by Michele Hauf
“I do like the men. They are interesting to look at.”
He winked. “As are the women. Short dresses and pretty shoes.” Where had the waitress gone?
“Tight-fitting shirts and kilts—er…pants.”
He caught the demon’s slip. She was into him. Poor girl.
“I really like the food,” she added quickly. “But so far your cooking has been the best.”
“I’ll cook for you any time you ask.”
“I’ve cold pizza at home.”
“That sounds not good at all.”
“I’m doing the mortal experience, buddy. You should be proud of me. So what else do you like about earth?”
“Everything. The variety of cultures and the art. The exquisite architecture. I want to go to India and see the Taj Mahal.”
“My guess is no place on earth is quite so glorious as Above.”
“It’ll be even better then because imperfection makes for beauty. What about you? Where do you want to go? What do you want to do?”
She looked down toward the sidewalk paralleling the café’s patio. The tip of her tongue dashed out to trace her upper lip. When she looked to Cooper a resolute indifference tilted her head. “I just want to belong.”
He touched her hand, smoothing over her narrow fingers. They were warm from the hot cup. “Me, too.”
Cooper felt the connection as their gazes met. She didn’t try to look away. And in those moments they shared far more than simple words could ever equate.
“I do think discovering this imperfect civilization will be an adventure,” Pyx said. “But are you implying you want to become mortal, too? I thought you were just doing a halo search?”
Dare he tell her?
“You don’t want your halo because you can use it as a weapon,” she said, her voice growing more confident as she guessed his secret. “You want it for the earthbound soul within.”
Cooper crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.
“When an angel Falls its soul gets trapped in the halo. You want to become mortal.”
“As do you.”
She nodded, silently allowing him to join her club of wanting something so simple yet so meaningful. When he didn’t remove his hand, she did, slipping it under the table and sipping her coffee.
He confused her. Good.
“Who’d a thought,” Pyx said. “An angel looking for his soul. Well, you’d better hurry.”
“I run into my muse, you slay me, right?”
She nodded, but it wasn’t quite so adamant as previously.
“I’m still not feeling anything,” he said. “Your spell must not have worked.”
“Give it time. I believe you were drawn to Paris for a reason.”
“I told you I came here because I wasn’t drawn here.”
“Whatever. Whew!” She set down the coffee cup. “This stuff is strong.”
“Yeah, you’ll be able to kick my ass to Sunday after that double shot.”
“So since we’re not going to get in any muse action today, what do you say we hunt some vampires again? You must be itching to get your hands on them after last night.”
He rubbed his lower back. “Don’t remind me.”
“I brought holy water.”
“You have holy water? What, did you rob Nôtre Dame?”
She shrugged, a silent admission. Pyx shaded her eyes with a hand. “Sun’s setting. We can sniff out the vamps in less than an hour. You going to pay your standard way?”
“Yep. I’ll be right back.”
Pyx leapt over the iron fence surrounding the sidewalk tables, completely oblivious to the fact a woman in a miniskirt would never perform such a feat. “I’m going to cross the street to that record shop. It looks just goth enough to maybe have a clue on the vamps. Meet me there.”
Cooper nodded and turned to find the waitress. She smiled as he neared her. Her name tag pronounced her “Sophia.” He pressed a palm to her forehead. “Thanks, Sophia. You must be new here?”
“Not at all. Just back from vacation in New Jersey, of all places, with family. Oh, that tip was generous. Merci.”
He winced. Sometimes it made him feel sick to utilize the trick on mortals. He was stealing from her, which was the truth of it.
“New Jersey, eh?” Now why did that—?
“Yes, it’s a pretty state. We spent a day in New York shopping as well.”
New Jersey was where he’d initially landed when he’d been summoned to earth. And Sophia had been there? This did not feel right.
“Lisa says you’ve been here every day for a week.” She itched her wrist and tugged up her sleeve. “You must love our coffee.”
“It’s delicious.” Cooper started to fall into the bruised-rose color of her voice, until he noticed her forearm. He touched her hand and tilted her arm toward him. Subtle vibrations shimmied up his arm and he quickly released her. “That’s an interesting mark.”
“Oh, this? Been there since I was born. A birthmark.” She rubbed her forearm. “It looks like two sexy number sevens to me.”
He sucked in a breath and slapped a palm to his abdomen where a part of him had begun to warm. He wondered what it would feel like if his heart could beat. Probably be racing to the finish right now. “Got a rash?”
“No, the itching just started. I think I must have burned it when I was brewing the macchiato. So, I’ll see you again tomorrow?”
“Sure.”
He turned and stalked out of the café and weaved through the tables outside. Feeling as though a china shop bull were on his heels, Cooper couldn’t make it away from the café quick enough.
Before crossing the street to join Pyx, he turned and eyed Sophia. She spoke to another waitress.
Suddenly he saw every fine detail about her. Her dark hair was highlighted with deep red strands that matched her lipstick. Her eyes, initially he’d thought brown, were flecked with gold. And those curves—he’d like to get his hands around that flesh.
