CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Ella could only gape at him, her brain hiccupping and spluttering as it strived to process his words. Not once in the times she'd chewed over what he could be hiding had she ever considered this. Why would she have? She'd had no idea that such a fate could befall anyone, let alone a fallen member of the Seven.

Originally, she'd wondered if he was being a little dramatic in his insistence that his secrets were so dark. Oh, how wrong she'd been to doubt him.

He was the incarnation of a deadly sin. A deadly sin . Her demon, as stunned as Ella, couldn't quite wrap its head around it.

His gaze vacant and unblinking, he watched her very carefully, seemingly intent on soaking in her every reaction. His body was so rigid he could have passed for a statue.

What was she supposed to say? Or do? Her mind gave her no answer. It was still busy struggling to work through his revelation, and so all she could do was stand there gawking at him.

No wonder he'd hesitated to tell her. His presence fouled and corrupted everything and everyone around him. What did that knowledge even do to a person? What kind of mind fuckery would it cause? And how did it even come about?

She licked her lips. "How … how can falling cause that?"

His empty gaze drifted over her face. "Each of the Seven archangels is one of the seven virtues," he said, his voice slow and flat. "The fall, though, it warps us. Once upon a time, I embodied patience. Now, I embody wrath. I infect people with it without even trying."

"And this is a punishment for falling?"

"It was intended to be more of a deterrent. It's certainly effective since, to my knowledge, no member of the Seven fell before me." He paused. "The strix came after my club because what I am draws any kind of evil like a magnet. We don't need to hunt the hell-born. They seek us out."

Oh, Jesus. While that would make his self-appointed job easier, it would also mean that danger constantly chased him and his brothers. And to know that evil would literally be drawn to you, would come for you, follow you … Who wouldn't hate that?

She rubbed at her chest. "But you have some kind of control over how you affect people, right? I mean, I never feel wrathful around you."

"It doesn't appear to work on the people I care about, such as you and my brothers. Everyone else? I can attempt to lessen the impact, but it doesn't work for long."

Which totally explained why he never spent much time around outsiders—even Mia. "Why did your brothers fall with you?"

"It was a show of loyalty. I led their branch of the holy host. I'd trained them, watched out for them, fought at their side, saved their asses more times than they could count. They didn't want to answer to a new archangel, and they didn't feel they could trust the rest of the Seven after what they did to me."

She looked toward the clubhouse. "They're not normal angels, are they?" She'd sensed that much.

"My inner circle—Dice, Jester, Razor, Omen, Darko, and Ghost … People call them ‘the Burning Ones'."

She froze. "Seraphim." Well, shit.

"Seraphim, the most powerful and dangerous of the angels. The rest of my brothers are dominions. Slightly less powerful but still dangerous."

She swiped a hand down her face. The shocks kept piling up. His club … It was far more deadly than she ever could have imagined. If the demon world as a whole understood that, she was quite sure the club would be massacred. Her own entity was a little unnerved by all this, to be truthful. And not much daunted it in general.

"No wonder you guard all your secrets so tightly," she said. "I'm surprised you made alliances with demons. Surely it would be safer to keep to yourselves."

"It would have. But I needed to gain a foothold in your world. I needed access to the Underground so I could watch over you there and be certain you were safe. And I knew I had a better chance of situating myself in your life if you thought some of your kind trusted me."

"Cunning."

Viper didn't take offence, seeing mirth bloom in her gaze. Well, demons didn't generally have an issue with ‘cunning'. They were incredibly devious themselves and respected such a quality in others. "Yes, but necessary."

She carved a hand through her hair, looking the epitome of dazed. "Anymore bombshells you need to drop?"

"None." He took her wrist and teleported her back to his bedroom. "Well, maybe one. Though it isn't bad or huge." Viper peeled up his tee and gestured at the ink above his heart. "You asked me what these writings say."

Her gaze dipped to the strange symbols.

"It's two words: Only her. " He let his t-shirt drop. " You , Ella. No one else found their way under my skin. Just you."

She scratched at her scalp, clearly overwhelmed. "That's … I don't know what to say."

