Nate walked down another dirty alley that reeked of alcohol, human waste, and lost hope. He felt strangely at home here where the old buildings whispered of sadness. Where no one smiled. He’d been battling demons since night had fallen. Daybreak was an hour away. How he longed for the merciful emptiness of sleep, but it didn’t find him much these days. His legs were ever leaden, his eyes scratchy as though scoured by sixty-grit sandpaper. His heart, pock-marked, empty, as though mined dry by a legion of relentless gold-rushers.

All the color had gone from his world the day Jessie died. All the joy and all the hope.

All the love.

He pressed the heels of his hands into his eye sockets until the pressure whited out the vision of Jessie smiling at him. She’s gone.

Gone.

The only thing that gave him any sort of comfort was The Scourge. He’d found the mangy, flea-ridden scrapper last week being fed by hobos under a bridge. He’d taken the dog to the vet, then brought him home where they’d both curled up on the bed covered with a mountain of Jessie’s clothes and laid there unmoving for hours.

He needed to fight. To kill demons. Do something to not lose his grip on sanity.

Maybe he’d go to Scotland and hunt down Lachlan, the cowardly sod.

He turned the corner into another alley that dead-ended in maggot-filled dumpsters. The demon he’d been tracking for the last hour had finally run out of hiding places. Nate’s heart rate sped up, his blood firing through his veins. He could feel it here in one of the shadows cast by the back entrance doorways. Its energy felt different, but by now he’d learned that all bets were off since the rip in the Seam. One demon at a time, Nate, his captivating Jessie had told him, a guileless smile on her face. In the weeks since her passing, he’d continued to struggle with his choice.

He knew it was right, but how he’d managed to make the choice, he still didn’t know.

The pain of her loss didn’t fade. It never would. He could still feel her. Her breath on his face as he woke in the morning. Like she’d been lying next to him, her hair a messy corkscrew halo around her head.

That he had to stay here, go on without her…

He rubbed his chest, appalled at his inability to draw breath. Horrified at his lack of strength. His continuing pain that was emasculating him.

Enough.

Enough.

Energy was throbbing in that doorway. There, by the pawn shop. There was so much energy concentrated there the demon must have managed to consume a soul on the way here. It angered him. How had he missed that? This demon was uncommonly strong. But it was going down. Now. He spread his arms out, palms forward. “Game over, demon. Come out and meet your fate.”

Light burst from the doorway, and in the soft golden rays a feminine form stepped out. His body responded immediately. Respiration galloped. Temples, palms, underarms began to sweat.

His mind wheeled. That voluptuous shape.

He knew it.

Intimately.

His hungry eyes tracked up mega-curves encased in soft cotton, denim, and leather. His heart sledgehammered his ribcage.

Her lips curved and, sweet heaven, how could it be her smile?

How? He’d laid her cold body in the arms of the healer archangel. “J-Jessie?” The word rasped from his throat.

She smiled, then stretched languidly, her exquisite breasts pressing against her black cotton tee until the nubs of her nipples made his mouth dry. “Oh, that feels gooood,” she murmured.

Her voice. My God.

His body started shaking, and he stumbled as he took a step towards her. She shook her light brown coily hair, head thrown back, eyes closed. Just as she’d done while she was riding his body, driving them hard toward release. One foot in front of the other. He was terrified he was dreaming. One touch, and he’d know if this was a trick. “Jessie.”

Her eyes snapped open as though remembering she wasn’t alone. As her gaze fell on him, it went soft with something that poets had tried to capture with words since the beginning of time.

“Nate.” She stepped toward him. Her chest was now whole, her sinuous hips immortalized in black denim. Her wings…

Wings.

Fuck. Wings!

Iridescent. The opalescent white feathers contrasting with the black leather of her jacket. So beautiful it hurt the eyes. Every step closer to her, his heart beat harder, faster. Her energy was off the charts. She’d become something powerful.

With wings.

When their feet were a foot apart, he raised his hand to pass it in front of her chest, feeling her aura. Warm.

Home.

She was smiling into his eyes. Waiting…

Want to touch you, he sent into the pathway they’d used.

Please do, she answered.

Was it her? Or a fancy demon trick?

The hell with it. Nate grabbed her, wrapping his arms tightly around her, rocking her side to side, unable to make himself hold still. He said her name over and over until she was laughing and crying at the same time. Then he leaned back, took her face in his hands and fiercely slanted his lips across her warm, open mouth. His soul and senses came back to life as her fingers threaded through his hair, pulling, yanking, reminding him how good…how good…

How good they were together.

His heavy breath slid across her cheeks, her neck, ears, eyes as he used his mouth to reassure himself that she was here. In his arms. Living. Breathing. Whole.

His.

