“Fuck you first.” I sniff.
He gives me a subtle smirk before telling me to follow him. He gets back in his car in front of the gates where the security pad on the wall is placed to pass Serena’s fingertip reading, and face and voice recognition. I slide the helmet over my arm, start my bike, and follow his car inside—after letting the AI check me as well.
I could have gotten inside, but I wanted to take a phone call away from indiscreet ears. The distrust the team feels toward me is obviously reciprocated.
I ride down the long, tree-lined driveway and park the motorbike next to Uriel’s car at the end. Where Dr. Meghan Bear-Stone’s tacky house used to stand, now there’s a garden, a large, round wooden gazebo with a glass roof, and a fire pit.
The thunk of a car door anticipates Uriel’s words. “Wonders never cease.”
“Meaning?” I ask, leaving the helmet on top of the bike seat.
“Sully.”
I sigh. I thought I had more time. “Does everybody know?”
“Who cares?” He shrugs. “Aren’t you going to ask me how I know?”
“Who cares?” I parrot him. He probably tracked me down while I was at Sully’s university. I check where he goes, I expected him to do the same with me.
“Oh, I think you do, brother.” He smirks as we start crossing the garden. “The name you chose for yourself, Azrael, the angel of death, it suits your life path. But yousimplifiedit to Ezra, which means to aid, to support, to…protect.”
“Do you have a point?” I bat away a lone bee. Fucking hate spring.
“I clearly made it.”
“You are just fucking with me,” I counter. “No Sariel?” My brother rarely leaves his boyfriend alone.
“Why? Do you want to watch him getting kidnapped again while doing nothing?” he grumbles.He’s such a fucking baby.
I shrug his accusation off. “IletSariel get kidnapped to force Nine to show her cards. It was a tactical move.”
“And you got damn squat,” he reminds me.
“And you have something?” I scoff. “I won’t let Nine slip through my fingers like piss through the drain.”
“She wants vengeance, do you fucking know why?”
“No clue.” And I don’t actually care.
“You were in the same facility with her for years.”
“Just like I was with all of you before they moved me, but I never saw any of you,” I clip back.
“I’m fucking tired of being the middleman here, Ezra. You need to be in this with us,” he snaps.
I like to ruffle his feathers, but what’s the big deal here? “Why?”
“Even evil must have a home.” He touches his chest, then mine before waving his hand toward the garden.
What the fuck is he saying? That we are evil? I sniff, probably.
“A home?”What for?All we need is to eliminate the threat. “I’m working with you guys. Isn’t that what we need to do right now?”
“No. You work alone and only contact us when you need something. Stop fucking around, Ezra.” His words sound final. But I don’t give a shit. My way works and I won’t change it because of…ahome.
As we round the gazebo, I have my first clear look of the training facility Raguel and Oliver built farther down the property.
It’s a three-story modern-looking building. The first floor is all made of smart-tinted glass. The closer we get, the bigger it looks. The second and third floors—where the bedrooms are located—are a mix of metal and gray stone, with an exposed steel frame supporting the angled roof and terrace on top. Miles and miles of forest run over the property—handy for disposal of bodies—and every inch of it is covered by a top-tier security system.
