Panic knotted in my stomach as the sound of the angel’s footsteps on the marble floor closed in on me. I wasn’t a fighter; I could defend myself against drunk guys and the patrons of the bar that tried to take liberties. But this was beyond different. The angel was trained, her expertise with the spear evident in the way she wielded it. Twirling it around like it was some kind of baton that weighed nothing at all. It reminded me of Belial and the way he’d wielded his spear.
And like Belial she was incredibly strong. She’d thrown me across the foyer like I was a scrap of errant trash. How could I stand against her?
I had no idea but I knew if I didn’t at least try, she would kill me and the wolf creature panting on the floor behind me.
My creature.
I couldn’t allow it.
I wouldn’t allow it.
He was mine.
The air shifted near my head and I ducked low below the sweeping strike of her spear, allowing my body’s natural instinct to kick in. Rolling across the floor, I hopped back onto my feet in time to see her spin toward me, a look of surprise twisting her beautiful face.
The sound of glass smashing caught her attention and I used the momentary distraction to my advantage.
Wrapping my hands around the shaft of the spear, I jerked it toward me, the movement caused her to stumble and it took her a second to catch her footing once more. Before she could fully recover, I shoved the spear back toward her with every ounce of strength I had. The butt struck her square in the abdomen, in the place just below her heart and she doubled over, her breath coming in several heaving gasps.
Keeping my grip on the pole, I attempted to drag it from her hands but the sight of Belial’s bloodied body, crashing into the wall next to the set of double wooden doors took my concentration.
“No!” I screamed, as he hit the grey stone and crumpled to the ground like some kind of puppet whose strings were cut. One of his wings was bent backwards at an impossible angle and ruby red blood spread from an injury at his abdomen.
The female angel hissed and swung the spear with me still attached to it toward the wall.
I released my hold on the weapon but it was already too late and the momentum of her movement sent me spinning into the wall alongside Belial.
I hit the ground sending shockwaves spasming up through my body. For a split second my vision went dark but I could only think of the man on the floor. He’d saved me, endangering himself for me, and I’d repaid him like this?
My vision cleared and I dragged myself across the marble toward him, brushing his blond hair back from his face. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth but as soon as I touched him, he turned his cerulean eyes on me, fear and panic clouded them and it tore at my heart.
“Go, run,” he said. “I’ll be fine.”
It was a lie, I pressed my hand against the wound on his stomach in an effort to stem the bleeding but my actions were utterly pointless, his blood slid out past my fingers.
“I can fix this,” I said and he shook his head.
“She will kill you, Harper. They are stronger than us, because they have one purpose. We are fragmented and it weakens us all,” he said. He shifted suddenly, ramming me back against the wall with a grunt of pain.
“You protect her,” the female angel said. I turned to see, Belial had caught the spear in his hand and despite his grievous injuries he was holding her off.
“Always,” he said, gritting his teeth.
Azael roared and I spotted him at the other end of the hall, fighting three other angels. He was skilled, more than they were but there was three of them and the weapons they carried prevented him from getting in close to them and each blow they managed to land on him was gradually wearing him down.
Horror washed over me as I watched one angel open a particularly nasty gash on Azael’s inner thigh. He stumbled, his leg buckling beneath him and he was forced onto his knees as he caught one of the blades in his bare hands.
“She hasn’t chosen you—any of you—so why sacrifice yourself for her? Lilith has withdrawn her protection,” the female angel said. “You could all come home, Belial. You, Azael, and Ornias could return if you give up your claim to the abomination.”
“I will never chose you, Eae,” Belial said, meeting her gaze head on.
With a scream of frustration, she ripped the spear out of his hands and raised it above her head, the point aimed directly at Belial’s heart. If he moved, she would drive it through me instead but I knew he wouldn’t move.
“Your choices have brought you here, Belial, remember you were given the chance for redemption,” she said, as she struck with the spear.
Time slowed to a crawl as Azael and Belial’s words came back to me. The female angel had said that I hadn’t chosen them. They’d spoken of it as though to claim them truly meant something and maybe it did. All I knew for certain was that I couldn’t let them all die.
They belonged to me. As stubborn as I had been I knew it deep inside. I could feel the pull of their souls as though they were already a part of me, entwined with my own. Their pain, was my pain, their hearts beat in time with my own and if even one of them died, I knew they would take a piece of me with them.
“No,” I said, my voice little more than a whisper and I raised my hands as though that alone could prevent the blow of her spear. “You will not harm what is mine,” I said, pushing up past Belial.
Power flowed in my veins, the same power I’d felt when I’d forced Ornias to fall.
The female angel fell backwards as the power I’d invoked flowed outwards, bathing them all in its warm glow. I wasn’t sure what I’d expected to happen, if I’d even really imagined anything would happen at all.
Belial cried out, his hand seeking mine out. The second our fingers touched, the power that had filled me spiked, stealing my breath as every fibre of my being seemed to come apart and reassemble between one heartbeat and the next. Power, raw and unchecked flowed in my veins. It roared in my ears and each breath I took stoked the fire that burned in my belly.
Take them all. The thought slammed into me and I knew it was true. I could have them all if I wanted, I had enough power to cause them all to fall and then they would be mine.
