Kaonos’s surprised hiss slithered through the orb. “That freak’s sire survived and has recruited his impure progeny? You should have reported sooner, Mariel! Your incompetence displeases me.”
Kas fisted his hands and stepped forward, but she waved him off. Tremors shook his body, but he kept his mouth shut.
“I was assigned to the Nephilim days ago. Rahab did not share their connection until tonight,” she said. “Kasdeja’s reaction was…volatile.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, he fought his sire until I was forced to intercede. I have no doubt the assassin is capable of delivering final justice to our enemies.”
Impressive. She played Kaonos’s ego like a conga drum. Visions of retribution, on top of the intoxicating possibility of Mastema’s downfall, had to tug at the angel’s vanity.
“The half-breed remains undercover for the time being. I expect frequent reports on his progress.”
Hook inserted. Now, to reel the bloated fish in. Kas signaled to Mariel to continue.
Her face looked pained. “There…there is a problem.”
“Go on.”
“Mastema is cautious. Although Rahab accepts Kasdeja, his commander requires a final test of loyalty.”
“What proof does he want from the mutant?” Kaonos asked.
She scowled at the orb. “Kasdeja must kill an angel and return the body to the Renegades.”
Kas held his breath in the following silence. Would they order her to put a bullet in his head?
“A terrible price, but one we shall allow,” Kaonos finally said.
They both gaped at the orb. Mariel recovered first. “Wh-what?”
“Take the Nephilim to the riverfront in one hour. News will come regarding the sacrifice.”
“You cannot mean to murder one of our brethren,” she said, her voice rising.
“Mastema must die, no matter the cost.”
Chapter Twenty-One
A cool gust swirled from the Detroit River and licked beneath Mariel’s clothing, chilling her exposed skin, but her mind was numb with her powerlessness. Kas leaned against a chain-link fence, his outline cast into stark relief by the bright lights outside of Joe Louis Arena. She took his slumped posture and his expressionless face as a sign he didn’t look forward to his task.
They’d driven to the location without speaking, and that bothered her as much as why they’d come. Dread had made her incapable of light conversation, but a simmering rage hid behind her composed exterior. That the Directorate would proffer one of her brethren disturbed her. That Kas would destroy an innocent angel sickened her.
A law-abiding soldier would die so the angel board gained a chance to kill Heaven’s greatest foe. Did the appointed one know what was coming? Any would fight to the death on command, but to meekly accept this end?
For the fourth time since arriving, Mariel rubbed her temples. Right now, a warrior was being told he or she was needed for a vital mission. The doomed angel would salute, head filled with serving in glory. The leaders they trusted—that she trusted—wouldn’t explain this was a suicide mission, or that they would likely die at the hand of a Nephilim assassin.
Her superiors cared for nothing except their aspirations. They wanted results by any means necessary, and she’d gone along with their decisions for years. Never questioning. Never dwelling on why they’d embedded her in the enemy’s stronghold.
And now the half angel she…what? What term could properly describe their…relationship? Ally? Friend? Lover.
Mariel balled her hands, fingernails biting into her palms. She’d hated this mission, hated the lying, but she hadn’t dared rebel against the Directorate’s wishes. But what if the board’s interests weren’t in line with the rest of Heaven?
Mind jumbled, she faced Kas. His stony face was emotionless. Was he as confused or as frustrated as she? Did this task bother him? “You are going through with this?”
He shrugged.
“So this is who the Bound are. This is what Tanis raised you to become.”
A deep scowl transformed his neutral expression. His arms went around his broad chest, and he pinched his lips together, then shifted his gaze to look out over the water.
“Rahab will be so proud.”
Kas’s head snapped around, fire smoldering in his eyes, then he turned away.
What use was there in provoking him? She understood his cause, his calling. And yet, her deep and increasing feelings for him pushed her to make him question this action. Heaven had raised him for a purpose: to hunt Renegades, do whatever the mission called for. But she wondered how much guilt they could walk away from before it buried them both. They could have said no. They could have at least tried to find another solution.
