Her Demonic Angel (Her Angel Romance Series Book 5) (22 page)

She looked down and her eyes shot wide, her heart leaping high into her throat. Dark red flames licked up her arms and fluttered over her hands. She swiped at them, trying to put them out, afraid they would burn her, and then calmed.

Not burn her.

They hadn’t in her dream.

She had used them as a weapon.

Her weapon.

Erin screamed and launched her hands forwards, towards the angel where he hovered ten metres above her. A dazzling crimson ball of fire blasted from between her palms and shot towards him. White light filled her vision, shooting down from the starry sky, and the world exploded so brightly it blinded her.

The light faded. Erin’s head spun and she shivered, so cold that her bones ached and her fingers were stiff.

“Erin?” Veiron’s deep baritone soothed her ears and warmed her from the inside out.

She slowly opened her eyes to find him above her, looking down at her, concern in his red eyes. Fear too. She scrambled up in his arms, her backside hit the flat roof and she threw a glance around, searching for the angel. Gone. The sky was black and still, the moon bright and drowning out the stars so they were faint. The city lights cut upwards around the building, glowing orange, and the sound of cars and people rose from below.

“What happened?” she said and swallowed to ease her dry throat. She thought back. Veiron had fought the angel. The angel had hurt Veiron. She had lost her temper and somehow called some sort of fire that she had used to blast the angel away. “Is he dead?”

Veiron shook his head. “He called a pathway to Heaven before you hit him with... whatever that was. What was that, Erin?”

“I don’t know.” She sat up and stared at her hands, trying to call the flames again and failing. “A power?”

She looked over her shoulder at Veiron. He frowned, red eyebrows pinched tightly above narrowed eyes that were focused on her hands. He took hold of them, turning them over, inspecting them. Her fingers warmed in his.

“Amelia can produce blue balls similar to that which you made.” He sounded distant. Thinking aloud. It comforted her that Amelia had a power like she did and she clung to that as the explanation she desired.

“So I’m like her? An angel?” It sounded incredible and too good to be true.

Veiron reinforced that feeling. He shook his head. “I don’t know what you are, Erin, but you’re not like Amelia. Amelia is the reincarnation of the original angel. Only one was created before Heaven realised its mistake and created my kind instead, granting us less power and less freedom.”

“So what am I?” Her voice shook and she cursed it for making her sound weak. She trembled inside, afraid of what was happening to her. “If I’m not like Amelia, what am I?”

“I don’t know.” Veiron rested his palm against her cheek, the soft look in his eyes conveying how much he wished he had answers for her. His hand was hot against her, calming her and soothing her pounding heart as much as the tenderness in his gaze and the knowledge that he wanted to help her. “You’re something else... but we’ll find out, I promise you. Was this what you did in your vision that scared you?”

Erin wished he wouldn’t call her dreams and nightmares that. It made her recall what had happened in the second nightmare. She didn’t want to have to watch Veiron dying before her eyes and be unable to do anything to stop it from happening. The whole scenario this evening had been similar to the first nightmare but all wrong, with the world different and the angel and Veiron’s roles reversed. She hoped that meant that the second one would be different too now.

She nodded and he wrapped his arms around her. Erin leaned her head against the cold black armour protecting his chest and sighed. “The Devil hurt you and I wanted to stop him. I was so angry... consumed by rage... it was instinct.”

“Just as it was earlier?”

Erin looked up at him and nodded. He was right. The angel had threatened those that she loved, had hurt Veiron, and a boiling abyss of rage had opened within her heart, all of it directed at the disgusting creature that had dared ignore her warning. Cold wind buffeted her, chilling her skin through her clothes, freezing her heart. She cuddled closer to Veiron, afraid of what it all meant and where her power came from.

Veiron rubbed her back, holding her against him, and pressed his lips to her forehead. He sighed.

“I will do all in my power to find out where your newfound abilities come from, Erin. It could just be that you have some power like your sister. It would make sense. You share genes, DNA, scientific shit. It’s possible.” He sounded as though he was trying to convince himself now rather than her but she appreciated it all the same.

