Corson

“What…?” she breathed, her voice trailing off as her head tipped back to take in the canopy of branches and leaves overhead.

As much as I didn’t miss Hell, a smile tugged at my lips as I gazed at the somewhat familiar landscape of my home. The only difference between what was here and the forest I’d once known in Hell was the lack of fires and tree nymphs dancing enticingly through the woods.

“Calamut trees,” I told her. “They must have escaped Hell or at least some of their seeds did.”

She continued to gawk at the woods before speaking. “How does a tree escape from anything?”

“Calamut trees aren’t like Earth trees.”

“No kidding,” she muttered as her head tipped back again. “There are no trees this size left on Earth; I’m not sure there ever were trees this large. And I’ve never seen a tree this color before.”

“That’s not even half of the differences,” I assured her. “And these are smaller than normal. They’re baby calamuts.”

“Holy shit!”

I chuckled as I leaned back on my heels to survey the calamuts. They stood about three hundred feet tall, half of their mature size. Deep grooves etched their black bark and gnarled, twisted limbs. Their hand-sized leaves were smaller than when they were fully grown, but still larger than the leaves on most Earth trees. The leaves were so dark a black they appeared purple in the sunlight filtering through their thick canopy.

“In Hell, the tree nymphs lived in the Forest of Prurience with the calamut trees. Some demons used the fallen leaves of the calamuts to make clothing with. You can see the start of their prury fruit there,” I said and pointed to the small, plum-colored balls forming on some of their branches. “When the prury is full-grown, it is the size of your watermelons.”

“Can it be eaten?” she inquired.

“River ate some of it without a problem, but the calamuts offered it to her. No one would dare to take the fruit from them without their permission.”

“The trees grant permission?” she squeaked.

“These trees can move. I’ve seen them tear someone in half, spear an ogre straight through, then offer the tree nymphs protection. As I said, they’re not your Earth trees. Like everything that evolved in Hell, they’re deadly.”

Wren gulped. “I see.”

“They won’t bother us unless we try to hurt one of them or a tree nymph. Then, they’ll destroy us.”

I grabbed her hand when it fell to her knife. She yanked her hand away from me.

“No weapons, not around these trees,” I told her.

“I’m not going to hurt them,” she retorted, “but there could be any number of creatures lurking in the shadows of these things.”

“The calamuts won’t allow a fight in their midst. If we don’t bother them, they won’t bother us. Come.”

I rested my hand on her elbow to nudge her forward before releasing her. Her head tilted back again when we stepped beneath the thick canopy of the trees; her mouth parted as she gazed at them in awe.

“They’re beautiful,” she whispered after a few minutes.

The leaves rippled over as if a breeze blew through them, though no wind stirred the air. In response to her words, some of the branches dipped lower. Wren gasped and stepped back. I nudged her forward with my shoulder. “It’s okay,” I assured her. “If they wanted us dead, we would be. Your words pleased them.”

“Oh, that’s, ah… nice,” she stammered.

The leaves crackled when they flowed together once more. “Amazing!” Wren cried.

“Yes,” I said, my gaze focused on her, but she didn’t notice.

When we stepped from the shadows of the calamuts and back into the woods of Earth, the smile slid from her face as reality returned. Her shoulders slumped, and she gave a longing glance back before focusing ahead once more. I vowed to take her back through the calamuts the next chance I got if only to see her smile like that again.

When a shadow fell over us, I tipped my head back. Against the backdrop of blue sky, I spotted the raven circling overhead. Caim’s wings folded against his back, and he dove out of the sky to land beside me once more. Shifting, he fell into step beside me. “A small grove of calamuts,” he said.

“Highly observant of you,” I replied.

Normally Caim would have smiled at me before coming up with some wise-ass response. Instead, his face remained oddly distant, and no amusement shone in his eyes. “Bale is on her way.”

Wren’s fingers twitched at her side, and her pace picked up.

“What is it?” I asked Caim when I sensed the strain behind his words.

“Raphael found something while searching for you,” he stated.

“What?”

