Chapter Six
“Where is Raziel?”
The stranger barged past Cody and walked into the living room, glancing around.
“Excuse me?”
He turned, wondering who this person was, how he knew Raziel, and where he’d left his manners. “You don’t walk into someone’s house unless you’re invited in, buster.”
“I do not have time for human games,”
the guy snarled. “I need to find him.”
If he was looking for Raziel, did that mean he was an angel too? Even so, Cody wasn’t sure if this rude prick was friend or foe, and he had no way of getting in contact with Raziel to find out.
“You stomped your way into my house, not the other way around,”
Cody huffed. “I don’t even know who you’re talking about, so get out.”
He decided to err on the side of caution. Raziel hadn’t mentioned any friends dropping by, which would have been weird since they’d just met. In any case, this didn’t feel right, and Cody wasn’t telling this very tall and muscular man diddly-squat about Raziel.
Not that he knew where the angel was, anyway. Cody rubbed his chest, the constant ache of missing Raziel still hadn’t gone away.
“You have no idea what’s at stake, human.”
“My name is Cody,”
he ground out, wondering why he was giving a complete stranger any information about himself. For all he knew, he’d just given the guy a name to put on his hit list. That was how intimidating the stranger was. He had the “hired killer”
look down pat.
If Cody hadn’t wanted to seem brave, he would have taken a few steps back already. “Now, tell me who you are and what makes you think this Raziel person is here.”
The stranger studied him so hard he should have left retina imprints on Cody’s face. He wished the jerk would look somewhere else other than at him.
“It’s better I show you than try to explain everything.”
He walked forward, and Cody back-peddled so quickly that he ran into the coffee table, causing it to loudly scrape across the floor. Duchess yowled and shot from under the table, her tail puffed to twice its size as she bolted down the hall.
His cat had the right idea.
“I’m only going to touch your temple,”
the man argued, seeming frustrated. “Hold still.”
Cody batted at his outstretched hand. “There you go again, just doing things without asking.”
“You are very irritating and getting on my nerves,”
he replied. “I’m only going to show you why Raziel is in hiding and what he’s up against.”
Hiding? “Why is he in hiding?”
he asked in a knee-jerk reaction. Shit. Cody winced. His concern was a pretty good indication that he knew Raziel.
You really need to learn how to lie a little better.
“I am Zymore.”
He held his hand against his chest. “Your question will be answered if you just let me show you.”
Oh, hell no. Cody ran around the coffee table, holding up a hand when Zymore reached for his head again. “Didn’t I just say to ask first?”
For all he knew, Zymore was trying to fry his brain. Why that thought? Cody had no clue. But if angels weren’t as angelic as they were supposed to be, he had every right to be suspicious.
Just because he’d tolerated Raziel’s rudeness didn’t mean he’d let every angel act that way toward him.
“Fine. You win.”
Zymore held up his hands. “I just thought, as Raziel’s mate, you would want to know.”
Cody froze. Despite treating only a handful of shifters, he’d learned what that word meant and what it entailed. Why hadn’t Raziel mentioned something so important? The realization hit like a puzzle piece snapping into place, clear and undeniable. That ache Cody had been carrying since discovering Raziel had left, and it was the reason why he was overwhelmingly attracted to the guy.
Sure, Raziel was gorgeous, but so were half the men in Midnight Falls. Still, none of them had ever made him feel so completely out of his depth.
“I see he failed to mention that little nugget of truth.”
Zymore sighed. “He’s going to slice my nuts off for telling you.”
And Cody was going to do the same to Raziel. How many times had they interacted already? Too many for the guy not to tell Cody what they were to each other. Especially after their intimate moment together. Which made him think Raziel had a reason for holding back.
“I swear it’s painless. You’ll see his entire life, from my prospective, in a single touch.”
That sounded like a good way to find out if the guy you were interested in was psycho or if he hogged all the blankets. Still…
“Won’t that overload my brain?”
“Nope.”
