Death Angel (Death Angel Series Book 1) (15 page)

As they fled, Kasen reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked like a mobile phone. He punched a button on it and held it to his ear, continuing to pull her along with his other hand.

"We have confirmation of a Darkling," he said, his voice sounding so calm and official despite their current situation. "I need immediate assistance."

Even though he was able to speak the words with an even tone, Gabrielle could hear the worry in his voice. It made her worry. She had only seen these things twice before, but he had seen them presumably his whole life. If he was worried, then she probably ought to be as well.

"No," he said, his voice suddenly rising sharply. "Send a General. Or two. This thing is massive. I’ve never seen anything like it."

He shoved the phone back into his pocket and picked up his pace, dragging Gabrielle along with him as he glanced over his shoulder to check the location of the Darkling. Gabrielle reflexively looked back with him. She immediately regretted it. The Darkling had been gaining on them and he was uncomfortably close now. His massive hands swatted at them and they went crashing into the side of a building.

She felt every bone in her body crushing as she was thrown into the brick. Concrete and mortar flew around them and bricks fell on top of her body. Her ears rang and her vision swam. When she realized that she was still alive, or still dead, or whatever, she tried to stand, pushing the broken bricks off her body. They had been knocked into an abandoned building and as she looked around for Matthew, she saw the Darkling poking it's head into the hole it had just made with their bodies. She honestly didn't know how she was alive and standing, but she didn't have time to think about any of that now. The Darkling was making its way into the building and his eyes were locked on her.

She knew that she had to move. She knew that she should be running, but she just couldn't make her body move. She wasn't injured, nothing was broken, but her mind just didn't have control over her body. It was too dumbfounded and frightened by what she saw. In the corner of her eye she saw Matthew. He was sprawled out on the floor, broken bricks on top of him, and she could see blood covering his once pristine white clothes. She saw him begin to move and was thankful that he hadn't died, but she didn't have time to dwell on that. A hand was coming down over top of her, massive without any hope of escaping it and it was coming down fast.

She felt a rush of wind around her and suddenly the hand was gone. By the time her mind adjusted to the reality that a Darkling wasn’t eating her, Mr. Black was standing in front of her, as calm and collected as always. He had that massive sword in his hand and he slashed at the Darkling with an ease that bellied the size of it.

"Get her out of here," he said, his voice a flat monotone as he glanced over his shoulder at her. She felt Matthew's arms wrapping around her and pulling her back.

"The portal's on the other side of the city," he said, holding her protectively. Mr. Black reached into his pocket and pulled out a small square metal object and tossed it at Matthew who caught it with ease.

"What about you?" he asked. Gabrielle didn't really follow their conversations. She was just glad that someone was here with a big sword that seemed very calm about the situation.

"I'll be fine," he said, this time not turning around. The Darkling had reeled back, his bloody stump of a hand clutched to his chest, but he was recovering quickly. "Just get her to safety."

###

Gabrielle hadn’t realized it, but she’d been squeezing Matthew’s hand tightly as he guided her towards her quarters. They were back now, safe in the Death Angel Society, but she didn’t feel very safe. They hadn’t spoken a word since he had brought them back using the little metallic device that Mr. Black had given him. The conversation usually flowed so well between them, and it felt odd for it to be suddenly so quiet between them. There were so many things that her mind was worrying over, she didn’t really know what to think.

Matthew had been beaten up pretty badly in the scuffle with the Darkling. His nose had a little trail of dried
blood underneath it and was turning an awful shade of purple. His cheek looked like it was bruising quickly, and she wasn’t positive, but she felt like he was limping just slightly. She thought about asking him if he wanted to slow down for a moment, but she decided against it. It somehow still didn’t feel right to say anything. She could tell he was deep in thought about something, but she didn’t know what. He wasn’t angry, but there was some other emotion behind his eyes that told her he wanted to be alone in his thoughts right now. It was alright, because she wanted to be alone with hers as well. He wasn’t upset, but she could tell he was conflicted about something.

