by Vivian Wood
“My mother told me not to talk to strangers,” she said, glancing around.
For the plan to work, she needed Armeros to arrive and challenge Belial. Since apparently the angel couldn’t be bothered to be on time, she’d need to stall for a few moments.
“Ah, speaking of your family,” Belial said. He strolled in a circle around her, forcing her to keep turning so as not to give him her back. “I heard about your little adventure at Aragoth’s. Nasty business, slaying a demon that big.”
“I wouldn’t know,” she said.
“Oh, come now,” he sighed. “There’s really no need for games. Lies are my area of expertise, after all.”
“You still haven’t told me your name,” she said.
He smirked. “Belial. I think you might know that, though. Stella tipped me off that you’d be here, but she was a bit evasive about the details. I think she might be trying to fuck me over, but I can’t for the life of me figure out why. Why would she help you?”
“I don’t know who that is,” she lied.
“Ah ah ah! Don’t bother lying.”
A rustling sound had them both craning their heads. Armeros landed without preamble, striding straight toward Aurora.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Belial called, stopping the angel short.
Armeros looked from Belial to Aurora, then bared his teeth.
“Treasonous bitch,” the angel hissed. “I’ll strike you both dead.”
“Not if I kill you first,” Belial said, not batting an eye.
The two leaned forward ever so slightly, dark and white wings braced against the sky. Aurora only realized a moment before they moved that she should get out of their way, scrambling backward.
The angel and the Fallen collided like a thunderclap, grappling and growling before flying apart. Out of the corner of Aurora’s eye, she saw the members of her group approaching from all sides.
Kirael and Lucan moved silently, but Stella strode straight into the fray without a moment’s hesitation.
Belial saw her and went pale. “Princess.”
“Oh, Belial… I think we have some catching up to do,” Stella said, giving him a dazzlingly cruel smile. “You’ve been very, very bad—”
Stella was cut off when Armeros lunged at her, tackling her to the ground.
“Spawn of Satan!” Armeros howled.
Belial didn’t waste a single second, rising to come after Aurora. Aurora’s heart thudded and she fumbled for the orbs, but Belial was coming at her too fast.
Kirael and Ezra appeared on either side of her, and Belial slowed for a split second. Then he pivoted and went after Kirael, moving so fast that he slammed into Kirael and sent him soaring skyward over the trees.
Belial rose, shedding his jacket, and turned toward Ezra and Aurora. Across the clearing, Stella shrieked in pain and stumbled back from Armeros, a dagger through her chest.
Lucan bellowed with rage, releasing his wings. He scooped Stella up and carried her away. Armeros turned and headed for Belial with a manic grin.
Belial shifted and avoided the angel, the two circling each other like jackals, ready to go for the kill. When Armeros circled close to Aurora, he turned and ran toward her. Aurora raised her sword, thinking of how hard Armeros had hit Kirael, how easily he’d taken Stella down.
As she took her first step to strike at Armeros, defending herself from the maelstrom of flying angel, Ezra came at him from the side. Thunder cracked again, and Aurora saw the glint of swords flying.
A flash of red; someone was bleeding.
Distracted, she missed Belial’s approach. He snuck up behind her, putting a hand over her mouth and a knife to her neck.
Aurora struggled in his grasp; she’d rather die fighting than let Belial ruin her as he had done to Jackson. Belial turned, muscling her away from the scene with surprising strength.
Then he stumbled, dropping the knife. Aurora jumped away from him and spun; Armeros was bearing down on her, Belial bleeding from a dagger through the neck.
Belial gurgled and clutched at the dagger, a satisfying sight. Aurora raised her sword against Armeros’s onslaught, but again Ezra jumped in, taking the brunt of the angel’s attack.
“Orb them!” Ezra grunted. “Aurora, now!”
She ripped at the pouch, grabbing an orb and flinging it at Armeros. The angel broke from Ezra’s grip and jumped out of the way, and the orb missed Ezra by the barest inch.
Ezra jumped back as Aurora took aim. She powered the orb at Armeros with every ounce of her being, her breath catching in her throat when he flapped his wings and avoided it neatly.
