Del lay in bed, looking like he slept peacefully, but there was no telltale glow. Ronnie swallowed the lump in her throat. This was like what happened to Izzy; someone took the cherub that granted him immortality. At least they hadn’t injured him in the process.
The thought stalled in her head, and she realized no one was moving. She forced her feet one in front of the other, until she stood next to Del’s bed. She checked for a pulse. For a hint of emotion. For anything radiating from him, to indicate he was still here.
Nothing.
“He’s dead,” she whispered.
Stomping sounded from the stairwell, and seconds later, a loud crash-bang tore through the apartment, like the front door was forced from its jam and rocketed into the wall. She met Michael’s gaze. “I know a place,” she said and grabbed Tia’s hand.
“Freeze.” The command was in Hebrew. Several people in body armor filled the hallway, leveling guns at them.
Irdu took Michael’s hand and then Ronnie’s, and she phased them from the room, the explosion of gunfire echoing in her ears as a street in Omaha, outside a diner, replaced Del’s apartment.
“IF YOUR QUARRY GOES to ground, leave no ground to go to.” Irdu settled his chin in his palm, his fingers over his mouth muffling his words.
Michael pinched the bridge of his nose, knowing without looking—thanks to the flare of aura next to him—this conversation could in fact head further south. Fortunately, the diner was relatively empty this time of night
“I would give anything to be watching Serenity right now.” Ronnie’s voice was quiet. She sat next to Michael, but her arms rested on the table, so she could tangle her fingers with Irdu’s.
Michael tried to block out the surge of grief and anger trying to burst from him. He grasped in vain for the numb calm that had been his consistent companion for centuries.
So many years of work. They all taunted Michael. Stepping outside the structure of heaven and hell to keep people safe. To make sure the individual got attention instead of being lost in the machine that eventually became Ubiquity. For what? He’d cost half a dozen lives this week. Close friends... He had no idea where Abaddon was.
Michael couldn’t stop the hiss that pushed through his teeth. “This isn’t helping.”
“They really are destroying all our options, aren’t they?” Tia sank lower in her seat, picked up her coffee, then set it down again without taking a drink.
“Shit.” Ronnie sounded panicked. “What about Izzy? If they went after Del...”
Irdu clenched his jaw. “Izzy has to be all right.”
“I don’t know. I wish I could guarantee he’s fine.” Michael hated this. He’d rather see empires crumble than watch good lives end prematurely. “Tracking him down to ask is the worst thing we can do to him. I warned him. I should have done the same for Sandalphon.” Why did he bring everyone to Israel? Did he think location didn’t matter?
Their pictures flashed across the news channel playing in the diner. Nothing new. They were fifteen-minutes-of-fame celebrities. Between him and Ronnie, they kept a steady bubble of distraction around them, so no one would look twice at the group. The staff here thought nothing interesting ever happened in Omaha, and with any luck, that included suspecting the group of four were the faces on TV. “Fuck,” he whispered when he read the closed captions.
Ronnie glanced up, muttering along with the words as they scrolled by. “The terrorist suspects were spotted in Israel, and are wanted by local authorities in association with the death of a local man.”
The news flashed back to the anchor, who wanted to know how this was possible.
“Hey. Can we get some sound over here?” A woman in the corner waved a waitress over.
“Sure, hon.” Seconds later, TV voices filled the dining room. The woman with the remote glanced between Michael’s table and the TV several times, before focusing on the news again.
“We need to go.” Ronnie’s voice was low.
“In related news, this clip from the Luxor in Las Vegas was released to media outlets just moments ago.” Every muscle in Michael’s body coiled as he watched Ronnie, Tiamet, and Irdu wander into an isolated corner of the hotel and vanish.
“Ubiquity officials have confirmed at least one of the suspects was in Nashville moments earlier, which hardly seems possible.” TV woman laughed, showing too many teeth.
Her colleague looked familiar, and Michael frowned, trying to place the face. “You know what they say, Glenda. If you eliminate the impossible, you might be surprised at what you find.”
