Chapter One

 

 

 

In the darkness, the true measure of a man or woman can be weighed.

Noemi Gastineau lay on her side, curled tightly into a fetal position, allowing the other presence in her mind to run rampant, to succumb to blind panic. She refused to give Anahita a voice, though. The succubus could indulge in her fear, but not a sound left her throat. After seemingly endless hours spent buried in the darkness of an unknown cave, Noemi calmly, assertively took over, forcing the other half of her psyche to submit to her control.

She took a deep breath, then another.

“Okay, girls. This isn’t a new situation for us—for me.” She slowly relaxed her muscles, stretching out and sitting up. “In fact, compared to waking up in a glacier, this is a picnic.” She opened her eyes wide, hoping to catch some vestige of light, something that would reassure her that she really, truly wasn’t buried alive, sealed in a cave deep under the ground. The stygian blackness of the cave was unrelieved and Noemi shivered, wrapping her arms around her knees. “I guess all the years trapped in that glacier would explain why I hate getting cold.”

Anahita didn’t answer, and why should she? Noemi was Anahita. In a sense, they were three—the doctor, the succubus and the whole woman.

That knowledge brought a slightly hysterical laugh to Noemi, and she fought the urge to curl up again like a baby in the womb. But Noemi was strong. Noemi hunted and fought demons.

Noemi hadn’t known what lived within her all this time.

“No, Anahita, you don’t have a voice. We are the same person. I accept that, just as I accept your memories as my own.”

With that admission, Noemi’s mind skipped through the recent and distant past. She vividly recalled the many times she’d honed in on Rex’s bright, vivid life-light, returning to feed from him again and again. She also recalled Rion’s fearful reaction to her presence. The confusion and guilt and near despair she’d felt at his rejection.

But he came back to me. Even though he doesn’t remember, in his heart he knows who I am.

“Yes, Anahita, he knows. I’m sure of it.”

Satisfaction pulsed through the succubus. Her relief was nearly painful to experience. Anahita’s love for the men carried the sharp edge of desperate fear. She had pursued them relentlessly, yet sacrificed all to their well-being. Her greatest fear was losing them, yet she’d set Orion Hunter free when his fear of the succubus grew overwhelming. When he’d taken Rex to China, Anahita had stayed behind, knowing her kind were feared and loathed within Chinese culture.

Sacrifice. In an abstract sense, Noemi had always believed love was meaningless without the ability to be selfless. Basic and primal as she was, Anahita never thought twice about the sacrifices she made for Rion and Rex.

As she evaluated the shadow existence she’d lived in the hours while Anahita controlled her life, Noemi felt some degree of pride. The succubus was anything but evil. She had evolved into a strong, ethical person, even when freed from Noemi’s conscious control.

“And why shouldn’t Anahita be a good person? She… I sacrificed myself all those years ago. I Fell a second time to avoid hurting anyone.” And she allowed herself to remember the slow advance of the darkness that had crept into her soul. The hatred and anger and fear wound together in a corruption of who she’d been. Noemi remembered the day when Anahita had looked at her reflection in a shallow puddle of water and seen the inception of evil. In that moment of clarity, she knew she would soon become truly evil. She would be dangerous to all around her.

Dyffyd had been long gone, away at war, so her wings had grown back. The white feathers were laced with greasy-looking gaps of black membrane. She’d been corrupted in both body and soul. Though she’d been crippled by starvation, weak with her fear, Anahita had climbed into the heavens then plunged downward into icy, fiery pain. As horrible as it had been, she’d never found the oblivion she’d sought.

Deep in the grip of memory, Noemi barely noticed when the darkness began to soften around her. Golden light tinged with red glowed within the chamber, allowing her to see her prison.

In confusion, she looked around for the source of the illumination, only to discover that it came from her body.

“Damnation,” she whispered.

She deliberately relaxed, letting the light swell. Her long, straight hair suddenly seemed heavier and more luxuriant. Her dark skin had a distinctly golden gleam.

