Angel Kin

by Tricia Skinner

  Nothing happened.

  She needed his help. Apart from his unfortunate look-alike, he hadn’t really disrespected her once. Build trust, stupid.

  “The man I saw”— Katie expelled a long breath— “how can you two look alike? It’s impossible, unless he was your brother.” She winced, recalling too late that Cain’s brother had died when they were young. “Sorry.”

  He didn’t reply.

  She folded her arms and wished the ride was over. “You said you wanted to talk to me, so let’s get down to it. What do you want?”

  Cain did glance over then, and his eyes dipped to her mouth. The SUV slowed and came to a stop. She forced her gaze straight ahead and stared at the traffic light as if it were the most fascinating invention in the universe. The red light was the longest minute of her life.

  “Katie.” Her named rolled out of Cain’s mouth like a divine mix of resistance and submission. She shot him a surprised look. “This case is important. Until A…the killer is off the streets, anyone could be his next target.”

  The real concern in his tone sobered her. She stared at the Nephilim, and with the emotion in his voice anchoring her to the now, finally accepted that she didn’t see the murderer’s cruel face, but that of another man. “I get it. What does that have to do with me?”

  “I have to find him, and you’re holding back information,” Cain said. He twisted the wheel and jammed the SUV into a parking space.

  “Jesus, you sound like a broken record.” Katie pulled her legs up to her chest.

  “Maybe I do, but how can I know what’s really going on unless you’re straight with me? We’re not just out to catch a killer. We’re risking our lives to protect you.”

  She stared out the window and recognized her neighborhood. Two-family bungalows shared the street with a beauty salon and a family-run convenience store. A few trees kept the place from turning into a concrete jungle. She leaned her cheek against the cool glass of the passenger window, worry for her family and friends spinning through her.

  “You coming?”

  Her gaze popped up. Cain’s hand rested on the door handle, his body poised to exit. She spotted her apartment building out the driver’s side window, muttered a curse, and hopped to the pavement.

  The man confused the hell out of her. She couldn’t forget when he’d run his hand through her hair in his bedroom. The light touch contradicted his tough-guy bad attitude, but there was no denying her bodyguard could handle a showdown with anyone.

  They stood outside the apartment entrance, and Cain’s attention shifted to their surroundings. He held his body perfectly still, his eyes cataloging everything. She frowned as she unlocked the outside door with a click. “You act like SWAT.”

  Cain turned his head to watch a passing car. “You should see me in a uniform.”

  Or naked. Naked would be good.

  Katie threw open the door before the rush of heat touched her cheeks. Blushing was a curse for redheads. One look and Cain would guess she wasn’t thinking vanilla thoughts. He followed her up the three flights of stairs to her apartment door. After she let them in, he went through the few rooms in a blur, checking nooks.

  Dread crept over her spine. “Is there a problem?”

  “Nope,” he replied. “Habit.”

  Right.

  Katie strolled into the kitchen and managed to pour some pop into a glass despite her trembling hands. “So what are The Bound Ones really, celestial cops?”

  Cain moved to the window and drew back the curtain. “I’m a half-breed assassin for Heaven. I kill bad guys who break sacred law.”

  Katie choked on her drink. She sputtered a cough and then laughed.

  His eyebrows rose as he left the window.

  “Fine, don’t tell me what you do.” She sipped from her glass.

  Cain walked toward her until he was close enough for her to feel his body heat. Katie leaned back to keep her eyes staring into his.

  “W-what are you doing?” Her voice barely registered in her ears.

  He raised his big hands and trailed his fingers around her neck. She opened her mouth and gasped as he stroked the corners of her lips with his thumbs.

  “It takes years of training to become an assassin,” Cain said, his tone a low rumble. “I’ve had centuries of practice.”

  Katie’s heart fluttered. He was hotter than any man ought to be. She inhaled his ocean-fresh scent and caught the rapid rise and fall of his chest. Cain’s thumbs traced her lips, and his fingers caressed her cheeks in tortuous circles. She felt her body shiver.

