Eve of Chaos (41 page)

A burst of
crimson. A scattering of black feathers. Alec’s chair rocked back onto its rear
legs before toppling him completely. The gun’s report echoed.

He was sprawled
across the patio before anyone registered the ambush.

***

Reed was waiting
at Sara’s desk when she came in. Her dangerously short pinstriped skirt was
paired with a fitted white dress shirt and four-inch stilettos that matched her
red lipstick. The length of leg exposed and the lack of a bra weren’t lost on
him, but neither did they impress.

She paused just
inside the threshold, eyeing him warily. “Abel. What are you doing?”

He smiled. The
chair he occupied was angled parallel to the length of the desk. His right arm
draped along it, his fingers drumming into the stained walnut top. “Didn’t I
tell you that showing that video to Evangeline would be counterproductive?”

 
She stepped closer, her gaze moving to the
computer monitor. She saw that the “sent” folder of her e-mail client was on
display and murmured, “You go too far.”

“You think so?
But I haven’t gone nearly as far as you have. For example, I haven’t yet
offered to trade you to a king of Hell to be rid of you.”

Reed had to give
her credit, she didn’t even blink.

“We match today,
mon chéri.
We look so good together. Perfect for one another.” Sara
reached him and settled into his lap, her slim arms encircling his shoulders.
“I would never wish to be rid of you.”

He caught her
close and whispered, “I can’t say the same about you.”

An instant
later, they occupied a sofa in Michael’s office. It was after six in the
evening in Jerusalem, and the head of the Asian firm was literally on his way
out the door when he spotted his visitors.

“Abel.
Sarakiel.” The archangel paused and pushed his hands into the pockets of his
Western business slacks. His voice was deeply resonant, powerful in a way even some
seraphs never achieved. “I suggest you find another place to play your games.”

Reed pushed Sara
unceremoniously onto the couch beside him and stood. He withdrew the jump drive
he’d brought with him and tossed it. “Sara’s latest game is one you may not
want her to continue playing.”

Michael caught
the drive with a fluid outstretching of his arm. He looked at the item in his
palm, then back at Reed. One dark brow arched in silent inquiry.

“It seems,” Reed
explained, “that our lovely Sarakiel has taken to making deals with demons.”

Michael’s eyes
shimmered with blue flame. He looked at Sara, who tilted her chin defiantly
while tugging her skirt back into place.

Reed crossed his
arms and prepared to enjoy the show. Then Eve hit him like a freight train. He
stumbled from the blow.

“Gotta run,” he
said.

Sara
straightened. “You cannot leave me here! It will take at least a day to get
back—”

He shifted away
before she finished her sentence.

***

As Alec rolled
out of his chair, Ingram yelled and reached into his jacket for his holstered
gun. A bullet caught him in the back, exploding through his right shoulder in a
shower of flesh and blood. His chair tumbled to the left. His arms flailed,
then his skull hit the edge of a stucco planter with a sickening thud. He
crumpled to the ground, still as death.

Eve slid under
the table in a limbo like glide. Arching over the metal legs, she scrambled for
Ingram’s gun. Her hand circled the grip and she yanked the weapon free of its
shoulder holster. Another shot rang out and Jones jerked violently. He crashed
headfirst into the tabletop, shattering the glass on impact. The slivers rained
down on her, prickling across her bare arms and skittering along the patio.

A battle cry
preceded the snapping deployment of Alec’s wings. He launched from the
courtyard floor in a streak of ebony, his ascent propelled with such force that
the downdraft shoved Eve into the planter.

As he targeted a
marksman in an open third-floor window, she struggled to her knees. He
disappeared into the building and a moment later, a horrendous scream cut off
abruptly.

Sydney appeared
at the end of the courtyard. She darted toward Eve, weaving around the
obstacles between them. Bursts of green hellfire dotted the ground behind her,
mimicking her footsteps and urging her to a faster pace. Montevista shouted and
ran the length of the opposite side of the pool, deliberately drawing fire away
from both Eve and his partner.

Eve scrambled
out and upright, slipping in the blood pooling beneath Detective Jones. His
body hung over the broken table, folded at the waist with his arms, torso, and
head inverted inside the empty frame.

She hopped into
the planter behind her and took cover behind a mature palm tree. Hugging the
trunk, she aimed Ingram’s gun around it. Windows along the upper floor were
dotted with demons. She and the two Mark guards were in a fishbowl, with
enemies positioned all around the rim.

By clearing out
the building to protect the mortals, they’d opened the entire complex to an
Infernal infestation. Eve didn’t wonder how they’d gotten past the perimeter
guards. She’d made it possible, after all.

Sydney jumped
into the planter behind Eve, shielding her back with a flame-covered sword.
Montevista was pinned behind a trash can, crouched low and holding two
flameless daggers in his hands. He popped up occasionally, hurtling the weapons
at strategic windows, then ducking to summon replacements for the next salvo.

“He’s covering us,”
Eve bit out. “So we can get to the lobby.”

“On your count,”
Sydney said. “We’ll make a run for it.”

Eve fought off
the emotions she didn’t have time to feel and revealed the whole of her plan to
her handler in one powerful surge of thought.

A massive shadow
swept over the courtyard.
Alec.
Flying across the expanse from one
window to another. Another scream rent the morning calm, followed by another
trail of black as he darted back to the other side. Creating a canopy of sorts
with his body, a barrier between her and the Infernals above.

As the Marks
who’d been on watch on the Street joined the fray, flickers of flame could be
seen behind many of the windows. Eve’s
mark
began to bum, pumping
adrenaline and aggression like a cocktail through her veins. Her gaze met
Sydney’s. On the silent count of three, they leaped out of the planter in
unison.

“Not so fast.”

