"What is your real name?" Snow's pale grey eyebrows knitted together and she was glad when some of the pain in his eyes lifted, curiosity beginning to fill them again.

"Angels do not have names."

"That is sad, in a way."

It was just the way things were. Her kind didn't have names. His kind didn't have wings. This was the way of it.

"I have never thought about it before now... but perhaps I could have a name." It was a dangerous thought to entertain. She liked the idea of having a name. There were so many of them in this world that the possibilities were endless. Everyone at the theatre had a different one and many of them suited the person. Such as Snow.

What name would she have if she could?

She looked back down at Snow, into his ice-blue eyes, and tilted her head until it was at the same angle as his and she was looking at him straight on. "Could I have the name you gave to me?"

He smiled. "I would like that, Aurora."

She smiled too, enjoying the lyrical way that word sounded whenever he said it and hearing her name for the first time.

Would she get into trouble for having a name? It would make her stand out from the other angels, an individual amongst a collective. Would her master punish her for desiring such a thing?

She found she didn't care.

She was Aurora now.

CHAPTER 10.

Aurora paced her quarters in her master's home, her gaze turned inwards, giving her the ability to watch over Snow. He interacted with the others at Vampirerotique, moving around the theatre, dressed as handsomely as he had been at the celebration.

It had been two days since she had last visited him and she was beginning to find it impossible to ignore her desire to return to him. She needed to maintain her distance though. Whenever she was around him, she found herself entertaining thoughts that shocked her.

Such as kissing him.

She still longed to know the feel of his lips and his taste. Her master would punish her if he knew she had imagined kissing Snow many times over the past two nights while she had been watching him.

Snow had shown no sign of his bloodlust emerging.

He conversed with his fellow vampires, entertained the twins, and had even made a rather heartfelt apology to Payne and his female witch, Elissa. It had touched Aurora and strengthened her belief that Snow was capable of turning his life around, saving himself from death, if his terrible affliction would only leave him in peace.

The young incubus boy she knew as Luca had interrupted them in the end, demanding that Snow play with him as he did with the babes. Snow had spent almost an hour amusing the boy, kneeling on the wooden floor of Payne's grey room and playing with a toy train set.

That still made her smile and warmed her heart.

If only her master could see him as she did, she was sure he would change his mind about Snow and her mission to judge him. Snow had committed terrible acts but he also did good. Somewhere deep within him was the youth he had once been, before the world had conspired against him to turn him evil.

Antoine entered Snow's black room and settled himself on the edge of the double bed while Snow poured him a glass of blood. This was progress she hadn't expected. Snow had always avoided blood in an open container such as a glass if he wasn't restrained. Did he feel confident enough about his control over his bloodlust now to drink from a glass when unfettered?

She smiled at that.

The sound of a door opening below her drew her attention away from Snow for a second. Her master was home. She wanted to make him watch Snow and force him to see the other side of the vampire he believed was pure evil and incapable of good. Her master would refuse though. He always had. As far as he was concerned, Snow deserved to die.

Snow sat on his bed beside his brother, discussing business matters and new ideas Antoine wanted to try out in the next season at Vampirerotique. Snow tipped his head back and glanced up at the ceiling. His beautiful blue eyes remained locked on it for a few seconds before he dropped his chin and continued talking to Antoine.

He had done that often over the past forty-eight hours.

Was he thinking about her?

Did he want her to come back?

She pretended that thought didn't please her and she didn't desire to do as he silently bid because she ached to return to him too.

She longed to touch him again.

Ever since he had bitten her, new feelings had bombarded her, as though the act had unleashed a dormant ability to experience emotions that as far as she knew were ones beyond an angel's grasp.

Such as desire.

Whenever she gazed into Snow's eyes or caressed his hair or skin, her belly heated and quivered, and her body shook, her temperature rose, her palms sweated and she blushed.

She also had a wicked urge to strip him bare and run her hands over him.

No good would come of succumbing to those desires.

