CHAPTER 16
Isadora smiled as she woke, stretched up and hugged the pillow. She swivelled her head and bit her lip as she buried her face in it, a moan rolling up her throat as a skilled tongue teased her between her thighs.
Best wake up call ever.
She grinned and tried to keep still as Rook swept his tongue over her arousal, flicked it and laved it, sending sparks skittering over her thighs and up her belly.
“Morning,” he husked, voice gravelly and low, and before she could answer, he licked her again, tearing a moan from her.
The angel was insatiable.
She had lost count of the number of times they had made love last night, was fairly certain they had covered almost every position possible, and might have invented some new ones.
Her grin widened.
Rook always had been inventive, and passionate, doing everything at full throttle.
Apart from now, as he languidly explored her with his tongue, slowly teasing her towards a climax.
She stretched out, savouring the calm of it and how it gently built inside her, unhurried and incredibly sensual, awakening every inch of her in a way she wasn’t sure she had experienced before.
She loved the wild side of Rook, the one that matched hers, but she could easily come to love this softer side of him just as much.
She moaned into the pillow, because as much as Rook was stealing her focus with his worship of her body, she could sense that Serenity and Apollyon had returned, and she really didn’t want them sharing her wake up call.
It had been embarrassing enough when they had seen Rook carrying her to the bedroom last night.
She bit the pillow, muffling another moan as Rook skimmed a finger down her inner thigh and anticipation swirled inside her, an ache for him to ease it into her and bring her to climax.
He stroked it over where she needed him, teasing her.
When he did it again, she grabbed another pillow and hit him with it. He chuckled, the warm sound chasing away her anger, and brought his fingers back towards her core.
He stiffened at the same time as she tensed.
Something was coming.
Something powerful.
Rook popped to his knees, deliciously and distractingly naked as the covers fell away from him.
It wasn’t anything born of his realm.
This danger was born of hers.
“Dress,” he growled, his eyes gaining a crimson glow as the skin around them darkened.
Armour materialised on his body, the scarlet-edged obsidian plates moulding over his chest first, followed by the pointed slats that protected his hips over his loincloth. His vambraces appeared on his forearms as he rolled from the bed, and just as his bare feet hit the wooden floor, black leather boots formed on them and his greaves materialised over his shins.
Isadora scurried off the bed and grabbed her dress. She pulled it on, wrestling with it as panic started as a low drumming in her veins but quickly escalated into a full-on pounding that had her pulse racing.
She knew that power.
Bitch and Spanish Inquisition were close.
A crimson blade formed in Rook’s hand and he held his free one out to her as scarlet wings erupted from his back.
She muttered a spell to make her boots appear on her feet and another to produce a silver chest piece that moulded to her breasts over her black dress.
Rook glanced at her and lingered, his eyes fixed on her chest. They darkened, hunger igniting in them.
“Later.” She tugged on his hand, pulling him towards the door, because it really wasn’t the time for him to get hot and bothered by the sight of her in form-fitting armour.
He took the lead, guiding her out into the main room of the apartment where Apollyon stood dressed in his gold-edged onyx armour, his black wings furled against his back and twin gold blades gripped tightly on either side of his hips.
Serenity stood close to him near the open door to the kitchen, her pretty cream dress making her look out of place against the grim backdrop of her angel of death.
The petite blonde muttered words beneath her breath as red magic swirled around her hands, sparking in places as the ribbons twisted and collided.
Isadora broke free of Rook’s grip and went to her. She took hold of Serenity’s hand and chanted with her, linking their power to make the spell stronger.
Hopefully as strong as they needed it to be.
“What should I be expecting here?” Rook came up beside her, his blade at the ready and his crimson eyes locked on the French doors that led onto the terrace.
She focused on the world outside, on the disturbance she had felt, power that unnerved her, setting her on edge and filling her mind with doubts. She shut them down, refusing to let them shake her. She was strong now, her magic free of the shackles that had bound it, and she wasn’t alone. Rook was with her, and so was Apollyon and Serenity. She had another powerful witch at her side, and two extremely powerful angels.
They could handle what was coming.
“There were two more witches in the group. A male, powerful and competent, and a female,” she quickly said and then returned to chanting the spell with Serenity. She focused on the spell, keeping her magic flowing into it as she glanced at Rook. “The female… she’s Country Estate’s sister. The leader.”
Serenity lifted her free hand and Isadora followed suit as the spell built around her hand, formed and strained for release. Not yet, they needed it stronger.
“Not good. I’m figuring she’s more powerful than the others?” Rook placed his hand on her shoulder when she nodded and she silently thanked him for the boost as her magic hungrily reached for the connection between them and siphoned some of his power.
She silently thanked him for being concerned about her too.
He wanted her stronger, wanted her to have as much power as she could handle so she would be safe. She could feel it as her magic connected to him, revealing his feelings to her.
“How did they find you?” Apollyon moved closer to Serenity and Isadora felt it when he connected with her, providing a boost to her magic too.
“Shit,” Isadora growled as it hit her. “My magic.”
It was possible one of the spells that had been cast on her by the group had been a sort of tracker, one that triggered whenever she used her power. She had probably sounded the alarm when she had fought Country Estate, and again yesterday when she had revealed her markings.
Her eyes widened and she lowered them to her hand and the spell whizzing around it.
She was giving them her exact bloody location.
“We have to stop.” She whipped around to face Serenity. “I think they have a tracer on my magic.”
