Reaver

“That’s very touching, but no.”

“No… what?” he prompted.

Was he being deliberately dense? “I won’t be your… whatever it is you want me for.”

Reaching out, he brushed a knuckle over her cheek, a gentle gesture that she might have fallen for when she was Verrine. Now she didn’t want his attention. Now she knew he could be as cruel as he was tender.

“Oh, I think you will,” Raphael drawled, and she broke out in gooseflesh as a sensation of impending doom sank into her gut. “See, I’m going to make you a deal.”

She narrowed her eyes. “What kind of deal?”

“I promise to keep you safe from Satan. You’re vulnerable while you’re in the human realm. Come with me, and he won’t be able to touch you ever again. In addition, I won’t destroy Reaver for what he’s done.” Raphael smile was wolfish, a predator that had pinned the deer. “In exchange, you agree to be my consort.”

The a**hole thought he had her, didn’t he? She returned his smile. “Tell you what. I keep myself safe, you don’t destroy Reaver, and I don’t become your consort. In exchange, I tell you where Gethel is.”

He laughed. “We know where she is. We nabbed the demon you hitched a ride with in the Harrowgate.” He took Harvester’s hand and squeezed as if he owned her. “So what’s it to be? A ceremony for Reaver’s execution, or a ceremony binding us together forever?”

A thought occurred to her, a terrible, ugly thought, and she drew in a ragged breath. “This isn’t about me, is it? This is about hurting Reaver. That’s why you wanted me to torture him.”

He smoothed his finger over her cheek, and her skin crawled. “You’re part right. I did want him to suffer, but this isn’t about him. It really is about you. As I said, I’ve wanted you for a long time.” His vile touch moved south, down her neck to her collarbone, where he slid his finger under the strap of her tank top. “But if it makes you feel any better, remember when I threatened to take away your memories of Yenrieth if you didn’t torture him?”

“Gee, no,” she gritted out. “Totally forgot.”

“You’ll have to stop with the sarcasm. I don’t like it,” he said, and yeah, she’d get right on that.

“What does any of this have to do with my memories?”

He shrugged. “I lied. I couldn’t have taken your memories,” he said, and a blast of betrayal and fury blindsided her. Was the truth so f**king hard for people? “The blood bond with Yenrieth saved you from the full memory wipe everyone else got. Nothing can change that. Not even an archangel.” That last part came out with so much bitterness she could practically taste it on her own tongue.

Harvester had spent five thousand years in hell with demons so evil that even Satan contained them. And yet, Raphael, an angel of Heaven, was one of the biggest fiends she’d ever known.

And in order to save Reaver, she was going to be forced to spend the rest of eternity with the fiend.

For a split second, the length of half a heartbeat, her inner evil rose up and considered turning Raphael down. But she squashed the thought immediately. As jumbled as her feelings were about Reaver right now, she was one hundred percent certain that she couldn’t see him die.

“You sick, twisted bastard,” she rasped. “I hate you. No matter how long we’re together, I will despise every breath you take.”

He grinned. “Then a mating ceremony, it is.”

Twenty-Five

Reaver woke in the triage tent in Underworld General’s parking lot. Eidolon hovered next to the bed, Ares, Thanatos, and Reseph flanking him.

“Behold,” Eidolon said. “The angel awakens.”

“I’m guessing I owe you my life.” Owing a demon anything was never ideal, but Reaver knew Eidolon well enough to know the doctor would never abuse leverage. Reaver tried to sit, but heavy straps held him down. “And why am I restrained?”

“Because it took five Sems, including me, to remove the aurial without killing you.” Eidolon flipped the releases on the restraints. “You didn’t handle it well.”

No, a demon channeling power into him while he was unconscious would trigger an angelic instinct to fight. He was lucky his body had accepted Seminus healing energy in the first place. Most angels couldn’t be healed by demons. “Where’s Harvester? What happened?”

“She sent for us to bring you here,” Reseph said. “You almost died.”

Thanatos moved closer to the bed, his accusing gaze cutting deep. “Why did you go to Sheoul to save her? Lorelia and Revenant claimed she was a spy.” He clenched his fists at his sides, as if wishing Harvester’s neck was between them. “But that’s bullshit. She plotted with Pestilence to start the Apocalypse and murder my son.”

Reseph turned a little green at the mention of Pestilence, while Ares folded his arms across his chest, watching with assessing eyes. Of all the Horsemen, he was the one who could be the most level-headed and would likely approve of everything Harvester did over the centuries for the sake of victory. But he was also the one who would be the least understanding of what Reaver had done, because Reaver had done it out of emotion, not logic.

