Taken (Marked By Angels Book 2)

by KC Bellinger

  “What’s with her?” I asked Penn.

  “She wore that cloak too long.” He snickered. “Seriously, she’s lost some of her sanity to that bear.”

  “The cloak was a bear?”

  “Is a bear,” he corrected. “Her spirit still forms to her skin. Couldn’t you tell?”

  “I guess. When I blocked her out of my mind, it was as if it didn’t offer any protection. When I opened up, it seemed to mold to me. It feels like it is a part of me now.”

  Penn sighed. “I was afraid it was too late. Neetah has summoned you to be her new guide since Azu no longer has the strength. She’ll get it back and reclaim the relic though, and you can be through with her.”

  “Penn, what if I don’t want to let Neetah go?” A jolt of exhilaration pulsed through me and it seemed the spirit was happy with that suggestion.

  “You will let her go. There is no other love affair once you have Neetah wrapped around you. There would be no hope for romance, no future to dream about. Though you can forget about dreaming of my brother; he is a wild spirit all his own.”

  “I love him,” I confessed.

  Penn stopped and took my hands into his. He pushed the sleeves of the cloak high up my arms. “You cannot love an angel, my dear, not like you can a human.” His eyes were so full of compassion that for an instance I thought I was talking with Tresian again. “He cannot stay, and he won’t. Not for you anyway.”

  “It’s different for us,” I cried, scrambling past the truth in his voice. “I know he feels it, too. My step-mother was an Hour of Light and she fell in love with her angel.”

  “What happened?”

  “She died,” I admitted, suddenly feeling foolish. “But she bound herself to her cabin, so they are still together,” my voice lost all conviction. “Even though she’s just a ghost now.”

  “What are you going to do, bind your soul eternally to the earth like her?” he said tenderly, not an ounce of sneer or laughter in his tone.

  “No.” I looked down, studying fat droplets of saltwater, carving the cavernous floor. “I am the only Hour of Night left, and when I die, I will go to him. He promised.”

  “Not even angels are good with promises.” Penn sighed heavily and pulled me close to his chest. “It would honor me to call you family if it were so.” Hesitantly, he let me go, and the black circles lining his eyes like a gothic prince darkened.

  Chapter 19

  The mouth of the cave was lit by Julia’s flickering candle. She was pacing and wiping her eyes. Something was wrong. I motioned for the angels to stay out of sight in case there was an ambush.

  “Julia, is everything okay?” Cautiously, I walked toward her.

  “There’s trouble above us,” Julia whispered. “They’re waiting for you.” A tear escaped her eye and her voice cracked. “You must find another way out.”

  “Is Justin in there?”

  “Yes, they have him.” She sniffed. “And Father Bucheli. They are using them as bait to get to you.” She bowed her head and sobbed. “Father Janssen is dead. He was in the middle of mass.”

  My heart grew heavy with grief and I started to shake even under the confines of the cloak. They had Justin. They had my friend.

  “I found two of the angels the Strongs imprisoned. Is there another way out, so we can get back up?”

  “Through the east tunnel. Take the second turnout, even though it looks like a dead end. It will get you beyond the cathedral’s grounds.” Julia pointed.

  “You are coming with us, aren’t you?” I knew she wouldn’t leave her brother, but I had to ask.

  She shook her head. “I’ll keep watch until you return with help. If something happens to Justin, I need to be near.”

  The best gesture I could give her was a weak smile. I knew the fear of a loved one being in mortal danger and feeling utterly helpless. I’d felt that way when a demon had killed my mother. “I will do everything I can to keep him safe,” I promised.

  “I know you will, but please hurry.”

  Footsteps echoed above from within the mausoleum. I ran with the two angels close behind.

  ***

  It was mid-afternoon, so the bar wasn’t open yet, but I knocked anyway. Arwyn answered, dressed in her usual leather pants and a torn cotton T-shirt.

  “Go away,” she hissed.

  “Arwyn, you’ve got to take us to him,” I prompted the now flame-orange-haired non-demon. I still wasn’t sure exactly what she was.

