Heart of an Angel

by Rosalie Lario

  Nothing could take this high away.

  Chapter Ten

  Silence filled the room, the emptiness of it echoing in Nate’s head. He sat up in his spacious bed and drank in the sight of the delicious creature asleep beside him. Abby’s long hair splayed around her, the rich chestnut hues contrasting with the plain white of his sheets. Seeing her lovely, heart-shaped face and the outline of her lush curves beneath the sheet caused another sliver of desire to course through his body. He tamped it back.

  After they’d made love the first time, he’d been unable to stop himself from wrapping them up in towels and carrying her to his bedroom, where he proceeded to take her all over again. But in his mind he’d known he shouldn’t.

  She’d been a virgin, for God’s sake. Untouched, and she hadn’t even bothered to tell him. He should be more upset about that than he was.

  She told you she’s loved you ever since the first time you met. You should have expected it.

  Yes, perhaps. Maybe he’d suspected it all along and had simply put it out of mind to alleviate any potential guilt over having his way with her.

  However he looked at it, the fact remained Nate had claimed her most precious gift. Surely she must expect for them to be mated for life now.

  I can’t…

  To claim her as his own, only to potentially lose her sometime in the future…that was an inconceivable thought.

  I should have been clearer of my intent.

  Hell, he should have done a lot of things.

  Yet, even though he was filled with guilt now, he couldn’t bring himself to truly regret what had happened between them. She’d given him an incredible gift. And it had been truly amazing.

  The memory of their time together might be enough to carry him through the rest of his life…however long that would be, given they were on the brink of war.

  As if giving voice to his inner fears, there was a loud knock on the door to his chambers. He glanced at Abby, who barely stirred, and rose to slip on a pair of jeans before stalking into the sitting area and opening the door.

  Seth stood on the other side, his dour expression telling Nate he wouldn’t like what the other man had to say.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “The president has made contact with Michael. He is ready to declare war on angelkind and seeks our assistance.”

  Nate’s heart gave a low, hard thump in his chest.

  “And so it begins,” he murmured.

  Seth gave a short nod.

  For better or worse, change was here.

  *****

  Somber faces lined the massive dining table in the Fallen compound. Abby’s heart stuttered as she looked around. She momentarily locked gazes with Ruby. The firm determination on the other woman’s face said it all. Like it or not, war was here, and they were all in. No matter the consequences.

  How many of us will be here tomorrow? The day after that?

  The thought filled her with bitter sorrow, especially when she glanced over at Nate. Based on the sour notes of fear, anger, and grim resolution drifting about the room, most everyone else in the room felt the same way.

  Although Nate seemed calm and collected, she sensed a niggling fear inside him. It was there in his tight jaw, in the hands that lay flat and unyielding on the hard surface of the table. Taking a deep breath, she reached over and placed one of her hands on top of his. His gave her a quick glance, and though he didn’t flip his palm to hers, his shoulders did relax.

  See? I am good for you.

  Even if the confounding man didn’t dare admit it.

  “The president has requested a conference with us,” Michael was saying to the group. “He says he will personally vouch for us after the formal declaration of war has been announced.”

  “After? Why not now?” Michael’s mate Eva asked, a note of indignation in her voice.

  “He considered requesting our presence during his official announcement of war, as a show of solidarity,” Michael said, “but reasoned it might look to humans as if we are coercing him in some way.”

  “Good point,” Ethan’s mate Tayla said. “That’s probably what I would think if I didn’t know any better.”

  Michael gave a staccato nod. “So I will leave tonight to meet with him in Washington D.C.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Seth said.

  “Me too,” Ethan supplied, without a moment’s hesitation.

  Abby started to give a sympathetic glance to Tayla, when Nate added, “As will I.”

  Her lungs closed in on her.

  “What?” she whispered.

  This time he did grasp her hand, giving it a short squeeze.

  “It is my duty, little one,” he responded in a hushed tone.

