Eve of Warfare

by S. J. Day

  Exhaling harshly, she turned left and entered the family room. She drew to an abrupt halt on the threshold. Alec deliberately crowded behind her, pressing the length of his body against her back.

  He’d scoped out every room in the house before deciding on this one. He guessed it would be her favorite, décor-wise. An overstuffed sectional sofa in soft brown and accent pieces in red and gold made the space warm and inviting, which was the way he saw her. He’d added the fire in the fireplace and the white satin duvet on the floor in front of it, which he had covered in red rose petals. Their first night together had been on white satin, and when he’d returned to her ten years later, he had used white satin again. He’d found the sheets in her linen closet, and knew she would have bought them with memories of him in mind. She had haunted him the same way. He fell in love with her the moment he saw her and every day that passed, even the ones when they’d been apart, he’d grown to love her more.

  * * *

  Eve stared at the makeshift bed in front of the fireplace and felt tears sting her eyes.

  This is Alec, she thought, swallowing past a lump in her throat. She saw now that his proposal in the kitchen had just been a way to bait her into revealing more than she wanted to. He now knew that she’d wanted him to ask her at least enough to get upset about the way he got around to doing it.

  She should have known better. Alec wasn’t the kind of guy who jumped without looking, especially into something as monumental as marriage. He was a tender romantic, a man of grand gestures and thoughtful considerations. Reed was the one who had knee-jerk reactions to unexpected events, and his idea of seduction was pinning a woman to the nearest flat surface and banging her to oblivion.

  “I can nail you to a wall,” Alec whispered, nuzzling the spot below her ear. “Anytime you want.”

  She choked. “Stay out of my head.”

  “I don’t need to be in there to know that you’ve been comparing me and Abel since you met him. You and I both know he’s too self-absorbed to be what you need, but being with him comes with less pressure and expectations. He doesn’t let anyone in, so there’s no chance of a real future, which means less risk for you.”

  “Don’t analyze me.”

  “I’m just saying what you thought the moment you saw that ring in your wineglass. I was in your head then.” He wrapped his arms around her and caught up her left hand. With a gentle tug, he removed Reed’s ring from her finger. “I’m a huge risk, because committing to me is forever and it means sticking with the mark for the long haul.”

  “Alec…” Turning in his embrace, she hugged him tightly and listened to his heart beat. “We have so many fundamental differences between us. You’re devout, and I’m… not. You’re an archangel, and I’m hoping to get out of this mess and have kids one day. I want baseball games and sleepovers and Girl Scout cookie sales and family vacations—”

  “And I want you to have those things.” His warm breath ruffled the hair at her crown. “You know I do. But I can’t let you have those things with someone else, not when I know I’m the guy you want.”

  “I can’t have those things with you. I can’t even have you.”

  “That’s your fear talking.”

  “I’m not—”

  “You’re trembling,” he pointed out wryly, tightening his arms around her. “And I get why. You’re trying to distance yourself, so if something happens to me it hurts less.”

  “Can you blame me? You have demons and angels of all persuasions gunning for you.”

  “We’re not together now. Does that make it easier for you to deal with the risks of me being mortal?”

  Eve’s fingers flexed restlessly into the hard muscles on either side of his spine. Easier? She didn’t want to let him out of her sight. “No.”

  “I’ve regretted every minute that we haven’t been together. They’re all missed opportunities for happiness in a life you know is damned fucking hard.” His lips brushed across her temple. “After dealing with the shit we do all day, I want to come home to you and just be me for a few hours. Aren’t you tired of being a Mark 24/7 with nothing in your life to make you feel human? Don’t you want the freedom of sharing your life with someone who knows and loves you for who you are in your private moments?”

  “I get it.” She’d been letting her life as a Mark overtake whatever was left of the mortal she’d been before. Her personal and professional lives were both being molded around her goal to get her former life back, which—until now—had been only a distant possibility. She had a family: two parents, and a great sister and brother-in-law with two kids Eve loved madly. The thought of them growing old and dying while she lived for years afterward was crushing. Just thinking of it made it hard to breathe. But was that selfish of her? Wouldn’t she be more useful to them as a protector than not?

