by Michele Hauf
Cooper nodded. “You two, meet us outside.” The halo hunter nodded and led the vampire out.
Cooper grabbed Pyx and kissed her. She struggled from him and stepped back.
“What’s wrong?”
“We are,” she said. “We can’t do…this.”
“Is it because you were once an angel? You do believe me, Pyx.”
“I do. I can. I know you wouldn’t lie to me. But it doesn’t matter what I was, only what I am now. And what I am is a slayer. And I haven’t been doing a bang-up job with it lately.”
“I thought you were falling on the side of staying here on earth. If that’s your halo—”
“You don’t know that.”
“Kadesch.”
“Don’t call me that. Wait. I’m sorry, I do believe you, Cooper. What were we like? It wasn’t like a boyfriend and girlfriend thing, was it?”
“Not at all. We were friends. We trusted one another. You, Kadesch, gave me hope.”
“I wish I could do that for you now.”
Cooper sighed. “Let’s go.”
“I got your back.”
He led her out of the apartment. She’d been granted a renewed need to do her job. He wanted Pyx to win a soul. And he wanted the muse safe. Could he manage both tonight?
Vinny and Michael Donovan walked ahead down the narrow alleyway deep in the heart of the Parisian right bank. Pyx sensed Cooper’s pace slowed as they neared the vampire lair set up in the old church. He wasn’t eager to get near his muse.
She knew Cooper. He was too kind. A gentle warrior. He didn’t want to make some woman pregnant with a monster child. The guy simply wanted to live without having to worry about vampires or Sinistari chasing after him.
And she loved that he was that guy. Liked.
No, you went there before. Own it now.
Okay, she loved him.
Cooper was the one angel who had fallen away from the rest. An angel who had originally fallen with her. She couldn’t remember her time from Above. But she did believe it.
Kadesch. Yes, she could claim that name.
The halo in Michael’s pack had glowed. Could it really be hers? And could she get her mortal soul from the halo and still leave Cooper alive?
Suddenly her shoulders hit the wall. Cooper pressed his palms to her shoulders. The intensity of his nearness shivered through her system. His breaths huffed across her mouth.
Pyx glanced down the alley. Michael and Vinny wandered ahead.
“We’ll catch up to them,” Cooper said. “I have something I need to say before we do whatever it is we’re going to do tonight.”
“We’re going to kick vampire butt and save the muse.”
“Sounds like the perfect ending to a popcorn night. But you know exactly what will happen when I get near my muse.”
Yep, and it wouldn’t be pretty. “Then don’t go inside. I can handle this, Cooper.”
“I have to. I want to. Because—” He dropped his forehead onto her shoulder. “Pyx, I need you to be able to do your job tonight. And that’s only going to happen if I go after the muse. Don’t let me do it, Pyx. When I shift and go after the muse…”
She shook her head, knowing what he was going to say.
“You gotta kill me, Pyx.”
She shook her head more vigorously, but didn’t speak.
“I know you can do it. You’re strong. You’re determined. And, blessed Above, you’re so gorgeous when you try to deny your feelings.”
He gripped her head and kissed her. Hard and determined, he dashed his tongue into her mouth to taste her. The taste of him was warm, urgent and needy. She wanted to give him what he needed. But then she tasted his regret and the subtle warning as he gently bit the edge of her lip.
It was a kiss that should have brought her to her knees in a blissful surrender, but instead it made her straighter, more determined, more…committed to him.
“Promise me?” he whispered breathlessly.
“I won’t. No!”
“You have to. I love you, Pyx. I want you to get your mortal soul.”
“No, don’t say that.” She pushed his chest, but he was like a stone statue she couldn’t move. Didn’t want to move.
Another kiss silenced her protests. He clung to her. His fingers curved against her back, clutching and keeping her. If he pulled her against him, she would stay there, her hard demon heart clanking against his glass angel heart.
Her heart had once been like his; cold, solid, red glass. Now it was black steel. Neither beat.