She’d have to get closer. With only two orbs left, she nailed Belial as he wrenched the dagger from his neck, staggering toward Aurora with a determined expression.
With a soft puff of smoke, Belial vanished. Ezra was quick to pounce on the orb, leaving Aurora free to deal with Armeros.
Holding her last orb, she watched the angel circle her. His face was distorted with rage. He dove down toward her, then pulled up, trying to find the right angle for attack.
Ezra stumbled and fell to his knees, but Aurora couldn’t really see him; Armeros turned and turned her away, finally diving down to attack, a grin on his face as he moved in.
Aurora waited for just the right moment, then charged him, jumping to smash the orb against his feet. Armeros pulled out of the dive at the last second, cackling with glee.
Aurora’s heart shattered; without the orbs, she had nothing but her sword. Armeros rose and moved in a wide circle, giving her a fleeting moment.
She turned to find Ezra still kneeling.
“Ezra!” she called, moving toward him.
“No!” he said, holding out a hand. “Pay attention to the fight!”
Heedless, Aurora rushed to him, seeing how he pressed a hand to his side. Blood seeped through his fingers, and for a moment she thought she might begin to cry.
He was wounded, and badly… all because of her.
She took another step toward him, only to have the breath knocked from her lungs. Armeros barreled into her, brutally driving her into the ground.
Her vision swam for a moment, and she looked up to see Armeros draw his sword, looking like the cat that ate the canary.
“I have you now, you lying bitch,” Armeros hissed. “Last Null in the universe. I’m going to trap you and keep you forever… once I kill you, of course.”
Behind Armeros, Ezra dragged himself to his feet, but injured as he was he would never make it in time. Armeros brought the sword arcing down, and Aurora saw her life flash before her eyes.
A thousand things went through her mind in those seconds, but chief among them was Ezra.
I wish… she thought.
Then there was a sound unlike anything she’d ever heard. Like a hundred thousand voices calling out, like the roar of the ocean and the rumble of an earthquake, all multiplied exponentially.
CEASE.
Aurora cringed, rolling to her side to cover her ears. Armeros faltered, the blade of his sword stopping a scant two inches from Aurora’s ribs. She trembled, uncomprehending.
LEAVE HER.
Armeros was yanked backward like a puppet on strings, unable to resist the command.
KNEEL BEFORE ME, ANGEL.
Tears streamed from Aurora’s eyes, her ears ached, the air inside her ribs vibrated. Still, she couldn’t stop herself from sitting up and looking for the source of the voice.
Standing across from her was another angel, though this one was literally radiating pure white light, brightening the clearing. She could barely look at him, couldn’t make out his features, but clearly he was controlling Armeros.
The angel stalked over to Armeros, leaving Aurora to look around for Ezra. He was on his hands and knees, head hanging down.
Ignoring the angels for a moment, Aurora scurried over to Ezra.
“Hey, hey, I’m here,” she said.
Ezra dropped back to kneel, swaying a little as he looked at her. Au
rora caught him as he fell, cradling him in her lap. His eyes closed, his face pale as death itself.
“Ezra,” she said, giving him a shake. “Ezra, stay with me. Ezra?”
She glanced at the two angels, who seemed to be silently arguing.
“Ezra,” she said again. “We can go. We’re safe. Just open your eyes.”
His eyes opened a slit, and he whispered to her. “Poison. Armeros.”
“What? No, you’re… you’re immortal,” she said.
His eyes drifted shut again. “Ezra? Ezra, wake up!”
Tears pricked her eyes, and she began to panic. She shook him, even slapped him across the face, but he went still and quiet.
Sliding him onto the ground, Aurora leaned down to listen to his heart, try to hear his breathing.
“Ezra, you can’t—” she said, cupping his face. “You can’t leave. Stay with me. Stay with me, please!”
Nothing.
20
Aurora
He can’t be dead, she thought, feeling desperate.
Tears streaming down her face, she looked up to see Kirael and Lucan running toward them. Both kept glancing between Ezra and the two angels.
