9

The dog darted forward, snapping its teeth at me. I moved aside, my leg barely avoiding impalement on its mouth of daggers. Quick as lightning, it moved again—and this time, I wasn’t so lucky. Pain ruptured my thigh, pouring down my leg like a bloody waterfall. I stumbled back, trying to get away from the beast.

It was waiting for me.

It launched onto its back legs and bit me in the shoulder. Its pointed jaws clamped on tight, pulling me down to the ground. Its third bite pierced my calf.

“You must conquer the pain and fight through it,” Nero’s voice said through the haze clouding my mind.

Black spots danced across my eyes. I clenched my teeth and tried to remain conscious. The dog was a big blurry blotch somewhere near my foot. I kicked at it. I must have hit its nose because it yelped in pain and retreated a step. This was my chance. I tried to use that moment to stand, but my body refused to move. And the moment was too brief. The dog snapped at me again and again. The pain melted together into one solid stream of agony. Numbness followed, and then darkness.

When I came to, Harker was standing over me, his hand on my leg. A golden glow pulsed out from his hand, spreading in gentle, humming waves across my skin. My wounds sealed, and my head cleared enough to see Nero standing a few steps away, the dog sitting by his side. The beast’s eyes were dancing about wildly, like it wanted to finish what it had started, but whatever spell Nero had cast over it was keeping it in place.

“Are you all right?” Harker asked me, smiling with encouragement as he moved his hand from my leg to my arm.

I forced a smile to my aching lips. Everything in my body ached, though that feeling was fading fast. In a few seconds, I might even feel human again instead of like some dog’s chew toy.

“I’m fine,” I told Harker, allowing him to help me to my feet.

He shot me a little wink, then went to stand beside Nero. The dog was walking back to the blast door. As soon as it was standing on the other side, the steel slab slammed shut behind it.

“You will need to practice that again,” Nero said.

“Again?” I replied, horrified. The memory of that beast’s jaw cutting through my body sent shivers down my spine. “I have to do that again?”

He stepped toward me. “You will have to do this and more every day.”

He reached out to me. I tried to pull away, but he was quicker. His hand closed around my wrist. As his other hand brushed across my skin, pain bubbled up.

“You missed a spot,” he told Harker.

A smile touched Harker’s lips. “So I did.”

Nero’s fingertip glowed, golden and blinding. He tapped it to the cut in my arm. A rush of warmth cascaded through my body, pulsing in time to my heartbeat in a beautiful, intoxicating melody of magic. I inhaled deeply, drawing the delicious scent of that magic into me.

“Why are you here?” he asked, his voice dancing on the notes of the sweet song swirling inside my head.

I opened my mouth to tell him everything, to spill every secret I had. They were his to have. Every single one of them.

I stopped. What was I saying? I couldn’t tell him anything. He was an angel. And he was working his magic on me. I pushed away from him, and he didn’t try to stop me. He just watched me as the last of his magical song faded out of my head. A sense of profound loss cut through my previous contentment, leaving me shivering and sad. I wanted to feel his magic again, even knowing it wasn’t real. None of this was real. This was a game he was playing, an angel’s game. I took another step away from him. I would not let him have that power over me.

Surprise flashed in his emerald eyes. Maybe no one had ever resisted his siren’s song before. But that breath of surprise quickly hardened into granite as he turned to address all of the initiates.

“You will train willpower here,” he said. “You must resist pain and fear and any enemy you might face in battle. But you must never resist those who command you.”

Even though his eyes scanned the crowd of initiates, I could feel them on me.

“The Legion has no use for soldiers who question orders. We need to know that in battle you will listen to your superiors, that you will do what you’re told. No fear. No hesitation. No questioning.” His eyes fell on me. “You can either obey me by choice, or I will make you obey.”

A wave of pure power shot out from him. All around me, my fellow initiates began falling to their knees. Nero’s magic tore at me, fierce this time rather than sweet. The sheer power of his magic felt like a mountain on my shoulders, pressing me down inch by inch. It hurt to resist—hurt more than punching that door, more than the dog mauling me—but every fiber of my being rebelled against his control.

