Free Forbidden (The Preternaturals) by Zoe Winters Page B

if
needed. He wouldn’t welcome her.
    Hadrian came closer. The darkness curled off him, enveloping her, making
something inside her reflexively recoil even as she still wanted him.
After what she’d done, that dream was over. She’d been so sure of
her vision, so sure he was the one she was meant to walk the lonely
nights of eternity with. The drugged blood had messed with her
mind—made her see delusion instead of truth. And this was the wreck
she’d created as a result.
    He gripped her arm, and she felt a tingle, the mildest burn, as if he
were silver and she were a vampire still. She looked down to see the
contrast of his swarthy skin against her fair. And God help her, but
even after everything and how much she knew he must hate her, she
still wanted his hands on her.
    “Father Hadrian,” she whispered. She had the power to break free of him.
She could put up her shields, but she couldn’t bring herself to
fight him.
    The muscles in his hand tensed around her. He recognized her voice. She
feared he still had some hypnotic hold over her, that he’d
maintained the power he’d taken the night she’d made him a
vampire.
    Hadrian spun her to face him. He was still so impossibly beautiful and so
tall and broad. He towered over her. His coal-black eyes burned with
fury even now. He hadn’t forgiven her. He would never forgive her.
    “How did you get in here?” he demanded. “There are wards.”
    She couldn’t bear the contempt on his face. She imagined that if he
could, he would burn her in holy water. His hand on her arm
tightened… punishing. He wasn’t finished punishing her yet. “Exorcizo te, immundissime spiritus, omnis incursio…”
    “Stop. That won’t work on me anymore.”
    His chant dropped off midstream. “What are you?” Words from another
time.
    She bowed her head and closed her eyes until she felt the glow flow out
from her, and then her wings emerged to their full span, the edges
brushing against the pews on either side of her. She looked up to
find he’d taken a step back.
    “Here for revenge, then?” he asked. “Get in line.”
    “I’m here to warn you. I-I’ve been watching over you. For a very long
time.” Decades.
    “Stalking me, you mean. When you felt the magic on the church you should have
taken it as a mystical restraining order and backed the fuck off,
Angeline. I don’t want you in my church. I don’t want you in my
life. You disgust me.”
    She felt the tears gather as her wings sagged and shrank, disappearing
inside her back. “A-Anthony plans to kill you… after he’s
tortured you for your betrayal. S-some of the demons aren’t
especially keen on you, either. A-and the therians.” The truth was,
that ever since the human world had become aware of the preternatural
world, chaos had reigned, and with the latest threat gone, Hadrian
had become everyone’s favorite new enemy.
    “If you cared so much, you could have sent someone else to warn me.”
    She let out a breath when he released her arm. “I’m not allowed to
associate with your kind.” The information the heavenly beings had
access to wasn’t often shared, anyway. But if they ever found out
she’d come to him…
    He snorted. “Why don’t you scurry on back to your glittering castle
in the sky? I’m just fine here.”
    The tears came then. She couldn’t stop them. “I know I don’t
deserve it, but thank you for releasing me from that life.” She
wasn’t sure how much better her new life was, but at least the
weight of Linus and all of his darkness was off her. At least who she
was hadn’t been trained and molded by a sadistic psychopath. She
felt true now. Real. Except for this one sin she couldn’t forgive
herself for.
    Hadrian pointed to the door. “Go. Do not return here again. I don’t need
your protection or your warnings. Wouldn’t want you to get in
trouble with God, now would we?”
    “I-I’m sorry. For that night. I truly am.”
    “I don’t care. Leave.”
    ***
    Hadrian