Reaver’s eyes grew haunted. “Boys, this is much bigger than an apocalypse. This is the end of existence for all but the victor.”
Shade, Eidolon, and Reaver spent the next hour arguing about what to do, but it always came back to Wraith
“He needs to get that necklace,” Shade said, as he popped the top of the Fresca he’d fetched from the break room. He’d also called Runa to let her know he was running late. She’d sounded as exhausted as he was, but with four babies at home, it was no wonder.
“No!” Reaver slammed his fist on Eidolon’s desk. “If Wraith defeats Byzamoth and gets the talisman, that leaves Wraith in possession of the most powerful artifact in the universe. I don’t think any of us wants that. The Aegis must retrieve it.”
Shade snorted. “Those bunch of ignorant—”
Eidolon beaned him in the shoulder with a stapler. “You’re talking about my mate, you know.”
“And like it or not, they are the human Guardians of the earthly realm,” Reaver said.
Eidolon looked up from his computer, where he’d been researching Biblical and demonic prophecies. “Whatever happens, it needs to happen fast. Tayla said that within the last twelve hours, demons have come aboveground and taken over three holy sites in Israel. The local Aegi have their hands full. Coincides with Byzamoth taking the necklace.”
“Hell’s fires,” Shade muttered. “Leave it to Wraith to start Armageddon.” Shade thought about his sons, so small and helpless, and about Runa, who he loved so much it hurt. He couldn’t bear the thought that they could be caught up in this war.
“This is far worse than Armageddon,” Reaver added, as if Shade needed the reminder.
“Why now?” Eidolon asked. “This Byzamoth asshole is obviously old, so why didn’t he grab the necklace and charm centuries ago?”
“Fallen angels can’t sense Marked Sentinels.” Reaver shook his head. “I don’t know how he could have found her.”
Eidolon tapped his fingers on his desk, and just as Shade was about to break his fingers, E froze, mid-tap. “Wraith said Byzamoth only has one wing. Has that always been the case?”
“Not that I know of.”
Shade frowned. “What are you getting at?”
“Roag’s dungeon. Runa ripped off the wing of a fallen angel. I wondered why Roag would have a fallen angel working for him.”
Reaver snorted. “He wouldn’t. No angel would serve a demon.”
“Exactly. But what if he was there to get something from Roag?”
“Eth’s Eye,” Shade said on a long, drawn out breath.
Reaver stilled. “What about it?”
“Roag stole it from my collection when he took the mordlair necrotoxin,” Eidolon said, going back to the tapping.
“You were in possession of Eth’s Eye?”
“Yes,” E said, “but it was impossible for us to use.”
“That’s because only angels can use it for the purposes of scrying. If Byzamoth had it, he could have used it to locate the amulet.” Reaver cursed. “Which explains why I felt her cloak shatter—a side effect of being discovered.”
“We need to involve The Aegis,” Reaver repeated, like a damned broken record.
“I agree.” Eidolon stood and walked around his desk. “Tayla and Kynan are going to have to tell the Sigil what’s going on. All of it. This is too big for us alone. And they’re trained to hunt down beings like fallen angels.” He turned to Reaver. “When will he try to open the gate?”
“The second dawn after the Sentinel’s blood is shed. If he doesn’t use the blood then, he’ll have missed his opportunity. If he’d gotten Serena’s charm himself he’d have more control of the timing. Now he’s at the mercy of finding Wraith, and bleeding him.”
“Where will Byzamoth take the amulet and the blood?” Eidolon asked.
“Jerusalem. The Temple Mount. But he’ll need to get the blood first. Where is Wraith?”
“Egypt.”
“Get him home,” Reaver said. “We can protect him in the hospital.”
“That’ll work.” Eidolon didn’t sound too confident, though, probably because getting Wraith to sit still and do nothing would be like trying to chain a phantom. “In the meantime, Tayla can contact the Sigil and Aegis cells within striking distance of Jerusalem. Kynan can deal with R-XR. Let them know what’s up and get them ready for a battle.”
Shade cursed. Demon and human prophets had been saying for centuries that the end was near, and finally, it seemed as though they were right.
Twenty-three
Serena dreaded this call, but now that she had a signal she had to make it.
“Serena?” Val sounded as worried as she’d ever heard him, and she answered quickly.
“It’s me, Val. Everything’s fine.” If fine included losing her necklace, her virginity, and her charm in a matter of hours.
“Thank God.” She heard the squeak of leather, knew he’d just sank into a chair. “Where are you?”
“The train will be pulling into Alexandria in fifteen minutes.”
“And you’ll be heading home immediately?”
Her heart started pounding. “Not exactly. There’s a problem.”
The chair squeaked again. “What?” She didn’t answer, and his voice dropped to a low, dangerous whisper. She’d seen him truly angry only once, and it was something she never wanted to experience again. “What happened?”
“It’s Byzamoth.”
“The demon?”
She swallowed dryly. “He’s more than a demon. He’s a fallen angel.”
“Tell me everything, and tell me now.”
