Ascending Passion

by Amanda Pillar

  “Lucifer plucked me out of obscurity, he sent me to university in the Human Realm, he helped me. I’d do anything for him.”

  “Famous last words.”

  Rowan approached them, a tentative smile on her face, but her eyes were strangely cool. “What are you guys talking about?”

  “Theology,” Kayla replied smoothly. “Lucifer, Hades, Satan and all that.”

  “Really?” Rowan quirked her head to the side, studying him. “I didn’t think you’d be interested in theology.”

  “Oh, I have a great interest in theology. I just don’t talk about it much. Too much jibber-jabber about one’s personal beliefs can be off-putting, you know?”

  “Did he just say ‘jibber-jabber’?” Kayla snorted.

  “He watches a lot of Netflix.”

  “And how do you know that?” The demon waggled her eyebrows at Rowan who turned a deep scarlet.

  Deciding the conversation had dropped to a level even he didn’t like, Yael strode away to check the perimeter. He had no problem making dirty jokes—Hell, he excelled at it—but he didn’t like the insinuation that he would Netflix and chill with Rowan.

  Why?

  Well, for starters, she’s human. She doesn’t believe in magic, and well, because she’s sad. Most nights, he could sense it in her, a deep melancholy that chipped away at her soul. He’d known her boyfriend had died, but he hadn’t realized how deeply humans could feel.

  How deeply she could feel.

  He reached the edge of the guarded area, eyesight piercing the burgeoning darkness. Demons patrolled the edges of the valley with military precision. He’d easily marked them as Lucifer’s men. Down near the tourist entrance, local authorities monitored any comings and goings, as well as regularly dispatching sentries of their own. This place was probably as safe as back at the compound. Plus, there were plenty of spells to ward people away from the tombs, and their excavation site.

  He glowered.

  The protection spells were new.

  Behind him, gravel crunched underfoot. He flicked a knife into one hand, and spun, ready to slam the blade home. He pulled back at the last instant, almost stumbling in his attempt to change direction.

  “What the hell?” Rowan’s hand hovered over her throat, and her eyes were wide in shock.

  He straightened and shoved the knife back into its sheath. “Sorry. You shouldn’t sneak up on people.”

  She glowered. “I was trying to be quiet. And you shouldn’t try and stab everyone who comes by.”

  “It’s my job to stab people.”

  That didn’t come out quite right. But he wasn’t about to apologize for it, either.

  Her mouth tightened.

  At least she isn’t sad or annoyed.

  Two emotions he didn’t particularly enjoy dealing with. But angry, he didn’t mind that at all. He could deal with her being pissy.

  “Yael! Yael! Yay-eeeelllll!”

  Oh no.

  No.

  Now was not a good time.

  “Yaaaaaayy-elllll!”

  With a wince, Yael pivoted to see Dru bounding down over the cliff, Azrael hard on her heels. Two demon guards were chasing them in the distance. How far had they come?

  Dru skidded to a stop in front of him and shot a triumphant grin over her shoulder. Her white blonde hair whipped around her face, and she wore an almost identical outfit to his own—black shirt, black cargo pants, military-grade boots. He wanted to complain that she’d stolen his style, and was about to say something when—

  “I won!”

  Azrael’s blue eyes glinted with amusement. “You cheated.”

  Dru’s expression turned feral. “You bet I did. Best way to win.”

  Yael cleared his throat. “Hi, Dru. Azrael.”

  “Yo, Yael. We got your message. Or, well, Az got your message, but I know you meant to send it to both of us. Since I gave you packing advice and all.”

  “Uh.” Rowan stepped forward and tugged on his sleeve, careful to avoid any direct physical contact. “Who are they? Have they got clearance to be here?” Then she scowled. “Packing advice?”

  Yael thought frantically for a moment. How was he going to explain this? He really should have put more information in the SMS. NEED TO SLEEP. COME VISIT, probably wasn’t the best choice of phrasing.

