What is happening? Jaie asked Orion. Is everyone safe inside?
There’s nothing happening inside. Well, except for the fact we can’t leave.
You cannot leave? Jaie confirmed.
Not that we particularly want to, Orion admitted, what with a battle raging outside and all.
Distracted, Jaie caught a ball of fire to the gut and he grunted, falling hard on the pavement. He rolled, the star-forged leather of his armor taking the brunt of the burn. Growling under his breath, Jaie used his hands to punch the daemon out, the sickening crunch and squish of injured flesh and bone a symphony to his ears.
In all, the battle took less than ten minutes to fight and he had lost none of his angels. His contingent had more discipline than to cheer at the victory. In fact, they all seemed as worried as he about the ease with which the daemons were dispatched.
“Jaie!” one of them called, a newer archangel who had joined the ranks after a few centuries as a guardian angel.
Jaie approached the bald angel. She pointed to the pile and he crouched down for a closer look himself. Steam rose along with the groans of the vanquished. They were already starting to stink. And as he saw them up close, he understood why.
“They were normals,” Jaie said. “And they are fresh daemons.” Likely victims of the New Year’s Eve attack.
He gritted his teeth and glared at the sky. This was an insult. Donas had sent the pawns to distract them—but from what? Was Donas so assured of his eventual victory he wasn’t even attempting to send his best?
Perhaps. Donas did have Sight now, after all.
Vibrating with anger, Jaie stood from the crouch and addressed his angels with a soft, yet intense directive.
“Any daemon you see, you smite it. I want it to take millennia for them to heal up again!”
With a flick of his hand, Jaie dismissed them, and angels took flight all around him. After a few more moments, the daemon pile sunk into the ground to return to the hell where it belonged. He spat on the ground where it once stood.
Only an angel can be so upset with a victory.
Jaie didn’t snap up his head at the sound of the voice, not even really surprised by it, in fact. He also wouldn’t be surprised if Donas had been here the entire time, watching from on high. A victory. Your definition and mine vary, Donas.
You won! Defeated my daemons and the casino still stands. I wonder who alerted you to this location?
A vampire.
Hmm, and who alerted him? I know. I knew her father well. She should be with me still, but alas. I suppose this is what happens when you fall in love with an angel. Do anything for them. Defy anyone…
Jaie clenched his jaw. He refused to let this filth bait him. Why were you here?
To test a theory! Donas chuckled and Jaie barely disguised a wince. I was not going to use my good daemons to do that!
Jaie didn’t respond, but he did raise his head to the roof. To respond to that meant to show his hand one way or the other. And the Donas was right—a suspicion was just that without proof. He wouldn’t provide that when Aminata’s safety was involved.
Jaie started to stalk inside the casino but Donas’s words stopped him cold once more.
Tell Aminata I truly appreciate her Gifts. They have been a…what is the term? Godsend.
Jaie’s vision turned red and he set his scepter to the spot still dark with daemon remnants. The freshly paved asphalt for the parking lot sprayed up like magma from a volcanic eruption. The scent of burning tar turned his nose and he spat again. This time, he didn’t stop walking until he’d crossed the casino’s threshold.
Jaie’s eyes arrested immediately on Aaliyah. The half-daemon straightened her shoulders and looked right back at him, arching an eyebrow.
Suddenly he was on his back, all the air knocked out of him as an explosion of pain filled his head. Jaie barely registered the cries of dismay on his behalf as he sat up gingerly with Orion’s help. He glared at Aaliyah, who was being held by Micah. She glared right back.
“Am I missing something?” Orion asked sharply.
Aaliyah lifted her chin. That was for Amie!
Jaie’s outraged expression morphed to confusion. What?
You hurt her! Kicked her when she was down! I promised her your ass was mine on sight! Blink-blink, motherfucker!
Jaie pursed his lips and shook his head, allowing Orion to help him up. After another moment of staring at each other, Jaie broke the connection first and assured everyone he was fine.
