Page 126 of Hell’s Weapon

Swallowing my emotions, I know he’s right. Milo and Wyatt are sitting ducks. Even with their shifter sides temporarily awakened they are far more vulnerable than Garrick is. I need to go, to ensure they get to somewhere safer. Milo especially.

Garrick's lips part, showing me his teeth to reinforce his point. Very deadly, very powerful teeth.

It gives me an idea.

“Bite me,” I whisper. He hears me because he stills. “You’ll be able to track me. I know it doesn’t work both ways, but I’ll leave a little less worried knowing that you can find me.”

He shakes his head. He knows I’m only allowing this because we are currently in a battle, that I was disgusted previously when I thought he’d tasted my blood. But that was before. I haven’t said the words and now doesn’t feel like the time, but I’ve fallen just as hard for the grumpy asshole as I have the two humans who are complete opposites of each other.

I pull my mask up once more so he can see my face and how sincere I am about this. “Please. Bite me and I’ll leave. I want you to be able to find me no matter what happens during the rest of this fucking endless night.”

Garrick blinks once before he bats one of my arms, dislodging one of my hands off his shoulders. He nudges at my cuff. I quickly understand, removing the band and pulling up my sleeve, exposing my wrist to him.

He doesn’t bother checking that I’m sure, knowing that I have already made up my mind. Gently licking the inside of my wrist, over the veins there, his rough tongue sends shivers up my arm. Then he angles his jaw, placing one of those massive canines over the centre, and bites down.

Clenching my jaw so I don’t make a noise with the pain, my instincts tell me to pull back, to end him for this. But that only lasts until Garrick pulls back and returns to licking my wrist. Only this time, I can see he’s lapping up drops of the deep crimson liquid leaking from my veins. His eyes find mine as he continues to wash the wound until the bleeding slows. I feel no different, except for the stinging sensation, which is quickly fading as my veins start clotting and the blood flow stops.

After a few more laps, Garrick moves forward, pushing his snout into my hood, his wet nose skimming up my neck. I hold still as his jaw comes into very close contact with my throat. My hand, the one that had remained on his shoulder this whole time, moves to stroke down his back, and back up to the back of his head, holding him to me. His whiskers tickle as his breaths heat the air between us.

A shout from Elisa breaks our moment. “We need to move, the fighting is moving this way.”

Standing, I quickly replace my mask as Garrick moves back to his haunches. Pulling my sleeve back into place and wrapping the cuff to my wrist once more, I take one last look at him before turning and walking out of our little shelter. I force myself to not look back because this isn’t goodbye. I do turn to look at Elisa and the other panthers, and even though I can’t speak, I’m pretty certain they all understand the threat in the way my tail flicks as I glare at them. If anything happens to him, I will kill you all.

Releasing my wings, I take to the skies. I can’t beeline directly for the Guards’ building as several Angels immediately spot me in the air, change direction, and come after me. Pulling my dagger free once more, I engage them in combat, a new fire in my veins as I down one after the other. These fuckers are trying to rip apart my new found happiness, and I’ll take down each and every one by myself if I have to.

I’m nearly at my destination, preparing to land on the roof when a plume of fire and a raging roar rips across the courtyard from near the dormitory buildings. It sends several beings to a very hot end, their screams cutting above the rest of the noise of the battle.

For a second, I panic that another building is about to blow, but instead, a huge orange dragon charges at the group of Angels I’d been spying on, the ones trying to locate Milo.

My heart stops as I immediately recognise the dragon to be Wyatt. But it shatters when I see four of the Angels take to the sky, with Milo in their grasp.

Chapter 42

Milo

We’d made it, were inside the dormitory building with some of the guards when we were told to get out. That it could blow at any second. Not that we were planning on staying put long because Tacita wasn’t amongst the group taking shelter in the lower floor of the building.

The pounding in my head had reached such a level, I’d feared my skull was going to crack. I’d been forced to shift back by the last wave, the power being used to access my mind draining my cat too much for me to hold the form. I was barely able to hear Wyatt arguing with the guards to leave us behind as I felt the Angels trying to break through again, determined to locate me. They were closer now, I’d sensed it.

We weren’t a huge group, but the Angels had noticed as soon as we broke free of the shelter of the building, and to their credit, the guards with us did a good job of fighting off any attacks as they escorted us back to the Guards’ offices.

Only, we didn’t make it.

I’d spotted them as soon as we had left the safety of the building. My legs had grown roots and my hand had yanked on Wyatt’s, our fingers being entwined. The smell of acrid flesh had stung my eyes and the scent of the blackest smoke I’d ever encountered had slammed into me. The memory had been as fresh as if I were back there, actually living it. I couldn’t scream, didn’t know how. I’d tried desperately to escape before they’d found me. The three men now standing metres away. Angels.

They’d not had their wings out at the time. Not initially. They’d rescued me and then recruited me. Getting me to agree to help them as a payment for saving me.

One of them, the shorter of the group, and the most aggressive, turns as if he can feel my memory too. Our eyes lock, his pupils dilating with immediate recognition. He’s one of the ones that’s been living in my head for the last year.

The others quickly lock onto me as well.

It’s over. They’ve found me and I won’t be escaping.

“Milo, what’s wrong?” Wyatt asked at my side, his eyes following my gaze. “Is that them?”

I couldn’t even nod. I tried to pull my hand out of his, had tried to save him. I knew they’d seen glimpses of him but he’s human. He’s not the one they’re interested in.

We’d fallen behind the main group but two of the guards noticed and retraced their steps to come back for us. It was a fatal mistake on their behalf as the group of six Angels descended on us. The Angels split, two taking on our demonic protectors, four focusing on claiming me. One of the guards was killed instantly as his opponent drew a blade of ice and drove it into the soft flesh under his jaw and up into his brain. The other tried but ultimately it was three on one and he didn’t stand a chance. The three not engaged in fighting didn’t pause, they’d kept coming for us.