“You know, you really don’t have to lay on top of me.”
Lizza squirmed underneath him.
“Well,” Oriel said, smirking down at her, “you really should have made this transport chamber a little bigger. And less like a coffin.”
“I was being economical,” she complained, shifting Mr. Charley so he wasn’t squished between their two bodies. “And I figured I’d be traveling alone.”
He smiled. “You should have known better.” He truly hadn’t left her side, not since the ambush attack on Elyon’s forces. Not since she turned him to the light. Not since she saved his soul. No… he wasn’t planning on letting Lizza go anywhere without him. Certainly not to the immortal realm as the first human traveler in her dimensional drive.
“Yes, I guess I should.” She rolled her eyes.
“Can you two keep the chatter down?” Charlotte asked over the headsets. Oriel and Lizza both had miniature earbuds that transmitted and received sound from inside their transport chamber. “We’re starting to record out here.”
“Not too late to back out,” Oriel said quietly to her, even though he knew they would be recorded, the entire lab crew could hear them, and that she would never say no. Still… he held out hope to the last. This was dangerous. Everyone knew it, including her. But that didn’t dissuade the beautiful, brilliant soul he was deeply in love with.
Not in the slightest.
“Sorry.” Lizza smirked. “You’re stuck with me, hot stuff.” She bucked her hips up into his, just slightly, not enough to jostle the clear box they were encased in. But it was enough to stir his always-simmering desire for her.
“Careful.” He dropped a gentle kiss on the tip of her nose. “Or we’ll have to rename this the first interdimensional sex drive.”
“People!” Charlotte’s voice squawked. “We’re on tape.”
Lizza glared up at him, but he could see the smile she was fighting.
“Okay, I’m going to count it down,” Charlotte said. “You ready in there?”
“Ready!” Lizza sang out.
“I love you,” Oriel said softly.
Her eyes flashed, but she smiled.
“Wards are down,” Tajael intoned.
Charlotte quickly said, “Three… two… one…”
The physics lab, Charlotte, Tajael, the three lab techs, and the entire mortal realm… disappeared. They were floating in a formless gray mist. If anything went wrong, Oriel would yank Lizza out of harm’s way. He was her Guardian. That was his job. But oxygen in the box was breathable, there was nothing to see in this shapeless magic realm, and while Elyon may want his head on a pike, it was highly unlikely he would track Oriel out here in the gray. At least not in the scheduled minute they planned to be here. So instead, Oriel relaxed and watched the wonder cross Lizza’s face as she stared all around her, capturing the moment on her earpiece cam.
“Nothing but the same formless gray over-dimension space as recorded by the previous test subjects,” she intoned. “No sense of heat or cold, light or dark. Oxygen levels appear normal.”
Her gaze finally returned to him.
“Would you like to have a baby?” he asked.
“What?” she choked out.
He chuckled. It had been a couple weeks since the traumatic events of his sojourn to the shadow realm had passed, but it was never far from his mind. The idea that Elyon had planned to breed Lizza and him to build his army of darkness. And Oriel knew full well that Markos wanted to do the same for the army of the light. But Oriel was only concerned with what Lizza wanted… and he knew that being the first traveler to the over-dimension was one goal.
He wondered if making a child was another.
“We’re still recording,” he said with a smile. “So if you don’t want to answer…”
“That’s a hell of a question.” She was looking at him like he was crazy.
“It is, indeed.”
She frowned and glanced around the gray mists. “A baby. That seems…”
“Impossible?”
She looked back at him, but her expression was softer now. “I don’t believe anything’s impossible anymore.”
“Exactly my thought.” He kissed the tip of her nose again. “So why not conceive a child in love, who is neither shadow nor light, but merely our child. Our very special child.”
“An angeling child.” Her eyes widened. “One who would outlive me by many years.”
But of course, she would figure out his motives. The woman he loved had a mind as brilliant as her soul. “One who will remind me always of you.”
“Oh, Oriel.” She lifted her head to reach for him, so he did as any man would… he kissed her back. Thoroughly.
Somewhere in the middle of that kiss, they were transported back into the human realm, landing in the lab to cheering and applause.
Lizza grinned wide under his kiss, so he was forced to break it.
“Tell me you did not make a sex tape in the over-dimension.” Charlotte’s chastising voice just drew hiccups of laughter out of Lizza. “People, seriously? I’m trying to do science here.” But Charlotte was grinning just as much as everyone else in the lab.
