Speak Thy Name (The Nephilim Book 3)

by Dana Marie Bell

  “Did I do something wrong?” Sam didn’t want to insult Gabriel. Maybe she’d been too forward in hugging him?

  “Nope. Just keep being you. He’s not used to women around the place, that’s all.” Damien led her into a kitchen that would make any chef cream his or her jeans. There was a mix of marble and stainless steel countertops, a huge island with a marble counter, two sinks, enough cabinets to satisfy a hoarder, and room for a huge round breakfast table that overlooked the backyard. One glance at the backyard told her it was a paradise all of its own, with a multi-tiered stone deck and what looked like an outdoor kitchen.

  Behind the island, rinsing off some pans, was another man. This guy was smaller than Gio but bigger than Damien. He had dark hair pulled back in a queue and piercing jade green eyes. “Sit. Eat.” He put the pan in the dishwasher before washing his hands.

  On the table were stacks of eggs, bacon, pancakes and waffles, along with orange juice in a pitcher, a coffee carafe, and another pitcher with ice water. “You made all this?”

  The man at the counter nodded brusquely.

  “Thank you.” She smiled brightly, her stomach rumbling. “It looks delicious.”

  The man looked at her, then looked at Damien’s hand on her hip. “Yours?”

  Sam tilted her head. Huh?

  “Yes,” Damien replied, tightening his hold.

  “Good. I like this one.” He wiped his hands on a towel, then slung it over his shoulder as he walked around the counter. “Name’s Sasha.”

  “Sam.” She held out her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

  “Nice to meet you, too.” He glanced around at the other men. “Any of you dicks introduce yourselves to the lady, or are you just going to eat?”

  They froze like little kids reprimanded by their dad. “I’m Zeke,” the platinum blond said.

  “Gio, Dante’s brother.” He waved a forkful of waffle. “Sit. Eat. You’re too skinny.”

  “Now you really sound like your mother,” the other dark-haired guy, the one with the scars, said. “I’m Micah.” He put his fork down and held out his hand. “We’re happy to meet you.”

  “Yeah, Seth and Dante didn’t bring theirs around for approval first,” Sasha grumbled as he spooned eggs onto his plate. “Damien’s got better manners.”

  Damien coughed and placed Sam in a seat. “Leave her alone, guys.”

  “What?” Zeke blinked innocently. “We’re only saying how happy we are she’s here.”

  “Yeah, Damien. What’s wrong with telling her we like her?” Gio grinned, and it was anything but innocent. “We like her dogs, too. How long are they staying?”

  “As long as I am.” Sam turned to Damien. “How long am I staying?”

  “Until we find out how much the Shem have on you and whether or not we need to create a new identity for you.” Damien was acting totally serious.

  “Oh boy. My parents will love that.” She half-heartedly put a spoonful of eggs on her plate. Her parents were going to freak if she disappeared. “What’s the alternative?”

  “You have a lovely life in federal prison for whatever the fuck the Shem decide to pin you with,” Micah ticked off. “You die in a horrible accident engineered by the Shem. You’re eaten by a Shem, meaning your death will either be swift or prolonged agony.”

  “Oh. They’ll hate that more.” She squirmed in her seat, thinking over the possibilities. “What if we just kill the ones that know about me?”

  They were silent for a moment, then Sasha tilted his head back and let out a full belly laugh. “I like this one.”

  “Don’t worry too much, Sam.” Micah patted her hand as Gio put a waffle on her plate. “We’re going to protect you.”

  “I have to work, though.” In fact, she should be there right now.

  “She works for Piotr.” Damien scowled and added syrup to her waffle. “I don’t think it will be a problem.”

  “Shouldn’t be.” Zeke grinned. “I’ll call him. He’ll understand why Sam’s working from here until the problem is resolved.” She suddenly had bacon on her plate, courtesy of Zeke.

  “Do you and Mr. Romanov work together?” Dante, Seth, and Damien were partners. The easy way Zeke spoke of Mr. Romanov made her think Zeke was one of his partners.

