Fuck.She had no idea how fucking cute she was. And smart.
Ever since she had told us her theory about Yahweh and how He had been artificially siphoning celestial energy to give Himself an edge, I could barely think of anything else. If what she said was true and He had been using Hypnos to keep all the other gods and goddesses asleep, to keepHecateasleep…
Just the thought of the dark goddess’ name sent a pang of longing and guilt through my chest. Sometimes, I still woke up with her name on my lips, reaching for her as I had the night she had been ripped away from me.
Just like Lilith, I hadn’t been able to save her.
I bit back a hiss at the old, painful memories and grit my teeth. I may not have been able to save her then, but I would fucking save her now.
I didn’t have much time before I needed to get back to the room, but I always had a knack for efficiency. This little mission I had assigned myself would be quick.
As I crossed the border between Hell and Earth, I smiled. I fucking loved the mortal realm. So many delicacies just ripe for the picking. I queued the magic that separated our worlds to bring me back to Gravestone, the city where it had all begun. It was noon, so the streets were packed with businessmen and women out for corporate lunches. I slid easily into the crowd with my hands in my pockets and made my way toward Voodoo.
It wasn’t that I didn’t trust that my team had done everything they could to get their idea seeds into the angels who ran each store. I believed them. What I wanted to do was see how difficult it would be for me to execute plan B. Considering we had a rat, I didn’t want to entrust this to anyone else. This was something I was going to need to figure out on my own.
I arrived at Voodoo, slipping around to the back and ringing the bell that would sound off in the kitchens. They didn’t open until four pm, so entering through the front wasn’t an option, considering I no longer had a key.
I waited patiently with my hands still in my pockets for one of the prep cooks to let me in. Finally, the door swung open, and I fought to keep the surprise off my face when I found myself staring directly at Gabriel.
He was in human clothes, his white choir uniform nowhere to be seen. I allowed my gaze to leisurely peruse his lean body, taking in the way his crisp black shirt stretched across his chest. I liked that he had chosen to wear black. The corner of my mouth twitched up.
“Shemhazai. I wasn’t expecting to find you here,” he said, his tone bored and dry, though I had known him long enough to recognize the mask for what it was. He was playing his cards close to his chest. This was going to be a dance, one that we had both been perfecting for centuries.
I brushed past him, giving him a casual smile and a cocky tilt of my head, indicating that I wanted him to follow me despite the fact that I no longer worked here, and it looked like he now did.
“The feeling is mutual. Since when do you sling drinks?” I chuckled, making my way to the office, not bothering to check and see if he was following me. I knew he would be, he didn’t have much of a choice.
“Since you fucking kidnapped Raf. The store needed a new bar manager, and apparently, I’m‘just the angel for the job.’”His tone was bitter and mocking. Shooting him a dark look over my shoulder, I narrowed my eyes. We were going to need to work on that tone. He just glared back at me, and a flicker of a challenge burned in his eyes.
Yahweh clearly hadn’t been able to keep this one in line.
Smirking, I turned away.
Gabriel needed someone who could handle him. Someone who could teach him discipline. My blood turned hot at the thought of putting him on his knees and teaching him what worship meant. Though, if I ever got the chance to put him on his knees, Gabriel wouldn’t be worshiping God.
He would be worshiping chaos.
With this delicious thought in mind, I jogged down the stairs to the basement and stood by the office door, waiting for Gabriel to unlock it.
He looked annoyed and disgruntled. His auburn hair was styled with some sort of soft molding wax, so it floated in gentle waves over his head. I found myself wondering how it would feel to bury my hands in those waves while I forced my cock down his throat. I wondered if he would gag… My brow creased as I realized he probably wouldn’t, considering how long he had been serving Yahweh. I shook off a scowl. The thought of Yahweh touching him made me feel something unpleasant. Something that felt a lot likejealousy.
Hmm. That was strange.I never got jealous. I had never understood why Ramel was so possessive over Lilith. Though, if this was how he felt whenever someone else lusted after her, maybe I could understand it.
I resisted the urge to shake my head again. I couldn’t be entertaining thoughts like this, not when Gabriel was literally the first person on my list of suspects. The thought of one of our own betraying us was almost impossible to wrap my head around. It would be foolish to rule it out entirely, but it was much more likely that Gabriel was playing us than one of our own.
I stood in the doorway as Gabe helped himself to one of the rundown office chairs in the dingy, cramped space. His lip curled as he looked around the messy room, shaking his head in disgust.
“Raf was a fucking pig. This place is a sty,” he grumbled, leaning back and crossing his ankle over his knee before turning his citrine gaze up to meet mine. He looked fucking delicious sitting like that, wearing all black. It would be so easy to wrap my hands around the back of his neck and just…
“Why are you here, Shemhazai?” he asked, his brow furrowing. I wondered if I had let my face show some of what I had been thinking because there was aflicker of heat in his eyes as well. He looked me up and down, a whisper of a smirk flickering across his mouth.
“We have a rat or a mole. Whatever you want to call it, we have a fuckingrodentrunning around squealing our secrets to Yahweh,” I said, watching him carefully.
His expression didn’t change, but he nodded his head once. “You do,” he agreed.
I raised an eyebrow. “Care to share who it is?”
He sighed. “If I knew, Shemhazai, I would have already told you.” He swiped up one of the pens that lay scattered across the messy desk and placed the cap in his mouth, marking the plastic with his perfect, white teeth. Something about the way he did it made my blood rush to my cock. “I’m not exactly in Yahweh’s good graces if my new placement is any indication,” he continued, looking around the office again with disgust. “Whoever the rat is has clearly betrayed my involvement to him. Yahweh hasn’t trusted me with new information since he unmade Mike. I suspect he put me here to keep me at arm’s length.”