You shouldn’t resist, a voice said inside my head. It didn’t sound like Nero’s voice. It sounded like my own.

And the voice, that sensible part of me, was right. I shouldn’t resist. I had to behave. I was here to gain the power I needed to save my brother, not to prove that I could stand up to an angel. So I stopped fighting. Relief flooded me immediately—relief from the agony of that heavy weight on my shoulders, relief from thinking. It was so easy to obey, to let someone make the decisions for me. A warm blanket of magic enveloped us all, protecting us, leading us. Uniting us.

“Obedience is everything,” Nero said. A halo shining like a million crushed diamonds lit up his body. “You can hate me all you want, but you will follow my orders. Do you understand?”

We all nodded, unable to speak.

“Good,” he said, releasing his hold on us. As the layers of his spell dissolved into the air, the easy contentment I’d felt faded away. “Now stand up, initiates, and run another ten laps.”

* * *

The next few weeks passed in a repeating loop of agony. Nero had us run until we couldn’t stand, do pushups until our arms gave out, and punch that cursed door over and over again until our blood stained it too. We jumped from great heights and ran through obstacle courses designed to break our bodies. And we did this often after only two hours of sleep. Sleep deprivation was one of Nero’s favorite tools.

We had to fight dogs—and then one another with swords, knives, and all kinds of other weapons from the Legion’s arsenal. Bleeding was no excuse for giving up and neither were missing limbs. Nero pointed out that he could heal our wounds after the fight. If we fought well and didn’t surrender, he even did that right away. If we didn’t…well, he waited longer to heal us.

The man was a twisted, sadistic beast, and before the end of the first week, I wanted to kill him. By the end of the second week, I’d decided that death was too good for him. I had to make him suffer first.

By the end of the first month, I was too exhausted to fantasize about killing him. The only thing that kept me going was my need to save my brother.

“Pick up the pace, Pandora,” Nero called out.

Pandora was his nickname for me. Apparently, our first conversation had left an impression, the one where I’d talked about my family’s business Pandora’s Box. So I was the bringer of evil and chaos? Well, it was better than being the torturer of desperate souls.

That was Nero’s job. It was almost the end of the day, and my body was shaking. I was only halfway to the top of the climbing wall, and I was desperately pleading with my muscles not to collapse. Of course Nero had left the climbing wall for the end of the obstacle course from hell, when everyone was twenty shades past exhaustion and failure meant falling twenty feet. And there wasn’t even a safety net. Apparently, that would be cheating because there were no safety nets in life. I guess I should have been happy the angel hadn’t placed spikes at the bottom.

I muttered a few choice curses under my breath.

“Less cursing my existence and those that bore me into this world, and more climbing, initiate,” Nero called up at me. “This climb is on a timer, and if that time runs out, I’ll come up there and throw your ass down.”

I cursed him some more, but I kept climbing, pushing myself harder. I was not going to give him the satisfaction of seeing me fall to my death. I made it to the top and hit the buzzer button.

“Thirty-one seconds to go,” Nero said. “Cutting it a bit close, aren’t you, initiate?”

I threw a look of pure loathing down at him, but I didn’t think he even saw it. He was already busy harassing the next initiate trying to make her way up the wall. I descended slowly, trying to get back to solid ground without falling. As soon as I touched down, I headed straight for the water pitcher.

“Four more laps,” Nero told me as the cool water touched my lips. “And another four for drinking without permission.”

My feet felt like lead, but I gulped down the rest of the water in my cup, then took off running down the track. Ahead of me, I saw Ivy stumble and fall. I hurried over to her, trying to help her to her feet. But my friend just shook and heaved in deep, choking breaths.

All of a sudden, Nero was standing over us. “Pandora, Poison Ivy, get moving.”

I glared up at him. “Ivy is done. Can’t you see that? Give her a few minutes.”

