by Jenny McKane
“It’s nerves,” Asmodeus’ voice caught her attention and she looked up to find him watching her.
“Nerves?” She frowned.
“You can’t sleep because you’re nervous the first demon on your list is going to eat you,” he said with a smirk. “And he might. But still, you should have more confidence in your training. Negotiating with demons is actually a simple thing.”
Sunny just shook her head. “I didn’t have much training in negotiations,” she said, rubbing her palm over her knee.
Asmodeus looked to Gabriel, who was the current driver.
“How could you fail her like that? What kind of teacher are you?”
Gabriel bristled at that. “I wasn’t the archangel she was assigned to, demon,” Gabriel muttered. “She was Michael’s.”
Asmodeus was back to talking to Sunny.
“He didn’t teach you the art of negotiation? Of closing a deal where everyone gets what they want, but your side gets just a little more?”
Wanting the conversation to stop, Sunny scratched her head.
“No,” she finally admitted. “My education in the world of angels and demons was sorely lacking. I barely learned how to fight for real a few months ago.”
If it were possible, Asmodeus looked shocked. He looked from Gabriel to Sunny and back again.
“Was Michael in the business of getting his Solomons slaughtered?”
She winced at the truth of it, as that was basically what Michael was doing. Gabriel cut in, saving her from having to explain a situation she still hadn’t wrapped her mind around.
“Seemed like it,” was all Sunny said and even Asmodeus fell quiet for a few moments.
“How very odd,” was all the demon said.
*****
After a short nap, Eli was driving and Gideon was riding shotgun to help keep him awake, though there wasn’t much conversation going on to assist the driver. Sunny eyed the two of them from where she sat in the middle row and tried to unpack the tension she was sensing to no avail.
Asmodeus was riding beside her and she couldn’t relax with him so close. He wasn’t a threat to her, but she’d taken to referring to him as the “gambler” in her head, as she observed him constantly gathering facts and stats in his head. He was a playmaker, and odds creator, and the less she showed him of how vulnerable she felt, the better.
He spoke quietly as they rumbled on, crossing the Oklahoma border and headed toward Interstate 10 once they reached Texas.
“Agares is going to be the easiest test for you, but that’s not saying much. He’s the least threatening, true, but he’s tricky and he didn’t grow to his ripe old age by being a fool,” Asmodeus said. “Agares is like any of the other 72 guardian demons in that he wants one thing—freedom. He’ll say what he needs to in order to get it, so be on guard.”
Sunny didn’t think there was a lot of substance to his warning, but she agreed she would do her best to be “on guard.”
“What are the parameters of working with this ring?” she asked, waving her finger in the air as the light coming in from the window bounced off it.
“It means to any guardian you come across that you’re the last Solomon,” he said, as though it made perfect sense.
“But Solomon wasn’t the last Solomon when he used it. He had wives and children already,” she said. “Why does it have now to be the last?”
It’d been a question that bugged her. Over the years, why hadn’t other Solomons picked up the mantle of the ring and used it?
Asmodeus watched the light bouncing off her ring a moment before casting his dark eyes at her. He wore his hair in a low pony tail that hung back on his collar, giving her a glimpse of his sharp cheekbones and his slim nose.
“Because, human, we failed,” Asmodeus said bitterly. “There was a pact between Solomon and myself to achieve certain goals—to mend certain fissures in human and demon society and, for one reason or another, he and I failed each other and were punished. Me and the four generals to our graves, the remaining 67 to rootless lives with no memories of the previous day. And Solomon? He died. Got off the easiest, if you ask me, but he damned his progeny and his line to pay for his mistakes.”
“As Hunters?”
“As being bound to angels to help clean up the messes that he and his demon helper made,” Asmodeus said.
Sunny ran the pad of her thumb over the Seal. King Solomon truly did escape the easiest—dying seemed like the coward’s way out.
“What agreement did you have? What fissures were you mending?”
Asmodeus shook his head.
“Stories for another time,” he said. “I do not wish to recall those days just yet. I can’t be certain my temper can be stayed if I get too emotional thinking of them.”
Duly warned, Sunny backed off and let the rest of the ride fall into silence until Asmodeus wanted to talk again.
Chapter Twenty-five
“It’s quite simple,” Asmodeus said as they dined in the hotel’s restaurant.
They were all exhausted from the 16-hour journey and nobody felt like facing the first demon until they’d all had plenty of sleep, food, and a good shower.
Asmodeus insisted on the best hotel they could find in Phoenix, a place called Stratus, and paid for enough rooms for everyone to have their own. They were all on the same floor, of course, and soon everyone disappeared into their own rooms for the three essentials.
Food was first. Sunny ordered enough food for a banquet, and didn’t bat an eyelash at Asmodeus footing the bill. He’d insisted.
“I have enough money to make Solomon himself look like a beggar,” he said with flair. “Eat what you wish.”
So Sunny had. She’d picked a pasta dish because it seemed like weeks since she had anything but fast food and to go with it, she picked just about every dessert on the menu.
While she waited, she took an extra long shower and dressed herself in the fluffy robe hanging from the door.
