A Witch's Beauty (Daughters of Arianne 2)

"Duck." The other angels shouted it out, and David and Jonah cut under the swath of fire the dragon spat out. It covered over a hundred yards of space. As it died back, the stone resisting the flame, her predatory gaze was darting about, calculating. An escape. David could tell she was trying to escape. Mina was in there, fighting the darkness still, trying to escape before it unleashed.

"Feel her power, David? She's got enough of her own brain to tell her not to move, but in a moment, it will go in one of two directions. Toward the dragon, which means she'll attack indiscriminately, focused on rage, or she'll get back in touch with the witch part of herself and start retaliating with spells. And they won't be harmless bat wings. The time for this is over," Jonah repeated. "We did the best we could on her behalf. Your bringing her here was likely one of the best ways to bring it to a head."

"No. I brought her here as a mistake. To help her." Knowing he was no match for Jonah, let alone a full battalion, David nevertheless shifted in front of his commander, meeting his gaze head-on, putting everything he had into it. "You can't kill her because of my mistake."

"Watch out."

The warning fired through the air like an arrow behind them. David focused, creating the shield over himself as her fire raced over and through him, engulfing him before the spray dissipated with another shriek of rage from the beast.

"Holy Mother," Jonah muttered, and David spun, following his gaze in time to see her large, spiked tail sweep through the air, narrowly missing another handful of those circling around her. Her claws crumbled the Citadel rock as she shifted to get a better angle. David wondered if he was the only one who heard the desperation behind the shrieks. She was in there, hanging on to the reins by a thread. He had to get her out of here.

Please don't make this decision here and now. Jonah, the last thing I would ever wish to do in this universe or any other is defy you. By the holy Goddess, I am asking for your trust on this, based on everything I am to you. Give me more time. Don't do this, not when it's because of something I did.

Though quite aware of Jonah's feelings toward him, David had never used that privilege as leverage. Perhaps it was a measure of how close he knew Jonah was to giving the order to take her life that he did it now. Was he prepared to fight them if they tried to harm her? Gods, he didn't want to find out, for he was fairly certain he knew the answer.

Please, Jonah. You all are my family. Don't make me choose. I have to protect her.

She is not your sister, David. Do you understand that?

David froze. Despite the barely leashed chaos around them, everything disappeared for a blink except the angel in front of him, who knew more than any what those words might mean. "I know that," he said out loud. He kept his tone carefully measured, even though he himself could hear the vibrations in it that spoke of terrible, dark things.

"I'm not sure you do. You can't save what was born by blood to be evil, David. No Dark One-"

"She's not a Dark One." Only when it was echoing through the keep did David realize he'd thundered it as if a storm had erupted inside of him. The dragon yowled.

Jonah's expression had gone blank. He had lost. Gods, he knew he had lost, but David wouldn't stop. He couldn't.

"She has fought it. Despite everything, she has fought it. Fought it alone. There has to be a purpose and reason for that. She's fought them, the way we fight them. Only she never gets to leave the battlefield, because her blood is the battlefield." Her insides are like a fallow field... "She's a soldier, like any of us. Just like you, or Marcellus, or any of my platoon. I will not abandon her."

"Even if it comes to a choice of her or us." Jonah said it flatly, his gaze assessing his lieutenant. Assessing whether an angel he'd trusted was someone whose judgment had become suspect. David couldn't dispute Jonah's concern, but it struck him hard.

"It's not that choice." He managed, with Herculean effort, to keep his voice steady now. "It's about right and wrong. Please don't make it about that. What if you had to make a choice between Anna's well-being and this?"

"Goddess," Jonah swore. Leaping faster than David could follow or defend, he plowed into the younger angel. David landed hard against the keep side, caving in stone, Jonah's hand fisted in his tunic. The angels cried out above as the dragon tried to leave the spire, wings slashing through the air, spitting fire.

"Mina."

