His soul.
* * *
Rain drummed on the asphalt as Blaéz headed toward Dante’s bar later that night.
Harleys backed up the narrow alley. Soaked to the skin, he pushed open the door into the noisy joint. The acrid stench of tobacco smoke, stale sweat, and burgers slapped him in welcome. Ignoring the leather-clad humans glancing his way, he made his way through the bar, thankful his usual table in the shadowy back corner near the pockmarked mirror was unoccupied. He dropped into the seat and swiped the wetness from his face with the back of his hand.
This night sucked. Pissing rain. No demoniis trawling.
“What canna get ya?” a breathy female asked, appearing at his side.
“Whiskey, neat.” He pulled his cell from his pocket and frowned again at the quiet display.
Darci had called earlier to tell him she was having dinner at her brother’s house and she’d be home late. Blaéz didn’t like that. Naturally, his first reaction had been to go over and prevent the visit. He didn’t trust her kin not to secure another male as a mate to his female.
Darci was his. He would make that clear to her brother.
The waitress plunked his whiskey before him. “Ya need anythin’ else?”
“No.” He picked up his glass. At the sudden quiet in the bar, Blaéz glanced up.
Seemed about right. Michael had finally caught up with him.
He took a sip of his liquor, savoring the burning trail sliding down his throat and watched the archangel stalk over, his mean-as-a-snake expression obvious, despite the shaded eyes. Michael dragged a chair across the linoleum, flipped it around, and straddled the thing, arms folded on the backrest.
Blaéz didn’t need precog to know the Arc’s presence here was to drive in the thumbtacks. It wasn’t like he’d hid his visits to Darci.
“Was the understanding not clear when I said she’s human and had to leave the castle?”
Blaéz considered the remaining liquid in his glass. “And so she did.”
Michael looked ready to plow his fist into something. “Dammit, Celt, you know what I meant.”
Indeed. Blaéz downed the rest of his whiskey, set the glass on the table with a twenty, and strode out of the bar. He’d been prepared to walk away from Darci, but that hadn’t worked out. He’d be damned if he allowed another to dictate whether he could or couldn’t see her.
The rain had eased. Moonlight peered out from behind the black clouds, highlighting the deteriorating buildings as he prowled down the wet alley, sidestepped a sleeping drunk breathing out alcoholic fumes. Michael hard on his tail. “Explain to me what is it about this female, when we’ve rescued thousands, that’s gained your attention?”
Týr had asked him the same question, but he couldn’t fob Michael off with silence. Blaéz stopped near a pitted parking spot, cordoned by chains rattling in the light winds. A stray feline sidled alongside the wall and away from him. “She makes me feel.”
“Damn.” Hands on his hips, Michael glared skyward. Could only be for heavenly direction. “This changes things.”
Blaéz was prepared for a fight. “The times I see her mess with no one’s schedule but my own. I won’t give her up.”
“What I mean, Celt, is with you visiting her, do you really think our enemies would not be aware of your tie to her and use it as leverage? And what about the Absolute Laws?”
An archaic law that still bit arse. One an entire race of angels and their human consorts had been annihilated for. The one the pantheons still clung to and made absolute. Immortals and mortals couldn’t mate. It meant death for the couple. More, it would upset the balance of power if mortal offspring were born with formidable abilities.
He’d already factored that in. “I’m moving in with her. Besides, I can’t mate her, so she’ll be safe from the Absolute Laws.”
Michael shoved his shades up, pinched the bridge of his nose. “Dammit. We are a small group, I refuse to lose any more of you. I need you at the castle.”
His cell vibrated in his pocket, Blaéz ignored it. “Her life would span mere decades. Mine is eternal. In our existence, my moments with her amounts to seconds. You would deny us that?”
At his blunt words, a low growl rumbled deep in Michael’s throat as if pissed. “Our enemies prowl this city. What happens when you’re on the job? You cannot be with her twenty-four seven. Nor can she mind-link with you if she’s in danger.”
The Arc was right. No matter what protection he put in place, he’d leave Darci alone and vulnerable while out on patrol. With this sudden upswing of Maloch’s minions, they would sniff her out within a matter of time. Andthathe refused to let happen. “I want her safe. I’m bringing her to the castle.”
“Celt, you do this, there is no going back for her.”