A swell of air fanned over her head. Mariel searched the inky sky until she found him. The messenger had finally arrived. Her heart rate tripled as she watched Kaonos descend on mammoth white wings.
“Were you expecting someone else?” He set down between Kas and her.
“I sure as hell didn’t wanna see your ugly face.” The half angel pushed off the fence. He made a point of not looking at Mariel, and his hands rested on his waist, close to his daggers. “Of all the flyboys, they sent you.”
Kaonos eyed the Nephilim. The shared gaze broadcast how much those two disliked each other. Mariel wasn’t fond of the messenger angel, either. This man had cut her wings off.
“I do as ordered, half-breed.”
“I bet.” Kas angled a look at her.
She had told him of Kaonos’s involvement when she’d lost her wings, but the other angel was correct. He had only followed orders.
“I wish we were meeting under”—she hedged—“more pleasant circumstances. Have the board chosen the sacrifice?”
“They have.” Kaonos cocked his head and considered her for a moment. “The decision was easier than expected. The Directorate is wise. Emotion does not weaken their resolve.”
Kaonos’s calm. Kas’s indifference. She wished she could scream at how unwise this course was, but arguing was fruitless. “In this matter, my emotions are not under control. We will murder an innocent servant of Heaven. Am I the only one bothered by that fact?”
The messenger shrugged. “Does the mission upset you, half-breed?”
Kas narrowed his gaze. “Tell us what we need to know and leave.”
Kaonos smirked at the assassin. “Eager for blood. You mutants never change.” He faced her. “Our superiors chose an acceptable loss, one whose death will give us a weapon inside the enemy group. They agreed the half-breed’s cover story must appear pristine. Is the choice not obvious?”
Kas crossed his arms and leveled an annoyed glare. “Just spit out the info.”
“You are to give them Mariel.”
Oxygen expelled from her lungs in one hard rush. She stumbled back. Surely she misheard. “What did you say?”
Kaonos turned slowly, and she read the answer in his smirk.
The Directorate had betrayed her? She struggled to breathe past the pain and confusion and disbelief.
When her shocked gaze found Kas, he had already pulled his guns and had each pointed at Kaonos.
“I call bullshit,” he said in harsh rumble. “You got the message wrong, or your bosses are bigger dicks than I thought.”
“The Renegades will believe you once you reveal her hidden communications orb.”
Rage shook through her limbs. “Why?” She’d been a loyal soldier, fighting when ordered, always eager to aid her people. Although she’d failed once, she’d been assured of redemption.
“Your life was on loan.” Kaonos gave a disinterested shrug. “They wanted a willing operative and chose you.”
Her heart shattered under the painful words.
The angel threw his head back and laughed. “Mariel, you were never that bright, but you should feel honored.”
Honored? She was a fool!
Kas stalked forward and placed his body between the other angel and her. “I’m not icin
g her.”
Kaonos sneered. “I care not for your excuses. You owe your life to Heaven’s mercy, so you will execute whom we say, when we say.” He gestured to Mariel. “She is repulsive to our kind. Do your job.”
She touched Kas’s tense arm and stepped around him, watching disgust and annoyance play across the messenger’s face. “I served loyally as penance for my failure. I demand to go before the Directorate to speak in my defense.”
“The team you honor so completely was sacrificed to move plans forward,” Kaonos said. “I personally saw to their elimination.”
Numbness paralyzed her. Her leaders had butchered her team so they could use her as a mole? Using her despair as a choke collar?
“You, Nephilim, hold a compelling position.” A look of contemplation eased over her boss’s face. “She has served her purpose. We have a plan to discuss. Now, kill her.”
Her chest crumbled around her squeezed ribs. The Directorate had never meant to keep their word. They had killed her friends to shape her into a chess piece. They had cut off her wings to provide a constant reminder. They never planned to regrow her wings or to return her to Heaven.
“You deaf?” Kas spat out. “Fly your ass back and tell them the deal’s off.”
