by May Dawson
"I was four," Jacob said. "I remember."
"You punched me," Zuriel said fondly. "And I felt something unfamiliar as you struggled in my arms, so fierce and protective of your mother. I felt pride not in myself, which caused my arrogance. I felt pride in you, which caused my final downfall."
"You hugged me," Jacob said. "Before you put your hands around my throat. And my mother was screaming, pinned to the ceiling by your magic—"
"It was a regrettable night," Zuriel interrupted. "I could not carry through with it. I put you back in your bed. Do you remember that?"
Jacob said, his voice gruff, "No. I was just a kid. All I remember was being terrified."
I took a long sip of my water, glancing out the window. I couldn't let Jacob see that I was shaken by the scene I couldn't help imagining: small, desperate Jacob trying to fight off the angel that closed his hand around his throat. Jacob deserved to have me be the strong one while he dealt with his father's betrayal.
"I am truly sorry." Zuriel's normally rich but flat voice broke, and he cleared his throat. His voice came out hard when he said, "I should not have tried to kill you."
Jacob nodded, faintly. He looked at Zuriel blankly, as if they were discussing the weather, and I wondered what was going on in his head.
"Now I have a second chance to redeem myself," Zuriel said briskly. "Although I'm a free agent now. I could not return after my failed mission. Instead, I work alone."
"You're going to kill Nimshi?"
"Actually, I think you should kill Nimshi," Zuriel said. "I am working on exterminating all the demons in our sector. I happen to know that process is continuing apace across the world. It might seem wrong to kill your brother—I am familiar with that sentimentality—but exterminating all the demons will make the world far safer. A more innocent world for humanity."
"It is a tempting proposition," Jacob admitted. "I'm no fan of the demons."
Zuriel's face was shadowed. "I could...not be reached...during your imprisonment, son. I would have helped rescue you, if I had known."
Jacob nodded, although his face was impassive, as if that belated promise meant nothing.
"I will leave Nimshi for last," Zuriel said. "If my mission is unsuccessful, and if he has done no harm, perhaps he can be spared. But otherwise, for the sake of the greater good, he will have to be killed."
"We have work to do," Jacob said. "Will you leave us alone for a little while? Just like you, I'm trying to make the world a better place."
"I have seven demons on my list," Zuriel said. "So I suppose you have seven days."
"Great," Jacob muttered. "A week. To do the impossible. Better than nothing."
"You asked earlier about what might have happened with your mother," Zuriel added, his eyes on Jacob suddenly softened and unexpectedly compassionate. "From my understanding, your mother pretended to have gone rogue while working with the council. This was during the last attempt to annihilate the demons. She integrated herself as a minion in a demon hive. I assume she either became sexually involved with a demon as part of her cover, or she genuinely fell in love with one. She was a woman of peculiar passions."
"Obviously," Jacob deadpanned.
"Demons are obsessed with siring demon children, but it's a rare thing for one to survive. Nimshi is a miracle, of sorts."
"A hell of a miracle."
"A dark miracle, certainly." Zuriel agreed.
"Do you think, maybe, he has a purpose?" Jacob asked. "A role to play? Besides being murdered as your re-entry fee to Heaven?"
"I doubt it."
A muscle tic spasmed, just once, in Jacob's cheek; his jaw was tight. "Do you think that she had to have sex with a demon as a...price? Knowing how much they want to have demon children?"
"It's possible," Zuriel said. "I doubt any demon would offer much in exchange for that, however. The live birth of a demon child is a rarity. A cause for celebration in their quarters and lamenting for the world."
"Why wouldn't a Hunter have killed her demon child herself?" Jacob asked.
"Your mother was a woman of peculiar passions," Zuriel repeated. "And that included her passion for her sons. For each of you. Whether you should have lived or not."
Jacob's lips quirked up slightly, in a doubtful smirk, and I thought of how she had hidden him away in England. She had even hidden him from his brothers, burning the photos that included him, hiding away her journals that mentioned him.
