Eve of Chaos (8 page)

“You should have
stayed away from her.”

“You knew what
would happen,” he bit out. “And you told Izzie to be around when it did”

“As a firm
leader, it is my responsibility to prepare for every eventuality. There was a
chance that desire for your brother’s lover would drive you elsewhere. I had to
make accommodations for that event, just in case.” Her crimson-painted
fingertips drummed atop the armrests. “Do you think I wanted Cain’s woman to
affect you so strongly?”

Iselda Seiler
had been one of Eve’s classmates. A woman whose Goth sensibilities were
manifested in pale skin, kohl-rimmed eyes, and a fondness for purple lipstick.
Izzie also had the distinction of having fucked Cain at some point in his past.
One of thousands who’d serviced him over the centuries. His brother didn’t
remember her, but Izzie didn’t care. She just wanted another go-round, both for
the sex and because it was guaranteed to stir up trouble. She had lain in wait
to sabotage Eve in any way she could, and she’d been ready and more than
willing when Eve had pushed Reed too far to think clearly.

But why Sara
would claim to want him in the same breath as she admitted sending another
woman to service him made no sense.

 
“You’re a real piece of work,” he said. “I
wonder, do you make Father proud?”

Sara gripped the
ends of the chair arms with white- knuckled force, but her voice came with its
customary whiskey smoothness. “You malign me without cause,
mon chéri.
You
and I are two of a kind.”

“Except you’re
an archangel, and I’m not.” There had been a time when he’d been foolish enough
to hope that she might help him achieve his own firm. Then he realized that she
would never see him as equal to her. He provided stud service and nothing more.
“You could have helped me, but you didn’t.”

“Obviously Jehovah
is in agreement with me, since he has yet to promote you.”

“Fuck you.”

“Finally, a
crack in your composure.” Sara smiled. “Let me give you a tip: Evangeline is
waiting for one of you to make the decision for her. She does not want to bear
the responsibility of choosing one of you. With the right push, she will tumble
from the tree like a ripe apple.”

The allusion to
temptation wasn’t lost on him. Reed yawned, feigning boredom. “How would you
know?”

“I am a woman. I
know how women think.” When silence stretched out between them, she asked, “Are
you snooping in here because of her or not?”

“I want to know
what we’re doing about Raguel.”

“Nothing.”

“That’s what I
thought.” What Eve thought, too, and it was niggling at her in a way that
concerned him. When she focused on something, she was like a dog with a bone.
She wouldn’t let it go. And he had his own reasons for feeling similarly about
Raguel.

“It is best to
move when the time is right,” Sara explained. “The seven firms are intact for
the present. We can afford to move wisely and not rashly.”

“Bullshit.”

“What can we do,
mon chéri?
We have nothing with which to entice Sammael to start
bargaining.”

“You’re not even
trying.”

“Cain is.” Sara
licked her lips. “Do you hope to win Evangeline’s favor by playing the hero? Is
your brother one step ahead of you again?”

“You know,
Sara,” he steepled his fingertips, “Cain isn’t the only one who’s accumulated
favors over the years. If I wanted to, I could make your life far more
difficult than it is.”

The rage of
angels gave her blue eyes a golden tinge. Her voice resonated with an
archangel’s command, “Do not threaten me, Abel.”

“I won’t.” His
mouth curved. “Just reminding you that I have teeth, and they do bite.”

As quickly as it
came, her rage was gone and in its place was arousal. Despite her claws, or
maybe because of them, she craved a firm hand. His hand was firmer than most.
But while Sara liked rough sex— regardless of who her partner was—Eve had been
shocked by her enjoyment of his handling. She’d responded with complete
abandon, in a way that Sara never could because the archangel was devoid of the
ability to care deeply for anyone but God. Eve’s helpless pleasure had added an
edge to their encounter that he craved like a junkie.

But no one could
ever know that, or how much he needed her now that Cain was an archangel.
Through his connection to her, Reed could conceivably tap into his brother’s
knowledge and power. He could learn along with Cain, then surpass his brother
as he always did.

If his tie to
Eve was strong enough.

If she trusted
him enough to let her guard down.

If they were
lovers.

“Abel.” Sara
stood and rounded the desk. Her fingers went to the button of her coat and
slipped it free, exposing a black camisole and hard nipples. “You look so
lovesick when you are thinking of her, you know. But I would be happy to play
surrogate.
.
.
for now.’,

He lunged for
her, vaulting from the chair and tackling her to the carpeted floor. Her cry
was tinged with both pain and excitement. Bright-eyed and panting, she writhed
beneath him. He settled between her spread legs and ground lewdly against her.

“You want it?”
he whispered, his mouth hovering just above hers.

“No.”

Reed smiled
grimly at the familiar game. “Good. Because you’re not going to get it until
you help me get Raguel.”

Sara stilled.
“What?”

“You heard me.”
Shoving off of her, he pushed to his feet. “I get what I want, you get what you
want.”

She laughed, but
it was a mirthless, bitter sound. “As you said earlier, you have nothing I
cannot get elsewhere.”

“Then get it
elsewhere and leave me alone.” He straightened his tie and ran a hand through
his hair.

Sprawled on the
floor and disheveled, she remained undiminished. “I can destroy you.”

“Do it’ he
taunted. “It would benefit both of us. It’s so cliched, you know. This
vixenish, sex-starved, femme fatale role you play. You need a makeover, Sara.
Perhaps if I’m gone, you’ll get one.”

For a moment,
Reed thought she might shred him to pieces. She could, if she desired. She was
far more powerful than he was in every way. Then the moment passed. Her
expressive face showed the transformation from furious indignation to sly
consideration. She held her hand out to him for assistance. Catching her wrist,
he pulled her to standing.