Yes, they were two alike, in ways she could never have imagined. They wanted freedom from the immense and unforgiving realm of which they’d been born. They desired mortality. Cooper desired humanity.
She desired him.
“I love you so much,” he whispered aside her cheek. “But I will not conceive of allowing you to walk this earth one moment longer carrying the burden of the Sinistari. Take your soul tonight, Pyx. If you love me, you must take it.”
“I…”
He pressed his mouth to hers again. No movement, just the heat of their lips sealing them together, endlessly. Forever. And yet only for one last night.
Cooper pulled away and pressed his fingers over her mouth to ask for her silence. “I know you can’t say it. But I have to know if you feel the same for me.”
“If I say it now, the Sinistari could take me— Wait.”
Pyx shoved her hand in a pocket and palmed the small metal iPod. She turned it on and clicked to the video section to select the one video she had watched.
“There’s no time, Pyx.”
“Just be quiet and watch this.”
She pressed the play button and turned the small screen toward him. The woman on the video sashayed toward the viewer and said the words Pyx pined to give Cooper. The words that would see her banished to Beneath.
Three simple words. So devastating to her kind.
Cooper grasped the player and searched her eyes.
“I mean it,” she offered.
“That’s all I needed to hear. Pyx, I love you.” He tucked the iPod back in her pocket and kissed her hard. Then softly. Then he brushed his lips over hers and moaned, speaking the language they’d created when making love. “Let’s get this done with.”
She grabbed his wrist as he turned to walk on. “Don’t trust them,” she said of the halo hunter and his girlfriend. “The vampire is lying.”
“I suspect as much. It would mean a lot to her if a nephilim were created this night. If she’s allied with tribe Anakim she could earn the means to walk in daylight.”
“Exactly. All right then. You know what’s up.” She swung her arms, wishing the idea of pulling him in for another kiss would fizzle.
Slapping a hand under her arm, she drew out Joe. “I got your back, angel.”
“It had better be my heart, when the time is right.”
Michael Donovan called to them, and Cooper took off, leaving Pyx to falter after him. She shoved Joe in the leather sheath, wishing she could toss it away and wash her hands of the impulse to slay.
She’d never felt more conflicted. Save the angel or win her soul?
The foursome entered the abandoned church through a window from which Cooper had ripped the boards. Inside the building was black; no human could see his hand before him, so Vinny grabbed Michael’s hand.
Cooper and Pyx followed, each able to navigate with ease. When they’d gone twenty paces in, Cooper felt Pyx slip her hand in his. He squeezed and drew it to his chest.
The woman in the video had said “I love you.” It had been an intimate moment only they had shared, and he still couldn’t chase away the giddy flutter humming in his heart.
She loved him. She really did.
Juphiel and Kadesch had once shared the same beliefs. This may be the last time they shared the strange connection they’d been given, a gift, since landing on earth to pursue their respective quests. A reconnection actually.
He didn’t want this moment to end. He k
issed her knuckles and rubbed her hand.
“There’s a six-foot drop ahead,” Vinny instructed.
“Into the catacombs?” Michael asked.
“It’s not the catacombs proper,” the vampire explained. “Antonio del Gado and the entire tribe Anakim occupy some caverns immediately under the Hôtel Solange, a residence the tribe uses. It’s not deep, but vast. And there are sun traps all over.”
“Sun traps?” Pyx asked.
“We won’t have to worry about them tonight,” Vinny said.
“We?” Pyx chuckled. “Only you, lady, only you.”
Michael and Vinny dropped down first.
Cooper wouldn’t let go of Pyx’s hand. He pulled her to him and spread a hand down her hip and over her ass, pressing her hips to his. But all the sweet video expressions in the world couldn’t erase their truth at this moment. “Where’s Joe?”
She slapped the holster at her hip. “Ready to rock. You got your muse mojo on?” He sighed.
“I’m thinking I can rush in ahead and grab her and take off before you even shift.”
That surprised him. She didn’t want to slay him? “That’s not how this is supposed to go down.”
