Domiel

He refused to look at her, much like she’d done to him when she’d entered the room. But his dismissal had nothing to do with guilt and everything to do with anger. The hostility in his energy was suffocating her. She’d never seen him this angry before, but she had to bring him up to speed on what they were now facing. To do otherwise would keep him ignorant of the threat.

  She took a deep breath and tried again. “You can’t leave. The demon who’s—”

  Only half a second passed and he had his fingers wrapped around her throat, squeezing just enough to make it painful. “I told you enough, and I meant it,” he growled through his teeth. His pupils were rimmed with red, a warning in itself. “You went too far this time, do you understand me? I don’t want to look at you, and I sure as hell don’t want to hear anything you have to say.”

  He released her, his shoulders tense.

  “Where are you going?” She whispered the words, hoping he’d respond, but fearing the answer she’d receive.

  “Somewhere you are not.”

  She closed her eyes and took another deep breath. She wasn’t sure how to proceed. There was no way in hell she could put him under her power again, but what the hell could she do? His anger was her despair.

  He knew damn well what she was thinking. He could read her thoughts as easily as Ambrose could. “Give me five minutes to explain.”

  He grew so cold an electrical current ripped through the air, straight into her body, as if he’d directed it at her. If she’d have been anything to him other than his wife, she’d be dead by now. Azazel, once one of Lucifer’s highest-ranking assassins, had never been someone to fuck with. She realized she’d never actually faced the full force of his wrath. She’d never seen him lose control.

  He walked to the door, his boots silent on the carpet.

  She had to do something. Say something to get his attention. “Samael was attacked. He’s still unresponsive.”

  Her quick admission stopped him cold, his hand on the doorknob. He turned to her then, his eyes red with fury. “What did you do?”

  She shook her head. Of course he’d think the attack was all her fault after all she’d done to him. “I didn’t do anything. The demon framing Kelsey is an incubus. He attacked Samael in the dream realm. I called Jade.”

  His muscles tensed even more. “How long will it take him to recover?”

  She lifted her shoulders slightly, wishing he’d understand why she’d done what she’d done. “We don’t know.”

  “Where is Jade?”

  “With him.”

  “Where is Kelsey?”

  She looked away at his question and masked her thoughts with her powers so he couldn’t read them. Kelsey’s life was still in danger, and though she wished it otherwise, Azazel was firmly on the side of the Alliance. Changing the subject seemed the wisest course of action. “The demon may be targeting those who know her. She said he’d attacked Samael with a vengeance. No one is safe, especially not in sleep.”

  “And you believe her?”

  She looked back at her husband, wishing she could reach out to him, but knowing better. “I do.”

  “Is it blind faith?”

  She sat on the edge of the bed, put her head in her hands, and tried to collect her thoughts. Normally, he would have come to her, wrapped his arms around her, and offered his strength. And perhaps she’d shown him her misery just to see if he would offer comfort.

  He didn’t.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  He did move then. He grabbed her by her upper arms, roughly hauling her to her feet. “What the fuck is wrong with you? You can’t keep doing things your way and not expect people to respond the way they do.” He let go of her, as if they idea of touching her disgusted him. “We will stay here for the remainder of the day. I’ll call Roger and ask him about Samael, but don’t think for one goddamn minute that we’re solid. We’re anything but. Jesus, I don’t even want to look at you.”

  “What the fuck was I supposed to do? Kelsey is innocent, and I’ll be damned if I let the Alliance touch her!”

  He spun around to face her again. “You’re ignorant! Did you actually think Samael or I could end her life? After I saved her from the spiritual demons? And, if you recall, it wasn’t even a month ago that Samael was forced to watch Jade nearly die. You and Jade went all out when you stood up to the Alliance, but did it ever cross your mind that perhaps Samael and I were also thinking of a way to help her?”

  “You weren’t going to help her.” She wanted so badly to believe him, but all his actions pointed to taking Kelsey down. If she’d learned anything in her life, it was the old adage that actions speak louder than words.

