Page 54 of Angel's Smoke

She lifted the covers aside, treating him to all that luscious bare skin, and welcomed him to join her again.

That intoxicating woman could teach courses on how to convince mountains to move and make a killing by upselling her methods for getting stubborn horses to drink as well. Before she took her next breath, Iron was beneath the covers and had her against him, with his forearms bracketing her ribs and snuggled beneath her breasts.

It had quickly become his favorite position.

Anna sighed and ran the pad of her finger over the swirl of glowing gold on the inside of her wrist that was only visible when she held it out to the sunlight streaming in from the window. His heart still kicked up at the sight of it.

“What was it again? Your celestial name?”

“Daegan.”

“Daegan,” she repeated. “I like it. It suits you.”

“It suits a ghost. I haven’t been called that in quite some time. Not sure I could even respond to it anymore.”

Anna’s touch slowed, then her palm covered the tattoo entirely. “You don’t like it?”

“No, it’s not that.” He grabbed her hand, turned it over, and kissed his apology along the pad of her palm. “Just reminds me of things I’d rather not think about at times. But not you. Never you. I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind since you stole my sleep that first night.” Then he nipped at the flesh there, forcing her fingers to curl around his jaw just the way he liked. “Little thief that you are.”

It was true, all of it, and that shocked him as much as it soothed him.

Anna indulged him with a loving caress down his beard, and damn if he didn’t have a new appreciation for that tail-wagging shit dogs always did to get their humans to pet them. “Does it have something to do with why you always wear these?” She took her hand back and tapped out an entreaty along the leather of his bracers.

Perhaps it was the soft sadness in her voice or the way he despised how he’d made her feel like she needed to walk on eggshells around him. Whatever it was, he didn’t want it to linger in these few moments of bliss, tainting the happiness they’d both finally found.

Iron shifted Anna slightly so he could have full use of his arms. Then, crosshatch by crosshatch, he unstrung the leather cords that fastened his cuffs and covered skin no mortal had ever seen.

When he peeled them off, he was beyond grateful Anna didn’t gasp or make some exclamation over the state of his wrists. He’d never been one for pity and wouldn’t know what to do with it if someone were to fling it at him.

Anna’s care and compassion, however, was an entirely different brand of emotional weapon, one he had no way to prepare against. She didn’t move, didn’t squirm, didn’t try to lift his arms closer for her inspection. She didn’t try to run her gentle fingers over the mangled skin or, mages help him, kiss away whatever hurt she perceived to be there.

Instead, she stayed quiet, waiting for him to explain a set of circumstances no one outside of his brothers knew about.

And he’d give her what she wanted. He knew now he always would.

“Centuries ago, I loved a mortal woman.” He tested the weight of the words on the air, half convinced they’d turn into spears that Anna would want to heave right back at him. When that didn’t happen and his soul bond just lay in his arms, patiently listening, if not slightly more tense, he tossed the rest of his reservations aside and continued removing the stones that he’d piled up around his past.

“Her name was Abigail, and she lived in a village not too far from here. She was a horsewoman and worked with her father and brothers to breed the beasts and sell them to the highest bidder. Her family was well known for being the best of what they offered but also for being equally aloof. Abigail never ventured into town much or had many friends. But she always had her horses. Looking back on it, that should have told me all I needed to know about her. She had a thing for beasts, and at the time, I had a thing for raven-haired beauties.”

“Well, who would blame you?” Anna offered in her achingly helpful way.

“Shhh,” he said against her forehead, brushing a kiss along her hairline. “There’s no need for that. Save your sweetness. It was a long time ago.” Before she could argue, he grabbed her hand and began stroking his celestial symbol on the inside of her wrist, offering up the only distraction he could think of that would help him get through what he’d promised himself he’d share with her.

“Abigail saw me as the mountain of brawn I was and had no problem getting her fill from a dangerous man. The charmers had only recently begun to settle into the colony that would eventually become New Hampshire, and there was an air of disquiet among the people. No one ever really knew who was friend or foe, and as Abigail and her family did business with everyone, she wasn’t quite so discerning when it came to her lovers. She was greedy and liked her sex flavored with all the roughness she expected to come with bedding a brute of my size. She’d never had an interest in slow passion or furtive caresses. Her only interest was in my strength and my cock and how I could use both to thrill and excite her.”

“That doesn’t sound like you at all.”

“Again, it was a different time, and I was a different person. More bloodthirsty, more desperate to slay charmers so I might move on to hunting for what I really craved: my fire and my home. I am . . . not that man anymore. But back then, I thought I’d come to love Abigail, that she would ultimately be my soul bond, the one who would set my fire free and deliver to me my full powers. You have to understand, my brothers and I didn’t know then all that we know now about the bond. I was unaware of how the progression of intimate connections worked and how our twin sparks spoke to each other, only that they must surely exist and make themselves known at some point. Despite our many physical encounters with no signals revealing themselves, I was still convinced Abigail was my mate and that it would just take time for things to be realized.”

Iron swallowed hard and gripped Anna tighter. “The area where her village was located is where the old Chlor-Chem Labs site is now.”

Anna turned her head toward him. “Isn’t that place a Superfund redevelopment project? I always got the impression it was all contaminated land at this point.”

“It is, and because of its lack of mortal interference over the last several decades, it’s one of the locations Cyro used as a base of operations. It was where Rhode was being held captive before we got him out of there.”

Anna burrowed farther against him. “That’s awful.”

“It was just one of the many atrocities Cyro had a hand in at that location.” He forced himself to look at the puckered skin snaking over his wristbone. “One winter night, the charmers had grown particularly bold. They raided Abigail’s village, slashing the throats of every mortal they could find just to watch each soul’s light bleed slowly from their necks. Every soul snuffed out by a charmer is robbed of its opportunity to return its spark to the Eternal Flame, weakening the power of the Empyrean. It’s our great plight and what my brothers and I have fought to prevent for so long. I thought I was in love with Abigail, that our souls’ sparks would eventually find each other, giving me my full power along with my soul bond. When the raid started, I was screaming her name, searching frantically for her. And then I found her, clutched against the chest of an apex who had its bone knife to her throat.”

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