Darkyn whirled the blades. The black band around his wrist caught Gabriel's attention. "I didn't know demons wore watches."
"It's not a watch. Why would an immortal give a shit about the passage of time?" Darkyn replied.
"So you're just accessorizing?"
The Dark One pinned him with a glare.
Gabriel almost smiled. Poking the lethal demon was dangerous - but entertaining.
"It's connected to Hell. Time passes differently in your underworld," Darkyn explained. "This tells me how much time my mate has left before starvation or bloodlust take her."
At once Gabriel felt guilty.
Sensing it, Darkyn offered a cold smile. "It also tells me how much longer your mate has until she loses her soul. That deal was made in Hell on Hell time."
Note to self: never talk to this bastard again.
"At least it matches your outfit," Gabriel managed.
The Dark One scowled. "Ever find the instruction manual you were looking for? The one to tell you how to do your job as Death?"
"Fuck you, Darkyn." Gabriel had forgotten the demon was able to read the mind of human-Deidre - and knew every secret or thought he'd ever shared with the woman who had once been his mate for a few weeks.
Gabriel's instincts were humming with warning. Everything from his heart to the human world was at stake, and he had nothing but his intuition, pure strength and flickers of mostly denied power to wrest back control of his underworld.
He couldn't let himself think about the two women whose lives hung in the balance or the fact that no Death in history had allowed the Dark One access to his realm. Likewise, he wasn't going to consider how many souls the rebelling death dealers had compromised or how much suffering the newly dead and supposed-to-be-dead were going through. He wasn't even going to acknowledge the stifling Immortal Code or how many rules he'd broken.
He was here to reclaim what was rightfully his, no matter what the cost. Only then would everything else fall into place.
"Mates, blood, fate," Darkyn's growl was quiet as he recited the only sacred rules the deities were expected to follow. "In the time-before-time, that's all there was. Right now, that's all there is."
Gabriel glanced at the demon. A full head smaller than his almost seven foot frame, Darkyn was deceptively underwhelming in person. But Gabriel knew how ruthless, aggressive and cunning the master strategist really was. With no conscience and battle prowess forged in the depths of Hell, the lean demon was one of the two greatest allies Gabriel could think of wanting at his side, and the greatest enemy he'd ever face.