Angel of Chaos (Imp Book 6) (16 page)

I caught my breath. The removal from the Ruling Council would be a welcome punishment, but damning me to Hel meant I wouldn’t be able to see any of my earthly friends for the rest of their lives. It also meant I wouldn’t be able to see Gregory.

“All in favor?”

Four angels raised their hands.

“Abstain.” I felt a sense of relief at Gregory’s announcement.

Everyone vanished, and I was left in the conference room with Gregory. Harper would be a virtual prisoner, and the baby a real one for its life. No one could see them. They’d never be able to leave my home. It was either that or send them to Hel. Both scenarios had horrible risks. The noose I’d tied around my neck with “foolishness” felt like it was tightening further.

–14–

G
regory transported me back, and for the first time I felt uneasy in his arms. I pulled away and stared up into his black eyes.

“How did they know Harper was here? The only ones who knew were you and the father, and I can’t see him telling.”

I didn’t want to hear his answer, but I needed to know. My heart might break, but I couldn’t keep suspecting him. I needed to know whether I could trust him or not.

“You don’t trust me.” It was more of a statement than a question.

“No.”

He sighed. “I don’t always trust you either, Cockroach. This is new for both of us. I haven’t seen an Angel of Chaos in nearly three–million years and have held the lowest opinion of demons up until recently. It’s not like you’ve had much contact with angels before you met me. We’re naturally going to distrust each other.”

But I want to trust you
. I couldn’t say that to him without knowing the truth, though. So instead, I straightened my spine and got right to the point. “Did you tell anyone about Harper? Did you somehow, through your actions or words, let it be known that I had an unborn Nephilim in my house?”

The angel’s eyes met mine. “No.”

I believed him. “Then how?”

“Someone could have suspected the father and had him followed. Perhaps Harper told someone about her involvement with an angel and word got back to Aaru.”

I shook my head. “Harper said that the father was nervous this last week. Maybe he was followed, but if so, why would they wait until now to tell the Ruling Council? Why not go to them straight away?”

“Perhaps they thought to blackmail the father and he refused to comply. That doesn’t matter at this moment. It’s more important now for us to make sure she is hidden — for your safety as well as hers.”

“Us?” He was going to help? I felt dizzy with relief.

“Of course ‘us’. I’m assuming you don’t truly want to send her to Hel, so we’ll need to figure a way to hide her and the baby among the humans for the next century or so.”

“You know she’s still here?” I sounded like an idiot, but this side of Gregory surprised me.

He smiled. “Cockroach, you are the worst liar ever. Of course I know she’s still here.”

With that, I was in his arms again, practically leaping out of my body to plaster my spirit–self against his. I felt like I was going to explode from emotion. I loved this guy more now than ever before.

But there was something I needed to tell him. Or rather, show him.

“Ummm… .” I hesitated as I pulled away from him. There was no easy way to say this, so I just jumped into it imp–style. “I’ve got one of your angels tied up in my basement.”

All the affectionate stroking stopped. “You what? You have
what
tied up in your basement?”

“A Hunter angel. He’s from your choir — says he reports directly to you. He came for Harper, and we fought. I didn’t know what to do with him once I’d subdued him, so I stuck him in the basement.”

“One of my angels. In your basement.
Tied up
? How has he not untied himself and returned to Aaru? Do you have some sort of magical containment wards on your basement? I didn’t sense anything the last time I was here.”

“No … well, it’s a sort of magical containment. He can’t teleport or use any energy. It turns him temporarily into a human as far as skills and abilities go.”

Gregory stared into my eyes; his were dark and unreadable. I wished I knew what he was thinking.

“Okay. Why the tying up then? He shouldn’t be hard to handle as a human.”

Sheesh. Angels always underestimated humans. It’s not like the Hunter was completely defenseless or with the IQ of a slug just because he no longer had angelic powers.

“Well, he could escape through one of the basement windows, or make a shank out of the shit down in my basement and attack us when we came down, or annoy the fuck out of us by flipping random breakers in the electrical box down there. Yeah, he’s tied up. Actually he’s duct taped to the point he looks like a giant silver caterpillar.”

