Her Avenging Angel (Her Angel Romance Series Book 7) (18 page)

How many women had he bitten in the throes of passion when he was hunting for a fix?

He closed his eyes, shutting her out. Too many. Lysia deserved better than that. She deserved better than him.

Yet he couldn’t bring himself to actually believe that. It was beginning to seem as if it was something he felt he should feel but no longer really felt it. She had told him that she had wanted him and that the feelings that existed between them, the deep attraction, was real.

She had told him so much more than that too.

She remembered her life and she had never been with a man, and he knew she’d had a master before him or possibly even more than one. He didn’t know how many times she had been awoken and then sent back to her dormant state. He placed his hand over the circular purple mark on his chest, crushing the voice of fear that still insisted this passion between them, the fierce need, was a product of their bond, and opened his eyes and looked across the dazzling white sand to her.

She was speaking to Erin again, her sweet lips permanently curled into an enchanting smile that made his heart beat a little quicker. She wasn’t only stronger today. She was happy.

Not only because Erin wasn’t pressing her for information, or the others were occupied in various tasks and not around her.

What they had shared had made her happy.

And since he was on a roll of admitting things, he was going to put it out there that it had made him happy too.

Erin glanced across at him and smiled.

Nevar averted his gaze to his boots.

She sighed and said to Lysia, “I wish we could get along but he has such a problem with me.”

He wanted to refute that and explain that he didn’t have a problem with her. He had a problem with himself. He huffed and walked away, leaving Lysia to her lesson with Erin. He trailed around the fringe of the palm forest in the centre of the island, sticking to the shadows.

Amelia and Marcus were off fishing from the spit of rocks that protected the far left hand side of the curved bay, assisted by Einar and Veiron while Taylor lounged on a boulder and watched them. Apollyon and Serenity were in the water, her laughter ringing out at times as they played together and bringing a rare smile to her lover’s face.

Asmodeus and Liora were ahead of him on the white sand, near the other spur of rocks that curved around the bay from the right side, both of them dressed casually for the weather, with Asmodeus in a pair of black jeans shorts and Liora in a small black bikini top and tight black shorts. His master had been back to Hell while he had been asleep. Romulus and Remus, Asmodeus’s two pet hellhounds, bounded around them. Each almost as tall as Liora, the gigantic sleek black beasts resembled Great Danes on steroids. They were pure muscle and menace, their red eyes almost glowing as they played rough with each other, attempting to sink black fangs into the other’s nape.

Liora laughed as she watched them and Asmodeus gathered a log the length and thickness of his leg from the white sand. He spun on his heel and hurled it back along the beach, and the two hellhounds took off after it. Remus barked, the thunderous sound echoing across the island, and jostled for position with his brother, barging his shoulder against him.

It didn’t slow Romulus or deter him. He beat Remus to the stick and went to pick it up, but Remus grabbed the other end and began a tug of war.

Asmodeus curled his arm around Liora’s shoulders and tucked her against his bare chest. She laughed at the antics of the hellhounds and looked up into her lover’s eyes, her smile widening as she met his gaze.

Nevar envied them.

He hated admitting that one, but it slipped out of him before he could deny it.

He envied them as they smiled and laughed, and exchanged tender glances. He envied how easy they were around each other and how they would touch at times or rest close to each other as they were now, with Liora held in the shelter of Asmodeus’s protective embrace.

He tried to ignore them and move on unnoticed, but Liora spotted him and waved. She slipped out from under Asmodeus’s arms, caught his hand, and led him across the sand with her, towards Nevar.

As she drew closer, he noticed something different about her.

Something wrong with her.

There was darkness within her.

He turned a black glare on Asmodeus. “You have planted a seed of evil within her… I can feel it. How could you?”

How could he have done such a thing to Liora? She was light and good, and cared about Nevar, always seeking to help him and ensure he was well.

Her face flushed.

Asmodeus turned on him. “You speak lies. I have not harmed Liora. I would never.”

Nevar growled. “I can feel it within her. There is a seed of darkness.”