Zymore shook his head. He moved closer, causing Cody to cringe. “At least, I don’t think so,”
he said just as he made contact.
It was like watching a movie at the speed of light, yet somehow, he was able to see and understand it.
Images blurred and sharpened in quick succession. The sheer weight of Raziel’s suffering crushed against Cody, stealing his breath.
Witnessing what was done to the angel, and being powerless to stop it, felt like drowning in someone else’s nightmare.
Tears sprang to his eyes as he absorbed the sheer helplessness Raziel must have felt. Each blow, each scream reverberated in Cody’s chest like an echo, refusing to fade. He felt gut-wrenching agony as Raziel was endlessly beaten with weapons designed to inflict maximum pain.
Every time it was over and Raziel was left alone, he lay huddled on the floor, staring blankly ahead, his body shredded and bleeding. Despite the fact they were memories, and had already taken place, it killed Cody that he couldn’t hold the angel and try his damnedest to comfort him.
The worst torture method Bashar had inflicted was severing Raziel’s wings, with a promise to cut off his head the next time if he didn’t give Bashar what he wanted.
Somehow he knew the tormentor’s name.
Pure, unfiltered rage sliced through Cody. And all of this was through Zymore’s eyes because he had been there. He was Bashar’s head guard and had attended every last one of Raziel’s interrogation sessions.
When the memories stopped and his mind was released, Cody stumbled back with a gasp, trying desperately to catch his breath.
Now he knew why there had been so much pain in Raziel’s eyes.
“You did nothing to stop what was being done to him, and now what, you want me to help you find him so you can drag him back?”
Cody shouted, his voice shaking as nausea churned violently in his stomach. His hands clenched into fists, nails digging into his palms.
It was a straight-up miracle Raziel had a softer side after what he had endured. The angel should have been a broken man by now, filled with madness and snarling at anyone who’d dared to get close.
Cody curled his arms around his stomach. No one should ever feel that level of despair and pain.
“So, you have no idea where he is?”
“Answer my question first.”
Animosity boiled inside Cody.
“Humans might have been given free will, but my pantheon is expected to follow without question,”
Zymore ground out, his tone filled with bitterness. “Had I tried to stop Bashar, I would have suffered the same fate. Raziel’s escape offered the opportunity for me to help, to try and make amends for doing nothing.”
Zymore’s head suddenly shot up. He stared toward the ceiling as his wings unfurled and his arms spread wide.
“Are…are you okay?”
Cody should be running away instead of standing there with someone who could be lying to him. Although he’d seen Zymore’s memories, who was to say he hadn’t hidden parts to mask his true motive?
“I’ve found Raziel, but so has Bashar.”
Zymore lowered his head. Cody inhaled sharply, staring at the same swirling eyes Raziel had had. “A Nephilim has been discovered,”
he said in an ominous tone.
“A what?”
The side of Zymore’s mouth curled upward. “It seems Raziel broke a very strict rule when he escaped three years ago.”
Cody was getting really sick of asking what the guy was talking about. It wasn’t as if he wanted Zymore in his home to begin with.
Not after he’d seen the torture Raziel had suffered, and this asshat had simply stood by and watched. He didn’t care if Zymore would have suffered if he’d interfered. Seeing what Raziel had gone through… Cody’s heart hurt for… his mate.
When he had been told about mates, about their deep connection, he couldn’t comprehend just how deep it went. No one could unless they experienced it firsthand.
And Cody felt it. That was how he knew Zymore wasn’t lying as far as Raziel and him being mates. But everything else was debatable.
“Are you going to tell me what in the blue blazes you’re talking about or just stand there looking impressed by whatever Raziel did?”
“He had sex.”
Zymore chuckled.
That wasn’t something Cody cared to hear. “I get that some guys high-five each other over it, but—”
“Angels are supposed to remain chaste,”
Zymore said, cutting him off. His smile slipped away, replaced with a somber expression.
If that was true, Raziel sure as hell hadn’t acted pure. He had rocked Cody’s world. If it was that intense with only a muscular thigh between his legs, he wasn’t sure he would survive the full menu.