Reminder to self: when confessing terrible misdeeds to an angel, avoid sarcasm at all cost. Gregory exploded in anger, slamming me into the wall. His irises bled out to engulf his eyes in solid black, and he shimmered. As he spoke, I saw the pointed piranha teeth that meant he’d lost control.

“Cockroach, how could you do this? Why?”

“He attacked me,” I wailed. “In my own house, he attacked me. And he tried to take a woman I have vowed to protect, a woman I now consider part of my household.”

Gregory’s breathing was ragged and hot against the side of my face. “You have restrained an angel who was simply doing his job then covered him in some sticky substance so he cannot use his limbs. And you didn’t think to tell me this until now? When did this happen?”

I squirmed, looking anywhere but at his face. “Um, a couple of days ago? I just … no, I didn’t want to tell you. Part of me worried that you had leaked the news of Harper’s presence and sent the Hunter here.”

He leaned closer to me as the silence dragged on. “And the other part?”

I dragged air into lungs that suddenly felt too small. “He was part of your choir — a Hunter under the command of the Grigori. I didn’t want you to hate me. I have held one of your own against his will. That’s not the sort of thing you do to a household member of a loved one.”

I felt him relax. His hands on my arms rubbed, soothing, although the power he leaked still burned against my skin. “No, when you have a confrontation with the household member of a loved one, you let them know. You let them deal with the issue. How would you feel if I had done this to Dar and not told you?”

I couldn’t help a snort of laughter at the idea of Dar showing up in the fourth circle of Aaru and attacking Gregory. “I’m sorry. I’m a demon, and I’m not really good at this trust stuff, let alone the whole communication thing.”

I reached out in a caress with my spirit–self and felt him return it. He still had me pinned against the wall, still had that inferno of power blasting against me, but at least I knew he didn’t hate me. Right now, anyway.

“Why have you let me know this now? It would have been decades before I noticed his absence. You could have hidden this from me for quite a while.”

“Because I trust you now and I thought you needed to know.” I glanced up into his face. “And, honestly, you would have found out by date–night. He makes a fucking lot of noise down there in my basement. So, unborn Nephilim in my house and a captive Hunter in my basement. We’ve got that problem to deal with too.”

“We?”

Shit. Was the ‘we’ stuff all over and gone? Maybe I
should
have just kept the angel in the cellar a secret and disposed of him discretely. I sneaked a look at him. He didn’t look pissed. He looked more shocked than anything else. Finally he tilted his face toward the ceiling and shook his head.

“Okay. Let’s go see this angel tied, or taped up, in your basement, so
we
can figure out what to do with him.”

Everything swam before my eyes, and I realized I’d been holding my breath, waiting to hear his response. We. How I loved that pronoun.

I led Gregory into my cellar, wondering if I could possibly set up some cots for my overflow guests. With the rate things were going, I was bound to wind up with more angels down here. Maybe Gareth could get me some additional nets on an emergency order. It really wasn’t that horrible in the basement. If I slapped some posters on the walls and threw a few cheap rugs down, no one should complain about the accommodation.

Cheap rugs and posters were better than this angel had it. He was still attached to the chair where we’d tied him yesterday after he’d taken to rolling across the floor and banging loudly against the furnace. He hadn’t been able to get loose from the chair, but the way the silver edges of the duct tape were rolled and cutting into his skin showed he had been struggling.

“What is that thing around his neck?”

I winced, remembering the feel of the collar, how I’d dug at it with my hands until my neck was raw and bleeding. Guilt lanced through me. I didn’t want to use it, never wanted to see one of them again, but there was no other way I could keep this angel from hurting Harper or gating back to Aaru to rat us out.

“It’s that restraining device I told you about — a collar designed by an elf–demon collaboration. With it on, a demon — or angel — is basically a human. They can’t access their energy or powers.”

Gregory moved past me to the angel. “Is that why he has injuries?”

“Yeah.” He’d managed to heal the most severe of them in the moments between being released from the elven net and having the collar put on, but the Hunter still had a host of abrasions on his arms and legs. I suddenly saw this from an outsider’s eyes and realized how bad it looked. Heck, it looked bad enough from an insider’s eyes.

