“Razriel?”
They stared at each other, and he wondered if she was asnumb as he was.
“Darlah?”Jedda eased up beside him.“As in,Darlah?Your gem angel buddy?Yourlover?”
“Ex-lover,” he muttered.By the look on Shrike’s face, thelover thing wasnewsto him, and he wasn’t happy aboutit.
“Someone had better explain what’s happening,” Shrikegrowled.“How do you know each other?Besides intimately.”
Darlah, her face pale, didn’t take hergoldenbrowneyes off Razr as she descended the stairs.“Razrielwas one of the Triad.”
Suddenly, everything clicked into place.Holy…shit.
Razr’s ex-lover was the reason Shrike knew about theAzdaiglyph.The bastard had been metingout the punishment Darlah required.Clearly, she was also his source ofinformation about the Gems of Enoch.But he hadn’t known everything, whichmeant Darlah had beensparingwith the details.She’dbeen smart to keep some things to herself, but Razr wouldn’t expect anythingelse from her.He might have been the team leader, Ebel the brute force, butshe’d been the strategist.
“Darlah, what are you doing here?”He gestured to Shrike.“With this insane motherfucker.Everyone thinks you’re dead.”
Laughing bitterly, she stepped onto the landing.“OurCelestial brethren dumped me in the human realm with no protection.This‘insane motherfucker’ provides that.Or did you expect me to beg Heaven to letme back in without my gem?Ebel found his and theystillkilled him.Imagine what they’d do to you or me.”
“Bullshit,” he snapped, angry at this betrayal.She’d beenhiding all this time, and worse, she’d been hiding in a psychotic fallenangel’s tacky lair.“Ebel is dead because his stone was tainted by evil, notbecause he returned to Heaven with it.”
She cocked an eyebrow.“And how was he tainted by the evil?”
Razr threw up his hands in frustration.“Obviously, he musthave bonded with the host.And because she was evil, he went insane and...”Hetrailed off, sickened by the implications of what he’d just voiced.
A glance at Jedda, at the trauma in her expression,confirmed his suspicion, and now it all made sense.Ebel’s proximity to Mandaand the evil taint of the stone had released evil in him, too.He must haveraped her, sealing the malevolence in his soul.When he killed her and took thestone, the evil went with him, and he’d had to be destroyed.
How much of that had Jedda witnessed?No wonder she’d beenterrified back inAzagoth’streasure room when she’dlearned the Ice Diamond was his.She’d seen an angel behave in the most heinousof ways.And Razr’s own behavior hadn’t exactly been exemplary.
“It doesn’t matter,” Darlah said.“I’m not going back.But Ido want my fucking stone.”She snarled at Jedda.“I was close.So close.Butyour bitch of a sister had powerful friends.”
Jedda sucked air.“You know who I am?”
“Fool,” Darlah spat, her lips twisted in an ugly knot ofrage.He used to kiss that mouth.Now he just wanted to gargle with kerosene toget the bad taste out of his own mouth.“That’s why we chose you to find thegemstones.We figured you’d know where to find Reina.”
“And if Jedda couldn’t?Or wouldn’t?”Razr shot back.“Whatthen?”
Shrike tossed a dart, and it made a sickening squishy noiseon impact with the dead demon’s third eye.It really was an impressive shot,Razr supposed.
“We were hoping Jedda could find the bracelet as well as thematching gemstone.”Shrikeswung back around to Razrand Jedda.“But if not, we figured we could still get Jedda’s Ice Diamond.”
“The Ice Diamond is useless without my ring,” Razr pointedout.“And you couldn’t have known I’d randomly show up at the dinner party.”
Darlah laughed.“I admit, that was a stroke of luck, but Iwould have found you eventually.”She held up her arm to reveal her severedhand, making clear that she’d have done the same to him to get the ring.
Ah, shit.This situation could go bad, and fast, becauseclearly, they’d been prepared to kill Jedda to get the stone, and now they wereprepared to kill or dismember him, as well.Wasn’tgoing to happen, though.No way.
“Well,” Shrike said with a dramatic sigh––because fallenangels were fucking drama queens, “I admit I’m at a loss.I’m not sure where wegofrom here.I’m guessing you didn’t bring Darlah’sgem andbracelet.”
“Even if we had,” Jedda snapped, “do you think we’d givethem to you now?You were planning to kill me, you bastard.”She pegged Darlahwith an accusing glare.“Bastards.”
“Darlah,” Razr warned, “you know Heaven is going to find outabout this.They’ll never let you back in.”
“Good!”She threw out her arms and her bound wings poppedfrom her back.They’d been beautiful once, white with shiny mink tips.Now theywere trussed like a roast turkey, with thick gold rope strangling the feathersand bones.Razr’s looked like that too, and seeing hers made them throb.“Letthem find out.Let them sever my wings so I can have the power of the Fallenwhen they grow back.This is where I belong.”She made an encompassing gesture.“This is where I will make my name.Here I can rule demons instead ofserveangels.”
“I’ve heard that story before,” he said, as every tale ofSatan’s rebellion filtered through his mind.“It won’t end well for you.”
“No, my love,” she whispered.“It won’t end well foryou.”
