“Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve ridden in a car?” I asked from the back seat of Azrael’s black SUV.
Azrael looked at me in the rearview mirror. “How long have you been here this time?”
I looked at my watch, which was always set on Asheville’s time zone. “About six hours.”
“You’ve been at the hospital all that time?” Nathan asked.
“No. I was in Italy when I got the text about Fury’s water breaking. I met Reuel at the hospital after that.”
“Italy? I thought you’d be in Eden,” Azrael said.
“I was, and I’ll have to go back very soon.”
“What’s it like there?” Nathan asked.
“In Eden?”
“Yeah.”
My lips instinctively tipped up in a smile. “It’s beautiful. It looks similar to here, but everything’s brighter and greener—”
“And cleaner,” Azrael said, checking his blind spot before merging onto the interstate.
Reuel grunted and nodded in agreement.“Nira icai.”
I smiled. “Yes, there’s also a lot of music. And it’s just peaceful. There’s still work to do and decisions to make, but it’s free from the day-to-day drama and stress you experience here on Earth.” I took a deep breath. “Kinda like being on the ultimate vacation all the time.”
Azrael glanced back at us. “There’s a reason they call it paradise.”
“I bet you miss it,” Nathan said to him.
He sighed. “Every single day.”
I understood. In Eden, we could remember our lives on Earth, but they were so far removed from us that it was like we’d read a biography about someone else. Thinking of Iliana and Sloan in Eden was so much easier, joyful even sometimes.
But this side of the spirit line was just heavy. Even for a temporary visitor like myself. My dead heart hadn’t hurt like this since the last time I’d been here.
“So you just sit around on a cloud eating bonbons and drinking cherry lemonade every day?” Nathan asked.
I chuckled. “Some people do, but I have a job, remember?”
His eyes narrowed. “What’s that resume look like these days?”
“My job is much easier now that I’ve gotten caught up on someone’s backlogged workload.” I could see Azrael grinning in the mirror.
“Sorry. Not sorry,” he said.
I rolled my eyes.
“What workload?” Nathan asked.
“The Archangel of Death is the only being with the power to inflict the second death on a human. Lots of souls got backed up over the thirty-one years Azrael was stuck here,” I said.
“You just blink them out of existence?”
“I don’t blink, per se, but yeah. I obliterate them.”
He blew out a sigh. “I’m glad you’re on my side now.”
Azrael smiled in the mirror again. “Kinda gives a whole new meaning to that ‘till death do you part’ bit in your marriage vows, huh?”
Nathan’s face whipped toward me. “You wouldn’t.”
I shrugged. “I have thought about it.”
His jaw dropped.
I laughed. “You’re safe, for now.”
“You’re an asshole.”
“I know.”
Nathan crossed his arms. “How many people do you obliterate in a day?”
“A day on Earth? Not too many. Most are permitted into Eden. The final death is reserved for those who have allowed remorseless transgressions against others to mutate their souls—”
“Mutate?” Nathan asked.
“Remember how Sloan and I could tell the good souls from the bad ones?”
He nodded.
“There’s no coming back from that, even in Eden, so the Father mercifully allows them eternal rest.”
Azrael glanced back. “Except for a special few. The most heinous offenders go to Nulterra.”
“Anyone I know?” Nathan asked.
An evil grin overtook my face. “Remember Larry Mendez? The guy who was trafficking little girls for Sloan’s demon mother?”
“How could I forget?”
“Let’s say, he’s getting what he deserves.”
Nathan gave a thumbs-up. “That’s a relief. Will he stay there forever?”
“Until the pit devours his soul,” I said.
“A pit sounds amazing. Can we get a few for the Justice Department here in the US?” Nathan asked.
“They have them in Thailand,” Azrael said, flashing a grin over his shoulder. Following the GPS’s directions, he changed lanes toward the next exit.
Reuel chuckled and started a story in Katavukai that began with, “Remember that one time in Thailand—”
Azrael slammed on the brakes, pitching all four of us forward as the wheels screamed against the asphalt. I “mom-armed” Nathan across the car to keep him from slamming face-first into the back of Reuel’s seat. Then I looked back just in time to throw my power toward the car barreling toward us. It veered right and missed our bumper by a couple of inches.
The driver swore out his window as he passed on the passenger’s side.
“What the hell, Azrael?” Nathan shouted.
We both looked ahead to see an angel standing in the dead-center of the road.
Azrael was out of the car and charging forward before I could even remove my seatbelt. Immortal or not, safety first.
“Who’s that?” Nathan asked.
“Ionis,” Reuel answered.
Nathan looked at me. “Who?”
“A messenger.” I grabbed the door handle and pushed it open. “Come on, Nate. Az is about to show you how to kill an angel.”
Azrael grabbed the small messenger by the collar of his flashy jacket and lifted his feet inches from the ground. He screamed in his face. “Are you trying to get someone killed?”
Ionis smiled, kicking his legs. “Testy now that we’re mortal, are we?”
