If he was afraid of what was inside…
Then I should be too.
And yet I held his hand. I squeezed it tight, and I felt the slow purr of breath escape between his lips, as if my touch made him happy.
Tears filled my eyes. So much uncertainty, so much we I didn’t know, and so much I didn’t want to know.
Because what if I’d just found someone to spend my eternity with — who would end up either rejecting me or hurting me in the process?
To my knowledge, immortals never mated in that way; they didn’t cross breed. It was considered forbidden.
The only time I’d ever heard of anything remotely similar to it happening had been when angels bred with humans, creating Dark Ones, and look how wonderful that had turned out for everyone.
Mason snorted. “Tell me about it.”
Crap.
He sighed as my tension increased in my shoulders. “I can only hear flickers of your thoughts, when you’re really scared or upset. It’s easy to pick out from a million other crowds, but I’m not good at it yet. Maybe—” He stopped himself.
“More blood,” I answered for him. “Just imagine how powerful you’ll be when you drink your fill.”
The car chilled.
I shouldn’t have said it.
His demeanor darkened right along with the sky.
And as torrential rain started slamming onto the windshield, I was left again with more questions than answers.
It was driving me insane.
I was about to ask him if he could pull over and give me a minute when something crashed into the car, sending us careening off the road and against a tree.
Mason turned his body my way, shielding me. It all happened in slow motion — the fear on his face, then determination as he wrapped his body around me before immediately morphing into a white wolf. His fur pressed against my skin as metal twisted around our bodies, and then an explosion of white enveloped us as our car disappeared, and a fallen walked right through, a look of curiosity on its angelic face.
“I was wondering…” Mason barked out. “…when you would sniff us all out. Curious?”
The fallen smiled; he was one of the Watchers, the ones who’d watched for a thousand years until the first angel fell, until Sariel created Cassius with his love for his human wife.
Until the twelve brothers who were set to watch over the human realm fell with them, allowing their eyes to shift from their purpose to the very ones they were supposed to be protecting.
The ones who watched had jet black hair with red shot throughout, as a mark to human or immortal that they were not fully angelic, not anymore.
The red was proof that they had to earn their spot back into Heaven.
The black was proof they most likely never would.
A chained tattoo wrapped around his neck like a vice then rippled down his arm and coiled around each finger as if someone else was controlling him.
“Come, Gadreel.” The fallen held out his hand. “Do you not recognize your brother?”
Mason shook his head and then gave out a sharp bark that sounded like a laugh, only with more teeth. “I’m clearly a wolf. You’ve been locked up too long. Making me regret even setting you free a few weeks ago. Aren’t you supposed to be reporting to your archangel? The one who has you by the ass so you don’t go to the bad place where they take your pretty feathers?”
The fallen closed his eyes. His lips began to move, and suddenly, Mason just collapsed right in front of me.
“What did you do to him!” I screamed, falling to my knees.
The fallen tilted his head at me. “I knew you would awaken him. Only one who can.”