Chapter Fifty-Four
When Angel’s eyes fluttered open to reveal she was still on the floor of Malek’s chamber, but in Jake’s arms instead, she experienced a sudden discombobulation so strong, it was terrifying. She was being moved; that was what had awoken her. She opened her mouth to ask him what the hell happened, but Jake cut her off gently. “I know you have a thousand questions. Bear with me, Angel and I promise to answer them all. I just need to get you to safety first.”
She stared up at his fallen angel face and felt so lost. The last time she’d seen him, he and David Sharpe had been attacking her with sleep darts and handing her over to Lord Malek. Now he was lifting her in his arms and… Angel blinked and looked around. Oh gods, this is every last one of them, she thought. His entire motorcycle club was standing around them watching them silently, every last tall, strong, inhumanely handsome member.
Even Cain.
She knew who he was at once. The power emanating from him was enough to make a person feel drunk if they weren’t aware and careful. He was so tall – an inch or two taller than Jake, even. He stood with the kind of bearing and command that could only be earned, and only over a vast amount of time. And he was extraordinarily beautiful. But it was a cold beauty, hard and unforgiving, as if it had been sculpted by someone who was in anguish.
His very blue eyes were filled with ancient knowledge. Angel could not look at him for more than a second or two. Cain alone was enough to convince Angel that she wasn’t dead or dreaming, that she hadn’t actually faded to nothing under Malek’s kiss.
Cain’s presence was just far too real for that.
She turned her attention to the other Monsters members. They were all watching her.
The weight of their cumulative gazes was heady. As Jake got to his feet and hugged her firmly to his chest, Angel actually started to feel aroused under all those eyes. Sexually aroused. It was embarrassing. And she felt even more unsettled. She slipped her arms around Jake’s neck and held on out of self-preservation.
Angel could feel that her mental wards were still up; she’d only cast them a few hours ago as far as she knew, and they were supposed to last at least a day. But she gave her fear away when she clasped tightly to Jake. As if he knew what was happening to her and what she was thinking, Jake smiled knowingly and laughed softly, drawing her attention back to him. She studied his strong profile as he strode across the room toward his leader. “Let’s go,” he said.
Cain nodded.
Angel watched and listened as all at once and seemingly in unison, the Monsters members called up transport spells. The air in the room grew heavy with magic so thick, she actually saw sparks of electricity zap around her as if she were in a Faraday cage.
When Jake’s portal opened, he stepped in, his grip on her strengthened, and the portal whisked them through space and time.
When they stepped out again, Angel realized they’d not only transported out of Malek’s chamber, but the entire Unseelie Realm. They now stood back in the mortal realm, in the Monsters safe house parking lot beside Jake’s GTO. But the rest of the lot was no longer empty. She glanced around. Motorcycles filled the other spaces, each magnificent machine gleaming with a perfect paint job and miles of chrome.
Jake carried her toward the car. She watched as the GTO’s passenger side door opened of its own accord. Angel’s cinephile mind was instantly reminded of Stephen King’s Christine. At first, her eyes widened and her grip on Jake grew claws. But Jake laughed again.
She snapped her eyes to his to find them glittering with amusement. Then she remembered Jake had admitted to her that he could manipulate objects. “Very funny,” she hissed. He laughed harder.
Now that he had no reason to hide anything from her, including his powers and abilities, Angel experienced a strange thrill wondering what else he was going to reveal. She pondered this as Jake approached the car.
She felt perfectly capable of walking on her own and didn’t strictly need to be carried, which surprised her given how thoroughly drained she’d been before she’d lost consciousness in Malek’s grasp. It was one more confusing thing that she tried to push back and compartmentalize.
Regardless of her new found strength, she stayed quiet about it and chose to let Jake take care of her, enjoying the tight warmth and hard protectiveness of his arms as he held her. She loved the way he smelled… the leather of his jacket filled her nostrils and played pleasantly in her head.
He placed her carefully in the passenger seat before straightening and nodding to his MC brothers, who all stood in the lot as if waiting for a signal from him, even Cain. Looking at the enigmatic leader, Angel thought maybe she understood this. Cain had nothing to prove. This was Jake’s rodeo after all; Angel was his girl. For the night, Cain was deferring and letting Jake take the reins.
I’m his girl, she thought. A small smile graced her lips as Jake closed her door and moved around the car. But the smile didn’t last; she was still so confused. So much needed to be cleared up – and she couldn’t get the nerve-wracking experience of Jake and Dave hunting her down out of her head.
Jake got in on his side and turned the car on. A few seconds later, the thunder of a dozen motorcycles starting up at once filled the night. Angel closed her eyes and rested her head against the red leather seat, just letting the sound ride over her like the notes of Angus Young’s guitar.
Then Jake and the entire Monsters motorcycle club escorted Angel back into Vega territory. She felt like the president with an entourage of powerful people surrounding her while they traveled the streets of San Francisco. It was a little thrilling. And a lot bewildering. She wanted to film it or something for posterity’s sake. Elena would have been so jealous.
Elena! Fuck!
In the chaos of what had happened earlier tonight, she’d forgotten to call her friend about canceling drinks at the Fairmont…. Well, technically that wasn’t true. She hadn’t even had a chance to think about calling her to cancel, much less the time, nor frankly even the cell phone signal. If she’d had a signal when she’d been in that forest and Jake was cuffed against those rocks, she would have used it to call Gabriel.
Her memories of the night assaulted her again as she stared out the window. She remembered David’s form bending over her as she lay helpless in the dirt in the forest and consciousness slipped away. He’d taken her pendant off her.
Instinctively, Angel touched her chest. When she did, her fingers were greeted with the hard, warm outline of a large bear claw resting against her ribcage. She pulled it out from under her shirt and looked down at it. The green glow was faded now, but still there.
Jake had put it back on her.
Angel glanced at him again. Such a beautiful profile. Strong. Tempting.
She wanted to be able to look at it forever.
With that thought, Angel rested her head and listened to the surrounding roar of the motorcycles that hovered around the Pontiac like bees around their queen. After a few minutes, she saw him move out of the corner of her eye and turned to watch him press a few buttons on the clearly updated stereo in the GTO’s dashboard. Lighted text announced coming music, and top-of-the-line speakers began to play to Angel’s frayed nerves.
This was her favorite song. I’m On Fire by Bruce Springstein.
Angel smiled. Of course Jake would know that from having read her file. And because he was Jake, he knew she needed to hear it right now. She closed her eyes and relaxed her head against the seat again, letting the drive and the Boss comfort her.