Chapter 7
Chapter
Seven
Ipaced the small apartment above the bar while Tiago worked over Gavriel, who lay stretched out on the bed.
I was going to kill Richard. Singed? This was singed?
His whole back was scorched, and that said nothing of the gashes all over his chest and shoulder.
Gashes wasn’t the right word. Wounds with shrapnel still embedded in his flesh.
What was wrong with the golden angel? There was ‘make it convincing,’ and there was, ‘sadistic psychopath who wants others to suffer as much as he can get away with.’ The next time I saw that angel, I was going to…
“Hand me the gauze, if you’d be so kind,” the elf said, looking up from his work with tweezers.
I bared my teeth and grabbed the gauze on the tray. At least that was clean. Nothing else was. “Here. Can you go faster?”
He raised a brow as he unrolled the gauze and then held it out for the man with leather knuckles to snip with a swipe of his claws.
“You don’t want me to go faster. I might miss some shrapnel.
Our friend, Rafe, has gone to cover up your scent.
You’re lucky you stumbled into such a capable group of citizens. ”
“If you’re looking for an assassin, you aren’t citizens.”
He tsked. “As an escaped convict, I suppose you are capable of understanding the nuances between citizenry and outcast.”
“The word is criminal. And yes. I’ve been a criminal for a very long time.”
“An honest criminal. I suppose that helps with business.” He pulled a very long piece of metal out of Gavriel’s chest and held it up to the light, monocle glinting. “I believe that’s it. Now the gauze, Shane, if you’d be so kind.”
The one in charge, the leather, clawed shifter of some kind nodded and bandaged Gavriel, taping the edges more neatly than I’d expect from the state of his clothing and the size of his shoulders.
“Now, he’s resting comfortably, and we can discuss our friendship,” Tiago said, giving me a smile.
“You want me to kill someone for you. It can be arranged, but we’ll need somewhere to stay until the heat dies down.”
“You don’t want to know the target first?”
I stared at him for a moment before I shrugged and looked away, my gaze landing on Gavriel’s chest, bare other than the large swathe of gauze over his right shoulder and down his pectoral.
I grabbed a blanket and tugged it over his shoulder, tucking it beneath him so it would stay in place.
“If my friend pulls through, I’ll owe you a debt. I pay my debts.”
“Yes, but you should still want to know the target, so that you can know whether you can do the job.”
I looked up at the elf who seemed so concerned.
“It’s probably a competitor threatening your business, so probably corrupt, and surrounded by bodyguards, who are also corrupt and corruptible.
Depending on how you want it done, whether it’s to look like an accident, or if you want them to know it was you, with a seal burned into the corpse’s forehead, it can be done. I don’t fail.”
His eyes narrowed. “But you only attempted to kill the president.”
I shrugged and looked away. “Yes. I didn’t fail to attempt to kill the president.”
He laughed and patted my shoulder. I flinched away, turning on him and snarling.
He raised his hands. “Sorry. I almost forgot that you’re a renowned murderer. So it was an intended failed assassination. Mr. Good must have been interesting to work for.”
“He was different from my previous master. You are not my master. One job. One life for one life.”
He nodded, smiling as he glanced at the angel, now cozily tucked in bed. “No, I’m certainly not your master. Be wary of angels. Some say they’re more dangerous than demons.”
“People say a lot of things. You can go now.”
Shane snorted and gathered up the medical equipment. “Sure. You want to be alone with your lover.”
I glowered at him until he left, Tiago lingering behind, studying me through his monocle with a piercing eye before he smiled and left, closing the door firmly behind him.
I immediately went to the bed and looked down on the still angel. There was something slightly hard about his face. Was he awake? I took his hand, and he squeezed it back.
I sank down on the bed beside him while a rush of relief went through me.
He wasn’t unconscious, just playing the part.
Too well. He’d been awake during that entire procedure?
How could he bear the pain without flinching?
I wanted to touch his cheek, his hair, to give him some comfort, but I was a killer. I couldn’t offer him emotional support.
I took a moment to hold his hand, grateful that he wasn’t unconscious before I released him and stood, turning to the apartment, which needed so much work. Cleaning was something I could do while I waited for him to recover.
The apartment was laughably small. It had three rooms, and one of those was a toilet.
