Eve gained her hands and knees, lurching forward to help him. She was grabbed by the scruff of her neck and hauled upward. She blinked, finding herself staring into the face of the young wolf.
He didn’t smell. He bore no designs. That was all Eve could register before he drew his fist back and knocked her out.
CHAPTER 19
Alec was on the wrong side of an ass kicking.
Backed into a corner, he was barely managing to keep the horde of tengu from overtaking him. There were at least two dozen of them, built of stone and giggling maniacally. Some swung from the shelves, others danced on the fringes, still others hopped from foot to foot and punched with their fists like miniboxers.
With sharp kicks, Alec kept most of them at bay, but the sheer number of them and their crushing weight were beginning to take their toll. It didn’t help that he was scared shitless about Eve. He’d heard the force with which she struck the kiln. Even with her ability to heal rapidly, a full-body blow like that was devastating. She was untrained and completely on her own.
A tengu swinging from the ceiling kicked at the space between Alec’s shoulders.
“Oomph!” He fell to his knees, groaning.
The tengu laughed and danced with greater frenzy.
“Cain! Cain!” they sang.
Alec glared and pushed to his feet, grabbing the closest tengu and bashing it into one of its brethren. They both shattered. The others recoiled to the walls with a collective gasp.
“Who’s next?” he growled.
They hesitated, wavering. Tengu were more mischievous than malicious. They weren’t combatants by nature and an implied threat to their lives was enough to send them scurrying for safety. Alec took the opportunity presented to him and lunged toward the door. As if he’d shattered the fear that held them still, they leaped toward him as a single mass, a ton of writhing stone bearing down on him.
They’re going to crush me.
Steeling himself for the inevitable, Alec was startled by the sudden burst of power that flowed into him. It originated in his diaphragm, then exploded outward like a supernova, burning through his veins.
He recognized the cause immediately: there was a group of Marks in the area.
Alec hit the door with his shoulder and broke it completely from its hinges. Riding atop the slab, he skid along the cement floor like a body boarder skimming across water. The tengu raced out of the room after him . . .
Then the lights came on.
Alec kept sliding parallel to the lengthy kiln. The marauding tengu paused. The momentum of those bringing up the rear was halted abruptly by those in the front who’d frozen in their tracks. They crashed into each other like a freeway pileup.
A cowboy-booted foot halted Alec’s ride with jarring force. He looked up.
“Mariel.”
The pretty redhead smiled. “Hello, Cain. Having fun?”
He sat up. Mariel held out a hand to help him to his feet. Behind her stood a team of several black-clad Marks, male and female. They were fully armed with 9 mm pistols strapped to their thighs—the personal guards of an archangel. They took a unified step forward. The tengu tripped over themselves scrambling back into their little room.
“Eve?” he asked, looking around the space.
“She’s not with you?”
“No. She was attacked.” Dear God. “I was delayed in there.” Alec jerked his chin toward the corner where a few of the Marks were restoring the door to its space and securing it by moving the pallet truck in front of it. He breathed deeply, hoping against hope that some trace scent of the Infernal had been left behind for him to follow. But there was nothing.
As the rhythmic beeping of the truck warned any bystanders that it was moving in reverse, Mariel’s head turned to watch. “We went to disable the alarms and cameras,” she said, “but someone was there before us.”
“There’s also no way to see which direction they might have taken Eve.” He glanced around. “Why are you here and not Abel?”
“Raguel detained him.”
“Raguel sent his own guards, but not her handler?”
“They’re not Raguel’s,” she said softly. “They’re Sara’s.”
Alec stilled. His brother had gone behind Raguel’s back . . . for Eve. Abel never did anything that didn’t directly benefit himself in some way and he never broke the rules. Perhaps he expected Eve to be appreciative, or maybe he just wanted to show that Alec wasn’t capable of his new and unfamiliar position.
Mariel reached out to him, her hand resting lightly on his biceps. “I saw an Infernal to night, Cain. One with no scent and no details. Your brother wanted a team available to support you.”
Fists clenching, Alec spoke words that cost him dearly. “We need Abel here. He’s the only one who can tell us where Eve is.”
A consoling smile touched Mariel’s lips. “You two will have to work together for once.”
