Page 36 of Revelations

She raised her hands to Heaven in defeat. Her body trembled as she struggled to hold back an insane giggle that threatened to choke its way out of her throat. “Thoughts of torturing me for all eternity are what keep you going? That’s terrific!”

He did not answer; just stood behind her. But the growing electrical buzz coursing through her body by his closeness became too much to handle. Her mind was already a bundle of craziness. She could not allow her body to betray her, too.

I have to get away from him, or lose my mind trying to determine what’s right and what’s wrong. Damn if I know anymore.

Her insides still quaked, but she managed to tame the tremor in her voice. Centuries of practice putting up defenses against him paid off for once. “I guess you’re here to discuss my progress, so you can report back to your boss?” Business…yes…keep it purely business talk. Clean. Clinical. Business. “I’m afraid there’s not much to tell.”

He shook his head. “Well, that was part of it.” His voice gave away his disappointment. “It’s an excuse, anyway.”

A flock of pigeons landed a few yards away, in front of a sandwich shop. Greylyn trained her eyes on them, watching the birds peck morsels off the ground; anything to avoid looking at Kael. She needed to walk away and never return, but her body refused to budge.

Kael cleared his throat. “What I really want to discuss is what happened earlier at our ‘couples retreat’ with our gracious host, Claude. And what happened before that, at Gaelic Haven. You ran out on me.”

“Ran awayfromyou is more like it.” There, she had admitted it.

She finally turned around to face him. The bruises from his altercation with Jasper had cleared and the blood from his split eyelid had already clotted. He had wiped away the dried blood from his lips. His other hand came up to cup her chin.

“You never have to run from me. I swear that I will never hurt you.” His voice took on a tender timbre as his thumb came up to trace just below her bottom lip. “Never.”

The gold flecks in his eyes danced with sincerity, but Greylyn shook her head. She refused to believe that. Was this not how she had gotten herself into such a predicament by allowing herself to see him as anything other than a monster?

We’re enemies.The thought repeated in her head, daring her to argue.

But a tendril of hope whisked around in her chest, a small part of her desperate to fall for his lies.

She wrenched her chin out of his grasp. To avoid his eyes, she turned away, stared off into the distance, at nothing in particular. Even the pigeons were nothing more than blurs of gray against the landscape. Right now, she would give anything to be across the street, across the city, across the damned world from him.

Intentionally, she inserted a cold, indifferent tone in her voice. “You can report to Olivier that I’ve come across a couple of clues, although I’m not sure what they mean yet. Perhaps, he could help out by giving me a little more information to go on.” A long silence stretched out. To fill the uncomfortable void, she added, “Just how much do you know about this prophecy, anyway?”

A deep sigh resonated behind her, tickling the hairs at the base of her neck. “Sadly, not much. Olivier doesn’t trust me any more than he trusts anybody else. I’ve never met someone that radically entrenched in his own paranoia.”

Strong hands landed on her shoulders, forcing her back around to face him. Kael led her to a nearby park bench. Goosebumps climbed up her arm from where he had touched her, but she refused to acknowledge even to herself how much pleasure that simple touch had given her.

A stray thought permeated her muddled brain, so ridiculous that she nearly laughed out loud.Maybe Jasper was right. I should’ve indulged in some sort of sexual release over the years. What if all this angst with Kael is just the strain from remaining abstinent for centuries?

It was a good thing that he could not read her mind, because Greylyn was certain he would get a real kick out of that.

His eyes beseeched her for a response, but not about the prophecy. She saw the sadness that she had witnessed earlier when she had denied their connection. But he was not going to trap her into that again.

Resigned, he continued his tale. “Olivier befriended me, if you can call it that, centuries ago while Lucifer was pissed at me for something or other.” Amber eyes rolled heavenward. “Said he was glad I didn’t follow orders so blindly, because I had been right to defy him. He helped me hide out until it was safe to return and took me under his wing, as it were.”

“Trained personally by Satan’s little brother? Perfect!”

Not only was Kael a dark guardian, but the protégé of the most notorious fallen angel short of Lucifer himself.

“Oh, he didn’t take too much of an interest in me. Said he just wanted my help in return, when the time came.”

“Let me guess, that time is now.”

He grinned. “Bingo!”

So she was not wrong in her belief that he enjoyed being her eternal torment? He now had an excuse to make her life a living hell.

“So, what? You’re my keeper or something? You certainly haven’t been a lot of help with unraveling this prophecy. If anything, you’ve been an obstacle.”

The corners of his lips turned up coyly. Greylyn found her own unwilling smile in return.

“Call me what you will. I’m only here to help. But I’m as much in the dark about this stuff as you are.”

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