An Archangel's Promise (3 page)

Hunter stood there trying very hard not to gape at the woman
who had just exited the door. And she was a woman. Oh fuck, was she a woman.
Gabriella was no longer the sweet, yet bossy little thing that used to hang off
his arm. Hell, she had just put him in his place in front of a room full of
people, most of whom were still staring at him in confusion.

Making his way toward the door Gabriella had just exited,
Hunter was stopped by a furious looking man. It took him a moment to recognize
Gabriella’s older brother, Nolan.

“Nolan.” He dipped his head in acknowledgement, battling the
desire to throw the man out of his way so he could chase after his target.

“You need to leave,” Nolan bit out, his eyes narrowing on
Hunter. “I don’t know where you’ve been, and I don’t fucking care. Gabriella
doesn’t need you popping up after ten years. You’ve done enough to her.”

Hunter had to give the guy credit, he had balls. Nolan
couldn’t have been more than five-foot ten and one hundred and sixty pounds,
whereas Hunter stood at six foot five and weighed just over two hundred pounds.
Plus, Hunter knew he gave off a killer of a vibe given what he was. Most men
cowered from him. But apparently Nolan’s love for his sister overrode any
self-preservation he might have. It was good to know that Gabriella had been
protected by someone so fierce. However, Hunter was there now, and the guy
really needed to get that through his head, and get the hell out of his way.

Leaning down to Nolan’s ear, Hunter let his voice drop to a
deadly whisper. “I will be eternally grateful for the protection you have given
her over the years when I couldn’t, but get one thing straight—Gabriella is
mine
.
She always has been, and not you, nor anyone else, is going to get in the way
of me claiming what is mine. Are we clear?”

Purposefully pushing out a small amount of his power, Hunter
watched the man in front of him shiver and take a step back, his eyes widening.
Now he was getting it. Barely sparing Nolan a second glance, Hunter crossed the
room, exiting the same door that Gabriella had.

It wasn’t hard for him to track her down. He knew which
floor she owned in the luxury building. The lavish apartment was one of seven
on the top floors of the building that took up an entire level. Hunter had been
more than a little surprised when he discovered she lived there. Finding out
that her brother Nolan had made a lot of money and had chosen to help take care
of her settled the rage inside of him that he felt at their years apart.

When he’d heard about her parents’ death in a car accident
six years earlier, Hunter had been concerned how Gabriella would handle it. Not
being by her side had damn near tortured him. Having no way to take care of her
himself, he would be eternally grateful Nolan had been there to do it. Though
the evidence he had found showed Gabriella had paid her brother back after her
company had begun taking off. In fact, not only had she paid for her apartment,
but she now also held stocks in Nolan’s company.

She had always been a little spitfire, unwilling to allow
anyone to take care of her. He remembered many occasions when he had told her just
that. So stubborn. A fiery redhead…that was his girl. Not a day had gone by
that he hadn’t missed Gabriella, craved her warm touch, her soft words. A smile
tugged at the edges of his lips. Now she was his fiery woman wrapped up in a
will of steel, and he was going to enjoy unwrapping every inch of her. Just as
soon as he spanked her pert little arse for walking off on him like that.
Hunter didn’t have time to play games. He had come there for Gabriella, and he
planned on leaving with her before Ash, a fallen angel bent on making his life
hell, turned up to crash the party—literally.

Exiting the stairwell on her level, Hunter came out onto a
marble floor way that he followed around the corner until he saw the lifts to
one side and the entrance door to the other. The door was locked, not a
surprise. Using his mind, he turned all the locks, allowing himself access to
her apartment. Damn, he loved that trick. He knew breaking and entering into
her home would likely piss her off more, but he was sure he could distract her.

Slipping into the penthouse apartment, Hunter didn’t waste
any time in tracking his feisty best friend down. He spared a glance at the
living space, at least what he could see of it. His Gabby certainly was living
the high life. Hunter had never imagined finding her living in a place this
classy or expensive. It brought a smile to his face that his girl was doing so
well.

