Angel's Power by Erin M. Leaf Read Free Book Online Page B

and
she would roll her eyes at him. She wasn’t sure why he felt it necessary to
tell her that the world wasn’t safe—it wasn’t like she hadn’t figured that out
a long time ago. Her father had died. Her brother had to fight to become leader
of the People. Nothing happened the way she expected.
    A dozen times, she almost told him
to leave her alone, but the truth was, she liked the attention. She liked
having him hovering over her after Council sessions. She liked looking at him
across the table while they ate dinner. She liked watching him change into
angel form, muscles rippling as his wings spread to catch the wind.
    He never said or did anything
inappropriate. It drove her crazy. He was so handsome and so aloof sometimes,
she wanted to mess him up. Run her hands all over him. She wanted to see if his
hair was as soft as it looked. She wanted to run her fingers through his wings
and watch him shudder. Every time she got close, he’d back away, make up some
excuse to get away from her. He infuriated her. The teasing man she’d briefly
glimpsed right after her injury had disappeared like smoke in the wind.
    She wanted him, but the more she
tried to get close, the faster he ran.
    It all came to a head one night,
three weeks after the battle with the demon.
    “Have you flown yet?” he asked,
just as she was about to eat a chocolate cookie.
    She stopped, hand halfway to her
mouth. “What?” She licked her lips, automatically teasing him. She’d gotten
into the habit of trying to break his perfect control. She’d move closer, try
to touch him. He’d move back. She’d begun using straws to drink her chocolate
milk. She wore the tightest tops she owned, just to torment him. She’d have
given up days ago, if she hadn’t seen a flash of heat in his eyes every once in
a while when he looked at her.
    “You haven’t, have you?”
    She frowned at him and put the
cookie back down, her appetite for sweets suddenly gone. Her appetite for
flirting had disappeared, too, damn him. “So?”
    He leaned back in his chair. They
were sitting in the library, near the fireplace. Heat from the burning logs
warmed her toes and she’d taken off her socks. The fluffy rug that ran the
length of the hearth felt good on her bare skin. The rest of the room held
floor to ceiling books, like something out of an old gothic castle.
    She dug her toes into the rug and
curled her fingers into the old leather of her chair. This is an old gothic castle, you ninny, she told herself.
    “You need to rebuild your
strength,” he said, in that faintly superior tone that drove her insane.
    “I’m fine,” she said, not wanting
to talk about this. She’d shifted once since the battle, in front of her
dresser mirror. The midnight blue wings had shocked her and she’d changed back
to human, almost in tears. Everything felt different. Her wings felt strange,
like they were larger or more sensitive. Energy flowed around her in patterns
she could almost touch. When she tried to lock it all down, wanting desperately
to feel like her old self, it had hurt.
    “Gabriel said you used to fly every
day, in the morning. And sometimes more than that.” Suriel spoke as if he was
talking about nothing more important than the weather.
    She pushed her fingernails into the
hand rests. “It’s none of your business when I fly. In fact, I don’t even know
why you’re here, in this room with me right now. Every time I try to get close,
you run away. Why are you here?”
    His face tightened. “I told you, I
feel responsible for what happened.”
    She shook her head. “I make my own
destiny.” One of the logs shifted in the fireplace, sending a shower of sparks
up the chimney as if to emphasize her statement.
    Suriel stood up. “Prove it.”
    “What?” She stared at him. He was
stripping off his shirt. Not that she minded looking at his bare chest, but
since every time she tried to flirt with him he ran away, his undressing
confused her.
    “Fly with me.