2. Kiera

Iwrapped my arm around the strangely handsome man who saved me, supporting him as we climbed the stairs. No, not a man – a fallen angel. His wings were folded against his back, and they would be effectively invisible to mortal eyes. Not to me, though. I knew what he was. I just didn't know who he was, or why he'd helped me. Could this be some kind of trick?

A phone rang in a room downstairs and a woman answered it in a cheerful tone. This must be some kind of office, I realised. I picked it somewhat at random, because I wanted to get us indoors and off the street when… I didn't know his name… the fallen angel was injured.

It was likely only a matter of time until someone noticed us and tried to force us out, so I knew we ought to do something about that. At least, I should, because the fallen angel I was helping didn't look well. We made it to the top of the stairs unchallenged but I could hear men talking further down the hall.

"Can you shield yourself from human eyes?" I asked the fallen angel in a quiet whisper.

I quickly summoned divine energy and let it flow around me like a shield of energy. It wasn't quite invisibility; it was more like creating a sense of ‘nothing to see here,' so mortals" eyes drifted over you. It let you avoid unwanted attention in some situations, but non-mortals were more often than not immune to it. It was similar to the way we disguised our wings, though more an act of will than instinct.

The fallen angel closed his eyes, and I thought for a moment he was concentrating. I was wrong – he was wincing in pain. The arrow had passed part of the way through his arm and the t-shirt he wore, but not fully. I knew we had to get it out.

He glanced at me, freeing himself from my grasp. "They shouldn't notice me now."

"Maybe it's all we need to get away from the man who attacked us," I reasoned, as we made our way into the empty conference room and I locked the door behind us.

The fallen angel sank down on to a leather couch beside the table, slumping sideways as he groaned in pain.

"The assassin probably isn't human. It will take more than that to stop him. He's just going to keep coming," the fallen angel groaned, as he examined the arrow.

"I can heal you, but first we need to get the arrow out. Could I convince you to go to a hospital?"

I was taken aback by his laugh. It felt insulting, though I could understand why he'd rule out such a possibility.

"Then we should cut or snap the arrow and pull it out," I replied. I already knew I had nothing to cut it with.

My eyes widened when the stranger pulled out a wickedly sharp knife.

"Cut it with that if you can." His hair fell in his face and his brow was beaded with sweat.

"This can't be just any arrow to do this to a fallen angel."

"It's not," he replied. "Hurry up, it's hurting me. What's your name?"

"Oh, I'm Kiera."

I carefully took the knife from him, and brought it to the arrow, cutting the shaft behind the arrow head. It was the strangest arrow – it was crystalline but the arrow shaft was wooden. It seemed like the two pieces were soldered together. I didn't think cutting the shaft would work that well, but soon a groove developed in the wood, and it didn't take much to cut it most of the way through. I broke the arrow head off and set it on the table. The fallen angel winced in pain.

"I'm Rhys. Nice to meet you, now pull that bloody thing out of my arm."

"Wait. Let me check your wound first," I said as I closed my eyes and held my hand above it, sensing what I could of his injury. "I don't think it has any barbs."

Rhys reached for the arrow shaft, and I stopped him. I gave him back his knife and he returned it to its sheath. Carefully, I grasped the arrow's fletching and shaft, and pulled it from his wound. I don't know what surprised me more – how difficult it was to pull out or the fact Rhys took it with near-silence. I set it down on the table and returned my attention to him.

"You could have splinters of wood or t-shirt material in there. I'll try to push it out when I heal you."

I held my hands over his wound, and summoned divine healing energy. Usually it didn't take much to heal an injury, but that wasn't the case with Rhys. It took so much more effort to even begin the healing process. I wasn't sure if it was because he was a powerful being, because he was fallen, or for another reason.

The energy flowed from my hands, and I could see the expression of relief form on Rhys's face as his wound repaired itself. I directed the energy to push out any debris in the wound, and that's when I noticed the most interesting side-effect.

Rhys's dark feathers closest to his injured arm leached of colour, and as I watched, they faded to a paler white, like that of a normal angel. Mine weren't white; they were auburn like my hair. It was occasionally the case with redheads.

"That's enough," Rhys said, as he pulled back his arm and ran his hand over the wound.

His faded feathers regained their darker aspect within moments, but I still found the change fascinating. It made me feel that at a basic level, we were the same.

The wound on his arm appeared to have mostly healed. It still held a scar from the injury and I knew it would require time and rest. I stopped the flow of divine magic and spoke the sacred words of thanks to God. Rhys didn't so much as blink, but then in the past he might've had the same abilities. I couldn't imagine losing them, but then he likely had no say in the matter other than through his actions.

"We're even," I told him as I leaned in close to examine his injury. It looked so much better. His face was close to mine, and when my gaze met his, I noticed that he was watching me.

"Thank you, Kiera," he said, taking my hand and bringing it to his lips. He placed a single kiss on it, which made me feel befuddled and far warmer than I had been moments before. Was the fallen angel trying to charm me? He didn't need to try, because he already had.

I frowned at him, and he smiled back at me in a mischievous way. He was handsome and attentive, and the most thoughtful fallen angel I'd ever met. Also the only fallen angel I'd had the pleasure to meet. It was enough that I drew back and took a deep breath. No sooner had I begun to relax, there was a bang and rattle, as someone tried to force open the door. I almost jumped out of my skin!

The humans would be wanting to use their conference room. I glanced around and searched my pockets. Finding a tissue, I used it to gather up the bloodied arrowhead. I didn't have a bag with me, just my jacket, so I held it until Rhys took it from me.

Rhys stuffed it in his trouser pocket. "It has to be magical, otherwise it wouldn't have been able to harm me so easily."

"It might give us some information," I explained.

Rhys nodded. "It might. You're going to need my help stopping the one behind this."

"Don't get me wrong, I appreciate your help immensely, but this seems like an angelic matter." I winced slightly. "I know you're an angel. I suppose what I meant to say was "administrative angelic matter.' ‘A heavenly...'"

"I know what you meant to say," Rhys replied.

His voice had taken on a tone of annoyance, and I could understand why.

"Do you think they found you by chance? They either knew you were coming or they honed in on your energy. You have a connection to the divine source, just as I once did. Energy in the positive aspect. You're not the only angel to visit this city though, and I haven't heard of any others being targeted."

"Okay…" I admitted, not seeing his point.

"I emit energy in the negative aspect. Do you see what I'm saying? They cancel each other out, Kiera. Without me, he'll know you're coming… and what's more, he'll be able to find you and any other angels you bring with you. The more of you there are, the larger the blip on his psychic radar. If you're with me, he won't detect us, and we'll be that much harder for him to track. We just have to stay close together."

"That makes sense, but we would have to be together the whole time until we find and deal with him. That could take a while."

"Yes, it could," Rhys replied, and he was grinning now.

I wasn't quite sure how I felt about it, beyond the earlier warmth that was spreading through my body in ways I didn't quite understand. Could it be temptation? If so, I knew I must resist. We had a job to do, before I could get back on track and protect my charge as I was supposed to. Until then, I'd be useless to my charge… and might even bring trouble his way.

It seemed Rhys, the handsome fallen angel, and I were stuck together for now, and I had to try hard not to enjoy it.