“Yeah? Well, it’s not how we’re supposed to go down either. You did watch the video. We’ve been pretty spectacular together lately. Hate to see that end because of some stupid compulsion to create your murderous progeny.”
The smell of her, bubble-gum innocence and sultry temptress, momentarily weakened his determination. “Did I tell you I love you?”
“Yes. But can you prove it?”
“Ask anything of me.”
“Stay here,” Pyx said. “Don’t go any farther. I’ll get the muse and flash her somewhere. It could work.”
It wasn’t an awful plan, just desperate. “Sooner or later I’ll find her, Pyx. She’s marked with my angelkiss. That never wears away.”
“Isn’t the prospect of a few more days with me a little exciting?”
“Guys?” Donovan called from the dark depths below.
“Coming!” Cooper called. “You march ahead. We’ll catch up. Not as if we can’t flash ahead of them, eh?” he said to Pyx.
“Exactly.” She disappeared in a waver of shadows.
He liked that chick’s process. But he wasn’t about to sit tight and let the girl get all the glory. Though, he did pause. Cooper knew he was endangering the muse simply by walking farther in. He could not control the shift. Could he swallow his pride and stand here?
A rustle around the corner alerted him. A familiar face stepped into view. Bruce grinned and displayed a small silver device held in his hand.
A nasty foreboding poked pinpricks up Cooper’s spine, but before he could flash, the fierce electric jolt zapped him in the lower back. It was like being hit with a million volts. His arms straightened. Legs stiffened, his entire musculature froze from the sudden, excruciating pain.
He managed not to shift. How, he didn’t know.
Didn’t matter. Cooper blacked out.
Chapter 22
The halo hunter startled at Pyx’s sudden appearance in front of him. She laughed when Donovan kept checking behind him as if to discern from where she had materialized.
“I have my talents,” Pyx said. She looked beyond the pair, hoping not to see a flash of Cooper’s white shirt and sexy kilt.
But if she could flash to the end of the tunnel that meant Cooper could flash inside whatever was beyond the medieval pair of doors she stood before. If that’s where the angelkiss led him, he may have no choice but to follow.
Don’t do it, Cooper. Just stay put. If you love me, you will.
“Where’s the Fallen?” Michael asked. “Did he flash with you?”
“It disturbs me a mortal knows so much about us,” Pyx said.
“I was baptized by fire, demon. I didn’t want the knowledge. It was shoved on me. So where is he?”
“I told him to wait above. I’m going to grab the muse and flash her somewhere Cooper won’t be able to find.”
The vampiress huffed. “Told you we couldn’t trust her.”
Pyx stepped before the woman and looked down her nose at the pitiful petite thing. “Don’t trust you either, vamp. That’s why I had Cooper stay behind. You’re not telling the truth, and that lie is going to get Cooper in a lot of trouble.”
“Bitch at me all you like. Won’t do you any good,” Vinny said with equal defiance. “The Fallen is already inside. I just heard him land.”
“What?”
Pyx turned and kicked the heavy door. Ramming a shoulder against the studded wood she shoved it until she met a wall.
Not a physical wall. Pyx leaned into the partly open door but her shoulder stopped in midair, crushing against something intangible, as if a wall. She punched a fist toward the door yet it met the same unseen blockade.
The vampire’s chuckle stabbed along the back of Pyx’s neck. Pyx spun around and swung a fist for the woman, but again she landed her knuckles against an invisible barrier.
The halo hunter took a penlight out of his pocket and flashed the blacklight across the floor. The beam revealed a ward marked in a chalk circle beneath Pyx.
“Demon binding spell,” Vinny said with far too much satisfaction. “Had to be done.”
The spell was strong. Pyx could feel the invisible walls hum in warning like an electrified fence. Both she and Cooper hadn’t trusted the vamp. So how could she have been so stupid now?
“You two were never in this to help Cooper,” she said. “You want him to get to his muse.”
“Don’t you?” Michael flicked the light toward her face. Pyx growled at the annoyance. “Thought you came here to slay the angel.”