  “I can’t; he’s busy.” She slammed the door in my face.

  “I’m going to break down this door if you don’t let me in. Don’t think I can’t do it!” I screamed and kicked the door. “Tell him I’m outside and I have family with me.” I disguised my companions with dark glasses, and since they already reeked of demons, I wasn’t too worried about them being discovered.

  A slip of paper was shoved out from beneath the door. “Wait for me by the tree. You know which one.”

  Fine.

  I corralled everyone back into the car. As we turned onto the street facing the bar’s front door, Locke and Simone, the Strongs’ demons, were walking out. They had smug looks on their faces and I almost ran into a Toyota Camry when I ducked from their view. The driver honked wildly at me as I swerved out of his way.

  ***

  “What the Hell did they want?” I asked Arwyn when she popped onto a tree branch above my head.

  She showered me with last year’s leaves now dead and crunchy as she perched like a canary. She sure knew how to make an entrance. “They wondered why The Protector revoked Jaiten’s safe passage.”

  A grin tugged at my mouth.

  “He was very foolish to do that.” She flicked another dead leaf onto my face with her bright yellow fingernail.

  Did she ever stop changing colors?

  “His heart is messing with his head, it’s going to get us killed. That’s if you don’t expose us for what we are in the first place!”

  “Arwyn, I don’t even know what you are, so how can I expose you? Can you please come down—this is killing my neck!” I shouted up into the tree.

  Arwyn vanished and then reappeared behind me. “Boo!” She pushed me playfully, and the angels laughed.

  They seemed to relax now that they were breathing fresh air, even though the sky was a mean shade of gray.

  “You are so funny,” I sneered. “Now what’s going on?”

  “Sabarhys,” Azu sneered. The jovial glint vanished from her twitching lips.

  Arwyn leaped back up into the tree as Rhys took her place beside me. I shuddered as he brushed my arm. I wanted to reach for him, but this wasn’t the time to show weakness or affection.

  “Azulaira, Pennidis, what are you doing here? Getting yourselves into trouble?” Rhys glared at Penn. “Or have you lost something again?”

  “Must we be so formal, brother?” Penn asked boldly, but his shoulders sagged in submission. “Could you please release us?”

  Rhys glared down at their tied hands. “They got you two? How long have they had you? Ten or fifteen years?”

  “Something like that.” Penn sighed.

  Azu stayed deathly silent, but her presence was noted by her tied hands held high over her head as she kneeling at Rhys’s feet. It was such an odd sight that I looked around to see if anybody else was watching. There were plenty of kids walking the campus, but no one glanced our way.

  “Very well.” Rhys sliced through the rope with the fanged ring.

  Both angels rubbed frantically at their wrists.

  “Rhys,” I said a little too feathery, “the Strongs are on the cathedral grounds. They have Justin and Father Bucheli. I must get back now.”

  Rhys raised his hand and brushed the hood from my face. My body trembled from his hand lingering on my cheek. There were so many words forming on his bitten lip, and I heard all of them, though he didn’t speak. He didn’t need to. I didn’t want to see the fight brewing in his eyes. Thankfully, he still had his glasses on.
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br />   “There will be more time,” I whispered.

  “Later, brother, they will know we are missing soon,” Penn said, placing his hand reassuringly on his brother’s shoulder.

  “Later is better than never.” Silently, I exhaled.

  “What if later never comes?” Without hesitation, Rhys pulled me close. I could feel every muscle draw me into him as he flicked the cloak off my shoulders. “After tonight, I never want to see you wear that thing again.”

  My body didn’t react negatively, but it shivered as he brushed my back with his large, warm hands. They glided over me like the last summer wind on an autumn evening. I slipped my hands into his duster jacket and felt his skin through his thin silk shirt. I felt his body quake with mine. His lips stumbled across my face, kissing every inch, every freckle the sun ever graced me with till they landed on mine. Somewhere, violins were playing. Somewhere, high above my head, I heard the strings plucked one by one in a song so beautiful it could only be coming from heaven.

