by Sylvia Day
Eve drove to a strip mall and parked. Exiting through the rear door of a nail salon, they walked up the road to a Hertz rental car agency and picked up new wheels. Alec paid with cash rather than a traceable credit card. Now they were settled in a Ford Focus whose satellite transponder wasn’t monitored by Raguel—at least not at present. The archangel would catch on eventually and when he did he would tap into Hertz’s tracking system. For now, however, they were off the radar.
Not a word passed between them during the exchange; there was nothing to say. Eve didn’t trust Raguel and Alec couldn’t defend him. The entire situation was fucked six ways to Sunday.
“He who is a hired hand,” he murmured, “and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.”
“What?” Eve asked.
Alec glanced at her. “John 10:12.”
“You’re calling Gadara the hired hand? You think he’s tossed us to the wolves, too?”
“I don’t know what to think, angel.” He leaned his head back against the headrest. “I’m having a hard time understanding how he can be so cavalier about something so important.”
“He doesn’t believe us,” she said flatly. “It’s either that, or he believes it and wants the shit to hit the fan. Any idea what reasoning he would have to allow that to happen?”
“No.”
Alec had never liked the archangels. Similar to children, they curried the favor of their father. They competed with their siblings in the hopes of outshining them. Marks and their mentors and handlers were simply a means to that end. That was why Alec had come to appreciate his autonomy; it kept him far beyond their machinations.
“And that whole ‘get your hands dirty’ excuse is crap,” Eve said crossly. “I’m not buying it.”
“I’m not either.”
“So what’s the point?” She looked at him. “What could he possibly gain beyond pissing you off?”
“Are you asking me, or just talking out loud?”
“Of course I’m asking you.” Her eyes went back to the road. They were traveling a respectable seventy-five miles per hour on Route 60. The windows were up so they didn’t have to shout, but the air conditioner was on. The chilled air ruffled through Eve’s hair, blowing loose tendrils from her ponytail across her cheek. She swiped at them impatiently. “You know what’s going on better than I do.”
“Not really,” he said dryly. “That’s the problem. I’ve never had a handler or worked within a firm. My orders come directly from Jehovah. I have no idea how to function within a framework. You and I are completely in the dark with this.”
“Okay, then. How would you handle this if you were on your own?”
Alec didn’t hesitate to answer, because he’d been thinking of his options ever since the night before. “I would set up camp in Upland. Infernals can smell me coming, so I would stake out the masonry and break in during off hours. Then I’d dig around.”
“Let’s go back to the smell thing.” Her fingers flexed on the steering wheel. “If I was omnipotent and I created a legion of warriors to fight on my behalf, I wouldn’t advertise them with a unique scent. I’d want to keep them hidden.”
“Deer smell the wolves coming. This hunt isn’t any different from what you see in the animal kingdom.”
“It’s like he’s giving them a chance to get away with whatever they’re doing.”
“The Lord has a strong sense of fair play.”
“Or a sick sense of humor.”
“Angel—”
“So let’s follow your plan,” she said quickly. “We’ll grab a hotel room, then stake out the masonry.”
His eyes closed. He reached out blindly to set his hand on her thigh. “We don’t have a choice. I’m sorry.”
Her hand settled over his much larger one. Eve was slender and delicate, far too precious to risk so pointlessly. “One step at a time.”
“You sound good,” he murmured. “Focused.”
“I know what we saw, or more aptly what we didn’t see.” Her voice flowed over his skin like sun-warmed honey. “I’ve never had aspirations of saving the world, but obviously I am not going to turn my back and pretend nothing is happening.”
Alec opened one eye and turned his head. “Don’t let what Raguel said get to you.”
“That’s easier said than done.” The corners of her mouth took on a downward curve. “He’s right. It’s one thing to be ignorant by accident; it is completely different to be ignorant by choice. I wanted to go to the damn movies, Alec, when all Hell has broken loose—literally. What is the matter with me?”
