Dark Angel Box Set

by Hanna Peach

“And then you were like, ‘Give me the key or I’ll kick your ass.’”

  “Sparrow, don’t say ass.”

  “And you,” Sparrow turned his dark almond eyes from Alyx towards Vix. It wasn’t hard to see that they shone with admiration. “He was crapping his pants because of you.”

  On Sparrow’s shoulder Piki the swallow sat chirping in happy agreement.

  “Sparrow, don’t say crap.”

  Sparrow ignored Alyx and instead spoke to Vix. “What did you ever do to him to make him so afraid?”

  Vix gave him a sly smile and bent down so that her face was close to his. “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.” She winked. Then straightened and continued floating along.

  Awe mixed with definite fear shone from Sparrow’s face as he followed Vix with his gaze. Alyx grinned to herself. Sparrow might just have his first crush. Oh dear, he might be disappointed then when he met Xiang, Vix’s partner.

  They broke through the Scottish forest into a grassy clearing, the Castle Speranza looming like a gray mountain before them.

  “Whoa,” said Sparrow. “What the hell is that?”

  “That’s our community where you’ll be living too,” said Vix. “Welcome home, little man.”

  “And…don’t say hell,” Alyx added.

  As she moved towards the castle she realized Sparrow wasn’t beside her anymore. She spun. Sparrow was frozen to the spot, a competition between his eyes and his mouth as to which could open the widest.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Are you serious? You live in a castle?”

  Alyx burst out laughing. “Of course. How else would we fit everyone in?”

  “Everyone?” Sparrow blinked rapidly. “You mean there’s more of you badasses?”

  Vix snorted. “I wouldn’t call them all badasses, but yeah, there’s more of us.”

  Sparrow’s response was almost a whisper. “No. Frickin’. Way.”

  Alyx heard a sharp piercing whistle. She whirled around, scanning the area for the source of the noise. She spotted Balthazar leaning against one of the trees at the edge of the forest, staring at her. He was wearing a different mortal body than the last time she saw him, but his true skin shimmered blue underneath. He gave her a dainty little wave with his finger.

  The nerve.

  She would break those damn fingers.

  “Vix,” Alyx said through clenched teeth, “can you take Sparrow inside? I need to deal with something…unpleasant.”

  “That’s a demon,” she heard Sparrow say behind her as she stalked towards Balthazar. “Are you friends with demons? You’re such badasses.”

  Balthazar was Lucifer’s right-hand demon. Oh yes, that Lucifer. Now here he was hanging around their FreeThinker community like a bad smell. As Alyx stormed over to him, her head whipped around to see if anyone else had noticed him. As far as she could tell, the few Seraphim milling around the grounds hadn’t.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Alyx demanded as she came to a halt meters from him. Alyx eyed him carefully but it didn’t seem like Balthazar came armed, or at least if he did, she couldn’t see their bulk under his clothes. His mortal “host” had light skin dusted with freckles and pale blue eyes looking out at her from under a mop of reddish-brown hair. And Lord help her, wearing a skirt? “And what are you wearing?”

  “So lovely to see you too, Alyx. You’re looking well after your fresh victory.”

  “No thanks to you.”

  “I would have helped if you had told me your plan.”

  “You’ll pardon me if I don’t exactly trust you, Balthazar.”

  “We’ve gone back to the angels are good, demons are bad thinking, have we?”

  “No, I just don’t trust you.”

  “This is about your boyfriend. I was just doing what I had to. I didn’t force you to take the deal. And it’s not a skirt, it’s a kilt.”

  “A what?”

  “A kilt. These local humans wear these things. Well, at least the men do.”

  “What?”

  “Hey, you’re the one who chose to live in Scotland. This mortal was wearing it when I…acquired him. At first I thought it a bit odd but once you get used to it, it’s fabulously freeing and did you know that underneath they don’t wear any−”

  “I don’t need to know,” she cut him off.

  “Suit yourself.”

  Alyx growled low in her throat. She would break everything under that kilt if he wasn’t careful. “What are you doing here, Balthazar?”

