Gabe towered over her, leashed power vibrating in the air. It should have been terrifying, but instead it was like she’d drunk a bottle of the finest champagne. Heady. Intoxicating.
Infuriated.
The alarming urge to grab his shirt and kiss his arrogant mouth slammed through her. That would show him.
Yeah, it would show him she was so desperate for his touch she didn’t care what derisive comments he slung her way. He might be breath-takingly gorgeous and used to women falling at his feet. But just because he clearly had a problem with the fact he wanted her, was no reason for him to be so rude. “Don’t blame me for your—”
The rest of her retort lodged in her throat as he gave her a satanic grin and vanished.
Into thin air.
She stumbled back against the doorframe and took a few calming breaths. It didn’t do much for her racing heart.
Gingerly, she waved her hand in the space where he’d been just seconds ago. Yep. Definitely gone.
How does he do it?
That was a question for another day. Right now, she had a more important issue. Because if he thought she was going to just sit around and wait for him before trying to contact her parents, he was seriously deluded. She’d already wasted half the day doing just that.
His desk, on the other side of the spacious office by the window, was cleared of everything except a laptop.
It stood to reason that was the communication method he’d mentioned earlier. She’d have a quick look, to see if she could access her email account.
Guilt chewed through her as she trailed her fingertips over his desk, even though she tried to ignore it.
You can go anywhere. Except my office.
If he hadn’t teleported in the middle of their conversation, she wouldn’t have had to.
The laptop had an unrecognizable symbol on its top, like two moons circling a three ringed planet. She frowned and peered closer at the holographic image before opening it.
The air whooshed from her lungs as she gazed at the keyboard with its incomprehensible hieroglyphics.
So much for trying to contact her parents without Gabe’s help.
She sat on his large leather chair. It was worn and warm, and the faintest hint of his intoxicating cologne caressed her senses.
And she could stop that right now. He wasn’t that irresistible.
Yes, he is.
She still wasn’t going to think about him.
The top drawer of his desk was slightly open. Like an invitation. She eyed it for a few seconds, while her stomach churned with a combination of hunger and nerves.
This could be my Pandora’s Box.
Before she could change her mind, she opened the drawer.
A small pile of seashells was heaped in one corner. They were perfectly ordinary, and yet chills skittered along her arms. Whatever she’d expected to find, it certainly hadn’t been something so personal.
So precious.
Close the drawer and walk away.
The only other item in the drawer was an A5 size canvas, face down. A faint glow emanated from it and unformed foreboding snaked through her chest. Is it a force field?
Her fingers clenched.
There was nothing here that could help her. She was not going to pick it up.
Her hand didn’t get the memo. The material was cool and smooth, as though it was enclosed in wafer-thin glass—except it was very slightly pliant beneath her fingertips.
Not glasslike at all.
She pulled it from the drawer and turned it over. Vibrant colors and an overwhelming impression of love and happiness flooded her mind, momentarily stunning her reflexes.
Gabe. She clung onto that one irrefutable fact. It was Gabe in the uncannily realistic three-dimensional portrait. His dark blond hair created almost a halo-like effect and his fantastical eyes were so real she had the scary certainty they could see right into her soul.
Her stupefied brain took it all in. Focusing on the details. Refusing to believe the truth of her eyes.
He had one arm around a black-haired woman who was laughing up at him, and in his other arm he carried a small child, whose tiny hand was entangled in his hair.
But this Gabe had wings. Wings the color of clotted cream, with delicate streaks of pale gold glinting through them. Heavenly highlights brushed each individual feather with devoted precision.
Wings. The man had wings.
They were folded behind his back but were clear enough. And he was laughing, as though he hadn’t a care in the world.
The photo was obviously enhanced. Except it wasn’t a photo. It wasn’t a painting or a holographic image. She had no idea what it was, but it really didn’t matter.
The wings were fake. Because if they were real, that made him …
Non-human.
An alien.
An angel?
Squeezing her eyes shut, all she could see were the horrific scars on his back. Exactly where wings would be.
The painting wasn’t magical, and the characters didn’t move, but she had the uncanny notion that, if only she knew how, she could step into this scene, like Alice through the looking glass.
Stop. She inhaled a deep breath to center herself. It’ll take more than meditation to process this. A bottle of whiskey might help.
Don’t look at his wings. Of course they weren’t real. Maybe he’d been celebrating Halloween or something.
With his family.
She bit her lip and focused on the woman, with her elaborate earrings, jewel-threaded hair, and delicate bangles. She had a regal bearing and was almost as tall as Gabe, and she sure had the face of a mythical fallen angel.
But she didn’t have wings. Neither did the child.
The little girl’s windswept, blonde hair fell in messy ringlets to her waist, and if she needed any more proof that this exquisite child was Gabe’s, her eyes were a bewitching silver-and-blue-streaked green.
A strange pain squeezed her chest. It shouldn’t come as a huge shock to discover he had a family. Just because he’d flirted with her—and saved her from the Guardians—didn’t mean he was single. It didn’t mean anything.
But it had never even occurred to her.
That’s what happened when a gorgeous man paid her some attention. Her brain devolved into mush.
Or I’m losing my mind.
The fear she’d lived with for years, that one day she, like her mum, would forget the reality of her life.
That wasn’t going to happen. This. Is. Real.