She had realized that, in spite of being tossed into a solid brick wall, and in fact going right through it, she didn’t have a scratch on her. She suspected that Matthew had put himself in harms way to protect her. That must have been why he had so many injuries. She wanted to say thank you, or that she was sorry, or something, but she just couldn’t make her lips work.

Then there was Mr. Black. They had just left him there, alone, with that awful looking thing. Granted, he told them to go, and he appeared to be completely unfazed by the thing, and even seemed like he was totally indifferent to fighting it. But still, they had left him. The concern in his voice when he told Matthew to get her out of there wasn’t lost on her. She wondered if that was just because she was his subordinate, and he felt somehow responsible for her. She vaguely wondered if she would be in any trouble for going to the mortal world. She shook her head, trying to clear out all these troublesome thoughts from her mind as they came to her door.

Matthew took a heavy breath, and she could tell it was strained. His eyes had cleared up and she could tell he wanted to say something, but there was some hesitation in him.

“So…,” he said. His eyes looked away from her as he paused for a moment. “I know I probably caught you off guard back there and I’m sorry about that. I know that you don’t know how things work here…”

He took another labored breath and looked back up at her. He looked like he was going to say more, but he smiled instead. It was a forced smile, and it didn’t have the characteristic joy behind it that it usually did.

“Look,” he said, “Don’t even worry about what I said…I…it was too soon, I know, I just…”

Then it finally dawned on Gabrielle. He had proposed to her. She didn’t even have any time to respond to him when it had happened. She hadn’t even been able to register the question. It had indeed caught her off guard, but the appearance of the massive Darkling had caught her even more off guard.

“Matthew,” she said, shaking her head with her eyes held open wide. She wanted to communicate a million things to him at once and she couldn’t pick out what to say first. It was incredibly fast, but somehow it didn’t feel that way to her. She somehow knew that she had loved him since that first crazy night that she had met him. She was shocked and flattered by his proposal. These were all things that she wanted to say, but instead she settled on a simple, one word response. “Yes.”

He looked up sharply at her, his eyes as wide as she had ever seen them. There was a goofy silence between them for just a moment as she grinned at him and nodded her head. His question had finally sunk in and she had time to process and answer it.

“Yes?” he asked, and she could hear the excited hopefulness in his voice. It made her even happier to say it again. He didn’t say anything else, just reached into his pocket and pulled out the beautiful necklace that he had proposed with, turning it around and putting it on her neck. She touched softly at it. It truly was one of the most beautiful pieces she had ever seen. She couldn’t hold it back anymore and she flung herself towards him, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him tightly into her. He embraced her tightly at first, but soon he pulled back and captured her lips in a soft kiss. He was gentle at first, tentatively exploring her mouth like he had before, but he quickly turned more frantic and pulled her body back into his. She could feel the hardened contours of his body as his muscles shifted and bunched under his skin as he began to explore her body, their mouths intertwined. Suddenly he pulled back from her, breaking off their kiss.

“I should…” he was panting lightly as his forehead rested against hers. “I should get going, before I do something too forward.”

Gabrielle smiled mischievously up at him as she bit her lower lip. She had wanted him to do things that were too forward for quite some time, and now that they were officially engaged she didn’t see any reason to stop it.

“I was hoping you would stay the night with me,” she said softly. His eyes got a little bigger and a smile crept onto his face as he understood what she meant. He pulled her body back into his.

“Are you sure?” he asked as his hand caressed her cheek. She could feel the hardness in his groin poking into her hip as he held her tightly to him. It made her blush and want him even more. She nodded. They hadn’t been dating for very long, and they hadn’t done anything but kiss, but Gabrielle had known for some time that she wanted him in that way. She wanted him to be her first and only. She thought she would wait for the right time, and there seemed like no better time.

“Besides,” she said, reaching up to touch at the damage to his cheek, “I wouldn’t like myself if I didn’t try to clean up my future husband after he risked his life for me.”

