by Amira Rain
Delectable lips still twitching, Cole just looked at me for another moment before issuing his response. "No. Mouthy, disrespectful women don't get rewards."
Before I could respond, retort, or even blink, he gave me a firm yet painless swat on the rear, making me gasp in indignation. He then swiftly and gently pushed me into my bedroom and shut the door.
Immediately, I heard the outside lock click into place, and I pounded a fist on the door a few times, irate. "God damn you for doing all of that! God damn you for not kissing me again, for swatting my rear, and for shoving me into my room! God damn you for all of it!"
Cole's voice, deep and rich, carried through the door pretty clearly. "Did I really 'shove' you, Lauren? Really?"
"Well, then, God damn you for gently pushing me!"
"Fair enough."
"Would you gently push one of your prized birds?"
"Why would I want to gently push one of my birds?"
"I don't know...because you're crazy!"
With my wild, clumsy verbal assault having made me become breathless, I paused to take in a few lungfuls of air, realizing that I was acting crazy. I'd all but begged a man to kiss me, a man who, up until several minutes earlier, I'd suspected of being a rapist, and I was currently yelling at the top of my lungs in anger, something I hadn't done since I was probably nine. Also, I couldn't remember ever banging my fist on a door in my entire life, and now I'd done it twice in one day.
"Well, if I'm acting crazy, it's because of you!"
"Say that again, Lauren? I thought you just said a few seconds ago that I'm the crazy one. I'd gently push my own birds because of my craziness, remember?"
"Oh, just...please shut up."
He did, and I slumped against the door in my darkened bedroom, wondering just what in the hell was happening to me.
"Are you hypnotizing me with your sorcery? Is that it? Is that why I just had a temporary attack of insanity about your lips?"
"No. I don't have the supernatural ability to be able to hypnotize people...and if I did, I probably wouldn't use it often, and definitely never on you."
"You sure about that? You sure you didn't just put a hypnotizing spell on me a few minutes ago?"
Really, I couldn't think of any other explanation for what had happened to me. I'd never become as fixated on a man's lips like I just had. I'd never had an outburst of anger at a man like I just had.
"I'm sure. I did not just hypnotize you."
Suddenly feeling like every last ounce of my energy had all been spent, I remained slumped against the door and only spoke again after several long moments. "I just don't...I just don't understand you, Cole. I just don't get you."
"You don't have to. You just have to trust me until you can understand some things."
"Wrong. I believe I'm in charge of my own self. I don't have to do anything."
"Suit yourself. You don't have to trust me, then. All I can say is that things would be much easier if you did."
Confused and exhausted, I didn't respond.
After a few moments, Cole said I should probably get some sleep. "I'll see you in the morning. Good night."
"Maybe you'll see me in your dreams."
"That would be nice, but probably not. My dreams of you abruptly stopped about the time you arrived in North Haven."
Again, I didn't respond, and Cole said good night again. Right after, I heard his footsteps going up the hallway to his room, just next door.
After brushing my teeth, washing my face, and changing into pajamas, I fell into bed. Despite having slept most of the day, I was out like a light within minutes. I dreamed of Cole. Him, pulling me close, and him, cradling my face with his lips on mine and his intoxicating scent in my nostrils.
When I awoke the next morning, shortly before dawn, I felt much more clearheaded than I had the night before. Sitting up in bed with pale light filtering through the sheer curtains covering the windows, I realized that I felt in my heart that no matter how I'd first perceived Cole, and no matter how many questions I still had about some of the things he'd said to me, he really wasn't an evil, psychotic man. Getting out of bed and padding over to the bathroom, I continued along this line of thinking, having no idea that within minutes, I'd be witnessing Cole participating in a scene so horrific, violent, and inexplicable that I'd be gagging.
CHAPTER SIX
Even though it was still a bit before dawn, I felt rested and refreshed, and I didn't think I'd be able to go back to sleep; so, I brushed my teeth and washed my face, intending to peruse the bookshelf in my room and do some reading in bed until Cole came to let me out of my room, whenever that might be.
