Angels of Darkness

She had a terrible suspicion the unfamiliar bedroom and those two words were connected.
    Her clothes were gone. She wore only underwear and a giant T-shirt, three sizes too big.
    A pair of carefully folded jeans lay on a chair next to the bed. Her jeans, the ones she had worn on the field trip. Karina pulled them on. She had to find Emily.
    The door swung open with ease and she found herself in a hallway. To the left, the hallway ended in a stairway leading up. To her right, a pool of electric light brightened the wooden floor and the rust-colored rug. Quiet voices carried on a soft discussion.
    She followed the voices and stepped into a kitchen, blinking against the light. Three men sat at the round table in the center. They turned to look at her. The one sitting farthest from her wore the unearthly face of the man from her dream. His name surfaced from the depths of her memory. Arthur.
    I agree.
    Arthur nodded to her. “Ah. You’re up. Why don’t you sit down with us? Henry, please get a chair for Lady Karina.” His soft, intimate voice caressed her almost like a touch. It should’ve been soothing. Instead her insides clenched into a tight knot.
    A tall man with a shy smile rose and held a chair out for her. So oddly domestic, all three drinking tea. Nobody was startled by her appearance. Clearly she was expected.
    Karina sat. “Thank you.” The automatic response rolled from her lips before she even realized it.
    â€œYou’re welcome,” Arthur said. He leaned back with a quiet elegance, artfully posed without putting any effort into it. His hair was soft, black, and brushed back from his perfectly sculpted face. His eyebrows were equally black and so were his eyelashes, long and soft like velvet. They framed big eyes, crystalline blue, distant, and cold. Angelic, she thought. He looked like an angel, not a plump cherub, but an angel who roamed freely in the sky, possessed of heart-wrenching beauty and terrible power, an angel who had stared into the bottomless blue for so long that his eyes had absorbed its color.
    â€œWould you like some tea?” Arthur asked.
    â€œChildren . . . ?”
    â€œSafe,” he said and she believed the sincerity of his words even though she had no reason to do so.
    Arthur rose, took a small blue mug from the shelf behind him, and poured steaming tea into it from a large kettle on the stove. He set the cup in front of her. “Please drink. It will steady your nerves.”
    Karina looked at the cup.
    He drank from his own cup and smiled in encouragement.
    She picked up the cup and took a sip. Green tea. Odd taste, slightly sour.
    Maybe she was still dreaming. The whole scene had that slightly absurd wrongness found only in dreams.
    Karina looked about the table. The man who had offered her the chair, Henry, sat to her right. He was tall and whipcord lean. His face, serious with somber intelligence, lacked Arthur’s magnetism, but its sharp angles drew her all the same. His tawny hair was cut close to the scalp, but still showed a trace of a curl. His green eyes regarded her and she read pity in their depths.
    The man on her left was model pretty. Strong masculine jaw, deep, dark blue eyes, high cheekbones, a mane of golden wavy hair dripping down to below his waist, hiding half of his face . . . His eyes flashed with wild humor. He gave her a wink, grinned, exposing even white teeth, and tossed his hair back. An ugly scar ripped his left cheek, almost as if something had taken a bite out of him and his flesh hadn’t healed right. She fought an urge to look away. He reached for her hand . . .
    â€œDaniel.” Arthur’s voice gained a slight edge. “That’s extremely unwise.”
    Daniel sat back.
    â€œJust because she didn’t scream when she saw your face doesn’t mean you get to touch.” Henry refilled his cup.
    â€œPlease forgive Daniel. He doesn’t mean to be rude. He’s just forbidden to speak for the time being. Your tea is getting cold,” Arthur said.
    â€œHe tends to cause problems when he speaks,” Henry said.
    Daniel gave her a smoldering smile.
    She faced Arthur. “What did I agree to?”
    Arthur sighed. “I see.”
    Henry leaned forward. “Perhaps we should mend this.”
    â€œYes. The sooner, the better. Lucas might return and that would make things considerably more complicated.”
    Daniel laughed softly. If wolves could laugh, they would