Dragon's Storm (Legion Of Angels #4)(80)

Nerissa pretended to look angelic. The effect was slightly spoiled by her total lack of innocence—and the fact that angels weren’t innocent either.

“You know who else hooked up last night?” Basanti asked us. Apparently, the ‘no gossip’ rule only applied to her own love life.

“Who?” Nerissa’s eyes lit up. She was practically chomping at the bit to know.

“You’ll never guess,” Basanti taunted her.

“Stop torturing me and just spit it out.”

As we passed through the Dragons’ throne room, Basanti glanced at Jace’s sister Kendra, then her eyes slid over over to Alec. He was winking at her from across the room, which she was pointedly ignoring. We all laughed. Kendra Fireswift and Alec Morrows. Now that I hadn’t seen coming.

We passed through the gates and stepped outside. The air was fresh, cool but not cold. Like a morning mist after an early spring rainfall. Everyone else who was heading back to New York joined us.

Nero was standing outside. Wow, he sure knew how to take care of business. How had he beaten me here? I paused in front of him. As I met his eyes, I found myself completely unable to hold back the dopey expression spreading across my face. Basanti slapped us each on the back on her way to the ledge. Everyone else exchanged winks and knowing looks, then followed her over the edge.

“Need a lift down the mountain?” Nero asked when we were alone.

“I think I can handle it, but thanks for the offer.” Why couldn’t I stop grinning? “It’s very chivalrous of you.” I leaned in to kiss him.

Cooing noises rose from the rocks. I stepped over to the edge and looked down to find my buddies hiding just out of sight. The dirty little spies.

“Get moving, or I’ll find a spectacularly unpleasant mission for you all.”

The mountain magnified Nero’s voice. It seemed to come from everywhere at once. Everyone suddenly made a race for the bottom.

Chuckling, I turned to drape my arms over his shoulders. “I guess this is goodbye again.”

“I’ll visit you soon,” he promised, stroking his hand down my face. “We have a lot to discuss.”

“Ok, but when we move in together, I call dibs on the right side of the bed. On that one point I won’t budge,” I joked.

He grew very still. Oh, shit. I’d already scared him away.

“I was kidding,” I said quickly to cover my own ineptitude. Why had I never learned to be a grownup?

“You like to do that.” He captured my mouth, devouring the inside with a slow, deep kiss that left me gasping for breath. “Try to be good, Pandora,” he whispered against my lips, then pulled away.

Dark wings spread out of his back, appearing by magic. He threw me a long, languid look. And then he was gone, flying off toward his next adventure. I wasn’t sad. Even though he was high above in the sky, I felt him here with me, like he’d left a part of him behind. I hurried down the mountain, wings in my heart.





23





Back in New York





It was sunny in New York when we arrived in the city. Spring was truly in full bloom. Yesterday’s storm had cleansed the streets, washing away the dirty slush.

“Home sweet home,” Basanti said as the two of us entered the Legion’s large New York building. We’d just stopped by Damiel’s apartment to check on him—and to tell him what I’d learned about Cadence.

“You miss her already, don’t you?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you stay longer?”

“I could have stayed. Leila offered to make me a Dragon.”

“Why didn’t you say yes? You looked very cuddly.”

Basanti threatened to barbecue me with her stare. “I need time. Believe it or not, Pandora, it actually takes more than one night to get over a century of bad feelings between us.”

“But what a night it was,” I said wistfully. “What was in those drinks?”

She looked rather wistful herself. “Nectar probably.”

“Probably.”

“I’m glad you and Nero could work things out,” she told me.

“Thanks.”

“This is going to be a big deal, you know.”

“That I had sex with an angel?”

“That an angel marked you. Especially since it’s Nero.”

“You can smell that, can you?”

“He wasn’t subtle,” she said. “The whole Legion must know by now.”

“That’s just because Nerissa got back before we did, and she’s probably told everyone.”

“You’re not wrong about that.”

I wasn’t embarrassed. I was too happy to care what anyone thought about Nero marking me as his. Besides, I’d marked him as mine too.

“Well, this will certainly be entertaining,” Basanti declared. “I can’t wait to see how Colonel Fireswift reacts.”

“Didn’t you hear?” Ivy said excitedly as she and Drake ran past us in the hall. “Colonel Fireswift is gone!”

“He’s gone back to his own office in Chicago,” Drake added.

“Party tonight!” Ivy squealed.

“Everyone’s headed down to the canteen to meet the new angel in charge. He’s arriving soon,” Drake told us.