Dark Angel Box Set

by Hanna Peach

  “Each other?” Alyx said.

  “This is ridiculous,” Israel said. “I’m not going to hit a girl.”

  “Hey!” Fury flared through Alyx. “Just ’cause I’m a girl doesn’t mean I can’t kick your ass.”

  “I never said that. I’m just saying, I’m not going to hit you.”

  The Elder, standing to one side, lifted up an eyebrow at Alyx. “Are you really going to take that from him?”

  Her muscles tensed just as Israel turned to say something to the Elder. She lashed out with her sword. Whack. She hit him in the thigh with the flat side. Hmm…she had been aiming for his side.

  “Hey,” yelled Israel as he stumbled back. “What are you doing?”

  Alyx hid a grin. That was kinda fun. She swung again. This time Israel ducked. Damn. She missed.

  He darted out of her reach. “Come on, Alyx, stop it.”

  “Stop being such a wuss and fight me.”

  She attacked again and was surprised to see that her muscles seemed to be warming up. She was faster this time, catching Israel on the side of his knee. He stumbled and began to fall. She swung her sword again to get him while he was down and to win this round. He rolled out of the way just in time and sprang to his feet in one swift, graceful move.

  Alyx froze, her mouth partway open. “How the hell did you do that?”

  Israel faced her this time instead of moving out of the way, the tip of his sword hovering inches from hers. “I was a trained police officer. One thing they do very well is teach you how to fall.”

  He was a police officer?

  * * *

  Israel slapped his sword at Alyx’s and knocked it easily out of the way. He could have struck out while she was defenseless but he didn’t. “How ’bout,” he began, “we assign points to hits. Whoever has the most points, wins.” He ducked aside easily as her sword came for him. “Winner gets bragging rights and to be crowned ultimate champion.”

  “That seems juvenile.”

  He spun aside from her sword again, his body feeling lighter and lighter as he moved. Her glare, on the other hand, was just getting deeper and deeper.

  “Come on. It’ll be fun. I’ll even let you have double points for every one of your hits, ’cause, you know, you’re a girl and all.”

  Her nostrils flared and he had to bite back a laugh. He didn’t really think that about her. But she seemed to have such a chip on her shoulder about it that he couldn’t help but want to tease her.

  “Just because I’m a girl does not mean I’m any less good than you at anything.”

  He ducked another one of her clumsy swings. “Prove it then. One hit to one point.”

  “I didn’t say yes.”

  “Chicken.”

  “I am not chicken.”

  “Buck, buck, buck…”

  She let out an adorable growl of exasperation. “Fine. But you’re going down.” She lunged at him. But he could see her next move a mile away. She was too tense. Her anger was making her movements too transparent.

  He spun aside and tapped the left side of her ass with the flat of his sword.

  A cry left her mouth and she spun, grabbing her perfect round butt with her hand. “You…you…”

  “Wonderful swordsman?”

  “…smelly heap of insect turds.”

  “Interesting choice of words.”

  She lunged again. He spun out of her way like he was dancing, letting his body take over. He lashed out with his sword, smacking her other butt cheek. They were both perfect. He couldn’t let the other one go without equal attention.

  She let out another cry and turned towards him, her face in rage. If she were a dragon, fire would be coming out of her nose right about now.

  She swiped at his legs trying to take him out. Israel leaped into the air, kicking off the side of a pillar and flipping over her and out of her way. For the few seconds he was in the air, he felt like he was flying. A familiar feeling surged through him and he felt as light as air. He landed, twirling his sword at the ready for her next onslaught.

  She was just standing there, her mouth open. “How the hell did you…?”

  “Well done, Israel,” called the Elder, his hands clapping together sounding like rocks trying to make a spark.

  Shock rattled through his body. How the hell had he done that? It had just come to him. He had just moved. It felt as natural as breathing to him. “I don’t know. I just did it.”

  “You remembered,” the Elder said, beaming.