Sunny found herself thinking about how much she could get used to luxuries like room service and fuzzy slippers.
When the food arrived, she turned on cable for the first time in a couple months and did her best not to think about anything. No angels. No demons. No Armageddons. All Sunny thought about was the poorly acted love story playing out in front of her on the Sappy Movie Network her aunt used to love.
A knock on the door jarred her from her mindless reverie and when she meandered over to it and slid the chain lock from its housing, she saw Gideon standing there with a sheepish smile, a plate of cheesecake and chocolate lava cake.
She returned his smile and opened the door wide for him to pass through and when Gideon caught sight of her own collection of desserts on the table near the corner, he let out a laugh.
“Great minds,” he said as he added his offerings to the selection.
Sunny quickly moved to turn off the cheesy movie she was watching but Gideon stopped her.
“It’s fine,” he said. “It’s not like we want to watch the news updates of the ongoing violence in Chicago.”
He was right. They’d lived through a lot of that and didn’t need a recap. She muted the volume and went to join Gideon at the table, where he’d already set out two plates and extra silverware.
After a few bites in companionable silence, Gideon spoke.
“How are you?”
Pausing as the fork neared her mouth, Sunny smiled.
“In general, or speaking about the onslaught of calories I’m working on here?”
Gideon just shook his head.
“We haven’t had much time to talk since you raised Asmodeus,” he said. “I was just curious if you were doing okay.”
She frowned. “Do I look like I’m not doing okay?”
Was she sporting a giant zit or something? Bags under her eyes for days? What did he mean?
“Calm down, Rosie,” Gideon said with a laugh. “I’m just trying to make sure you’re okay. Up here.”
He reached
across the table and tapped her gently on the forehead with his finger. Laughing, she batted it away.
“Not really,” she admitted. “But I figure the best I can do is take it one day, one step, one breath at a time, you know? We haven’t blown up the world yet, so I take it that we’re doing fine.”
Gideon just smiled at her before nodding.
“One of the best things about you is that adorable optimism,” he said.
That made Sunny frown. “Adorable as in, misplaced? Naive?”
“No,” he corrected her. “As in uplifting and encouraging.”
Sitting back against her chair, she smiled.
“It’s true, Sunshine,” Gideon said. “You never seem to lose faith that things will work out. I’m pretty sure that without you, this whole operation would have been turned to dust a long time ago.”
Sunny waggled her eyebrows at Gideon.
“You’d be married and crossing portals right now if my optimism had failed us,” she said quietly.
It wasn’t like she was tooting her own horn—no, she was reinforcing what he was saying, making herself believe it too.
Gideon shuddered.
“No thanks,” he said. “I’m forever in your debt for all that you’ve done, Sunshine. Seriously.”
“No debts anymore, Gideon,” Sunny said, suddenly serious. “I’m not keeping score and neither should you, okay? It’s just Sunny and Gideon trying to save the world from now on, right?”
Gideon studied her face a moment longer than necessary and just as she was about to speak up to save herself from embarrassment, he leaned across the table and pulled her face to his. She was so shocked by the movement that she dropped her fork and the bite of cheesecake on it.
His lips were warm and soft and aggressive all at the same time. In the past two weeks, they’d shared a stolen kiss here and there, but they were always soft and fleeting and over before Sunny could wrap her mind around the fact that Gideon had his lips on hers.
She let out a tiny moan from the back of her throat when he angled her head back and deepened his assault on her senses, her hands finally coming alive and reaching out, grabbing Gideon by the back of his head and hanging on for dear life as he moved around the table and came to kneel in between her legs without breaking contact.
Under the same spell, Sunny wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him even closer.
It was magic, this kiss, and broke through the few remaining boundaries and walls that Sunny had erected between herself and her first true love.
The thought hit her like a massive weight in the chest, how precious this man was to her. She’d known that she had loved Gideon shortly after meeting him and, in time, he’d made his feelings for her apparent, too. And while there was a hard road they’d had to walk, and it seemed that there were harder paths ahead of them, Sunny realized that never once, not ever, had her feelings for Gideon wavered.
Certainly, she’d pulled back in an effort to protect herself, but her heart and her mind were always with the infuriating man who was right now kissing her senseless.
“No debts,” he finally agreed when they came up for air. “And for now, Sunny, no promises either. There’s still so much up in the air that we’d be foolish to do anything but savor the moment.”
“I’m not trying to marry you, Gideon,” she joked, even though the word made her stomach flip flop. Was marriage possible for people like them? Their world was so upside down and on fire all the time that she was beginning to doubt it.
He put his hand over his heart in mock pain.
“You wound me, Bonnard,” he overacted before getting serious again. “Someday, I will marry a girl named Sunshine, of that you can be sure. I’m just saying let’s save the world first and then you and I can pick out flowers and sheet music someday.”
If Gideon couldn’t hear the beat of her heart thrumming through her ears, then he must certainly be half-deaf, because her heart was going to explode in her chest at his words. Sure, he’d said no promises—and then he’d gone and said something like that? What was he doing to her?
“You’ll make a beautiful bride, Gideon Lafayette,” she said, relying on humor to diffuse the weight surrounding their conversation.