  “I could snap your neck before you drew one more breath.”

  Still holding her face, he nudged her back until the edge of the kitchen counter pressed into her. Her brain set off alarms inside her, but her feet were rooted to the floor. He touched the curve of her neck with his palm and leaned close to her ear.

  “Your pulse is racing.” Cain pulled away and took a few steps back, and then he looked her in the eyes and smiled wide.

  Her legs wouldn’t work. Her arms wouldn’t work. All Katie could do was gawk at him.

  “Now that you’re clear on what I am and what I do, you should answer my questions.”

  He was toying with her. Freaking her out on purpose. Katie balled her fists at her sides. “You think this is fun? You like scaring me half out of my mind?”

  He scowled at her. “You should be scared. If not of me, then for the man who’ll come looking for you the minute he finds out you were in that house, seeing something you shouldn’t have seen.”

  “Fine. I’ll keep repeating myself until the words sink into your skull.” She drew her arms tight against her body and stared him down. “I didn’t lie back at the warehouse. I didn’t lie in the car. I’m not lying now.”

  His narrowed eyes darkened, but she used the adrenaline rushing through her veins to keep from shrinking under his scrutiny.

  “You just happened to be in the victim’s house moments before he died? That’s the extent of it?” Cain coldly asked, stalking forward.

  She was braced against the counter with no way to retreat. Her skin prickled as the half angel towered over her once more. “Bullying me isn’t going to make me change my story.”

  A slow grin curved his lips as Cain stepped away again and tugged off his knee-length leather jacket, dropping it to the floor. “Why not? Patience sure as hell doesn’t work.”

  Without the jacket, she had an unobstructed view of the arsenal attached to his tight V-neck shirt and blue-black denim. Her gaze zipped across the multiple daggers strapped along his ribs, arms, hips, and thighs. Her eyes stretched wider at the guns and the bullet clips secured at his waist. Katie took a quick glance at the front door, then at Cain.

  He cast her a grim look before light flared behind his eyes. She crushed herself against the counter.

  “This isn’t funny, Cain.”

  A humorless grin froze on his face. “I’m not in the mood for jokes.”

  Katie fidgeted under his unblinking gaze until she managed to croak through her uncomfortably dry throat, “Stop staring at me like that.”

  “No.”

  Unease trickled away, replaced by a renewed anger at her so-called bodyguard. This was her apartment, damn it, and she wasn’t about to let some overgrown comic-book nerd push her around. Katie straightened and tipped her head back until she could look up and count his nose hairs.

  “There were two victims last night,” she said, poking his chest with her finger. “Ray Washington and me. He died, and I’m forced to live with that crap in my head until I’m old and gray.”

  Cain’s stony expression didn’t change. “Why won’t you just tell me the truth? Or tell me about the killer?”

  “I’m. Not. Lying.” She punctuated each word with a finger poke to his hard chest. “And I don’t know a damn thing about him except he looks like you.”

  “Katie.” His voice sounded powerful.

  Suddenly, her brain felt weird, like a scarf had
settled over her. Tiny pops exploded behind her eyes, making her lower her hands. Then his cellphone went off in his pocket, and the odd sensations evaporated.

  Cain swore and scrubbed his hand over his face. “All this bullshit because you robbed the house. You need to get your priorities refocused.”

  She clamped her mouth tight and glared at him. Heat rushed to her cheeks. “You knew? All this time? You fucking knew? How?”

  “Take a guess.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the ringing phone. His brow dipped as he answered. “Tell me you’re not checking up on me, Tanis.”

  Kas, the mind reader. He’d been in her head again and told Cain. Oh, God. They’d turn her in. “Get the hell out of my apartment.”

  She pushed at his chest, but he spun her around and pulled her in close. Struggling didn’t do a thing except ramp up her anger. Tanis was probably telling him to drop her at a precinct. She thrashed harder.

  “Stop acting like a spoiled brat,” Cain said, holding the phone to his shoulder.

