“While I am the embodiment of the Dark, opposite of the Light, and always will be.” Sammiél finished for Michael. “Without me, there can be no you. Ironic since I was an archangel, your brethren, closer to you than I am to the UnHallowed. You are the only angel given permission to enter Hell, yet Father must’ve refused your request. Interesting when you’ve followed His every command and He couldn’t give you this one boon.” A sneer twisted his lips. “When did you lose this angel I’m expected to find?”
“Six months ago, when Gideon and Dina crossed into the Cruor,” Michael grated, his patience wearing thin at the barbs.
Sammiél’s gaze narrowed. “You do realize the presence of an angel in Hell would have drawn the attention of the Demoni Lords. By now, your lost angel is dead. Or wishing he were.”
A fact Michael already knew. Still… “I need confirmation.”
“Interesting choice of word. Need, you said. Michael does not need anything other than the word of our Father. Yet you need confirmation about this angel when you should have said ‘want’.”
A slip of the tongue Michael wouldn’t admit to. “Semantics.”
Sammiél gave a noncommittal shrug. “I get a Reaper to get your confirmation, what will I gain?”
Good. The conversation had moved to safer ground. “My gratitude.”
“I don’t want it.” Sammiél’s head cocked to the side. “Too much to ask for our monthly meetings to cease?”
Michael wasn’t surprised Sammiél had put that on the table. “You know that is out of the realm of possibilities. Your pact is not with me, but with the Almighty.”
“Yes. The agreement must be maintained. But I will think of something.” Sammiél’s gaze shifted to the sword attached to Michael’s side. “You don’t deserve the honor of wielding that weapon.”
Michael nodded and flashed a microscopic scowl. “On that we both agree.”
Sammiél looked away, into the sun. It was the only time he could enjoy the rays without incineration. “There will come a time, I will ask something of you, and you will grant it. No questions asked.”
“As long as none of Father’s tenets are broken, then I agree.”
Sammiél scowled. “I will find a Reaper and get it to do as you ask. Who is this angel you must find?”
“Gemma is her name,” Michael said and braced.
Sammiél’s brows lowered then rose until they touched his hairline. His laughter rang out across the Flats. “Oh, Michael.” His voice was sultry and laced with irony. “You are just as damned as I.”
Chapter Eleven
“Let’s get this dog and pony show started?” Amaya clapped and rubbed her hands together. Drawn to Bane’s side, because that’s where she wanted to be, she took her position beside him. He’d cleaned up nicely. Customary leather pants, black tee, leather duster, as were most of the UnHallowed dressed. He’d strapped knives to his chest, and short swords to his back, the hilts of two showed behind each shoulder. He looked the same as he did when she first laid eyes on him in that abandoned row house. Tall, handsome, and arrogant.
He pointed at Ioath, Rimmon, then Riél and Gadreel. “You know where to go. Get moving.” Lastly, he turned to Zed and Gideon. “You two. Get going.” Though crimson swallowed their gazes, both strode into the shadows.
That left Daghony and Bane.
Malphas stood in the center of the room looking fresh with perfect hair and that damn irritating smirk and those dead cognac eyes that made her skin crawl. She had the chilling realization there was nothing deeper beneath the veneer Malphas presented to the world. Peel away the surface, she suspected she’d find a yawning, sucking hole.
She shook off the chill and followed Bane to the large shadow waiting in the corner of the room, even though each footstep began to get heavier and her blood seemed to simmer in her veins. A bead of sweat trickled down her back, quickly joined by another. Her mouth dried and her vision swam just before her knees locked, preventing her from tipping over.
She couldn’t go into the shadows. The last time had made her violently ill, and that was before she’d absorbed Braile’s grace and sprouted wings. If she entered the void again…she may not come out.
“Amaya?”
Bane’s voice snapped her out of her panic and she focused on him instead of the shadows now reaching for both of them. “I can’t,” she whispered.
