Revenant (13 page)

They were brothers.
Brothers
. As if it wasn’t shocking enough that Reaver and Revenant were twins, the other revelation had blown Blaspheme away.

Reaver said that he and Revenant were evenly matched. Reaver was a Radiant… which meant that Revenant was a Shadow Angel.

A fucking
Shadow Angel
, the most powerful being in Sheoul, save Satan. If she’d thought Revenant was trouble as a fallen angel, that was nothing compared to what he really was.

Her breath came in terrified, spastic bursts as she ran down the fire escape stairs, past her apartment floor and down, until she tore through the door at the base of the building and sprinted up the sidewalk. She had no idea where she was going, just that she had to get away from two of the most dangerous individuals to have ever existed.

Gods, her mother was going to kill her.

Hey, Mom, guess what? You know how we’ve been keeping a low profile and staying away from angels and fallen angels? Yeah, well, I managed to attract the attention of both. Oh, and the best part? One is a Radiant and the other is a Shadow Angel. Awesome, right?
 

Stopping to catch her breath, she leaned against a light pole and buried her face in her hands. How could her life have gotten out of control so fast? Her False Angel enchantment was rapidly wearing off, both she and her mother had been attacked, she’d become obstetrician to Satan’s baby mama, and now she’d landed in the center of some sort of family squabble between two extremely lethal individuals. All she needed now was to get fired from her job or hit by a truck.

She didn’t know how long she stayed there like that, trying to gather her thoughts and corral her anxiety, but eventually an elderly man with a cane stopped to ask if she was okay. She thanked him, grateful for the dropkick back into reality.

A reality in which she’d neglected to grab her purse as she made her getaway, which meant she had no cell phone, no transit pass, and no money. She could hear her mother’s voice now.

Didn’t I teach you anything about bugging out in an emergency?
 

Wondering how much worse things could get, she reached out with her senses and located a Harrowgate about half a mile away. If she could just get to UG without anyone attacking her, she’d be safe. But it really sucked that her new apartment had been compromised. She’d only just moved in, and she couldn’t afford to break the lease, lose her deposits, and pay new ones somewhere else.

Plus, finding a place in an area that hadn’t been ravaged by the apocalyptic events of last year wasn’t easy.

She hoofed it as fast as she could past fish-and-chips shops, pubs, and a bustling corner grocer, the tug of the Harrowgate growing more intense with each step. Finally, as she darted between a bookstore and a butcher shop, she saw the gate shimmering against the bookstore’s brick wall. With no humans about, it opened up, beckoning to her with the promise of safety.

From out of nowhere, she heard the flap of giant wings. Terror squeezed her heart, cutting off her scream as she dove for the gate. Arms came around her, and a heartbeat later, she was standing in the middle of what looked like a log cabin – if log cabins were built from charred wood and brimstone.

The furry skin of some sort of demonic animal lay on the packed-earth floor, and a few pieces of stick furniture were scattered randomly around, as if whoever lived here didn’t do much actual
living
here.

The arms released her, and she whirled, prepared to fight for her life with teeth and nails, if that’s what it came down to. But when she saw Revenant standing there in his usual leathers and chains, she wasn’t sure if she should be relieved… or more terrified than ever.

“What the hell are you doing?” The adrenaline dump made her question come out as a shout, but at this point, she didn’t give a crap. “Why did you snatch me like that? Where are we?”

“This is my place.”

This windowless, barren hovel was his home? The idea that she was standing in a Shadow Angel’s lair, no doubt deep inside Sheoul, with no way to tell anyone where she was, drove a spike of fear straight through her heart.

It also pissed her off. If he was going to kill her, she wasn’t going to temper her thoughts or her words. “You need a new Realtor.”

His dark brows pulled together in irritation. “Yeah, well, when you’re a fallen angel under Satan’s thumb, you don’t have a lot of options.”

“Really?” she snapped. “Because I’m betting that Shadow Angels can pretty much have what they want.”

He ran a hand through his hair with a frustrated shove. “The Shadow Angel thing is fairly recent.”

Rubbing her arms because it was freezing in here, she relaxed a little, figuring that if he hadn’t killed her or at least chained her to a wall by now, he wasn’t going to. Hopefully.

“Recent is a matter of perspective,” she said. “For an immortal, recent can mean something that happened in the last thousand years.”

“It’s been a little over two weeks.”

“Oh.” That took a little of the wind out of her indignant sails. “Well, thanks for showing me your digs, but I really have to get going.”

He glanced over at the fireplace, which lit with a
whoosh
. “Not until you tell me why that angel was trying to kill you.”

There were so many ways she could play this, but she went for the obvious. “Because I’m a demon. Angels kill demons for sport. Was that a serious question?”

“Yes.” His leather jacket creaked as he crossed his arms over his chest. “They don’t just pop onto random rooftops hoping to get lucky and find demons to kill. He was hunting you. Why?”

Closing her eyes, she replayed the scene in her head… a scene that had started out with blue skies, bright sunlight, and the trill of pigeons walking the roof’s ledges.

“Vyrm.”
 

The angel’s hatred dripped from his voice as he materialized in front of Blaspheme. She let out a scream, dropping her coffee cup as she scrambled out of her chair. Glass shattered and coffee splattered, but she barely noticed. The only thing she could see right now was the huge warrior standing on the roof in military combat gear, his body laden with weapons.
 

“H-how did you find me?”
 

An
aurial
, a blade specifically designed to kill angels and fallen angels, appeared in his hand.

“I don’t answer vyrmin questions.”
 

Cute, how he’d turned
vyrm
into
vermin
. She wished she was going to live to appreciate the wordplay.

“Blaspheme?”

