Her Demonic Angel (Her Angel Romance Series Book 5) Page 5

  This was just what he needed. Complaining female was right up there with weepy on the list of things that lit the touch paper of irritation that could easily detonate the fifty-kiloton bomb that was his anger.

  “Tough luck. We can’t rest here.”

  “My feet hurt.”

  Veiron frowned, what little pride he had telling him he wasn’t going to let this one slip. “I offered to carry you. You refused. Again, tough luck.”

  “You’re not very nice. I really can’t see what Amelia sees in you,” she snapped and her cheeks blazed. Her gaze zipped to the path, so her black hair fell forwards and obscured her face.

  “What Amelia sees in me?” He stopped, aware that he was contravening his own rules about not resting. It wasn’t a rest. It was a pause. A brief punctuation in their trek so he could figure out what the fuck she was babbling about.

  Erin kept her gaze downcast and wrapped her arms around her slender frame. “As a lover.”

  Veiron spluttered. Not the manliest thing he could have done given the situation but what she had said, and what she clearly thought, had him reeling so hard he was surprised he didn’t fall on his arse.

  “Lover?” he said with so much disbelief that she finally looked up at him.

  Her amber eyes were huge against her dirty face. “You’re not lovers?”

  He shook his head. “No way. No. Marcus would break my balls if I so much as looked at her sideways and she’s not my type.”

  Veiron’s eyes disobeyed his direct command not to take Erin in from head to toe. They roamed over her, liking what they saw. Forbidden. Off the menu. He was not looking for a romantic entanglement. He was looking for revenge.

  Besides, Marcus would probably kill him for looking at Erin too, even though she was definitely his type. Smart-mouthed, sassy, and bewitching.

  “Who’s Marcus?”

  Amelia really needed to keep her little sister in the loop. “Amelia’s lover... boyfriend... hell, he could be her husband for all I know.”

  Erin’s eyes managed to go a little wider. “She would have told me if she had married. But you said that if Amelia died, you would too...”

  Hell, Veiron could see where she had gotten the impression that he and Amelia were lovers now. So was this why she had gone from giving him ‘come hither and let’s party despite my hellish surroundings’ looks to withering glares?

  “I was speaking literally,” he said and her frown didn’t lift. “It’s a long story and not one for here. We have to keep moving.”

  She didn’t look as though she was going to heed that command. There was no way in this realm that he was going to stand around in the open and attempt to explain, without making him sound more terrifying than she already thought he was by just knowing he was a demon, the whole situation with himself, Amelia and Marcus.

  Veiron grabbed her arm and started marching.

  Mercifully, she didn’t protest. She kept pace beside him, her gaze boring into the side of his face, burning with questions that he really didn’t want to answer.

  If she didn’t like the idea of him being a demon, how was she going to react when she discovered that he was like the one who had taken her from her home and dragged her down into Hell?

  Veiron vowed that it would never happen. He couldn’t use his powers in Hell without alerting the authorities so there was no reason for her to find out exactly what sort of man was playing her bodyguard. As soon as he got her safely topside, he would say a few choice words to Amelia, tell Marcus that he could go to Hell on the rescue mission next time, and would get as far away from Erin as possible and as quickly as he could without his wings.

  Heck, he would sprint through the jungle and not stop until he reached the nearest airport.

  And he would never set eyes on Erin again.

  It was how it had to be.

  Because a woman like her could never love a demon like him.

  CHAPTER 5

  Erin stuck to Veiron like glue, so close that she had bumped into his back several times in the past few minutes alone. She had almost tripped him once, accidentally treading on the back of his boot. That had earned her a glare that could have scared the Devil himself. He had told her to keep close to her when they had entered an open area that could have passed as a village. Small black square huts with holes for windows and doors dotted the undulating basalt landscape, upwards of twenty of them. A path wound through the ramshackle buildings. She followed Veiron along it, her gaze darting around, fixing on each black hole in the huts, trying to see if there were things inside watching her from the shadows.

  Veiron had said that if she strayed too far from him, they would smell she was mortal and she was high on the list of food preferred by the creatures who dwelled here. Were they the sort of demons that had left those sharp grooves in all the bones she had seen? She didn’t want to meet anything that could do that. Surely, they could see she was mortal?

  She glanced up at the back of Veiron’s head, watching the bells on the end of the thong that held his long red hair in a ponytail as they swayed with his heavy steps. He was a demon and he looked human. Most of the time. There had been moments when he had looked at her and she had seen the darkness in his eyes, the crimson that edged them and served as a reminder that he wasn’t like her.

  How evil was he on a scale of just a bit wicked to the Devil?

  And how did he know her sister?

  Erin had tried to ask him about the relationship he had with Amelia but each time he had shot her down, telling her to keep quiet and keep moving. She was beginning to think he was using their current location as an excuse to shut her up. If he said that demons could tell she was a tasty snack by the sound of her voice, she would probably believe him.

  Did he eat people too?

  She couldn’t hold that one in.

  “What sort of things are your favourite foods?”

  He looked over one wide shoulder, his eyebrows knitted together and his eyes dark. They brightened a second later, as though he had figured out what she was really asking.

