Chapter Four

Kiel. Her heavenly supervisor. Of course he’d come, and hadn’t wasted any time about it. Sunny blocked Jamie from her superior’s furious gaze, stepping in front of him to act as a shield.

Although she had no hope of hiding Jamie—not physical y, since he dwarfed her—and not from Kiel’s knowing, piercing stare.

“Jamie, you have to go. Fast,” she warned him, stepping closer to the glass wal that separated her from Kiel. Just a thin pane of glass, a tiny sliver of a veil between holy wrath and Jamie Angel.

“I’m not leaving you right now. That creature looks pissed.”

“He’s very angry, yes.”

“Because I kissed you.”

“Because I disobeyed.” She tried to keep her voice calm, but it was difficult with Kiel’s gaze and size growing more intimidating by the second.

“Is he going to hurt you? Are you an angel, too?”

She glanced back at Jamie in exasperation. “Yes, I’m an angel. Yes, you were right: I’m not human. Now let me do damage control before you get hurt or blinded just by being near him.” She pointed at Kiel, jabbing her finger. “He’s a whole other level, okay? He’s serious stuff, and you can’t be in his presence. And whatever you do, don’t look into his eyes!”

“You’re trying to protect me?” He sounded shocked, bewildered, and al the while he kept gaping at Kiel. Kiel, who, at any moment, would undoubtedly shatter the glass al around them with his fury and power.

“Jamie!” She yanked open the door to the gazebo and started shoving him out onto the path.

“Get on back to the house. And please, please don’t tel Kate . . . or Shay. Anyone. Please keep my secret for me.”

He stared at her for one last second, squeezing her hand. “I don’t want you to get hurt because of what I did,” he whispered.

“Then leave me.”

At last, he spun on his heel and walked into the darkness, and slowly she breathed again.

From behind her, Kiel spoke, now inside the structure. “You’ve been rebel ious.” His vibrato fil ed the gazebo, making the glass itself sing with his voice and power.

She kept her back to the massive angel. “It wasn’t my intention.”

“But it happened, Sunera.”

She pressed her hands against the glass, trying to steady herself. “James Angel is overpowering.”

“To a true angel?” Kiel’s laughter rumbled and she watched as the glass panel beneath her palms cracked. “He bears the name as a prophetic sign of his power, but he is only a mortal.

You’ve grown weak during your human years.”

“You’re the one who put me here, in a human body, as a ten-year-old. You made me human.”

“It was your task to serve as Kate Rabineau’s guardian, to protect her from the forces of darkness in the world. To stand between her and the evil that would seek to use her power for gain. To guard her against any harm, whether by human or demonic hand.”

“And I’ve done that!”

Kiel’s voice grew much quieter. “It was also your task, Sunera, to develop understanding and compassion by living as a human.”

She planted a hand over her heart. “I may be an angel, but I stil feel, stil care.... I stil experience human passions because I’ve been living in human form for almost seventeen years.”

Kiel’s power sang through the air. “You forget yourself,” he rumbled. “As you did with James Angel just now.”

She turned and faced the mighty one who had intimidated her for centuries, the one she held in high esteem . . . yet always feared. Kiel blazed like the sun, mere feet away from her. She looked up at him, shaking al over.

“Wil you send me home, then? Is that it?”

“You have work to do here on Earth. Important work protecting Kate. Although the Angel clan no longer seeks the lives of vampires, Kate remains vulnerable to other hunters, ones who don’t understand that she is not evil, only rare. And I don’t need to remind you of the demons who seek her blood.”

Sunny hung her head, feeling ashamed, fearful for Kate’s safety. She couldn’t believe that she’d nearly compromised her position as her best friend’s guardian angel—the thought of anyone else being assigned to Kate made her blood run cold. Kate was her duty, her charge. She couldn’t falter again, no matter how badly she wanted Jamie.

“Don’t punish Kate because of my indiscretion.”

“This is but a warning, young one.” Kiel’s glowing, humming wings spread wide, until his shadow covered her. “However, indulge these human passions again and there wil be a price.”

A price. She would be sent back to heaven, taken out of the field until she’d earned the right to serve as an earthly guardian again.