The bed was tiny, and Gavriel took up the whole thing.
I started with the ceiling, scrubbing it down while the city outside grew more active as darkness took over.
Once the apartment was scrubbed down, Gavriel sat up, touching his shoulder delicately.
“You agreed to kill someone?”
I felt guilty for a moment before I shrugged and tucked my cleaning supplies beneath the small sink and went over to crouch beside the bed, studying his eyes, seeing if I could find traces of serious injury in them. His eyes were bright, clear, beautiful.
“Yes. Of course, I meant it as ‘we will kill them,’ so you can deal the actual death if you’d prefer.”
His dark eyes narrowed. “And if this person isn’t corrupt?”
“Then we’ll find a way to get them what they need without killing. What did you want me to do? I’m supposed to be protective of you.”
He smiled slightly and then took my hands, gazing into my eyes with all the softness in the world. “Thank you. Without you, I would have been taken and executed by the angels.” He must think someone was listening in on us. That was a definite possibility.
I squeezed his hand back. “No. Without me, you’d still be happily in the ranks of the angels. You should have let them take me.”
“Never!” His eyes burned with passion. “Your soul is worth saving, whatever the price.”
I put my face down because this was making me feel really uncomfortable.
The goblin in him was an amazing liar. He seemed so sincere.
Of course, he was an angel who believed in saving souls, but he made it sound so personal.
That was the point. And it was good for me to get lost in his seeming devotion. But not too lost.
“But what about your soul?” His soul was in his eyes, filled with devotion and love.
I looked away, standing. “I need to source some bags of blood, and you’ll need food to recover.
You’re going to stay in this bed until I’m sure it won’t set you back to get up.
I don’t care if you’re an angel, you were hurt very badly. ”
He brushed the side of my face, sending prickles down my spine and making my heart twist. “If that’s what you want, my precious heart.”
His words affected me even more than his touch. We stayed like that for a long moment before I took his hand and firmly put it down on his lap.
“It’s what I want. Your heart is precious. Mine is dead. So take care of your heart or I’ll kill you.”
I left as quickly as possible. After I closed the door, I leaned against it while my heart did strange things in my chest.
What was I doing? I was already borderline obsessed with the angel, and one thing he didn’t need was to get more entangled with a creature like me. He was pure and perfect and should be associating with other angels like him. But they couldn’t get him into a place like this.
A scent tickled my nose, and I searched the shadows until I made out the slight glimmer of a pair of eyes. I shifted my stance, prepared to destroy the threat.
“It’s just me,” a low, melodious voice assured me, coming closer and letting his cloaking spell fade.
He was an angel, going by the wings, but he smelled of bitterness.
Was this Lorien the Cupid? He didn’t look like a short and pudgy cherub.
He was large, as tall as Gavriel, and as muscular as Richard.
I crouched, prepared to rip him apart if he attacked me, trying to get to Gavriel.
He raised a brow as he looked at the door past me and then at me. “Aren’t you overreacting just a bit?”
I bared my teeth at him. “I’m not acting. He’s mine. No one else is going to touch him.” My whole body echoed back its agreement with that statement. He was mine as far as anything had ever belonged to me, whether or not he felt the same way.
He laughed and shook his head, backing away.
“I believe you. That’s unexpected. Your friend will come to no harm from me while you’re gone.
I swear it. And the others want your help with their project, so he’s relatively safe from them as well.
Also, if he’s conscious, he’s not defenseless.
The only reason he’s staying in bed is because you told him to. ”
I hissed at him. “You’re spying on me?”
His grin was sharp, smile wide. “Of course. Angels are my specialty, seeing as I used to be one. The two of you bursting in here at the precise moment we were looking for an assassin is more than slightly suspicious.”
I curled my lip. “It must be fate. I have your oath, but know this. If you scratch a piece of my angel, I will see you die the slowest, most agonizing way possible. And if you love anyone, I’ll kill them too.
” I darted past him down the stairs, like he wasn’t our target.
I couldn’t tell if he was. A bitter angel didn’t seem like much of a threat.
On the bottom floor, I ran into Shane, or I would have run into the large male blocking the exit if I hadn’t pulled up.
“Where do you think you’re going? We had a deal.”