Suzanne Burke smiled into the camera and held up a fork laden with a bite of her special Bloody Mary Pie.
“And that is how you make a savory morning-after brunch your mate will never forget. Perfectly paired with a shot of cucumber-infused vodka or a zesty Hair of the Hellhound.” She took a bite and nearly moaned in ecstasy. She loved this dish, and happily, it was also one of Declan’s favorites. “Mmm. Spicy, tangy, and decadent. See you next time, when my special guests will be two real life angels. And remember, you can see all my past episodes and recipes on my YouTube channel. Just click the menu button to find the perfect dish for any occasion, whether you’re dining with angels, drinking with demons, or hanging with humans.” She gave an air-toast with the shot of vodka placed next to the pie. “Until next time, my friends. Blessings to all.”
“Cut!”
Suzanne breathed a sigh of relief as taping for her cable network cooking show, Angel in the Kitchen, ended.
“That was your best episode to date.” Kimberly, Suzanne’s producer, gave her a thumbs up and handed her a stack of messages. “Most of these have been handled, including the request from your cookbook editor for an updated file for one of your recipes, but you’re going to want to address the top one yourself. It’s a message from your stepmom. She thought she dialed your cell phone but got the show line instead. Said it must be pregnancy brain. She was hoping you had a recipe for late-term morning sickness.”
Suzanne’s stepmother, Lilliana, had been staying with Ares, first Horseman of the Apocalypse, and his wife, Cara, who was well into her third trimester of pregnancy and, according to Lilliana, she’d had a rough time of it. Odd, though, that Lilliana had claimed pregnancy brain, given that it was Cara who was pregnant. But then, Lilliana had been helping Cara for months—maybe she had sympathy brain.
“Thanks, Kim.” Suzanne reached up and released her wavy brown hair from the ponytail she’d put it in while she’d cooked. “I’ll call her back when I get home.”
Kim checked her watch. “Which, if you get moving, could be as soon as a few seconds.”
“Nah. I’m going to flash to Dallas to see Declan first.”
Belatedly she glanced around to make sure none of the human show crew were listening. Kim, a werewolf since she was bitten fifteen years ago, had tried to ensure that as many of their crew as possible were underworlders, but for various reasons, about half the crew were human, and only a handful of those were “in the know.” And because Suzanne’s father was controlling and paranoid, he’d insisted that she hire one of her siblings as her assistant-slash-bodyguard, as if Suzanne’s angelic powers weren’t enough to protect her.
Plus she had Declan, and while he was, technically, human, he’d been...upgraded. Anyone trying to get to her would have to go through him and vice versa.
“What’s he doing in Dallas?” Kim asked.
“It’s where he works.”
Kim’s brown eyes rolled behind her funky red horn-rimmed glasses. “Yes, I know that. You flash him back and forth to work with DART. But wasn’t he recently in Dallas to visit friends from his former job?”
Declan had worked as a bodyguard for the Dallas-based McKay-Taggart office after serving in the military, and he kept in contact with many of his old buddies. Sometimes McKay-Taggart’s big boss, Ian, even consulted with Declan on some of their stranger cases, since Dec had earned a reputation of being the guy to call when shit got weird.
“He needs to hang out with humans who don’t know the truth about us sometimes,” Suzanne said. “Between my family and his job with the Demonic Activity Response Team, I think he gets overwhelmed by immortals and underworlders.”
“I get that,” Kim sighed. “It took me a while to adjust.”
Suzanne completely understood. She herself had grown up believing she was human, and it had been a huge shock to learn she was Memitim, a class of earthbound angel bred to be a guardian of beings important to the fate of humanity. She no longer served in that capacity, but she was still in service to the forces of good.
“How’d you finally do it?” she asked. “Adjust, I mean.”
Kim shuffled the papers in her hands as she spoke. She was never idle. “I got new friends.”
“You dumped all your human friends?”
“Pretty much.” Kim nudged her glasses higher up her nose. “It’s too hard to lie, and it got to the point where I couldn’t talk about my problems with them because I couldn’t tell them the truth, you know?” She gave a wan smile. “It all worked out in the end. I miss my family, though.”
“You dumped your family too?”
“Oh, no. I went werewolf one night and ate them all.” When Suzanne gasped in horror, Kim laughed. “I’m kidding. Honey, you are so gullible. My family is alive and well and living in Connecticut. I see them all the time. Which, frankly, is too much.”
Now, that, Suzanne definitely got. She loved her angelic family, but she had literally thousands of fellow Memitim siblings, several of whom hung out at her New York apartment, and her father was the Grim Reaper. Her family could definitely be...intense, and she didn’t blame Declan for needing a break now and then.