  “Azrael is my brother.” Funny, how that didn’t taste like a lie. And from Azrael’s startled expression, it didn’t sound like one, either. “Dru is his partner,” he added, as her gray gaze narrowed menacingly. The cambion had a temper when she thought she was being slighted.

  Dru sniffed. “I prefer the term ‘Master’.”

  Azrael rolled his eyes. Rowan issued a startled laugh.

  Then Rowan turned on him, and not the crazy woman across from her. “You have a family?”

  “I wasn’t born through immaculate conception, so yes.” Again, all truth…

  “I didn’t mean that. You just never said anything. And you certainly didn’t mention that they were in Egypt.”

  Dru and Azrael were watching them like they were at some sporting event.

  “Well, you didn’t ask. And they only just arrived.”

  Rowan’s jaw snapped shut. They’d spent days and days together, and she’d never really asked anything about him. Tried to ignore him, except for when her boredom or sadness got too great for her. It was a shame because he kind of enjoyed spending time with her, prickly as she was.

  “We’re here so Yael can sleep.”

  “Like he doesn’t do that every night.”

  “You sleep every night?” Azrael asked, brows raised.

  “No, I don’t.”

  “You don’t?” Rowan turned her big eyes on him. “When was the last time you slept?”

  “A while ago.”

  Guilt turned her expression dark. “I didn’t realize.”

  “There’s only me out here, and well, people like to kidnap other people when it’s dark.”

  Rowan turned on her heel and marched back toward the marquee. “I’m going to kill Gran!”

  “Why does she want to kill her grandmother?” Dru asked, peering after her. “Is it a witch tradition thing?”

  “No, it’s a Rowan thing.” He sighed.

  “Cool.” Dru nodded. “I think we’ll get along.”

  He didn’t really have anything to say to that.

  Chapter 19

  Yael’s brother and sister-in-law were decidedly…strange. Well, maybe his brother Azrael was okay, but Dru had actually believed Rowan wanted to kill her Gran.

  It had taken a bit of explaining to convince her otherwise.

  The scary part was that Dru didn’t seem troubled by the idea of murder at all. She was just curious why Rowan would want to murder her grandparent, in particular.

  “Is it a witch thing?” Dru asked.

  “What? No!” Rowan glanced around quickly.

  So, Yael had already told them about her Gran’s beliefs.

  Great.

  “Please don’t mention the witch thing again,” she said. “I don’t want the others thinking I come from a crazy family.”

  Dru appeared thoughtful. “You know, not everything can be explained through science.”

  “Yes, it can.”

  “You sound like my sister. And she was proven wrong, too.” Dru brushed her hands together.

  “Okay then.”

  I am not getting into this conversation with her.

  Rowan glanced over to the marquee, where Yael and Azrael were with Dr. Mustafa and Dr. Campbell, filling out the paperwork that had resulted from their arrival. It would have been nice if he’d warned me they were coming. It had been a bit of a shock.

  The sudden jealously especially so.

  When Dru had run across to them, yelling Yael’s name in that playful way, Rowan had an awful sinking feeling. Was this woman Yael’s wife? His lover?

  And worse, why did i
t even matter if she was?

  Yael was not someone she would ever date. And it wasn’t like she was ready, either.

  Kayla bumped shoulders with her suddenly. Although, given their height different, it was more like banging her side against Rowan’s elbow.

  “The new guy’s even hotter.”

  “Really?”

  Azrael was of a similar height to Yael, but he had shoulder-length black hair and crystalline blue eyes. To be fair, his body was amazing. But then, so was Yael’s. It was clear the two of them kept in shape; their job surely required it. Azrael’s handsomeness, however, was almost too perfect, a bit like Luke’s. You could look at it all day, but it was something you could appreciate aesthetically, not physically.

  She couldn’t even picture him getting dirty, not with that pristine appearance.

  “If your eyes are on the tall dark and handsome one, then you better turn your attention elsewhere.” Dru had appeared next to Kayla, silent as a shadow. “He’s mine.”

  How did she move so fast?

  Kayla turned, her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.

  “Kayla?” Rowan asked.

