Alec stood and took the empty peel from her. “Sabrael won’t leave until he speaks with you. Celestials have a different view of nudity than mortals do. Tell me what you need and I’ll get it.”
Eve directed him to a beach cover-up that hung in her closet. It was made of pale blue terry cloth and sported a hood, short sleeves, and a pouch in the front. Alec dropped it over her head, and she shoved her various body parts through the appropriate openings.
“Okay, Sabrael,” she began, brushing her hair back from her face. “Why are you here?”
“The better question would be: Why are
you
here, Evangeline? You should be dead.”
She bit back a groan. Another riddle. It seemed all the angels spoke in them, except for Alec and Reed. Those two spoke so bluntly she’d be perpetually
blushing if not for the mark, which prevented her body from wasting energy. “I thought I was.”
“You were. But Cain claims you have knowledge we need.”
Eve looked at Alec. “You brought me back from the dead to grill me for information?”
Sabrael’s arms crossed in front of his massive chest. “You were going someplace where we would not have been able to ask you. It was the only way.”
Her gaze moved heavenward. “You’re not winning any brownie points with me,” she called out.
“It is not your place to demand Jehovah prove himself to you,” Sabrael said in a terrible voice.
“You said we missed something in Upland,” Alec prompted, his fingers lacing with hers.
She thought back to her last assignment—vanquishing an Infernal in one of the men’s bathrooms at Qualcomm Stadium. Alec had taken her out on their first “date”—a Chargers versus Seahawks football game. Reed had come along and said it was time to parlay her classroom instruction into the field.
“A wolf,” she murmured.
“What?”
“I assigned her to a werewolf,” Reed said from the doorway. He approached the opposite side of the bed and passed a chilled bottle of water across the expanse to Eve. “A kid. Easy pickings.”
“Only it wasn’t a wolf,” Alec retorted. “And it sure as shit wasn’t easy.”
“But there was one there,” Eve explained. “One of the kids we spotted in the convenience store in Upland.”
Upland. She’d never think of the town the same way again. They had been sent there on an investigation. Just as Marks bore the Mark of Cain on their arms, Infernals bore “details” that betrayed what species they were, and what their rank in Hell’s hierarchy was. Sort of like military insignia. They also reeked of rotting souls, which made them easy to detect. When Eve stumbled across an Infernal who bore no details and no stench, she and Alec had been tasked with discovering how that was possible. They’d found that a masking agent had been created, a concoction that could potentially tip the balance between good and evil enough to set off Armageddon.
The operation had been run out of a masonry in Upland. The place was gone now, blown to smithereens when Eve shoved a water demon into a fired-up kiln. But it appeared the original problem still remained to be dealt with. The dragon had been odor-free, a condition made possible only by the mask.
“He said the Alpha sent him,” she went on. “They wanted me dead as retaliation for the death of his son.”
Alec’s face took on a hardened cast that chilled her blood. “Charles.”
“The bigger issue,” she said quickly, “was that the dragon he brought with him didn’t stink or have any details.”
“There has to be more of the masking agent somewhere,” Reed said. “A stockpile or a new batch.”
“Perhaps the mask is permanent?” Sabrael suggested.
“No, it wears off. I saw it happen.”
The seraph’s gaze moved to Alec. “You did not smell the Infernal either?”
“I told you, I didn’t pay attention.” Alec continued to focus his attention on Eve. The muscle in his arm twitched just below the mark, as if it pained him, and she knew immediately what he was doing—he was lying. The mark burned when sins were committed.
Turning his head to look at Sabrael, Alec said, “I haven’t been trained as a mentor. I don’t know how to focus on both the target and Eve at once. I only know how to hone in on her.”
To bring her back from the brink of Hell, he’d lied to someone in power. A seraph. Or maybe God himself. Alec would pay for that . . . somehow, some way. And now he was lying again. For her.
Her grip on his hand tightened until she was white knuckled, but he didn’t complain.
Miyoko bustled back into the room, her gaze narrowing at the sight of the two men on either side of Eve’s bed. “Okay, I’m ready to go.”
Alec stood so Eve could get out of bed, but he held her back when it became clear that she was too dizzy to complete the effort. She held out her arms for a hug instead.
“When did you get your scar removed?” her mother asked as she bent over.
Her fingers brushed over the Mark of Cain. All of Eve’s childhood scars had been removed with the mark. Her body was a temple now. It ran like a well-oiled machine—precise and without deviations such as sweating, a racing heartbeat, or labored breathing.
Except when sex was involved. Then everything worked in full mortal fashion. It made orgasms as addicting as a drug, since it was the only time a Mark could get “high.”
Eve frowned when her mother didn’t say anything about the mark on her deltoid. Her younger sister Sophia’s first tattoo had been lamented with the statement, “You used to be such a beautiful baby.”
“I get a tattoo,” Eve said dryly, “and you’re worried about a mole?”
“You got a tattoo?” her mother screeched. “Where?”
Eve blinked and looked down at her arm. She glanced at Alec who shook his head.
Her mother couldn’t see it.
Sadness settled over Eve, weighing her down. The barrier between her and her old life wasn’t just metaphorical.
“Just kidding,” Eve husked, her throat tight.
“That was terrible,” her mother complained, pushing her gently in recrimination. “I almost cried.”
They hugged, and her mother straightened. “I made some
onigiri.
It’s in a container by the coffeemaker.”
“Thank you, Mom.”
Reed moved to the door. “I’ll help you carry your things down, Mrs. Hollis.”
Miyoko beamed. Eve’s condo was on the upper floor and the carport was subterranean.
“Kiss ass,” Alec muttered, as they left.
Eve smacked him. “She needs help.”
“I was going to help her, if he hadn’t jumped all over her.”