A convulsive gasp pulled through her chest and pain blossomed deep in her back.

Wings, she thought, and they came forth. Great, black-feathered wings, edged with molten light. Noemi slowly stood and flexed those massive wings, a smile lighting her face as power and strength radiated through her body. Anahita was triumphant.

It’s been so very long since I was whole.

So very long indeed. She basked in the emerging power that had lain dormant for so long. She was strong. Dangerous. Yet Noemi was still in a precarious situation. She paced the cave, running the last encounters with Michael, Carly and the demons through her mind.

In spite of Noemi being caught at the center of this web, she suddenly realized the whole drama was not only about her or her men. She closed her eyes, patching together memory that was still incomplete.

The high angel Michael. She carried the memory of his cruel, beautiful face in the darkest recesses of her memory. Michael… One of their leaders. He’d once been a good man…or had he simply seemed so? His ambition twisted him. He’d Fallen in spirit, if not in fact, and no one had been the wiser. No one but her husband, with his divine gift of Truth.

Even the hideous fall from Heaven couldn’t sear Michael’s betrayal completely from her mind. He’d hated Kokabiel, God’s Star. He’d envied him his voice and the respect he’d earned among their people. He’d feared the light her husband had cast on Michael’s crimes. When Kokabiel had confronted Michael with his treachery, the high angel had framed him for crimes he’d never considered. Michael had tried him without fair judgment and had his voice burned away so he couldn’t speak in his own defense.

Evil times, indeed. Yet the present scenario was not about Kokabiel. She wondered if Michael was even aware that Kokabiel lived on in Orion Hunter.

She sat on a rock and massaged her temples, sorting through the tangled web of her memory.

Patrick. Azrael.

She could barely bring his image to mind. He was dark, but unlike her his skin was fair, his eyes were the deepest blue. She’d encountered him when she’d first escaped from the glacier. In later years she’d been his quarry, but had seen him only from a distance, and in his human disguise. In retrospect, he really hadn’t tried too hard to track her down, in spite of his repeated vows to do so.

Unlike the other angels on Earth, he’d never Fallen. He’d been sent. Unlike her and Rion, he could go home. He could freely move from Earth to Heaven, which meant he could tell the people at home of Michael’s true nature, if he was even aware of it. If he cared.

She swallowed, and a slow, sick feeling twisted through her belly as the realization finally came. Carly had been protecting Patrick. Carly hadn’t ruptured the fragile membrane of Noemi’s memory through jealousy and spite. She’d been blackmailed… Forced.

“Patrick. Azrael.” She stood and paced. “Carly loves Patrick. Michael believes Patrick knows of his crimes on Earth… He needs to destroy him to protect himself. Azrael hasn’t a clue of the danger he’s in!”

Sudden, urgent fear laced through Noemi and panic began to tease at the edges of her consciousness, and she remembered.

When the pieces of the puzzle fell into place, Noemi staggered, one hand bracing her trembling body against the wall of the cave.

When a dark, burning light overtook and consumed her own golden glow, Noemi’s heart froze in her chest.

 

* * * *

 

“This is not good.”

Rex squatted by the broken, bleeding body of an elderly Chinese woman. Rion’s words were more than an understatement. A trail of bewildered, injured people had led them here, to this body. He supposed it was fortunate that she was the only fatality. The woman hadn’t died of her injuries. She’d died of shock and fear. He ran a hand over her face, closing her eyes.

“The portal is gone.” He stood and turned to face Rion. In the early dawn, Orion Hunter’s magic could barely hide his celestial nature. The pale light made his hair appear blood-red, and loose strands caressed his sweaty face. His skin was alabaster pale and his eyes were clear, mystical blue.

Absently, Rex reminded himself to check the charms he’d painted on the angel’s skin to hide Rion’s shocking beauty—they could be fading, and they didn’t have strength to spare to conjure glamour. On the other hand, his lover’s fear was palpable, and probably accounted for his pallor. Rex’s own dusky skin was probably sickly pale from fear.

