Velvet Haven

he looked down at her.
    The energy from him intensified and she closed her eyes, savoring it as though it were a touch from him.
    “Are you an angel?” she asked, starting to feel the heaviness in her body take over.
    “Something like that.”
    “You were in my dream last night.”
    “Yes. But not your dream. I was actually there.”
    “You don’t look like an angel,” she said, frowning as she looked up through a gossamer veil that had lowered onto her face. She took in his size, his broad chest and shoulders, not to mention the black leather, and gave a small grin. “You look more like the devil.”
    “Yeah, I’m that, too.”
    “Is this real? Or are you just a figment of my mind?” Mairi felt a fluttering against her hand and saw that one long finger was stroking her knuckle. “Are you taking me to heaven or hell?”
    “Neither.”
    “Purgatory, then?”
    He laughed and reached for her hand. “He has a use for you. There is another who needs you, too.”
    Mairi closed her eyes. “Rowan?”
    “Bran.” His fingers gently traced the scars on her wrist. “You’ve suffered, haven’t you?” he asked as his thumb brushed along the scars. “You’ve known a deep darkness. You’ve known what it is like to be cast out, to be different, to discover what truly lurks inside you.”
    She tried to wrench free of his hold, but he gripped her tighter. “How did you know—” She stopped herself before she could say more. She’d never spoken of that night. Never told a soul what she’d heard, what she felt.
    “You never told anyone because you knew no one would believe you. How could they?” he asked as he continued to brush his thumb along the old wounds. “Did you know what they were, Mairi? Did you know that these marks were stigmata? That you had taken someone else’s pain and desperation and saved them from it?”
    Mairi looked down at her wrist. She had not inflicted those wounds. They had been someone else’s marks, someone else’s pain. And yet her own blood had spilled, coloring the bathwater crimson. It had been her flesh that had to be sewn shut. But she had never tried to kill herself. And no one knew that, except now. Except Suriel. Somehow, Suriel had discovered the truth.
    “When Rowan . . .” Mairi took a breath. “Were you there that night?”
    “Yes.”
    “Why?”
    His mouth curved into a humorless smile. “Because I am the Angel of Death.”
    She cried out in a strangled voice that was part fear, part pity.
    “I was supposed to take her, after that bastard was done with her. But then I saw you, saw you in pain.”
    “It was your voice,” Mairi whispered. “I heard it that night. I heard it the night at the club. You told me to . . . cut myself.”
    “To save your friend. To show you your gift. But you ran from it. You fear it.”
    “What gift?”
    “The gift He had me bestow upon you with my breath. You are a healer, Mairi.”
    She shook her head, unable to believe. “Why are you telling me this now when I’m dead?”
    “You have a great power, Mairi; you’ve only to understand how to use it.”
    “I won’t have a chance for that, will I?”
    Suriel bent over and Mairi found herself being pulled into his dark, bottomless gaze. “You will use this power. When the time comes you will know what to do. You will realize how you can use it to your advantage. Remember that, Mairi. It is within you to save those you love.”
    She felt the warmth of tears spill from her eyes and trickle down her cheeks. “What are you doing now?”
    “Saving you.”
    He leaned over and captured her mouth with his. In a foreign tongue he murmured something over her, then breathed deeply into her mouth. When he pulled away, Mairi felt a strange shuddering flicker along her nerves. Her heart began to pound, slowly, erratically, then quicker, gaining strength.
    “Do not forget what you saw in your dream last night. The time is close for your vision to come to fruition. Remember, not everything is as it seems. Think, Mairi, of our powers. Trust. Believe. Have faith.”
    He turned to leave, and Mairi reached for him, feeling a strange connection to him. Someplace deep inside her, she felt his aura protecting her.
    She clutched him. “Don’t leave me,” she whispered. “I’m scared.”
    He peered down at her, and Mairi noticed that his eyes had changed. They were no longer black, but white. The iris opened up, like some kind of portal, drawing her in to the bright light. When he