He didn't need her to say anything. All he wanted was for her to not walk out. She'd promised to stay until he'd relayed everything. He'd made it clear there was nothing else to tell her, so this was the point where she could declare her intention to leave. But she hadn't. More, there were thousands of queries in her eyes.

Queries were good. They might mean she'd hang around longer. He'd been deliberately vague about certain aspects of his story, hoping it would spark her to linger—even if only to ask for elaborations.

As she'd said, cunning.

"You say you settled in Vegas for me," she began, "but you've been here a while. You didn't approach me or anything."

"I couldn't. I knew the Uppers would send slayers after me. They did. The entire time I spent fending them off, I established my club here in Vegas. And I watched you from afar."

"Hence why you where there when I interfered in the mugging," she realized.

"Yes. I couldn't explain that before now but, if you think back, I didn't lie to you when I spoke of why I was close by. I simply kept some details to myself."

She flicked up a That makes it okay, does it? brow but then sniffed. "The pool hall, the dive bar … you bought those because I frequented them, didn't you?"

"And your apartment complex."

Her eyes widened. "Oh, my God. You're the new mystery owner who came along and fixed the place up."

"I wanted to better its conditions and improve its security, so it fucking galled me when the bastard writing you notes still managed to get inside." Viper could have warded it against teleportation, but it would have prevented any demonic residents with such an ability from gaining entrance that way. "In buying the place, I pretty much fucked up."

Her brows dipped. "Fucked up?"

"As the Everleigh-note has proven, only someone who knows exactly who you are to me could be sending the notes. That means someone from the upper realm has been watching me. Someone who figured out by my business transactions that I had a vested interest in you."

"They would have realized that I was the unifying element," she reasoned, her expression thoughtful. "I live in the complex. The pool hall was my long-time haunt. The dive bar was next to my store. Although … all of that also applies to Mia."

"Yes, but anyone watching me while I was near you would have noticed I paid attention to you . They would have guessed who you are to me—it was a given that I would seek you out after I fell, if not before." He held his breath, braced for her to yell at him; blame him for the shit she'd recently had to deal with. But she didn't.

"I never considered that the notes were connected to you. I received the first one before you and I even spoke." She folded her arms. "Who exactly would do this? One of the Seven? You said they betrayed you, though you didn't really go into detail."

"Back when you were Everleigh, they came for us, taking us by surprise. They put us both to sleep, took us to separate locations, and killed you knowing your soul would be reborn. They took measures to ensure I wouldn't find you."

They'd tried lying to him, tried convincing him that the Uppers were responsible for her disappearance. He hadn't bought it. Gabriel had been too twitchy and nervous, and Michael hadn't been able to look Viper in the eye. So he'd delved into Raphael's mind and seen all; seen how he, Uriel, and Azrael had led the ‘mob'; watched as Raphael wiped Viper's imprint and memories from her soul.

"Believe it or not, they thought they were doing the right thing by us." His entity snorted, finding them ridiculous.

Her head jerked back. "How is killing me the right thing?"

"It isn't. But in their mind, it would free us both from each other. They felt you were better off without me, and vice versa; felt that parting us was the only way to stop me from falling." They hadn't cared that she was the only thing that brought him peace; had disregarded what she meant to him, more concerned about what he'd become on falling.

"I don't believe any of them are responsible for the notes," he went on. "Their motive for separating us was to prevent me from falling. It's too late for that now, so it'd be senseless for them to go near us. Besides, I put them through some serious pain when I realized what they'd done. They won't want to risk that happening again. And they're not the vengeful type, unlike me."

Her eyes went slitted. "You said they hid me. How? I mean, I'm right here. "

"I'd imprinted myself on your soul. Marked it—and yes, you were aware of it. You agreed to it. They removed that mark before killing you, because it would have otherwise enabled me to track your soul. They should have known better than to think it would be enough to keep me from searching for you." He took a slow step toward her and offered, "I can show you what they did."

Her brows met. "You were there?"

