Page 67 of Beyond the Storm
And why did it feel so right?
Blood drinking wasn’t uncommon amongst our kind. Bellamy indulged in blood on occasion, but he’d never fed from a mortal. He sought non-human beings like ourselves. I had never developed a taste for it. So why had I done so with Elasus? Panic built inside me.
“Kallias.”
“Stay away!” I curled more in on myself, holding the back of my head.
Warmth enclosed me then. His arms. He pulled me closer, and a sob tore through my throat. I tried to push him away, but he wouldn’t let me.
“You see?” I said, my voice thick. Tears escaped my eyes as I burrowed my face against his chest. “Darkness dwells inside me.”
“You call it darkness. But for me?” Elasus smoothed his hand over my hair. “I have never felt so warm. You feel it as well, do you not? The bond between us.”
I gazed up at him through watery eyes. “I do.”
He softly smiled and palmed my cheek, brushing away a tear.
My brothers had all rushed toward the river but kept out of sight. I sensed their life forces within the trees behind us. The strong emotion inside me was one they had all felt too. Another sensation then prickled the top of my scalp.
A bright light filled the sky before a loud boom hit the earth a short distance away. Lazarus straightened up from his landing, and his white wings fanned to the sides of him.
Elasus slumped against me. His eyes blew wide. “He… he has…”
“Wings,” I said. “Like a bird.”
I found no humor in the situation though. For Lazarus to show himself in front of a mortal meant he’d seen no other choice. It meant he’d come because of what I’d done. My brothers ran from the tree line and came to stand beside me.
Elasus regarded them in confusion before focusing back on the angel. His arms tightened around me. My heart beat a little harder at that. There Elasus was, confused by the sight of a winged man, but his first instinct was to protect me.
Melancholy stirred again in my chest.“My warrior.”
I faced Elasus. “He is Lazarus. The one I spoke of before.”
“The one who trained you.”
“Yes.” The one who was charged with killing us, too, if we ever moved against him or the other angels in the celestial realm. Yet, I kept that to myself. I pressed a kiss to Elasus’ shoulder before pushing away from him, my throat stinging and tight. I fastened my trousers and stood from the grass.
Elasus stood with me, hand landing on my lower back before he tugged me back to his side. He sensed the threat.
Lazarus tucked his wings back into his shoulder blades and walked toward us, his normally expressionless face now clouded with anger. “You bit a mortal,” he said in a hard tone. “You drank from him.”
“I…” Pressure squeezed my windpipe, taking my breath as well as my words.
Alastair stepped forward, blocking his path and placing himself between us. “No harm was done. The mortal—”
“Remember your place, Pride,” Lazarus interjected. “This does not concern you.”
“It does,” he countered. “You have always said the eight of us are bound by our blood. We are all that stand between Lucifer and the mortals he wishes to destroy. So, yes. Kallias’ fate concerns me a great deal.”
That was all I meant to him? A link in the chain that would be used to defeat our enemy. I should’ve known not to think anything more. Alastair was our leader. We called him brother, but he—and Pride—only cared about being victorious in this war. Whatever the cost.
The muscle in Lazarus’ jaw tightened as he ground his teeth together.
“Kallias has never stepped out of line, nor has he ever shown interest in anyone,” Alastair continued. “These feelings are unfamiliar to him. Surely, this one mistake can be forgiven this once.”
Lazarus glared at him before shifting those stormy eyes to me. He stepped past Alastair and walked closer to me.
“You will not touch him,” Elasus said, moving me behind him.
