25

Had I not been sitting, I would’ve fallen down. I gripped the side of the table and stared at the concrete while my mind raced in a thousand different directions. Only one other person I’d ever met had eyes like Enzo’s, and she’d been the first person ever to call me an angel.

Kayleigh.

“What is it?” Warren asked, concerned.

I looked at Azrael. “Enzo is like Warren’s mother.”

Azrael nodded.

“It’s the eyes?” I asked him.

“It’s the eyes,” he said.

Warren rubbed his forehead, squinting in confusion. “My mother?”

I gripped Warren’s arm. “Enzo can see angels. So could your mother. It’s called a discerning power.”

Nathan glanced around. “Will someone please explain what they’re talking about?”

I beckoned Enzo to come closer, then I pointed to Nathan. “Nathan, look at him.”

Nathan and Enzo stared at each other. “His eyes are blue and green,” Nathan said. “That means he can see angels?”

“Yes. And who else has eyes like that?” I asked.

His mouth fell open a bit. “Kayleigh Neeland.”

“Who?” Azrael asked.

I raked my fingernails back through my hair. “When Nathan and I first met, I helped him rescue a little girl named Kayleigh. She’s five. She told me I was an angel.” I chuckled in awe. “I thought she was being metaphorical.”

Azrael smiled. Even he looked impressed.

“So all of Azrael’s Twelve can see angels?” Nathan asked.

Azrael rolled his eyes. “SF-12,” he corrected. “And no. Several of them can.” He pointed around the circle. “Enzo and Kane can.”

Kane pulled off his hat and glasses. His eyes were blue and green as well.

“Cooper and Lex cannot, but they’ve seen enough to know what we’re up against,” Azrael said, gesturing toward the two men. “A couple of the guys in the field can see as well.”

“And NAG, sir,” Enzo said.

Azrael nodded. “Oh yes. NAG, your pilot last night. She can see you as well.”

I blinked. “Her name is NAG?”

Enzo chuckled. “I believe her real name is Mandi. NAG is her call sign. It means Not A Guy.”

The rest of us laughed.

Warren rubbed his palms together. “I’m feeling much better about our odds now.” He looked up at Azrael. “Finish explaining the plan.”

Azrael smiled and leaned back over the map. “By my estimation, Ysha and his crew will arrive on foot maybe this time tomorrow.”

I raised my hand. “His crew?”

“I hope Phenex and Kasyade will be with him, but I’m sure he’ll bring others as well.”

“Other demons or humans?” Nathan asked.

“Both,” Azrael answered.

Enzo crossed his arms. “We’ve had no sign of Phenex, sir.”

“We might still get lucky,” Azrael said.

“And by our last count, Ysha travels with two humans, one with sight, and two AOPs, Mihan and The Destroyer,” Enzo said.

Warren looked up. “AOPs?”

“Protection, warrior angels,” Azrael said.

I looked at Azrael with alarm. “You’ve mentioned The Destroyer before. You said Samael decides who can cross the spirit line, who must suffer the second death, and who must be turned over to The Destroyer. Are we talking about the same person?”

“The Destroyer is not a person,” Enzo said.

I rolled my eyes. “Is it the same Destroyer?”

Azrael nodded. “That is correct.”

My stomach churned. I held up five fingers. “That’s five potential angels, one of which is like the worst tormentor on the planet, and they’re all showing up here tomorrow. And we’ve only got you on our side?”

“And you and Warren.”

I groaned. “Oh my god, whatever.”

“And Reuel,” Enzo added.

Azrael pointed toward the woods. “Reuel, our own AOP, is on the perimeter. Abbadon, The Destroyer, will be his responsibility. Ysha will flank us. He won’t come by the road, and we’ve got every measure possible to slow him down out there,” Azrael said.

“Like what?” I asked.

“Snipers, for starters,” Azrael answered, looking at Warren.

Nathan turned his palms up in question. “What good will guns do us? When we were in Texas, I emptied a clip into Sloan’s demon mom, and I might as well have been pelting her with Cheerios. The bullet holes closed right up.”

Enzo spoke first. “The whole group isn’t immortal. We can certainly pick off the humans and have less bullets flying through the air.”

I nodded. “And Kasyade was different. Not all of them will heal the way she does.” I pointed at Az. “I broke his nose in my kitchen, and then I had to fix it.”

“Correct,” Azrael said. “Ysha is the only one with the power to heal as Kasyade does. Mihan and Abaddon can be injured.”

