Broken: (Ignite, Book 2)

by Fleur Camacho

  As he got closer, Laura took a step back to give him plenty of room to pass by. He walked past her, towards the door, and Laura breathed out a sigh of relief.

  When he reached the door, he paused and Laura stiffened. He turned around and studied Laura. His uniform was brisk and didn’t have a speck of dirt on it. She stood up straight and met his eyes. “Yes?”

  His eyes widened; he didn’t expect her to speak to him.

  “Who are you?” He looked genuinely interested.

  Laura didn’t know how to answer. “I’m Laura.”

  His lip lifted in a sneer. “I know that.”

  “Then why’d you ask?”

  “I mean, who are you? Why are you here? And why are you with him?”

  Laura glanced at Jace again; she was pretty sure that Jace could hear them.

  “I’m not going to hurt you.” Unland blurted this, as if he wanted Jace, not her, to know this.

  “I don’t think Jace would let you do that.” She tried to exude confidence into her words, which was easy after he’d just appeared at Jezzie’s side in the blink of an eye with Jezzie’s own pen at her neck.

  “So?” Unland was impatient.

  “I’m here because Jezzie brought me here. I have no idea why, except that she’s using me as bait to make Jace work for her.”

  Unland took a small step forward and out of the corner of her eye she could see Jace’s head snap towards them. Unland stepped back. “And?”

  “And…” Laura paused to think for a moment. “I’m not sure why I’m with him. Or, I mean, why he’s with me.” She shrugged. “I’m just lucky, I guess.”

  She looked at Jace and he was rolling his eyes at her.

  “What about Jacob? Doesn’t he care that Jace is here with you? And what about when you die? Won’t Jace regret expending his energy on you? He can’t even marry you.”

  Laura didn’t know how to answer all these questions, or even exactly what he was talking about. He can’t marry me? “Are you married?”

  Unland pushed his hair behind his ear and smiled. “Yes, of course.”

  “Where is she?”

  “She’s back home. Usually she works in the Department of Disease but she’s raising our son until he’s older.”

  Laura was curious. “What’s her name?”

  She was rewarded with a huge grin. “Delilah.”

  “Do you miss her?” Now Laura was the curious one.

  Unland looked at his feet and mumbled. “Sometimes.”

  “Then why are you here?”

  At this, his eyes hardened. “I have to be. I have to provide for her somehow. And not all of us can be so lucky to have prominent family names.” He glanced at Jace and his face flushed with anger. “He made a mistake.”

  Laura was confused. “Who?”

  “Jace. Jace shouldn’t have fired me. I’ve worked hella hard to get into that position, I wasn’t born into royalty like most of the other commanders here. I actually know what I’m doing.”

  “Then why didn’t you provide shoes for your men?”

  This time his face flushed red with embarrassment and he mumbled again. “I’ve, uh… I’ve actually never been with humans. In fact. You’re the first one I’ve met.” He paused. “And you’re not even wearing shoes.”

  Laura folded her arms over her chest. “That’s because Cherry took me from my bed. I was sleeping.”

  “Oh. And you don’t wear shoes while you’re sleeping?”

  Laura laughed. “Of course not.”

  “Why not?” Unland’s curiosity overcame any embarrassment about his confusion.

  “Our shoes only protect our feet when we walk. Otherwise we might get hurt or cuts on them.”

  “Oh.” Unland was considering this.

  “We don’t have wings like you do.” She reached forward to ruffle his but they floated backwards, out of reach.

  “Oh yes, of course. Even when we walk though, we don’t need them.”

  “Well, yes, of course not.” Laura rolled her eyes. “You’re too tough for that.” She smiled. “That’s what Jace says anyways.”

  Unland furrowed his brows. “Well, he’s right.”

  Laura laughed. Unland smiled, happy that he made her laugh even though he didn’t understand why she was laughing, which made her laugh harder.

  “How old are you? You’re too young to be with Jace, human or not.”