“Are you saying Raziel is in trouble for having sex?”
Zymore shook his head, eyeing him. “It’s what happened afterward.”
“I swear…”
Cody gritted his teeth. “Just spit it out already.”
A headache started to form in the back of his skull. Didn’t the guy know how to give explanations without constantly taking breaks?
“Raziel had sex three years ago, apparently right before he was recaptured because, if he had known, I know he would have fought harder to free himself before now.”
“I have a spatula, and I’m not afraid to use it,”
he threatened. “Stop pausing and give me the full goddamn explanation!”
Zymore looked him over. “You’re just a pint of feistiness, aren’t you?”
Cody glared at him as a thought struck. “How does Raziel have a mate if he can’t have sex?”
“The million-dollar question no one can answer, but we have our theories.”
Zymore shrugged. “Anyway, Raziel’s fun-filled night resulted in a child. A Nephilim. Half angel, half human. They are seen as an abomination, though I personally think they’re adorable.
As soon as Raziel and the child came into physical contact, their bond resonated, alerting our pantheon of the child’s existence and Raziel’s whereabouts.
Honestly, most angels these days don’t give a rat’s ass about a Nephilim, but Bashar and his zealots are heading there now to recapture Raziel and kill the child. Is that a thorough enough explanation for you?”
Was that why Raziel had left earlier, to see his child? “How do we help them?”
Cody knew how to fight about as well as he knew how to keep a bacon-stealing angel out of his kitchen. But he couldn’t just stand by while his mate was about to be dragged back to that cell to be beaten and a toddler killed.
The more he learned about angels, the more Cody decided he didn’t like them. He wasn’t a religious guy, but what Bashar and his cronies were doing was just flat-out wrong.
“Trust me. You don’t want to get mixed up in a celestial battle, human,”
Zymore said. “There’s a lot of powers and bad attitudes involved.”
He stepped to Zymore, glaring at him, although he was too short to get in the guy’s face. “I’m Raziel’s mate, so I have every right to be there. Now take me to him!”
The angel curled his lip. “And if Bashar figures out that you’re Raziel’s mate, you’ll be killed as well because you’re proof the no-sex decree was not given by our Father but some prude with intimacy issues.”
None of that mattered to him. Cody didn’t care about decrees and battles. He just wanted to get to Raziel, to help in any way he could. “Then keep your mouth shut about it. Now take me to him,”
Cody snapped.
“This is not the suicide mission I had in mind,”
Zymore grumbled. “Sure, give Bashar another person to smite.”
Cody yelped when the guy gripped his arm in a tight hold. One minute they’d been standing in his living room, and the next, he found himself inside a child’s bedroom.
Raziel stood there, his presence a storm bottled into human form. His dark, furious glare was fixed on the two men as if they were the only thing holding him back from unleashing destruction. Cody’s breath hitched, the world tilting under his feet.
The memory of Raziel’s touch—heat and dominance pressed against the cold wall of his living room—rushed back with an intensity that left him trembling.
His pulse thudded painfully in his ears as he took in Raziel’s taut frame, his powerful shoulders, and the dangerous tension coiling in every line of his body. But it wasn’t just his commanding stance or the fire in his eyes that undid Cody. It was the knowledge, raw and undeniable, that this man was his mate.
The connection hit like a tidal wave, threatening to pull him under. His heart ached, not with fear, but with the weight of an emotion too vast to name. Raziel’s beauty wasn’t just physical.
It was everything—the strength in his resolve, the fury blazing in his gaze, the wild, untamable energy that seemed to ripple through the room. Cody’s knees felt weak, his breath faltered, his very soul reaching for something it had only just realized it was missing.
For a brief, dizzying moment, he wasn’t sure if he was terrified, enamored, or completely undone. All he knew was that Raziel, his mate, was inescapable, and Cody never wanted to escape.
“What in the fuck is the deal with people popping into my nephew’s bedroom?”
the smaller man—which was a joke since both men we’re humongous—snarled at Cody and Zymore.
