Page 42 of Light

Adalaide

Adalaide buried her dark thoughts in the place only she could see. Gabriel was hers for eternity, as she was his. He’d left his mind open during their lovemaking, and in it, she had seen the truth.

He would have sacrificed everything if she’d asked. He would have traded any mission and the fate of all human souls to stay by her side. She need only say the word. The humans didn’t have her promise of eternity. They would die and go to whatever awaited them in the afterlife.

She was guaranteed a future in which her soul would ascend, and she would take her place by his side, her mate. They had forever. She couldn’t let him sacrifice the humans for her.

Jophiel rested a hand on her back.

She winced at the still-healing bruise from his sharp teeth. The memory of his bite made her press her legs together. Her cheeks reddened, and she hoped desperately that Jophiel couldn’t hear her thoughts as Gabriel could.

“You didn’t tell him, but I know you sensed danger.”

Adalaide turned, facing the fair-skinned angel. “He was needed elsewhere.”

Jophiel nodded. “You are selfless. I’m proud to call you one of my own.”

Adalaide frowned. She was anything but selfless. She wanted nothing more than to call him back and keep him with her in her tiny London townhouse, sheltered from the world.

The breeze from before was back, running cold fingers along her neck, and she stiffened. “Someone is nearly here.”

Jophiel darted a glance over her shoulder to the door, still marked with Adalaide’s blood, and lifted both hands, forming twin balls of flame. They burned in a myriad of colors, looking more like balls of iridescent glass than flame. But when a demon materialized between them, sinking its talons into Jopheils’ shoulder, she wasted no time incinerating the creature.

A second demon appeared, and Adalaide cast her own balls of blue flame along her fingertips, tossing fire spears at the insubstantial form before it winked out and reappeared behind her.

She spun, flicking arrows of blue at the creature. An arrow landed directly between the demon’s horned brows, vaporizing it.

Adalaide felt pressure on the wards as something sliced a line through one of them. The sound of shattering glass came from the second floor, and she darted up the stairs, casting a ball of flame in one hand and a shield of air in the other.

Jophiel raced after her but stopped halfway up the stairs when the sound of glass breaking in the sitting room drew her attention. She cast an iridescent bubble around her, charging for the sound.

Adalaide had no time to marvel at the creation before two yellow-eyed creatures were on her, teeth snapping for her neck. These were not the kind of bites she delighted in. She pressed them back using her air shield and formed a large ball of flame in her left hand.

They gnashed their teeth, caught in a frenzy of bloodlust. She'd been bitten by one of the creatures before and knew they thrived on the blood of humans. Their eyes were glazed as they pressed into her shield, trying to break through.

Quickly, she released the shield, letting them fall into her. She pressed her glowing blue flamed hands into their faces, forcing magic into her palms to melt them where they stood. In moments, they were piles of bones and melted flesh.

She had only a few seconds to catch her breath before something streaked by and a spasm of pain shot through her. She looked down at the bit of splintered wood protruding from her leg and swore. Throwing up another shield, she stumbled back into the wall and forced the shield to spread, encasing her in a bubble of protection.

A blond-haired creature dressed in cobalt robes rebounded off her shield and darted forward, only to bounce off again.

Ignoring the creature, she wrapped blood-slicked fingers around the piece of wood and tugged. White hot pain shot through her and she screamed as her shield of air dissipated into nothing.

The creature charged her again, and she threw up both hands, hissing as the woman’s hair erupted in flames, the skin dripping from her face.

Adalaide forced more magic through her fingers, gritting her teeth as the creature slumped to the floor. She slid down with her, sinking against wood-paneled walls and panting, wrapping both hands around the sharp wood protruding from her leg.

Her thigh muscles protested in agony as she bit down hard on her bottom lip and yanked the object free. Fresh blood spurted from the wound, gushing down her leg. She pressed both hands to it, whispering the words to heal herself and whimpered as the soft white light flickered before dying.

“Jophi,” she wheezed around the pain.

Jophiel was there, dropping to her knees by her side, cupping her hands over her leg. A soft glowing light burst from between her fingers, and Adalaide sighed as the wound pressed splinters and bits of wood out before sealing closed. Soon, it was no more than a dull ache.

Jophiel glanced at the pile of bodies around her as she stood and held a hand out to Adalaide. “Come. There will be more, I fear.”

“What did Gabriel mean by awaken my seraph side?”

“I was not in his head,” Jophiel said carefully.

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