“Then it’s better if you don’t spill your secrets.” Jolene lifted a brow. “Be aware that Maddox is a highly perceptive person. If anyone will see through the harmless front you present to the world, it’s him.”
Oh, Raini knew that well. It worried her a whole lot. Really, it didn’t so much matter if the world at large knew about the gift she sought to hide. No, it was her lair who needed to be kept in the dark, because they’d react seriously badly if they ever learned what she could do.
Lachlan had helped her develop a lot of “talents” from an early age, such as how to hotwire a car, pickpocket like a pro, and spot an undercover cop. But when her final preternatural gift developed, his priority changed from—essentially—making her into a petty criminal to ensuring she knew how to blend; how to be someone who didn’t draw attention to themselves. Which wasn’t easy, considering she was a succubus.
It had meant not involving herself in the “family business.” Not becoming a sentinel or a member of the Force, even if she’d have made a damn good one. It had meant going her own way; seeming normal. Easygoing. Relatively innocuous. Even boring—demons never paid attention to anything boring.
Lachlan had instructed her not to flaunt the “life skills” he’d taught her. He’d encouraged her to allow people to underestimate her and to let them believe they had her all figured out.
Raini had put all her father’s lessons into practice and, in doing so, she’d become someone who only really made an impact with her appearance. In actual fact, it benefited her that people often only saw the surface and never looked deeper.
“He so far hasn’t prodded me with personal questions,” said Raini. “Which suggests he’s done what he does best and compiled a dossier on me.”
Jolene nodded. “If he’s not asking questions, it’s because he thinks he knows all he needs to know. He’ll have been surprised that you were strong enough to wrench your power back out of that dagger, though, so he might be wondering if the picture he has of you in his head is truly accurate.”
“Oh, he’ll wonder. But even if he suspects I have a gift I haven’t revealed—something that isn’t uncommon for demons—he’ll never suspect I can do what I can do. As long as that doesn’t change, all will be fine.”
Taking a swig from his whiskey tumbler, Maddox didn’t break eye-contact with the man sitting opposite him. There were different angelic breeds—five, if what Maddox had heard was correct. All were powerful, but not all had wings or halos. The weakest was the most common breed; they were quite simply referred to as angels.
Viper was definitely not a common angel. Power glimmered in his hard eyes, dripped from his low-pitched voice, and surrounding him like a full-body, invisible halo.
The three “brothers” he’d brought along to the meeting, all of whom stood behind the sofa on which their president sat, weren’t common angels either. Maddox couldn’t get a handle on what breed they were. But Viper? Oh yeah, he was an archangel all right. A supremely powerful one. Which made Maddox believe that one of the Seven truly had fallen. And he’d brought some friends with him when he fell.
No one really outside the upper realm knew how the process of “falling” truly worked. Some thought it was a literal fall. Some thought it was metaphorical. Others believed it was no more than a simple decision to leave.
Why Viper had formed an MC club, Maddox didn’t know. Maybe it was merely a cover. Maybe they liked the thought of being free. Or maybe it was an excuse for them to not have to fully blend in with society, which wouldn’t be simple for them.
Maddox didn’t ask, because he didn’t particularly care. He did, however, wonder why a fallen archangel had turned up here. And since Raini would be arriving sometime within the next hour, he saw no need or sense in dancing around pleasantries. He preferred directness in any case.
Balancing his tumbler on the sofa’s armrest, Maddox asked, “Why contact me?”
If Viper was offended by the lack of welcome, he didn’t show it. “I won’t insult your intelligence by asking if you’re aware that several lairs of descendants have been killed over the past few months.” He stretched his legs out in front of him. “Do you have any idea who’s behind it?”
“No. But I’m sensing that you do.”
A smile flirted with one corner of the president’s mouth. “I’m sure you figured out for yourself that my brothers and I fell only recently.”
“It was quite obvious. You all appeared out of nowhere.”
“It caused quite a stir among the Earth-bound angels,” said Viper, referring to those who were placed on Earth and forced to earn their way back to the upper realm—only then would they be granted their halo.
Maddox didn’t know why that happened to some angels while others were halo-bearers from birth. Again, he didn’t ask. Because, again, he didn’t care. He just listened as Viper continued to speak.
“The Earth-bound tend to avoid us. I think they worry that associating with the Fallen will reflect badly on them. They’d be right in thinking that. The beings up above”—Viper shook his head— “they’re never pleased when angelic breeds fall. It rarely happens nowadays, but eons ago? I think about two hundred fell. Possibly more.”
Yes, Maddox had heard the stories.
“The beings upstairs didn’t like it at all. They really didn’t like that the Fallen spread the love and produced children with humans. And they really, really didn’t like that some of them produced children with demons.
“Most of the Nephilim were hunted and killed by halo-bearers. Any children born from a fallen angel and a demon, however, were generally left alone. Because demons tend to react badly if someone harms their offspring, and they can do a lot of damage. No one wanted a war between the light and the dark—there’d be no winners, so the half-bloods were left alone. Which is why your breed eventually came into being. And yes, your existence galls the people upstairs.”
Maddox felt his gaze narrow. “You think someone in the upper realm is no longer so happy to leave us be.”
“They were never happy to leave you be. They simply knew better than to eradicate you.”
“Why would anyone up there suddenly decide it was worth the risk?”
“That I don’t know. But it could be because there are so many of you now. You’d give demons a big ‘edge’ if there was ever a battle between the light and the dark. Angels and demons are well-matched. But demons with angelic blood? They’re more than a match for angels. And as a descendant with archangelic blood in his veins, you are a threat that the upper realm will definitely want gone.”
Maddox wasn’t surprised that Viper knew he wasn’t a typical descendant. “Why would you so freely share all this with us? Why bother to warn me?”
“Descendants are the closest creatures on this Earth to angels,” said Viper, echoing what Hector—who was leaning against the wall with Carmen—had said only yesterday. “We’re almost relatives, really. Family, even. And families should look out for each other, shouldn’t they?”
“You want an alliance,” Maddox realized.