Dark Angel Box Set

by Hanna Peach

  Alyx felt her plans slipping through her fingers. She glanced at Israel. His face was hard as stone as they waited for the verdict. If they didn’t have the support of the FreeThinker community, they would lose. There just wouldn’t be enough of them to take Samyara and his demons down.

  “On the other hand,” continued Aaban, “‘all it takes for evil to win is for good men to do nothing.’ I say yes. When do we leave?”

  “I don’t think Israel should come with us to Purgatory,” said Alyx quickly. She glanced over to Israel and prepared herself to argue with him.

  “I agree,” he said.

  Alyx opened her mouth…wait, what? “You agree?”

  “Yes. If Lady Bluesette places a non-demon enchantment on the room that counts me out, being part demon and all. Even if she could make me an exception for me, it’d be dangerous and stupid for me to be in a room full of Seraphim after they find out that you’re harboring the keye. All it takes is one smart individual to put two and two together and figure out that it’s me, the only ‘mortal’ in the room. Some of them may have the same reaction as ‘slaughter-happy’ over here.” He indicated Aaban, who seemed to sink into his chair. “Most of the Seraphim don’t know who I am, and it’s better that it stays that way. At the moment, anyone who does knows that I’m part of this community just thinks I’m some pesky human with Seraphillia.”

  Alyx frowned. “Seraphillia?”

  He shrugged. “An intense love of angels. I am. In love with an angel. But just one. Unabashedly. Unrepentantly.” Israel’s eyes burned through her as he said this. It felt like he was marking her from across the room with just his gaze.

  Alyx swallowed, her mouth going dry and thought evaporating from her mind. Her gaze roamed over his strikingly constructed face then dropped to his lips. That scar. That unbelievably sexy scar. Someone cleared their throat, pulling her out of her thoughts. “Right. Seraphillia. Um. Is that even a word?”

  Israel shrugged, a half-smile on his lips. “It is now.”

  * * *

  After the meeting, Alyx pulled Israel aside. They waited against a wall for the room to clear. For some ungodly reason, her stomach felt like it was doing backflips. She was nervous. Nervous. That was silly. This was Israel, after all. She shouldn’t be nervous around him, should she? But as he stood before her, studying her face in an unhurried manner, she couldn’t deny it. A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

  “So…” she started when they were alone. Then stopped to wet her lips, which had suddenly gone dry.

  “So?”

  “Where did that all come from?”

  “It appears you’re not the only one who changed while I was asleep.”

  “Are you going to tell me what happened to you in there?”

  Israel reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. Her eyelashes fluttered as the small touch sent a sharp wave of longing through her whole body, adding to this buzzing that was already shaking at her insides. She had to fight not to press her cheek into his palm. She remembered how their bodies had felt inside each other’s minds earlier in the library. Her lips parted.

  “Alyx, so much has changed. I’ve changed. I want to show you how. I want to share everything with you. But you said yourself, we don’t have time to do this right now. And you’re right, we don’t.”

  He brushed his dark hair from his eyes with one hand before straightening up and placing his hands on his hips, pushing the tips of his fingers into his jean pockets. The motion made his shoulder muscles shrug up thick and full, and his torso spread open like a fan. She found herself staring across every inch of him. She was sure he didn’t mean to look as intimidating as he did. Her stomach executed a perfect flip. He had changed alright. In her mind, her hands were roaming across his body under that shirt to discover exactly how much his body had changed.

  He caught her staring. She blushed, wishing he hadn’t caught her ogling him. He grinned.

  “Stop it,” he said.

  “Stop what?”

  “Stop thinking those things. You’re making it very difficult for me to keep myself from kissing you.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “Are you in my mind now?” she hissed.

  “Maybe…”

  “That’s not fair.” She blushed. “Get out of my head.”

  “Are you embarrassed that you want me?”

  “I admit nothing.”

  He stepped closer and immediately her body flared with heat. His grin widened. “You so want me.”

