Reaver

“Damn.” Reaver’s husky voice rolled through her like thunder. “This is so… good.” He opened those amazing eyes, and she lost herself in them and in the moment, letting the sounds of the waterfall and sex take her so high she felt as if she could bump her head on the moon.

She moved faster, the tension inside her building to a fever pitch. She couldn’t get enough of him, could never get enough to make up for time lost.

Arching her back, she took him deep, needing to feel him everywhere. He hissed and jerked, his body going taut as his hot flow spilled inside her.

“Yes,” he gasped. “Fuck… yeah.”

His eyes glowed with blue-hot inner fire that sucked her in and triggered an explosion of ecstasy so powerful she screamed with the force of it. Pleasure crashed through her in unrelenting waves.

Beneath her, Reaver peaked again, and they came together in an overwhelming tempest of rapture so fierce that when it was over, neither of them could move. She collapsed on top of him in a heap, hoping no one stumbled upon them, because she didn’t have the energy to even lift a finger to say hi.

They lay half in, half out of the water for a long time, sated, breathing hard. Harvester nuzzled Reaver’s throat, figuring now would be the best time to break the news. Maybe Reaver was as exhausted as she was.

“There’s something I have to tell you.”

Reaver stroked her back, his warm fingers stirring her insides again. “This isn’t going to be good, is it?”

“No.” Dread descended on her like a swarm of ghastbats as she braced herself for what she was going to say next, but she couldn’t stop her stomach from churning. “I agreed to be Raphael’s consort.”

Reaver sat up so fast she fell into the water. He fetched her, sputtering and spitting, and pulled her onto the sandy bank with him. “Consort? As in… mate?” He brushed her wet hair back from her face. “Harvester? Look at me.”

She didn’t want to. “He wants a ceremony and shit.”

“Why? What the hell—”

Raising her gaze to his, she silenced him with a finger on his lips. “It was a deal to keep you alive.”

“Fuck.” Reaver fell back into the sand and stared up at the canopy of tree branches and clear blue sky beyond them. “Don’t do it. Please don’t do it.”

“I can’t go back on my word,” she choked out. “He’ll kill you.”

“I don’t care.” He twined his fingers with hers. His hand was shaking. “Don’t chain yourself to him for eternity.”

He didn’t care? He seriously would give up his life to make sure she was happy? Dear God, she’d been so wrong about him for so long.

But she wasn’t going to let him die for any reason. She’d put up with far worse than being chained to Raphael if it meant keeping Reaver safe. “There’s more.”

“More? How can there possibly be more?”

“It’s not entirely bad,” she said.

“About time,” he muttered. “But I don’t like the ‘entirely’ part.”

Neither did she. “I’m the Horsemen’s new Watcher. This time on the good side.” She smiled, letting herself forget Raphael’s bargain for a moment. “And it gets better. Brace yourself. I have Limos’s baby.”

He sat straight up. “You… wait… say that again?”

Still smiling, because it was rare to see the usually stoic Reaver flustered, Harvester told him the rest. “Lorelia took the baby to exchange it with Lucifer in Gethel’s womb. But when—”

“She was going to what?” Reaver’s roar sent birds exploding out of the trees. His eyes blazed, promising murder, and nope, Harvester wouldn’t want to be in Lorelia’s shoes right now.

“Reaver.” Harvester lowered her voice, shooting for a tone she hadn’t used in thousands of years, the tone that had always soothed Yenrieth. Well, almost always. Nothing had calmed him after he learned that she’d kept the existence of his children from him. “They didn’t do it. Something went wrong. The exchange won’t work. But now only a Watcher can return Limos’s baby to the womb, and there’s not much time left. If I don’t do it within twenty-four hours, the child’s soul returns to Heaven and she won’t be born.”

“She?” Reaver sucked in a sharp breath. “I’m going to have a granddaughter?”

Feminine appreciation shimmered through her, a primitive, basic response she hadn’t felt in, well… not since before she’d fallen. She’d thought all her tender instincts had been destroyed by her time in Sheoul, but they’d merely been shoved into storage and were now emerging, dusty and unused and utterly foreign.

“You are,” she said. “I promise.”

“Then do it.” Reaver leaped to his feet, his bronzed body gloriously na**d, his skin glistening with water droplets she wanted to lick. “Why are you waiting?”

