Ashes of Angels

“Cassandra Stevens, muse mine. We have been bonded since the beginning. Since before you were born.” He rubbed a palm over his bare chest. “Do you think this is easy for me? To deny the compulsion?”

“You said you didn’t feel it unless you were in half form. Easy, or not easy, don’t you think it’s safer for me to keep you under lock and key? What if this compulsion does hit you? Will you be able to stop yourself from attacking me?”

“I hope so.”

“Hope? Oh, brother. More angel babble.”

“In this human form I am not a threat to you,” he protested.

“I know the drill, buddy. Only in half form—what the hell were your wings made from anyway?”

“Silver. Interesting, isn’t it,” he noted, with a nod to a silver plate on the wall, “that you are a silversmith?”

She lifted a brow. Manipulating the metal gave her a sense of control. It was the most natural thing when she crafted silver to her will.

“I didn’t pick the craft because of you.”

“I’d be surprised if you had. On the other hand, it makes perfect sense you’d choose silver. Let me out and I’ll show you some new tricks with the metal.”

“I’m not in the mood for creating tonight. It’s late, and I’m out of here. If you manage to escape, you can have the place. There’s food in the fridge. I’m not sure if angels eat.”

“Don’t go out on your own, Cassandra! “

She opened the front door to a black metallic creature with horns and glowing red eyes.

Chapter 3

Cassandra stumbled away from the demon in the doorway, her thighs colliding with the couch. The thing gleamed like a polished black sports car—wearing armor. Its red eyes were the only part with color.

She made the obvious guess. “Sinistari?”

With a confirming nod, it said in a sepulchral voice, “I’ve come for the Fallen.”

She gestured with a shaky hand toward Sam, trapped in the center of the room. As if the demon couldn’t plainly see him.

Smarten up, Cassandra. It’s happening. Deal with it.

The demon stalked into the room, each footstep clanking metallic on the cement. The exposed flesh on its face, neck and hands appeared hematite, yet moved like muscle. Ebony horns curled at the side of its head, and it wore black armor over legs, arms and torso.

It was beautiful, and she wanted to touch it, to connect with the impossible—but she wasn’t stupid.

If she could inch toward the door …

“Release the wards,” the demon commanded.

Halfway to the door, Cassandra spun about. “You can’t get at it like that?”

“It?” Sam scoffed and crossed his arms. “I’m standing right here. I can hear you.”

“You won’t hear much after I’ve ripped your head from your neck,” the demon said on a toothy snarl. He had mastered menacing nicely.

Sam tutted an admonishment and shook his head at the demon. “Apparently,” he said, “you’re not up on angel-slaying techniques.”

“You’re supposed to protect me!” Cassandra cried.

The Sinistari swung a look toward her and snorted. “I am not charged with your protection, mortal female, only to slay this wicked one.”

Sam chuffed. “Me, wicked? Look who’s sporting the black metal like some kind of satanic death cult worshipper.”

“Satan has no dealings in our situation. I possess divinity,” the Sinistari hissed. “Unlike you.”

Sam shrugged, offering a dismissive splay of hands. “So my feet have touched mortal soil. So have yours.”

“Not before I was created,” the Sinistari corrected.

Cassandra knew the Sinistari had been forged from the Fallen. Twenty angels were caught as the original two hundred Fell and were made into something dark, dangerous and set only to the one task—slaying angels. While the Fallen had been imprisoned in the Ninth Void awaiting summons, the Sinistari lived Beneath. Cassandra had never imagined what the place was like, and now she didn’t have to because a part of it stood before her.

“This won’t even be a fight,” Sam taunted. “You can’t slay me unless I shift. And I don’t intend to do that again for a while.” He shrugged a bare shoulder, wincing. “Hurts like a bitch when I’m wearing mortal flesh.”

“You will shift if challenged,” the Sinistari answered confidently.

Cassandra had made it to the doorway, gripping the now-loose doorknob, when the Sinistari reached around and slapped her against the kitchen counter.

“Don’t touch her!” Sam roared. He beat his fists against the invisible walls. “Let me out, Cassandra. I will kill him for touching you!”

“Sweet,” she managed. “Commit murder for me?”