However, while I applied a few drops of moisturizer to my face, I recalled Cole's phone conversation of the night before, and my mental wheels began turning. In order to understand him better and possibly get to a place where I could trust him, I knew I needed to get a better handle on who he was as a man and an Angel leader. And maybe the best way I could do this would be to observe him when he didn't know I was doing so. Such as would be the case if I could somehow sneak out of the mansion and covertly observe whatever meeting was supposed to happen at the clearing behind the barn at dawn.
Obviously, I knew there would be a risk of me being caught and incurring Cole's wrath. At this point, though, I felt like I knew and trusted him at least enough to be reasonably certain that his wrath wouldn't include murdering me or physically hurting me in any way. Which wasn't to say that my feeling reasonably certain was anywhere near close to a hundred percent certain, but reasonably was enough to give me a bit of confidence. It was also enough to make me think that the possible benefit I might get from secretly observing Cole outweighed the risk of getting caught.
While I hastily got dressed, I considered the fact that the area around the mansion seemed to be heavily wooded, which of course might allow me to slip back to the barn unseen and remain unseen while I got a look at whatever was going to take place in the clearing. However, I only knew that the area around the house seemed to be heavily wooded, because I hadn't been able to see it during the daytime. Peering through a window on my way out of the bathroom, though, I'd been able to see the dark outlines of numerous trees in the grayish predawn gloom.
During my peek out the window, I'd also given the window a little tug upward to see if it was locked, magically or otherwise, and I'd found that it wasn't. I figured I'd just be able to climb on out, tiptoe my way around the mansion to the backyard, hopefully getting some cover from the trees, then make my way to the barn the same way. Then, depending on the landscape and the availability of hiding spots, I could either observe from the side of the barn or inside it. Even if it was newly-built, which I was guessing it was, I figured it had to have at least a few tiny cracks or holes in it somewhere, through which I might be able to see through to the clearing.
By the time I'd finished dressing and putting on my shoes, I realized that I'd already made up my mind, maybe even the moment the idea had occurred to me. I was going to do a bit of spying on Cole. I was going to try to see who he really was. Figuring that the worst he'd do would be to confine me to my room, which of course he'd already done, I opened one of the windows slowly and soundlessly, then did the same to the screen, mindful that Cole's bedroom was right next door, and it was possible he hadn't left the house yet. The last thing I wanted to do was get caught before I'd even had a chance to see anything, or before I'd even made it out of the house.
Actually getting out of the window turned out to be a little trickier than opening it had been. With the sill a little higher than my waist, about at rib level, I had to jump to support my weight atop it, trying to stifle the quietest little grunt. Then, with the wooden lip of the sill digging into my hands, I lifted one leg up and over, so that I was momentarily straddling the sill, then hiked the other leg up and over and jumped to the ground outside in one swift motion. That was when I realized that my momentary straddling of the sill hadn't been exactly painless, and that I might
end up developing a slight bruise in a pretty intimate area. Soundlessly sucking in air through my teeth, I squeezed my thighs together, trying to make a fairly sharp pain between them abate.
To my relief, I saw that the front yard was indeed heavily wooded, and I assumed the back yard would be, too. Also, tall pockets of fog dotted the yard as far as I could see, and I knew these could help me remain hidden on my journey to the barn. So far, the universe seemed to be cooperating with my plan to spy on Cole.
Making my way around to the back of the house was a pretty easy endeavor, and I did it quickly, moving through copses of trees and pockets of thick mist. The backyard was even more heavily wooded than the front, and it was no problem for me to quickly continue on to the large, boxy structure I saw in the distance. I still stuck very closely to the trees and the mist, though, aware that Cole, the person he was meeting, and others could also be making their way to the barn at any moment.
