“No!” Her gaze shot to his back, horrified, and he knew it looked bad. “You didn’t tell me it was going to hurt.”
With one last, agonizing push, the wings tore through the skin of his back, slowly unfurling. He hadn’t realized how empty he’d felt until now, when he was overflowing.
He wanted her to stay.
Unfamiliar joy hummed through her veins. He really did love her. After all, he’d said the words—and she’d said them back, hadn’t she? And she’d meant them. Telling Zer exactly how she felt—well, that had felt right. They were no poets; she figured that theirs had to have been one of the briefest declarations of love in M City’s history. Still, warmth flooded through her.
He was spectacular. His new wings were flexible, pure muscle where the base of them connected to his body—and a fifteen-foot wingspan to lift his two-hundred-plus-pound frame from the ground. He shuddered and stretched, expanding the dark wings as he sat up, running a hand along her arm.
“You okay?” he asked.
She nodded. She wasn’t the one who’d just, for all intents and purposes, birthed a pair of enormous wings. She had a pretty good idea, too, of just how painful that process had been.
“May I touch them? Your wings?” She had to know what they felt like.
He eyed her cautiously. “You go right ahead.”
Before he could change his mind, she stretched out a hand. The tip of the wing closest to her was firm and light. Birds, she knew, had strong, light bones, hollowed out by millennia of evolution to give their owners every advantage in the air. Like a bird of prey, he’d be a powerful flyer. Those wings would push him through the air with hard, brutal strokes. Not intended for a lazy, slow glide, she thought, but for the short, hard bursts of speed necessary for taking down prey.
And for the sheer brute power required for flight.
Running her hands over the soft surface, she cataloged what her senses reported. The central section had three bones, with two in the lower section to fuel the powerful downward thrust of those wings when he lifted his body upward into the sky. Evolution or divine planning had designed his wings for maneuvering quickly and taking off rapidly. They were, she realized, exactly like the wings of a raptor.
That description fit. Zer had the wings—and the heart—of a predator. Even now, as he shoved himself off the floor and came toward her, his every move was fast and sure. He didn’t hesitate, just laid in his course and stuck to it. Behind him, his wings gleamed blackly, the midnight inkiness of the feathers on the outer edges blending with the gathering shadows in the room. No, those wings weren’t built for lazy, graceful flight but for speed.
“What did we do?” she murmured. Because this had taken both of them. Together.
And something had been different this time.
He extended a hand to her, but she couldn’t take her eyes off those wings covered with deceptively soft feathers. Stroking her fingers over them, she savored the softness that was such a stark contrast to the male himself. The wings were all satiny weightlessness where he was hard, heavy, dark. Savage.
He didn’t hesitate, the words he gave her as brutally direct as the man. “I love you,” he repeated. “Those words changed things. Changed
me
.”
She wanted something, but she wasn’t sure what that something was. He wasn’t the only one who had changed. She wanted to pull him back into her arms, savor the unexpected closeness.
“You think that’s all it takes?” Because she’d loved him before he’d stepped into her office today, and there had been no wings.
He shook his head. “We have to talk about this now?”
She wasn’t naïve. She understood what Cuthah was capable of. But
now
might be the only time they had left. “I want to understand,” she said.
“Christ, Nessa.” His big hand cupped her jaw, turning her face toward his as he drank in the sight of her. Resting his forehead against hers. Impossibly close. “It’s about not holding anything back, okay? You
know
me. You’ve seen parts of me, parts that shouldn’t see the light of day, let alone someone like you.”
“Someone like me? I
love
you, Zer.” She wasn’t ashamed to admit she loved him. He might be dark, but he was still a male of worth. A fighter. Her warrior. He’d made hard choices, and he’d kept on fighting. He wasn’t a consolation prize, wasn’t a dirty little secret she needed to hide away from the rest of the world.
“I love you, too,” he said roughly. “You’re part of me, body and soul, Nessa. And I wish—” He hesitated, then kept right on going. “I wish all my brothers had found their soul mates. Because, what we have ... it’s more than the wings. What we have, it’s me and you and ...” His voice trailed off. “I’m no poet. You’re the heart of it all. The heart of me. And that,” he said forcefully, “is why I have my wings back and we’re even having this goddamn conversation.”