Angel in the Kitchen’s assistant producer, Phillippa, waved to Kim, and she gave a “be right there,” gesture before turning back to Suzanne. “I’ll have some clips for you to approve later tonight. See you at the next prep meeting.”
Suzanne grabbed her stuffed-to-capacity tote bag and looped the handles over her shoulder. “Sounds good. See you tomorrow.”
Pulse pounding in anticipation of seeing Declan, she headed to her office, where she could safely dematerialize without anyone seeing. As she walked down the halls, past studio execs, crews from other shows, and even a couple of actors dressed in alien costumes, she marveled at how her life had turned out.
She was married to the man of her dreams, she had a top-rated cooking show on a science fiction network, and her food was a “culinary marvel,” according to top critics who couldn’t explain why her dishes left people feeling exactly the way she said they would, whether it was happy, content, aroused, or energetic. They didn’t know that her angelic powers infused her recipes, nor were they aware that her show was a hit among underworlders who knew that the show’s premise of her being an angel who catered to vampires, demons, werewolves, and humans wasn’t fiction.
There were so many ways she was blessed, and she couldn’t imagine anything better.
Well, she could.
But she didn’t see Declan giving up the dangers of his job anytime soon.
* * * *
“Declan!” Kynan Morgan shouted, his already deep voice, raspy from vocal cord damage taken during his military days, going even lower with urgency. “Kill it! Kill the damned demon now!”
Declan shot his colleague a glare as he pivoted on the blood-slippery floor of the burned out factory and raised his gore-covered hatchet. “What the hell do you think I’m trying to do?”
The demon, an ivory-skinned monster covered in oozing red spines, was swelling up like a puffer fish, and it was only a matter of seconds before it launched those poisonous spines like arrows at every one of the DART crew members fighting the nest of demons in the abandoned building.
Feinting left, Declan barely avoided being eviscerated by the demon’s six-inch razor-sharp claws. His swing with the hatchet went wild, catching the beast at the base of its thorny tail instead of in its bare underbelly. Quickly, before the demon blew its spines, he activated the set of enchanted wings tattooed on his back. The swath of skin between his shoulder blades tingled as massive, nearly transparent wings shot skyward and lifted him into the air. The demon screamed in fury, leaping to catch him, but Declan went into a spinning dive, closing the distance between them in a heartbeat.
With a shout of victory, he slammed the hatchet home, burying the blade between the beast’s crimson eyes.
Yes!
“Dec! Watch out!”
He didn’t have time to react. Something crunched into his face and knocked him out of the air. Pain exploded in his head and the world became a blur as he tumbled across the ground and slammed into a support pillar.
“Shit!” Tayla’s shout pierced the ringing in Declan’s ears, and then she was kneeling next to him as he lay sprawled on the ground. “Hold still, buddy. We’ll get a healer to you.”
“Alfargchgarayte.” He groaned, unsure what he’d said or even what he’d meant to say. Clearly, his jaw was broken, and if the throbbing agony in his cheek and skull was any indication, there were a lot of shattered bones in his head.
He heard voices all around, some pained, some freaking out a little. This had been a big battle, the biggest one he’d been involved with since he’d learned the truth about the existence of demons. As a member of the secret, government-sanctioned Demonic Activity Response Team, he’d been investigating non-friendly underworld incursions into the human realm and had engaged in a lot of minor fights and skirmishes, but this one had taken the entire team by surprise. Good thing Kynan and Tayla, the big bosses who usually worked the Eastern Seaboard, had chosen today to accompany the Dallas unit on an investigation.
“Declan?” His supervisor’s voice drifted down to him. “Dec?” Corey’s face hovered above his, her normally spiky blonde hair plastered against her skull by blood. Demon blood, he hoped. She tapped his shoulder. “Stay with us, Dec. Stay with us...”
Her voice faded, and he welcomed the silence almost as much as he welcomed the pain-free blackness that swallowed him. His last thought before he lost consciousness was that Suzanne was never going to let this go...
* * * *
“Don’t worry,” Kynan said. “It’s not as bad as it sounds.”
Suzanne’s heart leaped into her throat as she stood in the living room of the apartment she and Declan maintained in Dallas. It had been Dec’s bachelor pad when he was single, and they’d kept it as a cover so his human friends wouldn’t know he was actually commuting from New York via Suzanne’s angelic taxi service, as he called it.