  She knew what that meant to someone like him, much as she’d like to deny it, and she couldn’t fault him for remaining true to his sense of commitment.

  Swallowing her fear, along with the plea straining to tear from her throat, she gave him a small nod. “I understand.”

  “We leave tonight, then,” Michael said.

  After a moment of silence, Seth spoke up. “The Tribunal will attack once the humans have declared war.”

  “Then we will have to be ready,” Jason supplied.

  Michael gave a somber nod before turning to Ruby. “That means changing our base to be closer to the Tribunal headquarters.”

  “The old rebel home,” Ruby murmured.

  “Exactly. It will give us the flexibility to keep an eye on the Tribunal while remaining under their very noses.”

  Abby shivered. She couldn’t deny part of her was relieved to be going back home to New York City, even if the thought of living in the old subway tunnel full-time did sort of give her the creeps.

  “We stand no chance if the humans don’t rise up against the angels,” Seth said.

  That grim pronouncement sparked a wave of unease throughout the occupants of the room.

  “Then we must do everything in our power,” Michael said, ”to ensure the president properly motivates mankind into doing so.”

  Easier said than done. But if anyone could do it, it was this group of Fallen. Abby would have faith, because the alternative was unthinkable.

  She cast a furtive glance at Nate, drinking in his strong, masculine profile, the determined jut of his jaw.

  I’ve just found you. She wasn’t about to let him go.

  And she’d spend the rest of the short time they had together showing him that very thing.

  Chapter Eleven

  Heated air from the beating of his brethren’s wings blasted Nate’s face. After a long, seemingly endless night, they were finally at their destination. And not a moment too soon. Due to the larger group’s preparations to move base to the Brooklyn tunnel, they’d gotten a later start than they’d intended. The sun would be up in just over an hour, making travel by flight too risky.

  Heavens, but it had been so hard to leave. After they’d decided upon their flight plan, he’d headed back up to his rooms, where Abby had been waiting for him. She’d barely given him a moment to breathe before jumping on him and proceeding to kiss him senseless. The round of lovemaking that had followed had bordered on desperate, as if they both feared they’d never see each other again.

  Who was he kidding? The odds were, his days were numbered. Hers as well, if she remained with the Fallen. The thought of her delicate life being snuffed out filled his stomach with lead. He’d outlived one of his mates, and he truly didn’t think he’d be able to do it again.

  My mate.

  His heart stuttered on the realization that he’d unconsciously acknowledged the very thing he’d been trying to avoid. He missed a beat, his body lurching, and he had to work double-time to steady himself.

  “You okay?” Ethan asked, gracefully floating beside him.

  “Yeah.”

  Dazed and in shock, but that wasn’t anything he cared to discuss with Ethan.

  I love Abby.

  He tested the words
in his mind, sensing the rightness of them in his gut.

  Yes, of course. He’d been a fool to think he could give himself to her, could take what she offered, without involving his heart.

  And no doubt she knew it.

  The thought filled him with bittersweet emotion. After all this time, he’d found another mate, and even though she must sense it, he’d left her without claiming her. Without admitting what she was.

  That is something I must remedy.

  And he would, as soon as their business was concluded.

  “Almost there,” Michael called.

  Minutes later the tall, stone obelisk that was the Washington Monument came into view.

  That was when he sensed it. The scratching sensation along his back that indicated the presence of another angel. Not one of their own.

  He opened his mouth to call out a warning, but the sudden collective tremor that wound through the air told him there was no need.

  More than one other angel approached, and they were coming in fast.

  “It’s a trap,” Michael yelled.

  As one, he and his brothers drew back, but before they could take more than a few beats of their wings, a group of five angels soared into sight, shooting straight for them with laser-beam focus. Their lush white wings reflected against the city lights, marking them as the enemy.

  Once Nate had thought angels’ white wings to be magnificent. Pure. Now they were just a reminder of the treachery of his own kind.

