Key of Solomon: Relic Defender, Book 1 (18 page)

A small smile pulled at the corner of those full lips. “No, he’s not a vampire.”

“Then what do you mean? What does he want with me?”

“Your memories.” He turned his head to briefly to glance at her. “I’m not talking about what you recall from your childhood. The memories I’m referring to are the imprints your heritage left in your mind. Even to the point of knowing where the book is hidden.”

“Hidden?”

He shrugged. “If you do not physically possess the book, then it must be hidden. You’ll have the knowledge in your mind. I will help you remember.”

“If he needs me, needs my memories, then why did he try to kill me?”

“That night Beliel possessed a human male,” Mikos explained, “I was unable to determine which one. This allowed him to get close to you. Likely to determine what you knew.” He frowned. “As to why he tried to kill you, I suspect he momentarily lost control of his human host.”

“You suspect he lost control?” Lexi scoffed, “So the mighty angel doesn’t know everything?”

He swiveled. Lexi started to chew him out about paying attention to his driving when she realized he’d parked in front of her building. She’d been so focused on what he said she hadn’t even noticed he’d stopped.

“I never said I was God.” His lips twisted. “Just an angel.”

Lexi opened the door to her apartment. Before she crossed the threshold, Mikos put an arm across her front. He stepped in front of her, and then entered her apartment.

Miffed, she frowned and fidgeted, but let him do his macho, protect-the-woman thing. Apparently even angels of the masculine persuasion felt the need to be protective. He’d learn. She didn’t want or need his protection.

When Mikos called out it was safe to enter, Lexi followed and found him standing in the center of the room, his head raised. Was he sniffing? She neared. His gray eyes were sparking again. Pulling on angel powers? She barely kept from snickering.

He slanted a look at her. His eyes continued to spark, teeming with power. “The demon was here. Not recently.”

“Good to know.” She could have told him that. In fact, she had. Some angel powers.

Lexi walked around him then stopped when he barred her access with his body. “What?”

“Do not take long.”

She simply stared at him until he moved away. Yep, he was going to be quite a joy to live with. If he survived training her.

Once in her bedroom, Lexi grabbed an old battered suitcase from under the bed and started shoving some workout clothing and various other delicates and sundries into it. She started to zip the bag closed, but hesitated, her glance caught by the small, framed picture of her parents.

The tarnished brass frame sat on her dresser, the flowers she’d forgotten to replace, dropping petals over the wood. The rest of the dresser lay half buried behind books on martial arts and anthropology.

She walked over to the bureau and picked up the single thing she had of her parents. Really, how had she managed to keep the picture with her all these years?

Certainly not something she thought of each time she had to pack for another home. And after Tom—well, somehow, this remaining link to her parents continued to stay with her.

Lexi studied her parent’s faces. Her mother, petite and blonde. A stereotypical California girl. Bronzed by the sun, streaks of light in her honey-colored hair, her blue eyes laughed up at the tall man standing beside her.

Alexander Thermopolis Harrison. Her father. While she looked nothing like her mother, she could have been her father’s twin. The same exotic coloring, amber eyes with a slight cant at the corners, and coal black hair.

Except where her thick locks were long and straight, her father’s had a slight wave, which showed itself in the dip of hair at his brow.

Lexi knew nothing about them except their names. No relatives or friends. No background or history. Nothing. And if the stories Mikos told were true, one of her parents had left her with a destiny she didn’t want.

Despite that, the portrait of her parents was all she had. She tossed the frame into her bag and finished zipping it closed. Taking one last look around, she walked into the living area. The angel, she felt like giggling when she thought that, stood in front of her bookcase. He seemed to be perusing the vast array of books.

Her mind inventoried what he saw. An eclectic collection of books on anthropology, magic, martial arts intertwined with fiction in a sampling of various genres from mysteries to science fiction to romance. She liked to read. The written word was a beautiful thing and she enjoyed their complexity in all their forms.

Mikos reached into the shelves and pulled out
The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage
translated by S.L. MacGregor Mathers. During one of her forays into used bookstores for reference material for a research paper, she’d found this grimoire, which professes to be the primary source of modern ceremonial magic. He turned his head slightly. “Interesting collection you have.”

