The Protect Her Box Set: Parts 7-9 (24 page)

CHAPTER EIGHT –
PAIGE

Bruno was dead. I had no doubts about that. I watched Riley tear out his soul and send it somewhere where Bruno would never be able to touch any of us again. That wasn’t the part that bothered me. It was hearing the gleefulness of the tone and texture of his words, and then the complete lack of hesitation when he killed Bruno’s human vessel.

I smelled the acrid smell of burning flesh even as I cautiously approached him. As he turned toward me, I saw how magnificent but terribly frightening he was at the same time. He had siphoned the power of the relic to gain the upper hand on Bruno. It was what I would have done if I had the same advantage, but I couldn’t help but wonder if it had unlocked something terrible inside of him that might not be able to be controlled.

I thought one of his wings appeared singed. I could see blood on his face and covering his hands, but I didn’t think it was his based on what I had just observed. My breath caught in my throat as I saw his eyes flit up and down my still form.

“Are you okay?” I heard his words then, but he didn’t approach me.

I put my hand to my head. There was a hard knot there where Bruno struck me after dragging me into the alley. “I think so. A couple of bumps and bruises. Just another day at the office.” I tried to smile, but it fell away.

“You don’t have to be afraid of me.” I wondered if he could read my mind.

“I’m not afraid of you,” I said carefully.

“You’re lying.”

I took a step forward. He didn’t move. “I don’t want to be afraid of you.”

“I did what I had to do,” he said.

“You don’t have to justify yourself to me,” I said. My heart ached for him. His tone was starting to sound like Riley again. He was coming back to himself. “You’re right. You did what you had to do.” We could discuss the merits of what he could have done differently later. Right now, I just wanted to be sure that he wasn’t about to flip some kind of switch and disappear into the dark stranger that I thought he could be.

“I did,” he nodded. He knelt down, and I saw him put his hand inside of the body at his feet. I had a front row to finally see what Riley had done. It was terrible, even though it might have been the right thing. He held up his hand then. I saw that the relic rested inside of it. “I’m not sure, but I think this helped me. Bruno tried to use it against me, but what happened was I was able to use it against him instead.”

“It was part of the Protector once.” Viho appeared next to me. His voice was sad. “It recognized that part of you. It won’t harm you, but don’t think it will help you either. Not if you want to remain who you are. It’s cursed, and its power will seduce you if you let it in.”

“It’s Eva’s life force. I don’t understand,” I said to him. “Why would it help Riley at all and not destroy him?”

“It wants to live just like any other living thing,” Viho said. “It’s a matter of survival. Son, you should give that to Paige for safekeeping for now. She is the only one here that is qualified to handle it without going mad.”

I saw Riley look at the pocket watch in his hand again, and something ugly flitted across his face. I stepped forward and held out my hand. I wasn’t sure that I wanted the relic either, but I trusted that Viho knew what he was talking about. I had the relic before Proctor took it away from me, and despite its awesome appetite for destruction, I hadn’t felt any menace from it.

He looked at my hand, and then reluctantly set the relic into it. I heard a sigh of relief from behind me. Viho hadn’t been sure that Riley would hand it over. I didn’t know until that moment that he would either.

I closed my fingers around it and then pushed it into the pocket of my jeans. I didn’t feel anything negative coming from it. It was as if it were content now having been part of the scene of blood and chaos in front of me. It made me ill.

“Come inside, Riley. Let me help you get cleaned up,” I said gently. He looked so lost that my heart ached for him. I finally closed the remaining gap between us and put my hand on his shoulder. His wings furled behind him and were gone a moment later.

“What’s the story inside?” His voice was rough and raspy as if he had been yelling for days.

“The archangels made relatively short work of those that intruded in the bar,” Viho said. “I told them to stay put while I checked on the two of you.”

“I’m surprised they listened,” Riley said.