  “You didn’t give me the chance to prove anything to you.”

  “You told me you thought she deserved to die.”

  “Because being in the middle of the Alliance Headquarters was not the place to talk about it. You should have trusted me to do the right thing.”

  “But Ambrose … he said he had concrete evidence on her.”

  He spoke through clenched teeth. “You and Jade have pushed that man so close to the edge so many times, I’m surprised he hasn’t killed us all. It’s not the middle ages anymore. You can’t get away with the shit you used to pull. When will you understand that and adjust to the times?”

  God, how she wanted him to stop. It was bad enough for people to call her crazy and careless, but coming from the man she loved, it was too much. He could read her mind, and though he promised not to do so, she couldn’t imagine that he’d keep to that promise now. Couldn’t he read her mind and see how sorry she was?

  Tired, she could only respond in defeat. “Just … just leave it be.”

  “No. I’m tired of this shit. It’s going to stop, or I’m going to leave.”

  And there it was. She’d known she’d pushed him too far, and this was exactly what she was afraid of hearing. “An ultimatum? You’re giving me an ultimatum?”

  “You crossed the line when you allowed Jade to feed from me without my consent.”

  The twin red marks on his wrist, still fresh, brought back the sickness of that nauseating event. She crossed the room and grabbed the hotel key card. She couldn’t stomach this anymore. She’d done what she had to do, and if she hadn’t, who knew what would have happened? Kelsey could be dead by now.

  “You’re not going anywhere.”

  She whirled to face him, unshed tears in her eyes. “I’m done! I’m done fighting. None of this would have happened if you hadn’t lied to me at headquarters.”

  “None of this would have happened if you hadn’t told her to run.”

  She stilled. She’d thought the same thing, but she refused to admit it. “You’re saying all of this is my fault?”

  “I’m saying you can shoulder some of the blame. You blew up part of the fucking castle, Lexie! Did it ever occur to you that you were crossing the line? What about when you sent airport security after Sven and Roger? When you used power to keep me immobile? When you had Jade morph into my likeness to spy on her own husband? When she stole my blood to make that mission successful?” He closed his eyes for several seconds, then finally met her gaze once more. “You are not leaving this room.”

  She glanced at the door, her temper warring with her sadness.

  “I wouldn’t advise it.”

  Her temper surfaced for the briefest of seconds. “You said you don’t want to look at me, so why can’t I leave?”

  “I don’t like you right now.”

  She could tell he stopped himself from saying something else by the telltale muscle ticking in his jaw. Her heart ached at his words. She said nothing, only waited for him to say whatever was on his mind. It was one of the most difficult things she’d ever done. Her heart was telling her to beg for his forgiveness, but her mind was telling her now was not the time.

  “I don’t like you, but I still love you. If there is a threat to your life, I’m going to do everything in my power to keep you safe.” When s
he moved toward him, he held out his hand and slowly shook his head. “I don’t want you near me. Not now.”

  One question remained. She felt sick asking it, but she couldn’t stop herself. “You still love me … but will … I mean we’re still a couple, right?”

  He took a deep breath, his brows coming together. “I don’t know, Lexie. I honestly don’t know.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Lexie had been with Domiel when Kelsey had connected with her, so there was no avoiding him. He’d insisted Kelsey meet him at a new location.

  The tension that threaded through Kelsey’s body as she laid out her weapons on the hotel bed reminded her of an angry nest of disrupted bees. Her nerves were taut with anxiety, and Domiel’s looming shadow didn’t help. He’d watched her in silence as she’d carefully assembled the arsenal Domiel had materialized over the smooth tackiness of the comforter. After she’d finished, sitting in sullen reverie on the aforementioned comforter, she’d felt his stare like a physical caress down the length of her spine.

  For the most part, she’d done her best to ignore him. Better to do that than face what she’d done to him; taken his trust and slapped him across the face with it.

