Chapter 7

On the way to Houston,Leviathan had wanted to buy airplane tickets, first class, to go to San Francisco, as it would be faster, but I reminded him I wasn't really a human, and had never bothered making any documents, not even fake ones. If I got in trouble, my magic could solve anything. Now, I stayed under the radar.

It was better this way—harder for the angels to find me.

He thought about making fake documents for me, but that might take even longer, or rent a charter plane, but he couldn't book one as fast either, so we decided to drive all the way to San Francisco.

"But we'll go in my car," he said.

So now we were inside his sleek, red Ferrari—the black one I had seen before had been parked beside this one—driving out of the garage under his building. We had come back to his apartment through the door-slash-portal and immediately exited it with Leviathan's suitcase, grabbed the elevator, and hopped in the car.

All the while, Leviathan didn't say anything and I lagged a few steps behind.

I had killed people before, mostly supernaturals with evil intent. But this time, it had been different. I knew no background other than that demon liked to eat angels.

Another shudder coursed through me as I remembered being shoved to the ground and not being able to get free.

"Are you cold, sweetheart?" Leviathan asked, his tone light, flirty.

I frowned. "You said you felt my pain, my dizziness when the demon got to me. What else do you feel?"

His whole body stiffened and his grip on the wheel tightened slightly. "I feel your presence. If I'm too far away, even when I was taking a shower, I felt the pull toward you. I'm sure that if we found a maze and you ran from me, I could easily find you." He paused. "I feel your pain, probably a little less than you do, and when I focus, I can get hints of your emotions."

"What?" I sat up straighter. "I don't need you spying on me like that!"

"Not my fault, sweetheart. You're the one who put this fucking spell on me." We stopped at a red light and he glanced at me. "I know you hate this bond almost as much as me, and I could feel the fear growing inside you ever since I killed that demon."

I adjusted myself on the seat, uncomfortable with this topic. "Why did you kill him?"

He snorted. "Because he was about to kill you."

"No, you know what I mean. Why did you have him in that room, tied up and tortured? What information were you trying to get from him?"

The light turned green and the car started moving. For a moment, I thought he would ignore me.

"My business is complicated and has nothing to do with you," he said, serious. I probably could count on one hand the times he had been serious with me so far. "It's better if you don't know."

I didn't like the sound of that. It only made me more wary of him.

And he probably could feel that.

Damn it.

Surprising me, Leviathan veered onto a smaller road and into a gas station. Without another word to me, not even a glance, he parked beside a pump and got out to fill up the car.

I knew he would drive for hours nonstop if he could, so I decided to use the restroom and buy a snack, and maybe some coffee too.

I exited the car. "Do you want anything from inside?"

He flashed me that annoying smile. "I'm good, sweetheart."

And we were back to that.

I rolled my eyes. If I was to spend the next few days with him, we would need to have a serious conversation about this sweetheart thing.

Thankfully, the restroom in this gas station was large and clean. I did my business, then stopped by the front where I picked up a bottle of water, a cup of fresh coffee, and a small packet of Oreos. I paid for it in cash and exited the convenience store.

Leviathan had finished filling up the car and parked it in front of the entrance. I reached for the car's door when a tingling sensation traveled through my back.

Oh, no.

I glanced around, my eyes wide. Where were they? How had they found me?

Shit, I skipped a dose of my potion, hadn't I? That was plausible.

Leviathan lowered the window. "Don't you want to get going, sweetheart? Get in the car."

"Right." I opened the door, intent on keeping it cool.

I didn't get the chance.

Rays of light hit the ground at my feet, and I jumped. The drinks and the snacks fell from my arms as people screamed and ran … and angels walked into the gas station.

I froze in place, watching them.

White wings out, folded behind their backs, in golden and white uniform, and their Celestial Swords in hand.

A pang cut through my heart.

I recovered once they stopped.

Julien pointed his sword at me. "We've been looking for you."

Leviathan exited the car. "What's going on?"

"Mind your own business, demon," Izrail said. There were three more, the same ones who had been in Houston, but I certainly hadn't met the other two. They looked young, probably recently graduated from the academy, and with their heads filled with lies about me.

Leviathan rounded the car and stood a couple of feet to my side. "She's my business."

Julien snickered. "You really are associating with demons now."

"Not now," another angel said. "Since the attack."

"Before that," Izrail said. "It had to be before that."

"You don't know what you're talking about," I said, a threat in my tone.

"We don't?" Julien took a step forward. "Then come with us. Plead your case. Tell us what we don't know."

I could go with them. That was the right thing to do. I was innocent. By running, I was only making it worse. But if I went, I knew it was over. Rhodes would find a way to kill me. I couldn't find out what was going on and clear my name.

I held my ground. "I can"t."

Julien snarled. "You've asked for it."

They sent bolts of light magic toward me. I jumped out of range. Leviathan moved to the other side while throwing darkfire at the angels.

Part of me wanted to tell him to stop. To not hurt them. But what were we supposed to do? We had to get out of here!

I hid behind a gas pump, my heart beating a million miles per hour. I could see humans cowering behind the store's windows, and around its corner. Some of them had their phones out and were recording this.

I didn't understand. Angels were never this careless. We always avoided being seen, being found out.

That showed me how desperate they were to get me.

These humans would receive a visit from the memory fairy, who would also erase all of their electronics and scrape the internet.

I glanced around the pump and saw Julien prepare a light bolt and throw it at the pump at my back!

I ran. Three steps in, I saw a young woman cowering behind her car, right beside the pump. I skidded to change my course, grabbed her arm hard, and pulled her with me.

The pump exploded in a cloud of fire. The woman and I fell forward into a flowerbed at the gas station's lot limit. I slammed my knees pretty hard and groaned.

The woman looked back and let out a cry. Her car was turned over, engulfed by flames.

"Thank you," she muttered, her voice breaking.

"Just run," I told her.

With wobbly legs, she shot up and ran to the side.

The heat of the fire licking at me, I stood and looked at the scene. Half of the gas station was on fire, the ceiling caved in, the windows of the store broken, a few humans bleeding.

It was one thing to come and do things in front of humans, knowing they could later erase their memories, and another to put humans at risk on purpose!

What the hell?

Distracted by the fire, I didn't see Julien rushed me. He grabbed me from behind. He wrapped his arm around my middle and raised his sword to my neck. On instinct, I grabbed his sword to push it away, threw myself forward, making him lose his balance and his grip around me. As I twisted out of his grip, he swept his sword and cut my upper arm.

I groaned in pain.

I tried turning and running, but my head felt fuzzy, my legs heavy. What the hell?

Julien grabbed my wrists and kept me close, his sword pointed at my face. "There's nowhere to run."

"I'm not going to stop running!" I yelled. "Until I can prove I'm innocent, I won't stop!"

"If you're innocent, then come with me."

"The moment I set foot in Elysium, I'm dead." Or not. I knew Rhodes wanted something from me. He would kill me only after he got it.

He pushed the blade closer to my throat. "Don't make me use this."

I knew he wouldn't let me go. I knew he would use the sword. They would do anything to catch me, I knew that now.

I pulled on my arm with everything I had. Julien clambered forward. I snatched his sword as he tried recovering his balance before he kissed the ground, turned it around, and slammed the hilt against his temple.

He fell on the ground, unconscious.

When I looked up, the other angels were running toward me.

Oh, shit.

The sound of wheels screeching reached my ears. Leviathan lowered the window of the car, threw a wave of darkfire toward the angels, making them cower, and stopped the car right beside me.

I opened the door, jumped in, and he peeled off before my feet were fully inside.