by Jenny McKane
“Also yes.”
It was everything Sunny could do not to roll her eyes.
“Gorgeous. Big boobs and long legs. Am I getting warmer here?”
Gabriel chuckled, but didn’t deny it.
“Bonus: they used to sleep together, didn’t they?”
At least Gabriel had the nerve to stop laughing.
“Their prior relationship has no bearing on you now,” Gabriel said. “Don’t let your attachments to Lafayette blind you to what is at stake and how Selah can assist us.”
Selah.
Damnit, even her name was seductive. Sunny took a long moment to regain her composure. The last damn person she wanted teaching her anything was one of Gideon’s many ex-paramours. Surely Gabriel could have found someone else?
“Tell me she’s not a succubus? Or a cambion?”
She was all but over the entire race of succubi and their equally-beautiful offspring were equally obnoxious.
“No, Sunshine,” Gabriel said as they exited the large roadway. “Selah is a not a succubus--and that’s the last I’ll speak of it today. No more questions to appease your insecurities. Woman up--or whatever they say nowadays.”
Gideon. Her focus was getting Gideon back and she’d keep her personal feelings out of this as long as it meant she’d have a chance to free him.
It was a sound plan that held together right up until the moment they arrived at the Bragg Run property and Sunny was introduced to Selah.
It all fell to crap at that point.
Chapter Three
Eli de la Riva was a big guy. He probably wasn’t much older than Sunny, maybe 22 or 23 years old, but he was well over six feet tall and about as broad as a barn. Not that Sunny had a ton of experiences on farms with barns, but she had a great imagination.
Selah Nystrom was not as broad as a barn. Svelte was a better word to describe her. Svelte and slinky like a snake.
Gabriel had made the briefest of introductions and given Sunny the briefest of house tours. In short, the place was enormous. The house wasn’t a house. It wasn’t necessarily a mansion, but it was huge and cozy all at the same time.
“It’s called a chateau,” Gabriel informed her.
Chateau.
She occupied a giant suite on the second floor with both Selah and Eli on the same floor. Gabriel lived alone on the third floor, and his two angel staff members were around somewhere. He never specified. For all Sunny knew, they could be asleep in the trees.
Sunny had little with her: Noodle, of course, had come to Canada and probably not in the most legal of methods (they hid him across the border), her clothing (including the gorgeous outfits and shoes Gideon had bought her to help her blend in on their mission), and a few mementos. What she couldn’t take with her, she’d left at Gideon’s loft, which was now in her name. She’d also left behind Kitty, who promised to come up to visit very soon.
“There’s a few things I need to take care of before I head north,” she said, being very cryptic and obtuse.
Sunny didn’t bother trying to crack into her meaning and just nodded. Also packed in her belongings were two very special blades--one obsidian (to kill demons) and one serendibite (to kill archangels). She kept both well hidden in her belongings and neither were mentioned to Gabriel as they traveled.
Her rooms were beautiful and had giant windows that overlooked the Canadian wilderness. A mountain range loomed in the distance, far from her window, but large enough to take up most of the vista, while a large stream snaked through Gabriel’s property. The place was perfect. She should have found some small comfort in that. But she didn’t.
Gideon was a constant on her mind the more she got into training. In the deepest of her depressions, she was able to find a way to sleep though her pain most days. To numb herself. But having to be awake, alive, and alert for all the training and the learning? It forced Sunny to be in constant contact with her pain and the suffering she believed Gideon was in.
It was torture.
Gabriel gave her an entire day to herself to get settled in and when she was done unpacking, and when she had put the only picture of Gideon she had under her pillow--it was one she took surreptitiously with her phone when he wasn’t expecting it--he’d been driving and the sunlight behind him lit his golden-brown hair and sun kissed skin perfectly--she knew she had to go downstairs and be somewhat personable.
“Settled in?”
Eli was settled at the giant marble kitchen counter drinking a smoothie of some green variety. It looked horrible and the way he winced as it went down indicated it didn’t taste much better, either.
“For the most part,” Sunny replied.
Eli had a friendly, easy going nature for a giant. He really was humongous and Sunny was incredibly intimidated by the fact that he had been brought in to teach her how to not die so quickly. She wasn’t fooled and she wasn’t fooling anyone--she wasn’t en route to becoming some elite assassin. Everyone involved knew that Gabriel wanted Sunny to learn how to be a little harder to kill and how not to kill herself by accident. Everyone’s expectations were reasonably low--especially hers.
“Excited to get started?”
It was all she could do to not snort at the man, who was making polite conversation. Sunny blew out a long breath and poured herself a glass of water.
“Probably as excited as you are to start teaching me,” she quipped, a knowing smile on her face.
Eli grinned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Shaking her head, Sunny gave a little shrug.
“I’m just saying, I’m sure Gabriel is compensating you fairly handsomely for your time,” she said between sips. “I’m pretty sure you’re not taking on this mess out of the kindness of your heart.”
It got a hearty laugh out of him.
“Can’t say there’s much of that left.”
