Hell's Angel: Guardian Angel Book 2

We kept the visit to my mom’s short and... well, not sweet. Her tangents started the second her maid led us into the living room. She started with my moving without telling her, coming to visit without telling her, and being with Michael without telling her. Somehow, everything came back to how my actions affected her. And she really went off when I’d told her that Michael and I were just friends. I’d heard the “old and alone” speech plenty of times already, even though I was only 25. We were able to keep the visit down to an hour, a new personal record, and then we were off to meet up with Cassi and Randall and Max to discuss the Vega problem.

“Are you all right?” Michael asked as we turned onto Max’s street. “You have been quiet since we left your mother’s, not something that happens often.”

The corners of my mouth lifted into a tiny smile at his attempt to cheer me. “I’ve just been thinking. I love my mom, but I don’t understand how there are people like her who make others feel like crap. She does it on purpose, you know, talk down to me. If I made people, I don’t get why they treat each other so horribly.”

His warm hand cupped my cheek and I sucked in a sharp breath. Being more than human, I’d always run a little hot, so it was nice to feel warmth seeping in from another person. Especially when that other person had the ability to set my whole face on fire with a simple touch. “Not everyone is as empathetic as you are, Lyra-Rose.”

I snorted. ”No one is as empathetic as I am. It’s a pain in the ass, let me tell you. But thanks. I think I needed to hear that.”

He gave me a dimpled smile before opening his door. “Shall we?”

Of course, the peacefulness of my moment with Michael couldn’t last. My sister came barreling out of the house with an excited four-year-old child trailing after her. When little Mackenzie saw me, she yanked herself free from her mother’s grip and ran up to me. “Auntie!” she screamed as she launched herself into my arms. “I missed you.”

I nuzzled my nose against her soft cheek. Mackenzie looked like my sister with the same hazel eyes and dark hair, although hers was short and pulled into thin pigtails. Her tiny arms squeezed me tightly. “I’ve missed you, too, hon. Do you remember my friend Michael?”

She rested her head against my ample chest and looked up at him warily. “You were at my house when the bad lady came. That night the scary bird tried to hurt me.”

Carefully, Michael reached out a hand to pat her small head. “Yes. I was. I have been helping keep your Auntie Lyra safe.”

Holy. Crap. Watching Michael with my niece sent my brain in directions it had absolutely no reason to go. I knew that I cared for Michael, but I wasn’t sure what I felt beyond companionship, and seeing him with her made all sorts of ideas into my head.

I would’ve stood there all day trying to handle my emotions if it weren’t for the high cawing of a crow. I normally wouldn’t have worried about the sound, but regular crows didn’t make the hairs on my arms stand up with their cries.

I felt Michael stiffen beside me. I turned big, worried blue eyes toward his chiseled face and asked the obvious. “You hear that? Maxi, take Mac into the house. Now!” I tried to hand off the kid to my panicked sister but her own fear had her clinging to me tighter.

“Lyra? What’s going on?” Maxine’s voice carried a frantic air that she couldn’t hide, especially when I could feel the waves of complete terror coming off her body.

The bird let out another loud shriek before its huge body landed with a thump on a neighbor’s Nissan Cube. Razor sharp talons left scars in the sea foam green paint job. A pair of beady black eyes glared at us and the crow’s sleek black head cocked to the side. It was the size of an eagle with too much intelligence as it stared. Mackenzie whimpered.

“Lyra-Rose, get your family in the car. I will handle this.”

My stomach tensed up but Michael was a seasoned warrior. He could handle the crow, at least for a little while. I had to make sure that my all too human sister and niece were taken care of before I could worry about my guardian angel. My heart felt like it would pound right out of my body, but I forced myself to keep a cool head.

“Lyra, what do we do?” Max wrapped her arms around little Mac, who still clung to me. They’d already gone through this once and I hated that my supernatural life was again barging into their normal world. Tears streamed down Mackenzie’s cheeks and I could tell that my sister was barely holding hers back for the sake of her daughter.

I ushered them into the car, handing Mac to my sister. I leaned into the SUV and kissed Max’s forehead. “Leave it to me.”