He picked her up, careful of her wings, and supported her as she wrapped her legs around him. He called upon moss to grow on the brick façade of the building, and then he pressed her up against the softness. He nuzzled her neck. “How?” he whispered.

Her hands rubbed the stubble on his cheeks. “Your struggle against your darkness impressed Raphael.”

“No way.” He drew her finger in his mouth and sucked. The rush of heat between her legs against his belly made him forget his barrage of questions. It was a while before either could speak again.

He stroked her feathers, and she moaned. He quickly looked at her, doing it again. She quivered, rubbing her body against him seductively. Touching her feathers turned her on. Good. To. Know. They were even softer than her velvety skin. My angel indeed. “Tell me about this.”

“Ooo, then don’t touch them because I can’t concentrate when you do.”

A chuckle rumbled out of his chest.

“Why don’t you put me down—”

“My hands aren’t leaving your body for days, Jessie.” He kissed those plump lips just because he could. Because he’d missed them for three weeks and because he thought he’d have to go without them forever. And he kissed them because…

“I love you, Jessie.”

Her hands bracketed his face. “I love you too, Nate. You resisted the temptation to be selfish. You overcame your past and proved love conquers all.”

They stared into each other’s eyes for long moments. Moments that completed a deep weaving that had begun in her apartment complex. It felt like a lifetime ago. Perhaps it was. They now had…

However long they had.

“Tell me how this came to be because I’m starting to get narked that I had to go without you for weeks. Had I known you’d be coming back I wouldn’t hav—”

When she pressed a hand to his mouth, he licked it. Which led to licking and sucking other fragrant and delicious parts of her frame. She laughed, jiggling her luscious rack until he was ready to rip those skin tight jeans off her body and take her like an animal in this seedy alley.

I wouldn’t even care.

He took his mouth off her neck and looked at her, eyebrow raised. “Don’t tempt me, woman. So… angels. Finish this story because we have other things to do.”

She wiggled out of his arms. He grabbed her hand and followed her as she led him down the alley toward the street. The sun had completely cleared the tops of the buildings, and people began to filter into the still-healing city on their morning commute. Once Asmodeus returned to Hell, his force field had broken. It was amazing how much had been accomplished, rebuilding the metro in three short weeks, but reminders of the devastation wrought by evil lay everywhere. Lots filled with rubble sat next to buildings with brand new windows. Skyways which had once let people stroll overhead were now open wounds between buildings. Shiny new fire hydrants squatted on cracked sidewalks. Old and new stitched together like the quilt of humanity.

Nate and Jessie walked, hand in hand in silence until they came to a small park. As they walked, people didn’t point or start screaming, so apparently they couldn’t see Jessie’s wings.

She chose a bench beside the fountain. He would have pulled her into his lap, but she sat beside him, swiveling to face him. “It took Raphael longer to heal me than he’d anticipated because Asmodeus was much stronger than any of the archangels realized. That was how Raphael finally understood the desperate battle you waged within yourself to turn me over to him instead of allowing Mammon to reanimate me.”

“Wait, Mammon?”

“One of the other archdemons released on Halloween. He’s in Tampa, plotting for Alexios’s relic at ETHER. When you sent Asmodeus back to Hell, Mammon felt his brother’s exit from this realm—as it’s probably safe to assume the other three archdemons did as well—and saw an opportunity to try to get the Veil from afar.”

Nate shook his head. Even after everything he’d experienced as a Guardian, this seemed far-fetched.

Jessie took his hand. “If you’d have given in to Mammon, I would have become a demon. But then you knew that, right?”

Did he? If he peered deep into his heart, he supposed he did. But really, would he have cared? After the aching emptiness he’d felt without her these several weeks, he wondered if he would take her any way he could. Demon or not. If he had the chance to do it over again, he couldn’t be sure he’d have made the same choice.

“Nate?”

She was all that was pure and good, and he was…still struggling.

It was the way of the Guardian. But here she sat in front of him, so that was more than he could ever hope for. So he’d battle the inherent darkness inside him all the way through—for an eternity—if it meant she was at peace, happy, and safe. “I knew. But now you’re here and you won’t…” His throat closed up. Damn, she turned him into a baby. Leave again?

“Not a chance, my love. Raphael gave me the choice to stay in Paradise or return here to fight by your side until the End Times.” Her smile faded. “It’s not going to be an easy battle, Nate. Raphael was pleased that I chose to return because together our power against the dark forces are much stronger.”

“So you’re really an angel.”

Her smile was back. “I am of the order Malakhim. A soldier Angel.”

Fierce and beautiful. “So, you’re immortal?”

“I am.” She smiled. “And bonding with me makes you even harder to kill, so that’s something.”

This was hard to take in. “Did Raphael or any of the other archangels tell you anything else?”