The gold in Asmodeus’s eyes swirled with crimson and his power rose, coming to press against Nevar.

His master snarled, flashing fangs. “Lies.”

Asmodeus shifted his deadly crimson glare to Liora.

“Confess that nothing is wrong with you,” he demanded and then the hardness left his expression and uncertainty flickered in his eyes. “Is there something wrong with you? Are you sick? You are sick aren’t you? I have done as he said…”

He turned on Nevar with a growl.

“Tell me what you feel… is there darkness within her? I swear I did not place it there. Did you place it there?”

Nevar bared his fangs. “I would never harm her. There is darkness within her and you placed it there.”

Asmodeus’s strength faltered and Nevar saw the panic as it flooded him, felt the fear swamping his power and washing over him.

“No. I feel no evil in her. You lie,” Asmodeus snapped and shadows curled from his fingers, twining around his hands and crawling up his arms. His eyes began to switch to violet and his horns grew from the sides of his head above his ears, his black hair fluttering back to reveal them. He turned imploring eyes on Liora. “Tell me it is not so… you are not sick… there is not a seed of evil within you.”

Nevar opened his mouth to say that there was.

Liora shot him a glare and stole his voice with nothing more than a wave of her hand, silencing him with her magic.

She took hold of Asmodeus’s black clawed hand and drew in a deep breath as her eyes searched his violet ones.

“You did plant a seed within me,” she whispered and shook her head when he went to speak. “But it isn’t evil.”

Nevar felt as confused as Asmodeus looked.

Liora lowered her hand, bringing Asmodeus’s down to her stomach, and pressed it there.

“It isn’t evil,” she whispered, her eyes holding Asmodeus’s, tears lining her lashes. “I know it in my soul.”

Nevar blinked as the meaning of her words sank in.

Asmodeus seemed to have more difficulty understanding her.

He stared blankly at their joined hands where they pressed against her bare stomach. “What are you saying?”

She smiled.

“I’m saying we’re going to have a baby.”

N
evar couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing and it seemed neither could Asmodeus. The black-haired angel pressed his hand harder against Liora’s bare stomach and stared deep into her eyes, his own wide with disbelief and the shock that rippled through Nevar too.

“It isn’t possible,” Asmodeus said and searched her eyes.

“I assure you that it is.” Liora linked her fingers with Asmodeus’s as they began to transform back to their normal state, the inky shadows slipping from his skin. “It seems you have more of the Devil’s powers than you thought. Just as Erin got pregnant from Veiron when he’s sterile, I’m pregnant from you. Clearly, you’re far from sterile.”

Asmodeus blinked. “We are having a baby?”

She smiled and her hazel eyes lit up as she nodded.

Asmodeus grinned down at her.

The sight of his master so happy brought Nevar’s darker urges rushing to the surface, unleashing every cruel and evil impulse he possessed.

His gaze slowly dropped to Liora’s stomach, boring into it, as if he could see through it to her unborn child if he looked hard enough.

Asmodeus’s unborn child.

A weakness.

His fangs began to drop and his claws extended at the thought of snuffing out that tiny life, striking a blow at Asmodeus in the most painful way imaginable.

Nevar recoiled as that thought hit him and he stumbled away from them, not stopping when Liora called after him. He couldn’t be around them, not when the hunger for vengeance that refused to die was riding him, filling his head with thoughts that were both tempting and terrifying.

He would never hurt Liora, not again. She had been kind to him and he could see how much this child meant to her, and to Asmodeus. He would never hurt either of them. The part of him that had craved such a thing was dead to him now and he felt sure that if he could only go long enough without succumbing to its wicked suggestions that he could purge it completely. He didn’t want to be that person anymore. He wanted to be a better man, and he would be.

He would be.

No matter how long it took him to claw himself out of the abyss and rid himself of his dark impulses, he would keep at it and keep fighting. He wouldn’t give up.

Nevar headed around the island, moving from palm to palm, using their rough trunks for support as he forced himself to move away from Asmodeus and Liora. Romulus and Remus trotted up to him with the stick and he shooed them away, not in the mood to play with them.

