With a roar, the Abrus demon dropped me and I fell onto my bruised tailbone, but he was still holding onto my hair. He flung a hand out, shooting a purplish-black ball of smoke at Shea, which had her gasping on the ground and screaming in seconds.
‘Sera!’ I shouted in my head, holding my useless dagger.
‘Hold me up and close your eyes.’
I did as she asked. We were a few feet from the exit door, and I didn’t fancy being kidnapped.
The second my eyelids closed, a bright light shot out and the Abrus demon screamed, releasing my hair. I fell farther backward, with no way to steady myself, and cracked my head on the ground. Wasting no time, I rolled to my side, eyesight blotchy but intact, and thrust Sera into the demon’s calf muscle, halfway to the hilt. His scream was so high-pitched, that I nearly dropped my blade to cover my ears. It sounded like screeching bats, which was absolutely terrifying.
‘Ew, he tastes awful,’ she whined.
I didn’t want to know what that even meant. ‘Umm, sorry?’
Lincoln leapt into view then, Darren by his side. Both were covered in inky demon blood, and holding their swords up, ready to fight.
The Abrus demon was holding Lincoln’s gaze, but one of the Dark Mages he’d come in with yanked his arm and pulled him out the door. I held onto Sera as she was ripped from his calf and then he was gone. The squeal of tires announced their exit.
What just happened?
Two strong hands wrapped around me, one under my neck and one under my legs, and then I was being pulled into Lincoln’s arms. His eyes roamed over every inch of me.
“Are you hurt?” he asked.
If I say no, will he put me down?
“I hit my head.” It wasn’t a lie.
“Bring the car around!” Lincoln barked to Blake, who started jogging out the front door.
“Shea!” I shouted, craning my neck. Then I remembered she’d been hit with some smoke spell.
Noah kneeled over her, hands glowing orange. “She’ll be fine,” he told me.
Her eyes were tearing from coughing so hard, but she met my gaze and nodded.
“Can you walk?” Lincoln asked me.
No. “Yes.”
He set me down and I felt like pouting. It was kind of nice being in those strong arms for a minute.
“Were they here for her?” he asked Darren, who stood at his side.
Darren frowned. “It looked like it.”
Now they were all staring at me. I shrugged. “That’s the guy who was supposed to buy my contract. Maybe he wanted to sell me or something?”
Lincoln’s jaw tightened. “You’re not for sale.”
Holy winker, I really like him. What’s happening to me?
A loud knock came on the other side of the exit door from the VIP lounge and Lincoln ripped it open. Blake was standing there with his car backed up to the doorframe. Another guy was standing with him, tall, broad-shouldered with light brown hair.
“Brisbane! Can you get me the video surveillance from tonight? I want to know how they got in, and what their plan was,” Lincoln barked. He was in warrior mode now, and it was totally hot.
The guy nodded. “On it.” He burst through the entryway and ran down into the lower level. It seemed like he knew where he was going, and since his last name was Brisbane, I guessed he was Chloe’s brother. The one Luke had a crush on.
Luke and Angela appeared with Shea linked in their arms, and walked over to me. My best friend’s eyes were tearing, and it looked like she’d been maced. I had no freaking clue what kind of magic Abrus demons had, but from what I’d seen over the past few days, it was scary-as-hell magic.
Lincoln looked me up and down once more. “You’re not hurt?” he asked again.
My head was throbbing from where I cracked it but it wasn’t bleeding, I pushed a little at my wings and felt them slide out a ways before retracting. Whatever spell he’d had over them was gone. I shook my head to Lincoln. “I’ll be fine.”
“Okay. Get back to school and stay there. No more leaving the grounds. And keep that blade on you at all times.” His eyes flicked to Sera.
‘He’s a sensible chap,’ she noted.
Talk about a sudden change of heart.
It was stupid, but I took the time to wonder if he’d take my key to his trailer away now that I had no reason to go there. That meant no more walking in on him half-naked, which bummed me out.
As Darren was guiding me to the waiting vehicle, Lincoln called out my name. “Three nights a week, from seven to eight o’clock, I want you to take extra battle training with me. This might happen again. Until we know why they want you, we need to be prepared.”
My stomach flipped. Extra training with Lincoln? Just the two of us? I knew he was only doing it because it was his job to keep me alive, but part of me wondered if he liked spending time with me.
I was totally falling for the resident asshole. Except maybe he wasn’t an asshole.
Maybe he never was.
Chapter Thirteen
It had been six weeks since the night club. I was officially employed and loving my job at the healing clinic, which consisted mostly of goofing off with Noah, and sometimes actually helping heal a patient.
Healing people sucked. It hurt. Literally. I healed a cut on Shea’s leg for practice and it hurt my leg. Healers had to be super selfless, which was surprising considering how self-absorbed Noah seemed.
My private training sessions with Lincoln were torture in so many ways. The sexual tension was so thick, I could cut it with a knife. Of course, I had zero clue if he was feeling it too, since he was always barking orders at me, and scowling when I held a weapon wrong. I, on the other hand, was finding ways to touch him—an arm graze here, a bump into him there. I had it bad, and it was pathetic. He’d taken my key to his trailer back, and seemed completely uninterested in me sexually. Meanwhile, I was thinking about the way those water droplets had rolled down his V on a daily basis.
“Miss Atwater?”
My eyes snapped to the front where Mr. Rincor, a Celestial with Gabriel’s power, was shooting glowing sparks out of his hands.
The issue with my studies of light class was there were only two students, a senior named Fred, who had Gabriel powers, and me. Mr. Rincor was his master teacher. With only two students in the class, it was easy for him to tell that I wasn’t paying attention.
“Yep?” I tried to act like I was super extra paying attention. Eyes wide and alert, I pinned them on the professor.
He motioned to my hands. “Give it a try.”
I sighed. I was a serious badass in weapons and battle class—growing up around demons meant Shea and I were the scrappiest, dirtiest fighters in the class—I’d also come to love fallen history, but this class? I sucked. It was awful. For a girl who carried powers from not one but four archangels inside of her, I sure as hell didn’t have an ounce of light in me. I tried not to think that it was because there was some darkness inside of me eating up the light.
I went to grab Sera and he shook his head. “With your hands.”
I growled, earning a smile from Fred. He could shoot the freaking Fourth of July from his hands, stunning anyone who got in his way, and momentarily blinding them if he wanted. Me? I could make my hands glow about the same as a two-watt light bulb, before they petered out to nothing.
I stared at my hands, flexing every muscle in my body and pushing.
Fred laughed. “You look constipated.”
I picked up my pencil and chucked it at him, which he caught in midair. Show-off.
Mr. Rincor walked over and sat next to me. “Your tattoos have created a channel for the power that’s already inside of you. You just need to let it flow. Don’t try so hard.”
If looks could kill, mine would cut through Mr. Rincor. Nothing he said made sense. Ever.
“Ohhhhh, I gotcha,” I said sarcastically.
The bell rang then. Thank God.
The Celestial stood, looking down at me. “I hear you’re good with the weapons. That’s all fine until your weapons are taken away, and all you have are your bare hands.” Then he walked away.
Debbie Downer.