by Jenny McKane
It’d all been a setup, though. It was Camael’s orchestrations that brought everything together for the purpose of getting his son into Azrael and his mad scientist Alder’s hands.
Shaking her head, she cleared her head before her thoughts went down the same rabbit hole they always did. Things would even out with Gideon eventually. Or they wouldn’t. No amount of stewing was going to help and it was lucky for Sunny that she had plenty of work to keep her busy.
“Thanks for the tip,” she finally replied to Gideon, who had stopped beside her.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Everything. Every damn thing between them was wrong. Didn’t he see it?
“You’re a terrible liar, Sunshine,” he said the words softly, but they got under her skin nonetheless.
“You’re a terrible boyfriend,” she shot back, knowing full well they weren’t anything at the moment.
Gideon wasn’t her boyfriend. He’d told her once how much he cared about her. Love had been mentioned, but that was all before Hell. Gideon après-Hell was a stranger that Sunny was trying to reconnect with.
“You deserve better,” he simply said before pushing off the car and walking over to the passenger’s side and letting himself in.
Was it an out? Was he saying things like that to excuse himself from any tangled emotional ties between them? He was so hard to read that she simply had to stop trying now and then in an effort to keep her head clear and in the demon-chasing game.
She did deserve better, that much Sunny knew. But so did Gideon. They deserved each other, at their best, and Sunny wasn’t quite at the point where she was willing to give up yet.
For his part, Eli didn’t acknowledge the turmoil happening beneath the surface between his two companions. He’d encouraged Sunny to be more forward with Gideon in letting him know how she felt, but even he saw that there was massive hesitation and withdrawal coming from him.
There was only so much Sunny could do, she reasoned with herself, and above all, they had a mission. Or ten. Seemed like they were having no shortage of crucial things to do on their ever-growing list.
Sunny got in without a word and closed her eyes as she leaned her head against the window. She let the fatigue that had been torturing her finally take hold and when she woke up again, it was light out and they were in Austin.
Chapter Three
Metatron had a bit of land on the outskirts of Austin. It wasn’t nearly as expansive or impressive as the land he held in Montana, but Sunny enjoyed the seclusion and the views. The Texas Hill Country was somewhere that she had never spent any time, and she found herself relaxing as she watched another sunset disappear behind cypress trees. They had arrived about a half day ahead of Metatron and had spent the down time getting rested and cleaned up.
“Things don’t look so great,” Eli said. “Metatron said there wasn’t much to be found after scouring through the Pacific Northwest these past couple weeks.”
Sunny hadn’t exactly thought things were going spectacularly, but it was a bit depressing to hear that now Metatron agreed with her. It seemed it was nothing but dead ends and red herrings. Sunny hated wasting time, as she knew the longer that Gabriel stayed on the run or prisoner, the less likely his chance of survival. In short, Gabriel’s time was running out.
On top of searching for more clues on Gabriel’s whereabouts, Metatron was trying to drum up support among the remaining archangels. As far as Eli knew, there were at least seven archangels in the human realm. Sunny needed a crash course on what happened when an archangel died in the mortal realm. Similar to what happened to demons, as long as the death was not a soul destroying one, they returned to their own realm and regenerated. Demons regenerated much quicker, a typical demon could be returned to the human realm within a year or so. But with angels and archangels? Apparently, it took much longer.
“Raziel died almost a century ago,” Eli said. “And there’s no sign of him returning anytime soon.”
According to Eli, it could take up to 150 to 200 years. And that was as long as the death had been clean, and not tainted. What had happened to Michael? Nobody thought there was any coming back from that. Michael had been murdered with the serendibite blade, and an archangel cannot survive that. In fact, their soul would be destroyed upon contact with such an enchanted blade. Add to that the fact that Michael’s wings had been removed and his head cut off, a site Sunny still grappled with at night in her nightmares, and there was little to no hope that the archangels would ever see their fallen brother again.
