Death's Door (Supernatural Security Force Book 3)

by Heather Hildenbrand

  I chose my next words carefully, knowing they needed to be said. “I want to be clear. I am declaring war on your sister. Not out of revenge or reckless rage. But because she must be stopped before she can hurt anyone else. And while I might die in the process, I will kill her if it’s the last thing I do. But she’s your sister. Your family. So, if you want to rethink all your compliments or those bedroom eyes you’re giving me, I understand.”

  His lips twitched. It was the closest thing to a smile he’d ever given me, which promptly made my ovaries explode. But then the smile vanished, replaced by a fierce determination not even an earthquake could have shaken.

  “Selaphiel deserves to answer for what she’s done.” His mouth turned downward in a deep scowl, and violence flashed in his darkening gaze. “She is the destruction of worlds, and she fights now for greed, for power. Not for hope or love. There is nothing good left in her, and I’ve blamed myself for that for far too long. For what she tried to do tonight, to you, I will kill her myself.”

  Chapter Three

  Adrik’s words echoed around me, soaking into the broken parts of my heart and making me feel weirdly warm and fuzzy. Suddenly, I realized how close we were sitting. And how intently he was looking at my mouth again. I pushed to my feet before I could lose my mind over how we were both sitting on a bed and one of us was already shirtless. I’d pulled through our conversation just fine, but then again, I was busy professing my need for vengeance and grieving my father before. Now, I was very aware of the present moment—and our closeness.

  And as much as I wanted to pick up where we’d left off on that rooftop, I held back. Adrik stirred feelings in me I’d never felt before. And until they made sense—or didn’t scare the tits off me—I needed to slow my roll. Especially considering I now had two men taking up all my waking thoughts and competing for the title of “inspiration” when it came to those moments alone with my vibrator.

  Finally, he broke the silence, his expression so full of understanding it made me flush. “There’s a first aid kit in the other room. I’ll get it.”

  He stood and walked out.

  In the silence, his footsteps echoed as he moved through the house. I took a few deep breaths, calming my racing heart before he reappeared and handed me the box without a word.

  His chest was coated in blood now, and I used the contents of the box to clean and dress the wound Selaphiel had given him.

  Adrik remained still while I worked. When I got close to the slash mark across his chest, Adrik’s muscles tensed, and he hissed when I swiped the area with the disinfectant.

  My lips twitched.

  “What?” he growled.

  “The all-powerful Nephilim brought down by an alcohol towelette.”

  He grunted, unamused, and I decided not to ask him to clarify the muttered words that followed.

  When I was almost done, my eyes darted back to the crime wall.

  “Okay, Rain Man, care to explain your wall of weird?”

  Adrik followed my gaze to the far wall. “I’m doing an investigation.”

  “For the SSF?”

  “For myself. For your father.”

  I pressed the bandage into place across the now-clean cut and stepped back. Eyeing the wall, I noted Raguel’s and Selaphiel’s names tied to one another.

  “I thought you said Raguel wasn’t behind the portals,” I said.

  “He isn’t. But in the end, he wants what Sela wants. To defeat the demons well enough to draw the attention of our Boss and get sent back to our realm.”

  “Both of them buy into this decree thing?”

  He nodded. “Except that Raguel’s strategy lies in creating demons, not summoning them.”

  “Wait—are you saying…”

  “Raguel’s too busy experimenting on supernaturals to care about portals.”

  I turned back to Adrik, my jaw open.

  “The lab at the Delta building,” I said, “Tony’s injections—that’s Raguel?”

  He nodded. “Tony’s his first success. The others… weren’t so lucky.”

  “I don’t know what about his condition makes him lucky. He’s a shell of himself.”

  “He’s alive,” Adrik said quietly.

  I took a second to digest that. “That day in the Delta building with Raguel,” I said. “He wanted you to tell me the truth. Why would he want to out himself like that?”

  “He wanted me to scare you off,” he explained. “To intimidate you. Make you realize you were out of your league.”

  “Is that why he tried to suffocate me?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe he was trying to use you to get to me.”

