Free Earth & Sky by Kaye Draper

of the forest-still
pressed up against the enemy. 
    I gasped and took several hurried steps backward.  My skin
was tingling from his magic, and from my interrupted shift.  The warrior
relaxed his wings and tossed his wicked sword to the side, holding his hands up
in a gesture of peace.  Refusing to believe what my traitorous heart was
telling me, I put a hand on the butt of my gun.  He spoke and I froze.
    “Wren.”  He slowly lifted his hands to his helm.  Slipping
it off, he tossed it to the side with his sword.  “Oh Gods and Angels, Wren,
it’s me- Ville.”
    The name meant nothing to me.  I stared into his
beautiful, crystal blue eyes.  His face had changed ever so slightly, grown
sharper and more solid, and his hair was a shocking, shiny black against his
pale skin.  But the eyes were the same.  The eyes and that wide, full mouth,
turned up in a hesitant half smile.  The blond haired boy and the dark man- they
were the same person. 
    He knew my name, I realized dimly.  He must have known who
I as that day at the castle.  Maybe that was why he spoke to Winona and me in
the first place.  I shook my head in disbelief, going to him without
remembering how I got there.  Tossing my gloves aside, I lifted my hand and
touched his cheek.  I needed to know that he was real, that this wasn’t just
another dream.  His hands ghosted over me, outlining my face and body as if he
were trying to memorize their lines.  A lopsided smile turned up one corner of
his beautiful mouth, the soft expression startling on the awful Fallen Angel. 
“You’ve grown.”
    I laughed.  “I’ve grown?  Look at you.”  I gestured at his
tall frame in disbelief.  My fingers grazed his silky black hair.  “Are you
really the same person?” 
    His hand closed over mine as his other arm slipped around
my waist.  Something zinged through me, warm and electric.  I wanted to speak,
wanted to ask him a million questions, but I couldn’t find my voice.
    His lips met mine, tentative at first, questioning.  It
was him alright.  When I stood on tiptoe and pressed myself to him, the kiss
became fierce, a flaming expression of pent up longing.  Wrapped in the heat of
battle, and overwhelmed by his power, I completely lost myself.  He tangled his
hands in my hair as his kiss deepened, exploring, dominating, pulling me from
within myself.  I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him down to me,
wanting him with every fiber of my being. 
    He planted kisses from the corner of my mouth down across
my jaw and to my throat.  I didn’t protest when his teeth sliced into my skin. 
There was that buzz of connection, that feeling of completion again.  Then he
lifted his head, and I stared into the beautiful eyes of the enemy.  His fangs
were long and needle-sharp, and his eyes glowed with blue fire. 
    “I’m sorry,” he said in that rich voice.  His hand lifted
to brush my hair back from my eyes.  “I shouldn’t have…it’s just that I’ve
dreamed of you for so long…” he trailed off, probably embarrassed at his
admission.
    I covered the bite with my hand, but couldn’t look away
from his eyes.  “I dreamed of you too,” I admitted, my voice breathy.  “What’s
going on?  What is it that’s between us?”
    He shook his head, his dark hair falling into his eyes. 
“I’m not sure.”  Then, hesitantly, “I think we’re… bound somehow.”
    I gave him a wary look.  “Is this something you did- something
with your magic?”
    He took my hands and turned them, pressing them to his
chest, right over his heart.  “I swear to you, this is nothing I did.  Maybe it
was the bite?  Your kind and mine aren’t usually on such uh… friendly terms.”
    The reminder of the war brought me back to my senses like
a slap in the face.  “The battle…”  I glanced over my shoulder, toward the sound
of conflict. 
    He nodded, dropping my hands to retrieve his sword and
helm.  “I have to go back,” he said