CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

After she and Mia parted ways in the lobby of their complex the following Saturday after work, Ella nabbed her mail from the lockable box there. With one of her new guards at her back, she then made her way to her apartment. As always, he remained outside her front door when she entered—an order from Luka.

Breezing through the living area, she yawned and cricked her neck. It might be good for her to have a nap before texting Viper. At the very least, she'd need to knock back some painkillers first. She had a wicked headache, and the herbal tea she'd drank at the store had done nothing to relieve it.

In the kitchen, she scanned the bundle of envelopes in her hands. Bills. Shit-mail. And … whatever was in the plain brown envelope at the bottom of the pile.

Curious, she dumped the rest of her mail on the counter, along with her purse, and then tore open the envelope. As she fished out a small piece of paper that had been folded over, her belly did a fast flip. Motherfucker.

Her demon stirred, uncoiling like a snake as its mood instantly darkened. Ella tossed aside the ripped envelope and opened up the slip. One word. Only one word was printed on it: Everleigh.

Her brows snapped together. Who the fuck was Everleigh? Seriously, what was with this asshole?

Like with the other notes, there was a gleam of compulsive power in the ink. But the message itself … she didn't know what to make of it.

Was Everleigh a person? A song? A mere attempt to baffle Ella?

The only thing she knew for certain was that she wanted to pummel its author's face with a baton.

Ella tore into the note to disengage the snare and then slapped it on the counter. She hadn't expected any to be posted to her address. In fact, as time had gone by and no more had come, she'd thought maybe the writer had given up on using this tactic. But oh no, apparently not.

She dug her cell phone out of her purse and texted Viper: I got another note , not bothering to add where he could find her. He'd know that already, since Ghost would have told him she'd arrived home safely.

She probably should have begun the text with a ‘hi', but she wasn't really in the mood for pleasantries. She was in the mood to cut off a certain note-sender's balls.

Movement in her peripheral vision snagged her attention. She turned to see Viper stood in her living room, his face like thunder. Clearly not in tune with her mood, her hormones got a little excited.

His jaw hard, he stalked into the kitchen, his eyes glittering blue gems of anger. "Gotta tell you, baby, I'm getting real sick of this bastard."

"You're not alone in that," she mumbled.

"Ghost said your car was clean."

"It was. This particular note was posted to my address."

Viper clenched his teeth, furious. "He clearly didn't think he had any other way of getting it to you." He palmed the back of her head. "Where is it?"

She swiped the slightly ripped slip of paper from the counter and handed it to him. "He only typed a single word this time. A name."

Viper dipped his gaze to the note … and felt every muscle in his body go rigid. He stopped breathing as shock stole the air from his lungs. His entity went equally still, just as taken aback.

"What is it?" asked Ella. "You know an Everleigh?"

Viper clamped his lips shut. He could only stare at her, having no fucking clue what to say.

Her brows knit, lines of unease creasing her face. "What? Who is she?" Ella fixed him with a wary stare that made his chest pang. "Is she an ex or something? Another of your regulars?"

Fuck, he did not want to explain that now. He wasn't ready yet.

He could slip in a few lies to divert her line of questioning … but then later, when he finally divulged the entire truth, she'd be pissed at him for bullshitting her.

"Viper, who is Everleigh ?"

He crumpled up the note. "She's connected to the things I haven't yet told you," he fudged.

Ella narrowed her eyes. "You're not gonna ask me to let you explain in your own sweet time, are you? Because that's not happening. I need to know what this means. I need to know how whoever wrote this note could know anything about the stuff you've yet to share with me."

They could only know if they knew who she was to Viper. Which meant a celestial was behind the notes. A celestial who'd figured out that Viper had tracked down his woman.

A long, rough sigh eased out of him. "I told you once that my tale has a lot of moving parts. This is one of them. There's no way for me to explain this without also telling you the rest and … and you're right, I can't expect you to wait for an explanation." In her shoes, he wouldn't have agreed to wait either. "But before we get to that, I need to show you something."

She blinked. "Okay."

He took her hand and teleported them to his bedroom at the clubhouse. "The third drawer of my dresser." He jerked his chin toward it, letting a hint of a dare sound in his voice as he said, "Open it."

Curiosity trampled all over her features, overlaying the lines of impatience. Once he released her hand, she crossed to the dresser and did as he asked.

"The denim vest on top of the pile," he said. "Take it out."