“I only saw Raphael in short bursts. You wouldn’t believe how often he’s called upon. But he told me to tell all the Guardians to be prepared for anything. They’ve known the Unsealing was coming, but they didn’t know it would be so soon. Satan has lots of children, and the five that were released in the Unsealing are here as a test. If they fail, Satan’s other children will learn what not to do for a later time. Isn’t that exciting?”

He frowned at her. “This isn’t a joke, Jessie.” He’d never be able to forget how gray she looked as he laid her in Raphael’s arms.

“I know, I’m sorry. I’m so happy to be here with you. And this time I can be more help.”

“What about the archangels? Will they help us? It sounds like they could come in and wipe out these threats no problem.”

“Well, they could, but what you told me is true. If the archangels get involved in these battles, that alone will open Lucifer’s cage. That means Armageddon.”

The End Times. “Because then Satan himself would come to Earth. But what about the Anti-Christ, doesn’t he have to come first?”

Jessie stilled. “The archangels believe he’s already alive and walking among us.”

Well, that was bloody chilling. “So basically, if the Guardians fail to put down the archdemons unleashed in the Unsealing, smarter archdemons will come, and then we’ll be the losers who initiate the end of the world?”

“I wouldn’t call you losers, but ultimately, yes. That would likely be the cause and effect.”

No pressure.

“We’d better not fail, I guess,” he said.

“Guess not.”

A shaft of sunlight speared across her hair onto the top curve of her wing. As his hand followed the light’s path, Jessie quivered appealingly. “I suppose with daylight now upon us, we have a few hours to make a plan, share your insights with my team, see your grandparents and The Scourge, and…” his gaze dropped to her cleavage, “get reacquainted?” Her smile made his heart—and other parts—throb.

Her eyes teared up as her hands clasped in front of her heart. “You found Scourge?”

When he nodded, she threw her arms around his neck, and whispered, “Lead the way, Guardian.”

* * *

Jessie lay back on several layers of downy softness in a canopied bed on the rooftop terrace of TERRA, the gauzy curtains flowing in and out like the bellows of a sail. Cocooned by Nate’s welcome heat and weight pressing into her, she shifted her legs beneath him, drawing him closer. “Thank you for taking me to see Walt and Tillie. And for taking such good care of Scourge.” He nodded, his lips at her neck. She squeezed him as soft light filtered through the curtains. “I didn’t know there was a pool up here.”

He leaned up to kiss the side of her mouth. “There wasn’t five minutes ago.”

There were a lot of things—superhuman things—she was still getting used to. “It feels like a summer night, but it’s nearly December. That’s you, too, I’m assuming?”

“Mmm.”

She shivered. “I need to know the extent of your powers so we can plan how to work together.”

“Sorry, I’m busy at the moment.” He sniffed her neck, then brought his face up to look into her eyes. A crease settled between his brows. “Does it hurt your wings to lay on them?”

“No, when I have them folded into me like this I don’t even know they’re there.”

An impish light came into his eyes. He ran his hand down the curve of her upper left wing setting off an explosion of sensation that rippled through her belly to settle in her groin. She pressed her head back into the softness of the feather bed.

“Sure looks like you know they’re there.”

Her eyelids cracked open to see a satisfied male smile. He eased down her body, kissing his way across her neck, swirling his tongue on her clavicle. His hand pushed the hem of her t-shirt up, found her breast, and they both groaned. “Oh, this thing…can you just…how do you…” He leaned back and brought her up to a seated position, looking at her wings with a puzzled expression.

“I think my clothes off and on. It works a whole lot easier with these—”

He had her naked before she could even finish her sentence. The hot look on his face nearly flayed her alive. “Oh, Jessie, look at you.”

Her face heated. She grabbed the cozy throw blanket to cover herself. You’d think as an angel she would’ve come back without the tummy pooch.

Or at least not caring that it was there. Jeez.

“Oh, baby, no.” He pulled the fabric out of her hands. “You are a walking fantasy.” In the next moment, his clothes were gone, and she could see the evidence of his desire. He knelt down at the edge of the bed to massage her feet. With his hands. Then his mouth. His fingertips rubbed soothing and arousing circles up her calves.

She’d fallen in love with him. He’d protected her—over and over. Had given up his manipulative ways with—and for—her. Had loved her family—and her dog—as his own. “Thank you for finding such a comfortable place for Gramma and Grandpa to live together.”

“You’re welcome. Now, I’m ready to die with need for you, but if you don’t stop thinking right now, I’m going to have to take a cold shower.”

She giggled, sucked in her belly, and came up on her elbows to look down at the earnest expression on his face. Well, some manipulations were for the best, she supposed. “But I’m thinking about you,” she teased.

“I know, I can read your mind. But right now, I don’t want you to think at all. I want you to feel, Jessica.”

