Her Warriors' Three Wishes (Dante's Circle) (2 page)

He was also the brother of his late wife, though that had been long ago.

Lily laughed, a sweet trill that made Ambrose think of family. She was now his sister, someone he’d die to protect, and her beauty surpassed most: ivory skin, large green eyes, and chestnut hair. He could easily see why Shade had fallen in love the moment he’d seen her.

“Shade, stop making fun of Ambrose,” Lily scolded and elbowed him in the ribs.

“You still laughed, my dear,” Shade said and kissed her temple.

She blushed and ducked her head. Ambrose lifted a corner of his lip and rubbed her cheek with his knuckle. Shade raised a brow, and Ambrose moved back, not caring in the slightest that Shade was territorial. He didn’t fault the other angel for his attitude, but Shade should know Ambrose had another on his mind and didn’t want Lily that way. It was still fun to needle him, even though the world thought he wasn’t the most humorous of men.

“You’re fine, Lily,” he soothed. “I know you only laugh with him to humor him. He needs the help with his fragile ego.”

Shade threw his head back and laughed. “Ambrose just told a joke and almost smiled.” He clutched his chest and staggered back, bringing Lily with him. “I think I need to sit down.”

“You’re a riot, oh-wise-one,” Ambrose said dryly. “Was there a reason you wanted to meet here?”

Lily looked around, her face radiant, glowing even. Was she…? Perhaps, but he’d let her tell him the news. Women seemed to like that.

“I’ve never been here before, so I thought it would be a nice change,” Lily said, practically bouncing on her feet.

In the past year since their meeting, she’d been to the angelic realm a few times, but only to Shade’s home or his own. She and Shade spent most of their time in the human realm, protecting her six friends in case the other supernaturals found out exactly what was going on and it turned dangerous. Ambrose had said he would help but had taken the coward’s way out and gone back to the angels to help deal with Striker’s betrayal.

He knew his break from the humans was almost at an end. The angels didn’t need him anymore to oversee the change, and he knew the human women needed him more. Shade, and the girls’ dragon friend, Dante, were on watch, but Ambrose should have helped more.

He still had time though. Maybe he could make amends.

“Ambrose?” Shade asked, worry in his features. 

Ambrose shook away his thoughts and guilt and looked back to his two best friends. “Sorry, I was lost in thought. What is it you needed to tell me?”

Lily and Shade shared a worried glance that transformed to pure bliss, and a little stress on Shade’s side.

“We’re pregnant!” Lily explained, her cheeks rosy and her eyes bright.

Ambrose smiled, full out, a rarity, he knew. He pulled Lily into a tight hug and twirled her around. “Congratulations, Lily, my dear, you will be a wonderful mother.”

Images of his own children’s faces flashed in a fading memory, but he didn’t feel any pain, only that hollowness of a long-lost future.

He put Lily down and gave her a chaste kiss on the mouth. “I will be there for you if you need me.”

He clapped Shade on the back, and Shade gave him a look that said the other angel knew what Ambrose had been thinking about. They’d been friends and brothers too long to hide those things.

“I’m very happy for the both of you,” Ambrose said. He pulled back and held his arm across his chest. “I will do all in my power to ensure your child, and your future children, are safe and happy,” he vowed.

Shade mirrored his movement, and they both bowed. Tears stained Lily’s cheeks, but she still held her smile.

“You’ll be godfather, Ambrose, right?” she asked.

As if he could say no. He nodded, pleasure at the thought of their trust running through him.

“Of course,” he said, his voice choked with emotion.

“We’ve already told the others in the human realm,” Lily continued. “Sorry we didn’t tell you first, but it didn’t make any sense to come here before telling them.”

“I don’t mind, Lily.”

“Jamie will be godmother; is that okay?” Lily asked. He knew she’d sensed something off between him and her friend, but thankfully, she hadn’t broached the subject.

Jamie.

The name he’d fought so hard to forget.

The woman who haunted his dreams, more so than his dead wife.

Jamie, the woman who could have been his true half if he’d let it happen—who
was
his true half.

“Of course,” he said again, this time a new emotion threatening to choke him. “Let’s celebrate with a good meal, shall we?” He led them to a small eatery, his thoughts not on their conversation, but on the woman he’d avoided.