  “I’m one of the few who will.” Zeke shrugged. “He’s a little hard to take sometimes, but we work well together.”

  “You still need a third, though.” Micah added some fruit to her plate and handed her the fork. “Eat.”

  “Mangia,” Gio added, nodding toward her plate with his chin. He then turned back to Zeke. “Micah’s right. It’s dangerous with just the two of you.”

  “I agree,” Damien added vehemently. “I love both of you and don’t want anything to happen to you because you’re only two.”

  “Aw, you wuv us.” Zeke put his head on Damien’s shoulder.

  Damien tried to chicken-wing Zeke off him, making everyone laugh.

  “I think Eli would make a good third for Zeke and Piotr.” The serene voice of Gabriel was followed by the joyous barking of her dogs as they followed him into the kitchen.

  Precious began shamelessly begging for bacon, leaning on Gio, the one who’d given her the most affection. Donny went to Damien, surprising her by trying to hop into his lap.

  Of course, the fact that he’d loaded his plate with bacon may have had something to do with Don Pablo’s sudden affections.

  Damien sighed and put the Chihuahua on his lap. “No stealing from my plate.” He shook his finger at Donny, who nipped it playfully. “I mean it.”

  Donny gave him the sad puppy face. His ears went back and his dark, liquid eyes went wide. Stronger men than Damien had fallen for that face, and Damien was no exception. Bacon bits were being fed to Donny in between Damien’s own bites of food.

  Sam bit into her waffle, moaning at the taste. The syrup had been warmed, the waffle was nice and fluffy, and he’d added a hint of cinnamon to it. “This is so good.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I’ve informed Piotr that you’ll be here for the duration.” Gabriel joined them at the table, taking a waffle and some eggs. “He wants you to know that if you need anything to contact him.”

  Damien scowled.

  “He also told me to tell you that he’ll send you work if you get too bored.” Gabriel began to eat. “Excellent, as always, Sasha.”

  “Thanks, boss.”

  “What’s next, though? Did you find anything on Rafe?” Micah put his elbows on the table and studied Sam.

  “Not yet, but we haven’t finished going through the files yet.” Sam nibbled another bite of waffle. “I’ll start up again right after breakfast.” She stood, putting her fork done. “That would be—”

  “Sit your ass down and finish your waffle,” Gio growled.

  Sam sat.

  “This is why you’re so skinny.” Gio glared at her until she began nibbling at her waffle again. “Good.”

  “Are you trying to bully her into eating?” Damien was laughing. “I should have thought of that.”

  She stuck her tongue out at Damien.

  He leaned in close and whispered in her ear. “Remember what I told you about that tongue of yours?”

  Sam’s cheeks heated and she nearly choked to death on her food.

  “Swallow food, breathe air,” Micah chanted as he pounded her on the back.

  “What if we don’t find anything about Rafe in the files?” Sasha was scrubbing Precious’s ears, as if he needed the simple, friendly affection of a dog as much as Precious needed to be someone’s pet. “What do we do then?”

  “We question Scott Sanders again.” Gio cracked his knuckles. “Let me at him. I’ll get something from him.”

  “I’d prefer he remain in one piece, at least for now.” Gabriel patted Gio’s shoulder. “We’ll find Rafe, I promise.”

  “It’s been months. What shape will he be in when we finally do find him?” Sasha shuddered, and Precious began licking his hand. He
smiled down at the dog, but it was filled with sorrow. “I miss him.”

  “We all do.” Damien glanced at Sam. “Rafe is Gio and Sasha’s partner, and he’s been missing for a long time. We’re hoping Armitage Computing is the lead we needed to find him again.”

  Sam nodded. “You told me some of this before, and I promised I’d help any way I can.”

  “Is that what happened?” Gio glared at Damien, as if this was his fault. “You let her break into Armitage by herself?”

  “Fuck no,” Damien responded. “She did that on her own. I had no idea until I got the call that the Shem had found her.”

  Gio turned the glare on her. “You.”

  “Me?” Sam squeaked. She’d thought Dante was intimidating, but his big brother was ten times worse.

