The Chosen Knights (Read Prequel--The Angel Knights first) (The Angel Knights Series Book 2) (19 page)

Chapter 23

I’d expected to arrive at our house, but to my dismay we were still in the forest. Baffled, I turned to Eli, who continued to hold my hand. He was bewildered too.

“We didn’t make it back,” I whispered, slowly bringing my hand back from his.

Taking several cautious steps forward, I searched for the rest of our team, even though my gut instinct told me we were the only ones there. The soft breeze whistled through the air and the orange, yellow, and red leaves covered the forest floor beneath our feet.

I peered up to see the tips of the tall trees reaching for the sky. I hoped we were in a different forest, but deep inside I knew we were back at the same place from which we’d tried to escape. That scared me more than anything, knowing it was just Eli and me. The odds of survival were not in our favor.

“Don’t move,” Eli warned. “The demons are still here. They can sense our presence. I don’t know why or who is keeping me trapped here, but I need to take you somewhere safe, preferably back home.”

Still frozen in place, afraid any sound would alert the demons, I replied, “I’m not going to argue with that.”

But it was too late.

“LUCIA, RUN!”

Eli’s startled expression had me on full alert. The sound of buzzing came after his words. When I didn’t follow Eli, he came back for me, grabbed my hand, and then we took off. I whipped out my wings to move faster, but I had to close them when multiple flaming balls of something black came at us. Not only were we at a disadvantage from being outnumbered, they had some kind of new weapon.

I let Eli guide me as he continued to hold my hand. I checked over my shoulder and discovered the demons were closing in on us. But we had another problem. In front of us was a cliff.

“Eli, do you see what I see?”

“I’ve got this.” We started to slow down and when we reached the cliff, we stopped.

“You’ve got this? Why are we just standing here?” I had imagined I would open my wings and fly, and he would turn into a mist. Or Eli would do his thing as we held hands and get us out of there.

“Eli.” I panicked. A gigantic ignited ball of smoke hurtled toward us, bigger than the one they threw at me seconds before. I was sure it would engulf us completely and kill us.

Eli tugged me behind him and pulled the leather cord from around his neck. Whatever was on the necklace radiated like the sun, projecting like a shield, growing bigger and bigger. The light illuminated even more intensely, blinding my vision. Just before I had to close my eyes, I saw the ball of black smoke collide with the light from Eli’s necklace.

Something knocked into me hard, and I flew across space. I tried to open my wings, but I couldn’t move. Having no control of my muscles or any part of my body, I tumbled through the air and plummeted to whatever was waiting for me at the bottom of the cliff. Floating in and out of consciousness, a vast sea of clouds flashed before me, as did the faces of everybody I loved, as well as Eli’s. Was this how I was going to die?

My body plunged into the water. Wetness surrounded me, but I still had no motor coordination. Opening my eyes to utter darkness, I became afraid as I sank deeper. I wasn’t sure if angels could drown, even though I could breathe underwater.

I couldn’t even cry out for help when someone grabbed me. Imagining a demon capturing me, I used every bit of energy I had to expand my wings to draw out light. Light beamed from my wings and my hair. I was thankful for that. Demons were afraid of light, but it still had a hold on me. When a soft glow radiated from a necklace, my frenzied heart eased to a normal beat.

“Eli,” I called, but no words escaped my mouth. I couldn’t breathe. Not because I needed air, but because Eli came to my rescue. Every time we were alone, my heart hammered faster.

My eyes and blank expression were enough to let him know what state I was in. But he had no idea how I felt—alive, safe, and an emotion I couldn’t describe as we floated in complete darkness, except for our lights blending together. A forbidden feeling—one that made me wish I were a human for one day, for that moment—overpowered me.

If I could have moved my arms, I would have embraced him with all of me and taken advantage of the situation to pretend to be lovers. I wanted to know him and every thought in his beautiful mind. I wanted to know Eli...every part of him. It was easier to want him when we were deep under the water with no one to see us, or judge me. But I had to stop feeling this way. Not only was it frowned upon, I knew my heart would be crushed if I let him in. Maybe it was already too late.

To my surprise, he leveled my body straight out and then held me in his arms. He pointed up and shook his head. He was letting me know the demons were still lurking above and we had to stay underwater until it was clear.

Eli’s necklace, along with my wings and my hair, gave us enough light so I could clearly see his face. I wanted so badly to know what he was thinking, especially when his eyes showed so many emotions I couldn’t pinpoint. I could do nothing except be hypnotized by them...by him.

It was strange to look into each other’s eyes as time passed, floating in the water. But at the same time, it was beautiful and peaceful, and I wanted to drift away from reality with him. Eli stroked my hair away from my face and lightly ran his hand down the feathers of my wings as if he were touching something precious. He even traced the torn part of my T-shirt where the wings protruded.

When his eyes lowered to my lips, I quivered from the possibility he would kiss me. Would he even dare? And what would I do if he tried? I didn’t know how long we had been there, but it seemed endless...timeless. Eli shifted my body to an upright position, pointing up to let me know it was time to go.

It was good timing; my muscle coordination was slowly coming back, and I could crane my neck and move my fingers. Holding my waist, Eli kicked his feet and moved us upward. What I saw next was unfathomable. Water parted in the middle and lifted us up. I saw the reflection of the sun before we were completely out and water surrounded us again. I gasped, not from the lack of oxygen, but relief at being out of danger.