He was using his don’t-argue-with-me-or-else voice, and she knew better than to push. She started at the beginning and ended with, “He killed the Regent. And… and he attacked me.”
“Did he get the necklace?”
“Yes.”
“And the charm?”
“It’s gone, too.”
His harsh curse was followed by a long, ragged breath. When he spoke, his words were broken, distorted. “I should have known. There have been demon attacks all over the globe.” The sound of his breathing joined the frantic click of his fingers on computer keys. “Are you… okay?”
“Josh is taking care of me.”
“Not well enough! Where was he when Byzamoth was attacking you?”
“He fought him, Val. Things could have turned out a lot worse than they did.”
Val muttered something she couldn’t hear. “When you get off the train, head straight to an address I’m having David text to you. He’ll include instructions to get in. Wait until I arrive.”
“Will do. Where are you?”
“I’m still in Berlin. It’s a zoo here… hold on.”
She heard commotion in the background, a lot of voices, some raised. David was shouting. The names Tayla and Kynan came with some curses, and then, finally, Val was back on the phone.
“Serena?” His guttural rasp told her she was in trouble. “Byzamoth has the necklace, yes? But does he have the charm?”
Oh, God.
“Serena!”
“No,” she whispered. “Josh has it.”
There was a curse and then a tense moment of silence before he said, “As furious as I am with you, this might actually be good news.… Look, I need to go. There’s some sort of emergency meeting going on, and it seems to have something to do with you. I’ll call as soon as I can. Just get to the address I send you. The Aegis will have people there as soon as possible.”
“They aren’t there now?”
“All cells within the region have been sent to Israel. It’ll take time to get help to you. In the meantime, stay alert.”
“Okay.”
Val cursed again, long and hard. Finally, she heard the chair squeak again, heard his forceful exhale. Knew he was stroking his tidy beard. “How are you feeling?”
“Fine, right now.” She was a little nauseous, but there was no point in worrying Val even more than he a
lready was. “How long do you think? Before, you know…”
“I don’t…” His voice hitched. “I’m not sure. The disease should progress rapidly now.”
“Bottom line?”
He drew in a ragged breath. “I’d say you’re down to days, maybe hours.”
Wraith was not onboard with this plan. When Serena said they were going somewhere Val had told her to go, every one of his warning bells had rung, and now as they drew closer to the place, on the outskirts of Alexandria’s Greek quarter, the clanging in his head could have been coming from Hell’s marching band
They were on foot, having gotten out of the taxi several blocks back. He’d wanted to approach from the rear, come in as inconspicuously as possible, in case they were being watched. Byzamoth still wanted her, couldn’t know that Wraith already had her charm.
Mine. And so is she.
Man, every time he thought about what could have happened, what the fallen angel still wanted, it made Wraith’s killer instinct shove its way to the front of the line ahead the rest of his baser instincts. Weird, because usually nothing got ahead of sex.
And he definitely wanted to know who was tipping off Byzamoth about Serena’s location. Wraith was going to gut the bastard and strangle him with his own intestines.
They were nearly there when Serena began to wheeze badly enough for Wraith to step off the sidewalk and draw her into the shade of a lush palm. Pink splotches colored her cheeks and shadows had tinted the crescents beneath her eyes, but still, she smiled.
“Do you need to rest?”
“It’s the dust in the air. It’s nothing.”
Her lie irked him. He wanted her to be able to lean on him, accept his help. And he needed to get her somewhere safe, where they were less exposed and she could rest.
They arrived at a nondescript house set between other, equally nondescript houses. But right away it became clear that there was nothing average about this place. No one who wasn’t military special forces, a thief, or Wraith, would notice the well-concealed alarm trip wire that had been set into the door and window frames. The extra thick walls that Wraith would bet had been reinforced. The flame retardant coating that had been sprayed on the walls and roof. Or the “decorative” slits that had been cut into the plaster below the roof overhang and that were the perfect size to cradle the barrel of a rifle.
When he crouched next to an ornamental rock at one corner of the property line, he noticed tiny protective symbols carved into it.
“I don’t like this,” he said as he straightened to his full height. “Something’s off.”
“Val wouldn’t send me someplace unsafe.”
It definitely wasn’t unsafe. Too safe, was more like it. Serena wheezed again, and he set aside his paranoia. Nothing was too safe for Serena. Still, he kept a watchful eye on their surroundings, taking note of the vehicles, the houses, even the fucking birds, as he spoke. “You’re sick. We need to get you inside.”
“My throat is dry. That’s all.”
Wraith swung around, stared at her through the amber filter of his sunglasses. “Don’t BS me. We’ve been through too much.” Enough that he wanted to bundle her up and take her to UG, where he knew he could keep her safe. From Byzamoth, at least. Her illness was a beast he didn’t know how to fight.
“I know.” She hugged herself. Shifted her weight. He hated that he’d made her uncomfortable, but the time for making love and pretending she hadn’t committed suicide was over. He was a fighter, and he was in kill-the-threat mode.
Especially since the threat was now to Serena.