  “Sorry.” She seemed to gather her thoughts. “I was just caught by surprise.”

  Dru smirked, like she knew exactly what had shocked the archaeologist…and it wasn’t the way she’d appeared like a ninja.

  There’s definitely something else going on here.

  Ever since Rowan had arrived with Yael, there had been an undercurrent of insider jokes between him and the other archaeologists. And nobody had seen fit to let her in on the secret. Now, well, there seemed to be a whole different set of insider information she wasn’t aware of, because Dru made Kayla nervous, and there wasn’t anything particularly scary about her: white blonde hair, serious gray eyes, and beautiful golden skin. She wasn’t exactly Jason from Friday the 13th. In fact, she didn’t seem too intimidating at all, if you ignored the knife that had suddenly appeared in her hand.

  Wait, she has a knife?

  Where had that come from?

  No wonder Kayla had gone a little pale.

  “Now, Dru, honey, what did I say about knives and strangers?” Azrael said as he came to stand beside his partner.

  Dru appeared crestfallen, like he’d told her to kick a puppy. “That I shouldn’t use one to stab them.”

  “Exactly.”

  Maybe Dru is scarier than I thought.

  A lot scarier.

  “But she was ogling you,” Dru protested, pointing at Kayla with the blade.

  Kayla straightened. “I don’t ogle.”

  Yael smirked. “Yeah, you do. Like, all the time.”

  “She does?” Dru frowned and the knife disappeared. “Well, that’s different. Means she isn’t singling Az out.”

  “People are allowed to look at him, Dru.” Yael rolled his eyes.

  “Not with intent, they’re not.”

  “How do you define ‘intent’?” Yael asked.

  She glared. “By whether or not I’ve stabbed you.”

  Oh god. I think she might actually be serious.

  Azrael tsked. “Come now, you two haven’t seen each other in weeks and you’re already arguing. And in front of strangers, no less.”

  Yael narrowed his eyes, but didn’t make a snarky reply. Dru simply shrugged, as if to say, ‘You know me’.

  That seemed to ease the growing tension, and Dru and Azrael wandered off to check out the rest of the site. Rowan thought she heard Dru mutter about collecting ‘goodies’, but Azrael shook his head at whatever she was saying.

  Kayla decided she needed to go check on the excavation, leaving Rowan and Yael alone. He closed the distance between them, the marquee suddenly feeling crowded, even though it was just the two of them. “I’m going back to the compound and getting some sleep.”

  “Okay, but I have to stay—”

  “I know. Azrael and Dru will keep an eye on you. Dru is crazy, but she knows how to fight. You’ll be safe with them.”

  She was beginning to agree with him, at least as far as Dru was concerned. “When will you be back?”

  “Before that tomb is opened.”

  Then he was gone, his long stride eating up the distance as he walked back to the visitor’s parking lot.

  For the first time in almost a month, Rowan was free of her bodyguard.

  Too bad it made her feel lonely.

  *

  “Are you all right?”

  Rowan looked up from where she rested her head on her forearms, her knees drawn up to her chest. Fatigue had settled deep in her bones. She wasn’t up to spending thirty-six hours awake, but she couldn’t bear to leave site and sleep, just in case they opened the tomb without her. Dr. Mustafa had done the smart thing and gone to nap in the van.

  Kayla, on the other hand, was wide awake and cheery.

  Maybe it’s all the coffee she drinks. Has her permanently wired.

  Drs. Murdoch and Campbell were squirreled away somewhere, poring over maps and iconography books.

  “She looks tired.” That was Dru.

  Is it my haggard appearance that gives it away? “I am.”

  “But it’s only six in the morning,” Kayla protested. A stainless-steel mug of coffee was in her hand.

  Rowan shook her head, tempted to snatch the coffee from her and down it like a woman dying of dehydration. “I haven’t slept all night.”

  “So?” Kayla asked.

  Dru squatted next to Rowan. “Humans need sleep.”

  What is with them and saying ‘humans’?