“Can you move?” Eli asked, still holding me close.

His lips were a breath away from mine and driving me insane. This feeling had come crashing through me without any warning. I told myself it was gratitude since he saved my life.

“I think I can.” I moved my arms beneath the water, but they felt sluggish.

Before I had a chance to protest, Eli cradled me and lifted me out of the water. When I rested my head on his chest, his heart thumped as fast as mine. I wondered if he was nervous like me. Incredibly, he was walking on water while carrying me. When my eyes caught his, I was lost. I stared at the marvelous being who had me under his spell.

When we reached land, the leaves on the ground levitated and swirled around us into a barrier, creating the most magnificent sight. As if magic, as he walked back into the forest, the branches on the ground piled on top of each other, and then the leaves settled on top of those, layer after layer. He was making a place to lay me down.

When Eli gently settled me on the bed, I stared at him. All this time I thought he was only a Possessor demon, but he was so much more. Being able to manipulate the things he had indicated Elementum blood. He was a Possessor demon, Lamia, Elementum, and what else?

“Who are you?” I asked. Gripping his wet shirt, I pulled him closer to me. Drops of water fell from his hair, cooling my face.

Piercing his dark eyes into mine, he said, almost angrily, “I am...something you should be afraid of.” His tone came out cold and harsh.

“Impossible.” I raised my hand and caressed his cheek, wiping away the wetness. My arm was the only thing I could move so far. When I stroked his cheek again, he leaned his face into the palm of my hand and closed his eyes. “You’re beautiful,” I murmured under my breath.

His jaw tightened and kept his eyes closed. “You don’t know what you’re saying. Your life will be in danger because of me. I can’t let that happen. But I don’t know how to stop feeling—”

“How do you know?” I broke in, regretting interrupting his sentence. He wanted to tell me so much more, but a part of me didn’t want to hear it. “My life was already in danger before I met you. It’s who I am.”

He opened his eyes and flexed his muscles to lean lower on either side of me until his lips were inches from mine. My breath hitched. Then a sensation engulfed me that made my body quiver all over. Heat fused through me and I felt faint.

“Cyrus is after me,” Eli confessed. “And he will go after everyone I love or care about. It’s the reason my mother died. It’s the reason why I have to not care and why we are trapped.”

You care about me?
I wanted to ask, but couldn’t. My mind raced in hundreds of directions. He’d confided that his mother had died, which I already knew, but I had just found out the root of his suffering—he believed he caused his mother’s death. “I thought Cyrus stays hidden?”

“He does, but once in a while he comes out.”

“So you think Cyrus has us trapped here because he thinks you care about me?”

“Yes.” Something brewed in his eyes, making them darker. The chestnut-brown became black as night. Though it frightened me, I knew I was safe, I hoped.

Blushing, I unthinkingly asked, “How would he know you cared about me?” I didn’t know what exactly “care about me” meant to him, but it meant something special to me. Hopefully, I wasn’t making a fool of myself.

He leaned even closer, taking away my space. His air exchanged with mine as my breathing became heavier and faster from his closeness. “Because of what I’m about to do. What I’ve been longing to do since the second I laid eyes on you. The way you make my heart pound so fast with your voice, your smell, or your presence alone, it controls me. You occupy my mind and my thoughts. No matter what I do or say to make myself stop thinking of you, I can’t.”

I lay as stiff as a corpse, unable to move, breathe, or blink as I listened to his heartfelt speech I would never have dreamed of hearing. Trying to think of something intelligent to say, I parted my lips, but nothing came out.

“I-I’m not sure what you mean,” I said stupidly. Although it was the truth, I needed clarification. “Maybe you just need to walk away.” More idiotic words escaped my mouth.

“It won’t be enough,” he sneered. His body tensed. “You’re always with me, no matter how far the distance. I don’t want to feel this way, but I can’t help it.”

“Surely Cyrus can’t know your feelings? How would he?” I asked that question again, growing more frustrated.

“Because of this.”

Before I could ask what “this” was, he conquered my lips. I froze until his soft lips moved in ways I didn’t know they could, slowly and sensually, and somehow my lips were taking his in.

His kiss moved me in ways I couldn’t describe. I was scared, excited, and I felt everything at once. It was as though I was in the center of the universe and everything moved around me as I stood still,
we
stood still. It was everything I had expected in a first kiss, but I never dreamed it would happen to me, especially with a demon.

Without knowing what had come over me, I kissed him back harder and with so much desire. Oh, what a pleasurable feeling. I still couldn’t believe he was kissing me,
really
kissing me.

Kissing him back must have been a green light for him to continue. He kissed me deeper and more passionately with his arms tightly around me, as if he couldn’t get enough. Heat exploded in me, taking me to another level of pleasure.

Luckily, I was lying down because if I were standing, my legs would have given out. I didn’t know kissing could make you feel like that, like I was flying, soaring so high. I didn’t want to come down.

“Lucia,” he muttered my name with such tenderness, the way someone would call a lover’s name.

The way he said my name, held me in his arms, and kissed me with so much desire and need was forever branded on my heart. I would never forget today. I would savor every single second, for it would never happen again.

Eli pulled back, panting, when I stopped kissing him back and seemed like he was trying to read my expression. I was sure it was a look of shock. Not only had I been astounded by his kiss, the Possessor demons had surrounded us. There must have been thousands of them. Floating in mid-air, it appeared they were watching our intimate moment, waiting for us to finish. They were just...there.