“What was that about?” Micah asked, more to Aaliyah than Jaie.
Aaliyah shook her head. “Between me and Jaie. He knows what he has to do to fix it.”
Jaie refused to respond to that. He wasn’t the one who’d broken anything.
“Did you know this would happen?” Jaie asked Aaliyah instead. He wasn’t about to drag his fractured relationship with a supposedly dead djinni out in the open for all to see and hear.
Aaliyah looked away from him briefly, then nodded.
“How?”
Aaliyah glared at him again. “I’m not at liberty to say.”
Jaie rolled his eyes and laughed, the sound harsh and dry like the desert in which they stood. He expelled a harsh breath to temper his growing irritation. “Why not? The person who should not know in the first place clearly does.”
Aaliyah’s expression became placid and unmoving. “Well, that answers many questions, doesn’t it?”
“Uh,” Micah asked, his blond brows furrowed as he looked between the two of them. His expression mimicked everyone else’s in the space. “It doesn’t?”
Jaie shook his head. “Ask Aaliyah. Maybe she will not keep a secret from you considering she loves you.”
“Fuck you, Jaie.”
His smile was menacing, disconcerting. “Orion. We must speak.”
In a moment, they were in La Cascade in Orion’s office. Jaie’s hands flexed, the invisible ring of his scepter burning against his thumb. Jaie forced himself to take several deep breaths, but the rage he felt inside was so volatile he even scared himself a little.
“Aminata lives,” Jaie said, cutting directly to the heart of the matter.
Orion blinked, his body freezing. “What?”
“She lives,” he repeated. “Aaliyah has been helping her. Aminata has been our source this entire time.”
A dark look crossed Orion’s features before he adopted a neutral expression. “I see.”
“Do you? Enlighten me, then.”
Orion shook his head and went to a cabinet behind his desk. He pulled out a large carafe filled with brandy and poured two fingers of the drink. He downed the liquid in one gulp, not even wincing at the burn going down his throat.
“She’s undercover,” Orion finally said. “That’s the only reason that remains consistent with who she is, why she would abandon a very popular radio program and leave me, Ms. Marshall, and thousands of listeners in the lurch.”
Jaie winced now. Despite the measured words, annoyance vibrated underneath. “Yes.”
“At least she’s been effective, although, New Year’s Eve…?”
“She let that happen.”
“Let?” Orion asked, allowing some of his anger to color the word. “She let hundreds of people die like that? Do you know the level of damage control we’ve had to do so the city wouldn’t descend into even more chaos?”
“Aside from the snatchings that had been going on?” Jaie shot back. “It was not bad enough individual souls were being stolen. It only matters when it happens en masse?”
Orion gritted his teeth and poured himself another glass of brandy. “Many people in this city aren’t mourning when they should be because to do so would be to alert them of our issues. What will we do if Donas extends his terrorizing? We can’t put the entire country under such a thrall. The entire world!”
“If Donas escapes Las Vegas, that will not matter,” Jaie warned.
“So then why did Amie allow that?” Orion asked. He
downed the glass. “She’s never seemed the type.”
“This is a war,” Jaie reminded him. “We all do things that are not in our nature.”
Orion arched an eyebrow and snorted. “Even you? You who’s been as angelic as ever?”
Jaie’s nostrils flared and he took a deep breath. He didn’t deign to answer that. Instead, he said, “All of what Aminata has tried to do has been for naught. Donas knows she is not dead.”
Orion shrugged. “So, what does that mean for us?”
“I do not know,” Jaie admitted. “However, does it make sense for her to remain hidden?”
“Yes,” Orion said quickly, surprising Jaie. “I’m sorry, Jaie. I like Amie, even after learning of this, but she’s a target for daemons. I can’t have her here and put my clientele in danger. She has to stay wherever she is.”
Jaie almost volunteered the information but decided against it. “Will she have a job when this is over?”
Orion shrugged but a corner of his mouth kicked up. “If we win, I’ll think about it.”
