Chapter 4

The Legion's Interrogators could have learned a few things about torture from my kitten Angel. Her technique was subtle, merciless, and never failed to get results. To wake me, she began by sitting on my pillow, curling her furry belly around my head. Soft and steady, the ripple of her purrs rumbled in my ears. After a few minutes of that, she'd begin poking me with her paw. Then she'd upgrade her attacks to nipping my face at irregular intervals. She would continue this barrage until I couldn't stand it anymore and finally got up.

This morning, however, Nero saved me the trouble.

He grabbed Angel by the scruff of her neck, plucked her from my pillow, then set her down gently on the floor. He'd already learned not to fling her across the room. She was a really tough kitty and would always land gracefully on her feet, but she did not take kindly to being thrown. And she'd express that displeasure by shifting her torture tactics from me to him. My tough archangel husband put soldiers through brutal, inhuman training on a daily basis, but he could not long withstand my kitten's nipping.

So after setting her down carefully on the floor, Nero used a psychic spell to nudge the balcony door open. Angel meowed in happy appreciation, then trotted outside for her morning hunt.

I watched him watch her, a grin taking over my face. "You're smitten with my kitten."

"I'm smitten with you, Pandora," he growled, pinning my hands to the bed.

"Angel has won you over, admit it."

Nero frowned. He'd never approved of the name I'd given my kitten. Well, it was a lot better than Creampuff, which was the name she'd had when she'd arrived to me in a shipping box.

"That cat is not genteel enough to be honored with the title of angel," he declared.

"Neither am I." I slipped free of his grip and reached up to wrap my arms around his back. "But I won you over in the end."

He dipped his mouth to mine and gave me a quick, light kiss that left my lips tingling—and my body aching for more. "You have other redeeming qualities to make up for your total lack of propriety."

"You thoroughly enjoyed my total lack of propriety last night."

After coming home from Heaven's Army, Nero and I had wasted no time in getting reacquainted. We hadn't seen each other in a week, and we were newlyweds after all.

"There is a time and a place for everything," he said silkily. "Something your cat should learn."

"Oh, Angel knows all about that. For example, she knows it's morning and that means breakfast time. Which she catches all by herself, by the way," I said proudly. "She just needs a little help opening the door."

"Perhaps opening doors should be the next thing you teach her. While you were away, she woke me up every morning to let her out."

"A cat that can open doors? If she could do that, wouldn't you consider her a security risk?"

He snorted. "I probably would. But I might be willing to overlook it for the greater good."

"What greater good?"

"An angel does not enjoy being awoken from his slumber, and he always makes sure no one else enjoys their day either."

I kissed him. "You're grumpy when you're tired."

"Yes," he agreed. "But I'm grumpier when you're away from me."

"Were you this snippy with my soldiers while I was gone?"

During my week with Heaven's Army, Nero had run my Legion office in Purgatory—and my territory. I didn't have a cushy big-city territory with all the fixings like the other angels did. As the Angel of Chaos, my territory was the plains of monsters: the wild, beast-infested, catastrophic weather zones beyond the Magitech walls that separated civilization from the feral expanse.

"You're distracted," Nero observed.

I smirked at him. "You are very distracting."

"This time, it's something else. Something far less pleasant."

I leaned on my side and draped my arm over my hip. "There aren't many things in this world more pleasant than you, Nero Windstriker."

His gaze panned down the length of my naked body, blue-silver flashing in his green eyes as he drank me in. Nero had a knack for making me feel like the center of his universe, and I loved him dearly for it.

"It's Faris," I sighed. There was magic in my father's name. Just speaking it seemed to wash away all happiness and numb all joy. "He's been in my dreams a lot lately. Or perhaps I should call them nightmares."

"Last night too?" Nero asked.

"Yes. I dreamt of my last mission with Heaven's Army. I just can't stop thinking about it. I have this feeling I can't shake, this feeling that Faris wanted me at the Choosing. My being there played into his plans somehow. I just don't know how. I don't even know what his plans are. Well, except for reigning supreme over every realm."

He reached out and squeezed my hand. "We will figure it out."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because you're very stubborn. And I'm very competent."

I laughed, and his smile told me that was just the reaction he'd been going for.

"I wonder…" I met Nero's eyes. "Is Faris really visiting me in my dreams? Or is it just my overly-active imagination running wild?"

