Eve of Chaos (5 page)

Reed turned off
the fire on the stove. “The Nix’s details were courtesy of a lessor demon.”

“They’ve changed
since that first day you and I saw him,” she insisted.

“Sammael
and
a
king of Hell,” Sydney breathed. “Yowza.”

Eve could only
give a lame nod. And to think she had once thought of herself as a lucky
person. “Can I ask why Satan is a prince, but the demons under him
are kings?”

“No!” Reed and
Alec barked in unison.

She held up her
hands in a defensive gesture. “OOO-kay, then…”
.

Alec stared at
her with narrowed eyes. “Damn it, angel.”

Evangeline. Eve.
Angel. A nickname only Alec had ever used. He still said it with the rumbling
seductive purr that had gotten her into this marked mess to begin with.

Montevista gave
her a wry look. “Only you would have multiple high-level contracts out on you,
Hollis.”

“Maybe the Nix
and the wolf met after the explosion, and became friends. Maybe Asmodeus and
Grimshaw were friends,” Eve said, “and Asmodeus is trying to help his buddy out
in the revenge department. Maybe the Nix jumped ship to Asmodeus so that he had
a valid excuse to hunt me.”

“There’s a hell
of a lot of ‘maybes’ in there’ Alec bit out. “And friendship is relative to
demons. Favors aren’t free. Asmodeus would’ve had to be paying a debt or
getting something in kind.”

That didn’t
sound good to Eve.

“That would have
to be a huge debt or gain to make Asmodeus go after someone important to Cain,”
Montevista pointed out. “Grimshaw came after Hollis in vengeance for the death
of his son. Asmodeus has no excuse, and he knew he’d piss off Jehovah and
Sammael at once.”

Eve sighed. The
battle between Heaven and Hell wast a free-for-all. For the most part,
Celestials and Infernals lived alongside each other in a wary truce. Satan’s
minions were ordered to stay under the radar, so they could do the most damage.
Marks were only assigned to take down rogue demons. Montevista was right.
Something big had motivated Asmodeus to break the rules in such a major way.

“Unless Sammael
told Asmodeus to do it,” Sydney suggested quietly. When everyone stared at her,
she shrugged.

Montevista broke
the silence. “She’s got a point.”

“I hadn’t run
over his dog yet;’ Eve reminded.

Dog. Ha! Since
the damn creature had been the size of a bus, Eve’s mind could barely connect
“dog” to her road kill in the same train of thought.

“This has to be
about more than Sammael’s damned hellhound,” Reed insisted. “He doesn’t care
about anyone but himself. Everyone and everything else— including pets—is
expendable.”

“So he wants
something? I don’t have anything valuable.” Her gaze darted between the two
brothers. “Except for both of you.”

Alec and Reed
fell silent, both physically and mentally. They knew she was a liability to them.

Eve refused to
stay that way.

Reed turned back
to the stove. Alec began routing orders through the mental switchboard system
eaàh archangel had to everyone in their firm. She moved into the living room.
She was still within seeing/hearing distance, but the space helped to give her
mind a break. Tuning the others out, Eve settled onto her down-filled sofa and
contemplated the mess that was her life.

The Nix and
Grimshaw’s kid hadn’t been the only Infernals in the kiln room that disastrous
night in Upland. There had also been a gaggle of tengu— Japanese gargoyle-type
demons. Since the Nix and the wolf had both lived to be killed another day, it
was reasonable to wonder if the tengu might have found second lives, too.

Alec shifted
over to her and settled into a seated position on the edge of her glass-topped
coffee table. The thick denim of his blue jeans did nothing to hide the fine
form of his long, muscular legs.

“You’re going to
get in trouble for using your powers so much,” she admonished.

For seven weeks
a year, each archangel was given free rein to use his powers to facilitate in
training new Marks, a duty they rotated between them. But the rest of the year
using their gifts meant facing consequences.
Suggesting
they live
secular lives was God’s way of fostering empathy for mortals. Eve thought it
was a recipe for resentment.

Smiling, Alec
said, “I’m not a firm leader yet. The same rules don’t apply to me.”

“Isn’t that
always the case?”

He leaned
forward and rested his forearms on his knees. “I’ve double checked the security
measures we installed against the Nix the first time around, both in this
building and in your parents’ house. I’ve also assigned a security detail to
guard the perimeter against any new threats.”

“Can they get
rid of that nut job on the corner?”

“What nut job?”

“Don’t tell me
you haven’t seen him. The guy who looks like an evil Santa Claus? Preaching
fire and brimstone with his acoustic guitar?”

He stared at
her.

“The dude with the
big sign that says ‘You are going to burn in Hell’
?“
When he continued to gaze at her blankly, she shook
her head. “Are you shifting around so much that you haven’t checked out the
neighborhood in a while?”

Alec was gone in
a blink. A split second later he was back in the same spot.

“I see,” he
said. “He’s harmless.”

“He’s annoying,
and he’s been there for days.” She snapped her fingers. “Hey, maybe God will
take a trade between him and me?”

Eve was only
partially kidding. The whole marked system was jacked, in her opinion. There
were millions of religious zealots around the world who killed in God’s name
every day, but they didn’t get marked.

