Page 35 of Angel's Vengeance

Too bad guilt had taken up permanent residence in the esteemed role of the monkey on his back ever since Neela had quietly tugged him along toward the very hell she’d fought her way out of.The hell they were both returning to.

Spying on, he mentally corrected.Not returning to.Not yet.In the game of espionage, details and distinctions mattered.

The crisp chill in the air was nothing compared to the frigid ten-foot gap Neela maintained ahead of him as she led them farther into a section of the park called Tundra Takedowns, which seemed to offer far fewer high-thrill roller coasters and far more zoological-based attractions and theming.Rides such as the Caribou Bumper Benders and Muskox Mayhem were housed either beneath a canopy or indoors entirely, creating an even more desolate awareness of what she was leading them toward and what was stretching out between them.

Any moment, he was waiting for the familiar comfort of his weapons’ cold metal kissing his body to remind him why he was trailing after a woman who wanted as much to do with him as she wanted to be there in the first place.But when he closed his eyes and tried to feel the hum of the metals singing back to him, all he got was a whole lot of silence.No reverberation.No purring thrill of anticipation at soon being called into action to finally end the one being who had tainted him with the very power in the first place.

Instead, all he got was a soothed ego that, while newly calm and satisfied over the assurances of the other sentinels’ thoughts about his place in their household, still turned the rest of his mood sour with every jilted step Neela took away from him.

If he had to pass one more happy polar bear with its tongue lolling over its incisors while Neela was hell-bent on being anywhere else but there, he was liable to torch every wooden caricature cutout just to give them both something to look at that was a more eye-catching distraction than whatever was happening between them.

Chaos he could handle.Silence he could not.

“Neela, a moment.”Rhode jogged a few paces to catch up with her, and while her steps slowed slightly, that pert nose of hers still angled straight toward the ground.Mages, he would have had better luck catching her attention if he were a patch of ice painting the asphalt, but even then, he suspected nothing would thrill her more than to leap over him in supreme avoidance.When she didn’t look up and only hiked her collar higher against whatever nonexistent breeze had yet to offend her, he took her meaning loud and clear:hewas the offense.

“Hold.”Rhode gently gripped her by the shoulder and angled himself in front of her.

Given the choice between dealing with her advancing problems or dealing with him, she reluctantly chose the latter and finally stopped.“It’s not that much farther.If we keep going, we could be there before?—”

“You’ve used up all your anger by aiming it at me instead?”A thoughtful display of confusion played across her face, and he used the opportunity to try and wedge into whatever good graces she still might have held for him.“I don’t think that’s wise, do you?Not if we’re about to encounter more demons.”

She folded her arms across her chest, and that lovely indignation flamed the apples of her cheeks.“Glad you’re finally getting around to the elephant in the room.”

“I see no elephants.”Rhode extended his arms and made a show of sweeping them around.“Unless you count that Mastodon Mountain attraction we passed before we turned into this area of the park.I’m still not sure what a rock wall has to do with an extinct elephantid, but if the other amusements are anything to go by, the mortals who did the theming most likely couldn’t refuse the potential for the alliteration.”Yeah, he was being a sarcastic asshole, but it was a length he was willing to go to assuage his guilt and clear some air between them.

Neela’s top lip quivered, and though she shut the movement down almost as fast as it appeared, it didn’t stop Rhode’s celestial senses from snagging on it and taking the win for what it was: the makings of a smile.

“I’d rather have your annoyance than your anger.”

“Since when?”

He opened his mouth to speak but was stunned when no answer came.Surprisingly, the lack of that awareness, or perhaps the change in its perception, was a deterrent to the hardened balm that had so long cloaked his frame against the harshness of her kind.

She was a demon.A charmer.Cyro’s get and potential heir to whatever hell the bastard was further cooking up.

Yet, when Rhode looked at Neela, very little of the hatred-colored lenses he saw her kind through seemed to cloud his vision.Not anymore, at least.Instead, his eyes delighted in focusing on other parts of her.Lush curves, golden spun-sugar hair, and a sensuous smile he had trouble recalling due to him giving her a lack of occasion to use it.There were far too many constant assaults on his senses, and dammit, he wantedmore, but his desire was disturbing somehow.Physical attributes aside, there was a hollowness slightly dulling her aura that not only called to his wretched internal aches but seemed to seek out something from him as well.

Acceptance?Admiration?

Forgiveness?

“What?”he asked, hoping she’d dismiss his forgetfulness at what she’d asked him, while still very much wanting to hear her voice again.

“Since when would you rather have me annoyed at you instead of angry?I was under the impression you’d take as little of either option as possible and were only tolerating as much of me as you could stomach.You’ve made it perfectly clear where you think I belong, and that place is about as far from your side as possible.”

Ouch.Her words were a firebrand across his chest and stood their own against some of the harshest inflictions ever leveled against him.Perhaps because her words were so well deserved.Perhaps because he had been seeking his vengeance from the wrong charmer and, instead, should have been offering his own amends.

“You are mistaken.”

“Am I?”

“Yes.”

“If you expect me to believe that, you’re going to have to say it without looking like you’re being actively disemboweled.”

Rhode winced.Damn, this woman had more barbs on her tongue than Iron’s mace.And still, he found himself deserving of every single one of them.

Before he could summon whatever sort of facial expression Neela would find the least amount of fault in, a growing warmth spread throughout his core, infusing his muscles and spirit with the lightness he’d only ever experienced through deep meditation.A sense of peace, calm, and understanding, fueled by his fire instead of the need to quell his ever-present fury.

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