Eternal Mates 7 - Taken by a Dragon (25 page)

Anais had felt the strength in Sable, power that went beyond anything a human was capable of. Sable had mated with a powerful demon, and it must have affected her. If Anais could convince her that what was about to happen was wrong and they had to stop it, she might have a shot at saving Loke.

But in order to convince Sable to help her, she would have to play on Sable’s feelings for her mate by confessing her feelings for Loke.

“This goes no further than this room, Anais.” Sable turned deadly serious eyes on her and Anais nodded. “After the war ended, I filed a report through those returning here, but I didn’t come back. When I returned with you, I was detained and questioned, and I lied through my teeth. I said that I had been looking for you and the other huntresses the whole time.”

“But you hadn’t. You were gathering information on the dragons so you could search for us… but you had been staying at the castle with Thorne.” Anais’s eyes slowly widened as Sable’s reason for weaving a huge lie dawned on her. “Archangel doesn’t know that you bound yourself to him.”

Sable shook her head, causing her sleek black hair to sway across the shoulders of her black t-shirt. “They wouldn’t understand.”

“What are you going to do?” Anais wanted to ask more questions but movement in the next room caught her attention and her heart lurched as two heavily muscled guards dragged Loke into the room and dumped him unceremoniously on the inspection table.

She covered her mouth with her hand and stared at him, unable to breathe as guilt ripped at her and her heart demanded she do something now to help him.

“I’ve seen the way he looks at you… and the way you look at him.” Sable’s voice was distant in her ears as she forced herself to watch the guards strapping Loke down. He tried to resist them, weakly pushing them away and growling at them through sharp teeth.

They had drugged him, but it wasn’t the only reason he didn’t have the strength to fight them. He was pale and gaunt, as if all of the life was leaching from him, draining right before her eyes. It was all her fault.

“Did I do the wrong thing? Did I step in when I should have stepped back?”

Anais did look at Sable now. The guilt in her amber eyes turned to pain as Anais stared into them, searching for something to say. She should have spoken up when Sable had found them. She should have told her, because she knew that Sable of all people would have understood.

Would understand.

She turned her cheek to Sable and fixed her gaze on Loke where he lay strapped to the table, the two scientists hovering around him. She forced herself to stand where she was and see what was happening to him because of her and everything she had once stood for and held dear.

“I’m in love with him.” The words slipped easily from her lips and some of the weight pressing down on her heart lifted, easing it and restoring a sliver of her strength, enough to boost her resolve and her courage. “I should have spoken up when you came… and now I feel it’s too late but I have to do something. If he stays in this world much longer… he’ll die… because of me. It will be all my fault and I hate myself for it.”

Her hand went to the hilt of the blade strapped to her waist.

Sable’s hand clamped down on it. “It is never too late.”

She looked at her superior.

Sable closed her eyes and rubbed a black and silver band around her left wrist.

“What are you doing?” Anais frowned at her fingers as she kept rubbing the band. It wasn’t a nervous trait this time. Sable was up to something, and whatever it was, there was power behind it.

It charged the air in the room, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

“Calling in a favour… well… I’m requesting help in exchange for a favour as right now I’m a little low on favours to call in,” Sable whispered as she frowned, her eyes still closed. Anais opened her mouth to ask whether she was calling for Thorne just as Sable added, “The elves will help us.”

Her hope soared.

Elves could teleport, were agile and swift, and had armour that Archangel’s human-made weapons couldn’t penetrate. If anyone was strong enough to help her save Loke, it was that species.

The static charge in the air grew stronger and a spark flickered out of the corner of her eye.

Anais turned her back to the window at the same time as Sable did, coming to face the white-blue arc of light as it flashed again in the middle of the room, brighter this time.

Blinding her.

She flinched away and waited for the light to fade before opening her eyes.

An immense and beautiful man with a thick head of onyx-black hair and incredible silver eyes stood in the room opposite them, his presence sucking the air from it.