  I lifted a brow. “Don’t tell me you’re related to him too.”

  “No, but I think he’s recently realized I’m not going to help him anymore.”

  “Let me guess. Stealing a suspect from his crime scene sent a message.”

  “That and the black eye.”

  I snorted, and we shared a look that gave me warm fuzzies in my belly. Adrik and I on the same team gave me all kinds of feelings.

  “What I don’t understand is why the rest of the council lets all this go,” I said. “Don’t they care what Selaphiel and Raguel are doing? Or is everyone too corrupt to care?”

  “Raph doesn’t like it, and that’s the root of the issue. Remember the supe councilmember who died?”

  “Yes. The entire thing was shady as hell, considering the fact that he was supposed to be surrounded by all-powerful Neph for protection.”

  Voter turnout had broken records, which meant the supe community clearly wanted representation. Most of us had assumed the Neph council felt too threatened like they were losing their power over us by electing one of us to help lead.

  “Believe me, his security detail wasn’t lacking,” Adrik said.

  “Dad always said the whole thing was too much of an inside job to be a coincidence.”

  “Raph has always suspected Raguel had something to do with it. There’s a whole feud between them, which has left the council divided ever since. Jophiel sided with Raph. Sela chose Raguel, and Azrael refused to play the game.”

  “Does Azrael know what’s happening now? With Raguel’s experiments? Or Selaphiel’s portals, for that matter?” I kept my voice neutral like I wasn’t fishing about a dude I’d met in Jax’s closet a few hours ago. “Maybe if he knew the truth, he’d get more involved. A majority could—”

  He shook his head, cutting me off. “Az isn’t one for politics.”

  I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, but judging from his tone, I assumed Azrael had decided to remain uninvolved. Interesting, considering he’d recruited Starla—and me—to investigate all this. He might not be into politics, but he wasn’t above spying on the drama either. I’d have to remember that.

  “With the council divided, how do they get anything done?” I wondered.

  “They don’t,” he admitted wryly.

  “So that’s why Raguel was trying to be your best friend,” I said.

  “For support?”

  He nodded. “Even after I stepped down from the council, my influence remained considerable. Raguel knew that. I realized months ago that he’d been using me. And why. But I also know there’s a double agent in his lab at the Delta building working to stop the damage he’s trying to cause on supes. So I let it ride for a while. Used him too. For information. And to investigate your father’s killer.”

  He nodded at the board, but I could only blink, digesting the latter half of what he’d just said.

  Double agent. How did he know about Faith?

  I kept my mouth firmly shut as he went on.

  “That day in the interrogation room when Rag went after you, he took it too far. Maybe he was testing me—like Sela—to see how far I’d go for an earthbound. Whatever the reason, he’s lucky I didn’t kill him for hurting you.”

  His expression darkened, and the rage that rolled off him was thick enough to leave a bitter ta
ste on my tongue. I shivered at the raw power he exuded. The fury.

  “And Tony?” I said. Faith had promised me an antidote, but so far, she’d yet to deliver. I was beginning to wonder if one existed. “What did Raguel do to him exactly?”

  “Your friend has been given a cocktail of demon poisons and a few other chemicals, including the DNA of what appears to be a skink demon if his physical appearance is any indication.”

  “Fuck me,” I muttered then bit my lip as I realized the double meaning.

  Adrik’s eye twitched, and for some reason, my lady-parts decided that was sexy enough to make my thighs ache.

  Judging from the look Adrik gave me, I wasn’t the only one. He pushed to his feet and walked slowly toward me. The predatory gleam in his dark eyes both excited and terrified me. I backed up, stopping only when my shoulders hit the far wall. Adrik leaned in, his gaze locked on mine.

  “Gem,” he said in a gravelly voice that made my ovaries want to sigh.

  “Yeah?”

  I stared at his mouth, willing it to smash itself against my own. But it turned out mouths didn’t respond to telepathic pleading.

  “Your turn,” he said.

  “My…?”

