Eve of Destruction (20 page)

“What time was that?”

“Half past eight?” She muttered something in French. “Maybe eight. What does it matter?”

“What about you?” Ken directed his question to Romeo.

“I was with Laurel.”

Ken stared a moment at the pretty Kiwi, who looked chagrined and might have blushed if she wasn’t a Mark. “You two make me sick,” he bit out.

Laurel blinked, then recovered. “Fuck you, Callaghan.”

“Isnae that what he was doing?” Ken jerked his chin toward Romeo. “While Molenaar was losing his head, you two were houghmagandying on a training mission!”

“You didn’t save him either,” Laurel snapped. “What were
you
doing?”

“Where was Seiler?” Edwards interjected.

“She was following us,” Eve said.

“I was not!” Izzie protested.

“You came onto the scene awfully quick,” Eve drawled, deliberately goading.

“I am fast. That’s all. I do not care about what you are doing. You have problems if you think I would.”

“Since you and Richens keep contradicting each other, it’s clear that one of you is a liar. Which one of you is it?”

“I am confused,” Romeo said, frowning.

Izzie palmed her blade and spoke with dangerous softness. “Do not call me a liar.”

Eve crossed her arms. “We don’t have time for these games you and Richens are playing. Until one of you admits that you told me a lie, I’m not going to believe either of you.”

“Sod off, Hollis,” Richens bit out. “My arse still hurts, you know. I told you to pick the knife!”

“I shot you on purpose,” she said wryly.

Reed’s hand touched her elbow. She caught his frown and shrugged it off.

Ken stepped closer. “What are you talking about, Hollis? What lies?”

“They know what I’m talking about. Let’s go back to what happened to Molenaar. Did anyone else notice the lack of Infernal stench around Molenaar’s body?”

A stillness came over the group, then a cluster of protests. Eve cut them all off with a wave of her hand. “I understand you were all freaked out. I am, too, but we need to stop thinking about how we feel about this and do something about it instead.”

“I didnae smell anything but Mark blood,” Ken said.

The others quickly concurred.

“Right.” Eve’s gaze raked over everyone, searching. “So what does that mean?”

“We weren’t paying attention?” Edwards suggested gruffly.

“Or maybe the only thing to smell was Mark. Maybe there was never an Infernal there.”

“You accuse one of us?” Romeo cried, dark eyes wide.
“Sei matta! Come puoi dire una cosa del genere?”

“I have no idea what he said,” Laurel snapped. “But I agree!”

Reed’s grip on her arm tightened. “Come with me.” He dragged her toward the door.

“She is lying,” Izzie said with a smile in her voice. “I think it was the faery.”

Pausing, Reed faced them. “Leave this matter to Raguel and his team.”

“If there’s a traitor among us,” Richens said, “we have a lot to worry about.”

Reed snapped his fingers at the two guards standing watch just outside the front door. “No one leaves.”

Without waiting for their acquiescence, he yanked Eve down the steps and away.

“Talking.”

“Bullshit. You’re instigating infighting on purpose.”

“I have a really good reason,” she said. “Maybe they’ll wake up and smell the stench.”

“You aren’t in any position to train others.”

“This is just a game to them. Richens acts as if we’re playing for points and not lives. Ken chose brass knuckles for his weapon. Brass-fucking-knuckles, against Infernals? And Romeo and Laurel were
screwing
for christsakes—
ow!
” She glared at
the sky and rubbed her mark through her armband. “That doesn’t count!”

Reed’s mouth thinned into a disapproving line. “You should be working together, not fighting among yourselves. You know none of them did it.”

“Says who?” she challenged, spoiling for a fight. “We can’t rule anyone out. We need to be looking very closely at everything and everyone around us. We can’t afford any blind spots.”

“Marks don’t do shit like this, Eve! They’re not capable of it.”

“And demons don’t exist. Sometimes what we think is an absolute truth is completely false.” Eve stabbed a finger viciously toward the house. “They have to step outside of the cocoon they’re living in and face facts. You can’t trust anyone, and if you turn your back, don’t be surprised to find a knife in it.”

He growled. “Not the conspiracy theory again.”

“Gadara has wiretaps in my condo and cameras on every floor of my building. You think he doesn’t have Anytown scoped out?” Eve ripped off the Velcro-secured armband. “We’re all wearing these. They’re supposed to simulate a call, but I would be willing to bet they have GPS locaters in them and maybe bugs, too.”

“Will you listen to yourself? You’re nuts, and you’re driving me nuts, too. Gadara wouldn’t let a Mark
die,
Eve.”

“Why? Because he’s an archangel?”

“Because losing a Mark during training looks bad,” he bit out, his powerful frame taut with frustration.
“Really, really bad. It will take Raguel centuries to regain the standing he lost today.”

Eve’s hands went to her hips. “Then why didn’t he stop it from happening?”

A muscle in Reed’s jaw ticced. He knelt down to get the armband. “You’re leaping to conclusions based on assumptions. Look—” he straightened and snapped the metal plate of the band in half, “—there’s nothing in here. It’s solid. Raguel’s running on full power now; he doesn’t need secular electronics. These are for your benefit. The pressure on your arm keeps you focused and the metal gives Raguel a concentrated area to heat.”

“Are you telling me there’s no way Gadara could have known about the attack and prevented it?”

“He’s an archangel. Not God.”

“I don’t see how—”

“Do you think he’s evil?” Reed demanded, shoving the destroyed band into his pocket. “Is that what this boils down to? You think he watched your classmate getting butchered on a live feed and ate popcorn?”

