“Paige has the same issue, and I feel bad about that. She’s a little too human for her own sanity.” She glanced over at her apprentice, who was stretched out on her back on the floor, her chest heaving, having apparently won the battle with the soul. She smiled. You go, girl. “I can’t believe she likes your sister. I’m so going to have to brainwash that girl before she can replace me.”
He hoisted the machine up and set it on his hip. “What exactly do you mean by ‘replace?’?”
She squatted down and peeled Checkmate’s fingers off his gun and inspected it. “I figured out how to break Satan’s lifeline, but he got pissed because he didn’t want to let me go. I’m hoping I can turn Paige into such a great Rivka that he doesn’t care if he loses me.” She checked the clip, then stood up and wedged the gun in the back of her pants, keeping her voice low enough that Paige couldn’t hear over her panting. “So far, it’s not going so well, though.” She flicked a gaze at the girl again, realizing how really young she was. Too young to be shoved into life as Satan’s right hand? Becca bit her lip and tried not to think about it. That was Paige’s destiny, and it wasn’t Becca’s job to interfere.
“How are you going to stay alive without his life force?” Nick asked, drawing her attention back to him. “I mean, if you’ve already figured out how to break it, then you don’t need me, right?”
“Ellie the immortal goldfish will support me. We’re a great team, but I need to know how you guys broke free without him killing you instantly. And if there’s a way to support myself, like you do.” She stepped over some of the rubble from the explosion that opened the Goody Room and reached Nick. “Can I have that?”
He handed the machine to her. “Only Satan will support you. The fish won’t work.”
She unwrapped the item to reveal a giant gold penis on a mahogany pedestal, and set the entire contraption on the floor. “What do you mean?”
“You have to be supported by his life force specifically.” He looked at her. “And I don’t know that you can support yourself like we do. You’re different.”
“I’ll judge that for myself based on the info, if you ever give it to me.” She looked up at him. “Trust me, I’ve done a lot of research, and I would know if only his life force would support me. Of that, at least, I’m certain. I’d be hosed if it were true.”
He paused, trying to recall what Jerome had told him about Rivkas. “No, I’m pretty sure I’m right. The Council tried to recruit some Rivkas a while ago. They tried linking them to all sorts of creatures from hell, but they all died. The Council kept it quiet because they figured it wouldn’t be good for public relations with hell if Satan found out they’d been kidnapping his Rivkas and conducting fatal experiments on them.”
“They died because Satan killed them.” Her tone demanded acquiescence as she set her hand around the base of the golden penis. “I’m going to succeed.” She took a piece of jagged brick from the rubble and slammed it into the penis, and he flinched. “Ellie and I will live happily ever after.” She hit it again, and he flinched again, then grabbed the rock out of her hand.
“You’re killing me here. Can you at least be gentle?”
“What?” She looked up at him, then looked at his crotch. “Oh. Sorry. I forget how sensitive men are about these things. I’m done anyway.” She flicked the dented gold plate off the penis and pulled out a small gold ball. She held it in the palm of her hand. “Watch.” It started to spin in her hand, then lifted off her palm, whirling around, then burst into an explosion of gold dust that formed the image of Satan in a tuxedo before it drifted away.
Becca sat back on her heels. “Damn.”
Nick knew it couldn’t be good to see Satan’s image. “Did that mean he set it, or that his life force is supporting the bubble?”
“It means it’s linked to his life force.”
Nick cursed to himself, and they were both silent for a long moment. The only sound was Paige’s heavy breathing and soft moans of pain.
Finally, Nick spoke, asking the question that was preying on his mind. “Is there any way to break that bubble besides killing Satan?”
And you.
He didn’t say the words, but the implication was out there. She looked at him, her green eyes fixed on his. She was working so hard to remain impassive, but he could see the flicker of tension in them. “No, there isn’t,” she said quietly. “It’s your sister or Satan. Take your pick.”
Twelve
We will kill him so there is no choice,” a deep voice announced.
Paige yelped and scrambled to her feet. Becca’s heart lurched in stunned shock and she felt the blood drain from her face.