  Pulling back, Eve looked up at him. “You need to shelve the proposal for a bit.”

  “Ouch.” He grinned, knowing her too well to take offense.

  Still, she explained. “You’re mortal, and until we deal with the safety issues around that, I can’t think about what you’re asking me.”

  “I still know how to protect us. Taking away the power doesn’t take away the skill.”

  Her thoughts rewound through the events of the day before, then rushed ahead. “Zaphiel took me with him to meet the head guy who’s in charge of cleaning up after the Fallen. Adrian. I just can’t see him missing a vampire in his own backyard, especially one living in a place like Arcadia Falls where the neighbors are unusually friendly. Adrian seemed too sharp, Alec. He’s definitely not someone I’d ever want to piss off.”

  “You have to understand Zaphiel. He has a problem with the seraphim, so he likes to fuck with them, with or without a valid reason. He believes they’ve been given too much power, to the point that they’re encroaching on the cherubim.”

  “What kind of power?”

  “Like elevating a Mark to archangel.”

  “You.” She began to pace, which helped her think. “You’re saying this is about the deal you struck with Sabrael for your promotion?”

  Alec’s ascension to archangel had come at a price—he’d agreed to perform some unspecified future service for the seraph who promoted him. That bargain gave Sabrael a tremendous advantage over everyone else in the angelic hierarchy: the seraph had at his command the greatest weapon since Satan.

  Watching her, Alec nodded. “The only way to break free of my deal with Sabrael was to go higher up the food chain, but I had to be careful not to position myself as the sole target of retaliation.”

  She understood. “If you went to God, Sabrael couldn’t take it out on the Almighty, so he’d have to vent his anger on you.”

  “Exactly. When I heard that Zaphiel was coming to see Adrian about a recent Sentinel killing, I made sure Raguel knew I didn’t want to be an archangel anymore. I figured he’d be only too happy to find a way to knock me down a rung or two, and if Sabrael gets pissy, he can take it up with Raguel.”

  He was playing a dangerous game, pitting angels against each other to achieve his aims. And he was doing it for her. So he could love her again. She’d been so determined to keep distance between them, while Alec had been trying to find a way to close it… even at the cost of his own dreams of promotion.

  She scrubbed at her tearing eyes, aware that she didn’t have time to be emotional if she was going to keep Alec alive. “So that’s your side of what’s going on—you wanted out of the advancement and your obligation to Sabrael, and you knew Gadara and Zaphiel would make it happen. But it’s looking like knocking you down isn’t enough for them. It makes sense now why Zaphiel made me drive him out to Adrian’s place. At the time, I figured he was just trying to mess with you or Reed by making me play chauffer. Then this assignment came up and I reconsidered. Maybe he wanted me to know where Adrian lived or what he looked like. Maybe there was something he wanted me to see.”

  “Maybe he wanted to insult Adrian by sending a Ma
rk to do a job an elite seraph couldn’t manage.”

  “I think it’s because I was supposed to be seen, by someone who’d follow me and find you stripped of the archangel gifts that help keep you safe.” She stopped moving and faced him dead-on. “Adrian Mitchell isn’t in hiding. I Googled him last night, because I knew that house he owns must have garnered some press. I found out he owns Mitchell Aviation, one of the largest aeronautical companies in the world. He’s been on the cover of Forbes and his home has been showcased in a dozen architectural magazines. The Fallen know exactly where he is and if they’re smart, they’re watching his place.”

  Alec crossed his arms. “So we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop. In the meantime… Marry me, angel.”

  “Alec…” She groaned and starting pacing again. “Are you paying attention to me at all?”

  “Some things are still sacred. Marriage happens to be one of them. Whatever happens from this moment forward, no one could break vows we make before Jehovah.”

  “‘Let’s get hitched before I die and lose the opportunity’? Is that what you’re saying?”

