A

maya locked her knees, slowed her racing heart, and forced herself to breathe slow and easy as she focused on Malphas. At the same time, she tracked Gideon coming up on her right, within striking distance.

Gideon was the greater threat, yet she didn’t take her eyes off Malphas. A tactical error, yes. However, even though she shared a cage with a traitor she had to kill, Malphas was the true danger. After all, he had masterminded the entire thing: the ambush, her imprisonment, and the traitor’s presence.

His cognac, free of red, gaze skimmed her body with a languid, practiced stroll. She felt it, actually felt his gaze on her skin. The affect made her want to take a paring knife to her own flesh.

Amaya hid her revulsion and gripped the bars. She leaned in until her cheeks touched the cold iron. “What now?”

A smile split Malphas’s arresting face. He wasn’t handsome, not in the classic sense. His forehead was a little too broad, his eyes a tad too sunken, lips a bit too thin. Not that it mattered. At six seven and carrying enough muscle mass to bench press an F-150, more than a few ladies would give him a waiver on his shortcomings. He wore his suit with an easy grace she hadn’t seen on many. Then again, she hadn’t met many billionaires. Until recently, her world consisted of working a nine to five, a seventeen year old Camry, and a studio apartment. And that was just the daytime hours. At night, Darklings had occupied her time.

“Now.” He stepped closer, yet still out of arms reach. “We negotiate.”

That was the last thing she expected out of his mouth. She wasn’t currently in a position of power, so what could he possibly want to negotiate with her? The answer had a laugh escaping as she cocked her head to the side and said, “No.”

His brow lowered, making his eyes pitted wells where dead things lived, yet his lips stretched into a tight grin.

Next to her, Gideon murmured, “You haven’t heard the terms.”

She gave a careless shrug. “Mr. Big Baller doesn’t need my money. He may even truly want to screw me, though I doubt it.”

“Oh, I would love to have you beneath me, on top of me, beside me, whatever position you desire as long as your legs are spread and your core is wet.” Malphas’s sultry voice washed over her and touched every nerve. Amateur night compared to Tahariél, who was the master at making a woman cream from just his voice.

Never gonna happen. “There’s only one thing I have that he doesn’t—the UnHallowed.” She spared a glance at Gideon. “I bet they saw you, Bane and the others, saw you with your new bestie and now you can’t go home ‘cause you’d be gutted and mounted. Whatever value you had to Malphas is null and void.” She pointed a finger in his face. “So you betrayed your brothers for nothing, you piece of shit.”

His lips peeled back in a snarl and his hands balled into fists. Amaya ignored him and turned her attention back to Malphas. Without warning, the bars retracted into the ground.

She stepped free and kept both men in her sights. Every instinct ordered her to attack but Gideon rushed to the cell housing the woman. Sprawled on the rocky floor, the female didn’t react as he reached through the bars and captured her limp hand. The UnHallowed had other interests that didn’t involve Amaya. Right now, she was on the lowest rung of his totem pole.

An image of Bane falling, burning, choked her. Had he survived? She shied away from the alternative. He couldn’t be dead. Not him. Please, not him.

“An angel that curses and associates with the UnHallowed. Saying you’re unique doesn’t do you justice. Please, tell me your name.”

He had to have heard Bane shout it as he was pitched into the sun. Fear stabbed her as she relived that horrid moment.

“I won’t hurt you,” Malphas soothed. “You have my promise.” He touched the center of his chest as if something pulsed within.

So he can sense my fear, and thought it was about him. “Good to know,” she said in response to his promise and her thoughts. “Amaya.” She left off the surname because angels didn’t have one, and she had enough sense to know Malphas needed to believe she was always a celestial being, not newly transformed from recycled grace.

Amusement danced over Malphas’s face as if he’d scored a goal. “You’re correct. I need your assistance with the UnHallowed.”

“In exchange for?” There wasn’t a drop of altruism in the Demoni Lord. He was in this situation for himself, not world peace.

“Walk with me.” The wall behind him shifted, then retracted showing a tunnel. He started down the path without waiting for an answer.

