“Maybe sticking strictly to business is the only option,” she said.
Both men quieted, their jaws taking on stubborn cants. Montevista and Sydney looked at each other with raised brows.
“This isn’t working,” Eve persisted, her foot tapping on the hardwood.
Reed went back to chopping vegetables.
Alec leaned forward again. “Are you going to stay put like I’m ordering you to?”
Eve crossed her arms. “What do you think?”
“Right.” He stood. “So, starting with breakfast tomorrow, you’re back to having a full-time mentor. No more of this shifting in only when you need me.”
“You’re going to be my baby-sitter?”
His dark gaze raked her from head to toe. “Only if I can take you over my knee when you’re naughty.”
I’m still holding the knife, dickhead, Reed bit out.
Eve dropped back onto the couch with a silent groan. The two brothers were going to be the death of her.
If the demons didn’t kill her first.
Eve held a protein shake aloft. “Want one?”
Alec eyed the green beverage with obvious wariness. Dressed in long shorts and a white sleeveless T-shirt with steel-toed boots, he had the bad-boy look down to a science. His shades were hung backward and rested against his nape, tangling with the overlong mane of dark hair that she loved to run her fingers through.
Behind him, early morning sunlight filtered into her living room. Sydney was asleep in the guest room after an all-night watch, and Montevista was outside getting reports from the guards on the street. Beyond her balcony, surfers called out to each other as they hit the waves before the workday.
“You’ve got that look in your eyes,” Alec said, grinning. “You want me.”
She turned her back to him. “I’ll take that as a no.”
“Yes. I want it.” He approached. “I want whatever you’re dishing out. Enough that if you don’t hurry up and give it to me, I just might have to take it.”
CHAPTER 3
Eve held a protein shake aloft. “Want one?”
Alec eyed the green beverage with obvious wariness. Dressed in long shorts and a white sleeveless T-shirt with steel-toed boots, he had the bad-boy look down to a science. His shades were hung backward and rested against his nape, tangling with the overlong mane of dark hair that she loved to run her fingers through.
Behind him, early morning sunlight filtered into her living room. Sydney was asleep in the guest room after an all-night watch, and Montevista was outside getting reports from the guards on the street. Beyond her balcony, surfers called out to each other as they hit the waves before the workday.
“You’ve got that look in your eyes,” Alec said, grinning. “You want me.”
She turned her back to him. “I’ll take that as a no.”
“Yes. I want it.” He approached. “I want whatever you’re dishing out. Enough that if you don’t hurry up and give it to me, I just might have to take it.”
There was a dark undertone to his voice that set off alarms. The old, prearchangel Alec would never say such a threat to her, but the new Alec. . . Not only did he say things that were out of character, she half feared he wasn’t entirely kidding when he said them.
Eve reached behind her and proffered the glass. His fingers curled around hers, warm compared to the chill of the shake. He kept coming until his every exhale disturbed the loose tendrils of hair that always escaped her ponytail. Through their connection, she sensed his pleasure in the smell of her shampoo and the way their bodies fit so well together. The sharing of information worked in reverse, too, so he knew damn well what he was doing to her. When he stepped back, she missed his body heat, but she didn’t miss the darkness in him that chilled her.
There’s something... in me, he’d told her recently, and she believed him. She sometimes felt it. It was ruthless and cold, and it took every opportunity to slither against her.
She poured another glass from the remains in the blender. Her hands shook slightly in response to his proximity. Desire—for sex and/or violence—was the only emotion that affected a Mark’s nervous system. “Let’s go back to the construction site where we first learned about Gehenna Masonry.”
There was a pause, then he said, “Shit. I forgot about the tengu.”
“Me, too, until last night.” In the process of hunting down the initial masked tengu, she and Alec had ended up at a construction site for a new Gadara Enterprises building—Olivet Place. They’d killed the two tengu they found there, but. . . “The building has four corners. Since they like to pack together, I figure they’d want to regroup.”
“Why not go back to Upland where they were created?”
Facing him, Eve leaned back into the edge of the counter. “Because we blew it up?”
