“Hardly.” A smile started, lighting his hard features to one of amusement, then it faded. “But it is the Arc’s rules.”
“The Arc?” She raised an eyebrow.
“The archangel, Michael. The Guardians’ leader.”
“The man I met outside the abbey?” Disbelief stole her breath. “And-and you didn’t tell me?”
He frowned, tucking back strands of her wind-blown hair. “I did. I said he was our leader.”
Men. Shadow shook her head. Heck, she’d met several otherworldly beings recently, so encounteringthearchangel shouldn’t shock her. Right?
She bit back a snort.
But at Nik’s dark, intense stare, she waited warily and hoped it wasn’t as bad as her thumping heart implied. “What is it?” she asked.
“You know how I feel, Shadow. I want you with me. For always. But you are human and have free will, so I must do this. If you say yesnow, no matter what happens after, I won’t let you go.”
She heard the caveat. “Are you trying to scare me?” She arched an eyebrow, determined not to let a smidgen of worry take hold. Gently, she stroked his stubbly jaw. “I want us, Nik. I want you.”
She felt his immense relief more than she saw it, and it settled in her like a warm glow. He removed her hand from his face and kissed her palm. “Good. You are mine,lígomachitís.”
“What does it mean?” she finally asked.
“Little fighter.”
She laughed at the name.
Smiling, he held out his hand, the air above swirled in a tiny mist, and several ice-crystal flowers on stalks formed on his palm.
Her eyes widened. “That’s amazing.” She held back her breeze-tossed hair from her face and accepted the frozen blooms. “No one’s ever given me flowers before.”
“Then I’ll fill up our quarters with flora for you,” he said softly, removing her hair grip. He scooped up her mane and refastened it.
Shadow put a hand to his chest, unable to stop touching him while staring at her flowers. Her heart thumped hard, emotions crowding her.
A low growl splintered the intimacy enclosing them. They both pivoted to the sound.
Shadow gasped as an agitating mist as tall as a house appeared out of nowhere. “What is that?”
Nik cursed and pushed her behind him.
Beneath the moonlight, the massive, foggy apparition bounded toward them like rolling mist.
Another form took shape alongside Nik. The silver-haired Guardian. Race. “Sense something—shit! That’s a—”
“A damn hellhound,” Nik growled.
“Why the hell here?” Race snapped.
“Who the fuck knows? Shadow.” Nik shot her a warning look. “Stay behind us!”
Terror pounded in her head, and her symbionts throbbed as if sensing the approaching entity’s dark energy—
Oh, hell no! Nope, not that thing. She wasn’t touching it, not even if she were dying. Like she’d even want to take on a humongous vaporous demon dog.
Nik flung out his hands, ice spears rained on the hellhound, but they sailed right through the creature’s misty shape, as did Race’s fire blasts.
Both men’s black swords appeared in a smoky gray flash, but the creature dissipated, dodging each swing of their weapon.
