Phoenix’s Refrain by Ella Summers

6

Flirting with Danger

Early the next morning, I sat in the Legion’s canteen. Though the sun had barely risen a few minutes ago, it was packed full for the breakfast rush.

Nero walked over to my table and sat down next to me, carrying two breakfast trays. He slid one across the tabletop to me.

“Thanks, honey,” I said. “But what are you going to eat?”

He caught my hand as I tried to steal his tray too.

I smirked at him.

Under the table, Angel arched her back and rubbed against his legs.

He gave the cat a flat look.

She looked up at him and blinked. Then she let out a soft meow.

Nero tossed her a breakfast sausage.

My cat started tearing into it, purring.

“You’re such a softy, Windstriker,” I laughed.

“I don’t believe anyone has ever referred to me as soft.”

I allowed my gaze to pan up his hard, muscular physique. “No, I’d imagine not.” I wet my lips. “Any chance I could ogle—er, observe you on the salmon ladder later?”

“I’ve already performed my morning exercises.”

Shame.

“When did that happen?” I asked.

“While you were still asleep in bed.” His mouth twitched. “Snoring.”

“Angels don’t snore,” I protested.

“You aren’t a typical angel, Pandora.”

His eyes drank me in. The look in them…it made me want to jump across the table and pin him under me. I sent him the mental image.

“Careful, Pandora,” he said, so quietly I could hardly hear him. “Or I’ll have to reprimand you.”

“Reprimand me?” I asked my husband. “For what?”

“For projecting inappropriate thoughts to a superior officer while on duty.”

I braided my fingers together, smiling. “Oh, so that’s not allowed?”

His gaze didn’t waver from mine, not for a second. “No. It is not.”

“Well, then, I guess you’re just going to have to reprimand me.” Under the table, I slid my leg against his.

He reached out to touch me, then stopped himself. “Leda, what are you doing?” he said, low and rough.

“Misbehaving.” I slid my foot higher up his leg.

“This is most inappropriate. Anyone in the canteen could see what you’re doing.”

“Oh, right.” I slid my foot all the way down his leg, but I did it very, very slowly. “Remind me to order tablecloths for all the tables.” I allowed my eyes to pulse silver, once. “Long tablecloths.” I licked my lips slowly, then finally withdrew my leg.

For once, Nero was speechless.

I leaned forward on my elbows. “So what will it be? Pushups?”

“What?” Nero said, as though coming out of a trance.

I smiled. “Was your mind someplace else, General?”

“Yes. Several places.”

His gaze dipped to my chest. My breasts suddenly felt very heavy.

I unzipped my jacket. “It’s gotten hot in here, hasn’t it.”

Nero didn’t blink. “Yes.” He looked like he was going to move forward and touch me, but he sat back in his chair and watched me instead. “You mentioned pushups. No, I don’t believe that would be wise in your condition.”

“Running laps?” I asked, feeling a little breathless.

“No. That is not a good idea either.”

“It would be if you chased me,” I said.

“Chased you?”

I felt the soft caress of his magic slip down my neck.

“You’re not fast enough,” he said. “I’d catch you.”

That soft whisper of barely-there wind magic traced my collarbone.

His brows arched. “And when I did catch you, you’d throw water bottles at me so you could get away.”

I laughed, which sent the stroke of whispered wind plunging between my breasts. My laughter roughened into a choked gasp.

Nero’s finger sprang to my lips, silencing me. He leaned in and whispered, “We have company, Leda.”

“Then you shouldn’t have provoked me, Nero,” I hissed under my breath.

His finger traced my lower lip. “I do believe you started it.”

“Did I? I can’t remember. I don’t know who started it, but we both need to finish this now.” I arched forward.

“What are you doing?”

I glanced at him through thick, lowered lashes. “Taking what’s mine.”

“Leda, we can’t have sex in the middle of the canteen,” he said sensibly.

Gods, he made even sensible seem sexy.

“Why not?” I asked, sliding my finger slowly across my lower lip.

“Because there are people here.”

“Oh, right.” I tried to picture a solution to this problem, but my brain was kind of distracted at the moment. I just kept picturing Nero naked instead. Finally, I said, “There aren’t any people in my office.”

