by Michele Hauf
He left her lolling against the wall, weak and so frightened. Her brain envisioned her running out of here, but her muscles did not comply.
He returned and displayed the small red velvet-covered sketchbook that belonged to her. She’d thought the apartment strangely messy last night. Someone had been in her apartment before Cooper had walked her home.
“This belongs to you,” the man said.
Was he a man? He had fangs. That would make him a creature. Not a man. Not human. But that was impossible. And yet, she’d watched Cooper grow wings last night. What had he been? She’d never believed in monsters.
Now was a good time to begin.
“Did you draw all these sigils, Sophia?”
She’d never heard them called that before—sigils. The word sounded odd. Sid-zel. She shook her head.
“So you must know what they mean? Which angel they coincide with?”
“Angel?” She nodded drowsily. So exhausted. She wanted to sleep, to close her eyes and wake in her own bed. “Don’t know what they mean.”
He knelt before her and gripped her hand again. It ached and she could smell the blood.
“You’ve worn an angel sigil all your life, Sophia. You draw angel sigils in your pretty red notebook. And you want me to believe you don’t know what they mean? Come, Sophia, we will get along much better if you are truthful with me.”
“I…don’t know. Just thought…I had a guardian angel.”
“A guardian is the last thing you should name your Fallen counterpart. An angel was in your home last night. The man who shifted halfway with wings.” He pointed to the painting. “Did he have sex with you?”
She shook her head violently. “Please, let me go.”
“Why didn’t he? That is his only reason for walking this earth. To find his muse—you—and get you pregnant.”
A muse? Why did he name her that?
Yet, she wanted to cooperate. Maybe he’d release her. “There was another…creature. Made of metal. Stopped…the angel. They fought. I ran out.”
“The Sinistari demon?”
“A demon?”
“I marvel you know so little.”
He showed her a page from her notebook that featured a circle sigil with Y-shaped dashes growing out at four points. “This angel—Zaqiel—died a few months ago. Slain by a Sinistari. If your angel has no desire to have sex with you then I need to summon another. Something must be wrong with the idiot Fallen one. I can use the sigils to summon another, but I also need names.”
He paged to the sigil matching the one on her arm and tapped the design Sophia had always thought looked like two sevens butting heads. “Juphiel. That is the angel’s name who seeks you.”
“No. He said his name was…Cooper.”
“Interesting. Did you see the sigil on him?”
Had she seen— Yes, she recalled now that blue mark on his abdomen, riding the tight ridges of his muscles. It had glowed, but at the time she had been frantic to escape so couldn’t be sure the design had matched hers.
“And who does this one belong to?” He opened to the next page and held it before her. On it she’d drawn three parallel lines topped by three dots.
“I don’t know names,” she pleaded. “I had no idea those images were related to angel sigils. I see them in dreams!”
“I think you’re lying.”
Perhaps, but she wasn’t lying about not knowing the names.
“Yes, well, get comfy, Sophia. If Juphiel has tasted you once, he will want another taste. Did he give you the angelkiss?”
She shook her head, not understanding.
“Lick you somewhere?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “My neck.” And to confirm that weird act now made the skin on her neck burn. She slapped a palm to it.
“Excellent. We’ve merely to sit back and wait for him.”
He strode away, and Sophia slid to the dais edge. The chain spilled over the edge and clattered heavily to the floor.
“Sit tight, pretty muse,” Antonio called.
The door slammed shut, sealing her in the stone cell. Instead of screaming, Sophia fainted.
Pyx wandered the muse’s apartment. The living room was a mess. The walls and windows looked as if a wild animal had scratched its talons across them.
She was looking for an address book, something that would lead her to the mother, but then she had the notion that perhaps a daughter would not need to write down her parents’ address.
“This isn’t going to help me find the muse.”
Instincts warned Pyx that the muse was not with her mother. That nothing had been normal for the muse since last night. But how dare she go to Cooper with this worry? He needed to stay as far from the muse as possible.
