Page 55 of Angel's Vengeance

The eye roll was what he had hoped for, but Neela’s delicious nose wrinkle was the cherry on top.“Ass.”

“On occasion.”

Talking to Neela had become so effortless, despite the friction he’d had to overcome to get to that point.The give-and-take between them was something he could get used to and made his chest lighter for it.

“Cyro was looking for a weapon against the sentinels, as well as a warrior who could breach the Empyrean.He hadn’t yet acquired the relic at the time, so he was testing the assumption that, because I was a being of the Empyrean, I would be able to still enter the gatesafterwhatever testing had been done to me.He was searching for something that would command metal as the sentinels did but would be resistant to so many of the weapons that the charmers crafted to combat the angels.Corrosion, rust, acid—those tactics were what made up the base of their magical warfare, and that worked quite well against the sentinels’ metals, steel, titanium, bronze, etc.They were all highly susceptible to it.But he wanted a warrior who commanded metalandwho was resistant to all of that but who could also walk among the Empyreans.He sought out to create a metallic angel army of his own but one immune to the magical warfare that crippled the sentinels.And I was his test subject.That was, if I agreed.”

“Oh, Rhode ...”

He placed a hand over her ankle, finding he needed her strength more than he thought.“No sympathies, little demon.We cannot change the past.And what choice did I have, really?Return to the torment I knew, knowing my weakness would ultimately lead to a target being placed on Chrome’s back?Or forge ahead and consent to be turned into whatever Cyro would make of me, while my brother remained safe?It was, as the mortals say, a no-brainer.

“So, I consented, provided that the administration of the materials was onmyterms.I refused to be forced, and Cyro saw no reason to object.Shortly after, I was handed a syringe of silvery-white liquid, spelled so that my body would accept it.They had chosen to test rhodium for its anticorrosive properties and being inert when it came to most aggressive chemicals.The metal isn’t known to tarnish, tolerates high heat superbly, and is also very rare.All qualities that would prove useful if the sentinels ever met someone like me in combat.

“With nothing left to lose, I took the injection, and that was when my hell truly began.”

“The spells ...”

“Yes,” he acknowledged.“I wasn’t prepared for the amount of trial and error that went into spell casting or the effects the dark magic, when mixed with the rhodium, would have on my makeup.I lost ...everything,” he cried out, dropping his head in his hands.“The rhodium, combined with the magic, corroded my body at first.The burns were ...”He took a deep breath.“I can’t even begin to describe what it was like to have your skin flayed off from the inside out, only to have it grow back again and again, to take new concoctions again and again, hoping for a different result but never going so far as to truly wish for death because if I died, nothing would stop Cyro from going after Chrome.

“So I continued with the treatments and experiments.Some turned me to solid metal but didn’t allow for movement, so I was no better than a patient on an operating table, fully alert but frozen to the slab and able to feel everything they did to me.And try everything they did.At one point, they drained as much of my blood as they dared to, only to replace it with equivalent doses of whatever latest poison they were testing.This went on and on and on, until one day, after a particularly brutal session, I faked unconsciousness just for a few hours of a reprieve, for a few cowardly moments without pain.It worked.They weren’t able to get any new test results until I was awake anyway, so they left me alone, but by the time they were set to return, Chrome and Drea had already found me, freed me, and brought me here.Only in the months after, during my private recovery, did I discover that Cyro’s experiment had finally been a success.”

Rhode inhaled deeply for the first time in ages.Good thing, too, because Neela chose that moment to throw off the covers and fling her arms around his neck.He welcomed the warmth of her bare body and lifted her, along with the rumpled discarded sheet, into his lap.

“Shhh, it’s okay,” he soothed, stroking her hair, wrapping her against him, and comforting her as she comforted him.“Every fucking night, I wish I could say that my time with the charmers is behind me, but I can’t.During my time there, I grew comfortable with the loneliness, the isolation.It’s why I keep my quarters so sparse, why I insisted on rooms so far away from the others.For some reason, a room full of decorations and wall adornments felt like it should be meant for other people, not me.When you go so long without even the barest of necessities, even a bar of soap is a luxury.Imagining my life with the lavish trappings that the sentinels regularly enjoy, or even what I’d enjoyed as a seraph in the Empyrean, always seemed like too large of a hurdle for my mind to consider crossing.”Then he pulled back slightly and cupped the back of her head.“Until you.”

Something shifted in her demeanor, though.Eyes that had been misted with unshed tears darted around the room, taking in bare wall after bare wall.Her teeth claimed her bottom lip, refusing to set it free, even as her skin beneath his fingers began to pebble with goose bumps.

“Neela?What is it?”

“Rhode, there’s something?—”

Three loud consecutive bangs resounded against the metal door to his suite.“We’ve reached a consensus,” Iron hollered.“Meet us upstairs when you’re ready.”

Chapter27

Neela was halfway up the stairs to the den’s great room when Drea nearly bowled her over on the staircase.

“Oh my God, he let you out!Thank goodness!”The bubbly blond threw her arms around Neela’s neck, and Rhode had to steady both of them from behind lest they each kiss the granite.

Though, like the angel would let anyone break their neck on his watch?

“Your legs are too long.Seriously.”Neela squeezed back.

“A blessing and a curse.That’s why Chrome had to triple-check the leg-room specs on my car before I got it.”

“Smart man.”Neela pulled away but couldn’t miss the grunt that Rhode tried to disguise with a throat clear.

The angel was as silent as a cemetery most of the time, so whenever he made accidental noises, there was usually very littleaccidentbehind them.Once they sorted out the mess with her sire, she’d turn her attention to Rhode and Chrome’s mess of a relationship.

The tension between the two of them was killing her, not to mention the guilt.

Drea leaned over Neela’s shoulder and narrowed her death stare at Rhode.“Did you sort your shit out?Because if I need to grab the other girls so we can start voting on everyone’s actions and formally turn this den into a democracy, so help me God, Rhode, I’ll do it.I don’t care how long you’ve been alive.Youcannottreat people like that without talking first.Likeadults.You know, grown-ass organisms with smartphones and fully developed cerebral cortexes who are more than capable of intelligent discourse.You cannot just take a woman, who is clearly a victim in her own right,not believe her, and throw her into some padded cell while other grown-ass organisms decide her fate all because they happen to have wings and penises!”

“Drea,” Rhode warned.

“No, don’tDreame on this.”She turned and, thankfully, unclogged the stairwell bottleneck so they could all move.“I’ve never pulled the patient-caregiver card before, but I thought you and I had a connection.Or at least some sort of understanding.”

Her arms were waving over her head, and Neela thought it best to join Molly when the brunette rolled her eyes and patted the vacant spot next to her on one of the farmhouse table benches.It wasn’t a hard decision.The girl was offering solidarity, snacks, and a front-row seat, so, yeah ...

---