Nero stepped through the door into the carriage, his eyes burning as cold as an Arctic storm. That was the look he always got right before he punished me. The paranormal soldiers froze when they saw the angel, scrambling to their feet to salute him. Paranormal soldiers revered the Legion of Angels nearly as much as they feared it.

“We apologize for disturbing you, Colonel,” Phoenix Tattoo said, bowing his head. “And we submit ourselves to your holy judgment.”

I choked down a laugh. Nero’s head snapped around at the noise, those cold eyes locking onto me.

“Corporal Pierce, come with me.”

I knew I was in trouble when he didn’t call me Leda or even his favorite nickname Pandora. I took a deep breath and followed him. The paranormal soldiers gaped at me in shock.

“It was nice hanging out with you guys. We should play again sometime,” I told them, winking.

They looked at me, horrified, like they were swearing to themselves that they’d never hit on a woman again in case she turned out to be a soldier of the Legion.

I followed Nero through the cargo carriage and then into the driver’s car.

“Leave us,” he told the driver.

The man took one look at the cold fire burning in Nero’s eyes, then scrambled out of there so fast that he nearly slammed into the door.

“Well, that’s nice,” I said to Nero when we were alone. “Now who’s going to drive the train?”

“These things drive themselves. The train can survive without him for a few minutes.”

“A few minutes? I think you are underestimating how long your lectures take.”

Nero gave me a cool look. “I am very aware of how long they take.”

“Oh, have them timed, do you?” I asked, my sass getting the better of me. Again.

“That would be impossible. You defy every law I know, Pandora, including the laws of time.”

I smirked at him. “That must be frustrating.”

“Yes.” His icy expression cracked, revealing frustration, like he didn’t know what to do with me. Nero rarely showed his emotions, but when he did, this expression was a frequent visitor. “What were you doing with those paranormal soldiers?”

“Practicing compulsion.”

His mouth thinned into a hard line. “You were playing pranks on them.”

“I can multitask.” I grinned at him. “I was just trying to pass the time.”

“If you’re bored, I can find things to fill the time.”

The smile died on my lips. Nero’s idea of ‘filling time’ involved running laps and punching a hard metal wall over and over again to build up your pain threshold. But we were on a train, so neither of those things were practical at the moment. Unless he was thinking of making me run across the tops of the train cars as it sped along at five hundred miles per hour. But that wasn’t even possible.

Nero’s mouth quirked up, like he’d heard my thoughts again. Damn it. The look in his eyes was daring me to say it was impossible. Soldiers of the Legion defied the impossible. We weren’t supposed to even contemplate the meaning of the word.

Time to take this in a different direction. “Pass the time, you say?” I arched my brows with deliberate slowness. “What did you have in mind?”

Nero’s gaze followed my hands as they brushed out a wrinkle in my shorts. He went eerily still, fighting temptation.

“You know what? Just forget it.” I shrugged. “I’ll just find some more soldiers to annoy.”

“Leda, wait. Stop.”

The command in his voice made me pause, more out of the desire to know what he was going to say than the urge to obey.

“Your power has grown in the last month. You had those soldiers completely enchanted.”

“Maybe it was my magic, or maybe they were just enchanted by my lack of underwear.”

His gaze dipped to my skintight shorts. The lower half of the Legion’s wilderness uniform looked an awful lot like hot pants.

I smirked at him. “I can’t stand panty lines.”

“Is that all?” His voice going lower, darker. “Is that the real reason?”

My throat tightened under the intensity of his stare. “Yes, of course.”

He stepped toward me, filling the shrinking distance between us. “I’ve missed you. Every hour I’ve been away from you, I’ve thought of little else but you.”

The blunt statement caught me off guard, derailing the smart ass comment I’d had ready to go. “Where have you been?”

“It’s not your place to question an angel.” His whispered words fell against my ear like silk kisses.

“Yeah, well…” I cleared my throat. “You know I’m not good at following orders.”

“No, you’re not.”

He grabbed me roughly, pivoting me around. One hand was on my hip; the other traced my neck. Pulling back my braid, he dipped his mouth to my throat, teasing the throbbing, pulsing vein between his teeth. A soft moan broke my lips.

“I and the other angels in North America have been training with Nyx,” he said against my neck.

I leaned against him, his chest hard against my back, his hand locked around my hip. “Angels still have to train?”

“Of course. The training isn’t over until you’re dead. And I’m half-convinced Nyx designed the training to kill us.”

I laughed softly.

Nero spun me around. “You have such a perfect laugh.” His fingertip touched my lips. “The perfect blend of good and wicked.”