“Anything for you, cupcake. And I prefer the word smite over murder.”

She quirked an eyebrow. Was he joking or actually being serious? It was impossible to determine with him.

The Sinistari growled at her, exposing sharp teeth. On second assessment she decided it was ugly and not at all beautiful. But if he had it in for the Fallen, then she may be able to escape while the two engaged in battle.

Never one to shun opportunity, Cassandra spoke the reversal spell, then dodged to avoid Sam as his release sent him plunging forward.

The Fallen charged the demon. Metal clashed with solid muscle and might. They soared backward into the door, which splintered and spit out the tangled opponents into the hallway.

They exchanged punches that sounded like heavy sacks of sand hitting metal. Neither appeared the least injured, nor reacted with pain. They faced off before the door, spoiling Cassandra’s escape plans.

One of Sam’s fists missed the Sinistari’s face and knocked out a section of door frame.

Eyeing the Taser lying on the floor, Cassandra crawled out from behind the kitchen counter and grabbed it.

The demon kicked high, and his faltering equilibrium teetered him backward. Sam lunged and the twosome tumbled down the stairwell, damaging the plaster walls and bending the iron railing as they went at it, wrapped together in a death clutch.

But Sam had spoken correctly. The Sinistari, who possessed a blade capable of entering the Fallen’s glass heart, could only slay the angel if he was in winged, half form. She wasn’t sure why, but that was how it worked. So he was safe—

“Or not.”

Cassandra clasped the uppermost railing and watched as the angel shifted, releasing those deadly silver wings. The hallway was tight and his wings could not stretch out completely, but a full unfurl wasn’t required. He swung them as weapons toward the Sinistari.

The demon’s only purpose for walking this earth was to slay the Fallen. But from the looks of it, this angel slayer had met his match.

Thrusting high the hand that clutched the halo, Sam let out a deafening cry. Cassandra stumbled backward, slapping her palms to her ears and tucking her head against the wall. Sharp and piercing, the angelic cry heated her veins. She thought her blood would boil and bubble through her skin—

And then it stopped. And she heard nothing, only muffled thumping noises—her heart. The angel’s cry had affected her hearing.

Gripping the railing and pulling herself to a wobbly stand, she gasped, which succeeded in popping her ears and restoring some sound. A swirl of dark glitter fluttered about the shirtless angel. Arms extended out, wings stretched high along the wall and ceiling, the angel was bathed in the demon’s ashy remains. The halo dripped with black tar, the demon’s blood.

The angel had defended her honor. Go, Fallen one!

Yet Sam’s wings were out.

That shocking realization shifted her instincts to overdrive. She started for her loft then paused. That choice would trap her.

She raced down the hall to the door that led to the roof. Without stopping to see if Sam followed, she grabbed the stairwell door. With luck, he would be so enthralled by his kill she could slip away unnoticed.

Samandiriel shook off the demon ash from his arms and with a flick of the halo to shed the demon blood, he replaced it at his hip. He toed the pile of ash.

“I was quicker,” he muttered. “But you gave good fight. Rest peacefully, brother.”

Briefly, he wondered if the soul bringer would arrive for this one, but wasn’t sure if the Sinistari possessed a soul. If he had indeed Fallen the same time as he had, that meant the Sinistari’s halo had fallen away, too. He did not possess a soul. And Sam knew for certain the demon did not hold souls captive in his heart, as he did.

That was a hazard of teaching mortals the craft of silversmithing. An act he could hardly regret, even if those souls had been imprisoned inside him for countless millennia, never allowed to move on to either Above or Beneath.

Stretching back his shoulders, he worked his wings along the walls until he found a comfortable position for them. He’d not intended to bring them out, but seeing the Sinistari shove the muse had bruised his resolve. The wings felt heavier while here on earth. Or perhaps it was that weaker mortal flesh and bone could never serve him as well as he required.

The slayer was dead—just punishment, after his cruel treatment of the muse—but Sam bowed his head in reverence for his Fallen brother.

Footsteps scampered nearby, and Sam glanced up to see a pair of boots, attached to a very desirable female, swing around a corner and up a stairway.

“The muse.”

