Archangel of Mercy (9 page)

But what she really couldn’t stomach was the skimpy leather top that not only barely covered her assets but had strategic slashes that showed off her nipples
.

What sort of place was Eta Hyperium if this kind of gear was standard?

Face burning, she pulled Gabe’s shirt back on and then tottered unsteadily back to his bedroom. Much as she’d like to kick up a fuss it really wasn’t worth it. She wanted Gabe to know he couldn’t just disappear whenever they had a disagreement and then expect her to wait without complaint until his return. But unfortunately for that she needed Mephisto’s assistance.

She pulled up short. Mephisto was standing in the center of the bedroom and for a split second she saw his eyes narrow as he swept his gaze over her. She straightened her spine, preparing to do battle, but he didn’t remark on the shirt. Instead he strolled toward her and wrapped his wings around her.

Engulfed in darkness she stiffened in shock as softness and strength and unimaginable power thrummed through every feather.
Angel’s wings.
She heard him tell her to hold on, felt his arm wind around her in a crushing grip and then she couldn’t think anymore as her atoms exploded.

—

HER FEET LANDED
on solid ground, her stomach a second or so later. She kept her eyes screwed shut and tried not to fall apart at the realization she had just . . . teleported.

There was nothing to panic about. She had already teleported once with Gabe. The only difference being
then
she’d had no idea.

She forced her eyes open and unpeeled herself from Mephisto but he didn’t get the hint. His arm remained like an iron band around her waist and one immensely strong wing encased her in an altogether too possessive manner. All she could see, over the top of his midnight feathers, was that they were passing through a complex security system, in a strangely dilapidated-looking foyer.

She struggled and his wing slid down her body, sending shudders over her skin. With a gasp she clapped one hand to her chest, and her worse fears were realized.

“What did you do with the shirt?”
And her necklace.
The panic threatened to send her over the precipice. She dug her fingernails into the palm of her hand and forced herself to focus on the reality. No matter how crazy that reality was.

“Gone.” The palm of his hand splayed across her naked belly, his fingers far too close to the apex of her thighs. “Think yourself lucky I allowed you to keep the leather on for daring to disobey me.”

What had he done with her necklace?
It was an incredible, tenuous link between her and Gabe and how was she supposed to convince Gabe of its existence if this egotistical dickhead had
destroyed
it?

“Where’s my necklace?” She hoped he couldn’t hear the panic edging her voice.

“Didn’t go with the look, babe.” He managed to sound both bored and amused, an infuriating combination. If that wasn’t bad enough his wing glided lower, still concealing her breasts but curling around her thighs in blatant possession. She gritted her teeth and glared around the darkened club. If it was a club. Strange incenses prickled her nose but even the gloomy interior didn’t disguise one thing.

Despite the outlandish costumes worn by the other beings in this place, the only ones displaying as much flesh as her looked as if they worked here. And judging by the spiked collars around their necks and the way patrons touched and fondled them, they weren’t employed merely to serve the drinks and nibbles.

They
were
the drinks and nibbles.

He’d brought her to a bloody sex club. Had Gabe stormed off in the middle of seducing her to go to a
sex
club
? Mortification and injured pride burned her blood, and only when Mephisto’s relentless grip on her tightened did a terrifying possibility enter her mind.

She’d been so desperate to prove to Gabe that she wasn’t entirely at his mercy. That she wouldn’t put up with his moods or having her questions ignored. Using Mephisto had seemed like a good idea at the time. But only now did it occur to her that just because Gabe knew Mephisto didn’t mean Mephisto could be trusted to keep his word. Maybe he never intended to take her to Gabe at all. Had Mephisto brought her here to
sell
her?

“Hey, Gabe,” Mephisto said, and Aurora stumbled as her thoughts tumbled in erratic disarray. Gabe
was
here? Well thank god for that. He was an arrogant bastard for sure but compared to Mephisto—no, there
was
no comparison. Because despite Gabe’s attitude he definitely had a core of decency.

And then she caught sight of him. Sprawled on a sofa, completely ignoring her predicament, his entire attention was focused on a pair of near-naked females who were going at it on the table in front of him.

Chapter Thirteen

G
ABE
mentally rolled his eyes. He’d spent hours looking forward to finding Mephisto and kicking his ass, but four tankards of brain-rot with Eblis had mellowed his mood. The last place he’d expected the other archangel to appear was here, and he flicked Eblis a glance to see how he was taking the intrusion. Eblis and Mephisto loathed each other and it had everything to do with the fact that Mephisto was the first archangel their goddess had created after rejecting her flawed first children.

The demons.

Eblis, surprisingly, didn’t look infuriated at how Mephisto had hoodwinked security. Bizarrely, he looked enchanted.