“Hell.” He exhaled gruffly and forced his focus away from Sophia. He slapped a palm over his gut where his sigil unique to the angel dominions curved like two funky sevens. “She’s my muse.”
Chapter 10
Bruce hunched down in the Smart Car’s driver’s seat, parked across the street three car-lengths away from the record store the Sinistari had gone into.
He wasn’t concerned with the demon. Leave her for Stellan. Though she was a gorgeous looker, he wouldn’t bite a demon for all the money in Switzerland. He had a healthy respect for the Sinistari. Most paranormals—if they were smart—did.
Stellan was an idiot to assume the task of taking out the Sinistari. Though this one was female, which should make her much less a challenge than if it were male. Heh.
What turned his crank now was the scene he witnessed outside the café where he’d tracked the Fallen.
The GPS receiver sat on the passenger seat, unblinking. The injection had gone wrong. The tracking device had either fallen out or had been damaged when the angel had shifted. So he had to do this the old-fashioned way or risk Antonio’s wrath.
The Fallen was talking to a waitress who had an amazing figure. Reminded Bruce of Sophia Loren in her heyday. That tight little waitress uniform enhanced every curve. “Nice.”
But when the Fallen touched her wrist she pointed out something Bruce thought looked like a tattoo.
Bruce sat upright and honed his sight on the pair. “Is that…?”
The woman smiled and put a flirtatious hand to her throat as the angel stroked his fingers along her wrist. Then the angel abruptly dropped her arm and stepped back. He looked away, then back at the woman. The angel’s fists clenched and flexed out as if unsure how to react to what he’d seen.
It was a visceral reaction, and it made Bruce wonder. And when the angel left, he began to cross the street, but kept looking back at the café. Something about the waitress had disturbed him.
And Bruce was willing to bet what that something was.
“Score.”
Pyx strode out of the record shop blowing on her wet fingernails. The girl behind the counter had been painting her nails a grapey purple and when Pyx asked about it, she offered to do hers.
She met Cooper and replied to his silent inquiry. “Nothing. The store owner is not into vampires, and I didn’t want to push by asking if she’d seen any. But I think we need to let them come to you. If they find you we know that’s a tracking device stuck in your spine.”
“I still want you to dig it out.” He tossed a look over his shoulder to the café. When he turned back to Pyx his wistful expression disturbed her.
“Anything wrong? You want another shot of espresso?” she asked.
“Nope. So what, we stand around waiting for a vamp to find me?”
“Thought we were going clubbing?”
“I don’t like that idea. Let’s be proactive. Walk around and find them before they find us. You can sniff them out?”
“Not exactly. But I can sense when they are near.”
“Well, then, we’ll follow your senses.” He hooked an arm in hers and walked onward. “Pretty nails.”
“You think? Yeah, I like them, too.”
He lifted her hand and kissed it, and she didn’t try to pull away. He didn’t really admire the nail polish, Pyx sensed. So that meant what? That he’d needed an excuse to hold her hand? Smooth.
They strode past a Smart Car and took the sidewalk hugging the Seine away from the inner city.
This was unexpectedly nice. Holding the guy’s hand. Like some kind of normal woman and man on a date. So this is what made mortals happy? Pyx could get to like it, too.
A blur of motion stopped them both. Cooper tugged Pyx up against the wall of a building. “Vampire?” he asked.
“Yep. They’re the fastest moving things in this city, besides us. He’s moving north.”
“Let’s flash ahead. Maybe we’ll get lucky and find their lair,” he said, squeezing her hand.
“Their lair? Vampires still have lairs? That sounds so nineteenth-century.”
“Like you would know, so new to this world.”
He had a point. And yet. “Like you would know, too.”
He chuckled, then embraced her and they flashed together. They landed on the north side of the same building just in time to see the vampire take a right turn down a dark alley.
“This way.”
Pyx took the iron staircase hugging the side of a building and Cooper followed. He liked the rear view. He preferred clothing that accentuated a woman’s figure. And Pyx, while tall and slim, had a nice, shapely bottom. He gave a shove to her derriere, and she protested, but he didn’t relent, he wanted to touch. All the time.
They topped the building and Pyx gestured for him to remain crouched. Creeping to the high brick edging the roof, they peered down and saw a man enter a building across the street.
“That’s the vamp?” Cooper whispered.
“It’s the one I told you about.”
They both ducked when the vamp scanned the street before closing the door behind him. The building was different than the surrounding residential buildings. Fashioned of red stone, with crumbling parapets that still held on to the mangled lace of iron railings that must have once kept out intruders. Windows were boarded up and a chain and lock were strapped across the door on the corner.
“Looks like an old church,” Cooper said. “Blasphemous.”
“Yeah? Look who’s talking.”
“I resent that.”
“Hey, I wasn’t the one who fell.”
“Neither—” He stopped himself. What Pyx did not know about herself he could not explain right now. She’d never understand. Not without a lot of convincing and proof. And how would he show proof? “So the vampires are holed up in a church? That’s a new one. No one would think of looking for them there.”
“How many people do you think actually look for vampires?”
“The crazies.”
