“She’s torn.” Taunting filled Samael’s words. “Doesn’t know what to do next. Tell you what—you two stay here and talk. Coax her out of this haze. I’m going to the roof, because if I’m going to blow this place up, I want an audience, and I want to take my time.”
The threat mobilized Ronnie. She vanished when Samael did, appeared above Ubiquity in a blink, and wrapped Michael, Samael, and herself in a bubble as the demon summoned his next attack. “It’s the middle of the day.” She struggled to keep her voice even. The impact of his attack hit her harder than she expected. “The building is full.”
Samael shrugged. “Of agents. This won’t kill them.” He lobbed a fireball at Ronnie like he was tossing a softball. The speed it flew at her contradicted the ease of the motion, and it singed her skin as she ducked. The distraction made her drop her shield, and he sent a much larger projectile toward the building.
Michael blocked the impact, and Ronnie phased closer to Samael. When she reappeared, she collided with Michael, who’d done the same thing, and tumbled to the roof. Samael’s next attack slammed into her chest, and agony rocketed through her soul, despite her being ethereal when he hit. How long did it take him to learn that trick? She shook off the pain and launched back toward him. For the next several minutes, her frustration mounted, as he dodged every move she made, or she landed in Michael’s way.
On the ground, agents had spilled from the building. Most watched, some left. She wanted to scream at them to do something. At the same time, inexperienced bodies would make this worse.
It was the attention from the main roads that concerned her more. She didn’t have to waste any time looking. Every turn of her head revealed another person with a phone out, filming the entire event.
“The longer this takes, the happier I am.” Samael lobbed another stream of fire at the building, like slicing off a piece of cake. The concrete slid to the ground, shaking the earth and sending dust flying.
She pushed past her inability to quickly bring this to an end. “The only thing you’re doing is causing a spectacle.”
“She has a point.” Michael joined in. “This could be a publicity stunt, to draw attention from the company’s issues. It’s not as though you can bring the entire infrastructure down from here.”
“Technically, I can. The explosives planted in every single data center around the world are remote activated. We have an app for it.” Samael smirked and sent another attack hurtling toward the freeway. Ronnie blocked it, and Samael countered with another burst toward the ground, but Michael was there waiting.
Something slammed into her from behind, knocking her off balance and sending her rolling across the fractured rooftop. Her ethereal form was battered and bruised, and the newest hit made it difficult to stand.
“Thought you might want some help.” Asmodeus joined Samael. He was still in the suit he wore on air, tie loose but everything else polished and shined. “You’re getting brilliant coverage, by the way.”
Ronnie tried to stand, but her right leg wobbled and gave out. She collapsed to one knee. From this vantage point, it looked like Michael wasn’t doing much better. She didn’t know what to try next. Samael seemed to have an intimate knowledge of her skills and tactics, and she was out of ideas. If he had a second demon by his side, she and Michael were fucked. Even if they managed to take these two out, if the Ubiquity hardware was destroyed, Gabe won.
Damn it.
Chapter Thirty-One
This was why Michael worked alone. Ronnie’s hesitation kept planting her in his way. She was holding back. He didn’t dare do what he needed with her obstructing him.
He dodged another attack, mind churning with anger. Every inch of him throbbed with pain. They weren’t doing anyone any good like this. Irritation surged inside until it threatened to tear out in yell. He forced it back, and an icy calm nudged his center, whispering for attention.
He and Ronnie had brilliant moments when they were in sync. Too bad it was once upon a time, in another life.
No. They’d found it recently, too. Not while fighting, but in other things. He’d just been doing this alone for so long, and she was filled with doubt.
He phased as a spear of lightning sliced through the air, but appeared next to Ronnie instead of Asmodeus. He stayed close. “Do you remember the first time I took Uriel to heaven?”
The Ubiquity corporate offices crumbled bit by bit. Samael and Asmodeus didn’t seem to care what Michael and Ronnie were doing, as long as it didn’t interfere with the destruction.
“I’m Ur—” She frowned. Did she understand why he phrased the question that way?
The moment was seared in his memory. In his little corner of heaven, in a dojo he created to remove himself from the world, they struck a brilliant synchronicity for a few seconds, where they felt each other without looking.
Shrapnel exploded around them. There wasn’t much left of the rooftop to stand on.
