handlers and their Marks. She’d heard that some Marks were able to share whole thoughts with their handlers, but she didn’t have that ability. For her, it was only distant echoes of emotion. She secretly wondered if that was her fault, if she was afraid to let him in because of Alec.
Or maybe . . . due to more personal misgivings.
Feeling too exposed, Eve retreated both mentally and physically, stepping out of the shaft of moonlight and into the shadows. As she withdrew, she felt Reed lunge for her. She froze, startled by his vehemence. His concern and apprehension were so strong she felt them as if they were her own. Something was wrong wherever he was, something that had him checking on her and assuring himself of her safety.
Eve rolled her shoulders back. Alec and Reed had their own burdens to bear. They had more experience, but their jobs weren’t any easier than hers. She was a big girl and she needed to take care of herself.
I’m okay, she told him. Don’t worry—
A group of dark forms moved through the moonlight, arresting her in midthought. Their shadows raced across the patch of light she’d just vacated.
Frightened, Eve’s gaze shot to the window and out to the view beyond. The street was eerie in its lifelessness. The streetlights were dim, the houses across the way were dark, the road was empty of cars.
“Just a flock of birds,” she whispered, wishing she was one of those people who weren’t afraid of anything. “You need sleep, that’s all.”
A large hunchback shape lumbered across the lawn toward the men’s side of the duplex, moving in the opposite direction of the shadowy figures.
“Christ,” she breathed, then winced as the mark on her arm burned in chastisement. Her mark enhancements woke with a start, stealing her breath. Her fever returned with a vengeance, but instead of wiping her out with exhaustion, she was possessed by a wild, edgy energy. She’d ridden on a roller coaster once that had made her feel much the same. The car had shot from the station like a bullet, building speed with every second, hurtling her toward a towering precipice framed with a ring of fire.
Eve sprinted to the front door and opened the locks. She looked outside, engaging her nictitating membranes to see. The two guards who had been stationed at the front and kitchen doors were already in motion, running stealthily around either end of the hedge fence that bisected their property from the neighboring one.
But they were still heading in the opposite direction of the hunchbacked form.
Her gaze lifted beyond their retreating backs. There were other unwanted visitors out there. She could see what looked to be half a dozen tall and lean forms moving rapidly in a disjointed pack. Their presence prevented her from calling out to the guards or even whistling.
She glanced down the hallway at the other bedrooms and considered waking the girls. But Infernals had hearing as good as hers and trying to keep quiet would eat time she didn’t have. If that lumbering thing was after Gadara, she couldn’t allow it to get any closer.
Threats are to be neutralized, not minimized, the archangel had taught. Do not prevaricate. They learn with every confrontation and you do not want to give them the chance to ambush you in the future.
“Go,” she muttered to herself grimly. “You can scream for help after you stop it.”
Locking the door behind her, Eve took off around the front of the house. Blood lust spurred her stride and her muscles flexed in anticipation. Her senses were so acute she could hear the faint sounds of a television show coming from an occupied house a couple of blocks away.
Usually archangels were ensconced in buildings filled with Marks who acted as an early warning system. It was impossible for a stinky Infernal to sneak past all of them and get to an archangel. At least it had been impossible before the creation of the Infernal mask. Now, all bets were off.
Gadara had only four guards to protect him and a class of newbie Marks who couldn’t even smell whatever the poodle had detected.
Kicking off her sandals, Eve ran barefoot across the coarse dead grass that covered the shared lawn. Ahead of her, the bulky creature rounded the front of the duplex and disappeared down the cement pathway that led to the entrance of the men’s side. A light was on in the living room, but a sheet had been draped