“Any guess as to why more haven’t been created?” Alec asked.

“Because the Seven have remained intact.”

“The Seven. You say that as if it were an entity and not just a number.”

A small, rough-hewn wooden table came into view and Hank settled daintily into a matching chair, gesturing for Alec to do the same. In all of the years he’d worked with Hank, this was the first time he’d ventured more than a few feet inside the occultist’s domain. The air was hotter back here and smelled of sulfur.

Alec sat. The tengu waddled out of the darkness carrying a tray, as docile as a well-trained butler. He set a pitcher of amber-colored liquid and two crystal tumblers on the table, then bowed and scampered away. The stench of his rotting soul lingered.

“What the hell?” Alec barked. “It stinks. And it’s... well behaved.”

“We’ll get to that in a minute. Of the many other archangels, only Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel have retained their foothold. Metatron, Ariel, Izidkiel... and all the others, where are they now?”

“With God.”

“Because they were not able to manage firms and a secular life as well as the others?” Hank queried, referencing the widely spread belief. “With all the power and knowledge at an archangel’s disposal, only seven were able to remain on Earth? God didn’t want to create more in the hopes that they might be able to handle it? And no mal ‘akh has proven capable of taking on the task in the interim? Until you?”

Lifting his glass, Alec sniffed the contents and asked, “What is this?”

“Iced chamomile tea.”

Alec set the glass back down. “I was promoted be- cause Raguel was taken.” And because he’d promised Sabrael an as-yet-unknown favor, but that was a matter best kept between him and Sabrael.

Hank filled her glass to the rim and downed the contents in one audible gulp. “Which effectively kept the number of archangels on earth at seven.”

“You think the number is deliberate? Like a cap?”

“That, or the change is so difficult it is the very rare mal‘akh who can manage it. I like you quite well, Cain, but you and I both know that there are others who are better qualified for the advancement than you are.”

Exhaling harshly, Alec leaned into the seat despite its creaking protests. Hank had a generous expense account and could easily afford to upgrade the furnishings, but appearance was everything to the occultist. The rickety table and chairs were meant to convey something that Alec didn’t yet grasp. And he couldn’t waste time thinking about it now. “No one is more knowledgeable than I am about saving Mark lives.”

Hank flicked a lock of long red hair back over her shoulder. “Since when is that an archangel’s purpose?”

The subtle challenge caused Alec’s lips to pull back from his teeth in a snarl.

“Look at you’ Hank rasped. “Like a rabid dog on the edge of attack. Yet you found the will to break up with Eve, when I’m certain that’s the last thing you wanted to do. You’re not supposed to be able to love her.”

“It’s not the same as before.”

“Diminished, but not gone. Why isn’t it gone? Is it because you were in love when the ascension happened?”

“I don’t need more questions,” Alec bit out. “I need answers.”

Hank shrugged. “I’m a scientist. It’s in my nature to question things.”

“Find the damn answers! What the hell is wrong with me?”

“What’s wrong is your belief that something is wrong.”

Alec’s fists clenched. “I don’t like hitting women, but you’re pushing me”

The occultist altered shape into a young girl of around six or seven years old, but spoke in the eternally present gruff voice. “Every celestial believes that demons choose to be evil. None will consider that we’re created the way we are. We couldn’t see the world as you do, even if we wanted to. Just like you can’t see our point of view.”

But Alec could now. That was the problem. He saw the appeal. Worse, the urges he felt seemed an inherent part of him, not an addition. “So you think I’m supposed to be this way? That I’ve always been this way. Is that what you’re saying?”

“Perhaps you’re fighting the change.” Hank picked up Alec’s untouched glass and downed the contents. “Perhaps the ambitious part of your soul, the part that yearns to be closer to God, is what’s rebelling in you. It’s becoming feral because it isn’t getting what it wants.”

“Maybe it’s the part of me that wants Eve,” he said, just to be contrary.

“Personally, I think it might be that other, darker part of your soul asserting itself. That part you ignore and everyone pretends doesn’t exist.”

Alec growled at Hank’s perceptiveness, the sound more animal than angel. “It doesn’t exist. It’s a myth.”

