Angel of Chaos (Imp Book 6) (31 page)

“Even if the rest of the Ruling Council were to support your assumption of what has always been our responsibility, I will never give over the wellbeing of the Nephilim into a demon’s care.”

Yeah, maybe I’d exaggerated that ‘happy to hand this problem over to me’ when I’d discussed the plan with Gareth and Kirby. Gabriel would be my greatest opposition. If I could sway him into agreement, this would work. If not… .

“You’d rather see them dead?” I backpedaled, seeing Gabriel’s resolute expression. “In spite of what you think of me, I have friends among the werewolves — household members, even. I’ve made a vow to protect both the unborn Nephilim and his mother. I cannot stand by while the angels slaughter them. I have claimed them, and, as the Iblis, I will defend them against any attack by the angels.”

It was my line in the sand. I held my breath and waited for Gabriel’s move.

“You can claim them all you want, but they are
not
yours. We have not deemed them Fallen, and their vibration patterns are not your responsibility. If you face us in defiance, attempt to turn our path by force, we will overpower you with our might. You are one Iblis, and we are many.”

Asshole. “We are many too,” I said softly, letting the threat hang in the air between us. There was a bit of a Mexican standoff between us, and I needed to give him a way out. “But I don’t want to see this come to violence. I care too much about these beings to see them exterminated while you angels sit around for centuries splitting hairs. You have the capacity for rational thought when you’re not being a pompous bag of wind. Think of some way we can work together to save these lives without starting yet another war.”

Gabriel ran a hand through his black hair, causing the upward do to shift dramatically to the left. “I cannot go to the Council and tell them that you’ve basically seized control of an entire race — a race that includes those with angelic bloodlines. Every angel in Aaru will take up arms against the demons. There
will
be another war if you persist on this path.”

“But what if it’s your idea?” I tried for a pleading gesture to counterbalance the earlier threat. “Aaru is recovering from a coup attempt. There are splinter groups disrupting your unity and rule. This whole Nephilim thing is an unwelcome distraction. Say that you’re verifying the alleged proof that werewolves are descended from Nephilim, and until a decision is made, they will fall under my wings.”

“Unwelcome distraction?” Gabriel sniffed. “This is just the distraction we need. It will unite all of Aaru, especially if they think the demons are trying to take something away from us. This is the perfect distraction.”

My heart leapt as I wondered if I’d made a fatal error in judgment, but then I remembered Jaq.

“For twenty–eight years you’ve watched over a Nephilim, seeing her grow, watching as she coped with angelic powers. You’ve kept your mouth shut for millennium about the werewolves and their sanctuaries, but you’d sacrifice all of that to unify Aaru? This perfect distraction would only be temporary. Once the dust settled, the angels would return to their rebellions. The only thing that would buy you is time. Would time be worth the cost? The extermination of a species seems a very high price to pay.”

Gabriel’s mouth tightened. “Sometimes a high price is necessary.”

“Not this time. Their deaths would be a burden on your soul, Gabriel. What would that do to your precious vibration pattern? This wouldn’t be a noble sacrifice; it would be a coward’s way out. You’d give up the lives of an entire race to stall, to avoid facing a problem in Aaru that you need to face. Is that the kind of angel you are?”

He snarled, and in a flash of speed, snatched up a chair and flung it at me. I was too surprised to duck and took it right to the face, landing on my back with blood pouring from my nose and forehead.

“Fine. I’ll support your claim before the Ruling Council as a temporary means to divide responsibilities while we investigate further, but you need to make a public claim on this or it won’t fly.”

I squirmed into a sitting position, spitting and wiping the blood from my eyes. “One rotation cycle. Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. At the junction of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers.”

He gave a short, sharp nod. “We’ll be there. Don’t be late … and don’t screw up.”

In a flash, he was gone. I yanked off my shirt and tried to staunch the flow of blood as I stood shakily to my feet. I’d done it. Well, sort of done it. Now I had to worry about getting this public claim to work, getting a bunch of demons to Harpers Ferry and keeping them there until our ‘show of force’ was over. I looked at the bloody shirt and felt the trickle of liquid down my nose. Fuck it. Extending the glow of light outward, I healed the cuts and tossed the shirt aside.

Then I felt Gregory’s hand on my shoulder.

