Summon Lyght (Archangels Creed)

by Daniels, Kenra

  "Then I'll stay somewhere nearby."

  A knock sounded at the door and Francis put his finger to his mouth in a shush. Tyler nodded.

  "It's open."

  It was Peggy. Dear God. Dressed in a perfectly fitted knee-length red dress, and red heels. Looking just like…a woman.

  Francis whistled. "Where you going sis?"

  "Looking for Tyler." She stopped before the couch where Tyler sat gawking up at her. She smiled at him with her hands on her hips, looking like a model that stepped off the cover of a magazine. "I had this…crazy dream and wanted to make sure he was…okay."

  Tyler's cheeks erupted in flames and he stole a glance at Francis to see an ohhhhhh her quirk in his brow. Shit. Was that bad? Now he knew his erection was for his sister.

  Francis patted his leg. "It's all good little brother. Very good."

  Relief flooded Tyler.

  "What's all good?"

  Tyler panicked. "I was just thinking it'd be nice to go with you guys tonight. Just to learn the ropes."

  "No, we can't." Francis stood. "My dad, remember."

  "I'll take him then. You don't really need us." Peggy sat next to Tyler and put her hand on his leg. The innocent gesture exploded his pulse like the birth of a galaxy. And not showing how it rocked him was so very hard. Harder than remaining absolutely still when that snake had found its way into his sleeping bag that one time.

  Francis sighed. "You're right. I can handle this, really. I'll take Max and Robert just to play it safe."

  "Yes. And I'll be a thought away from you if you need." She looked at Tyler. "I think this guy can handle being alone for a few minutes. If it should be necessary. Otherwise, we can think of it like a date." She giggled.

  Francis dug through the fridge. "Where will you be?"

  She grinned with excitement, holding pearly long nails toward Francis. "I saw the perfect little ice-cream parlor when scouting the neighborhood. Not too close but not too far." She hit Tyler with a direct gaze and he felt it melting the common sense right from him.

  He gave this weird swirl of his head, trying to say yes while not appear too eager.

  "Are you okay?" She tilted her head at him with a half-smile.

  "He's ecstatic. I think he'd love nothing more than to go on…" Francis looked at Tyler's wide eyes. "A mission. And this can be considered his first." He raised his brows looking for approval.

  "Absolutely. I'm ecstatic. To go on even a kind of mission."

  "With me." Peggy tacked that on like he'd left it out.

  "Yes." He couldn't meet her gaze. "With you. And the guys." Why couldn't he just leave it at her?

  "Good, then let's get this show on the road. You two can go now if you like. Keep your telephones on you though. I don't want to have to use any powers, remember."

  "Yes, yes." Peggy sighed. "I remember. And it's called a cell sweetie."

  Francis rolled his eyes. "I keep forgetting. It's just difficult to reconcile such a simple contraption to the vast complexity of a cell."

  Tyler laughed a little. "I never thought of it that way."

  Peggy stood and pulled Tyler up with her. "Are you ready?"

  Ready or not, here he went. "Ready."

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Francis knocked on Abigail's apartment door like a normal human would. He was early. But he'd called ahead. She'd sounded glad. "Good. That'll give us a chance to talk."

  Those words had done horrific things to Francis. What did she want to talk about?

  The sound of locks disengaging began. He liked that she had a lot of them. Smart and beautiful. And dangerous. If he weren't what he was, he'd definitely have to be more on guard.

  As he stood, he contemplated ten things at once. What was she wearing? How did she feel about him today? What did she want to talk about? Was her hair down? The door opened without hesitation and Francis' train of thought had a virtual wreck. Dear God. She wore a fitted thin white shirt with no bra and white lacey panties. Francis couldn't take his eyes from her chest. His brain insisted he take notes and confirm they were indeed as perfect as he'd recalled. Realizing how horrible his reactions was, he clenched his eyes shut. "I'm…sorry, I didn't mean to stare."

  She gave a sultry low laugh that made his manhood triple in size. "You were supposed to stare, silly. That's why I wore it."

