Read Online Death's Angel: A Novel of the Lost Angels by Heather Killough-Walden - Free Book Online Page B

with our kind.”
    They would be able to keep him there. As soldiers in Hesperos’s army, they possessed the power to anchor him in place, preventing him from transporting away. There was no escape this time.
    Aarix watched him for a moment in silence. The man beside him cocked his head to one side, watching him just as intently. His name was Darion. His thick brown hair and seafoam eyes had fulfilled the dreams of countless women for eons. There was a time when Marcus had been proud to be among the ranks of some of the most beautiful creatures in any realm. Now it left him cold.
    “Hesperos would rather hear your case than kill you outright,” said Aarix. “But I have no problem with the latter if that’s the way it has to be.”
    Behind Marcus, the girl stirred on the bed. At once, he felt Aarix’s influence slip past him as the soldier quickly infiltrated her mind and sent her spinning into another deep—this time
peaceful
—sleep.
    Marcus gave a bitter smile. “Your heart is too soft, Aarix. You are the perfect tool.”
    Aarix’s dark eyes glittered. “I’ll take that as a compliment,” he said. And then he and his companion extended their well-muscled arms. The air shimmered. As the unnatural glow receded, swords that shone with a magical light remained in their grips. The blades of the swords were decorated with ornate etchings, their hilts wrapped in what appeared to be leather that sparkled like stardust.
    “Arm yourself,” Aarix warned.
    Marcus shook his head. “Like I said, Aarix,” he repeated. “You’ll have to kill me.” His smile broadened as he extended his empty hands out at his sides. “I don’t intend to let you feel good about it.”
    Darion’s gaze narrowed, his sea-colored eyes taking on a brighter cast. “I have no issues with striking down an unarmed man,” he told him, “especially if it means saving even a single innocent from your depravity.”
    “My
depravity
?” Marcus asked, raising a brow. “Honestly, Darion?” He shook his head in stark disappointment. “Are you so blind that you can’t see what is happening around you? For thousands of years, we’ve used women as nothing more than sustenance, choosing one every now and then to bear our child before we move on and never know that woman again. Another man raises our offspring. Another man knows his childhood, his first word, his first step.” Again he shook his head, feeling bewildered by the words he was finally giving voice to. “Someone
else
is there to see it the first time he ties his shoes or rides his bicycle. The first time he kisses a girl!”
    “It’s not our place to judge why things are the way they are, Marcus,” said Aarix. But his voice sounded tired, and his dark eyes seemed sad. Marcus wondered whether he had possibly reached the ancient soldier with anything he’d just said.
    Beside Aarix, Darion had lowered his weapon, just a little. His expression was mercurial. He said nothing.
    “That you’re unhappy is one thing,” Aarix went on. “But what you’ve chosen to do about it is another. What were you trying to accomplish?” he asked, shaking his head. “What could
possibly
have been your plan? To impregnate as many women as possible in as little time? Were you trying to prove a point?” Aarix asked, his eyes narrowed, his look one of disgust.
    “Yes!” replied Marcus. His head began to ache and his heart pounded in his chest. “Yes, Aarix! If it is our sole purpose in life to leave behind children we can’t raise ourselves, then so be it! I’ll leave a thousand!”
    “No, you won’t,” Aarix told him simply. He straightened, raising his sword arm once more. The darkness in his eyes had hardened, though they still seemed sad. When he spoke next, it was with an edge that brooked no argument. “Your freedom ends here,” he said. “Tonight.”
    Once more the air warped, shifting with supernatural influence. And once more, it happened so fast that Marcus could not trace it or