“A yeti?” She slaps her hand over her mouth. Her cheeks flush bright red. “Oh, God. I’m sorry. I’m just…I’ve never…”
Kunchin frowns. “You’re clearlyotheras my perception filter doesn’t work on you. But you’ve never seen one of us before? Or a gorilla shifter? They’re everywhere down by the Embarcadero. Though I’mmuchmore elegant.” He brushes the hand with his coffee mug down his blue silk tie. “And taller.”
“Her powers only manifested a few weeks ago.” This was a mistake. I should have insisted we meet at Sinclair’s penthouse. If Willow is frightened by the yeti, I do not want to know what she will think of the vampires. Or the ghouls.
“Oh. Well, the entire building is warded,” Kunchin explains. “Humans see an empty lot, and if they get too close, they’ll feel an irresistible urge to suddenly be anywhere else.” He takes a long sip from his mug. “Lieutenant Eve’s morning briefing is in half an hour, and I need to check my email first. Good to see you again, Gabriel. Willow.” With a nod, he strides for the double doors.
“A yeti. In a suit.” Willow’s voice cracks. She turns to me, resting her forehead against my shoulder. “And I insulted him.”
“This was never your world,deliciae.” I rub her back in long, slow strokes. “But when we go inside, I suggest you avoid staring at the ghouls. They have been known to hold grudges for centuries.”
“Or…you could just forget everything I told you,” she says softly. “I know you’re immortal. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be killed. Right? AURA will never stop hunting me. I have to find the Blade before they do and destroy it.”
“And you expect me to let you do that alone?” The words are too loud and carry so much power, a car alarm goes off at the edge of the parking lot. Willow shies away from me, cringing, with her hands over her ears.
“Gabriel, get the fuck inside.” Sinclair holds the front door open while Zoe hurries over to Willow and takes her arm. “The Lieutenant is already angry that I will not tell her what this case is about. If you insist on bringing down the building, you will learn just how quickly an eagle shifter can claw your eyes out.”
SIXTEEN
Willow
Zoe keeps her arm around my shoulders as she leads me through a sea of desks to a set of stairs at the back of the building. “Don’t stare at the shifters,” she says softly. “They don’t like it.”
I keep my gaze pinned to the floor. Safer that way. I don’t want to be ripped apart. Or haunted for the rest of my life. All around me, conversations stop or drop to whispers until we’re at the top of the stairs.
“Okay. No one else is around. You can breathe now.” She swipes a plastic badge over a sensor along the wall, and a metal door slides open. The conference room looks like something out ofStar Trek. Huge, glowing blue screens line one entire wall, with terminals spaced around a glossy black conference table. In one corner, a fancy beverage machine sits on a small cabinet, surrounded by a handful of cups. “We got lucky,” she says. “This is the only room with its own coffee machine. The sludge downstairs will eat a hole in your stomach. Well, unless you’re a shifter or a vampire. They can heal so quickly, they could be drinking battery acid all day and be fine. Do you want a cup?”
“God, yes. I feel like a zombie.”
Zoe cringes. “Um, some of the ghouls identify as zombie cryptids. Don’t let them hear you say that.”
I can feel the blood drain from my cheeks. The Blade might not get a chance to kill me. The wrong word or sideways glance in this building and one of the other agents could tear me apart.
“Sinclair and Gabriel will be up in a couple of minutes.” She slides a steaming cup in front of me. “They have to smooth things over with our Lieutenant. How does your neck feel?”
My fingers skim my throat. “Better. I’m…um…sorry about last night. If I offended you. Or Sinclair.”
“You didn’t.” She peers at me over the rim of her mug. “Ask.”
I almost choke on a sip of coffee. “Ask…what?”
“Anything.” Her smile is reassuring. Warm. “I was you a few weeks ago, Willow. This world is still new to me too.”
“But Gabriel said you were…a Seraphim. Thisisyour world, right?” I’m so confused.
Zoe’s cheeks tinge with color. “Do you know what a Seraphim is?”
“No.” The coffee warms my hands but does nothing to steady my nerves.
“I’m adaughterof Seraphim. The highest of the angels. The watchers. My body’s human. It’s only my soul that’s celestial. I was sent to this realm centuries ago to trap a demon’s consciousness in Hell. But I failed. One of the other angels was…well…really fucking pissed.”
“Not Gabriel?” The way she talks, this isn’t a good story. What if Gabriel isn’t the man—angel—I think he is?
“No. Not Gabriel. Long story short, he trapped me in a prison of my own body until I had ‘learned my lesson.’ Then eventually sent me back here a second time—to do the same damn thing—with no idea who or what I was. If I hadn’t been partnered with Sin…I might not have remembered until it was too late.” She shudders, a shadow passing over her face for a brief moment.
Something hits the door behind us, and we both jerk. A little of my coffee spills onto the table.
Zoe rolls her eyes. “Gabriel, I know you can hear me. Tell Sin to let you go and get in here. We need to call Mad and Killian.”