When he was around the opposite side of the island and alone at last, he stopped and stared out across the reef-enclosed shallow lagoon that stretched almost as far as he could see. The pale turquoise water sparkled at him in the strong sunlight, both tempting and mocking him. He wanted to walk into it and wash away his cares by floating on the surface for a while, staring into the endless blue above and letting his thoughts drift away on the gentle waves. He couldn’t. Not with the sun beating fiercely down on the island.

He held his hand out, slowly pushing it towards the edge of the shadows and the start of the light.

“There you are.” Lysia’s bright voice cut through the silence and he snatched his hand back and swiftly turned to face her.

She approached from the direction he had come, her hands linked behind her back and a bounce in her step as she crossed the white sand.

Nevar seated himself on the sand in the shade and she stopped in front of him.

“I want to try to swim,” she said and he waved towards the lagoon.

“Go ahead. It’s shallow enough and only small creatures come into it.”

She frowned down at him. “I would like to swim with you.”

Nevar scooped up some sand and stared at the grains as he allowed them to flow through his fingers. “It is too bright.”

She stepped backwards into the sunshine and shielded her eyes with her hand as she tipped her head back and looked at the sky.

He had thought her beautiful when he had seen her with Erin, but she was even more so now as she stood bathed in warm light with a smile on her face.

That smile faded as she brought her gaze back down to him.

“You are not well?”

He shrugged. “I do not like the sun.”

She raised an eyebrow at that. “But it feels nice on my skin. Warm and soothing.”

“It doesn’t feel nice to me,” he barked and threw sand across the patch of ground between them. Some of it scattered over her bare feet. “Just leave me alone.”

Her face fell and the light in her eyes died. “You want me to leave?”

He glared at her, all bathed in sunshine, unaffected by it, and spat out, “That is what it means when someone asks you to leave them alone.”

She looked down at her feet and pain pulsed in the mark on his chest. He cursed himself for snapping at her when she had done nothing wrong. She had done everything right. She had sought him out because she had wanted to swim, not alone but with him, sharing a moment as the others did with their lovers.

Her pretty face darkened and her lips compressed.

The messy ends of her hair fluttered in the chilly breeze that blew in off the lagoon.

Clouds gathered over the ocean beyond it, as black as night, boiling as they rapidly expanded and rolled towards the island.

Her breathing quickened, her breasts straining against her makeshift bikini with each hard inhalation.

“You want me to leave,” she whispered, violet beginning to fill her hazel irises and her pupils stretching in their centres, turning elliptical. “You want to be… alone.”

Nevar cursed himself all over again as he recalled the things she had told him last night and the pain he had felt in her at the time, agony that was beginning to surface again. He hadn’t meant it like that and hadn’t meant to make her feel that he was rejecting her company.

Her eyes burned violet and her fangs flashed between her lips as she muttered to herself.

The raging black clouds swept across the island, blotting out the sunlight and plunging it into darkness. The sea grew violent, great waves battering the reef that edged the lagoon, and the wind caught the water as it crashed against the rocks and blasted it against him together with sand.

Thunder rolled in the distance and white-purple lightning blazed trails across the clouds.

The ground shook.

Nevar got to his feet. “Calm down.”

She shook her head, her purple eyes narrowing on him. “I thought… I thought…”

He knew what she had thought and she was right.

Nevar grasped her shoulders and pulled her into his arms as the skies opened, fat drops of rain hammering the island and spraying off him. It was cold, instantly chilling his skin. He unleashed his wings and covered her with them, not caring that his feathers would take hours to dry.

He only cared about keeping her warm and safe.

“Lysia,” he murmured against her hair as he held her tucked close to him, her hands pressing against his bare chest. “I did not mean it like that. I do not wish you to leave me or I to leave you… I am sorry. I was upset and I took it out on you. What you thought is right… I will never leave you alone.”

She pressed her tiny claws into his pectorals and the rain fell harder.