  “Get out. Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to go inside a woman’s head without asking?” Alyx gasped when she remembered that Israel had never known his mother. “Oh my God, Israel. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean...”

  But he didn’t seem fazed. He grabbed her hand and pressed a kiss to her pulse point on her wrist. She felt it thud against his mouth. She couldn’t help herself; she let herself go into his head so she could feel her pulse kiss against his lips.

  “Go,” he said. “Go raise us an army. I’ll be here, waiting for you.”

  Before she could say anything, he had gone.

  Chapter 16

  Ana gazed upon Lukas’s face, the face of the man she loved. Deep down a small part of her registered that she was hurting him with her silence. But she just couldn’t bring herself to move. To speak. To engage. Since the death of…

  She couldn’t even bring herself to think his name. Her boy. Her life. Her world. He had been taken from her. And nothing would bring him back. Nothing.

  Nothing.

  Now she was adrift. Lost. A ship without a port. A bird without a nest. Her heart was just a lump of muscle that pumped blood around her body. It would never hold happiness again.

  “Ana, all the FreeThinkers of our extended community are meeting soon. I have go join the others, okay?” Lukas said. He paused. “I can see that you’re not up for it. But I’ll be back, I promise. Ana, I…” He sighed. “Never mind,” he mumbled, almost to himself.

  Every day she could register the light in Lukas’s eyes fading as he looked upon her. Every day. Like the setting sun, his hope in her, his love for her, dying. She could see it. Although the pieces of her heart screamed against it, she remained a prisoner in this useless, lifeless body, broken when Ky, her baby, her everything, was taken from her.

  Please, she begged Lukas, I’m still here. Don’t give up on me.

  Lukas didn’t hear her silent words, spoken only inside her soul. He stood and walked away without another word.

  She had to do something. She couldn’t do this anymore. She couldn’t. Please, couldn’t somebody take this pain away? Take it away, away, away. Take it away so she could function, so she could help, so she could be the wife that Lukas needed.

  A small seed of an idea lit up in her.

  Could she? Dare she?

  She remembered how the MemoryThief had taken away Alyx’s love for Israel. Could she get the MemoryThief to do the same thing to her? She could keep her memories of Ky, just her memories, but take away the love which now, from the loss of him, caused so much pain.

  Ana nibbled at her lip as her insides rolled over this new idea. Should she?

  Yes, she had to do this. She couldn’t live with all this pain anymore.

  Lukas had said that all the Seraphim were meeting somewhere. So if she was going to do it, the time would be now.

  Ana pushed herself up to sitting.

  The underground station was empty of all Seraphim as Ana crept through it. The few mortal pirates who were milling around barely paid her any attention. She was more of a ghost than she realized.

  Soon Ana stood in front of the MemoryThief’s cage and gazed upon the thin creature with matted hair and dirty clothes. The MemoryThief stood, muttering to herself, “Save the child, save her.”

  At these words Ana felt a spear of pain through her heart. If only her child, her baby, could have been saved. But there was no way of bringing Ky back. No way. There was only one way left to stop this
pain.

  “MemoryThief,” Ana said. The MemoryThief looked at Ana but kept muttering to herself. “Do you remember how you took Alyx’s memory of loving Israel away?”

  The MemoryThief squinted as if reliving a memory. “Israel…Alyx…yesssss.”

  “I need you to do the same for me…except with Ky,” her voice broke. “My boy.”

  “You want to give me your memories?”

  “Just enough of them to make this pain go away.”

  The MemoryThief frowned at Ana. “Nobody wants to give me their memories.”

  “I do.”

  “You do.” Slowly the MemoryThief revealed a smile full of browning teeth. “Yesssss. I can do that for you.”

  Ana sighed with relief.

  “But if I do that for you…you must do something for me.”

  Ana froze, a deep uneasy feeling growing in her stomach. “What do you want?”

  “Free me.”

  This wasn’t a good idea. “B-But I don’t have a key.”

  “That’s too bad. I can’t help you.”

  “But you have to. I can’t take this pain anymore.”

