"Go home, Harper," Azael said, and I felt myself bristle. There was no denying the fact that he was clearly dismissing me. After everything that had happened, he was behaving like he was the one who was wronged.
“One question,” I said.
“Go ahead.” He sounded bored, and I clenched my hands into fists at my sides.
“I’m just wondering how you function in society,” I asked, keeping my expression as blank as I could muster.
“I don’t understand,” Azael said, his expression shifting as he furrowed his brow.
“Well, it’s just with such a sizeable stick shoved so far up your ass, it must be hard to go out in public and not have people find you intolerable.”
I didn’t wait for an answer. My heart hammered in my chest.
Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid. The little voice in my head screamed over and over. What was I thinking, insulting the man who was holding me captive? Had I completely lost my marbles?
I stormed toward the elevator doors and Mr Blue Eyes followed hot on my heels. Stepping inside, I half expected Azael to shout for me to stop, that he’d changed his mind because I’d dared to insult him. When nothing happened, I contemplated turning around. While I didn't particularly want to see his smug ass face as the doors closed, my curiosity got the better of me and I found myself turning around. I met his silver-eyed gaze head on, his expression one of bemusement as the heavy steel doors came together, obscuring him from my view once and for all.
"Don't be so hard on him," Mr Blue Eyes said, as though he could tell from the tension that sang through my body how I was feeling.
"Really, is that your professional advice?" I dug my nails into my hands. Obviously the stress of the situation had caused me to lose the filter between my brain and mouth. But I knew if I wasn’t careful, my smart mouth would get me killed.
"Look, Harper," and there was something about the way he said my name that sent my heartbeat skyrocketing. "I get that you're pissed off," he said.
“I doubt that,” I said.
I was clearly unable to keep a lid on the smart-ass answers that bubbled to the surface. But then giving smart answers had always been my defence mechanism when I was scared.
“I do, this is not of your choosing and none of it your fault. But it is a mess.”
“You’re right about one thing, I didn’t chose any of this. I didn’t chose to get attacked, and I sure as hell didn’t chose to get abducted and you have the cheek to stand there and pretend you know what I’m talking about. Were you attacked and abducted too?”
"No," he said, and his unspoken words hung in the air between us.
“Then stop trying to be my friend and just let me go.”
“I’ve made enough mistakes in my life, Harper,” he said. “I’m not willing to add another to my slate.”
I watched him in the reflection of the metal doors and his gaze caught mine. He stared at me with an intensity that tightened things low in my body but the reflection of his eyes still wasn’t the same as meeting his gaze head on and for that I was grateful.
“My name is Belial,” he said, his voice had dropped to a husky whisper as though he could sense the direction my thoughts had moved in and he was responding to the images that filled my head.
“Belial,” I said, and my skin prickled with sudden awareness. I wanted to touch him. To turn and melt into his arms. I knew if I did he would respond, it wasn’t so much a conscious thought that passed through my head, it was more of a feeling in the pit of my stomach.
The air was electrified and I caught myself beginning to turn as the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened once more.
The minute they did our eye contact was broken and I took a small stumbling step backwards, my hands searching for the metal of the walls. Tears clouded my vision and it took every ounce of strength I had to stop them from spilling over my lashes.
What was wrong with me? I was supposed to be cleverer than this. Instead, I was practically throwing myself into the arms of my captors. That more than anything else frightened me. It was so utterly out of character that the more it happened, the more I found myself wondering just who the hell I was and just what I was.
Having a thing for bad boys was one thing. This was something else altogether.
Belial stepped out, his eyes scanning the foyer as though he expected at any moment for something to jump out at us. When nothing did, he gestured for me to follow him and I did so without hesitation.
My attraction to him and Azael wasn’t the only thing I found myself feeling. For some reason there was a part of me that wanted desperately to trust Belial. But then I'd felt exactly the same way about Azael when he’d saved me the night before and that hadn't exactly worked out too wonderfully for me.
"That thing in the well," I said, hating the sudden uncertainty and vulnerability in my voice. It just wasn't me and I hated that I'd been made to feel like this. But that didn't change the fact that I needed answers.
He paused and glanced at me over his shoulder but he didn't prompt me to continue.
"That was real, right? I mean, I don't think I hit my head or anything, I'm pretty sure there was something trying to kill me down there."
"No, you did hit your head," he said, managing to sidestep my question with all the grace of a consummate politician.
The fact that he wasn't giving me a straight up answer only served to enflame me more. I wanted to scream at him, rail against his inability to tell me the truth, whatever that might be.
“So I imagined it then?”
“You didn’t hit your head that hard.”
"Then what was it?"
He turned away but not before I saw the flicker of frustration cross his face.
"I don't know," he lied. His words practically tainted the air with bitterness and I knew with every fibre of my being that he was lying to me.
"Don't you dare lie straight to my face and then walk away as though nothing just happened. I know what I saw down there. I know that whatever that thing was, it wanted me dead and I know, that you saved me." I watched as my words caused his shoulders to stiffen with tension and I plunged ahead. "I don't know how it can be possible but I'm more than a little certain that you have wings, great big silvery tipped wings..." I cut off as he turned to face me.
