by Maya Daniels
“We need to do nothing,” Eric snarls again. “I will keep my promise. Next time we cross paths, you will die.”
“It might be a little more complicated than you can comprehend.” Arrogance is oozing from Michael, making my hand shake where I’m holding the phone suspended between Eric and me.
“You ran out of blood, asshole?” I can’t stay quiet anymore. The memories of everything are still fresh in my mind. “Maybe you should come to get it now that we are on more equal ground.”
“Ah! Helena. It’s good to know you are well.” Michael almost sounds relieved I survived, confusing the shit out of me. “I was worried you got damaged in the blast.”
“Damaged? I’m not a toy, you asshole! There is something seriously wrong with you, dude.” My words are spoken slowly.
Uneasiness is crawling through my insides.
Michael sounds too happy about hearing my voice. That in itself is screaming disaster. Eric is still as a statue, looking at me strangely. Not in the wrong way. The worry I see lurking in his gaze makes me nauseous, however. Raphael perks up at this, sitting straight even as his shoulders stiffen. Maddison is the only one with a calculated look on her face.
“What can we help you with, handsome?” she purrs, winking at me.
As it was expected, the two men in the room look at her as if she’s lost her mind. Well, in Eric’s case, like he wants to punch her in the face. Nothing new. My mate is taking this whole Michael business personally, not that I blame him. I’d feel the same if he was the one that was taken.
Michael speaks again, pulling me out of my thoughts.
“I might’ve gone about this the wrong way.” It sounds like it’s painful for the Archangel to admit he might have done something wrong. “I think if we sit and talk about it, you will see the wisdom of my actions.” There is a long pause. “We can all get what we want in the end.”
“All I have to do is bleed more, huh?” I can’t help adding bitterly. And then it hits me. “Where the hell is Hector?”
“What?” Confusion oozes from Michael’s voice, and it’s too real to be faked.
Maddison groans, covering her face with her hand and telling me without words that I’m an idiot. Raphael shakes his head but still says nothing, like he doesn’t want Michael to know that he is here, which makes me more suspicious of him. Eric, on the other hand, hasn’t moved a muscle and is still watching me strangely.
“Hector. Where is he?” The cat is already out of the bag, so I just roll with it.
“How should I know where he is? I’m not his shepherd. He has proven where his loyalties are, so I have no time for those like him.” Michael sounds almost insulted by the idea of keeping tabs on my father. “We are wasting words. I’m willing to meet.”
“How very gracious of you.” Sweetness drips from my words like honey, but my mind is spinning, trying to come up with where to begin looking for my father.
I sincerely hoped, if the hand that had been sent to us did indeed belong to Hector, that Michael had been the one that sent it. Now that I think about it, it can’t possibly be him. He was in ruins from that damn building where he kept me when we left. He didn’t have time to send it before we got here. Unless he knew that Eric was going to get me out that moment. Judging by his anger, and what he said to Raphael, he didn’t know. So, that rules him out. My heart picks up a beat with this new development. As messed up as it was, I kind of felt better knowing it was only Michael I had to deal with. Now we know that the bomb that went off was placed by a third party. Someone that was obviously watching from the shadows and had enough time to organize delivery from the time it took us to leave the destroyed building until we got here. Having an unknown adversary added to the disaster that is my life doesn’t make me excited about the future.
No, it makes me livid.
“When and where?” We all look at Maddison like we’ve never seen her before.
I can’t believe she is even considering meeting with Michael. I don’t need to be a genius to know that the asshole will try to set us up. Eric seems like he is contemplating every way he can kill Maddison, and even though at the moment that might sound like the best idea any of us has had, we must think straight and not turn on each other. Maybe that’s the Archangel’s plan. Placing my hand on his arm, I turn Eric’s attention to me and away from Maddison. If I’ve learned anything about the too beautiful woman to be anything but a supernatural being, I’ve learned that she is ahead of the game most of the time. Apart from being blindsided when Michael took me, she always has a plan B, C, and D, followed by the rest of the alphabet. I nod at her in understanding, although Eric still looks ready to kill someone. Not necessarily an Archangel either.
