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His face contorted, I smoothed his mouth down with my fingers. “I am sorry,” he breathed. He leaned into me, his lips brushing my skin so that he kissed my hand with each word. “I should not have, I know I should not have. I was afraid. Afraid of harm coming to you.”
Oh, gods. I traced the arch of his cheekbone, the shape of his bottom lip. Felt the tension go out of him as I leaned forward, pressed my lips to his smooth golden cheek. “You idiot,” I whispered, my lips moving against his skin. “I love you. Do you have any idea how much I love you?”
He flinched as if I’d hit him. “I am sorry,” he whispered. “Do not doubt me.”
He’d actually apologized. Miracles were coming thick and fast now.
I couldn’t say anything through the lump of stone in my throat, but I nodded. I swallowed a few times.
When his eyes opened again, I almost gasped, their green was so intense. He studied me up-close, then pressed a gentle kiss onto my cheek. He made sure I was steady, sitting up, then straightened, backed up two steps and clasped his hands behind his back. “You’re hungry. We land in half an hour.”
Understanding flashed between us. His eyes said, Forgive me. Teach me how to do this. You are the only one who can.
My heart leapt. Just trust me, and don’t doubt me either. That’s all I need from you.
There was more, but I couldn’t have put it into words. The softening in his mouth told me he understood. For that one split second, at least, we were in total accord. My heart twisted inside my chest and my cheeks flamed with heat. Whatever Fallen meant, Japhrimel loved me. Hadn’t he proved it enough?
The rest could wait.
I nodded. Held up my sword. “Thank you. For the scabbard.” My voice was back to rough honey, granular gold. Soothing.
That wasn’t all I was thanking him for, and he knew it.
His slight smile rewarded me. Then he reached up, opening a small metal stasis cabinet. He lifted down something small but apparently heavy and took a single step forward, handing it to me. I had to lay my sword down to accept it. “A small gift, for my beloved.”
He vanished through the opening in the partition as I brought my hands down and found them full of a familiar weight. The statue was obsidian, glowing mellowly through a scrim of heat-scarring from the fire that had destroyed our house. The woman sat, calmly, Her lion’s head set firmly atop Her body, the sun-disc of hammered gold still shining. I could see traceries of Power, careful repair work, where Japhrimel had spent his demon-given Power to repair the weakening of molecular bonds the reaction fire had caused. It would have taken unimaginable Power and precision to repair the glassy obsidian, phenomenal strength and inhuman concentration.
All for me. A gift, the only gift he knew how to give. His strength.
Tears spilled hot down my cheeks.
I’d misjudged him, after all. Just as badly as he’d misjudged me.
Chapter 41
Lucas slumped in a chair, blood stiffening on his torn shirt. Sunlight poured in the hover windows, I pushed my hair back behind my ear and examined him.
He looked like hell, gaunt and sticky with dry blood everywhere except for a swipe on his cheek where he’d probably rubbed the dirt-dusted gummy crust off. He still held one 60-watt plasgun, tilted up with the smooth black plasteel barrel resting against his cheek. His legs stretched out, clad in shredded jeans. At least his boots had survived. His yellow eyes, half-lidded, were distant and full of some emotion I didn’t want to examine too closely.
Something like banked rage, and satisfaction.
I lowered myself down in the chair opposite him. This hover was good-sized but narrow, with round porthole windows like a military transport. I didn’t know where Lucas had gotten it, but it was taking us away from DMZ Sarajevo, and that was all I cared about.
McKinley and Japhrimel held a low conference up front in the pilot booth—this hover was old enough to have an actual booth instead of a cockpit—and Va
I didn’t want to know.
There was no smell of human in the hover. The agents smelled like dried ci
I leaned back in the chair, my katana across my knees.
I have a blade that bit the Devil. Gods grant me strength enough to use it next time. I’m sure there’s going to be a next time.
“Who are you really working for, Lucas?” My voice was quiet, stroking the air, calming.
He shrugged, his eyelids dropping another millimeter. “You,” he said, in his painful whisper. “Since New Prague. I was contracted by Ol’ Blue Eyes to meet you, look after you. Figured the two jobs tallied.”
I nodded, my head moving against the chair’s headrest. Thought about it. Decided. It was only fair, after all.
“If you want to go on your way, I won’t blame you. You stood up to the Devil for me.” Gave him a bit of trouble, too. We might almost have had a chance.
Not really. Not without Japhrimel.
He gave another one of those terrible, dry, husking laughs. He certainly seemed to find me amusing nowadays.
“Shitfire,” he finally wheezed. “This’s the most interesting thing I seen in years. Ain’t go
I nodded. Braced myself. It was always best to pay debts before the interest mounted, and I owed him. If not for him, Lucifer would have killed me before Japhrimel could reach me. “I told you the pay’s negotiable. What do you want?”
“Your demon boyfriend paid me, Valentine. Consider yourself lucky.”
Well, it was certainly a day for surprises. I shifted uneasily in the seat, then rested my head against the seat’s high back.
“Do you think she was telling the truth?” I meant Eve. He’d been in the room, after all.
“Don’t know. I ain’t no Magi.” He shifted a little in the chair, as if he hurt. “Explains a helluva lot.”
“Are you all right?” It was a stupid question. We’d both gotten off lightly, for tangling with Lucifer.
“Devil damn near pulled my spleen out through my nose. It hurt.” Lucas sighed. He sounded disappointed. “Guess even he can’t kill me.”
“Give him time.” I didn’t mean for it to sound flippant. Then I leaned forward, ru
An evocative shrug. His yellow eyes fastened on me.
“If you had a friend,” I persisted, “and he lied to you but it was for a good reason, what would you do?”
Silence. Lucas studied me.
The hover began a stomach-jolting descent then rose again, probably to avoid a traffic stream. I folded my left arm across my belly; it wasn’t tender, but I was still cautious.
Finally, Lucas hauled himself upright, leaned forward. Rested his elbows on his knees. “You askin’ me for advice, chica. Dangerous.” He rasped in a breath. “I seen a lot of shit on the face of the earth. Most of it pointless. The only thing I can tell you is—take what you can get.”
I weighed the statement, wondering if it was any good. Take what you can get. Was that even honorable? “So you don’t have any friends?”
He shrugged again.
I closed my eyes, leaning back into the chair’s embrace. “You do now, Lucas.” I paused, let the fact sink in. “You do now.”
After all, he’d shot the Devil. For me. Who cared if it was just a job to him?
Take what you can get.
Eve wanted her freedom. Lucifer wanted her dead or captured—most likely captured, since he had used me as bait to draw her out. Lucifer also wanted me kept so busy with “hunting” down his escaped children that I didn’t have time to find out it was Eve he was really after. Japhrimel probably wanted to keep us both alive long enough to figure out which was the wi