Wings of Darkness: Book 1 of The Immortal Sorrows Series by Sherri A. Wingler

me just as I started to panic.  A sense of
calm overtook me.  Was he doing that?  Calming me down?  Hell,
we were flying; I was willing to believe anything, at that point.
         Death was imminent, and then
suddenly, it wasn’t.  We stopped just short of impact with the ground; the
giant wings held strong and steady against the cold wind buffeting us.  I
had no idea how long we’d been airborne, but the landing was flawless, and as
gentle as it could be.
         I felt grass beneath my feet, and
still I held onto him.  I’m pretty sure it was just because I was still
terrified and all my muscles had locked in place.  Of course it was. “You
are safe, girl.  Open your eyes.” His accented voice was deep and dark and
smooth like chocolate.  I mentally cringed at that thought.  I’d been
reading way too many gothic romances lately.
        “Izzy.  My name’s Izzy.” I
sounded breathless.  It took some effort to stop my teeth chattering from cold
and fear. I peeled myself off of him and took a step back, looked around. 
We were in my own backyard.  “Am I imagining this?  Are you
real?”  The wings were gone, hidden away to wherever they went when he
didn’t need them, I guessed.  Neat trick; it must come in handy.  You
know, for when he wanted to pass for
human
.
         He grinned at me and my heart did a
little leap into my throat.  Stupid, I know, but I was having a bad night,
so sue me.  “You are not imagining this.  I am Ashrael.  You may
call me Asher.” Then he made this strange, formal sort of bow in my
direction.  Somehow he pulled that off without making it look at all
awkward.  Asher.  Got it.
         “Will the crazy guy follow us
here?”  I didn’t know if my dad was home yet, but I really didn’t want to
explain a half-naked guy hanging around our property at odd hours of the
night.  Much less have some psycho try to kill us all if he followed us
home.
         “Come inside, you are
freezing.”  He started to reach for my hand, but seemed to think better of
it and pulled away.  Instead, he made an elegant gesture with his hand,
urging me to move along.  “You have questions.  I have
answers.”  I followed him up my back steps.  I found the fake rock in
the planter by the door that hid the spare house key, and let us in. 
         “My dad…”
         “He is not at home.  He will
never know I was ever here.”  I followed him into the kitchen. I walked
ahead of him and sat numbly in the hard kitchen chair he pulled out for
me.  I watched as he went into the laundry room and came out with a
blanket I’d just washed earlier that afternoon.  Fuzzy, and lavender
colored, it was my favorite.  He draped it carefully over my
shoulders.  I could feel my eyebrows creeping towards my hairline. 
If I survived the night without a mental breakdown, some type of medication
might be in order.  Strong medication.
         Asher ran a hand through his blonde
hair and looked everywhere but at me.  He seemed to be at a loss for where
to start, once he had me settled in.  Nervous, much? Well, that ruled out
him killing and cooking me.  I couldn’t imagine a serial killer being
nervous around his intended victim, but he’d obviously been inside my house
before, without anyone the wiser.  Creepy thought.  Hell, the guy could
sprout wings at will, and I was worried about a little breaking and
entering?  Technically, it was just entering since he knew where the key
was.  Oh yeah, cracking up was a real possibility for me.
         I watched as he got the Swiss Miss
out of the cabinet along with some milk from the fridge and a mug from the
dishwasher.  He was making hot chocolate?  I cleared my throat. 
“Seriously?”
         He quirked an eyebrow in my
direction.  “I thought you might be in light shock.  The hot
chocolate will help to warm you up.”  Now that he mentioned it, I realized
that I was still about half-frozen.  I