Digging down inside herself, Zara found her resolve and took hold of it, pulling it to her like it was a physical thing.
Alexandriel hovered in the air above the small street, thirty feet up, watching the woman walk. He’d only grown more concerned as she moved further from the main city streets and other mortal witnesses.
The shadows following her were Fear Hounds, minor demons that preyed on and relished mortal fear. Shifting between a shadowy, insubstantial form and the bulky, monstrous bodies they hunted prey with, the Hounds hadn’t noticed him. At first, Alexandriel hoped they followed her for the same reasons he did—the woman was an interesting specimen, with something different about her that wasn’t immediately obvious. Her aura wasn’t the overwhelming Light of a Light mage, so maybe the demons were drawn to her Dark side in the same way Alexandriel was drawn to the Light.
A quick look ahead quashed that hope.
Dark Mages.
The demons weren’t following the woman out of idle curiosity. There was a hunt on, and she was the prey. She couldn’t hear them following her, but the fear pulsing from the demons pushed her toward the waiting Dark Mages.
He watched the trap close from above, a silent observer unable to step in and make a difference. Alexandriel cursed the archangels’ rules yet again.
A mortal woman is being hunted by Dark mages and demons, and I’m forbidden from doing anything to help? How does that serve the Light?
As gut-wrenching a duty it was to watch the events unfold, Alexandriel had no other choice. He couldn’t just leave and abandon the blonde to her fate with no witnesses. And maybe, if he could find some way to…
No. If I interfere again with mortal affairs, there’s no telling what the punishment will be.
Even with minor demons on the scene, he couldn’t help. The archangels had decreed that only one of the Disgraced, the fallen angels banished along with Lucifer, justified a Guardian interceding on the Light’s behalf. He cared less and less about their rules as the Dark mages closed in on their quarry.
The trap closed on the woman, and the Fear Hounds howled in an otherworldly call, feeding off the torrent of dark emotions pouring from the target. Mortals couldn’t hear them, but they felt the effects, the heightening of fear and terror from the demons’ presence.
Alexandriel studied the two Dark mages and their auras. There was no glowing sign to identify what their specialties were, but he would bet his wings that the tall brute was a Drain mage and the bearded one was a Darkbringer. There were stereotypes for a reason, and those two checked all the boxes for their respective disciplines.
It was the perfect combination for a kidnapping, and it reinforced Alexandriel’s opinion that the victim was special.
The scene beneath him played out as he foresaw, the Darkness spreading from the Dark wielder and taking away his ability to see. The angel had other senses at his employ, and while the Darkness sapped his strength a little, it was no match for the near-boundless stores of Light inside an angel.
The woman’s life force faded as the drainer used his grip on her arm to draw it out of her. Drainers were nicknamed vampires for the effects of their abilities, although they bore little other resemblance to the mythical creatures in human stories.
Alexandriel clenched his jaw, his hand flexing, the Light roiling under the surface, begging to be called into action.
I have to do something! If the Guardians aren’t on Earth to act in just this type of scenario, then what use are we?
He ran a plan through his head. The punishment for revealing himself to a mortal would be far greater than that for destroying the attackers. He could kill the mages and demons with a blast of cleansing, holy Light in the space of a few moments. He’d wrapped himself in a curtain of overlapping magical veils—there was no risk of exposing himself to mortal eyes. He could deal with the punishment for interfering. It was worth it to save her.
Just as Alexandriel opened his hand to summon the Light, a shift in the scene below him held him back.
The Darkness held by the mage below was swept away by Light—brilliant, pure, holy Light. It streamed with a dizzying intensity from the figure of the short woman below, her entire body outlined in exquisite detail. A shock wave accompanied the burst of Light, pushing back the Dark mages and the demons but passing harmlessly through Alexandriel.
Just as quickly as it had come, it disappeared. The Darkness didn't replace it, so the normal streetlights returned to light the street below.
Alexandriel hung over the street, staring at the woman in shock for the second time that night. It was a good thing angels didn’t need to beat their wings to stay aloft—he wasn’t sure he could manage it.
Where did that come from?
She didn’t have the aura of a Light mage, but she’d summoned a more powerful blast of Light than any mage in a generation. Judging by the look on her face, it was as much of a surprise to her as it was to Alexandriel. She stared at her hands as if they’d just grown from stumps on her arms.
“What the fuck is going on?”
Her words were a bare whisper, quiet enough that only someone standing next to her could have heard—or an angel with supernatural hearing hovering overhead.
A loud growl broke the silence.
The Dark mages stood several feet away from the woman in defensive crouches. The vampire shook a smoldering hand—the one that had been holding his victim’s arm. He did not look pleased.
“You weren’t supposed to be this much trouble,” he said, glaring at the woman. “I'll make you pay for that.”
The bearded mage looked behind him. “You might not get the chance, Silas.”
The men weren’t the only ones who’d been blasted by the Light. The minor demons, until then content with remaining in the shadows and soaking up the woman’s fear as the mages toyed with her, had stalked forward from the depths of the shadows. Their mangled bodies and distorted faces featured open, slobbering snouts that formed sickening growls and grunts.