“He was going to take Harper. He attacked me, threatened me and my guests on my own property — in my own home.”

“Mmm, mmm–mmm mmm mmm!”

At least that’s what the angel sounded like. I couldn’t really make out his words since his mouth was covered by duct tape.

“Do you mind?” Gregory asked, pointing to the flexing silver band across the angel’s mouth.

“Be my guest.”

Gregory grabbed hold and ripped the tape off with one swipe. I knew it had to have hurt like fuck and was filled with admiration for my badass angel.

“Now, what was that you said? I couldn’t hear you, and evidently the collar also inhibits mind–speech.”

The angel gasped a few times, working his jaw. I suddenly realized that with the collar on, he’d need to eat and drink. Ooops. Guess when this was over I’d need to bring him down a plate of something, assuming Gregory didn’t dump my ass and gate back to Aaru with him.

“She … it was all her, Ancient One! I asked for entry into her home, and she granted it. I asked for her to hand over the woman, and she agreed. Then she hit me on the back of the head after the human woman impaled me with a knife. I was defending myself. Then she drew the sword of the Iblis on me!”

Yeah, I was so screwed. I should have just killed the guy when I had the chance. Gregory tilted his head, regarding the other angel thoughtfully while I held my breath.

“Surely you cannot have been so foolish as to turn your back on a demon. Or believe that one spoke truthfully. Either you are lying to me, or you are a fool. Which is it?”

The angel shot me a hate–filled glance. “But, with greatest respect Ancient One, your back is to her right now.”

“I have no doubts regarding my foolishness, especially when it concerns this particular demon.” Gregory turned to me, and I felt my insides warm at his smile. “Cockroach, can you please remove this collar from my angel? I’m rather reluctant to touch it.”

I snorted. “And you call yourself a fool. Nobody in their right mind would want to touch that thing. I can put it on, but a human or elf needs to activate the release catch. Hopefully Nyalla is home.” Because I wasn’t about to get Harper within ten feet of this guy.

“She is.” Gregory looked up toward the top of the stairs. “I’ve asked her to come down here, and she’s on her way.”

Sure enough, I heard the slap of flip–flops as Nyalla hurried down the stairs. She took one look at the angel, at Gregory, then at me.

“You sure about this?”

I nodded, and she walked to the Hunter, carefully feeling around the back of the silver collar for the catch. With a ‘snick’ the silver ring was in her hand. I moved to put myself between Nyalla and the angel, just in case.

“Ancient One, may I heal myself and remove the sticky silver tape that binds me?”

Gregory gave a short nod, and with a flash of light, the angel stood before him, fully healed and free of duct tape, his head bowed in submission. My angel touched his head and golden light flowed around them in a spiral.

“Dalmai Haseha Huzia Rami, angel of the fourth choir, Hunter of Nephilim, you are forbidden from physically harming any humans under the protection of the Iblis. You are relieved of your Hunter responsibilities. You will remain here and serve the Iblis for a period of two decades.”

“Yes, Ancient One. Is this my punishment? For being a fool?”

Gregory smiled and looked up, his eyes briefly meeting mine. “No. It’s a reward. I hope that in the next two decades, you become an even greater fool than I am.”

–15–

A
s usual, Gregory took off, leaving me in a house with two humans, one unborn Nephilim, a Fallen angel, and a Hunter angel that hated my guts. Dalmai followed me sullenly up the stairs as I gave him the household tour. I wasn’t about to put him in my bedroom, so I led him to the nursery, thinking he could shack up with Nils for a while.

Wrong. Nils was sitting cross–legged on the floor, eyes closed in serenity, seemingly undisturbed by our intrusion. Dalmai took one look at him and erupted in anger.

“I’m not sharing living quarters with
that
.”

I pursed my lips. “Well, the other choices are with me or the basement, because you’re not going to be sleeping in the same room as the humans.”

“I wouldn’t harm the humans, can’t harm the humans even if I wanted to.” Dalmai sounded a bit insulted.

“It’s not the humans I’m worried about; it’s you. Nyalla is more than a match for you. Harper just got jilted, and she’s got mad knife skills. You definitely don’t want to be sharing a room with her.”