  “Too many of them,” Ethan called out.

  He was right. Five against four were never favorable odds, but especially not when they’d spent hours in flight. Their energy was half depleted.

  “Go!” Michael yelled.

  But when they turned, it was to see three more angels at their back.

  “No,” Nate whispered to himself.

  No, no, no.

  Five had been too many. Eight?

  Impossible.

  The first of the white-wings arrived, and Michael flew at him in full frontal attack, catching the enemy on the jaw with a wicked right hook. Nate had no time to admire it, though, before several more white-wings rushed in.

  Whirling, Nate caught the white-wing closest to him with an uppercut to the chin. The angel’s head snapped back, sending him flying back a few feet, but he recovered quickly and came at Nate again.

  Beating his wings hard, Nate spun into a kick that caught the white-wing right in the stomach. He crumpled with a pained oomph.

  A sharp stab of agonizing pain belted Nate in the back, where his left wing jutted out. He screamed, and a moment later a hand closed around his wing, twisting it painfully.

  Nate tried to whirl, but the figure at his back only increased the pressure, until it felt like his wing would be torn from his body. Beating wildly with his right wing, he struggled for control. But when another white-wing delivered a wicked kick to his groin, he could do nothing but double over in pain.

  No.

  Wild, desperate fear poured through Nate’s veins. This couldn’t be happening. Not now.

  He’d just found Abby. He hadn’t even had the chance to admit to her how he felt. The thought that he would never see her again, never hold her…

  It couldn’t be.

  “No,” he yelled, struggling against the steel grip on his left wing.

  A second set of hands closed over his right wing, and a tortuous rip sounded out, followed by a burst of pain so intense his vision exploded into a kaleidoscope of stars. He fought the tormenting agony, battled the burgeoning darkness that beckoned him.

  Abby…I need to…

  He couldn’t lose her now.

  With that last thought, he lost all consciousness.

  ******

  Abby was eating lunch in the imposing stone kitchen of the Fallen’s Adirondacks compound when she heard the commotion. A woman’s raised voice, coming from down the hall. Something about it gave her pause. She stopped with her hand halfway to her mouth, then slowly rose to her feet. Her turkey sandwich absently dropped from her grasp.

  Her heart gave a dull thump as she started toward the source of the sound. For some reason her feet were dragging. Dread filled her throat, making it hard to swallow.

  Something bad has happened.

  The certainty was there in her gut, in the low, persistent ache of sorrow that wound through the air. Someone was grieving, and there was a reason why.

  No, no, no.

  She followed the noise into the common living room. Lily stood by the long leather sectional, directly across from a somber Ruby. Lily’s long hair was caught up in a ponytail that shook and swayed at her exaggerated arm movements.

  She looks upset.

  For some reason that stuck out to Abby, maybe because she and her mate Seth were estranged.

  She looks upset, while Ruby is calm and collected.

  “What happened?” she forced herself to say.

  Ruby’s head turned sharply in her direction, and Abby saw that Ruby wasn’t as calm as she seemed. Like a true warrior, she had her war face on.

  “The men have been captured,” Ruby said.

  A strangled cry sounded out from across the room. Abby turned to see Tayla, who had materialized from the stairwell. Her eyes welled with tears, and she held up a fist to her mouth. “All of them?”

  “Yes,” Ruby said grimly.

  Dear God.

  The meager contents of Abby’s stomach threatened to make their way up. She swallowed hard. Forced her panic back. Losing it would do Nate no good. He needed her to be strong right now.

  She needed to be strong, because she couldn’t accept losing Nate. Not now that she’d found him once again, that he’d become hers. Whether he acknowledged it or not, Nate was her mate, and she was going to be a partner worthy of him.

  “I had Rick train a camera on the spot where they were scheduled to meet,” Ruby continued. “It caught the whole thing. They were ambushed by a group of eight angels.”

  “It was a trap,” Abby whispered.