He caught a whiff of her luscious perfume. Mint entwined with vanilla spice. The scent permeated his pores and swirled within his being, winding deep into his core. Want emerged as a powerful burst of desire.

He wanted to taste the muse. To wrap his hands about her soft skin and pull her close to his body. To experience the pleasures only she could give him. For the Fallen could experience pleasure only with his muse; no common, mortal female would serve.

Inhaling, he drowned his senses with her teasing scent, spritzed over skin the color of crushed cacao. He wavered, slapping a palm to the wall to steady his dizzied senses.

This is what you Fell for. Take her. Receive the mortal flesh.

“Must … have.”

Darting up the stairs, his wings dragged along the ceiling, cutting a jagged line in the plaster. He rounded the corner and sighted the boots again. Jumping the steps, he pounced onto the square landing between the two levels of stairs and swept up a wing to block the muse from running higher.

She screamed and punched at his jaw and chest, delivering a random yet skilled defense that made him chuckle.

The sigil at her wrist glowed brightly, and he knew his own did as well for it flared hot at his hip. He moved in closely, trapping her against the rough cinder-block wall. The Taser dropped to the floor.

Her brown eyes grew wide and fearful. She tried an open-palmed punch with her free hand and landed it sharply on his chin. He smirked and slammed a wing tip aside her body, pinning her in on the left. And with his other wing, he coved her into a cozy trap.

“This is not you, Sam! It’s the compulsion.”

Silly chit. She thought to know his nature? He desired her, and he would have her.

Flicking a single silver feather under her chin, he savored the soft heat there. The muse’s heady scent filled his pores. He read her nervous fear, and it heightened the desire with a dangerous twist. Truly, the Fall—and his resulting imprisonment—had been worth the sacrifice for this moment.

“Agothé!”

His shoulders jerked back, his spine following. Forced away from the muse’s teasing flood of desire, he was slammed against the ceiling, wings bending painfully along the walls to fit into the small stairwell.

The muse took off up the stairs, while he struggled for release.

That damned spell! Why had he given it to her? In full human form his brain had apparently favored the muse’s safety over his desires.

He flexed his feeble mortal muscles, but it was as if he were glued to the wall and could only wiggle the very ends of his wing tips. “Curse it all!”

Grunting and struggling, he decided if he shifted to human form completely perhaps he could loosen from the spell’s hold faster. The shift liquefied his wings and shimmered them to particles that segued to nothing. His shoulders pulled away from the ceiling, tearing out the plaster in chunks—and he dropped to land on his knees and palms.

Blinking, Samandiriel gasped in breath. He needed to breathe like the mortals, and it startled him at how difficult it was at this moment.

Why had he chosen this punishment? Walking earth? It could never match the paradise Above offered. Had his passion been so unrelenting? Or had he merely joined the pact with his brothers out of common need to belong?

We had only wanted what He gave man.

A bit out of sorts, Sam searched his recent memory to piece together why he knelt in the stairwell. A glint of black demon ash floating through the air reminded him he’d just slain a Sinistari. Over a woman.

“Cassandra.” He’d held her against the wall. Had desired her so strongly. “No, I did not. I could not.”

He scanned down the stairs. If his heart could beat, it would thunder right now because he feared what he may have done to her. He’d never wanted to scare her, to make her feel fear.

He raced up the stairs and kicked open the roof door.

Snowflakes bruised his cheeks and eyelids as they swirled and shifted in the conflicting winds. Across the roof, the muse stood at the edge, looking down, her arms stretched out for balance. Her boots stepped closer to the sky….

“Cassandra, no!”

At her side in an instant, he clasped her into his arms to keep her from jumping. The delicious warmth of her burnished his cold heart.

Saved her. Don’t want to lose her.

She struggled and kicked. He didn’t want to release her, but her scream registered the same scream he’d heard when he’d been in half form. She’d been utterly frightened then.

Humiliated by his own uncontrollable impulse, he released her and stepped away, slapping his arms across his chest. “I’m sorry, Cassandra. That wasn’t me back there. Please, you must realize that.”

She slunk down against the cinder-block border edging the roof, nodding profusely but not looking at him. She tucked her head into her palms. “I know. But you scared the crap out of me.”

