Bookie wrinkled his lip toward a sneer. “And you think he is linked too?”
“The bond between them is damn strong, emphasis on ‘damned,’ ” Ecco said. “Just ask Jonah. When he stops foaming blood.”
“Ecco,” Archer said softly without turning to look at the man, “I don’t want to hurt you too.” But he would. He figured that part went without saying.
“You’re an arrogant asshole,” Ecco said, “but you don’t lie to yourself. If Sera is the bow, you’re the arrow. The power and the point. She held the fissure in the Veil, and you rammed the malice back through.” He secured his grip on Archer’s arm. “Kinda like the aforementioned fucking that’s got you wound so tight around her.”
A bone-deep tremor shook Archer—every atom of his being coursed with demonic fury. He held himself stone-still, though the room around him glimmered with the black-light effect of hunter’s sight.
“I suppose there is historical precedence,” Bookie said grudgingly. “If you consider that women have always been in charge of life and death. And, anecdotally at least, a woman had first dealings with a devil and suborned her mate later.”
Ecco laughed. “I so dare you to say that to Sera’s face.” The big talya tightened his grip another notch, as if he feared his next words would be even less well received than the last. “She might have the soul connection to the dark side, but when Archer saw she was in trouble with the malice, he jumped in with annihilation on his mind. If Eve had him around, farmer boy here would’ve made her apple pie.”
Valjean, hanging off Archer’s other arm, grunted. “Explains why we’ve never seen this phenomenon. No female talya.”
Ecco nodded. “And no way was I going to have sex with any of you lot.”
“When was the last time I thanked God?” Valjean let go of Archer. “This is all very titillating, but we’re no closer to finding the djinn-man. How Archer and Sera send demons back through the Veil won’t save us if all the demons come pouring over to our side first.”
Niall glanced over the tense group, his gaze narrowing on Archer. “We’ll find Corvus and stop him. We’re going to trap him.”
“Liam.” Despite the arcing demon energy, Archer’s blood froze. “No.”
“Trap him?” Valjean perked up. “Have to admit, it’d be easier if he’d come to us. Why would he—?”
“Not Sera.”
Archer stiffened, hearing the words screaming in his head spoken aloud. He glanced over at Bookie.
The historian shook his head. “You can’t use her as bait. We can’t risk Corvus taking her from us.”
From his chair, Jonah snorted, spurting blood.
Niall frowned at him. “I said hold that pillow tight.” He turned his attention to Bookie. “Corvus wants to exploit her teshuva’s connection to the tenebraeternum. He doesn’t realize he’d be stealing half a weapon that could destroy him.” His expression remained impassive, as if he weren’t discussing sending Sera to her likely doom.
Archer spurred his demon, felt the ripple through his body, and fixed his gaze on Niall. The league leader should know the other half of his new weapon wouldn’t be passively aimed. “I won’t let you sacrifice her.”
“It’s what we do, who we are.” Niall’s gaze never flickered, his demon latent as he spoke the cold truth. “And it’s all our souls at stake.”
Into the tension, Bookie said, “The probability of catastrophe halved is still fifty percent too high. Why hand Sera to Corvus on a silver platter now? Give me time to finish my work.”
Archer knew what Sera would say to that idea. He wrenched out of Ecco’s grasp and stalked toward the door.
Niall called out, “Where are you going?”
“The birnenston is making me crazy. I’m leaving before I do something I might regret.” He glanced at Jonah on the way past. “Which is not you, by the way.”
Jonah flicked him off with vigor, and Archer was grudgingly glad he hadn’t killed the man.
He had enough undying regrets. But if the only way out for him had to be paid with Sera’s gold head on a silver platter, he would live with those regrets. However long—or short—that might be.
CHAPTER 21
When Archer slammed through the safe house door, he left a glimmering violet outline of his palm embedded in the wood. He must be radiating on all wavelengths, overwhelming the house energy sinks, to leave such blatant demon sign in his wake, but he refused to name the emotions that narrowed his vision to the woman before him.
He curled his hands into fists, wanting to reach for her, but fearful of what marks he’d leave this time.
Sera, focused on her laptop, didn’t even glance up.
He towered over her. “Get up. We’re going.”
She pecked a single key on the keyboard. Still looking at the screen, she said, “Can’t,” and held up her arm with the tracking bracelet.
He slipped his fingers between the manacle and her wrist. The contrast between the slick coolness of metal and fine silk of her skin hummed in his senses. He snapped the bracelet in two.
The halves fell to the floor with echoing thuds.
“Oh dear, my unbreakable titanium alloy.” She lifted her gaze from her bare arm, still cradled in his grasp. “Bad day?”
“Getting worse,” he growled. But the warmth of her penetrated his icy rage. The tug that lifted her to her feet was only as abrupt as simple male arrogance required. “Come on.”
“I was in the middle of something.”
“Yeah, you are. What do you think’s making it worse?”
A flicker of alarm crossed her features. She stopped being a deadweight. “Where are we going?”
“Away.”
“Let me get my bag.”
“Now.” He’d made clear to Niall he wasn’t okay with the baited-trap idea. It wouldn’t take long for Niall to figure out that “wasn’t okay with” meant “was going to stop it.”
Luckily, the house was almost empty, and he’d yanked the telephone landline on the way in. By the time Niall connected with a talya close by, Sera would be safely away.
Archer didn’t want to hurt anyone else today. And he didn’t want to wonder why he was willing to kill for this blond wisp of a demon-ridden woman at his side—just because his experience with demons and her link to the other side combined into a weapon unlike any found in talyan archives. . . .
More than two millennia of league knowledge—not to mention his almost two centuries of numbing annihilation—had been thrown into utter confusion, and all because of her.
Two cab rides and a fast walk with several doubling backs brought them to the greenhouse. Sera glanced over her shoulder as he unlocked the door. “So whom am I watching out for here?”
“Anybody who looks like a bad guy. Or a bad guy pretending to be a good guy.”
“Right. That about covers it. Except for the good guy pretending to be a bad guy.”
“We don’t have any of those.”
“Yeah, we do.”
When he glanced down, she was looking at him. He pushed her into the building and locked the door behind them.
She rubbed her hands up over her arms, and he realized he’d dragged her out of the house without her coat. Preoccupied with his suspicions, he hadn’t even offered his.
“Let’s get you something warm to drink.”
She waited while he made tea, then turned to go out to the greenhouse. “You coming?”
Their night in the garden flashed before his eyes. He’d brought them here because this place had always been his refuge. Jonah might’ve been right about the losing-his-mind part.
As for Ecco’s theory . . . The talya’s crude comparison of offing demons to sleeping with Sera struck him as wrong. Not just borderline sacrilegious, but missing some vital aspect. Rather than trying to think it through, he followed her.