She did not enjoy flying with Cael, Lia thought, her grip tightening around his neck. She was not entirely sure why because flying itself was not unpleasant. It felt almost natural to ride the winds, shifting her weight into the current, and if she closed her eyes, it was almost as if she had wings herself.
Which meant, she decided, that it was not the flying she disliked, but flying specifically with Cael.
She looked up at him trying to puzzle out why.
He grinned at her brightly and held her closer against him.
“Almost there.”
He shifted on the wind, coasting towards the earth, the ground seeming to rise towards them in welcome.
They landed outside a tidy little farmhouse, its green lawn behind a white picket fence, and its boards painted white and a soft yellow.
She released him and stepped away, glad to end the contact, but looked around her in bewilderment. It felt as if she had never been there before.
“Where are we?”
“Home sweet home,” he announced leading the way up the steps to the front porch.
There was a swinging chair beside the door, idling in the breeze. It was very pretty, the fields green, and chickens picking their way lazily across the lawn, but she did not know it and wondered why she did not, if it were truly home.
He opened the door, and they entered the hallway. There were jackets hung on the hall stand that she did not think would fit either of them, and the photos on the walls held the faces of strangers.
This was not home, she thought. Home was… She had a flash of dated wallpaper and china dolls, and an ancient book sitting in the fall of light coloured by a stained-glass window.
“This isn’t home.”
Cael paused, and then shrugged. “Maybe not, but it is home for now. We will be happy here.”
“Where are the people from these photos?” She wondered.
“I encouraged them to go away for a time, don’t worry, they are fine.” He took her hand and tugged her towards the stairs. “They changed the bed sheets before they left,” he said, pulling her up behind him. “I think it is time that we answered a question that has been preoccupying me since I found you again.”
“What question?” There had been children here, she observed as they passed by bedrooms painted in pastel tones and small beds holding soft toys. Where were they now?
“Whether f-king you will end this tie between us,” he stepped into a bedroom.
Her feet dragged to a stop. She did not want to go in there with him. Her skin crawled at the very idea of laying on that bed with him. “This is… wrong.”
“No,” he gave her hand a tug pulling her across the threshold. “No, it is exactly as it should be.”
He framed her face with his hands and kissed her, his tongue stroking against her lips. She held them closed against him. She knew that kissing him was not safe, but she was not sure why.
“Cecelia,” he pulled back, irritated by her refusal to kiss him back. “F-k you always have to be so difficult.”
He kissed her again, his mouth against hers hard, determined, biting her bottom lip between his teeth in petty retaliation for her obstinacy. She yelped, power sparking between them as she pulled back from him.
“F-k!” He exclaimed in pain, releasing her.
She put her fingers to her mouth, and they came away bloody. She could taste it. She knew that taste. She had a flash of Lucian above her, the taste of his blood in her mouth.
Raiden. She needed to get back to Raiden. She remembered her werewolf, bruised and exhausted, holding her, the feel of his skin against hers and the scent of citrus and lavender.
“You put a f-king spell on me,” she accused Cael angrily. “I need to get back to Raiden,” she turned on her heel and started toward the hall, but Cael caught her wrist and yanked her back.
“I don’t know how you do that, when it is absolutely impossible that you have the power to do so! But there is an easy way to do this,” he snarled tugging her back to him and transferring his grip to her elbows. “And a hard way.” He lifted and threw her onto the bed.
The landing forced the air from her lungs, and he was over her before she could recover. She threw her power between them again, and he cringed away from the flash, cursing as he rolled from her.
She half fell from the bed and ran for the door frame, narrowly avoiding his grasping fingers. She hit the banisters with enough force that for a moment, she thought she would go over, but she regained her balance and made for the top step. Cael struck the bedroom door frame with his shoulder in his effort to reach her and cursed in pain.
She made it half-way down the stairs, when she heard the front door hit the wall, and caught the glimpse of a man entering the hall below through the banisters, his dark eyes meeting hers. She recognized him as one of the men who had attacked her out front of the academy.
She turned, to find Cael at the top of the stairs.
“Lia!” Cael called out, holding out his hand, his expression becoming alarmed as he caught sight of the dark eyed man. “Quickly!”
Lia turned back, trapped between two unpleasant options.
The dark eyed man was not on his own, and the woman and other man were behind him. The dark eyed man paused on the first turn of the stairs looking up at her and Cael.
“Hello again,” he said.
There was a flash outside the porch, drawing all their eyes, and suddenly Raiden was in the open front door, his eyes following the three intruders to her, and Cael beyond her, his expression shifting from confusion to alarm and fury.
Lia did not think twice, she leapt onto the handrail, sliding down on her hip, throwing herself at Raiden and trusting that he would catch her.
He turned with the motion, stepping out of the door, and set her behind him as the Other flashed in his eyes and he turned back to the three intruders. “I don’t know who the f-k you are,” he snarled at them. “But get the f-k out of here and I won’t have to kill you.”
The dark eyed man stepped down the stairs, his hands held out before him placatingly. “Wolf, this has nothing to do with you,” he glanced over his shoulder at Cael who was stalking his way down the stairs. “Or you, brother.”
“I am not your brother,” Cael replied with relish. “It seems to me that you have gotten yourself caught between a wolf and a devil.”
“Don’t forget us,” Alatar protested stepping up on to the porch with Tara. “Hi.”