Ronnie tossed out another attack. “I remember, but I don’t have that kind of focus right now.”
“You need to find it.” Michael dodged, and knocked her aside from the next incoming explosion.
“What you did to Vine. Was it hard?” she asked.
The question caught him off guard, but he knew she meant destroying the demon. “It’s never gotten easier. I don’t regret any of them, though.”
She nodded and closed her eyes. Her chest rose and fell as she breathed deep, and he felt her—the shifts in her aura, her emotion through her energy. He focused on it, until it was the only thing flowing around him, and said, “Now.”
He knew without looking that she summoned her swords at the same time he did his. He cut a straight light for Samael, confident Asmodeus was her target.
“Those might hurt, but they won’t kill us.” Asmodeus’s taunt wavered.
Michael blocked it all out. The weapons were a distraction. He drove his blade through Samael’s gut, and grabbed the demon’s wrist when Samael doubled over in pain. Ronnie was doing the same with her foe. Her unseen actions swirled around Michael. He issued the command to destroy Samael’s essence and incinerate his form, then stepped back from the abruptly empty space.
Ronnie landed next to him on the rubble, and their weapons vanished into piles of glitter that blew away with the debris and smoke. The rest of the world swam into focus again. Screams and sirens. The whir of helicopter rotors and the roar of fire. It was a simple act to extinguish the flames. The rest couldn’t be wiped away with a mere thought.
“Damage control?” Ronnie sounded tired, but the surrender was gone from her voice.
“Not much to do here. See if Samael pulled the trigger, or if there’s anything left of the Ubiquity data?”
She nodded.
Without exchanging more than a glance, they phased to one of the data centers. The place lay in smoldering ruins and was being swarmed by local fire and police, and no sign of Tiamet, Irdu, or Raphael.
“Shit.” Ronnie’s curse echoed his thoughts. They traveled to the next, and then to several more. The scene was the same each time—annihilation. All the hardware was buried under rubble, and if Michael had to guess, in useless slags of metal.
His phone rang as they watched their seventh stop from afar. “Hello?”
“Hi. Um... sorry. I know this your phone, but hers isn’t working, and I need to talk to her, and— Is Ronnie there?”
“It’s Tiamet.” He handed the device over.
Ronnie gave a tiny smile of relief. “Hey... I know. We saw— You are? You’re fucking brilliant. We’ll be there in less than two.” She gave Michael back his phone. “They’re back at your condo. They found the explosives in two of the data centers and reset the wards, but they didn’t make it to the rest in time. It didn’t all crumble, after all.”
The news was more reassuring than he expected. For all the issues he had with Ubiquity, it had its role. It gave agents a way to acclimate to the world. It linked heaven and hell with humanity in a way no
t possible before. He intertwined his fingers with Ronnie’s. “Should we head back?”
She nodded.
RONNIE SAT AT THE BACK of the coffee shop, hunched over her coffee, hood pulled over her head. As long as she looked inconspicuous—faded into the background, like the majority of mortals—no one looked at her twice. Colored contacts and a new hairstyle helped, too. It had been two weeks since Ubiquity almost crumbled. They were recovering. Her life in this world wouldn’t be the same for a long time. She was on every most-wanted list she ever heard of and didn’t dare phase from one place to the next unless she could guarantee no one saw her come and go.
Someone took in the seat across from her. A familiar orange aura and the faint scent of spice radiating from Lucifer. “I know why you did what you did”—his tone was pleasant and conversational—“but if you’d listened to me and backed off, this all would have faded into the woodwork.”
She met his gaze with a glare. “No, it wouldn’t have. I was a convenient scapegoat, but they would have done this either way.”
“You wouldn’t have been implicated. Blonde is a good look for you, by the way.”
“This way, everything that happened to me was my choice. My world didn’t change because I let someone else call the shots for me.” She refused to respond to the hair comment. Whether he was sincere or not, she wasn’t pleased about having to bleach the hell out of her locks. Irdu wasn’t happy either about giving up the Kool-Aid red hair.
He shrugged. “Call it what you will. The rules have changed. You’re on your own.”