The longer the day went on, the more it deteriorated. He was afraid to find out what would happen in an hour. Imprisonment in a heavenly jail cell?
Raziel spun, took one look at Zymore, and the hold the angel had on Cody’s arm, and lost it. He closed the distance and slammed his fist so hard into Zymore’s jaw that the blow should have shattered his face.
No way in hell Cody was letting them fight right next to him. He scrambled across the room, taking his chance with the two strangers.
“Tell me what’s going on,”
the larger of the two asked in a gentler tone while Raziel and Zymore tried to rip each other apart.
The smaller of the two strangers jumped into the fray, shouting about killing them for tearing up Ethan’s bedroom.
So, his mate had a son. Cody would love to meet him. He thought kids were a hoot.
“Raziel is my mate,”
he said quickly, praying the guy beat the brakes off of Zymore as he explained what happened at his house and why Raziel had attacked the long-winded idiot.
“And Zymore thinks he has a chance in hell of making up for it?”
the larger one asked.
Cody thought it funny the guy had said “chance in hell.”
“I’m Quinton Everhart, by the way. And the guy driving his fist into Zymore’s side is my son Killian.”
Cody shook the outstretched hand and introduced himself. “Just so you know, I didn’t mean to bring this chaos here. I simply demanded Zymore take me to Raziel.”
Killian lifted Zymore into the air, but before he could power-slam him, the angel vanished then reappeared behind him, only for Raziel to manifest two swords. His mate’s expression looked carved from fury itself, a living monument to wrath as he drove the blades toward Zymore.
“You would do well to save your energy for the real threat heading your way,”
Zymore warned.
If he had “popped”
Cody here, why hadn’t Bashar shown up yet? It had been at least twenty minutes since Zymore said Raziel and his son had been discovered. If angels had the ability to travel that fast, what was keeping him?
“Why hasn’t Bashar shown up already?”
Cody asked the question out loud to no one in particular.
It made Raziel and Zymore look his way. Cody gazed directly at his mate, his throat tightening at the memory of what the angel had endured. The longing in Raziel’s green eyes was unmistakable, an unspoken ache that mirrored his own, as if they were both desperate to close the distance between them.
“I’m sorry you were dragged into this.”
Raziel looked torn. “All of you.”
He glanced at Killian. “Especially Ethan.”
To hell with this. Cody rushed across the room. Raziel’s swords instantly vanished before his mate curled his strong arms around him.
As soon as he was cocooned in them, the deep ache he’d felt at Raziel’s absence dissipated. One more reason to believe the angel really was his mate.
“You’re in trouble for not telling me we’re mates,”
he murmured against Raziel’s chest.
“Really?”
The angel snarled. Cody looked up to see him glaring at Zymore. “How was that your place to tell him?”
“You’ve been stalking him for two days,”
Zymore shot back. “You’ve had plenty of time to explain things.”
Wait … “You were stalking my stalker?”
Raziel’s arms loosened, and then he stepped away from Cody. “How did you even find me?”
Scrubbing a hand through his long, dark hair, Zymore sighed. “It wasn’t that hard to figure out. I’m surprised Bashar didn’t think of it. Then again, he really isn’t that bright.”
“He does that a lot ,”
Cody whispered to Raziel. “He pauses too much and gets sidetracked.”
The side of Raziel’s mouth twitched.
Ignoring the comment, Zymore continued. “Bashar was livid he couldn’t detect where you were, which means you masked your location. Which means you had help.”
“See, told you,”
Cody whispered again. “You should’ve seen how long it took me to get the information I wanted. It’s like trying to make a sloth run.”
Zymore glared at him. “You rush your words, you leave out vital points, smartass.”
Not only did Raziel snarl, but so did Quinton and Killian.
“Fine,”
Zymore huffed, looking completely disgusted that he couldn’t take the long road. “In order for you to hide your whereabouts, you would need a masking potion. Who has powerful potions? Unseelie. I just tracked down the guy who sold it to you, and he sold me a potion to find you. It was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever consumed, by the way.”