It was her only weapon—if they kept along the same path, she’d surely find it impossible to stay focused and rousing demons from their sleep.
Gideon laughed at that and placed another kiss on her lips before standing up.
He held out a hand for her and pulled her up, too.
“No dessert?” she asked, suddenly confused and a little upset that she wasn’t going to get to finish her cheesecake.
“On the contrary,” he said as his body turned hers and pushed her back until the backs of her knees hit the bed.
Sunny watched as he undid the belt of her robe and opened the front of it, baring the fact that she was wearing nothing but a matching set of black bra and boy shorts, and she mentally thanked herself for finding a matching pair. Gideon gently pushed her down to the bed and pressed her backwards with his body so that she was scooting up toward the pillows. When she laid her head against the pillow, he draped his hard body against her exposed skin and pressed his lips to her neck as he whispered.
“We’re just getting started with dessert, Rosie.”
Chapter Twenty-six
They rallied at the breakfast buffet the next morning.
Asmodeus had a plate piled high of eggs, potatoes, waffles, and sausage and he was indulging in bite after overstuffed bite as he talked.
“It’s a big day today,” he said as Sunny and Gideon approached.
Asmodeus was the only one who seemed to raise an eyebrow, as if he could read between the lines and knew what had transpired between the two of them the evening before. Sin merely smirked as they sat at the table and Eli pushed himself up with a little too much force and stormed back to the buffet. Sunny watched him go while Gideon studied the menu.
“How are you feeling?” Asmodeus pressed, pointing a fork in her direction. “Ready for your grand debut as a demon charmer?”
Sunny laughed at that, feeling more like a circus performer than part of a team hoping for a miracle while they tried to save the world.
“I don’t know about that,” she said with a shrug. “But here’s hoping for the best, I suppose.”
Metatron and Gabriel approached from behind, both of them wearing workout gear and obviously just arriving from the hotel’s gym.
“Really?” she asked as they sat. “Getting a good workout in before the big moment?”
It wasn’t exactly how she’d spent her last few moments of normalcy. A bright red blush crept up her neck and heated her face as her mind replayed exactly how she and Gideon had lived their last few moments of calm together.
“Stop that,” Gabriel said with a finger pointed in her direction and she simply nodded as she took a gulp from the water glass in front of her. No explanation needed, she knew her face gave her away.
The sun was rising outside the glass windows that surrounded the restaurant and Sunny gazed at the brilliant colors peaking along the horizon. Burnt oranges, reds, and pinks were lighting up the perfectly blue Arizona sky, making part of her heart ache for a normal day to spend with these people—her friends—instead of another dangerous task in their quest.
What would Sunshine do with one utterly normal, boring day?
The possibilities were endless.
“I used the maps application on my phone to locate the stones,” Asmodeus said, getting everyone’s attention, not only by the fact that he was prepared, but that he’d so seamlessly used not only the technology, but dropped it in conversation so easily. “Seems they’re part of what you humans call a state park, which makes it easy for us apparently. The access point is open and, according to this, the hike is a short one once we park the vehicle.”
A hike in the Arizona desert to raise a demon general? It seemed like another day in paradise in Sunshine Bonnard’s life.
The stones were literally stones. Like a miniature, three-stone version of Stonehenge, the spot wasn’t hard to find once they got moving. The Arizona desert was somewhat hilly out where they were, but with minimal trees (none, really) and only saguaro cacti to block the view, they’d seen the summoning stones at least a mile out.
There was a serene, minimalist beauty to the desert landscape the Sunny was appreciating as they moved down the trail. Up ahead, Asmodeus cursed the lack of internet connection.
“When did you become a millennial teenager?” Gabriel griped after Asmodeus threatened to throw his phone into the next cactus he came across. “You haven’t had Facebook for the first 3,000 years of your life, why is now so important?”
Asmodeus just huffed, ignoring the archangel. Eli was beside Sunny as they walked, though he wasn’t saying much. Metatron and Gideon had taken up walking together up ahead. The sun was about midway through the sky and it was still cool out.
“I’m no expert in summoning, but I think the key is to show no fear,” Eli said as they pressed on.
Sunny made a noise. “Gonna be hard to fake that,” she said, acknowledging that she was very much full of fear. “I hear demons can smell fear, so I’m pretty screwed.”
Eli chuckled. “Your bluster is pretty strong, though,” he countered. “You just pretend you’re okay and before you know it, you will be.”
“I hope so,” she said quietly, watching her feet as they moved.
“You know you don’t have to do this, don’t you?” Eli suddenly said, his voice low. “You can refuse. We can all go back to fighting Camael and the portals he’s ripping open and we can come back another time when you feel more ready. Don’t let them pressure you, Sunny. It’s your life on the line directly—not theirs.”
Eli’s tone made his concern obvious.
“If only,” she said, wistfully. “Asmodeus clued me in on the fact that once I put the ring on, I essentially broke a seal. I set in motion events in the opposite direction of us.”
Concern marred Eli’s handsome face as he looked down at her. “What do you mean? What opposite events?”