“I understand why you wanted some time alone today. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished I could be normal for even an hour. That doesn’t make you a coward and it doesn’t make you wrong.”
“Doesn’t make me right either.”
Eve looked at him. The sadness in her eyes combined with the determined set of her jaw hit his gut like a blow. He was struck with the knowledge that more than one woman had died today. The young girl he had known and loved was gone, never to return. She had been ripped from her safe, orderly life and thrust into a world where demons hunted her and dear friends paid the price.
Scrubbing a hand over his face, Alec tried to hide his disquiet from Eve. As he mourned the loss of his first love, fury and frustration ate at him. In only a matter of days it had become too late to save her.
Yet it wasn’t too late to save the woman sitting beside him now, the woman holding his hand and suggesting she stand with him as he tackled an assignment unlike any he had ever faced before.
“This isn’t your fault, Alec.”
A dry laugh rasped from his throat. “Are you trying to comfort me? After what you’ve been through?”
“This hasn’t been easy on you either. You’ve given up a lot for me.”
He stood to gain a lot more. But she didn’t know that.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. One man’s goddess was another man’s nightmare. Sara Kiel, however, was beautiful to all who saw her. Tall, willowy, yet fully curved, Sara was physically perfect in a way that plastic surgeons would sell their souls to replicate. There had been a time when the mere sight of her could make Reed’s blood heat dangerously. Now, he watched her with an indifferent eye, admiring her with only a vague interest.
“I find it nearly impossible to believe that Raguel has not acted on this information,” she said, pacing gracefully. She reminded him of a tigress—golden, lithe, predatory. “Perhaps he knows something that you do not.”
“Or perhaps he wants to keep the information as contained as possible,” Reed countered.
Sipping from a glass of icy water, he lounged on the golden velvet chaise in Sara’s Parisian office with one arm slung over the back. The head of the European firm of Marks was often assumed by theologians to be a male. They couldn’t be more wrong. Sarakiel was a woman in every sense of the word.
Today she wore a pinstriped pantsuit and tie, an ensemble that might have made some women look masculine. On Sara, it only emphasized her divinely enhanced femininity. Her pale blonde hair was pulled into a classic chignon and her face was devoid of the makeup that funded her firm. Sara Kiel Cosmetics was a worldwide phenomenon, with sales inspired by the unequaled face of its owner.
There had been a time when Reed thought they were exceptionally suited to one another, but that was long ago. He had become jaded enough to admit that an outward sense of style and a mutual fondness for rough sex was not enough of a foundation for any sort of lasting relationship.
“Raguel knows,” Reed continued, “that Cain is too much of a loner to approach anyone else for help and Evangeline is too green to do anything on her own.”
“Ah, the notorious Evangeline,” Sara cooed. “I plan to visit Raguel soon. I am dying of curiosity about Cain’s woman. In fact, I sent a team to California yesterday to prepare for my arrival.”
Notorious. Reed’s jaw tightened. “She’s just like any other woman.”
“Is she? She is the only thing besides blood that you have shared with your brother.” Sara’s smile turned brittle. “Tell me, mon chéri, what is it like fucking a woman who bears your mother’s name?”
“Who says I fucked her?”
“There is no way you could resist. And certainly she would not be able to refuse you.”
He shrugged.
Sara returned to the topic at hand. “I am certain Raguel expected you to keep the news quiet, because doing so places your brother in jeopardy.”
“Who knows what he thinks?” Reed dismissed.
“I am more concerned with what you are thinking. I admit to being surprised that you are here. Moreso than I am that he is not.”
“This goes far beyond the North American firm. The development of an Infernal mask places everyone in jeopardy.”
“So what do you want me to do?” Her fingers stroked sensuously along the length of her tie.
Behind Sara, Reed could see the Eiffel Tower glittering with lights in the darkness. Odd that the backdrop would be so similar to the one he’d seen behind Raguel just a short time past. Two archangels, two continents, same view. They had more in common than that; they were both ambitious and frighteningly competitive.