“She always was an overachiever,” he mumbled, tracing a
finger along an expensively framed piece of artwork.

Light filtered from a room at the end of the hall. Nearing
the room, he peeked through the slit in the doorway. Gabriella stood at the end
of her bed, lowering the zipper of her dress, all the while muttering under her
breath. Thanks to his superior hearing, he had no trouble distinguishing all
the colorful terms she was using to describe him. Hunter smiled. Some of them
were quite creative, if not crude.

His erection pressed against the zipper of his slacks,
making itself known. In all the years he’d been gone, none of which were by
choice, his lust and desire for her had never waned. During the day he would
fantasize about her, and at night when he went to sleep, he dreamed of nothing
but Gabriella.

Hunter had lived and breathed her since he was a child, and
after all he had gone through, he’d be damned if he let her push him away. Without
a second thought, Hunter shoved open her door, ignoring the rattle of the
wood’s hinges.

Gabriella gasped, spinning around, her eyes wide with shock
and something much more. The expression quickly faded, to be replaced by a
deep, stark anger that would have shaken a weaker man to his core.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing? Get out,” she
seethed.

Her words registered to his ears, but Hunter was too far
gone. Ducking when she swung at him, he clamped his fingers around her wrists
and used her shock to push her back onto the bed behind her. Gabriella went
down, Hunter falling on top of her, careful to let go of her and land most of
his weight on his hands. He couldn’t stop the groan that slipped past his lips
as his body molded to hers.

Oh, shit. That feels good.

She struggled against him, though he noted it was
half-hearted at best. He heard more than felt some of the buttons to his shirt
pop off as Gabriella tugged at the material. “Get off me, you arse,” she
shouted, and he would have believed she meant it had he not seen the way her
pupils dilated. The sexual heat in that emerald gaze seared him to his very
soul.

“Gabriella,” he breathed.

Although her arms were still tensed, her hands balled into
fists, Gabriella’s body relaxed underneath his as though all the fight had left
it. Hunter lowered his lips to hers, the softest of touches, barely a caress.

“I’ve missed you, Gabby.”

His heart broke at the hurt he saw in her eyes. “Missed me?
If you missed me, then you never would have left me. Where have you been, Hunter?
All this time… You can’t just show back up and expect things to be the same.
Jesus Christ, I thought you were dead.”

“Did you really? I don’t think you did.”

Her mouth pressed into a hard line, and he knew he was
right. His Gabby would never have given up on him, no matter how pissed she
currently was.

“You have to believe that I didn’t want to leave you. I had
no choice. Everything I have ever done was to keep you safe,” he whispered,
pleading with her to understand. Gabriella started shaking her head at him, but
he was determined to make her listen. “You’ve always known I was different. We just
never knew why.”

Gabriella lay beneath him, a frown marring her beautiful
face. “But you do now, don’t you?”

“Yes.” He sighed. “I found out in the worst way that night I
left.”

“What happened? Your foster parents… My father told me they
found evidence of their remains in the ashes. And later they discovered
evidence which led them to a group of men who were found guilty of the crime. Are
they really dead? Were those men actually guilty?” she asked, searching his
face. He didn’t know what she was looking for. Perhaps some sign that he was
telling the truth.

Hunter leaned to one side, careful of his weight above her.
He brought up his free hand to cup her cheek, using his thumb to tug at her
bottom lip that was currently being abused. “They did die that night. And I
would have to, if not for some well-timed intervention.”

He heard her breath catch, saw the fear in her eyes. She
still cared.

“Who killed them? Was it really those men that were found
guilty?”

Such simple questions, yet such a complex answer.

“It wasn’t those men. Someone else far more dangerous came
after me that night because I’m an angel. At least I am now. Until a few months
ago I was what they refer to as Nephilim. Half-angel, half-human. We’re
children of angels whom the Fallen consider abominations. We are hunted down
while we go through our transitions, but if we make it, we become full-blooded
angels. My group and I are charged with protecting other Nephilim. I was a big
target, and if it weren’t for the men whom I now see as brothers, I would have
died along with my foster parents.”