Nick whipped out his gun and aimed it behind Becca, shoving her behind him. “Get your hands out where I can see them,” he barked.
Becca shook her head and slowly turned around, unable to believe what she’d heard.
There he stood.
Gabriel, her sweet little executioner who’d devirginized her. All six feet eight inches of burly man, dressed in black from head to toe, including his wraparound sunglasses. The only shiny thing on him was the gold chain around his neck. His biceps were bulging under his black T-shirt, his pecs flexed and ready. But how…?
No. It was impossible. She steeled her heart and turned away from the image of the man whose memory had haunted her for decades. “It’s a mirage.”
Keeping his gun aimed at Gabriel, Nick shot her a questioning glance. “You’re sure? He looks real.” Then he caught the look on her face, and he frowned. “Are you all right?”
She managed a nod. “Satan can conjure up images to torture his souls. That’s all it is. I must have triggered something when I blew up the Goody Room. Let’s go find the frozen boyfriend and see what he has to tell us.” She picked up the machine and set it on her hip, then held out her hand so she could take Nick through the floor. They both looked at her hand, which was shaking violently.
Ah, well, so much for her image of being a tough badass.
He clasped her trembling hand in one of his steady ones and sent his warmth into it, chasing away some of her angst. “What’s up, hell girl?”
She shook her head, biting her lower lip as she tried desperately not to remember what it had been like to hear Gabriel begging for his life, declaring his love for her, while Satan stood next to her and ordered her to kill him. “I can’t talk about it—”
“Becca!” Gabriel shouted. “How can you walk away from me? I have pined for you for decades, waiting for you to rescue me!”
Nick dropped her hand and spun to face Gabriel, his gun aimed at the other man’s chest. “If he’s a mirage, then you won’t mind if I shoot his ass, right? I don’t like him.”
“It’s a trap.” Becca’s heart was racing so hard her chest hurt, and a deep ache in her gut toyed with her. “Trust me. I killed him, and since he was already in the Afterlife, dead is dead, just like I’ll be if someone takes Satan out.”
“Ah.” Nick’s face softened in understanding and empathy, and little bit of annoyance, though he didn’t lower his gun. Lifted it higher, in fact. “It’s Gabriel. Your old lover. Back from the dead.”
She shook her head. “No, it can’t be Gabriel. I killed him.”
He eyed the mirage, the tendons on his forearms bulging. “He looks real.”
“He has to be real,” Paige said. “No one could fake those muscles.” She was standing just behind Nick, peering past his shoulder at Gabriel. “He looks mean. Is he mean? I don’t like mean.”
“Nick Rawlings is not to be trusted,” Gabriel announced in his booming voice. “There is a plot afoot to take out hell and you included, and Nick is part of it. Come to me and we shall defend hell against him and his kind.”
“My kind?” Nick narrowed his eyes at Gabriel. “At least I didn’t sit back and let my lady suffer with guilt for a hundred years because I wasn’t man enough to keep her from killing me when she didn’t want to.”
Becca almost snorted at Nick
’s obvious hostility, amused at how good it felt to have someone defend her. Oh, get over yourself, Becca. She couldn’t let Nick deal with it. It was her issue, not his, and she was certainly strong enough to face it. Ahem.
Paige wiggled closer to Nick. “I think that dude is the one who shouldn’t be trusted. Take him out, boss.”
Becca took a deep breath, then turned and faced Gabriel. He sounded and looked so real that she had to clench her fists to keep from reaching out to touch him. “How do you know Nick?”
His face broke into a huge smile that made her knees go a little wiggly. I remember that smile.
“It’s so great to see you again, Becca.” He held out his arms. “Kiss?”
Nick made a low growl, and Becca shook her head to clear it, still trying to understand what she was dealing with. Forget the emotions, Becca. Focus on the facts. That was her modus operandi. She should be able to do it, right? She willed her pain back into its box and tried to study Gabriel objectively. “I killed you.”
“He looks alive to me,” Paige whispered. “And scary. Is that axe real?”