“It looks as though the demons attacked the portal. We can only hope Carly managed to seal it in time.”

“But where’s Noemi? Do you suppose Carly took her to the Other Place? Why would Noemi be near the portal anyway?”

They were questions Rex couldn’t answer. “This portal is closed, but it’s the nature of the Other Place to open another to take its place. If I could sense it…”

He tried to clear his mind, but fear for Noemi clouded it. She hadn’t run away from them. Something very bad had happened. Noemi was a warrior and wouldn’t run—not from danger, not from her two unexpected lovers. Not even from the sudden influx of memory.

“Rex.” Rion’s voice was hushed and urgent. Rex hurried to his side. They were in a filthy alley behind a restaurant. The angel was gazing down at a white tennis shoe that was almost hidden behind a Dumpster. His heart stammered and began beating again.

It wasn’t her.

It was Cynthia, the nurse from the reservation clinic.

“Rex, I think she’s alive.” Rion wheeled the trash bin to the side and knelt next to the limp body.

“What in hell is Cynthia doing here?” He looked around cautiously before turning his attention to the injured woman.

They carefully began to examine her. Rex gently sent waves of energy through her body, seeking out broken bones and damaged organs. She was battered, but not mortally injured. Without thinking, Rex reached up and cradled the amulet Noemi had left behind. It pulsed and throbbed, triggering Rex to look around the alley once again.

“Rion, why’d she leave the amulet? This has been in her family for centuries.” It had been placed carefully on the pillow, where his head had rested as they’d slept. She wouldn’t have forgotten it, so it must have been a message.

“Rex…it’s glowing.”

He glanced down to see a cool white glow emanating from the whalebone. He suddenly realized what the throbbing of the amulet was telling him.

“Rion…this is bad. Something’s stalking us.”

They went still, trapped there in an alley, pinned behind a filthy Dumpster. There was laughter and Rex looked at the nurse. Her dark eyes were open, a gleam of red shining in their depths.

“Fly!”

He grabbed Rion’s arm and together they leaped for the air. His wings helped him climb, but an iron-like grip snaked around the heavy leather of his boot. Rex fought, his tail lashing wickedly through the air like a blacksnake whip. Above him Rion hovered. His wings were spread wide, white and gleaming in the morning sun.

“Go, Rion—now!”

He looked around to see rats creeping from the garbage, a pair of old stray dogs hunched, their bellies to the ground. Their growls were dangerous and insane. They’d been demon-possessed. The hand at his ankle pulled and Rex stretched out, his hand barely reaching the bottom of a fire escape. Flaking paint and rusty metal bit into his skin. He was suspended between safety and danger, while the demon’s grip tightened on his leg. Some inner alarm shrieked…and he knew he mustn’t let her touch his skin. Frantically, he kicked, hanging on desperately to the rusty metal, feeling it give way beneath his hand.

“Oh, fuck this all.” He released his grip and doubled, tripled his body weight. Rex crashed to the ground, trapping Cynthia’s possessed body beneath his. He shifted his weight once again, tucked and rolled until he was clear of her grasping hands. He kicked at the cluster of rats. The wicked lash of his tail snapped out at a dog.

Cynthia was on her feet, and her laughter was low and wicked.

“Rex!”

He glanced up to see that Rion was in his full angelic form. From out of nowhere a burning white sword manifested in the angel’s hand. He dove hard, sweeping down behind Rex, who rolled again, clearing a path for the attacking angel. One sweep of the sword scattered the rats—another left one of the stray dogs crumbled on the pavement while the other fled.

Rex turned on the demon.

“Kelet.”

“Reux. I think you will be my ride out of this body. I’m tired of being trapped in a common human.”

She—it—feinted to the left and Rex hopped backward, out of reach of those wicked, grasping hands. His tail tensed to strike, then Rex suppressed the urge and moved out of range. The slightest touch could give the demon a pathway into his body.