“You know what I mean. Why Raguel’s building? Why not one of the others on Gehenna Masonry’s list?”
“Because I was invited to this one. Remember?”
“Right,” he murmured. “The invitation.”
“One of many dangling threads in my life.”
She’d stumbled upon the building by accident in her search for the tengu, but later found an opening- day invite in her mailbox. It had been a mock-up of the final invitation and not yet ready for publication, but someone had addressed it to her and mailed it. Someone had wanted her to check it out.
“I looked into it,” he told her. “You were invited because all local interior designers and architects were. I checked it out myself. Your name was definitely on the list. All of your old colleagues at the Weisenberg Group were.”
“Were the other invitations going to be shipped to home addresses?”
He leaned into the island. The casual pose did nothing to hide his alertness. “Good point. It should have been mailed to your office.”
“At the time, I asked you what the chances were that I would be lured to a demon-infested building at the exact same time I was marked. And you said—”
“—slim to none.”
Eve nodded. “So what changed your mind?”
“My thoughts went along these lines: the invitations were ordered by Raguel, the infestation was in one of his buildings, and we eradicated the two tengu we found when we got here.”
“So you thought it was the work of a divine hand?”
“Could be. The good guys benefited. Anyway, why would an Infernal deliberately set up something that could potentially expose the mask? Makes no sense.”
“Is it possible that Gadara set it all up?” She wouldn’t put it past him. The archangel had been making her job as difficult as possible from the very beginning. As a mentor and Mark pair, Alec and she were a package deal. Gadara was relishing the novel opportunity to have Cain—and Cain’s prestige— attached to his firm. However, his coup didn’t stop him from using Eve to assert his authority over Alec. By moving her around like a pawn, he forced Alec to toe the line or risk her paying the consequences.
“He’s more direct, you know that.”
“But if you believe the invitation was celestially motivated, someone had to know about the tengu. Who?”
“Angel, it could go as high as the seraphim.”
“Why not use the established chain of command? Send the order to Gadara, he would assign it to a handler, a handler would assign it to a trained and capable Mark. Bringing it straight to me is ridiculous.”
“Is it? You got the job done.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere in this. Other times, maybe. But not this time.”
He gave her an exasperated look. “I take it you’re thinking this is part of a plot of some sort?”
“I don’t know. That’s why we’re heading over there.”
His dark eyes were amused. “You know, your brain turns me on.”
“Everything turns you on.”
“Everything about you.”
“You’re feeling punchy this morning.”
“I like being out in the field. Especially with you. Your ability to attract disasters definitely keeps things interesting.”
“Not funny.” Eve drank deeply and tried to picture him at a desk job. After a minute, she gave up.
“This shake isn’t bad,” Alec noted, licking his lips.
“What a compliment.” The shake was orange juice and banana with green tea protein powder. She thought it was delicious, plus it would keep her fueled for a few hours at least. Marks burned calories like mad. As Reed said, Highly efficient machines use superior fuel. Translation: she ate like a sumo wrestler.
“I thought I was making you One-Eyed Jacks.”
“When we get back. I’m eager to get moving.”
“To face a possible horde of tengu? Why?”
“Can’t you read my mind?” she challenged, even as she shut a mental door in his face.
His gaze narrowed with concentration, then one dark brow rose. “We have to figure out how you do that.”
“What’s to figure out? My acclimation has been out of whack from the beginning.” She rinsed her glass out in the sink. He came up beside her and shoved his under the running water. At the same moment, the thought of the Nix entered both of their heads. As one, they pushed the thought away. One demon at a time.
“I’m serious, angel. Our connection can save your life.”
“Not my fault. My Novium happened way too soon. Let’s face it: the mark and I don’t mesh well.”
The Novium was a physical and mental transition Marks suffered through to progress from trainee to full-fledged. Like puberty, it altered a Mark’s physical makeup, enhancing already keen senses and instilling a devil-may-care confidence. Side effects were edginess and lowered inhibitions. It created a fever that strengthened a Mark’s tie to her handler while cauterizing the connection to her mentor. In Eve’s case, it had created a triumvirate communication pathway that she was pretty sure would drive her crazy one day.