He didn’t elaborate and Sunny didn’t push. Eli was definitely older than her, but not so old that he should have retired out of service yet. That usually happened around 30-years-old. What had happened that had pushed him from Metatron’s service?
“How long are you sticking around?”
Gabriel hadn’t mentioned much about whether or not her new instructors were short or long term, whether they were tasked with showing her just a few things in particular or more in general. She really had no clue what to expect in her time at the chateau or just how long she’d be here. Sunny had a feeling that Gabriel didn’t know either, for what it was worth.
“As long as it takes, is what I was told,” Eli said simply. “I’m headed out for a run. Want to join me and get a leg up on the training?”
Sunny’s entire body ached from the long car ride and, really, all she could think of doing was getting herself a shower and an early bedtime.
“I appreciate it,” she said. “But I’m going to crash early tonight. I was on the road too long to be of any use.”
Eli gave her a friendly nod and took his green shake as he left the kitchen.
“It’s good to meet you, Sunny,” he said as he left. “I hope you’re this nice to me once we start our training.”
It was obvious that he was kidding, but only a little. There were no qualms when it came to what was ahead--Gabriel had promised her that it would be intense and frustrating and all out harder than anything she’d done so far under Michael. But unlike his brother archangel, Gabriel planned to train the ever-loving hell out of her before unleashing her on the next project. Michael hadn’t really bothered with that part--he’d had plenty of other more experienced Hunters and Sunny had been backup. Until she was the last one he had left. To her knowledge, after throwing her Solomon seal at him, she wasn’t sure there were any left working for him.
No, Sunny was freelancing this job with Gabriel and only because it meant freeing Gideon. Once it was done, she was certain she was going to say goodbye to employment under the archangels forever. There was simply too much risk and not enough incentive involved.
*****
Dinner was an array of takeout that someone brought in from some Chinese place a couple towns over. There were no announcements that it was ready, only the smell wafting up to Sunny in her rooms letting her know.
Snuggled up in fleece pajamas and with her hair in a messy top knot, Sunny put on a pair of fuzzy slippers and walked down to kitchen to find Gabriel and Selah seated at the table. Gabriel was plowing through a pile of fried rice with a fork and Selah was delicately picking at noodles with a pair of stainless steel chopsticks.
Not bothering to wait for a formal invitation, Sunny piled up food on her plate and took the seat next to Gabriel, who was at the head of the dining room table. She was situated directly across from Selah, who hadn’t so much as acknowledged Sunny’s presence yet.
“Comfortable?” Gabriel asked.
Sunny had just taken a giant bite of food, so she could only nod.
“Selah was just telling me that her father has been holding court more often than normal thanks to a certain prisoner he wants to keep on display,” he said.
Sunny stopped chewing. What did that mean?
“Who is her father?”
Selah gave a little snort, like Sunny had said something funny. With a straight face, Sunny waited for her answer.
Gabriel cleared his throat and explained to Selah.
“I didn’t tell Sunny yet.”
Not reacting much, Selah simply raised an eyebrow and pulled a noodle from her plate, delicately biting it from the chopstick.
“Tell me what, Gabriel?”
Setting his fork down slowly, Gabriel cleared his throat before answering. Without realizing she was doing it, Sunny found her hands clenched tight. Bracing for impact.
“Selah is Azrael’s only daughter,” he said, his voice quiet and his eyes studying her for a reaction. It took all of Sunny’s willpower not to react with a giant tantrum at having that sort of news withheld from her. “She’s technically one of the three Princesses of Hell.”
Sunny took a giant bite of her egg roll and forced herself to swallow slowly, biding her time and choosing her words wisely.
“Is this a game to you, Gabriel?” she finally said, taking a sip of her water and setting the glass down. “This non-information thing you’re doing? It’s not funny and it's not fucking cool at all. Why would you wait until now to tell me something like this?”
For all her anger, Gabriel didn’t seem too worried.
“I thought you’d overreact,” he punctuated the statement with an overlong silence that seemed to illustrate his case in point.
Closing her eyes and letting out a slow breath, Sunny opened them and saw that Selah had a glint of humor in her expression. She was enjoying this. Of course she was. But Sunny wasn’t in the mood to be baited. She actually wasn’t even in the mood for Chinese food anymore, so without another word, she pushed herself from her chair and dumped the dish in the sink with a loud clang.
She stomped from the kitchen back to her room and all but slammed the door like some pouty teenager.
This certainly wasn’t an auspicious start to her working relationship with these people and it was all she could do not to completely overreact and do something she’d regret--like marching herself back downstairs and picking a huge fight with both of them because their smug faces were so infuriating.
There was nothing to be done about it tonight, she reasoned with herself, and when she wasn’t so damned angry, she would make better choices in their conversation. She would establish clear boundaries in this working relationship she had going with Gabriel. This wasn’t like all those times with Michael--she was here by choice and despite having a lot on the line, she wasn’t some minion to be pushed around.
When her seething had subsided a little, she sat on the floor of her bedroom and relaxed against the bed.