The emotion in his eyes was unreadable as he took one step and then another toward me, closing the gap between us. Without meaning to I found myself backing up until my body pressed into the wall next to the elevator bank.
And still he kept coming, until he planted his hands either side of my head, his face only inches above mine as he stared down into my eyes. He stood so close to me that not even a piece of paper could have passed between us, the heat from his body radiating out so that my skin felt scorched by his heat beneath my layers of clothes.
"Do I look like I have wings to you?" This time when he spoke there was no mistaking the barely concealed agony in his voice. His hurt and anger poured out of him and over me. And the urge to take him into my arms, to hold him until all of his hurt faded away washed over me.
"It sounds crazy but I know what I saw," I whispered, reaching up to cup his cheek.
The moment my hand touched his face, he stiffened, his expression stony but his blue eyes were still filled with all the rage and turmoil I'd heard in his voice.
"You were my guardian angel," I said, the words little more than a whisper.
He threw his head back and let out a bitter laugh, the sound reverberating around the marble foyer before it returned to me like a slap in the face. I jerked my hand away from his face, pain lancing through my core.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you but any wings I might have had, are long gone. The only things left here are monsters. Monsters that the world forgot," he said, once more meeting my gaze.
Pushing him away, I fought to catch my breath and steady my heartbeat. The effect he had on me was like nothing I had ever experienced before, well except maybe for the effect Aza
el had on me.
But this was crazy. Here I was standing in the middle of the foyer talking about wings...
"Please, just take me home," I said, pushing my hand back through my hair. Inside, I felt as though I was clinging to the last little bits of my sanity. I’d have given anything to be back at the club with Madison yelling at me.
"As you wish," he said, and all traces of the anger he'd exhibited just moments before was gone. I didn't look up at him as he led me to the main doors. I didn't even sneak a glance at him as he held the doors open for me, choosing instead to shuffle out ahead of him onto the street.
The sooner I got away from here and from them the better for me. Clearly being around them was having some sort of an effect on me and I couldn't help but think that if I was imagining wings on them now, what would I be imagining next?
8
A small sports car—that cost more than I could ever hope to earn over my entire lifetime—sat waiting on the curb. The electric blue paint job was iridescent in the sunlight. Without even meaning to, I found myself pausing to stare at it.
"You like it?" Belial said, moving up beside me.
"It's beautiful," I said, unable to tear my gaze away from the car before me.
“I was hoping you’d like it,” he said, sounding altogether too pleased with himself. “Hop in.”
"You can't be serious? This is your ride?“ I turned to face him, finally managing to rip my gaze from the car. My brother Jake had had a poster of a sports car just like it on his bedroom wall. He’d been so proud of it and had taken great pains to tell me over and over how it was exactly the car he was going to own when he was rich enough. I could still remember the edges of the poster and the way they'd curled up at the corners in the sunlight. The charred remains of the poster were all I had left of him now.
The memory of Jake and how proud he’d been of that poster caused a lump to form in the back of my throat. Clearly the trauma of the past twenty-four hours was causing me to dredge up all of my memories that I’d done my best to bury.
Belial moved to the passenger door of the car and popped it open with a little flourish in my direction, he caught my eye and for a split second it felt as though he knew the pain I felt as though it were his own and then the moment was gone.
"Oh, I'm very serious," he said. “When it comes to cars, I don't screw around." He gave me a heart-stopping grin that warmed me to my core and caused the lump in my throat to slowly begin to melt away.
What was it about these guys and their abilities to seemingly siphon off my emotions? I wasn’t exactly Miss Emotional at the best of times. It wasn’t that I didn’t feel things, my problem tended to be that I felt far too much, I was capable of breaking down at stupid television ads. So I’d developed a coping strategy of burying all of my emotions, pushing them so far down inside that they didn’t see the light of day. But since I’d met Azael and now Belial, I was experiencing a veritable cornucopia of emotions, which was something I really wasn’t used to or prepared for.
He held the car door open, allowing me to slide into the fawn coloured leather passenger seat. It was as soft as butter and seemed to grip me gently as I relaxed into it.
I started to reach for the seatbelt before I realised it was one of those special race car belts that had more bells and whistles attached than anyone would ever find useful.
Without a word, Belial leaned into the car, his face dangerously close to mine; he slipped his hand down the side of the seat his fingers brushing against my thigh as he deftly began to fasten the belt around me. His scent washed over me and without meaning to I closed my eyes and pressed my face in toward him.
He smelled of ice and the mist that rolled in from the mountains at dawn. A deeper note tantalized me, all heat and the promise of passion that stole my breath and left me reeling. Opening my eyes, I found his face only inches from mine, his cerulean gaze intense as his hot breath fanned across my cheek. If I took a deep breath, the movement would close the space between our lips.
“All safe and secure,” he murmured, his hands lingering at the belt fastening at my waist longer than was strictly necessary.