  “Babies,” he said.

  Erin stopped dead.

  He huffed, turned to face her, and the muscles in his jaw ticked beneath his stubble. “I was joking. God, what sort of monster do you think I am?”

  Before she could respond, he had turned away and was stalking ahead. Erin shot a nervous glance at the two small black huts either side of her and raced to catch up with him. A little too fast. She almost ran into the back of him and had to use her hands as a buffer. He tensed and snarled when they settled against his lower back.

  Erin leapt backwards. No touching. She had got the message loud and clear the first time. He didn’t have to growl at her. Would he have preferred she ploughed into his back?

  “You’re not a monster,” she whispered but it didn’t even sound convincing to her. Right now, she wasn’t sure what he was, but she knew she didn’t appreciate jokes about eating babies. “So what do you eat?”

  “Down here, I don’t need to eat anything, so you’re safe, okay?” Could he sound any more offended? He had practically growled the words at her.

  “What about when you’re not down here?” She moved to walk beside him so she could see whether he really was angry with her. He had expressive eyes that hid nothing, as though he didn’t feel the need to guard his emotions from anyone. If he was angry, the world knew it. If he was happy, they knew that too. She was beginning to think that happy was a rare emotion for Veiron.

  “Food... just like you.”

  “Why don’t you eat anything down here?” She had expected him to tell her that he never ate, not that he ate part time. She rubbed her stomach as it rumbled, thoughts of food filling her mind. How long had it been since she had eaten? The landscape of Hell all looked the same to her and there was no night or day, so she had lost track of time again. Only her aching feet told her how far she had walked. Too far. She needed to rest before she collapsed from pain or hunger but now wasn’t the b
est place for stopping so she didn’t mention it. Talking kept her mind off it though, and since Veiron seemed to be in the mood to answer basic questions, she would do her best to learn a little more about her guardian. “Do you pig out when you’re up there?”

  “No. It’s the same for all... never mind. Forget it.”

  “For all what?” Like hell she was going to not mind it and forget it. The hard set of his jaw said he wasn’t going to answer. Erin reached out to him and his gaze followed her hand. She laid it on his forearm. “Veiron?”

  He closed his eyes and inhaled sharply. At least he didn’t tell her to get her hands off him this time. Score one for her. If he anticipated her touch, he didn’t shove her away.

  “Angels.”

  Erin stopped dead again, her fingers tightening around Veiron’s arm. He halted and shifted to face her.

  “You’re an angel?” she said and frowned. “But you said you were local...”

  He nodded.

  “Local and an angel?” Was that even possible? There was so much suffering down here. If he were an angel, why would he tolerate it? Wouldn’t he want to do something to end it?

  “Of sorts,” he said, turned on his heel, and kept walking.

  Erin stared at his back. An angel without wings. Her gaze looked beyond the black leather scabbard that held his sword against his back and settled on the two long vertical scars highlighted by the matching red and black tribal tattoos on his shoulder blades.

  “Has someone cut off your wings?” She hobbled to catch up with him.

  He shot her a look that plainly told her to shut up and drop the subject. Like hell. She had gone from wanting to know why her sister knew a demon to why her sister knew an angel, and she wanted answers.

  “Oh my God... you’re fallen!”

  He turned on her with a snarl.

  Something told Erin that it wasn’t the G-word that had upset him, not as it had the Devil. Veiron had used the G-word himself without any obvious anger. The rage that burned in his eyes was because she had struck the nail firmly on the head and driven it hard into some place it hurt.

  “Sorry,” she whispered but he wasn’t listening. He was already striding away from her, leaving her exposed to any watching eyes in the huts around them.

  Questions burned on the tip of her tongue but the black look on Veiron’s face warned that putting voice to them might make them the last thing she ever said so she quietly walked beside him.

  They left the bleak village behind and entered a wide open area where the black cragged land belched flames and fiery orange cracks spewed lava. Erin couldn’t imagine how horrible it would be to live down here if she had lived in Heaven. She had no doubt that the other realm existed. She was walking through Hell with a fallen angel as her guardian. Why had Veiron fallen?

  She glanced up at his face. Pain edged his dark eyes as he stared ahead into the endless black. Voicing that question would only hurt him and she had done enough damage already. He had gone through Hell to free her and was leading her out, taking her to her sister. She should have been thanking him, showing her gratitude, rather than playing the painful version of twenty questions.

  Erin averted her gaze, no longer sure how to speak to him or what to say if she could find her voice. Shards of black rock edged the right side of the winding path through the fiery broken black fields, obscuring the way ahead. She frowned as they turned a corner and she saw a group of rickety rusty cages ahead. They weren’t empty.

  Three women dressed in rags, filthy and emaciated, huddled inside them. They reached through the bars of their cramped cages and looked up at her, dark eyes wide and laced with tears.

  As she approached, they pleaded her to help them. Veiron strolled right past them without even sparing them a glance. How could he be so unfeeling? He didn’t even break his stride.

  She couldn’t ignore their cries.

  Erin reached for one of them.

  Veiron’s hand snapped around her wrist and yanked it back.

  “Don’t,” he growled.