“I don’t know all the details yet. I was asked to return to you so the others could follow me and find you easier.”

Raphael could have uncovered any number of things while he’d been searching for us. Most of those options weren’t pleasant. The snapping of a branch caused Wren to pull her knife from where it hung at her side. I surged forward to stand by her side as I searched for any hint of a possible attack.

I relaxed and smiled when Bale emerged from the forest. Her fire-red hair swayed against her ass as she walked. The reddish hue of her skin resembled that of the humans when they stayed too long in the sun.

“The ouroboros,” Bale said as she sauntered toward us. “I hope it’s dead.”

“Was there any doubt I wouldn’t destroy it?” I inquired.

Bale grinned, Wren scowled as she returned her knife to its holster, and Caim chuckled. I glanced at the angel, having no idea what he found so amusing, but he’d forgone his seriousness of only seconds before to smile back at me. He gave a pointed look between Bale and Wren and wiggled his eyebrows.

“There was some doubt,” Bale replied, drawing my attention away from the infuriating angel. “After all, you’re not as skilled at hunting and killing as me.”

“Everyone else would disagree with you,” I assured her, “especially the ouro.”

Bale studied her nails as if she were bored. “I will give you that it was probably a difficult kill.”

“I have to add that I was unable to see when I sliced its head off.”

Bale dropped her hand, but amusement shone in her lime-colored eyes when they met mine. “Bragging is unattractive.”

“Then you must be the ugliest woman alive!” I retorted, and she laughed.

In truth, Bale rarely bragged about her kills and was one of the most stunning women I’d ever seen. Her smile revealed her teeth, but unlike when she was pissed, her razor-sharp fangs weren’t visible. At nine hundred and eighty-six, she was younger than me, but almost every bit as lethal.

Her eyes flicked toward Wren before returning to me. Then, her gaze shot back to Wren and settled on my bite marks. Wren’s hand went to the handle of her knife again, but Bale’s attention had already returned to me.

Questions swam within Bale’s eyes, but I gave a subtle shake of my head. I wouldn’t discuss Wren with anyone else. Wren continued to grip her weapon as she focused on the woods. Caim made some strange laughing cough into his hand, before clasping his hands behind his back and assuming an innocent demeanor.

“Where are the others?” Wren asked, unable to keep the concern from her voice as she searched the forest.

“They’re coming,” Bale answered.

“What did Raphael discover?” I asked Bale.

“He tells me it’s nothing good, but he won’t reveal anything until we’re all together. He’s on his way here now.”

As soon as she said it, Raphael swooped out of the trees to land five feet away from Caim. Whereas Caim was all that was dark, Raphael was all that was light. His white-blond hair fell to his broad shoulders, and like the rest of the golden angels, his eyes were a violet color. After they were thrown from Heaven, all of the fallen angels’ eyes had turned black.

When he’d first come to Earth, Raphael had worn a white robe, but he’d discarded it after a month. Since then, he’d taken to wearing the same clothes as the rest of us. His plate of silver armor still adorned his chest over top of his brown shirt. A broadsword hung at his side; the azure jewel in its hilt reflected the sun across the forest floor and caused a blue light to flash over the rotting leaves. Taller than me, Raphael stood around six-seven.

No emotion showed in Raphael’s eyes as he surveyed Wren and then me. “It is good to see you are both well,” he said in his clipped way.

When he stretched out his wings to knock the gold dust from them, he revealed the circle of golden feathers inside his right wing. The golden feathers created a pattern that resembled a sun symbol. I had no idea why he had that pattern; perhaps all the Heavenly angels were marked in such a way, but I’d never asked. I didn’t care to know any more about the angels than I already did.

Raphael shook off the rest of the dust and closed his wings against his back. No spikes adorned his wings, which were rounded instead of pointed like those of the fallen angels.

“I hear you discovered something while searching for us,” I said to him.

“I did,” Raphael replied. “Perhaps we should discuss this alone.”

Wren glared daggers at him when he looked pointedly to her. Like the rest of the golden angels, Raphael had a connection to life that allowed him to harvest energy from all living things and use it as a weapon. He could kill Wren as easily as she could step on an ant, but that didn’t faze her as she held his stare.