  Francis was fully aware of what a slut was. And she was behaving a lot like one. He had to remember he couldn't be foolish and let his guard down no matter what his body said. He couldn't give himself to a woman who wasn't prepared to give herself entirely to him. Utterly and without repent.

  "It still isn't right to stare." He walked in and turned to watch her lock the many locks on the door and went back to doing what was wrong. He stared. Ruby gaze riveted to her perfect ass with the many tattoos covering her skin. More earth moving perfection. She looked over her shoulder and he jerked his head down, feeling like such a pathetic failure.

  "I'm glad you like what you see."

  "What do you want to talk about?" He kept his eyes to the floor, an uneasy feeling overtaking him. This wasn't going to end well. He didn't want to fight with her but she seemed bent on forcing him to prove himself.

  He didn't have to look to know she walked toward him with grace and dangerous purpose. "Us." She placed her hands on his abs and there was no helping it. He met her gaze.

  "What about us?"

  "Well…" She worked his red t-shirt up and stroked his waist. "Finishing what you started, for one."

  "Don't do that." Francis voice cracked with needs about to go virile.

  "Do what?" She raked her nails softly over the rough ruby cross embedded in his skin and he wondered when it had become attached to his male organ so intimately.

  He shook his head. "You know the deal."

  "I do know the deal. I dirty you. I fuck you. Remember? You fulfill your part of the deal and maybe I'll consider this love notion."

  She was lying.

  Pain sliced through Francis.

  Wait. Not entirely lying. She was deceiving him. That was a tad different. "I'm sorry. I can't."

  She snorted. "Why would I ever give my heart to a man that so easily reneges on his word?"

  He swallowed and grabbed her wrists, unable to stand her touch without tearing into her with his tongue and lips and… "Sorry sweetheart. When I agreed to fuck you, I'd assumed you weren't a slut."

  Her eyes widened but her smile said she wasn't offended at all. "That's not my fault. You should have done your homework better, baby."

  "I did my homework. And you're no slut. So, until you pay up…" He moved her hands so they brushed over his erection. "No fucking deal."

  Francis watched those pretty blue eyes fill with calculations and the air around her spike with anger. And arousal. She broke out of his hold with an easy twist of her arms, reminding him of her fighting skills.

  She yanked his shirt up and kissed the center of his chest. His air left him and she gave a soft eager moan. "You want it. So do I."

  He grabbed her hands before he succumbed to the animal taking over his cells. "Stop it. Don't make me use force."

  She looked at him, her gaze lit with desire. "Please." The word was whispered, breathless. "Make me. Touch me. I don't care how you do it or why, just touch me."

  The desperate and sincere words came with the brush of her breasts, stabbing into his will. He closed his eyes, his fingers tightening on her wrists.

  She finally jerked away and he let go of her. "So why the fuck did you even come early?"

  Francis worked to put the fires out in his pathetic body, feeling like an ant spitting on an inferno. "You said you wanted to talk."

  She looked at him like he were the dumbest person on the planet. "What is wrong with you? There's a woman wearing panties and no bra, you're not supposed to be resisting me, stupid."

  "I can't."

  "Right, right, unless I'm all yours, forever and fucking ever. I get it."

  "And marry m
e." He might as well get down to the gritty about it.

  She stared at him with raised brows before laughter exploded out of her mouth. She laughed and howled and laughed. Then she tried to catch her breath only to double over with laughter again. She apologized a few times but that ended in hysterics as well. The pain in Francis said this was not a good reaction.

  "When will the boy be here? I'll get him and go. I don't want to waste any more of your time."

  He wasn't sure if she even heard him with the racket she was making. "Oh my God, I'm sorry, it's just…your boy-scout personality is so cute and priceless. And fucking hilarious."

  Boy-scout? "If you knew the things I planned, you wouldn't be calling me a boy."

  Her laughter stopped dry and she hit him with a burning gaze. "Now you're teasing me."

  "I'm merely telling you the truth."

  "Oh right. You don't lie."

  "Never."

  She began walking around him, slowly. "Tell me."

  "Tell you what?"

