Sarah smiled. “Raziel’s still fighting it.”

“That’s his problem, not ours. He needs to claim her and feed, but he’s a stubborn bastard. He’s going to have to figure this out on his own. I just hope it doesn’t take him too long. We need him at full strength, the sooner the better.” He looked out toward the ocean, his blue eyes wintry. “What about the woman?”

“Oh, I think she knows, deep inside. She may have always known. She’s probably going to fight it as well.”

Azazel sighed. “Just what we need. Soap operas in Sheol.”

A bestial scream rent the night air, and Sarah shivered. “The Nephilim are coming closer,” she said in a low voice.

“Yes.”

“They’re going to get in, sooner or later.”

“Probably sooner,” he said in his pragmatic voice.

She managed a shaky laugh. “Couldn’t you at least lie to me, tell me everything will be all right?”

He looked down at her, reaching up to brush her moonlit silver hair away from her face with a tender hand. “Now, what good would that do me? I don’t shield my thoughts. Unlike you,” he added.

“You really don’t want to know some of the things that go on in my tortured mind,” she said lightly. If he knew what was going to happen, he would try to do something to stop it, and there were things that couldn’t be changed. Her death was one of those things, whether she liked it or not.

He rose, pulling her up into his arms, against his hard, strong body. Once her body had almost equaled his, lithe and young and beautiful. Now she was old, and he still looked at her, touched her, like she were twenty.

“Let’s go swimming,” he said as another howl echoed in the distance. He reached up to push her loose robes off her body.

She let him, and a moment later he was naked as well, and they ran into the surf, holding hands, diving under the cold salt water as the bright moon shone down. She swam out, secure in the knowledge that he could get to her at a moment’s notice, and once past the breaking swells she rolled over to float on her back, letting her hair drift around her. Ophelia, she thought. He had to be able to let her go.

He came up beside her, and she kissed his mouth, cold and wet and salty, and wrapped her body around his, floating, peaceful. There weren’t many moments like this left to them, and she was greedy, she wanted everything she could get.

He smiled against her mouth. “Shall we go back to our rooms? Or is Raziel’s soap opera going to demand your services again tonight?”

“You’re the only one who gets my services tonight,” she murmured, letting him pull her in toward the distant shore.

They were back in their bedroom, the doors open to the night air, when she heard the screams of the Nephilim once more.

“Close the windows, love,” she said softly, sliding between the cool sheets.

He did as she asked, not questioning, and then came to bed.

“WHAT DID YOU SAY?” I stared at the woman with horror. I’d been having a hard time not thinking about taking her to bed, but her blithe announcement had driven that straight out of my mind.

“I knew what you were thinking,” she said smugly. “Is that because we had sex? Earlier I knew you were coming here long before you showed up. I realized that was odd because of Sarah’s reaction, and now I can sort of pick up your thoughts.”

“Can you indeed?” I said calmly, wondering if I could get away with throwing her off the balcony and telling everyone she’d slipped. No, I couldn’t, but it was a nice thought.

One she didn’t pick up on, fortunately. So her ability to read me wasn’t that well developed. Yet.

Shit. Under normal circumstances, there was only one reason a woman would be able to read me—because she was my bonded mate. But for me there would be no bonded mates ever again. This was just an anomaly.

“Not now, of course,” she said, frowning. “Just the occasional thought sort of drifting through my brain. Are you doing that?”

“Letting you read my thoughts? No,” I said, controlling my instinctive shudder. I couldn’t let her know how she affected me. “This is a fluke—by tomorrow, it should have passed. Don’t worry about it.”

“I’m not worried about it. I like it. It gives me something to fight back with,” she said.

Interesting. “Why do you need to fight me?” I asked her.

That stumped her for a moment, and I tried to touch her mind. A mistake. She wanted me, I could feel it quite clearly. It was almost a physical touch, even though she was trying hard to suppress it. That was what she needed to fight.

“I feel powerless here,” she said finally.

“You are powerless here.” I moved over to the bank of windows that faced the sea. They were open, the sheer white curtains fluttering inward on the strong wind. I could hear the soothing sound of the ocean as it beat against the sandy shore. It almost—almost—drowned out the screams from the world beyond. I glanced back at the woman sitting curled up, a stain of color against the pristine white of the sofa. I had an easier time resisting her when she was dressed in white. Why had I ordered those clothes for her? The colors assaulted my eyes, assaulted my senses. They drew me. “What else did Sarah want?”

“To welcome me into the fold of Sheol sex slaves.”

She was trying to annoy me, as usual, and succeeding, as usual. “No one is a sex slave around here.”

“The women don’t seem to have much else to do. Fuck and let you drink their blood. I’m assuming that only goes one way.”

I tried to keep my face blank. “Of course.”

“Then why don’t you take my blood?”

I turned away from her. She’d have a harder time reading the truth if she couldn’t see my face. “I took enough to make certain you were innocent. That was all I needed or wanted. The Fallen can feed only from a bonded mate or the Source, and you’re neither.”

“Then what am I? Besides a nuisance,” she added, immediately reading my mind.

It unnerved me, but I was determined not to show any reaction. “I don’t know.”

She rose, saying nothing, and the dress swirled around her bare ankles as she moved past me into the kitchen. Her skirts brushed against my legs like the caress of a warm breeze, and without thinking I reached for her.

But she had already moved past, and she didn’t even notice, thank God. She turned, as if aware she’d missed something, but by then I was leaning negligently against the counter, concentrating on the almost imperceptible pattern of the white Carrara marble.