"Be still, Lieutenant. They won't harm her. Yet."

He couldn't move, Jonah's arm like a solid wall of rock pressed against his chest. Held there immobile, David knew his commander had made his point effectively. He could swat David aside like a fly. Take Mina's life with a word. But he hadn't yet.

"You are not going to compare that to Anna."

"Yes. I am." David said it through gritted teeth. "Jonah, I'm begging you."

The commander stared at him, his expression unfathomable, battle-ready. David held that terrifying gaze, his body at respectful attention as much as possible, or so he thought. When Jonah's attention dropped, David realized he'd put his hands on the grips of two of the daggers. He made himself release them, put his hands to his sides as Jonah watched, considered. When he raised his attention to David's face again, David wondered if he'd lost, no matter what Jonah's decision was.

"Save your strength for getting her out of here," Jonah said curtly, releasing him. "We'll be talking about this again. If she hurts anyone, David-including you-it's over."

David took to the air almost before Jonah finished the statement, not wanting to give the dragon another chance to change the commander's mind. And he couldn't spare the emotional energy to think about what he himself might have destroyed here.

"Here." David shouted it. "Mina. Here. I'm here."

As the angels started to back off, presumably upon Jonah's mental command, David shot up, coming in beneath the dragon's maw, narrowly missing the swipe of talons. The tail dealt him a blow in the shoulder that sent him spinning, but a rush of adrenaline took over as he envisioned Jonah taking that as a sign to attack. It galvanized him and he surged up in the sky, headed away from the Citadel.

Mina, follow me. Please, Goddess, don't let them kill you. He fired his next thought toward his commander. I've got this. Please, Jonah. Let me do this.

The dragon exploded off the turret, and David's heart stopped as he realized a handful of arrows had already been released. Then they veered up sharply, clattering back down to the stone floor of the keep when Jonah swept his hand before him, sending out an arc of power. David heard an inventive curse in his head, followed by a sharp command.

Watch out.

David spun and twisted left so sharply he thought he heard his spine crack as the dragon's claws swept down upon him, more swiftly than he'd anticipated. He slid between the front talons, which ripped a healthy piece of flesh from his shoulder as he followed the line of her belly, causing her to make an awkward somersault to reach him. It, as well as the smell of blood, served the intended purpose of enraging her further and sending her in renewed pursuit after him.

David.

I'll be fine. David grunted as he executed another narrow miss just over her head. Flame seared through the wounded shoulder. Will... report later. Thanks...

Jonah sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose as the angels who had engaged made landings at various points on the keep. He noted Raphael had joined them, was standing at his shoulder.

"That boy is going to give me gray hairs," he informed the healer.

Raphael offered a smile that, as usual, comforted, but there was uncertainty in his own expression, which didn't comfort in the least. "No cure for that, I'm afraid."

"I should have killed her."

"You couldn't do it. You love him too well, perhaps."

Jonah shifted his attention to the other angel. At Raphael's knowing look, he swore again. "You helped me with him when he first came here. What will it do to his soul if I have to kill her, which everything suggests is the way this will end? She can't control it in hers

elf except under certain restricted conditions, and you just felt her power. We were lucky she was more animal than witch just then or she might have brought the Citadel down around us."

He turned back to watch, grudgingly admiring when David made an elegant turn, still an evasive maneuver. It was clear he was going to keep goading her to chase him until she ran out of energy and perhaps became manageable again. For now, short of another careless move, he should be fine, for his speed far surpassed hers.

"If it has to be done, make sure he's the one that does it." Raphael said it quietly. "He's not that boy anymore, Jonah. He's a young man, for certain. And he's in love, for the first time in his life. Being an angel, I expect that means the last time as well."

At Jonah's stunned expression, Raphael inclined his head. "The one thing a healer recognizes is love, because there is no greater healing agent in the universe. If it must be done, it is likely to shatter him either way, but that way he will know it has been done with mercy."