Jaie nodded, not pressing the issue. “If” was a discomfiting word for a very possible reality. “Would you like for me to deliver a message to Aminata?”
Orion dipped his head for a moment then let out a chuckle. “Tell her she owes me a big damn wish.”
Despite himself, Jaie smiled as he left La Cascade to go to the angel realm. He and Alemayehu needed to regroup.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Amie shot up in bed, her heart racing and her body breaking out in a cold sweat.
As far as nightmares went, she’d had scarier ones, but the distended ache of her nipples and sticky slickness between her thighs highlighted an aroused terror she never wanted to feel.
But actually really, really did.
Tears filled her eyes and she shook her head hard. Donas had spoken directly to her this night and she hated the silky glide of his voice. He was never an intrusive presence, which made him all the more unwanted.
You cannot stop me, Aminata. But more importantly, you cannot stop him. Or yourself. If everything goes as it should, you will enjoy your demise. I most certainly will regardless.
It was a threat. It was a promise. And if Donas were right, it was inevitable.
“No,” Amie whispered to herself, bringing her knees to her chest. “It can’t be.”
Except, the dreams had been coming more frequently. Every time she closed her eyes, she could See naked flesh; feel the warm brush of breath against her collarbones, the insistent grip on her flanks, the heavy weight between her legs. And she yearned, yearned for something that would clear the path for Donas to win.
This was the cruelest torture and Donas knew it too.
To help protect herself, Aaliyah had set up a spell to prevent Jaie from entering the cave. She was more a prisoner now than she’d been the entire time after her “death.” She didn’t trust herself around him. She wouldn’t have her sacrifice be in vain.
“You know you can’t avoid him forever,” Aaliyah had warned her after she’d put up the spell.
“I don’t need forever,” Amie had replied. “Just until I die.”
Aaliyah had burst out laughing and even Amie had allowed herself a small smile. “You really like this martyr role, huh? Joan of Arc ain’t got shit on you, girl. For nothin’ else, we better win this war so you can get laid for once.”
“I can’t get laid by Jaie,” Amie reminded her.
Aaliyah snorted. “As if Jaie doesn’t love you enough to risk it all. You did already; maybe now it’s his turn to do the same.”
Amie shook her head, trying to dislodge the words. Jaie didn’t have the liberty to sacrifice! He had to help defeat the Donas! She wasn’t worth anything compared to Creation!
She had to cool down.
Untangling her arms and legs from the silk sheets of her bedding, Amie pulled off the satin nightgown she wore and padded into the pool. The water, still welcoming and temperate, covered her toes like an eager friend wrapping her up in a generous hug. She did a small dive into the water, stroking her way deeper into the pool. After a few laps back and forth, Amie situated herself in the middle of the pool then flipped onto her back.
Though Amie’s mind continued to race, her body relaxed, bobbing like a buoy upon a gentle lake. She let the rocking lull her and heavy lids drooped over unseeing eyes.
After a moment of complete darkness, the image of a clear blue sky and fluffy, cotton-white clouds filled her vision. Aminata gasped once for the beauty of the sight, then again at the unholy screech that arrowed terror right through her. Her heart jumped into her own throat, blocking the scream that had built from her very soul, so only a pathetic squeak sounded. All around her, a battle raged. Angels and daemons fought amid sparks of fire and thick stacks of angry black smoke. Feathers burst around her like popped balloons full of confetti, blinding white, silver, and other colors as they fluttered their way to the sandy desert earth below.
Amie sucked in a sharp breath. She wasn’t on the ground! Instead, she hovered amid the fighting thousands of feet in the air. Her eyes widened as one daemon came for her. Though she felt as slow as molasses in winter, the attack came even slower and she was able to dodge the fireball. She went spinning through the air like an unmoored astronaut in space and didn’t stop until she hit something stronger and more solid than she.
“Hello.”
Jaie.
Unthinkingly, Amie wrapped her arms around him and began to sob. His arms, safe and unyielding, enveloped her and pulled her close. Jaie didn’t speak and she didn’t mind his silence. In his arms, she couldn’t see or hear the fighting going on around them. Her entire world zeroed in on him.