“Two wolves, a warlock and our feathered friend back there,” Raiden arched an eyebrow. “Odds are in our favour.”
“You have no idea,” the dark eyed man replied through his teeth, enraged. “No idea what we are, nor what she is, and no idea what is at risk.”
“She is Evelyn’s last living heir, a child born to a Wingless angel,” Alatar replied smugly. “Yeah, we worked it out,” he added when the three intruders jerked their eyes to him.
“Wingless,” Cael murmured, his toned appalled. “You are all three Wingless. How the f-k did you survive? No one survives.”
The woman jerked her head back to him and bared her teeth. “Painfully.”
“Why are you hunting Lia?” Raiden demanded. “If you are the same as she is?”
“We are not the same,” the man replied with revulsion. “We are pure, not mixed with slave blood.”
“You were right. They have been hunting Evelyn’s descendants.” Raiden looked at Alatar. “That is why the line dwindled so unexpected.”
“See, man,” the warlock murmured. “I guessed it.”
Raiden turned back to the three Wingless trapped between Lia and Cael. “You have been hunting down all those that came from her, because of the vampires. Because of what Wingless blood does to them.”
“We are not here to chat,” the dark eyed man said with a feral grin and Lia cried out.
She threw out her power before Raiden, shielding him from the strike of the man’s magic. The light flashed between them, bright enough to cause auras in Raiden’s vision, but through them he saw the man fall back, his arms in front of his face as if to ward off something hot.
“She is stronger than them,” Alatar’s mouth fell open, and then he snapped it shut. “Lia, don’t stop!”
She stepped forward, drawing on her power, and holding it before her like a shield. She saw a shimmer of light behind them as Cael did the same. The three Wingless looked between the two constricting shields and joined hands. Their combine powers formed a bubble, holding Cael and Lia at bay.
“We seem to be at an impasse,” the dark eyed man was the leader and spokesperson. “What do you seek to achieve through this little demonstration?”
“I have an idea,” Cael said through his teeth. “It seems that I have detained three criminals who escaped their sentence somehow. I am sure there are people back in my realm who would be very interested in that. Move backwards, Lia. Warlock, I need you to create another portal.”
“Alright,” Alatar was uncertain. “But I don’t have anything to use to set the destination.”
“Just create the portal,” Cael replied. “Let me worry about setting the destination.”
Raiden took Lia’s waist between his hands and guided her backwards. She was breathing heavily, fatiguing under the use of power. The Wingless’ bubble was beginning to retract as their brows beaded with sweat, their power waning, and Cael’s jaw was set, the strain showing across his face.
Alatar ran around the lawn setting up spell components as Lia and Cael walked the warlocks out onto the lawn one agonizing step after another. The Wingless let their shield collapse and the woman and man gripped the dark eyed man by the upper arms, focusing their power into him. He formed a sword out of light and energy and drove it into the seam where Lia’s power overlapped Cael’s.
Lia cried out as the impact of that blow ricocheted through the shield, stinging sparks dancing up her forearms. She saw Cael flinch away, and his side of the shield opened. The Wingless exploded out, striking Cael as they passed, and she saw him spit blood as he hit the ground.
A portal opened like a tear in the air, a vacuum forming around it that tugged at their hair and clothing and whipped the grass and leaves. The Wingless leapt through it.
Lia’s shield collapsed, and her knees gave way. Raiden lowered her to the ground, going with her, the Other still flaring brightly in his eyes as he crouched protectively over her, growling low in his throat.
“Oh, cool,” Alatar said with appreciation as the portal closed behind the Wingless with almost a scream of sound as the vacuum was cut off abruptly. “That is… impressive magic, making a portal on the fly like that.”
“F-k,” Cael wiped blood from his chin. He sat up, resting his elbows on his knees, his hands dangling between them, and groaned, stretching out the muscles of his neck by rocking his head from side to side.
“Hard work holding that shield, eh?” Alatar said with empathy. “Need to take a nap, and you will be right, angel-man.”
“Devil, actually, if you are going to insist on slave names. The Nephilim divided into two factions,” Cael replied, his eyes half-closed and his tone slurred with weariness. “Those who held with freeing the slaves, and those who did not.”
“What side are you on?” Tara wondered.
Cael’s lip curled. “What side do you think?”
“What the f-k are you doing in a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere?” Raiden demanded angrily. “You didn’t bring Lia back. You were meant to heal her and bring her back to me!”
“Of course, I didn’t f-king bring her back,” Cael replied, rolling his eyes. “That is like bringing the prey back to the hunters. Lia needs to stay the f-k away from you. She would have been safe here, with me. And I never,” he added with a sneer, “said that I would return her.”
“He used some sort of magic on me,” Lia said wearily, leaning back on Raiden. “To make me forget. He was going to rape me.”
“Wouldn’t have been rape,” Cael muttered. “If you weren’t so f-king stubborn.”
“That is it. Thanks for saving Lia’s life,” Raiden stood, lifting Lia up with him. “Now stay the f-k away from her.”
“Can’t do it,” Cael tried to stand, but sank back down, still too weak. “Tied to her.”
“Well, find a way to untie yourself,” Raiden replied. “Open the portal, Alatar.”
Alatar muttered an incantation, and the portal leapt to life.
“See you soon, Lia,” Cael smirked as Raiden carried her over the threshold of the portal. “Dream of me.”