Sins of the Lost

Chapter 29

“You’re late.”

Alex hesitated for a bare breath of an instant, then secured the dead bolt on the door and turned to face Seth. “I left you a message earlier.”

He leaned against the living room door frame, arms crossed, shoulders stiff. “And I left you three.”

“I’m sorry. I know I said I’d answer, but there was an incident.”

“The stoning? I saw it on the news.”

“It’s these pregnancies. People are terrified.”

“And so they kill innocent pregnant women?”

She lifted her chin at the coldness in his voice—coldness, and a derisive note that made her spine stiffen. “No. A very small minority do things like that. The rest of us try to stay calm and stop things from getting out of hand.”

Seth studied the floor between them. “You really care about them, don’t you? These mortals.”

“Of course I care. I’m one of them.”

“You know I don’t understand why.”

“Give it time. Get to know us better. We’re not all like the ones who killed those women.”

“I’m not interested in getting to know the others.”

She snaked a hand through her hair. “I thought we got past this last night,” she said tightly. “When you said you’d try. That you’d help.”

“And you said you’d answer your phone if I called. The lies simply abound, don’t they?”

Struggling with irritation fueled by fatigue, Alex made herself take a deep breath. “I wasn’t lying, but you’re right, I should have made it clear that it’s not always possible to answer right away. I’m sorry.”

“That’s it?”

“What more do you want me to say? We’ve been over this a hundred times, Seth. I’m a cop. This is my job.”

“Fine. Then tell me about that job. About your day. All of it.”

Alex’s heart skidded to a stop. Restarted with a thud that jolted through her.

He knew.

She crossed her arms over herself. Her voice quiet, unlike the blood hammering in her ears, she said, “Michael came to see you.”

The muscle in his jaw went tight again. Fury and hurt glittered in equal measure in his black eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t know how. With all that’s happened, I was afraid you’d be angry. I didn’t want another fight.”

“I am angry, but my fight isn’t with you. Unless . . .”

“Unless what?”

“Unless you agree with them.”

“He’s going to destroy your world.”

“Do you?” Seth asked.

“No. No, of course not. But—” She slumped against the door, shaking her head at the surreality of their conversation. At the two of them, standing in their apartment hallway, calmly discussing the fate of her entire race. “Are they right? About the power you released destroying the world?”

“The war between my parents will destroy the world, Alex. Lucifer’s hatred for humanity will destroy the world. It began with your creation, and it won’t end until every last one of you is wiped from existence.”

“Even if—?”

“Taking back my powers might end an imbalance, but nothing more. The Nephilim will still be born, still become an army, and still annihilate your race. And I will still lose you. Without having had the briefest of lives with you, I will watch you die and then spend eternity living with your memory and the knowledge that, under my mother’s rules for the universe, I could do nothing to save you. Is that what you want for us?”

Her chin jerked up. “That’s not fair. This isn’t about what I want, Seth, it’s about what’s right.”

“Is it?”

“Of course it—”

“I know he’s back.”

Her teeth snapped shut. After all that, Michael had told him about Aramael? Without at least warning her? Son of a bitch. “I was going to tell you.”

“Of course you were. As soon as you told me about Mika’el.”

She ignored the shot, rubbing a weary hand over her eyes. There was no easy way to do this. “He was waiting for me at the office this morning. He’ll be working with me as my partner again.”

“And you’re okay with that.” Seth delivered the words in a tone so cold that it turned the air between them frigid.

There was no easy way to do this, either.

“Luci—” The name caught in her throat. She rubbed false warmth into her arms and tried another approach. “I’m being watched. By one of the Fallen. Michael thinks I need protection.”

“Your soulmate’s protection.”

“The Fallen One is an Archangel. Aramael is the only one—” She stopped. Telling him that Aramael was the only one who would lay down his life for her would not help matters.

But Seth had already filled in the blanks, his features going so still they might have been carved from marble. Hard, unyielding marble. “The only one who would die to protect you,” he said. “Because that’s how powerful a soulmate connection is. I should have known.”

“It doesn’t change anything, Seth. I made my choice. I love you, not him.”

Silence stretched between them, a vast emptiness that widened with every tick of the utilitarian clock on the living room wall. Until, without speaking, Seth walked down the hallway to the bedroom and closed the door. The lock clicked into place with a snap that found an echo the length of her spine. She waited for long seconds and then, with a sigh rooted in her toes, headed for the kitchen and the bottle of ibuprofen. She’d give him time to cool off, get her headache under control, and—

Her steps dragged to a halt. She stared at the dining room table, with its guttering candles and the hardened wax pooled at their bases. The cold, congealed food sitting on the plates. The bottle of wine, a corkscrew beside it. She forced her feet to carry her forward. With stiff, spare movements, she cleared Seth’s dinner efforts, scraping the food into the kitchen garbage can, placing the tepid wine in the fridge, blowing out the candles, putting away the napkins and silverware.

When only the spilled wax remained on the table, she took down the bottle of Scotch from the cabinet beside the stove, collected a glass, and retreated to the living room for the night.

Chapter 30

Alex’s cell phone jolted her awake at four a.m. She swallowed the cotton that filled her mouth and answered on the fifth trill. “Jarvis.”

“You sound about as enthusiastic as I feel,” Joly observed. “Shall I make it worse?”

“If I say no, will it matter?”

“Some guy just shot up the emergency ward at the General. Three dead, fourteen injured, two critical. I’ll see you there.”

The line went dead. Alex set the phone on her stomach, crossed her arms beneath her head, and stared up at the shadow lines across the ceiling, cast there by the light of a streetlamp coming through the blinds. She