If her master discovered that she harboured such feelings for Snow, he would believe her compromised and would judge Snow in her stead. He would kill him without a fair trial or hesitation.

Her master entered her small white room and she severed her connection to Snow, bringing her vision back to her realm. He stood in the doorway, his pure wings tucked against the back of his casual white robes. He had tied his black hair into a ponytail and his amethyst eyes had an edge that she didn't like.

"It has been many hours since you were last in the mortal realm. Have you already made your decision?" He remained standing ramrod straight, as she expected of him. He had always been stiff and formal, and many angels wondered why he had taken her under his wing. Even as a child, she had been considered a hellion and beyond salvation.

Just like Snow.

"No," she said and turned to face him with resolve in her heart. "I am watching him from here. He interacts daily with the other residents of the theatre, especially the twin babies and the young boy, all without incident or danger. When I have seen enough to make an informed decision, I will give you my judgement."

His expression remained emotionless but the edge to his purple eyes sharpened. "Do you believe you will be able to make that decision before the deadline?"

"Deadline?" Her heart skipped a beat. He had never mentioned a deadline.

"You have only three days left out of the seven I gave to you."

Aurora wanted to spit out a vile curse directed at him but held her tongue. He would punish her if she let her anger show and he would no doubt choose to have her held in her room, under watch at all times, until she had thought on her sin and apologised. Even then, he probably wouldn't release her from custody until it was too late and her time with Snow was up.

Three days.

Heat prickled over her arms and down her back, an uncomfortable sensation that she had felt often since she had started visiting Snow when he had been lost to his bloodlust. Panic.

How could her master expect her to judge Snow in only three days? She had watched him for two, and that gave her a good start, but there was still so much she needed to see.

She needed to see if he could be trusted outside the reach of his brother, in the open world. She needed to see if he would relapse once her blood had left his system. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if she made a wrong judgement and he went on to lose himself to his demons again and harmed mortals.

She wouldn't need to live with herself.

Her master would make her see what she had done and then she would pay the ultimate price for her mistake.

She would lose her soul and be cast into darkness, into Hell.

"Three days," her master said in a cold voice that sent a shiver down her spine. He turned to leave. "Aurora."

She gasped and her eyes widened. He knew. He knew and was angry with her, and that was why she had such a short period of time in which to judge Snow. He had lied to her, pretending he had given her seven days from the time when he had handed her the mission. He closed the door behind him and she did curse him now, muttering the words under her breath.

She had to return to Snow.

Aurora closed her eyes and when she opened them again, she stood in Snow's room, shrouded in shadows. Antoine was gone. Snow lay on his bed, reading a book, still wearing far too much clothing even though only a black shirt and jeans encased his powerful body.

Aurora checked herself.

Angels were naturally curious but she was woman enough to admit that it wasn't curiosity driving her.

It was desire.

She couldn't succumb to it though. Her master already believed her compromised because she had a name now, given to her by the vampire she was supposed to judge. It didn't exactly make her appear impartial. Neither did her lying with him while he slept, ensuring he had good dreams. She was influencing him.

"I know you are there, Aurora."

She shivered at the way her name sounded in his deep baritone. Delicious. Erotic.

His blue gaze lifted from the pages of his book to settle on her where she stood in the middle of his room, between the foot of his double bed and his bathroom.

He must have trained his senses to detect her even when she was invisible to his eyes.

"You left without a word again. Why?" There was a note of anger in his tone, a sharp edge that reminded her of her master and demanded that she answer him.

Aurora lifted her shroud and revealed herself to him. His eyes immediately raked over her, burning her through the layers of her white dress, making her achy and hot.

"You were sleeping and I had to return." She tried to sound casual, not wanting him to know how shaken she was by what her master had announced. Three days. She didn't want to think about it. In three days, she may have saved this beautiful man that was such an intrinsic part of her life or condemned him to death.

"You were gone for a long time. I was beginning to think you would never return." He placed his book down on his ebony nightstand and sat up on the bed, arranging himself against the pillows. His gaze bore into her, darker now, and not with desire. Displeasure. He radiated it together with hurt.