  “You stopped answering your communicator. I had no choice but to seek you out.”

  The communicator he was referring to was the demon-bug necklace Balthazar had given to her as a way to communicate with him. Alyx had unceremoniously stuffed it into the back of her closet when it wouldn’t stop fluttering in an attempt to get her attention. I knew I should have buried that thing.

  “Maybe that’s because I don’t want to communicate with you.”

  “You are still angry about Israel. The potion I gave you did save his life, remember?”

  “Only after you blackmailed me into cleaning up your mess.”

  “Samyara was hardly our mess.”

  “He was one of you.”

  “Oh really? Then perhaps, as Michael is one of you, he is your mess. Or have you forgotten about our homicidal friend? He won’t stop. He won’t stop until he gets his hands on the keye and unleashes Hell. Pardon the pun.”

  “The keye has a name.”

  “Oh that’s right. You’re quite fond of Israel. Have you two stopped dancing around your feelings and gotten together yet?”

  “You think I’ve forgotten about Michael?” Alyx heard her voice rising. “You don’t think I know how much danger Israel is in while Michael is still alive? I live with that fact every second of every single minute of every single day, Balthazar. It’s a guillotine hanging over my head cursing my waking hours. I don’t breathe without worrying about what Michael has planned.” She took a breath, inhaling deeply, trying to let the cool air in her lungs settle her fluttering heart.

  “Well, I have bad news for you. Michael has convinced the Elder Gabriel to hand over his piece of the Trinity Amulet. Now he has a piece. And he’s searching for the third. It’s only a matter of time before he finds out where Raphael hid the third piece.”

  Alyx tensed. “So? We have the second piece. He needs all three pieces of make it work.”

  “Michael is always planning something. Help me find the third piece before he does.”

  “What makes you think I can help with that?”

  “I have heard rumors that Raphael left you something. I’m sure that it will lead you to the third missing piece of the Amulet.”

  Alyx’s mind flashed to the charm that Mayrekk gave her. Mayrekk said it was from Raphael. Was Balthazar right? Did that charm hold the secret to the location of the missing Amulet piece? Was this what Elder Raphael wanted her to find?

  Balthazar continued, “Let’s find the missing piece together, then we can worry about recovering the other one from Michael.”

  “Those three pieces are too dangerous to be kept together. That third piece was hidden by Raphael for that reason. He probably destroyed it.”

  “It can’t be destroyed.”

  “Then what the hell would we do with the complete Amulet?”

  “It should be returned to Hell. To Lucifer.”

  Alyx glared at Balthazar. This sneaky demon always had a hidden agenda, didn’t he? “No one is getting their hands on the completed Amulet. There was a reason it was made, as per legend, and it was to ensure that we would be able to stop Lucifer in the event that he decides that he would like to take over Earth.”

  “He wants to do no such thing.”

  “And I’m supposed to just take your word for it?” Alyx narrowed her eyes at him, her fingers itching to grab at her dagger. “I suggest you leave this place, Balthazar. The only reason I haven’t killed you is because you helped me once
.”

  “And you need my help again.”

  “No, I don’t. I defeated Samyara without your help. I’ll defeat Michael.”

  She turned and was about to leave when Balthazar spoke again. “You’re really going to refuse our help because of a personal matter? The fate of the world is greater than your personal feelings, Alyx. Let me help you again. Tell me what Raphael gave you.”

  “He gave me nothing. Your sources are wrong.”

  Alyx stormed off before Balthazar could say any more. Raphael’s charm, hidden in the back of her things in her room in the castle, burned in her mind.

  * * *

  Alyx closed the door to her room in the castle. The castle was drafty as all old castles were, but she had made this room a kind of home by keeping a low fire going in her fireplace and throwing thick rugs across the floor. She had also bought a series of sheepskin throws, two of which were across her bed and one final one along her couch. Along one wall there were hooks from before, probably used to hang decorative pieces. Now her weapons hung off them from silk ropes tied to the pommels. On the fireplace mantle was where she kept a few books and candles and one small vanity mirror. But Raphael’s charm was not kept there. That special piece she had hidden among her things in a hidden compartment in the back of her drawers.