  Alyx frowned. “Let’s go again.”

  They faced each other once more.

  “Come on, Alyx. You can get this.” He let her swipe at him without even trying to hit back. Evading her attacks was easy now, her sword barely coming near him. He felt as limber as a cat, as light as a bird and his body moved fluidly like water. It was an incredible feeling. And one he wanted Alyx to experience too. “Just let your body take over.”

  “If you spout one more stupid half-veiled cheer, I will come over there and chop your tongue out.”

  “At the rate you’re going you couldn’t chop a tree trunk if it stood in front of you,” he teased.

  She growled, gripping her sword handle so that her knuckles went white. “Come over here and say that again.”

  “Fighting’s in your blood,” the Elder cried out. “It’s in your soul memory.”

  “The Elder’s right,” Israel said. “You just need to relax.”

  * * *

  “Just relax,” Alyx muttered. “As if it were that damn easy.”

  Just let go, Alyx. A whisper sounded in her mind.

  She saw Israel’s sword coming for her and she spun. A rush of feeling rose up in her. She felt her body being taken over as if from deep inside her. Time seemed to slow, she saw the sword tip passing across her inches from her chest.

  Just

  let

  go. It was a lost but familiar voice that had whispered in her mind.

  Symon.

  Who was Symon?

  He had been someone precious to her. Before this life. But she had lost him. She had lost him. And he was gone.

  Just like her parents were gone.

  The feeling dropped out of her body and she was back struggling for control. She stumbled over her own feet. Israel’s sword clipped her shoulder, leaving a stinging mark. Her own sword went flying as she held out her hands to keep from falling on her face. Pain jarred up her forearms as she landed on her hands and knees.

  “Alyx,” Israel ran over to her, his own sword tossed aside. He fell to her side, his hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

  “Fine,” she said through gritted teeth. She shrugged his hand off her and pushed herself up to standing. His touch scorched her and she hated that she wanted more of it.

  “You almost had it,” the Elder said as he waddled over. “What happened?”

  “Nothing. Nothing happened.”

  “Are my good looks too disarming for you?” Israel grinned.

  That’s it. She’d chop his tongue out. Or maybe she’d aim lower. She turned on Israel, swordless, and lunged at him with her fists. Israel knocked her arm out of the way. “Come on, Alyx, loosen up. You’re too uptight.” She struck again, wildly; he grabbed her wrist and spun her around so that her back was against his front. His other arm went around her stomach and she was locked against his warm, hard body.

  “You know what?” he whispered in her ear, the rumbling of his voice sending unwanted tingles down her spine, “you just need to get laid.”

  She sucked in an audible breath before she tried, unsuccessfully, to elbow him in the stomach. Her head spun as an unwanted image of them like this, alone and naked, flashed through her mind. She broke out in a sweat. She shook her head and hissed back. “I do not need to get laid.”

  “You need to get laid and get laid good.”

  “I’ll have you know I have a perfectly fine sex life.”

  “Perfectly fine?” Israel whistled. “A day can be fine. The t
emperature of a bath can be fine. Sex should not be fine.” He rolled her out as if they were dancing. She wrenched her arm from his and faced him, her breath coming out in heaving pants. His eyes looked as dark as obsidian as he circled her. In a low voice just for her ears he said, “Sex should be wild and raw. It should tear strips off you. It should be earth-shattering, soul-wrenching, exhilarating and terrifying, but it should never be fine.”

  An image slammed into her.

  He ran his lips along her neck up to her ear. “You are so…painfully beautiful.”

  He pulled her hands to his chest, then dragged her palms down his stomach. He let her touch him, exploring his body, until he couldn’t stand it anymore.

  His lips covered hers. This time he was rough with her. His hands gripped at her hair, holding her to him. Her fingertips sought out every knotted scar. He grabbed her, lifting her up and pulling her legs around him. Soon there was no space left between them. Only the exquisite agony of skin on skin.

  Alyx slammed back into her body.