The sensation of dark power that rang in the air suddenly grew stronger.
“Too late,” Serenity whispered.
Isadora hurled the spell with her, desperate to provide them with some protection, a shield that would hopefully keep the witches at bay.
The crimson globe exploded in size, sweeping outwards from their hands to engulf the apartment and disappear into the floor and ceiling, forming a barrier around them.
Serenity tossed her a worried look and Isadora knew why. No magic could pass through the barrier in either direction, and that included teleporting. It would bounce them back into the bubble. They were trapped, but they were safe, and right now that was all she cared about.
“Help me get rid of this spell.” She turned to Serenity and the blonde took hold of her hands.
Isadora closed her eyes and worked with Serenity, seeking the spell that had given the witches her location, aware they were growing closer by the second. She could feel them through the barrier, their dark magic spreading in the air around them, slowly gaining strength as they searched the vicinity for her.
“Got it.” Serenity tightened her grip on Isadora’s hands and began chanting.
Light pulsed through Isadora in golden waves that grew brighter and stronger as she listened to Serenity’s words, let them soak into her and draw out the spell. It writhed inside her, dark and malevolent, a vicious thorny thing that tugged at her and tried to sink back into her bones whenever Serenity’s strength slipped.
Isadora began to chant with her, put force into each word that drained her strength but struck at the spell too, weakening it. She gritted her teeth and cried out through them as it ripped from her, pushed out by the counter spell.
She sagged and strong arms caught her, keeping her upright.
“You good?” Rook murmured close to her ear as she settled with her back against his chest and she nodded. “Then we’re getting out of here.”
“How—” She cut herself off as she looked up at him, her words about how teleportation magic wouldn’t work because of the barrier dying on her lips.
A shimmering white portal blazed behind him.
She stared at it and then at him.
“Perk of the job?” He offered, an awkward edge to his expression. “Sometimes it pays to be a bad angel.”
She wasn’t going to argue with that, not when an incredible force hit the barrier, shook the building and sent her staggering forwards.
“This is not good,” Serenity said and Isadora didn’t need to look to see what had her worried now, could feel it as spells pounded against the red shield.
The barrier wasn’t going to hold out for long against that level of offensive magic. Spanish Inquisition and Bitch were far more powerful than she had believed. Doubt slithered through her again, forming ice along the line of her spine.
“Leaving now.” Rook wrapped his arm around her stomach and hauled her backwards into the portal.
Apollyon pulled Serenity in behind them.
Isadora’s eyes widened as a violet glow lit the room. “Faster!”
The scent of snow swirled around her and she felt the forest and the ancient mountains. Rook swept her around to clear the portal and Apollyon leaped through it with Serenity, landing on the pristine white of the lake beside them.
The portal shrank, quickly closing as Rook held his left hand out towards it.
But not quickly enough.
She braced against him as a violet orb shot through the tiny remnant of the portal and detonated, showering the area in lilac sparks that shone in the early morning light.
“Another tracker.” She glared at the glittering pieces of it as they drifted around her, catching the gentle breeze and slowly dancing towards the snowy ground.
They settled on her too, and on Apollyon and Serenity.
Rook huffed and brushed them off him, his lip curling to flash sharp teeth. “Can you cancel it out or something?”
“No.”
He frowned at her. “No? You reversed the other spell.”
“This one is different. It caused a blanket effect when it detonated, transforming one spell into… like… a million tiny spells.” She did her best to sweep the purple flakes off her clothes, but just like non-magical glitter, it got everywhere and refused to go away. “I’m going to be finding bits of this spell for days… which is about as long as this spell will last. They’ll keep finding us until it wears off.”
Rook’s face darkened, black emerging around his crimson eyes, and his deep voice had a cold edge to it as he scowled at the point where the portal had been. “Or until I kill them.”
His forearms blackened and she took a step back as he grew in size, muscles bulging beneath his darkening skin.
His focus whipped to his right and his crimson eyes narrowed.
Her gaze leaped there.
There was only the lake and the forest, with the mountains rising beyond it to pierce the blue sky, the snow that capped them shining in the sunlight.
Two figures appeared right where Rook had been looking.
Damn, his senses were sharp, far sharper than they had been when he had been a guardian angel.
He grunted and shifted to face the brunette female and the ice-blond male who stood beside her.
Bitch swept her wavy hair over her shoulder, revealing a low-cut crimson top that was more suited to a nightclub than the frozen wilderness. She scowled at Isadora, her dark brown eyes holding every drop of the anger Isadora could feel in her.
She probably deserved it for killing her brother, but she wasn’t going to regret what she had done, or what she was about to do.
The woman strode forwards, long black-leather-clad legs carrying her with confidence towards them.
Her dark gaze slid to Rook, Apollyon and Serenity, and then back to Isadora. “So… which one do I need to kill to make you give me that spell?”
Rook snarled, flashing his fangs as his transformation completed, the feathers of his wings falling away to reveal the leathery membrane beneath.
Bitch smiled at him.
Isadora snapped.
Darkness poured through her, a rage so deep and powerful she couldn’t contain it. The pain of losing him all those centuries ago combined with the terror she had felt when he had gone through the ice and had almost slipped from her grasp once more. Magic surged in response, lit up her blood and stole her breath as she wrestled for control, fighting a battle she knew she wouldn’t win.
Because she couldn’t lose Rook.
Which meant this bitch had to die.