Chapter 17

I stirred in bed,falling down from sleep bliss, and then froze.

By the light, I was in Levi's bedroom, completely naked, and wrapped in his bed sheets.

I spied from under my lashes.

Of course, the other side of the bed was empty.

What had I expected? I had to remember Levi was a demon, and not a nice one, and what we had done last night, even though it had been surreal and the mere thought of it tightened my thighs and made me hot all over, it had been a one-time thing. It had been an exercise to relieve the stress and rage we both were feeling.

Nothing more.

Now that that was out of our system, we could go on as if nothing had happened.

And he was already ahead of the game.

I sat up, holding the sheets over my chest, and listened. Nothing. Levi was either being quiet, or he wasn't in the hotel room.

If it weren't for the bond that pulled him toward me, I was certain he would have left already. Probably long ago.

With a sigh, I got up, grabbed a robe from his bathroom, tied it around myself, and paused at the bedroom's door. I opened it, spied out into the common room. Yup, no sign of him. I felt both relaxed and worried about that. Where had he gone? Did he think it was a promising idea to be out there after what happened at the club last night?

Well, he was a grown demon. He knew what he was doing.

I hoped.

I crossed the common room into my bedroom—the bed untouched—and went directly to the bathroom, where I took a long, hot shower. After, I put on black leggings, a burgundy tank top, and left my leather jacket and my combat boots by the bed.

Another twenty minutes passed and I paced the communal area, worried. What if someone had found Levi? A demon or a bear shifter, and now?—

I stopped those thoughts. No, Levi was powerful. He had been able to get us out of a full nightclub. He could get away from a handful of demons if attacked.

Damn, I couldn't sit still, so I picked up my phone and called him.

The door opened and Levi walked in—his phone vibrating in one hand, a brown bag in the other, and a small box wedged under his arm.

"Good morning, sweetheart," he said, the lopsided grin on full display. "Worried about me?"

I almost winced.

All right. We were playing the last-night-didn't-happen game, then.

"What do you have there?" My tone wasn't as natural as his. He was probably used to one-night stands, but I wasn't.

He set the brown bag on the small table—the table he had spread me over and …

I shook my head, pushing those thoughts away.

I focused on the bag and I saw it was from a diner.

"Breakfast," Levi said, his voice tight. He placed the box on the counter that made up the kitchen. "And this … is a surprise."

I frowned. Coming from him, I wasn't so sure I liked surprises. Opening the bag, I got two coffee cups set in a holder, and two hot breakfast sandwiches. We sat down across from each other, and once again, it was hard not to remember what that table had been used for last night.

"What now?" I asked to occupy my mind. I needed something new to focus on. "What do we do?" I took a bite of my sandwich.

"This is where this comes in." He pointed to the box. "It's a fake witch's wand."

The wheels in my mind worked. Wands were rare and only the most powerful witches of certain covens had them. "This could interest Duncan."

He nodded. "Enough to let us in his house."

I frowned. "That's a big if."

"I know, but it's all we got." He sipped his coffee.

"How did you get it?" I asked, curious.

"I had a friend of mine make it and send it to me."

A friend of his. I couldn't see Levi with friends, just a bunch of people who owed him favors. "Okay, let's say he invites us in because of the wand and I find my wings. Then what? We fight our way out? I bet someone like him has lots of lackeys."

Levi set his coffee down. "He does, and that's why I called mine." I stared at him and he elaborated. "I called a dozen demons that work for me. They are coming to help us." He showed me his dazzling grin. "Don't worry, sweetheart, we'll get your wings back."

I wanted to believe him, but after what happened in the nightclub last night, I had my doubts about if we would be invited to Duncan's because of a wand. He sounded like he was picky about the items he collected.

We ate the rest of our sandwiches in an awkward silence, which obviously made me overanalyze everything.

Including admiring how sturdy this table was.

"You said something last night," Levi started, his voice atypically serious. "That angels couldn't get pregnant, but you didn't elaborate on that."

I drank the last sip of my coffee, then stared at him. "It's not all female angels. Only the ones who graduate from Guardian Academy and follow the ranks."

"Why?"

"So, the females can focus solely on their missions and the safety of all angels and humans, not just their kids."

Levi's brows curled down. "You graduate and your gift is to have your body mutilated?"

"It isn't as barbaric as that. It's done with magic, but hm, yeah, our ovaries are blocked and we can't get pregnant. It's for the best," I repeated the words I had heard throughout my life.

Any female accepted into the academy knew that once they went down that path, if they graduated and wanted to become a guardian, then they had to go through the procedure before joining the Cherubin.

"How about exceptions?" Levi asked. "There are always exceptions."

I shook my head. "No exception." In the centuries this procedure was performed, I hadn't heard or read of any exceptions.

"That sounds barbaric. And I thought angels were righteous and good."

"We are," I almost shouted. Then I cleared my throat and tried again. "We are. It's a hard choice we have to make, a selfless one. We choose the safety and well-being of others above our own interests."

"You're okay with never being a mother?"

I shifted on my chair. Honestly, I avoided thinking about the topic, since I knew it wasn't on the table for me. "Yes."

"You're not a good liar, sweetheart."

"Neither are you," I retorted, getting worked up. "You pretend to be this big, bad demon, but you are kind and caring when it comes to your sister and Heidi. What is it? Which one is the real you?"

His jaw ticked and I knew I had hit a nerve. "Both, sweetheart. I can care for my sister and Heidi, who was like a mother to us, and still be the biggest evil you've ever met."

I almost laughed in his face. I had helped my friends defeat the Shadow Fae King from the fae realm, warlocks and vampires who were intent on taking other supernaturals' powers to create a super weapon, and a prince of the underworld … who had taken my magic in the process. But he was now dead.

While I had become practically a human.

I had met real evil.

Levi wasn't good by any means, but he was far from the biggest evil out there.

"If you say so," I mumbled.

"What was that, sweetheart?"

With a groan, I stood. "All right. You got the wand and will try to set up a meeting with Duncan. So, you're going to call him?"

He stared at me for a minute, his tension still visible in his expression. He exhaled through his nose and his face relaxed. He leaned back in his chair, all charm again. "I won't call him, sweetheart. I'll have my demons call his demons. Meanwhile, we'll be going to San Francisco."

"When are we leaving?"

He pushed to his feet. "Now."