  “If you want to stop the pain of losing your son, you’ll find a way to get me out.”

  Ana felt her shoulders sag with crushing disappointment as she stared at the iron cage that held the MemoryThief. How could she break open the cage? She wasn’t a FireTwirler who could melt this iron prison, or an EarthSifter who could tunnel her way in. She was only a WaterBearer. How the hell could water work against a cage? Maybe after a hundred years of soaking water around the bars she could turn them to rust and break through, but she didn’t have that much time…

  Wait… As Ana eyed the lock, an old-fashioned padlock with a space to fit a key, an idea came to her.

  Chapter 17

  Passar sat at a bar stool in Purgatory, eyes invisible from under his hood. He was spending almost all his time here in Purgatory. He couldn’t stand staying at Darkwood Mansion where the Darkened treated him like filth, the only other place where he would be accepted now. The hisses of “seraph traitor” followed him through the corridors, and he couldn’t stand to be reminded of his hateful decisions against his own people.

  He watched with interest as yet another group of cloaked and hooded Seraphim rogues stepped in through the door from Earth and made their way to the dark curtain that hid the stairs leading to the upper level. What were they all doing here? He doubted very much that any of them would tell him…

  A thought struck him. He looked down. His deep maroon cloak could almost be mistaken for their black cloaks. He lowered his face and pulled at the black market MirageWeaver blood that had been crudely marked into his left arm with a knife. He felt the shuddering and heat grow across his features as they miraged over with a different face. With the magic came the harsh whisper of the previous owner of the blood and Passar knew that this blood had been taken by force. Passar felt his blood curdling and he fought to keep from hissing with pain. Keep it together. Push the voices away. Voices aren’t yours. Not yours. Go away! He screamed in his mind. The voices dimmed but they didn’t disappear completely. It was the most that he could hope for.

  With his focus back on his task, Passar jumped off his bar stool and made his way casually towards the side of Purgatory nearest the door from Earth. No one was paying him any attention. Hmmm, except for Loki, the bartender, who stared at him for a second too long. But Passar wasn’t worried. Loki might see everything, Loki might know things, but he would never interfere. This was in the terms of his employment, he had to be as neutral as Purgatory itself.

  Passar didn’t have to wait long until the next group of Seraphim entered. They were so focused and chittering with a kind of nervous excitement that they weren’t paying attention to him. It was easy enough for him to slip forward and merge into the back of their pack.

  * * *

  Alyx stood at the edge of Nevernever, the grand ballroom of Purgatory. She had been told that the room would look different to everyone who gazed upon it. To her, Nevernever looked like they were underneath an open sky just before a storm. The ceiling above swirled with angry dark clouds and lighting flashed down the walls, hitting the inky-black marble floor. The wind whistled past her head and made her skin feel cold and her hair stand on end. She tried to ignore it.

  More and more FreeThinkers poured in through the door, lowering their hoods as they did. She hadn’t seen so many Seraphim together since her time in Michaelea. She couldn’t help the small smile that filtered through onto her face. These were her people, her race. A sense of pride filled her. Yes, they could defeat Samyara. If they worked together, they could win this battle.

  As the next group of Seraphim filtered through, her eyes fell upon the gaze of a seraph. She had never seen him before. He stood alone on the far side of the entrance, wearing a cloak shaded such a deep red it was almost black. She might not have noticed him if he wasn’t openly staring at her. Alyx frowned. Did she know him? She took in his brown hair and plain features and decided no, she didn’t. Another group of Seraphim moved through the entrance, blocking her view of him. When they had passed, he had gone. Odd.

  She continued to scan the crowd. She caught sight of Jordan through the Seraphim who milled around waiting for the meeting to start. The three Seraphim he was standing with burst out into laughter and one of them clapped Jordan’s back. This made her smile. Jordan, the golden boy. The ease with which he worked this room filled her with admiration and a little bit of jealousy. She could never do what he was doing now.