He eyed the building. “What did he say about this house?”
She pulled back a decorative shutter. Behind the wooden flap was a metal box mounted on the side of the building. She pushed some numbers on the keypad and retrieved a key. “He said it’s warded against vampires.”
“Vampires?” He hoped she didn’t notice the way he’d choked.
Her hand fluttered to her throat, dropped again. “I asked him why the house wasn’t warded against demons, too, and he said that spells to repel vampires are narrow in scope and long-lasting. But with demons, it’s different. Unless you ward against specific species of demons—”
“You’d need a very general anti-evil spell, and those don’t last long.”
She nodded. “Exactly.”
She stepped inside, but he hung back, unsure how the anti-vampire spell would affect him. He wasn’t a true vampire, but he didn’t want to take chances. The ward might work only on the undead—which would be smart, given that they were sitting in the middle of mummy land—or it could be some tweaked version that worked against any blood-drinking creature.
“You coming in?”
He cocked an eyebrow. “That an invite?”
“You a vampire?”
“Yep.”
“Good.” Her sultry tone hit him in the groin. “Come on in.”
“Your vampire fetish is going to get you bitten someday,” he warned, only half playing, because he really, really wanted to be the one biting her.
“I can only hope.” She opened the door wider.
“You’re hopeless.” He didn’t need invites to get into houses, but if the place was warded… an invite couldn’t hurt. “I’m going to do a perimeter check first,” he said. “Can’t be too careful.” That, and he wanted to see what other security tricks had been built into this house.
“I’ll see what kinds of supplies we have here. We’re probably going to need to go shopping.” She stood in the doorway, her hair blowing in the breeze and glinting in the sun, and he wanted her. Right then, right there.
He shot to her like he’d come out of a cannon. Her soft sound of surprise was muffled by his mouth, easing into a contented sigh as she melted against him. Now wasn’t the time or place to do everything he wanted to do, but he made his message clear.
He would take her ten ways from Sunday when she was cured, because he refused to believe it wouldn’t happen.
And then he’d find a way to make her his. Humans couldn’t bond with Seminus demons, but there had to be a way. Somehow, it could happen.
Right. As soon as she forgave him for lying to her, seducing her, oh, and being a demon.
Shit. He was living in fantasyland. All he needed now were mouse ears and fairy fucking dust.
Cursing silently, he broke away from her and made the circuit around the house. Nothing was out of place, but he discovered more subtle signs that told him this house was more than what it seemed. The entire property line had been carved out with a very narrow, shallow ditch almost invisible to anyone not looking for it. This would be where someone might put out a protective circle of salt, ash, holy water—any substance meant to guard against evil.
His inspection turned up several more curious features, including a number of tiny silver stakes in the ground, set out in the shape of a giant pentagram that spanned the entire property.
He headed for the front door, pausing at the threshold. He heard Serena coughing somewhere in the house, but she was nowhere she’d see if the ward worked on him. Taking a deep breath, he stepped through the doorway.
Nothing happened. Cool. He wondered if the ward should have affected him, or if the charm was doing its thing.
Serena was drinking a glass of water in the kitchen, so he poked around the other rooms. In one of the back rooms he found a wooden chest. When he opened it, his blood ran cold.
It was full of weapons—swords, stakes, bottles of holy water, ropes, blades, and stangs. The double-ended blades of the stangs were each coated in a different metal to kill different types of demons. These were Aegis weapons.
Suspicion confirmed: Wraith had walked right into the middle of a fucking Aegis stronghold.
He slammed the lid shut and stalked into the kitchen, where Serena had set two colas out on the small dining table.
“I found drinks and canned goods. Some pasta—”
He slapped his hands down on the counter on either
side of her hard enough to make her jump. “When is the rest of the crew showing up?”
Caged in, she looked up at him in surprise. “Crew? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I think you do.”
She ducked beneath his arms and jammed her hands on her hips. “I don’t like your tone.”
“I don’t like being lied to.”
“And I still don’t know what you’re talking about,” she shot back.
He believed her, but by now his nerves were frayed and he was juiced. He was a freaking demon standing in the middle of Demon Slayer Central. “I thought only Val was coming.” Which was going to be a difficult situation as it was. He’d have to get into the guy’s head again and do some creative memory reconstruction when it came to the real Josh.
“Well, gee. I’m so sorry I forgot to mention we’d be joined by people who can help us. Why does it matter?” She put her palm on his forehead. “Are you okay? You’re acting strange.”
Oh, hell. He was making her suspicious by flying off the handle like this. “I’m fine.”
“You owe me more than that, Josh. We’ve shared too much for you to shut down now,” she said, throwing his words from earlier right back at him.
Fuck. She was right, and it only pissed him off. Mainly because his lies were sitting on him like a two-ton lava beast, and guilt was practically leaking out of him. Maybe he should tell her the truth. If she knew what he was… what? She’d only hate him sooner.
Gods, this was fucked up.
He didn’t answer her because his tongue felt glued to the roof of his mouth, and eventually she rubbed her temples and shook her head.