She liked this world.
Jaie must like it as well, for he began to glide his mouth along the planes of her face. Every single scar and lesion that had been there tingled and faded away under his love, and she pressed closer to him despite herself.
“We shouldn’t be doin’ this,” Amie whispered against his mouth. She could feel their gradual descent to the ground. She tried to look up and around him, but Jaie blocked everything from her—even the sun.
“Shh,” he said, a small smile gracing his features. He began to take off her clothes, his hands tender and beguiling along her flesh. That she was letting him was one thing; that she was taking off his too was quite another.
“What are we doin’?” Amie mumbled, then moaned as his mouth found her collarbone. The lesion there disappeared under the seductive swipe of his tongue.
“Loving each other,” Jaie replied, his mouth moving further down her body.
“We shouldn’t…we shouldn’t…we can’t…!” But her legs spread to make space for him. He was warm and throbbing, the head of him dragging along her swollen folds.
“We can,” Jaie said, his mouth back over hers. “We should.”
Shaking her head, Amie broke the kiss and held Jaie’s head back to hover over hers. “You have a duty to Creation!”
Jaie nodded but his smile was soft and accepting, almost resigned. “Yes. To create with you.”
He kissed her and thrust inside her. Amie felt as if supernovas invaded her. She froze, every muscle in her body tense, as a conflagration of everything she had been feeling and trying to manifest suddenly exploded inside of her. She felt as if she were floating, much like she did while in her pool, but there was no warmth of the water. She shuddered in the aftermath of release and looked above her. She couldn’t see Jaie. The sky was completely black. The war had ceased. But Amie did catch a glimpse of a tail, of a scepter, of a pair of enormous iridescent feather wings.
“Give ’im hell,” Amie whispered. Then she could see nothing at all.
Aminata.
Amie jerked to awareness and frowned, her arms hugging herself and not a broad-shouldered Dominion angel who’d been atop her mere moments before. And why was Jaie speaking inside her head? He only did that when they weren’t together; but she’d just been in his arms, hadn�
�t she?
She twisted and flipped over, water entering her mouth and lungs. She managed to jump and break the surface, her coughs monstrous, wet, and ragged.
Aminata!
“What?” Amie croaked then winced. Sorry, how may I help you?
Jaie said nothing of her overly professional tone and spoke plainly. We need to talk.
Weren’t they talking before? Well, not with words but—We’re “talking” now.
No, I deserve more than this. You can talk to Aaliyah but not to me? This ends tonight.
Amie scowled, not feeling the demand in his tone. Now you wait just one damn—!
Aminata, I wish to see you.
Oh, hell. Before Aminata could think twice, her skin glowed its familiar gold as the opening to the cave shimmered. A moment later, Jaie crossed the threshold, his light illuminating the entire space so she could see. He watched her with intense eyes, the sun shining in the gorgeous brown hues. Amie stood straight underneath his gaze, her chest still glowing and smarting from the wish she’d just granted. She was ready to cuss him out but good, and then he spoke.
“You did not refuse it,” Jaie said softly, relief and gratitude…hope…plain in his voice.
Her indignation evaporated like water droplets in the high-noon desert sun. “If it’s a wish you want that I want to grant too…” She trailed off and shrugged. “I want so much, Jaie.”
“What do you want most?”
Jaie didn’t walk deeper inside the cavern, which confused her. She’d thought he’d approach her immediately, especially since she’d finally let him inside. Instead of being hurt, however, Amie straightened her spine. He was still honoring her wishes though she’d just granted one of his.
She’d thought she couldn’t love him more. He probably adored proving her wrong.
Amie placed her hand over her chest. The lesions were still warm and tender to the touch. She closed her eyes and remembered what she’d just Seen. They’d been on the ground as the fight continued in the sky. Jaie still lived though darkness had enveloped her in the end. What could possibly be the takeaway?
The Sight Page 5