Azrael hurled him against the concrete wall dividing the offramp from the interstate below. His hair was a shocking white, cut short and pushed back in a wave. He wore a bright-blue striped shirt under the jacket, skinny jeans, and sneakers with no socks.
I walked over and grabbed his jacket to haul him up. “What are you doing here, Ionis?”
“I have news,” he said.
Nathan held up his hands. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. He’s speaking English. Is he a demon?”
Angels weren’t permitted to speak anything but Katavukai. It was a mark of their loyalty, and a tell-tale sign for the fallen. Because I was born human, the rule didn’t apply to me.
“I’m a messenger, not a demon,” Ionis snapped, dusting off the seat of his pants. “Geez. Stupid humans.”
“He is speaking Katavukai. You just understand him in English because he’s a Messenger,” I said. “And he’s OK. A friend from Eden.”
“A friend,” Azrael huffed, folding his arms.
Nathan leaned close and lowered his voice to just above a whisper. “Is your friend…male? Female?”
“Technically, neither. You can refer to Ionis as a him though.” I turned back to Ionis. “Do we need to do this in the middle of the road, or can we get back in the car?”
“I’d love a ride. Where are we going?” he asked, his voice chipper as always as he started toward the car.
Azrael pointed at him and then around to the rest of us. “We’re not going anywhere. We’ll drop you off on the side of the road somewhere.”
“Your manners never cease to impress me, Azrael,” Ionis said with a smirk.
Azrael held up his middle finger.
Ionis puckered his lips. “You’re such a blessing.” I suspected that if he hadn’t been afraid of Azrael, he would have pinched his cheeks.
Az just glared.
A horn blasted behind us. Cars were stacking up down the exit ramp. Nathan waved them around as we got back in the SUV. Ionis slid into the middle of the back seat between me and Nathan.
“Hello, Reuel,” Ionis said.
Reuel waved over his shoulder.
“Why the bad blood between you two?” Nathan asked, gesturing between Ionis and Azrael.
Azrael put the transmission in drive.
Reuel chuckled and answered in Katavukai.
I translated. “Ionis likes to report all the dumb stuff Azrael does on Earth back to Eden.”
Ionis sighed dramatically. “It’s a full-time job, but somebody’s got to do it.”
Nathan bit down on the insides of his lips to keep from laughing.
Azrael put on a blinker to turn right at the intersection onto the main road. “What’s so important that you almost killed us?”
“Did the Council reconvene with a verdict?” I asked.
Ionis shrugged. “Hell if I know. That’s not why I’m here. I was sent to find Azrael.”
Azrael groaned. “Lucky me.”
“Hey, Az, have you heard about the new magic in Eden?” Ionis wiggled his fingers like magic might shoot from them. His middle fingernails were painted a glittery blue.
“Magic, really?” Azrael probably would have laughed had he not sounded so annoyed. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Tell him, Warren.” Ionis split a glance between Azrael and myself.
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” I said.
“Magic in Eden?”
“Not necessarily in Eden.”
Ionis leaned closer to Azrael’s seat. “Samael says he’s never seen anything like it.”
Nathan nodded, impressed. “That’s a big statement coming from a guy who’s been around since the beginning of time.”
Azrael looked at me in the rearview mirror. “He’s serious?”
“Afraid so. And it gets worse.”
“We have another serial killer.” Ionis’s voice jumped up an octave with excitement.
Nathan grinned. Reuel chuckled.
“What’s he talking about?” Azrael asked me.
“There have been four people with the gift of discernment murdered in the past few months,” I said.
“Unusual.”
“The first one was a woman from Thailand. The second was a man in Turkey. But the last two were murdered on the Calle dei Morti.”
Azrael swerved the SUV over the rumble strips on the side of the road. Ionis slammed into me, and Nathan grabbed onto the back of Reuel’s seat.
Azrael’s eyes were wide in the mirror. “The Street of the Dead?”
Nathan chuckled. “The Street of the Dead. What an appropriate place to commit a murder.”
“More appropriate than you think.” I looked at my father. “This isn’t the first time.”
“The Calle dei Morti has a rich history of violence and death. I’m very familiar with it,” Azrael said.
“I know. I think we’re dealing with a copycat killer.”
“What makes you think so?”
“There have been four victims so far: three women and one man. All of them were beheaded with their eyes removed.”
“Were the eyes found in the throat or back of the mouth?” Azrael asked.
I nodded.
“Were the heads mounted on something near the body?”
“On a bedpost twice. On a lamp once.”
Ionis shuddered. “Ew.”
Reuel was shaking his head.
“Il mostro di Venezia.” Azrael’s voice was full of wonder.
“What?” Nathan asked.
“Not what. Who,” Ionis said.
“The monster of Venice,” I translated. “He was one of the most brutal killers in European history. Azrael killed him in 1797. Vito Saez is the reason the street’s called the Calle dei Morti.”
“I’ve studied a lot of serial killers over the years. That name nor the MO ring any bells for me,” Nathan said.
I looked across Ionis at him. “I almost forgot we met because of a serial killer. God, that seems like a lifetime ago.”
Ionis’s head tilted. “For you, it was.”