  Lexie hadn’t called with news of Samael’s condition. The last thing Kelsey should do was connect with her again. The demon would be on her ass with head-spinning quickness. And like a dumbass, she hadn’t asked what hotel Lexie and Azazel were staying at, so she couldn’t pick up the phone and call.

  Somehow it didn’t strike her as a brilliant idea to call Samael’s hotel room, anyway.

  For what seemed hours she’d done nothing but track the drops of rain that pelted the window of their room, sitting on the edge of the bed and contemplating her options. Domiel was right. This demon was corporeal somewhere; she just had to figure out where. The problem with that scenario was the knowledge that the demon could take her down the second he spotted her approaching. That was how she fought most of the time when backed into a corner. Eliminate the threat by taking them to the dream realm, or just like she’d done to Domiel, take them to only a level of the subconscious.

  Then she’d be back at square one—fighting him in the dream realm, which wasn’t a fight she’d win.

  After a few hours of contemplation, that was the only option she could embrace, other than turning herself into the Alliance, which would be the same as committing suicide. Never a fan of losing her life, she’d nixed that idea as swiftly as it had come.

  “How will you find him?”

  It disturbed her that Domiel was suddenly so agreeable about her decision to track the demon down. He hadn’t once told her she was making a mistake, when just hours before he’d told her it was a mistake to go after him alone. Not that she’d told him she was going solo. What could Domiel do that she couldn’t? His powers were no match for an incubus, so his presence meant little in the grand scheme of things.

  “I’m not sure,” she answered honestly. She left out the part where he wasn’t going.

  Domiel wrapped his fingers around her wrist in an attempt to get her to look at him. She pulled her arm out of his grasp, but she didn’t turn around to face him, keeping her gaze on the window. “You’re not alone, Kelsey.”

  Beyond the thin pane of glass streaked with rainwater, lonesome buildings stood fast against a dreary sky. Although the storm raged on, the buildings looked strong enough to weather anything. She envied these silent sentries in the horizon. She needed to be as strong. But they’re not empty inside. “Don’t. This isn’t your problem. If you’d only seen what he did to Samael, you wouldn’t fight me on this.”

  “You think you’re going alone? He wants you to do this, and you’re tripping over yourself to give him what he wants.”

  She glanced down at her weapons laid out on the bed, but didn’t really see any of them. This nightmare had gone on long enough. “I need to end this. I can’t allow him to keep striking out at everyone I know. I should have done this a long time ago.” Understatement of the year.

  He palmed her cheek, gently turning her face up to his. The rigid set of his jaw, strong and masculine, begged to be touched. The scattering of whiskers he’d only begun to sport in the past few days added to his sexual appeal.

  But it was his softly spoken question that stole her heart. “What can I do?”

  Her answer was immediate. “Stay out of it.” Finding it difficult to push him away while looking into his golden eyes, she focused on the gray buildings again. His hand fell back to his lap.

  “I can’t do that.”

  His mission was to apprehend her, and Ambrose had upgraded the job into an assassination overnight. Somewhere along the way Domiel had turned into a friend. A lover. His concern and his tenderness seemed sincere, but could he be using those emotions as a way to keep his eyes on the prize? Would he willingly fail his first important assignment for the Alliance? “My assassination is beyond you now. You don’t need to keep an eye on me.”

  “Is that why you think I offered to help? To keep an eye on my hit?”

  “I can’t deal with this right now.”

  “You’ll deal with it because you have no choice. I’m not giving you one.”

  She knocked his hand away with a swipe of her arm. “Don’t change your ways now. Add another notch to your bedpost and move on.” It bothered her to say those words, but damn it, didn’t he understand what she was up against?

  “Is that what you think this is?”

  No. And that’s what scared her the most. The incubus would soon figure out she cared about Domiel, and then what would happen? He’d die. “Pretty much. You held out in the beginning, so bravo to you, but you eventually came around with a little provocation.”