“There are no timeouts in life,” he replied coolly. “When you’re in the middle of a battle, you cannot take a few minutes.”

“We’re in a gym, not on a battlefield,” I argued, standing to face him. “Even soldiers get to rest sometimes.”

“You can rest when you’re dead.”

I frowned at him. “Stop being such a hard ass.”

Ivy had been through a lot today. She hadn’t fared well against the dog—nor her opponent afterward. She’d faced Mina, one of the Legion brats. The hand Mina had cut off of Ivy was still twitching, even though Harker had healed it back onto her.

Harker was standing over us now too. Damn, these guys moved fast. “Nero, I like her,” he said with a chuckle.

Nero glowered at him, but he saved his lecture just for me. “I warned you that your mouth would get you into trouble. If you can’t learn to keep it shut, you won’t survive here.”

I met his stare, too stubborn to look away. I knew that I should behave, that I should be frightened. The angel’s power was mind-shattering. But I was too angry to be rational or even scared. I chalked it up to my protective streak, to my need to help my friend. I kept glaring at him.

“Careful,” Nero warned.

“Or what?” I demanded.

“Can’t you give the poor girl a rest, Nero?” said Harker.

“Very well.” He waved Ivy away. “Go sit at the side, dead girl. Tomorrow when everyone else is eating lunch, you will be running.” As Ivy wandered off, looking both relieved and anxious, he turned his stare on me again. “Now, Pandora, you will take her laps too.”

“Come on, Nero. Give her a break,” Harker protested.

“There are no breaks here,” declared Colonel Hard Ass. “If she doesn’t want her friend to run, she has to pick up the slack.”

Harker opened his mouth to say something, but I was faster. “I’m fine. I’ll take the laps,” I told him. I looked at Nero, my chin lifted with stubbornness, and I set off running down the track once more.

Anger and the stubborn need to show Nero that I wouldn’t back down carried me through most of the laps, but on the final one my mind could no longer ignore the signals my body was screaming at it. My legs buckled, and I stumbled to the ground.

“Serves her right for talking back to an angel,” Mina chuckled to her running companion.

“This will teach her her place,” he agreed as they zipped past me.

Another pair of Legion brats passed, piling on their own taunts. I struggled to pull myself up, but my body wasn’t listening.

“If you’re talking, you’re not hurting enough,” Nero’s voice called out from across the gym. “Six more laps for the four of you.”

Joy bubbled up inside of me, curling my lips into a smile.

“You too, Pandora,” Nero said. “Six more laps. If you can smile, you can run.”

He shouldn’t have been able to see my smile. The man had the eyes of a hawk.

“Get up, or I’ll add another six,” he told me.

Damn him. I pushed against my own exhaustion, struggling to no effect.

Harker ran over to me. “Here,” he said with a smile. “I thought you could use a hand.”

“Thanks,” I said, trying to return the smile.

But I was too tired to smile. I did manage to move my lips, but I don’t think I pulled off anything more than a pained-looking expression. Harker reached down, locking his arm with mine to pull me to my feet. He’d sure been helping me a lot. Ok, he’d been helping everyone. But he’d been helping me even more. Probably because Nero had it out for me. That damn angel was a slave driver. This guy was the nice one. From what I could tell, they were best friends, which was surely one of Earth’s greatest mysteries. How could two such very different people be friends?

“Get running, Pandora,” Nero commanded.

“He means well,” Harker told me. “He just wants to push everyone so they will be strong enough to survive the initiation ceremony.”

“I think he has it out for me.”

“He does seem harder on you,” he agreed. “He’s not usually this hard on anyone. You must be special.”

I rolled my eyes. “Lucky me.”

He chuckled. “You’re going to be ok,” he told me.

“Of course I am. I’m too stubborn to die,” I replied, finally managing a smile. Then I set off running again.