Kaonos tsked and took a few steps back. “This spying mission, and the glory of destroying the enemy, should have been mine. I have served longer and given more than either of you.” His glowing eyes roamed over her. “Look at you. Once an angel, now a weak and pathetic shell, quaking behind a mud monkey’s spawn.”
…
Deception was normal in his line of work, but what had been done to Mariel burned like acid in Kas’s veins. He wanted to hurt someone, a lot of someones. He wanted to see blood, a lot of blood. Payback was a bitch and right now, Kas was feeling extremely bitchy.
And he knew just the emissary to beat black and blue and every shade in between.
“Maybe she’s not the angel I want to smoke.” He pressed the triggers on his Desert Eagles, felt their powerful discharge…except the bullets slowed in midair, far from their intended target. What the fu—
Kaonos raised his palm and aimed. Kas hooked Mariel’s waist and jumped out of the line of whatever talent the messenger had. They rolled on the hard asphalt and scrambled behind a parked car.
He fired his guns at the male angel, praying the guy’s gift had holes. As before, each projectile appeared to lodge in invisible sludge. Are you freakin’ kidding me?
He ducked behind the car and tugged a dagger. Shooting with one hand, he rushed from behind the car and swept his arm on an arc aimed at his opponent’s chest.
Kaonos sidestepped the bullets, but Kas hit an invisible barrier, and his muscles and bone ground together. As his momentum forced more of his body into contact with the tremendous power, a crushing sensation covered his arms and part of his torso. He screamed as pain blanketed his system. At the last moment, he spun away from his target to avoid his head sinking into that shit. He fell onto his ass and scrambled back, panting in discomfort.
“All these years you never asked about my Grace.” Kaonos laughed and raised his hand toward him. “You should always know your enemy.”
“Leave him alone.”
Mariel’s voice snapped Kas’s attention to her. Immediately, his pain ebbed, and he glanced at her glowing eyes, then at the gun in her hand, and let a grin curve his lips. White noise trumped quicksand.
She fired, but the messenger shoved a ball of yellow energy at her. The force lifted her in slow motion and a high-pitched cry burst from her.
Kas rushed Kaonos and struck him like a defensive end coming from the blind side. He picked the bastard up, and they hurtled into the nearest car. Steel crunched, and the force left an angel-sized dent in the trunk. He slammed his fist into the angel’s face, striking him again and again.
“Release her,” he yelled.
The messenger wasn’t ready to cooperate. Kaonos blocked the next hit and backhanded him.
Blow and counter, they worked each other over like street fighters. The angel brought up a knee, and Kas heard his ribs crack.
Mariel’s scream abruptly ended, followed by a thud. He glanced behind him only to find her facedown, unmoving.
Dead? She couldn’t be…
“You son of a bitch!”
His vision tunneled, his sight on the male angel who’d die as painfully as possible in the next few minutes. Rage dominated Kas as a tremor shot through him, and he lost all reason. His mother’s image rushed into his mind’s eye. Once again, he’d failed to protect someone who needed him. Someone he loved. A guttural roar spilled into the night, and he released his anguish on Kaonos.
He’d do what he was trained to do.
Kas forced his Grace into the angel’s brain and read his thoughts.
Not supposed to kill him.
Goddamned abomination.
Get him under control.
Mastema.
Kas yanked another dagger from his thigh holder and thrust forward. Kaonos’s power was a mudslide on his arm. He willed his limb to push through the mire, but the pressure didn’t cease.
“She was supposed to die. I only did what you refused,” the angel said through clenched teeth. “Get over it.”
Get over it? Over her? Kas’s gaze slipped to the heap on the pavement.
He’d never get over her. And for as long as he lived, he’d hate himself for failing her. “She was better than both of us, you worthless sack of shit.”
He was trapped like a damned fly in amber. Muscles tightened from the strain, and bone shook under the tremendous, crushing force. Still he pushed, unwilling to give up.
“When I leave, you will finish your assignment, half-breed.” Kaonos stepped to the side. “She makes a good-looking corpse.”
God of All, give me one shot at this prick. Just. One. Shot.