But I didn’t want them all.
I simply wanted them to stop attacking what was mine, to leave us be.
The memory of the golden haired angel stabbing the spear into Orinas’ side filled me with a blind rage and the urge to rip her limb from limb washed over me, tainting the power that filled the room.
I turned the weight of my gaze on the female angel, feeling my power as it flowed toward her. She tumbled backwards, dropping the spear with an agonised scream as she clutched at her face.
Without missing a beat, I bent over at the waist, retrieving the spear before it hit the ground. Belial’s hand slipped from mine as I took a step forward and thrust the sharp tip into her chest.
I’d expected some resistance, for the spear to strike her armour and halt, that I wouldn’t be strong enough to drive it into her body. Instead, as though her armour didn’t even exist the spear disappeared through the front of her body like a hot knife through butter.
Her hands fell away from her face and I realised she’d been clutching at her eyes, her cheeks a mass of bloody gouges where her nails had dug into her own flesh.
The bloody sight of her face and the spear in her chest was like a bucket of ice water. Shock poured over me, quenching the fire of my power inside my body like a candle flame being snuffed out. The angel screamed, her hands grappling at the spear uselessly.
Golden cracks appeared on her face and arms, they spread rapidly over every inch of exposed flesh that I could see. And I knew without a shadow of a doubt that the cracks had spread beneath her armour too. They stretched as she screamed again and in a blaze of golden light her scream cut off—her mouth twisted in agony—as her body turned to golden sand.
She stood there for a moment, her shape frozen in the agony of
her death. The breath I’d been holding escaped and the sand collapsed into a dusty pile at my feet.
I took a stumbling step backwards and straight into the arms of Belial.
“What did I do?” I asked, staring at the pile of sand as though at any moment it would reform and the angel would once more reappear.
“You did what she would have done to you, to us,” he said, his strong arms wrapping around my waist as he tugged me back against his body.
The whispering sound of collapsing sand drew my attention to Azael and the three piles of glittering sand that sat in piles around him.
“I did all this,” I said, my voice little more than a whisper. It wasn’t possible, I hadn’t been anywhere near the others and yet they’d somehow faced the same fate as the woman who’d attacked me.
“You saved us, Harper,” Azael said, crossing the floor to where I stood with Belial.
“I killed them,” I said, covering my mouth with my hand. I hadn’t meant to kill them, or had I? There had been a moment when the intention had formed in my mind. But I hadn’t honestly believed myself capable of it either and yet…
A low moan caught my attention and I spotted Ornias pushing onto his hands and knees. Instinct kicked in and I started to move toward him but Belial’s grip tightened on me.
“No,” he said. “He’s too dangerous.”
“He’s hurt,” I said, raking my gaze over Ornias’ body but I could see no wounds. Come to think of it, I could see no wounds on Belial or Azael anymore either. How were they unhurt?
“He’s fine,” Azael said, moving to block my view of the other man.
I grabbed, Azael’s arm and tried to peer around him as Ornias made it onto his feet and turned to face us. He held his hands out before him in a gesture of submission and surrender.
“I won’t hurt anyone,” he said.
“He’s lying,” Belial snarled.
But I knew he was telling the truth, I’d claimed him and just as Azael and Belial were now mine, the same was true of Ornias. I’d caused him to fall and he belonged to me now. Belial and Azael couldn’t feel what I could but I could sense Ornias’ intentions as clearly as if he’d whispered them into my ear.
“He’s not lying,” I said, fighting Belial’s grip. “He’s mine… Ours,” I corrected.
Azael gave me an incredulous look. “You don’t understand, those who are forced never recover. To fall is a choice.”
“To be claimed is also a choice,” I said. I didn’t truly understand everything but I knew the moment I’d laid claim to Ornias’ soul he’d accepted me. He belonged to me now, just as much as I belonged to him.
“It’s true, brothers,” he said, taking a tentative step forward. “I would never harm, our queen. Her divinity calls to me as it does you. Do you not feel it?”
Azael shook his head but Belial’s grip on my arms had at least loosened a little, allowing me the chance to step out past them both. I felt Azael’s hand as it grazed my arm, his attempt to stop me from going to Ornias. But nothing would keep us apart and I easily slipped out of reach.
I crossed the floor, faster than Azael or Belial could catch me. Ornias dropped to his knees and buried his face in against my stomach as I reached him. His face pressed so close to me I could feel his hot breath through the layers of clothes I wore.
Glancing over my shoulder, I reached out to my two angels—my fallen—and they came to me. Their hands slid around me, crushing me against their bodies.
The second we touched, all four of us pressed together; I felt the power inside me ignite. It spread outwards, caressing each one of them and I felt it as though I’d touched them with my own hands.
We belonged to each other and nothing would ever come between us. I knew they would lay down their lives for me, if they had to. I would never ask it of them; simply thinking about anything happening to them was enough to hurt my heart. I would destroy those who would harm what was mine.
Others would come and they would join us or perish in the face of our power.
Finally, I was home.
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Fallen Angel: An Urban Fantasy Reverse Harem Bully Romance (Dark Hearts Academy Book 1) Page 11