  Holy hell.

  What the hell was that?

  She was dizzy, unsteady on her feet, and her body was shaking as the aftershocks of her…fantasy…memory…she didn’t know…trickled down through her.

  She stared at Israel before her, his cocky half-smile, his muscled, sure body oozing with a deadly masculinity, and her core bloomed with an ache again. Nothing on his face gave away that he had experienced anything like what she just had.

  No. She could not want this.

  She launched to strike him again, channeling this heat into a kind of fury. Their limbs tangled and they both spun across the floor. Hurt him. Kiss him. Hit him. Have him. Alyx wrestled for control. Over him. Over herself.

  She found herself yanked up against him again. She heard a whimper that she realized was her own.

  “You know,” he whispered against her hair, his lips brushing the top of her ear, “I’d show you, if you asked nicely.”

  She shoved at his chest, hard as granite. “You arrogant—”

  “Alyx. Israel,” interrupted the Elder. She’d forgotten he was even there. “We don’t have time for this bickering.”

  “He started it.”

  “She started it.”

  They both spoke together, fingers pointing at each other.

  The chamber began to shake, the chandeliers rattling like chains. “What’s happening?” Huge cracks appeared in the ceiling, dirt from above sifting through and showering the stone floor. It wasn’t just a tremor. This whole chamber was going to collapse.

  Chapter 5

  Israel’s stomach twisted into knots. He spotted the Elder’s face, open with fear, and they pulled tighter.

  “Grab your swords then aim for the exit,” the Elder yelled as he began to lumber for the black doorway on the far side of the chamber. “Hurry!”

  Alyx was already moving. She grabbed her weapon and his lying on the floor where they had dropped them. “Israel.” She threw his sword at him. Without thinking he caught his sword by the handle and sheathed it in one movement. She began to sprint for the door, yelling as she dodged a piece of falling ceiling.

  He ran too. “Come on, Elder.”

  “Curse this tiny body,” the Elder cried as he waddled up on his squat hind legs.

  There was a huge crack and a groan behind him. Israel turned his head just in time to see a pillar break away and fall towards the Elder.

  “Look out!” Israel stopped short.

  The pillar toppled upon the Elder, knocking him down. Israel ran to him, dodging pieces of falling stone and leaping over the cracks that were appearing in the floor. He skidded to the Elder’s side.

  “Leave me,” the Elder said. “Go. Get her out of here.”

  “I’m not leaving you.” Israel tried to yank the pillar off the Elder’s tail but it was too heavy.

  “Israel, there’s not enough time. Get out of here.”

  “We’re not leaving you.” Alyx grabbed the pillar too. She’d come back. She lifted her eyes to Israel. “On two.”

  He nodded, his eyes fixed on hers. “One.”

  “Two.”

  He pulled as hard as he could. The pillar was so heavy, sweat poured from Israel’s forehead and his palms, making his grip slippery. Alyx’s face was twisted with strain too.

  But the pillar wouldn’t move.

  “This isn’t working.” Alyx let go of the pillar.

  “Go, both of you,” the Elder said. “I’m not important. I just need to tell you before you go…”

  “No,” Israel said. “You’re coming with us.” He glanced at the Elder’s tail. It was almost crushed through. “I have an idea,” he said to Alyx. “But it might hurt him.”

  “Will it hurt him any more than having a building collapse on him?”

  “Good point. You cut his tail. I’ll pull him.”

  “What?”

  “We have no choice.” Israel grabbed the Elder under his arms. “Do it.”

  She nodded, her lips going pale as she pressed them together, her polished features furrowed with determination. She unsheathed her sword and swung. It cracked through the stone of his tail.

  Israel almost fell back as the Elder pulled free.

  “Now, silly children,” the Elder said, the gray coloring of his cheeks going almost white. “Run.”

  Israel hoisted the Elder onto his back. “Hang on.” The Elder’s arms went around his neck and Israel bolted after Alyx.

  Crack.