He looked like he was considering it. Seriously considering it. I unwound my telekinetic magic, sliding it up his leg to help him decide.

His eyes smoldered. “You’re flirting with danger, Pandora.”

“Always.” My self control was slipping. All I had to do was reach out and…

“Could you two lovebirds stop mentally undressing each other long enough to make some space?”

Nero’s knee jerked up and bumped the underside of the table.

I looked up at our uninvited guest. “Harker, so nice of you to visit. Now goodbye.”

Harker chuckled and sat down next to Nero, who had backed away from me to an appropriate distance. How boring.

“Leda, your top’s undone,” Harker said casually.

I looked down at my top, which I’d zipped lower to show off an impressive amount of cleavage. Not that it helped me anymore. Now that Harker was here, Nero was on his best behavior.

I tried to zip up my top, but it got stuck. I cursed.

“Problems?” Harker said lightly, clearly amused.

“Yeah, my boobs got bigger, so none of my tops fit anymore.”

Harker chuckled. “Yep, you’ve got problems.”

“Well, you try being pregnant.”

“I don’t believe that’s anatomically possible, Leda. But if you’re having trouble with your boobs, then I’m sure Nero would gladly lend you a hand.”

“If only,” I muttered bitterly, slouching back in my chair.

“Is this seat taken?”

My gloomy mood brightened as soon as I looked up to find Ivy standing beside our table.

“Of course not!” I told her. “Sit down, stranger.”

Ivy sat down with her apple cinnamon muffin.

“How’s Leila treating you back at Storm Castle?” I asked her.

“Great. It’s all great there.”

“You know, it’s even better here,” I told her.

“You know I love you, Leda.”

I snickered. “But you love Drake more.”

Ivy grinned, totally lovestruck. “Is that bad?”

“No, it’s about time you two realized how you feel about each other. Everyone else knew ages ago.”

“Surely not everyone.”

I looked at Harker. “Everyone at the Legion’s New York office knew, right?”

Harker nodded. “Naturally.”

Ivy’s face blushed as red as her hair. “Well, I guess Drake and I just needed time. But it was worth the wait.”

“I’m glad you and Drake are happy, Ivy, but you two could have been happy here.” I brushed away an imaginary tear.

“Drake is now a Dragon of Storm Castle. That job cannot be done from anywhere else on Earth,” Nero pointed out.

“Yes, thank you, Mr. Sensible,” I replied.

Nero’s brows lifted. He must have known that I was annoyed with him because he hadn’t taken me up on my offer of a steamy rendezvous in my office.

“Hey, Alec,” Ivy said.

Alec Morrows, my new head of security, had stopped beside our table. “General Windstriker. Colonel Sunstorm.” He nodded to Nero and Harker in turn. Then he bowed to me. “Boss.” He winked at Ivy. “Doctor Happy.”

Doctor Happy. That was the perfect nickname for Ivy.

“I must say I am very disappointed, Ivy, to hear you’re now off the market. And dating my buddy Drake no less.” Alec grinned at her.

Ivy grinned back.

“So, Alec, I guess you want to make a report or something,” I said casually.

Nero’s eyes widened, clearly horrified by my very fancy, very soldierly words. They were words totally befitting of an angel.

“No wonder Nyx is sending you to remedial angel academy,” Harker laughed.

I stuck my hand over his mouth and hissed between my teeth, “Do you think you could shout it out any louder, Harker? Honestly! I have a reputation to maintain.”

Harker swatted my hand away. “I’m confused, Leda. I thought your special angel training is all about building up a new reputation.” His eyes twinkled.

I rolled my eyes at him. “Haha. Very funny.”

Alec sat down next to me. “Should I proceed with my report?”

I waved for him to continue.

“While you were, ahem, away on business last night, Nyx arrived here,” Alec said. “General Windstriker met with her in your office and attempted to convince her that you were not indeed off on a fool’s errand.”

Alec spoke with a perfectly straight face, so unlike his usual, jovial manner. He must have been particularly amused right now.

“Out of curiosity, what did you tell Nyx?” Harker asked Nero.