  “Oh wow, don’t you know not to ask a girl her age?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

  Laura smirked at him. “I’m just kidding. How would you know that I’m too young for Jace? How well do you know him?”

  “Well everyone knows about him, of course. Although this is my first time meeting him. But I’ve heard stories about him since I was young.”

  Laura grinned. “Oh, really? And how old are you?”

  “Unland,” Jace called from his office. “Please tell the cook that Laura will need to eat shortly.”

  Unland stood up straight. “Yes, sir.”

  “And Unland,” Jace continued.

  “Yes?”

  “Please tell the cook that she will need normal human food. Not the crap you guys eat.”

  “Yes, sir.” Unland turned to go but gave one last look to Laura. “Tell him if he wants to know what’s going on around here, he should promote me back. I’m the only one he can trust.” His eyes were serious and Laura saw a flash of anger.

  She swallowed and nodded. “I’ll pass along your message.”

  He turned to go but she stopped him. “Unland?”

  He stopped.

  She lowered her voice. “Jace can’t marry me?”

  He shook his head ever so slightly.

  “Why not?”

  Unland looked towards Jace. “I think you’d better ask Jace.” With that, he was gone.

  ❦

  As soon as he was gone, Jace was by her side. He pulled her close and breathed in deeply. “You smell so good.”

  “I smell like a drowned rat. Any chance there’s a shower down here?”

  “I’m sure I can find us one.” He raised his eyebrows suggestively.

  Her mouth dropped open. “Jace, really?” What would she do if he really tried to get in the shower with her?

  He grinned, not answering, but kissed the top of her head instead. “Do you want to go find one right now?”

  She frowned. “Actually I think I’d rather wait. What’s going on here?”

  He stepped back and took her hand. “Come, let me show you.”

  Seaman was still studying the papers when they entered the room. He had a pen in his mouth and Laura could see his scribbles on the paper. He had drawn large squares with a list of names in each square and what looked like a rough map.

  Jace pointed to a list of names. “This is a list of the more experienced men. Some are more experienced with humans.” He pointed to another. “Others more experienced with explosives.” He pointed to another. “These men are more experienced with stealth and so on. And so, each man will be assigned a task which we will practice until we’ve reached our objective with exact precision.”

  Laura studied the lists. She noticed that Unland was on the list of ‘ghost’. “What’s our objective?”

  Jace glanced at Seaman. “Seaman doesn’t have a destination yet, but he says that we need to enter a building to steal their blueprints. Before we go in, we need to do reconnaissance, discover their security detail, how many men they have, what their schedules are. Then later, we’ll have to blow it up.”

  Laura’s face went white. “Blow it up?”

  Jace nodded, almost imperceptibly so that only Laura would notice. She swallowed down her fear. “When do we need to do this?”

  Jace glared at her. “First of all, there is no we. I will select a small group of men to go with me to steal the blueprints.”

  Laura crossed her arms. There was no way she was going to let him go without her. But she didn’t want to directly challenge him in
front of Seaman so she didn’t say anything. The corner of Jace’s lip raised in a smile; he knew exactly what Laura was thinking.

  He continued. “We will leave when the team is ready and when we receive the destination from Jezzie. The area will probably be heavily guarded and my men will need to learn how to incapacitate, not kill.” He looked at Seaman. “If a bunch of their security are killed, then they will change their detail and bring in extra men to watch for an attack. We will not kill any of them, clear?”

  Seaman nodded. “Affirmative.”

  Laura looked around the room while Jace studied the pages. Laura noticed a name scratched into the side of the table. ‘Jerry.’ What a common name for all the ones that she’d met so far. She turned to see a large window that overlooked the cavern they were in earlier. Laura sat in the chair next to Jace's ornate mahogany desk and stared at the computer. A neon blue light ran around a blank, see-through screen. She touched it and was surprised that it felt solid.

