by Misty Evans
You’ll see, was his only reply.
Fuck that. Maria wasn’t going to let me just mosey out of there like a tourist on holiday. A showdown with her in front of humans wasn’t high on my list, but sometimes a vengeance demon had to do what a vengeance demon had to do.
I laid Sal down—he moaned softly, finally coming around—and turned to face my pursuer. Maria was leading the charge with the guard following on her heels.
“I see you pulled yourself together,” I called across the stone courtyard. “Literally.”
Her hand shot out, fingers firing invisible but lethal magic at me. I touched my ring fingers to thumbs and brought up my shields and magic in one swift movement.
“Vengeance is mine,” I murmured, ready to deflect her magic and send some of my own her way.
“No,” Lucifer said, suddenly beside me. “Vengeance is mine.”
With that, he flicked his hand at Maria. Angelic magic exploded in the courtyard, an intense white light engulfing us. I saw Maria lifted into the air and sent flying backward, knocking the Swiss Guards down like a bowling ball wiping out a dozen pins.
The white light blinded me and I ducked for cover, throwing myself over Sal in a protective manner.
In the next second, we were both flying.
Chapter Thirty-three
Astral projection is an odd but amazing sensation. One I’ve experienced a couple of times since my metamorphosis into superfreak.
What Lucifer did to us was more than simple projection. It wasn’t only our astral bodies he projected into Father Reese’s bookstore, it was our physical bodies as well.
It felt as though I were catapulted into the air and then sucked through a tiny sieve. Sharp pinpricks of pain ate at my skin. My internal organs turned inside out. My brain, already on overload, completely blanked out.
I landed with a crash in the bookstore, hands still clutching Sal’s robe with him underneath me. Guess he took the brunt of the landing, but since he was unconscious, I doubted he would mind. I only hoped his head hadn’t received another injury.
Rolling off of him and onto the floor, I groaned. Not because of the pain but because the magic Lucifer had used to transport us through space made me want to throw up.
And since the devil himself was standing over me, having just saved my ass from another pounding by Maria and her minions, it seemed disrespectful to throw up on his expensive leather boots.
My moaning brought a host of attention from the others. Rad got to me first and helped me sit up. He seemed fine. Damon attended to Sal, a touch of his archdemon hand waking the priest from his fear-inspired fainting spell. Cole stood behind Lucifer, keeping an eye on him and me, and I noticed the War demon’s hands were hidden. Surely he wasn’t contemplating pulling a weapon on Lucifer?
I appreciated the thought. Cole would take on anything, even hell and damnation, to protect me. Priceless.
Dru and Shayne hung back in the shadows, both looking as green as I felt after our ride. To my surprise, Reese and Nicola appeared. Reese started to speak and Dru gave him a shake of his head, pointing at Lucifer and putting a finger to his lips.
Reese’s eyes widened, but he obeyed, giving me a glad to see you nod.
I couldn’t say the same. Before this was over, I was going to give him a piece of my mind.
Rad’s hands distracted me, running over the few remaining cuts and bruises on my face and neck. “Maria did this?”
“Maria and Parker.” Ignoring the look of shock on his face at Parker’s name, I used him for leverage to stand, my guts still threatening a rebellion. Good thing I hadn’t eaten in a while. “Maria’s got some kind of agreement going with the Pope. I don’t know what it is, but they’re on friendly terms. And she seems to be training Parker to take my place in her new court of torture.”
Damon spoke to Lucifer. “How is it Maria walks the earth again?”
Sal realized Lucifer was with us and nearly keeled over a second time. Damon’s hand on his shoulder kept him upright.
“Michael raised her from the dead,” I told them. “She claims that when I sent her to the afterlife, she went to heaven.” I challenged Lucifer with a look. “How is that possible?”
He may have been the angel of darkness, but his aura was all light. He didn’t move a muscle. Didn’t appear to breathe. The magic oozing from his pores nearly made me high. “My brother, Michael?”