  Belatedly, I realized he was eyeing my shoulder clinically now. I followed his gaze and noticed a large patch of skin missing along my bicep. The edge of the wound looking burnt with what I suspected was Nephilim magic. Selaphiel had literally tried to skin me alive.

  “Shit.”

  Adrik took my hand and led me back to the bed. When I was sitting where he’d been earlier, he went to work, cleaning and bandaging my shoulder. I didn’t let myself look over. He was close enough to smell, and my fae senses were about one warm breath away from freaking the fuck out. Every part of me wanted to tackle him. Death-by-sex was a much better way to go than what Selaphiel had planned for me.

  When the bandage was in place, I started to get up, but Adrik’s hands on my arms stopped me.

  “There’s more,” he said. “I can smell the blood.”

  “I feel fine. And I’m not done talking about Tony turning into a skink demon.”

  He ignored that and leaned in, inhaling. I gripped the edge of the mattress and prayed for more self-control than I was certainly born with.

  “Lift up your shirt.”

  I complied and was surprised to see another burnt patch of raw flesh across my belly. Shit. That bitch really did a number.

  “It doesn’t even hurt,” I said.

  “That’s your nerve endings dying off from the severity of the burn. Lie back.”

  I hesitated, but Adrik’s hands were on my shoulders, easing me back against the mattress. My stomach fluttered with butterflies, and my heart pounded. I felt like a virgin on prom night.

  If Adrik heard my erratic heartbeat, which, of course, he did, he didn’t comment. His fingers were soft against my stomach as he went to work cleaning and binding the wound. I stared up at the ceiling, my senses buzzing as I tried to control the lust I knew was probably rolling off me in waves right about now.

  Finally, his hands smoothed the bandage into place.

  I made the mistake of looking up at where he hovered over me.

  “Thanks,” I said, breathless.

  This time, when he looked at me, his dark eyes roiled with desire.

  “It would have worked,” he said roughly, and the words rattled around, meaningless, for a full minute.

  “What?” All I could think about were his hands. On my body.

  “Selaphiel wasn’t wrong about hurting you to get to me. If you died, I’d… I can’t lose you.”

  My mouth went dry, and suddenly, joking aside, I couldn’t bring myself to care about what would happen if our bodies met without the barrier of clothing between us.

  “You won’t.”

  The words were nothing more than a desperate whisper, but they were apparently the magic to seal the spell.

  Adrik growled as his mouth crashed over mine, and I was lost to him. His body warmed mine as he lowered himself over me, and the pressure of his bared body against my own was a delicious pleasure all its own.

  So much for slowing my roll.

  Whatever. Slow rolls were overrated anyway. Fast rolls, that’s where the magic happened.

  With one hand tangled in my hair, Adrik used his other to ease my jaw up and ran kisses down my throat. His mouth was everywhere, hungry and frenzied, and his hands didn’t stop moving. Down my hips, along my thigh, and back up and over my chest. When he peeled my bra aside and his thumb brushed my nipple, I arched against him, moaning.

  A wave of power hit me then, and I realized this was what all of the rumors were really about. Lust—a force all its own and feeling solid enough to make this thing a threesome—pressed down over me until I was breathless against its weight. Adrik made a low sound in his throat and kissed me hard, his teeth scraping over my lip.

  My body trembled, and I swear, I nearly orgasmed right then and there.

  Holy cussbucket.

  The euphoria from a make-out moment alone was enough to paralyze me.

  “Rik?”

  The hoarse voice drifted in from another dimension. Or from down the hallway.

  “Rik, is that you?”

  “It’s Tony,” I rasped as Adrik continued to kiss a trail from my earlobe down to God-knew-where.

  Fuck.

  I needed Tony to be a mute right now.

  “Hmm?” Adrik’s voice was like honey. Very masculine, very sexy honey, right into my ear and down to my— “Oh.”

  He finally eased back, breaking the spell he’d put on my body.

  And his, if the large erection tenting his pants was any indication.