“It’s because they were willing to let us take the fall for whatever was happening out here,” I said. I waited for Viho to disagree with me, but he didn’t. “I don’t think we can trust them to have our backs, Riley. But we’ll use them just like we use everyone else.”

Viho merely shrugged as he heard my words. “My best advice is never to trust anyone. You need them, and they need you, so for the moment I think your paths are well-aligned.”

I decided to ignore him. I pulled Riley with me, and he followed. We walked out of the alley, and I was struck again by the dingy emptiness of this place. As we walked into the bar, my eyes immediately searched for Klein. I found him sitting on a stool at the bar with the bottle of tequila in his hand. It looked as if he had a black eye, but otherwise he appeared unscathed. He flipped a thumbs up sign when he saw us standing there.

But then he took in the blood on Riley’s face, hands, and clothes, and he clamored to his feet. “Crap, are you guys okay?”

“None the worse for wear,” I said. “I’d like to get both of us cleaned up. Where’s the bathroom?”

“At the back,” Riley said. His voice was almost toneless, and I wondered if I was about to lose him again.

“What happened?” Samuel stepped forward. He and the other two archangels didn’t look as if they had been in a fight at all.

“Bruno’s dead,” I said.

“And the relic?” The look of naked concern on his face almost made me laugh.

“Safe enough for now,” Viho answered for me as he stepped around us into the room. “Let them settle, and then we can talk further about our next move.”

I didn’t care if that next move involved the archangels or not. Right now, all I cared about was Riley. I pushed him toward the back of the bar and gave Klein a warning look.

Keep an eye on them
, I mouthed at him. His expression darkened, but he nodded. I could just imagine what he was saying in his head. I’m sure it had something to do with the fact that I was asking him to keep an eye on a posse of archangels. He’d be okay.

As soon as we were in the small bathroom, I breathed a sigh of relief. I locked the door behind us. Riley stood just a few feet inside, and it was as if he didn’t know what to do next. I went to the sink and turned on the hot water.

I approached him again and saw his eyes focus on my face. “Hey, let’s get that blood off of you, okay?” When he didn’t reply, I reached over and took his hand in mine. It wasn’t the first time I had blood on my hands either. I pulled him forward and settled his hands underneath the warm water.

Dispensing soap into my hands, I moved them over Riley’s gently cleaning away the blood and dirt that seemed almost as if they were part of his skin. Once I was satisfied that his hands were clean, I grabbed a paper towel and got it wet. Then I reached up and began to clean Riley’s face. He stared at himself in the mirror but didn’t look at me.

“I am some kind of monster now,” he finally said. The words were murmured so I barely heard them.

“You are not a monster,” I replied as if it was the silliest thing I had ever heard. “You are a warrior. And you are my protector even if it isn’t official in whatever way that it was between Eva and her Protector. You can’t shirk that responsibility, so hopefully you never try.”

His hand whipped out and grabbed my wrist as I dabbed the corner of his eye, and he held it suspended in the air between us. Now he turned his gaze on me, and it felt as if it burned through to my soul.

“What is it, Riley?” I said softly. I knew that despite the pressure he was applying to my wrist; he wasn’t going to hurt me. He was lost somewhere inside his head, and he needed me to find him. “What can I do to make it better?”

He flattened my hand, and then put it against his chest over his heart. “Make me remember,” he whispered.

I stood on my tiptoes and brought my lips to his. I brushed them over his mouth ever so softly, and I heard his low growl in return. “I am yours. That’s all you ever have to remember.”

His arms circled my waist, and he drew me upward. I wrapped my arms around his neck and met his haggard kiss. His breath came in short gasps, and it was as if he couldn’t get any air. As his fingers dug into my hips, he pushed me backward against the wall. It was cool against my back, and I couldn’t help but notice the difference between that and the heat generated from the man who crushed me against him. It was as if he wanted to devour me.

