“How do you feel?” I asked Nero.

“Alive.” His fingers stroked down my arms.

Goosebumps prickled up on my skin, responding to his soft caress. “It was hard for you without your magic.”

“That was nothing compared to the fear that I’d lose you. Down in the city. Then up in the gods’ court.”

“You looked ready for a fight,” I commented.

“So did you.”

“No one is taking my angel from me. Not even the gods.” I almost choked on my next words. “I will fight to the end for you, Nero.”

He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me in. “I can’t believe I almost lost you.”

“I can’t believe I almost lost you.” I breathed in a deep sigh of relief.

His scent ignited my sleeping senses. So dark. So masculine. I dipped my face to his neck, drinking him in. It was the most intoxicating scent I’d ever smelled.

I kissed him softly. His pulse pounded beneath my lips, stronger than ever before, pumping with magic. The magic of an archangel. I had to taste him, to feel his blood and magic inside of me. Every pop of his pulse ignited a fresh throb of searing, excruciating need.

“Do it.” His voice was a deep rumble in his chest.

“You’ve just been through so much.” I drew away.

His hand locked around the back of my neck, holding me there. “Do it. I want you to feel the magic I’m feeling.”

My fangs burned in my mouth, throbbing with such raw hunger that my entire body quivered. His heartbeat thrummed in my ears like a racehorse. I could hear nothing else but that sweet siren’s melody. It consumed me. Filled me.

I grabbed him roughly and sank my fangs into his neck. His blood flooded into my mouth, pure and sweet. It burned through my body like liquid ecstasy, its fire searing my flesh, inciting my desire. I couldn’t bear the thought of the mere inches between us, let alone thousands of miles.

“Neither can I,” he said. “I want you with me. Always.”

Had I spoken aloud, or was he reading my thoughts? I couldn’t think straight enough to care about how needy I sounded. I did need him.

His fangs teased my neck, stoking that need.

I made a noise that wasn’t even human. “Bite me,” I pleaded.

He lifted his mouth from my neck, and I moaned in protest. I clawed at him in wanton desperation, pushing his mouth back to my neck, willing him to bite me.

But he was stronger. He captured both my wrists with a single hand. He traced the fingers of his other hand down my neck, pausing at my collarbone, circling it lightly as a devilish smirk curled his lips.

His hand plunged lower. He ripped off my torn top without ceremony and tossed it aside. Fabric tore, and my bra followed. His mouth cupped over my nipple, sucking hard. Pain and pleasure pierced my body. I thrashed and twisted, pressing myself against the hard wall of his chest as I tilted back my head to expose my throat. I couldn’t decide what I wanted more: for him to bite me or to have his sweet, sinful way with me. I only knew with complete certainty that if he didn’t hurry up and do one of those two things now, I was going to die.

“Nero,” I moaned.

He lifted his mouth to my neck, whispering into my ear, “Leda.”

“Please.” My voice was a desperate whimper.

His teeth teased the throbbing vein in my neck. “I want to hear you say it. Say you’re mine.”

I was breathing so hard, it couldn’t have been healthy. “I’m yours.”

“And I am yours,” he told me.

His fangs penetrated my throat, his kiss scorching me deep. Heat spread out from my neck, pulsing through my body.

Nero knelt before me, and with a single, rough tug, he relieved me of my shorts. There was a second flash of movement, and then my panties joined them on the ground. His hands traced my inner thighs, parting my legs.

He looked up at me. Gold and silver sparks swirled inside his eyes, igniting the emerald fire. “I can’t wait. I have to have you now.”

The night’s emotions—the fear, the joy, the triumph, the love—it all mixed together with the Nectar and blood. A whirlwind of blind, dizzying desire crashed through me. I couldn’t wait either. I grabbed desperately at his belt, tugging it loose.

A deep, feral growl buzzed on his lips. His hands closed roughly around my hips, bolstering me up as he thrust into me. My back hit a hard metal fence, but it didn’t hurt. I couldn’t feel anything but him.

My hands locked around Nero, holding him tightly to me. “I am never letting you go.”

His hands closed around my wrists, moving harder, faster. Every thrust sent a shockwave of fire spiraling through me, consuming my flesh, my blood, my magic. I gripped Nero’s back, desperate moans spilling out of me.

A sweet, spicy aroma flooded my senses, and then his dark wings burst out of his back. Velvet-soft feathers rustled between my fingers where hard, smooth muscle had been just a moment before.

I stroked my hand across the tops of his wings. They were so unbelievably beautiful. So hard, yet so soft. His body responded to my touch, his skin buzzing with raw, barely-contained power. And when I caressed his wings again, that control snapped. He groaned deep in his throat, the power of his release pushing me over the edge in a rush of cascading pleasures.

When I finally pulled myself out of the cloud of ecstasy, I realized he’d torn apart the fence we were leaning against—and that my top lay in tattered pieces on the ground.

I slipped into my shorts, shaking with laughter. “We should probably get changed.”

He shrugged off his jacket, sweeping it around me to cover the tears in my shirt. Who said chivalry was dead?

“I have a message from Nyx.” His eyes panned across his phone screen. “She has a new mission for me.”

“Let me guess,” I said as we walked down the street. “Babysitting baby dragons?”

“Close. I’m babysitting a baby angel.”

“Baby angel?” I frowned in confusion. “But there are no baby angels…” Oh. “You mean a new angel. Harker.”

“Yes. Nyx wants me to assess his performance as the new leader of the New York office.”

“So that means you’ll be around for a while?”

“Yes.”

I beamed at him. I just couldn’t hold it back, even as we entered the Legion office. “It’s a good thing it’s so early in the morning.”

“Why?”

“So there aren’t any witnesses to my sappy smirk. Team Lero has a badass reputation to uphold.”

His brows lifted in confusion. “Team Lero?”

“You know, Leda plus Nero. Lero.” I winked at him. “It has a nice ring to it, no?”

He said nothing.

I sighed. “No, you’re right. It’s lame. No need to humor me.”

He reached over to squeeze my hand, but dropped it when Ivy came down the stairs.

“Back from the trials so soon? How did it go?” She stopped, her eyes panning up and down my body. “Whoa? What happened to your clothes, Leda?”

“Uh, well…”

Ivy looked from me to Nero, and a knowing smile curled her lips. “Oh, I see. Well, I’m glad the trials were productive.”

“Very funny,” I replied.

Ivy threw me a final smirk, then hurried off down the hallway toward our apartment.

“Mind if I change at your place?” I asked Nero, following him up the stairs. “I’m afraid to be alone with her right now.”

“Poison Ivy is harmless.”

“You only say that because she’s too afraid of you to tease you to your face.”

“I take it that means she teases me behind my back.”

“A little,” I admitted, chuckling.

“And do you?”

“Do I what?” I asked as we entered his apartment.

“Tease me behind my back.”

“Oh, no. Teasing you to your face is loads more fun. I sometimes even get an eyebrow twitch out of you.”

His brows arched.

“Yeah, just like that,” I said with satisfaction.

I dumped my ruined clothes into the trashcan, then grabbed a change of clothes from the spare closet in his bedroom. Nero walked up behind me, his hands closing around my shoulders. As I slipped into a new top, his mouth dipped to my neck and kissed me softly.