Terror filled the woman’s face as the Fear Hounds crept into the light. They normally wouldn’t expose themselves in such a way, but when the payoff was a tremendous river of the fear that sustained them, they made an exception.
Damn it. This went from bad to worse.
Alexandriel’s decision had just gotten more difficult. Was the woman still helpless? There had been such power in that blast of Light, but it didn’t look like she knew what she was doing, and the Fear Hounds drew closer.
Once more, he looked at her face, at the crystalline blue eyes that drew him. They held only terror, wide and staring at the abominations in front of her, the advancing demons.
Come on, Alexandriel thought. Save yourself. You can do it. The power is right there for the taking.
Chapter 2
The night had taken a turn from danger to the stuff of nightmares.
Zara backed up, horrified at the misshapen monsters creeping toward her. They were unlike anything she had ever seen or heard of before. At first, the dark shadows had looked like big dogs.
As they stepped into the light, her stomach dropped, recognizing that something wasn’t right before her mind could piece it together.
Where a normal dog would have a sleek, powerful body, these had so many muscles packed underneath their skin that it was stretched taut across the surface and seemed on the verge of splitting open to reveal the flesh underneath. Instead of a coat of hair over their skin, it was smooth and an oily black color. The light acted strange as it hit their skin, as if the blackness repelled the light.
Worse than the bodies and uncanny skin were the heads and faces.
Their maws, much like the way the bodies had an overabundance of muscle, were crammed with far too many teeth, to the point that the mouths couldn’t even close properly. The eyes were a dark, fierce red that glared at her with a hatred no animal should have been able to feel.
It’s like these things came straight from a special effects studio in Hollywood.
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Zara almost expected someone to step out of the shadows and tell her she’d been pranked. After all, there’s no way any of this could be real. The way everything had gone black earlier, the burst of light and energy that had erupted from her body… it was madness. Now to add in these creatures, it must be a nightmare.
Her back hit the hard brick behind her, halting her retreat.
No nightmare felt this real. The implausible felt plausible inside dreams and nightmares, but Zara knew when she was standing in the real world. And this was real.
That’s what made it so terrifying.
She could barely think over the fear or the hot flush of adrenaline that pumped into her body and screamed at her to do something—to fight or flee, to do whatever it took to preserve herself and her life.
She would gladly do anything if she knew what course of action would keep her breathing for another day.
Part of her mind worked furiously in the background. The man who’d grabbed her had shaken his hand as if he’d been burned and told her that he was going to make her pay.
She’d hurt him somehow, but how?
The Light!
She’d almost been done for when the men grabbed her. Then she’d somehow pulled at something in her mind, and a burst of Light had pushed them back.
Could she do it again?
Could she save herself by doing something she didn’t believe was possible?
The horrific hounds had pulled closer. They were taking their time, growling and snapping almost within arm’s length, as if they were enjoying this, taunting her, making her feel helpless.
Come on!
She tried to find the same place in her mind she’d used to save herself earlier, but her thoughts were so jumbled. It was impossible to focus on anything with those gaping jaws filled with teeth pacing only feet away.
And then she ran out of time.
The dogs gathered themselves and leapt for her head.
Alexandriel drew closer, hovering mere feet above the combatants.
Light crackled in his hands, sensing the enemy so close, eager to cleanse their stain from the Earth forever.
If either of the Dark mages or the Hounds looked up, they may have seen him there, a shining beacon of retribution, waiting for his moment to strike. As it was, the minions of the Darkness were too busy watching the show in front of them, relishing in the pain and terror they were causing to a mortal woman who’d done nothing wrong.
I don’t care if it’s against the rules. If she doesn’t save herself, I’ll wipe these monsters out of existence and take pleasure in doing so.
The Hounds drew closer to their target, mouths watering so much that long strings of drool hung from their teeth and trailed on the ground. It pained Alexandriel to see the woman so afraid, and he nearly spoke into her mind, telling her to fear not the forces of evil… but that would get him in more trouble than it was worth, no matter how much he yearned to touch her mind directly to get a better sense of who she was.
This is it.
The Hounds gathered themselves, and there was no answering burst of Light from the woman. Instead, she screamed and collapsed to the ground, throwing her arms up over her head to shield it from her attackers.
Stark, searing Light caught the Hounds in midair as Alexandriel loosed his holy fire upon them. The intensity of the blast disintegrated them in a single moment, their infernal bodies fading into nothingness under the judgment of the Light.
The Dark mages were stunned. Alexandriel turned the cleansing fire on them before they could even register what had just happened and think to run. The Light took them in the same way as the Hounds, tearing into the fabric of their Dark beings and severing their ties to the Earth. It was one of the few times an angel could kill a mortal—when that mortal held nothing but Darkness in their souls and was past the possibility of redemption.
It took only a few seconds for Alexandriel to finish his assault, and then he let the Light fade.
