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It couldn’t be true. It couldn’t. What I’d just experienced with the handsome hunter, Ronin, was something that was not only impossible, but illegal. That kind of thing only happened to an angel when they found their soulmate. Only three counts of angels finding their soulmates had ever been recorded—and they were angel on angel couples, the only way soulmates could ever be.
This guy was human. Mostly, anyway. That was illegal. If I was ever going to piss God off even more, pursuing Ronin would be the way to do it. My heart hammered inside my chest, pounding against my ribs. Then I remembered how it had felt to feel his pulse beating in time with mine.
For the first time in my miserable existence, one brief moment had seemed to click everything into place, like a jigsaw puzzle. Ronin had lit up my world, if only for a minute. But I couldn’t indulge. I had no option but to leave, to save both of us.
If any one of the angels caught a whiff of what had just happened, he’d die. They couldn’t afford a glitch in the Universe that allowed an angel and a human to be together. He was a threat and he would be eliminated.
Even as I flew through the starry skies, putting distance between us, my heart was already aching to be with him, my body craving for that delicious electricity that filled my very essence when we touched. I wanted to turn around and go back, just to calm the screaming of my soul if anything.
Determined to resist, I flew for a good hour, fighting with myself, throwing options around in my head for every scenario possible. Each one ended with dire consequences for him. Maybe it was just because I hadn’t a decent conversation with anyone for years, perhaps that’s all this was. Everything else was in my head.
Conversation wouldn’t end with his death so that would be ok. After all, God and Lucifer couldn’t banish me here without expecting me to ever speak to another soul again.
I convinced myself that enjoying a good chat would be fine, so I turned around and flew, as fast as I could, back to my abandoned cemetery. As I approached it from overhead, I expected to find the graveyard empty and to have to search the city for him. To my amazement, he was sat in my crypt, leaning back on my bed with his feet crossed at the ankles, totally chilling out.
As I came in to land, I flapped my wings more than normal, creating a stir in the peaceful place. His amber eyes were burning bright and fixed solely on me as he stood in the doorway.
“Figured you’d come back,” he said, a wry smile tugging at his lips. “This bed is far too comfortable to leave.”
Just being within feet of him had my body trembling in anticipation of our next touch. I wanted to feel that wholeness again, feel our hearts beating as one, revel in the delicious heat that enveloped me when our skin met.
“Do you have any idea how dangerous it is for us to be near one another?” I said, my breaths coming short and shallow.
He pursed his lips and then nodded. “I had a little chat with a friend whilst you were gone. I’m guessing that we’re not supposed to be soulmates?”
My breath caught in my throat. He knew. How did he know? “Who’s your friend?”
“A witch down in the French Quarter. She’s who I came to see, why I’m even here in the first place. Her name is Wanda. She’s really knowledgeable about all this stuff.”
I looked at the unicorn dagger laid on the bed next to him. “Can she help us with that little mystery?”
“Maybe.”
“Can you take me to her?”
My request was simply because I couldn’t be around him and a bed and be able to trust myself. I hadn’t had sex for two thousand years. That was a long time by anyone’s standards. To then have what was apparently my soulmate suddenly appear in my life made all of that so much more difficult.
Up in Heaven, angels took partners with whom they enjoyed intimacy. We were only allowed one partner, so it wasn’t like a ‘free for all’ or anything, but it was a well-accepted fact that intimate relations were a necessary part of keeping the soul at peace.
Obviously, since I’d been banished to Earth, intimate relations were out of the question, unless I fancied doing so with Lucifer’s creepy crawly creatures. I’d had no trouble in ruling that out as an option.
“Yes,” Ronin replied, breaking my train of thought. “I can take you to her.” He moved towards me, bringing the dagger with him. “Maybe we can have a night tour of the French Quarter afterwards?”
As he stood in front of me, mere feet away, my heart rate tripled. “Yes,” I said, clearing my throat. “That would be nice.”
He stepped forwards and grabbed my hand. My soul flooded instantly with light. It beamed out of every pore, wrapping him up in it. Everything around us fell away, paling into insignificance as only the two of us mattered at the centre of our own universe.
Our hearts beat as one, our eye contact connecting our souls together. He reached for my other hand and grasped a hold of it. I expected the feeling to intensify but instead, I found our minds linking to one another, our thoughts travelling between an invisible neural pathway.
“This is incredible,” he said, his deep voice echoing around my mind.
I could see, in my minds eye, the bright white train tracks that united our minds. It stretched, like a long tendon, from my head to his, and back again. It throbbed with energy, its rhythm matching that of our pulse.
“Ronin,” I breathed. “We mustn’t. If the angels see or feel it, they will kill you.”
He flashed me a dazzling smile. “I would die a thousand deaths just to experience this again.”
My breath caught in my throat. This dude was smooth, that I had to give him.
“As smooth as Galaxy chocolate,” he said, laughing and giving me a cheeky wink.
I broke our connection and narrowed my eyes at him. “Stop that,” I said, my cheeks filling with heat. “I am entitled to my privacy.”
He grinned. “I’m sorry.”
“I haven’t had this much interaction with anyone for two millennia. You should be thankful I’m not a savage beast.”
He laughed at me. “Let’s go see Wanda.”
I reached for the unicorn dagger and swiped it from his hands. “I’ll keep a hold of this, thank you.”
“So untrusting.”