“Cockroach, I do believe we’ve found the perfect puppet dictator.”

–28–

I
sat in the chair with a thump. “You’re fucking joking me. Of all the angels in heaven, you somehow think that Gabriel is best suited to lead? Puppet dictator my ass. He’ll do the exact opposite of what you want.”

“He’s shockingly predictable, and that works to our advantage.”

Our? I had enough on my plate. I didn’t need to add some secret co–rule of Aaru to it.

“He’ll send Aaru right back into the dark ages. I’ll be confined to Hel. Werewolves will be on an existence contract that makes the current one look like a cakewalk. Angels will kill every demon they see. Gabriel isn’t going to change who he’s been his whole life. He may color outside the lines on occasion, but he’ll go back and change that as soon as he comes to his senses.”

“That’s what I’m counting on, Cockkroach.” Gregory walked over and wrapped his arms around my neck, pulling me backwards — chair and all, against his chest. “Now. Enough about Aaru. Let’s turn our attention to how some members of the Ruling Council seem to know what’s going on in your house seconds after it occurs.”

I leaned my head back against him. “Well, there’s always you. You’re my primary suspect here.”

He rested his chin on the top of my head, his breath stirring my hair. “I’m innocent, you know. But since you’re a demon, I’m sure you have some punishment in store for me regardless.”

Heat blossomed through me at the thought. I could duct tape him to a chair and interrogate him. Ten minutes of my mouth on his cock and he’d be confessing to everything under the sun. Assuming he oblige me and manifest the necessary organ for such torture.

“One of my enforcers has been in the area tracking a curse demon. She’s one of Gabriel’s angels, but my brother would have come to me first if she’d noticed something and told him. Rules, you know.”

Yeah. I thought through everyone who’d been by the house recently while Gregory went down the exhaustively long list of his Gregori staff. Nyalla’s friends were clueless. Candy’s werewolves would never endanger themselves in such a way. I hadn’t seen a vampire beyond that Kelly girl in months, and she seemed completely dedicated to Jaq. The only angels in my house were Nils, and… .

Dalmai.

I jumped up, slamming my head into Gregory’s nose in the process. It hurt me, but the angel seemed oblivious to any pain.

“What exactly did you have Dalmai vow when we released his collar?”

The angel tilted his head as he thought. “I’ll admit I was a bit thrown by the situation and may not have worded the oath to the best of my ability. I commanded him to remain here and serve you. To not physically harm any of the humans under your protection. I relieved him of his Hunter duties.”

“Would he… do you think he was upset enough about your not taking his side over mine that he would betray you?” The very thought appalled me. I could never betray Gregory. Never. I couldn’t imagine anyone who served him straying. But I was extremely biased where this particular angel was concerned.

“He might. Hunters tend to be more individualistic than other angels. I can see one breaking his household tie if given appropriate reason.” Gregory’s eyes narrowed, his energy leak increasing. It’s a wonder he wasn’t setting fire to my flooring. My knees went a bit weak in the presence of such anger, such power. I shook my head to refocus my thoughts. Deal with the potential traitor now. Save the angel sex for later. Hopefully, anyway.

“He was to remain here? Does that mean the building, the property surrounding the building, or any of the properties I own? And ‘physically’ — as in laying his hands on Harper? Or would that cover leaking information to someone else who could do her harm?”

Oaths were important to word correctly, but Gregory could be forgiven for his lapse. It wasn’t every day that his demon lover took a member of his choir hostage, beat the shit out of the guy and kept him a starving captive in her basement.

“Here would encompass your house and the surrounding property that you own.” Gregory scowled. “And no, physical harm would not cover leaking information that would result in harm to any of your household.”

Shit. I took off for the basement stairs just a few steps ahead of Gregory, nearly ripping the door from the hinges in my haste. There was an angel in my basement, but it wasn’t Dalmai. It was Nils, and he was duct taped into a grey ball on the floor.

I ripped the strips from his face, and he gasped, not looking his best with sticky strands still clinging to his skin and red marks where the tape had cut into the flesh.

“Where’s Dalmai?” Gregory thundered.

Fuck Dalmai. “Where’s Harper?”

“Harper? Isn’t she upstairs?” Nils licked dry, chapped lips.