“I’m sure that’s not how the saying goes, Craig. Besides, these people didn’t vanish into thin air and teleport around the world.”
“Why not?” Craig asked.
Tiamet said, “I can’t believe the cameras caught us. How did we not think about the fact that entire fucking city is lined with cameras?”
Remote-control waitress called over a coworker and pointed at their table.
Realization struck Michael. The wards only worked if people didn’t want to see. His group had just become the most fascinating thing on the planet, and everyone wanted to see. He tossed some money on the table and stood. “Ronnie’s right. We need to go now.” He kept his tone quiet and pleasant, in contrast to the jumbled mess in his head. “Outside. No witnesses when we leave.”
“Excuse me.” One of the employees called after them. “I need you to wait, please.”
“I don’t think discretion is a choice anymore. Where are we going?” Irdu took Tiamet’s hand.
“Your place?” Ronnie asked Michael.
He nodded. “Yes.”
“Meet you there,” Irdu said before he vanished with Tiamet.
Seconds later, Michael let them into the condo.
“How is this better?” Tia didn’t let go of Irdu’s hand. Her aura spun like a whirlpool, mingling with her counterpart’s.
Irdu nodded toward the door at the far end of the room. “Doorway to heaven. Which... if Gabe wants to find us, puts us directly in his path. No?”
“He doesn’t. That’s not the point.” Ronnie sank onto the couch and dropped her head in her hands, muffling her words.
Realization spread through Michael. So help him, if this kept up, he’d start to see this insane double-thought everywhere. “He already knew where we were in Nashville and Israel. The point isn’t to find us; it’s to keep us hopping so we don’t have time to react.”
“Which means we can’t stay in the condo long. I’m sure he’d love to have it blown up with us in it, to distract us.” The exhaustion had faded from Ronnie’s tone, and she sounded determined and angry. “We don’t stay in any one point longer than we have to.”
Michael nodded. “We have Abaddon’s list. We pick out any names we have a last known location for.” This was good. It was a plan. If Gabriel expected them to keep running, they could act before his people knew what was going on. “We split up the list, we seek, and—”
“Not destroy,” Tiamet said with disgust. “I’m not killing anyone.”
Michael could appreciate that. “Eliminate. I was going to say eliminate. If they have a cherub, they’ve broken the rules. Take the cherub. Send it and the demon back home.”
“Why are you assuming they’ll all be demons?” Irdu sounded defensive.
“I’m not. But only Ronnie and I can send angels home, so as we divide the list, we keep that in mind.”
Tiamet raised her hand then dropped it back into her lap again, as if she realized what she was doing. “Irdu and I can’t send anyone anywhere. We’re grunts, named to work at Ubiquity. Not taught anything else. If Lucifer decided he wanted to call us home at any time, he could.”
“He wouldn’t, though. Would he?” The mask Irdu had worn since he arrived in Israel faltered.
“Probably not.” Ronnie’s reassurance sounded anything but. “He’s a pretty textbook definition of a wild card, though. He knows this is all going on, and he’s not stopping it, either because he wants it to happen, o
r because he thinks it looks worse if he steps in. I wish I could tell you that letting you stay here was in his best interests, but I can’t guess with him.”
Michael snarled at himself. Why hadn’t he thought of any of this?
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“I can change that.” Ronnie hadn’t called on the knowledge since she was just Metatron. She hadn’t named any cherubs since her return. But in the early days, before there were tens of thousands of angels and demons, it was common for one of the originals to name someone and have that agent serve their purpose and then move on. Back when being an original was more than a numbers game. God, how much things deteriorated after she died.
Michael studied her. “One foot in heaven, one in hell. Good point.”
Hesitation worked its way through Ronnie. What they were talking about wasn’t a big deal.
This wasn’t the same, for so many reasons. Lucifer had always been the only original in hell, so this didn’t happen with demons. Which, Irdu and Tia weren’t the typical demon. And there was how she felt about Irdu. This changed their relationship. If she did this, in a way she’d own him.
