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I dropped the phone.
He released his grip on my wrist, and a moment later, the hand on my mouth moved away as well. Miraculously, I didn't start screaming. Slowly, slowly, I turned around, knowing exactly what I'd find. Blue-green eyes, just like the sea I'd grown up around.
"Roman."
CHAPTER 21
There was really only one thing I could say.
"You're here to kill me."
That would have been a great cue for him to say something like, "No, of course not" or "Why would you think that?" Any of those responses, or a variation, would have been immensely reassuring.
Instead he said: "Not yet."
"Shit."
I took a couple steps back, knowing it wouldn't do any good. Even if I'd been in full succubus mode, there was no way I could fight against him. Roman was a nephilim, Jerome's half-human bastard son. Nephilim were a kind of odd mix between lesser and greater immortals. Nephilim hadn't been around since the universe's creation, but they had been born immortal and could potentially possess the same range of powers as a greater immortal. Roman was every bit as strong as Jerome, but unlike my boss or his equals, Roman didn't answer to any higher power. He was rogue, which made him dangerous when he was pissed off.
And he had every right to be pissed off at me. Angry at the way Heaven and Hell hunted their kind down, Roman and his twin sister Helena had gone on a vigilante hunting spree to get back at other immortals. I hadn't known that when he and I were dating, and eventually, I'd been instrumental in stopping them-and getting his sister killed.
"What are you doing here then?" I asked at last.
Roman's posture was casual as he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. He looked exactly as I remembered, enormously tall compared to me, with soft black hair and those gorgeous eyes. "You sound disappointed," he said. "Do you want me to kill you?"
"No! Of course not. But I can't really think of any other reason you'd be here. Somehow I doubt you're here for a social call." Despite my fear, my sarcasm still managed to function. Carter had told me it was unlikely Roman would ever return to Seattle, knowing that he and Jerome would be on the lookout. Except, I realized uneasily, Jerome was no longer here to keep watch.
"I'm here to help find my illustrious sire." Roman's voice was smug as he spoke, and I was sure he was taking a great amount of pleasure in watching my reaction. I hoped he was satisfied because while my jaw didn't exactly hit the floor, it came pretty close.
"Bullshit."
"Why don't you believe me?"
"Because you have no reason to!" My fear was being overridden again, this time by incredulity. "You hate Jerome."
"Yeah, that's true."
"Stop playing with me then. You're not here to help."
"No? Then how come I helped you with the seal's notes?"
"You didn't-" I froze for a moment. "Oh lord. That was you."
"Really," said Roman amiably. "You should be a lot nicer, considering all the things I've done for you."
"Yeah? I don't recall you wasting your time wandering aimlessly along beaches."
"Nah. I've been too busy blowing up stoves and carrying injured damsels to bed."
I sank into a chair and closed my eyes. "It really wasn't Carter." The angel had been telling the truth about noninterference. I opened my eyes again. "And you gave me the matches, didn't you? That's exactly the kind of f**ked-up thing you'd do."
He put on an offended air. "That was pretty nice of me, considering how you looked like you were ready to have a withdrawal seizure then and there."
"This doesn't make sense. You can't be here to help find Jerome. What's really going on?"
"Does the reason matter if I help find him?"
"Yes! It matters if you want to find him, only so you can promptly destroy him."
"I don't want to destroy him."
"I have no reason to trust you."
His eyes narrowed a bit. "And I have no reason to trust you, if memory serves."
I shrugged, almost too weary to be afraid anymore. "Well, then, we're even, huh? Except, of course, that you can channel your mistrust into blowing me off the face of the earth."
"And you could tell the demon horde out there that there's a nephilim in the city." Roman laughed. "Oh, they'd love that, wouldn't they? If one of them could hunt down and kill a nephilim, that'd pretty much cinch their position here."
"Yeah, like I'd get a chance to tell anyone." I sighed. "Roman, if you're not going to destroy me, then what exactly do you want with me? Why did you save me all those times?"
"Because you're the only one in this f**king town with any chance of finding Jerome. And you can move around a lot more freely than I can."
"Um, last time I checked, you're the one in the Junior Smiting League, not me. I don't have any pow-abilities right now to defend myself."
"Yeah, but if you're caught poking around, people aren't going to declare open season on you...I mean, aside from that bitch demoness."
I grimaced at the memory, and Roman pushed forward.
"Look, Georgina, we can sit and argue whether I'm going to kill you or not, or we can try to figure this out and get your boss back. Then we can explore me killing you in more depth."
"God," I groaned, standing up. I needed my cigarettes. Roman watched me light up.
"New habit since I was last around."
"Old one, actually. And I'm not in the mood for lecturing." I sat back down, feeling much more settled with my nicotine. Aubrey wandered out shortly thereafter, apparently not afraid of a sociopathic-yet still eerily sexy-immortal hanging out with us. "So, what's there to figure out? It was Grace. You said you saw the seal around her neck."
Roman eased himself into a chair from my kitchen table and scooted up. "I did. Makes sense that she'd keep it as close to her as possible, though that takes some balls to have it out in the open that much."
"So why won't you let me tell anyone, then?"
He tsked. "Think, Georgina. Who are you going to tell? Which demon in this whole mess do you think you can trust? None of them like Jerome. None of them want him back."
"I was going to tell Hugh."
"You can't tell anybody . I was walking along with you today when Cedric popped in." It figured. There was no telling how long Roman had been following me invisibly. "If he was telling the truth about not telling Nanette about your theories, then that means one of your friends tipped her off."
"No," I said stubbornly. "It's more likely that Cedric was lying. None of them would have betrayed me."
To my complete and utter astonishment, Aubrey jumped on Roman's lap. He scratched her head absentmindedly. "Well, believe what you want, but I don't think it's safe to tell anyone yet. Except me, of course."
"Right. The guy who wants me dead."
"Eh, we can talk about that later. For now, let's go over what we know."
I wasn't really keen on the casual way we were tossing around my impending doom, nor did I like that I still didn't know why he was here. Keeping my mind on Jerome did help, though, and it was nice to finally have someone to truly brainstorm this stuff with.
"We know Grace was the demon who helped with the summoning," I said.
"There could be more, you know."
"Yeah, but there's only one archdemon position."
"True. Just don't rule other possibilities out. She and that other demoness here are pretty tight."
I thought about Mei, whose poker face was as good as Grace's. "Yeah...although, they seem to be operating pretty independently now. But, for the sake of argument, we'll stick with Grace. So, we know she was part of the summoning and has half of the seal. What we don't know: where the other half of the seal is, who helped her, and where Jerome actually is."
"Kind of daunting," he mused.
A thought suddenly came to me. "Wait a minute...you might make this simpler. A greater immortal can break up Jerome's prison. With you, we don't need to actually find the whole seal to free him-or get the half we know about from Grace."
Roman turned sheepish. "Well...I don't know for sure that I can do that."
"Why not? You've got the same powers as Jerome."
"My strength is the same as his when it comes to fighting and whatnot, but I don't have exactly the same powers. I'm not truly a greater immortal. I don't know if I could break him out without the seal."
