Eve of Chaos (10 page)

“Keep it up,”
Eve warned, “and we’ll drop you to the bottom of the Mariana Trench and you’ll
have to hike back.”

The tengu
gasped, then stilled.

“Where are you
going with that?” the mortal guard asked, but the Mark next to him touched his
arm and shook his head.

“You won’t miss
him,” Eve said, waving good-bye.

“Trust me.”

They stepped
outside. She moved directly to the Harley and pulled her Oakley shades out of
the leather pouch on the gas tank. “Where’s the car?”

“Around the
corner.”

She gestured
ahead with a wave of her hand. “I’ll follow you.”

Alec took the
lead, shortening his long-legged stride to keep her close. Eve walked behind
him and slightly to the left, allowing the tengu to be carried along the curb
and away from other pedestrians. Her nose wrinkled as the scent of rotting soul
roiled in the wind. She held her breath, but a hard bump to her shoulder by a
passing pedestrian knocked her back and made her turn her head. She caught the
culprit leering back at her. With fangs. His face was covered in writhing black
details and his eyes glowed laser-green. With a chopping motion of his hand, he
mouthed,
Head will roll.

Despite an inner
shiver, Eve flipped him the bird... and crashed into something rock solid.

“Watch it,” Alec
bit out.

When she looked
up at him to explain, she found him staring down the fleeing vampire with the
look of death. Coming from Cain of Infamy, it scared even Eve. Then his head
turned, raking their surroundings with an examining gaze. She followed suit and
froze. Infernals littered the sidewalks in unusually high concentration for the
area, far more than had been present when they’d arrived. Having the
headquarters of the North American firm here in Orange County discouraged
Infernals from playing in the vicinity, but apparently not today.

Alec’s growing
fury filtered through her, chilling her with his cold aggression. A low,
resonant snarl rumbled up from his chest and throbbed outward, visibly pushing
every demon back. The power he exuded was dizzying for Eve, who felt it like a
phantom limb. An archangel’s power alone would be too much for her, but Alec’s
outburst contained an iciness that seized her lungs.

Alec...

The surge ebbed.
She reached out to the nearby light post and sucked in deep breaths. That had
been an act of possession and claiming, like a dog pissing on a hydrant. And
every Infernal within a half-mile radius got the message loud and clear.

Eve studied Alec
closely, slightly frightened by the look of mayhem in his dark eyes. “What the
hell was that?”

“We need to get you
out of here.” He gripped her elbow and pulled her down the adjacent street.

The weight of
dozens of eyes goaded her into faster steps. She had to jog to keep up, but it
wasn’t a struggle. Several feet away from her Chrysler 300, Alec hit the trunk
release on the remote. He put the tengu in the back and tossed the keys to her.
“Wait until I bring the bike around, and we’ll head back together.”

She nodded.

He shifted away.
A moment later she heard the Harley rumble to life around the corner.

Eve closed the
trunk, revealing a man standing directly beside her car. She jumped back with a
squeak.

“Yeesh.” She
shook her head. “You scared me, Father.”

“Sorry.” Father
Riesgo’s smiling green eyes softened his rugged features. He looked so out of
place in the priest’s collar that it almost had the look of a costume. Frankly,
he looked more renegade than missionary. His cheek was marred by a knife scar
and his dark hair was overlong and slicked back in a short tail. Just shy of
six feet and built like a tank, Riesgo wasn’t handsome, but he was very
charismatic and singularly compelling.

 
“How are you, Ms. Hollis?”

“I’m good.”
Thumping came from Eve smacked her hand down on it.

Riesgo frowned.
“What was wthat?”

“What was what?”

“That noise.”

“I didn’t hear anything.”
She glanced around war: ily, noting how the Infernals held back. Maybe due to
Alec’s unspoken threat, maybe due to the presence of a priest. “So.
. .
how are you?”

His gaze lifted
from the trunk to meet hers. “Better now that I’ve seen you.”

For some men,
that would have been a pickup line. With Riesgo, it was her soul that
interested him, not the package it came in.

“Have you been
reading the Bible I gave you?” he asked.

“I did. Thank
you. I’ve been meaning to bring it back to you, but work has been crazy
lately.”

“Do you have any
questions?”

Alec could melt
wax with his voice, but Riesgo was no slouch in the alluring department. His
voice bore the deep sultriness of a phone sex operator. Not that she’d ever
called a sex line, but she imagined that’s what the men who worked them would
sound like. Eve wondered if he was aware of how many women attended mass at St.
Mary’s just to hear him talk with that suave Spanish accent.

“No questions,”
she replied, listening to the rumble of the Harley fade as Alec circled the
other side of the block.

“And you don’t
want to keep it for future reference?”

More pounding
came from the trunk.

“No thanks,” she
said, careful not to raise her voice even though it was competing with the
noise from the tengu. “I have a good memory.”

“What is in your
trunk, Ms. Hollis?” he shouted.

“Excuse me?” Her
car was beginning to rock and she pushed down harder on the trunk with her
super- strength to keep it still.

He leaned
closer. “What. Is. That.
Noise
?“
“I don’t hear anything.”

A dark brow
arched. Reaching out, his long fingers caught the keys held in her free hand
and tugged them free of her grip. Not that she offered much resistance. She was
too shocked by the way he took over. How could a man so clearly commanding in
nature become a Catholic priest?

With his
foreann, he pushed her back from the car. When it began to bounce violently, he
shot her a challenging glance.

“You’re pushy,
Father.”

Riesgo hit the trunk
release and it popped open. The tengu froze. The car settled. With one hand on
the lip of the trunk lid and the other holding the keys at his side, he stared
down at what was a gargoyle statue to his eyes.

