Chapter 4
Chapter Four
C layton, Ontario, didn’t offer much in the way of fine dining. Correction: Clayton, Ontario, offered nothing in the way of fine dining, but Eddie couldn’t fault the company.
Breathtakingly handsome, Shade sat across the table from her in Clayton’s quaint pub. Light played over the sculpted lines of his beautiful face and got lost in the rich darkness of his hair. She couldn’t have enjoyed an evening more if he’d taken her to a Michelin star restaurant.
Dee had virtually shoved them out the door earlier tonight and taken over running Macbeth’s closing night.
Eddie had even unearthed a pair of jeans without paint splatters and a pretty top for the occasion. Not that anyone was looking at her. All gazes strayed to Shade, several of them getting stuck there. Including their waitress, who hovered over him as he looked at the dessert selections.
The woman looked like she’d rather cover Shade in chocolate sauce and have him. Eddie didn’t blame her. It was more than the beautiful symmetry of his face and body. Shade carried the near tangible air of sex around with him.
Back at the theatre, Eddie had a set strike waiting for her, Dee and Daniel’s verbal sparring—which looked a lot too much like flirting for her peace of mind—an active hell gate, an inconsolable Lillian who had discovered a cold sore this morning, and two sulky hell hounds who were not at all happy about her going off without them this evening.
“What do you think, Eddie?” Shade’s eyes had darkened to charcoal in the subdued lighting. “Cheesecake of creme br?lée?” His smile turned wicked and took her reasoning capacity with it. “Or both?”
With her gaze locked on Shade, the waitress probably didn’t remember Eddie was sitting opposite him at the table. “They’re both excellent choices.”
“Cheesecake,” Eddie said, with no clear idea of what she really wanted. Nope. That was a rotten, stinking lie, right there. What she really wanted was sharing a table with her and turning the entire pub into goo.
Shade wasn’t doing it on purpose. His eyes hadn’t turned silver once, and Sophia was teaching her about power signatures, how to identify them and how to recognize who they belonged to. If he had been doing his lust thing, she would have known.
Shade’s power oozed like honey when he used it. Slow, sensual, and unbearably sweet, it was more of a sneak attack than a full-frontal assault. Wrath’s power, on the other hand, rushed through her like fast running lava. It incinerated and swept you along in the rush. Sophia’s was like a balmy tropical sea breeze. She had the same warmth to her power as Shade, but hers cooled and soothed, whilst Shade’s heated and provoked.
Leaning across the table, Shade stared at her intently. “Those are some deep thoughts you’re having.”
“Sophia has been teaching me power signatures,” she said. Sophia had also been teaching her how to fight like Vexia and use her own power. It turns out, she had some neat tricks. Like Vexia, she could teleport short distances.
Shade cocked his head. “How’s that going?”
“Well.” Taking his hand, she gave it a squeeze and offered him a reassuring smile. He didn’t like having her out of his sight for long. Not that she was in any danger when she was with Sophia, who was also known as the archangel Uriel. As far as protection went, Sophia was overqualified. Shade also didn’t like that it was Sophia instructing her, but Eddie would never have been able to concentrate for long enough to learn anything if he was her tutor.
Shade smirked. “You ready to kick my arse yet?”
She had to smile at that. They were all learning what a Nephilim could do. Everyone had told her that Nephilim could be just as powerful as hell princes and archangels, but as they’d been systematically exterminating Nephilim since they’d first happened, nobody knew for sure what she was capable of.
Shade’s gorgeous face turned serious. “I know this is a lot for you to take in. If it helps, I think you’re handling it incredibly well.”
It did help, and a warm glow infused Eddie. “Thank you. I don’t know if I’m handling anything, so much as going with the flow.”
“We’re all going with the flow.” Shade sat back as the waitress placed the desserts between them.
She beamed at him. “I brought two forks.”
“Thank you.” He smiled back.
