“Are you? Are you three human?”

  They didn’t move.

  “Am I?” Their silence made me itchy. I stepped around Gunnar to thrust my finger into Godric’s chest. “What did you do to my head? Why am I seeing you and me in some sort of weird past war or whatever? Are you a… a wizard or something?”

  That cocky bastard actually laughed. “I am most certainly not a wizard.”

  “Then what are you, and what did you do to me… when you kissed me?” Though I hated myself for it, I could feel my cheeks flush with the mere mention of what he’d done to me against that building. The heat I felt made no sense, but I reacted anyway.

  “I sparked your magic, that’s all. What you saw was yours to see.”

  So not helpful.

  “What exactly did you see?” Gunnar asked, standing up beside me.

  “I saw him,” I replied, pointing at Godric. “He was dressed weird—in some kind of old combat gear or something. Some kind of armor. He was covered in blood and smiling at me. I don’t know what I was doing—the vision was in first person so I couldn’t actually see myself.”

  “Is that all you saw?” Godric asked, quirking a brow at me.

  My cheeks grew redder by the second. “No. I saw other stuff.”

  “What kind of stuff?” he asked, stepping closer to me until his body brushed up against mine.

  “Not battle-related stuff.” I quickly turned my attention to Fenris and Gunnar, who stood by quietly. “I didn’t see either of you.”

  “You wouldn’t have,” Fenris replied, as if somehow that was supposed to make all the sense in the world.

  “What. Kind. Of. Stuff?” Godric repeated, clipping his words with irritation in his tone.

  “Sex, okay? I saw you naked on top of me, grinning like a psychopath.” He smiled down at me—the very same expression I’d seen in my vision. “Yeah. That’s the smile.”

  “So you really do remember,” he said, his voice low and husky. He pressed against me harder, the length of his body molded to mine. My heart sped up as his hands cupped my waist, making sure I could feel just how happy he was to learn that I’d remembered that little tidbit. I, however, was still freaked out by it. Turned on, but freaked out all the same.

  “I saw pieces of a puzzle that I can’t put together. That’s what I saw.”

  “Apparently you needed a little stimulation to make you remember this time,” Godric said, angling his head to kiss me. “Maybe you just need a little more.”

  His lips pressed against mine, and the second they did, my mind exploded with more visions. More memories. More death and blood and sex.

  And wings… Godric stood before me, wings as black as night spread wide behind him.

  I pulled away, breathing hard and staring at him.

  “You’re an angel.” I said it as though it were an accusation.

  “A dark angel,” he replied. That distinction appeared to be important to him.

  “Vega and the others,” I started, trying to puzzle it out. “They’re like you.”

  He nodded. “They are the enemy.”

  “And you?” I turned to Fenris, eyes wide with disbelief.

  “I’m not that,” was his only reply.

  “Gunnar?”

  “I’m not either.”

  “What the fuck are you two, then?” Silence. “You can’t say, can you?” They both shook their heads. “Fine. Then tell me why those dark angels clearly wanted me dead.” I turned back to Godric. “And why you don’t.”

  I swear he looked like I’d slapped him with that question. “That we cannot say either. Not until you remember everything.”

  “Okay, then how do I do that? Because this in-between is starting to make me feel insane again.”

  “You’re not insane,” Gunnar replied, his tone full of sympathy.

  “I know that now, no thanks to you.”

  “I could not tell you. I did my best to find a way to force your mind to see the truth.”

  “Epic fail, Freddie. Epic fucking fail.”

  He pulled me from Godric’s hold and spun me to face him, lowering his face until it was only inches from mine. I gasped, startled by his abrupt behavior. But when I looked into his hazel eyes, I felt a pull that I couldn’t deny. The same kind that I’d felt with Godric that night in the bar when he’d touched me. Color returned to my cheeks in a hurry the longer he stared at me.

  “You can feel that, can’t you?” he asked. “The pull between us?”

  “I feel confused and tired,” I replied, wiggling out of his grip. “And I wish someone could just tell me what’s going on!”

  “Eve,” Fenris called softly, pushing past Gunnar to stand in front of me. He wove his arms around my neck and pulled me into his embrace. “I’m so sorry about last night—and this morning, for that matter. I know you’re scared and you don’t want to show it. I know you feel like you’re on the brink of losing it again. Just know that we’re here for you. That you need us—that you’re supposed to need us. That’s why you feel the way you do when we’re around.” He pushed me away just enough to look down at me with those baby blue eyes that made my stomach do a little flip. “Don’t fight it. We can’t help you if you fight it.”

  “Fight what?” I asked, growing more and more frustrated by the second.

  Fenris cupped my face, stroking my cheek with the pad of his thumb.

  “This…”

  Without warning, he bent down and brushed his lips against mine, slowly stoking a fire inside me that came out of nowhere. One second I was getting angry, the next I was putty in his hands. I leaned into his kiss, letting him have his way with me. I didn’t care that Gunnar and Godric were watching, or that earlier that day I’d thought he’d betrayed me. All I cared about was the spark between us, and the memories tugging at my mind.