It was only when I reached the large gray barn that I realized that if he came to his meeting in wolf form, Cole might be able to detect the scent of a human somewhere nearby, which might cause him to investigate and find me. I knew just from what I'd heard briefly living among the lions of North Haven that shifters possessed a slightly keener sense of smell as compared to other non-shifter animals. And being that Cole was some kind of a special Angel-shifter hybrid, I knew it was possible that he might even possess a keener sense of smell than regular shifters did. Undeterred, because I figured he probably wouldn't be close enough to pick up my scent, I slipped into the barn through a half-ajar, wide, sliding wooden door, intending to look for any cracks I could peer through to the clearing. If I couldn't find any, I was going to slip back out of the barn and look for a thick copse of trees I might hide behind at the edge of the clearing.
Being that it was still a bit before dawn, the sky was lightening, but it wasn't very bright yet, making the interior of the barn nearly dark as night, even with the half-ajar door and some kind of a vent or a window high up on one end. I was glad for this darkness, though, because it allowed me to easily spot little gaps in the wooden walls, and I immediately spotted several. In silence that was more comforting than eerie, I crept across the dirt floor to one of the cracks, then stepped up on what appeared to be white marble slabs to look through it. And to my extreme happiness, the crack was just wide enough for me to have a perfect one-eyed view of the entire clearing to the north of the barn. However, it seemed that I was a little too early to see anything other than low grass, patches of dirt, and numerous clusters of pale purple wildflowers. The clearing was empty, of shifters and sorcerers, anyway.
Not bothered in the least, because I figured it was probably better that I'd arrived early rather than late, I turned my focus back to the interior of the barn. Once my eyes had adjusted to the dimness after several moments, I saw that what I was standing on was indeed white marble, and the outline of a few additional large white slabs in one corner of the barn told me that this was probably less of an agricultural-type barn and more a large building supply storage unit. As the sun began to rise with its bright orange rays slanting through the circular vent or window or whatever it was on one end of the barn, I could see other building supplies as well, such as sheets of what appeared to be drywall, and even a smallish backhoe parked against one wall.
After not really seeing anything else of much interest, I turned back to the crack in the wall and startled a bit, seeing movement out in the clearing, maybe not even thirty feet away from the barn. This was just a bit closer than I'd anticipated Cole's mysterious meeting would be taking place. This was fine with me, though. I'd wanted to have a good view of whatever was going to be taking place, and it looked as if I was going to be getting it.
A few wolves were congregating out in the clearing, their glowing red eyes telling me that these were shifters who'd been enchanted upon signing up to fight for the Angels. A sorcerer was among this group as well, his body already glowing with faint silvery light, indicating that he was passing from human form to full Angel form. His eyes were beginning to glow red as well.
Within seconds, another Angel emerged from the trees and stepped into the clearing, and I saw with a little jolt that this Angel was Cole. Almost demonic-looking with his glowing red eyes and dark hair, he was nearly in full Angel form, black-booted feet beginning to lift off the ground, a bizarre, otherworldly sight. During the battle when I'd been kidnapped, this sight had even distracted me from the fight a bit at times, even though I'd been told about how Angels moved and had thought I'd been prepared for it. But just the same, I'd found the sight of men walking and running with superhuman speed, though with their feet several inches above the ground, to be a jarring one, and I still did.
Right after Cole, a few more Angels showed up, followed by at least a dozen of them all at once. And in the midst of this large group of Angels rapidly walking but with their feet moving inches above the ground, there seemed to be some sort of commotion happening. At first, I couldn't really tell what was going on, but after a few seconds, it all became clear. This group of Angels was carrying a man who was struggling to break free from their hold. He was yelling and cursing, and by the look of silvery zaps shooting into the pale pink sky periodically, it looked like he was trying to use his magic but wasn't able to shoot his zaps where he needed to in order to do any damage, I guessed because his arms were probably being held in place.
Cole was now standing silently, fiery gaze on the ground in front of him. It was here that the restrained Angel was dumped, and the rest of the Angels and the few wolf shifters present quickly fanned out to make a very wide, loose ring around Cole and the man who'd been dumped at his feet. Immediately, the man staggered up to stand, shouting something about how he wasn't going to beg. Amazingly, Cole's deep voice carried across the distance to the barn well enough so that I could hear the single word that he spoke in response.