I nodded. Rad didn’t like the way Lucifer’s magic called to mine and he inched closer, laying a hand on my lower back. His ocean scent grew thick and salty in my nose. “Maria claims I’ll need his sword to kill her. According to my father’s book, I’ll also need it to stop the Four Horsemen. How do I get it?”
Sal lowered his head. “My deepest regrets, Kali, for allowing myself to be captured and the codex to be burned.”
Damon reared back. “The book was destroyed?”
My focus never left Lucifer. “I’ll tell you about it later.” My demon wanted to grovel at Lucifer’s feet and at the same time, throw herself into his arms. Bad, bad demon. “What about this sword?”
Lucifer’s black eyes snapped with annoyance. At me or over Michael’s actions? He shifted them to Damon. “My work here is done.”
He stepped toward me and I reflexively took a step back, running into the solid support of Rad. His hand squeezed my arm, letting me know he wouldn’t let Lucifer hurt me.
As if he could stop the god of hell.
“Be still, demon,” Lucifer said, reaching out and touching my temple.
Merde. He’d touched my forehead at our previous meeting, using his magic to call up my memories. I knew what to expect from his touch, but it was still a jolt to feel him probe my mind.
My entire body went limp, but I didn’t fall. His magic held me in place, turning my bones to air. The last of the aches and pains vanished and my vision went black.
In my mind, he rewound everything that had happened to me and Sal inside Vatican City. When he got to my encounter with Maria and her words about Michael, the mental video slowed. Rewound, played again. In thirty seconds, it was all over.
He broke the connection and Rad caught me as my legs gave out. A frown pinched the corners of Lucifer’s eyes. He gave me a curt nod. “We’ll talk again. Soon.”
With that he shimmered out of sight.
“Goddammit!” I shouted at thin air. “What about the sword? What about the apocalypse?”
A lot of good it did to yell at nothing. Anger flared low in my stomach and I made a gesture at the spot he’d been a second ago. “Testa de cazzo.”
“Kali,” Damon reprimanded, but Cole laughed at me calling Lucifer a dickhead. “Testing Lucifer’s patience is unwise.”
Unwise? You bet it was. I was fed up with doing the wise thing. “What about my patience? I’ve been sent on a secret mission, beat up and tortured by my enemies and those who were supposed to be my allies, watched my father’s work burn, been flung through space like a rag doll, and not one of my questions have been answered! I don’t really give a demon’s dark ass if Lucifer wants to reprimand me or not. I’ve had it. I’m done.”
It wasn’t a lie. I started to stomp away—who knows where I thought I was going—and a wave of lightheadedness washed over me. I made it past Dru when the floor tilted and I tumbled into a bookcase. My hands grabbed at the shelves, searching for purchase, and sent books flying. I tripped over my feet, then over the fallen books on the floor.
Dru and Shayne grabbed my flailing arms and righted me, turning me around to face Damon.
“Are you done, now?” he asked, as though I were a two-year-old throwing a tantrum.
I hung my head. “I need to eat. Blood protein’s low.”
Dru jumped at the chance to help me out. “Where’s your bedroom?” he asked Reese.
The priest lifted one brow and Rad all but knocked everyone aside to save me from the big, bad vampire. He grasped my arms and took me away from Dru and Shayne, then asked Reese, “The kitchen. Do you
have any meat?”
Twenty minutes later, I feasted on a steak, pasta and some delicious crusty Italian bread. Nicola made me a cup of espresso and served it with a slice of cake for dessert, keeping her distance, but watching me with observant eyes nonetheless. Before I’d eaten half the cake, I fell asleep at the table.
I woke sometime later, immediately tensing, ready for a fight, until I realized I was in a warm bed with Rad spooned around me. For a second I thought I was home at the church. That it had all been a bad dream.
It was so natural, so comfortable to be wrapped in his arms. To feel his hard, lean body next to mine. The past few days of hell came back in a rush. No dream, but they seemed like a distant memory.
I snuggled closer to Rad and felt his arm tighten around me. “You’re safe,” he whispered in my ear. “Go back to sleep.”
