by S. J. Day
“The world’s gone to shit since Eve hit the scene,” Reed grumbled from the stove where he was stir- frying homemade Kung Pao chicken. He was clearly unhappy to have company during their date.
“Gee, thanks,” Eve said.
His mouth curved in a devilish smile that contrasted sharply with the wings and halo he occasionally sported for shock value. There was very little that could be called angelic about Reed. “At least you’re good eye candy.”
Eve groaned. He winked.
As gorgeous as Reed was—and he looked especially fine with an apron tied over his usual elegant attire—he had some seriously rough edges. But she didn’t want to smooth them away; she wanted to understand them. She knew firsthand that he was the type of man who could lure a woman to sin with just a look. Charm wasn’t a necessity. Still, Eve strongly suspected that some of the crudity that spilled from his mouth was due to his nervousness around her. It was oddly endearing that he would be so affected by her. She couldn’t resist exploring the attraction further.
Sydney cleared her throat. “Tell me the whole story. From the beginning.”
Eve looked at her. “Surely you’ve heard it too many times already.”
“Not from the source I want to hear it from you.”
“All right.” Eve leaned into the counter. “When I was a newbie, I stumbled across a tengu who didn’t smell like shit and had no details. I told Cain. We told Gadara. Gadara told us to find out where the demon came from. Abel agreed and put the order through.”
Sydney shot a quick glance at Reed. “I remember hearing that you were assigned to a hunt before training.”
Reed’s features took on a stony cast. As Eve’s handler, he was the only person who could put her to work. Marks weren’t supposed to hunt before they were fully trained.
Eve nodded. “In his defense, no one believed me. They thought I was in transition and my Mark senses hadn’t fully kicked in yet.”
“How green were you?” Montevista asked.
“A day or two.”
Sydney whistled.
“Yeah. Rotten,” Eve agreed. “Especially after I proved I wasn’t nuts and we still had to track down the source of the tengu’s abilities.”
“The masking agent,” Montevista offered. “Stuff that temporarily hides Infernal stench and details.”
“That’s what they started calling it. Cain and I discovered that they were producing and distributing the mask out of a masonry located less than an hour’s drive from here.”
“Ah.” Sydney grinned. “Upland.”
Eve nodded sheepishly. She was never going to live that down. “The masking agent was concocted from blood and bone meal made from Marks, animals, and Infernals. Plus spells and other stuff. Cain came up with the idea to destroy the mask ingredients in the masonry’s giant roller kiln. I came up with the idea to toss the Nix in there and evaporate him, too. Abel came up with the idea to lock the Black Diamond Pack’s heir in the kiln room. And it was God’s idea of a joke to make the masking agent a life preserver when cooked at high heat. It kept the wolf and Nix alive when they should have been blown to smithereens. It’s also what saved Montevista a few weeks later.”
Sydney shot a concerned glance skyward. When lightning didn’t strike Eve for her blasphemy, she said, “I heard the kiln explosion left a crater in the ground the size of a city block.”
“At least.” Reed snorted. “It was like a mini—atomic bomb.”
Montevista grinned. “The stories aren’t exaggerations.”
“Wow.” Sydney looked at Eve. “So, you killed the wolf a second time, but the Nix showed up today at the festival.”
“Exactly.” Eve’s fingertips traced the veins within the granite countertop. “In fact, the police left a message on my voice mail this afternoon. I wish they would have called yesterday or even this morning. Then I would have been prepared for the Nix to pop up.”
Pausing his stirring, Reed stared hard at her. “The same detectives who are investigating Mrs. Basso’s death?”
“The ones from Anaheim, yes. Jones and Ingram. I haven’t heard from the Huntington Beach Police since their initial interview.”
“What do they want?”
“To talk to me. They didn’t give any specifics. I’m guessing the Nix might be back to his old tricks. He’d already killed a dozen people before Mrs. Basso, so I can’t see him stopping now.” Her chest ached at the thought of her neighbor. “I don’t understand why we weren’t hunting him a long time ago. Isn’t it our purpose to save lives?”
I’m sorry, babe. The sympathy in Reed’s tone elicited a grateful smile from her.
Montevista gave her hand a commiserating squeeze. “No one knows what criteria the seraphim use to target Infernals.”
Most demons kept a low profile. Being too obvious not only pissed off God, it pissed off Satan, too. Neither of the two was ready for Armageddon just yet. Satan wasn’t powerful enough, and God liked things the way they were.
But the Nix was too cocky. He’d been killing women all over Orange County and leaving distinctive “calling cards” that caught the attention of the police—a water lily floating in a Crate and Barrel punch bowl. The death of Mrs. Basso had brought notice to Eve, too, who’d unfortunately had her own Nix calling
card sitting in plain sight on the coffee table. Now, the detectives were looking at her for information she couldn’t provide. Replying with, There’s a rogue demon on the loose, but don’t worry because I’m a demon slayer for God, wasn’t the way to alleviate their concerns
Alec suddenly appeared on her left side, shifting into her home without warning. “Let me guess: Kung Pao chicken.”