For the first time, he glanced at her wings and understanding dawned. Light flared behind her. She spun and watched Malphas gather energy from the air into a focal point and then expand that energy into a dimensional pocket.
When the blinding light died, leaving behind the spherical glowing orb, the Demoni Lord held out his hand. “Come, Amaya. I will get you there safely.”
Oh hell. It’s not like she had a choice. She was not staying behind. Bane’s hand tightened around hers, then released. “Hey.” She tugged on his shirt to get his attention. His red gaze caressed her even as his lips peeled back in a snarl. “You know I can kick his ass, right?”
Daghony waited at the edge of the shadows. “She’ll be safe for this short time, and we have no choice. Either she stays or she goes with Malphas.”
Bane growled low in his throat.
“Nothing has changed. He still needs us as much as we need him. I’ll be fine.” She stepped away, to have Bane drag her back to him, his hands on her hips, keeping her in front of him. His gaze locked on Malphas, who waited patiently for her with one arrogant eyebrow raised. This wasn’t about her safety. This was a fucking pissing contest and she was the prize. Not cool!
She punched Bane in the gut, hard. Now she had his attention and had a finger in his face to get her point across. “You and I are on the same page. So cut it out. We got shit to do and don’t have time for this testosterone bull.”
Though the corners of his lips curled into a five-alarm, wicked grin, the red didn’t leave his eyes. “Same page, huh?”
She nodded. “Same paragraph.”
He leaned close and whispered in her ear, “Same damn sentence.”
“Right down to the last word and final period.” Why did that just sound like a commitment? And why wasn’t she panicked at saying it?
Bane sighed. He threw a disgusted glance at Malphas, then nudged her toward the Demoni Lord. Amaya ignored his outstretched hand and entered the spinning orb. He stood next to her as she watched Bane. Neither he nor Daghony moved from their positions. She smiled at him until the light from the dimensional pocket blurred his image and he faded from view.
“How long is the travel time?” she asked.
“Thirty seconds, give or take. Light travels faster than the dark.”
She didn’t know enough to argue against his point but had the sense he wasn’t quite right. Darkness didn’t travel as light did because darkness was everywhere, in everything. Darkness existed. “So we’ll get there before—”
“Bane. We’ll beat him by a few seconds.”
Adrenalin spiked her blood. The weight and placement of her weapons registered. Also, Malphas’s position and his vulnerable points—if he had any.
She slipped her hand into her pocket, wrapped her fingers around a throwing star, and relaxed. Shoulders slumped, head slightly back and tilted at an angle, completely non-threatening. Staring straight ahead, a kaleidoscope of colors zigzagged in front of her eyes. It reminded her of a Ferris wheel spinning one thousand RPMs. Dizzying. She stood inside of a rainbow with a Demoni Lord. So much for enjoying the moment.
“How do you control this thing?”
He snorted and angled his head her way with a bored glance. “Mind over matter. There are gateways to other dimensions. This pocket isn’t one of them, though it allows us to fold space and instantly get us from point A to point Z in seconds.”
She wanted to ask if angels used pocket dimensions and realized that would be a mistake. Shit, her question was a mistake. What if angels did control pocket dimensions and she had just admitted no knowledge of that fact?
He wouldn’t have made such a stupid mistake. The ride stopped and she exited onto a gentle slope of a hillside. Off in the distance stood a sprawling ranch with empty pens and multiple barn-like structures.
Amaya stuck her other hand into her pocket, slipped two more throwing stars between her fingers, and pivoted. “Where’s Bane?”
Malphas sized her up. She had no delusions. He probably knew she had weapons in her hands, not that his knowledge would deter her one fucking bit. If Bane had so much as a blister, Malphas would be carved.
“You truly care about that low-level UnHallowed?” Eyebrows lowered and knit together as if he couldn’t possibly fathom her feelings from Bane. And she wouldn’t be explaining her feelings to a Demoni Lord.
She removed her hand from her pocket, no longer hiding the throwing stars. “Last time. Where. Is. He?”