  His smile was breathtaking. “You know I’m too valuable to kill, or I’d already be dead. They might want to see me knocked around a bit, just for shits and giggles, but it won’t go farther than that.”

  “I’m already a huge liability to you. Moving me up in status from ‘piece-of-ass’ to ‘wife’ is just going to make that worse.”

  “You’ve never been a piece of ass to me and everyone damn well knows that.” He caught her as she passed. “Right now, we can’t control whether or not Sabrael promotes me again. We can’t stop Raguel from yanking you around to piss me off. We can’t do a damn thing about Zaphiel hanging us out as bait. They’ve got all the power, but it doesn’t have to be that way. We can make a commitment to each other that no one could break. If Sabrael promotes me again, he can’t take my love away. If Raguel wants to toy with you, he’d have to think twice about it, because interfering in a marriage is a damn sight trickier. And Zaphiel won’t let anything happen to you, knowing the censure he’d face from Jehovah.”

  “So wedding vows supersede or take precedence over everything?”

  “Always.” He let her go. “I was late getting here today, because I stopped by your parents’ place and talked to your dad. He gave me his blessing.”

  Eve moved toward the fire, noting the blue at the heart of the gas flame, the same flame-blue she saw in the irises of cherubim and seraphim. The hue seemed murkier now, everything around her did except for Alec. The loss of the mark was like listening through water, feeling through gloves, and smelling through a head cold. Maybe she’d acclimate to the loss of heightened sensation after awhile, but for now, she felt disconnected and out of sorts. It would take her more time to be certain, but she was resigned to the fact that she’d turned a corner somewhere and she couldn’t go back. Without the mark, she’d always be looking over her shoulder and second-guessing everyone she crossed paths with, wondering if they were an Infernal because she no longer possessed the senses required to identify them.

  She heard him come up behind her. He set his hands on her shoulders and gently turned her around.

  Groaning, she dropped her forehead against his shoulder. “I need to talk to Reed. This is happening so fast and he needs to know what’s going on.”

  “He knows. If you think he avoids eavesdropping for politeness, you’re way off base. I’ll admit that you’re probably the closest he’s ever come to caring more about someone else than himself, but that’s not your problem. You don’t have to be the only hope he’s got of being happy. He has to figure that out for himself.”

  “I don’t think you know him as well as I do.”

  “I know I’d kill him again before I’d let him have you,” he said fiercely. “See if he’ll make the same effort before you say your vows to me.”

  Reed, she called out. Talk to me, please. We need to discuss this.

  She waited for long moments, but he didn’t answer.

  Alec dropped to one knee and her heart stopped beating. She forgot to breathe until the room tilted, then she sucked in air with a huge deep breath. He reached into his back pocket and withdrew a ring box. The moment the lip snapped open, she covered her mouth with her hand. A solitary princess-cut diamond sat within a simple platinum band. Sized around two-carats, it so perfectly fit her tastes she wanted to weep at the sight of it. Her reaction to the ring was just as ferocious as the one she’d had the night before, but for a very different reason.

  “Angel, would you—”

  “Yes.”

  * * * * *

  CHAPTER 5

  The phone rang less than five minutes after Eve left a message with Adrian Mitchell’s secretary.

  She answered immediately and shivered at the sound of the smooth, warm voice on the other end of the line. The power the man wielded caused a tangible response, even without the mark’s enhancement to her senses.

  “Eve,” he said. “Adrian Mitchell.”

  “Hi. We’ve got trouble.” She explained how Zaphiel had stripped her of the mark. She didn’t mention Alec’s lack of power, unable to say it aloud out of fear for his safety. If something happened to him… “Assistance would be appreciated.”

  “I already have someone on you, although I doubt Cain needs the help.”

  “You do?” She looked at Alec with brows raised. “Did you have me followed?”

  “Of course. Changing into the Jeep threw us off a bit, but as it turns out, I would have found you anyway.” His tone was wry. “I’m told you’re a former agnostic, but I’m sure you’ve learned by now that some things fall into place despite the odds.”