Familiar, this. It had been nearly three hundred years since Rad had said the same thing to me while hiding our relationship from Maria until we could marry and escape Italy for France. A long, long time, but it still felt right.
Safe. How many times in my life had I ever felt safe?
The word echoed in my brain until I did, indeed, go back to sleep.
Chapter Thirty-four
Against my protests, we returned to Castle Fierce Warrior that night. Our plane was fueled and ready and Damon didn’t bother going to the actual castle. That pleased me. I didn’t know what had transpired between him and Valentina after I left, but I assumed he’d stayed away from her if he wasn’t saying goodbye.
We boarded the plane and took off. As it taxied down the pot-holed runway, I glanced back at the castle. Valentina stood outside on the parapet, her long gown billowing out behind her as she watched us go.
We’re not done, I thought at her even though I knew she couldn’t hear me and Damon could. I was in a bitchy mood, even after eating and sleeping nonstop for twelve hours. It felt good to be pissy. I felt stronger being a bitch. You come near me or mine again and I’ll send you to hell.
I expected a mental reprimand from Damon, but I didn’t get it. In fact, he pretended he didn’t hear my threat. He appeared distracted, and since we both had plenty to worry about, it came as no surprise he was ignoring me. I would have ignored me too.
Damon had his way of dealing with stress. I had mine. I needed to hit something. Hard. But I’d have to wait until we got back to the Institute. Cole had promised me a training session that would work out my anger and frustration.
Rad had promised a similar workout, although his would require me naked.
I wasn’t sure which I was looking forward to more.
I slept again for a couple of hours. When I woke, the gang was all watching me. I checked the sides of my mouth for drool, ran a hand through my hair. “Was I snoring?”
“Nah,” Dru informed me. Outside, the sky was bleak, the Atlantic, dark and choppy. “We’re just waiting for you to finally tell us what happened.”
I’d begged off giving them the full story and Sal had insisted I tell it since he’d missed crucial moments between me and Maria. Apparently, my grace period was over.
I gave all the details and answered questions. A lot of them were answered with “I don’t know.” I told Damon that Reese had lied about the safe behind the painting and we’d found the book in the Pope’s personal collection. Sal didn’t argue about Reese lying.
I’d seen Damon give Reese a hefty sum of folded bills before we left. Still feeling bitchy and self-righteous, I pinned Damon with a hard look. “The priest almost got us killed.”
“Let’s not sweat the small stuff,” he replied.
Small stuff? Betraying Sal and me was small stuff? My mood didn’t improve with that pronouncement.
After another half of hour of bug-the-hell-out-of-Kali with questions, I reconsidered Lucifer’s approach to mind reading. Sure was a lot more efficient.
In the end, I decided what they needed to know could be condensed into one sentence. “I need the sword and we need the Fallen. Period.”
Everyone got quiet after that. The rest of the trip, I looked out the window and speculated about Maria, Michael, Lucifer and whatever Damon had done to get the angel’s help in rescuing me.
The temperature in Chicago was three degrees below zero when we landed. Quiet, cold, dark, the city welcomed me home and I felt my surly mood lift.
Detective Moreno was waiting for Damon. He pulled my boss aside and they spoke in low voices. Dru kissed my cheek before climbing into his car and driving away. The rest headed for the Land Rovers in the parking lot, ready to head to the Institute.
I grabbed Rad’s hand and waved at Damon. “We’ll catch a cab and meet up with you later.”
Under the weak lights in the parking lot, Damon’s face looked unusually pale. His eyes went flat, hard. He said something to Moreno, who glanced my way and then walked away.
Damon paused, seemed to be thinking things over. “Be in my office by oh-three-hundred for a formal briefing on your next mission.”
Even his voice sounded off. His aura pulsed with jealousy. Mr. Uptight was back with his military time and mission talk. Lovely.
I almost came back with a snarky comment, but I suddenly felt awkward. Like a teenager caught making out in the back seat of a car. “Three a.m. I’ll be there.”
He left with sparing me another look.
My church home was deserted when we arrived. Here I thought we’d have to sneak upstairs and lock the door. “Where is everyone?”
