I shoved off the couch, attempting to jump to my feet and scramble away from Trace and Dominic, terrified the wings would lash out and take one of their eyes as they exploded from my back. But the blood loss and the sudden movement made me lose my balance, and I toppled forward, crashing to the floor on my hands and knees just as the wings eruptedfrom my back, filling the living room like some fallen angel cast down from Heaven.
The sound of the guys shuffling up to their feet and rushing over to me only mildly registered as I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to stop the room from violently spinning around me. Stars exploded in the periphery of my vision like a Fourth of July show. But it wasn’t the good kind.
Seconds felt like an eternity before Dominic’s hand came down against my arm, his gentle touch jolting me back to the present moment. “Angel?” His voice came across jumbled and far away, as though I were hearing it from the bottom of an endless well.
“Don’t,” I hissed, jerking away from his touch as I sat back on my legs and looked up at the two of them. Dominic’s brows were pulled together as he stared at me like a riddle he was trying to solve while Trace stood a few feet away from us, swaying slightly as though he was still high from my blood. “Please don’t touch me right now,” I pleaded softly, humiliated that they were seeing me like this again.
I couldn’t even begin to guess what they were thinking just then but I was certain that the words ‘bird-like’ and ‘freak’ were probably reigning supremely in their minds.
The room seemed to pulse along with my heartbeat, the walls stretching and contracting as if alive and breathing. As if it, too, conspired to bear witness to the inconceivable freak that was me.
“Pleasekillme now,” I muttered to myself, not even having the energy to dramatically run out of the room and spare myself any further humiliation.
“What is it, angel? Are you in pain?” he asked, his forehead creased with concern.
I stared up at him for a long beat, gauging whether he was serious. “No. I’m not in pain, Dominic.”
He bounced a quick glance at Trace and then blinked at me. “Then what is it, love? What’s the matter?”
“What’s the matter?Lookat me!” I cried, lifting my arms up as if to present the evidence. I was the literal definition of an abomination and there wasn’t a soul on Earth that could deny it now.
It was easy to forget—to pretend it wasn’t so—when my wings were tucked away with magic and invisible to even my own eyes, but it was a whole different thing when they were just out there, all loud and proud, for everyone to see.
Dominic’s worried gaze softened into something more tender, almost reverent, as he took in the sight of my satiny black wings. He didn't move closer, respecting my plea for him not to touch me, but his eyes were speaking volumes—awe mixed with hints of something else. Something I couldn’t quite name.
“Iamlooking,” he said as he knelt beside me, his eyes heating as they raked over me, taking in every inch of me as though he were enchanted and couldn’t bring himself to look away. “In case you haven’t noticed, angel, I have not been able tostoplooking at you from the moment I first saw you.”
“And how’s that working for you now, Dominic?” I huffed sourly as tears burned under my lids, making my throat feel tight and uncomfortable.
“Quite well, actually.”
I crinkled my brows at him as he just chuckled softly.
“You have always been the most exquisite thing I have ever laid eyes upon, angel, and now…” He shook his head as a tiny smile curled the corner of his mouth up. “Now, you are transcendent in every sense of the word.”
I blinked up at him, his words hanging in the air like sacred scripts that promised to heal the sick and cure the dying. It was so far from what I had expected him to say that Ialmost didn’t trust my ears.
I mean, Ididlose a lot of blood.
I started to shake my head, my gaze catching on Trace who had been standing a few feet away from us, trying to compose himself.
“He’s not lying, Jemma,” he said lowly, as if he had felt my doubt, his gravelly voice vibrating against my heart and making it beat faster. His dimples pressed in as he stepped closer, his expression mirroring Dominic’s awe but underscored with something else. Something that made his eyes glimmer like the ocean when the sun was hitting the surface at just the right angle.
Wiping out the remaining gap, he lowered himself onto his knees before me. “You’re fucking breathtaking, Jemma. You should be on a fucking throne being worshipped, not sitting on the floor crying. Don’t you see that?” he asked me in earnest.
Me?Lucifer’s Daughter. Transcendent? Breathtaking?
Their words should have soothed the storm spiraling in my chest, but they only served to amplify the turmoil. They weren’t thinking with their heads. At least not the ones on their necks. ButIwas. I knew who the wings had come from, and I knew exactly what they stood for. How could they see beauty in something so abhorrent?
Feeling as though I couldn’t pull in a full breath of air, I scrambled up to my feet and then took a small step back. Trace and Dominic followed suit and straightened along with me as though they’d been tied to me.
“I appreciate you both for trying to make me feel better and I’m sorry for…I don’t know. For everything I guess,” I said flatly as I shook my head, completely exhausted. “But I think I’ll just go to bed now.”
“Angel, we ought to—”
“No,” I cut in before he could finish his objection.
I didn’t want to talk about the wings or have them studied or tested or anything else he was going to suggest. I just wanted to go to bed so that they could disappear again, and I could go back to pretending they didn’t exist at all. Was that wrong? Maybe. But it was the only thing I could manage tonight.