A loud horn sounded in the hall as I finished my last lap. My hopes for a release from this torture were dashed when Nero began dividing us up into pairs for combat training. At least that’s what he called it. My sparring buddy Jace, the biggest and meanest of the Legion brats, quickly turned it into beat-the-crap-out-of-Leda training. By the end of our so-called fight, I had a black eye, a fat lip, and the side of my body felt like it was on fire. But at least we weren’t using swords right now.

“You weren’t in many fights before you came here, were you?” Harker asked me as he healed my wounds with magic.

“I’ve been in lots of fights,” I told him. “But I’m smart enough to fight from a distance when my opponent is much bigger and stronger than I am.”

“Avoidance is not a strategy here,” Nero said, stepping up to us. “You won’t always be able to run away. You need to learn to handle yourself in every situation.” He tossed me a wooden staff. “Attack me.”

I glanced over at Harker, who seemed to be amused about something. I wasn’t sure if he was laughing at Nero or at me. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he was laughing at me. I was a joke. I couldn’t fight at all. Nero was right about that. Damn angel. I hated it when he was right.

I moved cautiously toward Nero, then swung my staff. He parried my strike, then whacked me on the back with his staff.

“Too slow, Pandora,” he chided me. “You’re holding back. Stop standing there like a scared little girl and attack me like you mean it.”

I charged forward, straight at him. Surprise flashed in his eyes for a moment, like he’d never expected me to do anything like that. Well, I was full of surprises. His surprise cost him a valuable split of a second, allowing me to land a solid strike to his ribs. I swung my staff around for a second blow, but my luck had run out. Nero caught my staff mid-strike, tearing it out of my hands. As my weapon abandoned me, I threw myself against my opponent, tackling him to the ground.

At least that was the plan. He rolled as he hit the ground, taking me with him. His hands tightened around my arms, and he slammed me to the floor. My back hit the rubbery ground with the resounding thump of defeat. I kicked, trying to get free, but he dug his knees into my legs, pinning them down. His hands were locked around my wrists, holding them to the ground above my head.

“Still too slow, Pandora,” he said softly. A rare chuckle buzzed on his lips, but it was gone so fast that I wondered if I’d only imagined it.

He was gone too, standing above me, holding his hand out to me. I took it, and when our skin touched, I felt that same spark of magic again. I disconnected myself quickly. This was starting to get too weird. What kind of magic was he trying to cast on me?

Everyone had stopped sparring to watch Nero kick my ass. The Legion brats were laughing their heads off, but I ignored them. Ivy met my eyes, a smirk slowly twisting her lips. Great. Now I was going to hear all night about how ‘Colonel Sexy Angel’ had pinned me to the ground. My roommates wanted to sleep with the angel almost as much as they wanted to kill him. Except Drake; he just wanted to be him.

Nero turned to face the other initiates, and they scrambled to continue sparring with their partner before he assigned anyone more laps around that gods forsaken track. Jace, my friendly partner, rubbed his hands together and grinned at me like he was going to enjoy making me bleed. I made a concerted effort not to wince. That would just rile him up even more. Instead, I stood there, waiting for him to come to me.

He surged forward, swinging his staff at my head. I ducked and darted away toward a curtain of thick ropes hanging from the ceiling. He was strong, but I was quick. I retreated toward the wall, and he followed, glee singing in his eyes. When he swung at me again, I hopped onto the climbing wall, running up it. He followed, trying to grab me, but I snapped my leg out in a sharp kick. My shoe slammed into his face, and he fell to the ground. I grabbed one of the ropes dangling from the ceiling and jumped down. As he blinked repeatedly, trying to focus his eyes, I knotted the end of the rope around his ankle. I looped the other end of the rope around one of the bars on the wall and heaved. Up on the ceiling, the rope slid across the pulley, yanking Jace off his feet. I tied the end of the rope on another of the lower wall bars, then passed under my opponent. He was hanging upside down fifteen feet up, kicking and swinging his arms around as he rained down curses upon me.

I just laughed. And I wasn’t the only one. Most of the other initiates were laughing too—all were, in fact, except for the Legion brats.