  “Yes,” Ruby said. “The camera caught Ezekiel, one of the Tribunal members, with the president.”

  “So he’s still their prisoner,” Tayla said.

  “Or he’s been brainwashed into being one of their pawns,” Lily chimed in, an angry tremor in her voice.

  Ruby shook her head. “No, it’s worse than that.”

  “Worse?” Abby’s throat clogged with emotion. “How could it get worse?”

  “Apparently the president made a deal. He was to lure the Fallen in, and in exchange the Tribunal would spare mankind. They would officially become subservient to angels, but at least be allowed to live.”

  Abby let out the bitter laugh that bubbled in her throat. “And he believed them?”

  “Desperation turns men into blind fools,” Lily muttered.

  Ruby shrugged. “I guess he figured he had nothing to lose.”

  Her flat statement reverberated through Abby’s bones.

  He had nothing to lose. And neither do I.

  Nothing she hadn’t already lost.

  She straightened with resolve. “I’m going after them.”

  After a mere moment’s silence, Tayla nodded. “Me too.”

  “Good, we’re decided then.” Lily’s long ponytail shook as she gave a satisfied nod of her head. “I’ll go tell poor Eva and Mara. They’re in their rooms grieving Michael as if he were already dead. This may be just what they need to hear right now.”

  Abby knew exactly how Michael’s mate Eva felt right now. And she imagined his sister Mara couldn’t be feeling any better. The man they both loved was in critical danger. Maybe even hurt.

  Oh God, Nate. Please be okay.

  If Eva and Mara felt anything like Abby right now, they must be fucking terrified.

  Ruby watched Lily slip past Tayla, and then turned back to Abby. “The question is how we’re going to do this.”

  Tayla squared her shoulders and brushed the tears from her face. “Do we know where
they’re being held?”

  Ruby wearily brushed a hand over her face. “In the D.C. angel tower.”

  “I can get us in,” said another female voice.

  Abby followed the sound to the blond woman who’d just strode in from the entrance to the cave. It was Samantha, along with her mate Aaron.

  That was right. Samantha had the ability to mask her essence. But still…

  “Didn’t you trick the angels with your ability before?” Abby asked. “I can’t imagine they wouldn’t be wise to it a second time around.”

  “Then we’ll just have to make sure we surprise them,” Aaron said grimly.

  Yes they would, because the alternative was leaving her mate to the Tribunal’s mercy…and that was unthinkable.

  Chapter Twelve

  The vast exterior of the D.C. angel tower loomed in the distance, barely visible through the binoculars Abby held over her eyes. The rooftop she stood on was far enough from the tower that she was out of the angels’ radar, but that meant she couldn’t get a good glimpse of it either.

  ”You know, the odds of us all making it are pretty slim,“ Ruby’s mate Jason said grimly.

  Lily, who with her angelic super-vision could see way more than Abby, turned from her guard position long enough to shoot him a death glare. “Way to motivate them.”

  He shrugged and then exchanged a loaded glance with Ruby. “Just want to make it clear we all know what we’re up against.”

  Oh, they did.

  “Hey, at least we get a chance to test this out.” Jason’s mouth tugged upward as he lifted the torch in his hand. It was a Fallen duplication of a weapon the angels had manufactured. The specialized, fiery flames from the torch could incinerate an angel in a matter of seconds. Hopefully the duplicate the Fallen had built would hold up to the original version.

  Abby’s gaze shifted from Lily, Jason and Ruby to the rest of their group. It was a pitifully small number. Next to Jason, Mara and her mate Ben, the only other angel was Aaron. His mate Samantha was here too, since she was integral to their plan.

  Tayla and Eva had also wanted to come, but the others had overruled them. They were only half angel and therefore couldn’t fly. And unlike Samantha, who could dismantle their security system, or Ruby, who was a trained warrior, they didn’t have any skills that would come in handy here. They’d only be in the way.