I snorted. “You think?”
“Are we walking there or can you carry me somehow?”
I burst out laughing. “Do I look like some kind of packhorse?”
He opened his mouth but faltered for several seconds. “I think it’s in my best interests if I don’t answer that question.”
“Good answer, smooth dude.”
He grinned at me. “I’m guessing we’re walking then?”
I sucked in a deep breath. “I’m sure once we’ve touched a few more times, this whole thing will calm down. I have an idea.”
“Why does it sound like you’re unsure of this ‘idea’?”
“Because as far as I know, only angels can do it. Although, technically with your hunter talents, you’re part angel anyway.”
“What is it?”
“Angels can teleport if they know where they’re going.”
“Ok. But you don’t know where Wanda is.”
“No, but you do. And our minds can link.”
He lifted an eyebrow and gave me a sceptical look. “That sounds like it could be an epic fail.”
“It could well be.”
“And if it is?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Then we probably burn up and die or explode into a million tiny stars.”
“You’re joking, right?”
I pointed up into the clear night sky, thousands of glittery stars shining down on us. “You don’t seriously think that stars are dying planets, do you?”
His mouth dropped wide open. “I think we’ll walk.”
I giggled. “I’m joking.”
“I’m still more comfortable with walking.”
“Chicken shit.”
He widened his eyes and said, “What did you just call me?”
“Chicken shit.”
“I’ve been called many names over the years but never have I ever been called a chicken shit.”
I grinned. “First time for everything, smooth dude. Now, pack your little girl panties away and try this out with me.”
“I was actually thinking the walk might be an ideal opportunity for us to talk a bit more. You know, get to know each other and all of that.”
I rolled my eyes. “Where is Wanda’s place? The address?”
“724 Dumaine Street.”
By the time he’d spoken the words, I had a hold of his hands, channelling his visual memory of Wanda’s place into my mind. I took a deep breath and called my powers back to the surface. The warmth from my magic combined with the heat from touching Ronin shot my temperature through the roof. I felt like a walking volcano that would erupt at any moment.
In my mind’s eye, I took hold of Ronin’s memory and channelled my focus into it, willing my magic to take us there. The ground beneath my feet started trembling and shaking. Ronin squeezed my hands, uncertainty flickering through his amber eyes.
“We’ll be fine,” I said, giving him a smile.
Before he could respond, everything stopped moving, becoming still and silent once again. I let go of him, the light around us vanishing the second we stopped touching.
“Holy moly,” he breathed, looking around him. “You did it!”
I studied my surroundings, noticing the grey building in front of me. Two green double doors were firmly closed, but a wooden sign that read Historic Voodoo Museum swung back and forth steadily, no doubt disrupted by our sudden arrival.
“It worked!” I said, thoroughly excited by the news. “Wow. I can’t believe it worked.”
Ronin shot me a filthy look. “You mean you genuinely didn’t know if that would work or not?”
“I did tell you.”
“You said you were joking.”
“About the stars, yes.”
“Wait,” he said, frowning. “Which part about the stars? That we would explode into millions of them or that they’re not dying planets?”
I grinned. “I’ll leave you to mull over that one.”
He didn’t get a chance to say anything then as one of the green doors opened revealing a short, petite woman standing in the open doorway. Yellow light flooded the room behind her.
She covered her mouth with a hand and dropped down into a curtsy. “I can’t believe you’re real. Please come in.”
I went to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t be silly. I’m not royalty. Far from it.”
“But still,” she said, looking up at me with big brown eyes. “You’re from a higher place and have powers we can only dream of. You should be treated with the greatest respect.”
I smiled. “Perhaps you can put in a good word with God for me then.”
She stood up and moved aside, allowing me to walk into the small room. I scanned around the artefacts adorning the walls, impressed she had such a vast collection. Over my time here, I’d become accustomed to humans and their wide variety of cultures and traditions. The tribes who practiced voodoo were among the most fascinating though.
“This is incredible. You’ve been far and wide to collect some of these.” I turned around and gave her a smile. “Is there anything you’re missing?”
Wanda blushed. “I’ve never managed to find a complete Louvre Doll. It’s the one thing I wish I could add to the display here.”
“Consider one found,” I replied. “It would be my pleasure.”
She gasped, tears filming over her eyes. “What can I give you in return?”
“Just your knowledge. As you well know, I’ve been a little out of the loop for the past couple thousand years. Ronin here happened upon my graveyard because he was chasing a vampire. This vampire, somehow, had this in his possession.”
I revealed the unicorn dagger to her, holding it out on the palm of my hand.
“Oh my goodness,” she said, inhaling a sharp breath. Her hands flew to her mouth. Shock flashed through her eyes. “It’s true. It’s all coming true.”
“What is?” I asked.
“There are tales, we thought they were nothing more than whispers, of these daggers having been stolen from Heaven and scattered upon the Earth. Some angels, so it is said, tired of the war and having humans unfairly caught in the middle. The stories say that these angels decided to level the playing field, enable us to better defend ourselves, and so they stole these sacred weapons and threw them down to Earth.”
My eyes widened. “So the other six are somewhere on Earth?”
Wanda nodded.
“We have to find them. Before anyone, or anything else, gets a hold of them.”
“That might be more difficult than you think,” Wanda said, her voice becoming a breathless whisper.
“Why?”
“The rumours are that Lucifer already has five.”