"Hard to say. You keep people out of your head pretty well while you're awake, but the dream world is another thing altogether. When we sleep, our defenses are weaker. It's easier for people to get in."

"The last thing I need right now is Faris or any other deity rummaging around in my mind." I grabbed my phone off the nightstand because it had started ringing. "Hey, Lucy. So what's today's good news?"

Lucy was my personal assistant. She kept me organized because I was, well, not. Come on, they called me the Angel of Chaos, not the Angel of Ordered Lists.

"You've received a number of new petitions. Petition one is a request for soldiers to clear out a rogue vampire nest in Purgatory…"

Every time we clear out a nest, a new one always pops up the next day,I relayed to Nero.

Clearing out rogue vampires is like doing the dishes,he replied. No matter how many times you clean them, they always get dirty again.

Since when do you do the dishes?I teased.

He shrugged. More often than you, Pandora.

I bottled a chuckle. Lucy couldn't hear us when we communicated like this, but her supernatural hearing could and would hear me giggle.

"…Petition number six is for a new childcare facility."

How were we already at number six?

Maybe you should pay attention,Nero told me.

Maybe you should stop distracting me.

It's not my fault that you're naked.

Sure it is. I was dressed when I came home last night,I pointed out.

Fire flashed in his eyes, and a sexy smile twisted his lips.

"Petition number ten is a plea for a boutique shopping center to replace the town's current shady shopping area."

"Wait a minute," I spoke into the phone. "Who's calling the Bazaar shady?"

"Ivy."

I grunted. "Figures."

My friend Ivy loved shopping even more than she loved dressing up.

"Shall I continue?" Lucy asked me.

"Just how many more petitions are there for today?"

"The Purgatory office of the Legion of Angels received a total of one-hundred and fifty-two petitions yesterday."

Splendid.

"I also have several reports regarding the conversion of the old district lords' houses into Legion office space and public use buildings."

Being an angel seemed like a lot more fun before I actually became one,I lamented. But it's at least ninety percent bureaucracy. I'd rather sneak into a demon stronghold than deal with petitions and reports any day. Does that make me crazy?

Crazy in the best way.Nero brushed a strand of hair from my face. The key to being an angel and running a territory is delegation, Pandora. In other words, you need to assign people to do the things you don't want to do.

That does sound like more fun.

"Lucy," I cut her off as she moved on to petition number nine. "I'm assigning you the very important task of answering my fan mail."

"Your…fan mail?" She sounded confused.

"The petitions, Lucy. That fan mail."

"Oh, of course. I can do that."

"Great."

"And what about your actual fan mail?" she asked.

"I have actual fan mail?" This was the first I'd heard about it.

"Yes. It's been accumulating in the mail room. Letters to Pandora, the Angel of Chaos, from your adoring fans. Most of the letters contained—" Lucy cleared her throat. "—pictures of your fans. Naked pictures." She cleared her throat again. "What should I do with them?"

"That depends." I cast a mischievous look at Nero. "Are any of my fans particularly sexy?"

In a flash, my phone was in his right hand, and my hands were pinned under his left. "Burn the photos."

"General Windstriker?" Lucy's voice had jumped an octave.

"You heard me," he replied crisply, in a tone that harbored no room for discussion.

"Yes, sir," Lucy squeaked.

"Leda will talk to you later." He hung up, then set my phone back on the nightstand.

When his gaze returned to me, I was ready with a glower. "You know, I'm pretty sure the angel handbook states that I should kill you for usurping my authority in my territory."

He released my hands. "Then it's a good thing for both of us that you're not very good at following the rules."

"Maybe not." I sat up in bed. "But I do retaliate in other ways."

His brows drew together, and he gave me a flat look. "You're going to shut off all my hot water again."

"Of course not," I said, setting my hand over my heart. "I never pull the same prank twice. It wouldn't be very genteel."

Chuckling darkly, Nero wrapped his arms around me. "I love you, Leda Pandora." His words fell against my lips. "Even though you're completely crazy."

"Love is crazy." I smiled against his mouth and hugged him tightly to me. "But did you really need to be this crazy and burn all my fan mail?"

"Yes."

"Haven't your fans ever sent you naked pictures of themselves?"

"Of course. All angels get them."

"And do you burn the pictures?"

