He grunted. “You’re wearing my clothes.” “It’s better than all that white,” I said. “Were you frightened by an albino when you were a child?” “I was never a child.”

Another of his flat, incontrovertible statements. At least he was talking to me. “You mean you were born this way?”

“I wasn’t born.” He stayed where he was, on the edge of the pit, and it made me nervous. Though I supposed if he fell, he could probably fly out of there, couldn’t he? “Why are you here? I told Tam and Sammael to keep you busy. This is no place for you.”

“I don’t belong in this dank little cave? I can agree with that,” I said. “Not that it’s actually dank or little, but you get the point. Or I don’t belong in Sheol at all? Because I’m willing to agree with you on that one as well, but apparently it’s your fault I’m here and not back in New York dodging buses, and I really don’t feel like having a bunch of men get together and decide what’s going to happen to me, particularly when one of the options includes the equivalent of brain damage. And I don’t like white.”

He blinked at the non sequitur. “Tough,” he said shortly. He started toward me, and I watched him, trying to put all the strange, disparate things I knew about him together in one package.

“Where are your wings?” I asked. If I was going to be stuck with angels, I should at least get to see some feather action.

He rolled his eyes. “Why is that always the first question? You don’t need to know.”

“If I stay here, do I get them?”

“You’re not and never will be an angel,” he said.

I was willing to put up a fight. “Oh, you never can tell. I mean, clearly I’ve been far from angelic so far, but I can always change my ways and become positively saintly.” I gave him a hopeful beam that left him entirely unmoved.

“People don’t become angels,” he said in a tone that said, Any moron knows that.

“How about heaven? Don’t people get wings there? Since I’m dead and all that, it seems like a good place to start.”

His laugh wasn’t flattering. “I don’t think you’ve reached that point yet.”

“Then you’re stuck with me. Get used to it.”

He halted directly in front of me. “For now,” he said. “I wouldn’t count on a lengthy stay. But for as long I have to put up with you, you can stop stealing my clothes. And you can stop talking—the sound of your voice is like fingernails on a blackboard.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said, totally unmoved. “I have a delightful voice. It’s low and sexy, or so people have told me. You’re just being difficult.”

“I don’t care how glorious your voice is, I’d appreciate hearing less of it.”

I opened my mouth to protest, then shut it again. If I wanted to survive, I needed him on my side, and I was going to have to behave myself, at least a little bit. I stood perfectly still, saying nothing, waiting for him.

He tilted his head, letting his strange eyes slide down me, assessing. Odd, but it felt as palpable as a touch. “My clothes are too tight for you,” he said helpfully.

“You’re a man, I’m a woman. I have hips.”

“Indeed,” he said, and I looked at him sharply to see if there was an insult hidden behind his bland tone of voice. “I meant to have clothes provided for you.”

“You did. They were all white.” “You don’t like white? It’s the color of rebirth, renewal.”

“It’s not a color at all, it’s the absence of color,” I said. “I may be in limbo, having to get by on your charity, but I’m not going to let everything go a dull beige.”

“Limbo is a mythical construction,” he said. “And white is not beige.”

“Sheol is a mythical construction, and angels are part of fairy tales, and vampires are nightmares, and you don’t exist,” I snapped. I was getting a little tired of all this.

“Then where are you?” He wasn’t expecting an answer. “What did Sammael tell you?”

“Sammael’s a teenager. He barely said two words. Sarah was more forthcoming. She told me not to count on you for anything.”

“Did she?”

“She said that despite your great kindnesses to me—and I have to admit I have yet to see any evidence of kindness on your part—you wouldn’t speak up for me at the meeting and you’d let the others do what they want with me, and I wanted to make sure—”

“Be quiet!” It was spoken in a soft voice, soft but deadly, and I shut up.

Almost. “Are you going to let them melt my brain?”

He looked confused for a moment, before resuming his familiar exasperated expression. “Oh, the Grace. No.”

It was one small syllable, but I trusted him.

“In the future, you’re not to come up here,” he continued, his tone cool, “and I will make certain Sarah knows where you’re allowed to go and what’s offlimits.

There are dangerous places in Sheol, including the gates that surround us. This place is almost as dangerous.”

“Have you found Lucifer?” He opened his mouth to reprimand me, and I shot back, “It’s four words, for heaven’s sake. Deal with it.”

He looked annoyed. “Sarah’s been talking too much.”

“Everyone seems to talk too much to suit you. Or is it just women?” Sexist bastard, I thought with a peculiar lack of heat.

“No I’m not,” he said.

Not what? I thought.

“You are the only female around here who seems unable to control her tongue You don’t need the details of our fight with the archangel. It’s none of your —” “—business,” I chimed in with him. “And Sarah didn’t tell me much. Besides, I might point out that Lucifer fell because he dared ask too many questions.” I shot him a wry glance. “You should have some sympathy for the curious.”

“Don’t get delusions of grandeur. Lucifer’s questions were more important than whining about why there are so many stairs.”

“And that reminds me—judging by Sammael’s ‘shortcut,’ I shouldn’t have had to walk. You have wings—you could have flown me up there in no time.”

“I could have,” he agreed. “But you need to know where you are, what’s expected of you. There won’t always be someone around to transport you. And I don’t want to transport you if I can help it.”

“Why not?” He probably didn’t want to touch me, I thought, grumpy at the idea. He was treating me as if I had an advanced case of leprosy, which was both annoying and ever so slightly depressing. Not that I was attracted to him—he wasn’t my type.

“You know why,” he said shortly.