Asmodeus(93)

Frowning, he turned to look over his shoulder.



Pain shot up his right arm and he slid down the roof of the cathedral, barely gaining a grasp on the edge. He looked up, holding his body weight with the tips of his fingers.



A familiar woman stood above him, looking every bit as sensual and dangerous as the night he had come upon her. Her hair was tied back, her red nails clutching the same dagger she had used to skewer him during their first fight. She balanced herself perfectly on the slanted roof.



"Miss me?" her slight British accent teased.



He growled, swinging himself up and onto the roof, flying above her head. He landed directly behind her.



She spun around to face him. He didn't give her the chance to thrust the dagger into another part of his body. He snatched it from her hands. To his surprise she didn't move or flinch.



She was smiling.



Angry at her dismissal of the threat he posed, he snapped at her. "All you will do is slow me down."



She rolled her eyes. "I notice you haven't found her yet. I don't think you could get any slower."



He could feel his eyes glow red. This bitch was seriously starting to piss him off. "And you? I see

you have nothing better to do than track me down. What, is Ambrose through giving your incompetent ass missions?"



Her flippant stance melted into a fighter's warning. He'd struck a chord.



Given the chance, she would pounce on him, fangs bared. Amazingly, the thought of her fangs piercing his skin aroused him.



"I'm here to find my friend, which you don't seem capable of doing."



He'd had enough of their banter. He would never pick up Kelsey's scent with this woman in his midst. "Well, when you find her I'm sure you'll have the stomach to kill her, which is the only way to get the flock of demons out of her body."



She paled. "That's not true. You can command them out. It was done in biblical times."



He held his arms out. "If you haven't noticed, I don't walk on water, sweetheart."



For once she didn't have a comeback. She looked lost. She focused her light blue eyes on the roof and shifted her weight from foot to foot.



Yet another side of her. He had glimpsed this side only briefly during their second encounter. The fear for her friend had been evident then. The concern she was now displaying intrigued him. Though he carried no such feelings for others as she obviously did for Kelsey, he felt her worry as if it were his own.



He found himself doing something he hadn't done in centuries; he offered comfort. "If there is a way to spare your friend, I will endeavor to find it."



She looked back up at him, her eyes misting, though no tears fell. She was regaining her tough exterior, fighting for it an inch at a time. He admired her strength. Having built an outer shell himself, he could see that she was struggling with her own defenses. She didn't want to let go of her authority.



"Thank you."



Believing those two words were foreign to her, he felt himself soften toward her. They were of the same origin. Born fighters. "You're welcome."



She straightened, regaining her composure. "So what do we do first?"



We. He inwardly cringed. He worked alone. Always had. He tried not to think about the schematics and focused instead on the overall job. She could be of help if she quit trying to kill him, begrudging every breath he took. "We locate Kelsey."



"How do we do that?"



"Slow down." He turned away from her, senses alert for an impending blow. As a fighter she would see the trust he was trying to establish. If they didn't trust each other they would never be able to work together, and they would accomplish nothing. He ran his thumb over the worn ivory of her dagger. "Stealth will only get you so far. What do we do when we find her? The only way I know to take this pack of demons out is to kill her."



Although if the spirits had escaped the pit, who was to say they wouldn't pull off the impossible again? Would they counteract the pull of the pit? As with Legion, he expected that upon the death of their host they would go back to hell.



She walked up behind him. "Exorcism doesn't work?"



The hair on the back of his neck stood up. He forced himself to look down at the city surrounding the cathedral. Tiny sparkling lights blinked back at him. She could easily push him off the roof, and powers or no, he didn't have the ability to fly. That kind of damage to his body would take him weeks to recover. "Have you ever heard of a demon performing an exorcism?"

"No."



"There you have it." Unable to trust her at his back any longer, he turned to face her. The glint in her eyes made him believe facing her had been a wise decision. "We're unable to call upon the forces that enable a person to perform an exorcism. We're not permitted to pray, because that would anger Luc. And if he found out, well, all hell would break loose on that demon's ass. Literally."