He sighed, shook his head, and shrugged. “He’s fine. The coordinates I gave him are for an underground chamber.”
“Where’s the entrance?”
“Closer to the hillside on the other side of those trees.” He tipped his chin to the copse of trees behind her.
Amaya opened her wings.
“Before you take to the sky,” Malphas shouted, “answer a question.”
She didn’t know why she halted. For whatever reason, she gave him her attention.
“How old are you?”
Tread carefully. If ever there was a loaded question. “You never ask a lady her age.”
He executed a clipped bow. “Apologies. Though the reason I ask is valid. Let me clarify. How long ago did you die and ascend to Heaven? Or if you prefer, how long since you became a warrior class angel? An answer to any of those questions would be appreciated.”
She bet they would. “Why the sudden interest? I’m just a run-of-the-mill angel.”
He shook his head. “Oh, no, Amaya.” Her name was a husky growl. “There is nothing run-of-the-mill about you. Not from your blood tipped wings, tight body, or—”
Amaya took flight, not too high, she skimmed the ground, as low as she dared. Each action carried a risk. Too high or too low, she was a target.
The trees were thick with dense foliage. She dipped and darted between them until she reached a row she couldn’t get around and wasn’t sure her newfound flying skills wouldn’t get her killed. Tucking her wings, she skidded to a landing inside the last row—and bumped into Malphas.
“Jesus H! Where the hell did you come from?” She leaped away from him, but he captured her chin between his thumb and forefinger, while his hand grabbed her wrist, preventing her from using her stars. Being this close to him, within his personal bubble, made her skin crawl, literally. It had to be an angel—demoni thing, her borrowed grace reacting to his evil nature.
“That isn’t the question that needs answering, Amaya. Tell me why an angel doesn’t know how to shield her wings. Tell me why an angel has human weapons and not empyreal steel. Tell me why you wear clothes and not empyreal armor.”
“Release me or lose that fucking hand.” She could be free if she so chose, yet she didn’t. Staying in his embrace, showing she wasn’t afraid, was more important than her breaking free.
In a dulcet tone that didn’t hide his precise words, Malphas leaned closer until his dead cognac eyes filled her vision. “Tell me what are you, Amaya, and I will release you.”
Chapter Twelve
Taige grabbed Aiden by the throat and pointed at the second Cruor. Tilted at an angle, it rested on the base of the pedestal, the color identical to the original portal, only reversed. “What is it?” He shook Aiden to get the answer out of him.
Aiden’s face screwed up in concentration, then he lifted a shoulder. “A second Cruor, apparently.”
“How is this possible? What did you do?” Taige snatched the notebook from Aiden and then tossed him aside.
“I read the passage.”
No. Aiden didn’t just read the words. Taige opened the notebook to the correct page, flipped it upside down, and read from right to left instead of left to right, repeating Aiden’s action.
Nothing happened. The damn thing remained inert.
That’s when he realized the words he read weren’t the words Aiden had said. The words Aiden uttered weren’t on the page. He spoke in Demonish, a language older and deader than anything known. A language of the Lords.
“How did you know to do this?”
“Hasmed, my Demoni Lord, I was his scribe and his messages were always coded in Demonish and structured this way. He taught me the language.”
“Scribe, huh?” Taige handed the notebook back to Aiden. “Decipher the rest of it, not out loud. Silently. We don’t need you inadvertently creating anything else that might not be so benign.”
Taige turned to the second Cruor. “Can you read the engraving on either of these?”
Aiden bent over for a closer study. “This isn’t Demonish. Then again, neither is the engraving on the original Cruor. And before you ask, no, I don’t know what it is either.”
Taige ignored Aiden’s sarcasm. He’d address it at a later date. “Hmm?” He tapped his chin. “Malphas may know. We’ll interrogate him when we capture him.”
“So, what do we do about this?” Aiden ran his hand over the surface of the second Cruor.
