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“Frank—”
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to, Zaqiel.”
I opened my mouth to respond but instead simply nodded.
He was right.
Punching me on the upper arm, I grunted as he moved to go back inside. “You owe me a new lock, asshole. You didn’t have to break the door.”
“Bill me,” I said.
He was still smirking when I took off into the night.
Paul Gilbert’s obituary was on the evening news when I was sitting with Evie on the couch. What a loss to society he was, they said. The man who was so generous in his community, a breath of fresh air who was about to break into politics, a hero among men.
All of it lies.
I felt a pang of guilt when an image of his grieving wife flashed on the screen, but my guilt was short-lived. How could I be sure he didn’t treat her as he did other women behind closed doors? I couldn’t.
I didn’t have to be sure. I knew enough of what hediddo. All the other things hemighthave done, well, that was for someone higher than me to sort out.
I had expected retribution for my actions and to wake up one morning to find I no longer had my wings, only the long deep scars etched into my back where they used to be, a reminder of what I had been and would never be again. But as each day passed since I saw Frank, nothing changed, and I felt no different. I was starting to suspect he hadn’t managed to pull it off until I saw the paper while out and about earlier in the day.
Watching Evie out of the corner of my eye, I was slightly concerned at the blank expression that stayed stubbornly on her face while she took in the news. She didn’t move, and I wondered if she already suspected my involvement.
Was it wrong of me?Of course.
Do I regret it?Not one damn bit.
I asked my brothers and sisters if they knew anything about it, and they didn’t ask why I wanted to know. They said a demon had done it, and I had a surge of dread in my gut, a rippling mass of guilt that threatened to consume me from the inside out. If Frank had been sent back to Hell and had been separated from his bonded partner because of me… that’s collateral damage I couldn’t accept, and I’d have to come forward.
But no, the name this demon went by on Earth was Peter.
A slimy character. Apparently, he mooched off Frank with constant threats of exposure, and Frank relinquished enough to keep him satiated so he wouldn’t cause too much trouble. Then Peter would take the money and splurge and binge for a few months, not caring about the trail of destruction he left in his wake and quite happy to leave it for angels to clean up.
Yes, I was familiar with this demon.
Whether Frank had framed him or somehow convinced him to actually take the kill, I wasn’t sure.
Perhaps it was best I didn’t know.
Did some demons deserve to be in Hell more than others? Yeah, they did. Much like some humans deserved to be right there with them.
Evie was looking at me now, a cautious sideways glance. I turned my head until I was facing her fully, and she mirrored my movement. Neither of us said a word. I knew what her question was, and I think she knew the answer. I tilted my chin up slightly as if to sayyes, it was me, is that a problem?
Her eyes darted between mine, and a frown shifted and disappeared across her face several times as she processed the feelings. I knew she was remembering the sort of man he was, what he had done to her, and what he had done to countless other women.
I lifted my arm over the back of the couch between us, holding her eye contact.
The tiniest smile curved in the corner of her lips, and she slid across the cushions and tucked herself under my arm, snuggling against my torso as I pulled her against me. She picked up the remote and changed the channel. There was some movie on, but I couldn’t tell you what it was. When she started walking her fingers up my thigh, my back stiffened. She was grinning at me, I know she was, but I stayed staring at the television, failing to keep still when she wrapped her fingers around my cock through my pants. I smirked as she started to rub me, my fingers gripping onto her upper arm and my head dropping back against the back of the couch.
It was hard to dwell on what I had done. She had a way of distracting me, of blocking out the outside world and bringing me crashing into the moment. I think there was some strange form of justice in demons and angels working together to save humans from the worst of the worst.
But Evie, she was still everything to me.
No matter what happened or how many people I helped, now I came home to her and only her, and she was building herself a life she could be proud of. She came home to me, and we claimed each other, devoured each other, and were the best of each other.
When she took me in her mouth, I groaned.
Oh yes, I had definitely found heaven on Earth.