Kane and Enzo exchanged a glance. “If you can hit them,” Kane said.

Warren looked at the two men. “Where’s the list of stuff we still need?”

Enzo pulled a small pad from the chest pocket on his camouflage jacket. “Got it.”

“Pick up as many packs of tent stakes you can buy. The sharpened metal kind.” Warren held his hands about a foot apart. “Maybe twelve to eighteen inches or so.”

I looked up at him. “Stakes? They’re demons, not vampires.”

Warren smiled. “I’m aware. We’ll dig a trench, and when the demons step into it, their legs will be impaled on the stakes. It might buy us some time.”

“You scare me sometimes,” I said.

He nodded. “Good.”

“So how do we kill them?” Nathan asked.

There was silence all around the group. Finally, Azrael shook his head. “We don’t.” Then he turned toward me. “Sloan does.”

My head snapped toward him. “Excuse me?”

He leaned against the table. “I told you. The Vitamorte has the power to control life and death.” He lowered his voice. “That power is not limited to human life.”

My mouth was gaping. “Are you saying I have the power to destroy angels?”

He just stared at me.

I balanced my elbows on the table and dropped my face into my hands.

His hand rested on my shoulder. “You’re the only one, Sloan.”

Azrael had once told me that my fizzling light ball would work on him if I chose to use it, but I didn’t realize it would do more than just separate him from his human form. If he’d kept that information from me to prevent more tears and vomiting, he’d been smart. My stomach felt queasy and my hands trembled.

His hand tightened around the back of my neck. “Look at me.”

I looked up into his stern face.

“Remember, you were created for this. Even your enemies know how strong you are. They wouldn’t try so hard to break you if they weren’t afraid of what you can do.” He bent so we were eye to eye. “You’re even more powerful than me. Don’t you forget it.”

I sincerely wished that made me feel better. It didn’t.

He lifted my chin. “Faith without doubt isn’t faith at all. Just because you don’t believe it right now doesn’t make it any less true.”

And as if adding a cosmic exclamation point at the end of his sentence, another loud boom of thunder shook the mountains in the east.

Before Enzo and Kane left to make a run to the store back near the exit we’d taken off the interstate, I added a few more things to their list including clothes, socks, underwear, and a hair dryer. While they were gone, I retreated to the camper to take a nap, but sleep was elusive. Every time I closed my eyes, all I saw was Ysha’s hateful, jeering eyes.

The door creaked open. “You awake?” Warren asked softly.

“Yeah,” I replied.

He walked inside, ducking through the doorway. “Did you sleep at all?”

I laughed sarcastically in response.

The dusty old mattress dipped under his weight as he sat down beside me.

“Where have you been?” I asked, rolling onto my back to look at him.

“Digging trenches.” He slid his hand over my stomach. “Are you feeling OK?”

I smiled. “I’m good, just tired.”

“Can we have that talk now?”

Reluctantly, I held up my hand. “Yeah. Help me up.”

Warren pulled me up, and I slid out of the warm sleeping bag. I groaned, slumping forward and balancing my elbows on my knees. “You know how much I love you, right?” I asked.

There was a deep rumble in his throat. “I don’t like how this is starting out.”

I turned toward him, studied his worried face for a moment, then drew in a deep, brave breath. “Back around Thanksgiving, you know I went to Raleigh for Nathan’s sister’s burial service, right?”

He nodded.

“Things were really emotional, as you can imagine.” My hands started to sweat. “I hadn’t told Nathan about the baby—or anyone besides my dad and my doctor, for that matter. Well, after the funeral, he was really upset, and he kissed me, but I stopped it before things went too far and told him I was pregnant.”

Warren’s Adam’s apple bobbed with a strained swallow. He was clenching his jaw. “He kissed you?”

“Yes, but then he told me the whole ‘Nathan and Sloan drama’ had to end and he needed to put some distance between us,” I said.

He relaxed a little. “OK.”

I scrunched up my nose. “Well, that didn’t exactly happen.”

His eyes darkened.

“I started having all these crazy nightmares, like demons trying to choke me in my sleep and stuff.”

“You told me about that.”

“He kind of moved into the guest bedroom after that.” I quickly held up my hands. “But absolutely nothing happened.”

The muscle in his jaw was working again. “OK.”

“Like a week later was the car wreck and from that night on, Azrael lived with us. Then Taiya moved in.”

“Did Nathan leave when Azrael showed up?” he asked.

My head fell to the side. “You know Nathan better than that. He doesn’t completely trust Az.”

