“Saved by the bell.” I rose from my chair. “We have to go. Relics to find, villains to thwart.”
Nero patted his napkin to his mouth, then set it down, standing. “Thanks you for the meal. Mrs. Pierce.” He nodded to my sisters. “Ladies.”
Tessa and Gin put their heads together. Whispers and giggles rose from them. I thought I caught the word ‘wings’. Nero and I walked out of the dining room. Right before he passed through the door, golden swirls of magic slid down his back. Wings appeared where nothing had been the moment before, the full tapestry of black, green, and blue feathers spreading wide so the girls could get a good look. They squealed in delight. Nero tucked his wings against his back, then he followed me into the cellar.
“You shouldn’t encourage my sisters’ silliness,” I told him as we strapped on the weapons we’d brought along. We would need them to survive the monsters who roamed the Black Plains.
Nero’s eyes were laughing at me.
“What?”
“It was worth it just to see you so flustered.” His wings vanished. He’d put them away to leave more space for swords and guns. “I’ve never seen you like this. Well, except maybe that time you marched up to my apartment to confront me after you tossed your panties on the floor of my office.”
“Well, I’m glad you enjoyed yourself at my expense,” I said through clenched teeth.
“It’s only fair.”
“What do you mean?”
“After all those times you tried to incite me.”
“I never do that.”
“Purposely forgetting Legion decorum, tossing things in a fight…”
“Ok, so maybe I sometimes do that to get a reaction out of you,” I admitted. “But mostly I do it because it’s just who I am.”
“Wearing those skirts,” he added.
“Which ones?”
“You know which ones, so don’t play coy with me.” He cast a long, languid look across my body, and though I was dressed in long sleeves and pants, I suddenly felt very naked. “The ones so short that I can’t help but think about what you’re wearing under them. Or not wearing under them. Leda, do not walk around me with no underwear on if you expect me to behave myself.”
“Ah, I hadn’t thought you’d noticed,” I said coyly, just for him.
“Of course I noticed.” He inhaled slowly, deeply. “You knew I would. You tempted me after making me promise to take this slow. Leda, I cannot take it slow with you.”
My back hit the doorframe.
“And then there are these tops you wear. Designed to tempt me.”
He popped open the buttons of my jacket.
“Oh, you mean my uniform?”
“Yes. That.” As soft as an angel feather, his fingers slid below my tank top strap, teasing it aside. “When this mission is over, we are going to have a second date. We will eat dinner and dessert, and then I will bring you back to my apartment.”
His mouth dipped to my throat. He drew my hard, throbbing vein between his teeth and sucked. A harsh, unintelligible noise scraped past my lips.
“You don’t want to take it slow,” he told me.
“Oh, is that so?” I replied, breathless.
His lips came down hard on mine, devouring the inside with insatiable hunger. It was like kissing a lightning storm.
“Leda.”
Calli’s voice brought me back down to the Earth. I ducked under Nero’s arm.
“I found what you were asking for three nights ago,” Calli said.
Three nights ago? It took a few moments for my head to clear. And then I remembered. I’d asked Calli if she knew anything about my past.
“What did you find?” I asked her.
Calli’s gaze darted to Nero.
“It’s fine. We can trust him.”
“He’s an angel,” Calli said.
“An angel who has kept our secret, even from the Legion. An angel who is training me so I can gain the power I need to find Zane. An angel who helped me catch a glimpse of Zane to know he’s safe.”
Calli sighed. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Leda.”
So did I.
“Julianna Mather was an alias,” Calli said. “Your foster mother’s real name was Aradia Redwood.”
“I know that name,” Nero said.
I looked at him in surprise. “How?”
“Major Redwood was a soldier in the Legion of Angels. She died in battle about twenty years ago.”
“Around the time I was born.”
Calli showed us a photograph of a red-haired woman in a Legion uniform. Julianna…no, Aradia. That was the woman who’d raised me until she died.
“Why was she hiding her true magic?” I asked, not directing the question to anyone in particular. “And why did she fake her death? Why was she raising me? Who were my parents?”
“I don’t know. That’s all I could find,” Calli said.
“Thank you.”
“Be careful, Leda,” she said, then walked back upstairs.
She wasn’t just talking about being careful out there on the Black Plains. She was telling me to be careful with Nero. And when looking into my past.
I glanced at my watch. “Let’s go.”
We hurried down the tunnel. Just as we stepped into the old abandoned house on the other side, Calli’s distraction went off. Paranormal soldiers ran past the grimy windows, chasing after the loud music playing on the next street. A trashcan exploded, drawing more soldiers. And that was just the beginning.
A woman danced naked on the rooftop of the Witch’s Watering Hole. The soldiers were real quick to check out that disturbance. A few blocks over, a drunk was shouting out profanities. A street fight closed down an entire block. A motorcycle gang drove in front of the wall, singing lewd songs and throwing empty liquid bottles.
Someone with a pale blonde ponytail jogged toward the wall. She saw the soldiers, then turned back around and ran away. They took the bait.
“Your mother sure knows how to create a distraction,” Nero commented.
“She’s a pro,” I agreed.
This wasn’t a distraction; it was a whole freaking symphony of distractions. With the soldiers distracted, and the rest of the town in a state of chaos, no one noticed the two shadows rushing toward the wall.
We climbed, keeping close to the stones. The soldiers in their towers over the wall were watching the gate, as if they expected something to happen there. They didn’t see us slip over the edge of the wall and climb down the other side.
Alarms blasted, and alert screen turned orange. Magic slid across the wall, enveloping it in a golden light, electrifying anything touching it. That included me. I let go quickly, falling the rest of the way down to the ground. Nero landed beside me, also in a low crouch. The guards still hadn’t seen us. I unlocked the shed and rolled out Calli’s motorcycle.
“Why does your mother keep a motorcycle on this side of the wall?” Nero asked me.
“It’s her contingency plan in case we ever need to flee into the Black Plains and disappear."
“She really has planned for everything.” He looked impressed.
“Now comes the hard part,” I said. “How to turn on the engine without attracting the soldiers’ attention.”
“Look out there.” He pointed across the blackened plains.