ANGELFIRE Teaser Tuesday

Every Tuesday beginning this week until the release of ANGELFIRE on February 15, I will be posting a short teaser from the book! Enjoy!

This is one of my favorite scenes, kinda funny/silly and then it gets very serious (and then funny again) lol

Will showed me to the door, but it was boarded up. He plucked the sheets of plywood off with no effort at all and tossed them aside. Inside the warehouse, it was surprisingly clean. Junk had been moved off to the side and there wasn’t any broken glass lying around. Tires were stacked in a corner by a pile of rusting hubcaps and wooden crates. Moonlight streaked in through high, mostly intact windows. Steel columns stretched from the concrete floor to the ceiling.

“I’ve even cleaned it up for you,” Will said, obviously trying to suppress laughter. Laughter that, I was sure, was directed at me.

I glared at him. “Why was it boarded up if you had gotten in already? Did you nail the boards over the door when you left?”

“I didn’t come in through the door,” he said and pointed up.

My gaze lifted to the windows. “Nuh-uh.”

“Once you figure out what you can really do, you won’t be surprised at how I got in. That’s why we’re here.”

“So you can murder me and steal Marshmallow?” I mumbled absently as I picked at the peeling paint on the door.

He blinked. “Steal what?”

“Never mind.”

“You are a very strange girl,” he said, stepping very close to me.

His closeness alarmed me for a moment, and then I felt my unease melt away at ease. It was so odd, my reaction to his presence. Perhaps it was because he was the only one in the world I knew who had the power to protect me. That should have made anyone feel pretty safe, right? Perhaps it was the “bond” he said we shared.

“What are you doing?” I asked, my eyes wide.

His fingers traced the curve of my shoulder softly, as his gaze fell. I gasped sharply. If he tried to kiss me, I’d slap the crap out of him. Bond or no bond.

He slipped my purse off my shoulder and tossed it. “You won’t need this.” He turned and stepped away.

I let out a long breath. “You’re weird, you know that? Way weirder than you think I am.”

He laughed. “I believe you’ve told me that a few times.”

“Do I need to be in the Grim in order to fight or do those crazy acrobatics?”

“No,” he said. “The only time you need to enter the Grim is when a reaper is hiding there. When they’re hiding, that’s the only way we can see them.”

“So, what can I really do? If you can jump through a two-story window, then what can I do?”

“You can do that, too. You don’t even need wings to do it, either.”

I ignored his smartass remark, which made no sense at all anyway. I unzipped my hoodie, shrugged it off, and tossed it over by my purse. Wearing just my tank top, I folded my arms across my chest. “Yeah, right. Show me something, then.”

“You can bring this whole building down.”

I huffed in disbelief. “Show me.”

“I’m not going to destroy the warehouse with us in it,” he said. “We’ll need this place for a while, so I’ll give you a taste.”

He stepped further away from me, his eyes locked on mine, and he stood next to one of the steel columns. For a moment—I had to blink several times—it looked as if the air around him moved, like heat waves swaying just above the pavement on a hot day, only they radiated off his body. His green of his eyes seemed to intensify until they almost glowed, even though I knew that wasn’t possible. Then a blast hit me like a truck, knocking me flat on my back. I struggled back to my feet, gaping at Will in awe. I could see the energy rolling from him. I could feel it on my skin and crawling along the floor, lapping up my legs.

With a quick swing of his torso, Will smashed his forearm into the column and the steel gave with a piercing whine until it bent at an angle, ripping almost fully free from the beam high above it. Dust showered to the floor around him.

I staggered back, tripping and nearly falling. I stared at him, fearful, confused, and completely stunned. “H—how?”

“I could take it down if I wanted to,” he said, relaxing his power, letting it wash away like the tide. “You’re stronger than me, Ellie. I need to prove it to you.”

“Oh, God,” was all I could say.

“You try it,” he said. “I know you remember how. I’ve seen you do it since you awakened. By summoning your power, you will have the strength to kill a reaper. They can do the same thing, though, so you have to be cautious, and that is why you have the angelfire. If you come across a Vir, you may not know what he is until it’s too late. The weaker ones seem the most human. The powerful ones don’t bother to hide what they are, although they can do a better job of it. They don’t usually like to be compared to humans, but they’ll shapeshift to take the form of a particular human in order to infiltrate.”