  The faint musky scent of Israel lingered briefly in her nose. Alyx paused to lean against the door and inhale. Her gut tightened with a pang for him. He had left with Tobias a few days ago but his delicious smell still lingered here in her room, where he had stayed every night since they had defeated Samyara and his army.

  After Israel had almost been lost to Samyara, something had happened between them without either of them having to say it. It seemed as if they had both realized at once that they didn’t want to wait until these “problems” were fixed. Neither of them knew what might happen. All the excuses about why they shouldn’t be together dissolved. Now it seemed that they couldn’t be apart from each other.

  The smell of him faded in her nose but the pang of missing him remained in her chest. He’ll be back soon, she assured herself. Any day now.

  She moved to her bedside table, focusing her thoughts on Raphael’s charm. She couldn’t help but brush her fingers over a leather-bound book on the bedside table, The Count of Monte Cristo, something that Israel had been reading. She hadn’t moved it even after he had left with Tobias; she loved the look of his things mixed with hers.

  She leaned down to pull open her drawer where she had hidden Raphael’s charm, but the soft click of footsteps at her door stopped her. She knew it was Israel. She could feel him.

  Raphael’s charm forgotten, she turned and flung herself at the door just as it opened. She fell into Israel’s arms and he caught her. She sighed happily as his hands fed around her back and pulled her in close, her feet lifting off the ground. Neither of them said anything. They didn’t have to.

  Alyx just pressed herself further into him and buried her nose in his neck. The masculine scent of his skin warmed her lungs. This is home, she thought, right in his arms, I am home. He was home more than Michaelea had ever been. He was the true meaning of home.

  Only when he reached a hand around the back of her neck and gently tugged her head back did she let herself pull her face from his neck. There was a desperate look on his face, a pressing together of his eyebrows before his mouth found hers and his tongue begged its way in between her lips. Her eyes fluttered closed.

  The pressure of his lips was almost bruising. He kissed her as if he was dying of thirst and her lips held precious drops of water. Somewhere in the haze that clouded her head, the faded consciousness of the irrelevant world outside his kiss, she was vaguely aware that he had stepped them fully into her room and kicked the door shut behind him.

  His hands grabbed at her body and twisted in her hair as he walked them both to her bed. She felt them tumble onto the mattress and was jolted away from his mouth. When they stopped rolling, he was lying alongside her, with one of his legs over hers.

  His nose ran along her cheek and her neck as he inhaled deeply, then let it out in a low groan. “I missed you,” he whispered, his voice hoarse.

  “Did you?” She hid her grin as she nuzzled back into his neck. “But you were only gone for two days.”

  “And I missed you for every second of every hour of those two long days.”

  “I thought you’d be longer. Did everything go okay with your aunt?”

  Israel growled softly as his hand found her skin under her shirt. “I don’t want to talk about her right now.”

  “Okay… How were things with Tobias?”

  “I don’t think you get it. I don’t want to talk right now.”

  “Oh.” Oh yes.

  His eyes darkened as he leaned in to capture her mouth, once more making her head spin. In a small part of her mind, thoughts of Michael and Raphael’s charm nagged at her. She pushed at his chest gently and he pulled away, a deep frown marring his beautiful face.

  “Things have happened since you went away,” she said.

  “They can wait.”

  “Balthazar visited me.”

  “He can definitely wait.” He leaned in again.

  She dodged his mouth. “Balthazar said that Michael−”

  “Stop,” he said firmly, his eyes glittering with a steady fierceness. “The world survived Michael this long. It can survive a few more damn hours. It…it was not a good trip. I missed you. I need to feel you, to be with you, to remind myself that there is something good left in this world. I need just a few hours to be with you, where there are no family secrets or surprise fathers, no deranged angels or demon-lords hell-bent on starting a war, no apocalypse or anyone trying to kill me or kidnap me and use me as a door opener. You are my center, my balance, my sanity. My peace. I just need to be you and me. Just for a while. Is that okay?”