In a flash of light, the radiant angel waved his hand and made Armeros disappear. Aurora shot to her feet, charging toward the angel.
“FIX HIM!” she screamed, pointing at Ezra’s prone body.
The angel cocked his head, glancing around Aurora at Ezra. Moving in a blur, the angel went to crouch over Ezra, spreading his light over Ezra’s body.
Aurora, Kirael, and Lucan all stopped a few feet away, Aurora forced to shade her eyes against his brightness. She glanced at Kirael.
“Metatron,” Kirael whispered.
Aurora turned to stare at the Heavenly being. One of the highest archangels, standing right before her very eyes? It seemed impossible.
Metatron bent over Ezra, concentrating. Aurora gasped when she saw the angel thrust his hand into Ezra’s wound; his hand passed through Ezra’s flesh, ghostlike.
The angel drew his hand up, pulling a string of sticky black ooze from Ezra’s flesh and flicking it aside. The poison hissed and smoked when it hit the grass, burning a hole straight down to the dirt.
Ezra’s eyes flew open and he sucked in a great gulp of air, his head rolling to the side. Eyes searching for Aurora, his green gaze colliding with hers.
She pressed her hands to her mouth, tears pouring down her face.
Never in her life had she thought that an angel would actually deliver her a miracle instead of a death sentence. Metatron tapped Ezra’s chest, drawing his attention.
RETURN.
Though it was as ear-splittingly loud as before, Metatron’s speech lacked his earlier tone of command. The archangel raised a hand skyward.
COME HOME.
Metatron backed off a step, allowing Ezra to sit up. Ezra looked up toward Heaven for a moment, and Aurora’s breath left her in a whoosh.
Metatron was offering Ezra the unthinkable. A return to Heaven, a new start, a chance to live amongst the Heavenly Host once more.
Aurora saw Kirael go tense, agitated.
Ezra, though… Ezra looked straight over at her. He stared at her long and hard, then turned back to Metatron.
“No,” he said, quiet but firm. “Thank you.”
Metatron made a low sound, perhaps disapproval. Flapping his shining white wings, he rose into the sky. In moments, he was nothing more than a distant sparkle against the night stars, and then he was gone.
Ezra lifted a hand toward Aurora, who flung herself at him for the second time that night. He groaned, and she realized he was still wounded.
“Easy,” he said, wrapping an arm around her.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, pressing her tear-stained face against his neck.
“Nothing to be sorry for,” he said.
“Ezra, I was so stupid. I thought… I thought you’d died, and that I’d missed my chance,” she sobbed.
“Oh, Aurora,” he sighed. He kissed her temple. “I’m all right.”
“But I could’ve lost you, and I never even got to say…” she paused, hiccupped.
Ezra brushed back her hair, cupped her jaw tenderly.
“You love me,” he said.
“Y-yes!” Aurora bawled, unable to control herself.
It was like she’d turned on the faucet, releasing all she’d held back the last two years, and now she couldn’t stop any of it.
“I love you too,” Ezra said, pressing a kiss to her lips. “Although, hopefully the fact that I fought Belial and Armeros for you speaks for itself.”
“Aurora,” Kirael said gently. “You can smother him all you want back at the safe house. Right now, let Lucan and I give him a hand up. Vesper’s bringing the Range Rover around.”
Aurora stood, still shaking with the adrenaline that coursed through her veins. She tried not to get in Lucan and Kirael’s way, but she refused to be parted from Ezra on the ride home.
The second the two Fallen angels helped their friend into his bed, she practically shoved them out the door, even as she was thanking them for their help.
In short order, she had Ezra fed and bandaged, wrapped in a comforter and resting.
She showered and changed, taking a few quiet moments to thank her lucky stars. She’d almost lost Ezra today, almost lost the chance to be with the man she loved.
She wasn’t going to make that mistake again, taking him for granted, wasting another precious minute with him.
When she returned to Ezra’s bedroom in her pajamas, Ezra sat up and gave her a look.
“What?” she asked.