Unless the Sinistari demon could finally convince him to take his muse.
“No. I don’t want him near the muse.”
She couldn’t kill him last night.
She wouldn’t kill him now.
She wanted to make love with him again.
Yes, she’d thought the L-word. Because it was fore in her mind. And though she had no experience with it previously, Pyx knew to her very black marrow that love was what pushed her solidly across the line to stand on Cooper’s side now.
“I’ll take the punishment I deserve. I no longer wish to deny my wants. I make this choice,” she said. “I will not kill the Fallen.”
“Where’s the bitch?” Antonio asked his assistant.
“Sedated.”
“I wanted her alert.”
“She was strong.”
“Leave her to me.”
Antonio stalked down the hallway toward the cell where prisoners were kept. It had been months since he’d seen Vinny. She had been his favorite until she’d decided to flee from his tutelage and take up with a mortal.
A mortal.
The rebellion cut into his heart. He’d survived this world for three centuries and rarely had he opened his heart to any of his blood children.
As a mortal, Vinny had been feisty and ambitious. Antonio had found her bleeding in an alley after an attack by some of his tribe. The attack had been an anomaly. He did not sanction murder. Vinny had clung to him, fearful, yet near death for she’d been bitten over and over and had lost copious amounts of blood. He’d promised to give her all she asked for if she would take his blood.
He wondered now if she had agreed because the idea of death so young was horrific, or if she had been attracted to him. He’d thought there was an attraction. He had been stupid.
He kicked the metal door and it swung inside the small cell carved out of a vein of granite, which was in abundance beneath the city of Paris. A raised stone slab provided a place to rest, but not at all comfortably.
Vinny was alert and sitting up. Big green eyes assessed him with a look that again made him realize what a fool he had been to believe she could have loved him.
“The strays eventually return to the flock,” he said calmly, stepping to the stone slab to loom over her. Her long wavy hair was secured at the back of her head in a ponytail, making her narrow face appear thin, almost skeletal. “You’re looking gaunt, Vinny. The boyfriend not taking proper care of you? You decide the best sip is from your master and come to beg my mercy?”
She tucked her head against the inside of her elbow. Not going to play? Antonio used the heel of his boot to shove her arm from her knee, forcing her to look up.
She was frightened of him. As she should be.
He leaned over her and gripped a hank of her hair. “You smell like dirty mortal.” He’d kept her from feeding on mortals to keep her as his own. Until the damned halo hunter had arrived on the scene.
“It’s the same blood you drink,” she whispered viciously. He detected not a hint of fear in her voice. “What do you want from me?”
“Besides contrition?”
“You’re not my confessor. I have no god.”
“You should, Vinny. We all require something or someone t
o believe in.”
“You’re a hypocrite. This has to do with the Fallen, doesn’t it?”
“Now we’re getting somewhere.”
Releasing her hair, he squatted before her. She would be a fool to charge him, but then, he would not put it past her. He was more powerful. And once already he’d held her captive within the cage of light beaming down from the dungeon ceiling. She would not forget her place.
“I’m going to send you on your way to rendezvous with your insipid mortal lover. And when you return to his side, you will tell him to bring the Fallen to me, or I will hunt you both down and slay him first so you can watch, and then I’ll chain you out in the sun. Sound like fun?”
“How are we supposed to get the angel to you? He doesn’t trust Michael.”
“Isn’t your lover some kind of hunter of halos? Doesn’t he have halos with which to bait the angel?”
“We’ve already checked. None of them are the Fallen’s.”
“That’s because I hold the angel’s halo.”
“You do not.”
“Does not the halo glow blue when in the presence of its rightful owner?”
“You have a halo that glows? But if you’ve not been near the angel…”
“This halo was found in the vicinity of the angel’s home.”