That was a first. Before turning to see what miracle Mephisto had wrought to extract such an expression from Eblis, Gabe gave the entangled females an appreciative glance. Neither had blue eyes, chestnut hair or freckles across their noses but, more important, they didn’t use their mouths to fire incessant questions his way.

He had every intention of sampling those mouths later. And this time he’d allow no image of an irritating human from Earth to interfere with his long overdue pleasure.

Finally he slung Mephisto a glance.
And saw Aurora
.

The buzz of background conversation dimmed as he focused on the pair of them. His heart rate accelerated, gut tightened and every muscle tensed as adrenaline spiked and flooded through cells and synapses.

Aurora was with Mephisto, who had his wing around her in a blatant gesture of possession. White rage sizzled through Gabe’s arteries, disbelief and sheer unadulterated
envy
that Mephisto, the bastard, retained the ability to wrap Aurora in his wings at all.

And he had no right.

“What the hell?” He shoved the table back with his boot, sending the entertainment sprawling across the floor. Mephisto shot him a grin and slid his cursed wing over Aurora’s body and his heart jackknifed.

What in the gods’ names was she wearing?

Mesmerized he stared at her exposed nipples peeking through the slashes in the scarlet leather. They were dark and erect and enticing and without conscious thought he surged to his feet, blood pounding and arrowing directly to his damn cock.

“Not bad,” Mephisto said, and as his wing trailed lower Gabe saw how his hand virtually cradled her sex.
And she let him
. “For a mortal indigenous to Earth.”

“Earth?” Eblis sounded enthralled. “You brought me a human from
Earth
?”

Gabe felt ancient muscles flex and contract as phantom wings attempted to unfurl with outrage. He had possessed his wings for only a fraction of his long existence yet they were a part of him still. A part of him forever. And right now he would give almost anything to possess them once again, to match Mephisto wingspan to wingspan and prove to creation that he was
once again whole.

“Take your fucking hands off her.”

The words were barely audible but thundered through his brain and directly into Mephisto’s. For a fleeting second he saw surprise—shock?—flare in Mephisto’s eyes as if Gabe’s response had exceeded his expectations.

Then Mephisto drew back his wing with a flourish, exposing Aurora to half the depraved clientele of the club, and shoved her forward. She tottered on the spindly black stilettos and as he grabbed her wrist before she ended up on the floor he ran his scorching glance over her fishnet-clad legs. Lacy scarlet suspenders decorated her thighs and his shaft thickened in primitive response.

“You’re welcome to her.” From the corner of his eye he saw Mephisto fold his arms. “She might be a reasonable lay, Gabe, but fuck me she’s a disrespectful bitch. She’s in need of some serious discipline. Sure you don’t want any help? I could give you a few pointers.”

It shouldn’t matter if Mephisto had just had sex with Aurora. Except it did.

Mephisto had no right to touch Aurora. Because she belonged to
him
.

He shoved her onto the sofa and took one step toward Mephisto. “Not your problem. You understand?”

“Jealous, Gabe?” Mephisto’s voice was mocking and it was the final straw that sent him over the edge. He grabbed Mephisto’s throat, shoved him up against the wall and grunted when Mephisto slammed a heavy fist into his ribs.

Rigid with shock, Aurora kept her knees glued together and her folded arms plastered across her exposed breasts. In mounting stupefaction she watched Gabe and the dark-winged devil knock lumps of stone from the wall and nobody attempted to stop them.

She glanced at the massive man next to her and then couldn’t look away. He had wings, too. She hadn’t noticed before. He grinned at her and she mentally recoiled.

This was only one reality.
Gabe had pulled her into his world, but it didn’t make her own world any less real. And no matter what happened she would never forget her real home. And somehow she would find a way to return there.

She gripped her wavering courage, ignored the stranger’s now plainly lascivious smile and lurched to her feet.

Acutely aware they were the center of attention, she thumped Gabe’s biceps while at the same time keeping her other arm wrapped around her chest.

“Will you just stop it?” She sounded on the verge of hysteria. Probably because she was. “What’s the
matter
with you?” If anyone should be raging it should be her.

Simultaneously they both turned and looked at her as if she was an insect who’d suddenly discovered the power of speech. With a stab of shock she realized it was quite likely they
did
regard her as little better than an insect. She resisted the desire to slink back to the sofa and instead glowered back at Gabe.

“Sit down.” Gabe sounded as if he was hanging onto the remnants of his temper by sheer force of will. “You’re making an exhibition of yourself.”

The sheer nerve of his comment should have infuriated her. But instead she had the awful urge to laugh. And if she started laughing she had the feeling she might never stop.

“I’m not the one behaving like a testosterone-stuffed adolescent.”

Mephisto choked. If only he
would
.

“No.” Gabe looked at her as if he wished he’d never laid eyes on her. “But you are the one showing off your naked ass to half the perverted bastards in this place.”