Matthew didn’t need any more encouragement from her. He happily followed her into her home. He had a seat on the sofa in her small but comfortable living room. She had rummaged around her place looking for some kind of first aid supplies but when she came up short, she came back to him with only a clean towel and a bowl of warm water. She dabbed the towel into the water and used it clean off the dried blood from his face. She felt horrible that he had put himself at such risk for her.

When she had finished cleaning him up as best she could, she sat back and just looked at him. Truth was, she was feeling rather embarrassed now. She had invited him into her home to stay the night, and she knew what that meant, what the night would inevitably lead to. And while she wanted that with her whole being, she really had no clue what to say to him right then.

“Are you sure you're alright?” she asked him rather awkwardly. She wanted to shake her head at her question. It seemed so…mundane with all the tension that was hanging in the air. He was just staring back at her with his eyes burning into hers. He licked his lips, sucked in a breath of air and leaned forward to where she was kneeling on the floor between his knees. She could see him wince slightly as he did and she wanted to tell him to rest back in the sofa, but she was also feeling greedy. She knew he was leaning forward to kiss her and she didn’t want to stop him. His hand caressed her cheek softly as his face drew close to hers, his eyes still locked on her. Finally his lips met hers and his tongue insistently searched her mouth. She was a little taken aback by the hunger and urgency in him and it sent little tingles all through her. He deepened the kiss, his fingers reaching into her hair so that he could pull her closer. She happily complied and she straightened up on her knees, wrapping her hands around his neck so that she could get closer to him. It was an awkward position and she felt his arms reach around her waist and grab firmly onto her butt, pulling her up into his lip with a single movement. She could feel him wincing at the movement, but he continued to kiss her passionately. She rested against his lap and again she felt the hardness of him pressing back against her. She bucked her hips a little as they continued to kiss and he let out a little moan. Her cheeks flamed but it emboldened her, so she did it again. He pulled his lips away from hers suddenly, his breathing a little ragged and heavy.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked, his words a husky whisper as his forehead rested against hers and he searched her eyes for any sign of uncertainty. She knew that he would find none and she simply nodded her head, his attentions leaving her almost breathless.

“Let’s go into the bedroom,” he said, his words spoken gently, as if saying it would scare her off.

“Okay,” she managed to muster the word out of her. She swallowed thickly as heat swam over her entire body. He stood off the couch, his hands underneath her as she tucked her legs around him. In spite of his injuries, he carried her easily into the room where he laid her down on the bed and lowered himself on top of her.

She could feel the heavy weight of his body resting on her and she looked hungrily into his eyes, waiting for him to do more to her. He kissed her, slow and passionate at first but quickly turning into a heated frenzy as his hands roamed her body. His fingers curled under the hem of her top and he pulled it up over her head. He rested his hand on her stomach as he bent back down to kiss her and the contact of his skin against her bare flesh made her burn even hotter. He pulled away from her lips, moving lower along her jaw line, unbuttoning his blood spattered white collared shirt as he did. He managed to throw it off in record time and his bare chest contacted with hers as he settled more fully onto her. He surrounded her in every way and she could do nothing but revel in the mindless ecstasy that he was arousing in her.

She gasped as he bent lower and his lips kissed at her ribs. She sucked in a few quick breaths, fighting against the tickling pleasure. He looked up at her with a half smirk, and then he turned his attentions to a higher spot on her body. He pulled the fabric of her bra down and cupped a breast with one hand as his mouth latched onto the other one. Gabrielle gasped at the contact and instinctively arched her back, pushing herself further into him. His tongue swirled around her flesh so slowly, so wonderfully, every little movement sending a hot, wet, rush of excitement through her. She had never felt anything so incredible in her life. Then his hand moved lower. For the first time since she met him, she became slightly apprehensive as his fingers looped in the waistband of her pants. He must have sensed her sudden nerves, or felt her body tense, because his hand stopped for just a moment as he looked up at her.