“I brought the Wilders to you. I will hear what you have to say,” Wren stated.

“It may be best for you and all the humans to return to the wall,” Raphael replied.

“I don’t run from things.”

“She’ll hear what you have to say,” I interjected.

Raphael’s eyes slid to me. He was stronger than I was, but he wasn’t more powerful than Kobal, and Kobal had put Bale and me in charge. Because of that, he would do as I commanded. Raphael may not like it, but on this plane, Kobal was his leader.

Raphael nodded briskly, and Wren shot me an irritated look for interfering. I smiled sweetly at her in return. I knew the smile would drive her nuts, but she’d been doing that to me for a couple of months. As I’d suspected it would, her scowl turned into a full-on glare.

“Now that’s love,” Bale murmured from beside me.

“It’s something,” I replied. “How long before Magnus, Hawk, and the others arrive?”

“They should be here any minute now,” Bale said. “They only know as much about this as I do. Now that Raphael has a tidbit of information, he’s enjoying withholding it from us.”

“I bet he is.” I looked toward where Raphael stood with his hand on his sword. There were only a few times I’d seen the angel look at all unsettled by something; this was one of them. His eyes traveled continuously over the woods before rising to the sky, where they remained longer than I liked.

“Chatting with your brothers and sisters above?” I asked Raphael. Unlike Caim and the rest of the fallen angels, whose bond to life and the angels in Heaven severed after their fall, Raphael could still communicate with his fellow non-fallen angels.

“No,” Raphael replied.

“Good.” I wasn’t fond of Caim or Raphael, but I despised those cowardly pricks above.

Magnus and Hawk slipped from the forest with Erin, Vargas, Shax, and Lix following behind. “Where are the rest of the humans?” Raphael inquired.

“You said you wanted to speak with us privately, so we told them to make camp about a hundred yards that way.” Hawk jerked his thumb over his shoulder to point behind him. “You’re alive,” he greeted as he slapped me on my shoulder.

“It will take far more than an ouroboros to kill me,” I assured him. Or perhaps it will only take one woman, I thought as my attention returned to where Wren was edging away from the others. She was even trying to avoid Erin and Vargas, who were both as human as her.

Hawk followed the direction of my gaze and his mouth parted in realization when he spotted my mark on Wren’s neck. Newly turned from human to demon; Hawk was still learning all he could do, and as a canagh demon, he required nourishment from sexual energy as well as wraiths to survive. He didn’t have a problem feeding on the wraiths, but before learning he was a canagh demon and that his kiss could enslave another, he’d accidentally ensnared a human woman when he’d had sex with her.

He held onto enough of his human tendencies that he hadn’t forgiven himself for it yet. As punishment, he went far too long without sex. So long that I feared one day the honorable soldier might snap and do something he would regret.

Tall and broad, Hawk was thickly muscled and only a couple inches shorter than me. He ran a hand through his short, dark brown hair as his blue eyes studied Wren. He wasn’t looking at her sexually, but I still stepped in front of him to block his view of her.

His eyes flew up to mine, and he stepped back. “I wasn’t looking at her like that,” he said.

“I know,” I replied.

Hawk had spent enough time around Chosen pairs to know not to get between them. However, when she edged further away, I realized the attention Wren was receiving from the demons and angels bothered her, even if she pretended not to notice everyone staring at the marks on her neck.

“Glad you’re safe,” Vargas said to Wren and squeezed her arm as he walked by her toward me. “You also.”

I grasped Vargas’s extended hand and squeezed it. There weren’t many humans I was fond of; Sergeant Anselmo Vargas was one of them. His eyes, so deep a brown they were nearly black, twinkled with amusement when they held mine. Within those eyes were lighter flecks of golden brown color. His close-cropped black hair emphasized the broad cheekbones and olive complexion of his Peruvian heritage. At five-ten, he was far faster than his stocky build suggested he would be.

“What is it you saw, Raphael?” Caim inquired, drawing my attention back to the angels.