She rubbed at the bead of sweat that ran down her nape. Said in that manner, it did sound implausible. “No.”

“Everything happens for a reason.” His voice softened. “You have to believe that.”

“I
don’t
believe, Reed. I’m agnostic.”

“You’re a pain in the ass.” He caught her face in his hands and tilted it up. With his thumbs brushing over her cheekbones, he examined her. “Shit. You’re burning up. Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I did say something,” she groused, “to both Gadara and Alec. One says it’s all in my head, the other says it’s just my body adjusting to the mark.”

He snarled something in a foreign language. Eve meant to ask what it was but was distracted by the feel of his touch, which cooled her. The scent of his skin filled her nostrils, altering the tension that gripped her from anger to something far more dangerous.

She caught his wrists and tried to pull his hands away. “Uh . . . Maybe you shouldn’t touch me right now.”

“No wonder you’re so combative,” he said roughly. “The Novium is on you.”

“You sure that’s what it is?” Her voice was a whisper, her throat clogged by the images that filled her mind of
him
on her.

“Oh, yeah. No doubt.” He released her abruptly. His gaze was sharp . . . and frighteningly fervent. “You’re crawling out of your skin. Marks don’t reach this stage until much later, but you’re primed like a veteran.”

Her hand lifted to her face, coming to rest over the spot where he had touched her. The skin tingled and was cooler. “Why?”

“You were made for this work, babe. It’s just that simple.”

“No, I wasn’t. You said it yourself; I wouldn’t be here if Alec had kept his dick in his pants.”

“I said that to fuck with you and get you pissed off at Cain.”

“This isn’t me,” Eve argued. She couldn’t face days on end of this job. She would lose her sanity. “Remember? I’m the one who screams at the idiots in horror movies who grab a weapon and pursue the maniacal killer instead of running for help.”

The negating shake of his head infuriated her as much as if he had covered his ears with his hands.

“I didn’t commit a sin worthy of being marked,” she insisted. “This is all just a monumental fuck-up to punish your brother.”

“You know how many mortal women have fucked Cain?” Reed’s smile was tinged with malice. “And of those, how many of them have ended up where you are now?”

Her chin lifted. “He loves me. I can be used to hurt him. That’s the difference.”

“You want to toss around theories and conjecture?” He advanced. “Let’s take it further. What if Cain is in this mess because of you, instead of the reverse? I’ve been watching you, babe. You’re a natural. What if you two met because you have the inherent skill to rival him and no one else could mentor you as well as he can?”

“That’s r-ridiculous.”

“No, that’s a possibility.” His quiet conviction sent a chill down her spine. “You’ve survived demons no untrained Mark should have.”

Eve took a step forward. Reed’s suggestion pounded through her skull like a migraine. Her skin and muscles ached as if she had the flu. Even the roots of her hair tingled with a prickling that maddened her.
Don’t kill the messenger,
or so the saying went. But she wanted to. Unease slid sinuously around her insides, hissing like a serpent. “I love how you all conveniently forget that I was
dead
just a few days ago!”

A visible shudder moved through him.

That telltale sign devastated her. With everything around her unfamiliar and hostile, what she longed for most was something familiar. Someone who cared for her.

Her arm lifted toward him. “Reed—”

He turned away, his shoulders set against her. “I can feel the heat of the Novium moving through you. It’s making me . . . edgy and agitated.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I need to stay away from you while you’re like this, Eve.”

She realized then that her bloodlust was translating into a different kind of lust, which created an entirely new problem on top of all the others. She could fight her fascination for Reed, but not his returning fascination for her. “Does that mean you’re leaving?”

“I can’t,” he said gruffly. “Not yet.”

Eve would have asked why, but she had a more pressing question. “What
is
the Novium, exactly?”

Reed looked over his shoulder at her. “A change, similar to the change you went through when you were marked. Over time, a mentor and Mark pair become connected. Emotionally and mentally. They learn to think and move as one unit. When the time comes for the Mark to work alone, that bond has to be severed. Cauterized. Some Marks call it ‘the Heat’ instead, due the fever that accompanies the process.”

“Bond,” she repeated, “like you and I share? But I can’t feel Alec’s thoughts and feelings like I do yours.”

“There hasn’t been time. Neither of you has been trained. You haven’t hunted together. The connection has yet to grow.”

“And now it won’t?”

He shook his head.

“And what about my connection to you? Will that go away, too?”

“No. It’s a rite of passage—similar to leaving a father’s household for a husband’s. The handler/Mark link grows during the Heat, as does the Mark’s connection to his firm leader.”

“Gadara.”

“In your case, yes.”

“Boy, that sure works out for him, doesn’t it?” She watched the confusion drift over his handsome features, his train of thought following hers.

“It doesn’t work that way. It’s not vulnerable to manipulation.”

Eve rounded him so that they faced each other again. The transition was akin to stepping out of a cool house into sweltering desert heat. Her temperature shot up to an alarming degree, making her dizzy. “Tell me how it works.”

His gaze was as hot as she was. But when he spoke, his voice was calm and sure. “A Mark is trained. Then exposed to missions. They witness deaths and battle various Infernals. They absorb information from their mentors. Somehow, that combination eventually sets off the Novium.”

“Okay. Let’s see.” She started counting down on her fingers. “I’ve been exposed to missions. I’ve witnessed deaths and battled various Infernals. And I have a romantic relationship with my mentor. Good enough?”

“You’re forgetting time.”

“Maybe it’s not so much time as it is a buildup,” she speculated. “I’ve had everything thrown at me at once, then I was killed and resurrected, which has to mess with a person, right?”