“Yes,” Becca said. “It’s real. If he’s real.”
Gabriel dropped his arms, scowling as he apparently realized she wasn’t going to fall into his embrace. “You didn’t kill me. Satan just wanted you to think he did, but I’m so good at executing people that he couldn’t actually let me die. So we faked it and let you suffer the guilt.” He winked. “And now I’m back, and I’m here to take up where we left off.” His head turned toward Nick with a faint lift of his eyebrows. “Unless you object?”
Becca held up her hand before Nick could answer. “Wait a second.” Her mind started to whirl. “I really didn’t kill you?” All these years of thinking she was the worst kind of being? Gone, just like that?
“Honestly, I thought you’d figure it out and come rescue me, but whatever.” He put his hands on his hips. “If I can forgive you for killing me and not rescuing me, then I think you can forgive me for letting you suffer with guilt for a few decades. Call it even and let me buy you dinner?”
She stared at him, and finally it hit her. Gabriel was really alive. “I thought you were dead!” She sat down hard on the rubble, stunned. “I can’t believe this. Satan kept you alive?” She was vaguely aware of Nick squatting beside her, setting his hand on her shoulder, his warmth a soft pulse through her. She could tell he was trying to probe her, to figure out what she was feeling, and she didn’t have the strength to block him.
After a minute, he scowled, squeezed her shoulder, and stood up, glaring at Gabriel.
“But I’ve felt horrible about this for so long!” This made no sense. Satan would never have let Gabriel live once he’d realized that Gabriel was competition for Becca’s loyalties.
Gabriel frowned, glancing warily at Nick as the Markku began to circle behind him, his hand still wrapped around his gun, his finger resting on the trigger. “Can we put it behind us already?” Gabriel asked. “I’m back. I still love you. You still love me, and we’ll get back on track.” He walked over and knelt in front of her, his hands going to her knees. “I will save your heart for you.”
Paige sat next to Becca. “Wow. He is so into you,” she whispered. “How cool is that?”
Nick walked up behind Gabriel and reached out as if to touch him, but he kept his hand just above the executioner’s head, like he was trying to read him. The heat was rising off Nick’s body.
She pulled away from Gabriel as he reached for her thighs, not able to trust him, or herself. I can’t go through this again. “Sorry, but I don’t want to be saved. I’m going to save myself.”
Nick glanced at her, his eyes dark and unreadable as he tapped his gun against his thigh and worked his jaw.
“Ah, but you cannot,” Gabriel said. “There is a team of very pissed-off souls on their way to take you out as we speak. We had to take numbers.” He held up a slip of paper with the number two on it. “Checkmate was number one, but I got two. But I’m here to save you, not kill you. I had to lie about that, so if you hear any rumors that I was describing all the ways I’d torture you before actually killing you, don’t believe it. I had to play a role, you know? To get the good number. I’m here to save you.” He took her hand and held it between his hands. “Come with me. I will—”
“Becca.”
She looked at Nick, and he flicked the tip of his gun at Gabriel and gave a slight head shake. His shoulders were tense, and the tendons in his neck were strung tight like cords…like he was ready for a battle. Slowly, she returned her gaze to Gabriel, who was still talking about his love for her and how they would start over. He was real…but…she tried to clear her body of the shock at his reappearance. He looked like Gabriel, for sure. Then he caught her face between his hands and lifted her face, leaning forward to kiss her.
She immediately tensed, and she glanced at Nick, whose face was dark and thundering. He almost looked…jealous? He lifted the gun and pointed it at the back of Gabriel’s head, his eyes on hers as if he were asking permission to end it.
Seriously? He was that jealous? Nick cocked one eyebrow in surprise, as if he’d read her mind, and then he tapped his index finger to his temple, telling her to think.
Think? Um…
She realized Gabriel’s lips were almost on hers…then she caught a soft, flowery scent that would never, ever be Gabriel. Stunned, she slammed a fireball upward, catching him in the gut.
Nick jerked his gun out of the way as Gabriel groaned and dropped to his knees, clutching his stomach. “You did it twice, you bitch!”
