Eve of Chaos (16 page)

“Thank you.” She
put every ounce of gratitude she felt into the words, but his face remained
impassive.

He stood and
looked down at her with disdain. “Think about how screwed up you are, Eve. I’m
right here trying to be what you want, and you’re asking me to help you with a
guy who can’t love you.”

She opened her
mouth to argue, but he disappeared.

Sighing, she
said,
Come
back.

Eve waited,
hating the feeling that her life was spinning completely out of her control.
Pushing to her feet, she reached out to him again.
I would do the same for
you, Reed. I wouldn’t let it rest, if I knew something was wrong.

Silence.

“Ugh. I can’t
win for trying.”

Exiting her
office, she looked down the length of her hallway to the view of the ocean and
sky beyond her living room balcony. She was so damn restless, she felt like she
was going to crawl out of her skin.

The Novium was
pushing her body to have some fun kicking demon ass. That lust for violence
could be channeled into a lust for sex as a delaying tactic, but Eve wasn’t
getting any, which left her spoiling for a good brawl. Here she’d been bitching
about how much hunting she was doing, when it had actually been really damned
convenient as far as her Novium was concerned. It took being cooped up at home
for a couple of hours to drive that point home.

Now, what to do
about it? Playing Wii sports wasn’t going to cut it. She’d suggest to
Montevista that they go to Gadara Tower and use the gym, but she didn’t want to
risk seeing Alec right now. She would have to thicken her skin before she
exposed herself to his barbs.

Eve turned away
from the beckoning beach and headed toward her bedroom instead. The moment she
entered, she spotted an unfinished task—the beautifully embroidered, burgundy leather
Bible Father Riesgo had lent her.

Perhaps
Montevista wouldn’t bitch too much about escorting her somewhere, if she was
going to church. Not that a church was any safer than other buildings; nothing
was sacred to demons. But worst- case scenario would be that they cross paths
with some bounty-hunting Infernals and throw down, and she’d welcome that. The
demons were in town be- cause of her. They should be fighting her, not making
life hell for the other Marks.

She’d rounded
the bed and was reaching for the Bible when she heard the door shut and lock
behind her. Tensing, she glanced over her shoulder. Her hand fell to her side.

“All right,”
Reed said gruffly. “I feel it, too. Happy?” His hands were shoved into the
pockets of his
black slacks; his face was austere and somber. Eve sensed how it pained him to
make the admission and how hard he fought against his jealousy in order to be
honest with her. He would have preferred for her to give up on Alec altogether.
Instead, he gave her hope.

“Don’t get too
excited,” he muttered. “He’s still a prick. He knew what he was getting himself
into when he went after the ascension.”

She became very
still. “You think he
wanted
this?”

“I think he
pursued it.” Reed looked at her. “There are many handlers who are better
qualified. Cain was chosen because he secured an endorsement somewhere.”

It felt so odd
to be so composed on the outside when
she
was breaking into pieces on the inside.

“H-he had to
know that things would change between us in the process, right?”

His face took on
a stony cast. “He knew archangels are incapable of romantic love, yes. But he
might not have been thinking about that—or you—at the time.”

More honesty,
even though keeping that last sentence to himself might have helped his cause
with her.

“Thank you,” she
said quietly, rounding the bed toward him. After Alec’s Jekyll and Hyde
complex, it was a relief to interact with someone who was bare and genuine. To
his possible detriment, no less.

Perhaps Gadara
was correct in his assumption about why Reed had approached Sarakiel for
assistance.

For her, Abel
gave Cain the benefit of the doubt. It was only fair to give the same to him in
return.

When she reached
him, Eve didn’t think twice. She cupped the back of his neck and pulled his
mouth down to hers.

Reed’s arms
wrapped around her so fast, they felt like a steel trap snapping shut. His head
tilted to better fit his mouth to hers. His aggressive hunger stole her breath
and melted the chilled place inside her.

His fervor was
far different from Alec’s. There was lust, yes. Passion in spades. But his
desire lacked the bite of fury and shadowy darkness of Alec’s. With Reed, she
didn’t feel as if she was a waterlogged life preserver for a drowning man.

Breaking the
connection, he rested his forehead against hers. “Don’t use me to punish Cain.”

“No.” She
pressed more tightly against him. “No Cain. Just you.”

He cupped her
buttocks in his hand and lifted her feet from the floor.

Eve.
. .
want you..

His lips, so
firm and sensually curved, were softer than she’d expected. The last time he
kissed her, he’d been rough. Angry. This time, his tongue was velvety soft as
it licked deep into her mouth. The plunging motion was so deeply sexual she
grew hot and wet. Moaning, she rubbed against him.

Want you,
Eve, want you..

Alec’s challenge
echoed—”What’s more important? When someone wants you because they can’t
help it? Or when they
want
you because
they make
the conscious decision to want you?”

But Alec was
wrong. He didn’t want her— consciously or otherwise. He
needed
her, but this afternoon
she’d come to realize that she couldn’t keep him afloat. Not in that sea of
madness inside him. He would pull her under with him, just as he nearly had
when he ascended to archangel. A Mark couldn’t survive that Change—Alec, a
mal
‘akh,
had barely survived
it—yet, as his body had altered states, he’d dragged her down into the inky
blackness of his agony. It was Reed who’d pulled her free and saved her from
certain insanity.

