Only then did I realize it was raining. A downpour, in fact.

I held out a hand, palm up, and looked toward the heavens, wondering if the quizzical angel was sending me a message.

“I think I died for a minute,” I said to Reyes. Water poured in rivulets down his handsome face. The heat from his body radiated out and warmed me as icy droplets drenched me to the core. He reached out with one arm to embrace me, but I leaned away from him. Shocked once again.

“You’re ripped to shreds,” I said, one hand covering my mouth, almost unable to look.

He shook his head. “It’s not so bad this time. We’re learning.”

“Beep?” Osh asked, his impatience shining through when he grabbed my shoulders and turned me toward him.

I nodded in affirmation.

Relief flooded him visibly. He lunged forward and placed his palm on my abdomen, an act that Reyes didn’t entirely appreciate. I had to slam my eyes shut at the sight of them. At the blood that saturated their soaked shirts and jeans.

Cookie stood shaking, her face the picture of shock.

After an eternal moment, Osh nodded. “She’s okay. She’s —” He lowered his head in thought. “— she’s even stronger than before.”

“She’s the future of the world,” I said, as though I’d planned such an outcome the whole time. “That’s a lot to place on a girl’s shoulders. She’ll need all the strength she can get.”

“Oh, sweetheart,” Cookie said, kneeling beside me and pulling me into her arms. “You – You were going to take your own life.”

“I’m sorry, Cook. I thought it was the only way.” Then I looked at Reyes, who was none too happy about that fact, if his rigid jaw was any indication. “Are they gone?” I asked him.

“For now,” Osh said, answering for him. “But you have to understand,” he added, “just like me, just like Rey’aziel, they were created for this kind of thing. I don’t think it killed them. And I think it’s safe to say beyond a shadow of a doubt, they definitely all made it onto this plane.”

“Reyes?” I asked, hoping for a different answer.

He nodded reluctantly in agreement, scanning the horizon. “Osh’ekiel is right. They won’t be back tonight, but they will be back. These aren’t fallen. They will not die so easily.”

“There was nothing easy about that,” I said, anger over that fact spiking within me. But Reyes was certainly evidence of what Osh had said. I could hardly look at either of them without almost passing out. I never knew a body could take that much trauma and survive. I never knew bone actually looked white beneath torn flesh. They had been shredded and yet they stood, in all their glory, ready to fight again.

Then the reason we were all there hit me. “Uncle Bob,” I said with a gasp of recollection. I stumbled to my feet and took off toward the cabin again, in the back of my mind very aware that I should be dead. Instead I felt no pain. No soreness. Even my fractured ribs had healed. “Cookie, stay back!” I shouted, but before I got far, Reyes tackled me and lifted me off the ground. He then gestured for Osh to go first as I fought his hold. I’d just fought a dozen hellhounds. Certainly I could take on one crazy human. But she did have Uncle Bob. He was not indestructible.

“If this woman is here,” Osh said, jogging in front of us, “she has to know we’re here, too. No way did she miss the battle royal going down in her front yard.”

“Reyes,” I said, squirming until he set me down and let me walk on my own, like a big girl, “I’m going in there.”

“Not before I do.”

We got to the side of the cabin and hunkered down as Osh crept to the front window for a quick peek. “There’s a light on, but I don’t see anyone.”

Reyes gestured for me to stay – as if – and tread swiftly across the porch to the front door. Naturally, I followed. When he tested the door to find it unlocked, I put a hand on his. Both of us crouched on our toes as he turned toward me.

“Let me go first,” I whispered.

“No,” he whispered back.

I stabbed him with my best glare, my gaze traveling slowly, purposefully, to his mouth. Even set as it was in the grim line, it was fuller than a man’s had a right to be. Sensual. “I could make you,” I said, my voice soft with what was part threat and part promise.

He leaned forward until our mouths were almost touching and said, “You could make me do a lot of things.” After a tense moment where he studied my lips, he dipped his head as though to kiss me, before adding, “But on this, you’ll trust me.”

Then he slowed time before I had a chance to and ducked inside the cabin. From my point of view, it literally looked like he’d vanished into thin air. I cursed and hurried in after him, but by the time I stumbled over my first piece of furniture, he was in front of me.

“He’s downstairs. There’s a basement.”

I glanced around and found a staircase leading down. Osh stepped to it and looked into the cavernous opening.

“She’s with him,” Reyes added. “And I think she drugged him.”

“How is he?” I whispered, angry Reyes did the time trick thing when I’d least expected it. That was cheating.

Before answering, he took a firm hold of my wrist, as though to anchor me to him. “He’s definitely been shot.”

I took off without another thought, dodging Osh as he reached out for me. But I’d shifted time to my advantage, taking them both off guard, and flew down the stairs.