into a matching chair, gesturing for Alec to do the same. In all of the years he’d worked with Hank, this was the first time he’d ventured more than a few feet inside the occultist’s domain. The air was hotter back here and smelled of sulfur.
Alec sat. The tengu waddled out of the darkness carrying a tray, as docile as a well-trained butler. He set a pitcher of amber-colored liquid and two crystal tumblers on the table, then bowed and scampered away. The stench of his rotting soul lingered.
“What the hell?” Alec barked. “It stinks. And it’s... well behaved.”
“We’ll get to that in a minute. Of the many other archangels, only Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel have retained their foothold. Metatron, Ariel, Izidkiel... and all the others, where are they now?”
“With God.”
“Because they were not able to manage firms and a secular life as well as the others?” Hank queried, referencing the widely spread belief. “With all the power and knowledge at an archangel’s disposal, only seven were able to remain on Earth? God didn’t want to create more in the hopes that they might be able to handle it? And no mal ‘akh has proven capable of taking on the task in the interim? Until you?”
Lifting his glass, Alec sniffed the contents and asked, “What is this?”
“Iced chamomile tea.”
Alec set the glass back down. “I was promoted be- cause Raguel was taken.” And because he’d promised Sabrael an as-yet-unknown favor, but that was a matter best kept between him and Sabrael.
Hank filled her glass to the rim and downed the contents in one audible gulp. “Which effectively kept the number of archangels on earth at seven.”
“You think the number is deliberate? Like a cap?”
“That, or the change is so difficult it is the very rare mal‘akh who can manage it. I like you quite well, Cain, but you and I both know that there are others who are better qualified for the advancement than you are.”
Exhaling harshly, Alec leaned into the seat despite its creaking protests. Hank had a generous expense account and could easily afford to upgrade the furnishings, but appearance was everything to the occultist. The rickety table and chairs were meant to convey something that Alec didn’t yet grasp. And he couldn’t waste time thinking about it now. “No one is more knowledgeable than I am about saving Mark lives.”
Hank flicked a lock of long red hair back over her shoulder. “Since when is that an archangel’s purpose?”
The subtle challenge caused Alec’s lips to pull back from his teeth in a snarl.
“Look at you’ Hank rasped. “Like a rabid dog on the edge of attack. Yet you found the will to break up with Eve, when I’m certain that’s the last thing you wanted to do. You’re not supposed to be able to love her.”
“It’s not the same as before.”
“Diminished, but not gone. Why isn’t it gone? Is it because you were in love when the ascension happened?”
“I don’t need more questions,” Alec bit out. “I need answers.”
Hank shrugged. “I’m a scientist. It’s in my nature to question things.”
“Find the damn answers! What the hell is wrong with me?”
“What’s wrong is your belief that something is wrong.”
Alec’s fists clenched. “I don’t like hitting women, but you’re pushing me”
The occultist altered shape into a young girl of around six or seven years old, but spoke in the eternally present gruff voice. “Every celestial believes that demons choose to be evil. None will consider that we’re created the way we are. We couldn’t see the world as you do, even if we wanted to. Just like you can’t see our point of view.”
But Alec could now. That was the problem. He saw the appeal. Worse, the urges he felt seemed an inherent part of him, not an addition. “So you think I’m supposed to be this way? That I’ve always been this way. Is that what you’re saying?”
“Perhaps you’re fighting the change.” Hank picked up Alec’s untouched glass and downed the contents. “Perhaps the ambitious part of your soul, the part that yearns to be closer to God, is what’s rebelling in you. It’s becoming feral because it isn’t getting what it wants.”
“Maybe it’s the part of me that wants Eve,” he said, just to be contrary.
“Personally, I think it might be that other, darker part of your soul asserting itself. That part you ignore and everyone pretends doesn’t exist.”
Alec growled at Hank’s perceptiveness, the sound more animal than angel. “It doesn’t exist. It’s a myth.”
“A lie from an