  Whenever standing in crowds like this, she always felt like she did when she waited at the starting line of an illegal night race: separate from the crowd, watched and studied by them, but never a part of them. She never felt quite sure of herself regarding socially appropriate behavior in situations like these − how to stand, what to say...

  At big events in Michaelea she had always clung to her friends’ sides or at the first opportunity, she had run away to hide in her pod. Get her among a swarm of Darkened and she knew what to do. She knew how to handle them, and she knew how to talk with her blades. But get her mingling in a crowd like this…gulp. She’d rather take on Lucifer himself.

  Alyx couldn’t hear what Jordan was saying from where she stood, but she could see the animated way his hands moved in the air, how the bodies of those around him leaned in, faces shining towards him like sunflowers to the sun. She watched as a seraph detached himself from a nearby group to join Jordan’s, then another.

  A girlish squeal caught her attention and the attention of the group. Alyx watched as a seraphelle pushed her way through the crowd and flung her arms around Jordan. Alyx turned her head. She was the one who had told Jordan that she couldn’t be with him, that she couldn’t be with either him or Israel at this time. Jordan could speak to whoever he wanted. She had no right to be… God, she wasn’t even sure what she was feeling.

  Alyx pushed off the wall and began to make her way through the crowd towards the front of the room, forcing herself not to look back at Jordan. She found space near the stage off to one side, where she waited for the meeting to start.

  “Miss me?” a familiar male voice whispered in her ear. She turned her head. Jordan’s face grinned at her over her shoulder. His smile dropped. “Hey, you okay?”

  Alyx turned to face the front again. “Fine. Just…nervous.”

  Jordan stepped to her side as a small gong echoed around the room, calling everyone to attention.

  “It’ll be fine,” Jordan whispered and grabbed her hand to squeeze it. She didn’t squeeze back.

  On the stage, Tobias tapped at the small gong again. He was standing up on stage at the lectern along with Belle and Aaban.

  Once the noise in the room faded, Tobias started speaking. “There’s a war coming. Samyara and his group of Darkened are planning something big. We need to act now. We need to stop him. But we need your help.”

  “What are you actually asking us to do?” someo
ne in the crowd yelled out.

  “We have ascertained the location of Samyara’s hideout. We need to stop them before he makes his move.”

  To Alyx’s surprise, Belle pushed forward on the stage. “What Tobias and his cohorts are proposing is suicide. We don’t have to listen to him.”

  Tobias raised his hands to try to placate the rumbling of whispers throughout the room. “Belle, that’s not true. We have a weapon. A secret weapon.”

  “Which is?”

  Alyx held her breath. He had told her that he wouldn’t reveal that they had the prophesized keye. Tobias found Alyx’s eyes before he spoke. “We have blood magic, old blood magic, which will help us kill the demons when we pierce them with our swords.”

  “But not all of us know how to fight with swords. And the ones who do haven’t had to lift a sword as a warrior in years, decades, even,” cried Belle. “What you are proposing is suicide. You want all these good Seraphim to die. To put their faith in this old magic of yours?”

  “This isn’t going well,” Alyx whispered to Jordan.

  “Have faith, Alyx,” he whispered back, but even he didn’t sound sure.

  Belle stepped forward. “Our communities were recently attacked. You all became homeless because of this war. This is why we left the Elders’ rule and their obsession with killing the Darkened, who only come back replenished. We have since lived in peace until you,” she pointed an accusing finger at Tobias, “openly declared war against Samyara. Our brothers, our sisters, they died because you wouldn’t leave it alone. They died because you poked the bear and now you are asking us to enter the bear’s home? Must we all die before you admit your mistakes, Tobias?”

  There were grumblings and murmurs of agreement around Alyx. This was not going well at all.

  “Belle, our planet is in danger,” Tobias said.

  “What danger? As long as we have been Earthbound, the demons have come through to Earth in their human hosts. They have never been able to increase their numbers nor have they ever caused that much trouble for us as long as we have stayed out of their way. Let the Elders send their warriors out to fight demons and die. We shall not.”