“No.” She cranes her neck to stare up at me, her eyes large in her heart-shaped face. She’s fucking gorgeous, even covered in blood and grime from her fight. “No, thank you.”
“Liar. Of course you do. Everyone wants something.”
It’s my job to find out what it is. Then make them go after it. After more and more and more of it. Too much of it.
Her eyes narrow, and she ignores my earlier command, sitting up and pivoting on her shapely ass to drop her feet to the floor. Her business suit is shredded, in much worse shape than my own is, and the large gashes in the fabric reveal tantalizing glimpses of mocha skin.
“I get it.” She scowls at me. “You’re Greed. You always want something, so you assume everyone else does too.”
It doesn’t escape my notice that she cleverly dodged my question, but instead of forcing the issue, I cock my head at her. “What’s your name, angel? And if you say Olivia Pope again, I’ll throw you out the window, and you better hope your damn wings are healed enough to fly.”
She has the grace to look a little sheepish at that, and she tugs her bottom lip between her teeth before she answers. That small action makes my cock twitch. There’s something open and vulnerable about this woman—this angel—that makes her incredibly alluring. She does things that, if another woman did them, would seem overtly sexual, but there’s not an ounce of intent behind her actions.
She has no idea what she’s doing, or what affect it has on a hot-blooded male.
“Trinity,” she murmurs. “But most people call me Trin.”
Her eyes are soft and dark as they stare at me, as if she expects me to haul her off the couch and hurl her out the window anyway.
I’m not gonna fucking do that, and I tell myself that the only reason why is because I still haven’t gotten my precious answers.
“All right, Trin.” I sit on the coffee table, spreading my legs and resting my elbows on my knees. “Why did you come to my office today? What are you doing following me around? Huh? An angel like you? What rank are you anyway?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Trinity sits up a little straighter, more strength coming into her voice. The potion’s doing its work. “You were there! You saw that portal. It’s small for now, but it’ll expand, and I can’t have closed it permanently. I’d need a stronger angel to do that, or—or some kind of supernatural magic. Why did it even appear?”
That’s a good question, actually, and one I don’t think I’m likely to get an answer to soon. I’m not as accurate as a polygraph test, but I still have a good sense for when people are lying to me, and she’s not feigning her shock and surprise at the portal’s appearance.
I spread my arms, letting a half-smile curve my lips. “I wish I could take credit, but alas.”
“I’m serious.” She leans forward earnestly. “We need to figure out why that portal opened up, why those demons invaded Earth. They didn’t come for me. And if they weren’t here for you…”
“They weren’t. Unless I pissed off Downstairs and someone forgot to tell me.” I rub my chin thoughtfully. “But you’re right. Portals to Below don’t just open up for no reason. Earth is neutral territory. So what is a group of demons doing here?”
“Ugh, that’s what I’m asking myself.” Trinity falls back against the couch, scrubbing a hand over her face. “There has to be a reason, and I need to figure it out. Do—” She breaks off, her eyes widening suddenly. “Oh no, do the humans know what happened?”
Good question. I grab the remote and switch on the large television that dominates one wall of the room.
Looks like there’s a minor news story about a mysterious sinkhole appearing in an alley and growing bigger. Just as I expected, they’re blaming it on local construction and sewer problems. From what I can tell, it looks like Trinity successfully closed the portal. Temporarily anyway. But it still exists as a sinkhole even if the bottom layer doesn’t lead to Below anymore.
“That won’t hold,” the angel whispers, fear in her voice. “If it’s still growing and getting bigger, then it’s only a matter of time until the bottom opens up again and more demons pour out.”
“Has anything like this happened before?”
“Not recently.” Trinity looks like she’s thinking. Her nose scrunches up and her brow wrinkles. “Not that I can remember.”
“Great. So we need to figure out what this means.”
Even as I speak, I’m not sure why I’m saying we. I don’t see how this is my problem. But at the same time, I don’t like the idea of Below having a strong influence here.
And I especially don’t like the idea that this could bring the war to Earth. If Heaven and Hell begin to battle for control of this plane, there goes all my fucking fun. My brothers and I exist because free will exists on Earth, and if that goes away, there’ll be no one left for our sins to influence.
I’m not fond of that idea.
So, fuck it. I guess I’m trying to figure out how to stop a portal to Hell from opening again.
“I need to go and handle this.” Trinity gets up, stumbles for a moment like she’s woozy, then starts for the door. She glances over her shoulder at me. “You can help me or not, but I need to hurry up and get going. If I don’t fix this, Upstairs is going to find some way to blame me for it just because I was there when it happened. I really do not need another stain on my record right now—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” I step in front of her, blocking her body with my larger one. “You almost just died,” I point out. “You were bleeding out in my arms. You ruined my fucking couch. You’re still not at full health, and if I hadn’t had a healing potion to spare, you’d be dead right now. You can’t go marching into battle right now.”
“I’ve had worse,” Trinity replies, tilting her chin up and glaring at me.
That’s a fucking lie. She’s not a battle angel and she already admitted as much.
“Sure you have.” I steer her to the couch and make her sit back down. “You’re staying here.”
“But we have to take care of this!”
“And we will.”
The words are out of my mouth before I consider them, something I almost never do. But I make no effort to take them back.
Normally I would not stick my neck out like this. But… well, if a bunch of demons are running around New York City then that’s bad for fucking business, isn’t it?
Trinity gives me an odd look, like she’s waiting for the other shoe to drop. “Are you… you’re seriously going to help me?”
“I can’t exactly run a Fortune 500 company if there are demons overtaking Midtown, can I?” I drawl. “But we’re going to be smart about this. Wrath is the one you want to go to if you’re spoiling for a fight. Do I look like my brother?”
“Um, I don’t know. I don’t know what your brother looks like,” Trinity replies.
Fucking hell.
“It’s a figure of speech.”
“Oh.” She blinks. “Sorry. I’m still learning some things about humans. They’re hardly ever literal. It’s confusing.”