He growled low in his throat. “I’m going to take half the team. Can you collect some of the contents of these bags and anything else you find, and get them back to the firm? The sooner we get to working on the mask, the better.”
“Of course.”
“And fire up that kiln. Burn whatever you can’t take with you. Don’t leave anything behind.” He gestured toward the guards standing nearby.
“Come with me,” he ordered, striding past them toward the door. “There’s someone who might know where she is.”
Reed glanced at his Rolex with clenched jaw. In Las Vegas time, midnight was when the party was just getting started. For him, however, he was achingly conscious of how late it was and how long it had taken to get from point A to point B. Almost twelve hours had passed since he left Gadara Tower. It seemed like twelve years.
Leaning against the railing of the Fontana Bar at the Bellagio, he watched the water show with barely restrained annoyance. How could Raguel go about his business with such insouciance after listening to both Cain’s and Mariel’s recountal of the day’s events? And how could he insist that Reed report in person, knowing he was needed elsewhere?
“Where have you been?”
Reed turned and studied Raguel as he stepped out to the patio dressed in a classically simple tuxedo with a two-carat diamond stud in his right ear. Around him was an entourage of Marks—protection against Infernals. Once, the archangels had made every effort to keep as low a profile as possible. Now it seemed that with every new persona, they strove to outshine each other. They claimed it was necessary in order to create sufficient funding to manage their firms, but whether that was true or not only they would know.
Pride was one of the seven deadly sins. Had they forgotten that?
“Didn’t you listen to Mariel’s report?” Reed asked.
The archangel’s arms crossed. “Of course.”
Reed tossed the jump drive that held the final words spoken on Takeo’s behalf. He prayed his advocacy would be enough to spare the Mark’s soul. “The same thing happened to my Mark.”
“Do you agree with Mariel that the Infernal is of a new class of demon?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t see it or any trace of it; nothing remained that would assist in an identification. With the extent of the destruction, the clearing should have reeked for yards away, but whatever it was, it left neither a scent behind nor anything of Takeo beyond his skin and tissue.”
Raguel stared at him.
“Have you nothing to say?” Reed asked tightly.
“Your brother and Ms. Hollis dropped off the radar this afternoon.”
“She doesn’t trust you.” And Reed was beginning to feel similarly. He might have commented on the weather for all the concern Raguel was displaying.
“She needs to.”
“Then give her reason to.” Reed straightened. “I don’t understand what you’re doing—or more aptly, not doing. How is a novice supposed to?”
There was a long silence, then, “Is she safe?”
“So far.”
“Are you going to her now?”
“If you don’t mind.”
“Tell Cain to report in. I want to know where in Upland they are.”
Reed smiled. “You could send a team with me, you know. I wouldn’t mind. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind either.”
“You worry about your job, Abel. I will worry about mine.”
With a mocking bow, Reed skirted the archangel and his guards, and crossed through the busy bar. The location of their assignation didn’t escape a deeper perusal. Raguel said he had a meeting there that he couldn’t be late for. However, Reed suspected there was more to the choice. Perhaps it was a definitive statement of Raguel’s disregard for the unfolding events of the day.
But if that was the case, why was the archangel so certain of his safety? Had arrogance truly made him ignorant? Or did Raguel know more than he was willing to admit?
Eve woke to an icy deluge. Choking, she struggled to curl away from her torment and found herself strapped to a spindle-backed chair with her wrists bound in her lap.
Blinking, she glared at the young wolf who held a newly empty bucket in his hands. The air stunk of blood, urine, and shit.
“What is it with Infernals and water?” she snapped.
He simply stared at her, his face devoid of expression. He looked to be around sixteen years old. His hazel eyes were cold and barren, soulless. His hair was a mop of dark curls, his chin was weak, and his lips were full and pouty. The boy had the sullen look down to a science. His jeans were baggy and ripped in several places, and his Gehenna Masonry windbreaker was filthy.
“You shouldn’t have taken her,” admonished a voice from a speakerphone on the wall.
The tone was androgynous, or perhaps it only sounded that way because of the white noise in the background. Was the owner the other boy she’d seen in the convenience store?
Infernal or not, there was no way two teenage kids pulled off an endeavor as enormous as this one by themselves. An adult owned the masonry and secured the permits, vehicles, and contracts. And an adult certainly knew about this hellhole.