"Why?"

"It's yours. I had it made for you."

Her brow creasing, she pulled it out of the drawer.

"Turn it around."

She did so … and her breath caught as she stared at the embroidered clothing patch on the back. A patch that read: Property of Viper .

He watched her throat bob with emotion. His woman knew enough about bikers to know what it meant; to know that this vest was his way of publicly and officially claiming her. "It's been in that drawer for weeks."

She cleared her throat with a deliberate cough. "Weeks?"

"I was waiting for the right moment to give it to you. That moment being the one where, on hearing all I've so far kept from you, you assured me you could deal. I don't know if we've reached that point. I'd hoped we'd have more time." He sighed. "I'll spill everything. But first, you have to promise me something."

Her eyelids lowered slightly. "What?"

"Promise you'll stay with me until I've explained everything. Promise you'll hear me all the way out."

Her brow pinched, as if she had no idea why he'd ever assume she wouldn't do him that courtesy. "I'll hear you all the way out. You have my word." She carefully—and, to his surprise, hesitantly—returned the vest to his drawer.

His entity noted the hesitance. Was pleased by it. But it didn't grin smugly. Not when it knew that what Viper next told her could jack everything up.

Blowing out a breath, she walked to him. "There has to be another geas in place, right? It's fine, I get it." She offered him her hand. "I'd rather know that the information can't be forced out of me."

He gripped her hand. "Do you swear never to repeat what I tell you here and now?"

"I swear it." Ella gasped as his power—cold and prickly and old —flooded her system and crackled through her veins. With that deed done, he let go of her hand.

"Now come on, out with it," she prodded. "What's so terrible you worry I can't handle it?"

Viper lowered himself into the armchair. He stretched out his long legs, crossing them at the ankles, and splayed his hands on the armrests. He lazily let his head loll back to hit the headrest as he weakly indicated the bed, inviting her to sit.

So nonchalant. So casual.

A ruse. She wasn't fooled. Nor was her demon. His discomfort was evident in his unnatural stillness, the minute tightening of his jaw, the too-lazy blinks, and how deliberately slow and even his breathing was.

"I'm about to bring you fully into my world now, Ella. It's not a pretty place. You're going to hear things you don't like. Things that may upset you. Scare you. Confuse you. Piss you off." He paused. "Remember your promise."

Ella sat on the bed. "I'll hear you all the way out." Growing more uneasy with each second, she watched his chest expand as he drew in a breath. He stared back at her, seeming braced for … something.

"The rumor about me is true. I am an archangel. But I doubt that comes as much of a surprise to you."

It didn't.

"Archangels aren't creations of God."

She felt her brows knit. "Really?"

"We are the handiwork of Chaos, the Creator. God was his first creation, and we were told to serve him. So we do."

That she hadn't expected to hear. "Are angels creations of Chaos?"

"No, they were fashioned by God. They're essentially his own version of archangels."

Interesting. "Is the rumor that you're one of the Seven also true?"

He gave a slow nod.

That didn't particularly surprise her either. "Which one of the Seven are you?"

"I went by many titles." The words were casual, but tension crept up his arms and into his shoulders. "The Destroyer. The Chief of Tempters. The Archangel of Darkness and Death."

Realization dawned on her fast, making her eyes widen slightly. "Samael." A whisper.

"Samael," he confirmed.

Well, damn. A lot was said about him. That he was the most beautiful of the archangels. That he walked among humans. That he wasn't evil but had a backward moral code.

"For the most part, the Uppers are protective of humans."

"For the most part?" she echoed.

"They like to tempt the inborn darkness inside humans, and they used me exclusively to do it. I've tricked, tempted, seduced, punished, and destroyed. I've sparked wars, taken souls, and engineered the falls of ‘the wicked', as the Uppers refer to them. You've no doubt heard the tales of my deeds."

She had. "You did all this at their bidding?"

Viper nodded. "Which, of course, doesn't excuse my part in it." He swiped his tongue over his teeth. "Killing became too easy. It stopped marking me. You get desensitized to the darkness after a while."

Ella dragged in a breath, her mind working through all he'd revealed. She couldn't lie—to realize he was Samael was mildly disturbing. She'd heard of his many ‘exploits'. It was really no wonder he'd been endowed with so many grim titles.

Her demon wasn't quite so disturbed. It actually liked the idea that he knew darkness just as well as it did. Well, what didn't the entity so far like about Viper?