“Is that reason to jump? To end it all?”

“There’s a huge snow pile from plowing out the parking lot below. I’d have landed safely.”

“I see. It still saddens me that I frightened you. What can I do to earn your forgiveness? Tell me, please, and I’ll do it.”

Cassandra, gasping and hugging herself against the cold, bent forward, long strands of hair and ribbon spilling over her face. She put up a hand to keep him away, and he respected the silent yet shaming request.

She’d just witnessed a Fallen one slay a Sinistari. Quite a lot for a mortal to take in, even one trained to expect just that thing. What, you think the vampire heart didn’t scare her?

“Oh, Sam.” Her tiny voice filled his vision with soft violet waves the color of bright summer fields. “This is all a bit crazy. I’m sure I’m not thinking right, but … bloody hell.”

She lunged forward, slipping her arms over his shoulders and hugging him tightly. “You’re the one person in this world I should stay away from, yet at the same time I want to remain next to you. It’s like I feel a compulsion of my own. It scares me.”

“Don’t be frightened.” She felt so good pressed against his bare chest. So real. “You’re strong. Trust your instincts.”

“But my screwed-up instincts tell me we need to stay together.”

“To accomplish what I’ve set out to do.”

She nodded against his neck and shivered. “Kill the Fallen.”

“And vampires, too.”

“The Sinistari were not part of your plan.”

“They are expected. When a Fallen walks the earth a Sinistari is dispatched. I don’t believe that’s the last we’ll encounter. Let’s get you inside to warm up.” He lifted her into his arms, and she allowed it.

“The way you looked at me,” she said. “It was …”

“I know. Do you have a spell against horny angels?”

She smirked and shook her head. “Just the one that traps you between wards I’ve placed in my home. But, Sam …?”

He stepped inside the stairwell and brushed aside the hair from her eyes. It felt like fine silk, too valuable to set a price to. “What is it?”

“If you did have sex with me while you were in that … form …” She winced and flashed a teary gaze at him. “Well, you know, would you try not to hurt me?”

“I will never hurt you. I vow it, because I will not again shift in your presence, demon or no demon.”

And that was all he could give her, because he didn’t know the truth himself.

Would spending more time with Cassandra build on the violent compulsion to attempt her? He must strive to remain true to his word. If he sensed the compulsion coming on, he would sooner take his own life than harm her. Yet who would save the world then?

And beyond the world, all he really wanted was to leave it and get back home.

Chapter 4

“We’ve made contact with a muse and a Fallen,” Bruce said.

“Samandiriel?”

“My men did not get the Fallen’s name, but I would assume so since that is who you recently summoned. They encountered them both on the way to set up the warehouse in Berlin.”

“A Fallen together with a muse? Was he attempting her?”

Bruce winced. Such a heartless euphemism for the vicious act of rape. His man, who had witnessed it all as a lookout on a nearby rooftop, reported to him, but hadn’t interfered because he hadn’t wanted to become ash. Or to lose his heart, which, apparently, one of them had.

“The angel was defending her against my men.”

“That’s to be expected. She is the one woman on this earth who can give him pleasure. Where are they now? In custody?”

“My man is on it.”

Which meant, they’d let them get away and now Bruce was scrambling to pick up their trail.

“The pregnant muse is Ophelia O’Malley,” he said, deciding to change the subject. “She has only been pregnant three months, but my spies say she’s waddling about like a full-term mother.”

“The nephilim’s gestation is rumored to be very short,” Antonio clarified. “As is its growth period. It’s likely the muse will give birth soon. Have you taken her into custody?”

“Working on it. Have my best team in London, where she was last seen. The muse’s sister is escorting her. And that officious Zane. Traitor.” Bruce intended to stake that bastard soon.

“He never did fit in,” Antonio muttered. “You know this is my greatest and only desire, Bruce? To walk in the light.”

“Yes, sir, I’m aware of that.”

Antonio steepled his fingers thoughtfully before him. “I remember my mother used to tell me about the daylight. We lived below even before puberty gave me the blood hunger, so I have never, ever, known what it was like to feel sun on my skin.”

