“I need you to take me to your master.”
“No can do. Unless you’re branded, you can’t get past the guards and into the den.” Lore could kill the guards, but he wasn’t about to risk Deth’s wrath until Sin was safe. “Which means that the only way to get to Detharu is through the Guild, and trust me, you do not want to do that.”
She drifted closer to him, and in painfully slow motion, she covered his slave-mark with her hand. Her touch was like a punch to the soul, and he had to clench his teeth and his fists to keep from trembling. “Why not?”
It was a full thirty seconds before he could answer without sounding as if he’d lost his testicles in an industrial accident. “Because they won’t tell you anything. It doesn’t matter how much you pay them or what you threaten them with. The only way they’d reveal something like that is if you made it very worthwhile, and even then… I wouldn’t trust the information they give you. Assassins have a reputation for keeping secrets. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be in business.”
Though she lost a little color in her face, she managed a smile. “Well, then, I guess I’ll give them something worthwhile. We’re going, and you’re going to take me.” He would have protested, but she unsnapped the cuff on his left wrist, and he’d promise to take her all the way to Mars if she’d release the other arm, too. “Oh, and you might have mentioned your little death glitch.”
“Death glitch?”
She gestured to his right arm, which was wrapped in thick layers of gauze and tape from his fingertips to his shoulder. “You know, how you could possibly kill me with a touch.”
Busted. “Ah, yeah. That. Minor detail. And if you’ll remember, I did tell you not to touch.”
“Yes, but you said it was because your arm is sensitive.”
“It is.”
“We’ll have to chat about it. Later.” She handed him his Gargantua-bone dagger. “Right now we have to get you out of this hospital. Alive.”
Sixteen
Getting Lore out of the hospital wasn’t a problem. His room had been close to the emergency department, and while Sin created a very loud and obnoxious distraction near the Harrowgate, Idess and Lore had made a mad dash to the parking lot, where Idess flashed them out of there.
But contacting the Assassins’ Guild was going to be a lot more difficult. Its headquarters was located in Sheoul, an extremely dangerous place for angels—especially pre-Ascended ones who were easier to kill and more vulnerable to corruption.
Making matters more hazardous, as a not-quite-angel, Idess couldn’t flash into or out of Sheoul. She could only get there if her Primori was in mortal danger, forcing her to flash in, or if she traveled via Harrowgate. But naturally, there was a catch to that, too; she could only use a Harrowgate if she was with a demon, because no divine being could operate the controls.
So Lore would take her, but if he was killed or rendered unconscious while they were there, she couldn’t get out. And if the Guild was under a maltranseo treaty, no divine being short of God himself could enter.
Idess and Lore had gone to his house first, so he could shower and change, and then, outfitted in black leather from head to toe—including his hands—he’d taken her through the Harrowgate to a wet, cavernous region of Sheoul, where the spongy ground growled and bled with every step. Some sort of pale light illuminated the place, but as far as she could tell, there was no source. All she knew for certain was that the light affected their shadows, making them move when Idess and Lore were standing still, or making them motionless when Idess or Lore moved.
Ignoring the mild itch in her shoulder blades, Idess summoned a scythe and held it tight as they picked their way between boulders and thorny vines that curled around their ankles if they came too near.
“You sure you want to do this?” Lore spoke loudly so she could hear over the sounds of the furious earth. “There isn’t a being in Sheoul that wouldn’t like to put an angel head on their mantel. Down here, you stand out like, well, an angel in hell. You’re sort of… glowing with goodness. All you need now is a fucking halo to make sure even the dumbest demons know what you are.”
“I can take care of myself, you know.”
He waggled his brows. “I can take care of you better.”
Oh, she knew firsthand how well he could take care of her. Her body warmed up at the unwanted memory of his magic fingers working between her legs. She cleared her throat. “Tell me what to expect at the Guild.”
“You’ll have to make a blood sacrifice.” He tensed, the only warning before something scaly, with massive rows of teeth and about the size of a raccoon sprang at them from a rocky ledge. Lore caught it easily out of midair, narrowly avoiding its snapping jaws… and the thing fell dead to the ground.
Impressive. And a little scary.