Revenant

Reaver said that he and Revenant were evenly matched. Reaver was a Radiant… which meant that Revenant was a Shadow Angel.

A fucking Shadow Angel, the most powerful being in Sheoul, save Satan. If she’d thought Revenant was trouble as a fallen angel, that was nothing compared to what he really was.

Her breath came in terrified, spastic bursts as she ran down the fire escape stairs, past her apartment floor and down, until she tore through the door at the base of the building and sprinted up the sidewalk. She had no idea where she was going, just that she had to get away from two of the most dangerous individuals to have ever existed.

Gods, her mother was going to kill her.

Hey, Mom, guess what? You know how we’ve been keeping a low profile and staying away from angels and fallen angels? Yeah, well, I managed to attract the attention of both. Oh, and the best part? One is a Radiant and the other is a Shadow Angel. Awesome, right?

Stopping to catch her breath, she leaned against a light pole and buried her face in her hands. How could her life have gotten out of control so fast? Her False Angel enchantment was rapidly wearing off, both she and her mother had been attacked, she’d become obstetrician to Satan’s baby mama, and now she’d landed in the center of some sort of family squabble between two extremely lethal individuals. All she needed now was to get fired from her job or hit by a truck.

She didn’t know how long she stayed there like that, trying to gather her thoughts and corral her anxiety, but eventually an elderly man with a cane stopped to ask if she was okay. She thanked him, grateful for the dropkick back into reality.

A reality in which she’d neglected to grab her purse as she made her getaway, which meant she had no cell phone, no transit pass, and no money. She could hear her mother’s voice now.

Didn’t I teach you anything about bugging out in an emergency?

Wondering how much worse things could get, she reached out with her senses and located a Harrowgate about half a mile away. If she could just get to UG without anyone attacking her, she’d be safe. But it really sucked that her new apartment had been compromised. She’d only just moved in, and she couldn’t afford to break the lease, lose her deposits, and pay new ones somewhere else.

Plus, finding a place in an area that hadn’t been ravaged by the apocalyptic events of last year wasn’t easy.

She hoofed it as fast as she could past fish-and-chips shops, pubs, and a bustling corner grocer, the tug of the Harrowgate growing more intense with each step. Finally, as she darted between a bookstore and a butcher shop, she saw the gate shimmering against the bookstore’s brick wall. With no humans about, it opened up, beckoning to her with the promise of safety.

From out of nowhere, she heard the flap of giant wings. Terror squeezed her heart, cutting off her scream as she dove for the gate. Arms came around her, and a heartbeat later, she was standing in the middle of what looked like a log cabin – if log cabins were built from charred wood and brimstone.

The furry skin of some sort of demonic animal lay on the packed-earth floor, and a few pieces of stick furniture were scattered randomly around, as if whoever lived here didn’t do much actual living here.

The arms released her, and she whirled, prepared to fight for her life with teeth and nails, if that’s what it came down to. But when she saw Revenant standing there in his usual leathers and chains, she wasn’t sure if she should be relieved… or more terrified than ever.

“What the hell are you doing?” The adrenaline dump made her question come out as a shout, but at this point, she didn’t give a crap. “Why did you snatch me like that? Where are we?”

“This is my place.”

This windowless, barren hovel was his home? The idea that she was standing in a Shadow Angel’s lair, no doubt deep inside Sheoul, with no way to tell anyone where she was, drove a spike of fear straight through her heart.

It also pissed her off. If he was going to kill her, she wasn’t going to temper her thoughts or her words. “You need a new Realtor.”

His dark brows pulled together in irritation. “Yeah, well, when you’re a fallen angel under Satan’s thumb, you don’t have a lot of options.”

“Really?” she snapped. “Because I’m betting that Shadow Angels can pretty much have what they want.”

He ran a hand through his hair with a frustrated shove. “The Shadow Angel thing is fairly recent.”

Rubbing her arms because it was freezing in here, she relaxed a little, figuring that if he hadn’t killed her or at least chained her to a wall by now, he wasn’t going to. Hopefully.

“Recent is a matter of perspective,” she said. “For an immortal, recent can mean something that happened in the last thousand years.”

“It’s been a little over two weeks.”

“Oh.” That took a little of the wind out of her indignant sails. “Well, thanks for showing me your digs, but I really have to get going.”

He glanced over at the fireplace, which lit with a whoosh. “Not until you tell me why that angel was trying to kill you.”

There were so many ways she could play this, but she went for the obvious. “Because I’m a demon. Angels kill demons for sport. Was that a serious question?”

“Yes.” His leather jacket creaked as he crossed his arms over his chest. “They don’t just pop onto random rooftops hoping to get lucky and find demons to kill. He was hunting you. Why?”

Closing her eyes, she replayed the scene in her head… a scene that had started out with blue skies, bright sunlight, and the trill of pigeons walking the roof’s ledges.