Tomaz quickly liberated them from the box by sliding the lid off and propping it against the wall. Oriel and Lizza climbed out and handed their earbud mics and cameras to him for analysis.
“Congratulations, Dr. Robinson,” Tomaz said with a smile.
“You did it,” Charlotte said, beaming. “My God, you are a crazy woman.” But she gave Lizza a hug, and Oriel knew it was a triumph for both. They stepped over to the monitor to check the data, Lizza still holding her tiny rainbow unicorn, Mr. Charley.
She had done it. Fulfilled her vow to her parents and changed the world. A world still at war. And humans had now officially traveled under their own power to the over-dimension. That changed everything.
“Did you feel it?” Tajael asked. He had drawn Oriel to the back corner with him while the scientists and crew worked their machines.
“Feel what?” Oriel asked.
“The pulse through magic space?”
Oriel frowned. “No.” Each new set of experiments seemed to disturb the immortal realm a little more, and not just figuratively. A literal pulse of magic swept through that everyone could feel, light and shadow alike. Even the fae had to notice.
“This one was…. big.” Tajael kept his voice down.
“You think it will be enough to draw the dark angels together?” Oriel’s happiness was quickly taking on some tarnish.
“I don’t know.” Tajael sighed. “But I’m glad Razael has decided to enter the fight. Otherwise, we’d be in serious trouble.”
Oriel nodded and peered at the women huddled around the monitor. He wished the war would simply vanish, and he could spend his days protecting and loving Lizza. But the world had never been simple, and it would not settle down just for them. Perhaps it was better to wait, not bring a child into a world torn by uncertainty.
“I almost wish you were still in shadow,” Tajael said, a smirk twisting his lips.
Oriel scowled at him. “Thanks.”
“Just saying. I wish I had someone I could trust implicitly in the shadow realm. That’s where this war will be fought… and lost. Or won.”
“Asa seems trustworthy,” Oriel offered. “He’s helped us both when we most needed it.”
Tajael shrugged. “You know the shadow realm as well as I—would you trust any of them?”
Oriel frowned. Because he wasn’t sure of the right answer. Some, like Terah, seemed entirely out for their own interests… but with a glimmer of heart. Ones like Asa were fiercely loyal to their dark angel and willing to do anything for them. Others, like Micah, seemed willing to betray the dark angel who was his father. Did that make any trustworthy in a game where the fate of humanity lay in the balance?
Oriel couldn’t say.
But he knew, no matter what happened in the realms of light and shadow, his place was with the woman he loved. So he would stay by Lizza’s side and never leave.
Now and forever.
Oriel has his happy ending, but the story of the Fallen Angels continues!
ASA
(Fallen Angels 3)
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Tajael is an angeling of the light—a cross between human and angel. He strives for Virtue, but his human body is vulnerable to all the Sins... Lust most of all. Growing up cloistered among the angels, he must now go on walkabout in the human world to prove his Virtue. If he can keep from Falling, he'll be allowed to return and take his vows. But it's an angeling's nature to love and protect humanity... and nothing he's been taught prepares him for the Temptation ahead...
While you wait for more angels, go back to the beginning with FALLEN IMMORTALS...
(HINT: *More* of Tajael's backstory is in this series!)
LUCIAN
I am a Dragon Prince of the House of Smoke… and I am dying.
Five hundred years is truly enough for a man like me. A monster. Yet a ten-thousand-year treaty will die with me, if I don’t spawn a dragonling to take my place. My two brothers are no use in this task. It falls to me, the eldest by a hair’s breadth, and yet, I cannot face the horror of another sealing. Another death. Another woman’s blood on my hands.
ARABELLA
I was saved from death in a dark Seattle alley by an impossibly beautiful man who swooped in on golden wings. Now he’s taken me to his lair, opened my eyes to a world of immortals I didn’t know existed, and given me an impossible task—find him a mate. Then, and only then, will he set me free. He needs her more than he wants; she wants him more than she should; and the fate of both the mortal and immortal worlds depends on not just repairing their hearts, but finding a Love that’s True…
The FALLEN IMMORTALS series is a modern Beauty and the Beast story with flaming HOT dragon shifters, vengeful Dark Fae, and beguiling fallen angels. Only readers over 18 should embark on this epic series of dangerous love that only an immortal might withstand.
to get KISS OF A DRAGON