“Good nose.” Eve looked back and forth between the two brothers, noting the perpetual tension that filled a room when they were both in it. Alec should have knocked Since he lived in Mrs. Basso’s old condominium next door, it Wouldn’t have been a hardship. But a traditional entry Wouldn’t have the same irritate-Reed factor.
Alec set one hand on the countertop and the other on the back of Eve’s stool. Leaning in, he pressed his lips to her temple. “If Abel’s cooking for a girl,” he murmured, “it’s always Kung Pao.”
“Really?” She looked at Reed with raised brows.
Montevista’s dark eyes filled with amusement. Sydney glanced away with a half-smile.
Reed glared. “If you count ‘always’ as being a onetime thing in nineteenth century China. We’d get more mileage talking about Cain’s ‘Hop on, baby, let me take you for a ride’ spiel. You think I suck at pickup lines—”
“I’ve actually got something worth riding on,” Alec drawled.
Reed’s bamboo spoon hit the side of the wok with a clatter. “Saddle up and fuck off, then, shithead. No one invited you over.”
Eve slid off the stool. “Enough. Satan’s lackeys are after me and you two want to argue about who’s more adept at getting laid?”
“He started it’ Reed snapped.
“I’m finishing it.” Eve wished a shot of liquor was an option. Unfortunately, mind-altering substances were ineffectual in her mark-enhanced body. She crossed her arms and asked Alec, “Did you come over because you have some news for us?”
He shook his head. “That’s the problem. Not a word on the streets about this supposed bounty. We’d expect to hear something through an informant or an Infernal seeking shelter, but it’s dead quiet.”
“You had to barge in on our date to say you don’t have anything to say?” Reed growled.
“No.” Alec smirked. “I had to barge in because it pisses you off.”
Eve snapped her fingers to bring their attention back to her. “The fact that we’ve been busier than usual can’t be a coincidence, since you’re always telling me there is. no such thing.”
Alec nodded. “Right. I’m still digging.”
“Also.. . thinking about that night in Upland brings up something important that I forgot until just now.”
Four pairs of eyes trained
on her.
“The Nix said something to me,” she went on, “just before I rolled him into the kiln. I asked, ‘Why me?’ and he answered, ‘I do what I’m told.’”
“You didn’t tell me this before,” Alec accused.
“I’m sorry.” And she meant it. Staying alive meant not dropping the ball. “He was dead and sent back to Hell. I was trying not to join him. The memory got lost in my brain.”
“Shit. This is why you’re not supposed to be able to shut us out.”
Eve didn’t know how or why she was sometimes able to circumvent the inherent connection between Marks and their superiors, but she was grateful. A woman had to have her secrets, especially while embroiled in a contentious relationship triangle.
She continued before they got off on a tangent. “I also noticed something new today—his details say he’s now one of Asmodeus’s lackeys.”
Reed turned off the fire on the stove. “The Nix’s details were courtesy of a lessor demon.”
“They’ve changed since that first day you and I saw him,” she insisted.
“Sammael and a king of Hell,” Sydney breathed. “Yowza.”
Eve could only give a lame nod. And to think she had once thought of herself as a lucky person. “Can I ask why Satan is a prince, but the demons under him are kings?”
“No!” Reed and Alec barked in unison.
She held up her hands in a defensive gesture. “OOO-kay, then…”.
Alec stared at her with narrowed eyes. “Damn it, angel.”
Evangeline. Eve. Angel. A nickname only Alec had ever used. He still said it with the rumbling seductive purr that had gotten her into this marked mess to begin with.
Montevista gave her a wry look. “Only you would have multiple high-level contracts out on you, Hollis.”
“Maybe the Nix and the wolf met after the explosion, and became friends. Maybe Asmodeus and Grimshaw were friends,” Eve said, “and Asmodeus is trying to help his buddy out in the revenge department. Maybe the Nix jumped ship to Asmodeus so that he had a valid excuse to hunt me.”
“There’s a hell of a lot of ‘maybes’ in there’ Alec bit out. “And friendship is relative to demons. Favors aren’t free. Asmodeus would’ve had to be paying a debt or getting something in kind.”
That didn’t sound good to Eve.
“That would have to be a huge debt or gain to make Asmodeus go after someone important to Cain,” Montevista pointed out. “Grimshaw came after Hollis in vengeance for the death of his son. Asmodeus has no excuse, and he knew he’d piss off Jehovah and Sammael at once.”
Eve sighed. The battle between Heaven and Hell was&t a free-for-all. For the most part, Celestials and Infernals lived alongside each other in a wary truce. Satan’s minions were ordered to stay under the radar, so they could do the most damage. Marks were only assigned to take down rogue demons. Montevista was right. Something big had motivated Asmodeus to break the rules in such a major way.
“Unless Sammael told Asmodeus to do it,” Sydney suggested quietly. When everyone stared at her, she shrugged.
Montevista broke the silence. “She’s got a point.”
“I hadn’t run over his dog yet;’ Eve reminded.
Dog. Ha! Since the damn creature had been the size of a bus, Eve’s mind could barely connect “dog” to her road kill in the same train of thought.
“This has to be about more than Sammael’s damned hellhound,” Reed insisted. “He doesn’t care about anyone but himself. Everyone and everything else— including pets—is expendable.”