  “We fight Shem. You don’t.”

  She shrugged. “Could you hack into Armitage Computing and rummage through their files for two hours without getting caught until the last minute?”

  Sasha chuckled. “She’s right. Not even Damien could have pulled that off.”

  Gio huffed, but shut up.

  “I’m done eating, seriously this time.” She looked down at her half a waffle. She’d managed to eat more than she usually did. “I’m stuffed.”

  Damien stood, carefully placing Donny back on the ground. “Then let’s get to work. We’ll go over the files. You guys get to your day jobs.”

  “I’ll guard the dogs.” Gabriel seemed happy at the thought of playing the whole day away with her pups.

  To her surprise, both Donny and Precious went right to him, sitting at his feet obediently. Sam crouched down and petted them. “I’ll see you guys later, okay?”

  Donny leapt, licking her chin. Precious gave her a doggy grin and settled down for a nap.

  “Thanks again for breakfast, Sasha.” She stood, stretching her arms over her head and ignoring the way Gio stared at the unfinished food on her plate.

  Damien held out his hand. “Let’s get going.”

  “Mm-hm.” She took his hand and let him lead her from the room.

  “She’s still too skinny,” Gio grumbled behind them.

  Chapter 12

  Damien pulled up the files. “I didn’t want to say anything in front of Sasha and Gio, but I think this might be a red herring.”

  “You think the Shem set us to chasing our tail?” When he nodded, she tilted her head, looking confused. “Then what about Genesis?”

  “I’m not saying this isn’t a Shem operation, but I’m not sure it has anything to do with Rafe’s disappearance.” He sat wearily. “If not for Gabriel assuring us he’s alive I might have given up by now.”

  She put her hand on his shoulder, squeezing lightly. “Then you focus on that fact and follow every lead, even if it doesn’t work out.”

  He smiled and covered her hand with his own. “Beth teach you that?”

  “Yeah.” She pulled her hand away and sat next to him. “We’ll go through these and find out if Armitage really is up to more than finding and killing all of you.”

  He snorted out a laugh. “Right. It’s not like that’s a big deal.”

  “You need to send out the update on Armageddon to all the cells. You want to take care of that while I start on the emails and paperwork?” Sam was already pulling up the emails, probably hoping she’d find something incriminating there with more ease than in the files.

  “Good idea.” He sat at the computer that was hooked up to the Internet and began a mass email to all the computer guys in the cells worldwide. He’d have to pull the update to Armageddon from the computer Sam was working on; since that wasn’t an isolated computer, he couldn’t simply send the updated anti-virus software from where he was. But he could warn them what was coming and push the update to them when she was done.

  When he was done composing the email, he sent it. He was the most qualified, because he could write it in the many languages necessary. It took extra time, but it made sure there was no confusion during translation.

  “How’s it going?” Sam’s quiet voice broke through his concentration.

  “It’s going.” He looked over at her and stretched. His shoulders were getting a bit stiff from hunching over the keyboard. “You?”

  She made the cutest face, wrinkling up her nose and crossing her eyes. “Blargh.”

  He laughed. “Bored?”

  “Stupid.” She glanced over at him, her expression hopeful. “Snacks?”

  “Oh, good idea.” Especially since one spoonful of eggs and half a waffle was what a kid ate, not a grown woman. Gio was right in that Sam tended toward the skinny side. “You want something to drink?” He stood, ready to head upstairs for both of them.

  “Water?”

  He headed upstairs and quickly threw together a snack of cheese and crackers. He poured two glasses of water and, balancing the plate carefully on his arm, carried them back down to the security room. “Here we go.”

  She took one of the glasses and the plate from him. “Thanks.”

  “Any luck while I was gone?” He sat back down and picked up a piece of cheese.

  “There’s one word that keeps popping up that I don’t understand.” She leaned toward the computer and squinted. “Azar.”

  He froze. “Did you say Azar?”

  “Yes.” She glanced at him, her face paling. “That word means something to you.”

  “Rafe is an Azar.” He stood and leaned over her, the cheese forgotten in his hand. “Bring up those emails.”