According to Metatron, the fact that Michael had been murdered by one of their own infuriated some of the archangels, and terrified the rest. In fact, there had been a noticeable silence from the Archangel ranks. Eli had scoffed at them and called them cowards, but Metatron said there was a lot more to it than simply self-preservation. It seemed that Camael was looking to use archangels as weapons, and if an Archangel could be utilized as one, the potential for destruction was devastating. So, yes, archangels were looking to keep themselves alive, but they also understood just what would happen if someone got a hold of their powers and used it against the realms.
A soft knock on her door woke Sunny from the nap she’d been taking. Part of her heart fluttered in her chest thinking it was Gideon, but when she saw Eli’s face on the other side, she smiled despite the disappointment.
“What’s going on?”
“Sorry to bug you, but he’s back and he’s called a meeting,” Eli said, meaning Metatron.
The archangel wasn’t much for standing on ceremony, so to have him call “a meeting” seemed like a big deal. Sunny changed out of her soccer shorts and pulled a pair of jeans on, sliding her feet into her sneakers and heading out of her door while pulling her long, brown hair into a ponytail.
Metatron was sitting in his oversized living room watching SportsCenter on a large screen television on the far wall. He was engrossed in basketball highlights, but still managed to hear her approach.
“Feeling better?”
“A bit out of it,” she admitted as he turned and flashed a smile at her.
Metatron was a different animal than the other archangels. Truth be told, Sunny had never trusted Michael or his posse of cherubs. He’d kept himself at a distance from her, making sure she understood the nature of their relationship at every turn—and how easily he could snuff her life out for displeasing him. She never really knew if Michael meant it or not—but just the fact that he felt like threatening her made it hard to like him.
She did her job because she had to—because somewhere along her genetic line, she had an ancestor with a bit of the same DNA as Solomon, the King of Kings. He’d been a demon hunter and keeper and his descendants, should they be called upon, were also Hunters.
Her brother Sam had been one until his disappearance two years into his service. Nobody spoke of Sam, no matter how much Sunny dared press Michael. He was tight-lipped about her older brother and said that he’d simply disappeared on a mission. Nothing more. Sunny hadn’t really believed it, but with nothing else to go on and with the business of staying alive one more day always at hand, her quest to find answers about Sam had moved to the back of her mind.
This Solomon business was deadly for Hunters was the gist of every conversation she had about her heritage. Solomons served Michael. Other lineages and lines with special traits were known to serve other archangels. And still others were simply recruited for their abilities—as Eli had been recruited straight out of high school years ago by Metatron.
Hunters was a blanket term for the humans employed under archangels. Some, like Sunny and Eli, actually did hunt demons and there were stories of others who did much more than simply hunt bounties placed on demons. An entire world was slowly coming into focus for Sunny—about two years too late.
When Gideon arrived, and Eli followed in behind him with a beer in his hand, Gideon nodded as the two angels took their seats. Tesah and Eron sat with their backs ramrod straight in
a couple of chairs from the kitchen.
“So, I’m sure that Eli has told you, it wasn’t good,” Metatron began, running a hand through his hair. These days, it was a rusty brown peppered with a few gray streaks. It shouldn’t have worked—it should have made him look much, much older, but somehow it worked. He was clean shaven now and had bags under his eyes. Nobody said anything, and Metatron continued. “The remaining archangels, the ones I could reach, were less than thrilled to speak with me,” he said with a long-suffering sigh. “Zadkiel was a no. Sandalphon was a fuck no, to quote him directly. Raphael is MIA and there ends our list with Raziel being long-dead, and Michael, Haniel, and Jeremiel being recently deceased.”
There were a few more archangels on the roster, Sunny thought, but she didn’t say anything. Metatron knew his crowd and if he wasn’t mentioning them, she wouldn’t either. Her eyes moved over to Gideon, who sat still like a statue, neither his eyes nor his body moving. What was he thinking about? Was the news surprising to him?