“Come with me.”

I jumped at the sound of Nero’s voice right behind me. He really needed to stop sneaking up on me like that.

“You’re in trouble,” the Legion brats chanted as I followed Nero out of the gym. They had the maturity of four-year-olds.

Once we were alone in the hallway, Nero closed the door behind us and turned his marble stare on me. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Fighting.”

“You were supposed to defeat your opponent using your staff, not gymnastics ropes.”

I shrugged. “Some people would call that resourceful.”

“This is not how we do things here.”

“Well, maybe it’s about time someone changed that.”

Nero shook his head slowly. “I knew you were trouble. This is not Ultimate Street Fighter 2020, Pandora.”

“You could have fooled me. What the hell was up with that blast door? Or the dog? That’s street fighting at its dirtiest.”

He watched me, his eyes cold. “This is the Legion of Angels,” he continued, as though I hadn’t said anything of consequence. “In the Legion of Angels, we use proper weapons in combat, not ropes and debris off the street. When we pick this up again tomorrow, you will use your assigned weapon—and only your assigned weapon—to fight your opponent. And you will continue to do that until you master the art of civilized combat.”

That was rich coming from him. Nothing about this training was civilized. But I couldn’t say that, so I made a joke instead.

“My assigned weapon? And here I was hoping for one of those cool flaming swords,” I teased.

“The fire sword is an angel’s weapon. A dignified weapon. It is difficult to wield.”

“Well, I have to learn to use it sometime. Or should I wait to learn it until I’m an angel so I can inadvertently burn off my own wings. That’s just not dignified.”

His brows lifted. “What makes you think you will ever become an angel?”

“I figured it couldn’t be that hard.” I smiled pleasantly at him. “You did it.”

“Careful,” he warned, his voice low and dark.

“I always am.”

That elicited a snort. “You may enjoy playing with fire, Leda Pierce, but I’m not letting you anywhere near a fire sword until you learn to tame your wild fighting. And that wild mouth of yours.”

“Maybe I can’t be tamed,” I countered. I just couldn’t help myself. There was something seriously wrong with me.

“I’ve broken wilder souls than yours,” he said, his words a fierce promise he obviously had every intention to keep.

I had a sinking suspicion that ‘breaking’ involved thousands of laps around the track and pushups. Lots and lots of pushups. And maybe putting me in a room full of those hellish dogs.

“Now get moving, initiate.” He motioned toward the door. “Back to the gym.”

The Legion brats smirked at me as we rejoined the others in the gym. They were clearly happy about the telling-off I’d received. Jace was back on the ground and tapping his staff against his hand, his eyes tracking my progress across the room. Yeah, he was just waiting to jump me in the halls when no one was looking. I’d have to start carrying around that special blend of pepper spray Bella had mixed up for me. It might not have been a Legion-approved weapon, but I definitely approved of anything that would prevent me from being beaten to a bloody pulp.

“Your first month is over,” Harker declared to the crowd as Nero joined him. “Congratulations on not dying.”

Some of the initiates laughed.

“Tonight, the Legion is hosting a party at Club Firefall,” he continued. “It starts in one hour. And you are all invited.”

Someone dared to expel a celebratory cry.

“There will be members of the Legion of Angels present,” Nero said. “Show respect. Don’t mouth off. They are not as forgiving as I.”

A few people laughed. Nero was as forgiving as a cactus. And those cold, unforgiving eyes were trained on me, as though he thought I was going to stroll up to the Legion soldiers in Firefall and start egging them on. I winked at him, which only made his eyes smolder more. As my staring contest with Colonel Hard Ass continued, I slowly began to realize the other initiates were filtering out of the gym.

“Come on, girl,” Ivy said, wrapping her arm around me. “Let’s get cleaned up, grab some food, and then party!”

I glanced at her. The promise of a party had really brightened her mood. When I looked back at Nero, the angel was gone, as though he’d disappeared into thin air.