Jamie deserved more, a future. Not the broken shell of a man. He wasn’t selfish enough to think he would make her happy, though he desperately wanted to be that man. Sometimes he thought he could be—could see their future.

No, he couldn’t. She was too young for him. Too full of life. She’d be happier without him.

He closed his eyes while Shade and Lily talked to each other. He tugged on the cord that connected him and Jamie, the one she didn’t know existed because she hadn’t made the change to supernatural yet, even though he knew she was feeling the effects of the need to change. Luckily, it hadn’t been as bad as Lily’s, so he could leave her. She might feel only slightly weak, but she hadn’t had the seizures or other side effects that Lily had endured, thankfully.

Unlike Lily though, Jamie had been feeling the weakness for almost a year.

And, it was his fault.

He’d left her, and they hadn’t made love. 

Hadn’t even kissed. 

He hadn’t wanted to tie her to a man too old to be what she needed. In his heart, he’d known there was another for her. He’d felt it. The world consisted of just one true half per person, and some triads, Ambrose felt for certain there was another for Jamie, one that would be her true half. He knew in his heart that she would be happy with that other man, whoever he may be.

He sighed. Now he was just kidding himself. There wasn’t potentially several mates out there for any one person. If he could feel like something was missing, like there was another for her, then that meant there had to be someone for him, as well.

He shook his head. No, he couldn’t think about that.

Not yet.

Jamie was not the one for him, despite the cord that tethered them. Despite the lightning that had caused it all to begin with.

Her body was weakening because she’d met him and he’d started that change—or, in his opinion, that curse. He couldn’t let her go through it any longer. No, he wouldn’t be with her. She deserved better, but he
could
find that other man. The one he knew existed as sure as he felt the cord that connected him and Jamie. He would do what he must to find that man for her. He couldn’t bear to think of her in any more pain.

Or any pain at all to think of it.

Nevertheless, he knew more pain was coming. She’d been living too easily for too long, and fate was a bitch when she wanted to be. Their connection might have allowed him to heal her physically, just like the night of Striker’s death when he’d first felt the cord, but he couldn’t heal this. He knew he would have to find this other man for her to be whole. That way she could find for her the one who could help her find her supernatural half and live in peace.

He would find him so Jaime could feel alive again. 

Ambrose wasn’t for her. No, he was for no one.

He wouldn’t wallow, but he would live like he always had, hollow but with a purpose.

Jamie
.

****

Pyro paced the length of his foyer, anger rolling through him with each step. His son was dying, but not fast enough for his taste. The bastard had forsaken their oaths and refused to take souls into the hells realm. Why couldn’t the little twit die already?

Soon though, Pyro felt Balin begin to fade more with each day and relished it. Within days, Pyro wouldn’t have to deal with the chain that shackled him to this realm. Although Balin didn’t force him to remain in hell, if Pyro left, he was afraid of the damage Balin would do in his absence.

Like free the slaves and gladiators.

No, that wouldn’t do.

Pyro went to his throne, an ornate chair made of the bones of his enemies, and plopped down, his body weary with boredom, something that could never do for a demon such as he.

He needed something to pass the time waiting for Balin to die. He couldn’t kill his son in hell. No, ever since Lucifer had killed his own son in hell, they’d put a curse on the ability to kill one’s loved ones. Damn that demon for ruining everything like always. 

Maybe it was time to put his other plan in place. With Balin about to die, Pyro could use his men and powers to hurt the enemy who’d given him the scar that ran down the side of his body. The scar that revolted the women he took to his bed. Though they had to deal with it anyway, he wouldn’t let them leave once he found them. That was not a demon’s way.

Yes, it was time to pay Ambrose a visit.

He couldn’t go to the angelic realm to find him. No, that would start a war, a war he would relish, but he was not in the mood to deal with the politics. However, he
could
go to the human realm and
not
start a war—it was in his blood. No one cared about the humans anyway. They were just the piss and backwater of the purebloods.