Raphael is shaking his head, showing his reluctance about meeting his brother while still being quiet, not announcing his presence. Maddison doesn’t look like she cares what the Archangel thinks. Instead, she keeps watching me, like my opinion is the one she values. I can almost hear the gears in her brain turning in the silence that surrounds us. I’m too messed up in the head to think straight or make calculated risks. Eric is still teetering on the edge of insanity after I was taken, and it’ll be a while before he is back to his old self, looking at the situation objectively. Raphael is the wild card; none of us know exactly where he stands, or what he will actually gain by putting his lot in with the rest of us. That only leaves her.
This is the moment of truth.
Do I trust her enough to let her take control of the situation, or go head-first into deeper shit than I already am in? That’s when I realize, I do trust her. Me.
A demon hunter, trusting a demon.
I glance at Eric from the corner of my eye. Rephrase that! A demon hunter trusting a demon, and the Prince of Hell. Well, my life took a nose-dive, didn’t it?
“You name the place and time.” Michael shocks all of us. “I’ll be there.”
Helena
"We need time to think. I will call you back." Reaching her hand forward, Maddison hangs up on Michael without giving him a chance to say anything else. I'm still holding the phone between Eric and me.
Raphael and Eric jump for the throat at the same time, rounding on Maddison. Raphael yelling while cussing is predominant in Eric's shouts She just sits back in her chair, calmly watching them. Following her example, I pull out a chair and plop into it with a sigh.
Apparently, it's too much to ask for a little time to regroup without drama around these guys. They all have a short fuse, except Maddison. The urgency that was gnawing at me about Hector, to find him and make sure he kept breathing, was still pressing on my mind. But, somewhere in the back of my mind, I was hoping I'd do it at my pace. Take a breather first, I guess.
That is not written in the stars for me.
Wrapping my cold fingers around the coffee mug, taking a long sip, I watch dispassionately as the angel and the demon keep snarling at Maddison, wildly waving their arms and shaking their fists. Their words are like an annoying buzzing of a mosquito in the middle of the night around me. I ignore both of them, not taking my eyes away from Maddison. She is doing the same, her gaze focused on me intently.
Something changed.
In the few minutes between that phone ringing and the time she hung up on the Archangel, something shifted between us. It hangs like a palpable thing in the kitchen, thickening the air around us like molasses. A distant beat starts in my chest, separate from my heartbeat, like another being is residing inside my body. The longer I'm focused on her, the stronger the beat makes itself known. Like a war drum. I can feel it pulsing, and I’m unable to do anything else but keep looking at her. Panic is building, my mind screaming that something is wrong with me, yet I sit as calm as a rabbit snarled in the gaze of a wolf.
A violent shiver shakes me to my core, my body visibly shivering like I'm sitting in my bikini outside in the middle of the winter in Alaska. I grind my teeth, clutching the mug, sloshing hot coffee over my wrists, unable to pull away from Maddison's hypn
otizing gaze. My body keeps shaking, stronger with each breath I take, and I realize I'm panting.
Maddison blinks, releasing me from whatever stare-down we had happening between us.
My eyes dart towards Eric, confusion clouding my thoughts at the openmouthed look he is giving me. Glancing at Raphael doesn't help. The distressed look on the Archangel's face is like a punch to the stomach. That's when I realize that they are trying to balance so they can keep standing, and it's not me shivering. Maddison is clutching the counter in a white-knuckled grip, not moving from her seat. The entire building is shaking like it has been hit by an earthquake that is getting stronger by the second.
"Hel." Eric lifts his hand, reaching hesitantly towards my face. I didn't mean to flinch, and the hurt flashing in his green eyes is like a hot poker to my chest. "Calm down, beautiful. Breathe." Dropping his hand limply to his side, he clenches his fist.
"I don't think we have time for her to breathe." Maddison snaps at him. "Helena, pull your shit together or you'll bring the entire building on our heads. Think of the humans that will die. We will survive."
The shaking abruptly stops.