The waitress stood for a moment, eyes glazed like a rabbit in headlights, before shaking her head and moving away.
Shade had captivated her like that when Eddie had first met him, naked and pissed off on the basement floor beside the hell gate. Oh, who was she kidding? Like he didn’t still have the same effect on her. He enslaved her senses by being in the same room with her. Only it might be even worse now, because now she knew what lay beneath his smoldering, beautiful exterior. Shade was funny, and kind to her, and always around to protect and comfort.
He handed her a fork. “Nothing that’s happening right now is precedented. Even Gabriel can’t find any records of anything to compare it to.”
And if there was a record, archangel Gabriel would have it. Probably in triplicate.
Shade put his fork on the table and watched her.
The soft look in his eyes brought a full-body flush, and Eddie dug into the cheesecake without questioning if she wanted it or not. He kept her permanently distracted and wrong-footed. Between being homeschooled, the theatre, and keeping the hell gate a secret, Eddie hadn’t had the opportunity to make many friends. Let alone date. Shade wasn’t merely out of her league; he was out of her stratosphere. Perhaps that was part of why she was still unsure about taking things further with him.
Yet, he’d said such lovely things to her, had insisted on wooing her. He’d backed his words by his actions as well. Still, she had such limited experience with being dated—and zero on the wooing front—that she still couldn’t understand how an ordinary woman was being wooed by Asmodeus, the hell prince of lust. It was like going from training wheels on your bicycle to single-handedly piloting the Millennium Falcon.
She wasn’t bad looking, and even attractive on a good day, but she was nowhere near the physical perfection of the archangels or female presenting hell princes. Her life had been weird, but still sheltered. She’d barely even traveled outside of Ontario. By no means an idiot, she was also not witty, clever, or well informed.
A low, raspy growl came from Shade. “You’re doing it again.”
“What?” She started guiltily and checked that she hadn’t wolfed down the entire cheesecake slice. She might have for all the attention she’d been paying to the fork to mouth action.
The cheesecake had only one bite out of it. The same bite she didn’t remember tasting.
“You’ve disappeared inside your head.” Shade took her hand and laced their fingers together. “And they don’t look like happy thoughts.” He tightened his fingers on hers. “Talk to me, Eddie.”
How to begin a conversation she couldn’t adequately articulate in her own mind. See, she couldn’t even speak her thoughts and feelings without stumbling over her own insecurities. From the moment that nasty rakshassa demon had hopped into her life, shit had gotten progressively weirder and scarier.
Wanting to smack herself, she shrugged. “I don’t know what to say.”
She liked Shade, liked him a lot. Liked him a lot, a lot but was still too chickenshit to open that conversation.
Cowardly was added to her list of deficiencies.
Shade motioned the waitress over. “Why don’t we go home?”
Even without an extensive dating history, she knew she’d screwed this one up. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” Shade studied her.
Their waitress appeared beside their table like a puppy expecting a treat. “Yes?”
“Can we have the bill please?”
The waitress looked stricken as she nodded and dragged her feet off to fetch their bill.
Shade turned back to Eddie. “Want to explain what you’re sorry about?”
“For this.” Eddie motioned the table and then the restaurant. “You bringing me here was a nice thing to do, and I haven’t been great company.”
“You’ve been you.” Shade dug out some cash and placed it on the table. “And that’s all I ever want.”
Gah! How was she supposed to keep a level head when he said stuff like that?
Outside the pub, hot, muggy air rushed to wrap around them like a blanket. They’d walked to the restaurant from the theatre. The mean streets of Clayton, Ontario, were already rolled up and tucked away for the night as they strolled back.
Shade slung an arm around her shoulders as they walked.
Eddie felt so right, tucked against his side and she reveled in the feel of him pressed against her. They fit, and that did a number on her head as well. He was a hell prince. Asmodeus—Asmoday, Asmodai, Osmodai, Asmodee—prince of demons, prince of lechery. Thank you Google for that. And he was wooing her—ordinary Edme Ward.