"Your mother loved you," Zuriel said. "Intensely and with great loyalty and suffering. You should know that."
Zuriel rose from his seat. Jacob stared at him, his face impassive, even though I knew him well enough to be able to feel the gears turning in his head. So many emotions warred under that cool surface.
"I wish I had the opportunity," Zuriel said, "To know you and love you as well. But should you disrupt my mission, I will kill you all."
"Thanks, Dad," Jacob said easily.
Zuriel nodded, as if he didn't pick up on the sarcasm. "I fervently hope we will not find ourselves at war, son."
"Me, too." Jacob raised his coffee cup in mock salute. "You're so goddamn proud of yourself for not murdering me. I would prefer not to have to kill you."
Zuriel nodded. "To try, son."
Jacob's jaw set, and I had the feeling it took everything he had to watch silently as Zuriel turned and walked out. The bells over the diner door chimed. Zuriel's broad, muscular back in his expensive suit was turned to us, and I half-expected Jacob to flip a table or dive at his father's back. Instead, he took a long sip of his coffee, his eyes steady on his father until the door to the diner slammed shut.
Jacob thumped his coffee cup on the table. "God, I hate that wanker."
But I knew him well enough to know it wasn't that easy. I leaned over and kissed his cheek.
Jacob turned to me, his brows lifting. "What was that for?"
"You're so cute when you use English slang." I put my hand over his, which was still on my thigh. "Should we go home and celebrate not being dead? I thought it was dicey there for a while."
“Sounds like a plan." He glanced at the table and cursed. "Did Zuriel really stiff us with the bill?"
I looked across the table at Zuriel's empty plate. There was no tip left behind. He had drained the coffee mug, too. "He really is a wanker."
29
"Let's go home." I tucked my arm through his, as if we were on a date. The rain had stopped, and the air smelled clean and fresh despite the rundown city streets around us.
Jacob tugged me to one side, into an alleyway. I followed him. We had to be shielded from any potential human eyes before we returned to our bodies left behind at the house, when the trench coat fell from my shoulders and the two of us disappeared like drops of rain that fell from the clouds.
"So this is what I had to do to get you to myself," he mused. "Take you with me to meet a killer angel. Thanks for coming along."
"Well, more-or-less." I smiled up at him. His broad bicep felt real under my fingertips, despite the fact we weren't really there. Nimshi's magic had made it seem to Zuriel as if we were really in the diner, with him. I knew it was a trick, I knew I lay in bed beside Jacob, but I could feel the humid air cling to my skin and the heaviness of the trench coat that still hung around my shoulders. It all felt so real.
Jacob squeezed my hand. "I never thought I'd appreciate demon magic."
I nodded. I didn't want to bring up any of Jacob's sore spots, so I said nothing. It had to bother him that his father flirted with the idea of murdering him.
"Nimshi's magic is... interesting." I said. I meant powerful.
"Yeah," he said. "He's a trickster."
"I worry," I started to say, and then stopped. I worried about Nimshi's ability to distort reality so easily. I worried that he was changing my dreams, and I worried he could change more than that.
"Me, too." He nodded curtly.
"Thank you for letting him have a chance," I said. "Even if it's stupid to."
/> "It's not stupid." Jacob interrupted. "Do you know how many people think I'm a monster?"
His molten-gold eyes met mine. His big jaw was set, and I reached up to touch the faint pink flush in his high-boned cheeks.
"Only the ones who haven't gotten to know you," I said, my voice sure.
His lips quirked up slightly. "Wrong."
"I'm sure of it." I swayed against him, feeling his warmth through his jeans and fitted t-shirt, no matter if we were here or not. "You might wrap your kind heart in cranky asshole, but you're still my favorite..."
He raised an eyebrow.
"...half-angel lover," I finished.
"You are a brat." But he murmured it affectionately. He pushed me up against the brick wall behind us, and I felt the rough bricks catch a few strands of my hair.
"You like me just the way I am," I teased.
