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Chapter One
She glared at me with blood lust in her dark eyes. The tip of her tongue traced the plump lines of her lips, ready to sink into a piece of my flesh. I stood deadly still with the 9mm gun aimed at her heart. Inside the chamber were twenty bullets coated in blessed silver. One wrong move and she was going straight back to Hell, where she belonged.
“Come at me,” I growled. “I dare you.”
With a snarl, the demon lunged forward, raking the air with her wicked talons. She swung to the left in a whirl of long dark hair, narrowly missing my first shot. The second hit her in the gut. The wound hissed and steamed, causing her to scream out in pain. I took advantage of the distraction and backhanded her angelic face with the butt of the gun, sending her spiraling to the ground.
In a flash of inhuman speed, I dove on top of her and pinned her right arm. With my other hand, I worked a silver dagger out of its sheath from my boot. This would be my fourth demon kill this month. A feral demon—the lowliest demon on the food chain, but still lethal.
I was beginning to relish these trips into the Black Hills National Forest. Every day, I grew stronger. The fibers of my muscles moved with a new strength and confidence that I had never felt before. It was intoxicating. I wanted more.
With a flick of my wrist, the dagger flipped downward and I plunged it into the demon’s heart. Her black eyes grew wide, a silent scream ripping at her throat. I rolled off and crouched at a short distance to watch.
This was my favorite part.
Her thin frame began to disintegrate into a dark shadowy cloud. It held her body’s shape, but only for a moment. As if sucked down by a black hole, the cloud sank into the earth until every wisp disappeared. All that remained was my silver dagger. It lay firmly embedded in the soft soil beneath the ponderosa pines, ready to find a new demon heart to shred.
“Not bad, not bad.” Gabe appeared behind a cluster of trees only feet away.
In his right hand he held a long thin sword with a wickedly sharp edge. He wore his dark brown hair cut short, just long enough for it to occasionally fall into his eyes—vivid green eyes that could sear right through me. A shadow of a beard darkened his shapely jaw and hid the few battle scars that marred his skin. Towering over most humans, he was built like a warrior—broad shoulders, strong muscular arms, and well-defined abs.
By all accounts, he was the most beautiful man I’d ever seen in my life.
A proud smile lifted at the corners of his usually stern mouth. “You’re getting fast. Couldn’t have done that better myself.”
I grinned and retrieved the dagger, sheathing it in my boot. “I’m four for four. One more, and I’ll beat Ashley this month. Then we don’t have to listen to her brag for another four weeks.”
He rolled his eyes and shook his head, but the smile lingered on his handsome face. His green eyes flashed in the twilight of the woods, capturing the last of the sun’s rays emerging through the pine needles. My breath caught in my chest and my heart began to pound. Gabe Cael and I had been partners for months, in more than one way. But I still felt shaky every time he smiled at me. It was a good kind of feeling.
“I think we’re done hunting for the day,” he said, sliding his sword into the sheath strapped across his back.
I groaned. The hunt was far from over for me. An urge pulled at my sternum in the direction of the Hell Gate, nestled in these woods, in the hopes of finding another demon that had escaped the clutches of Hell. It was an urge that had flared to life upon the discovery of my Nephilim heritage. Forever fated to guard one of the six gates of Hell with my fellow warriors.
I’d never had such a purpose before. I embraced it entirely. It had become my life goal to become worthy of the Nephilim clan and my fierce warrior partner. No longer was I the weak young woman nearly sacrificed to a demon on a pyre.
Now, I had purpose. Now, I had strength.
I opened my mouth to argue with him, but before I could make a sound, he sped to my side with inhuman speed and placed a single finger over my mouth.
“There are other things I’d like to do tonight.” A wicked grin passed over his mouth. “Things that require a...more private location.”
An intense warmth blossomed in my stomach. Gabe trailed his finger over my lips and along my jawline, chuckling at the way I trembled under his touch. His fingers worked their way down my neck and entangled themselves in my long brown wavy hair. With his free hand, he pulled me closer, until I could feel the heat of his body pressed against mine.
Staring at his full mouth, I let out a heavy breath. “I suppose I could call it a night.” I grinned and looked up into his smoldering green eyes. “You are most persuasive, sir. I thought angels weren’t supposed to corrupt the innocent.”
“I’m only part angel.” He tightened his grip on my hair and leaned closer to my ear. “And after last night, I’m not so sure you’re very innocent after all.”