Except maybe she was more of the extraordinary variety. What with being Nephilim and all. “Do you miss your demesne?”
Shade’s piece of hell was beautiful and fertile, reflecting the hell prince who ruled it. The only thing it had in common with Clayton was the humidity.
They strolled past the bakery that made horrible coffee for five bucks a cup but excelled at croissants and pastries.
Shade shrugged. “I’m not sure missing it is the best way to describe how I feel.” He stared in the window of the general store where you could buy anything from porn to hunting licenses. “The seal is my duty to protect. It is why I was brought into being, and I definitely feel that imperative.” He tapped his chest. “In here. The seal, my demesne, and I are connected.”
“You don’t have to stay here and look after me,” Eddie said with a glaring lack of conviction and even less enthusiasm.
Face softening, he stared down at her. “Yes, I do.” He tugged her closer and kissed her temple. “It is my honor to watch over you, Eddie.” He smirked. “And being in my demesne would be a serious crimp in my efforts to woo you.”
“Why?” The question burst out of her. She didn’t get his attachment to her. He could have anyone and everyone else.
Shade stopped them outside Mack’s butchery and put his hands on her shoulders. “Why am I wooing you?”
She appreciated that he understood what she meant, and she nodded.
“Because you’re all that I never knew I wanted or needed.” He cupped her face between his palms. “Because I love you, Edme Ward.” Her joints melted under the blaze of heat that enveloped her. None of the weirdness or her nagging insecurities mattered anymore. They had no place between them. This incredible, beautiful, powerful being loved her, Edme Ward. It suddenly didn’t seem to matter how or why. The only thing that mattered was getting closer to him.
His eyes burned molten as he dipped his head toward her. He’d kissed her before, but that had been when he was using his lust powers against her. This kiss would be real, and Edme wanted it like she wanted her next breath. The world stood still for her, confined to his mouth so close to hers and the constant ache in her body for him.
Shade’s lips touched hers.
Eddie closed her eyes against the onslaught of sensations: the heat of his body, the soft press of his lips, the strength of his chest against her palms, the heady honey and musk scent of him.
His tongue touched her bottom lip and requested entry.
Eddie surrendered to her need.
On a deep groan, Shade wrapped his arms around her and pulled her deeper into his embrace. His tongue breached her mouth, coaxing and demanding.
Her muscles softened, and there was no holding back for Eddie. Their kiss completed something inside her that she had never even known was empty. The sublime intimacy of his taste and feel engulfed her. She craved more of him. Needed all of him. The deepest part of her recognized its mate and wanted to complete the bond between them.
“Asmodeus?” A masculine voice intruded.
Eddie moaned. She couldn’t take any interruptions.
“Shade!” The man grew more insistent.
And then, despite her attempts to block out everything but Shade, the male’s power signature hit her—gentle, yet insistent beneath the pure, bright brilliance that signaled an archangel.
Shade pulled back reluctantly. “Raphael.”
The fog of need took a while to clear her senses as Eddie turned toward Raphael.
Tall, broad-shouldered, Raphael jogged toward them dressed in gray slacks and a white button-down rolled up to the elbows to reveal muscular forearms. He reminded Eddie of a hot banker.
“Lucifer is here,” Raphael said as he drew closer to them.
Under her palms, Shade’s muscles stiffened. “Lucifer?”
Up close, Raphael’s deep gold eyes contrasted gorgeously with his umber complexion. “I think he’s been kidnapped.”
“Kidnapped?” Shade gaped at him.
Eddie was doing some gaping of her own. “Who would kidnap Lucifer, and how would they do that?”
Shoving his hands in his pockets, Raphael looked sheepish. “I understand. It seems farfetched. Impossible even. But I am certain a group of humans kidnapped Lucifer.” He winced. “In a wheelchair, and he was wearing gray sweatpants.”
Shade choked. “Impossible. Lucifer would never wear sweatpants.”