Read Online Heaven and Hellsbane by Paige Cuccaro - Free Book Online Page A

what a demon wants or what trickery he plans. I’m a seraph, a magister. I’m a thousand-fold stronger and faster. You need my help. You’re not going after this one alone. Plus, if he’s killing magisters, then the rules have changed.” Eli’s tone was deadly. “I can act, and I will.”
    “Listen,” I said. “I get why you want to help and that you’re worried, but I can handle this. Really. Besides, it would seriously tick me off if you got your hand and sword sliced off trying to do my fighting for me.”
    He glanced away, scoffing. “No demon could take my sword.”
    Sometimes my mighty angelic magister was just as much a guy as any mortal man—stupid male ego and all. Pride and the rest of the seven deadly sins apparently didn’t apply to angels—one of the perks of not having a mortal soul. “Right. You think Maion and Karoz believed they’d lose their swords to a demon?”
    “They weren’t prepared for the possibility,” Eli said. “I am.”
    For one breath-stealing instant the image of Eli’s surprised, handsome face flashed through my mind. His eyes wide with heart-wrenching disappointment an instant before a seething demon hacked off his hand turning his own blade on him to take his beautiful head. The vision sent a sickening weight plummeting to the pit of my stomach.
    What would I do without him? How would I get through a day without seeing his face, without talking to him about…whatever? Dan was great, a really nice guy, but I needed Eli. I needed the safety zone he gave me. I could tell Eli anything—everything—and trust that he wouldn’t judge me, wouldn’t hold it against me. He’d always be there, always care—no matter what I said, or didn’t say, no matter what idiotic mistakes I made. It had nothing to do with what he was but rather who he was inside. He’d become my best friend, my confidante. But he was more than that. The thought of losing him was like imagining myself without an arm or leg—without my heart. I couldn’t. I loved him.
    I pushed the thought from my head—fought to keep the fear from showing in my eyes, from trembling through my voice. “It’s too big a risk. Just…just hang back a few seconds. Make him think you’re not coming. If I need you, I’ll…scream.” If things got bad enough that I needed his help, screaming was the one thing I’d probably be doing anyway.
    He let out a frustrated breath, his pale, brooding eyes staring down the concourse in the direction the demon had gone. The guy was out of sight now, having taken the first corridor to the right about three hundred feet away.
    “I’ll count to ten. Then I’m coming.”
    “No. I mean, that’s too soon. Make it…make it one hundred,” I said. “And add a Mississippi in between. You know, one Mississippi, two Mississippi…” With any luck the demon would be a pile of black goo by the count of fifty.
    His worried gaze swung to me, his mouth a tense line. “One hundred. That’s it.”
    The look in his eyes was more than anger over the loss of his brothers, over the death of an illorum he didn’t know. The look in his eyes was personal—rage, fueled by unabashed terror…for me.
    My heart skipped a beat and a dull ache pressed through my chest. This was why seraphim didn’t speak to humans, why magisters were punished for growing too close to their illorum. I could see it in the tense muscles of his face, the tight line of his shoulders. His fear for me, our connection, could drive him to do the unthinkable. Would he kill any demon who hurt me like they had Mathew? Would he start a war to protect me? To avenge me?
    Would I do any less for him?
    The possible answers scared me. I swallowed hard and looked away. My hands trembled, not because I was about to face a demon, but because of Eli. Because of that intangible line we risked crossing with every breath. I pulled the hilt of my sword from its sheath, stepping back from the ledge once more.
    Eli pressed a finger under my