“So you’re an angel, and you protect others. Why is your
group responsible for protecting other Nephilim?” she asked, doubt clear in her
eyes.

“Because we are the sons of archangels,” he stated, waiting
for her disbelief. He didn’t have to wait long.

“Oh, come on, Hunter. Surely you can do better than that,”
she scoffed, shoving at his shoulders again. “You know, you nearly had me
there, but come on…sons of archangels?”

“If you don’t believe me, then I’ll show you.”

Gabriella paused in her struggle and looked at him warily.
“What does that mean?”

Her voice trembled and he could tell she was scared, but the
best way to do this was to…well…just do it.

Dipping his head, he took her lips. Lowering the shield of
his mind, Hunter allowed her to enter. She would be able to see everything. His
memories, his pain, and his hope.

Gabriella slipped inside without even meaning to. It was a
natural instinct everybody had when they were intimate with someone they cared
about. Most called it intuition, they didn’t know they actually had the power
to slip into someone else’s mind, to see their inner most thoughts and desires.
When you were joined, there were no boundaries unless that person shielded
their thoughts. It was unexplainable, a gift from the creator. The knowledge of
which had been lost over time.

He could tell when she got to the night of the attack, felt
her flinch below him, and cry out at the pain he felt at leaving her behind.
She saw him through the years when he would sneak away from the others, putting
himself in danger just so he could catch a glimpse of her from afar. The need
he had each time to reach out and touch her, the pain that slashed through him
like an unforgiving tidal wave as Sebastian, their unofficial team leader,
would show up and force him to leave again.

One particular memory stood out against the rest—the day of
her twenty-first birthday.

Hunter felt like a creepy stalker, standing under the
hedge of a neighbor’s tree as he peered into the Richards’s yard. He guessed he
was in a way, but Gabriella had just turned twenty-one, and he couldn’t miss
it, even if he had to keep his distance.

He observed her moving through the crowd of well-wishers
and party goers. Her smile was bright, her laughter loud, yet none of it seemed
to reach her eyes. Those beautiful emerald gems that used to sparkle with
happiness and mischief had dulled.

Was it because of him? Did she miss him as much as he
craved being with her?

A guy around their age bumped into her, trying to make it
look like an accident, but Hunter wasn’t fooled. He caught the lust in the
other man’s eyes as he apologized and began chatting to Gabriella. His
Gabriella.

Anger burned inside of Hunter like acid eating its way to
his very soul. At this stranger beside Gabriella, at his father for being whom
he was. Anger oozed out of every pore toward anyone who held any responsibility
in keeping him from the one person he loved.

“I don’t know why you do this to yourself,” whispered a
deep voice behind him.

Hunter didn’t need to turn to know it was Sebastian. “I
love her.”

He knew the raw agony and frustration could be heard in
his voice. He loved this girl…no, this woman, more than life itself. The torch
he carried for her was like a flame that burned brighter with every day they
were apart.

Sebastian sighed. “You have a schoolboy crush, Hunter.
You will get over her if you allow yourself.”

He spun around to face Sebastian, vehemently shaking his
head. “No. No, I won’t. It’s more than that. I feel it,” he insisted.

“You have to let her go. You need to focus on your
training. There is so much you must learn in order to become stronger.”

“What good will it do? I’ll never be like you. You’re
full-blood. You don’t know what it’s like,” he mumbled.

With a pitying look, the older angel said, “Hunter, we
must go. If not for your own safety, then for hers.”

Hunter followed Sebastian’s line of sight back to
Gabriella. She was laughing at something the guy had said, and Hunter’s breath
caught when, for a moment, that laughter touched her eyes.

His heart plummeted when the truth sank in. She would be
happy. She would move on. But he never would. Hunter was even more determined
to learn all he could, to become as strong as possible.