Selah wandered in and sat closer to Gideon than anyone else and no matter how much Sunny didn’t want to entertain the nasty little thought, she couldn’t help but notice that Gideon came back from his far-off look and acknowledged her. Sunny swallowed hard and glanced beside her, seeing that Eli had witnessed the entire thing—especially her reaction to it.
Her face burned as she studied her ragged sneaker.
“And Gabriel?” It was Metatron’s turn to question them.
“Nothing came from New Orleans,” Tesah said curtly.
Her hard eyes were on Eli, their de-facto team leader, obviously accusing him of acting on faulty intelligence. For his part, Eli didn’t seem to care and simply shrugged when Metatron looked at him for confirmation.
“It was pretty much a bust,” he admitted.
Metatron let out another sigh and closed his eyes. “We need good news, friends,” Metatron said, mostly to himself. “Soon.”
*****
The next afternoon, after a sparring session with Eli, Sunny had showered and wandered to the kitchen for a late lunch. Gideon was sitting at the table with Selah, who rose and left as soon as Sunny entered. A curdling was forming in her stomach and she couldn’t stop it. Clenching her fists tightly into balls, she hoped with all she had that Gideon wouldn’t do what she suspected he was about to do.
But he did.
Without more than a nod acknowledging her arrival, Gideon gathered his plate and glass and rose to leave, too.
“Where are you off to?”
Her voice sounded strained and tight, no matter how hard she tried not to sound hurt. For his part, Gideon didn’t seem to notice and just shrugged.
“Back to my room.”
Not trusting her voice this time, she merely nodded and pretended to busy herself in the fridge. In reality, she was getting more and more frustrated with this idiotic half-demon of a crappy boyfriend. She slammed the fridge door a little harder than she meant to and took her snack to the living room, flouncing down next to Eli who was watching a football game on the big screen.
“It’s getting ridiculous, you know,” he grumbled as the anger and frustration boiled off Sunny in waves.
She wasn’t even trying to hide it anymore.
“Nothing I can do about it at the moment,” she said between mouthfuls of sandwich. “He runs anytime I get close.”
Eli didn’t press anymore. He knew better, and he also knew it was pointless. This thing that Sunny was going through with Gideon was either going to get better or combust, she realized. They were way past the good advice stage at this point.
“Tell me something to distract me,” Sunny said after a few more minutes.
Eli sighed, pretending to be put out with the whole thing. She knew better, though. Eli had gone a long time without a team and he seemed to secretly like the interactions. Small flashes of pain danced behind his eyes every now and then, and Sunny wished she had the words to make him feel better—to help heal the hurt that he was obviously experiencing at the memories of his lost friend and fiancé. But she stayed quiet and simply tried to hold space for her friend.
“Metatron has a special guest heading our way,” he said finally. “Should be here after dinner. At least we’ll have a little bit of excitement.”
“An angel?”
She figured Metatron had drummed up an ally of some sort, but that idea was shot down when Eli shook his head.
“Nope,” he said. “A cambion. Hopefully one with information on Gabriel’s whereabouts.”
A cambion? Well, that was interesting. Cambions were half-human, half-succubus and just about the bottom of the barrel when it came to the pecking order of demons. They were hated by humans, angels, and demons equally simply because of their innate ability to blend with the humans and draw energy out of them like a demon. They were powerful, too, for being half-breeds.
Finding a cambion was like spotting a unicorn in the wild. They were once one of the most populated demon species around, but they’d been hunted and killed off nearly to oblivion because of the danger they posed to angels, demons, and humans. They really were experts at drawing sexual energy, with none of the demon limitations or oversight.
They were mostly left in peace these days, as long as they weren’t draining people, so the news had Sunny perking up, distracting herself from her latest round of Gideon drama.
“Well, that’s something to look forward to,” she said with a little gusto, earning herself a wink from Eli.
“That’s what I was saying,” he laughed as he turned himself back toward the game.