Confusion passed over her face and in her emotions for just a second before realization settled in. She opened her mouth to protest, but I slammed the door before she could say anything and, with a wave of my hand, the doors sealed them in. My sister banged her fists against the window but I ignored her, instead focusing on the fight going on in the middle of the upscale neighborhood.

Michael had his long, flaming sword. I’m pretty sure that the part in the Bible, the end of Genesis, I think, about the angel sent to guard the gate to the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve got kicked out was actually about him. He stood fearless against the titan, Corvus, Vega’s favorite pet. I’d seen that sword do some damage against my deranged goddess sister once, but that stupid bird was just too damn fast. Corvus screamed in fury and swooped in on Michael, his exceptionally sharp claws raking along my angel’s back. The giant bird turned to me.

Corvus launched himself at me and my hands rose instinctively. A glowing blue dome arched around me and even enclosed the back end of the car Max and Mac were holed up in. The crow crashed into the protective bubble, but he didn’t stay down for long. That sharp black beak pecked along my dome, looking for weaknesses. “Oh no you don’t,” I growled.

I flicked my wrist and turned my palm up and my whole hand started to glow. A warm golden orange light engulfed my hand and grew to the size of an apple. This power was something that I’d had a problem with once, but since shedding my humanity, it had become a lot easier. The light resembled a flame the way it wavered along the edges, but without the burn.

The titan screamed again, his wings beating frantically as it continued to assault my protective barrier. The air stirred with his angry flapping and it was hard to keep up the shield. A flip of my hand sent the light at Corvus. He glowered at me through one pitch black eye before launching up into the air. I relaxed a little, thinking that maybe he’d given up because the titan was smart enough to know when he couldn’t win.

Nope.

A loud caw punctuated the air just a second before the crow dove from thirty stories up. I braced myself, putting more power into the blue bubble protecting me and my sister and niece. I felt it when Corvus’s sleek black body hit the dome at over one hundred miles per hour. I flinched, my magic shattering around me like glass. I didn’t realize how much using my magic could take out of me, but I was running on the last remnants of adrenaline coursing through my body as the bird circled around in the sky to dive-bomb me with talons extended.

From inside the car, Mackenzie screamed and I could feel the terror radiating from Maxine. Using the last of my strength, I called back my light. The warm, comforting glow spread along my palm. I waved my arm in the crow’s direction like I was flinging a Frisbee. Pure light, colored a cross between gold and orange, seared at its wings, singeing them and pissing him off more than actually doing any damage. Its too intelligent eyes blinked at me before changing his trajectory. Instead of attacking me, he went at Michael, who was still recovering from the last swipe of the monster’s claws.

Michael proved his incredible swordsmanship because he cut at the beast before it could get to him again. It was a beautiful, deadly ballet that he performed, my warrior clashing against the titan that should have fled by now. It was hard to watch the fight unfold simply because I didn’t want to see Michael hurt again, but I couldn’t draw my eyes away from it. There was a reason that he had been considered the best soldier in a legion of literal guardian angels. His body moved with such deadly perfection.

“Lyra-Rose,” he grunted. “Hurry and get them to safety. I will join you shortly.”

I nibbled on my lower lips for a fraction of a second before moving toward the driver’s door. He could hold his own without me, probably more easily if I wasn’t there for him to try to protect me. He could just fly off or even poof away from here if he needed to. I realized he was just buying us some time.

I yanked open the door and my empathy went into overdrive from the emotions radiating from inside the SUV. My stomach roiled but I forced down the nausea that threatened. I chanced a glance back at the titan and guardian just in time to see the crow’s gleaming head bob and his beak bury itself into Michael’s chest. It took a hell of a lot to hurt a soldier from the City, but they weren’t invincible, Michael wasn’t invincible. He could die and my blood ran cold at that single thought.

“No!” I screamed as I slammed the door without getting into the car. The bird took flight again and set its sights on me as its next target. My teeth clenched so had that my jaw ached, but the tension in every muscle made that seem almost insignificant. My blue eyes narrowed dangerously at Vega’s pet. Bring it on, I thought.