I feel like a bucket of cold water was dumped on my head. My heart is trying to beat its way out of my chest, and I look from one person to the next in panic, hoping they'll tell me what the hell is going on. I did that? How? My mind is spinning like a tornado, making me feel dizzy.
"See?" Maddison gloats, staring down her nose at Eric." That's how you deal with a woman."
"What is going on?" My voice sounds faint, breathless.
"I think you got a little riled up," Maddison chirps, as if my emotions causing a skyscraper to shake is an everyday occurrence.
Opening my mouth and pointedly ignoring her, I turn to Eric, but he is not looking at me. Coiled up like a snake, he is glaring venom at the Archangel. Afraid of what I'll see, I slowly and hesitantly turn to look at Raphael. His yellow eyes are watching me intently, and if I didn't know better, I would think he is expecting something else from me. To grow another head maybe? At my raised eyebrow, he snaps out of it, shrugging his shoulder in answer to my unspoken question.
Eric loses his shit.
One second, he is glaring daggers, with me sitting between Raphael and him. The next, he has the Archangel up by the neck, dangling him like a dog with a chew toy. Me and Maddison both jump up, ready to intervene and stop Eric from killing Raphael, when he hisses at us like some angry cat, freezing us in place. Shadows spread from the corners of the kitchen, an ominous feeling saturating the very air I’m breathing.
"What the fuck did you two do to her!" he roars, shaking Raphael menacingly.
It's an impressive display of strength because Raphael is as tall as Eric and just as packed with muscle. Seeing them like this, you'd think the Archangel doesn't weigh more than a couple of pounds, his feet kicking off the ground. His face is reddening; finally, his long fingers wrap around Eric's wrist, trying to dislodge him. For some reason, this whole situation doesn't horrify me. Leaning my hip on the chair, crossing my hands over my chest and tilting my head, I wait to see what happens.
Eric has every right to be angry. I should be more furious, although at the moment I'm still shaken up from what happened. I wasn't able to do this until now, and God knows I've been angry before. More times than I can count. Something in me has changed in the time I was held captive, and just like Eric, I want to know what that is.
"He has a point, Raphael." The look of betrayal in the Archangels eyes doesn't bother me as much as it should.
Maybe Michael did break me. I know that Raphael won't die from lack of air. It's not like I've seen someone choke an angel in front of me until now, but I know this to be true, deep to my soul. None of these supernatural beings need to do anything the rest of us humans do to stay alive. They mimic it perfectly, blending in like a snake in the grass, but they don't need it. Why I'm so sure about my observation, I have no clue, yet I don't move to stop Eric. Seeing there will be no help coming from me, Raphael's hands begin glowing that green light I saw when he healed me, and Eric drops him, hissing in pain.
The Archangel makes a show of slowly straightening up his shirt, smoothing his hair with both hands, and blowing out a deep breath. The silence in the room is almost choking me, but I refuse to let it show, or move my eyes away from them.
"Well?" Sounding bored, I watch him expectantly.
"It's nothing bad…" Raphael trails off when Eric bursts, spitting profanities at him.
Even my ears blush from some of them. Apparently, my mate gets very creative when pissed off. Good to know. Wanting to hear the explanation, I push myself off the chair and walk up to Eric. His yelling stops immediately, his amber gaze locking on me in an instant. My lips twitch at the corners, but I force myself not to smile. He looks breathtaking, being all protective of me. That's another indication that I'm broken if I find that acceptable.
"We need to let him speak, or we won't know what was done to me." As soon as my arm goes halfway around his back, he tucks me under his shoulder, angling his body in a protective stance between Raphael and me.
"Nothing was done to you, Helena." Raphael sounds insulted.
"Speak!" Eric snarls, while I glance at Maddison since she's uncharacteristically quiet.
She is watching things unfold with a calculated look, and I have a nagging feeling that she is seeing more than any of us in the whole situation. Her eyes twinkle with excitement when they lock on mine. It happens so fast that I'm sure I've imagined it.