  "Your plans for me."

  It's all he'd been thinking about. He'd gotten books when he realized he had no clue how to please a woman. But speed reading thirty books in three hours gave him more knowledge than he'd ever need. "No deal."

  "Why not?" Still slowly circling.

  "That is for the woman I marry."

  She bit back a smile, no doubt finding that cute. Or funny. Either didn't appeal to him at the moment. "You are dead serious, aren't you?" The observation came with her steady slow circling.

  "Are you planning to attack me?"

  "Maybe." She licked her lower lip, temptingly red. "Would you stop me?"

  "Yes."

  She snickered and kept walking, but Francis felt the air thicken with the unspoken threat. And lust. And passion. He loved all of it, sorry to say.

  "You must be out of your fucking mind to think I'd marry you. What planet do you hail from? Not this one, that's for damn sure." She snorted, seeming to get more pissed by the second. "The last time a man who tried to make me do anything for what I wanted lost quite a few limbs. And all the blood in his body." She stopped a few feet from him. "After I took his heart."

  Ruby flooded Francis' muscles at the look in her eyes. She launched at him and there was two options. Jump out of the way, or catch her. He caught her.

  Tragic mistake.

  Her legs wrapped him hard and her lips were on his with say no and I'll bite it off persuasion. Desire and shock hit him in lethal amounts and his hands set out to remove her but ended up devouring her instead.

  "Francis." She moaned. "I need you."

  Francis was doomed. Lost in the feel of muscle and soft skin, in the feel of her aggressive tongue along his, in the firm grip of her fingers along his face. Those ideas he'd burned with lit him on fire and his body began to engage, fingers latching into her hair tight.

  When she gasped into his mouth, he knew his studies were on target. He pulled her head back and opened his mouth to devour that lovely neck.

  His salvation came with the soft knock at the door. His body swore and his mind rejoiced as he helped her down.

  Winded, she grabbed his painful erection and stroked him. The groan he heard didn't sound anything like him. "You are so easy," she whispered.

  Francis suddenly felt like the most incompetent, depraved being alive. He'd just done exactly as she was accustomed to men doing. Way to show her he was different and that she was special to him. That was the whole problem. She was everything to him. "It won't happen again."

  "Yes it will." She glided toward the door.

  "Aren't you getting dressed?" The idea of another male seeing her turned his ruby up to an eye gouging volume.

  Her hand on the first lock, she stared at him over her shoulder like he were out of his mind. Then she gave a slight smile. "You're right. This isn't very modest." She slid her finger along the back edge of her lace panties and tugged a little. "There."

  Francis muscles tensed as she unlocked the door. It wasn't until she was on the last lock that he sensed it.

  So did Abigail. She spun with wide eyes and ran toward him, horror in her face. Time seemed to slow to a third its speed as the air rocked with an explosion, sending Abigail slamming into his body and throwing both of them.

  Oh God. She lay limp on top of him against the far wall, the weight of a dead doll. Gunfire erupted and he threw up a ruby wall and encased her with a protective covering of it. He quickly checked for life at her vital points. None.

  Panic exploded through him, sending his sanity through the roof along with his ruby power. Max, Max! Robert! Peggy!

  Francis didn't think about the racket created in the spiritual realm as he stood and slammed his palms together. A wave of ruby power shot forth and obliterated the wall where the danger originated.

  The innocent.

  He threw up his hands and froze the explosion at the adjoining walls then spun for Abigail. He scooped her up, flashed her to the compound and gave the order for Max and Robert to clean his mess.

  The second he landed, he yelled like a mad man. "Farechtera! Farechtera!"

  The doctor appeared and rushed to him. "A human? Status."

  "She's-she's not breathing. I can't find a pulse. She's not breathing."

  The doctor slid his hands over her body rapidly. "Primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary injuries." He looked at Francis. "What did this?"

  "Gunpowder. Explosive forms, can you help her?"

  "I can. But the question is, am I supposed to? Where is her angel?"

  Francis drew a solid blank.

  "He's outside the compound perimeters." Maxwell appeared and knelt at his side. "Following the no entry rules."