  Instead of a barrage of clips like I’d seen with Godric, this time I saw one complete memory play out; one of Fenris, asking me for orders in a language that I seemed to understand. He wanted to know how to proceed with the mission we were on. I barked out a response in the same tongue, and he nodded at me before storming off toward a valley in the distance where I could see a handful of others already embattled. My fiery red hair blew around me wildly as I looked down at the fight being waged and Fenris running toward it. Midway there, he leapt into the air, his body morphing into something massive and furry. He landed with a thud that shook the ground I stood on, then looked back over his shoulder at me. I let out a battle cry that made present-time me break out in goosebumps. That sound reverberated in my mind with such clarity, bringing me back to that moment as if I were about to relive it.

  With a gasp, I pulled away from Fenris, staring up at him.

  “You’re a wolf…”

  “Yes.” His smile was bigger than I’d ever seen it.

  “You kill for me,” I said, my voice husky and low.

  “Always,” he replied with a growl that sounded as inhuman as he was.

  My mind was still reeling when Gunnar put his hand on my shoulder and turned me to face him. The second he made contact, that feeling—the one he’d brought to my attention—felt even stronger. Like a part of him was begging me to come to him. To remember.

  “Eve.” He said my name like it was sacred to him. “Don’t be afraid.”

  And I wasn’t. I should have been. I should have been scared shitless, but I wasn’t. Something about staring into his eyes gave me comfort unlike any other had ever provided.

  He stepped closer to me, carefully assessing my reaction the entire time. When I stood my ground against him, he let a tiny smile tug at the corner of his mouth.

  “Always so brave,” he murmured, running his hand through my hair until he cupped the back of my head. “Our fearless leader.”

  Fearless what?

  I didn’t get a chance to ask that question because Gunnar’s soft lips were forcing mine open with a determination that I was loath to fight. I let him in, sinking deeper and deeper into the past with every stroke of his tongue. I saw flashes of him and me together—suiting up for war. Discussing strategy. Burying our dead. Side by side, we faced horrors together, and I could feel his allegiance through those memories—how important he was to me.

  His lips were ripped away from mine abruptly, and I looked up to see Godric holding him back from me. I could see plainly from Gunnar’s expression that he hadn’t been ready to stop just yet. There was a shadow in his eyes that alerted some part of my brain to a dissonance within the group. A rivalry I didn’t understand but could clearly feel.

  “Hey!” I shouted, and both of their heads snapped to mine. “That’s enough.” Godric dropped his hands from Gunnar and walked toward me, taking his place beside me. I pretended I didn’t notice when his palm landed on the small of my back. “I still have questions,” I said, looking at each of them in turn. “I think someone needs to make breakfast. It’s going to be a long morning.”

  ***

  And it was.

  Hours or fruitless interrogation later, I felt no closer to understanding what was going on. I could see that the inability to tell me anything helpful pained the trio, but that didn’t make me feel much better. I needed answers, not guilt. The three of them refused to leave me, so I eventually took refuge from our frustrating conversation in my bedroom. Godric lingered in my doorway, hunger in his eyes, until I kicked him out to the living room. I flopped down on my bed, playing the events of the last few days over and over in my mind. All it left me with was more unanswered questions. How did I know these guys? And when did I know them? It was clear it hadn’t been in this lifetime. And why were we constantly fighting in my memories? Who exactly were we fighting?

  Then my mind turned to the dark angels.

  During the fight, Gunnar, Godric, and Fenris had seemed so surprised by their presence—like they hadn’t expected to see them there. Or at all, for that matter. In all the fragmented memories that had returned, I didn’t remember seeing them once. It was always other warriors I saw. And a girl…

  In the memory where Fenris had changed into a wolf before my very eyes, there had been a girl in the distance, her long blonde hair blowing as wildly as mine had. Something about her made anger stir within me, a wild storm rolling closer to the surface with every second I thought of her. Something deep within me recognized her in a visceral way.

  And it hated her.

  But how did all these pieces fit together? That was the most important question of all—the most pressing and elusive one. If the three of them couldn’t—or wouldn’t—tell me, then I needed to hunt down the missing two and use them to help regain more of my memory. And I had a pretty good idea how. Iver and Stian knew each other and were working together. They’d also appeared around the same time as the others.

  Playing the one-sided conversation I’d overheard outside of Iver’s office over in my mind, I could see it for what it was: a plot to get me to remember. I wondered which of the others had been talking to him that day, trying to figure out how to get to me before Vega and his boys did. If I’d been a betting girl, I would have put my money on Gunnar.

  Regardless of who it was, I knew I wouldn’t have to look any further than Iver and Stian to find the missing pieces of the puzzle. I planned to track them down first thing in the morning. In the meantime, I would stay close to Gunnar, Godric, and Fenris, just in case any other dark angels came for me.

  And I’d sleep with a blade tucked snugly under my pillow.

  A girl can never be too careful.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  AMBER LYNN NATUSCH is the author of the bestselling Caged, as well as the Light and Shadow series with Shannon Morton. She was born and raised in Winnipeg, and speaks sarcasm fluently because of her Canadian roots. She loves to dance and sing in her kitchen—much to the detriment of those near her—but spends most of her time running a practice with her husband, raising two small children, and attempting to write when she can lock herself in the bathroom for ten minutes of peace and quiet. She has many hidden talents, most of which should not be mentioned but include putting her foot in her mouth, acting inappropriately when nervous, swearing like a sailor when provoked, and not listening when she should. She’s obsessed with home renovation shows, should never be caffeinated, and loves snow. Amber has a deep-seated fear of clowns and deep water…especially clowns swimming in deep water.

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  Amber Lynn Natusch, Eve of Eternal Night

 

 

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