"Good."
The man in front of him started to say something else, but Cole had already lifted a palm and now cut him off with a stunningly bright current of electricity, which hit the man squarely in the chest, sending him rocketing backward. Almost as soon as he landed, he was up again, sending return fire over to Cole. Through a large gap in the circle of Angels and shifters surrounding him, I saw him duck to avoid the zap just before it could meet its mark.
What ensued was a brief but fierce fight, with Cole maintaining the upper hand for nearly every second of it. He was actually only zapped twice, and each time, he seemed to just shake off the pain immediately, only falling to one knee for a second upon the second zap. Clearly, he was an exceptionally strong Angel, either that or his opponent was an exceptionally weak one. However, I strongly suspected the former was the case.
I really wasn't sure what was going on, other than it was clear that the man taking the supernatural beating was being punished for something. I assumed once he fell unconscious, or fell to the ground and stayed down, Cole would stop in his assault and order his men to drag the beaten man away or something. Which is why I was astonished and horrified when this finally happened, when the man went down and stayed down, groaning, that Cole didn't stop. The beaten man's groans were loud enough to reach my ears, and I could hear he was saying no more, which sent a chill dancing along my spine, because I could sense there was going to be more. And yet, I couldn't look away.
With his red eyes and silvery sheen dimming, the beaten man seemed to be slipping out of his Angel form, and whether that was because all his supernatural energy had been depleted, or he was slipping out of it voluntarily, I had no idea. Cole was also slipping out of his Angel form, and after several seconds, he looked just like he did as a normal human man. With a faint scorch mark from a zap on his left cheek, he lifted a heavy black boot and brought it down on the beaten man's head, eliciting a strangled yell from the beaten man, and a gasp from me.
Over and over again, grunting, Cole stomped the man's head, each time sending gore and jets of blood shooting in the a
ir. After the fourth or fifth stomp, the man fell silent, but Cole didn't stop, and it was only after maybe a dozen equally powerful stomps that he did. The men in a loose ring around the scene stood watching silently; I myself did the same, frozen in fear, horror and revulsion. And also maybe a little disbelief. I couldn't reconcile what I was seeing and the memory of the man who'd kissed me so tenderly just the night before. After he'd finished mercilessly stomping the Angel at his feet, Cole paused, wiping blood and gore from his face with the back of his hand, then shifted into his wolf form and immediately pounced on the unconscious man, severing his head from his body with a single snap of his mighty jaws.
Gagging, I turned from the crack in the barn wall. I'd seen enough.
*
On my way across the barn, a rustling noise made me look up, and I saw at least a dozen large black birds, hawks and falcons, sitting on the rafters above me. When I'd been looking around earlier, I'd just completely missed them, being that I hadn't been looking up. Apparently, Cole didn't keep them in any sort of cages, and they just remained in the barn anyway.
Not having any knowledge of falcons and hawks and how they behaved, I normally might have felt a little fear about continuing to cross the barn with rapid steps, thinking that one of them might swoop down and attack me or something, but at present, with my heartbeat pounding in my ears, the only thing I was afraid of was the brutal, murderous man who'd abducted me. Not caring what the hawks and falcons did, I zipped out of the barn and made a beeline for the house, knowing that the barn was blocking any view of me.
When I arrived at the house, I spotted a back door. Finding it unlocked, I darted inside, just not wanting to go through the trouble of climbing back in my bedroom window, especially since describing my current emotional state as upset would have been an understatement.
One part of me was thinking that the man Cole had killed surely had to have done something absolutely heinous in order for Cole to have so brutally executed him. But another part of me just wasn't quite sure. I thought that maybe Cole simply enjoyed killing, that it was in his very nature as an Angel. Maybe the man had only committed some minor act of disrespect against Cole, and Cole had just taken it as an opportunity to revel in his blood-lust. If so, there were obviously two very different sides of him, one side able to kiss a woman with perfect tenderness, and another side able to stomp a man into a pile of gore.