  His mouth opened and a gush of excitement pulsed through me, tearing my innermost secrets from my soul and pouring them into him.

  “Brother, leave your Star. She has fallen and lies broken at your feet. She will be nothing to the others,” Azu growled from behind Rhys.

  “Then consider me nothing as well. You lost them. You save them.” Rhys returned his attention to me. “I have finally found my salvation.”

  We were on our knees now, quivering inside each other’s embrace.

  “Rhys, we have to save them,” I pleaded, not wanting to extract one finger from what I was now touching.

  “Then there is the return, brother,” Penn said soothingly. “They will want to see all of us with the relics.”

  Rhys tensed, but smiled and touched his forehead to mine. “Of course we do, Whitney.” He got up and pulled me up gently, gripping my hands. “We should split up. With the Strongs out of the house, there should be only Locke, Simone, and Jaiten guarding the remaining angels.”

  “I’m not sure the other angels are there. I’ve not heard from the others for a long time now,” Azu said.

  “We need to check,” Rhys insisted.

  “I’ll go with Whitney back to the church,” Penn said, grinning sheepishly.

  Rhys stared down at his sibling. The two side by side were quite the sight. Penn looked worlds younger, and though he was sickened by years of being detained, he was the bigger of the two. His black hair hung in his face, he stood in a warrior stance, tempting Rhys to strike.

  “Oh, now, Rhys. Come on. How many female companions have I stolen from you?”

  “None and it’ll stay that way.” Rhys forced a smile. “You lose things, Penn, that’s all. If anything were to happen to Whitney, I will destroy you.”

  Penn put his arm around me, guiding me out of Rhys’s embrace. “I’ll guard her as my sister.”

  Azu snorted at the comment. “It was I who tried to rescue you from your foolish whims, Penn, not the other way around.”

  Penn shrugged. “We’re here now, aren’t we?”

  “Whitney doesn’t have years to lose as you do. If memory serves me correctly, Penn, you were lost for over a century once,” Rhys said.

  “And who found me after all those years? Did you even once come looking for me, Rhys?”

  “It was like a taste of Heaven without you riding my coattails for a while.” Rhys slapped his brother playfully on the shoulder. “I grew bored after a few decades though. It’s good to have you back.”

  “The family reunion will have to wait, guys, you are wasting time.” Arwyn, still propped on a tree branch, pointed to the sky.

  The clouds stirred into a thick mass and thunder pounded against the darkening world. Nickel-sized snowflakes started falling, so did hail. The clouds appeared confused as a bolt of lightning tore through the sky. The hail pounded into the earth and the snowflakes grew to the size of small cats.

  “Whitney,” Rhys said when the heavens paused to reload. “Whatever happens, we will be together.”

  The battle surged through the sky once again and the flakes grew heavier. Drenched and pelted with the precipitation, I reached for the cloak. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the doubt in Penn’s eyes. Rhys must have seen it too because he reached his arms into the sky. He grew infinitely taller or the storm was closer to the earth than I expected. He pulled a bolt of lightning from the turmoil. The clouds separated and, for a moment, all was calm. The electric force that pulsed in his hand was blinding, even with the cloak on. He raised it high above his head.

  “On my word, brother, I will have my vengeance on anything that will try to keep us apart!” Rhys tossed the blazing shaft back into the sky like a stick and the sky resumed its struggle.

  Chapter 20

  Julia was huddled under a large oak tree in front of the cathedral’s insanely thick wall. It seemed the bulk of the storm brewed right over the church.

  “We don’t have long. I had a vision and it involved the angels and a sword,” Julia cried. “It doesn’t look good.”

  “Where’s Justin?” I asked.

  She shrugged.

  “I went out the way you did because they were descending into the catacombs. I’ve been out here waiting for you.” She looked up and gasped. “Who’s that?”

  “Oh, sorry, Julia. This is Penn. He’s Rhys’s brother.”

  Julia’s mouth moved to form a word, but her jaw dropped and she looked stupidly at him. I’m guessing she had never seen an angel before.