Erin wrapped her arms around his neck and curled up on his lap, clinging to the one thing that felt solid in her world right now.

“I want to see my sister,” she whispered against his throat and he stood with her, one arm behind her back and the other hooked under her knees.

“You will soon, Erin. I swear to you. We’ll arrange a meeting place and leave immediately. We’ll find out what’s happening and I won’t let anything happen to you. I will keep you safe.” He pressed his forehead against hers and she nodded, believing every word he said.

Veiron spread his wings and flew with her. Erin looked over his shoulder at the place where he had fought the angel. At the place where she had unleashed a fireball straight out of her nightmares and tried to kill a man because he had harmed Veiron.

If she wasn’t an angel like her sister, what was she?

CHAPTER 16

T
he hot sun on his back did nothing to improve Veiron’s mood. Ever since the fight on the rooftop three nights ago, Erin had been quiet and brooding. Her smiles were false and she was keeping her distance from him. She had slept in his arms each night but they had only made love once, the same night as she had used a power neither of them knew anything about. He wished he had answers for the questions she refused to voice. He had explained things to Einar and Taylor but neither of them had been any help. Einar did share his opinion though. Whatever Erin was, she wasn’t like her sister.

As far as he knew, Amelia hadn’t exhibited any powers before dying and reawakening as an immortal, an angel.

Erin had been having visions for her whole life, and now she could use a devastating power that was on par with her sister’s one. All without dying.

If it plagued him, he knew it plagued her a thousand times worse. She had little knowledge of his world, was only just becoming accustomed to there being a Heaven and Hell, angels and demons. He wanted to find the answers to her questions, wanted to convince her to speak to him about it rather than brood in silence, stewing over what had happened and trying to keep it all to herself. He was sure that by speaking to him about it, she would feel better. He could at least say something that might inspire more positive feelings in her heart.

“Not long now,” he said and drew her closer. She bounced against him in time with the speedboat.

Her mood had brightened since the plane had set down and they had disembarked with their two black holdalls and headed for the dock. Her amber eyes shone as she looked up at him, a glimmer of excitement in them that warmed his heart and gave him some relief. Perhaps she would get over her fear in time, and in the arms of her sister.

Veiron had failed to soothe her. He hated that almost as much as he hated the divide that had grown between them.

“I’ve always wanted to go to the Maldives,” she said, sounding as excited as any of the other mortals occupying the speedboat with them. Three other couples in total. One of them newlyweds.

According to the passports that Einar had arranged, he and Erin were also newly hitched.

That and the fact that Wingless had also booked them into the resort as freshly married and on their honeymoon didn’t amuse Veiron in the slightest.

Erin leaned into his side, her black linen shirt blending into his tight t-shirt. They were the odd couple in the boat. The other six occupants were all wearing minimal clothing, as though it was optional, and all of it brightly coloured.

He and Erin were head to toe in black and both of them still wore their boots. No sandals for him. He had noticed a pair in Erin’s luggage though and had smiled to himself. After everything that she had been through, she needed a vacation. He hoped that she found some peace on the island, with her sister.

He wasn’t sure if he was staying or leaving on the next flight.

When he handed Erin over to Amelia and Marcus, his mission was finished. He had no reason to remain. She would be safe. He could return to nursing his need for revenge.

Couldn’t he?

Veiron didn’t think he could. He didn’t want to leave Erin’s side, not while she still had so much to deal with.

Not ever.

Veiron stared down into the dark calm sea below them. Erin moved away and he felt her eyes on him.

“You look as though you’re trying to see back into Hell.” She whispered it so quietly he barely caught it.

He smiled. “Maybe I am.”

A pause.

“Why would you want to do that?” she said and he couldn’t miss the darkness in her usually light voice. He glanced up from the water to find her scowling down at it. She wrapped her arms around herself. “I hate it down there... I hate everything about it. I want nothing to do with the wretched horrible place... I thought I was going to die surrounded by that stench and all that evil.”

Veiron’s frown intensified with each word she said, every one of them cutting at his heart, forming another wound in it that bled and wouldn’t stop.

All. That. Evil.

Evil like him?