“I told her Leda was visiting her family.”

“Which is true,” I said. “I was with Gin and Tessa.”

Thankfully, Gin was recovering well from being, well, dead. Thank goodness she was a phoenix. I shouldn’t have put her and Tessa in such danger in the first place. Calli thought so too. She’d called me up and told me off for at least an hour after my sisters had returned home. I’d felt like I was twelve years old again, not a powerful angel. Funnily enough, Calli hadn’t seemed irked that I’d brought Gin and Tessa with me to the Lost City; she’d been more upset that I hadn’t brought her along to look out for all of us. Like Nyx, Calli seemed to think I was made of glass now that I was pregnant.

“But then Faris and Grace showed up too,” I said. “Uninvited, of course.”

“But in the end, you got Zane back,” said Harker.

“You’ve been talking to Bella.”

After telling me off for an hour for putting myself and my sisters in danger, Calli had spent the next hour praising me for finding my brother. Then she’d called Bella and told her the good news.

“Yes. Bella told me last night.” Harker couldn’t hide his smile, the smitten kitten.

Oh, yes. The two of them had been spending a lot of time together lately.

“I have my eye on you, Sunstorm. You treat my sister right, or you’ll have to deal with the Angel of Chaos.” I pointed at myself.

Harker folded his hands together serenely. “I’ve been a perfect angel, I assure you.”

“That’s what I’m worried about.”

Contrary to our reputation, we angels were hardly ‘angelic’ in the human sense of the word.

“Bella is very eager to see Zane again,” Harker told me.

“I want to bring him home, but Nyx has insisted on running some tests. Nerissa checked him out physically last night. And Ivy is checking him out mentally today.”

That’s why Nyx had called Ivy away from Storm Castle.

Ivy rose from her seat. “Right, I’ll be talking to your brother starting in ten minutes. I just stopped by the canteen for a quick muffin and a chat with my favorite angel.” She winked at me.

Then she left. Alec left with her.

I watched Ivy walk away. “I wish Leila hadn’t poached Ivy and Drake from me,” I said to Nero. “They’re really good at what they do.”

“Poaching soldiers. Sounds familiar,” Harker commented.

I’d stolen some of his soldiers when I’d started the Purgatory office.

He winked at me. “How do you like the bitter taste of your own medicine?”

How do you like the bitter taste of your own medicine?I’d said something just like that to Faris last night. I hoped that didn’t mean I was just like my hypocritical father. That was one of my greatest fears, actually: to be just like my parents. I sure was living up to that standard nicely. If I continued on like this, by the end of the year, I’d be trying my hand at playing the game of world domination.

Nero and Harker were staring at me strangely, so I pulled my mind away from those foreboding thoughts.

“It’s only fun if I’m the one doing the poaching of soldiers,” I quipped.

Harker snorted.

“I guess we’d better get going,” I said with a heavy sigh.

The three of us stood up and walked out of the canteen. Angel trotted along after us.

“So, what are you boys up to today?” I asked them as we walked down the hall. Anything to get my mind off of my new assignment.

“It’s classified,” Harker told me.

I knew Harker was in town to work with Nero, but I didn’t know the nature of that work.

“Classified? By the Legion?” I asked.

“By me,” he replied.

We are going after a diary,Nero told me in my mind.

Thea’s diary?I asked. Bella told me it might hold answers about her past.

Yes. Bella seems to think her mother’s diary is some kind of grimoire. And that it’s hidden somewhere in Purgatory.

“I see. Well, good luck with that,” I told Nero and Harker aloud.

Harker frowned at Nero. “You told her.”

“Of course. She’s my wife. The mother of my child. We have no secrets.” Nero took my hand and kissed it.

Harker rolled his eyes. “Love has made you foolish, Nero.”

“I’m not the one dropping everything to go on a treasure hunt just to spend more time with a certain witch.” Nero’s green eyes twinkled with amusement.

“You are dropping everything to go on a treasure hunt.”

“To spend more time with my best friend, you goon.”

Harker’s smirk faded, replaced by a genuine grin. He thumped Nero heartily on the back.