Revenant’s voice broke into her not-so-fond memory. What had he asked her? Why the angel was hunting her?

She shrugged, hoping he’d buy her false indifference. “I have no idea. Maybe there’s extra incentive this week to slaughter False Angels. And you know, maybe you could explain how you found me? You’d better not be tracking me, or —”

He held up her Coach bag, which, apparently, he’d pulled out of his ass, because she swore he hadn’t been holding it a moment ago. “I saw you didn’t take your purse with you, so I guessed that you’d have to use a Harrowgate for transportation. I checked the Harrowgate closest to your apartment.” His black eyes glittered. “That was stupid. Anyone with half a brain would have known to waylay you at that Harrowgate.”

She gaped in indignation. “So now I’m stupid?”

He tossed the bag onto one of his rickety chairs. “Now you’re
safe
.”

Somehow she doubted that. Oh, she was certain no one was going to get past Revenant to get to her. But could someone get past him to
save
her?

“I would have been safe if I’d gotten to Underworld General.”

Revenant reached up to rub the back of his neck, causing his shirt to rise up on his hard-cut abs. “The hospital has been breached before.”

He had a point. Sort of. And man, that sliver of flesh between the hem of his shirt and the top of his leather pants was distracting. Leave it to False Angel instincts to make her horny in any inappropriate situation.

“Not by Heavenly forces,” she ground out, irritated by her reaction to him. “Angels can’t get in.”

“Reaver can.”

As a Radiant, Reaver was the exception, but she hadn’t worried about that, since Reaver rarely came to the hospital. But now that Eradicators knew what she was, how long would it be before Reaver found out and popped into the hospital to confront her?

Panic frayed the edges of her control, and she started to look around for an escape. It wasn’t logical, but her mother’s training had instilled in her a need to locate all exits wherever she went, especially if she felt trapped or afraid.

“Hey.” Revenant softened his voice and moved toward her. “I promise you’re safe.”

“Safe from the angel, maybe, but what about from you?”

“You think I’ll hurt you?” He cupped his hand around her nape, his touch surprisingly gentle. “I want you in my bed, not in a grave.”

Oh, gods… yes.

No!
 

She shrank away from him, even though the mention of his bed made her heart beat a little faster. “I don’t think so.” He only wanted her because he thought she was someone she wasn’t. She didn’t want to be within a thousand miles when and if he learned the truth. He’d already admitted that he thought death sentences were reasonable for people who associated with
vyrm
. How would he feel about
actual
vyrm
?

“Why not?” he asked. “You haven’t fucked a male since Yuri.”

Her jaw dropped. “E-excuse me?”

His smirk managed to be both amused and mocking. “Yuri. I’m sure you remember his name. By all accounts, you were pretty into him.”

She gasped in outrage. First of all, she hadn’t been into the arrogant surgeon. At the time, she’d believed he was beginning to suspect the truth about her, so she’d gotten intimate with him. Pretended to love the thorny flails and shit.

Second of all… “You’ve been checking up on me? How dare you! I told you I go to clubs to fulfill my needs.”

“Really?” More amusement. More mocking. “Which ones?”

“Just last week I partied my ass off at Thirst.” In truth, she’d gone to the vampire club with some nurses from the clinic for the sole purpose of playing False Angel slut, and she’d done a lot of flirting, but she’d gone home alone. “And how do you know about Yuri anyway?”

“I’m resourceful, Blaspheme. I can find out anything I want. It’s just easier to ask. So why don’t you tell me what you’re hiding.”

“Why are you so certain I’m hiding something?”

He looked over at the massive sword on the wall, its magnificent, double-edged blade dulled by age and the smoky light in Revenant’s lair. The ebony hilt, its cross-guard decorated with sharp teeth, flowed fluidly to the skull-shaped pommel. The thing suited Revenant well, beautiful, wicked… and somehow tarnished.

“For thousands of years, my job was to hunt down anyone Satan or Lucifer deemed to be undesirable or an enemy. That included half-breeds, angels,
vyrm
, traitors.” He trailed his finger along the edge of the blade, and for a brief moment, she pictured him thrusting the sword through her
vyrm
heart. “I learned to recognize deception.”

Shit. Just… shit. In an effort to keep from sounding terrified, she smiled glibly. “And how do you do that?”

A trickle of blood ran down the sword’s edge, but before it reached the tip, the metal soaked up every drop.

“Usually I can smell it. See it. Sense it.” He swung away from the sword and nailed her with black eyes so intense that she took an unbidden step back. “But you… it’s like I should be picking up on a secret, but something is blocking it. I’ll find out what it is, Blaspheme, so why don’t you just tell me now.”

“Why don’t you go fuck yourself?”

“I’d rather fuck you.”

His crude words became images in her mind, and damn her False Angel desires, because now all she wanted was to turn the images and words into action. Sweaty, naked, throbbing action.

Besides, she’d be fooling herself if she thought he was going to give up trying to bed her, and he clearly was a hellhound with a bone when it came to what he believed she was hiding. Trying to stay away from him wasn’t working, and she had no doubt that he wasn’t going to just go away.

It was time to opt for preventive surgery and cut him out of her life like a suspicious tumor. And like any good doctor, she’d use every method she had at her disposal, including what little aphrodisiac she had remaining on her wings if necessary.

“Okay, then.” Her mouth actually watered in anticipation of what she was about to say. “I have a proposition for you.”

One black eyebrow shot up. “I’m listening.”

Summoning every ounce of False Angel magic she had left, she sauntered over to him. Slowly. Seductively. He thought she was different, so she’d show him exactly how identical she was to the species she was pretending to be.

The crazy thing was that this all felt so natural. Crazy, because the FA enchantment should be wearing off, not intensifying her desires.