Now the apartment was packed with Declan’s colleagues at DART. Colleagues covered in blood and bandages. Everyone except Kynan, anyway. Suzanne didn’t know the whole story, but he’d apparently been charmed by angels and gifted with some sort of immunity to injury by demons. She’d have to ask him about it someday.
Someday after she forgave him for allowing Declan to be hurt.
She grabbed him by the arm. “What do you mean it’s not as bad as it sounds? Where is he?”
“He’s in the bedroom, but—”
She didn’t wait for Kynan to finish. She sprinted into the bedroom to find Declan, clad in only a pair of sweatpants, sitting on the bed with an icepack at his temple. A male in hospital scrubs stood in front of him, one hand on Declan’s shoulder. The glyphs that spanned the entire length of the doctor’s fingers, hand, and arm glowed with power that cut off as the door closed behind her.
Declan looked over at her with a smile. “Hey. Good timing. Eidolon is just finishing.”
Weird. She hadn’t known that the infamous demon doctor who ran Underworld General Hospital made house calls. When she thought about it, though, it made sense, given that he was mated to Tayla, who had been in the living room when Suzanne arrived.
Suzanne nodded in greeting, hoping her wariness didn’t show. Most demons lived in Sheoul, a hell realm run by a fallen angel named Revenant after a coup that ended with Satan imprisoned, but some, like Eidolon and his siblings, lived among unsuspecting humans. And just like humans, demons came in all shades of good and evil, a yin-yang effect that balanced out the universe. Eidolon was considered one of the rare good demons. An ally, even.
But even though she’d worked with Eidolon’s brother Wraith and she herself had once been treated at UG, the demon still made her nervous, as if she should keep her defensive powers on tap in case she needed to use them quickly.
“What happened?” She moved to Declan and sank down on the mattress beside him as Eidolon tucked his stethoscope into his medical bag. Declan looked tired, and fading bruises marred the left side of his face and jaw, but his smile was bright.
“I got nailed by a Noirmal demon. Bastards ambushed us.”
“Dammit, Declan,” she murmured. “You could have been killed.”
He put down the icepack and took her hand in his. It was cold from the ice, and all she could think about was that his hand would feel the same if he was dead.
“I’m immortal,” he reminded her. “I was perfectly safe.”
“Immortal doesn’t mean invincible. There are things not even immortals can survive.”
Eidolon hefted the bag over his shoulder. “She’s right,” he said, and she decided she liked this demon doctor. “I’ve seen a lot of immortals become really floofing mortal when their heads are chopped off or their hearts are ripped out of their chests.”
“See?” She gestured to the demon. “You should listen to your doctor.”
“I was perfectly fine,” Declan insisted. “Journey didn’t show up, so obviously I was in no real danger.”
Journey, one of her thousands of brothers, had been appointed as Declan’s guardian angel after she’d been reassigned, and as Dec’s protector, he’d have been alerted if Declan had been in a life-threatening situation.
But that still didn’t make her feel any better. She didn’t like seeing Declan hurt, and the thought of losing him sent her into a cold panic.
“I don’t think you should work for DART anymore.”
Declan laughed, but when she stared at him, his steel gray eyes shot wide. “What, you’re serious?”
“I don’t want to lose you.” She shifted so she was facing him. “Watching what my father is going through with Lilliana is horrible. I know their separation is only temporary, but he aches for her. I don’t want to go through that with you.”
Declan brought her hand to his lips and pressed a tender, reassuring kiss into her palm. “You won’t go through that. I’m careful. And you know this is something I have to do.”
Yes, she did. Declan had a deep, instinctive need to help people, a duty to mankind he couldn’t shake...nor would he want to. But that didn’t mean he had to expose himself to danger on a daily basis.
“You could help mankind in safer ways, you know. You were a medic.” She glanced over at Eidolon. “You could work in a hospital or something.”
The doctor held up his hands. “Hey, don’t look at me. I offered him a job.”
She gaped at Declan. “And you refused?”
Eidolon moved toward the door, his shoes not making a sound even on the floorboards that normally squeaked. “So, I’m just going to go where I’m not in the middle of a married couple’s spat.” He reached for the doorknob. “Dec, I healed most of the damage, but some of the bruising will have to go away on its own. Aspirin should help the residual aches and pains. Call if there are any complications or you have any questions.” He gave a sheepish grin. “And the job offer still stands.”
“Thank you, doctor,” she said. “He’ll think about it.”
“No, he won’t,” Declan called out as Eidolon slipped into the hallway.
Suzanne couldn’t help but smile and shake her head. He was stubborn, but she loved him for it. “You know I’ll keep bugging you to change jobs.”