Pyx tilted her head close and muttered, “I like crazy.”
Cooper smirked. “And beating up vampires, apparently. So, we going in or we going to do reconnaissance first?”
Raindrops spattered their heads. Pling. Plonk. Cold and startling. Cooper tilted his head to catch the rain on his face. He did like the rain. It was something he’d never experienced and he could stand in it all day.
“I say storm the vanguard,” Pyx said firmly.
“Don’t you think day would be a better time to invade a vampire lair?” he wondered.
“Probably. But not as much fun.”
“You really enjoy kicking ass.”
“About as much as you do. I like that about you.”
“Did the demon admit to liking the angel?”
“Heh. No.”
Pyx slammed her arms across her chest and strode to the small brick cupola where an inner stairway opened to the roof, and leaned against it. The rain quickly dampened her hair and trickled over the leather vest.
Cooper blinked at the raindrops. “It’s a weird wonder that I find myself chumming around with my destroyer. But I can’t complain. If you do go through with your task of murdering me, at least I’ll have had some fun before I go.”
“Aren’t you willing to fight for what you want?”
“I am. But I don’t want to hurt you to get it.”
“Oh, come on, Cooper. Show me some fight.”
He shook his head. “Nope. No hurting girls.”
“So if I was a male you’d have no problem?”
“Not at all. If you were male I wouldn’t be thinking how much I’d like to kiss you right now.”
She blew out a frustrated breath. “We both want different things.”
“That we do.”
“Only one of us can have what we want.”
“If I find my missing halo, you’ll never have the opportunity to slay me.”
“Because with your halo you’ll become mortal. But you could fight me with it first.”
“Probably. I’m sure it could take off your head with ease.”
She leaned forward, catching her palms on her knees and flipping her hair back over her shoulder. “I want a fair fight.”
He was all about a fight between equals, too, but wasn’t cool with fighting Pyx. If the Sinistari had been male, Cooper would have ripped out his heart by now.
He patted the concrete roof next to him. “Come sit by me, Pyx.”
“What for?”
“I’m going to kiss you.”
She folded her arms across her chest.
“You like my kisses,” he challenged.
“Mostly.”
“Mostly? Way to make a guy feel insignificant.”
“Okay, I liked your kisses more than mostly, and probably, maybe a lot. But it’s not cool to say it.”
“Why not?”
“You know.” She glanced upward, blinking at the rain. “Someone could be listening.”
He looked about, having no idea whom the someone could be. Cooper wasn’t able to cast his gaze Above since he’d Fallen.
“You come over here,” she prompted.
Cooper made a show of thumbing his chin as he thought about her offer. “If I go over there to you, I will push you against the wall and suckle at your nipples—which the rain is making very hard—until you beg me to stop. And even if you beg, I may not stop.”
She considered his statement, an equal opponent to his play to appear aloof. Then she leaned against the cupola wall, lifting one knee and pressing her boot to the wall. Arms down at her sides, she tilted up her fingers and crooked them ever so slightly.
A challenge.
Cooper stood before her in a flash. In fact, he did flash, moving at the supersonic speed his kind were capable of. He resisted the urge to clasp her wrists and pin her immobile before him. He didn’t need to. She remained submissive, hands down, and open to him.
Drawing one hand along her slick thigh, he savored the wet flesh. Warm. W
anting. All woman, despite her obvious longing for it to be otherwise.
He quickened his pace upward, skittering his fingers over wet leather and gliding over her narrow hip. The red shirt was heavily soaked. First touch to the skin on her stomach was cool. Her body shivered. He felt the goose bumps rise. Heat flooded her flesh. He groaned at the warmth. It was as if he’d never known such heat—and he had not.
He cupped her breast. No bra. Small, like a prize in his hand. Bending, he bit gently through the fabric, then pushed it up to expose her breast. Pyx’s flesh was an idol he wanted to worship.
He nudged his nose across her hard nipple and was gifted with her wanting moans. Her fingers hooked at his waistband. Instantly hard, he cursed the tight jeans as his cock thickened and ached for release.
Hooking her leg along his hip with his other hand, Cooper pressed his torso against hers, holding her where he wanted her, and teasing her moans with his insistent need.
The raindrops splashing his face and neck, he slicked his tongue about her nipple. Taste and touch blended with the sweet bite of the rain. Pyx ground her hips against his.
In all his millennia Above, he’d never imagined the human connection could be so exquisite. Angels could not have this connection, nor could the Sinistari when in full demonic form.
It was the craziest thing that they two stood in this illicit embrace. He’d been programmed to believe this act of connection between a man and a woman wrong, but he was now making the choice to let it be right. Kadesch would be proud—and someday she would share that knowledge.
“I know I’m supposed to be the bad guy,” he whispered against her ear. “And you’re the good guy.”
“Girl,” she corrected. “Or I prefer chick.”
“Mmm, sexy demon chick, you do it for me.”
Her fingers dove under his shirt and her purple nails zinged his nipple. “You like that?” She flicked his nipple a few times.
“Pyx, can you feel how hard you’re making me?”