Amaya paused and threw a glance at Gideon, who hadn’t moved from his position. She couldn’t catch his murmured words, but felt the love in the timbre of his voice and desperation leeching out of him. He loved the woman. Whatever treachery he’d done, he did for her and not for Malphas.

What she wouldn’t give to have that kind of love. Received and given. Her last image of Bane’s anguished face seared her. His outstretched arms, reaching for her, as hers did for him.

Malphas cleared his throat, drawing attention back to him. “Gideon will be along shortly, for now, it’s just you and I having a nice talk.”

She followed, the light at the end of the tunnel, a beacon drawing her forth, though his height and width blocked most of it. No moss on the walls, no lichen clinging, no steady dripping of water, the usual things that plagued caves. It was a clean, cool, rodent free abode.

The ground tilted upward, the air heating as she ascended. A breeze lifted the hair off her brow, caressed her forehead, and ruffled her wings. She caught the scent of the ocean, clean and salty and sweet. Her feet picked up speed when the light turned out to be the sun, not some artificial source. A sudden bout of claustrophobia closed her throat, shriveled her skin. She wanted to push past Malphas and rush to the surface. Instead, she forced herself to follow at a sedate pace.

The sound of water breaking against a rocky shoreline caught her attention. Malphas glanced back at her as if her anxiety prodded him to move faster. A knowing smirk twisted his lips, adding to his cockiness. That smirk must’ve dropped a ton of panties, and he was confident hers would be next. She kept her snort to herself.

The tunnel widened and spit her out onto a wide ledge. She walked out to the edge and inhaled sharply at the black sandy beach in a secluded clove five hundred feet below.

Amaya had never been to the ocean. She’d never been out of Detroit, until the Vegas trip. What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas. Did that apply to staging an attack on a high-rise hotel? Her wings unfurled and each feather was caressed. The sensation was almost orgasmic. “Where am I?”

“Iceland. No point not telling you since you are no longer my prisoner.”

Great! She was on the other side of the world with the grace of an archangel in her veins, wings on her back as her feet hung over a ledge. The only thing that would’ve made this moment perfect was—she shut down her train of thought. No use pining for what she didn’t have.

She had to get back to America. Vegas or Danville? She quickly decided on the latter. No one would stay at the site of his or her defeat. Regrouping would be a priority; Danville would be the place to go.

“You are the most beautiful being I’ve ever beheld,” he spoke low, on purpose she surmised.

“Cut the shit and get to the negotiating. You’re boring me.” She kept her eyes on the choppy water and the horizon, hoping to keep him off her game.

“No seduction? Flirtation?” A pained sigh came from him and a tsk. “I am the type who finds foreplay in every facet of my life. I must tell you, your bluntness is very arousing.” He ended on a husky note.

Amaya turned her face into the wind. Her wings ached to expand and take to the sky. “There is nothing keeping me from opening my wings and flying away. Do not waste my time.”

He sighed again, and dragged a hand through his brownish blond hair. “As you wish. Taige, the Spaun you fought on the rooftop, has the Cruor. Worse, ten of my staff, all Spaun, are missing.”

“Missing? Defected to the other side?”

Malphas growled and she felt the rumble in her own chest. “There is nothing sexier than an intelligent woman.” He stepped closer to her. “Defected. Taige is gathering an army, for what purpose?” He gave a careless shrug.

“Don’t lie. He has the portal. He wants to open it.”

He stuffed his hands into his pockets. “Not possible without an archangel. Is that why you’re here? To survey the situation for Michael?” Malphas held up his hands. “Not that I want his exalted presence polluting my playland. He can stay right where he is in Heaven.”

“So you want me to play the go between for you and the UnHallowed. Plead your case?” She snorted. “What’s in it for me?”

His voice was all about the seduction. “What would an angel like you desire?”

“End hunger, forge world peace, nothing complicated. In lieu of that, I want the Cruor in my possession. Not yours. Because I don’t trust you.”

A grin spread across his face, reminding her of a shark just before it takes that fatal bite. He removed a hand from his pocket and adjusted the bulge in his pants. “Now you’ve got me hard.”

“Am I interrupting?” Gideon appeared at the mouth of the tunnel.