The bed creaked as Reaver sat up, and oh, look at that. He was na**d. He snatched a bed sheet and covered his lap while Eidolon dug a set of scrubs from out of a cabinet.

“Harvester didn’t plot to do any of that,” Reaver said. “Your Watchers are right. She volunteered to fall from Heaven in order to watch over all of you.”

“The hell she did.” Thanatos’s anger was accompanied by a whoosh of souls escaping his armor to writhe at his feet. Their desire to kill in order to be free of his armor forever had them stretching the limits of their invisible tethers.

Eidolon tossed Reaver the blue scrubs before turning to Than. “Put the souls away, Horseman.”

Normally, Thanatos wouldn’t be cowed by any demon, but Eidolon had proved himself time and time again, and he’d delivered Than’s son. The scorpion tattoo on his neck writhed, its tail stabbing at his jugular a few times before he got hold of his temper, but finally, the souls melted into his armor again.

“It’s true,” Reaver insisted. “She’s been looking out for you since you were infants. When she fell, she worked her way to becoming Watcher and spent her time secretly manipulating events. When Reseph’s Seal broke, she pretended to help Pestilence, but everything she did was to help stop the Apocalypse.”

Ares frowned. “But it was she who made sure The Aegis sent Regan to seduce Thanatos. She knew the baby was the key to breaking Thanatos’s Seal.”

Thanatos growled at that, and the souls made an appearance again. This time Eidolon just shot him a dirty look and the souls disappeared.

“She also knew the baby was the one and only person who could stop the Apocalypse,” Reaver insisted. “It was a risk, but she had faith you’d find a way to end the Apocalypse and save your son.”

“But she tortured you. And I…” Anguish darkened Reseph’s expression. “She… and I…”

“Hey,” Reaver said softly. “We’ve been through this.” He shoved his legs into the scrubs and moved to Reseph, who had gone pale at the memory of what he’d done to both Harvester and Reaver. “You weren’t you, and she didn’t have a choice. Raphael ordered her to do it. And trust me, she could have hurt me far worse than she did.” He pulled on the scrub top. “I’m not asking you to understand. Not yet. But I am asking you to give her a chance.”

“She means a lot to you, doesn’t she?” Reseph asked.

“More than you know.” More than even he knew, he suspected. He had a feeling they’d uncover a lot more layers of their relationship if he ever recovered all his memories. “Now, where is she?” Ares and Thanatos both shot Reseph a questioning glance, and Reaver’s blood pressure bottomed out. “Where?”

“I left her with Raphael,” Reseph muttered.

Raphael? Shit. What had he done with her? He looked around for his boots, found them near the door.

“E, did Tavin make it back?” He hoped so. The poor Sem had gone through hell while in… hell. And Reaver had managed to f**k him up even more.

“He’s fine. Except for the snake issue. I don’t suppose you can shed some light on that?”

“Not really.” Reaver jammed his feet into his boots and bent to tie them. “I don’t know what it is. I’ll see what I can find out.”

Eidolon nodded. “I’ve got Idess on it, and I’ve got someone else I can consult with.”

Relieved, Reaver straightened. If Eidolon was on it, Tav was in good hands. “I need to go.” He started toward the tent exit but stopped before he got there. “Where’s Limos?”

More exchanged glances. “She’s home.” Ares’s tone dripped with rare emotion, and Reaver’s gut clenched as he remembered what Revenant had said about an accident.

Thanatos’s gaze was stricken, his pause ominous. “She lost the baby.”

“She didn’t lose it,” Ares growled. “The child was destroyed.”

Reaver’s heart skidded to a smoking halt and raw, grinding grief carved deep into his chest. Oh, Limos, I’m so sorry. His throat constricted into a tube so narrow every breath was like a searing whip of air.

“How?” he croaked.

Thanatos let loose a tirade of curses in several ancient languages. “Our new Heavenly Watcher lost her shit. The bitch took us all down. She even killed one of Ares’s hellhounds.” He inhaled a ragged breath. “The baby didn’t survive. We’ve been scouring the globe for Lorelia, but it looks like she’s hiding behind archangel skirts.”

Rabid fury and ice-hot hatred shot through Reaver with an intensity he hadn’t felt since learning Verrine had kept the secret of his children from him. Harvester was missing, was probably being held by the archangels until they decided what to do with her, and the Watcher who had been assigned to watch over Limos had hurt her and killed Reaver’s grandchild.