Bound by Love Read Free Page A

were capable of.
    He dried his body with a big, fluffy towel and then climbed out onto a small roof balcony to stretch his wings. The wind blowing down from the heavens ruffled his feathers, chasing the moisture from them. He tilted his head up, letting the sun heat his face. Dressed in nothing but warm rays from Heaven, Eden stretched his wings as far as he could and then flapped them slowly downward, once, twice, and then took flight, leaping off of the roof and catching the air just right to glide down to the backyard. The missing feathers meant he couldn't fly, but so did his missing lover.
    "Be safe, Bel," he whispered. He wings fluttered and glowed softly with his simple prayer.
    Eden returned to the house, dressed, and then opened the knee-high safe in the back of the bedroom closet. From within its protective walls, he removed an item he had brought from Heaven, but had used infrequently since his Fall. A dagger with an S-curve and a wicked edge gleamed with a black sheen though the metal was white. He lifted it from a velvet-lined box, remembering the day he met Bel at the end of that very blade.
     
    * * * *
     
    Eden's fall had been temporary at first. He had been part of a small squadron of low rank angels that fell for the sole purpose of thinning out demon clutches on Earth. They had orders: kill demons, and allow no mortal to bear witness to the destruction.
    Five angels, each armed with a curved blade enchanted by divine magic, dropped from Heaven as one squadron. Each wore his hair long and uncut, and each glided down to earth on color-tipped wings. Eden dropped to the concrete ground and quickly picked up the scent of a succubus on the prowl. The pheromones that baited humans burned the sensitive noses of the angels, and like faithful hounds, they tracked the demon to a pocket of whores in cheap Spandex mini-dresses and stilettos in which none but the working women could balance, let alone walk.
    "No witnesses," whispered the angel with hunter green hair and wings. "We wait."
    The angels spread out around the block, one stalking along a rooftop and four, Eden included, at each cardinal point, hanging back in the shadows, watching girls come and go, servicing customers that knew to drive by their corner for a good time. With infinite patience, the squadron waited. With perfect precision, when the succubus climbed in the car of a john, the angels followed, staying far enough back to not be noticed by the nervous mortal man with a sinful need and close enough to spring into action when they were far enough away from the other whores to confront their evil prey.
    Eden had been in charge of clearing the mortal from the area and then wiping his mind of their presence. When his squadron swarmed the vehicle, Eden pulled open the driver's side door, ignoring the man's open pants, to pull him to safety. He shielded the human from the scene with his wings, wrapping them around the man as they ran. Once they ducked around a corner, Eden hunkered down, pushing the man to the ground so that Eden's wings protected the man and pinned him against the wall of a deserted building.
    "Forget," Eden whispered in the ancient language of the angels.
    The man stood, blinked twice, and then walked briskly to his car. By the time the vehicle was in his sight, the angels had already dragged the succubus out of the street and slammed a divine blade through her heart. The angels met Eden at the corner where he'd brought the man and, as one, they took flight, their wings shimmering to absorb the color of the sky and camouflage their travel. One demon had been sent back to Hell, but the city hid thousands more.
     
    * * * *
     
    Eden pushed the coffee table up against the couch. In the center of the floor, he knelt. He sat back on his heels and laid the blade in front of him, hilt out. He caressed the blade with one finger and then lowered his head to the floor so that his body —his heart— hovered over the handle of the divine