His lips traced their way up my neck, kissing a path up to my ear. I tilted my head away from him, opening my throat up to the tender trail of kisses.
His teeth nipped against my earlobe. I let my head rest against the brick as Jacob played a familiar cord of lust. His lips nuzzled my hair.
"I love you just the way you are," he said.
I rested my hands on his broad shoulders. His t-shirt was damp under my palms, and I could feel the energy that coursed through his warrior's body.
My voice came out low and fierce when I said, "I love you, too."
He tucked a damp strand of hair behind my ear. "No quip?"
"I don't feel quippy." I ran my hands under his wet t-shirt, my fingers tracing up his hard-edged abs. "I mean it."
"I mean it, too," he said. Those molten gold eyes were on mine. He took my face possessively in his broad, scarred hands, and kissed my lips.
The clouds opened. Rain pounded against us, soaking our shirts and hair all over again.
He paused, his lips a breath away from mine. "It seems like maybe that pisses the Heavens off."
"I don't give a damn."
His lips met mine again. As the rain beat down on us, as thunder roared and lightning crackled distantly, his tongue swept against mine. I wrapped my arm around his shoulders, wanting him closer to me. He lifted me easily, pinning me against the wall, and my thighs wrapped around his hard waist.
I felt him grin, his lips quirking up against mine. "Really, Princess? Here?"
"Why not?" I arched my back slightly, straightening in his arms, so I could look into his handsome face. His dark curls were soaked. His golden eyes were bright as twin stars in the dim light of this alley. I looked up at the dark storm-clouds high above us, blocking out the moonlight. "The world needs us. We don't have to play by anyone else's rules."
"True." He kissed the side of my throat again, and then I felt his teeth scrape over my skin. His mouth worked on my throat, drawing a bruise. I gasped at the tingle of pain intermingled with pleasure. And then he kissed it away, his lips healing the bruise he had just created.
"You can't just say I love you," I said, "And then not do anything about it."
He grinned. When that cool expression of his cracked into a smile, his high cheekbones rounding, his lips sensuous, I couldn't resist kissing him. I took his face in my hands and kissed the corner of his mouth.
"We aren't even really here," he said. I thought it was a protest at first, and then I felt him shift, taking my weight on one leg, so he could drop a hand to unbuckle his jeans. "It doesn't seem very romantic, Princess."
"I think we established a long time ago that I don't want romantic." I kissed him again. "I want you."
He eased me to the ground. I took his belt buckle in my hands. As the leather whispered out of the buckle, he growled in impatience. Strong hands gripped my hips and spun me around, pressing me to the wall. His hands swept down my lower abs, working my jeans down. He ran a hand over my ass, groaning into my ear as if he wanted me desperately. He squeezed one cheek just hard enough to make me squirm, and I ground my ass back into the rough denim of his jeans.
"You're the perfect fucking woman," he said. His cock brushed between my thighs. "No one will ever convince me that this isn't right. That this isn't mean to be."
I leaned back into him, reaching up to run my hands over his broad shoulders and through his wet curls. Our lips met, and he kissed me hard. His lips were bruising, his desire for me intense, and I kissed him back just as hard.
He pushed into me, his cock filling me up, and I bit down hard on my lip as I braced my arms against the brick wall in front of me. It was the best kind of pain as he took me roughly from behind, his fingers hooking into my hips as he pumped into me. I slammed my ass back into him, wanting more. We were alive and we were tempting the Heavens and I wanted to feel every bit of this life, this man.
He paused, with his cock buried deep in me. His muscular forearm brushed against my thigh as he ran his hand up my leg. He massaged between my thighs, his hands rough but hitting the right spot, and I gasped out loud at his touch as he stroked me to the very edge of orgasm.
He pumped into me again, over and over, merciless and hard and welcome. I felt myself shatter at the same time as he did. His hard arm held me up as I doubled over, my knees weak and my head dizzy with the power of the heat that washed over me.
He drew me up and I twisted in his arms, pressing myself into the full length of his hard-muscled Hunter's body. I felt safe in his arms, no matter where we were.
