It sounds peaceful, Azazel said. But it is not my time, and wont be. We will mate and bond, and Uriel will know, and it will drive him insane with worry.
And youre willing to put up with her being your bonded mate? Even if your feelings are, shall we say, lukewarm, you know as well as I do what bonding does to a female. Shell be tied to you, and there wont be any escape.
I know.
Shell be taking Sarahs place, Michael said with devastating bluntness, going straight for the heart, the warrior whose arrow was true.
I know, Azazel said again. But she will not serve as the Source. As far as I can tell, she has no powers left to hershes fully human. And if we find we are not compatible, there are endless jobs Im needed for away from Sheol. I dont anticipate her being a problem.
All right, Raziel said finally. Just make sure you dont drain her. It would solve my problem, but Uriel might think it would get in the way of a happy marriage.
The corpse bride, Michael said with a dark laugh. Why not?
Azazel said nothing.
THE PROBLEM WITH EAVESDROPPING WAS that you never heard good stuff, like someone talking about your intelligence and beauty,
or hell, even something boring like the weather. You were more than likely to hear something youd be better off not hearing. Otherwise they would have said it to your face.
I was being ridiculous, of course. Why should I think hed fallen in love with me, simply because hed announced I was his chosen? I imagined a chosen mate in this clearly patriarchal society was simply whomever he fancied who would hold still long enough. The whole thing about poisoned blood was bogus. In fact, the whole thing about blood was probably bullshit. It had nothing to do with us.
Except that I remembered in the darkness, in the rain, Id bit him, tearing his skin, licking at his blood. Why? I was no blood-eater. It apparently was a curse for the Fallen alone, yet Id sought his out. Maybe I was simply kinky when I was so aroused that I couldnt think. Anything was possible, considering I had never been so aroused in my life.
It would serve him right if I bit him again, but I doubted hed care. In fact, I thought, bored forbearance was the way to deal with things, since that was most likely how hed handle it. So what if Id experienced astonishing pleasure with his lean, beautiful body? I could control my own reactions. He could do anything he wanted, and Id simply think about something else.
It would drive him crazy.
What are you grinning at? Allie demanded, coming up beside me. You look positively wicked.
We all have wicked thoughts, I said serenely, moving away from my listening post. In truth, it hadnt been my fault. Id simply gone in search of some quiet, finding it in the low-slung chairs out on one of the decks. I hadnt realized it led off from the assembly room.
Come see your rooms.
The bed in the infirmary is just fine
No, Im talking about Azazels rooms. And yours.
I am notI repeat, notgoing to share rooms with Azazel. Ill mate with him, do the bonding-blood thing, but thats it. Afterward we can go our separate ways.
Allie shook her head. No, you cant. Its permanent. A tie that cant be broken, except by death.
Death didnt seem to break the tie between Azazel and Sarah. I hated the thought of her existence, even though she had been only one of an endless line of human wives hed outlived.
That was more the circumstances of her death than the tie between them, Allie said gently. Sarah would have let him go, wanted him to let go. But Azazel can be very stubborn, and he was filled with rage and had no way to vent it.
Except to go after a demon. Why me? Why did he suddenly decide that he had to kill me?
Because of the prophecy, of course. You were supposed to take Sarahs place. He wanted to make certain that was impossible. She was trying to make it reasonable, but I wasnt buying it.
By disposing of the demon, I said.
Yes. But you need to realize he didnt know you were no longer a demon, she said fairly. He thought you were a monster who killed babies.
He shouldnt believe the bad publicity.
He wasnt thinking clearly.
And Im supposed to forgive him? Because he didnt know?
I dont know that he wants your forgiveness, Allie said. I dont think hes there yet. Hes too caught up in guilt.
Tough, I snapped, feeling brutal. Im not sharing the rooms, the bed he shared with his beloved Sarah. I was horrified to realize that I sounded jealous. What was wrong with me?
You wont be. These are new rooms. It seemed wisestAzazel is better off without the Alpha quarters.
But I thought Raziel was the Alpha. I was trying not to think about Saint Sarah and her sleeping arrangements. I was trying not to think about why I was feeling such resentment. But I was being eaten up with jealousy.
Raziel has only been the Alpha since Sarah died. The only Alpha the Fallen have ever had besides Azazel. So you dont have to worry about any old memories getting in the way of your relationship.
We dont have a relationship, I said.
Allie just smiled.