But he wasn’t an elf.

Loke had been right.

Angels existed.

H
e flinched as a piercing shrieking noise filled the pleasant stunned silence, grating on his nerves and fraying the weak threads holding his temper in check. On opening his eyes, he realised it was the female he had come to detain who had dared to raise the alarm. She stood further away from him now, the blonde female held behind her and her other hand still on the red button on the black wall. The hard sharp edge to her golden eyes challenged him to make a move against her.

Movement in the adjoining room gained his attention for barely a second, long enough to see they were removing the semi-nude shifter male from it and the mortal males who had accompanied him were fleeing in fear.

Pathetic creatures.

He calmly returned his gaze to the reason he had been sent to this wretched realm.

Two more females rushed into the room and flanked her, their silver swords drawn and aimed at him. As if such paltry weapons could pierce his flesh.

“What do you want?” the one called Sable spat at him, her icy glare declaring her intent to fight him.

Brave. Courageous. He gave her that. But also foolish. She knew she was no match for him, and yet she sought to intimidate him. Many had attempted to cover their fears with such a poor façade when faced with him and all had eventually cracked and crumbled, falling to their knees to cower before him.

He furled his white wings against his back. Their longest feathers grazed his bare shins and feet and he decided that he should have gone with wearing his armour rather than a simple white and gold tunic. It would have made a stronger impression on the puny mortal females huddled before him and might have sped things along. It certainly would have stopped the bastard offspring of an angel from being so mouthy.

“I came as soon as I learned of your existence. I am come for you.” He pointed to the silver cuff around her wrist and she looked down at it, the colour slowly draining from her face, adding a satisfyingly fearful pallor to it.

Now he was getting somewhere. Perhaps she would be more compliant now.

“What’s he talking about?” the blonde female whispered with a curious edge to her frown as she looked at Sable.

“It’s not important. I’ll tell you later.” Sable turned from her comrade to face him again. “Listen, Buddy, I’m not going anywhere and definitely not with you. I don’t even know who you are.”

Perhaps she wouldn’t be more compliant after all.

They had warned him that she was a difficult thing, but he hadn’t listened to them. Mostly because they had said she had a difficulty rating the same as his and he tired of their taunts about his temper. He had stated that he would easily take her into custody and he meant to do that. Swiftly. He had no desire to linger in this realm, around such lowly beings.

“You got a name? Other than Tall, Dark and Pompous?”

Pompous?

He glared at her and unleashed a fraction of his power. She straightened her spine in response, resisting the pressing weight of his power as it buffeted her. Her three comrades didn’t fare so well. They all staggered back a few steps towards the door and beads of sweat broke out on the brow of the weakest.

“Give me your sword, Anais.” Sable held her hand out to the blonde female, who did as she instructed, drawing her weapon and placing it into her palm. Her fingers closed around it and she held it out in front of her, pointing it at him. “I’m giving you to the count of three. Tell me your name or bugger off. Fail to do one of those things and I’ll kick your arse. Choice is yours.”

Amusing, but boring. He had heard better threats, from more dangerous foes. She was part angel, but no match for him in a fight. Still, he had strict orders to bring her back with him, unharmed, and that meant he had to lower himself to select the first ridiculous choice she had given him.

In a manner of speaking anyway.

“I have no name. No angels do. All I can give to you is that I am of the Echelon.”

He held his right arm out to her, revealing the cross marked on the inside of his wrist.

A cross she also bore on her skin in the exact same spot.

The irritation that had been building in her eyes gave way to a flicker of curiosity and something akin to hope, but she didn’t move from her spot near the other females. He needed her away from them. While their weapons couldn’t kill him, they might land blows while he was attempting to detain Sable and he would lose his temper.

He didn’t think the council would forgive him if he killed three mortals.

They hadn’t mentioned any restrictions when it came to mortals, but the council rarely took a favourable view on killing them.