Becca stared at him, horror swelling inside as she watched the man she had once loved die again in front of her. She lurched to her feet.
“Nice work, Becca.” Nick glared down at Gabriel, a sense of satisfaction on his face as he watched the other man suffer. “Good call.”
“Holy cow,” Paige said. “He gets killed just for trying to get a kiss? You’re such a badass!”
“I didn’t mean to kill him,” she whispered, then stopped as Gabriel began to shimmer and flicker, and then in his place was the form of a five-foot-five woman with a snake tattoo wrapped all the way up her body from her feet to her ears and a giant knife in her hand where the axe had been. “Roxanne?” Relief flooded her. She hadn’t killed Gabriel again. She’d known something was off! She grinned at Nick, who gave her a nod of acknowledgment. “I knew it wasn’t him.”
Then she realized that meant she really had killed Gabriel the first time.
Damn.
She sat down again and pressed her palms to her eyes. “It took me years to accept Gabriel’s death, and now I have to start over again.” She swore as Nick approached and set his hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently. “I do not have time for therapy right now.”
“Who’s that chick? What happened to the big baddie?” Paige asked. “And how did you know it wasn’t him?”
Becca allowed herself to accept the comfort from Nick’s touch. Cheaper than therapy, plus it made nice things happen in her lower region that would be a good distraction from the fact she wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. Not that she would. She never cried. Too impractical. She peeled her fists out of her eyes and looked at Paige, who was staring at Becca with an expression of total adoration and awe. She sat up straighter. “I put Roxanne in hell after she kidnapped and killed over two hundred children from neighboring villages in Europe.”
She watched Paige nudge the charred woman with her toe.
“She’s a Mablevi, which means she can take the form of any person, even if they are a different shape or size. As a human, she used to take on the forms of the parents of the kids. When I took her to hell, she swore she’d kill me someday.” She pressed her hand to her forehead. “I can’t believe I almost thought she was Gabriel.” She groaned and dropped her head to her knees. “I really need a vacation.”
Paige passed her hand over Roxanne’s forehead. “Ooo…she’s still got a soul. Can I take it?”
; Becca frowned and tested Roxanne. Paige was right. “Sure. It’s basically the same process you used to take it out of my knee.”
“Sweet.” Paige straddled Roxanne and pressed her left hand to her forehead and lifted her face toward the ceiling. “I command thy soul be released into my safekeeping.” She grinned at Becca. “Did that sound good? I think I need a stage presence to impress people.”
Becca couldn’t help but smile back. Maybe she’d keep Paige around. The kid was good for a laugh, and she could really use a little levity in her life sometimes. “It’s great. Go for it.”
“Cool!” Paige turned back to Roxanne and scrunched her eyes shut, repeating her mantra in increasingly loud tones.
Nick tapped Becca’s shoulder, and she glanced up at him. He held out a hand to her. “Come talk.”
She sighed and grabbed his hand and let him haul her to her feet.
They walked a short distance from Paige, who was trying out a new soul-harvesting mantra that included threats of damnation and torture.
He kept his voice low. “You okay?”
She nodded. “Thanks for pointing out that something was off. I can’t believe I didn’t notice. It’s not like me.”
“I’m sure Roxanne knew the only way to fool you was to come as Gabriel, then make her move while you were still in shock.” He held his hand out, poised over her shoulder. “Yes?”
She knew he was offering the kind of comfort only he could give her, and she wanted to accept it so badly, but she shook her head. “No. I’m back in control now, and I need to deal with this by shutting it down.” She took a deep breath.
He nodded and dropped his hand. “You must be a popular girl.” He looked around the room. “I think we need to get out of here before more of your enemies show up.”
She scowled. “Why does everyone make it personal? It really bugs me. If they wouldn’t run around and kill people and do other evil things, I wouldn’t have shown up to reel them in. People need to take responsibility for themselves, you know?”
He smiled. “I don’t blame you for your job. I’m very impressed at how little you actually do for Satan.”
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Hot Page 12