Sabrael cleared his throat. “You will hunt the Alpha wolf, Cain.”
There was a long moment of stunned silence, then, “Eve is in training.”
“And she will remain that way,” the seraph assured. “The classroom is the safest place for her to be, but you must go.”
Alec shook his head. “No way. You can’t separate a mentor/Mark pair.”
“Charles Grimshaw is connected to the Infernal mask. His son was at the masonry where the concoction was being manufactured and the masked dragon that killed Evangeline was sent at his behest. Time is of the essence. He must be put down before he causes more damage. Your agreement was that you would still perform individual hunts as well as your mentored ones.”
Alec ran both hands through his dark hair. “Once it becomes known that she’s still alive, they will hunt her. She’ll need me nearby to protect her.”
“Raguel has full use of his gifts at the moment. I doubt even you can offer better protection than an archangel in full regalia. Also, don’t forget that you are earning double indulgences for every vanquishing. Killing an Infernal of Grimshaw’s prominence will advance you by years.”
Alec’s jaw tightened. “And I’m just supposed to say, ‘Sorry, angel. I’m off to save my own ass, so you’re on your own’?”
Eve winced.
“I’ll be okay,” she reassured, her thumb brushing
soothingly over his palm. “Shouldn’t be any trouble at all. You and Reed can go about your business without worrying. We all know Gadara won’t allow anything bad to happen to me, since he needs me to bully you two.”
“That doesn’t mean,” Reed drawled as he returned, “that we’re not going to worry. You always manage to find trouble.”
She almost argued that Gadara liked to shove her face first into trouble just to irritate Alec, but that wouldn’t make them feel better.
“I especially don’t like that this week is field training,” Alec said, glancing at Reed. “It’s one thing to be in Gadara Tower. It’s another to be out in the open.”
“Fort McCroskey is a military base,” Sabrael said.
“A
closed
base.”
“It still has a military presence, and Raguel will travel with his entourage of guards.”
Eve frowned at all three men. “What are you talking about?”
Reed explained. “Raguel is taking your class up to Northern California. There’s a former Army base there that he likes to use for field exercises.”
Eve groaned inwardly. A week-long trip with a class of newbie Marks who resented her for having the infamous Cain as a mentor and the equally revered Abel as a handler. She figured the coming week would be as much fun as a Brazilian wax.
“Doesn’t the Alpha live in Northern California?” she asked.
Alec nodded. “A couple hours north of the base.
Fort McCroskey is near Monterey, the Grimshaw pack is nearer to Oakland.”
“A couple of hours’ drive is quite convenient,” Sabrael pointed out. “You could have been sent on assignment to the other side of the world.”
“You can’t make me like this,” Alec bit out. “But I’ll take Eve up to Monterey, then continue on.”
Reed grinned. “I’ll keep a close eye on her while Cain is busy.”
“You have an Infernal to classify,” Sabrael reminded him. “You both must trust that Raguel will see to Evangeline’s safety.”
Eve sighed. “Anyone want to switch places?”
“Sorry, babe,” Reed said. “Mark training isn’t a place to play hooky.”
“She’s not your babe,” Alec snapped.
Reed held both hands up in a gesture of surrender that was belied by the mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
Their feud wasn’t helped by her past intimacy with Reed. That happened before Alec had reentered her life, so he didn’t hold it against her. But to say that he didn’t trust his brother to be within a mile of her would be an understatement.
Alec looked at Eve, his features softening. “You’d rather hunt real demons than pretend to?”
“Maybe I was resurrected with a different personality,” she suggested. “Like
Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
”
“Or maybe you’re pissed off at getting killed, and want a little payback.”
Her mouth tilted at the corners. How well he knew her.
“But if you are a pod person,” he continued, “you have great taste in bodies.”
A tingle moved through her. His wink told her he knew it.
“Four more weeks, angel. Then we’ll tear ’em up.”
Four more weeks of class, one of which was a camp-out. Eve sighed. She was definitely back among the living.
Hell would have more direct means of torture.
’I'm sorry about Takeo.”
Reed glanced at the Mark who entered Gadara Tower beside him. “Thank you, Kobe.”
Kobe Denner scrubbed a hand over his face and cursed in his native Zulu. “He saved my life once. I still owed him one. He was a good Mark.”
“My best.” Avenging the Mark’s death was at the top of Reed’s to-do list. But first he had to classify the Infernal who did the deed, then he needed to learn how best to vanquish it.
“I heard some unknown demon-type did it.”
“Yes, that’s true.”
“Must have been a badass to take out Takeo.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it.” The graveness of the situation was evident in Reed’s somber tone.
“Shit.” Kobe’s dark eyes were sad. His features were
kept youthful by the mark, but nothing could hide the weight of experience that burdened his five-foot ten-inch frame. Killing demons took a terrible toll on the soul. “It’s already bad out there.”
“We’ll find and kill it. We always do.” Reed was grateful to sound more confident than he felt.
Kobe paused beside one of the many planters that decorated the lobby atrium. “Do you think Takeo got in?”
Reed inhaled deeply, contemplating the best answer to the question. It was a common one among Marks. They were working for absolution and all wanted to know if they would be granted access to Heaven if they lost their lives before collecting enough indulgences.
“He deserved to,” Reed answered.
It was the best answer to give that wasn’t a violation of the Decalogue, but it clearly wasn’t the answer Kobe wanted to hear.
Still, the Mark accepted it with a grim nod. “If you need me for anything, let me know.”
“I will.” Reed shook the Mark’s hand, then they separated. Kobe headed toward the tucked-away bank of elevators that led to the subterranean floors, an area that was restricted to Marks and Infernal allies and prisoners. Reed crossed the bustling lobby to reach the private elevator that would take him directly to Raguel Gadara’s office.