Power flooded from every cell to gather in my clenched fists. From the corners of my eyes, I could see the bright light like fire barely contained in my hands as my nails dug painfully into my palms. A war cry escaped past my lips, guttural and raw, and my fingers stretched open to release every drop of magic I had. My light burst sudden and bright, like a supernova. Corvus screeched as the light connected with him and he just... exploded.

Vega had created her titans to be on the almost in league with the gods, with many of the same powers, including immortality. I’m not sure how she convinced Thesis to let her give her creations such a gift, but those things had been around in the godly realm since before the first of humanity even came into existence. Corvus was Vega’s favorite pet so it was pretty heartening to see him reduced to a few pounds of sparkly onyx dust. “They can die?” I murmured sleepily.

My legs couldn’t support me anymore. My knees gave out and my eyelids fluttered closed and I let my body collapse toward the unyielding pavement. I never hit the pavement, of course, because Michael scooped me up like a rag doll before I fell. Heat from his muscled body seeped into my and I cuddled up against his chest. I had just enough consciousness that his footsteps rattled me as he walked in the direction of Max’s house. I was gone before he crossed the threshold.

I’d only been sick once, on the night I’d shed my humanity to become goddess again. But I’d had plenty of hangovers, mostly from drinking too much in a pathetic attempt to drown out my mother’s disapproval. Waking up with a pounding headache and cotton-filled mouth reminded me of that. I moaned and then winced as I sat up, pausing to swallow back to the bile that threatened its way up my throat.

“Lyra? You okay?” I recognized my sister’s worried voice.

I peeled my eyes open, a harder task than it should have been, and shot her a weak smile. “I’ll be fine. But you’ve really got to stop worrying.”

Her hazel eyes darkened nearly to brown, a trick that only happened when she was angry. “Stop worrying? Are you kidding me? That thing attacked us again. My daughter could have been hurt but you saved our lives, almost dying in the process and you want me to stop worrying?”

I gagged as my empathy latched onto her flaring emotions. I usually had a pretty good handle on letting other people’s feelings take a backseat, but I was still too strung out myself to concentrate enough on not getting overwhelmed. I covered my mouth with my hand and breathed heavily through my nose. My words were muffled slightly when I said, “Max, I’m not being a smartass or anything. I really need you to calm down or I’m going to toss up the sandwich Dad made me.”

She relaxed immediately, a more manageable confusion becoming the dominant emotion. “I thought Randall said you had that under control.”

“Normally I do. But whatever I did out there completely drained me. It’s going to take a little while before I can get a grip on my magic.”

She cocked her head to the side, her curly ponytail trailing down her shoulder and her eyes went back to their regular mainly green hazel. “If you’re a god, shouldn’t you be all powerful or something?”

I smiled at her. My family had never been religious, but we had the basic understanding of Christianity and other types of deities, just not the ones that resided in the City of gods. “It’s really not that simple. Even we can be destroyed. This whole thing with Vega started mostly because our mother was worried about some great evil. That’s why we have guardian angels, warriors like Michael. Where is he, anyway?”

A frown touched her lips. “He’s upstairs with Mac. He knew there was no way I was leaving you and he had to call Randall anyway.”

She was trying to reign in her emotions, but they were tinged with sadness. My own full mouth turned down at the corners. “You’re upset. What’s wrong? Mac’s okay, isn’t she?”

“Yeah, she’s fine, freaked out, but fine. I’m just realizing that Mom isn’t actually your mom.”

I thought back on our conversation and realized how I’d majorly stuck my foot in my mouth. Crap. “Max, that’s not what I meant. I don’t think of Thesis as my mother. Loral is my mom. You’re still stuck with me as a sister.”

She gave me a half smile that didn’t even come close to reaching her eyes. I sighed. It was nice having her know about my true nature so I didn’t have to sensor what I said around her like I did for my parents, but I hadn’t noticed how much it actually hurt her. As far as I was concerned, Maxine Dawson Miller was more family than any gods, but little slips like referring to them in a familial way opened a gap between us that couldn’t be crossed. I had to be careful to make sure she knew just how important she was to me.