  Katie bit the inside of her mouth, refusing to speak. She was caught, out of time, and at the mercy of her protector.

  He put the phone to his ear. “Yeah, still with my pain-in-the-ass assignment. What were you saying?” His body stiffened against her. “One sec.”

  Cain slipped his arm to her waist and hauled her over to the small TV near the couch. Phone in hand, he tapped on the power button.

  …

  “You want to watch TV? Now?”

  Cain ignored Katie’s question and gently pushed her to the couch where she hit with a squeak. He found the news station and his body turned to stone.

  “If you are just joining us, our top story tonight is the bizarre multiple murder of four leading councilmen.”

  He registered Katie moving to stand beside him, but his eyes stayed locked on the news anchor.

  “We must warn you, the footage you are about to see is graphic. The shocking incident was captured by security cameras outside Councilman Gao-ti Lee’s office earlier this evening.”

  The camera cut away to the image of five people in a hallway. Cain recognized Lee’s striped skin and orange-black hair seconds before he shifted into a large Bengal tiger. The councilman pounced on another shifter, a panther named Carson Dorset. The two felines tore into each other with teeth and claws behind the thick, black bar the TV station had placed over the most gruesome parts of the recording.

  “Is that…real?” Katie’s voice was a whisper.

  Off to the side, Cain caught the image of two unmoving bodies. They were likely dead, but the camera angle made identification impossible.

  In voice-over, the anchor continued, “Police are interested in speaking to the witness seen here.”

  Blood clotted inside Cain’s heart as the lone figure turned slowly until he faced the camera. Abel, his beloved brother, stared into the lens. Emotionless eyes seemed to lock onto Cain, and he could read the message within them as clear as a neon sign.

  He returned the phone to his ear and switched to Latin so Katie wouldn’t follow the conversation. “Permissum mihi persolvo…”

  Let me explain, he’d asked, but Tanis cut him off. “Non revertetur ad basim.”

  The command felt like a sledgehammer to the chest, but Cain immediately sharpened his senses. Don’t return to base.

  “Custodi testis proximus. Inveniemus Abel,” Tanis added before he disconnected the call.

  Keep the witness close. We will find Abel. Cain’s breaths came hard as if his lungs chose that moment to strike. He fumbled to shove the phone into his pocket, and then he clicked off the TV.

  The room spun as a kaleidoscope of images assaulted his senses, but the one he struggled with was Abel the boy replaced by a grown man whose eyes promised retribution.

  Disbelief blazed a trail through Cain’s chest as he replayed the TV image in his mind. His twin had made sure every resident of Detroit had seen his face outside the newest crime scene. Once that video went viral, the whole world would know what he looked like.

  His blood brother had returned a murderer.

  His adopted family would hunt his twin.

  Pain and remorse wrapped around his head and rippled through his body.

  Why? Why the murders? Why here, in this city? Why hadn’t Abel tried to contact him before? Cain suspected he’d learn the reason after his twin finished toying with him. “Goddamn it.”

  He was in no mood for games. The police had footage of Abel watching those politicians tear each other apart. They’d run the image and come up with one positive ID: Cain, member of The Bound Ones. Next, they’d check the Stronghold. The last thing he wanted was to drag the team into a swamp of bullshit since that was exactly the type of attention they didn’t deserve, or need. Not with the Directorate hovering in the clouds, always too eager to play the avenging angels.

  Cain closed his fist and slammed it into his palm. It couldn’t be true. The brother he’d known was kind and loving and wouldn’t murder innocent people, not unless he was somehow being forced. The idea had merit. Abel was being coerced or controlled. Had to be—he knew several Renegades, as full-blooded angels, who had enough power to force a Nephilim to bend to their will. By all the saints, let that be the reason.

  Lost in his thoughts, he paced Katie’s small, confining apartment. Staying here was too dangerous. Before this whatever-the-fuck was over, his twin would leave a trail of bodies and Cain’s reputation in shreds.

  “Cain?”

  Awareness brought his movements to a halt. In all the melodrama, he’d completely ignored her. He whirled and met the questioning face of his assignment.

