“I’m going to be a father—twins.” There was a deep pool of happiness in the simple statement, and then he sobered, eyes direct. “It’s because of her pregnancy that the wraiths are redoubling their attacks. Hunting us. I can’t afford to take any risks.”
“I want to help. I know what family means to you.” I was there when your first one was ripped apart.
Silence stretched.
Finally, Adam cleared his voice, cleared the past, too. Custo felt the shift in his mind, could almost sense him packing away the memories, and let the matter drop. Some things were simply unbearable to revisit.
“I’ve got an extremely irate young woman in another cell. One Annabella Ames. She threatened to dismember me if I didn’t reunite the two of you. Colorful vocabulary.”
Atta girl. “We have to make certain she’s protected at all times.”
“That’s why we put you in here.”
Very funny. This was serious. “You know that trick with the dark that Talia can pull? The one she used to hide from the wraiths?”
Adam tilted his head.
“Well, I know what she was doing. She was thinning the boundary between mortality and the Shadowlands, pulling on the darkness there. And believe me, there’s a lot of darkness to draw from.” Custo paused again, giving Adam a chance to affirm or refute his statements.
Adam didn’t comment, vocally or mentally.
“Annabella can’t thin the boundary, but she can almost cross when she is dancing. She’s got some kind of magic to her—it’s…it’s…captivating.” The image of her glowing form moving among the darkened trees came to Custo’s mind. Exquisite. “Anyway, a creature from the Shadowlands, a wolf, tried to attack her. I got in the way, and somehow we both followed her back into the world.”
Adam’s brow furrowed. “So you want me to protect her from a wolf?”
“Us. I want us to protect her. And it’s a Shadow wolf.”
“How’s that different?” Adam pushed to standing. Time to go. Hope Talia didn’t cave to her soft heart.
Custo followed suit. “It’s made of Shadow. It exists, thrives, in Shadow. We need to keep her guarded at all times.”
Adam signaled toward the slit and the lock on the door released with a deep click and scrape. Custo stepped forward, but Adam stopped him with a hand to his chest. “I’m not entirely convinced.” Adam’s tone and expression were stone serious.
What was it going to take? Although it seemed odd for a dead man, Custo was hungry. He wanted something to eat and a beer to wash it down. He wanted a chance to be alone with Annabella. See if her skin was as silky as it looked.
“You always had exceptional control,” Adam said. “I wouldn’t expect any less, but I can’t in good conscience let you out after a five-minute chat.”
“What kind of proof do you need?”
“What have you got? I don’t see any wings.”
“Myth.”
Adam smiled, glancing over his shoulder at the now-open door. “Talia would say that the truth has its roots in myth.”
That sounded like her.
Custo sighed. “I don’t know how to make you believe, and I don’t have all the time in the world like Jacob.”
Custo wanted to get back to living. Needed to get back to living. In fact, life-affirming acts were first on his to-do list. He’d been waiting for too long.
Adam leaned slightly forward. “Jacob is dead, as are hundreds of wraiths like him.”
“Shadowman?” Custo remembered the moment the wraith war started, the day Talia discovered her scream. The wraiths had attacked the West Virginia Segue compound. Escape was impossible. Until Talia…The sound was like nothing he’d ever heard before, beautiful and terrible, serene and shattering, contradiction unified. She’d ripped a hole in the sky through which Death entered, his scythe swinging, cutting scores of wraiths out of the world. She’d fainted before her father had reached Jacob.
But if Jacob was dead, then she’d called on her father again.
Adam made a show of looking around the concrete hole, his face lining with pain and grim determination. “We capture wraiths, hold them here while we prepare, and then…”
And then Talia and her trumpet call for Death.
Adam exited without a backward glance. I’ll do what needs to be done. I found a way to kill my brother. I can kill you, too.
Fisting his hands, Custo remembered. Shadowman had passed over the human men and women that day. Would he pass over an angel?
What about the angel who betrayed him?
Chapter Five
ANNABELLA’S stomach growled while she waited for the two lovebirds to finish their spat and get her the hell out of the concrete prison. Tall, angry Adam made a good effort to keep his voice soft when it was obvious he wanted to shake Talia, whose very pregnant stomach jutted alarmingly from her middle. Two babies, and the poor woman still had a couple months to go. Wow.
Sure enough, the vein at his temple pulsed as he stared down at her. “What could you possibly be thinking?”
Talia postured back, nudging him with her big belly. “I’m pregnant, not an invalid.”
Annabella eyed the open door; maybe she could make a run for it.
“That’s not remotely the point, and you know it, Talia. Segue has protocols for a rea—”
“—protocols for wraiths,” Talia interrupted. “She’s not a wraith, so there is no need to keep her locked up.”
“You touched her?” Adam’s voice dropped a few octaves.
Annabella wondered what touching her had to do with it, but she wasn’t about to exacerbate the situation and ask.
“And what if she had been?” he pressed.
“She’s not.”
Adam closed his eyes, his lips silently forming the words, one, two, three, four…When he opened them again, the weight of his attention fell on Annabella. She took a step back.
“Apparently,” he said with effort, “you’re not a wraith.”
Talia grinned as if she’d won a battle and wrapped an arm around Adam’s waist. Annabella watched them in reluctant appreciation. They balanced each other. Dark, angry Adam and light, small Talia.
“Let’s get you comfortable for the night,” Talia said. “You have a big performance tomorrow and need your rest.”
Wait a minute…“I’m not staying here.” They’d dragged her by force and stuffed her in an airless cell, and now they thought she was going to sleep in this hellhole? Nuh-uh. “No way. If you’ll kindly return my flashlight, I’ll head home.”
“If a creature of Shadow is stalking you, this is the safest place for you to be.” Talia’s eyes were tense with concern.
Adam’s steely gray gaze softened as well, and he shrugged somewhat reluctantly. “And your involvement with Segue may have made you a target for wraiths.”
“Great. So you’re saying that because I accepted the help of your friend, I am actually in more danger.” Freaking fantastic. “I want to talk to Custo.”
“That’s not possible.” Adam’s voice was flat and uncompromising.
“Oh, I think it is,” Annabella said, so livid a quaver entered her voice. She might not have the nerve to yell at the pregnant woman, but Adam could take it. “I want to see Custo, and I want to see him now.”
“He’s not safe.”
“He treated me a whole lot better than you.”