“Do you like
it?” she asked.

The tengu’s head
shook violently.

“It’s cute.”
Riesgo glanced at her. The tengu stuck his tongue out behind the priest’s back.
“What’s the matter with your car?”

“Nothing. Runs
like a dream. I recommend the 300 to everyone.”

Alec’s Harley
rumbled to a stop beside them. From behind the shield of her sunglasses, her
eyes ate him up as if he was dessert. Which was a fairly apt description, now
that she thought of it. He’d hooked her the same way ten years ago. A hottie on
a Harley.

He cut the
engine and smiled at Riesgo. “Father.”

The two men
shook hands.

“You might want
to take Ms. Hollis’s car to the dealership,” Riesgo suggested. “Her rear shocks
are bad.”

Alec looked at
Eve who jerked her chin toward the open trunk.

“I think it’s
due for regular maintenance,” Alec conceded with a big smile, his teeth white
against his tanned skin.

Riesgo turned
back to Eve and held out the keys. “I look forward to seeing you again.”

Beyond his
shoulder, she saw the proliferation of demons lying in wait. “Be careful on the
way back to the church, Father.”

After another
long look into the trunk, he shook his head and closed it again. With a wave,
Eve hurried to the driver’s side and slid behind the wheel. Alec shot off ahead
of her and she pulled out behind him. The tengu began kicking the backseat.

“Dumping him in
the ocean is a great idea,” Reed drawled from the passenger seat.

Eve swerved like
a drunk. “Damn it! Don’t startle me like that!”

“You’re jumpy,”
She felt his gaze move along the side of her face.

“Hell is
breaking loose. Literally. I have good cause.”

His hand settled
on her knee. The warmth seeped through the worn denim and into the flesh
beneath.
I won’t let anything happen to you.

In the enclosed
confines of her car, the scent that was distinctly Reed’s filled her
nostrils—leather and starch, a hint of spice and heated male skin. Comforted by
his proximity, she set one hand atop his and squeezed.

The tengu
continued to bounce around in the trunk of her car.

“If you dent my
car,” she yelled over her shoulder, “you’ll really piss me off!”

The intensity of
the blows reduced, but the frequency didn’t slow.

Alec passed
through Brookhurst, confirming that he was headed for Gadara Tower. That worked
for her. She didn’t want the tengu in her house for any reason. The damn things
were bad luck.

Sensing Reed’s
disquiet, she asked, “What’s troubling you?”

“I’ve been
looking into our Nix problem.”

“Oh?”

“It’s been two
months since you blew him up, but there have been no new reports of murders
with his calling card—until this past week.”

“Maybe the
police have kept it under wraps. They do that sometimes.”

His fingers
linked with hers, then he moved their joined hands to his thigh. “You watch too
much television. And quit feeling guilty for touching me.”

Her lips twisted
wryly. “Burning a stick of dynamite at both ends makes me nervous.”

An image of him
covering a disheveled Sara on the floor entered his head, and subsequently
hers. Her breath held as she absorbed the searing flash of jealousy she wasn’t expecting.

Reed stared
straight ahead. His Ray-Bans hid his gaze and his profile revealed nothing more
than a ticcing muscle in his jaw. “It’s not what you think’ he bit out.

Eve blanked her
mind. “You don’t know what I think.”

“You drive me
nuts.”

“That’s not me.
That’s all the stuff you have rushing through your brain.” There was a
tremendous amount of information moving through him—kill orders flowing down
from Alec, assignments meted out to the Marks under him, reports coming back in
from them. The human mind could never handle such an influx and outpouring of
information simultaneously, but
mat
‘akhs
dealt
with it daily. The teeny bit she felt through him was cringe-worthy.

Eve tugged at
the hand he held. He released it. “I think we need some distance between the
three of us.”

His lips
thinned. “Why do women always pull this shit when they get jealous?”

“Fuck you, you
conceited bastard.”

“I’m not the
bastard,” he bit out.

“I’m a liability
and you know it. This dating bullshit isn’t worth the risk. Alec can.’t feel
anything for me and you’re not there yet. We’ve only been seeing each other a
few weeks. Better sooner than later,” His head turned toward her. “Is Cain
getting this little speech, too?”

She nodded. “He
will.”

“So.
. .
you’re saying Cain is heartless, and you think I don’t
care enough yet: Where does that leave you? Still pining over him?”

“Not enough to
hang on, obviously.” Her gaze went back to the road. She merged into the
left-hand turn lane at Harbor Boulevard, one car behind Alec. “Listen, the cons
outweigh the pros here. I’m a vulnerability that neither of you can afford. And
I feel guilty. I hate that.”

Reed’s fingers
tapped his thigh. Because he was rock-hard muscle, the flesh was like a solid
surface beneath his impatient touch.

You’re gonna
notice shit like
that,
he scoffed,
in the same breath
that you ‘re saying you don’t want me?

“I didn’t say I
don’t want you. I just said this isn’t going anywhere.”

“Quit worrying
about where it’s going and focus on where it’s at.”

“I want to focus
on staying alive.”

“You need sex to
do that. It’s the way Marks are wired.”

“I know.”

The silence that
filled the car was heavy enough to block out the cavorting of the trapped
tengu.

Reed’s voice
came dangerously low, “Oh, hell no.”

She made the
turn onto Harbor, then glanced at him. “Excuse me?”

He pulled off
his shades and stared at her with hard eyes. “I’ve played this game by your
rules. Now you’re telling me the board’s getting put away before I score? Fuck
that.”

Eve gaped. “Don’t
tell me I
owe
you a screw.”