Who would watch over her best friend, who would protect her—as a pure-blooded vampire, Kate would always be at risk from hunters and dark forces that sought to harm her. Even though a vampire, she was stil an Earth dwel er, and the heavenly angels watched over every person on Earth—human and vampire.

“But Kate?” she asked, her heart clenching.

“Kate would be granted another guardian.”

As a whole, vampirekind was misunderstood by their human counterparts. There were so many false myths and legends, and Hol ywood hadn’t helped any of that misinformation, leaving vampires open for hunting. So they needed protection at least as much as humans did, and God made no distinction, protecting both groups on Earth. The problem, though, was that their special abilities meant that they could spot the usual heavenly guardians, with their wings and otherworldly nature. That was why Sunny had been sent to safeguard Kate in human form, without her glory and angelic appearance. Her natural radiance, too, she kept concealed unless she absolutely needed it.

Throughout the eternal age before that, Sunny had served in heaven, and occasional y as a guardian angel for humans on Earth. But being paired with Kate, and assuming human form, was a first-time experience. Now it seemed that she’d failed miserably.

“Don’t leave Kate in danger because I’ve made a mistake,” she pleaded, bowing her head respectful y to Kiel.

He smiled gently. “Our approach next time would be different. But don’t force our hand. Perhaps with another mortal your disobedience might have been more easily overlooked.”

Was that why Kiel had come so quickly? It had something to do with Jamie’s cal ing and his abilities as a hunter? Her mind raced.

“I’d barely finished the kiss and you were here,” she ventured, hoping he would give more details. “That’s fast, even for you.”

Kiel smiled, adding the wattage of another sun to his already blazing beauty. “I was alerted.”

Her mind whirled. “I’ve seen no guardians around Jamie . . . unless there’s someone like me, an angel in human form? But if that were true, I’d have sensed them. I don’t understand why Jamie, who fights such dark forces, is left without his own guardian.”

Kiel’s expression grew somber. “He is not alone.”

Kiel’s expression grew somber. “He is not alone.”

“But I haven’t seen—”

“James Angel and his siblings have special guardians, but they are instructed to keep their distance lest they interfere.”

“Interfere? Interfere with what, sir?” She couldn’t mask her anger. It was their job, as angels, to protect and watch over humanity. She’d never once heard of guardians who “kept their distance.”

The thought that Jamie—or Mason and Shay—might be less than wel protected gal ed her.

Kiel regarded her calmly. “Sunera, Jamie and his siblings fight demons, darkness. They are in the battlefield nearly every day. If their own guardians were visible or intrusive, then the demons would spot them. The Angels’ ability to fight would be nul ified, because the demons would cower and not come near. We both know that they are drawn and compel ed to battle human hunters like the Angel siblings.”

“While we are forced to stand aside and watch the bloodshed and pain.”

“We cannot interfere with free wil . You know the parameters.”

Sunny thought of how oddly gentle Jamie had been with her, the way he’d ignited her, even while seeming vulnerable. He was beautiful, and demons sought his blood every day . . . while his guardians were held at bay by heaven itself. “You’re using them, and that’s not right.”

Kiel rumbled his displeasure at the comment, and she heard another glass pane crack. “They are endowed with spiritual gifts that few humans ever even know about. The Lord has cal ed them.... They embrace their gifts.”

“And you put them at risk with inadequate coverage. No wonder I never saw any angels around them . . . and I couldn’t understand, not from the first time I met Shay. It’s like you’re dangling them as bait, without sufficient protection. If their guardian angels keep that kind of distance, they’re practical y on their own.”

“Enough! ” Kiel roared, a blast of warm wind fil ing the space. His wings expanded; his countenance blinded her.

She fel to her knees, trembling. Impertinence never was tolerated by her commanders, and she hastened to make amends. “Forgive me.”

Instantly Kiel’s strong hand touched the crown of her head, his fury vanished, replaced by kindness and compassion.

“You care deeply for al humans, and these Angels are your friends. Trust me when I say we do not leave them at risk. Jamie is guarded by angels, the Shades by many more. They watch from afar unless needed. Even Jamie has seen his guardians on occasion, in the midst of heated battle. That’s how he recognized what I am the moment he saw me. Jamie alone has three guardians.”

