She shook her head again. "Not for me, He didn't."

He thought on that statement for a moment, trying to place it within any context that would explain what or who she truly was. He decided to go straight for broke, as he'd always been a gambling man.

"Sunshine, be honest with me, okay? Are you really human?"

She pressed both hands to her face. "Please don't ask me that again. Don't push me anymore."

At that precise moment, a flash of lightning rent the sky, throwing them both into staccato relief.

He caught a glimpse of her extreme dismay, a rivulet of dampness on her cheek.

Then all was dark again. It had to be a sudden storm, because the night sky had been clear only a few minutes earlier. Only, no storm, not even in the low country, came up this fast in December.

Again, bright light flashed, a peal of thunder vibrating the glass all around them. Sunny turned from him, head bowed.

Every emotion inside of him was at war—he yearned to comfort her, to make love to her, to interrogate her. Instead, he found himself stepping behind her and very gently wrapping his arms about her waist. Drawing her back against his chest, he simply held her.

"You don't have to tell me," he whispered in her ear. "It's okay. We can take our time, too. There's more than tonight."

He'd not promised a woman more than one night . . . ever.

Sunny stilled in his arms, then shocked him by starting to laugh. "You can actually go a little slow, scoundrel?"

He stroked her hair, smiling, and then kissed the top of her head. "Not normally. But you're not a normal girl."

She sighed. He shouldn't have pushed her again, not even subtly. Turning in his arms, she leaned her cheek against his chest. "I wish I were," she said wistfully.

He angled his mouth to kiss her again, but lightning speared the darkness, seeming to suspend between them endlessly. That was the moment when he saw the massive, winged figure on the other side of the glass . . . staring at Sunny with eyes as bright as moonbeams.

"Uh, Sunny . . ." He cradled her head against his chest protectively, wanting to shield her.

"There's something I should tell you."

She nestled closer, seeming more comfortable in his arms. Now, of all the damned times.

"Mmm-hmm?" she inquired sweetly, eyes closed.

The creature shifted its headlight gaze and fixed it hard on Jamie. It was impossible not to see the intense disapproval, even as blinding as that glance was. Jamie pressed his eyes shut instinctively. That was no demon, and it certainly wasn't a winged Spartan.

It was, however, a kind of being that Jamie had seen on rare occasions while fighting in the fiercest spiritual battles.

"Sunny, I really need to know.... It's important." He paused, stealing a breath. "Your secret . . . You wouldn't happen to be an angel, would you?"

Chapter Four

Kiel. Her heavenly supervisor. Of course he'd come, and hadn't wasted any time about it. Sunny blocked Jamie from her superior's furious gaze, stepping in front of him to act as a shield.

Although she had no hope of hiding Jamie—not physically, since he dwarfed her—and not from Kiel's knowing, piercing stare.

"Jamie, you have to go. Fast," she warned him, stepping closer to the glass wall that separated her from Kiel. Just a thin pane of glass, a tiny sliver of a veil between holy wrath and Jamie Angel.

"I'm not leaving you right now. That creature looks pissed."

"He's very angry, yes."

"Because I kissed you."

"Because I disobeyed." She tried to keep her voice calm, but it was difficult with Kiel's gaze and size growing more intimidating by the second.

"Is he going to hurt you? Are you an angel, too?"

She glanced back at Jamie in exasperation. "Yes, I'm an angel. Yes, you were right: I'm not human. Now let me do damage control before you get hurt or blinded just by being near him." She pointed at Kiel, jabbing her finger. "He's a whole other level, okay? He's serious stuff, and you can't be in his presence. And whatever you do, don't look into his eyes!"

"You're trying to protect me?" He sounded shocked, bewildered, and all the while he kept gaping at Kiel. Kiel, who, at any moment, would undoubtedly shatter the glass all around them with his fury and power.

"Jamie!" She yanked open the door to the gazebo and started shoving him out onto the path.

"Get on back to the house. And please, please don't tell Kate . . . or Shay. Anyone. Please keep my secret for me."

He stared at her for one last second, squeezing her hand. "I don't want you to get hurt because of what I did," he whispered.

"Then leave me."

At last, he spun on his heel and walked into the darkness, and slowly she breathed again.