“Well, if you know where he lives—”
Antonio grabbed her by the throat, pressing his thumb in deep. “Do not argue with me. You want freedom? You bring the angel to me.” He released her roughly, and stood. “Don’t think you can run from me, Venezia. You know that would be a mistake.”
He left her to consider her alliances.
Chapter 21
Cooper paced the quiet rooms of his apartment. The high ceilings gave the rooms a vast, spacious atmosphere without closing him in as he’d been accustomed to while imprisoned in the Ninth Void. This was different. This was real.
Humanity. It was a delicious tease, but only that.
He would miss it.
Weird, but in little over a fortnight he’d already put down roots in this city. He liked this home. He liked this realm. It felt comfortable. It offered everything he’d never had Above, most especially, love.
She does love you. Don’t give that up.
Cooper punched a fist into his open palm with a smack. “I love her.”
And that was why he had to leave. It wasn’t right to expect Pyx to ignore her Sinistari calling over something the demon would be punished severely for. But if he was nowhere near the muse, then Pyx wouldn’t have to ignore a thing.
Flicking off the light switch, he trundled toward the front door, combat boots beating the hardwood floor. He needn’t carry belongings with him; there was nothing he valued that was tangible and clothing he could assume with ease.
According to research on the internet, the frozen wasteland of northwestern Siberia boasted a small population, and was not welcoming. Nor did it provide optimum living conditions to the few who did live there. Cooper figured no sane muse would live there. He would get used to the cold.
He’d set up in an apartment—maybe an igloo—and then focus on locating his halo. It wouldn’t be an easy quest, as it had been for Pyx.
Her halo had glowed. Not his. And as far as Cooper knew she couldn’t use it. A demon had to make a kill to gain a soul, didn’t they?
“Pyx.” He stopped at the front door and tilted his head back, closing his eyes. She was the one tangible thing he would miss. Much as he hated leaving her without a word, he knew Siberia wouldn’t keep the Sinistari away.
“She’ll find me. And when that happens, at least there won’t be a muse in the vicinity.”
Which could prove good for their relationship. If they hadn’t the interference of the muse they could focus on each other.
No, as much as he and the demon got along, and they enjoyed sex together, Cooper suspected Pyx wasn’t in it for the long run.
Was he?
He did like the demon, despite, well, that she was a demon. Hell, he could go there. It wasn’t just like. He loved her. How crazy was that?
Love was a bright and vast feeling that exploded in his chest every time he saw Pyx. And maybe, just maybe, a part of her really did love him.
It was too great to hope for. But he did.
A knock on the door pulled Cooper from his thoughts of the sexy demon. The door opened as he turned the knob. Michael Donovan and his girlfriend Vinny walked through.
“They’ve got the muse,” Donovan said, striding on into the kitchen as if Cooper had invited him.
The vampiress hung back, following Cooper, but he was bothered by her presence. He noticed she didn’t look at him and when he arrived in the kitchen Cooper bowed to look at her face. “What happened to you, little one?”
A green-and-violet bruise angered the skin below her left eye.
Michael hugged her about the shoulders. “Antonio and his tribe worked her over. Wanted her to bring a message to you.”
“Me? Why?” He eyed Vinny cautiously. “I thought vampires healed fast?”
“Just gives you an idea how badly they hurt her,” Michael said.
Vinny glanced toward the window but remained quiet. Something was off with her.
Seriously? She’d taken such an awful beating that she still had not healed. That was remarkable for a vampire. Her kind normally regenerated surface wounds within an hour. Even a mortal wound took less than a day to heal over. Unless it was a holy wound. If baptized, the vampire never healed from a holy wound.
The bruise on Vinny’s face did not appear cross-shaped.
“So what’s the message?” Cooper asked, folding his arms high over his chest.
The door opened and Pyx barged in, looking fierce and ready for—hell, she always looked ready to kick ass. Cooper smiled broadly, despite the disturbing company. That was his girl.
