Avenger (A Halflings Novel) - By Heather Burch Page 0,2

body. “He was helping himself to you.”

Her eyes — now darkened to melted gold — narrowed on him. “You said yourself that Deux is one of the best fighters there is.”

“So?” Brilliant argument there. He just kept imagining Nikki and Deux rolling on the ground, and something, some horrible monster inside him, wanted to grab Deux by the throat and …

Oh. That’s what this is about.

He watched Nikki blink, those feather-soft lashes hooding her eyes for a few seconds. She pulled in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Her cheek was smudged with a bit of dirt, and the corner of her mouth had a drop of dried blood on it. It too was caked with dirt.

He lifted his hand to her cheek. Fingertips touched the soft skin and she pressed into him. “Did he hurt you?” Mace whispered, praying Deux hadn’t, because he’d hate to accept the Frenchman’s hospitality then kill him in his own courtyard.

“Only my pride,” Nikki said, nuzzling into the press of Mace’s hand.

His thumb drifted over her bottom lip. “You’re bleeding.”

“A sucker punch. I shouldn’t have fallen for it.” Her eyes snapped open. “What should I have done differently?”

“Stayed out of the fight.”

She leveled him with a look.

“Okay, okay.” He stared at the ornate ceiling and worked the muscle in his jaw. He hated to see Nikki fight, but fighting was a certainty in her life. She was a Halfling. And even though she’d only just learned the truth about her angelic power, she was already enmeshed in the epic battle against darkness.

Since discovering what Nikki truly was, Mace had learned Halfling females tap into their power later than the males, around age eighteen or nineteen; at seventeen, Nikki was a bit of an early bloomer — like Vine, his “brother,” who’d earned the Over-Achiever award for tapping in at fifteen. Mace was still amazed Nikki had adjusted so quickly—before her angelic side had begun to emerge, even their fully angel guardian, Will, had thought she was human. “Everything changes when we tap in.”

“For me more than anyone.”

That much was true. Nikki’s life had been orchestrated by her godfather, Damon Vessler, who’d planned on turning her into a dark Halfling once she tapped into her power, and then using her to create an army at his command.

Since Mace first met her, in a field where she was being chased by hell hounds, he’d tried to protect her from … well, from all of it. But that wasn’t fair, and in doing so, he’d almost lost her. He’d have to help her take on the evils herself, no matter how hard that was for him. “When I came out you were already on the ground. How’d you get there?”

“He pulled me down when I reached to help him up.”

Mace chuckled. “And you said his move was a sucker punch? Seriously, Nikki, you fell for that?”

Her mouth cocked in a sheepish grin. “I should have known.”

“Yeah.” Mace ran a hand through his hair. He’d rather be running his fingers through hers, smoothing the messed-up strands, but that would only distract him. Though he itched to remove the blade of grass stuck in her hairline. “As soon as you felt him pull, you should have dove, caught him off guard. He wouldn’t expect it, and it may have given you a few seconds to get away. At the least it would have —”

“Given me the upper hand,” she said. Her brows dipped.

Thinking. Ah, he loved her when she was thinking. Beyond the glass door, another fight ensued. Deux and Vine this time. From what Mace could tell, the two looked pretty evenly matched. Go, Vine.

“Watch how Vine fights, always thinking ahead — always.” He laced his arm around her waist and pulled her close while she studied the two combatants.

She smiled. “Thanks for helping me. I think your judgment may finally be clearing.”

What was that supposed to mean?

“Don’t be offended, Mace. It’s just that your opinions haven’t been the most sound where I’m concerned.”

“You mean trying to leap into an airplane filled with titanium, and then letting Vessler get away?”

“You were with me when the airplane landed. You couldn’t have known Vessler would make it out.”

The whole scene entered his mind like it did every night when he fell asleep. He could hear gunshots, knew Nikki was in the plane, but the titanium zapped his strength, making him unable to leap inside. The kryptonite-like metal had caused his wings to feel like giant anchors; the closer