“My name’s Loráed. You may call me Lore. I’ve been tasked to watch over you.”
“Watch over me? Why?” Nia narrowed her eyes. Did he mean this fake blonde version of her or the real her? Could he see past the glamour?
When he continued the silent, staring game, she scowled. “Fine, your prerogative. Don’t answer, whatever.” She spun away?—
Hell, flip it!She swung back and planted her hands on her hips. “Who sent you, and what are you keeping me safe from?” It couldn’t be from Kas.
“When I acquire those answers, you will have them.”
Seriously? Nia canted her head, studying him.
Angels couldn’t lie. They might evade but they’d never lie, or so she’d heard Saia’s mate mention once. Man, this angel must be way low in the pecking order not to even know the details of his mission. How could he possibly keep her safe from a blood demon?
“So you’re a guardian angel?”
“I thought it was my prerogative not to answer?”
“Darn pain in my ass,” she muttered, stomping around him. So, he didn’t want to talk about being an angel? While she was nosy enough to want the truth, begging wasn’t in her nature.
As she grasped the fire escape ladder, he touched her arm. The rooftop disappeared, and a shriek split free from her throat…
Chapter
Four
Dammit!Nia stumbled as they reformed again and grabbed the nearest thing. Unfortunately, him.
She hastily stepped back, hands fisting, head woozy. But the imprint of his hard, warm chest burned her palms.
“For the love of Christ!” She took refuge in scowling, hands clenched. “If you have to haul a girl around in that mode of travel, give her some warning, will you? Wait! How the hell did you know where I live? Ugh. Never mind.”
Thank God it was dark, so they didn’t scare her neighbors with their supernatural appearance.
“Blasphemy is not becoming, little mortal.”
“Oh, go flip a feather.” Fed up to her sleep-starved skull, Nia spun to the door, only to stop, biting back a groan. She’d climbed out of the clinic window yesterday. Her keys were still in her bag at the office. Just great.
Red reached past her, turned the handle, and opened the door. No key required.
“Your protection wards are weak.”
Nia stomped inside. Saia’s demoness friend, Ikaria, had put those protection wards up for her when she found out Nia couldsense demons. So far, it had kept her safe from Kas, and that was the only thing that mattered.
She switched on the lights in her small, two-level apartment in an old house that had been converted into four separate residences.
The door shut behind her, and that subtle scent of the great outdoors, of a breeze moving through orange groves, of the infinite, surrounded her again. Utterly intoxicating, tempting her to lean back against that powerful chest.
She huffed. Yep, she’d lost a brain cell. Gone totally loopy. He was pretty, for sure, but leaning on a cactus would be more welcoming.
Nia hastily hung her loaned jacket on the coatrack and slipped into the tiny galley kitchen overlooking the living room and out of his smell range, so her stupid olfactory senses could calm the heck down.
She dropped her cell on the counter and crossed to the fridge on the other end, needing a drink to wet her parched throat. She opened the door and bit off a groan. Great. No orange juice.
Nia rubbed her temple, her gaze settling on the exposed red brick wall next to the fridge. The lengthening crack there, an eerie reminder of her current state of life. Sighing, she glanced at the angel wandering through her living room.
He stopped at the pair of tall windows overlooking the paved, walled-in backyard, which used to have a few conifers along the boundary wall. She’d converted it into a little garden with a profusion of potted plants and hanging ferns. He stood there, studying the place.
His immense presence made the open-plan space feel like a cage.