“Why such
concern for Raguel?” she asked, righting her clothing.

Reed shook his
head. What he wanted from Raguel was for him alone to know.

“I
underestimated you.” Her tone was thoughtful. She thrust her fingers into her
shoulder-length tresses and shook them out. “Trust me on this point: Evangeline
cannot be pulled to you. She must be pushed. Rescuing Raguel will not be enough
to win her from Cain.”

“Why are you so
fixated on Eve? Get over it.”

“I want
you
to
get over
her,”
Sara said without inflection. “And the surest way to do
that is to let you have your fill.”

He watched the
way her gaze darted around the room. Cain’s room. The seat of his new power.
Understanding dawned. “Ah, I see. Clever girl. This doesn’t have anything to do
with me. Or sex. This is about my brother.”

For once he
wasn’t needled by Cain’s prominence. He was, instead, relieved Eve was not the
focus.

Her chin lifted.
“Must everything in your life be about him?”

“Don’t put this
on me,” he admonished, amused by her chagrin. “You have to compete with a new
archangel, one who retains Jehovah’s favor no matter how fucked up he is.
Giving Eve to me means getting her away from Cain. That might make him crazy
enough to do something stupid. Maybe prompt a response that might prove him
unworthy of the ascension”

“You are
obsessed with—”

“I like the way
you think, Sara’ he interjected. “Don’t ruin my moment of admiration with your
bitching.”

Her mouth
snapped shut.

Reed moved to
the desk and leaned against it. “I’m surprised you approached me with the Eve
angle, though. Why not dangle Cain as the bait? Did you really believe she
would be more of a draw than my brother?”

“I have never
seen you so focused on a woman. I saw the tape. Of you and her in the stairwell.
When you marked her.”

A surge of fury
moved through him. That was for him and Eve alone. The thought of someone else
observing—especially Sara—made his gut and fists clench.

He uncurled his
fingers one by one.

“Ah, but she’s
not just any woman, is she?” he murmured. As Sara’s mouth curved in a smile, he
knew he had her. “We want the same thing, and we’re agreed on how best to get
it.”

Eyeing him
warily, she returned to her seat. “So…?”

“I don’t think
Izzie’s enough to lure him away, or to drive Eve to me.”

“Iselda had him
once.”

“When he thought
he couldn’t have Eve. That’s not the case “You spoke of favors owed. What favor
would he have cashed in to be promoted?”

Reed stilled.
“Maybe.
.
.“
he murmured, “it’s a favor he
promised.”

After a moment
of silence, she began to applaud, each measured clap like a gunshot in the
room. “Brilliant.”

“Find out to
whom,” he ordered, “and—if you can— what the ante is.”

“Well,” she
drawled, “that will only take me a few decades. I am not even certain how many
seraphim and cherubim there are.”

He knew she
would find a way. She wouldn’t be the last female archangel heading a firm, if
she wasn’t both ruthless and resourceful.

As for Raguel,
Reed would have to seek alternate routes to reach him, and he would have to
move cautiously and alone. No archangel would initiate an offensive maneuver
against Sammael, which ensured that no
mal’akh
or Mark would help him
either.

To whom did one
turn when he wished to go where angels feared to tread?

He turned away
from Sara.

To a demon, of
course.

Another
horde of tengu.

Alec looked at
Eve and groaned inwardly. She attracted disasters. And it had nothing to do
with her smelling like a Mark.

“Come here,” he
beckoned, his voice resonant with an archangel’s command but lacking coercion.
He wanted her to come freely.

She looked at
him with wary eyes, sensing the turmoil within him. He wondered if she heard
the stirrings in his head,the needs that hissed like serpents, prodding his
temper and making him both irritable and mischievous.

If she only knew
what that prim pink shirt of hers did to him. The snug fit made it hard for him
to concentrate on the task at hand. He wanted her; the darkness in him pushed
him to take her, while another part of him was far more fascinated by the
little freckle on her nape and the small section of silky hair that was always
falling out of her ponytail. The two halves were fighting all the time,
exhausting him and leaving him confused.

Did all
archangels suffer a similar duality? Or was he—Cain of Infamy—uniquely evil in
a way he’d denied for centuries?

As an archangel,
he had been stripped of the ability to love anyone but God, but his need for
Eve was more urgent than ever. Malevolent voices had joined him with the
ascension. They whispered deep within his breast, fueled by the connection he
had to all the Infernals within the firm. As long as Eve was near, his control
was tenuous. She was a beacon in the gloom and he craved her in a ferocious
way, but he couldn’t relinquish her, even for her own benefit. She was a direct
line into Abel’s head and all the knowledge his brother had gained in the
centuries he’d been a handler. As a fledgling archangel, Alec needed that
information to run the firm.

He couldn’t keep
his promise to help free her from the mark. Not yet.

Maybe never.

“I can never
read what you’re thinking,” she said, “when youhave that particular
expression.”

“I can show you
what I’m thinking.
.
.“
He was unable to curb the edge to his
words.

“You and your
brother are more alike than you realize.”

“Perhaps we’re
more alike than
you
realize,” he warned. His smile felt
cruel. He wouldn’t be able to resist having her much longer, and when it
happened, he doubted he could be as gentle with her as he’d once been.

A shadow passed
over her features and through her mind. A sense of loss and melancholy.

Regret settled
heavily over him, his humanity waxing and the recklessness waning in response
to her withdrawal.

“Come here,” he
repeated, gentler this time, his hand extended to her.