Lexi hadn’t made any noise, yet he’d known she was there. “School.”

He nodded then turned to face her. “Still, your choice of subjects points to a subconscious acknowledgement of your destiny even if your conscious won’t let you believe.”

“If I understood what you just said, would I be insulted?”

A quirk of his full lips flashed before he smoothed them in to his normal closed mouth expression. Hmm. She’d wondered if the angel could smile. Those lips were too magnificent to be compressed.

“Do you have everything you require?”

Lexi looked around. “Yeah, I don’t need much.” She cocked a head. “I don’t expect I’ll be gone long so what’s the use…”

Her further comments trailed off when Mikos jerked his head back, lifting his chin into the air. At the same time, she caught a faint whiff of sulfur. Oh shit, did that mean Beliel was returning? Lexi suspected putting the angel and the demon into the same space, at the same time, was a very bad idea.

A faint shimmer near the center of the room, about four feet from her, wavered into view. The figure solidified, and Mikos unsheathed his sword, for Pete’s sake. He leaped for Lexi’s side. Pushing her behind him, he faced the fast solidifying intruder.

“Hey,” she began. How dare he use the knight in shining armor crap on her.

Mikos slanted a glare over his shoulder, his gray eyes nearly silver. Oops. Maybe she’d keep her mouth shut.

The ebony-skinned intruder regarded them through yellow eyes. Not just yellow pupils, but sun-bright yellow on sun-bright yellow. The shape shivered, much like she’d seen birds do when settling ruffled feathers. Lexi gawked at the man-shaped form.

Shit, those were feathers showing on the exposed skin. At least they looked like feathers from where she stood. Rounded at the tips, the crow-like feathers had a scintillating display of rainbow colors dancing upon their glossy black surface.

A demon. There was a feather-wearing, freaking demon in her apartment.

And, if its appearance meant anything, a big, nasty-looking, feather wearing freaking demon.

“Malphas. You do not belong here.” Mikos lifted the sword in his right hand while he also held the palm of his left hand toward the demon.

“Phoenix. The stories are true, then. You have returned to the physical realm.”

The nasal, high-pitched but low, tone screeched against her nerves as if the creature had screamed. She didn’t have to know anything about this Malphas to recognize this was one badass demon.

“Why do you turn aside from your brethren? Let me have the woman,” Malphas continued.

His brethren? Lexi sent a questioning look at Mikos. He was an angel, right? So how could a demon claim him as brethren?

“Go back to Belial and tell him he will not find the Vessel.”

“He does not need to find the Vessel.” Malphas turned his yellow eyes on Lexi. “The woman will.”

“She will not aid him in his quest for the Vessel.”

“Excuse me, but the woman isn’t even sure she’s taking the job.” She shoved at Mikos’s shoulder, pushing past him. No one ever spoke for her.

“Beliel said forty-eight hours and,” she looked at her watch, “I have twenty-two hours left. Go away.”

Lexi glanced at Mikos. His expression was worth everything he’d put her through. His beautiful gray eyes boggled, and horrified fascination etched deep lines in his face. A nerve twitched in the corner of his jaw. “Lexi, you—”

“Interesting,” Malphas interrupted, his guttural tone practically purring. “The Defender does not wish to be a defender?”

Wonderful, she’d pleased the demon. Bully for her.

“Truly intriguing.” Malphas nodded. “No defender has ever refused. I do not envy you her training, Phoenix.”

Lexi had just congratulated herself on the masterful way she’d handled the demon, no thanks to Mikos, when Malphas shrugged.

“Her desires in the matter make no difference. She will return with me.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you, you overgrown, yellow-eyed, feather wearing—” Lexi would have said more except suddenly, she couldn’t speak.

Her mouth moved, the words clearly spoken in her mind, but no sound spilled forth. She darted a glance at Mikos to find him glaring at her. Had he just done something to her? The question must have echoed in her eyes because he gave a quick nod before turning back to Malphas.

In a beautifully executed move of pure childishness if she said so herself, she stomped her foot. Angel or not, if her instincts hadn’t been screaming that going anywhere with Malphas would be a disastrous mistake, she would have knocked Mikos out for spelling her to be silent. As it was, she half feared he was the strongest protection she had against the freaky feather-wearing demon.

