Tamlel looked distressed. “We don’t kill. We are charged with transporting—”

“Never mind.” I took pity on him.

“Raziel is the angel of knowledge and mysteries,” Sarah said patiently. “He keeps the secrets of the ages.”

“Typical male,” I muttered.

Sarah laughed, and even Tamlel smothered a grin. Sammael, however, kept a stony expression. “Will one of you take Allie up to Raziel? He shouldn’t have left her alone on her first day with us.”

“How long is she going to stay?” Sammael demanded in a tone just this side of rudeness. I guess if you were an angel of death, you could get away with it.

“We don’t know yet. There are more important things to worry about right now. Her presence among us will be dealt with when the time is right.”

That didn’t sound particularly promising. I wasn’t in the mood to be dealt with, and no one apart from Sarah seemed exactly delighted to see me, though at least Tamlel was trying, bless him.

“I’m afraid I’ve promised to help Michael in the weapons room,” Tamlel said. “However, Sammael would be more than happy to serve.” Sammael didn’t look happy to do anything, but maybe that was because he looked like a teenager.

But clearly no one said no to Sarah. “Thank you, Sammael. I’ll take Allie back upstairs—she’ll need warmer clothes if she’s to go into the caves, and I wish to talk to her. You may join us in an hour.”

Sammael bowed in acquiescence, and we started back toward the house.

“I’m worried about him,” she said in a low voice.

“Raziel? Or Sammael?”

She laughed. “Raziel. Sammael has always been like that. The Fallen are eternal—they tend not to change.”

“Great,” I said. Last night Raziel had treated me like an unwelcome interloper, when it was hardly my fault I was here. I didn’t fancy spending eternity feeling out of place. But apparently it wasn’t the women who were eternal, only the damned men.

I glanced at Sarah as we climbed. She looked human, normal, friendly. There were no marks whatsoever on her wrist, the wrist that had been dripping blood into Raziel’s mouth.

Funny. Popular culture always seemed to suggest that vampires—excuse me, blood-eaters—were sexual, that the drinking of blood was an erotic act.

In retrospect, last night’s scene had seemed more like a mama bird feeding her baby. Though I doubted Raziel would enjoy being seen as a fuzzy hatchling.

“Are you certain going up to the caves is a good idea?” I said uneasily. “I don’t think Raziel will be particularly happy to see me.”

“Raziel gets his way far too much of the time,” she said in her tranquil voice. “Jarameel is usually the one who has visions, but he’s been gone for a long time, and my own are far too muddy and unclear. But I know you’re here for a reason, and that reason has to do with Raziel.”

There wasn’t much I could say in response to that. “Okay.” I let the word sit for a moment. “So what’s he doing up in the caves?”

“He’s doing what everyone is doing. He’s looking for the First,” she said.

“The first what?”

“The First of the Fallen.” We rounded another landing, and I was surprised to realize we were almost at the top. It was far less torturous with Sarah by my side.

“You’re looking for Lucifer? Why? What happened to him?”

She looked startled. “I forgot you were a biblical scholar.”

All right, I could be embarrassed. “Hardly. I write—I wrote Old Testament mysteries. I have a certain amount of basic knowledge, but for the rest I just Googled what I needed to know.”

“ ‘Googled’?”

I realized with sudden horror that I hadn’t seen a computer anywhere in this place. Maybe this was hell. “Looked it up,” I clarified.

“Ah, no wonder Uriel hated you,” she said. “He takes history very seriously. He takes everything very seriously.”

“I don’t understand about Uriel. What’s he got to say about things?”

“Everything. When God gave mankind free will, he left Uriel in charge. And Uriel is . . .” For a moment words failed her, and the look in her eyes was bleak. “. . . quite unforgiving. His answer to everything that even hints of evil is to destroy it. And he sees evil in everything.”

We had stopped for the moment, and I considered the consequences of such an attitude. “That doesn’t sound too good for the future of mankind.”

“It’s not good for the future of life in any form.” She pushed open the door in front of us. “That’s why we search for Lucifer.”

The stark white apartment was just as clean and soulless as it had been when I left it. I sank down on one of the pure white sofas. “So where is Lucifer?”

She sighed. “He’s in some kind of stasis, and has been for millennia, since God first passed judgment on him. He’s conscious, awake, but no one can get to him. Only my husband and Raziel have been able to hear him, and the mountain caves are the only place quiet enough for Raziel to listen. As for what we want with him—the Fallen want him to lead them as they overthrow Uriel.”

I blinked. Just my luck—I died, and instead of a peaceful afterlife, I got stuck in the middle of an angelic coup d’état. I pulled my legs up under me, hugging my knees, and cast a glance at a plate of blueberry muffins that was sitting on the coffee table. Before I could reach for them, Sarah went on, “Ask Raziel about it. He’ll probably think I told you too much already. You know how men can be.”

I was ready to make a smart-ass comment—so far Raziel had shown little inclination to tell me anything—but I stopped myself. “You called him a man. Is he?”

“A man? Oh, most definitely. When the angels fall, they take human shape along with their curses.”

“Humans aren’t immortal. Humans aren’t cursed. They can’t fly and they don’t . . .” I hesitated. Once spoken, it would be too real. “They don’t drink blood.”

Sarah’s quick laugh took the onus off it. “Don’t be picky. Call them what you will—they are many things, as you already know.” She moved over to the window. “They’re cursed, and the curse goes deep. If you understand that, it will make things easier on you.”

I stared longingly at the blueberry muffins. If I had one, I’d be hard-pressed not to eat three, and that would use up half my calorie count for the day.

“Why don’t you have a muffin?” she asked, mystified. “You’ve been staring at them since we arrived.”

“I don’t dare. The food’s too damned good here—I’ll end up looking like a blimp.”