in a food?”

  “I don’t know! You’re the one who said it!”

  “I might have read that one wrong. I’ve been reading a lot of novels, trying to improve my understanding of humans, but I confess, I don’t always understand everything.”

  “I’ve noticed. And you’re right, we’re in a lot of tickles. We didn’t catch Alida. Anne’s going to figure out I’m missing. And you’re a Cherub.”

  “What’s that mean? I’m a Cherub?”

  “The Angeli will have to kill you eventually to get all their people back.

  Rathe stalled and let the weight of her comment wash over him. She was right. He was on the wrong side. He’d lost the desire to be a Cherub and exact revenge on humans, but if he wasn’t killed, the Angeli couldn’t reestablish balance.