Rad paid the driver and helped me out of the car. “The Institute. Kirill wanted them out in case he succeeds in luring the Red Horseman here.”
“But we’ll need all of them to fight him, especially since I don’t have that damn archangel sword.”
“Let’s worry about that later.”
He ran a hand under my hair and caressed my neck. A shiver ran down my spine. An empty house and Rad all to myself. I was suddenly feeling a lot better.
I laid my hand on the stone, felt nothing out of the ordinary coming from the house. Even with my demon metabolism and elevated body temperature, I was cold. I unlocked the door and ushered my boy-toy inside. “I want to forget about everything for a while.”
He was already unbuttoning my coat. “Deal.”
We made it as far as the living room, him steering me to an oversized chair in front of the fireplace. While he removed my boots with slow, deliberate movements, skimming his hands over my thighs, calves and ankles, I snapped my fingers and a fire flared to life in the fireplace. The church was a castle made from stone. Chilly by nature. That night it was downright cold.
Knowing Rad, I’d be warm in no time.
I wanted to question him about Parker’s charges. See how he reacted when I told him she claimed he was the White Horseman. Kneeling before me, he raised one of my feet and kissed my ankle, making all thoughts about Parker evaporate. “Promise me you’ll never run away again without telling me where you’re going and why.”
“I didn’t run away. I was ordered on a mission. I can’t promise it won’t happen again in the future. It’s the nature of my job.”
His lips worked their way up my shin bone. “I nearly went out of my head with worry.”
This line of discussion made it hard for me to concentrate on the good stuff. “Did you win that award? The one you went to Hollywood for?”
“It’s on the mantle.”
Duh. I hadn’t even noticed. “There are three of them.”
“Favorite Song, Favorite Album, Favorite Band.”
“Damn. That’s good, right?” The odd little glass statues reflected the room’s light, each one tapering to a point like the flame of a candle. “They’re…cute.”
“Cute? The Chaos Demons win three People’s Choice Awards and you think they’re cute?”
“Amazing, wonderful, fantastic. Just like you.”
He smiled a rakish smile. “Stop changing the subject.” Raising my leg higher, Rad used his tongue to lick the back of
my knee. I nearly came right there. “Promise.”
“Promise what?”
“No more sneaking off and putting yourself in danger.”
“Top secret missions are extremely rare, but they do happen. I’m not going to make a promise I’ll have to break.”
“Rare.” He lowered my leg and trailed his lips along the top of my thigh. Devil take me. “Good to know since I don’t think I could handle your unexplained absence on a daily basis.”
I sunk my fingers into his hair, jerking his head back so I could look him in the eye. “I’m sorry. I thought Damon gave you and Maddy some kind of explanation for my disappearance.”
He arched a brow, shifted back a little. “Did you just apologize?”
Using my hold on his hair, I shifted him forward and lowered his head again, encouraging him to resume his torturous seduction. “Yeah. So?”
He licked my skin, paused on his journey to the spot between my thighs. “This may be a first. Forgive me if I take a moment to enjoy it.”
“Non si preoccupi. It won’t happen again.”
We both laughed.
“You did what you’re trained to do, but this time was an exception. Damon’s using you.”
Mentioning Damon was a definite mood killer. “How so?”
“I think you know.”
So done with this conversation. Leaning forward, I put my breasts in his face. “I thought you were going to make me forget the past few days. Not up to the challenge, Chaos demon?”
He cupped my breasts, gave the nipples a squeeze. A promise of things to come. “I lost you for two-hundred and eighty-three years. I won’t lose you again. Damon can go to hell if he thinks he’s going to come between us.”
“Can we stop talking about Damon already?”
Why was talking about my boss bothering me so much? I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t want to think about it.
He searched my face. “Let’s make a pact. I’ll share the details of my work and you’ll share the details of yours.”
“You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
He spread my legs and lowered his head, licking between my legs. I gasped and he lifted his head, a grin spreading those wicked lips of his. “This is the way it works. The only way, in fact, it will work, if you don’t want me to take out Damon. Agreed?”