The woman lay on the ground, not moving.
Alexandriel felt a stab of worry. Had he held off too long? Or worse, had he hurt her with his Light?
But no, her life force was still strong, her aura still shining with that intensity that drew and perplexed him. She was just unconscious from taking a knock to the head in her fall, helped along by the sensory overload and sheer fright she’d been through.
Alexandriel felt guilty about that.
I could have stopped this long ago.
He’d known deep inside that it would lead to this. By the Light, he’d been ready to step in earlier until she’d blasted the attackers with her own Light.
With a quick turn and sweep with angelic senses to check for any enemies he may have missed, Alexandriel sank gracefully to the ground, alighting with a single foot before allowing gravity to exert its full force on his form.
Finally, he could get a full, uninterrupted look at this woman.
He’d been chasing her around the city for what felt like hours after she’d bumped into him, that one interaction giving him enough of a taste that he’d been hooked and desperate to find out what was so different about her.
Alexandriel knelt beside her still form, running his gaze over her face, pondering. A mortal who could call the Light but held an equal share of Darkness in her aura. It was unheard of.
She shouldn’t have drawn him so. He was an angel—his was the life of Light, the path of true righteousness in everything he did. The Darkness was antithetical to his very being, but he couldn’t deny the lure of the balance inside her.
He had little time. His use of such a large blast of judging Light would have caught Heaven's attention, and nothing he did from this point on would escape scrutiny. He’d have to leave before she woke to ensure she wouldn’t see him. Just in case, he redoubled the veils that kept him apart from the mortal world and invisible to mortal eyes.
I should leave.
He hesitated. He owed it to the woman to make sure she had sustained no lasting injuries because of his tardiness in entering the altercation.
With a sure hand, he reached to brush his fingers along her cheek. His angelic touch gave an instant diagnostic. The vampire’s drain had weakened her, and she would have a slight bump on the back of her head, but otherwise, she was in good health. He let a trickle of Light flow into her, reinvigorating her life force and encouraging her minor scrapes to close and heal.
As the transfer ended, Alexandriel hesitated, wishing he didn’t have to end the contact.
The woman’s eyes fluttered open.
He froze.
She can’t see me. I’m barely even in this plane, not to mention all the veils I’ve put up.
She smiled, and it was the first time he’d been blessed with the sight. He would treasure the memory. No matter what punishment his superiors gave him for this incident, that smile made it all worthwhile.
“You saved me.”
Zara woke on a cloud.
Her mind held echoes of a barely remembered trauma, like she’d had a bad nightmare early in the night but the details had been washed away by a pleasant dream afterward. She felt good, body and soul, and content.
It took a few moments to realize a man knelt in front of her, his finger gently brushing her cheek. It felt nice, and she smiled. She recognized the beautiful man from earlier.
He found me.
“You saved me.”
Her lips shaped the words, but her mind still hadn’t caught up. Saved her from what?
He made her feel safe and secure. There was something wrong about that. Her mother’s words bubbled through her consciousness.
You can never trust a man.
But no, that wasn’t what was wrong. There was something different, something she was forgetting…
Zara’s eyes snapped open all the way, shaking off the lazy haze that lay over her mind. She sat up and looked around. She lay on the sidewalk of the narrow side street, the same location that had set the scene for a horrible nig
htmare.
Memories rushed through her mind, terrifying images of aggressive men and monstrous dogs and Darkness. Her heart rate picked up, adrenaline releasing as her body tensed, ready to spring into action to save itself.
There was no sign of her attackers. The street stood empty under the wan light of the streetlights.
The only person with her was the man with the impossibly gorgeous face.
“Who are you?” Zara asked.
He frowned, his eyes darting back and forth between hers as though she’d said something wrong. By the time he answered, she’d begun to think he was mute.
“My name is Alexandri… call me Alex.”
His voice was a perfectly pitched tenor, the words pooling around her like liquid gold, music to the ears.
Zara looked around again. Alex made her feel safe, and the others had disappeared. In the calm and quiet of the night, it was easy to believe she’d fallen and hit her head and it had all been a crazy dream.
“What happened? The last thing I remember is falling and a bright light.”
Alex hesitated again. He couldn’t be faulted for being hasty with his words. He spoke slowly, as though he was still choosing them carefully as he went.
“I came up the street and saw you lying on the ground. There were two men approaching you, and I chased them off.”
So it hadn’t all been a nightmare. Those men had been here.
“What about the…” Zara trailed off. Could she ask about the monsters that had jumped at her? They couldn’t have been real, at least not as she remembered them. They must have been big dogs and she had let the fear make her see things. “Were there any dogs around, too?”
Alex shook his head. “No, there were no dogs here.”
I’m going crazy.
She must have gotten mugged, fallen and hit her head, and then dreamed up the other stuff. She’d been so overworked and underslept that she was operating on fumes. Random and weird dreams were nothing new to her. It was the only explanation that made sense. And the world had to make sense.
Fallen: An Angel Romance Page 2