  Since she was living that fact now, she couldn’t disagree. “Thank you.”

  “Not necessary. You got stuck in the middle of a pissing match that has nothing to do with you.”

  “Yeah,” she said wryly. “That happens to me a lot.”

  * * *

  It was five minutes after six when Alec rang the Anderson’s doorbell.

  The smell of bar-b-que on the grill and the sounds of conversation and laughter had begun a half-hour before, but Eve and Alec had spent time getting the house ready for any unwanted visitors.

  The door swung open and revealed Pam, who looked smart in a pair of white capris and a sage green shirt that matched her eyes. “Hey. Come on in. Terri’s in the kitchen being an overachiever.”

  Eve held up a bottle of wine, Alec carried a six-pack of Blue Moon.

  “My kind of neighbors,” Pam said, grinning. “Come this way, Eve. Alec, if you want to head outside, that’s where the men are.”

  Eve followed Pam through the living room to the kitchen, while Alec headed out the sliding glass door that led to the back patio.

  “I was hoping I could come by tomorrow,” Pam said, eyeing her avidly. “I have a new catalogue and some great samples.”

  Remembering that Pam sold cosmetics, Eve smiled. Certainly Pam would be familiar with many of the Arcadia residents. Perhaps Pam was using her consultant business as a cover for a darker purpose. If not, Eve could use their acquaintance to do so. “Sure. I’d love to have you over. You’ll have to forgive the boxes.”

  “I can help with that while Jesse’s in school.”

  “Thank you. I’d like that.”

  They entered the kitchen where Terri stood at a large granite-covered island tossing a salad. “Enjoying the new house so far?” she asked Eve.

  “We’re thrilled.”

  Jesse looked up from her task of slicing strawberries and smiled, then glanced out the backdoor longingly, as if she’d much rather be outside.

  “Can I borrow a corkscrew?” Eve asked. “I need to let this Merlot breathe a bit.”

  Terri gestured with a jerk of her chin. “There’s a wine bar in the family room. You’ll find all the accessories—glasses, wine charms, corkscrew—in there.”

  Heading into the family room, which was easy to find since
the floor plans were so similar, Eve made a point of checking out the house. She had no idea what she was looking for, but knew she’d recognize something off if she found it.

  She’d just located the corkscrew in a drawer when Tim came into the room.

  “Hey,” he greeted her.

  “Hi.” She noted that he looked different, then figured out what it was. His eyes weren’t blue so much as a muted gray, similar to how dull Zaphiel’s irises became after she lost the mark.

  “I was hoping to catch you alone.”

  Something about the way he approached her set her on edge. There was a sharp focus to the way he watched her and the balance of his footfalls—light and on the balls of his sandaled feet—was inherently predatory.

  Although he was dressed innocuously in navy board shorts and a loose-fitting white tee, she altered her stance and her grip on the corkscrew. She may not have the speed and power of the mark, but she still knew how to fight.

  He smiled. “We have a mutual acquaintance.”

  Eve absorbed that. “Oh?”

  “Adrian.”

  Her head tilted to one side. “Wings or fur?”

  “Definitely not furry.” He wagged his finger at her. “Be careful who you call a lycan. Those who aren’t one, don’t take it well.”

  “Point taken. How are you with corkscrews? I’ve been known to get cork in the wine.”

  He moved to the other side of the bar and took over. As he deftly uncorked the bottle, Eve looked around the room, noting the same lack of wall adornment she’d picked up on in the living room. Almost as if the Andersons hadn’t quite moved in yet… or were ready for a quick move out.

  “How long has Terri lived here?” she asked.

  “I have no idea. I haven’t been here long myself.”

  Eve looked at him. “Is this home permanent for you? Or just for now?”

  “Nothing’s permanent.” He tossed the cork in the trash and rinsed off the corkscrew before tossing it back in the drawer. “I get in, get what I came for, and get out.”