Somehow, she had to deal with it. Falling apart over a picture wouldn’t get her anywhere. And although she didn’t want to touch it again, she couldn’t leave it out on his desk, proclaiming her guilt at having gone through his most personal items.
She picked it up, and her gaze snagged on a gold chain that glinted around the little girl’s throat.
What …? No way. It couldn’t be. But, suspended from the delicate chain, was a familiar butterfly, and gold dust and minuscule rainbows glittered in the tiny, flawless wings.
It was identical to the necklace she had worn for the last six years, and instinctively she curled her fingers around it in a protective gesture.
Throughout her childhood she’d had recurring dreams of rainbows and gold dust and magnificent jewel-like butterfly wings and had been thrilled when her parents had offered to get a piece of jewelry specially commissioned for her eighteenth birthday. She had known exactly what she’d wanted.
It was an original, and she’d never seen anything quite like it.
Until now.
It’s a coincidence. How could it be anything else?
But between each panicked beat of her heart, a relentless question echoed.
Are you sure about that?
Gabe
Eta Hyperium was a shithole. And that was an understatement. But since it was the hub of the slave trade, and every other illicit transaction imaginable, for the technologically advanced mortals of the Sextans Galaxy, it was never going to be anything else. Even the weather had given up millennia ago, and now the surface was a bleak landscape of withered trees and stunted wildlife that scavenged beneath the dying red sun.
And the sooner that sun got its shit together and swallowed the whole damn solar system, the better.
Gabe materialized in a dark corner just outside the main entrance of the biggest establishment. The place looked decrepit, but that façade concealed phenomenal security. Luckily, his DNA allowed him to circumvent it.
Although the owner knew damn well who and what he was, his cover as a megalomaniac half-blood demon always worked. None of the slime ball clientele would guess he was an undercover archangel. Not in this savage sector of the universe.
He shouldered his way inside. Thick, noxious smoke filled the air, but worse than that was the scent of greed, depravity, and prohibitively expensive alcohol.
He swept his glance around the crowded tables. Where the hell was Eblis?
A hand slammed onto his shoulder. “Hey, Gabe. Been a while.”
Gabe turned. “Got a minute?”
Eblis rippled his pearlescent wings, and patrons scattered hastily out of the way. No one wanted to draw Eblis’ attention. He was one of the most feared traders in the Sector and one of the most powerful demons in existence.
He was also the sole owner of this complex, but that was something very few were aware of.
They approached a table, and the muscled occupants fled before the demon uttered a word.
“What’s the deal?” Eblis undulated his wings as they sat, and with a flick of his finger to a half-naked waiter, indicated to bring them drinks. “Found a way to get back at her Celestial bitch-fuck?”
“I wish.” Gabe relaxed against the circular sofa and hooked his arm over its back. If there was one species in Creation who loathed his goddess even more than the archangels, it was the demons. And while he and Eblis stood on opposite sides of the chasm that divided their races, they’d forged a bridge long ago.
“You here for business or pleasure?” Eblis’ question refocused his mind. He despised the demon’s lucrative trade, but Eblis made a great partner when it came to finding the best places to enjoy mindless debauchery.
No way was he returning to his villa until he’d been well and truly laid. He might be able to look at Aurora, then, without wanting to shove her against the nearest wall and fuck her senseless.
He’d left his own damn island to get away from her, intending to spend a couple of hours with fellow archangel, Zadkiel. But somehow, he’d ended up telling Zad about the encounter with the Guardians.
Not that Zad had been interested in that. But he’d been way too interested in the fact Gabe had saved a human female.
So he’d brought forward his plan to go visit Eblis. At least with the demon he wouldn’t have the suicidal urge to tell him about Aurora.
“Both.”
“Spill.”
“Heard of any minors from the Andromeda Galaxy being traded recently?”
Their drinks arrived, the sizzling alcohol so potent one sniff of its fumes was enough to send weak-minded mortals comatose. Still not as strong as the brain rot Mephisto had produced earlier, though.
Eblis drained half his tankard before smashing it onto the table.
“None of these Sextans bastards can reach Andromeda, Gabe. They can’t get anywhere without their crazy little spaceships. You know that. They couldn’t even get to the Milky Way and that’s their closest neighbor.”
“You get occasional traders who can cross galaxies.” He paused for effect. “Foreign captives always ratchet up the price.”
Eblis didn’t argue. They both knew that mortals who originated outside the Sextans Galaxy were smuggled in by the unscrupulous who weren’t restricted to spaceship travel. They were descendants of immortals, who had inherited their ancestors’ ability of interstellar teleportation.
“Details?”
Gabe showed him an image of Evalyne.
“She’s a native of Medana.” He placed a small star map globe on the table and opened the holographic image of the Beta Spiral of Andromeda. Medana was an insignificant little planet hidden within an obscure solar system. He didn’t expect the demon to know the place offhand.
Eblis shifted, his feathers ruffling in a nonexistent breeze, and Gabe zoomed in further, suns and moons shooting by until the six-planet solar system of Evalyne’s birth hovered above the table.
“I recognize this system.” Eblis raised an eyebrow and glanced through the planet at Gabe. “Saw some pirates from Namtar in the Fornax Galaxy plotting the chart about three months ago.”
The Fornax Galaxy, where demons had fled to millennia ago, seethed with a dark underbelly of pirates. If they’d expanded their operations into Andromeda, it was more than a single child at risk.
It could lead to intergalactic war.