Redemption (A NOVEL OF THE SEVEN SIGNS) (16 page)

She blocked his nails with her forearm. “Hey! I’m one of you! Can’t you see?”

The vampire just drooled and snapped at her, slashing her arm in twin stinging crimson lines. He didn’t recognize her as Chosen. All he knew was the angel’s mark—and the rich pounding scent of her blood.

Despair soured her breath. It wasn’t his fault. He didn’t deserve this wretched life, or the death that was coming.

But it’s them or me.
She rammed her knee into his guts, and when he retched and doubled, she jabbed her knife deep into his throat, and ripped.

Warmth splashed her jeans, and the twitching body fell.

Another one jumped her, a girl with ratty green hair and a nose ring. Rose slashed backhanded to keep her at bay. It was a zoo in here. The corridor was teeming with them, and the poor bastards just kept coming.

And already, the tiled floor was calf-deep in bodies. Severed limbs. Heads. Blood painted the walls. The stink sickened her. And in the midst of it all, Japheth. Killing things, his golden wings alight with blinding glory. His muscles pumped powerfully, his hair dripped crimson. Silent, swift, diving and whirling and landing bone-crunching blows. A perfect death machine.

Rose swallowed, bitter. He sure didn’t have any qualms about sending them all to hell. Did they all deserve it? She couldn’t tell.

That was the thing, see. You couldn’t tell just by looking. Not that Japheth cared.

The vampire girl snarled, and slashed at Rose with a broken bottle. Glass sliced Rose’s knuckles. She kicked, and her boot crunched into the girl’s fishnet-clad kneecap. The girl howled and collapsed. Rose crushed the bottle to shards under her boot—no point leaving the others a weapon—and stabbed her foe through the heart. The girl screamed, her spine arching. Terror burned bright in her eyes, and she gurgled and died.

Rose quailed, shivering. She didn’t mind the blood. No, her heart was racing, desire and hunger only aching harder. Her fangs hurt, so tight and eager. It wasn’t the blood that sickened her.

It was the blanching dread on that girl’s face. She’d known where she was going.

A scream skewered Rose back to reality. She jumped, tense, knife ready.

Japheth slammed the last vampire against a wall, his green eyes aflame with battle rage.

The kid’s feet kicked six inches off the ground. Skinny limbs, young face. Maybe fifteen or sixteen. He thrashed, but the angel held him effortlessly by the throat.

“Caliban,” Japheth demanded.

The vampire spluttered, dark hair wet on his face. “Don’t kill me. Please. I don’t want to die. I’m just so fucking hungry…”

“It isn’t you I want. Just tell me where Caliban is, and I’ll let you live.”

His soothing tone stabbed ice along Rose’s nerves. Oldest trick in the book. Japheth would slit the kid’s scrawny throat as soon as he’d finished his sentence. Never trust an angel.

The kid’s expression melted like marshmallow, and tears flowed. “He’s in the sub-basement, okay?”

“How is it defended? Don’t cry. Just tell me.”

“There’s a vault. Like a big steel door with locks and shit. I didn’t mean it! I didn’t mean to kill them. I was just so hungry…”

“Shut up,” said Japheth coldly, and dropped him to his feet. “Now run.”

Wide-eyed, the kid scuttled away, on all fours like a crab into the dark.

Rose stared, and rounded, fighting not to shout and be overheard. “Are you crazy?”

Japheth raised golden eyebrows.

She wanted to shake some goddamn sense into him. “You let him go! He’s gone straight to Caliban. Just how dumb
are
you?”

He glared for silence, and dragged her into a corner. He dimmed his wing light to a faint glimmer, but his eyes still flashed frosty green fire. “Said I’d let him live, didn’t I?” he whispered.

Rose pulled her protective shadows in close. Her vampire magic swirled and muttered, unsettled by Japheth’s proximity and the mark on her forehead, but the shadows held, shrouding them both in black don’t-see-me mist. Not even sound would escape, so long as they were careful. She could hear him breathing, light and even. The tiny crisp rustle of his feathers, the sound as he licked his lips.

“You do know that’s supposed to be a
lie,
right?” she whispered fiercely. “You know, like ‘I promise I’ll call’ or ‘of course I still respect you’?”

