began.
“Yes, you do,” Gadara drawled. “Where is Abel?”
Eve’s brows rose.
“He doesn’t know anything.”
“Exactly.” The archangel leaned back in his chair and ran a rough hand through his coarse gray hair. “He is her handler, Cain. He needs to be kept in the loop.”
“If that’s his job,” Alec retorted, “he shouldn’t need help doing it.”
“The two of you are going to get her killed.”
“If you don’t manage to do that first.”
“I’m not going to die,” Eve interjected quietly.
The sound of clapping turned her head. Reed exited the elevator in an expertly tailored three-piece suit of graphite gray. The sheer perfection of his appearance—the faultless cut of his garments, the perfect combing of his inky hair, the sensual curve of his welcoming smile—took her breath away. “That’s my girl,” he drawled. “Don’t let them push you around.”
Alec pushed to his feet. “Eve was right. The tengu had no details and no scent.”
Silence gripped the room so completely Eve could have heard a pin drop.
“What do you mean, ‘Eve was right’?” Gadara bit out.
“When the tengu first attacked me a few days ago,” she explained, “I noted that he didn’t have any details. Alec and Reed both said my super senses hadn’t fully developed and that’s why I couldn’t see them.”
“‘Super senses’?” Gadara laughed.
“But obviously, they were wrong,” she continued. “Alec didn’t see anything last night either. You can’t tell me he hasn’t come into his gifts yet.”
Reed moved to the desk and leaned against it. “It’s never happened before. All of these centuries, millions of Infernals . . . It’s never been possible for an Infernal to hide its details. There has to be an explanation.”
“Such as?” Eve asked.
“Perhaps his details are a similar color to the stone from which he’s made.”
“Okay. Why didn’t he stink?” she countered.
Gadara made an odd noise, drawing all eyes to him. “Tell me everything that happened, Cain.”
Alec went over the events of the night before, finishing with the death of Mrs. Basso.
Reed moved from the desk to Eve and set his hand on her shoulder. “Were you close to her?” he asked quietly.
“Yes. I loved her.”
“I’m sorry for your loss.”
“The police came,” Alec said. “They say the Nix has been killing for some time. If that’s true, why hasn’t he been vanquished?”
“The order did not come down, until today,” Gadara replied.
“That’s sick,” Eve said.
“It is the way we work, Ms. Hollis.” Gadara’s gaze was hard. “We are not vigilantes.”
“He’s killed at least a dozen people! We’re not talking about vigilantism. We’re talking about justice and protecting the innocent.”
“Do not lecture me,” Gadara said coldly. “You want to shed the mark and go back to your careless life. You do not give a damn about protecting the innocent.”
A slap in the face could not have affected Eve more. “Don’t make me feel guilty for wanting my life back.”
“It is one thing to be ignorant; it is quite another to deliberately bury your head in the sand.”
Reed moved to a spot a foot or so in front of her. “Don’t attack her for our own shortcomings.”
“We need to decide what to do about this,” Alec interjected, his stance widening and his arms crossing. The pose made him imposing, depicting him as immovable, stalwart.
“What do you suggest?” the archangel asked.
“Both of the tengu on the roof lacked details and smelled normal. The first question I have is whether or not Gehenna Masonry has something to do with it. Did they create both? If so, we know the source.”
“I pray we’re lucky enough to have this restricted to tengu,” Reed said.
Eve looked around at the grim faces of the three men. “Explain the possible ramifications of this to me.”
“We do not have enough Marks.” Gadara’s voice was weary. “We supplement with mortal labor, like the guards you met at the building last night. We also do business with mortals. If Infernals hid in that guise, there is no limit to the places they could go and the information they could obtain.”
“Infernals would have a tremendous advantage,” Alec said. “They’d smell us coming a mile away, but they could be completely under the radar. If they’ve created a mask of some sort, we need to eradicate it.”
Eve stood. “So we have to find out how they did it. We have to go to Upland, where Gehenna Masonry is.”
All three men looked at her.
“Not with the Nix after you,” Alec argued.
“And the tengu,” Reed added.
“Yes.” Gadara smiled like a proud parent. “You should go. The tengu seem to like you, Ms. Hollis,