“What I want is none of your damned business.” She hissed through clenched teeth and punched at the barrier with little result beyond making her knuckles sting. Stupid mortal flesh. And trapped inside a binding ring she couldn’t shift to demon form. “Release me!”
“Not until after the show.”
The vampiress pushed the metal-studded door inside to reveal Cooper lying prone on the floor. Out cold, he lay with arms stretched to the side and shirt torn to reveal his abdomen. The sigil on his side glowed blue.
Pyx couldn’t figure how that had happened. Why was he out? If he had flashed inside he would still be conscious.
“The vampires got him,” she decided and snapped a look at the grinning vampiress. “I thought you weren’t in the tribe?”
“I escaped tribe Anakim months ago. But I owed Antonio one. And I want to walk in the daylight. It’s nothing against the angel. We all act for survival. This is my only means to a better life.”
Her boyfriend hugged her and nodded in agreement.
“He’ll destroy the muse, and not because he wants to—because, damn it, he does not want to—but because he’s compelled to.”
“The vampires will grab the muse before the Fallen can harm her,” Michael offered in what he must have thought a reassuring voice. “They have to keep her alive to give birth to the nephilim. We’ll release the binding spell as soon as he’s done.”
“Done,” Pyx said on a gasp.
She peered inside the cavernous room. Done, as in, have his way with the muse against her will.
The binding spell held her imprisoned. She was helpless.
A glance at her lover, lying prone on the floor, ripped at her steel heart. A heart that Cooper had touched. If the damned chunk of metal could beat it would surely beat for him. She clasped a hand over her chest.
The glowing sigil on Cooper’s gut pulsed faster. It sensed the muse nearby. And the angel Juphiel’s instincts would not allow Cooper to disregard the need to mate.
“Oh, Cooper, please fight it. You can do it, I know you can resist. For us.”
Cooper slapped a palm on the icy stone floor. He bent a leg and pulled himself up to a kneeling position. His head ached. How had he been knocked out so easily by the vampires? It had felt like thousands of volts sh
ocking through his system.
It’s that damned chip or tracking device or whatever it is they implanted in you. It had reacted to whatever they’d used on him. He felt like a cow must feel after it had been prodded, only to the tenth power.
Now his body hummed minutely. Stirred, actually. Something was not right. He slapped a palm to his abdomen. The sigil burned against his flesh. It was a cold burn. Ethereal. Yet wrong.
Or maybe something was very right.
He scanned the room, walled in cement—no, it was stone, perhaps carved from the very earth? He hadn’t thought they’d descended so far underground.
A life-size painting of him was propped against one wall. And on the painting his sigil had been traced over in red. Blood. It had been used in a summoning ritual, he was sure of it. The vampires had brought him to earth to complete the goal of his original fall.
As his eyes tripped over the rough-hewn walls, Cooper’s breathing increased and he thought he felt his heart pulse.
He slid a palm over his chest. As hard and adamant as time itself, his heart would never change form or substance—unless he found his halo.
But now he remembered. There was something else he sought. Not purposefully, yet instinctually. In fact, he felt its presence. He had marked it with an angelkiss.
He roved his gaze along the front of a stone dais and tripped over a delicate hand. Cooper’s heart dropped to his gut.
The muse clung at the dais edge, kneeling, her eyes frantic at sight of him. A chain ran from one wrist to a bolt on the wall. Her gorgeous ink-black hair hung in tousled waves and one shirtsleeve was torn to reveal her shoulder. Soft, pale flesh that smelled…
Cooper lifted his head and sniffed. Rose perfume. Coffee beans. The heady lure of fear. So sweet. Like nothing he’d ever had before and like everything he must possess.
Do not harm her. You know the vampires want this. Fight it!
Stretching his neck and rolling his head from side to side he momentarily agreed with his conscience—he, Cooper Truhart, would not harm Sophia—but then instinct overwhelmed rationality. The angelkiss screamed to him.
She was his muse. Her name mattered little. Nor did the ridiculous mortal name he’d chosen for himself.