Warren crossed his arms. “That’s not why he stayed, and you know it.”

My shoulders dropped. “I know, but that’s beside the point.”

“What is the point?”

“As long as Azrael was with us, I didn’t have any of the crazy dreams, but one night he went out looking for Ysha and Phenex, and I had another nightmare.” I hesitated, then cut my eyes up at him. “I won’t lie to you, all right?”

He held his breath. “All right.”

“I dreamed I was crying and Nathan came into my room to console me.” I took a deep breath. “Things got really physical, but then he started choking me to death, and I started clawing at him to get him to stop. When he wouldn’t, I used my power to kill him.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “So, you dream cheated on me?”

I rubbed my palms on my jeans. “Well, I woke up screaming with Nathan and Taiya both shaking me. He had been asleep in the guest room the whole time.” I touched my neck. “But I had bruises on my throat, and he had really bad claw marks down his chest.” For the safety of everyone, I left out the part about my lips being bruised from Nathan’s kisses.

He was staring at me, his expression caught somewhere between hostile and confused.

I held my hands out. “I really don’t know what happened that night, Warren. But the next day, Nathan moved out because he didn’t want to take any more chances.”

He frowned. “He moved out because he’s in love with you and couldn’t take it anymore.”

“Well…”

He rubbed his palm down his face. “That’s it?”

I bit down on the insides of my lips till I tasted blood.

He groaned and cursed under his breath. “What else?”

“When he told me he was leaving…” I sucked in a deep breath and closed my eyes. “We kissed. I was fully awake and knew exactly what I was doing, and I kissed him.”

Warren’s head dropped. He didn’t look up at me. “You kissed him?”

“Yes.”

He was silent for a long time, staring at his boots. Finally, he cut his eyes up at me. “I want the truth, Sloan. No lies to protect me. No lies to protect him.”

Hesitantly, I nodded.

He stared at me. “Are you in love with him?”

My heart was pounding so hard I felt dizzy. “Yes.”

He cringed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Are you still in love with me?”

I gripped his arm. “Yes.”

He pushed himself up and walked over to the counter where his guns were spread out and ready to be used. He gripped the tabletop and hung his head. His knuckles went white, and the sound of splintering wood crackled around the camper.

I struggled to my feet and cautiously walked over to him. Tears were building in my eyes as I reached to touch his arm. He flinched away from me. “Please talk to me,” I begged.

He released the counter and folded his hands over the top of his head.

I placed my hands on his sides. “I choose you. I choose us.”

He blew out a deep breath slowly and turned around. He stared down at me, his black eyes smoldering like hot coals. I had never felt so small standing in front of him.

Just then, a fist pounded against the door. “Hey, guys! Enzo and Kane are back from the store and they brought food!” Nathan shouted.

Warren’s eyes widened and shot toward the door. He turned, and before I could grab him, he was across the room and exploding through the door. All I could do was scream.

“Nathan, run!”

Sheer panic flashed across Nathan’s face before Warren rained down on top of him, tackling him onto the ground. I ran to the door in time to see Warren’s fist come up and slam onto Nathan’s face. My feet couldn’t get down the steps fast enough, and before I jumped onto Warren’s back, he got at least three solid punches into Nathan’s skull.

“Warren, stop!” I shrieked as I pulled on his shoulders with all the strength I had.

My hands slipped, and I stumbled backward till I landed on my butt in the grass behind them. I pushed myself up on my elbows to see Warren’s fist drop to his side. He rolled off Nathan onto the ground and sat there, fuming. Nathan was too stunned to move, or maybe he was unconscious, I wasn’t sure.

Laughter was coming from the campfire. I looked over to see it was Azrael, standing and holding Enzo back to prevent him from intervening.

Covered in dirt and grass stains, I pushed myself up and crawled over to Nathan. He was panting with wide eyes and sweat rolling off his forehead. The side of his jaw was bent at an awkward angle and starting to swell. His cheek bone was bright red, and blood poured from his nose.

Warren sat motionless except for massaging his knuckles.

“I think your jaw is broken,” I said. “Maybe your cheek bone too.”

“He’s lucky it wasn’t his neck,” Warren grumbled.

I leaned over top of Nathan and pressed my hands to both sides of his lower jaw till I felt the bones grind and snap back into place. He winced with pain and swore as tears leaked from the corners of his eyes. When it was over, he opened his mouth and moved his jaw around but didn’t dare speak. I gave him a hand and helped him up till he was sitting.