Cody had no clue what an Unseelie was and didn’t bother to ask.
“I really am going to wring that fucker’s neck,”
Raziel groused. “Why are you tracking me if it isn’t for Bashar? If I remember correctly, your pussy-ass just stood by while—”
He glanced at Cody.
As much as he wanted to tell his mate he’d seen his life, he didn’t want to confess the truth in a room full of people.
“Because…”
Zymore glanced toward the floor, revealing a sense of shame before he could hide it. “You’re right. I didn’t want to suffer the same fate. But I couldn’t stand the thought of Bashar recapturing you, so I wanted to do whatever I could to help you remain free.”
“And you think that makes up for standing by and—”
Once again, Raziel’s gaze met Cody’s, with a similar look of shame in his eyes. But there was no reason for him to feel guilty. “What exactly is Bashar’s issue with you?”
He knew some of it, but he was unaware of what secrets his mate held that were valuable enough for him to endure torture.
“Raziel is our Father’s keeper of secrets,”
Zymore responded when the silence stretched.
Cody reached out and took his mate’s hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze to let him know he was there for him.
“Why does he want them so badly?”
he asked his mate.
“He wants the knowledge in my head to rise to power, to usurp our Creator’s place and rule over heaven and earth.”
“So, he’s a megalomaniac.”
Jeez. “Talk about overreaching.”
“Like I said, Bashar isn’t the brightest,”
Zymore cut in, quickly explaining something for the first time. “Not too long ago, he was just one of the overzealous, not leading them. The jackass he worshipped was named Hadad. But Bashar ran like a little bitch when faced with a real threat. I guess running with your tail tucked between your legs bruises your ego. After that happened, Bashar started gathering followers of his own.”
Zymore spread his arms. “And here we are as a result of it.”
Cody had heard of ambitious men willing to do anything for power, but Bashar was insane. He was only an angel, while their creator was a god.
Too bad Cody couldn’t enjoy some popcorn while he watched Bashar get his ass handed to him.
“I contacted the last angel that found his mate, at least that I know of. There could be more. Anyway, it seems being mated hasn’t mellowed him out. Guy was ready to rip me apart,”
Zymore went on.
“Are we going to have to twist your arm?”
Cody scowled. “If you try to take the long road, I’m putting up blockades.”
“You are a wet rag,”
Zymore muttered. “Gavril told me how we could possibly win.”
“I’m going to kick your ass if you don’t keep talking,”
Killian snarled. “My nephew’s life is at stake.”
Cody looked up at Raziel. “Congrats. I heard you had a boy.”
Pride and pain showed in his pretty green eyes. “Yeah.”
He cleared his throat. “Thanks.”
“Panahasi helped Gavril,”
Zymore said. “So maybe, I don’t know, you could possibly reach out to him.”
“You want me to ask him for help?”
Raziel spat the words as if it offended his tongue.
Cody hadn’t seen that kind of a reaction since Mr. Puddlefuzz got into some dog treats. The cat had even wiped his tongue on Cody’s pant leg then barfed.
“They’re not all”—Zymore pursed his lips—“demon-y.”
“Panahasi isn’t just a demon,”
Killian interjected. “He’s Life.”
Did… did they just say demon ? Cody stood there stunned, feeling dizzy. Demon. Holy crap.
Stop using the word holy when you curse, moron.
He thought Raziel had been joking earlier when he’d said at least he wasn’t a demon. Honestly, Cody shouldn’t be shocked. If angels existed, then their nemesis had too as well, right?
“I’ll call him.”
Quinton pulled out his phone and dialed.
Of course he had Life’s phone number. Why the hell not? The guy probably had Death’s number too.
“Cody’s right.”
Raziel kept a grip on Cody’s hand, as if seeking comfort from the physical connection. “Why hasn’t Bashar shown up already?”
Why did Cody have a sinking feeling they wouldn’t like the answer?