Brolach (Demon #1) (3 page)

Brolach didn't care for the wounded sound of her voice and lifted her chin, the touch of it heating her face. “Do not feel shame for your ties to that renegade.”

Her eyes met his. “He killed my mother.”

Brolach's brows rose high on his forehead, the red of his skin contrasting with the inky darkness of his hair. Ruby searched for the horns on his head but they were gone. He let her stare at him, her eyes roving over his body in shocked uncertainty. Brolach needed to remind himself that Ruby did not know of her origins, had been part of a battle of supernaturals she had no prior knowledge of. And had now been intimate with what her human mind no doubt told her was the devil. It was all new. Rawly so.

Not a fine place to be well met.

Brolach only meant to give a little comfort, an ointment of his body to cover hers, to show that he understood secrecy and hiding. But before he received his answer on who had struck her, before he could utter his empathy for her semi-orphaned status, his hand wrapped her body. His  palm landed on the crescent-shaped bead of bruises that laced the side of her. As soon as his hand touched the tender area Ruby hissed in pain and his palm spread, convulsing on the area.

When the tingling began anew, Brolach would have released Ruby but her head tipped back and he instinctively caught it with his other hand, her fragile skull perfectly filling the cup of his palm and he felt himself grow hard.

How Brolach wanted her. It was not a fleeting bit of pain, passing over his atmosphere like a cloud across the sun but true pain. His body bowed with it, his hand pressing harder against her flesh as he arched tighter into her body and Ruby melded to his.

He tried to move away from her before she shared in his agony but she said, “No... don't stop, Brolach.” Ruby's dark eyes found his, the pupil lost to all that chocolate brown and the hand that remained at her back pulsed with power, a glow beginning that lit the dark street they found themselves in.

They had not traveled far enough to forgive a supernatural event in the middle of a crowded city. But he could no more remove his hand than stop breathing. Brolach's skin grew hot, then the pain burst from it and he moaned, involuntarily jerking against Ruby and she gasped, her arms instinctively twining around his neck. The hand that held her head pushed it to his mouth. It was all so smooth, so natural, Brolach did not think to fight it.

Stop it.

Their lips touched and the ground shook beneath them, the pain shivered for an unbearable moment more that felt stretched and infinitely long but ceased almost at once. He broke the kiss, the taste of her on his lips, inside his mouth. Burning a pathway to the soul Brolach knew he had, a clear nod to his angelic ties.

Brolach took a shaky step backward and slowly lifted his palm from her flesh.

Ruby sighed, letting her hands fall to his chest where they were warmer than moments before. “Thank you, Brolach.”

His brow wrinkled in confusion.

She turned, showing him her back. The perfection was only broken by a new design, the vicious injury now absent.

A metallic tattoo of wings glittered in its stead.

*

Ruby

Ruby felt energized- amazing. Every breath she took was better than the last, her spirit light. She opened her eyes and said the first thing she thought out loud: She thanked Brolach.

Somehow, he had healed the wound that horrible dick nozzle Fred had viciously stamped with his fist. She'd had to perform her exotic dance set through the agony of the fresh injury, then survive an attack by humans that were actually demons, meet dear old dad in some supernatural war she stumbled into and now she'd been stolen by a demon stud.

Ruby should be terrified.

But all she could think about was since she'd been with Brolach, she'd seen terrible brutality, but not against her; against those that would hurt her. Or... take Ruby from him.

From Brolach.

He stepped away and that left her cold to the bone. Ruby let her hands fall on his heated chest, the muscles clenching underneath her palms and she turned, so he'd get the full affect of his help on her.

Brolach's intake of breath caused Ruby to look at him and she gasped at his shocked expression. Taking in all that luscious red skin, deep eyes and dark hair, his surprised expression let her know something was wrong.

Ruby turned her body awkwardly to try and see what was on her back to make him look at her like that. She could just make out the tinsely wings that swept over where the bruises Fred had put there. They'd disappeared. Only the beautiful wings remained. She slowly raised her eyes to him. “What does this mean?” she whispered in awe.

She watched his Adam's apple bob. “It means that I can heal others.”

Ruby faced him, taking his hands and he pulled away and she frowned, feeling a flutter of panic inside her, like a moth trying to escape the confines of a prison. Her heart began to speed with the expression on his face.

“
What...” she asked.

“
I have angel blood as well, Ruby.”

She shrugged, with all the nightmare revelations tonight, him having a bit of angel in the woodpile didn't really faze her. The night couldn't get any more weird. It was just one more thing to add to the surreal turn her life had taken. Ruby voiced her thoughts, “And that's a bad thing how?”

Brolach sighed. “I know that you are but a babe in this life. That the supernaturals,” he made a motion with one hand like it was diving beneath the other, “have been living underneath the water of the humans, hidden, so to speak.”

Ruby blinked. “Okay. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe that there were,” Ruby thought about it, then continued, regardless of how ridiculous it all sounded, “demons, mermaids and...”

“Vampire,” Brolach said in a bland voice.

Ruby exhaled, blowing a pale strand of hair out of her face and Brolach's eyes tracked the shimmering piece and she was sure he wanted to touch it, but he didn't. “Right... okay.” Her eyes swept to his. “So what's the problem with you having a dollop of angel. Aren't they like... good?” She asked while her memories of him kissing her down low crowded her head, making her pulse race.

Brolach could scent her lust and it made his own rise in response. He groaned and she moved closer. “Please,” Ruby said, tipping her face to his.

“
Please what, Ruby?” Brolach asked, though he knew, his body was more certain than his mind.