Desperation clouded his thoughts. If Kaonos flew away…
He focused on teleporting. He tested his arm and body. He was still stuck, but managed to turn his head and watch the angel strolling away.
Big Guy, I’m beggin’ you here. Don’t let that asshole escape.
Kas vanished. Miracle of miracles.
He reappeared behind the messenger and sank two daggers into the angel’s pristine wings. Kaonos bellowed, spinning to face him. Kas jumped and planted his boots into the other’s chest, launching his opponent head over feet to land nose first on the pavement.
Kas reached for the daggers in the wings and yanked. They split from the waist to the shoulders. His adversary screamed and writhed in his own blood. He flipped the messenger over.
Kaonos choked then coughed crimson. “Kill me, and the Bound will be branded traitors. Exterminated, as they should have been as brats. You are nothing more than savage vermin!”
Kas placed a dagger an inch from the angel’s neck. “We are what you made us.”
The angel gurgled on a laugh. “How can an animal judge me? Killing an angel was your plan. This is your doing.”
Jesus. If he’d only listened to her, had at least considered that he was making a mistake, she’d still be alive. Kas struggled to control his despair. He stepped back. “I’m done with your fucking games. Mariel was right.”
The angel stared up at him, still writhing on his bleeding wings.
“Go back to Heaven and tell those pricks to take out Mastema without my help. I’m done dealing with their shit.”
Gentle fingers touched his arm. He swiftly raised his weapon, ready to aerate the intruder, but stopped short, slack mouthed and shaking.
“You,” he stumbled, “I thought…”
Kas crushed Mariel against him. He inhaled her scent, rubbed his cheek against her frazzled hair, and thanked the Creator in a rush of inaudible prayers.
“You were so still.”
“I am well. Do not worry.”
“I failed you. Should never have given that bastard a shot at you.”
She sighed into his chest. “A
nd I could not watch your pain.”
Kas eased back enough to view her face. Bruised, but the marks would fade. He lowered his head and tenderly kissed her in spite of the nearly overwhelming impulse to do more. As soon as possible, he planned to show her just how important she’d become.
She lived. She was in his arms. He’d never, ever release her. The kiss deepened for only a moment before Mariel drew away. Kas allowed it, opening his arms, and then he gazed at her.
With her eyes diverted, his attention switched to their mutual foe. From the tightness in her expression, Kas had a hunch his beautiful angel had entirely different plans for Kaonos.
…
Soreness in her muscles receded. Mariel stepped over the prone angel and then pinned his arms and wings with her knees. Leaning down, she captured his petrified gaze in hers.
“Let us begin with you telling me everything.”
Kaonos thrashed and then attempted to summon his Grace. The feeble strum of energy barely registered under the static of her power.
Mariel grabbed hold of his hair and slammed his head into the concrete. The messenger quit struggling.
“Speak plainly and quickly, Kaonos.” She spoke his name with hatred fueled by old pain for her friends, her life, her wings.
“I was to ensure the ambush appeared authentic.” Her former boss managed a slurred speech. “Your team was collateral damage.”
My friends, I am so sorry.
Kas knelt next to her. “You killed her buddies, then guilt-tripped her, all so she’d jump to take the mission. And you called me savage.”
The messenger groaned.
Heat whooshed across her body. The slaughter of her team had never been her fault.
All she’d suffered—the nightmares, the grief, the loss of her identity—had been part of an elaborate scheme. The muscles twitched where her wings should be. The realization hit—she’d been sacrificed long before tonight.
An anguished scream tore out from her throat, fueled by the uncontained fury of her soul. Her friends, betrayed. Her life, betrayed! She pressed all of her weight and Grace on her captive. Kaonos’s breathing grew labored under the force of her rage and power.
Through her wrath, Kas watched her, and the empathy in his face brought a sting to her eyes. This was what he and the Bound lived with. Working for a duplicitous Heaven. Being tools for uncaring commanders. In his calm facade, she sensed he felt the pain of her despair and shared her hurts.
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