Eve turned. A
three-headed. . .
thing
galloped toward her on mismatched animal limbs.
She aimed and squeezed the trigger. It feinted fast as lightning, dodging the
bullet before lunging. Eve was propelled into the pool, striking the water on
her back. The massive demon pushed her beneath the surface, weighting her down
in a rapid descent to the bottom.

The shock of the
water caused Eve to drop the gun. The weapon hit the bottom with a muffled thud
and skittered away. She couldn’t retrieve it while pinned nine feet down.

The necklace.

The moment the
thought entered her mind, a shadow blotted the sun. An object struck the water
and sank quickly. As Alec moved out of the way of the light, the gold chain
glittered, catching a ray of sunshine. The necklace arrowed its way toward Eve
as if she were a magnet.

The demon
released her in a panicked scramble that tore flesh from her thigh, bolting
from the pool like a missile. The amulet settled around her neck and she clawed
her way upward, breaking through the surface with great, burning gasps.

“Hollis!”

Sydney stood at
the pool edge, one shirt sleeve bloodied but the other arm extended. With a
mark- fueled kick, Eve surged up and toward her, catching Sydney’s hand and
gripping it tightly. The Mark hauled her out with a violent yank, dropping her
on the ground in a bleeding, sputtering pile.

Eve gained her
hands and knees, then ducked as a flame-covered dagger flew over her head. Her
gaze lifted to Sydney’s, but the Mark was looking beyond her, tossing blades in
a barrage.

Eve looked over
her shoulder. A massive man stalked toward her, wet and naked, with dripping
black hair and laser-bright red eyes.

One by one, he
gripped the dagger hilts from where they protruded from his chest and ripped
them free, stomping forward with a ferocious, relentless stride.

Alec swept down
in a potent gust of wind, alighting on the path between them and roaring like a
beast. Many beasts. A sound so fearsome the walls shook with it and the pool
water sloshed up and over the rim in a wave.

She had the
necklace.
There was nothing reining
him back now.

His thirty-foot
wingspan refolded into his back as if it had never been. The demon hunkered
down before quickening into a full-bore run, fisting bloodied daggers with
upraised arms, blades leading the way.

His forward
momentum was awesome, each footfall shaking the ground like aftershocks. Alec
crouched, visibly braced for the impact.

“Cain!” the
demon bellowed, leaping high and hurtling downward.

He was directly
above Alec when he stopped abruptly, momentarily hovering before snapping
backward as if retrieved by a rubber band.

The demon’s
flight was halted by a brutal collision with something on the walkway. His body
slid down, revealing Satan standing rigidly behind him. Claws formed from the
Devil’s hands and dug deep into the demon’s torso, arresting the downward slide
in a vicious semblance of an embrace.

Eve glanced at
the detectives, but they lay unmoving. Were they both dead? Casualties of a war
they didn’t know was being waged?

She looked back
at Satan and found him staring at her.

“Took you long enough
to step in,” she muttered.

Alec backed up
in deliberate steps, forcing Eve to clamber to her feet to get out of his way.
She was behind him one second, then tossed over Reed’s shoulder the next.
“This
was your plan?” he bit out.

He shifted her
near a body lying prone on the ground.

Montevista.
Felled like a cut tree with his eyes open and sightless. The whites swallowed
by black.

“Damn it,” she
breathed, hating that she’d been right. She grabbed the Mark’s shoulder and
rolled him into her lap on his back. She brushed his dark hair back from his
forehead and hunched over him protectively, linking her fingers with his and
holding his hand to her chest. Alec shifted Sydney over a split-second later.

From their position
on the opposite side of the pool, she watched in horror as Satan reaffirmed his
dominance.

“You want what’s
mine, Asmodeus?” the Devil hissed. His claws rent through the demon’s torso,
eliciting screams so agonized tears came to Eve’s eyes. Through the lacerations
in his mortal skin, Asmodeus’s true shape could be seen. The monstrous
many-limbed body writhed and sizzled within the torn flesh. Smoke poured from
the widening cavity and filled the air with the stench of rotten soul.

“It will cost
you,” Satan crooned with his lips to the demon’s ear as if they were lovers.

The Prince of
Hell threw the decimated body into the swimming pool like rubbish. The water
shuddered in response, bubbling red and churning, boiling and hissing steam. A
geyser erupted from the center, spewing into the air in a twenty-foot tower.

Eve looked at
Satan, who smiled his gorgeous smile. Dressed in black velvet vest and pants,
he was classically and elegantly beautiful.

Something
flitted across his features. A wince, then widened eyes. He clutched at his
chest, hunching over with a groan.

Montevista’s
hand tightened on hers with a pained gasp.
“Eve.”

She jolted in
surprise, then looked down at her friend. Montevista’s powerful body began to
shudder. His eyes were his own, no longer black.

“Only way,” he
wheezed.

The necklace
draped inadvertently over their clasped hands, awakening the Mark in him and
freeing him to summon the dagger now impaling his heart.

“No!” Reaching
up, Eve caught Reed’s wrist. His gaze moved from Satan and settled on Monte-
vista. “Oh shit..

“Take him to the
tower. Hurry.”

Reed hefted the
Mark into his arms and shifted, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

“Eve,” Satan
snarled. His arm snapped out toward the pool, the veins bulging along the rigid
muscles.

The earth
shuddered and groaned. The water in the center of the pool twisted into rope
and arced onto the cement, forming the outline of a man whose endless arms
extended in a desperate grasp for Alec.

The Devil’s form
flickered, his face contorting with savage rage and frustration. Then he faded
completely. There one moment, gone the next.

Eve lunged into
the Nix’s path. He caught her, laughing, hauling her across the pool and up
against his chest.