  She did, loading each one. “I’ve sorted them by date. The first one is here.” She brought up one dated nine months earlier.

  “You are awesome.” Damien dropped a kiss on her hair, ignoring the way she shrank in on herself. “Sam?”

  “Sorry.” She sighed, her shoulders tightening. “I’m still not used to…you know. You actually being nice to me.”

  He grimaced. She’d been fine upstairs, so why was she flinching away now?

  Her cheeks were beginning to turn red, the color so pretty he wanted to touch her cheeks to see if they were as warm as they looked. Sam was shy, unused to physical affection. The fact that she wasn’t pulling completely away gave him some hope for the future. He’d have to tell her more often how incredible she was.

  “This is the line that caught my attention. ‘The Azar is ours.’” She brought up the next email, dated a few weeks later. “Here it talks about the Azar being uncooperative, and here…” She brought up a third email. “They’re talking about reprogramming it.”

  “They’re talking about him like he’s a computer so no one will suspect anything.”

  “Unless they’re angel-born and know what’s going on.” She tapped the keys and brought up more emails, each one adding to the picture. Rafe was being tortured for sure, that much was obvious. Whether or not he broke before they got to him was another matter. Damien read through each one she brought up, but something important was missing. “Do they mention locations?”

  “No,” she replied sadly. “I wish they did.” She bit her lip and looked at one of the emails. “This is a reply, though. Maybe we can backtrack using the IP address. Once we identify who that belongs to—”

  “We can find out where they are and follow the trail from there.” He leaned over and kissed her forehead before returning to his computer. He put a piece of cheese in his mouth, swallowing before he spoke again. “Give me the IP address.”

  “Guh.”

  He stared at her in astonishment. “Sam? You okay?”

  “Uh-huh.” Her cheeks were bright red. She started rattling off the numbers and Damien began researching, a feeling of accomplishment filling him. Sam was definitely responding to him, and it was glorious.

  Unfortunately, the rest of the day didn’t go nearly as well. They couldn’t pinpoint the exact location without going through the IP provider, but it would give them a general location they could then look into. He’d pass the information on to whoever was patrolling that night and have the
m look into it.

  “There. Middletown.” He pulled up a map of Delaware and pointed to the small, historic town of Middletown. “It’s a quiet little place with little crime and very little sign of Shem activity. It’s so low on our radar that it’s usually Piotr and Zeke’s hunting ground. Zeke can safely patrol alone there, since Piotr is often out of town on missions from Gabriel. Micah will often join him, but the number of Shem encountered, let alone eliminated, can be counted on one hand.”

  “So they hide themselves there, don’t hunt in town, and stay off the radar as much as possible, leaving them free to, what? Bring kidnapped Nephilim there?” Sam was still filtering through the emails.

  “It doesn’t make sense that they haven’t been discovered, unless they’ve got a way to hide the Shem stench from both Piotr and Zeke.” Damien leaned back in his chair. “I’ve heard of such a thing, but it’s rare, usually an Azar power.” Damien picked up the house phone and called for Gabriel.

  Sam cocked her head like a curious cocker spaniel. “Something like spiritual Febreeze?”

  Damien chuckled. “Something like that.”

  When Gabriel answered Sam asked Gabriel to please come to the security room.

  While they waited, Damien turned to Sam. “I owe you one. We never would have come close to this information if not for you.”

  She smiled shyly at him. “You found the Shem who told you to look into Armitage in the first place. You would have found this information eventually.”

  “But not so quickly.” Damien took hold of her hand. “I’m serious. You’re amazing, and I’m going to be telling you that for a long time to come. You may have just saved my brother’s life.”

  She frowned, looking confused. “That’s something I’ve never understood. Why do you call each other brother?”

  “Brother in arms, in spirit, but not in blood.” He thought of Dante and Gio and smiled. “Usually. These are the people I trust most, who have my back no matter what. I wouldn’t be who I am without them.”

  “So they’re like my friends are for me.” Her shy smile turned sweet, her gaze becoming distant. “I don’t know what I’d do without them.”