I opened my mouth to answer him but the words refused to come. Being so close to him, made my skin tingle the way it did when I got a small shock of static electricity.
He smiled and withdrew from the car, closing the door carefully before he made his way around to the driver’s side. Drawing in a deep breath I tried to settle my heart and my still jangling nerves.
Belial hopped into the car and started the engine. “You ready?”
I nodded, unable to trust my voice to not squeak out a yes and make me look even more foolish than I already did.
The car sprung forward and I gasped, digging my fingers into the seat as Belial expertly navigated the city traffic without once dropping his speed.
We pulled up outside my apartment block and I lowered my shaking hands to unfasten my seat belt. He’d only asked for the barest of directions, and we’d crossed from one side of the city to the other at break neck speed.
“Let me,” he said, his hands sliding over mine. It wasn’t until I felt the warmth of his skin against mine that I truly realised just how cold I was.
Obviously laying around in wet clothes for most of the day hadn’t been a great idea. I wasn’t worried about getting sick; colds and flus weren’t really my thing. It was a situation I’d hated as a child and teenager. Every time Jake had gotten sick I’d prayed to catch whatever he had so I could stay home and watch TV too but my constitution hadn’t afforded me such luxuries. Even now, I’d never once called off sick from work while the others seemed to catch everything going.
But this was different, I was cold enough now that it took a few seconds for Belial’s warmth to penetrate my icy skin and sink down to my bones.
He glanced up at me as he popped the belt open. “You’re freezing,” he said, sounding as surprised as I felt.
“I guess getting dunked in water and then hanging around in wet clothes didn’t help,” I said. His expression shifted and grew apologetic.
“Shit, we didn’t even think,” he said. “Cold isn’t really something we deal with.”
“You don’t ever get cold?” I asked. Feeling the cold from my hands leech the heat from his.
“No,” he said with a shrug, “I guess I’m just warm blooded.” He shot me a lascivious grin before he climbed from the car.
I had my hand on the door handle but Belial was just suddenly there pulling it open as he gave me an exaggerated flourish that caused heat to spread up into my face. If Ivy was home and saw the way he was behaving she would have more questions for me, than I was really willing to answer.
“Thanks,” I said, climbing out of the low car with as much grace as a newborn gazelle.
Without waiting to see what Belial was going to do, I started toward the apartment building, pulling my keys from my bag. I hadn’t gotten my own clothes back but Azael had at least made sure my bag was left beside the bed untouched.
He caught up to me as I reached the double doors of the apartment block. I punched in the code and waited for the door to buzz open before I stepped inside. I turned to face him as he started to follow me, blocking his way with my arm across the open doorway.
“I can take it from here, thanks for the ride,” I said, my stomach twisting into knots as I met his gaze.
Belial shook his head and propped himself up on the doorjamb, jamming his hands into his pockets. He gave me a wicked smile that at any other time might have enticed me but not today. Today, I’d had more than my fair share of weird shit and now that I was home I was done with him and every complication that seemed to follow him and his brother, Azael.
“You’re not going to invite me in for a coffee?” He asked, running his finger up along the white plastic frame of the door.
“Nope. I’m really tired. Thanks again for the ride, but I’m just going to go up and crash…” I said, hoping he got the hint.
&n
bsp; He didn’t or if he did, he ignored me and continued to study me with his inscrutable cerulean gaze.
“You really should reconsider attending the academy. They could really help you get to grips with everything…”
“Thanks but no.”
I stepped backwards into the tile foyer of the apartment block and let the door swing shut, it didn’t quite swing closed fully and I resisted the urge to slam it all the way home.
“I’ll be out here,” he said. “If you change your mind.”
I stared at him, unable to read the expression on his face but there was no mistaking the sudden tension that had filled the air. He didn’t budge from his place against the door and I half expected to see him notice the door was still partially open. If he did, he didn’t give any indication of it.
Squaring my shoulders against the fear that crept along my spine, I reached out and gave the door an extra nudge. It clicked shut and Belial’s gaze darkened. There was no rebuke in his eyes; the anger I’d anticipated at thwarting his plans simply wasn’t there. Instead, he stared at me with eyes filled with sorrow, as though my actions and mistrust had managed to somehow wound him but that wasn’t all I could see in his gaze and there was a part of me that recognised the loneliness he felt.
It was an emotion so familiar to me that I could have been staring into a mirror. I had friends, I’d had boyfriends, Riley the asshole had been the latest but none of it had ever felt right. At least not until I’d met Azael and now Belial. There was something about the two men that had me questioning everything I knew in my life but I had no clue why.
Breaking free of his mournful gaze, I darted for the elevator bank, my hands trembling as I pressed the button over and over. Machinery rumbled, the sounds of gears and pulleys shifting deep within the building and the metal groan of the elevator as it opened up before me hurt my ears.
Fallen Angel: An Urban Fantasy Reverse Harem Bully Romance (Dark Hearts Academy Book 1) Page 5