  Francis shook his head staring at Abigail's soft skin that seemed to be turning paler. Dead. She was dead.

  "I need to act quickly if I am going to resuscitate." The doc's movements over her continued, swift and terse. "Find him. Find out what her spiritual status is, how much mercy is left, faith levels, family, every detail. Now."

  Maxwell flashed out without a word and Francis pulled her into his arms and held her while praying. Please hurry.

  When his brother returned, Francis stomach tightened at the grave twist in his handsome face. "She's running on fumes. But the last good deed she did saved her ass."

  Hope filled him. That's right. "She saved the boy."

  "No." Maxwell shook his head. "The boy helped but it still wasn't enough. The blast. Her intention was to protect you. She shielded you with her own life."

  Tears filled his eyes and he gasped, pulling her face to his. "Then you can help her," he whispered to the doc.

  "The second you give me space to work."

  Francis couldn't lay her on the floor fast enough.

  Thank you God.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Damn, this was stupid. Tyler hovered next to the cement wall feeling like a ball rolling along on a string, constantly falling off. Why was it so difficult to navigate out here? When he exited his body, the pull from the monster vortex all around him became extra strong, telling him this was a stupid idea. There was a component to this trick he wasn't aware of. He'd just be extra careful. No way could he chicken out if he was going to be any damn use besides giving warriors somebody to babysit.

  He'd extracted the coordinates to Abigail's apartment from Peggy quite nonchalantly and easily. He hated to do it with the intentions he had. Especially after she'd been so sweet. Even gave him a present. A white leather wallet with the gang's symbol on it. A way to belong without advertising it to the bad guys she said. The lettering was metallic and when he asked about it, she said she'd done it with her mercury. Because he was hers. She said it in a jokingly possessive way, but Tyler had grinned with an "Okay." He hoped she realized he was more than good with being hers. He loved that she thought about his feelings. She was very intuitive about that kind of stuff for a new human girl. She'd done her homework well.

  Guilt plagued him. He'd lied
so much to her in that one damn date. Not out-right lies, all lies of omission pretty much. But they stung his conscience like the sin of murder where she was concerned. She'd gotten the 911 text from Max, and he told his last lie, 'I'll be fine here. Go."

  And really, he wouldn't have followed had it not been for the look in her eyes. She was afraid. What if they got in trouble? What if they needed help? Not that he could do anything, but he could report what was going on. At least. Or be decoy. Distraction. Something. And maybe find out as much info as he could while he was at it. He wasn't going to be foolish about it. He'd hidden his body well beneath the stairwell in a rundown building. Then he went projecting. Nothing to it. Like going hunting. Or fishing. Only, going projecting. Fishing for details. Catching some wild game.

  He finally made it to the building leading to Abigail's apartment. Gunpowder hung in the air and he tensed. He remained still, listening. Low chatter rose out of the night from his right. He listened closer. An explosion…red light….screams….gunfire….

  Shit. What had happened? Whatever it was, it was over.

  Pain shot through his back and Tyler gasped, zapping his spirit back to his body. He grabbed his head while being dragged. "What do we have here?"

  Shit. Shit, shit, shit.

  They jerked him around and shoved him to the floor then he bit back a scream when a knee crushed his spine between his shoulder blades. They dug through his pockets. "Let's see what kind of goodies our little trespasser is carrying." Tyler didn't struggle. He'd learned in training to wait for his moment to escape in situations like this. A thousand times he'd mentally replay how they'd managed to snag him the first time around and he'd devise a plan to not let that happen again. He needed to just wait for the opportunity. It would come.

  "Fancy wallet you got here." Heavy breathing. "Check what he's got for us Burger."

  Tyler waited for him to find it empty.

  "Pfft," preceded a hard kick in his ribs. The crack came with Tyler's choked scream. He fought to stay completely aware, not to miss his escape window. They were too brief, sometimes only a second. Gasping for air, he moaned and squirmed through the agony that seemed to only spread like fire in his body. "Pretty wallet ain't got shit in it. Figgers."