Reed pivoted,
pinning her to the door.
Want you.

Her legs wrapped
around his lean hips. Their chests heaved together, the sound of their labored
breathing more potent for its rarity. Marks didn’t sweat, didn’t get winded,
didn’t have racing hearts.
. .
except
when gripped by lust for blood or sex. Stress didn’t affect them, nor did
regular exercise. The rarity of physical reactions created a craving for them,
part of the way God encouraged Marks to retain their humanity despite a life of
killing.

He pulled back
and pressed his hot cheek to hers. “Sometimes, I hate you.”

Eve felt that
resentment occasionally, when he watched her and thought she wasn’t aware.
If
it’s
any consolation, sometimes I
hate myself.

“You wanted me before
he came back into the pictore, then denied me afterward.” His hand cupped her
breast, his thumb stroking across her nipple. Hot, dark eyes watched her pant
and arch into his touch. They challenged her, mocked her.

“You damned me.”

Want me back.

His voice in her
mind was different from the one that spoke aloud to her. It was rougher,
deeper, his half-formed fleeting thoughts pushed away as quickly as they
appeared.

“I want to walk
away from you.” He rolled his hips so his hard length stroked directly against
where she ached. “I want to fuck someone else and let you know that I have. I
want you to lie in bed at night and wish you were beneath me. But you don’t.”

“I wish it now.”

“I’m here now.”

He continued to
grind into her. The seam of her jeans became an added stimulation that coaxed a
whimper of pleasure from her. She hadn’t been able to send him away the last
time he had held her like this, that first day when she’d thought he looked so
much like Alec Cain they could be brothers. Who knew? She’d trembled in his
arms like she was doing now and begged for mercy, even as she craved more.

Want me back, Eve, want me..

She nuzzled her
check against his.
I do.

“Then let me
stay. Now.”

Eve pressed her
lips to his ear and breathed, “Yes. Stay.”

Izzie’s blue
eyes were wide. “You want me to seduce a seraph?” she asked in a voice
inflected with a German accent.

If Alec were to
guess, he’d say Sabrael might like
it.

“If you can get
that
far.”
He smiled at the way she bristled. “But I’d be happy if you
can just keep him out of my hair for a while.”

The Mark clearly
thought her charms were irresistible, which was another reason he’d approached
her. In order to manage Sabrael, he needed someone whose confidence was
bulletproof and who wasn’t afraid of a little pain. He suspected Izzie’s
tough-as- nails appearance was more than just a fashion style. The gleam in her
eyes when she was exposed to violence was a recognizable one.

“Why?” she
asked.

“The ‘why’ is my
part. The ‘how’ is yours.”

Keeping Sabrael
busy would keep the seraph away from Eve and out of the way when Alec
approached Jehovah about delaying his mother’s visit. Better for her to skip a
year, than to be vulnerable at one of the most tumultuous times in history.

With his hand at
Izzie’s back, Alec led her away from the shooting range.

“Can’t he hear
you plan this?” Izzie queried.

“He could, if he
was listening, but he isn’t.”

“How do you
know?”

“Because he’s not
here kicking my ass,” Alec said dryly.

Her mouth
curved.

Alec used to
seek out women such as her for sex, women who weren’t looking for more than a
hot, hard rut. Only with Eve had he taken the time to savor the connection.

And look how
messy that was. All that angst and grief..
.
not worth the trouble.

Ignoring the
voices in his head, he said, “We’ll get things rolling after I speak with
Mariel about borrowing you for a while.”

Assigning the
latest class of Marks to handlers had been one of his first archangel
responsibilities. He’d placed Izzie with the easygoing Mariel for two reasons:
One, Mariel had recently lost one of her Marks to a hellhound. Two, he sensed
Izzie would manipulate a male handler.

Like Eve does
Abel?

Izzie’s breast
pressed against his arm. “How will I meet this seraph?”

Unwelcome heat
flared across his skin. “I’ll arrange

 
“Why do you think I can seduce him?” Her voice
was a throaty invitation to compliment her. Hit on her.

The part of
himself that he was beginning to hate was considering it when a surge of lust
burned through him.

Eve.
She was achy and still aroused from his earlier
handling of her. As he and Izzie reached the elevators, he glanced at the clock
on the wall. An hour later and Eve was hotter than ever.

She’s yours.
Go get her She’ll give in.
. .
eventually.
And f she doesn’t, you can make her like it anyway...

His fingers
stroked Izzie’s lower back. “Because you’re hot, Ms. Seiler’ he purred.

I might have
something that would interest you,
Hank
rasped.

The interruption
was irritating. Alec had other things on his mind.
How interesting?

I think it’s
significant.

Significant
wasn’t a word Hank used lightly. Grumbling beneath his breath, Alec punched the
button on the elevator. Eve’s desire was goading his, which had every instinct
he possessed urging him to get to her and put them both out of their misery.
She might think she was scared of him, but he could make her give in. He knew
all the right buttons to push...