"No."

Ha!

"So what do you do with them?" I asked.

He shrugged. "My fan mail is probably all stuffed in boxes in a Legion mail room somewhere. I'll have the boxes sent to you so you can burn them if you'd like."

The rational person in me said burning those pictures would be childish and petty. That voice wasn't nearly as loud as the deeply possessive angel in me; she wanted to burn them all.

"Leda?"

I looked at him. "Yes?"

"For a little while there, you had a funny look in your eyes."

"It was just a momentary lapse of sanity," I told him. "It will pass."

"You're still worried about Faris, aren't you?"

"I'm always worried about Faris," I said. "What he's planning. When he'll come calling again. And why he made me his emissary to hell."

"He believes you're the best person to convince the demons to ally with the gods."

"And I will convince them. Somehow. I'll come up with something. Something good. You know, I do excel at out-of-the-box thinking."

His eyes twinkled. "I thought we'd agreed it was best if you refrained from opening boxes, Pandora."

I flashed him a grin. "Ah, you're no fun."

Caught between the perfectly orderly armies of heaven and hell, between gods and demons, Earth was suffering from a serious shortage of chaos and fun.

"I assure you, I am a lot of fun," he said. "Now, close your eyes."

"Why?"

"It's a surprise."

I did love surprises, so I closed my eyes. I felt the shift of the mattress as Nero moved. I heard the smooth swish of his nightstand drawer opening and closing. The mattress rocked again. Something cold and metallic touched down on the soft, sensitive skin of my throat. I opened my eyes and looked down at the necklace he'd set around my neck.

It was a band of precious stones, dipping just below my collarbone. The necklace's metal links were platinum-like in color, but there was an ethereal sheen to the metal that told me it wasn't platinum—or any other precious metal I knew. The gemstones were also not of this world. Their color was in flux, shifting color, twinkling like the stars in the sky. It was so much like my hair. And my wings.

"Where did you get this?" I gasped, brushing my fingers over the otherworldly necklace. "I've never seen anything like it before."

"I made it." Nero's gaze ensnared mine.

The air crackled with our magic.

"It's beautiful," I told him. "And a much better present than a bunch of old boxes to blow up."

"Burn."

"I'd have burned the boxes, then blown them up for good measure. I don't like women sending you nude selfies."

"Some of them were men."

I snorted. "I guess everyone loves an angel. And speaking of angels, did you make a matching necklace for my Angel?" I teased him.

He humphed. "You spoil that cat far too much, Pandora."

"And so do you. I caught you giving her a belly rub last night when I came in."

"Petting a cat is oddly soothing. With you gone for so long, I was in need of being soothed."

"So you're grateful for my cat's presence." I smiled. "In her debt even."

He slanted a hard look my way. "Don't push it, Leda." But even so, he reached into his nightstand drawer once more and pulled out a cat collar of matching magic stones.

I beamed at him. "I know she'll love it." Tears pooled in my eyes.

Nero brushed them away. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. You've given me such a beautiful gift." I glanced down at my new necklace, then back up at him. "But I have nothing for you." I took a short, resolute breath. "I'm going to remedy that. I will find you something special."

"I don't need a gift." He wrapped his arms around me, drawing me closer. "You are all I need."

Smiling, I cuddled up to him. But my smile soon faded to suspicion. "Why are you so concerned about my getting a gift for you?"

He kissed me on the forehead. "Your gifts tend to explode."

"Angels like things that explode."

He yawned. "Not when we're off duty."

I couldn't help but laugh. "I will get you an amazing gift, Nero. You'll see."

"If you insist." He wet his lips. "I like garments with lots of lace." His voice dipped. "And nothing else."

"That will look fantastic on you."

"I won't be wearing it, Leda. You will." His voice was rough with lust. "At least for a little while." He tried to tackle me to the bed.

But I evaded, bouncing up to stand on the mattress. I stared down upon him. "I wish I could, honey, but I'm already horribly late." I jumped off the bed. "I have a breakfast date with my friends." I winked at him, then pulled on my shirt. "And a territory to run."

He looked at me, amused. "You might want to put on some pants first."

"Good idea." I grabbed the missing garment off a nearby chair. "Every respectable angel starts the day wearing pants. Whether she ends the day that way depends entirely on the universe's good graces."