Dark Caress (The Fallen) (3 page)

Once she came into the inner circle, she couldn’t be let out. There was too much risk to both of them if he did.

Most of the Fallen thought he was a nasty
sonofabitch
. That worked in his favor for many situations, but at the end of the day he was lonely. Women feared him. They needed to be enticed and charmed to come to his bed. A shiver ran down his prick when he thought of Amber. There was danger in thinking of her sexually. Elementals were known for taking advantage of warriors.

Kane cursed.

He didn’t want to deal with Elementals, but he had no other options available. The Fallen and the last few Elementals needed to learn to get along. The fact that there were so few Elementals left weighed heavily on his heart. The Fallen war should’ve never happened. Kane swirled his drink as guilt seeped into his heart. He had to find a way to make everything right.

Kane couldn’t stop thinking about her eyes.
Despite being blind, she had boldly kept them open in stubborn opposition. Gold with yellow flecks, they were the eyes of a seductress who knew what sex was all about and what it tasted like. Did she have many lovers?

That last thought had
Kane tightening his hand down on the glass. The crystal cracked and shattered in his fist. It rained down upon the floor. Kane opened up his palm. Blood swirled around the broken glass, triggering the long forgotten memory of his Shunning. It had been the first time he’d ever smelled the crisp aroma of blood.

The angel Kane knew he was about to die.

Sleet pelted Kane in the face.

It took him from the deep that held him hostage. He was alive, but for how much longer? Kane took a cleansing breath and turned his face toward the cold, springy grass. He inhaled the sweet, forbidden scent. Darkness threatened to drown him again. Kane sucked frosty air, and the c
hill slowly melted in his brain. He was on Earth. It was his Shunning.

His wings would be taken. He’
d transform into a vampire. There would be no more sunlight, only night. He would be cursed to live on the blood of humans. Tears misted Kane’s eyes. It couldn’t be happening. He did not want to be a Fallen angel turned vampire.

The first thing he noticed was that he was not alone.
Flashes of the last few brutal hours flipped through his mind like pages torn from a book. Kane drifted in and out of consciousness, reliving the beating over and over.

Five of his brethren had come when he was sleeping. Wooden staves had struck him repeatedly. They knew what he was
n’t fully angelic and were cleaning house. Chains struck him in the temple. He was thrown off his feet. How had they found out?

Blood dripped down his broken nose. Thick, red splats dotted the white marble as he was dragged away. Pain shot through his head spearing down to his ear. He’d been careful. Another blow rattled his jaw making his head ring. A rib snapped in his chest. He hadn’t been careful enough apparently. His gut exploded from a kick to his back. Over the years, he had worked to
erase the outward signs of his Elemental blood. What had he missed? More importantly, what had they seen? The staff was brought up under his chin with one last deafening blow.

Lights. Out.

Kane shook his head. There were days he didn’t want to remember the past. A pure-bred angel would have healed completely without scarring. He didn’t have that luxury. Unknown to him as a child, his archangel father had sired him with an Elemental. After his birth, he had been taken to live with his father. Puberty had brought out his true nature and the discovery that he was not a pure angel.

It was then that he found out that he took after his Elemental mother. He matured at a slower rate than the others of his kind. He was a late bloomer all the way around, much like a human male would be. After all was done, he was bigger, deadlier, and more exotic than any angelic creature. That frightened those of his kind greatly. Twenty years from that day, Fate screwed him over. He’d be almost a hundred years Fallen by the next summer solstice.

He picked the shards out of his cut palm and wiped the blood with a napkin from the bar. Why should he care if the Elemental had lovers? All of them did. Just as the Fallen had many lovers for different purposes. Kane was the probably the only exception. He just didn’t want to deal with complications of the heart, but now he had to. Fate’s ultimatum about teaching him how to love was a constant reminder that he had work to do.

The faint scent of ripe peaches, warmed from the ever-loving sunshine lingered in the air. It was a fragrance that wanted to burn his body into action. It hummed within the room. The potent fragrance was tantalizing. Elementals were known for their way of secreting scents to manipulate a situation. Did it come naturally to them the way they had the ability to manipulate the elements? Was it due to her arousal? Probably. He hadn’t noticed it before they started to kiss. There was so much he didn’t know about this female
that he wanted to know.

There was s
o much he needed to learn about love. Kane felt his blood rush south. That damn, exotic scent was making him crazy. He centered his energy and dematerialized. Kane materialized onto the balcony overlooking the arena. Elementals were dangerous to a warrior’s sense of control. They were talented seductresses who could lead a normal man to his death with his cock leading the way.

Vice followed him to the balcony. As always, she was the blade ready
to go into action with him. Kane searched the crowd and followed his Elemental. She was staying. That move surprised him. Her long dark hair brushed down the sides of her face hiding her golden flecked, passionate eyes. She bypassed the arena, the crowd, and headed for the heat of the VIP section. Amber was right about the high personal crime rate within The Holy City. Kane had to work overtime to protect humans and tourists from the newly Fallen.

Amber’s
gaze was trained on the fight. Kane sent a thought to a waitress down on the floor.

“Do you know which element she possesses?” Vice asked
.

Kane suspected she could manipulate the element of fire or water
, but he wasn’t positive. There were rare Elementals that were talented and capable of more than one element. “Not yet. I will in time.”

“I heard someone in the crowd say that she manipulated the water.”

“Interesting.”

“She’s going to find out y
ou were the one behind bringing her here,” Vice said.