That had to suck, big-time, Bruce thought. Even bloodborn vampires, like Antonio, didn’t come into their vampirism until puberty, which meant they were basically mortal, and could eat and walk in the sun, until the blood hunger changed them completely.

“So many vampires can walk in the sun,” Antonio continued. “Why should I be denied light simply because my bloodline is ancient and revered? Am I damned? Are we not all damned?”

He held up a silver chain, from which dangled a silver coil. It caught the torchlight and flashed brightly. Antonio closed his eyes, as if soaking in sunbeams.

Bruce silently backed from his master’s office. At times like this, when he went all introspective and waxed on about his damnation, it was better to leave him to sulk.

But his determination was renewed. No man should be denied the simple pleasures of life. Even if the sun would probably burn him after a few seconds, Antonio did deserve the pain of it, just once.

Cassandra stepped down the stairs outside her loft in the building stairwell. Metallic flake demon ash sifted over her hands and cheeks as she did. It tingled and felt hot, as if real ash from a flaming fire.

“It’s too pretty for demon remains.”

Sam swiped the back of his hand across his chin. A blue line dashed where a cut had opened his skin. “If you know things about us, then you know the Sinistari were forged from the Fallen.”

“I do. So he was originally an angel who Fell with you?”

“Yes, but he was taken before his feet touched earth and was forged into Sinistari.”

“That’s so sad, that something divine was made—” She stopped before saying evil. Because the truly evil ones were the Fallen. The Sinistari were the good guys.

But how to label Sam? An evil angel bent on destroying his own? That sounded accurate, but when she caught more demon ash on her palm, she couldn’t decide if evil had just vanquished the real good.

And only moments earlier she had stood in his arms because she’d wanted to. She had needed to feel safe. In the arms of her destroyer.

The night could not get any stranger.

It must be close to morning. She should be standing in the shower right now, washing away the day’s simple trials, like stressing over which silver piece to next work on and about leaving her date at the bar. She should not be thinking about running from angels, demons and vampires.

Marcus would be pissed she’d left the Schwarz without him. Or maybe not. He had been talking up the redhead.

“I’m tired.” She sat on the bottom step and toed the metallic demon ash. It glowed bright red and dispersed to talcum fineness, resembling a big pile of dust rather than ash. “Can we put off the vampire hunt until I’ve gotten some sleep?”

“We’ll have to. The Anakim tribe doesn’t walk in sunlight.”

“Just let me stay here and sleep a few hours. You return after you’ve killed all the vampires, Fallen and Sinistari.” She yawned. “Promise I won’t ditch you.”

“I will give you energy.”

“I don’t know how you can do—”

Sam pulled her to stand and clutched her against his chest. He was so solid and there, and yet, not warm. Not cold, either. Almost as if he were a sculpture crafted from silver. Weird but strangely appropriate.

Strong arms slid up her back and firmly caressed her against him. For the muscles strapping his body, she had expected any hug from him to hurt, but he held her as if she were fragile, delicate.

He was doing something to her. She felt him radiate through her body. Not exactly heat or a tingle, but a feeling of satisfaction. No, not exactly that, either. She felt positive, and suddenly perceived an outcome that would see her the victor. Was it hope? If the halo was supposed to give a mortal hope, as her sister believed, then perhaps an entire angel could do the same.

For the first time since this night had gone crazy, Cassandra thought about the sigil and realized it didn’t itch. Why was that? Did their closeness negate the irritant power of the sigil?

Sam had come after her with mad lust in his eyes after he’d killed the demon. His silver wings … they had been gorgeous. Something she could never duplicate though she had tried. The sculpture in her bedroom was a pitiful replica of the real deal.

Gorgeous, and yet a sign of very real danger she couldn’t defend herself against no matter what tricks she pulled out of her pocket.

“How’s that?” he said against her ear.

“Huh? Oh, great.” She pulled from him, following the skim of her fingers as they marked his smooth, tanned chest. “Ready for action, I guess. But do you intend to stalk about the city without any clothes? I mean, the no-shirt look works on you, but it’s snowing out, buddy. We don’t want to attract any more attention than you already do.”

“I will need a shirt, yes. But you are not so tired now?”