I opened my lips willing to him and moaned as his tongue moved into my mouth and explored every crevice. He wanted to possess me in every way, and I wasn’t going to stop him. I didn’t care where we were. I just knew that everything he needed, I wanted to give to him. He didn’t need to ask. I was open and willing, and I would never leave him. I didn’t think I had anything left in me that would ever want to try resisting him.

“Yes, Riley,” I said as his lips turned to an exploration of the skin on the side of my neck. “I’ll help you.”

“Keep me grounded, babe,” he said harshly against my skin. “You are the only one who can.”

“Yes, I will,” I promised. “Anything.”

I felt him tug on the bottom of my shirt, and then in a quick movement it was up over my head and on the floor. He pushed me backward again, and I almost stumbled when I realized that the wall behind me had disappeared. I looked over my shoulder and found that we were standing in a candlelit room. The disparity between the bathroom tile and then this new room was stark.

“This is my room in my house,” he said as he continued to caress the crook of my neck with his lips. “What’s the point of being an angel if you can’t bend reality to your will?”

“Are we really there?” I asked, stunned at the transformation.

“Does it matter?” he asked.

I thought about it for all of a second. I turned in his arms and placed my hands on the bottom hem of his shirt. Then I drew it up over his head. “You’re right. It doesn’t.”

Our limbs and lips locked as he maneuvered me across the room and onto the bed. I felt his desire growing, and I understood exactly where it was coming from. We had declared our love for each other days ago but had yet to consummate that love since that moment. We had been distracted by everything else going on around us. There was no time to enjoy just being together.

Riley stood between my thighs as I laid on the bed. Then I unbuttoned my jeans and slowly shimmied out of them. He watched my every moment, and I read the passion in his eyes.

“I’ve missed you like this,” he said as he reached down to help pull them off my legs. Then his hands followed my bare skin back up my legs, and the sensation sent shivers up my body. I started to sit up, but he gently pushed me back down. “Let me look at you. Please.” There was a note of pleading in his voice.

I reached up for him. “Come be with me,” I said. He took my hands in his even as he sank onto the bed. I relished the feel of his weight on top of me, and I hooked my fingertips into the waistband of his jeans. “You are wearing too many clothes for me.”

I gasped when they were suddenly gone. “Neat trick,” I admonished.

“That’s not the only one I’ve got up my sleeve,” he said with a wicked grin. That was when I realized that my remaining wisps of clothing had disappeared as well. “I think that’s cheating,” I whispered just before I began to suck on his lower lip.

“I don’t play fair,” he replied. The words sent waves of passion moving through me. I gazed up at him. My dark angel. His expression was fierce and loving all at the same time, and I yearned for him in a way that I couldn’t remember ever wanting anything in my life.

His knee parted my thighs, and I knew that the moment I had been waiting for was almost there. I locked eyes with him as he thrust inside of me, and then I gasped again as his wings unfurled behind him. He placed his hand on the mark over my collarbone, and something inside of me exploded.

I gasped for air and met his thrusts at every turn. Our bodies twisted and rolled across the bed in a desperate attempt to be as close as possible. We were meant to be together like this always. He kissed my hair and my face, and the kisses rained over my neck and collarbone. I pressed against him and moaned as I felt the wave building inside of me again. He seemed to know just how to move inside of me to draw out the pinnacle of my desire.

I saw his head whip back, and then his body tightened over mine. “I love you,” he groaned as he climaxed. I felt another wash of pleasure roll through me, and I allowed myself to be swept away.

Several long moments later, I lay wrapped up in his arms. It was as if he was afraid that if he let me go, I’d disappear. “You mean the world to me,” he murmured. “I would do anything for you.”

“I know,” I said. I smiled at him and felt the creeping warmth of a well-deserved slumber. I couldn’t even remember the last time that I slept. It seemed like a lifetime ago. I stretched out against Riley’s hard body. “How about we pick up where we left off in like ten minutes? I just want to close my eyes for a few minutes.”