He tossed the icepack aside and stretched out on the mattress, propping himself up on one elbow. The waistband of his sweats had fallen low on his hips, revealing hard-cut abs and a shadowy hint of skin in the hollow of his pelvis that she suddenly wanted to lave with her tongue.
“I wouldn’t expect anything else from you.” His voice was low, husky, and full of erotic undertones.
Damn him, he could distract her so easily, and no doubt he was doing it intentionally. “I know you need to do what you love,” she sighed, “but I still worry about you.”
He waggled his blond brows. “I do do what I love.” He patted the mattress next to him, the muscles in his thick arms rippling. “Come here and I’ll do you right now.”
“Just a sec.” Unable to withstand his charm, she hurried to the door and opened it just enough to shout through the crack. “Hey, everyone, thanks for everything, but I’ll take it from here.”
There was a chorus of “see you laters,” and “feel better soons,” and then the front door closed and everything went quiet.
When she turned back around, the X-rated promise swirling in Declan’s eyes made her breath catch. “Don’t move,” he said in a dark, seductive voice. “Just let me look at you.”
“Wanna see more of me?” she teased as she peeled off her blouse. “I mean, as long as you feel up to it.”
“Oh,” he growled softly, “I’m up to it.”
A glance at the tent in his sweats offered proof of his words, and warmth spread through every one of her erogenous zones. With slow, deliberate motions, she kicked off her heels and unbuttoned her pants, enjoying the way his predatory gaze watched every move she made. When she was left in nothing but her matching teal and black lace panties and bra, she walked over to him, anticipation making her heart pound in an erratic rhythm.
As she approached, he rolled onto his back and made a “come on” gesture with his fingers. “Seeing how I’m injured, I should probably just lay here.”
Smiling seductively, she climbed onto the bed and straddled his thighs, giving him a prime view of her cleavage. “So you want me to do all the work?”
He reached up and cupped a breast through the fabric, and she had to bite back a moan as his thumb flicked over a nipple. “Is it really...work?”
“Mmm.” She arched into his touch. “Not when you do that.”
Suddenly, the hair on the back of her neck tingled, and light flashed in her peripheral vision.
“Oh, shit!” a male voice shouted. “My eyes! My eyes!”
Declan and Suzanne jumped simultaneously, and she let out a startled yelp as her brother—Declan’s guardian angel—Journey, stood in the middle of the bedroom, his hands plastered over his face.
This was just not her day.
* * * *
Declan shot off the mattress and scrambled to cover Suzanne with the nearest object, which happened to be a pillow.
“Dude!” he shouted as he tugged up his sweatpants. “What the hell? We established rules when I agreed to join this insane family, and not popping into our homes unannounced, especially our bedrooms, is one of them.” He swept Suzanne’s clothes off the floor and tossed them to her. “I know you’re ancient as floof, but we have these things called phones now.”
“And doorbells,” Suzanne chimed in as she shoved her feet into her pants.
“Yeah...” Journey rubbed the back of his neck, gaze cast downward, his dark, shaggy hair concealing his expression. “Trust me, I’m more traumatized than you are. Ugh. It’s like that time someone sent me a link and I was dumb enough to click on it. It was floofing sock puppet porn.” He shuddered. “Did you know that existed? There’s not enough eye bleach in the world.”
Hopped up on adrenaline and unquenched lust, Declan barely kept his patience in check. “Why. Are. You. Here.”
Journey, who seemed to avoid being serious at all costs, grew quiet, his expression grim. Which tripped Declan’s oh, shit alarm. “It’s Azagoth.”
Suzanne shimmied into her top. “What’s our father done now?”
“He’s closed Sheoul-gra. No one can get in or out. Not even griminions.”
Declan had never been to the Grim Reaper’s realm, which was a holding tank for the souls of demons and evil humans, but closing it sounded like it might be a big deal.
“What?” Suzanne froze as she reached for her shoes. “That’s...that’s unprecedented. And bad. Really bad.”
“Griminions,” Declan mused. “They’re your father’s creepy little soul-collectors, right?”
Suzanne nodded. “They gather thousands of souls a day. If the griminions aren’t able to deliver the souls to Sheoul-gra, they’ll be loose, free to cause chaos in the demon and human realms.” She pivoted back to Journey. “Why did he do it? How do you know about this? Are communications still up?”
Journey toyed with the plug in his earlobe. “Comms are shut down too. He warned us seconds before he did it. I got out to let everyone know what was going on.”
“But why? Why did he do it? Does it have something to do with Lilliana?”