“There’s nothing good in that place...” She lifted her head, smiled and touched his cheek. “Thank you for saving me.”

Veiron grunted and turned away from her to stare at his boots. Her hand fell from his face and she shifted away from him. He ignored her as she prattled on about the island, his focus on his battered boots. Boots that had trekked through Hell to save the beautiful woman beside him.

From all that evil.

Nothing good in that place.

Nothing good. All evil.

He fisted his hands and then opened them and settled them on his knees, gripping them so tightly his knuckles bleached.

“Look.” Erin nudged him, obviously oblivious to the harm she had done with her careless words.

He glanced up to see what all the fuss was about. A lush green island rose from the water ahead of them. Water that gradually lightened, turning as bright and clear as a jewel around him. Large villas lined the white shore, shaded by towering palms. Three of the single storey dwellings were reserved for them. One for him and Erin, one for Marcus and Amelia, and one for Einar and Taylor. They were due to arrive two days from now.

Erin looped her arm around his and he reacted on instinct, tugging his free. She looked at him and he felt the pain beating in her heart. Good. Perhaps now she knew how he felt. He stared at the water, ignoring her look, knowing that she wanted him to explain. She could figure it out for herself. She was a big girl.

She didn’t need him to explain everything for her.

Or take care of her.

The water began to pale and Veiron was tempted to leap overboard and swim the rest of the way to shore, desperate to get away from Erin and get some air. He needed some space to recover from the verbal kick in the balls she had just delivered.

Evil.

“Veiron?” she whispered and touched his arm.

The boat docked, giving him a reason not to acknowledge her. He breathed hard, struggling to keep it together. He couldn’t lose control, no matter how much he wanted to fling his head back and roar his fury at the bright blue sky.

Evil.

It chanted inside his head. Tore at his soul.

Erin thought him evil. Nothing good. Everything bad. Spawn of a place that had left her tortured and scared. Servant of a man who had abducted her and tried to bribe her.

His mind tormented him, throwing flashes of her reaction to the fact that he was a Hell’s angel.

He grabbed her arm, ignoring her gasp of pain, and dragged her from the boat. Red bled into the edges of his vision as he stalked along the jetty, his heavy footfalls shaking the weather-beaten timbers.

“Veiron?” she said again, louder now, as though volume had been her failing the first time.

He prowled onwards, casing the island and everyone on the jetty. They moved out of his way as he approached. Wise. The mood he was in right now, he was liable to beat the crap out of anyone who so much as looked at him the wrong way.

“You’re hurting me.” Those three hoarsely spoken words had him loosening his grip and stopping in the middle of the narrow jetty, blocking the path for those behind them.

He turned towards her and bit back his desire to say that she had hurt him first. He just stared at her instead, trying to remain unaffected by the tears that beaded on her dark lashes, hoping she would see his pain in his eyes and realise why he was suddenly upset with her.

Erin soothed his savage side by stepping into him, tiptoeing and kissing him. Sweet mercy. He couldn’t stop himself from snaking his arms around her waist and drawing her closer, kissing her deeper and trying to steal a piece of her.

“I wasn’t talking about you,” she whispered against his lips and slowly drew away, her eyes meeting his. “You know that, right?”

He shrugged. “Right.”

“No, you don’t...” She sighed and trailed her hands down his arms to his elbows. “Am I ever going to stop messing things up with you?”

Only she had the answer to that question so he didn’t bother to answer it for her. Maybe it was for the best that she said things that drove him away and hurt him. Maybe this was some sort of subconscious defensive tactic to get him out of her life or perhaps it was just fate giving him a helping hand so he could continue his mission.

Either way, it sucked.

Veiron took hold of her hand and led her to the thatched main building. The resort was glamorous, a beautiful pristine island with limited and spacious villas on the shore, a small block of apartments off the main set of buildings, and smaller huts that lined a jetty over the water. Whenever he had met Amelia and Marcus in the past, it had been at remote islands with no facilities, all of them uninhabited. It was a nice change to have a bar and restaurants on site, but it also increased the risk of discovery. Or worse, it increased the risk of mortal casualties should they come under attack.