“Harper!” Gregory shouted, spinning me around by the shoulders. “Why isn’t she hiding with the werewolves? Please, for the love of all creation, tell me you didn’t bring her back here.”

There was no time for evasiveness. “I did. Sorry, but she insisted and said she’d walk back herself if I didn’t bring her. You know how humans are — you just can’t reason with them.”

Gregory shook me until I thought my teeth were going to rattle out of my skull. “No, that’s why you enthrall them and make them do what you want them to. You were supposed to protect her, not bring her back into the very place every angel is looking to find her.”

He had a valid point, but there were more important things to do then argue about my poor judgment. Pushing Gregory away, I went to run up the stairs and check. Pregnant women seemed to sleep a lot. There was a good chance my worry was over nothing and Harper was just snoozing in her room. I got two steps before Gregory halted me with an iron grip.

“She’s not there. I scanned and there’s no other being in the house beyond the three of us.”

Shit. Shit. I looked imploringly at Nils and winced as he strained against the duct tape. Dalmai must have used two rolls on the Fallen angel. Poor guy looked like a chrysalis encased in a cocoon.

With a grunt, Nils strained against the restraints. The tape tore but no butterfly emerged. “I was in the kitchen getting a beer. Dalmai came upstairs and hit me over the head with the poker from the fireplace.”

I glanced at his head, noting the dried blood on his clothing. His skull looked intact. Good thing I was the only one able to kill him, because Dalmai must have done a number on the angel to knock him out like that.

“Harper wasn’t even in the room. I figured he just wanted to kill me because I was a Fallen. Why would he take her?”

“Because he is a traitor.”

I shivered to hear the note of violence in Gregory’s voice. It must have had the same effect on Nils, because the Fallen angel winced. Images raced through my mind of abortion and memory wiping, and I pushed down my rising panic.

“He can’t leave the property. He vowed. Dalmai might have found loopholes in his oath, but he can’t leave the property.” My voice was reaching hysteria. I felt Gregory’s hand grip my arm hard enough to break the bone.

“Cockroach, he’ll still be here but he no doubt handed off Harper to another angel.”

I ripped my arm free from his grip and ran up the stairs. Forty acres of property and I was pressed for time. Who knew how long Harper had been gone, or what had happened to her. With a burst of energy, I exploded one of the French doors and screamed at the top of my lungs for Boomer.

I heard Nils’s and Gregory’s footsteps crunching on the broken glass of my door as the hellhound raced around the Forsythia bushes, skidding to make the turn. His Plott–hound form blurred, growing several feet larger and gaining mass as an additional head sprouted from a newly formed neck. By the time he slid to a stop in front of me, he was the size of a small pony, saliva dripping in long strands from his jaws.

“Can you sense Dalmai?” I asked Gregory.

“No. Which means he’s gone rogue.”

He’d used that term two years ago, referring to Althean. That angel had wound up dead. I hoped the same fate was in store for Dalmai, although death wouldn’t be punishment enough if he’d hurt Harper or her baby. “Does that mean he can break his vow?”

Gregory nodded, his face dark with anger. “He can, although many angels who go rogue don’t. A vow is a sacred thing, and even angels who have renounced the host refuse to break them.”

I wouldn’t want to be in Dalmai’s shoes when we found him, and find him we would. He might have surrendered his place in Gregory’s choir, but I had a hellhound at my disposal, and Boomer was better at tracking than I was.

“Dalmai,” I told my dog. “He was the Hunter angel who had come for Harper. The one you helped fight. The one who took most of the left side off your body. I need you to find him.”

Recognition lit in the hellhound’s orange eyes. One head dropped to the ground to sniff, while the other rose into the air. In my mind, the few seconds felt like hours, but finally Boomer took off, the three of us racing behind him. Hellhounds are fast. Nils and I were puffing away, while Gregory was doing his odd float/fly thing. He glowed, his eyes black with fury, looking every bit like an angel of vengeance bearing down on his prey. I was never so turned on in my whole life.

We followed Boomer through the horse pasture, where the hellhound paused and spent considerable time sniffing around the border of my property. Then he halted, looking up at me with an intent gaze. I paused, glancing towards Nils and Gregory. Had Dalmai handed Harper off to another angel and remained on my property, or had he broken his vow and left with her? I didn’t want to waste time tracking him down if he didn’t have Harper.