Before she could speak, he leaned over her and scooped her into his arms. She thought he was going to resituate them, but he was standing and…

“What are you doing?”

Walking over to the pool. Her arms tightened around his neck as he descended the steps into the water. Her feet touched the water first. Deliciously warm. As the water closed around her belly, her head lolled against his shoulder. He readjusted her, parting her legs and backed her into the side of the pool, sliding a thick cotton towel between her wings and the tiled edge.

A seductive lethargy loosened her muscles. Her mind began floating, as weightless as her body.

“That’s better,” Nate breathed.

He was right. There was plenty to worry about, but it could wait for one night. Even if it was a few hours. They had right now, and she didn’t want to waste a second of it.

His lips were firm and soft at the same time, sketching a journey across the parts of her that still floated above the water. Her breasts, so rarely weightless, hovered near the surface. He drew one nipple into his mouth, then the other until she couldn’t bear the ache between her legs. Her hands pulled at his hair to draw him up so she could rub against his hard length. “I need you, Nate. Love me.”

“I do, Angel.” He guided himself to her center so she could feel the throb of him against her. She tilted her hips to drive into him, but he stopped her. The veins stood out in his neck. “Look at me, Jessie,” he rasped. “This is the final physical leap. The binding is eternal. Do you understand that?”

His rock hard chest abraded her nipples as she nodded. “Tell me what to say.”

His gaze flared. “Omnia vincit amor, et nos cedamus amori. Love conquers all things, so we too shall yield to love.”

“Love conquers all things, so we too shall yield to love,” she breathed. As he thrust inside her, she gasped, staring into his eyes, seeing her future, the struggles they would face together, their joining like a thunderstorm in her blood.

The water around them swirled, changing colors as they loved. Green, blue, orange, red, purple and back to green. He pulled her out into the middle of the pool and took her under water. They came up, mouths fused, lips gliding wetly. Her hands slid down into the water, caressing his flexing glutes as he spoke promises in an old language. He floated her back to the edge of the pool, gathering her closer as their bodies rocked together, his cheek against her shoulder, heavy, welcome, perfect.

My immortal.

A love like this would never die.

Never.

Never, he repeated. Tremors began in his legs. “Jessie…”

“Yes.” White trees, large and solemn, spouted up from the concrete, reaching skyward, their branches not covered in pine needles, nor leaves, but pure white feathers. Raining down on them. In the water. Feathers everywhere, impossibly beautiful.

Her neck arched, hips reaching and retracting, inner muscles clamping tighter, faster. Pleasure surging as his strokes became harder, their skin sliding together, churning the water, the feathers swirling around them.

She felt him inside, his essence joining with hers, the flash-burn searing them. The trees still throwing off their feathers, filling the pool, absorbing the water until, spent, they collapsed onto the thick bed of feathers, now dry, cushioning them as they lay together, catching their breath.

Jessie lay on her back, one thigh draped over his as his hand roved over her belly. The stars twinkled down at them while snowflakes danced and twirled in the dense air. Gradually her body cooled. She rolled to face him, her smile meeting one of his own. He came up on an elbow and brushed her hair back from her face, his gaze straying down to her chest.

“Thank you,” he said.

“The pleasure was all mine.” She couldn’t resist running a hand over his pecs and down that washboard stomach.

“Are you cold?”

“No. These feathers are resplendent!” She scooped up a handful and blew them into the night.

He laughed and hugged her. “Those feathers were all you, you know.” His voice was so full of love it took her breath away.

Wonderful! These were moments she’d savor and lock away to bring out in the dark days ahead.

For they would come.

“I never thought—” His hand paused on her hip, thumb absently caressing her skin. “I didn’t know love until you. Shh.” He put a finger to her lips when she opened her mouth to speak. A great fullness came into her throat at his vulnerable look. “All my life, I’ve forced things.”

“But you had to, Nate.”

“Maybe in the very beginning. But then I began to hurt people as much as I had been hurt. There is no courage in that. Then a hundred years later, you came along, and though I cornered you, manipulated you, you retained your dignity. Your strength and selflessness are humbling. I hope I can become more like you, Jessie.”

She came up onto her knees, kissed him soundly until he pulled her down on top of him. She leaned back, straddling him, her hands on his chest. “Let’s not forget, you nearly died for me, twice, hotshot.”

His hands squeezed her thighs. She scooted down to rub against the base of his groin to let their bodies start a new conversation.

One as old as time.

One that whispered and moaned, melded and illuminated.

Their bodies moved in rhythm, breath quickening, muscles clenching and releasing.

It was as much a girding for battle as a total surrender. They both knew it.

Embraced what was to come.

Darkness. Suffering. Death.

Her fingernails scored his chest from the violence of her release. He gritted his teeth, his body seizing moments before gasping her name.

And oh, how she liked it.

* * *