  I propped myself up on my elbows as Adrik walked to the desk. He pulled open a drawer and pulled out a fresh shirt. Around me, the room tilted a little, and I blinked to settle it again. Nephilim lust was its own kind of drug.

  “I’ll go see what he needs,” Adrik said.

  I swung my legs over the side of the bed and yanked my shirt back into place. “I better come with you. If he’s awake, Milo will kill me for not finding out what really happened to him.”

  Adrik grunted but didn’t look back at me, and slowly, the lusty cloud of Neph power lifted.

  With a breath that felt easier than before, I stood and ran a hand through my hair.

  Tony owed me for this.

  Chapter Four

  Adrik hurried out with me on his heels. Halfway to Tony’s room, a thud came from the first floor, and we exchanged an uneasy glance.

  “Does anyone know where you are?” Adrik asked.

  I shook my head, hoping like hell he wasn’t about to ask how I’d managed to escape in the first place.

  The thud came again.

  “Check on Tony,” he said.

  Before I could answer, he blurred past the two bedrooms and disappeared downstairs. Heading for Tony’s room, I heard the unmistakable sound of Wolfrick’s growl coming from inside.

  “Wolfrick!” I ran toward Tony’s room. “Tony!”

  Something crashed, followed by another grunt.

  Shit.

  I raced into Tony’s bedroom and stopped short, just barely avoiding a blue fist to the face. At the last second, Wolfrick blocked it and shoved Tony back, but my friend, or what was left of him inside the monstrous Smurfy body he now wore, was intent on attacking.

  “Stand aside,” Tony said, an ominous glare shooting from his nearly glowing eyes.

  “You. Not leave,” Wolfrick said.

  “Move, or I’ll kill you,” Tony snapped.

  “Tony, you have to stop. We’re trying to help you,” I called from behind the hairy wall that was Wolfrick’s torso.

  My friend looked at me, and the hollow look he wore startled me into silence. Behind his deadly gaze, there was no recognition at all.

  “You are merely a pebble in my path, shifter.” His voice was raspy. Full of cold animosity. “Move.”

  “Tony.
It’s me, Gem,” I said, stepping closer. “Your friend. Let me help you. You aren’t well. They’ve infected you. Made you—”

  “I am not Tony,” he rasped, his voice twisting into something I’d never heard before. Something deep and dark and completely inhuman. “I am a beast. A destroyer of evil. I am The End.”

  Okay.

  What the actual fuck?

  Who called themselves ‘the end’ anyway? As nicknames went, it was kind of morbid and lame.

  In the confused silence, Tony came at Wolfrick again, teeth bared, eyes flashing at my new demon friend.

  “Stop it,” I yelled, desperate to end it before someone got hurt. But they ignored me and continued to trade blows, neither one seeming to subdue the other.

  Downstairs, something banged on the front door.

  My stomach tightened, and I strained to hear what was happening below me as I watched and waited for an opening to help Wolfrick. But Tony continued to roar and fight, completely out of control.

  Over the rumbling of their destruction, I heard the front door open.

  “Whatever you’re selling, we’re not interested,” Adrik said flatly.

  “I’m here for Gem,” said a breathy voice. Female. Timid. Familiar.

  I tensed then blew out a breath as the familiarity registered.

  Even Tony paused and sniffed the air.

  I poked my head out into the hall.

  “Fiona?” I called uncertainly.

  “Yes, it’s me,” she called back, the relief obvious.

  Tony howled and lunged for the door. For me.

  I scrambled back just in time to avoid getting trampled. Wolfrick slashed out with sharpened claws but missed him by a breath. Tony ducked past and raced down the short hall and then thundered down the stairs.

  I ran after him, but there was no need.

  The minute he saw Fiona standing in the doorway, he stilled.

  I came up short beside him, adrenaline pumping, my beast just below the surface of my skin. If he attacked now, he was close enough to do real damage. But at the sight of Fiona standing in the open doorway, he blinked, and his eyes cleared. His breathing slowed. And his expression softened as he looked at the willowy blonde I remembered from our early training days at the Tiff.