C
HAPTER
T
WENTY-ONE
K
eros was on the headset again, barking out a 411 Zer didn’t want to hear. Diversion time was over, and Cuthah was headed back. He’d chased Nael and Vkhin halfway around the building, but there were only so many things his brothers could blow up before they brought the entire goddamn building down. They’d bought him the time he needed, though. That was all that mattered.
Zer ran a quick mental check of the new arsenal he was packing: wings. Holy shit and then some. He didn’t know if regaining his wings would give him the tactical advantage he needed against Cuthah, but he’d take any weapon fate handed him. Except they were more than just a weapon, weren’t they? He couldn’t shake the memory of Nessa sliding her fingers through his wings. And the sensation was more than purely sensual recall. Sweet and intimate, it was the kind of feeling that made a male forget he was about to head into battle.
Pull it together. That’s what he had to do. Focus on the fight. Afterward, maybe he could take in the incredible possibility of happily-ever-after. But to get there, he had to take care of Cuthah first. A quick look around the too-small office made it clear wings were a liability and not an asset in the confined space, so he needed to take the fight elsewhere. No problem.
“He’s going to be here soon.” He pulled a blade from his belt. Nice and light, the edge was still killing sharp. “We’re clear on the plan, right? You stay here, nice and tight. Just in case, though, you’re taking this.”
She didn’t hesitate, reaching out a hand to wrap her fingers gingerly around the handle of the blade.
“You ever use one of these before?”
When she shook her head, he gave her the 411 on the basics. “Keep the blade close to you. Both hands on the handle, point up. You need to wait until he’s real close. Last resort only, you got me? This is insurance, baby. I’m not letting Cuthah get past me.”
She let him adjust her fingers on the handle until he was satisfied. “You’re going to stop him.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I will.” He had to. No way he’d let her fight his battles for him. Still, he’d feel better knowing she was armed.
Holstering his weapons, he strode to the door and unlocked it. Cuthah would be gunning for him—he had no doubt of that. Plus, given Cuthah’s earlier meet-and-greet in Nessa’s lab, he figured the Dominion would be back real soon. So, the sooner Zer got into position and assessed the lab for a logical line of advance, the sooner he could get on with that happily-ever-after.
Sure enough, the sonic boom of Cuthah opening a portal sent shock waves rippling out before Zer even had the door fully open. “You ready?”
He felt rather than saw her nod.
“Showtime, baby.” The building was shaking all around them, the power of Cuthah’s arrival threatening to bring the walls down around them. Furniture crashed across the hall, the particleboard walls bowing out from the pressure.
“Be careful.” Her fingers stroked a little caress down his wings. “You hear me, Zer? Watch your back out there. I want you coming back to me.”
Stopping, he cupped her face with his hand, pressing a hard kiss against her mouth. “I promise you, baby. I’m coming home.” Despite his promise, the anxious look on her face warned him his scientist was running the numbers in her head, and she didn’t like the odds.
Well, that made two of them.
“Cuthah has to take care of business here. We can blow his cover, baby. Blow it wide open. He’ll want to kill you more than ever now, because you’re a soul mate.”
And she knew how to find more soul mates for the Fallen. Yeah, that little secret hung in the air between them. She was a walking, talking divining rod.
For a hundred reasons, he had to stop Cuthah’s violence here. The memory of Esrene’s dead body taunted him, reminding him he’d failed the other female. He hadn’t protected her. He should have. Worse, Cuthah had used Esrene’s murder to manipulate Zer, leading to the expulsion of the Dominions.
Yeah, it was time to even the score. And all he had to do was wait. Cuthah was hell-bent on reaching him and this female.
He had to eliminate Zer once and for all, or everything he’d worked for went up in smoke.
Cuthah exploded into the far end of the narrow hallway, a freight-train roar of wings and rage. Zer tucked Nessa back into a corner. “You do what we discussed.” His hand on her head pressed her beneath the desk. “You keep your head down. You don’t move.”
Glass blew out of the exterior windows as Cuthah strode down the hallway, unleashing a lethal storm of glittering crystals.