  “Hi,” Penn said, then returned his attention to me. “We need to get into the church. What’s the safest way?”

  “I’ll show—sh—show you,” Julia stumbled over her words, but it didn’t matter. No one could hear anything through the exploding sky.

  ***

  A boulder blocked the west entrance, but with a little effort Penn and I moved it out of the way. The mausoleum wasn’t far, but the tunnel was narrow, and the earthen stairs down were slippery. The temperature dropped drastically the further into the earth we walked. Something felt wrong, something even the cloak couldn’t protect against.

  I put my hands against the mossy sides and shivered. There wasn’t much room and I was feeling claustrophobic. My night vision faltered. I could only make out shapes in the darkness, and we didn’t have any wax left to burn.

  I took the lead, putting Julia between Penn and me. In the silence, I heard a squishing sound from below. “Stop, guys,” I said, so they wouldn’t plow me over when I stopped walking. “What is that noise?”

  The sound stopped when we did.

  “It must be us,” Julia whispered.

  I hunkered down, feeling the moist walls as I lowered. The moss was more than a little dewy; it was soaked with water. I brought my hand to my mouth and licked a finger. It was salty, and below my feet, a tiny fast-moving stream was running between my shoes. “It’s saltwater. The ocean is seeping into the tunnels. We’ve got to hurry.” Panic ebbed in my throat. I quickened my pace, unsure of where the others stood.

  I could feel the water as it soaked through my shoes and pulled on my ankles. My lungs tightened, gasping for air, tugging at anything my mouth could inhale, but it was useless. I started shaking. The trembling slowed my steps. My head spun and, in the dark, shapes were forming, but I could see nothing but a rainbow of colors. A guttural sound escaped my lips like a dying crow. I couldn’t breathe. My chest and throat were wet and water was funneling down my throat. I couldn’t spit it out. I couldn’t move. Everything was black.

  “Whitney,” a deep voice far away called.

  A white light blinded me and my hands flew up to cover my eyes.

  “Whitney, are you okay?” I heard another voice coming closer.

  “Is she going to be okay?” the high-pitched voice seemed to turn away from me.

  I called out. It was more like a growl when it reached my ears, but whoever was with me heard it too. I felt two sets of hands stroking my hair and rubbing frantically
on my icy hands.

  “Don’t struggle; I’m going to take the cloak off.”

  I said nothing. I welcomed the soothing sound of the deep voice. I felt the pelt being stripped off my back and though it was painful, the utter darkness subsided. My body was being lulled and tenderly stroked. Visions of Rhys tickled in my mind. It had to be him. Justin was the only other person who knew how the cloak affected me and he was trapped by the Strongs. A frantic feeling tugged at me again. I had to help him and the others. I struggled to free myself from the mass of arms, but they clamped tighter against my body.

  “Not yet. Give it a moment to fully wear off.”

  “But they need us,” my words were weak and barely audible.

  “And how do you intend to help them like this?” teased the deep voice.

  “Rhys?” I whimpered, reaching to touch his face. I couldn’t see him, but his silhouette was unmistakable. “Would you sing something for me?”

  He laughed and warmed my icy face with a giant hand. “I can’t sing.”

  “But I’ve heard you,” I protested, growing stronger by the moment.

  Another ripple of laughter filled my ears, but it was female.

  “Who’s with us?” I hooked a hand around his neck and pulled myself up. His face was so close to mine; just another inch and my lips would touch his.

  “Right now, I wish I were my brother, but I am not. It’s just me, Penn. Julia is with us.”

  “Penn?” I let go and sunk back against his chest. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t apologize. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t so honest. I would have loved a kiss.”

  His laughter touched me and I couldn’t help but grin.

  “What happened?” I pushed myself out of Penn’s embrace; regardless of how inviting his arms were, I felt like I was betraying Rhys by lying in his brother’s embrace.

  “It’s the cloak. Neetah is deathly afraid of water because her mortal soul drowned. And by the looks of it, she was drowning you.”

  I didn’t say anything. I got up, threw the cloak over my shoulder, and started walking again. The others fell in step behind me.