And, if his sources here correct, there was a woman who’d peaked the old angel’s interest. A woman who’d been struck by lightning and lived to tell the tale. No, the two angels and that dragon where not as secretive as they thought. All of the realms knew something was amiss with those women, but no one cared enough to deal with it unless it affected them.

One of them had turned into a brownie.

He wondered what the woman who Ambrose had set his gaze on would turn into.

Maybe Pyro could cut it out of her. 

Oh yes, that sounded like a plan. He’d take the girl and bring Ambrose to him. Though the angel wouldn’t want an all-out war by stepping on hell’s land, he could find a way to make it happen. The old bastard was crafty like that.

Pyro smiled, his teeth lengthening, his talons curling. 

Yes, this would work. He’d send his men to get the girl, play with her to his heart’s content, and the old winged bastard would come to him.

And, while all of this was happening, Balin would die from his own stubbornness, his own failure to do what was meant to be a demon.

Perfect.

A scream tore from the woman he’d pinned to the wall earlier and he sighed.

Fuck, he’d forgotten about her in all his planning. Well, it was of no use wasting a human since they were so hard to come by these days. Fools were forgetting the magic and not summoning the demons as often.

Pity to those who did. 

Pyro took out his blade, sharp and deadly, just the right size of blade to extract the most pain and smiled again. He stood then walked to his captive.

“You really should know not to summon things stronger than you,” he warned as he slowly sliced away at her flesh. The human’s eyes turned a brassy dull, the life fading out of her as she screamed, and he let the terror wash over him in pure bliss. 

“Sadly, I’m bored with you now, so I’m going to give you to my men. I was going to kill you, but now I have another human in mind.”

Her blood spattered on his bare arms and he turned away, licking the rivulets as he did so. With a nod to his men who had come into the room at the final scream, two of them went to her, grins on their faces.

Pyro had to find this human woman and lure Ambrose to him. That was his goal. The other humans could wait until later. A scream filled with insurmountable pain echoed along the walls behind him, and he took a deep breath, letting the horror seep into his pores.

It would be a good day.

Finally, Ambrose would pay.

Chapter 2

Jamie Bennett cursed as a car sped by her through a puddle, splashing her with muddy water. The asshole obviously meant to compensate for a shortage of
something
. Dirty water and mud dripped from her hair and rain jacket, only adding to her already dreary, exhausted state.

Oh, yes, the mud accentuated her look, right?

With a growl, or at least what she thought was a growl but was more like a whimper, she pulled the muddy locks of hair from her face. Her chestnut hair now had lively gray and puke-brown streaks in it. Thankfully, she’d worn her raincoat since the weather patterns seemed to be stuck on rain. They’d been living in a gray world for months now, even though summer was just around the corner. 

With one last shake of her head to remove what mud she could, she walked into Dante’s Circle, her favorite bar and sanctuary. Dante’s wasn’t a normal bar. No, it was owned and operated by a dragon.

Yes, a real dragon.

Not that she and her friends had known that when they’d stumbled upon it a couple of years ago. One of them, Becca, had even gotten a job as a bartender there to pay for school. Before, it had been a way for her and her six friends to let go of the worries of the day and connect the way none of them could with others outside their circle.

Then the night of the storm had changed everything.

Jamie and her friends had been struck by lightning, and now they weren’t humans anymore. Not that they’d ever been
truly
as human as they’d thought, but Jamie didn’t quite understand the science of it all. Lily, the chemist of the group, knew all about that. 

Now Lily had turned into a brownie because she’d met Shade, and Jamie had turned into a…well, a nothing. She just hurt. 

A lot. 

She felt as though she was ready to change—her skin too tight, her body too active—yet nothing had happened.

Apparently, she needed to have sex with her true half.

The man—or angel—she thought just might fill that role wanted nothing to do with her.

Yay for her.

Jamie took another step into Dante’s, removed her jacket, and hung it up on one of the numerous pegs on the wall. She loved the feel of the bar, the way it felt like home with its hand-carved wood paneling and shelves. There was a pool table in the corner, but it didn’t add a sense of a pool hall to the bar. It just made it a place to have fun. Tables with mismatched chairs covered the room, making it feel warm to her. Pictures of the town and its inhabitants and paintings from local artists covered the walls.