His whispered words brought back a rush of memories that made my cheeks flush. A bottle of wine, a thick blanket on the floor of the manor’s observatory, and our two bodies exploring each other. It’d been nearly impossible to keep my hands off of him.
The only reason we hadn’t already moved in together was because of my promise to my newly discovered Nephilim father that we’d take it slow. Otherwise, it would’ve been all too easy to fall into bed with Gabe, my warrior angel.
“I’m not making you blush, am I?” Gabe ran his lips ever so lightly down my jaw, planting a warm kiss on my neck. “I thought warriors didn’t get embarrassed.”
I pushed him at arm’s length and grinned at the challenge. “Of course not. I am the world’s toughest warrior. Nothing can make me blush. But you, on the other hand...”
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Stepping up on my toes, I pressed my lips roughly against his. He opened his mouth in surprise, leaving enough room for me to touch my tongue to his. With the superhuman speed I’d honed over the last few weeks, I shoved him hard against a tree and jumped to wrap my legs tightly around his torso. It didn’t take long for him to catch on. His hands moved to cradle my rear and he returned the deep kiss, sighing against my mouth.
We would’ve been lost to each other, but the sound of voices in the distance made us freeze. A crowd of people, not more than half a dozen, crunched through the fallen pine needles. Gabe and I disentangled ourselves and crouched low to the ground, our hands close to our weapons.
Feral demons couldn’t talk. So, either the group in front of us were humans or deceivers, the second and far more vicious class of demons. I swallowed hard, hoping they were harmless hikers out for a stroll. Even I wasn’t foolish enough to think we could take on a handful of deceivers all at once.
Gabe caught my eye and nodded toward a rocky hill with a pair of fallen pines. I tilted my head in understanding and we crept to the spot, careful not to make any noise. The crowd was just coming into view. My heart plummeted into my stomach at the sight of their leader—a frizzy gray-haired woman with rough wrinkled skin and dark eyes.
Granny.
The same Granny who had tried to sacrifice me to a demon only months ago. The grandmother who had stood by and watched as her only living relative was nearly consumed by a roaring pyre. She would’ve killed me and it wouldn’t have been any skin off her nose. A rage that I didn’t know existed burned behind my eyes, nearly blinding me to Gabe’s concerned expression.
“Come on, it’s time to go,” he said, pulling on my hand.
I resisted his tug and leaned toward the crowd of women walking deeper into the forest. What did they want out here? This was far beyond the town boundaries of Hanna. When I lived in that tiny town of all women, it had been expressly forbidden to stray out this far. Of course, that didn’t stop me from breaking the rules every week.
Granny grumbled something to the person behind her, a tall woman with a crazy mane of brown spirals and a dozen bracelets on her wrists. I recognized the remaining four of the party, townspeople from Hanna, but I’d never seen this woman before.
Something about her hippy style of dress and the way she flung her hands when she spoke told me she was already on Granny’s nerves. Granny didn’t waste time on air-headed or ditzy women, especially the kind that dressed like gypsies. If she was hiking through a forest with a woman like this, she clearly had bigger priorities.
Dropping Gabe’s hand, I took a step forward. “They can’t be out here. They have no right.”
He grabbed my elbow. “Lizzy, don’t. Just let them be.”
I turned with a scowl and pulled my arm free. “She doesn’t get to encroach on my world. It’s not right. If it had been up to her, I’d be a pile of ashes right now or a demon’s permanent blood bag.”
He sighed and rocked back on his heels, his eyes resting on my face. We’d been through so much after Margaret Thatcher’s demon set its sights on me. I’d nearly died the day it had come to collect me. So had Gabe. And so had many of the townspeople.
It was all Granny’s fault.
I couldn’t take the silent lecture of a warrior’s duty to protect oozing from Gabe’s solemn face, so I turned back to focus on the hikers. They had already passed us, fading into the thick branches of the pines. Any bits of conversation they were having reached us in garbled bits that made no sense.
Every muscle in my body tensed to run after them. In only a few seconds, I’d catch up. The shock on Granny’s face would be worth Gabe’s lecture afterwards. Maybe, I’d even flash my gun in front of her eyes, see how she liked it when death was staring her in the face. It was the least I could do, after all the courtesy she’d shown me. A little fear might do her good. She thought she was so invincible.
I nearly sprang into action, when Gabe’s warm hand on my shoulder stopped me.
“Lizzy, let’s go. She’s not worth another moment of your time.”