  Alyx nodded, emotion clogging up her throat so she couldn’t speak.

  He sighed and relief melted the frown on his face. He kissed her again and this time she let all other thoughts dissipate like sand to the wind.

  * * *

  “Go to sleep.”

  “I don’t want to.”

  “Why not?”

  “I’ll miss your dazzling conversation too much.”

  “Be serious.”

  “I am being serious.”

  “Cleo…”

  “Fine. I’m not tired.”

  “Yes, you are. I can hear it in your voice.”

  “Cannot. You just don’t want to answer my question.”

  Jordan sighed. He pushed back against the window, saying goodbye to those stars that shone outside, and turned. He sank into the chair by Cleo’s bed. Unlike the previous chair, this one was a soft, comfortable leather armchair. A vast improvement on the stiff-backed wooden one that was in Cleo’s room previously. How she had managed to get this as a replacement, he didn’t want to know. Cleo had a way with her hips and her lashes and lips that made any man within a hundred yards drop to their hind legs, tail wagging, to perform tricks or fetch at her whim.

  “What was the question again?” Jordan asked.

  Cleo rolled onto her side facing him, her hair fanned out across her white pillow looking like spilled ink. “Exactly how many women have you slept with?”

  “What?” Jordan’s eyes bugged out of his head and his torso launched forward as if someone had kicked the chair out from under him. “That was not the question you asked before.”

  One corner of Cleo’s mouth pulled up and her eyes sparkled. Jordan called this her trademark “I’m being wicked and you secretly love it” grin.

  “I know,” she said. “I was just checking to see if you were paying attention.”

  Jordan hmpfted as he settled back into his chair. It took him a second to realize that Cleo was still eyeing him. “What?”

  “So,” she drew out slowly, “how many have there been?”

  “I’ll tell you, if you tell me.”

 
Cleo visibly whitened. She quickly covered it up with a smirk that pulled her thick lips into a pout. “You do remember that I was one of Lady Bluesette’s girls at Purgatory for three or so decades, right?” The pout receded and she got a glint in her eye. “Despite this fact, I bet that your number is still greater than mine. Hmmm, the infamous Jordan Bonaven. The number has to be double digits. Maybe even triple…” She let off a wink.

  “You’re jealous because I had a better reputation than you.”

  “Had.”

  “What?”

  “You said ‘had’. You were correct. You had a better reputation.” Cleo leaned forward. “Reputation no more. Rumor is that the great woman-charmer of the century has gone…soft.” She infused this last word, soft, with teasing.

  It was true. He had a reputation. He had bedded any willing woman he found any passing interest in. He never lied to them. They all knew what the deal was: strictly physical only. No commitment. No relationships. Distractions, he now knew they had been. Until Alyx came along. She had changed him. Had made him want more than he had ever wanted before. Life had taken on color again, a bright colorful gloss as if he were walking around in a dream. Turns out it had just been a dream. Because he soon woke up from it when she chose someone else.

  Cleo continued, “Rumor is…you couldn’t charm your way out of a paper bag anymore.”

  Jordan put his feet up on the bed. “What do I care about what people say?”

  Cleo smiled. “We could prove them wrong.”

  “We? And just how do you propose that we do that?”

  Cleo stretched out along her bed; her red silky nightie drew up her long legs. Jordan averted his eyes. She was always teasing him with her body. He couldn’t help but be affected by that body, although he tried very hard not to show it. She knew the power of her sexuality and she wasn’t afraid to tease him mercilessly with it. But he wouldn’t give in. He didn’t want to be that guy anymore. Besides, Cleo just toyed with him. She didn’t actually want him. And just the physical stuff wasn’t enough anymore.

  Jordan forced a bored look on his face and closed his eyes, sinking into his chair as if he was going to sleep. “I would actually have to find you attractive to seduce you, darling.”