  “But they’re scared and starving! I can’t let them just die here.” She wrenched her arm free of his grip and stood up to him. It was hard to intimidate a man who stood over a foot taller and around two feet wider than she was, but she wouldn’t let that stop her from trying.

  “You damn well can because they’re starving all right, and if you open those cages, it will be you on the menu.” Veiron grabbed her upper arm and pulled her against his hard body, so her back pressed against his front.

  Erin looked down into their dull eyes. “They’re demons?”

  “One of the nastier kinds,” he murmured close to her ear, sending a shiver through her limbs. She barely resisted the temptation to lean back into his torso so she could feel his skin on hers.

  Veiron launched a heavy boot at one of the cages, rattling it with a hard kick. The woman in it changed, brown-orange scales erupting across her flesh and her eyes burning blue as she hissed at him.

  The creature spoke, lisping a language Erin didn’t understand through sharp teeth and with a forked tongue.

  Veiron seemed to know it. He grunted, shrugged and levelled another swift kick at the cage.

  “Tell him that if he listens to you,” he snarled and tugged on Erin’s hand, dragging her along behind him. “We have to keep moving. It isn’t safe here.”

  Erin wasn’t about to argue but she didn’t understand Veiron’s sudden haste. The bruising grip he retained on her arm and the pace of his strides had her almost falling with each painful step she managed.

  “I need to rest,” she said and he turned dark eyes on her.

  “We can’t. Not now. Not here.”

  “Because of that thing?” She hadn’t been born yesterday. “She’s going to tell the Devil, isn’t she?”

  “The bastard won’t listen to her. She would need to escape that cage and reach the bottomless pit first. The Devil’s men would rip her apart before she even laid eyes on the old git.”

  “Those horrible black demons with the red fangs and eyes?” She shuddered from the memory of them. “I never want to see another one of those bastards again in my life.”

  Veiron suddenly released her arm and prowled on at a faster pace, heading up an incline. Erin tried to keep up but he was moving too quickly and her feet were killing her. Each step sent fire burning across her soles and she wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep going without a rest.

  “Veiron?” she said but he didn’t stop. He kept going, the gap between them gradually growing, until he was more than one hundred feet ahead of her and she began to feel exposed and scared again.

  Erin held herself and kept hobbling on, tears stinging her eyes. Her gaze darted around and she swore she could feel eyes on her, following her. She shivered, cold to the bone with fear, and her heart rushed in her ears.

  “Veiron?” She tried again and he still didn’t acknowledge her.

  He disappeared over the brow of the hill. Erin panicked.

  She ran despite the fire that licked her feet and the pain that jolted her bones with each step. The land beyond the hill came into view as she neared the brow and she slowed when she saw Veiron standing there, his back to her and his hands clenched into fists at his sides.

  The hill ended abruptly, as though someone had carved away the other half of it. It dropped off into a valley over a hundred feet below her. Bright, boiling fire filled the world as far as her eyes could see.

  “We will have to go around,” Veiron said, voice deceptively calm and emotionless.

  She could easily fool herself into believing that he had just gone on ahead to scout what waited on the other side of the incline but she wasn’t that sort of woman. He had intended to leave her. She had put her foot in it again. Was it because she had placed them in danger by trying to free those creatures?

  “I wish there was an easier way.” Veiron looked down at her but she kept her gaze on the brutal landscape. There wasn’t even a path. It
was endless fire. “Hell is ever-changing. A few days ago, we could have passed through this way. There is nothing I can do to make this journey easier on you... if I use my powers, they will know that I am here. With that demon wailing about you, it won’t take the Devil long to figure out that you’re missing and that you’re with me.”

  “What sort of powers?” She glanced at him.

  He grunted and turned away. “We can follow the ridge and rest up ahead. Can you manage it, or are you going to swallow that pride of yours and let me help you?”

  She would rather he answered her questions and stopped evading them.

  “I’m fine,” Erin said instead and began walking again, trying not to wince with each step so he had no reason to call her stubborn and force her to let him carry her. As much as she wanted to be in his arms, she didn’t enjoy the prospect of being slung over his shoulder again, and his current mood said he would be carrying her that way or no way at all.

  Two hundred yards down the rocky path, Veiron shocked her by speaking.

  “I could teleport you out of this place,” he said without looking at her. “I could materialise you boots so you didn’t have to hurt your feet and clothes so you felt more comfortable. I could even produce some viable source of nourishment or perhaps even water if I focused enough... although I am not sure how good it would taste. I could do a lot of things, but the moment I use a fraction of my power, everyone will know where we are.”

  That wasn’t so hard now, was it? Erin sighed and wished that he could do all that for her too, but it wasn’t worth the risk. If Veiron not using his powers kept them off the radar of the locals and allowed them to get out of Hell unscathed, then she wasn’t going to complain. She touched his left wrist and he looked at her. He had told her a little about himself and she was grateful, because she knew that he had a good heart underneath his hard lethal exterior. He had used her to illustrate his powers and that told her that he cared about her condition and he wanted to alleviate her pain. She couldn’t let him use his powers, but she could let him use his strength.

  “Can you carry me now?” she said and his look softened and he nodded.