She looked up in shock, stil kneeling. “Three?” She’d never heard of a mortal with three guardian angels. Even two was exceedingly rare.

Kiel smiled again, gentleness in his bright, glowing eyes. “You see now that he is special.”

Yes, Jamie was special; she’d figured that out the moment they’d kissed. Before. There was something so powerful and beautiful in him, he almost seemed like he was an angel, and not just by name.

Kiel continued, “You understand why you must not al ow him to touch you again?”

She nodded, tears fil ing her eyes. “Yes, Kiel. I understand.”

“Then why the tears, young one?” He patted her cheek.

The tears came harder and she shook her head, avoiding Kiel’s strong gaze. “I should not say.”

He forced her to look up at him. “You should not hold silent.”

There weren’t words. How could you tel another angel that your deepest wish, the gravest, most important desire in your heart, was to be human? To know what it was to love another human, to experience the power of that love in mortal life? Al these years, watching from afar, Sunny had felt an outsider, forever looking through the glass at what she never could have herself. That feeling had intensified tenfold once she’d been sent to Earth as Kate’s personal guardian, after being placed in human form.

And now recently, having watched Kate find such beautiful love with Dil on, al that longing had multiplied even more. When Kate had been a little girl, and Sunny was watching over her already, Kate’s favorite movie had been The Little Mermaid. Even then Sunny had identified with Ariel, longing to be human, to find her place on Earth. Now she felt as if she’d found her very own song in Jamie’s arms, only to be denied her voice.

She could explain none of this to Kiel, nor would she try.

But his eyes revealed a deep understanding of those unspoken words. “This is why touching them intimately is forbidden. It unlocks emotions that should never belong to us.” For a moment, Kiel’s gaze grew long, almost sad, and she wondered if he’d walked this same path of temptation himself at one time. But then he looked back at her. “Do not kiss James Angel again, continue in your role as Kate’s guardian, and al shal be wel .”

She nodded, wiping at her tears. “Yes, sir, understood.”

All shall be well. But how could it be, now that she knew what it was to be in Jamie Angel’s arms?

Jamie stared numbly at the flat screen. Al around him, his family and friends were laughing and talking, cheering on the bowl game, but he could barely hear a word. Sunny Renfroe was an angel.

He, a man who’d spent his entire adulthood trying to serve God with his demon fighting, had kissed someone sacred. Someone pure.

Surely he’d be damned to hel . Certainly a giant heavenly hand would materialize any moment and for one specific purpose: to yank him off the sofa and send him straight to the fiery pit.

You just didn’t go and seduce an angel. Never mind that she’d shown up at his house disguised as a human.

Who are you kidding? You knew she wasn’t a mortal from the moment you met her.

He’d known, and yet he’d contrived a plan to seduce her, and look what had happened. He’d quite possibly caused her a great deal of harm, while he continued to live his everyday human life.

“Jamie? Did you hear me?” Shay dropped down onto the sofa right beside him. “You’re zoned.

What’s wrong?” She studied him, seeming genuinely concerned. “And you look like you just saw a dark legion or something. You’re actual y pale. And your eyes are bloodshot.”

He rubbed his temples; his head had been hurting ever since he’d looked at the glowing angel

—he’d done that before Sunny had issued the warning. Now his head throbbed and his eyes burned.

“Jamie,” Shay whispered again, glancing around at the others who talked and laughed, oblivious to his torment. Shay knew him far too wel . Without waiting for him to reply, she took him by the hand. “Come with me.”

He shook his head. “Can’t talk about it,” he mumbled, closing his eyes.

Shay leaned right up against him. “You’re scaring me, so I’m not giving you a choice. You either come with me down to the cel ar, or I turn off the television and alert Mason, Dil on, and everyone else to the fact that you’ve obviously been spooked.”

“And Sunny,” he suggested miserably. “Don’t you want to alert her, too?”

Shay glanced around the room. “She didn’t come back with you?” his sister asked in surprise. “I just assumed . . .”

He didn’t say a word, just kept rubbing his burning eyes.

“Talk to me, Jamie,” Shay insisted. “Let’s get out of here so you can tel me what’s going on.”

He rose from the sofa with a weary sigh. “This life of ours . . . it real y does suck sometimes.”