Behind him, he heard Rion grunt as he fought. His breathing was labored. Heavier footsteps indicated that the animals had retreated. The lesser demons now inhabited larger bodies—human bodies he and Rion didn’t dare harm. He was desperate to look back, but couldn’t afford to glance away from Kelet even for a second.

“Rion?” he called.

“Holding.” The angel panted with effort, and from the corner of his eye Rex saw the shining figure of his lover as that blazing sword of his swung down. He winced at the inhuman shrieks and howls as the angel drove the demons back.

The amulet throbbed and burned against his skin and Rex fell back as Rion’s sword burned brightly above their heads. Kelet’s eyes went wild and red, and instead of slashing, the blade impaled him through the throat.

“Now, Rex!”

He wasn’t quite sure what Rion wanted him to do, but acting on instinct, Rex pulled the amulet from his neck and held it to the demon’s chest. The woman’s face contorted in hideous rage and the air rang with Kelet’s agonized screams. With a blinding flash of light, the demon fled and the woman’s body dropped to the ground.

He followed her down as Rion stood guard.

Rex was stunned. Not a spot of blood marred her throat where the sword had pierced her. She was a bit dirty from the alley, but Cynthia looked whole and healthy. He looked up, expecting to see bloodied corpses scattered about. The demon-possessed humans lay on the pavement, groaning and looking around in confusion. The dogs had fled into the streets, and the rats had scrambled back into the rubble and garbage.

Rex gathered every bit of power he possessed and cast a glamour to hide them from anyone who might stumble upon the scene.

“Rion, what just happened?” The blazing sword had vanished and the angel stood, wings held high over his head. “I’ve never seen you manifest a weapon before.”

He shook his head and long strands of blood-red hair floated around his lean, sculpted face. “I’ve never needed one before. We’ve never stood to fight.” His bright blue eyes traveled over Rex’s body, searching for injuries. “And you… I’ve never seen you use your tail that way.”

Rex laughed and turned to Cynthia. “I thought you’d killed them. I was expecting a bloodbath.” Rion’s hand rested on his shoulder. The larger man pulled him close, seeking comfort.

“It seems the sword is more spiritual than physical in nature.” The power that had emanated from the weapon had felt similar to that of the amulet. He leaned back a bit, taking comfort in Rion’s touch. Now that the demons were gone, he felt drained and triumphant, but the buzz wore off quickly.

“It’s like Azrael’s sword, isn’t it? I wish he’d told us you could pull that little trick.”

“Perhaps he didn’t know.” Rion let him go and squatted at Cynthia’s feet. “What are we going to do with her? We can’t leave her.”

“And if we carry her out while she’s unconscious, someone will call the police.” He searched the ground and grunted in satisfaction when he found an old ink pen at the edge of a pile of trash. Rex rolled the tip on the palm of his hand until the thickened ink flowed. He quickly sketched a pattern on her forehead.

“I don’t think she’ll appreciate that when she wakes up.”

Rex grinned at the angel. “She’ll simply be grateful to wake up alone. I’m willing to bet Nurse Cynthia here remembers most of her time with Kelet. She might be able to help us locate Noemi.” He completed the charm and clapped his hands in the air over her face. Her eyes didn’t so much as flicker, yet Cynthia slowly rose to her feet.

“It’s just a couple of blocks to the motel. We’ll figure things out when we’re in a safe place.”

“Safe.” Rion took a deep breath, pulling the tatters of his glamour around his body. Rex had carried the magical burden of hiding them over the years, but Rion had developed some control over his own magic.

“Remind me when we get back to the room. You’re showing a little too much light. I need to retrace your marks.” As he spoke, Rex pulled the illusion around his own body, hiding the wings and tail, adding a few years to his boyish face.

“Come along, Cynthia. It isn’t far now. I promise you. Everything’s going to be all right.”

A soft sigh came from her lips and the three walked slowly out of the alley, heading for Broadway and safety.