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"Not this tie"

"Well, I’et a read on you"

"I am not a book," he said

She nodded "Exactly"

"But--"

"Just stick with the ," she interjected "I don’t want to like you"

Aconversation he’d never had "Why?"

"I plead the fifth"

He no longer liked this evasive strategy of hers "You cannot refuse to respond to all of my queries"

"Uh, not true I totally can"

As she’d just proven "Then we must work out soh that smacked of bribery--because it was--and implied that he cared--which he did There could be nothat, he supposed Not that the ad

One of her brows arched in a parody of an expression he’d given herfor when I don’t?"

"Do not be silly I would never spank you for such a minor offense, Annabelle" He liked her name on his lips Liked the sound of it, the feel of it "For so that would cause lasting dae You are not one of my soldiers More than that, you are huht be surprised by my fortitude"

He ed by a desire to trace his fingertips over her cheeks, her lips, to know if she would burn him, if her pulse would hammer out of control as he suspected his oould do He wanted to know if she would inch closer to him or turn away

You are not a slave to such mortal desires He would not touch her, and he would not consider her response But while he could fight the physical--and win--he found he could not fight the reat and he found hi, "Your mother was Japanese, yet your nae of subject with a relieved squaring of her shoulders "She spent most of her life in the States And I was named after my father’s hter and gave in to her own curiosity "I’ve been wondering Are you like the angels in the Bible? I, uh, had the cloud provide es, and…well…"

"You see differences between els you read about," he finished for her

"Exactly And I do re you were part of a different race…or so out, "I could refuse to answer, as you have done to ," she pointed out, "and you, who never lie, won’t do that to irl, his Annabelle Wait His Annabelle? "What you read is true In hu He rules only a certain portion of the heavens and serves under the Most High, who rules every inch of the heavens, even what the Greeks and Titans claim to own--but that is another story And we are not like the Most High’s angels because ere not created for the same purposes"

She tossed up her hands "Then why are you called angels?"

"We are winged, and we fight evil It’s a label, and it stuck"

"Argh! But if you both fight evil, how are you different?"

He had so rarely interacted with hu "All hus, yes, and share many similarities, but not all have the same purpose Some build Some entertain So than the walls of the cloud darkened, thickened, lightning strikes sparking froth and intensity Confused, he searched for other differences, found none

Annabelle reached out, intending to stroke her fingertips over the lightning He grabbed her wrist and stilled her

"Cloud?" he said "What’s the proble…

Iht? But…what if it wasn’t? Zacharel summoned his sword of fire Deel’s residence, but it could be done

All the color drained fro?"

"We’re under attack" Either the demons had no idea ned this cloud, or their desire to obtain Annabelle was too great, their ability to track her far better than he had anticipated