“I don’t know,” Journey said, “but our father is in a rage like I’ve never seen before—and I’ve seen him rage-morph into a dragon-demon and literally explode like a bomb. We need to do something, and we need to do it fast.”
Declan swiped his cell phone off the end table. “I can call DART. Maybe they’ll have some insight into what’s going on.”
“I have a better idea,” Suzanne said. “There’s only one person who can deal with Azagoth when he’s on a Reaper rampage.”
Journey cocked a pierced eyebrow. “You mean Lilliana? Good luck. I tried to see her a couple of weeks back. Apparently, she wasn’t ‘feeling well.’”
Declan remembered Suzanne saying the same thing when she’d tried to visit her stepmother recently. Whatever was going on between Azagoth and Lilliana was very, very private.
“Well,” Suzanne said, her brown eyes sparking with the stubborn fire Declan loved—when it wasn’t aimed at him—”I happen to know the very thing that will make her feel better.”
“Lemme guess,” Journey said. “Food?”
She patted his cheek as she brushed past him on her way to the door. “See, that’s why everyone says you’re the smart brother.”
Journey beamed. “They do?”
Declan rolled his eyes and gave his brother-in-law a comforting clap on the back. “Sure, man. Sure.”
Dec joined Suzanne, laughing as Journey called out after them, “You two are assholes, you know that?”
As if Declan hadn’t heard that before. Silly angel.
Suzanne grabbed the tote bag she’d left in the living room. “I’m going to whip up something to take to Cara. Do you want to go with me or stay here?”
He took her hand so she could flash him with her. “I’m with you, sweetheart. Always.”
Her smile was blinding, and it almost made up for the fact that her idiot brother had interrupted what he was sure would have been a marathon session between the sheets.
But that was the thing about being immortal; if one didn’t get his or her head chopped off, eternity was made of marathons.
* * * *
Suzanne spent a couple of hours preparing her favorite comfort food, Mac and Cheese Bites, for Lilliana, as well as a few snack samples for Cara’s baby shower, and then she and Declan flashed to Ares’s Greek island. They materialized inside the designated landing spot among the olive trees near the massive mansion just as the sun was setting, its golden rays glinting off the white sand and the sea beyond the beach.
The secret island, hidden from human eyes thanks to some sort of magic, was a paradise no one could access without permission, which she’d secured with a quick call to Cara.
Cara, wearing an elegant aqua maternity gown with matching sandals, met them at the front door. Suzanne had only met the very pregnant hellhound whisperer once when she’d come to help plan Cara’s baby shower menu, but Cara greeted her like an old friend.
“It’s so good to see you again,” Cara said as she engulfed Suzanne in a hug. “But I’m afraid you came for nothing. Lilliana isn’t feeling well and doesn’t want to see anyone.”
“It’s really important. Did you tell her that?”
“I did.”
Suzanne cursed softly, and Declan laughed. He didn’t consider “crap” to be a curse word.
“Will you please try again? It’s about Azagoth. It’s rather urgent.” She handed Cara the container of food samples. “These are some of the dishes we discussed the other day. I figured that since I was going to be here, I might as well bring them for you to try.”
“How thoughtful.” Cara smiled as she gave the container a sniff. “Come on in. I’ll give it another shot with Lilliana, but don’t get your hopes up.”
Declan and Suzanne entered the palatial estate, their shoes clicking on the marble floor. Cara left them in the main living room, where Declan went taut at the sight of the huge man-goat demons clomping around, one with a dust mop and another with a tray of iced tea.
“It’s okay,” she whispered to Declan. “They’re servants, totally loyal to Ares and Cara.”
“This is so floofed up.” He gave her a pointed look. “See, that’s how you curse. With conviction and crassness.” He sucked in a harsh breath as a hellhound as tall as a draft horse and twice as long padded across the room, its crimson eyes measuring them for meals before it disappeared down a hallway. “I’m never going to get used to this,” he muttered, adding another crass curse with conviction.
He kept cursing as they wandered around admiring the ancient Greek and Roman artifacts Ares had collected over the eons until Cara returned a couple of minutes later.
“I’m shocked,” she said, “but Lilliana gave permission. Her suite is down the corridor and to the right. It’s the double doors at the end of the hall.”
Remaining box of food in hand, Suzanne and Declan hurried to Lilliana’s suite. She tapped on the door and heard a shouted, “Come in! I’m on the balcony.”
They entered into a luxurious room decorated with Greek art and furniture. Black and gold pottery dotted the shelves, and a life-sized marble horse took up a corner near the dining set that could comfortably seat twelve.
“Wow.” Declan’s eyes shot wide. “And I thought our place in New York was big.”