She missed Plaxo in times like this. Her little cat-looking gargoyle-ish dream demon had become a source of comfort in her life in the months that he’d made himself known to her. But even he was busy these days. The dream demons were constantly on the move trying to stay a few steps ahead of Azrael and when he wasn’t helping his brethren hide, he was trying to help her and Gabriel out by gathering demon intel on the other side of the portal. Which meant long weeks without word. It’d been over a month already and she was starting to get worried that something had happened to the little guy. He never went this long without checking in.
Gabriel had told her not to worry, that demons got distracted sometimes and there was a lot going on right now.
Regardless, Sunny couldn’t relax. Couldn’t shake the feeling that she was on uneven ground again--more so that she had been when she agreed to do this mission with Gabriel. There was something not right going on and she didn’t know exactly what it was--only that it was hard to fall asleep with her racing thoughts.
Chapter Four
If she hadn't already been there and known for a fact that she currently wasn't in Hell, Sunny would have sworn she was in Hell.
She was flat on her back, the breath whooshed out of her lungs, with Eli standing over her. Gone was the easy smile and gentle manners that she'd seen two days prior when she first arrived. The new Eli, the Eli in charge of her training, was mean and brittle and unrelenting.
“That's not good enough,” he said.
Understatement of the year, Sunny thought miserably.
To say that training wasn't going well was putting it lightly. Training was going terribly, and Eli was getting more frustrated and angry, and demanding more from her as the hours ticked by. She was two days into her lessons with Eli. Both had agreed that they were not trying to turn Sunny into some cloaked assassin, capable of leaping across building tops and rappelling down edifices. They were trying to turn her into a ninja, who could slice throats and dispatch death without being detected. They had both agreed on Sunny's obvious shortcomings.
“If you don't get it right, we’re going to keep going all day,” Eli growled.
Sunny would not survive an all-day session with Eli at this rate. She would not survive another hour, she thought miserably. They weren't even working with weapons yet, she could hardly get through staying on her own two feet.
She pushed herself to her feet and dusted herself off. Struggling not to cry with frustration, she took a deep breath, got into her fight stance, and raised her fists. It was the indication that she was ready to try again.
The point of this game was for Sunny to not get hit. It was that simple. It was that impossible. She had never realized just how big of a target her head and body really were. Ducking and dodging Eli’s assaults were futile and he landed a shot on her each and every time.
Eli started with a straight jab, and somehow Sunny managed to slip that with a slight movement of her head to the right. She grinned, and that earned her a stinging hook to her ear. She hadn't been able to time the looping punches that Eli threw, despite being able to now see the straight punches easier and easier.
Her vision wavered as she tried to clear her foggy thoughts after the strike. Headgear was mandatory, no matter how much Sunny had complained at how unflattering it was. She was so grateful for it now.
“You have feet,” Eli snarled. “Use them.”
All they were trying to do was to train Sunny to not get beat up. It seemed like a fool's mission now.
Sunny reset herself and waited. This time, she combined the slip with a slight movement forward, and when the hook came, Sunny rolled beneath it as it sailed over her head. Just as she thought she had finally achieved something, Eli's knee came sailing up to her midsection. Every ounce of air in her body flew out, and she doubled over in pain, dropping to her knees.
“Two days,” Eli said. He was pacing around her as she struggled to regain regular breathing. “You've had at least eight hours to learn the basic movements, and yet I can still hit you with the three most basic strikes. Tell me there's more to you, Sunny.”
That one stung. Eli was not the kindest of instructors to be
gin with, but the more frustrated he became with her, the more cutting his remarks were. Before they began training, Gabriel had given Sunny a piece of advice that she clung to with everything she had, despite how badly things were going for her at the moment.
“You’re not of common stock,” Gabriel had said. “You’re wired differently and you’re a survivor. It’s why I chose you.”
Technically, he’d chosen her because she had a demon seal burned into her skin that gave her free pass into the demon realm--with or without a demon-blooded chaperone. But maybe there was more to the story, as Gabriel was trying to tell her.
“Again,” Eli demanded.
Sunny straightened herself, raised her fists, and let out a breath.
The repetitions were endless. By the fourth day, Sunny moved much better than she had on the first day. She was not glued to the same spot, and when Eli attacked, her instincts had improved. But he was still landing shot after shot on her.
“Every time I touch you, it's a venom that a demon could use against you.”
Her body was marked by endless bruises everywhere. It hurt to move. It hurt to laugh, but she wasn't doing much of that lately. It just hurt. Everywhere.
Their training had evolved to the point where Sunny was attempting to not be touched whatsoever when she and Eli sparred. What he had said was true. In the demon realm, numerous species of demons are equipped with venom, many of them meaning instant death in the worst cases. In the not-so-worst cases, the venom would mean paralysis.
Eli’s training was focused securely on Sunny not being rendered powerless by a landed shot, and that meant hours and hours of sparring and taking shots from Eli’s 16-ounce boxing gloves. As she got marginally better, Eli changed from the traditional boxing gloves to less restrictive 4-ounce MMA gloves.
It had been amazing how much faster he’d been with those on, and she hated to think how impossible he’d be to avoid once he removed those completely and began to simulate demon attacks barehanded.