  Humans had expressive faces. One glance was all he needed to recognize the emotion behind her ghost-white pallor and wide-blown eyes. Abel’s television debut had scared the pigment right out of her.

  She stared at him and wrung her hands. “H-he did it. He made them…do that.”

  “Enough,” Cain yelled. The sight of Abel had unclipped the last of his patience. He lunged and yanked her into him, and then shook her. “Quit the bullshit, and tell me everything. Now.”

  “Y-you know I’m a thief.” Big green eyes rimmed with unshed tears held his hard gaze. “I targeted Ray because he was famous. I figured he’d have something lying around his house to pawn.”

  Silence whooshed into the room as he looked at her. “Why him? His neighborhood is miles from here. You could’ve robbed any house.”

  Her shoulders fell and along with them the tough-girl act, the tension ebbing under his firm grasp. “I needed money.” She didn’t look at him while she spoke. “It should have been quick and easy.”

  “Go on.” He increased the pressure of his hold.

  “I…I needed to help my friends. It was a stupid idea, but I was desperate,” she rambled. “I’d hit three houses in his neighborhood, pawn whatever I found, and make the payoff.”

  Cain stared at her and tried to understand. “What payoff?”

  Katie sighed and raised her head to return his stare. “There’s a gang, the Black Fangs. They tagged our band in their protection scam, told us to pay five grand to keep playing gigs around the city.”

  Vampire mobsters. Cain had dealt with several over the years. He softened the grip on her arm but didn’t release her. “You should have told us.” His voice hardened. “Are you hiding anything else?”

  Katie rolled her eyes and glanced at his hand. He let her go and she stomped past him and into her bedroom. She returned and flung a backpack, which he easily caught. “I robbed him, but that’s all I did.”

  He unzipped the incriminating pack and fingered through the items inside before zipping it closed. “Petty theft is the least of my concerns right now.”

  “Aren’t you going to bust me? Take me to the police?”

  He threw the backpack to the couch. “I’m not a cop.”

  Katie clutched her arms around her midsection. “Then why badger me?”

  Grace flickered behind his eyes as
he looked at her. “I wanted answers about the killer.”

  Red flushed her skin. “Now, your escort service makes sense. This wasn’t about keeping me safe. You’re using me.” She raised her hand to slap him, but he grabbed her wrist in midair. “I was trying to help you, you dick.”

  Up close, Cain’s height dwarfed her. “Renegades are powerful. You could’ve been their pawn and not known it. The wrong secrets in our business cost lives.” He glanced at his hand locked around her wrist. “I’ll let go, but don’t try to hit me again.”

  He released her, and Katie stumbled back until her legs touched the edge of a chair. She sank into it, rubbing her arm. He walked to the window and stared out.

  “Earlier you said you had to catch the killer. Why you…Oh no.” He caught her reflection in the glass. Katie covered her mouth while her eyes pinched shut and her head shook from side to side.

  “That’s right,” he said. “The killer is my twin brother, Abel.”

  “I-I didn’t want to believe it, not after…” She leaned forward and rested her elbows on her thighs. “Since everyone said he’d died, I didn’t think it was possible. That’s why…”

  “That’s why you kept believing I did it.”

  As silence hovered between them, Cain focused on the streetlights below and the solitary car that cruised by. He’d been prepared to use his power to push into her mind. If she was under Renegade influence, he would have found out. But hearing her real reason for being in the house was to save her friends struck a chord. What wouldn’t he do to help his team?

  Cain turned away from the window and his gaze trailed Katie as she walked into the kitchen and used the counter as a barrier between them. He kept his feet planted, resisting the impulse to walk out and hunt his twin.

  “When you’d described how the victim died, I brushed it aside as coincidence. Then I found a message carved into Ray.” He clenched his jaw until the joints throbbed. “Abel and I had once created our own alphabet and an entire vocabulary, meant only for us. That’s when I knew he was alive.” He looked her dead on. “And we share the same angel ability for mind control.”