Instead, the
Almighty used the impious. It was like boot camp for sinners and nonbelievers.
God seemed to be saying,
See who you shall hang out with
f
thou shalt not change thy blasphemous ways?

“Not a fair
exchange,” he said, with a hint of a smile. “You’re worth a hundred of that
guy.”

“That’s your
opinion.”

“Clearly I’m not
the only one who thinks so, since he’s out there and you’re with me. I’m also
going to talk to Abel about lowering your caseload for a while.”

Eve’s brows
rose. “Won’t that put a burden on the other Marks in the area?”

“Somewhat.”
–

“You can’t ask
me to do that and live with the consequences.”

“I’m not asking
you.”

She considered
that for a moment, her fingers drumming on the armrest. “Being an archangel
suits you, I see.”

“Don’t,” he
warned.

“Infernals are
swarming into Orange County— possibly because of me—and you want me to sit
around while other Marks deal with the mess? They already don’t like me.”

“They’ll get
over it.”

“Easy for you to
say. No one hates you for working with me.”

“You wouldn’t do
anyone any favors by getting yourself killed.”

“Oh, I don’t
know about that.” Her smile was grim. “I can think of a few people who want me
dead.”

“Not funny,
angel.”

She sighed. “You
know me. I’m a big scaredy-cat. I don’t
want
to jump into oncoming
traffic, but I can’t hang out here watching
Dexter
reruns and eating Ben
Jerry’s while other people are facing a horde.”

“Argue all you
want, it’s still not happening.”

“Gadara would
put me out there.”

“He’s not here”

“And what’s
being done about that?” she challenged. “Or are archangels more expendable than
I thought?”

Alec reached out
and touched her calf with his fingertips. “We’re working on that, too.”

“It’s been two
months. I can’t imagine it’s been a vacation for him in Hell.”

“We can’t charge
in. It would be a suicide mission.”

“So what do we
do?”

“You
are going to follow orders.
I’m
going to work
on securing leverage.”

Eve ignored the
first part of his statement and concentrated on the last half. “Leverage. As
in..
.
something you have that Satan wants more
than he wants to keep Gadara?”

“Yes. Sammael
has to bring Raguel to us. That’s the only way we’re going to get him back.”

“What does Satan
want more than an archangel bargaining chip?”

His mouth
twisted wryly. “That’s the question, isn’t it?”

He ducked
without warning. Something small and white flew through the space his head had
been occupying. If Eve hadn’t been gifted with enhanced sight, she would have
missed it.

“Watch it,
prick!” he barked at Reed.

“Keep your hands
to yourself,” Reed shot back.

Eve watched the
object hit the balcony screen door and bounce back into the room. It rolled to
a stop by the leg of the coffee table. She glanced over her shoulder. “A water
chestnut?”

“It was either
that or this—” He waved one of her Ginsu knives.

“Thanks for
showing a little restraint with your testosterone.” Pushing to her bare feet,
she set her hands on her hips. “Now knock it off.”

“You can’t
expect us to like this situation,” Alec said.

“I’m not liking
it either.”

When she was
alone and contemplative, Eve acknowledged that her feelings of loneliness and
separation were goading her to accept a situation she never would have in her
normal life. Technically, she wasn’t doing anything more than spending private
time with both of them, but technicalities weren’t much of a buffer against
hurt feelings and possessiveness. She felt disloyal to Alec—even though he
couldn’t return her affections—and she was concerned for Reed, who was so edgy
about the whole thing.

“Maybe sticking
strictly to business is the only option,” she said.

Both men
quieted, their jaws taking on stubborn cants. Montevista and Sydney looked at
each other with raised brows.

“This isn’t
working,” Eve persisted, her foot tapping on the hardwood.

Reed went back
to chopping vegetables.

Alec leaned
forward again. “Are you going to stay put like I’m ordering you to?”

Eve crossed her
arms. “What do you think?”

“Right.” He
stood. “So, starting with breakfast tomorrow, you’re back to having a full-time
mentor. No more of this shifting in only when you need me.”

“You’re going to
be my baby-sitter?”

His dark gaze
raked her from head to toe. “Only if I can take you over my knee when you’re
naughty.”

I’m still
holding the knife, dickhead,
Reed bit
out.

Eve dropped back
onto the couch with a silent groan. The two brothers were going to be the death
of her.

If the demons
didn’t kill her first.

Eve held a
protein shake aloft. “Want one?”

Alec eyed the
green beverage with obvious wariness. Dressed in long shorts and a white sleeveless
T-shirt with steel-toed boots, he had the bad-boy look down to a science. His
shades were hung backward and rested against his nape, tangling with the
overlong mane of dark hair that she loved to run her fingers through.

Behind him,
early morning sunlight filtered into her living room. Sydney was asleep in the
guest room after an all-night watch, and Montevista was outside getting reports
from the guards on the street. Beyond her balcony, surfers called out to each
other as they hit the waves before the workday.

“You’ve got that
look in your eyes,” Alec said, grinning. “You want me.”

She turned her
back to him. “I’ll take that as a no.”

“Yes. I want
it.” He approached. “I want whatever you’re dishing out. Enough that if you
don’t hurry up and give it to me, I just might have to take it.”