recognized what happened to Diego Montevista?” Gabriel asked. “He worked directly with all of you. You saw him every day.”
Five beautiful faces frowned in unison from the massive LCD screen hanging on the wall directly opposite Eve. The feed was divided into six equal sized boxes, with one box left blank because Sarakiel was present at one end of the table. Gadara sat across from her, separated by several feet. Hank, Alec, Reed, Sydney, and Eve rounded out the room’s occupants. A shade had been lowered over the wall of windows, dimming the light from the midmorning sun.
Hank leaned forward and all eyes moved to him. “It appears that Montevista could be left dormant at times and activated at others.”
“But you suspected him, Evangeline?” Remiel asked. Like most of the other archangels, he was dark-haired. Unlike the others, his eyes were almond shaped and his features tinged with a decidedly Asian cast.
Eve cleared her throat. “I didn’t at first, no. But when Hank told me about his experiments with the tengu and I saw how violently it reacted to the mask mixture, I started thinking about Montevista and his resurrection from the hellhound blood. The only other known.. . resurrectees—is that a word?—were the wolf and the Nix, both of whom acted erratically after they came back to life. It seemed reasonable to assume Montevista wouldn’t be the only one unaffected.”
“That is a considerable leap,” Michael said, in a voice that was both deeply seductive and highly terrifying. There was power in that voice. It underlined every word be said with a threat. The fact that he was gorgeous only made him more frightening. “To decide that he was Sammael’s emissary because of the behavior of two lesser demons.”
“I guessed’ she corrected. “And it wasn’t just because the wolf and Nix seemed to have lost all sense of self-preservation after cooking in the masking agent.” She looked at Alec. “Cain became erratic, too. He wasn’t himself. Since all of you have the same setup at your firms that he had—the connection to Marks and Infernals working beneath you—I looked at the differences between his situation and yours.”
“Everything about his situation is unique,” Uriel said.
“Including Montevista,” she finished. “I figured that if he was connected to Sammael by the mask, some of that evil would filter into Cain. It would explain a lot of Cain’s behavior if that was the case.”
“There were other possible explanations for that.” She met the archangel’s gaze directly, understanding that he was referring to the paternity gossip that pained Alec so greatly. “I’m not one to rule anything out. The mask, Cain’s problems, the way Montevista would lose consciousness every time Satan manifested_—there were a lot of considerations involved. But since I didn’t know for sure, I wasn’t going to accuse him outright. It was too dangerous for Montevista. I hoped that if I turned out to be right, Hank could save him somehow.”
“I am concerned,” Remiel said, “at how often you work alone. You have a mentor for a reason. We cannot afford to have these types of large-scale battles waged in public places.”
“And I,” Gadara said dryly, “cannot afford to replace every luxury car that has the misfortune of crossing paths with her.”
“I didn’t have much choice,” Eve protested. “In this case, Montevista was a wild card. I guessed he was involved in some way, so how could I share information with Cain, knowing it might leak to Montevista? If Satan knew we were on to him, what would he do? That was my concern.”
“You should have approached your handler.”
“She did.” Reed leaned forward to set his elbows on the table. “She asked me to touch base with Asmodeus, and when everything blew up, she called me in to keep one eye on Montevista. When he blacked out, it proved her theory. She also kept Ishamel and Hank in the loop. She doesn’t have a savior complex, if that’s what you’re inferring. She knows her limits.”
Don’t piss them off, she protested, knowing he was already taking heat for his deal with Asmodeus.
They’re pissing me off, he shot back.
Raphael rocked back in his office chair. “And Sarakiel made herself a threat with her association with Asmodeus, so you could not turn to her. But you must understand, Ms. Hollis. You are consorting and conspiring with Sammael by your own admission. You say that he deliberately summoned the Nix for you to vanquish before he lost contact with Montevista. His offering to you concerns us, of