“Because I’m not powerful enough by myself. I need an archangel.”

“Let me guess.” Reaver’s hands clenched at his sides. “Raphael is holding it over your head.”

“I agreed to be his consort to save your life. But he didn’t specifically say I had to sleep with him.” She shoved to her feet and snatched up her clothes. “So he’s using the child as leverage. If I screw him, he’ll help me give Limos her baby back. I also have to help the archangels locate Lucifer. I’d have done that anyway, but Raphael felt the need to tack it onto our agreement.”

“That bastard.”

She wasn’t going to argue that. “I have to do it.” She reached out and took his hand. “I’ll do anything to keep you alive and give Limos the child she always wanted.”

“I know.” Reaver wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, holding her as if he were afraid to let go. “But I don’t want you to have to. Somehow I’ll fix this, Harvester.”

He couldn’t fix it. Even he had to know that. Raphael had proven he was willing to stop short of nothing to get what he wanted, and right now, what he wanted was Harvester.

She couldn’t put Reaver at risk again. He’d already given up his wings to rescue her. She wouldn’t see him give up his life as well.

So while she hoped there was a way out of this mess, she wasn’t going to count on it.

She used to believe in fate. She’d been sure that she and Yenrieth were soul mates. Now she wasn’t sure of anything.

Twenty-Nine

Reaver was still reeling with Harvester’s revelations as they dressed, his mind churning with a million different things.

“Do you have a place to stay?” Harvester asked.

“I got an apartment in New York when I was fallen the first time.” He shrugged. “Kept it when I got my wings back. You never know when you’re going to need to get away from prying eyes. Besides, do you know how hard it is to find a decent sized apartment with a view and parking in Manhattan? I’m never giving that sucker up.”

“Smart,” she mused. “So what now?”

“Now, I’m going to see Ares.”

“You have a lot to catch up on with your sons.”

Yes, but that wasn’t why he was going. “Can you give me a lift?”

Man, he hated asking for shit that, as an angel, was so simple, but in an instant, they were inside Ares and Cara’s Greek mansion. The two of them were half-clothed and rolling around on the floor.

“Ah…” Reaver cleared his throat.

Cara screamed and grabbed a throw from off the couch to cover up. A young hellhound rushed into the room, skidded across the floor, and crashed into a marble pedestal. The pedestal toppled, sending the two books on display tumbling onto the tiles. Ares cursed and stood, blocking his wife from view. At least he had on shorts.

“There’s a thing called a door,” he said flatly. “It comes complete with a doorbell, and it’s right behind you.”

Harvester snorted. “You know I don’t knock or ring doorbells. Also, I’m your new Watcher. Be nice.”

Ares bent to pick up the copy of the Daemonica that landed near his feet. “Switching teams hasn’t improved your temperament, obviously.”

“Obviously,” she drawled.

So getting her halo back hadn’t changed everything. Reaver kind of liked that, but he still drew her aside before the fur started flying. He carefully picked up the Bible off the floor and set it on the coffee table as Ares and Cara discreetly dressed.

“I’m going to ask Ares to—”

“The Bible.” Harvester grasped his wrist as if he hadn’t spoken. “I got it! Oh, damn, Reaver, I thought of a way out of this mess with Raphael.”

His heart kicked into high gear. “How?”

She bounced on her toes excitedly. “He can’t kill you. He lied about that.” At what must have been a perplexed expression on his face, she explained. “You’re the Horsemen’s father. Their father is supposed to break their Seals when it comes time for the biblical Apocalypse.”

He inhaled sharply. “You’re right. He wouldn’t dare kill me and interfere with such a history-altering prophecy that favors Heaven in the Final Battle.” Yes. He lowered his voice so Ares and Cara wouldn’t hear the rest. “He can’t force you to be his consort… at least, not with that threat. But there’s still the issue with Limos’s baby. He’s still got you over a barrel.”

“But only for sex.”

Only. There was no such thing as only sex. Not when it was Harvester with anyone but Reaver.

“You can’t let him know you’re aware that he can’t kill me, or he’ll use the baby as leverage to get both sex and your consent to a mating ceremony.”

“So what do we do?”

“Stall for time.”

“Reaver, we don’t have much time.” She pegged him with serious eyes. “I’m going to give Limos her baby back, even if it means—”