“No, not at all,” she said, and stifled her unexpected grin at Malphas’s frown. She tipped her head at Gideon. “What about him?”

Gideon moved to her side as if they were a united front. She thought of the woman still in the underground cell and let him stay. In Braile’s memories, Gideon was loyal. He loved the UnHallowed and he loved Braile. A sob stirred in the back of her throat. There was more to his story than the betrayal of the UnHallowed, and she wanted to hear it.

“Release the woman. Release her and I will take you to the UnHallowed. Whether they accept you, that’s up to them, not me,” she ordered Malphas.

“Dina isn’t going with us,” Gideon said, gaining her attention.

“You’re leaving your girlfriend in a cage?”

Gideon’s stark gaze raked her. “My wife, and she has a Darkling inside of her. She doesn’t want to be free. And I agree. When the Darkling is in control, she isn’t. She refuses to put others in harm’s way. For my assistance with the UnHallowed, Malphas will remove the Darkling.”

And there was the bargain with the devil. She didn’t approve, then again, who was she to judge? She couldn’t say she wouldn’t do the same for her husband, if she were married. The determination on Gideon’s face was a big Fuck You to anyone who had a problem with his decision.

“But she will be comfortable.” Gideon glared at Malphas.

Malphas gave a curt nod. “Of course. There are several places we can move her. Someplace where she’ll be guarded and protected.”

Gideon’s gaze glowed neon red, then he gave a brisk nod, and returned to the tunnel.

Amaya watched him go and waited until he was out of earshot. “I’ve seen humans infected by Darklings up close. Are you sure you can deliver on your promise?” she asked for herself, not Gideon.

“Who do you think discovered how to achieve the bond five hundred years ago? Discovered and discarded. I have principles.”

She canted her head to the side and waited for him to continue. In their short time together, she knew Malphas loved hearing his own voice and giving himself praise. He wouldn’t end the story until he’d cast himself as saint and savior, worthy of recognition and praise for doing the right thing, taking the high road. As if doing good was such a monumental achievement.

“In my time here, I have spent the majority of it as a protector of humanity. Infecting humans brings the wrath of the Celestial Army. That attention is something an introvert such as myself does not need. I love my existence and want nothing jeopardizing it. Do I take advantage? Of course, though no more than an average human.” He gave a short bow, not to her, but in deference to his brilliance.

Made sense, but that meant the Spaun didn’t care about the Celestial Army. If the Spaun didn’t care about Heaven’s wrath, then… Oh Shit! There was nothing stopping them from declaring all-out war on humanity. Amaya hid her epiphany under a blank mask. “You attacked the UnHallowed. Showing up with me for a tea social won’t keep the lot from gutting you.”

His snort said, ‘Let them try.’ “I attacked that traitorous Spaun, Taige, and his cohort, Aiden. I knew it was a matter of time before the UnHallowed and Taige came for the Cruor. I enjoy a wager now and then. Hell, I do own a few casinos around the world. So I placed my chip on red—the UnHallowed. Though I did hedge my bet. I sensed their presence hours ago.”

“And hoped with Gideon in your corner—”

“Would allow me to explain the benefits of pooling our resources and working together, before the battle ensues, which guarantees drawing the attention of Michael and Braile,” he spat at the end.

He didn’t know, and couldn’t know according to Gideon. “All that righteous indignation, yet you still infected Gideon’s wife with a Darkling.”

He sighed, as if tired of explaining. “Means to an end. Infect one person and save millions. A war between Spaun, The UnHallowed, and the Celestial Army will spill over. Humans will be cannon fodder. And if the Demoni Lords get loose…think apocalypse.”

“Would you stand on the sidelines and take bets? You certainly don’t seem the kind to place your neck on the line for anything or anyone, except yourself.”

And that’s why he doesn’t want the Cruor open, the narcissistic bastard. The planet only had room for one Demoni Lord and he was it. The self-centered, egotistical asshat doesn’t want to share.

Finally, something worked in her favor.

“I will do what’s necessary,” Malphas stated with enough conviction Amaya believed he’d do just that, for the good or the bad.

Now to get his narcissism to work for me. “All right. I’ll help you. Here are my terms—and they are not negotiable.”