“Lying’s a sin, Rose Harley. You might want to keep that in mind.”

She yanked damp hair from her eyes, furious. Screw him and his stupid morals. But her ears burned, and she squirmed. All the lies she’d told, the prey she’d seduced with trickery. Once, she’d had a conscience. Now, all she had was hunger and fury.

This angel had been cast down, too. He knew how it felt to scream alone at the darkness. Yet the crazy bastard still acted as if the rules meant something to him.

Fresh guilt soured her mouth, maddening. He had the courage of his convictions, she’d give him that. But the rules were unfair. God didn’t care. Heaven didn’t deserve her obedience. To meekly accept your fate…to say
okay, my bad
and move on, without a shred of resentment…it was so messed up, her head spun.

“Unbelievable,” she snapped. “Your stupid-ass honor’s gonna get us both killed. Will that make you feel good about yourself?”

Japheth just shrugged. “Better dead than damned…oh, I’m sorry, you already missed that boat, didn’t you?”

“Screw you.” She shook her head, disgusted. Every time she decided he was maybe only 99 percent asshole, he grabbed that one percent right back again. With interest.

Unwillingly, she recalled how she’d deceived him the night they met. Pretended to be a defenseless human. Lured him close, seduced him with her scent. Opened her mouth under his wild kiss, tasted his tongue, the hot dark slide of his fingers over her skin…

A dirty trick, sure. No doubt he despised her for it. But it wasn’t as if he hadn’t enjoyed it. She shivered, remembering the brutal force of his desire jutting into her, his tight muscles, the heat of his breath… “Huh? What?”

“I said, it’s not like Caliban doesn’t already know we’re coming.” Japheth wiped bloody hair from his cheek with
one forearm. “And now we’ve got more info. Seems a fair trade to me.”

“I already knew what his defenses were, you moron! I’ve been here, remember?” She blinked, her vision doubling for a moment. Her stomach ached, and her pulse flitted, light and rapid. The hunger was getting worse. Not good.

“I remembered.” He grinned, beastly. “Just thought I’d check. You know, in case you forgot a few details and I accidentally got my head sliced off?”

“Ye of little faith,” she mocked. But her guts twisted. Of course she’d planned to lie.

“Yeah, well. Just because I choose to be truthful doesn’t mean I don’t know the rest of you are full of shit most of the time. I’m an angel, not an idiot.”

She steadied herself, light-headed. “Spare me the moralizing. What’s the plan now? We gonna just teleport right in there and start slashing again?”

Japheth grimaced. “Not without knowing exactly where I’m going, or how to get out. Like I said: angel, not idiot.”

“Can’t do your fancy tricks into a locked room?” she scoffed. “What use are they?”

A green stare, warm with amusement. “I can flash into a locked room, if you must know. But not when it’s sealed with high-level demon blood wards. And it will be, if this Caliban is as thick with Fluvium as you say.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I could flash in there and explode. That’d prove it. Not my preferred option.”

“Wouldn’t want you to break a nail.”

“Wow. I’m touched. Remember you’ll be exploding right along with me.”

Her head ached, dizzy. “So why not just immolate these wards, like before?”

“I have to see the wards to burn them.” He gestured in the direction of the sub-basement. “Do you see the wards, Rose Harley?”

She strained her vampire eyes until her vision swam. Nothing. “Shit.”

“More or less what I was thinking. They’ll be ready for us. We’ll have to fight our way in.” He stepped away from the wall, flicking blood from his blade, and flexed his body, one muscle group at a time, readying himself for another round.

She coughed, self-conscious. Bastard recovered quickly. Probably the same in bed. Come early, come often…

Japheth stretched his wings. Muscles tightened and released, his bare skin glistening with bloody sweat…

Rose’s throat hurt, crusty. He looked good to her. Sickening, how her gaze glued itself to his body for all the wrong reasons.
Teach me to get so hungry
…“Or we could get him to come out.”

“Say again?”