"No. But I psychically punched my way into Raphael's mind afterward and snatched the memory of what happened right out of his brain. Want to see?"

"Yes, I want to see."

"I'll have to touch you," he warned.

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not scared of you."

Relief pounded through him. His entity relaxed slightly, though it was still on edge. They weren't out of the woods yet.

Viper closed the space between them. "There's more I could show you."

"Like, what?"

"Glimpses of times we met in your past life. Some of those memories were soaked into your soul. When we met again, those memories would have begun to surface." His lips thinning, he added, "But Raphael had wiped them away."

"Will it hurt to show me?"

"I would never do anything that would cause you pain."

"Will it hurt you ? You'd be invading the mind of a demon—it takes a toll on celestials."

"There'd be some discomfort, but it wouldn't drain me because it would take only seconds. It will be like uploading a file to a computer."

She planted her feet and rolled her shoulders. "Okay. Show me. I want to see what happened. I want back what they took from me."

He placed the heels of his hands against her temples. "Close your eyes."

Ella pulled in a preparatory breath, bracing herself for the psychic impact, not entirely sure what to expect.

And then it happened.

Images flickered through her mind, fast and vibrant. Memories played out there in fast-forward but dug in deep, planting themselves in her own mind.

She saw all of their personal journey. The talks they'd had, the kisses they'd shared, the attention he'd lavished on her body, the way he'd kept coming back to her, the love that had crept up on him little by little until finally it had filled every space inside him.

And then she saw them . The rest of the Seven. They'd stared at her so dispassionately as they pinned her to a wall and took what they'd had no right to take. Not only her life, but her memories of Viper. The motherfuckers.

As she watched it all play out, she frowned. The replays plucked at elusive recollections, bringing images and sensations and emotions to the forefront of her mind.

Buried as she was in the past, it was hard to snap back to the present. It was his scent that led the way; that gave her something to focus on.

Leather, allspice, and bay rum with an earthy undertone.

Soft pulses of his breath fanned her face, and she could almost feel him watching her with that hawk-eyed gaze. She lifted her eyelids … and met startling-blue eyes that, steely as a bird's, honed right in on hers. Longing clutched at her throat, her emotions toward him so much more intense now that she'd seen flashes of their history.

A history that had been stolen from her.

"Those rat bastards. They had me pinned to a wall." The latter words rang with the anger she was struggling to suppress.

His nostrils flared. "I know. They paid for it."

Cold fingertips raced up her spine at the menacing note lacing his voice. "Good."

Given he'd fallen for her at a time when her soul had hosted a different body, she might have worried that he looked at her and saw only Everleigh—a person he'd lost. But as he'd shown her their past, she realized it wasn't like that. She would have otherwise sensed it in his memories, in the emotions attached to them.

He looked at her and saw only the woman he'd claimed as his.

And strange as it might sound, that time didn't feel like a ‘past life'. It felt more like her years as Ella were a continuation of her years as Everleigh … but with some differences. Just the same, his time as Viper would be a continuation of his life as Samael … but with a few variations.

Their names, prior circumstances, and new realities didn't matter. Not to her, not to him. Their connection went beyond that shit; ran too deep for any of it to make a single difference.

"You know, I don't think they did a thorough job of making me forget you. I'd look at you and think, ‘Hmm, he reminds me of someone.' Your eyes seemed familiar somehow. I dismissed it, not for a second thinking we'd met before. And those memories you showed me … they pulled at little scenes that I have vague recollections of. I think I might have been dreaming about you."

Which would explain why Mia's talisman hadn't worked. They hadn't really been dreams, she'd been seeing flashbacks of her time with Viper.

His brow creased. "I did wonder if maybe I seemed familiar to you. If your soul did manage to retain some memories, being around me would have triggered them to surface. They would have come to you as you slept. You didn't remember them on waking?"

"Only brief flashes here and there. Nothing I could ever piece together." She cocked her head. "Could that be why it felt like my dreams were taking a toll on me?"

He nodded. "Your brain would have been sifting through and trying to soak up the memories. It would have been tough on your psyche."

