“You’re not leaving?” he asked as if sensing her thoughts again.
“No.” She inhaled his scent, soaking in his warmth.
His head lowered and pressed his lips to her throat, the brief kiss sliding a tingle of heat through her. “Then there’s something I must ask you.”
She eased back. The sun had long set, and beneath the flashes of silvery light from the moon hidden behind the dark clouds, he was all chiseled angles and sharper planes, and far too somber. “It sounds ominous…” she teased, trying for levity.
“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 encountering the archangel 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 yes now, 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, lígo machitís.”
“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.
“What the fuck now?” Nik bit out, bracing for another attack. “It won’t take on corporeal form.”
“And our abilities are voided on the hellscum in that shape,” Race growled.
Expression like granite, Nik’s entire focus fixed on the agitating fog. In a fast-moving tornado, the creature leaped at them, taking physical shape. Black as night, eyes like burning coal, with a car-size head and a mouthful of deadly fangs.
Oh, shit. She stumbled back, her ice flowers falling and shattering. No way could she fight this horror and hope to win.
Dammit, she needed a blade. While her satiated symbionts made her stronger and her senses sharper than a human’s, she couldn’t summon weapons. If only she had a dagger—
Something warm and solid took form in her hand.
She gasped, staring in confusion at the obsidian dagger in her palm, the one she’d seen in Nik’s closet. How…?
He must have willed it to her. Her fingers clenched around the hilt.
Nik slammed his fist on the ground. A crack echoed, and deadly ice shards ripped through the surface. Shadow scrambled backward as the ice formation, taller than a house, rushed toward the creature. The hound yelped, a deadly long spike spearing through its body. The ice broke, blood poured, and the demon hound dissipated into mist again.
Aaand then it reformed a second later, fully healed.
Nik cursed. Both he and Race flew into the air, their weapons coming down in deadly arcs, but the beast dove into them, ramming them hard and sending both men flying some distance away.
Leaving her alone to face the colossal monster.
Chapter 19
Oh, God, oh, God!
Her heart jammed in her throat, Shadow braced for attack. The hellhound sailed past Nik’s tall, dangerously sharp ice spears, landing a short stretch of space from her. It prowled closer like a living hell. Eerie red eyes fixed on her.
“Shadow!” Nik’s terrified cry came from afar as the hellhound’s gait gathered momentum.
The dark shape leaped. Oh, shit!
With only survival instincts driving her—heck, she was dead either way—she charged it, went in low, sliding between its massive forelimbs, thrusting the dagger upward with both hands. She shut her eyes as its heated, furry belly grazed her hands, and a river of something hot, thick, and coppery splattered her.
A guttural howl exploded, claws scraping on the granite surface reverberating in the quiet.
The sounds of ice crackled. A roar resounded. Shadow swiped the gore from her face, then cursed as a tsunami-like wave rolled toward her.
Crap! She grabbed onto a rocky outcrop, and the huge breaker crashed into the creature, sending the menace sliding away from her. Caught in the flood, Shadow fell, hitting her head against the rocky ground, water cascading over her, into her mouth and nose—
“Shadow!” Hands grabbed her, palms pressing on her chest.
She coughed and spat out water, lungs burning. Groaning, she pushed Nik’s hands away. “I’m okay, I’m okay,” she croaked, her gaze darting about her. “Where’s the—?”
“Vanished.” He scooped her into his arms, his heart pounding like a runaway freight train against her ear, and dematerialized them back to the monastery.
They reformed moments later in their room. The lights brightened. She gripped him tight around his neck, refusing to let go of her only safety net, shuddering, still caught in her terror at being so close to an evil entity that could have killed her, or worse, dragged her to Hell.