A low growl rumbled from Phenex’s throat as he punched his fist against his palm. “Let me have at them. I’ll handle it.”
Stolas cut him a dark glare. “The way you handled Lucifer? You and Valac barely made it out of that little scheme of yours in one piece.”
Turned out, Lucifer had used their own trick against them. He’d found some clothes that belonged to a girl Phenex was involved with, and then he’d waved her scent all around Lower Manhattan. Phenex had been off like a rocket. If Valac hadn’t caught up to him in time, Lucifer would have gotten his claws into my favorite redheaded demon.
“That was a dirty-ass trick,” Phenex muttered, still punching his palm. “Using Lucinda against me like that.”
I smiled. “I think I need to know more about Lucinda.”
Caim chuckled, but Phenex quickly held up his hand. “No. Absolutely not. Lucinda is a terror, and I don’t want to say anything more about her. Ever.”
“I thought you had a thing for her,” Ramona said, cocking her head. Today, she wore a curly purple wig.
“You thought wrong.”
Shrugging, Caim turned back to the map. “Anyway, now that we’ve covered Phenex’s obsession—”
“I am not obsessed.”
“—we should get back to the task at hand. The fallen angels are targeting supernaturals close to us again.” The twinkle in his eye died. “Innocents. And they’re trying to make a point.”
Stolas flipped the golden coin. Morax’s seal flickered as the coin rushed up to the ceiling and then fell like a lead weight into his open palm. I swallowed hard. Morax had been a brother to all five of them. Not by blood, but by something more. A chosen family, bound by love and trust. And he’d been stolen from them. Now, the fallen angels were using that loss to rub salt into a very open wound.
And every single of these demons looked ready to rip those angels apart.
“Where the hell is Az?” Bael broke the heavy silence and strode to the door to peer out of the peephole. “He should have been here ages ago, lads.”
“Has anyone seen him since last night when he was with, um...?” I hated asking it. Acknowledging his ‘meeting’ with Eisheth made me feel like I was being paranoid and jealous, and obviously, I was neither of those two.Ahem.First, I had no reason to be jealous. We weren’t in a relationship. Just lust. Sure, he wanted to protect me, but Az wanted to protect everyone.
The only actual relationship we’d shared had been fake.
“Eisheth?” Phenex jerked up his head and shot me a lazy smile. “Someone seems a little bothered, eh?”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not bothered. Do I need to ask you about Lucinda again?”
“Anyone who says they’re bothered is usually bothered, love,” Bael drawled.
“Whatever. Don’t you think it’s a little weird?” I asked, folding my arms. “The last time anyone saw him, he was with his mortal enemy. The one who...” I pressed my lips together.
It suddenly felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room. Tension pounded against my skull as Phenex slowly stood. Anger rippled off his body like a heatwave. Striding toward Caim, he fisted his hands and then punched the map.
Yep, that’s right. He punched the whiteboard. It toppled to the stone floor and cracked clean in half.
Caim’s mouth dropped open. “Now, why did you have to go and do that?”
“I was angry,” he muttered. “I needed to punch something.”
“Maybe a wall next time?” Caim said, throwing up his hands. “You messed up my map.”
“I think not,” Valac murmured from the back corner. He’d watched most of this entire meeting silently, arms draped over his knee. “If Phenex wants to punch a wall, he can go home and add to his collection of holes.”
“Better I punch your wall than your face,” Phenex shot back.
“Boys.” Priyanka sighed and padded between them, shaking her head. “This meeting is giving me a headache. Can wepleasefocus on tracking down the angels before they kill anyone else? We need to make a plan. Not do...whatever this is.”
“I’m ashamed to admit this is often how we make our plans,” Stolas said from his spot on the hard sofa. “They’re like little children, bickering all the time.”
Caim pointed at Stolas and laughed. “That’s pretty rich, coming from you. Don’t think we’ve forgotten about the time you and Bael got so annoyed with each other that you were throwing books at each other’s heads. You practically destroyed an entire library.”