Doubt made him question his judgment. Could this Elemental learn to love him?
More importantly, could he learn to love before the next full moon? “She wasn’t supposed to be put in the cage.”

“
A mistake that won’t be happening again. I will find out who did it. Did you ask her to marry you?”

“I will. She needs time
to adjust to my offer.” The snort that followed his response was trademark. He respected Vice for her honesty. “She will fall in love with me.”

“
And you must fall in love with her. She needs to be prepared. There’s not much time before Fate calls upon you again.”

“You don’t need to remind me.
I know what is at stake.”

“I can’t believe Fate would do this to you,” Vice said.

“Careful, Vice. You don’t want to tempt Fate.”

Fate wanted him to love. Even he couldn’t believe it.
Kane reached out and stopped Vice from dematerializing with a tight grip on her forearm. “Follow her, but don’t scare her. I want her to trust me.”

“I will guard her
through the night. What of the day?”

“She will be safe at work.”

Vice dematerialized from his side, leaving the royal guard surrounding him. Down below, the fight was brutal. At least it wasn’t another Elemental. This time a human warrior was in the ring. Kane lifted his drink and finished it in a swift gulp. The fighter’s blood wouldn’t be the only thing running red this sinful eve.

It was time. The god of pain was going to work
, and Kane was his proverbial Peeping Tom. Maybe tonight would be the night Fate had the balls to show up again. Kane was going to kill him if he did.

Amber
knew she should leave the arena, but she didn’t want to go yet. She wanted to see Kane again. By the time Amber reached the end of the hallway, her vision had returned completely. Amber looked back at the door she exited. Two guards stood in front of it
.
The thin, black tribal tattoos etched over their faces were not so much unlike the slave tattoos engraved on her body.

“I will drive you home.”

Amber shook her head “no”, ignoring the Fallen warrior waiting for her. “I’ll make my own arrangements.”

The warrior didn’t move out of her way. “Kane has ordered that I must take you.”

“I’m not ready to leave.”

The warrior looked unsure. “I will wait for you by the front entrance with the car.”

“I’ll be out there in thirty minutes.”

He nodded and left.

Lights were trained on the cage in the center. Gray steel touched all major angles. She moved out into the chaos and focused on the fight. A shiver ran down her spine when she thought about how close she had come to dying tonight. Amber searched the crowd for the man who had helped her, but she couldn’t find him.

A waitress blocked her view with a martini. She set it on the rail in front of her. “Compliments of Kane.”

Amber blinked, and the waitress walked away. He knew her favorite drink. There was a hint of danger in accepting it and drinking it. Amber closed her eyes releasing her Elemental side. Her lioness was out and wanted to stalk her prey. She could sense Kane watching. She reached for the drink and lifted it without hesitation. This was a bad idea. For better and much worse, she was certain that this journey would leave her longing for the sweet life she now lived.

She didn’t want to think about anything, especially love. About how empty her love life was right now. Elementals weren’t meant to be alone for long periods of time. Elementals were free spirits, m
eant to have many lovers. At least that was something her grandmother had told her growing up.

It was just the way things were for them. All Elementals were capable of seducing any man or woman they wanted. When it came to love, there were no limits in an Elemental’s world. There was nothing anyone could do to stop an Elemental from getting what they wanted.
Elementals had the ability to seduce and entice.

Kane
wanted her, but she didn’t understand why.

Amber scanned the arena. She froze. Her Elemental side hummed. Kane
. It had to be him upstairs in the private box. Shadows were drawn around his figure. There were too many Fallen surrounding him, making it impossible for her to see him clearly.

She shouldn’t care what he looked like
, but gods be damned throughout the universe she did. VIP boxes jutted out from the wall. All the theatrical presentation hid the stone interior of what was once an old rice mill. Amber tried to find Kane, but she couldn’t see him anywhere.

She shouldn’t want him
, but she did.

Pain shot
through her emotional pathway. Someone close by was in it deep, and it wasn’t the Fallen in the cage. She needed to get out of there before she was sucked into the event.

Amber circled the arena and passed the bar. She stepped into the side hall and took a cleansing breath
, but it wouldn’t wash away the residual energy aching her soul. She knew this night was not going to end well. A flutter of bitterly cold fear brushed down the back of her neck. It wasn’t her fear. Once she touched someone in need, she couldn’t shake the connection. She had to find the source.

Another rush of ache exploded like an atomic bomb within the arena. Amber felt every pulsating moment implode within her soul. The first explosions of pain made Amber woozy. She fought through the fog and surfaced on a gasp. Someone was getting tortured. Right now.

Amber was deep within the empty hallway before she could even process the move, going toward the old wooden door at the end of the hallway. She opened the door and went inside. Stone stairs led downward. She went down a level before she got to the darkened stone landing of the old rice mill along Ashley River. The landing spread out to the right. A hallway with pillars at arched intervals went on in darkened forever from the landing.

Voices carried through the corridor
, but it was nothing she could decipher. Candlelight shadowed the ground. The hallway turned to the right sharply, and Amber stayed close to the wall. They were in the next alcove. Amber steadied her body as she peeked around the edge.

Angels. She counted
three. Their wings were all different shades of gold, blue, and pearl. Shackled angels were in the middle of the room. They had been beaten.

Kane
was there, too.

He had long dark hair that reached his shoulders
. The light from the candles highlighted strands of auburn. A thick piece of leather tied his hair back. He was far more beautiful than anything she ever imagined. His face was angular, chiseled, and darkly seductive. There was no longer anything angelic about this warrior.