Faintness rinsed her wits thin. Her gaze zoomed in on the pulse in his throat, the brutal veins swelling in his arms. His hot male scent watered her mouth. Her vampire ears drank in his heartbeat, hungering for more, deeper, harder…

Giddy, Rose fought for control. She couldn’t drink angel blood. Disgusting, corrosive, poisonous. But she wanted to leap on him, yank that rough golden hair back, sink her teeth deep…

Fuck!
She wanted to scream, claw the air apart. If only that vampire kid hadn’t gotten away. She could have fed from him, just a little. Even desperately horny would be better than this.

Her gaze slicked over her angel’s sculpted lips, the bunched curve of his biceps, those strong forearms… Her nipples ached hard. Damn, she loved a man’s wrists, and this angel—curse him to hell’s vilest hole—this Japheth had the sexiest wrists she’d ever seen. Powerful, dangerous, built raw and thick from swordplay, muscle and sinew standing out…

He flexed his fingers on his sword grip, and she nearly fainted with need. Who was she kidding? She was
already
desperately horny, and all she had to play with was this maddening angel.

And
she
was meant to be seducing
him
.

“I might be able to get Caliban to come out,” she repeated thickly. “He’s interested in the Chosen. Wants us to join his little fuck-and-die club. If I tell him I’m in trouble, he might believe me.”

“I’m sorry, perhaps we should’ve discussed this
before
we were hiding in a dark basement full of vampires?”

“They can’t hear us, wiseass. Look.” She prodded at her wall of shadow. “Cone of silence?”

“Whatever. We don’t have all night to argue. The answer’s no. It’s too risky.”

“Risky, my butt. You fell for it, didn’t you?” She tossed it out recklessly, expecting him to flip her off.

But Japheth’s eyes stormed over like midnight rain. “You want to seduce him, is that it?”

His disdain itched like a rash. “Who died and made you my…”
Mother
, she almost said, and sick images of Bridie slicked her stomach. “My big brother? Whatever works, I say. If he’s horny, he’s hungry. If he’s hungry, he’s vulnerable. I distract him, you grab him, job done. You’ve got no qualms about torture. How else are we supposed to make him talk?”

His arms clenched, swelling, like he was about to burst. “I won’t let you…” He swallowed, calm, but his eyes flamed dark. “It’s not honorable,” he said finally.

As if that made any goddamn sense at all.

Her head ached. Her palms itched. Fight or feed, she didn’t know which she wanted more. “It’s a better plan than you’ve come up with.”

“I won’t order you to defile yourself.” He stared ahead, steadfast, but color blossomed in his cheeks. He looked shy. Uncomfortable.

She wanted to punch that bashful blush from his face. “
Order
me? Jesus Christ in a fricassee. If you even
think
about giving me orders I’ll—”

“You are not my slave to do with as I please,” he snapped. “Want to wallow in corruption? Do it on your own time. It’s not honorable. You’re not doing it. End of story.”

“And what do you care about my honor?” She kicked angrily at the floor, and pain speared up her toe. It only fired her frustration. “I’m hell-cursed, aren’t I? What’s one more sin?”

“Not. On. My. Watch.” He jammed his teeth together so hard, his jaw popped.

“But we need Caliban! How d’you think we’re gonna get
him? Stroll up and knock on the door?” She yanked her braid over her shoulder. “Damn you, Japheth, you’re worse than a jealous boyfriend.”

Murder ignited in that fierce green glare.

Rose laughed, incredulous. “Ha! You are so busted. Say it’s not true. I dare you.”

He jerked a step towards her. Her pulse quickened. His hot musky rage flowed over her, dizzying. His fists clenched, cording those sexy wrists even tighter. Suddenly, provoking him didn’t seem such a smart idea…but her insides melted with unwanted longing.

No one had ever cared what she did before.

But the demon in her heart licked hungry lips. This was her chance. He’d kissed her once. She’d not let him escape unscathed again. Her fingers tightened on her knife hilt. She wanted to stab him so bad. Thrust her blade in, twist it, dip her lips into his blood…

“Go on, say it,” she taunted. “You don’t want Caliban touching me. You’re jealous. Say it’s not true, if you can.”

He swallowed, hard.

Triumphant, Rose edged closer. He didn’t move, and her body thrilled with anticipation. He was hers. She’d won. She parted her lips, leaned in…