"Nothing was done to hurt her, Eric!" Raphael snarls angrily, surprising me so much that I jerk in Eric's arms. "Nothing on my part," he amends, a guilty look crossing over his face.
"Time is wasting, as the holy ass would say," I remind him, getting a surprised chuckle from Maddison.
"You are part angel, part demon." Raphael tries hard not to smile at my jab, but his lips lift slightly at the corners nonetheless. He is waiting, so I nod in acknowledgment. "When you were too weak after Michael visited your room…"
Eric goes stiff as a surfboard, and my glare cuts Raphael off. Clearing my throat, I'm doing my best to relay a message without saying a word that he needs to skip that part, or I have a feeling next time Eric snaps nothing will hold him back from ripping the Archangel limb from limb.
"I'm trying to say that I've healed you a dozen times," Raphael continues, unaware that those words don't help either. "Every time after the first one, you actually absorbed the energy, rather than me pushing it towards you." Tilting his head, Raphael gives me a once over. "Almost as if I was feeding you."
"I will feed you to the vermin in a second if you don't get to the point," Eric tells him through clenched teeth. For some stupid reason, I grin like an idiot, making Raphael frown at me.
"My theory, if you will"—squaring his shoulders, Raphael pulls on the sleeves of his shirt—"is that, because of her unique makeup, the characteristics from either of the sides get stronger the more time she spends around either of us. Angel, or demon. Or if there is an energy exchange." The pointed look he gives me shouts, “I know what you did this morning,” but I ignore him, my mind doing gymnastics after the information he so nonchalantly gave us.
"You're trying to say if I spend time with you, I'll eventually turn into an angel, or if I spend time with Eric, I'll turn into a demon?" The thought is really troubling, subconsciously making me glance at Eric from the corner of my eye.
"He doesn't know what the fuck he is talking about," Eric spits angrily.
"Your jealousy will cost her greatly in the long run, Eric." Raphael loses his cool, glaring. "I'm not trying to take her from you." The snort coming from Eric at those words sounds so arrogant I punch him in the ribs, making him grunt in pain. Raphael smiles like he has seen his newborn for the first time, pissing me off.
"I'll ask again. Why are you helping me?" Lifting a hand, I shut him up from giving me bullshit. "The real reason Raphael, or get the hell out."
"I knew y
our mother." I feel like he sucker-punched me in the stomach at those words. "I couldn't save her, but I can help you."
Eric
If I ever learned anything in my long life, it’s that the shiny fuckers who think they are too good for the rest of us love dropping bombs at the most inappropriate times. Just like what Raphael did with his statement. Glancing at Helena proves it when I see she’s too shocked to do anything but stare incredulously at him.
“You knew my mother?” There is so much hope and pain in her whispered question, I’m debating how long it’ll take her to forgive me if I just kill him.
Raphael ignores my glare pointedly, clearing his throat. “Yes, I knew her. And I think who she and your father were is what makes you so unique. You see, she was an angel of mercy.” He takes a long pause, maybe expecting a reaction from Helena, but she only stares at him, unblinking. “Your father was a demon of vengeance. Two different powers, yet they worked perfectly together as a team. A Yin and a Yang. In the end, it didn’t matter what they meant to each other because all the fighting to stay together was for nothing. Or so I thought, until we found you. I wasn’t planning on bringing this up, but seeing what kind of predicament I find myself in…”
I exchange a meaningful look with Maddison. She is watching the Archangel as well, her narrowed gaze telling me she smells bullshit. I wisely keep my mouth shut. Helena is frustrated by my behavior as is, so no need to push my luck any further.
“Before we get into that hornets’ nest…” Shaking her head, she pulls herself out of the shock Raphael gave her, making my chest puff up with pride. “What did you do to me?” The wary look she gives me when she glances at me slays me. “How much did you change me?”
“I didn’t change you!” Raphael stutters defensively, which causes my fists to clench. “It’s who you are. My energy when I was healing you only brought it to the surface. It would’ve manifested eventually anyway.” No matter his calm demeanor, he can’t hide the uncertainty lurking in his eyes.