“The Horsemen are larger than life,” she said. “And they do everything to scale.”
They walked past the kitchen and saw Lilliana through the open sliding glass doors, her back to them as she stood at the balcony railing overlooking the sea. Her long chestnut hair was loose and blowing around her shoulders, which were bare except for the delicate straps on her gauzy orange top. White harem pants and bare feet completed the outfit that seemed perfect for hanging out in a Greek paradise.
But was it really paradise when you weren’t with your loved one? When you were standing by yourself on a balcony made for romance?
Suzanne hadn’t seen her stepmom, an angel of a different Order who had originally been sent to Azagoth as Heaven’s version of a mail-order bride, in months, not since she’d left Azagoth. Suzanne didn’t know exactly why she’d left, but she’d bet her wings that it was her father’s fault. She loved him, but the Grim Reaper could be a serious jerk.
“Thanks for seeing us,” she began. “I’m sorry you aren’t feeling well.”
“I’m feeling fine,” Lilliana said, still facing the water.
“Then why—” She broke off as the other woman turned around, revealing a very swollen, very pregnant belly. Holy shit. “Oh. Oh...wow.”
Lilliana smiled and rubbed her baby bump. “No one knows except Ares, Cara, Reaver, and Harvester, and I’d like to keep it that way.”
“But my father knows.” Please, please say he knows. “Right?”
Lilliana shook her head and Suzanne’s gut dropped to her feet. Lilliana must have a good reason for keeping this huge secret, but...Azagoth didn’t have a reputation of being very forgiving when he felt he was wronged. He was going to flip out. A lot.
“You said you’re here because of Azagoth?” Lilliana took a sip of the orange juice balanced on the railing next to her, and Suzanne swore she saw Lilliana’s hand shake.
“Yes. He just shut down Sheoul-gra. No one can get in or out. We were hoping you might know why.”
Lilliana blew out a relieved breath and sagged against the deck railing, nearly spilling her juice. “So it’s not just me.”
“What do you mean?” Concern laced Declan’s voice as he moved closer to Lilliana, his body taut, as if he was preparing to catch her if she went down.
“I tried to go home today, but I couldn’t get in.” She glanced up at a sea bird riding the wind overhead, and when she looked back at Suzanne, her gaze was a little brighter. “I thought maybe Azagoth had locked me out. I didn’t know why he would, though. We Skyped just last night and everything was great. So great that it cemented my decision to go this morning.”
Declan frowned. “He has a temper, right?”
Lilliana snorted. “A temper. How cute.”
“Well, what if he learned you were pregnant?” Declan asked. “Would that have made him lose his shit?”
“Definitely.” Lilliana put down her juice. “But I don’t know how he’d have found out. I’ve been sequestered on Ares’s island since I left Sheoul-gra.”
Azagoth had spies everywhere, but Ares ran a tight ship and only a fool would betray the Horseman known as War. “Do you know any other reason why he might have done it?” Suzanne asked.
“It had to have been something big,” Lilliana said, her brow furrowed in thought. “He knows what kind of damage demon and evil souls can do if they aren’t taken to Sheoul-gra immediately. And he certainly wouldn’t prevent Memitim from leaving to do their jobs. It makes no sense.” She brushed past Declan and Suzanne on her way inside. “Let me see if I can contact him.”
They waited on the balcony while she tried to contact Azagoth, and when she returned, the worry in her expression told them she’d failed.
“I tried calling, Skyping, emailing, and texting,” she said. “Nothing.”
“I figured as much,” Suzanne sighed. “Journey said comms were down.” She realized she was still holding the container of Mac and Cheese Bites she’d brought for Lilliana, and she held them out. “These are for you. Specially infused with love and comforting vibes.”
“Oh, Suzanne,” Lilliana murmured as she took the food. “I’ve always adored you. Thank you.”
The feeling was mutual. In fact, most of Suzanne’s brothers and sisters loved Lilliana. There were a few who treated her like an evil stepmother, but for the most part, everyone recognized that if not for Lilliana, their father would be a very different, very horrible, person.
Declan’s phone beeped softly, barely audible over the crashing of the waves on the rocks below. “It’s Hawkyn,” he said, looking down at the screen. “He’s at our apartment. He might have news. We’d better go.”
Hopefully her brother and mentor, who had recently been given the role of liaison between Heaven and Sheoul-gra, would know something. Suzanne turned back to Lilliana. “If you hear anything...anything at all, call me.”