  How did she turn it on? She pushed on it in different spots but nothing happened. Eventually, she sat back and watched Jace and Seaman. They were talking about the men: which ones would be good for which mission. Seaman seemed to be at ease with Jace and he explained the background of the men. One of them was particularly abrasive and nervous, and he was supposed to work with the explosives, but Seaman didn’t trust him. Jace absorbed all the information with a nod. He walked over to a board and pulled out a pen. He began to draw on the board and Laura sat up straight, intrigued. Instead of ink, the pen emitted a blue light. He drew squares and several ‘x’s and ‘o’s, and labeled each station and men. Apparently some of the men would act as humans to help train the men assigned for the mission.

  Laura studied the way Jace drew and interacted with Seaman. He moved with fluid motions and asked intelligent questions.

  He is so sexy right now. She tried to think of something else. She listened to them, the names and positions of the men slid right through her mind. How can Jace remember all these names? No matter how hard she tried to focus on their plans, she couldn’t help her eyes drifting back to Jace. Every time she looked at him, her stomach fluttered. She thought about what Unland said. If Jace couldn’t marry her, then how could they have a future together? Would they just live together until she died? She had a feeling that she would grow old and wrinkled and Jace would look young and as sexy as ever for forever. How did he feel about that? Could they even have kids together?

  This last thought popped into her head and Laura’s face grew red. Jace suddenly stopped talking to stare at Laura. “What are you thinking about?”

  Her blush deepened even darker. “Nothing.”

  He grinned. “What?”

  She looked at Seaman. “Nothing.”

  Jace put his pen away and turned towards Seaman. “I think we’ve got enough plans for now. I’ll meet with you with the rest of the men.”

  Seaman glanced at Laura, whose blush was beginning to fade. “Yes, sir.”

  As soon as he was gone, Jace was lifting Laura into his lap. She folded into him and a peace settled over her.

  Jace traced the strands of her hair over her head. “So.”

  Laura burrowed into his chest. “Yes?”

  He traced her ear. “He’s gone now. You can tell me what you were thinking about.”

  She shrugged. “It was nothing.”

  His fingers moved to her jaw and down her throat, then he pulled her chin so that she was looking into his eyes. “Please?”

  She sighed. “I was just thinking about… us. Our future.”

  “Ahummm.” He closed his eyes and leaned his head on hers. “And what part of our future were you thinking about?”

  “Well.” She hesitated. “Unland says that you can’t marry me.”

  His eyes popped open and he leaned back. “He did, did he?”

  “Don’t act surprised. I’m sure you heard him.”

  He put his head on hers again, closing his eyes. “Okay, I guess I did hear that part.”

  “So is that true?”

  He was quiet and Laura pulled back to study him. “Jace? Is that true?”

  He opened his eyes and Laura was surprised at their fierceness. “No.”

  “So he was lying to me?”

  “No, not exactly.”

  “So you’re lying to me, then?” She grinned, teasing him.

  “It doesn’t matter what the rules are. When it comes to you, I’ll do anything to be with you.”

  Laura was quiet. A glow overcame her; she was happy with his admission. She leaned her head sideways. “For now?” Her heart raced and she held her breath. His eyes softened. She felt that he was looking into her, into her heart, into her soul.

  “For as long as you want me.”

  A wave of emotion washed over her and tears sprung to her eyes. She didn’t even know what that meant. She couldn’t imagine wanting anyone else. Her relationships in the past paled in comparison to how she felt with Jace. Was she old enough to make this decision? Was she wise enough to determine who she wanted to be with for the rest of her life?

  He was stroking her hair and humming, too low for her to recognize the song. She sighed, she could sit here forever with just his arms around her.

  He shifted in the seat. “I think you’re hungry, let’s get you some food.”

  She protested. “I’m not hungry.”

  “I heard your stomach rumble.”

  “It did not!”

  “You just didn’t hear it.”

  He pulled her closer. “Laura, Laura. Such sweetness does my tongue taste, with the passage of your name on my lips.”

  Laura glowed, feeling his adoration wash over her. She traced the outline of his jaw, so strong and sure. “Jace?” Her voice was soft, almost dreamy. Jace stilled. He remembered the last time her voice had been so sweet. “Why has everyone heard of you? Unland says he’s heard about you since he was young.”