“Do you have to touch my face again, to trigger me, in order to bring my power out?” I asked.

“No, I don’t think I’ll have to do that again.” He held out his arm and conjured his sword. The enormous silver blade seemed to condense, shimmering, out of the air. “Call your swords now.”

“Why?” I asked, uncertain of his motives.

“We’re going to bring out your power so you will learn to do it on your own. I am your soldier, but I am not your crutch.”

“But, I—”

In a flash, he sliced his sword at my throat, but I instinctively ducked, shocked by my own quick reflexes. Without my consciously calling them, my swords appeared in my hands. Will slashed his blade down again, but I swung my swords up, catching Will’s blow with a shing! of metal against metal. He pushed down, hard, but I held my position, refusing to let him overpower me, and angelfire ignited from my blades. Will’s foot suddenly connected with my chest and slammed me into one of the columns behind me, my back crunching against the steel. The wind rushed from my lungs, but Will was coming at me too fast for me to catch my breath. He swiped again and I rolled away. His blade clanged off the column and I wheeled around, eyes wide.

“Stop running!” Will shouted. “Fight me!”

“You’re going to kill me!” I shrieked.

“Only if you let me!” He leapt into the air and came down at me, his sword held high. He slashed, but the Khopesh caught his blade and deflected it away from my face. I swung my other sword and slashed—Will recoiled as and the blade neatly sliced his cheek. His face snapped to the side and he groaned in pain. The angelfire didn’t harm him. He looked back at me, his green eyes brighter than I had ever seen, and the gash on his cheek melted together again, leaving only a thin line of blood.

“Keep fighting and don’t stop!” he thundered. “If you stop, you’re dead!”

He vanished suddenly and reappeared behind me. I reeled around to face him, swinging my sword up and parrying his attack. I slashed my other sword at his belly, but he jumped back, spun around, and kicked my wrist. The Khopesh went flying. I gaped at it frightfully and when I looked back at Will, he had already dropped his sword and was reaching for me. He clamped his hand around my throat, threw my back against a column, and grabbed the wrist that hold my remaining Khopesh. He had me pinned. I struggled against his grip, but he was just so, so strong.

“Let me go!” My free hand clawed at his hand around my neck.

“I’m not releasing you,” he said darkly. “You’ve lost. You stopped fighting and took your eye off me.”

“Please, please, Will.” I gasped, my windpipe closing. Panic grabbed at me and my eyes welled with tears. “You’re going to kill me.”

“Then do something about it!” he roared into my face. “You have that strength! If you want me to let you go, then force me to!”

I screamed, full half of fear and half of fury, and my power exploded, my hair whipping around my face so wildly I couldn’t see. The column behind me crunched and the floor rolled and sank beneath us. Will was sent flying away from me and landed, sliding across the concrete floor. I bolted forward, retrieved the sword nearest me, and it burst into flames as I swung it at Will’s throat where he lay. I steadied the point at his jugular, my lungs heaving, my heart pounding, and my power swirling like a hurricane all around me, swallowing me in diamond light.

My eyes darkened as I stared Will down. He put his hands up slowly.

“You lose,” I said cruelly. My power receded and my body relaxed. I threw the sword aside.

Will smiled and rose to his feet.

I promptly punched him in the face hard enough to make him drop back to his knees. “You’re a bastard!” I shrieked down at him, my voice cracking.

He laughed and rubbed his jaw firmly. “And you’re frightening.” He stood back up.

I hit him again, making his head snap around. “Why’d you scare me like that?”

As I swung a third time, he grabbed my wrist. “That’s enough hitting,” he growled. “You don’t exactly hit like a girl, you know.”

I wrenched free and walked away from him, breathing heavily. “Good God, that felt amazing.”

“Hitting me?”

“Yes,” I said, glaring back at him briefly. “And the power. I felt like I could punch through walls.” My gaze found the crater I had made in the concrete floor. The column was twisted and mangled, barely connecting to the ceiling any longer. It groaned, as if just a gentle nudge would send it crashing to the ground.

“You can,” he said.