Total pages in book: 163
Estimated words: 154735 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 619(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154735 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 619(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
They shouldn’t have been able to navigate through the mhis.
So yeah, he was coming out to join the fun, too, and he didn’t care if it got the brothers’ diapers in a wad.
“We’re looking for Lassiter. We’ve come for the angel.”
As one of the pair spoke up, Wrath flared his nostrils. The scents that weaved through the familiars of his warriors were a variant of clean salt water.
“Names,” Wrath demanded.
“Eddie,” came the response. “And this is Adrian. We mean you no harm, we come in peace.”
Wrath bared his fangs as they fully descended from the roof of his mouth. “Does it look like we’re worried about you doing shit on my property?”
“Ah… no, sir. It doesn’t.”
“And what do you want with Lassiter.”
“No offense, that’s our business.”
“No offense, but fuck off with that. What do you want with him.”
He sensed the pair glancing at each other. Maybe they actually turned their heads, maybe they didn’t, but they were definitely checking in without speaking. And what do you know. He had the time and inclination to wait things the fuck out to see what they came up with.
“We are family,” the other one, Adrian, said in a cheery voice. “Pointer Sisters. You know.”
“Hey, I like that song—”
As somebody shhhh’d Rhage, Wrath closed his eyes behind his wraparounds and focused on the energy coming at him. Neither was evil or playing a subterfuge game by lying, but that didn’t mean they could be trusted. You could sucker-punch a lot of people while acting in your own self-interest.
“We’ve been sent here to collect him,” the Eddie one said. “And bring him home.”
“You can have him,” V muttered.
Wrath sent a glare in the brother’s direction. “Who sent you.”
“So Lassiter has been here?” Eddie pressed.
“What are you,” Wrath demanded.
“I’m an Aries, he’s a Virgo,” the other guy said. “He drives me nuts. He alphabetizes the spices. Like, why?”
For a moment, everyone seemed to focus on the commentator. Like they couldn’t believe—
“You are totally related to that fallen angel,” Wrath felt compelled to comment.
“Cousins, you might say,” came the happy answer. “And we’ve been looking for him for about three years. Our boss wants him back—oh, hey, kitty-kitty. C’mere, little guy.”
A meow lit off next to Wrath, and then his keen hearing picked up the nearly imperceptible padding of four cat paws toe-beaning their way by him and proceeding down the steps. There was a second feline vocalization, and then the kind of cooing that was more typically associated with grandmas and babies.
“What do they call you, my man?”
“His name is Boo,” Wrath said dryly. “And he doesn’t like people.”
Well, other than Beth and iAm.
“Good thing I’m an angel, huh,” the Adrian one explained. “Isn’t that right, Boo-boo.”
“Look,” the first guy spoke up again. “We don’t want trouble. We just need to—”
“And what if Lassiter doesn’t want to leave.” Wrath cocked a brow. “What’re you going to do then.”
“He doesn’t have a choice, and he knows this.”
“You come with handcuffs?” V grumbled. “Because I am not that lucky and there’s a Golden Girls marathon next weekend.”
Wrath took a moment to retreat to his happy place—where he imagined wrapping Vishous’s entire head with duct tape and leaving no gaps for the lip-flapping or the breathing.
Then he forced himself to refocus. “Lassiter is not here.”
“Do you know where he is?” the Eddie guy asked.
“No, I don’t. I can’t help you with that.”
“But he’s been here.” When Wrath nodded, the angel muttered something that sounded like a curse. “Can we leave you a number where he can reach us?”
“I’m not playing secretary for you.”
“It would be a decent thing to do.”
“We’re not into being decent for trespassers, sorry. I will say that your door prize, for leaving now under your own steam, is that we won’t break any of your legs showing you the way back down the mountain.”
“You know,” Adrian said over the purring, “I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest you do not have a future in the cruise ship industry. Or any hospitality field, really.”
Wrath blinked. And then laughed a little. “I’m not interested in a career change outside of Caldwell, thanks. Especially not with Devina’s new boyfriend—”
“Devina?” the Eddie one said sharply. “No.”
“You know her?”
There was a clearing of the throat. “That’s a name I didn’t think I’d have to worry about anymore.”
“She is a bitch. For real.”
“Do you—how do you know her?”
V spoke up. “We did some rounds with her just the other night. And got to check out her new male. Things are going so great.”
“I’m sorry—she’s here? Now? That’s not possible.”
“I wouldn’t gate-keep my boys,” Wrath drawled, “on shit they’ve actually seen.”
“And fought,” someone cut in.
The trespasser’s words got tight and fast: “You don’t understand. Her mirror was destroyed. She’s trapped in the Well of Souls again.”
Wrath waved off the whining. “Whatever, I don’t argue with reality or convince others of it, so you can fuck around and find out. Now hop back in your little Matchbox car and get the fuck off my property. If you ever come here again, I will regard it as a declaration of aggression and you will be dealt with as such. You may be angels, but we have weapons at our disposal that can put holes even in immortals. Am I clear.”