Pyx wore a long black leather dress that was split hip-high and beneath that wore thigh-high leather boots. Black fingerless gloves glinted with a few rivets and her red hair was pulled into a sleek tight ponytail. She was either in angel-slaying mode or fashion-model meltdown.
Either way, she owned that outfit. And Cooper could think only of removing it from her body.
“Pyx,” he said on a breath. “Good to see you. That dress is…hot.”
“It’s actually pretty cool. I’m told leather is what all the fashionable people wear.” She crossed her arms, feet squared and chin up. Yeah, she was in angel-hunting mode, Cooper could feel her stealthy focus and it tensed his muscles. She flicked a nod toward the couple. “What do they want?”
“The Anakim tribe has Cooper’s muse,” Michael said. “They sent the message through Vinny.”
Pyx observed the vampiress with a narrow glare. “Why would they send a message via another vampire? Why didn’t Stellan tell me? Or heck, Cooper has his own vamp shadow. And so what if they have the muse? Angel boy here isn’t interested.”
“That’s not what I heard,” Michael said. He turned a look over his shoulder at Cooper. “Heard you had a go at the muse last night.”
“It couldn’t be helped,” he answered, flexing his fingers in and out of fists. The halo hunter pressed the bounds of respect. He had no right to infer that Cooper was in the wrong. “But it will be. I’m leaving town as soon as I shuffle you sorts out of here.”
“Leaving?” Pyx tilted a look at him. It asked “What’s the deal? First you leave me in bed, now you’re leaving the country?”
“They’ve got your halo, too,” Vinny shot out. “I saw it.”
“My—” Cooper stopped himself from clutching hope. Instead he chuckled as a defensive reply to the wily vampiress.
“They have dozens of halos,” Pyx argued. “You have no proof the one you saw is Cooper’s.”
“It glowed,” Vinny said. “Just like yours did, Sinistari.”
Cooper caught Pyx’s raise of brow. They exchanged silent looks for a tense moment.
Finally Pyx said, “I’l
l go and check things out. There could be another Fallen in the city we’re not aware of. Which would explain why the one in the hotel glowed. It was not mine.”
Cooper shook his head. “I’m not letting you barge into a lair of vampires by yourself.”
“Oh, yeah? You want to go muse hunting, big boy?”
He didn’t like her tone. It was as if they’d never shared a night of passion, or whispered things like they could do this forever and wouldn’t it be awesome if they both had their souls and could live happily ever after. Pyx was hard today.
Was it because he’d told her about her origins? The news should have endeared him to her. They were two alike. But it could have had an opposite effect. If she hated angels then knowing she had been one would be the ultimate blow.
“They’ll kill the muse,” Vinny warned.
Pyx approached the vampiress and towered over her, arms still crossed. “Why would the vampires kill a perfectly good muse? If they don’t snag Cooper they can use her to catch another Fallen. That’s how it works. You, vampire bitch, are lying.”
“No, I’m not,” Vinny rushed out. “I made a guess about them killing her. I’m sorry. They’ve got her chained to a wall. She’s bleeding.”
“Bleeding?” Cooper winced. What had they done to her?
Siberia would have to wait. Sophia was an innocent in all of this, and he would not suffer the bloody vamp who had harmed her.
“Doesn’t matter,” he said. “We need to get her out of there. Bunch of bloodthirsty animals, is what they are.”
He paused to notice Vinny cringe as her boyfriend hugged her. Weird pair.
“Take us there,” he commanded Vinny. “Once inside, I can track the muse by the angelkiss I gave her.” He avoided looking at Pyx but could feel her disappointment burn through the back of his skull. “And you, Donovan, are going in with me. While I’m looking for the muse, you’ll be retrieving my halo.”
“What do I get out of it?” Donovan countered.
“You get to live.”
“I’m going in, too,” Pyx said. “If you get too close to the muse the rescue mission will go cockeyed, and you know that.”