Then again, he owned her heart, but that wasn’t a literal magic bond. She met his gaze. “Can I talk to you? I’ll give Tia the details too, but I need to speak with you first.”
“Sure.” Irdu shrugged.
Michael gave her a nod of understanding and agreement. She grasped Irdu’s hand and tugged him into the kitchen, letting the door swing shut behind them.
He dropped onto a stool. “You got so serious. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong.” She paced as she searched for the right words. “We don’t have much time, but I have to do this right with you.”
He swung her to a stop, and cupped her face between his palms. “I know things are rough right now. Something tells me it’s going to be that way for a while. And sometimes you and I clash. That goes with the passion, I think. But I love you, and I can’t imagine not loving you. Whatever this is, you can tell me.”
His words smoothed over her tattered nerves, and calmed her racing thoughts. She didn’t know any way to say this other than just spit it out. “You know that when a cherub is named, that agent serves the original who did the naming. But there’s a way to change that affiliation. For instance, an angel that Michael named, if they wanted, could serve me instead. I can do the same for you and Tia. I can make it so you belong”—she didn’t like that word—“to me instead of Lucifer.”
“You’re binding me to you.” He didn’t look upset.
“It’s not that simple. When it comes to you and me, I feel like it changes the meaning.”
“This would mean I’m not Lucifer’s anymore?”
She nodded. “He can’t steal you back. He’d need your permission, just like I do.”
Irdu kissed her hard, stealing her breath and lingering while her heart soared. “Of course I want that,” he said.
“It doesn’t bother you that in a way, I’ll own you?” Relief spilled inside.
“You already do. I understand why you’re hesitating, but we already belong to each other. If you can take Tia and me out from under Lucifer’s thumb... I mean, I guess you have to ask her too, but there are few things I want more in this life than to be free of him.” Irdu rested his forehead against hers. “Make it happen.”
“I wish we had more time.” To ensure this was the right thing. To physically seal the commitment—
“We’ll get out of this, and then we’ll have time,” he said. “We’re free of Ubiquity. You’re in charge. We’ll go see the world when this is over.”
“We just have to get out of this.”
“And we will.”
His confidence and affection helped boost her mood. She nodded toward the living room. “I need to ask Tia, too. And then we can do this.”
They rejoined Michael and Tia. Ronnie explained again what she was planning to do, if Tia agreed.
“If I do this, can I call you Mommy?” Tia asked.
Ronnie stalled. “Uh... Awkward.”
Tia laughed. “I’m joking. Completely. But, sister?”
“I like the sound of that.” Ronnie summoned a mental image of a ledger. Not because she needed to, but visualizing always helped her think through things, and adjusted their report-to paths. “Done.”
“Just like that?” Irdu patted himself. “Are you sure you did it right? I feel the same.”
“I’m certain. This will be a little more jarring.” She took Irdu’s hand first and summoned the knowledge she had about how to bind a demon to hell, so they couldn’t be released without her authority. Sparks of black flowed between them in her mind’s eye, crackling through her veins and passing into his mind, sizzling with the impact of shared knowledge. He tugged, but she didn’t loosen her grasp.
When she let go of his hand, he jerked away. “Holy fuck. I usually want sex to go with pain like that.”
Ronnie laughed. So was so glad he was making this easier.
“My turn?” Tia held out her hand with hesitation. When the transfer ended, she shook her head several times, as if trying to rattle something loose. “No wonder they usually do that while we’re cherubs. Ow, my brain.”
“I apologize if this doesn’t make any sense, but what did I just see?” Michael asked.
Ronnie looked at him, surprised. “Same thing that always happens when we do something like this.”
“No. These two, they’re different from other demons. Their auras are linked, and what you did just now... Something flared.” Michael was studying Irdu.
“They’re—” Ronnie stalled. She looked at Irdu and Tia. “This isn’t my secret to tell.”