“I want you to lend me the team of Marks you sent to California,” he said.
Sara laughed. “You do not ask for much, do you?”
“Nothing you can’t afford.”
“The question is: can you afford it?” The glint in her eye confirmed his earlier suspicions about what she’d want from him.
“You ask that as if it were a hardship,” he drawled. He deliberately focused on not betraying his growing tension. “Don’t forget how much you stand to gain beyond the immediate. To have your team outwit Raguel’s would be quite a coup for you.”
“I know how this benefits me, but what does it do for you?” Her blue eyes narrowed. “In addition to incurring Raguel’s wrath, you are also foregoing the possibility of humiliation for your brother.”
Reed stared through his drinking glass to the cubes of ice within. He rattled them absently before casting Sara a sidelong glance. “Forego Cain’s humiliation? Darling, you wound me. What could be more perfect than being the instrument of his deliverance and the tool by which he is rescued?”
He didn’t say that Jehovah might find his initiative pleasing, especially considering the possible consequences of failing to act. Pleasing God would only increase his chances of gaining a firm of his own.
But Sara was aware of some omission, as evidenced by the doubtful humming noise she made.
Setting his glass on the gilded coffee table, Reed stood. It was time to move in for the kill.
She held up one hand. “Did I not say that you would come back to me . . .on your knees?”
A smile curved his mouth. “But it’s so much more fun for both of us when you are on yours.”
Her lips parted and she backed up a step.
Reed moved toward her with deliberate leisure, his fingers on the buttons of his waistcoat. If he didn’t see to his own undressing, Sara would tear his garments from him. She took such pleasure in ripping into his outer shell, as if that would somehow expose the man he was within.
He could see the anticipation race over her skin and knew her nipples would be tight and hard, her sex hot and slick. Two weeks had passed since he’d indulged in Eve. Two weeks of celibacy that should have left him hungry for the hard screwing Sara relished. He hadn’t gone this long without a woman in centuries.
Shrugging out of his coat and waistcoat, Reed tossed them over the back of one of the chairs facing Sara’s desk. He tugged off his tie and belt, adding them to the pile. With every article of clothing he shed, Sara’s excitement grew. He could smell her lust, see it in the brightness of her eyes and the nervous licking of her lips. She reached into his pocket, withdrew his cell phone, and turned it off. Then she tossed it over to the chaise.
Reed reached for his fly. Her gaze dropped. He thought of stairwells and cameras and thickly lashed slanted eyes. His cock finally cooperated with his intentions, hardening from the heated memory.
“Before we get distracted,” he murmured, “I want you to tell your team in California to get ready for a mission.”
“I need them,” she retorted. “I’ll send another.”
His hands dropped to his sides. “They may not get there in time. That isn’t a chance I’m willing to take.”
Sara’s jaw tightened when she realized he’d leave if he didn’t get what he wanted. “You drive a hard bargain, mon chéri.”
“Isn’t that why you like me so much?”
CHAPTER 17
Eve pulled into the parking lot of a Motel 6 just off the highway in Upland. There was a convenience store adjacent and a grocer’s up the street. Turning off the ignition, she glanced at Alec before opening the door. He hadn’t said a word over the last few minutes, retreating into himself and hoarding his thoughts. She knew this was as difficult for him as it was for her. If she’d ever consider praying to a higher power for anything, it would be for the ability to help him instead of hinder him.
She pushed the door open and exited. Resting her forearm on the roof of the car, she looked around. Upland was inland from Orange County, which made the temperature hotter and the air drier. She missed the ocean breeze already, but Eve suspected that was part of a general homesickness for anything familiar. She was separated from her family and her best friend, she’d lost her job, and Mrs. Basso was gone. A hotel stay in a strange town only added to her feeling of being a fish out of water.
Water.