“We hide it. No one needs to know we have a backup if that’s what it is.” On to the next thing on the list. “How are the other projects coming along?”
Aiden headed over to a laptop he set up in a rear office. “I have a few accounts to link, then we can strike all of Malphas’s accounts at once. He won’t have a chance to hide. He’ll be completely at our mercy. But first, we take over all of his property. He will be barred from all of his personal residences. That’s taking a little longer. He has properties in every city of note and I’m only sending those we trust.”
“Why should that be an issue? We have the power to control minds. Bend the humans to our will and get it done.”
Aiden shook his head. “Humans aren’t the problem, secrecy is. We don’t want Malphas to know the crippling blow heading his way. Caution dictates my slow pace.”
“Excuses! I want results. They are out there, closing in on us.”
“Malphas doesn’t own this property.” Aiden waved a hand at the structure. “He has no idea where we are, besides, whatever property they go to, I will know. And before you ask, hidden cameras.”
Taige was impressed. “How long did that take you?”
“Years.” Aiden tapped away on the keyboard.
The forethought that went into planning this coup astonished Taige. While he whined, Aiden put thought into action. Taige stumbled upon the Cruor, while Aiden planned for the long haul.
“Our masters will enter this world with wealth and comfort.” Aiden typed away on his keyboard.
Taige patted Aiden’s shoulder and watched the numbers scroll past on the monitor. “Yes. They will be quite comfortable.” And so will I. “Let’s see how poverty suits Malphas.”
Chapter Thirteen
Malphas wanted the truth and Amaya had none to give him.
“No one touches me without my permission. And I haven’t given it.” A weight settled in her free palm, along with a surge of power. Her fingers closed around the cool hilt. Not her knives. Something larger. Deadlier to a Demoni. Heart rate and breathing steady. Muscles loose, yet ready. “Last chance, Malphas. Then you lose more than just your hand.”
He glanced down. She followed his gaze to the empyreal sword in her hand, the glowing tip aimed to strike between his ribs and bury deep inside his body. How it got there, she had no idea, but damn, it was right on time.
“You are extraordinary. Completely wasted on the UnHallowed,” he murmured and stroked her cheek with a single finger.
“But I wouldn’t be wasted on you. You and I would be a perfect match.” She started off with a nod and ended on a single shake of her head. “Do
n’t be delusional. Accept the partnership with the UnHallowed. You’re not gonna get anything else. Not from them. Not from me.”
His hand dropped from her face and a sad sort of resignation settled on him. “As I said, extraordinary.” He stepped away, putting some much needed space between them, and waved to an indistinct clump of trees. “The entrance to the tunnel is over here.”
No way had a Demoni Lord given up that easily. The wind blew in from the east, carrying a strange scent. Amaya veered away from Malphas and weaved through the last stand of trees to a burned out stretch of land. “What happened here?”
He scowled, his brow lowered over his pitted eyes. “Can’t you smell it?”
She smelled something, best described as heady bouquet burned flowers, scraping her insides raw. “W-what is that?” she asked, fighting the tears welling in her eyes.
“An angel who doesn’t know the scent of her own kind?” He scoffed.
She looked across the field again, searching for angels. “Where?” she sobbed.
Malphas ignored her and turned back to the tree line. He walked into a large trunk and vanished.
“Well isn’t that nifty.” Sword still in her hand, she followed and passed into a dark world. Instantly, her eyes adjusted and focused on the earthen staircase leading down. Tree roots brushed her body, tangling in her hair, creeping her out. “I’m gonna need another bath after this,” she grumbled.
A wave of dizziness hit her. She had to lean on the sword and regain her balance. Malphas continued on. Good, the last thing she needed was Malphas seeing her in a moment of weakness.
“Where’s Bane?” She shook off the dizziness and caught up to him.
“Here.” A pair of combat boots waited at the edge of the dark.
Relief washed over her. She darted around Malphas and ran down the stairs, stopping short of throwing herself into his arms.
Only You (UnHallowed Series Book 3) Page 8