“So he wants something? I don’t have anything valuable.” Her gaze darted between the two brothers. “Except for both of you.”
Alec and Reed fell silent, both physically and mentally. They knew she was a liability to them.
Eve refused to stay that way.
Reed turned back to the stove. Alec began routing orders through the mental switchboard system eaàh archangel had to everyone in their firm. She moved into the living room. She was still within seeing/hearing distance, but the space helped to give her mind a break. Tuning the others out, Eve settled onto her down-filled sofa and contemplated the mess that was her life.
The Nix and Grimshaw’s kid hadn’t been the only Infernals in the kiln room that disastrous night in Upland. There had also been a gaggle of tengu— Japanese gargoyle-type demons. Since the Nix and the wolf had both lived to be killed another day, it was reasonable to wonder if the tengu might have found second lives, too.
Alec shifted over to her and settled into a seated position on the edge of her glass-topped coffee table. The thick denim of his blue jeans did nothing to hide the fine form of his long, muscular legs.
“You’re going to get in trouble for using your powers so much,” she admonished.
For seven weeks a year, each archangel was given free rein to use his powers to facilitate in training new Marks, a duty they rotated between them. But the rest of the year using their gifts meant facing consequences. Suggesting they live secular lives was God’s way of fostering empathy for mortals. Eve thought it was a recipe for resentment.
Smiling, Alec said, “I’m not a firm leader yet. The same rules don’t apply to me.”
“Isn’t that always the case?”
He leaned forward and rested his forearms on his knees. “I’ve double checked the security measures we installed against the Nix the first time around, both in this building and in your parents’ house. I’ve also assigned a security detail to guard the perimeter against any new threats.”
“Can they get rid of that nut job on the corner?”
“What nut job?”
“Don’t tell me you haven’t seen him. The guy who looks like an evil Santa Claus? Preaching fire and brimstone with his acoustic guitar?”
He stared at her.
“The dude with the big sign that says ‘You are going to burn in Hell’ ?“ When he continued to gaze at her blankly, she shook her head. “Are you shifting around so much that you haven’t checked out the neighborhood in a while?”
Alec was gone in a blink. A split second later he was back in the same spot.
“I see,” he said. “He’s harmless.”
“He’s annoying, and he’s been there for days.” She snapped her fingers. “Hey, maybe God will take a trade between him and me?”
Eve was only partially kidding. The whole marked system was jacked, in her opinion. There were millions of religious zealots around the world who killed in God’s name every day, but they didn’t get marked.
Instead, the Almighty used the impious. It was like boot camp for sinners and nonbelievers. God seemed to be saying, See who you shall hang out with f thou shalt not change thy blasphemous ways?
“Not a fair exchange,” he said, with a hint of a smile. “You’re worth a hundred of that guy.”
“That’s your opinion.”
“Clearly I’m not the only one who thinks so, since he’s out there and you’re with me. I’m also going to talk to Abel about lowering your caseload for a while.”
Eve’s brows rose. “Won’t that put a burden on the other Marks in the area?”
“Somewhat.” –
“You can’t ask me to do that and live with the consequences.”
“I’m not asking you.”
She considered that for a moment, her fingers drumming on the armrest. “Being an archangel suits you, I see.”
“Don’t,” he warned.
“Infernals are swarming into Orange County— possibly because of me—and you want me to sit around while other Marks deal with the mess? They already don’t like me.”
“They’ll get over it.”
“Easy for you to say. No one hates you for working with me.”
“You wouldn’t do anyone any favors by getting yourself killed.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that.” Her smile was grim. “I can think of a few people who want me dead.”
“Not funny, angel.”
She sighed. “You know
me. I’m a big scaredy-cat. I don’t want to jump into oncoming traffic, but I can’t hang out here watching Dexter reruns and eating Ben & Jerry’s while other people are facing a horde.”
“Argue all you want, it’s still not happening.”
“Gadara would put me out there.”
“He’s not here”
“And what’s being done about that?” she challenged. “Or are archangels more expendable than I thought?”
Alec reached out and touched her calf with his fingertips. “We’re working on that, too.”
“It’s been two months. I can’t imagine it’s been a vacation for him in Hell.”
“We can’t charge in. It would be a suicide mission.”
“So what do we do?”
“You are going to follow orders. I’m going to work on securing leverage.”
Eve ignored the first part of his statement and concentrated on the last half. “Leverage. As in.. . something you have that Satan wants more than he wants to keep Gadara?”
“Yes. Sammael has to bring Raguel to us. That’s the only way we’re going to get him back.”
“What does Satan want more than an archangel bargaining chip?”
His mouth twisted wryly. “That’s the question, isn’t it?”
He ducked without warning. Something small and white flew through the space his head had been occupying. If Eve hadn’t been gifted with enhanced sight, she would have missed it.
“Watch it, prick!” he barked at Reed.
“Keep your hands to yourself,” Reed shot back.
Eve watched the object hit the balcony screen door and bounce back into the room. It rolled to a stop by the leg of the coffee table. She glanced over her shoulder. “A water chestnut?”