“Were siblings,” Tia said. “And we used to be human, and Lucifer made us swear to never tell anyone, but now that we don’t belong to him, fuck that guy.”
Irdu filled in more details about what had happened, and Michael listened, shock on his face.
“Do the two of you share power? Draw it from Lucifer? Something else?” Michael asked.
Irdu shrugged. “Don’t know. We’ve never thought to explore it, but as far as I know, we’re enough like any other demons that no one’s called us on it before you.”
“All right. Cool.” Michael didn’t have anything else to add. It was fascinating, and he’d love to explore the concept, but now wasn’t the time.
Ronnie turned to Michael. “Now that we have that out of the way, how about that list?”
They worked through names, separating them into angels, demons, and unknowns, and adding last known locations whenever possible. The TV ran in the background. Michael protested, but Ronnie argued that, if a media war was launched against them, they needed to either counter attack or avoid public notice.
“Ubiquity is offering its full cooperation to law enforcement, having denounced any knowledge of or affiliation with the suspects.” The voice drilled into Ronnie’s thoughts, like a familiar nagging she couldn’t grasp—a sound she swore she never wanted to hear again, and not only because the woman was delivering news Ronnie didn’t like.
They each took their first assignments. The objective was simple. Four hours to survey the area, find the angel or demon in question, and determine if they had a cherub. If so, extraction and deportation. If not, leave them alone.
“We can’t do that,” Michael said. “If the names are on this list, they have to be detained until you or I can confirm where their loyalties lie.”
Ronnie wanted to agree. Every inch of her said to listen, except that teeny tiny bit reminding her of the flaws in his logic. “We haven’t vetted the list. Some of these agents are doing good things. Besides, Abbie told you Gabe is careless with the knowledge. Odds are high we won’t encounter anyone without.”
“If we do? If we see a trend of angels without?” Michael asked.
“Then we reevaluate.”
The news never stopped. Every time they touched base, they absorbed more media attention. “The individuals
in question are terrorists; there’s no doubt. We don’t know where they come from, and they’ve made a campaign of destroying lives, directly and otherwise.” Ronnie stared at the man on screen, trying to figure out why he looked familiar. Sure, she’d seen him on the station, but there was more to it. Something she couldn’t place.
TWO DAYS LATER, WITH no sleep and forty-eight unsuccessful searches between them, Ronnie fought the urge to scream. “How are we at zero percent? Law of averages says... I don’t know. But even if there wasn’t an agent of Gabriel’s in any of those spots, one of us should have seen someone. A friendly demon. An unknown angel. Someone.”
“What now?” Tia scrubbed her face, but exhaustion hung in her eyes. For as much phasing as they were doing, spending little time in their mortal forms, they didn’t technically need sleep, but the process was mentally draining. Their spirits sank more with each failure.
Michael straightened, his face becoming a stony mask. “We go again.”
“Because that’s doing us so much good?” Ronnie wanted to slam her head into a brick wall. It would be more effective than this.
“It’s doing something. You said it. None of us have seen anyone with an aura, and the odds of that happening naturally, given how many of us are out there, are almost zero. That means we’re close. If we can grasp something. Keep your eyes open,” Michael said.
A sinking feeling formed in Ronnie’s gut, but she didn’t have an argument for his logic. “All right. We’ll go again.”
“Video footage willingly surrendered by U-View shows more evidence of both former executives involved in numerous attacks. Far more than originally suspected. Panic is growing in several parts of the world, after the implication that the terrorists seem to be capable of being multiple places at once. Past phone records and satellite tracking corroborate eye-witness reports.” Ronnie wanted to punch the annoyingly familiar on-the-scene reporter in the face to shut him up. Not that it was the poor guy’s fault, but it would give her anger focus.
“The FBI and CIA are working with authorities worldwide, comparing incidents previously thought unrelated. One disturbing development all the incidents have in common is the lack of forensic evidence. There’s no proof of explosives or other primer needed to cause this type of damage.”
Soul Betrayer (Ubiquity, #2) Page 25