The rules had changed. It wasn’t just having to keep a low profile as an individual. Even though most of the world still argued over what they saw, every day more people agreed the incidents were more than smoke and mirrors. The destruction had stopped, but other pieces of information were emerging. Gabriel’s people performing miracles around the world to correct the destruction. It was a subtle move, meant to build trust in his direction now that Ubiquity had killed the world’s faith.
She hated watching it, but it meant she, Irdu, and Michael had time to plan next steps. “Except I’m not on my own. I’m just not doing this with you.”
“Like old times, huh?” His smile stayed in place, but it had faded from his eyes.
“I’m sorry about Samael,” she said.
“I expected it. Water under the bridge and all that.” He was lying about being over it. She wasn’t used to being able to read him that well.
There was no reason to call him on it. “Of course.”
“I’m glad I brought you back, even if you are a headache and a half.”
“Are you ever going to tell me how you pulled that off?”
He shook his head and stood. “I haven’t decided yet. I don’t know when we’ll speak again.”
“Tomorrow. Next decade. Whenever our choices bring us back together.” She rose and gave him a hug.
She let go, and he captured her neck with his hand, holding her in place. He searched her eyes with an unreadable expression. “Samael never mattered. Not the way he wanted to. I can’t apologize for that. But you...” He leaned closer, his breath teasing her skin. “I’ve waited millennia for you, and I’m not surrendering now.” He brushed his lips over hers so lightly she felt his power more than his touch. “Take that as you will.”
She didn’t get to respond before he vanished. It hurt watching him leave, and the kiss deepened the ache. Mentor. Friend. Former lover. She didn’t like there being a rift between her and Lucifer, but something told her it was for the best.
Ronnie started at the table after Lucifer left, studying the scratches, letting the background noise filter through and around her. The ambient emotion she usually loved so much gnawed at her calm.
The air shifted. It was subtle and soft, but it screamed out over everything else. Michael. Since the fight, she was trying to make feeling him second nature. To keep her senses extended enough to detect anyone with an aura get close, but especially to fall in tune with Michael.
She made her way to the exit, with a quick detour to the cash register to grab two brownies. When she stepped outside, she didn’t have to search him out to know he stood on the other side of the street. His nearness drew tiny smile.
They hadn’t defined their relationship beyond let’s not rule anything out, and her reinforcing that Irdu was in her life to stay. She was okay with taking their time and seeing where things went. Even having to live on the downlow, they had as close to eternity ahead of them as mattered.
She reached Michael and handed over a parchment-paper wrapped pastry, then bit into her own.
“Well?” He hooked an arm around her waist.
“He’s out. We’re on our own. I don’t suppose that’s new to you.”
He steered her toward the apartment complex a couple of blocks down. “It is, and we’re not. If it’s more than me, I’m not on my own.”
The warmth in his voice drew a smile, and she leaned into him as they walked. “Good point.”
They reached the place they were renting while they regrouped, and he unlocked the door. She was grateful he was able to secure the place. Her accounts were frozen—as good as gone—and Tia and Irdu weren’t doing any better.
Michael had lived long enough he not only had spare resources, but kept accounts under multiple names and trusts, to keep from drawing attention to the fact he’d been around for thousands of years.
Tia and Irdu looked up from their spot at the kitchen table, when Michael and Ronnie stepped into the room. The bond with Irdu was different now too. She didn’t feel Tia any more than she did any other host, but the connection with Irdu tugged at her whenever he was nearby. It hummed under her skin and made her heart sing.
The next few months would be hard, adjusting, finding work, and staying off the radar, while they looked for Gabe. But at least they had a path forward, and enough access to what was left of Ubiquity to bring it back online.
THE END
With Ubiquity in ruins, and Ronnie, Michael, and Irdu in hiding, life is getting interesting. Find out what happens next in Soul Defiler. Available Fall 2019.
For more reverse harem urban fantasy from Allyson Lindt, including Greek heroes, a hellhound, and Hades’ daughter, check out the Truth’s Harem series.
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About the Author
USA Today Bestselling Author Allyson Lindt is a full-time geek and a fuller-time contemporary romance author. She likes her stories with sweet geekiness and heavy spice, because cubicle dwellers need love too. She loves a sexy happily-ever-after and helping deserving cubicle dwellers find their fut
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Read more at Allyson Lindt’s site.
Soul Betrayer (Ubiquity, #2) Page 27