"I really should have guessed you were Samael. The clue is in your chosen name." Vipers were venomous, weren't they? And Samael went by another title: The Venom of God. "Did you choose to fall because you were tired of doing what they asked of you?"

The stiffness in his shoulders bled up to his neck, making the cords stand out. "It was part of the reason. I was … tired. Weary. A little lost. I didn't like how my responsibilities had increasingly ate at my inner entity. But it wasn't until a certain person came into my life that I felt truly motivated to fall. I meant to do it a long time ago, but I was betrayed by the rest of the Seven. Convinced they were saving me from myself, they took from me the certain person I mentioned before. Hid that person. Swore I'd never find them."

Memories of their first conversation at the Red Rooms came rushing back to her. "They're what brought you to Vegas?"

"Yes. It took me a long time, but I found them. Her." A triumphant glint danced in his gaze. "When I did, I left the upper realm. It was the only way I could keep this one thing I needed. I wasn't going to lose her again." He leaned forward in his seat and rested his arms on his thighs. "The first time you and I met, I knew you by another name."

"The first time we … I'm sorry, what?"

"It wasn't in this life. It was in your previous one."

She sucked in a sharp breath.

"Your name then was Everleigh," he added, answering her unspoken question. "We fell hard. Fast. You were prepared to accept me, curse and all, if I left heaven to be with you. But things didn't go as we planned."

Her lips parted as she gaped at him. "Wait … you're saying … "

"I'm saying we were together in another life. You just don't remember."

Ella's thought processes stuttered, her mind struggling to keep up. She knew souls were often reborn. But his claim that they'd encountered each other in her past life seemed so surreal. And yet, it made sense.

She'd always felt that he reminded her of someone—he'd been familiar to her from the start. The first time they'd locked gazes, she'd felt sure she'd looked into his eyes before. More, he'd never really felt like a stranger. She was comfortable with him in a way she generally wouldn't be with people she didn't know well.

And hadn't she always felt that something was missing? Hadn't there always been a sense of absence that had only disappeared when he came into her life?

Her breath snagged when she suddenly once more found herself recalling the wraith's words … He will come for you.

It had meant Viper. Samael. The freaking Archangel of Darkness and Death.

No wonder the wraith had laughed its tits off.

Licking her lips, she gave her head a little shake. "Why … why didn't you say anything sooner?" Where was the point in seeking her out only to keep her ignorant?

His head tipped to the side. "If I'd told you this right off the bat, how would you have reacted?"

Mostly with disbelief. And … "I probably would have thought it was a lie. That you were fucking with me for your own entertainment."

"Because you didn't know me. I needed that to change. Needed for you to feel safe and comfortable with me."

"I've felt that way around you for weeks now. Yet, you said nothing."

"Because, like I told you before, it's all tangled up in everything else I haven't yet shared with you."

"Okay. Tell me more."

"Before you, no one I came upon here on Earth ever remembered me after that first meeting. You did. I don't know how, but you did. And you drew me in without trying."

People forgot him? Jesus.

"You became an obsession for me. To the point where there was no letting you go. You were the only thing I'd ever claimed as mine." He pushed out of his chair and then walked toward her. "When you learned of the curse, you didn't turn me away. But there's more to it in my case. I hadn't yet told you that—, you were taken from me before I had the chance." The pain of that spiderwebbed through his expression. "Taken by people who were intent on me not paying the price for falling."

She looked up at him as he halted before her. "What price?"

"I'm not merely doomed to drink blood, Ella. That's not even the worst part." He wrapped his fingers around her wrist, tugged her to her feet, and then teleported her to the yard. He dropped her hand and flicked his own, saying, "Look around, Ella. What do you see?"

She scanned their surroundings a little uncertainly.

"Flowers? Fresh grass? Animals? Any signs of nature thriving? No. And you won't see those things. Because of me."

She frowned. "What?"

"Have you ever been at the pool hall, the club, or the dive bar when I was there and not seen a fight break out? Of course you haven't. And again, it was because of me."

She gave another shake of her head. "I don't understand."

"The strix I've battled who bit me … they all died. Know why? My blood is acidic."

Her gut squeezed. "Acidic?"

He stepped closer, towering over her. "My presence stunts growth, kills animals, invites sin, incites violence, makes even friends turn on each other. That's what it means to be the incarnation of a deadly sin. That's what becomes of one of the Seven archangels if they fall."