“A lie from an archangel, instead of mere evasion. That has to be a first” Hank smiled. “Regardless, my concern was for Eve and you’ve seen to that. Cain of Infamy can take care of himself. I suggest you ask one of the other archangels what to expect. Why come to an Infernal when Sarakiel is here to assist you?”

“Because I’m in competition with the other archangels now.”

Similar to children, archangels curried the favor of their Father. They competed with their siblings in the hopes of outshining them. He was now a threat. They’d be sabotaging themselves in order to help him. No archangel was that selfless.

Altering back into the sex kitten form, Hank stood and gestured for Alec to follow suit. “Come on. Let me show you why I called you down here. It might cheer you up.”

CHAPTER 10

The soft trill of an incoming text message pulled Reed from a doze. “Can I smash your phone?”

he murmured, nuzzling his lips against the crown of Eve’s head. “I’ll buy you a new one.”

She wriggled against his side, her body a warm weight he was reluctant to lose. “Some of us have to communicate the hard way,” she teased. As she pushed up on one elbow, the thick curtain of her hair tickled his chest.

He felt a shadow of unease cross her mind, followed quickly by a stab of guilt. Rolling, he pinned her beneath him and took her mouth in a hard, hot kiss. She softened, her hands sliding into his hair to hold him close.

Pulling back, he touched his nose to hers, somewhat bemused by his need to be tender. “If you start thinking of this as a mistake, I’ll bend you over my knee and spank you.”

Eve laughed, but her gaze was somber. “You’re going to have to be patient with me. I’m not in the best shape to jump into something serious. I told you that before.”

“I’m not in any shape to jump into anything. You know that. I have no idea what the hell I’m doing.”

“Or if you’re going to want to keep doing it” she added.

Reed winked. “I definitely want to keep doing it.”

“Fine. We’ll keep it sexual.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Yes, it is.” She wrapped a leg around his, rolled him back over, and kept on going. She continued alone until she rolled to the edge of the mattress, then slid off of it.

“Babe..”

She moved over to the dresser and unplugged her cell phone from its charger. A few button pushes later, she said, “Sara is looking for you.”

Closing his eyes, he bit back a frustrated groan. He had a cell phone, but he kept it off 90 percent of the time for just this reason. Anyone he wanted to talk to could do so without secular means. Everyone else could damn well wait until he got to them.

“How bad is it that she knew she’d find you with me?” As she talked, Eve’s voice grew distant.

Slitting his eyes open, Reed caught her hot little ass disappearing into the bathroom. Shamelessly naked, which he found very appealing.

She probably contacted all of my Marks, he replied privately, knowing that calling after her would be heard by the two Marks in the living room.

The shower came on. Eve’s room was large, with vaulted ceilings and a door-less entry to the bathroom that was several feet wide.

How long were you with her? she asked.

Reed slid out of bed and followed her into the bathroom. “I know what you’re thinking, and it wasn’t like that.”

He found Eve standing with eyes closed and head tilted back beneath a massive showerhead. The shower stall had been built with no door and only a slender floating glass partition, which afforded him an unobstructed view of every inch of her.

What was it like, then? she rejoined.

“A waste of time.”

Eve straightened and wiped the water from her eyelashes. “Some relationships end with feelings like that, but they rarely begin with them.”

“I wouldn’t know. I don’t do relationships.”

“Was she that good in the sack?” She posed the question casually, but he sensed that her interest in the answer was far from it.

“She was convenient. No dating, no wooing, no foreplay. The less I cared about her pleasure, the more she liked it.”

“Maybe because she cares about you.”

Reed laughed. “She’s an archangel, remember? There’s barely enough room in her heart for God.”

“I’m not kidding. I’ve seen the way she looks at you.”

“She wants my cock. That’s not caring by any definition.”

Eve squirted apple-scented soap into her palm and shot him a wry glance. “I know some men have fantasies about penis-starved women, but that’s a bit much.”

He leaned his hip into the counter and crossed his arms, watching her shampooing her long hair with avid interest “That’s not what you were moaning thirty minutes ago.”

She paused long enough to throw a loofah at him. Catching it neatly, he straightened and approached her.

“I asked Sara to do something for me,” he told her. “She strung me along for years before admitting that she wasn’t going to follow through.”