  Jace groaned and he stood up, sliding her down, and placed her arms around his neck. “You need to eat. I heard your stomach again.”

  “No, you didn’t. You just don’t want to tell me.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Why don’t you want to tell me?”

  “First of all, your stomach did make noises. It said, ‘Feed me.’”

  Laura rolled her eyes but couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face.

  “And second, because sometimes it’s not nice to brag.”

  Her mouth dropped open in mock shock. “Why, Jace, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you turn down the opportunity to brag.”

  He laughed and kissed her, then his nose wrinkled. “You’re right, you know.”

  “Of course I am. About what?”

  “You do smell like a wet rat.”

  “Humph.” She pushed his chest. “Well, get me to a shower then.”

  ❦

  They were in a different room now; this one was bigger and nicer. There was still two beds and no window, of course, but Laura wished there was. She was starting to feel pent up. She needed to see wide open space and the mountains.

  Jace pulled a towel off the corner of the bed and pointed towards the dresser. “There’s some clothes for you in there.”

  She opened a drawer and pulled out a pair of jeans. In another drawer she found some other clothes, in her exact size, and she pulled them into a pile, with her underwear and bra tucked in the middle. She looked around; she still couldn’t find any shoes.

  Jace was in the bathroom attached to the room and she could hear the water running. The air was steamy and Laura couldn’t wait to feel the warmth of the hot shower. Jace opened the door to the shower, indicating that the shower was ready and waiting for her.

  She pushed him in, grinning wickedly. Water ran down his face and into his shocked mouth. He spewed the water towards her and she squealed, moving just in time to miss the stream of water. He grabbed her hand and pulled her into the water, laughing.

  Warmth enveloped her body and she relaxed a
s the water cascaded over her. Her heart pounded in her chest as his hand massaged her head, guiding the water to run through it. She breathed in; his scent mixed with the fresh mist of the water and she was lightheaded.

  “Laura.”

  His gaze on her burned through her chest. She tugged on his arm and his hands found her face, pulling her to him as he kissed her. A blaze rose up, heating her cheeks and heart. She tightened her arms around his neck, his lips tingling through hers. Her thoughts tumbled in her head incoherently. She had to be with him, she had to have him. He was hers and no one else’s. His arms around her was the strength she needed to fight off the world, his lips on hers was the air she breathed. His words, the only food her body needed. It was him and no one else, how could she doubt it?

  Electricity shot through her body as his hands grazed down her arms and side. She reached down, tugging on his shirt and he whipped it over his head. She followed the water, tracing the creases his muscles made in his skin.

  “Laura.”

  He lifted her, kissing her urgently. She wrapped her legs around his waist and he pushed her against the shower wall. His hands raked her hair, her arms, her stomach. He needed everything she had to give him. Her taste on his lips drove him crazy. The thought of being without her drove him crazy. How had this small human managed to do what no other Angel had been able to do? He’d never felt this way about anyone, not even Camilla. He was crazy without her. He would find a way to be with her. Not just for the now, but for eternity. He would find a way.

  His lips kissed her checks and followed her neck to her shirt. He kneeled down and hugged her close. She wrapped her arms around him and he looked up at her. She stared at him with such an unfathomable expression. How did he deserve her? He knew what was in store for her, what she would become, and compared to that, he was such an insignificant being. Could he hope to believe that she would choose him in the end? His eyes roamed her body, taking in every single detail, committing it to memory. He hugged her tight, breathing in the scent of her skin. She turned off the water and kneeled next to him.

  “Jace, what’s wrong?”

  He could only stare at her, deep into her eyes, deep into her soul. She was like a deer in headlights, caught in the fire of his gaze. They said nothing but communicated through their expressions of their awe of the other. A tear tracked down her face and he wiped it with his thumb. He leaned in and gave her the gentlest of kisses and pulled her close. Then he flapped his wings, spraying water everywhere and she squealed. “Jace!”