Thinking of the Nix, Eve pushed away from the car and shut the door. Alec appeared on the opposite side. Tall, dark, handsome, and brooding. He slipped shades over his eyes, hiding his thoughts from her visual probe. There was a huge gulf between them at the moment. Like the tide against the shore, they crashed together and drew apart.
“After we get a room,” she said, “I need to hit the convenience store for a soda and a prepaid cell phone.”
He smiled. “You’d make a good spy, I think.”
“I have a fondness for action flicks.”
Alec came around the trunk and offered his hand. She accepted, but the closeness was only superficial. Emotionally, he was miles away, which was why she took a room with two double beds.
“You two got any pets?” the desk clerk asked. He was a young man in his midtwenties, Eve guessed. Over-weight by about sixty pounds and a mouth breather.
She shook her head. “Just us. Please don’t put us in a room that has had pets before. I’m allergic to cats.”
“No problem.” He leaned over the counter and lowered his voice. “Someone in the area has been stealing pets and hacking them up. It’s in all the local papers. Just wanted to warn you.”
“Hacking them up?” she repeated, remembering the article she’d read earlier that morning.
“Nasty stuff. Disemboweling, removing the eyeballs . . . that sort of thing.” His tone was more gossip-monger thrilled than it was disgusted or disturbed. “I read once that most serial killers start out mutilating animals, then they progress to people.”
“So this area isn’t safe?”
“It is for humans.” He shrugged, straightening. “Not so much for pets.”
While she signed the paperwork, Alec paid the balance in cash. He stared at her from behind his shades, but didn’t say a word until they went outside.
“Something you want to say to me?” he asked as they skirted the front office and crossed over to the 7-Eleven parking lot.
“About what?”
“About the two beds?”
“No pressure.”
“Hmm.”
An electronic beeping announced their entrance into the convenience store. Out front, three cars were filling their gas tanks at the pumps. Inside, an elderly woman with big white hair manned the counte
r and two teens stood by the coolers against the rear wall, looking at the soda.
Eve grabbed a hand basket by the door and moved to the prepaid phones hanging on an end cap.
Alec gestured to the soda fountain. “Want something to drink?”
“Diet Dr Pepper, if they have it. Otherwise, I’ll get it in a bottle.”
“Okay.”
Alec walked away and she rounded the aisle, grabbing beef jerky, nuts, and Chex Mix. She had a vision of lying across her motel bed with junk food, soda, and a movie on the television. The mere idea of a few hours of decompression was heaven on earth. They wouldn’t head out to the masonry until night, so she had time to vegetate and make sense of life as she now knew it. With that in mind, she grabbed chocolate, too—Twix, Kit Kats, and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
Eve was making her way around the next aisle when the Infernal stench hit her. She sought out the source of the putrid smell and settled on the teenagers by the rear cooler. One wore a hooded sweatshirt with the hood up. The other wore a Hurley T-shirt and unkempt hair. On his nape, a tattoo of a diamond animated. It rotated, displaying the glimmer of its various facets.
She gaped, unmoving. As if he felt the weight of her stare, the hooded boy turned his head toward her. Eve’s gaze dropped, her obscenely steady hands absently pulling unknown items from the shelf into her basket. She continued down the aisle, witless with fear.
Look harmless and busy, she told herself.
“Angel.”
Jumping a good foot into the air, Eve spun to face Alec, who approached with a rapid stride. He caught her elbow and drew her farther down the aisle, away from the Infernals.
They were everywhere. How could she have forgotten that for even a moment? The weight of the knowledge was crushing.
As they feigned a preoccupation with shopping, Eve and Alec furtively watched the two young men withdraw energy drinks from the cooler and head up to the register. The clerk greeted them cheerfully and rang up their purchases. Her eyes were rimmed with gobs of mascara à la Tammy Faye Bakker and her lips were rimmed with the wrinkles of a lifetime cigarette smoker, but her smile was genuinely warm and her manner sweet.