Warren pulled his knees up and draped his arms over them, staring out into the field beyond the campers.

Nathan rubbed his swollen jaw. “I guess you told him what happened.”

I bit my lower lip.

“Warren, I’m really sorry—” he began.

Warren snapped. “Shut the hell up, Nathan.” He pushed himself off the ground and walked back inside the camper, slamming the door behind him with so much force a side window fell open.

Nathan sighed. “Well, at least he didn’t kill me.”

I shook my head. “I wouldn’t be too relieved just yet. He’s got a lot of guns and ammo in there.”

A shadow fell over us. It was Az, offering a hand to pull Nathan up. “Can’t say you didn’t deserve that one.” He pulled Nathan to his feet.

“I know,” Nathan said.

I stood and slapped Azrael’s chest. “You could have stopped that.”

He rested his arm across my shoulders, turning me back toward the fire. “My dear, had I stopped it, Warren would have come up with nineteen ways to kill Nathan before sundown. And we don’t have time for that.”

“I should go talk to him,” I said.

Azrael held me still. “No. You need to let him cool down. Then you can talk.” He pointed toward a chair. “Sit.”

Rather than taking the empty seat beside me, Nathan sat on the opposite side of the fire. Enzo handed him an ice pack from the cooler, and he pressed it against the side of his face.

“Here,” Azrael said, handing me a plate of gas station fried chicken.

“Thank you, but I’m really not hungry.”

He sat down next to me. “Your daughter is hungry.”

“Do you have a course on guilt trips in the spirit world?” I asked, accepting the paper plate.

He just smiled. “I need to talk to you about something, and I want it to stay between us.”

That didn’t sound good. I frowned. “Why do I have a feeling this is very bad news?”

“It isn’t news at all.” He rested his arm along the back of my chair and leaned into me. “What was the FBI agent’s name who arrested you?”

I pulled the skin off the chicken leg on my plate. “Sharvell Silvers.”

“I want you to summon her here,” he said.

“You want me to do what?” The question definitely went well beyond the volume of ‘just us’ dialogue. Everyone looked our way.

He rolled his eyes. “Keep your voice down.”

When the rest of the group returned to their own conversations, he continued. “Sloan, the government will never believe you’re completely ignorant to everything Kasyade’s been up to. Every shred of evidence they find against her will always point back to you because you’re central to her plot. Don’t you realize that by now?”

I stared into the fire, knowing he was right. I’d known it since the first night Nathan and I sat across from Agent Silvers in Texas.

“If you bring her here, she’ll see for herself what you could never explain.” He pressed his finger into my shoulder. “She’ll see what no jury will ever believe.”

I dropped my chicken leg. “And what will stop her from hauling me back to jail when she gets here?”

He motioned around the campfire. “No one here will allow her to haul you anywhere. Besides, she’ll be completely unprepared to encounter you. She won’t know where she’s going, remember?”

“This is a bad idea.”

He bent forward to look me in the eye. “Sloan, trust me.”

Across the campfire, Nathan was watching me, obviously curious as to what we were so deep in discussion about.

“Why don’t you want anyone to know?” I asked.

Azrael’s gaze shifted to Nathan, but he kept his voice low. “You know as well as I do that my son and Nathan will do everything they can to keep you from going back to jail.” His eyes snapped to mine. “But nothing they can do will actually work aside from keeping you hidden for as long as possible. Is that what you want? To sleep in that camper or something similar for the rest of your life, always on the run and always looking over your shoulder? To ruin Nathan’s career and make them both accomplices to crimes you can’t prove you’re innocent of?”

Looking down at my chicken, I felt sick. A bloody vein ran through the dark hunk of meat bared by the missing skin. I added it to my newly written mental list of food aversions in my first trimester, right behind deviled eggs—thank you, Taiya.

“You need to decide this for you, Sloan.” He stood, but he paused before walking away and looked down at me. “Let me know what choice you make.”

Unable to eat, I put my plate on the ground and tugged my sleeves over my cold, bare hands. I stared at my feet as my mind played out all the possible scenarios that could unfold if I did as Azrael suggested. Maybe it would clear my name if Silvers were allowed to peek behind the curtain to the supernatural world. Or maybe instead of prison, she’d have me committed. Given my recent string of luck, Silvers would probably wind up dead and I’d be able to add homicide to my long list of federal charges.

But I had more than just me to consider. Rusty and dilapidated campers I could live with; ruining Nathan’s life and Warren’s, I could not.