Inhaling sharply, she nodded and disappeared from sight. He knew she wanted to do something, anything. Sometimes, the hardest thing to do was to stand back and let someone else fight for you.
Raising his blades, he strode to the doorway. All around him, the walls vibrated with power, and the floor rippled in long, slow waves. Like being trapped in the epicenter of an earthquake. He hoped like hell the building was less ancient than it looked. Before he could clear the door, the wall fronting the hallway exploded inward, and he lunged toward Cuthah, thrusting the blade with lethal force toward his enemy. His arms locked around Cuthah, pinning the bastard’s wings shut.
Cuthah snarled, rage twisting his face. “Thought I’d flush you out here.” He turned, slamming Zer into the wall.
Unfortunately, hiding beneath her desk and her newly wall-less office, Nessa had a ringside view of the violence. And there was no mistaking the cold promise of death filling Cuthah’s eyes.
“Wings? Nice try,” Cuthah sneered.
In a blur of speed, Zer went at Cuthah, bringing his first blade straight up and down. If Cuthah had been human, he would have been dead. Instead, he ducked, closing the space between them once again. Her breath caught, but Zer sprang away and resumed his circling. In the next moment, they were driving their blades at each other with vicious, deadly intent. Eyes locked. Arms and shoulders slamming into each other with each powerful strike. Their wings tangled, beating a harsh drumbeat accompaniment for the battle.
Zer’s eyes locked on his opponent’s, his face a harsh mask of determination. Driving his body into Cuthah’s, he sent the other angel staggering into the far wall.
Cuthah just took the punishment, shaking off the blow and launching himself back into the fight. “That the best you can do?”
God, they were evenly matched.
Pressed up against the imitation-wood panels of her hidey-hole, she couldn’t take her eyes off the fight or the deadly beauty of the two impossibly large bodies pummeling each other. Wood cracked as they crashed through a wall.
“I can do better,” Zer growled harshly. Leaping at his opponent, he landed his blade, carving a deep furrow in Cuthah’s forearm. Cuthah hissed and staggered, his lips tightening in a rictus of pain as he backhanded Zer with his other arm, the metal handle of his blade catching Zer on the cheekbone.
Agony blazed through their bond, leaving her shaking before Zer abruptly cut off the connection. God, she didn’t know how he could stand the pain. She tried to pour love and support through the bond. She didn’t know if he could feel it or not, but she needed to do something.
Zer got to his knees. That was good, right? His skin was turning purple where Cuthah had struck him.
“Ready to die?” Cuthah taunted.
Zer’s second strike drew blood from Cuthah’s now-useless hand. He’d cut through sinews and tendons to expose the white gleam of bone. “Not yet,” he grunted.
Stepping forward, he swung the blade in an even, horizontal line. Cuthah countered as if he were hefting a baseball bat. Reversing direction, Zer cut at Cuthah’s other side, scoring a long, shallow cut. Eventually, Cuthah had to feel it, but when?
Damned if she was going to sit here underneath a desk while her mate got his ass killed in front of her. Eyes narrowing, she assessed the situation. She wasn’t naïve enough to think she could do anything to help with his fight against Cuthah. Not unless she had a rocket launcher tucked into her hidey-hole. Which she didn’t. Oversight, there.
There was no time to formulate another plan. Cuthah vaulted into the room and over the desk, filling the space between her and the wall. Adrenaline pumped uselessly through her body, her heart making the impossible leap from her chest to her throat.
“Well, hello, darling,” he purred. “I believe it’s time you came out to play.” Reaching under the desk, he wrapped a hand in the fabric of her blouse and dragged her up, pinning her against his body.
Cursing, she kicked desperately at his legs. There was no way she could reach the blade Zer had given her. She wanted to spit with frustration.
“No,” she choked out, before his arm tightened ruthlessly around her throat. Spots of color danced in front of her eyes as the oxygen fled her lungs.
Cuthah laughed, giving her body a little shake. “Just like before, isn’t it?” he taunted Zer. “Here I am. There you are. And you don’t get to me unless you go through her.” When he took a step backward, she went with him.
“Trust me,” Zer said out loud, and she had just a moment to wonder if the message was for Cuthah—or for her.
In the next moment, Zer thrust his blade through Nessa.