“A taste of what’s to come.” Quick, silken, his magic slipped inside of me, drowning me in pleasure.
“What is to come?” I whimpered. “Death by magic?”
Chuckling, his chest brushed against my mine, and my nipples were on fire. My back arched, my legs spread, and I dug my nails into his skin, pulling him in closer.
“Oh, Pandora, you can’t even begin to comprehend how much I want you,” he whispered into my ear, his breath melting against my skin.
“Don’t be too sure about that,” I said, my voice croaking.
Nero’s lips brushed softly against mine. “I can hardly wait to have you again,” he whispered into my mouth.
Then, like a splash of icy water, he pulled away. “But it will have to wait,” he said with a wicked smile. “Back to work.”
11
Savage Civilization
Nero and I left the room and went back to the hallway. He faced the others with a perfectly composed, perfectly professional face. I wished I could have said the same, but truth be told, I was rather distracted with thoughts of his promise. But it was a good distraction. That constant tight knot in my stomach, wound up with worry over my sisters, had loosened a bit, and the memories of me interrogating the mercenaries were no longer playing in a constant loop inside my head.
I realized that’s why Nero had so thoroughly seduced me. He’d taken me away from my worries and freed my mind from its prison of guilt. Granted, I was still fired up as hell to free my sisters and see the bastards who’d taken them face justice, but I was calmer now, even serene. The rage had fizzled out. Only calm, clear-headed determination remained.
“So, are you ready to go?” Harker asked Nero.
His eyes twinkled as he looked from me to Nero. He knew what we’d been doing. And from the looks of it, so did everyone else. Well, let them know. I wasn’t ashamed.
Frowning, Kendra looked at me like she didn’t know what all the fuss was about. Jace, on the other hand, appeared totally uncomfortable, the most awkward I’d ever seen him. It was as though he didn’t know what to do with his hands; he eventually opted for linking them behind his back. He’d diverted his gaze away from me and Nero.
It was then that I realized Nero had a second purpose to what he’d done. Two purposes, so like an angel. By covering me in his magic, he was demonstrating to everyone here that I was his. The message was obviously directed mainly at Jace.
“Let’s move out.” Nero motioned for Harker and Kendra to follow him, then pivoted around and walked down the hall.
Dozens of soldiers had gathered to catch a glimpse of the two visiting angels, but as soon as Nero’s procession started moving, everyone made space for them, folding back to the sides of the hallway.
I looked at Jace. “Let’s go.”
We walked down the hall to considerably less fanfare, though I did manage to pick up a few jealous stares from the female soldiers. I wondered how many of them would happily push me off a building to have a shot at Nero.
We met up with Jace’s team in the armory. The team of four, none of whom I’d seen before, was far smaller than the one he’d had at the Doorway to Dusk. I wondered how many soldiers Nero had taken from Colonel Fireswift’s territory for his mission in the south. Nero’s position as Nyx’s second gave him the authority to do so, a fact which must have had his rival Colonel Fireswift in a rage.
The muscle of Jace’s team consisted of two big guys with arms as thick as thighs and thighs as thick as tree trunks. The third soldier was a tall and slender man. There was an energy about him, a nimble bounce. An agility. I’d seen that look in street fighters. I knew the soldier would be fast and deadly with the knife on his belt. If I came across this team at night in a dark alley, I would be more concerned about him than with the two big bodybuilders.
The fourth member of Jace’s team was a female soldier. She was very petite, even tiny. And she had a haircut that I could only describe as ‘cute’—burgundy-red hair with a jagged cut toward her jaw, parted high on the left side of her head and swept back from her face with a silver clip.
The female soldier’s cuteness evaporated the moment she saw me. Her face fell into a scowl. Her three male comrades were just as displeased to see me. Clearly, Jace’s team had heard of me, and the stories had been far from complimentary.
“Does your father use me as a shining example of how not to be a Legion soldier?” I asked Jace.
“He doesn’t need to. Your reputation speaks for itself. You’re notorious,” Jace said, amused.
I found myself unamused. So apparently my stellar reputation had preceded me to Chicago’s Legion office. And I was notorious. Great.
Jace introduced me to the team. “Colonel Fireswift has assigned Lieutenant Pierce to me for this mission.”
The soldiers shot me looks of disgust, tempered with contempt. I hadn’t felt this unwelcome since high school. Here I was an unwanted outsider, a rogue, an intruder.
But I refused to let that get to me. I put on a big smile and said, “Lovely to meet you all.”
They looked at me like I was waving around a dead chicken in my hand. Well, I guess we wouldn’t be bonding over marshmallows and campfire songs.
As Jace began outlining the mission to his soldiers, I pulled out my phone and messaged Calli and Bella.
Jace stopped. “What are you doing?”
“I’m talking to my family to coordinate our attack plans,” I told him.
“I hope you’re referring to coordinating an attack on the dessert buffet.”
I gave him a flat look.
“Your foster mother and sister are civilians. This is Legion business, and they have no part in it,” he declared.
“This is about family,” I said, fire burning in my eyes. “The mercenaries took my sisters, so my family is very much a part of this. Front and center.”
My four biggest fans in the room muttered a few disgusted comments. I pretended not to hear them.
“What’s done is done,” I told Jace. “Calli and Bella are already a part of this, courtesy of Legion Regulation 136.5.”
“Compelling support from civilian citizens in a time of emergency,” he quoted the subtitle.
Shit, he knew that one. What were the chances? The Legion rulebook was a thick tome, a regular chihuahua killer. It was so enormous, so long-winded, that only the most sadistic members in the Legion of Angels had memorized every line. Nero had insisted that I read it, his reasoning being that you had to know the rules in order to break them. So I’d slaved through it line by line until I could quote it by heart. Jace, the son of an angel, had probably picked up the book for a bit of light reading.
“Regulation 136.5 no longer applies here,” Jace told me. “You’re not stuck in an emergency without Legion support readily available. We have a team of Legion soldiers and resources. And, most importantly, I am in charge of this mission.”
His soldiers were perfectly still, but I could see the vicious pleasure gleaming in their eyes. I totally loved them all already.
Until now, I’d gotten pretty far by cherry-picking regulation lines, but that wasn’t working with Jace. He was really motivated to become an angel, and knowing every rule by heart was just another tick on the aspiring angel checklist. He’d decided we were in a competition to see who became an angel first, and maybe we were.
Well, if this was a competition, then so be it. I could use an added kick to make me advance up the hierarchy, to get the magic I needed to save Zane. Jace was a worthy challenger. He was hard-working, well-trained, and motivated. He’d pulled ahead of me in the race, so I couldn’t afford to slack off.