  She was deliberately trying to hurt him, and in doing so, turning the subject on its ass. She couldn’t look at him, especially not after what she’d just said. Maybe now he’d back off.

  “What gives him power over you? What aren’t you telling me?”

  Domiel was hitting too close to home, and the urge to tell him the truth was so very tempting. But how could she tell him about the possession, and the incubus’s part in it? That she’d held onto him, weak and needy? That he’d been there the day she’d been turned into a vampire—the day her entire family had been slaughtered? She was empty inside, and had been for as long as she could remember. Regurgitating those memories wouldn’t fill that gap in her soul, and involving him would only endanger him. “Enough.”

  He whipped her around to face him, and this time he didn’t let go or allow her to pull away. The pupils of his eyes were tinged with red. “I finally understand, Kels. It wasn’t enough to know why Samael was giving everything up for Jade. I had to feel it for myself.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying you’re going to tell me everything, right now, because you aren’t going at this alone. I will not allow it.”

  This was the second time she’d really recognized him as a threat, and the first time she realized she should have thought of him as a threat since the beginning. Just because he normally had displayed a sense of humor and an easy-going nature, he was fallen. A demon. She also knew he wouldn’t hurt her, and possibly he wouldn’t judge her.

  It made her admission a little easier. “I welcomed him, Domiel. That’s why he’s back.”

  * * * *

  Jade rolled her shoulders and glanced around the hotel room. If Samael could go down this hard, any one of them could. It’s what all the assassins were thinking as they took up space in diverse places in the hotel room. Roger sat at the small desk by the window, checking emails on his laptop and corresponding with Ambrose. Rain pelted the window, a definite parallel to everyone’s moods.

  Sven was talking to someone at the door. Who, Jade had no idea. A few minutes ago Sven had been lounging on the floor with his legs kicked out in front of him, flipping through the channels.

  They were all avoiding the emotion none of them had any experience with—fear. Beca
use, yeah, it was truly scary to think about fighting something you’d never seen, a thing you’d never been trained to fight against. How could you fight something in the dream realm?

  The worst part was that Kelsey was the one instilling fear.

  Jade couldn’t wake Samael. He lay on one of the double beds, pale and wounded. She couldn’t recall ever hearing of a demon being in a coma. They usually healed swiftly, with no scars visible from even the most heinous of wounds. His wounds had healed somewhat throughout the night, and yet his breathing remained shallow. He had dark circles under his eyes. Helpless didn’t begin to describe what Jade felt as she ran her palm over his arm.

  “Jade, eat something.” Sven gestured toward a room service trolley loaded with a stomach-churning amount of breakfast stuff. Orange juice, greasy sausage, eggs over easy and scrambled, and some toast. She wanted none of it.

  As she looked at Sven, she was jolted by the image of him helping wash her husband’s blood off her hands. Jesus, that vision would likely haunt her for life. It sure as hell wasn’t something that inspired an appetite. She shook her head. “No, thanks.”

  Though she seemed melancholy on the outside, rage built inside, as stormy as the violent weather outside the window. When she got a hold of that bitch, she was going to kill her slowly. Hurt her bad. The thought of her best friend doing this to Samael pissed her off to such a degree, she had daydreamed about killing Kelsey with her bare hands throughout the day.

  Obviously the Alliance had been wrong to believe Kelsey had recuperated after her possession. Kelsey had said she was fine, but something must have snapped to make her do shit like this. Nonetheless, the damage had been done, and Jade wasn’t the forgiving kind. Not when it came to Samael.

  She looked down at her husband, pulling back the comforter to check one of the nastier wounds on his chest. When she peeled away the bandage she saw red, ravaged skin. She carefully smoothed the bandage back in place, gritting her teeth.

  Like everyone else in this hellhole of a room, she had to be patient. Wait for Samael to wake up, see if he could identify his attacker. Not one of them wanted to go after Kelsey, but if she was the one who’d done this…