“You’re a good friend,” I told Nero.

Nero nodded smugly. “I know.”

“And so modest,” Harker added.

“There are qualities in an angel that are more important than modesty,” Nero declared.

“Hold on a moment there, Nero. Don’t give Leda all the answers before she goes to her remedial angel course.”

“Shh,” I growled. “Not so loudly, or everyone will find out about it.”

“Nyx sent you to angel manners school.” The expression on Harker’s face was pure merriment. “I think it’s safe to say everyone at the Legion already knows about that, Leda.”

I sighed.

Nero set his hand on my back and began to massage it.

I forced a smile to show him I appreciated his sign of support. “Any chance that you’ll ditch Harker and hang out with me today instead? We can play footsie under the desks.”

“Tempting as that is, Pandora, I think that would distract you from the mission at hand,” Nero chuckled. “Nyx might be trying to keep you busy, but she isn’t wrong that you could use some lessons in dealing with angels.”

“You’re an angel, and I deal with you just fine.”

“Pandora, if you dealt with all angels as you do with me, I would have no choice but to kill every last one of them,” Nero said, his eyes smoldering with barely-contained volcanic fire.

The sharp jealousy, the fierce devotion in his words…I had to admit it sent tingles up and down my spine.

“Do you two need a few minutes? Or a room,” Harker added in a mutter.

Nero and I stared into each other’s eyes.

He stroked his hand down my face. “No, we’re fine,” he said quietly to Harker.

Then he leaned in and kissed me. His kiss was light and soft, but it left a hot brand on my lips. He stepped back. I touched my lips. They still buzzed from his kiss.

You know, we might still have time for a little fun in my office,I communicated telepathically.

Nero’s face was blank, but his chuckles echoed in my mind.

We just have to find a way to ditch Harker,I added.

“These lessons are important, Leda,” Nero said aloud. “You must take them seriously. Angel politics are not for the faint of heart. Or for the inexperienced.”

“Or the unarmed,” Harker added.

“You’ve survived earlier encounters with other angels because they were under carefully controlled circumstances,” Nero told me. “The gods’ challenges, various Legion assignments. But you have ruffled quite a few angels’ feathers, Leda. Your pregnancy protects you from their retribution. But only for now.”

“Pregnant angels are off limits,” Harker explained. “Other angels aren’t free to do to them what they usually could.”

“Which is?” I asked.

Nero grew very still. “You know what Xerxes Fireswift’s father did to my parents.”

I nodded.

“That is not uncommon,” Nero said. “And some of the other angels would jump at the opportunity to make a move against you, Leda. And against our daughter.”

I felt a deep, penetrating chill inside of me, like a cold fist had clenched my heart. “What do we do?”

“Kill them if we must, but I’d prefer not to,” said Nero. “Every angel has angel allies, so killing one angel tends to escalate quickly and spiral out of control. It’s very messy, and we can’t be sure we’ll all survive a full-on angel blood war.”

I couldn’t stand to lose Nero or our daughter. Or any of my friends, for that matter.

“The better strategy is to head this off before it starts,” Nero told me. “You need to learn to act appropriately with the other angels, or at least act appropriately with the angels who don’t appreciate your natural state. Nyx’s training course will help you with that.”

“I will study hard,” I promised him.

For the sake of our family. For the sake of our daughter.

We’d reached Classroom 169.

“Then I will wish you luck.” Nero kissed my hand once, lightly, then he and Harker walked off.

I glanced down at my cat. “Well, Angel, it’s just you and me now.”

Angel looked at the classroom door, then at me. She turned sharply and strutted down the hall toward the nearest exit, her tail high in the air.

“Traitor!” I called out to her.

Now I was truly alone. I took a deep breath, then grabbed the knob, turning it to swing open the door. I entered the room.

I’d expected that Nyx would be the one teaching me to be a proper angel. After all, no one knew more about that than the First Angel herself. But I didn’t find Nyx waiting for me in that classroom. I found someone far, far worse.

“Don’t just stand there. Close the door.”

Colonel Fireswift’s cold, smug face stared back at me, watching me like a predator who had his unwilling lunch exactly where he wanted it.