  A second pillar broke loose and fell towards them. Israel didn’t think, he just moved, leaping off the ground. He felt his body go weightless and he twisted in the air, kicking off the side of another pillar. The Elder’s grip tightened around his neck and his short hind legs dug into his sides.

  The falling pillar missed them by inches.

  Crash.

  Israel landed on the shaky ground and didn’t miss a beat. He just kept running.

  As he reached the doorway, Alyx was standing there, her mouth agape. She must have seen his acrobatics. “How did you do that?”

  That was a damn good question. Not one that he could answer. “No time. Go.”

  She turned and was swallowed up by the dark stairwell. He chased after her, racing up the stairs two at a time, a thunderous crash closing off the chamber behind him with a spitting of hot dust. In the tight stone stairwell he was shaken about like dice in a cup, his shoulders bouncing and scraping off the sides. He squinted through the blackness and falling grit, aiming desperately for the light coming from the exit somewhere above. Any second now these coffin-like walls would collapse and crush them.

  Please, hold. Just hold for a few more seconds.

  Finally, the exit, a doorway filled with light at the top of the staircase. He burst out into a grand stone church, his breath heaving, his lungs stinging from the dust and effort. He was in what looked like the inside of a cathedral, the gothic ceiling soaring up well above him, the hanging thuribles shaking on their chains, wooden pews clattering against the marble floor. They must be above ground now because light streamed in through the stained glass windows. He knew this place. It was Saint Paul’s Cathedral in Saint Joseph.

  He raced after Alyx, already sprinting down the center of the aisle towards the exit, the Elder’s stony body knocking bruises against his spine as he ran.

  “Israel, wait,” the Elder said in a hoarse voice.

  They couldn’t wait. Before Israel could answer, the Elder’s arms crumbled from around his neck like pieces of dried clay. The weight lifted from him as the stone gargoyle crashed to the ground.

  “Elder!” Israel spun around. The Elder was lying in pieces, limbs shattered, his torso cracked in three places.

  “Israel…” It came from the Elder’s mouth, still moving. He was still alive. Israel dropped to the Elder’s side.

  “Elder, oh my God.” Alyx dropped down next to him.

  “It’s fine. I was never meant to be here anyway,” the Elder said, speaking
out of the corner of his broken mouth. His eyes in two separate pieces, blinked once, twice.

  “We can fix you. We can—”

  “No, Alyx. You have to listen.” The pieces of him were still collapsing, as if he was watching a time lapse of the wind breaking down a rock in the desert, the edges disintegrating into sand and dust. “You need to get out of here before winter is over.”

  “Winter?”

  “Find the Mapmaker. He has the map. The map is the key to getting out of here.” If there was anything more that he wanted to say, he lost his chance. The Elder’s last remaining pieces fell away to a pile of sand and dust.

  Alyx’s face crumpled. His chest squeezed, a reflection of the loss he could see in her eyes. But there was no time to mourn him. Pieces of the ceiling crashed down around them, smashing apart the fragile wooden pews like unforgiving fists. That would be their bodies in splinters if they didn’t move.

  He grabbed her hand. “We have to go. Now! This building is going to collapse on us.”

  They sprinted down the rest of the aisle. The large iron chandelier fell from the crumbling ceiling, diving into the floor with a terrible clatter and a shower of metal and sparks. The colored glass in the windows shattered as the walls groaned, then collapsed.

  Israel and Alyx burst through the doors—thank God they were unlocked—and tumbled down the stairs. The cathedral fell in upon itself with a thundering crash and a billowing of dust. Israel fell upon the lawn, rolling until he came to a complete stop beside her, his arms wrapping around her as she gripped his shirt in her fists. They stayed like that as the broken building ceased its spitting and the dust settled. Behind Israel’s closed lids an image overtook him.

  She lay naked against his chest, his arms holding her to him, her soft body molding around his hard one, her scent in his nose; of the wind and of sun-warmed jasmine.