Amelia
waited for the sound of her footsteps on the stairs to disappear
before returning her attention to Einar, who was busy clearing
weapons off the furniture and stacking them on the large oak table
near the fireplace.
“Where
has Marcus gone?”
Einar
stopped tidying, paused for a moment, and then crossed the room and
sat on the sofa beside her armchair. He took a deep breath, sighed,
and then rubbed his long tawny hair, a thoughtful shine to his
brown eyes.
He
pointed at the ceiling.
“Heaven?”
When he
nodded, Amelia looked up, picturing the night sky beyond the roof
of the townhouse. Heaven really did exist, and a fallen angel had
confirmed it for her. If she’d had a shrink and had told them about
the past few hours of her life, they would have thought she was
crazy. Part of her still thought she was insane.
“I don’t
mean to sound rude, but I don’t believe in God or Heaven or
anything supernatural... really... so this is all a little hard to
grasp.”
Einar
smiled. “Not even when you’re staring it in the face?”
An image
of Marcus dressed in armour with his pale wings stretched out shot
into her mind.
Not a
parlour trick.
“Have you
been to Heaven?” Amelia already knew the answer to that question
but hearing Einar say it would go a long way towards helping her
shed the last of her disbelief.
He
nodded. “Many times. I have even been in the presence of our
master.”
Amelia
swallowed. Was he talking about God? That was too much too fast.
She held back the questions that sprung to the tip of her tongue
and narrowed her focus to her immediate situation, pushing away
thoughts of the universe, higher powers and the fact that humans
had been right to believe someone was watching over
them.
She
stared at her knees. Someone was definitely watching over her.
Marcus had been there for her whole life. He had seen everything
she had done. Her cheeks flushed with fire. God, she hoped he
really hadn’t seen everything. No wonder he hadn’t wanted to get
involved with her.
“I
understand that it must be difficult to take it all in,” Einar said
in an intentionally soothing tone of voice and touched her hand.
“Marcus was under strict orders not to reveal himself to you or I’m
sure he would have mentioned something before things got this
far.”
“What do
you mean, got this far?” The look on Einar’s face suggested he was
talking about their relationship rather than Marcus’s mission to
protect her.
“Marcus
has watched over you since your birth. He has always been there for
you.”
Amelia
frowned. He was ignoring her question.
“So where
was he when I was going through Hell with my mum’s death and all
those bastards… why didn’t he protect me then?” Tears rose into her
eyes but she sniffed them back, unwilling to crumble under the
weight of hurt and the fear that filled her whenever she thought
about her mother.
It had
killed her to wake one morning three years ago to a phone call from
her father telling her that her mother had been murdered during a
robbery at their home. Since then, she had felt as though her life
had been slowly circling a plughole, ready to slip down it into
oblivion at a moment’s notice. Recently, she had been thinking more
and more about her mother, and the terrible things that happened in
the world, and that she was never going to find her feet in life
and be truly happy.
Things
had gone downhill almost three weeks ago when someone had broken
into one of the ground floor apartments in her building. Everything
she had felt when her mother had died had come back full force. The
fear. The pain. She no longer felt safe in her own apartment and
feared that if she slept in her room, someone would break in and
she wouldn’t be able to escape. If she woke and the television was
off, she panicked. She was petrified of dying.
If Marcus
had been watching over her when her mother had died, why hadn’t he
done something to take her pain away or protect her from it by
stopping it from ever happening? If he was an angel, why couldn’t
he take all the fear and the hurt away?
“We are
not omniscient. We cannot see the future and know what will happen,
or change the past. Marcus’s mission was to protect you without
influencing your life. He watched you from Heaven. When his
superior deemed it necessary to watch over you from Earth, they
sent Marcus here.”
Hadn’t
they given Marcus a choice in the matter?
Maybe she
had been wrong about him. He wasn’t distant because he went from
one bad experience to the next like she did or because he was an
angel. He remained detached from everyone because he didn’t want to
be here.
He hadn’t
wanted to come to Earth.
Where did
that leave her?
Marcus
had been different around her these past few days. He hadn’t kept
his distance as he did with others.
She
looked down at her knees, wishing it was Marcus here telling her
these things so she could ask him the questions burning in her
heart. She touched her lips, the memory of their kiss seared on
them, and frowned. Had it been real to him?
Einar’s
gaze bore into her mouth but she couldn’t bring herself out of her
thoughts about Marcus in order to look at him.
The kiss
had been real to her.
“How
close have you got to Marcus?” Einar’s tone was low and cautious,
as probing as his stare.
Amelia
looked up at him through her lashes, her fingers still resting
against her lips. It seemed it was all the answer Einar needed
because he frowned and a flicker of surprise crossed his handsome
features.
He
sighed, hesitated, and then spoke in an even softer voice. “Marcus
has never cared for mortals, or this world… and he has never… he
would kill me for mentioning it.”
He
couldn’t stop now. She wanted to know what it was that he shouldn’t
tell her. The guilty edge to his expression said that it was
interesting.
“What is
it you’re not telling me? You wouldn’t answer my earlier question
and now you won’t tell me something about him… I want to know.
Please? If you know something that will set my head straight and
stop it from exploding from trying to figure everything out, then
tell me. You’re an angel. That means you’re supposed to be good and
nice to people.”
He
smirked, as though he wasn’t at all required to be nice to people
and wanted to remind her of that. She had taken onboard what he had
said about Marcus. Marcus didn’t like people. Did he like
her?