Chapter Four
The cambion had the least original name that Sunny’d come across in the demon realm. Sin.
“Seriously?”
She was shaking her head in disbelief when Metatron made the hasty introductions, complete with the half-succubus being bound to a kitchen chair with a magical rope.
“It’s not really magical,” Eli whispered to her, breaking the perfect picture she was weaving. “Metatron’s just got some of his power imbued within it at the moment to restrain the thing.”
“Magical,” Sunny argued, getting a snort from Eli.
Her eyes met Gideon’s across the kitchen and she saw that he’d been watching her interaction with Eli and if she wasn’t crazy, he looked upset. Was he jealous of her rapport with Eli? Impossible. Gideon could care less about Sunny these days, other than the obligatory “you saved my life and now I’m indebted to you” sort of dance the two of them seemed to be embattled in.
Back and forth, back and forth, it seemed. And now here they were. But this—this seemed like Gideon was jealous of her inside jokes with Eli. A flame of hope flickered in Sunny’s chest at the thought that Gideon cared.
He’d done anything but care. At least, that’s what she’d been thinking this whole time.
“Now that the introductions have been made,” Metatron broke into Sunny’s thoughts with his low, melodic voice. “We’re here for a little business.”
Sin was a good-looking man for all intents and purposes. He had a golden, sun-kissed thing going on with close-cropped blonde hair and piercing green eyes. He was hot, if Sunny was being perfectly honest. Almost too hot, honestly. But that was the succubus influence—supernatural hotness and an ability to drain someone’s lifeforce right from their body.
Sunny shuddered and took an involuntary step back that didn’t go unnoticed.
“Don’t worry, Sugar Tits,” the half-demon, Sin, said with a lazy grin. “You’re not my type.”
Sunny’s cheeks reddened a bit at being caught.
“But that delicious morsel beside you?” Sin jutted his chin in Eli’s direction. “That’s my flavor of choice.”
Sunny bit her cheek to keep from laughing at the muffled sound of horror that Eli was choking on beside her.
“Enough,” Metatron said sharply, putting a quick end to the fun that the cambion was hoping to have at Eli’s expense. Tesah and Eron had joined them and stood s
ilently at the back of the room observing. And most likely judging, too. Such sour faces on the two of them.
“Is there a point to bringing this thing here?” It was Tesah who spoke, her impatience incredibly apparent.
Sunny bristled at the tone, wondering if Gideon took offense to them calling the half-demon in front of them a thing. A quick glance up let her know that if he did, he was hiding it well.
Metatron cast a sharp glance at Tesah and scowled.
“Patience,” he said, simply.
In the hierarchy of angels, Tesah and Eron ranked far above archangels. Add to it the fact that Metatron had once been a human man named Enoch before he was transformed? It meant that the two Powers had even less respect for Metatron and his word than they normally would have. But, it was also Metatron’s mission, so whatever orders they were operating under were strong enough to reign them in just a little.
A tiny, little bit, if their expressions of disdain and annoyance were any sort of measurement.
Sin was babbling now.
“I don’t know what you think you’ll learn from me,” he was saying to nobody in particular. “I’m a nobody. I don’t even associate with my kind.”
Metatron kept an even face while the man sputtered on. It was Tesah and Eron who’d retrieved him from a bar downtown earlier the night before and from the bumps and scrapes all over his face and hands, he’d attempted to put up a fight.
“So why resist so strongly? Why not just come peacefully and answer a few of our questions?”
Sin just snorted.
“Trust an angel? That’d be the day.”
It wasn’t lost on Sunny that she had the very same thoughts about angels herself.
“Just answer a few of our questions and you can be on your way, cambion.”
Eli was speaking now, seemingly recovered from the fluster Sin had caused earlier with his lewd implications.
Sin looked at the faces gathered around him, pausing on Gideon and Selah before letting out a heavy sigh and relaxing back into his chair, the fight all but leaving him.