stool beside her. “I’m alive for the same reason they came back to haunt you.”
She smiled. “That’s right. And you’re worth it.”
Montevista—previously the archangel Raguel’s chief of security and one badass Mark—bumped shoulders with her. “Damn straight.”
Mira Sydney frowned from her position at the other end of the island. Like her partner, Montevista, she was dressed in head-to-toe black—parachute pants and cotton T-shirt, with thigh holsters for both a 9mm and a dagger. “I still don’t understand how that worked.”
Montevista was large and forbidding, but his lieutenant was tiny and sweet-natured. Fair to his dark, Caucasian to his Latino. But it was clear that decades of working together had created a strong affinity between them. Alec had assigned them to Eve’s protection detail after the Obon festival. After all, Cain of Infamy didn’t need the same protection that the other archangels did. Eve didn’t mind. She’d bonded with both Montevista and Sydney during her training— infamous for being the worst Mark training disaster in history. Out of a class of nine, only three survived. And Raguel Gadara had been taken; the first and only successful archangel abduction.
“The world’s gone to shit since Eve hit the scene,” Reed grumbled from the stove where he was stir- frying homemade Kung Pao chicken. He was clearly unhappy to have company during their date.
“Gee, thanks,” Eve said.
His mouth curved in a devilish smile that contrasted sharply with the wings and halo he occasionally sported for shock value. There was very little that could be called angelic about Reed. “At least you’re good eye candy.”
Eve groaned. He winked.
As gorgeous as Reed was—and he looked especially fine with an apron tied over his usual elegant attire—he had some seriously rough edges. But she didn’t want to smooth them away; she wanted to understand them. She knew firsthand that he was the type of man who could lure a woman to sin with just a look. Charm wasn’t a necessity. Still, Eve strongly suspected that some of the crudity that spilled from his mouth was due to his nervousness around her. It was oddly endearing that he would be so affected by her. She couldn’t resist exploring the attraction further.
Sydney cleared her throat. “Tell me the whole story. From the beginning.”
Eve looked at her. “Surely you’ve heard it too many times already.”
“Not from the source I want to hear it from you.”
“All right.” Eve leaned into the counter. “When I was a newbie, I stumbled across a tengu who didn’t smell like shit and had no details. I told Cain. We told Gadara. Gadara told us to find out where the demon came from. Abel agreed and put the order through.”
Sydney shot a quick glance at Reed. “I remember hearing that you were assigned to a hunt before training.”
Reed’s features took on a stony cast. As Eve’s handler, he was the only person who could put her to work. Marks weren’t supposed to hunt before they were fully trained.
Eve nodded. “In his defense, no one believed me. They thought I was in transition and my Mark senses hadn’t fully kicked in yet.”
“How green were you?” Montevista asked.
“A day or two.”
Sydney whistled.
“Yeah. Rotten,” Eve agreed. “Especially after I proved I wasn’t nuts and we still had to track down the source of the tengu’s abilities.”
“The masking agent,” Montevista offered. “Stuff that temporarily hides Infernal stench and details.”
“That’s what they started calling it. Cain and I discovered that they were producing and distributing the mask out of a masonry located less than an hour’s drive from here.”
“Ah.” Sydney grinned. “Upland.”
Eve nodded sheepishly. She was never going to live that down. “The masking agent was concocted from blood and bone meal made from Marks, animals, and Infernals. Plus spells and other stuff. Cain came up with the idea to destroy the mask ingredients in the masonry’s giant roller kiln. I came up with the idea to toss the Nix in there and evaporate him, too. Abel came up with the idea to lock the Black Diamond Pack’s heir in the kiln room. And it was God’s idea of a joke to make the masking agent a life preserver when cooked at high heat. It kept the wolf and Nix alive when they should have been blown to smithereens. It’s also what saved Montevista a few weeks later.”
Sydney shot a concerned glance skyward. When lightning didn’t strike Eve for her blasphemy, she said, “I heard the kiln explosion left a crater in the ground the size of a city block.”
“At least.”