“I came
through the ranks with Marcus. We were reborn at the same time and
we have been friends ever since. Marcus has rarely ventured to
Earth and in all the times he has, well… he has never… been… with a
female as far as I know.”
Amelia
stared wide-eyed at him.
If that
meant what she thought it did, then Marcus would definitely be
angry with Einar for telling her.
“He’s
never?” Taylor’s voice coming from the doorway caused Amelia and
Einar to look around. Taylor looked as shocked as Amelia felt. She
walked into the room and set a tray of tea things down on the
coffee table in front of the sofa where Einar sat and then frowned
at him as though he had said something crazy. “From what I gather,
you boys are chocked full of passion… how could he have
never?”
Einar’s
cheeks coloured and he smiled awkwardly at Amelia. “She’s
right.”
Chocked
full of passion. Marcus had certainly kissed the breath from her
and the way he had pinned her to the wall had filled her mind with
a thousand wicked scenarios.
A frown
slowly worked its way onto her face as she thought about the past
few days and how Marcus had flitted between warm and open with her,
and closed off and icy.
“Marcus
is the most loyal and honourable angel I’ve met, and he has served
Heaven his whole life—”
Amelia
cut Einar off. “He’s never loved.”
A shiver
tumbled down her spine.
Marcus
had avoided human contact and he had been awkward around her at
times, especially after she had kissed him. Her eyes shot wide. Oh
Lord. She had been all hideously forward with him, suggesting that
he could satisfy her without a doubt, and then he had told her they
had to take things slowly.
Her
cheeks blazed.
It wasn’t
her fault. The man broadcasted sexy and passionate, and it hadn’t
once crossed her mind that he might have never had a
partner.
“Well,
bloody hell.” Taylor slumped onto the sofa opposite the one Einar
occupied. “This is a new one on me.”
“Not a
word, Taylor.” Einar frowned at her and she pouted before
nodding.
“Fine. I
won’t tease him about it. I think it’s going to take all night for
it to sink in.” Her blue gaze slid to Amelia and she smiled
wickedly. “I take it you haven’t deflowered him?”
Amelia
buried her face in her knees, cheeks scalding hot. “No.”
Why was
this happening to her?
“I didn’t
know,” she said to her knees and then leaned back into the
armchair, tipped her head back and stared at the ceiling. “He
didn’t seem inexperienced when he kissed me.”
“Don’t
let it bother you. If he’s anything like my Romeo in the passion
stakes, you’ll be in for a wild rodeo ride regardless of
experience.”
Out of
the corner of her eye, Einar turned bright red.
“Something I said?” Taylor’s tone had turned
mischievous.
Einar
exploded into a tirade about how inappropriate it was for her to
talk about that sort of thing and Taylor countered it with the fact
that he had just announced Marcus’s probable virginity to them.
Amelia listened to their argument, using it as a distraction from
her thoughts, but Marcus crept back into them.
She
didn’t care if he was inexperienced or not. He had never been with
a woman before, which meant that she had been his first kiss.
Judging by his reaction, he had enjoyed it and had wanted more last
night.
Not just
last night.
There had
been moments this evening where she had felt he might kiss her, and
times when he had been gentle with her, tender almost, and made her
feel as though he really cared for her.
The next
time she saw him, she would ask him the question burning in her
heart.
Was she
more than a mission to him?
***
Chapter 9
Marcus
beat his wings, stopping high in the cool air above the dark city
of London far below him. He hovered there, flapping his wings at a
leisurely tempo to keep him stationary, and scoured the myriad of
twinkling streetlights. It was like looking at some strange new
version of the stars at his back. This high up, he couldn’t make
out the buildings and cars were mere flashes of white or red in the
blackness. Silence reigned, cocooning him and giving him respite
from the pandemonium of the mortal realm. He could never understand
how they could live at such a fast pace, flitting from one thing to
the next, cramming their lives with meaningless tasks that filled
their short hours on Earth. If he were mortal, he would take things
slowly and indulge in every little thing, giving it the time it
deserved so his life would have been a full and meaningful
one.
If he
were mortal.
As an
angel, he didn’t have to worry about a lack of time, although he
wasn’t immortal and could die. He hadn’t felt aware of that in all
his lifetime as much as he had the past few days with Amelia.
Something about her made him aware of the difference in their life
spans and how easily either of them could die. If Amelia died, her
soul would pass through into his domain, and she would recall her
life and the things they had shared.
If he
died, he would be instantly reborn as he was now only without his
memories, left with only a vague notion of his previous
life.
He
wouldn’t remember her.
And he
wanted to.
With a
heavy beat of his wings, he shot down towards the city, cutting
through the cold air that buffeted against him, and spread his
wings at the last moment, barely stopping himself from crashing
into the ground. The thrill that bolted through him brought him to
life, sending his blood rushing in his veins and his heart
thundering. He flapped his wings and gently touched down outside
Einar’s house and then looked up the height of the pale stone
building to the lit windows near the top.
Was
Amelia still awake?
He had
been gone for hours. After entering Heaven and washing the blood
off himself, he had reported to his superior and the other two
angels. It had taken longer than usual this time. There had been
questions about the demons that had attacked Amelia. His superior
had reported that the one he had sent to Heaven had killed himself
in transit. It must have taken a lot of the demon’s power to break
free of the light’s hold and move enough to kill itself. Why had it
done such a thing? What information had it been
protecting?