Page 66 of Even Angels fall
“We can’t stay on the sides anymore. Now, go. Rest.” He pauses and then adds, “Except patrol delta; I still want you to keep an eye out, in case the message wasn’t well understood by theLibération.”
Then he turns, still holding my hand, and drags me behind him, in the direction of his office.
40
Elhyor
Icontrolled myself for as long as I could, giving that speech when my skin was crawling with the need to know if Angélique had any wounds.
She looks magnificent, or glorious, like I heard someone say inside of Notre Dame when we entered, but is also covered in blood, and I don’t know how much is hers and how much is from the idiots who tried to take her.
I waited long enough.
As we pass through the door, I close it dangerously hard, but I don’t care. I need to get my hands on her and check every piece of her skin, and there’s no way I’d do that with an audience.
“Strip,” I say in that same scratchy and deep voice that I didn’t recognize earlier.
Angélique looks at me like she wants to kill me and doesn’t comply.
“What makes you think you can order me around? Especially with that kind of demand?” she asks, her face in a hard mask of anger.
I didn’t want to have to explain myself, but I should know better with her.
I’m talking about the woman who jumped from a second floor, attempting to kill me. I’m talking about the woman who jumped from Notre Dame’s rooftop without being completely sure that her wings would open to save her from a fall that could be fatal, with her not able to shift to repair herself afterward.
I should know better than to talk to women this way at all. My mother would be ashamed.
So, I try to rein in whatever had come over me when I saw that man trying to strangle her from behind, and I breathe deeply in hopes that it will calm me down.
“I need to know if you are wounded,” I say between my teeth.
“I’m not wounded,” she answers back.
“I need toseethat you aren’t wounded. My beast is trying to break free just to see with its own eyes, so please, could you strip and let me see if you have any wounds?” I manage to say as said beast claws inside of me to be released.
”Oh,” is the only sound that escapes those pouty lips that I want to devour more than anything in this instant, and I don’t know what thread I’m holding on by, but it’s a miracle that I keep my distance as I look at her.
“Now?” she asks, as if suddenly self-conscious.
Shit. I realize she might actually be self-conscious, not that she has any reason to be, but she’s been hiding her wings for most of her life, and if her father’s words are true, she came to me as a virgin.
I might very well be the first man she has to undress in front of. Even so, I need her to comply like I need air to breathe.
“The longer you wait, the harder it is to stay human,” I say before adding a broken, “please.”
She doesn’t answer, but I see her fumbling with shaky fingers as she discards her daggers on my desk and then bends to remove her heavy boots.
They look like military boots that go up to her knees, but with slightly elevated heels, and now that I have noticed, I want her bent just like that, with only those boots on.
Stop.
This isn’t the right time to think about things like that.
Wait.
It’s never the right time to think about Angélique like that.
This wedding will be in name only. I might have called her my wife in front of everyone, but I’m not getting a genuine marriage.