A loud caw of laughter boomeranged throughout the small space. Turning her impotent anger from Mikos, Lexi faced Malphas whose crow-sounding laughter rebounded in her apartment.

“She is magnificent.” The demon abruptly broke off mid-caw, the humor gone from his eyes. “Enough. I will take her now.”

Black wings sprang from Mikos’s back, snapped open, their double spanned tips brushing against the apartment wall. Muted gray armor covered him from his neck all the way down to his toes. He carried a greatsword, long and slender, the round pommel engraved with curving and squiggly lines set in the shape of a rectangle.

Lexi had a terrifying feeling the proverbial shit had just hit the proverbial fan.

To her consternation, the feather-clad demon pushed his palms toward Mikos, and a spurt of flames erupted. She swore. Her
sanjiegun
wouldn’t stop fire. Mikos spoke a word and drew a pattern in the air. The flames hit the pattern and bounced off, deflecting back to Malphas.

Before her astonished eyes, the flames disappeared into the demon’s black-feathered skin as if the red-hot blaze consisted of nothing more substantial than mist.

With another gesture, Malphas threw a bolt of pure blue light. Electricity? Lightening? Lexi didn’t want to find out. Before she could stop herself or even wonder why she took the action she did, Lexi stepped in front of Mikos and snatched at his greatsword. The grip settled into her hand as if it had been made especially for her.

She pointed the slender blade at the energy lance and shouted one word, “
Evanesco
!” The blue bolt struck the sword and disappeared. Not absorbed into the metal. Disappeared. Poof. Gone.

Lexi froze, blinking in bewilderment. What had just happened? She hadn’t been able to speak, yet the Latin word shot effortlessly from her mouth. She looked over at Mikos. He gave her a sidelong glance of surprise tinged with another emotion. Satisfaction?

A raucous squawk sounding more furious than startled, came from Malphas yanking Lexi’s attention from Mikos. The demon’s yellow eyes narrowed to mere pinpoints of color against his ebony skin.

What the hell did the freaking demon plan to do next? The sharp glitter in his eyes hinted he had access to an arsenal bigger than fire and energy bolts.

“Stop!” Lexi stepped in front of Mikos. For Pete’s sake! She was so done with acting like a spectator. She kept her gaze locked on Malphas.

She’d had enough. “Excuse me. Defender or not, I don’t like being talked about as if I wasn’t standing here not two feet from you.”

Malphas clenched his fingers into fists. The light snapped off. He lifted a feathery eyebrow and planted both legs squarely, his hands on his hips.

She jabbed a finger at him. “Beliel and I have an agreement. He said he’d give me forty-eight hours. I don’t like to be forced. You tell him if he wants an honest decision, he’ll wait.

“Otherwise, I’ll side with—,” she jerked her thumb at Mikos, “—the angel’s team.” She leaned forward and narrowed her eyes, meeting the demon’s bright sun-washed gaze.

Malphas held her gaze. His eyes glazed, and he stared into the distance. Suddenly, his expression cleared, and he nodded.

“Very well. Beliel accepts your terms. He will return for your answer in twenty-two hours.” His turn to lean forward and narrow his eyes. “He tells me to warn you there is only one response he will accept.”

After a brief nod for Mikos, Malphas disappeared as fast as he’d appeared. A hint of sulfur filled the air. Lexi sneezed, the noise reverberating throughout her apartment like buckshot. She even startled herself.

“Christ’s wounds, Lexi.”

The sharp, cutting edge in the tone pulled her from Malphas departure to face Mikos.

“You insist on honoring your deal with Beliel?” he continued. A thin chill hung on the fringe of his words. “Why?”

“News flash, I don’t have to explain myself to you.”

“While you are under my guidance, you do. You will refrain from entering into any deals—”

“Is that how you think this will go?” Lexi interrupted. “You get to tell me what to do, and I’ll just roll over and do what you demand?”

Yeah, right. Angel or not, she did not respond to force. Or control. Both of which Mikos appeared to possess in abundance at this moment.

When he opened his mouth to respond, she held up her hand and shot him a glare. “Let me clear something up for you. Regardless of the end result of this whole defender-of-the-universe gig, I will never let anyone tell me what I can do and not do.”