“You do the same.” Lilliana gestured to her belly. “And not a word to anyone. Not even Hawkyn, and especially not Azagoth.” She reached out and took Suzanne’s hand. “I know it’s not in you to lie or keep things from your brother. But it’s only for a little while. It’s time for me to go back to Sheoul-gra. As soon as it’s open, and as soon as I know it’s safe, I’ll go.”
Suzanne agreed, but she hoped Sheoul-gra would open soon, because Lilliana didn’t look like she had much time to spare before giving birth. And Suzanne couldn’t even begin to imagine how furious Azagoth would be if he didn’t get to be present for the birth of his child.
Because although Azagoth had thousands of children, he hadn’t been there for a single birth, and to be denied the one he should have been part of...
She shuddered. If ever there was a time to move Heaven and Earth for something, this was it.
* * * *
Hawkyn and another of Suzanne’s closest brothers, Maddox, were waiting for them when she and Declan materialized in the living room. Mad was in the middle of downing a beer, while Hawk was doing something on his phone.
“It’s about time,” Hawk said, looking up from the screen. “Where were you?”
“It’s been two seconds since Declan got your message.” Stomach suddenly growling, Suzanne headed for the kitchen, hoping her brothers hadn’t eaten the leftovers from dinner last night. “And we were checking in on Lilliana.”
Mad put down his beer bottle on the kitchen island with a heavy clank. “Seriously? You were actually able to talk to her? To see her? She’s refused visits from everyone.”
“Yeah,” Dec said, “we saw her. Figured it couldn’t hurt to see if she knew anything about why Azagoth shut down Sheoul-gra.”
Hawkyn blew out a long, ragged breath, and Suzanne froze with her hand on the fridge door handle. This wasn’t going to be good. “What is it?” she asked, slowly turning to her brother.
“He flipped out,” Maddox said, his voice grave. “Went supernova.” Swallowing hard, he closed his eyes. “I don’t blame him.”
Hawkyn jammed his hand through his blond hair, leaving messy spikes behind. “A new batch of our brothers and sisters arrived last week. Teens. Total pains in the asses.”
Despite his harsh words, Hawk smiled fondly. He’d taken a number of new arrivals under his wings. All adult Memitim had. The kids had been raised according to the rules, among humans, clueless as to their real origins and species, and now they were living in Sheoul-gra, training to be guardian angels someday. For most, the transition had been easy, but some still resisted, and Hawk had volunteered to mentor the most difficult of them.
“Okay,” Dec said. “So what’s the big deal?”
“One of them was murdered,” Hawkyn blurted, and Suzanne gasped.
“Inside Sheoul-gra?” At Maddox’s nod, Suzanne sank numbly down on a bar stool. “What happened?”
“I don’t know.” Hawkyn’s emerald eyes, so like their father’s, flashed with anger. “I was looking into a lead about Cipher when Azagoth summoned me. He let me inside Sheoul-gra, but I’m the only one he’s unlocked the gates for.”
“And he’s only letting people out after he’s interrogated them,” Maddox added. “It wasn’t...pleasant.”
Suzanne could only imagine. She glanced over at Hawkyn, who still seemed shaken. “What happened when he summoned you?”
“He demanded that I track down everyone who had been in or out of Sheoul-gra in the twenty-four hours before and after the murder. He’s got Hades checking to make sure no one traveled to or from the Inner Sanctum.”
The Inner Sanctum was the true hell that humans often talked about when they referred to Hell. Consisting of progressively horrific levels, or “rings,” it was where the evil and demon souls were kept until they were reincarnated and sent back to the demon realm, Sheoul. Hades, a fallen angel with a Mohawk and the fun-loving personality of a drunk cobra, ran the Inner Sanctum, and no one got in or out without his knowledge.
“It’s not going to be long before evil souls start piling up if griminions can’t deliver them,” Mad said. “I’ve already heard from some of our siblings that the evil spirits are attacking humans. We have to get Azagoth to open the gates.”
Hawkyn snorted. “Once our father has made a decision, nothing can change it.”
“There’s always Lilliana,” Declan said.
Maddox tossed a pillow from the couch at Declan. “She left him, dumbass. Or did you forget?”
“She wants to go home.” Suzanne idly pulled her iPad toward her, as if the recipes she stored on it could help somehow. Unfortunately, she didn’t know of any dishes that could knock some sense into the Grim Reaper. Well, maybe an actual dish. A really heavy one, like an iron skillet. “In fact, she tried this morning but couldn’t get in.”
Hawkyn’s tawny eyebrows rose. “Really? That...that might be the answer. Can she contact him?”
“She tried,” Declan said, “but no luck. Comms are still down.”
