And she was flying. Again.
This time, the journey took seconds. Ash landed lightly in front of yet another set of double doors. He put her down without a word, pushed open the doors, and disappeared inside. She stared after him for a moment, then down at the dress. Ryan was going to piss himself laughing.
Oh well.
The doors led into what she presumed was a Hellish equivalent of a meeting room. They were in a round room at the base of the tower.
A circle of chairs faced into the middle of the room. All the same, except one—much bigger than the others. Ash headed straight for it but paused by Tara. He pulled the talisman from around his neck and handed it to her. He murmured some low words and she smiled up at him. It seemed like things were warming up between the two of them. Faith was glad. He continued across the room and sat down, long booted legs stretched out in front of him. The chair must have been built for him to accommodate his size and the wings, which folded neatly behind him.
She looked around at the rest of the chairs, Christian, Tara, and Ryan. They were all watching her with various expressions of amusement and she scowled again. It was becoming her perpetual expression. She stalked over and took the chair next to Ryan.
“Nice dress,” Ryan said.
She sniffed.
He grinned. “You’re a combination of total mess and sexy as hell. No prizes for guessing what you two have been up to.”
“Piss off, Ryan.”
“You know you’re supposed to feel all relaxed and mellow right about now. Why am I getting the impression that romance is not blooming in Hell?”
“You are so funny. Not.”
“And Our Lord Asmodai isn’t too happy either.”
Faith gave him a quick peek. He was sitting, hands resting on his thighs, eyes narrowed as he stared from her to Ryan.
“I bet he ordered you to call him ‘My lord’ or ‘Master’ and got all pissy when you told him to go to Hell.”
“A bit pointless considering we’re already here,” she snapped.
“Yeah, I hadn’t thought of that. I’ll have to think of somewhere else to go to.”
Her lips curled into an involuntary smile. Ryan had always been able to drag her out of her darker moods.
“Can we get on,” Ash drawled giving them a pointed look. Faith wiped the smile from her face and shifted in the chair trying to get comfortable, but she was sore.
Ryan opened his mouth to say something and she glared. He shut it again.
Christian rose to his feet. “They’re gone for now. But we need to find a way to get them off our backs and Roz’s for good.”
“Does anyone know where Piers and Roz are,” Ash asked.
“No idea, and no way to contact them. We thought it best. But Piers will check in at some point.”
“So we need to either offer Raphael something he wants more. Or threaten him with something he wants even less than an abomination on the loose.”
“Don’t call her that,” Tara said.
Ash grinned. “I’m sure Roz has been called worse.”
He’d said there wasn’t anything between him and Roz, but there was real affection in his voice. She wasn’t sure she liked that. She rubbed at the back of head, trying to ease the tension and sensed Ryan watching her.
“Are you all right?” he whispered when she cast him a sideways glance.
“So-so.” The rest of the painkillers were in her pants pocket on the floor of Ash’s bathroom. She had a feeling she’d need them soon. Little black dots were dancing in front of her eyes.
“Any ideas?” Christian said.
She felt like she didn’t belong here. What could she offer to this discussion? She was in too deep and way out of her depth. Why had Ash even brought her here?
She felt like wailing, I want to go home. But it wouldn’t be true. Her apartment had never felt like a true home. Just a place to keep her things. She hadn’t had a home since her mother died.
God. She was wallowing in self-pity, and that never did any good. But she couldn’t seem to shift it. She glanced up and found Ash watching her, a small frown on his face and she flashed him a patently false smile.
He looked away. “I say we lure Raphael to a meeting and we kill the fucker.”
Faith told herself that he didn’t really mean that. He was trying to shock her. He wouldn’t really kill an angel. Would he? Then she had a thought. The colonel had said the new boss was called Raphael. She shook her head. It couldn’t be anything but a coincidence and she didn’t want to interrupt them. But she’d mention it to Ash after the meeting. If he was still talking to her.
“Only as a last resort,” Christian said.
Shit, so maybe he had meant it.
“The meeting part is good though. Maybe we could try and arrange that and see how inflexible they are on this.”