Then that totally explained it. Although … she didn't think she'd dreamed of—well, had flashbacks of—him in weeks. Yet, she still felt weighed down by fatigue.

She puffed out a breath. "You're nuts coming back for me and choosing to live a cursed life when—"

"The life I led was dark and dull and left me feeling dead. Until you." He palmed her jaw and swept a thumb over the side of her face. "I talked about you to the rest of the Seven, trusting them to keep it secret from the Uppers. That was my mistake. One you paid for. Never again," he swore. "I don't know who's sending the notes, but I won't let them hurt you."

"Do you think whoever did it put a compulsion in the ink that would force me to stay away from you or something?"

"Maybe."

"You'd think they would have given up sending me snares, considering the other three notes failed to work."

"I don't think they thought the most recent one would work either. I think their intention was to make you ask questions and leave me no choice but to tell you everything."

She frowned. "How would they know you already hadn't told me?"

"They won't believe in a million years that you'd accept a man who's the embodiment of a deadly sin. I'm not even certain you will." An intensity gathered behind his eyes. "But I won't let you go. I came to this world knowing I would stain it. I don't then have the right to claim something good from it. But I'll do it anyway. I need you." He slid his hand from her cheek to her hair. "Never needed a single person in my life except you."

The raw honesty in his voice was the good kind of punch to the chest. Much as he'd done some verbal ducking and diving and weaving since they first met, he was clearly set on being truthful here and now, even if it meant exposing his emotions. The guy seemed too damn self-assured to feel vulnerable doing so.

"You have no idea how close I've come to permanently binding you to me so you'd never escape me," he said. "I'm selfish enough to do it; to ignore what that would mean for you."

Her pulse skipped a beat. "Then why haven't you?"

"Same reason I wouldn't take your blood without your consent. I need for you to want it. Want me. I get that the thought of irrevocably belonging to me might not be so thrilling. Still, I can't let you go, Ella. You have to know I won't."

She licked her lips. "You're throwing around words like ‘binding' and ‘irrevocably'."

"Because when I claim you, I will own you. Every inch of your body, every part of your soul, every thought that passes through your head—it'll all be mine. You'll be shackled to me just as surely as you're shackled to your psi-mate. My claim will be that irreversible."

Ella's skin pebbled at the intensity with which he spoke. "I didn't know angels could lay those kind of claims."

He smoothed a hand down her hair. "I didn't fully claim you last time because it's a binding of souls; I wasn't sure if my falling would somehow stain yours if we were that tightly connected, so I chose to wait."

But then the rest of the Seven had taken her.

"I'm not pushing you to consent to it here and now, I'm just making it clear that it will happen. Not only because I want that, but because it's the only way I can ensure that no one can take you from me again." He lowered his face toward hers. "Fact is I love the fuck out of you, baby. There'll never be a time when I don't."

He'd spoken so matter-of-factly, no awkwardness, no shame, no hesitation to give her such honesty. He needed to stop with these verbal feel-good punches. They were affecting even her demon at this point, and not a lot touched it emotionally.

"You're not there yet. I know that. But you'll get there. Unless you let what I've become poison what you feel."

Maybe it should have poisoned all she felt. It wasn't as if he hadn't told her some major shit. But it would seem that not even such revelations could change how she felt about him. And even if it had been too hard to accept, how could she ever have held it against him that he'd fallen when he'd done it for her?

"What I said at the Red Rooms still applies: That you're cursed isn't your fault. Yes, you knew what the consequences would be; you knew how it would impact everything and everyone around you. But you're not responsible for the curse itself, or for becoming the personification of a deadly sin."

"But you're scared," he sensed, his lips bowing down.

"Not of you. I'm scared for you. If my kind find out what exactly you are … "

"There's no reason they ever would."

She anxiously rubbed at her nape. "What if the Uppers let it leak?"

"They wouldn't. Not even to ensure my death. They use this realm in various ways, such as dumping angels here and forcing them to earn their halo. If demons learned what could become of a fallen archangel, they'd come for me. But what else would they do?"