“Wait.” Suzanne rolled her lower lip between her teeth as a plan started to form. “Our father might not allow incoming communications, but he wouldn’t shut down his ability to communicate with the outside world. I think I can get through to him.”
“How?” Declan, Hawkyn, and Maddox asked simultaneously.
“He gets alerts when I post new episodes of Angel in the Kitchen.” She grinned as she turned on her iPad. “I think it’s time for an online special.”
* * * *
Declan had grown up in the sleazy world of wealth and politics. It had shaped his views on life, marriage, and his career. He’d been uncompromising. Self-destructive. A total asshole as well.
But then Suzanne had come along. He hadn’t known she was an angel at the time. Hadn’t known he was a special person called a Primori, a being fated to play an important role in the future of the planet. Nor had he known that she was his angelic bodyguard. Heck, he’d believed that he was her bodyguard.
It had been a real punch to the head when he’d learned the truth.
Angels were real. Demons, vampires, and werewolves were real. And he was lucky enough to have been welcomed into that very real world.
It hit home as he watched Suzanne tape a web-exclusive episode of Angel in the Kitchen that would be seen by thousands but that was meant for an audience of one.
She loved her family and her life, but she’d seen a lot of tragedy and was willing to do absolutely anything to prevent suffering. Right now she was focused on the suffering of her father and stepmother, but earlier in the day she’d been worried about his suffering. She’d brought Declan into her close circle and had given him, literally, a higher purpose. He’d never felt as though he could pay her back, but he suddenly knew how.
While she prepared her food and spoke to the camera as if she were speaking to a room of good friends, he made a call.
He got off the phone just in time to watch her wrap things up.
“See?” she said as she held up a plate of Angel Food Cake French Toast. “Easy to make, but everyone will think you spent hours on it. It’s a dish my father, the Grim Reaper, loves. And Father, if you’re watching, you should know that I spoke to Lilliana today, and she’d very much like to make this for you herself, as soon as possible. You just have to open your heart.”
By “heart,” she meant “gate,” but there was no reason to let Azagoth’s many enemies know that Sheoul-gra was experiencing some...technical difficulties.
Declan watched Suz wrap things up, and when everything was finished, he kicked Maddox and Hawkyn out of the apartment. She normally did tapings from the TV studio, but the network had given her leeway to make short web exclusives from home whenever she wanted to.
“Well,” she said as she let down her hair. “Do you think that’ll work?”
“Let’s hope so. While you were taping I spoke to one of my DART supervisors, Scott, and he said that demonic incursions were on the rise. He suspects that the demon souls that should be in Sheoul-gra are causing the issues.” He took her hand and pulled her down on the couch beside him. “And I spoke to him about something else.”
She narrowed her gorgeous eyes at him. “This sounds serious.”
Tugging her closer, he brushed a lock of wavy hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear. “I love you. And I love my job.”
She went taut. “Is this about what I said earlier? About quitting DART? Because I didn’t mean it. I was just afraid and overreacting.”
“It is about that,” he admitted. “But I understand. I mean, you’re a badass, tough-as-floof angel, and I still worry about you. I was so floofing relieved when you were taken off bodyguard duty and allowed to host a cooking show.”
She inhaled, holding her breath for a tense moment before blurting, “What...what are you trying to say?”
“I’m saying that you were right.” Man, it hurt to admit that, but as his old Air Force supervisor once told him, “When you’re wrong, admit it. Don’t be wrong and a dick.” His words might not have been worthy of a meme or anything, but they were true.
“I can’t change who I am,” Declan continued, “but I can make it better for you. I didn’t quit DART, but I quit the Dallas team. I’m transferring to the New York division. I know distance isn’t an issue for you since you can flash anywhere you want, but it’s an issue for me. Plus, I’ll be working with Kynan and Tayla, two of the most experienced demon slayers on the planet.”
He’d figured Suzanne would be pleased with his news, but he wasn’t expecting the way her eyes filled with tears as she threw herself into his arms.
“You didn’t have to do that,” she said against his neck. “But I’m so glad you did.”
He was too. There was nothing more important than family, and now that he had an amazing one, he wasn’t going to do anything to screw it up. At least, not today.
Tomorrow might be another story, but as long as he had Suzanne, he knew, without a doubt, that there would always be a happy ending.
* * * *
I hope you enjoyed this peek into the married lives of Declan and Suzanne! If you’d like to read more about them, you can find their story between the pages of . Or, if you want to meet them before they find their happily-ever-after, check out Lexi Blake’s for a little about Declan, or my own , where Suzanne finds her footing. Happy reading!