“Are you feeling better?” he asked me, tapping his finger against the cut at his wrist. The skin sealed together before my eyes.
“Yes. Much better.” Well, except for the dark, wanton thoughts flashing through my head, reminding me that Nero and I were alone—and that we were already in bed.
“I like this dress,” he said in a silky voice.
Apparently, no one had bothered to change me out of my evening gown. Come to think of it, it had probably been Captain Somerset’s idea.
“I bought it because I thought you would like it,” I told him.
“That is a dangerous confession.”
“I like living dangerously.”
“That is an even more dangerous confession.” Nero’s fingers brushed though my hair, caressing my scalp, even as his mouth dipped to my throat. “You smell so good. I can hardly resist taking a taste.”
“Then don’t.”
“Leda.” The word was a plea, a demand.
“Bite me, Nero.”
He locked his hand around my waist, tugging me roughly against him as his fangs pierced my skin. “Your blood tastes different.” He grasped. “Even more delicious.” He drank faster. Pain and pleasure twisted together inside of me, pulsing against my skin. His hold was hard, possessive.
“Nero,” I gasped. “I’m getting dizzy.”
He held onto me, drinking greedily.
“Nero. Stop.”
He didn’t stop. His hold was tight. I wasn’t sure he was even still here with me. He’d gone someone else, somewhere dark and dangerous.
I made a fist and hammered it into the side of his head. His whole body froze for a moment—then he jumped off the bed, backing far away from me.
“Leda.” His eyes trailed down my neck, burning with guilt.
“I’m all right.”
“I can’t drink from you again.” He brushed his glowing hand across the punctures in my neck, and they healed. “As much as I want to.” He traced his hand up my jaw. “As much as I can think of nothing else.” Silver flashed in his green eyes, and then he was on the other side of the room, as far away from me as he could physically be.
“Nero.”
“We have to go,” he said. “We have a rogue angel to stop.”
14
Distractions
We traveled to Purgatory on board a private airship owned by an old friend of Nero’s. As far as I could tell, Dominic was completely human. I hadn’t even known Nero knew any humans.
It was a good thing he did, though, because we couldn’t trust any supernaturals right now. Technically, this was Colonel Fireswift’s mission, so we weren’t supposed to interfere. Nor would we ask to join. Nero didn’t trust Colonel Fireswift after what he had done to me, and neither did I. I saw what he’d done with just normal weapons and magic. If he got his hands on the weapons of heaven and hell, he would hurt people. I felt that in my gut, and I’d learned to trust my gut.
Not that Osiris Wardbreaker was any better. The first thing he’d done after defecting from the Legion was butcher an entire town. That meant we couldn’t let him get the weapons either. That meant we had to find the relics, stop a rogue angel, and do it all without letting anyone know we were there.
“Why do our plans always sound so impossible?” I asked Nero.
“Because you come up with them,” he replied.
“We’ll just have to be stealthy.”
I pulled on a black cap, stuffing my hair inside of it. The rest of our clothes were black too. We looked more like we were getting ready to rob a bank than save powerful ancient weapons from falling into the wrong hands.
“Captain Somerset is covering for me back in New York, and everyone thinks you’re off by yourself on a secret mission,” I continued. “No one is expecting us.”
“I think you’re underestimating the paranoia and viciousness of angels,” he told me.
“You realize you are an angel, right?”
“So I know all about being paranoid and vicious.”
“I prefer your other qualities,” I said with a smirk.
“Oh?”
“Yes, I’m especially fond of your smile.”
He gave me a hard look.
“That’s the one.”
Dominic plopped down on the sofa opposite us. A man in his early thirties, he wore a long coat of light brown leather over dark denim pants and a chocolate brown dress shirt. A gun was strapped to one hip, a knife to the other. He looked like he would be right at home at the Frontier—or on a pirate ship.
“Colonel, when were you going to fess up to me that you hang out with swindlers?” I asked with a coy smile.
“I like her, Nero. She’s such a sweet-talker.”
“You should hear how nicely I follow orders,” I told him.
Dominic burst into laughter. “I’ll bet,” he said, rising. “All right. We’re coming up on Purgatory. We’ll be landing soon.”
He went back to the front of the ship, leaving me alone with Nero, who was looking at me like I was dying.
“What’s wrong? I guess you don’t appreciate my humor as much as your friend does?” I said.
“I’m not feeling much like laughing right now.” He paused. “I nearly drained you dry. I couldn’t stop.”
“But you did.”
“I lost control. I never do that.”
“Around me you do. I can see that perfect control breaking in the twitch of your eyebrows, of your lips—every time I talk back, every time I use a water bottle or car antenna in a fight, every time I don’t act like a pompous stiff soldier of the Legion.”
Nero’s eyebrows crinkled.
“Yes, that. Exactly that. You like my spunk.” I shot him a saucy smile. “Admit it.”
“You are incorrigible.”
“Admit it.”
He tucked a loose strand of hair into my hat. “I like your spunk.”
“Of course you do,” I told him, looking down over Purgatory.
It looked so different from up here. The wall dwarfed the town, casting a dark shadow over the small houses. I could see the districts clearly, like they were pre-cut slices of a pizza pie. A tall, slender tower sat in the middle of each district. That was where the men who called themselves lords looked down upon their territory. Their gangs were not out tonight. Instead, paranormal soldiers patrolled the streets. Hundreds of them, all over the city. I wanted to believe the government had finally made a move to take out the crime lords, but I wasn’t feeling delusional tonight.
Nero’s phone rang through the silence, like a heavy stone dropping into a tranquil pond. “Basanti, what do you know?”
“They figured out Leda was gone,” I heard Captain Somerset say through the speaker. “Sorry, Nero. There was only so long I could hold off the doctors. And since Leda wasn’t checked out or cleared for duty, everyone is on the lookout for her.”
“Colonel Fireswift?” Nero asked
“He’s issued a statement that Leda was weakened by her close call with death and that she probably wandered out while in a state of delirium.”
“Delirium, my ass,” I ground out.
Captain Somerset continued, “Colonel Fireswift furthermore stated that she is dangerous. He believes she will return to Purgatory on her way to the Lost City, and everyone is to keep on the lookout for her. For her own safety and the safety of others.”