"Kill the rest of the Fallen, as well as any non-Fallen angels, in case there's other stuff they don't know about your kind."

He nodded. "Demons outnumber celestials here in this realm, so we'd be wiped out fast and hard unless those in the upper realm sent backup, and I'm not sure they would. They know there'd be no real winners if a war broke out between the light and the dark. But if they let us be slaughtered, demons would then essentially own this realm. There'd be no angelic presence here. The Uppers will never want that."

Viper badly wanted to haul her close, kiss her, hold tight to her. But his baby was so overwhelmed and off-balance that he knew she needed personal space right now.

She'd handled things far better than he ever could have hoped. She was still here, no distrust or misgivings in her expression. She wasn't looking at him any differently than she had before. But yes, she was definitely overwhelmed. "I've given you a whole lot to think about, haven't I?"

"My synapses feel fried." She eyed him curiously. "You could have just taken the memory of the note from my head, couldn't you? You could have delayed having to tell me all this—I would never have known any different."

"I couldn't do something like that to you. It would make me no better than the last fuckers who meddled with your memories." He could be a cruel bastard. He'd own that. But he'd never direct such cruelty at her.

Even his entity, sadistic shit though it was, would never wish to betray or hurt her. And despite that it was an incredibly selfish being, it wasn't urging Viper to disregard her current emotional state and push her to give them all they wanted from her. It was prepared to give her some time and breathing room if it was what she needed.

As such, it didn't cast him annoyed looks when he took a step back. She, however, narrowed her eyes at his retreat.

"Why are you backing away?" she demanded.

He shrugged. "Figured you might want some space to process."

"Well, you figured wrong. And you were wrong about something else, too." She flushed, turning all awkward and fidgety. "I didn't realize it until now, if I'm honest." She shifted from foot to foot, avoiding his gaze. "You're not the only one who's riddled with soppy emotions."

Viper felt his mouth curve, warmth blooming in his chest and spreading through his system. "Is that your way of telling me you love me?"

She cleared her throat. "Kinda."

He hooked an arm around her neck and drew her closer. "You always did struggle to say it," he said, his lips moving against her forehead. "As if it would somehow jinx everything."

"Yeah, I saw that in the memories you showed me," she mumbled.

He kissed her temple. "As I said before, I won't push you to let me claim you here and now. I don't want your mind whirling when I do it. I don't want your thoughts preoccupied with other things. I want you with me one-hundred percent, completely certain it's what you want. But don't make me wait too long, Ella."

"Or?" she asked.

The word was a tease. Pure playfulness. Still, his entity rose up and took over, saying, "Or I'll take the matter into my own hands. You're mine as well as his. Neither of us are going to let you go."

Her eyes bled to black as her demon came to the fore. "If she wants to leave, she will leave," it told the entity, haughty.

"But she doesn't," it stated, "and neither do you."

Her demon gave a prim little sniff and then subsided.

Ella blinked as her eyes returned to normal. "They don't seem to get along all that well."

"It's their version of foreplay."

She twisted her mouth. "That claiming thing you mentioned—"

"We're not gonna talk about it anymore today. I just piled a fuck of a lot on you. Some of it was heavy shit. I want to give you time to let everything fully settle up here," he added, gently tapping her temple. "From the beginning, I've pushed and pushed to get what I want from you. I don't want to push when it comes to something as serious as binding you to me. It's not as if I'm asking for a little thing here. I want you to be sure you're ready for it."

Ella narrowed her eyes, her gut stirring. "It's not just that, is it? As you said, you've pushed from the start. It's been you who made every advance; you who nudged us into a relationship. You need for me to do my own pushing."

His brow creased as he weaved his fingers through her hair. "You'll never need to push me to claim you, baby—I'm all for that. I came to this realm for that reason. But yeah, I'd like to feel that we're reaching for each other; not that it's me leading this dance." He framed her face with his hands. "We'll put a pin in all that for now. Come for a ride with me."

Her lips tipped up. "Okay."

He pressed his forehead to hers. "Will you wear it?"

"The vest, you mean? Hell, yeah, I'll wear it."

He grinned.