“
Use me,” she whispered.

His breath caught and he let go of his misgivings over healing a demon female who knew so little of her lineage. She might not want to mate with a fallen one who also had a slice of heaven running in his veins.

It was a sacrilegious combination.

Dangerous.

Dangerous for Ruby and Brolach, as there were those who sought all that possessed even a fraction of the angelic.

And those that sought to exterminate them for the same reason.

Even now they searched for those lost from
above
.

Brolach's camouflage he had used so expertly was now gone forever.

Braedan

Braedan looked into the swirling mist that swarmed the interior of the crystal sphere he gazed inside. It began to part and he made the two figures easily. A frown formed between his eyes when he saw the wings on the mixed-blood angel warrior.

Who was also of the devil.

Braedan's eyes moved to the woman who clung to him and there, on her back was the mark of a healer.

Of course, any fool would know that angelic blood could only heal itself and no other.

The female was angel enough to be made well by the touch of the one who held her, Braedan didn't need angelic discernment to tell him that.

He straightened, moving his hand to hover over the sphere and made a wiping motion above its surface and the vision blanked.

“
What did you witness, seer?” Nolen asked, his wings unfurling to their full expanse inside the Room of Visions.

Braedan's crystalline eyes narrowed on his friend and fellow angel warrior. “Much.”

Nolen strode to where Braedan stood, his wings as black as his body was white. Coal black hair lay unrevealed against that pale back, a streak of white leading from his widow's peak to a point that became lost in a mane that spun to his knees like a cloud of black cotton candy. Angel's hair was beautiful. Yet it also served as a rudder of sorts while flying. Nolen's face wore his typical expression of indifference but Braedan knew better. If a female of angelic blood had been sighted, it was a good mission indeed. A mission that would prove fruitful and worthy of their efforts.

That she was currently held by a part-demon would complicate things. For the male also possessed angelic ties.

Warrior ties. The black wings were proof of that.

Braedan looked into eyes so pale a gray they nearly matched the icy whiteness of his skin. “I have seen a female...”

Nolen's typically stern face broke out in a grin. “That is excellent news.” He searched Braedan's expression and the smile faded to neutrality. “What is it?”

“
She accompanies a part-demon.”

Nolen's light gray brows arched. “What of it? We shall slay him and take the horns as trophies, my liege.”

“But that we could be so neat with it, Nolen... that we only could.”

Nolen's chin jerked back as understanding flooded his expression, a low whistle escaping his ruby lips. “No...”

Braedan nodded. “Oh yes.”

“
He has blood of the warrior class,” Nolen guessed, then sighed. “So not a straight kill.” His face was still hopeful.

“
No,” Braedan answered in a short voice.

That hope fled from Nolen's expression. “Then we must convince him.”

A surprised burst of laughter broke free of Braedan. “Yes, let us convince the demon to join the ranks of heaven, Nolen.”

Nolen paced, the upper curve of his wings bouncing as he moved, the tips floating above the heavily veined white marble floor. He stopped suddenly, turning to the captain of Heaven's guard. “Perhaps, if he has warrior's blood, he has already felt the Calling?”

Braedan palmed his chin, his own eyes like piercing multi-faceted diamonds, reflecting either the moon or sun. They caught the light that weighed heavy in the Room of Visions, tossing it at Nolen and piercing a prism of rainbows from his chest to his eyes. “Braedan! Your gaze,” Nolen began, squinting against the brightness.

Braedan shifted his eyes and the light bled to the marble. The dazzling display was lost to the indifferent audience of marble. Braedan put his back to the tall windows where the sunlight streamed in. He finally answered the question, “I do not know. But it is an interesting thought. Let us explore the facts as we know them.”

Nolen nodded, his pacing momentarily discontinued. He folded his arms across a muscled chest, his horn and dagger swinging at his hips with the movement. Nolen watched his leader, deep in thought with planning their strategy and did not gaze upon his eyes a second time. They had been vested directly by Him. And those eyes held every color, and could pierce and enemy, forcing truth from them, and agony to lies. In darkness they appeared silver, in sunlight they were as if a prism lay shattered. The broken slivers of sparkling rainbow were a weapon which could cut and bleed. Even the purely angelic were not safe. It was the human equivalent of gazing upon the sun.

“
First,” Braedan's eyes flicked to his right hand angel, then away, “he is both demon and angel warrior.” Nolen's eyes widened at his suspicions confirmed, and it was worth round eyes like saucers. “Second, he has a female of angelic blood. Third, and this is most critical- that he could find her, a proverbial needle in the haystack, smacks of the gift of discernment.”

Nolen sucked in a breath. “We know from which line he hails.”

Braedan nodded. “Yes.” Their eyes met for a heartbeat then Braedan broke contact. “We will proceed, but with caution.”

“
For he might be the One.”

Braedan sighed, daring to hope even further. “He might be the savior of the warriors of heaven.”

Nolen stepped forward, not bothering to shield his eyes. “He could locate our females. The Walkers.”

Braedan nodded again, clapping his hands on his brother in arm's shoulders. “Yes.”

“Let us embrace hope then.”

Braedan inclined his head. “Let us leave doubt to
below
.”

They moved through the archway together, their wings mingling at the tips, one ebony and one a deep cream. Their dual purpose set.

Purity.

*

Brolach

The fine hairs on the nape of his neck began to lift, biting through the desire to bed the female he held fast in his arms. Brolach's tattooed mark of healing was upon her body and warmed his palm. There was no way to deny what he had done.