He moved back to Rachels body and froze. Her eyes were open, and shed watched everything, the horrific savagery he was capable of. And then she closed her eyes again, as if even looking at him was seeing an unspeakable monster.
He held her carefully. Her life force wasnt strong; shed lost a great deal of blood, and if he didnt get her help soon she would die. And much too late, he suddenly realized that he couldnt bear it if she did.
He kicked open the door into the moonless night. The rain had stopped, but the gloom remained. How fitting that this was Uriels idea of the perfect afterlife. Heaven, Paradise, Valhalla. The Dark City, with no sunshine, no joy, no light.
He looked down at Rachel. Yes, she was Rachel, not the demon, not the Lilith, no matter what darkness hid inside her. She was Rachel, and hed betrayed her.
There was only one person who could save her. He would have to take her to the woman he hated, the woman whod taken Sarahs place. He would have to take Rachel to Sheol, to Raziels wife, the new Source. And pray to the God who had abandoned them that Allie could save her.
He spread his wings wide and surged upward, into the dark, threatening sky that surrounded this cursed place. Up toward the brilliant sun, leaving the Dark City and the archangel Uriel far behind.
SHEOL
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE EARLY MORNING AIR WAS still and silent in their bedroom looking out over the ocean. Allie lifted her head, shoving back her thick brown hair. Over the years her senses had grown more attuned to the rhythms of Sheol, their hidden fortress in the mist, and the Fallen who lived there. She knew their comings and goings, their anguish and joys, their needs. God, she knew their needs. Right now someone needed her quite desperately, someone who wasnt there yet, and she started to roll over, but Raziel caught her arm and pulled her back on top of him.
Where do you think youre going? he murmured lazily. We only just got started.
Allie laughed, burrowing against his lean, strong, deliciously naked body. May I point out to you what we did down on the beach in the moonlight just last night? And then what we did when you carried me back to bed?
Its a new day, he said with a wicked gleam, rolling her underneath him. He was fully aroused, and she let out a little purr of delight.
So it is, she whispered, reaching up and pulling his head down to hers. Their kiss was full and sweet, and she was warm and ready, tilting her hips up for his thick, gorgeous slide, closing her eyes and losing herself in the sweet dark magic of desire. The ebb and flow, thrust and withdrawal, building and building, almost to the point of pain, and then glorious release, cascading down.
Later, when she lay spent and breathless on the huge bed, she watched him rise and stretch, a man, an angel, a blood-eater well pleased with himself and his life. He cast her one salacious grin before heading into the bathroom, and she managed a weak grin back. She only wished she had his energy.
After seven years their bond had only grown stronger, so tight that nothing could break it. Not even the laws of nature, she thought with a trace of grim determination. She didnt care what the rules were. She was never going to die, never going to leave her immortal husband. She flat-out refused.
It was the way of things, she was told. The Fallen didnt
make mistakes. Once theyd chosen a partner, that connection became unbreakable. As the wife grew older and older. And the husband stayed young forever.
She was lucky, though. She was the Source, the spiritual leader of the Fallen, the mother, the nurturer. And the source of blood to sustain those without partners, even the grumpy and unaccepting Azazel, husband of Sarah.
As the Source, she would live much longer than the short human span. But after a couple of hundred years she would die, and Raziel would go on. And she couldnt bear it.
She sat up. She considered herself a practical woman, and she limited her brooding to a few minutes daily at the most. Right now there was no time for it. She had a naked husband in the huge walk-in shower, and she needed to bathe as well. And he was so good at soaping her up.
She needed to eat, and to get ready. Something was coming that would require everything from her. Something was coming that would change everything.
She needed to be ready.
IT WAS ENDLESS, FLYING THROUGH storms and dimensions, past the angry roar of a demigod, her broken body wrapped carefully in his arms. She didnt awaken, which was a blessing. She was afraid of flying, and hed had to knock her out the last time he carried her, or her struggles could have sent them hurtling toward the ground. He would have been fine, but a crash could have killed her, and he hadnt wanted to risk it.
Right now she was barely breathing. There was a ring of blue around her lips as she struggled for breath, and he wondered if theyd damaged her heart.
No, he was the one whod done that. Stupid and cloying as the idea was, hed seen the look on her face when the Nightmen arrived and known that was exactly what hed done. Hed broken her heart.