From behind her, Kiel spoke, now inside the structure. "You've been rebellious." His vibrato filled the gazebo, making the glass itself sing with his voice and power.

She kept her back to the massive angel. "It wasn't my intention."

"But it happened, Sunera."

She pressed her hands against the glass, trying to steady herself. "James Angel is overpowering."

"To a true angel?" Kiel's laughter rumbled and she watched as the glass panel beneath her palms cracked. "He bears the name as a prophetic sign of his power, but he is only a mortal. You've grown weak during your human years."

"You're the one who put me here, in a human body, as a ten-year-old. You made me human."

"It was your task to serve as Kate Rabineau's guardian, to protect her from the forces of darkness in the world. To stand between her and the evil that would seek to use her power for gain. To guard her against any harm, whether by human or demonic hand."

"And I've done that!"

Kiel's voice grew much quieter. "It was also your task, Sunera, to develop understanding and compassion by living as a human."

She planted a hand over her heart. "I may be an angel, but I still feel, still care.... I still experience human passions because I've been living in human form for almost seventeen years."

Kiel's power sang through the air. "You forget yourself," he rumbled. "As you did with James Angel just now."

She turned and faced the mighty one who had intimidated her for centuries, the one she held in high esteem . . . yet always feared. Kiel blazed like the sun, mere feet away from her. She looked up at him, shaking all over.

"Will you send me home, then? Is that it?"

"You have work to do here on Earth. Important work protecting Kate. Although the Angel clan no longer seeks the lives of vampires, Kate remains vulnerable to other hunters, ones who don't understand that she is not evil, only rare. And I don't need to remind you of the demons who seek her blood."

Sunny hung her head, feeling ashamed, fearful for Kate's safety. She couldn't believe that she'd nearly compromised her position as her best friend's guardian angel—the thought of anyone else being assigned to Kate made her blood run cold. Kate was her duty, her charge. She couldn't falter again, no matter how badly she wanted Jamie.

"Don't punish Kate because of my indiscretion."

"This is but a warning, young one." Kiel's glowing, humming wings spread wide, until his shadow covered her. "However, indulge these human passions again and there will be a price."

A price. She would be sent back to heaven, taken out of the field until she'd earned the right to serve as an earthly guardian again.

Who would watch over her best friend, who would protect her—as a pure-blooded vampire, Kate would always be at risk from hunters and dark forces that sought to harm her. Even though a vampire, she was still an Earth dweller, and the heavenly angels watched over every person on Earth—human and vampire.

"But Kate?" she asked, her heart clenching.

"Kate would be granted another guardian."

As a whole, vampirekind was misunderstood by their human counterparts. There were so many false myths and legends, and Hollywood hadn't helped any of that misinformation, leaving vampires open for hunting. So they needed protection at least as much as humans did, and God made no distinction, protecting both groups on Earth. The problem, though, was that their special abilities meant that they could spot the usual heavenly guardians, with their wings and otherworldly nature. That was why Sunny had been sent to safeguard Kate in human form, without her glory and angelic appearance. Her natural radiance, too, she kept concealed unless she absolutely needed it.

Throughout the eternal age before that, Sunny had served in heaven, and occasionally as a guardian angel for humans on Earth. But being paired with Kate, and assuming human form, was a first-time experience. Now it seemed that she'd failed miserably.

"Don't leave Kate in danger because I've made a mistake," she pleaded, bowing her head respectfully to Kiel.

He smiled gently. "Our approach next time would be different. But don't force our hand. Perhaps with another mortal your disobedience might have been more easily overlooked."

Was that why Kiel had come so quickly? It had something to do with Jamie's calling and his abilities as a hunter? Her mind raced.

"I'd barely finished the kiss and you were here," she ventured, hoping he would give more details. "That's fast, even for you."

Kiel smiled, adding the wattage of another sun to his already blazing beauty. "I was alerted."

Her mind whirled. "I've seen no guardians around Jamie . . . unless there's someone like me, an angel in human form? But if that were true, I'd have sensed them. I don't understand why Jamie, who fights such dark forces, is left without his own guardian."

Kiel's expression grew somber. "He is not alone."

Kiel's expression grew somber. "He is not alone."

"But I haven't seen—"

"James Angel and his siblings have special guardians, but they are instructed to keep their distance lest they interfere."