Talk about a cheap shot. Only the fact she didn’t want to draw any more attention to the shortness of her skirt prevented her from tugging at the hem. It didn’t help that she couldn’t unfold her arm from across her exposed breasts, either.

“This outfit,” she said with as much dignity as her simmering indignation allowed, “wasn’t my idea.”

“Park your asses, archangels,” the winged stranger said from behind her. “Although the human can remain standing. I like the view.”

Aurora didn’t even have time to whirl around before Gabe grabbed her shoulders and forcibly shoved her down on the sofa. He then planted himself between her and Mephisto and slammed his booted foot on the table as two waiters placed steaming tankards before them. Obviously
she
wasn’t considered important enough to serve, but to hell with that. She was parched. Keeping one arm firmly across her chest she gingerly reached out for the tankard in front of Gabe.

He wrapped his hand around her wrist and pushed her arm back. “Drink that and die.”

It was hard to be assertive when she had to remember to keep her knees together and her nipples undercover. She refolded her arms and cradled her abused wrist under her armpit.

“Fine.” Her voice sounded brittle. She couldn’t quite believe she was arguing with an angel in a sex club on an obscure planet she’d never even heard of. Yet somehow she still had difficulty believing Gabe really was an angel.
What had happened to his wings?

Mephisto leaned forward so he was leering right at her.

“Here, help yourself to mine.” With one finger he slid his tankard across the table. She’d sooner drink arsenic than anything he offered her.

“Back off.” Although he spoke to Mephisto, Gabe didn’t take his smoldering gaze from her. “I mean it, Aurora. This stuff will kill you.”

“Shit, Gabe, you’re no fun.” Mephisto grabbed his tankard and drained it and Aurora seethed in silent injustice. How was she supposed to have known it was lethal for mere mortals?

“Are all the females like this on Earth now?” The winged stranger—was he another angel?—sounded enthralled at the notion. “Think it’s time I took a vacation there if so.”

Gabe jerked his head at a waiter and ordered a jug of water that appeared with dizzying speed. Clearly, no one wanted to get on the wrong side of a pissed-off angel.

“The humans of Earth,” Gabe said, “are the same as they’ve always been.” It was obvious his comment was anything but complimentary.

“Maybe you’re just jaded. Because she’s like no human from Earth I can remember.” The stranger slung his arm over the back of the sofa and scrutinized her as if she was a slab of meat. Prickles of alarm raced over her vast expanse of exposed flesh and despite her best intentions she flashed Gabe a horrified glance. He didn’t appear to notice.

“Anomalies crop up everywhere.” He sounded as if he was talking about a freaky mutation. And since she’d always harbored a deep-rooted fear of being an anomaly of nature his remark seared through her heart like a branding iron.

“I am
not
a freak of nature.” Yet she’d never felt more like one. Her flesh burned with mortification and her brain pounded from the affects of the polluted atmosphere. She wanted nothing more than to make a grand exit but since that was impossible she stiffened her spine until she thought it would splinter under the pressure.

“Did I tell you, I’m opening a new fetish club?” the stranger said. “Catering to the seriously depraved. I could market humans with this attitude in ways you couldn’t imagine. Where exactly did you find her? I feel a hunt coming on.”

Breathe.
Her panicked mind issued the command before her brain seized up altogether. Gabe wasn’t going to hand her over to this . . . slave trader.

“It pains me to admit,” Mephisto said, “but for once I agree with our vulgar relative. How
did
you find this one, Gabe?”

“You tell me.” Gabe sounded calm. Indifferent, even, but she could feel raw tension spiking from him, sizzling in the heavy air between them. “She was your plaything before mine.”

“The hell I was.” Aurora glared at Gabe and couldn’t figure out whether she was more offended by his assumption that she’d associated with Mephisto before him, or the fact he didn’t appear to care if she had. “I only met him tonight when he turned up at your place looking like a made-over Satan.”

She heard the stranger snort with apparent amusement, but both Gabe and Mephisto looked anything but.

“One more word,” Mephisto said, and for once he sounded deadly serious. “And I’ll rip out your tongue.” He slung a glance at Gabe. “The noise that comes out of her mouth gives me a headache. She’d be a lot more attractive mute.”

“Maybe she does other things with her tongue to make up for the vocals.” The winged stranger wound a length of her hair around his finger and she jolted back, heart hammering against her ribs. “Wouldn’t mind finding out. You up for a bit of a trade, Gabe? I won’t damage the goods.”

Freezing terror slammed through her heart as the full force of her circumstances exploded in her mind. She was no longer on Earth. She had no idea of the laws, if any, that governed these angels—
demons
? They behaved more like gangsters than anything with a heavenly connection and their power appeared absolute.

Her hands were clammy and insanity whispered through the outer edges of her mind. The cloudy atmosphere closed in on her, oppressive and alien and a terrifying yet comforting certainty drenched her. She was going to faint. And then she was going to die.