I closed my eyes and reached into the universe with my gift. In the darkness, I found Agent Silvers’ spirit and before I could convince myself otherwise, I pulled her to me.

“What are you so lost in thought about?”

Nathan’s voice snapped my attention back to reality. He sat down in the seat Az had vacated. His face was still swollen, and the redness was deepening to purple.

I looked away. “So much has happened in the past few days, I might never find my mental way back here again.”

“I can sympathize with that.” He nodded toward Azrael. “What did he say to you?”

I shook my head. “Nothing important.”

“Liar.”

I didn’t even bother to argue.

Dark blue blood had begun to pool under his left eye, and the skin was split just above his cheekbone. “How’s your face?” I asked.

He pulled back the slide on one of the Glocks. “It’s throbbing, but it isn’t broken anymore. Thank you.”

“Do you want me to fix that gash under your eye?” I asked.

He shook his head and laughed. “Nah, it’s all right. It will probably make Warren feel better to look at it.”

I nudged him with my shoulder. “I guess I have to forgive you for leaving me, huh?”

He pointed to his face. “Yes. You have to give me a pass for all transgressions past, present, and future because I haven’t taken a beating like that in my life.”

I poked out my bottom lip. “I’m sorry.”

He shook his head. “Don’t be. It’s my fault. I would have kicked my ass too.”

Behind us, the door to my camper flew open and Warren stomped down the metal stairs. Nathan was out of his seat and five feet away before Warren looked in our direction. He stopped near the pile of shopping bags Enzo and Kane had brought back. After rummaging through them and repacking some of the contents, he slung a bag over one shoulder, his rifle over the other, and picked up two cans of gasoline. He walked by me without so much as a glance in my direction.

“Where are you going?” Nathan called out.

“To the woods to think about killing you,” Warren replied, storming off toward the field.

Nathan put his hands on his hips, hung his head, and groaned. “Well, that’s great.”

I pointed at Warren. “Seriously, where’s he going with the gas?”

He nodded toward the trees. “Probably to mix napalm and fantasize about burning me up with it.”

“Warren’s making napalm? That’s frightening.”

He nodded. “You’ve got a Recon Marine for a boyfriend, Sloan. Napalm is pretty low on the frightening scale of what he’s capable of.”

“How long do you think he’ll be pissed off?” I asked, leaning on my elbow.

Nathan looked up as Warren cut through a pile of brush. “If I were him, forever.”

The sun was low in the sky by the time Warren returned from the woods. He glanced at me by the fire as he walked wordlessly to our camper. I took that as my invitation to follow him.

Inside, I sat down on the bed as he silently unloaded his gear by the sinister red-orange glow of the space heater. “Are you going to talk to me?” I asked.

There was no answer.

Instead of joining me on the bed, he sat in one of the rickety lawn chairs. Its hinges creaked under his weight. He didn’t even look at me.

After what felt like eternity, his deep voice echoed off the metal walls. “Is it over now with you and him?”

I got up and crept over beside him. “It will never happen again. I promise.”

His eyes reflected the burning coils of the heater when he turned his head to look at me. “You didn’t answer my question. Is it over?”

“I think so.” It was the most truthful answer I could give. “I want it to be.”

He looked out the window.

Dropping my head, I took a step backward. But he grabbed my hand, pulling me down till I straddled his lap. Studying my face, his hands gripped my hips, then he stood and carried me to the counter. With his arms braced beside my thighs, he dropped his face and cut his black eyes up at me. “It’s him or me. I love you and I will always take care of our daughter, but I will not share you. Ever. Do you understand?”

I nodded. “I swear, I’m yours. Please forgive me.”

“Not today.”

I gulped. At least I couldn’t fault his honesty.

Warren straightened, his eyes still smoldering as they searched me. His fingers found the hem of Nathan’s sweatshirt I was still wearing, and silently, he yanked it up and over my head. “I never want to see you in this again.” He threw the shirt toward the door.

I nodded, hugging myself to shield my bare skin from the chill of the room.

He peeled my arms from around my body, and his warm hands slid up my sides, slipping underneath the white cotton of my prison-issued sports bra. Sexy.

As he dropped it on the floor with one hand, the other raked through my hair till he could pull my mouth down onto his. The kiss was fierce, hot, and angry. His teeth scraped across my lower lip as he worked the button on my jeans. When he got them down to my ankles, he freed one leg from the denim and didn’t bother with the other before he buried himself inside me.

And in that moment, we both knew it.

I’d made my choice.

I was irrevocably his.