“Revenant,” Reaver said quietly, “there’s an expiration date on this offer. If Gethel gives birth before you deliver her to us, the deal is off.”
Of course it was. Heaven couldn’t possibly offer him sanctuary simply because he was an angel. Nope. There had to be strings attached to something that should have been his by birth.
“Why were you here with Blaspheme, anyway?” Reaver asked.
“What’s it to you?”
“I worked with her for years at Underworld General when I was Unfallen, and I consider her a friend. Don’t hurt her, Revenant, or you’ll answer to me.”
Revenant made a theatrical, sarcastic gesture with his hands. “Ooh, scary.”
“I mean it.”
Whatever. He was sick of this shit. He should just kill the angel who attacked Blaspheme and be done with it. Except that when he looked over at where the bastard had been, he was gone.
Instant, sharp alarm rang through him. Blaspheme could be in trouble.
And God help Baldie if he had her, because this time, Rev wasn’t going to give the fucker the courtesy of dying in the human realm.
Revenant was going to drag that haloed bastard to Sheoul and kill him there.
Where his soul could languish in misery for all eternity.
Fourteen
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.