What did he want her to say? That she had fought herself countless times in order to stop herself from giving in to her deepest desire and coming to him?

That she had ached to be with him every second she had watched him, wanting to be the object of his focus and on the receiving end of his smiles?

That she had dreamed of lying with him, and not in an innocent way?

She couldn't admit to those things, not even to ease his pain and reassure him that she desired his company as much as he craved hers.

It was killing her.

She stood in the middle of his morbid apartment, staring at him, battling her desire to admit why she had come to him again after thousands of years in the shadows and why she was here now. She couldn't, and she hated herself for it.

She hated to lie to him and pretend that everything was normal when her whole world was tilting on its axis and starting to crumble.

As if he knew her thoughts, he cocked his head to one side, and said, "Why did you come back now, when it has been two thousand years since the night you saved me? Why didn't you return to me when I forgot you and make me remember you again?"

Two very good questions, one she would have to skirt around because she couldn't tell him the whole reason she was here now and the other she could answer truthfully.

She moved forwards across the wooden floor, wrapped her hands around the thick steel post at the bottom left corner of his bed, and lowered her gaze to the black sheets.

"I wanted to see you again. I was drawn by your suffering... and I have always been with you when you have been in this world, even when you could not see me. I was not supposed to allow anyone in this world to see me, not even you, not even to remind you that I was there in the shadows, watching your life play out."

She lifted her eyes to settle on him but he looked away, casting his down to his knees. A frown hardened his expression and she could see his self-reproach and guilt as it flickered in his pale eyes and the grim line of his mouth.

"I am sorry that I forgot you, Aurora," he whispered, soft and tender, voice thick with emotion. "I shouldn't have. It was wrong of me... and you suffered because of it."

Aurora pushed away from the bedpost, his gruff but sweet apology melting her and making her desire to go to him. She wanted to be near to him, but she feared what would happen if she closed the short distance between them. It was already hard enough to resist her need to touch him again.

If she drew any closer to him, it would become impossible.

"It is done now." She trailed her fingers down the cold dark metal, searching her mind for something else to say to get him off a topic that evidently plagued him. She couldn't think of anything. "It is daylight. You should be resting."

Had she just talked about the weather with him?

It was something she had witnessed mortals do whenever they were lost for a topic of conversation. She had never thought she would rely on it herself.

Snow sighed. "I do not want to sleep."

"Why not?" She could spot the signs of fatigue in his eyes and the tight lines of his face.

Snow's beautiful blue eyes locked on her and he frowned, his silvery eyebrows drawing tight above them. "Because you will disappear again if I go to sleep, and... I... enjoy your company."

Aurora smiled at that, heart lifting and warming at the same time. Snow liked her being around. The feeling went both ways.

"I do not want to wake to find you gone again, not knowing when you will come back to me." His words were gruff, hard, but she felt the softness and sentiment behind them, and they touched her.

"I promise I will remain here while you sleep then." Because she honestly couldn't bring herself to leave him. If she only had three days, then she wanted to spend each minute of them with him, and not only so she could judge him properly. The hatred she had held in her heart had all melted away, thawed by his smiles and the touch of affection that shone in his eyes whenever he spoke to her, together with the heat of his desire. Desire she felt beating within her too, impossible to ignore or deny.

"And what will you be doing while I sleep?" He looked suspicious and a corona of red ringed his ice-blue irises. What scenarios was he running through his mind? She didn't intend to harm him or leave the room, if that was the root of his concern.

"I will stay here and rest too." Part lie, because she didn't intend to sleep at all. She had to think of a plan.

"Then you must sleep with me then." He looked beautifully startled when her eyes widened and then flustered. His cheeks darkened to a pale shade of pink. "I meant only that we should share the bed."

"Why?" If she shared the bed with him, she was likely to find herself tempted to carry out any one of the thousand wicked scenarios that had crossed her mind in the split second after he had talked about sleeping with him.