“I met an angel with a name. Aurora. Heard of her?” Sable said and he barely held back his irritated sigh.

“The one you speak of is no longer an angel… and you will come with me.”

She pinned him with a glare when he considered just crossing the distance between them and grabbing her, putting an end to this farce. It seemed she was better attuned to the feelings of others than the council had suspected. She could read him. A rare gift.

The huntress who had sweated when he had unleashed a fraction of his power edged backwards towards the door. He shifted his focus to her and used another gift of his to change her mind about sneaking away and going for reinforcements. She stilled and stared blankly at him. A weak mind was always a glorious thing. So easy to influence. He wished the other two were weak too, but he had tested their minds and found them strong. As strong as Sable was.

Influencing them would hurt them.

“What’s it like having no name?” Sable waved the sword at him, the curiosity back in her eyes. “How does that work? How do other angels get your attention?”

Her constant questions perplexed him. He couldn’t remember ever appearing before anyone who had been so irritatingly unaffected and able to string words into sentences in his presence rather than just staring in a dumbfounded manner at him.

“They address me as Fourth Commander of the Echelon if they desire my attention.” He wasn’t sure why she needed to know or why she had such a problem with angels having no name.

He had a rank, and that was all he required.

“That seems like a pretty crappy way of getting someone’s attention… and you’re only the fourth commander?” She frowned and shook her head, a teasing edge to her tone and expression that he found annoying. None of the people he had graced with his presence had ever dared to tease him before either. She smiled and he knew she had read him again, had felt his irritation and dislike of her conversation, and she was going to use that knowledge against him. “That must grate a little. Who’s the first? Oh, wait! He doesn’t have a name so I guess he’s just First Commander of the Echelon.”

He frowned at her now, his pride a little chafed by her taunting and his patience wearing thin.

“How many are there?” She swung the sword up to rest on her shoulder.

So casual.

Would she be so casual if he exerted a little power and popped one of her comrades’ heads with nothing more than a thought?

“How many what?” He played along with her, lost in the pleasing thought of terrifying her by killing her little friends in front of her.

“Commanders.”

“Six.” He could see where this was heading and he folded his arms across his chest, warning her not to go there.

She did. With a huge grin. “Six, and you’re only number four. Ouch. How long did it take you to reach number four?”

“Silence,” he barked and even the alarms stopped shrieking. “I am not here to speak of my rank. You will come with me. Echelon are rare now and all must serve Heaven.”

Sable shook her head. “If you haven’t got the memo, maybe I should tell you… I’m a queen of demons.”

That surprised him, moderately, but didn’t sway him. “You will come with me. The demons are of little consequence. They may find another queen.”

Her expression turned horrified and she had the sword pointing at him again before he could blink, the darkness in her eyes warning him that he wasn’t the only one close to losing his temper now. “That’s my husband you’re talking about so callously. My people! I’m not going to Heaven. I’m going back to Hell.”

His temper snapped and the room darkened, the light sucking out of it as he stepped towards her, glaring down at her as he spread his wings. They spanned the room and drew fearful glances from the three mortal females. Sable stood firm in front of him, her blade never wavering, not even when his power began to slip beyond his grasp. He held his hand out in front of him, filled with a dark need to call his blade to him and teach her a lesson in humility and respect.

The steely determination in her steady gaze challenged him to try.

A sensation shot down his spine and fire arced through his blood, a warning from those on high that he was close to overstepping the line.

He drew a deep calming breath, reined in his temper enough to regain control of his powers, and tried again. “I am not known for my patience. I would not test it. You will come with me. By force, if necessary.”

The blonde female called Anais and a second female jumped in front of Sable, blocking his path to her.

His gaze caught on the second female, a slender brunette with fierce green eyes. Strange warmth flooded him at the sight of her but it was swiftly followed by fury so dark and deep that it threatened to shatter his carefully controlled calm and send him into a killing rage.