  Like, none of them seemed to be extra-terrestrials.

  Dru poked her in the arm.

  “Hey!” Rowan protested.

  “Did you want some coffee?” Kayla asked.

  “Yes, please.” Rowan held out her hand.

  Kayla gripped her mug like it was the last source of caffeine on earth. “You can’t have mine.”

  “Then why’d you offer it to me?” Rowan demanded.

  Rowan was seriously considering theft when one of the students ran up to them, sweat dripping down his face, and his expression triumphant. “We’ve found the door!”

  It was time.

  Chapter 20

  Tower of Tortures, Sheol

  “They have reached the end of the stairs, Your Excellency,” Seneschal said. “No doubt the door will be uncovered soon. They are completing the excavation and will wait for you arrival before it is opened.”

  Glancing up, Lucifer realized he was awaiting a reply. “That is excellent news.”

  And truly, it was. It was the best bit of news he’d heard since the lovely Rowan had lost her boyfriend in that car crash.

  Seneschal nodded regally. Lucifer had worked with him for millennia and had long since forgotten his real name. Petty nonsense like that was meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

  Well, his grand scheme, anyway.

  The tall Tortas demon backed out of the library, his horns dipping to ensure his passage under the door frame. With patterned skin and wide eyes, Tortas demons were perhaps the least scary of them all, but they excelled at detail-oriented tasks. They had survived the eons through being useful to other, more powerful demons.

  It was a handy evolutionary trick.

  Hell, how Lucifer hated that word now.

  Trick.

  His eyes narrowed. A fallen angel who was now a full archangel, Trick was the only real threat to Lucifer’s power. For Sheol could only be ruled by another archangel, or by one of Lucifer’s children. And he had no living children; he’d ensured that. He’d personally eliminated any and all threats, no matter how old or young.

  As if that wasn’t bad enough, Trick was in a relationship with Seraphina, the fallen abomination who had nearly killed him. Him. The Prince of Darkness, King of Lies. She’d almost severed his head, and in doing so had inadvertently become true fallen, and so even more powerful.


  Once I find the artifact, she will pay.

  So would Heaven. So would everyone.

  And Dr. Rowan Broome was the key to it all.

  Chapter 21

  Valley of the Kings, Egypt

  This was it.

  The door to the tomb.

  Luke had arrived on site around midday, and Rowan was so tired she was seeing stars. But it would be worth it, even if her gut said the tomb wasn’t intact. More broken artifacts had been found in the soil near the door, which was itself cracked. Hieroglyphs had been carved into the surface, but she hadn’t been given the chance to translate them, Dr. Campbell taking the honor.

  The stocky Campbell approached Luke, beetle brows lowered. Luke stood in the center of the marquee, surveying plans, wearing khaki-colored pants, a light blue shirt and a white scarf. It was hot enough that the scarf was weird, but Rowan wasn’t about to criticize his fashion sense, considering his outfit probably cost more than her mortgage. She sidled up, listening in.

  “There are the typical warnings, my lo—Sir, but there are cracks in the stone slab over most of the curses,” Campbell said.

  Luke murmured something back, too low for her to hear.

  “Yes, I believe so.”

  Luke straightened. “Excellent. Let us open the tomb.”

  But Yael isn’t here.

  It was a silly, irrational thought. She didn’t need him to open the tomb.

  Let’s do this.

  She strode from the marquee to the excavated staircase. Students and workers lined the sides of the trench, an honor guard, and Dr. Mustafa stood proudly in front of the broken slab, a crowbar in hand.

  “Stand aside,” Luke said.

  Dr. Mustafa blinked. “Excuse me?”

  “Dr. Campbell here will open the tomb, with assistance from Dr. Murdoch.”

  “But I am the Director—”

  “You are the Co-Director,” Luke snapped. “And I sponsored this dig. They will open the door.”

  Dr. Mustafa cheeks darkened, but he handed the crowbar to the spindly Murdoch.

  “He looks pissed.”

  She jumped at the low whisper, her heart pounding in surprise and delight.