Page 46 of God Touched

Arawan pulled his silver and onyx sword from its sheath, his grin violent and devastating. "Try and keep up, Ironwood." With that, his horse leaped straight off the ridge.

"Show off," she muttered. Imogen tried not to scream as her horse followed him. They had been going easy on the ride there compared to this. Imogen loved speed, so it took her from being airborne to hitting the ground again for her to start loving it. The warriors were all following like silent death closing in on the house.

Imogen couldn't make out Arawan in the distance but trusted the horse to catch up. He was shouting something back at them. Imogen didn't catch it as the whole world around her exploded in flying earth, claws, and the screeching of horde creatures.

Imogen didn't think. She reacted with all the training the Ironwoods and the fae princes had drilled into her. She pulled one of her guns out and started shooting with one hand and swiping her ax with the other.

The warriors were fighting on either side of her with the ease of the well-trained. They had walked into a shit storm with three times as many creatures as they had been led to believe. That wouldn't stop them from doing what they had come to do.

Something hard and heavy hit Imogen in the back, and she was sent toppling off the side of the horse. She managed to roll when she hit the ground, only narrowly missing the claws of a demented horde creature.

Like the Sasquatch hybrids that had attacked her in the forest, these creatures were slimy and earthy, like they had been made from rotting parts of different creatures and fused together with dark magic. She didn't have time to try and figure out what they were. They were death in the gloom, and she lost herself in battle mode, a dance of screaming, slashing, and shooting. A flash of silver caught her eye, and Arawan appeared beside her.

"There are too many of them. We are outnumbered," he said, his sword decapitating the creature trying to turn her into dinner.

"Tell me something I don't know!" Imogen shouted at him.

Arawan killed another creature and moved to her side. "I can strip off this damn form and fight them on my own terms."

"Then why haven't you already done it?" she demanded.

Arawan grabbed her arm and pulled her close, his eyes turning ruby red. "Because you will never look at me the same way afterward," he said, his voice strained.

Imogen pressed a short kiss to his lips. "Idiot male! Just do what you have to do to get us out of his cluster fuck, or you're going to be burning my body by morning!"

"You willnotdie. Do you hear me? I forbid it!" he snarled, his power rolling out of him.

She let him go, pushing him away from her. "Then go and show them who they've fucked with."

Imogen turned back to the enemy around them, so she didn't see Arawan's transformation. The air went hot behind her, and suddenly a winged black monster rushed past her, picked up the horde creature she had been fighting, and tore it in two.

"Holy fucking shit," Imogen babbled as the massive monster turned.

She knew it was Arawan by the black bone crown rising from his head and the long black hair streaming around him. Huge ruby and black feathered wings with wicked curved talons had grown out of his back, and black claws stretched out of his fingers.

His eyes glowed ruby, and he screeched out a warning call to all the enemy forces that remained, showing every one of his sharp fangs. He spared Imogen one last look before he threw himself into the fight.

Imogen ran after him, taking out anything that still breathed in his wake. In the moonlight, she could make out his powerful wings and arms slashing anything before him. He was a stunning creature of pure violence and savagery.

"That's my Death Daddy," Imogen said, mouth open and completely in awe. She was also high on battle lust that skyrocketed while watching him be the baddest of badasses. He had been worried she wouldn't want him after seeing him like this? She had never wanted to make out with him more.

Fuck, you are damaged.Imogen grinned; she was okay with it.

"Lady Imogen, don't get too close to him," one tall warrior warned her. "I haven't seen him take this form for over a millennium. The beast might not recognize you and hurt you by accident. He would want me to caution you."

"Okay, noted, but I'm not going to let him fight alone. Are you with me?" Imogen asked. She was out of bullets, so she took Bayn's long dagger from her thigh sheath.

"If I left you go alone, I’d fear what Arawan would do to me far more than what any spawn of Hafgan could do," the warrior replied. She took that as a yes, and they went after Arawan, plunging into the fray.

21

Imogen's arms were aching by the time they reached Arawan. He had left what remained of Hafgan's horde creatures in pulpy hunks all over the valley. The house that had sat in its middle was in burning piles of debris.

The monster that was Arawan watched the flames burn. He scented the air and whirled sharply to face Imogen and the few that remained of the warriors.

Holy God of Death, Imogen stared and stared. His pale muscled torso and arms were covered in slashing gray marks.

It took her a second to recognize them as scars. Her hand went to her side where her own scar was. He was covered in them, and yet this was the first time she had seen them. He had been hiding them from her. His worried words came back to her.You will never look at me the same way afterward. He thought that she wouldn't want him? Even in this hulking battle mode, he wasn't remotely ugly. He was…epic.

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