Jamie pul ed volume after volume off the shelves of the cel ar library. This smal downstairs room, adjacent to their wine cel ar, housed al their family’s lore on demon fighting, the occult, God, angels . . . you name it, and they had texts about it.

Shay sat at his desk in the antique swivel chair, watching his frantic movements. “What are you doing, James Dixon?”

“I’m not ready to talk about what happened.”

“I didn’t ask you to.”

“You did earlier,” he argued, retrieving a particularly weathered volume about angelic beings.

“It’s why you fol owed me down here.”

“Nooooo,” Shay said. “I fol owed you down here because I’m worried.”

“About Sunny.” He carted another three volumes to the table and deposited them, then returned to searching the shelves.

Shay rocked back in the chair, watching him. “I have a distinct feeling Sunny is perfectly fine.

Whereas you’re the one who’s got that deer-in-the-headlights expression permanently frozen on your face.”

He couldn’t tel Shay about what he’d seen, what he knew. Sunny had begged him not to, and hadn’t he caused her enough trouble already? How could he violate her last request of him?

Last request. The words caused a chil to chase down his spine. What if she never came back to the house? What if that huge angel had . . . What would the guy do? Whisk her back to heaven?

Destroy her? He couldn’t even contemplate what would happen when an angel received a scolding.

Wel , that wasn’t entirely true. When Lucifer and his crew had rebel ed, they were cast out of heaven . . . and they became demons.

The chil he’d experienced became ful -on tremors as he prayed and begged God to give Sunny a break. This had been his doing entirely. She shouldn’t have to suffer for his fol y and sin.

Shay walked toward the table where he was massing the various volumes—books he hoped might explain why or how an angel would live as a human. He’d never even heard of such a thing, much less encountered it. Sure, he’d seen angelic entities on the battlefield from time to time; he knew Mason had as wel , even while fighting over in Iraq. But angels in human form? Not charted territory for any of them.

Shay began thumbing through the stack, reading off titles. “Angelic Host: Configuring the Armies of Heaven? Understanding Heavenly Powers?” She laughed. “So, you took Sunny on a walk and accused her of being an angel or something? Jamie, she real y, truly is human. You gotta get over this obsession.”

He swal owed hard; he hated keeping secrets from Shay or Mason. It had never worked in the past, not for any of them. Like that corrosive pain Mace had lived with until he’d admitted to his family that he was gay.

Surely Sunny wouldn’t have begged him to keep her secret from Shay if she’d understood how intuitive his sister was, the way she’d needle and prod him until he admitted why he was so upset.

He paced the smal , dusty room in agitation; upstairs several of their friends began shouting as the footbal game took some intense turn.

At last he faced his little sister. Pressing his back against the tal est shelf, he bolstered his courage with a quick prayer. “Sissy cat, she is an angel,” he blurted.

She laughed. “Oh, shut up.”

He, on the other hand, didn’t laugh at al . “I am deadly, completely serious. But you can’t tel Kate or Mason or anyone else. She begged me to keep the truth about her a secret.”

“She is not an angel.” Shay gave him an incredulous smile. “Geez, you’re real y wound up tighter than I thought. What happened?”

He sagged against the bookshelf. “Shay. She. Is. An. Angel. It’s true. . . .” And then he admitted the worst part of al . “And I total y made out with her. And got her in trouble,” he added in a rush.

“This scary, huge angel showed up to . . . chastise her, I guess. I dunno. But I kissed her, and now she’s maybe going to be punished . . . and I’m probably going to burn in hel . And the worst part? I don’t care. I just want . . . I want to hold her again. Kiss her again. And she’s a flippin’ angel!

What’s happening to me, Shay? Huh? Am I losing it or what?”

Shay stared at him, light blue eyes wide and incredulous, but said nothing.

“Are you tracking with this shit, Sissy cat? I think I’m fal ing for an angel. Maybe I real y wil burn in hel now.”

He stared at his sister, waiting for some kind of reply, but she wasn’t the one who answered.

“I asked you not to tel .”

Jamie whipped his gaze to the open doorway; Sunny stood there, her own eyes bright with unshed tears.

“I thought you’d keep my secret . . . after everything we shared,” she murmured, and Jamie watched his sister’s eyes grow even wider.