“Good point,” I said. “I’ve done some research. There are a few mentions of Saez buried online. They weren’t easy to find, but they were out there.”
“What does that have to do with magic?” You could tell it was almost painful for Azrael to use that word.
“What drew Samael’s attention to the deaths in the first place was this strange purple…”
“Say it,” Ionis whispered, wiggling his fingers again.
I rolled my eyes. “It was a weird purple energy on the first girl’s spirit. Very faint, but still conspicuous. When he discovered she had the gift as well, he started to investigate.”
“And?”
“All the victims have had my mark carved into their chests.”
Azrael’s face crumpled with confusion. “What?”
“You heard me correctly. My mark, carved right into the skin.”
“What mark?” Nathan asked.
I leaned forward to look at him. “Angels of Death only escort souls across the spirit line. We rarely kill them. When we do, the spirit is branded with a mark, a signature of which angel did the deed. My mark looks like an old Roman cross with two S’s facing each other.”
“They’re snakes,” Azrael corrected me.
“Really? They don’t look like snakes.”
Reuel chuckled. “Mat ene Azrael yat vorai.”
I laughed, and Azrael held up his middle finger.
“What’d he say?” Nathan asked.
“He said, ‘Only because Azrael can’t draw.’” I laughed again.
“The point is”—Azrael overemphasized his words—“the mark is only visible to other Angels of Death. It’s not even commonly known in Eden—much less on Earth. It certainly isn’t found in a Google search.”
“The last one, the girl we found this morning, was young. Still a teenager, maybe.”
Reuel’s hands clenched into fists. He hated violence against women and children most of all.
Nathan leaned forward to look around Ionis at me. “That’s a punishable-by-Nulterra offense, right?”
“You’d better believe it is. Our deal with Nulterra was actually created with those who hurt children in mind.”
“What deal?” he asked.
Ionis’s head tilted. “You’re cute, but not too bright.”
“He’s very bright. He’s just been on a need-to-know basis,” Azrael said.
Nathan whimpered and dramatically put his hand over his heart. “Az, that may be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“You’d better write that shit down somewhere, Mr. McNamara,” Ionis said.
“How do you know my name?” Nathan asked.
Ionis just sighed and rolled his eyes. He looked at me. “Is this guy for real?”
I ignored him and looked over at Nate. “When the Morning Star and his followers were kicked out of Eden, the Morning Star created Nulterra. From what we know, its main energy source comes from the destruction of human souls, much like the way nuclear energy is created by splitting atoms.”
Nathan cringed. “Geez.”
“In the beginning, they were taking souls straight from Earth to the pit,” I said.
“How? Aren’t there rules against them messing with humans?” Nathan asked.
Ionis cocked an eyebrow. “Ever heard of selling your soul to the devil?”
“No shit?”
“No shit,” Ionis said.
“But we put a stop to it quickly,” Azrael said.
I nodded. “Azrael’s idea was to furnish the Morning Star with the souls of the ultra wicked in exchange for the gate from Earth being sealed and completely hidden.”
At the top of the ultra-wicked list were pedophiles, and it brought me comfort knowing the first ever human I’d killed was rotting away in Hell.
If anyone deserved damnation, it was Charlie Lockett.
“Why would they agree to that?” Nathan asked.
“Because except for the Morning Star, the fallen were once again allowed to travel via the spirit line. Never back through the Eden Gate, but they could travel to and from Nulterra and throughout the Earth,” Azrael said.
Nathan frowned. “Didn’t you think about the consequences of that? Now I have to worry about baby snatchers across different dimensions.”
Azrael didn’t bother to respond. We all knew it was a problem.
The GPS was telling Azrael to turn left. Looking out the windshield, I saw the name on the mailbox we were passing: McNamara.
“Is this your parents’ place?” I asked Nathan.
“Yep. This is home sweet home.”
The two-story farmhouse came into view at the end of the long gravel driveway. The white house had a covered wraparound porch and a tall stone chimney that was billowing gray smoke.
My heart ached at the sight. I was supposed to have visited here with Sloan. She’d always talked about how much she loved it. About how at home she’d felt under the McNamara’s roof. Now, the same place that had quickly become a second home to her was a glaring reminder of how great an alien I was.
The wheels rolled to a stop on the loose gravel. Azrael put the SUV in park. “Warren, you and Ionis stay here until the McNamaras are gone.”
Nathan pointed around the left side of the house. “You’ll see them leave in a silver Jeep. I’ll hurry them along. Reuel, you can come inside with us. We told them you might be at the hospital.”
Reuel looked back at me for my blessing.
“We’ll see in you inside.” I pointed at him. “Save me a plate.”
He smiled.
When they left, Ionis slid into Nathan’s vacated seat. “Long time no see, Warren.”
I scowled. “I saw you this morning.”
“Yes, but that was like a month ago for me.”
“It’s not like you felt it,” I reminded him.
He laid his white head back against the headrest. “But I felt it when I got here. Ugh.”
I pulled the photo book Nathan had given me from the bag at my feet. I knew exactly what he meant.