His lips quirked up as he took in my flushed face and wild hair and parted lips.
"You were right, you know," he said.
"I know,” I said automatically, and then asked, “About what?"
"When you told Zuriel that we don't need Heaven." His lips pressed against my neck again. His breath was a whisper when he said, "No one is going to take me away from you. I have every intention of sticking around this Earth for a long, long time, to fuck you and to love you."
30
"Let's go pick out your dream car, Ellis," Ryker said, swinging open the passenger side door of the Rover for me. "Here's hoping you've always wanted to drive a minivan."
"Do I really get to pick the car?" I asked.
"Yeah. We need something legal to drive across the country. Might as well let you pick. You put up with enough from the four of us."
I grinned as I slid into the passenger seat. He closed the door behind me before heading around the front of the car and sliding into the driver's seat.
"There's only five of us," I said, once he had started up the car. "We can fit in anything. We should get something sporty for running from the devil."
"Only if you want to ride bitch cross-country," he said. "We need a third row."
"It's my car, I'm driving."
"It will be your car," he corrected. "Assuming we get through this next misadventure without wrecking it."
"I have a good feeling about this."
"I don't," he said. "We've got to steal back Nimshi's soul from a house full of minions with demon protection, and do it all with a ticking clock before Zuriel comes after Nimshi, and the Company is still on our tail."
"Do you think Mom and Ash will be okay here?" I asked.
Ryker drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "Olivia's going to stay to look after them. She'll do her best to keep track of the Company's movements. They don't seem to know they've been hacked yet, so that's a point on our side."
"You didn't answer my question."
"I don't like it, okay?" Ryker rested his hand on my seat-back, twisting in his seat as he backed down the long gravel driveway. "I'm hoping that if things go sideways, Yale and Nash and Zane won't be dicks. We've always taken care of each other."
"But they don't want to lose the goodwill of the Hunter's Council either," I said.
"I never saw this coming," Ryker said. "I knew the Council would have a problem with what we were doing. But those guys? We grew up together."
"At least we have Olivia."
Ryker nodded. "You were right the other day, you know. We'd be
lost without her."
I tucked my hair back behind my ears. "She didn't care much for me saying that. Said she can fight her own battles."
"She sure can." He turned onto the road toward town, the ride suddenly smooth after the bouncing trip we'd just had over gravel. "But nobody should have to. You're a good friend, Ellis."
I nodded, touched by his words.
"And since you're the reason our credit cards work, you get to choose." He waved a hand out at the car dealerships in front of us as we reached the edge of town. There was a used car lot and a Honda dealership.
"Not a lot to choose from." I pointed to the used car lot.
"I'm sure they have a nice minivan," Ryker said as we parked at the end of a row of cars for sale. "Maybe one with a TV. I've always wanted a car with a TV."
"Because we get so much time to relax."
Ryker threw his arm over my shoulders. I leaned into his side, looping my arm around his waist and my thumb through his belt.
"I'm going to take you someplace nice if we survive all this," Ryker said.
"Maybe I'll take you someplace nice." Together, we wandered through the rows of shiny cars. "How did the conversation go with Nimshi?"
"He told us what we need to know," he said. "Or at least, pretended to."
I decided to ignore Ryker's typical suspiciousness. "He said it was going to be awkward."
"Awkward? Nah. Nothing awkward when you find out your mom had carnal relations with a demon and you're getting acquainted with your evil half-brother. Total sitcom material."
"He's not evil."
Ryker glanced at me sideways, a quick shift of those deep green eyes. I amended, "He might not be evil."
"Jury's still out," Ryker said. "I'm trying, though. Benefit of the doubt for the youngest member of Satan's crew. Even though it's not my nature."
It made my chest warm that he was trying to trust me, even though he didn't want to. "And I love you for trying."
He didn't glance at me—those green eyes stayed fixed on the horizon—and I realized just what I'd said. I stopped next to a shiny silver Lexus SUV. "This is an unexpected find."