“Just… you,” he said.
He got out of bed, moving a bit stiffly.
“Don’t get up,” she protested. “Ezra, you’re still hurt.”
“Some things are worth a little pain,” he said, eyeing her with a distinctly carnal sort of interest.
She tipped up her face to him when he drew her closer, her heart thrumming at his closeness, the boldness of his touch. Last time they were together, she’d felt unsure, she’d held back.
Not this time.
Ezra kissed her, stealing the breath from her lungs as she clung to him, feeling every bit as desperate to reach the bedroom as he seemed. He carried her through the doorway, tumbling her onto the white-clad bed. Ezra’s body came down onto hers, his cock pressing thickly against her sex, his lips working against her own, and she groaned with the rightness of it all.
The feel of his five o’clock shadow against the sensitive skin at her neck, the nip of his teeth on her too-sensitive breast, the way he ground his erection against her damp core in slow thrusts, the feel of his work-roughened palms on her shoulders, her breasts, her hips…
Aurora writhed, working her hips against his body in an insistent rhythm, the flames of need burning high inside her, threatening to consume her if she didn’t have more of Ezra.
Her lips found the tender skin of his earlobe, and he paused for a moment to groan with pleasure. She scrabbled with the hem of his white t-shirt, carelessly ripping it as she pulled it up over his head. Her tongue traced the fine arc of his ear, dipped inside briefly before she moved to his neck, the salty musk of his skin making her moan.
She kissed his lips again, pulling back for a moment and admiring the rippling muscle of his torso. His shoulders, arms, and chest were sculpted from gloriously tanned stone, hard and hot under her hands.
Her fingers sought his waistband, unbuckling his belt and popping a button from his jeans in her greedy haste to touch him. She paused for the barest second when she realized that he wore nothing under his pants, an unexpected pleasure. He chuckled against her lips at her reaction, but the sound was cut short when she reached down and curled her fingers around the thick heat of his erection.
He groaned and thrust into her hand, the broad crown of his cock hitting her belly. She released him to push at his jeans, heedless of her nails catching the bared skin at his hips as s
he undressed him. Ezra helped her, rising for a moment to strip away his pants.
When he returned she reached for him again, but he gave her a knowing smirk and dropped lower, resting his chest on her stomach. He brushed his stubbled chin against the curve of her breast, teasing. When she arched her back in demand he kissed and nipped the flesh around her nipple, drawing out the anticipation.
Wet heat pooled between her thighs as he teased her. When he scraped his teeth over her aching nipple at last, Aurora cried out as a lash of electric current shot from her breast straight down to her clit.
“Ezra, please,” she gasped, her fingers digging into his hair. It was silky under her fingers as she gripped it to hold him in place. As he kissed her breast, his hands stripped her panties from her hips.
The damp warmth of his lips was killing her, each swipe of his tongue a torment. She ached for him, burned for him. When his fingers found the lips of her sex she thought she might cum right then and there.
“You’re so wet for me,” Ezra marveled. His kisses trailed down her ribs as two fingers dipped into her cleft, stroking from her throbbing clit to her tight entrance.
Aurora grew desperate. If she let him, he’d tease her for hours, but she needed more than that. She’d waited so long to be touched, and now she needed every bit of Ezra. She pushed at his shoulders, not satisfied with half-measures, ready for everything he had to give.
“I want to taste you,” he rumbled, a single fingertip sliding into the her slick channel, testing.
“Next time. I can’t wait anymore,” she pleaded, tightening her fingers in his hair and pulling him up to her mouth for another kiss.
He came willingly, laying the muscular length of his body over hers. Aurora cradled him with her body, wrapping her legs around his hips, feeling the steel heat of his cock against her wet, achy lips.
“Aurora,” Ezra panted, looking down at her. He slid a calloused palm from her knee to her hip, making her groan with want. Pulling back a few inches, he grasped his cock and guided the broad tip up and down her slit, gathering her wetness.
“Yes, Ezra, yes,” she insisted, bracing her hands on his shoulders, her fingertips digging into his skin.
