"What was that?" Levi said. "You got a problem with me?"
He finally turned to look at the circle and the statue of Adam again. The door to Eden was still open, revealing a much quieter world on the other side-one filled with swaying trees, sparkling leaves, and blue skies. There wasn"t a hint of smoke.
Levi stood in front of it, glaring at Abel.
He wanted a fight? Abel could give him a fight.
"Yeah, I"ve got a problem," Abel said. "Why don"t you run off with your tail between your legs so I don"t have to keep looking at my problem?"
Levi"s eyes narrowed. "I"m not going anywhere without Abram."
"Why"s that?"
"Are you stupid?" Levi asked. "Have you still not figured out that I"m f.u.c.king Rylie"s kid?"
Abel crossed the circle in two strides and punched Levi in the face.
It wasn"t the first time he"d done it, and he sure as h.e.l.l hoped it wouldn"t be the last time. The day he stopped punching that a.s.shole in the face was the day that one or both of them were dead, and probably the world gone with them.
He struck hard enough to send him sprawling over the floor of the temple, sliding until he b.u.mped into the wall.
"Hey!" Abram said sharply.
"What?" Abel asked.
The younger man punched him in the face. Abel was sure that it was a pretty powerful punch, as far as humans could deliver, but Abel was a werewolf. It barely made him stagger.
"Boys! Behave yourselves!" Ariane snapped.
"Some grat.i.tude," Abel growled at Abram, ignoring the witch as she tried to get between them.
"Grat.i.tude? For what?" Abram scoffed. "Being a violent ape?"
"For protecting you from that c.o.c.kface." He thrust a finger toward Levi. He still hadn"t really wrapped his head around the claim that Levi and Abram were involved-some part of him didn"t want to deal with it, and just didn"t accept it.
If it was true-if Levi wasn"t just making up horrible c.r.a.p to p.i.s.s Abel off-then it was even worse.
"I don"t need your protection. I"m not even your son," Abram said.
Abel already knew that, but hearing the words made the shock flood over him anew, like he was hearing it the first time all over again. Abram was the product of Rylie and Seth. The dream couple. Practically the football player and cheerleader grown up and making babies together.
One more reminder that life wasn"t what Abel had thought it was, and definitely not what anyone had wanted it to be.
But Abel gripped him by the shoulder, forcing him to meet his gaze. "Look. Rylie and Seth are dead. Both of them-gone. You don"t have any parents. I don"t have my brother or my mate. But we"re still family, you and me, and I don"t give a s.h.i.t about what twist of fate or magic or werewolf biology made it so that you didn"t come from me. You"re as good as my son. I"m not going to let anything happen to you." He glared at Levi on the ground. "I"m sure as h.e.l.l not letting that a.s.shole mess with you."
"He"s not messing with me." Abram hesitated then said, "I love him." He managed to make that almost sound like an insult.
Abel"s anger defused, but only a fraction.
So it was true. Abram and Levi.
At another time, Abel would have stewed over it. Gotten angry. Probably punched Levi a few more times, and then dwelled over how sickening it was before hitting him again.
They didn"t have time for that much anger now, and Abram had said the magic word anyway.
"Love." Abel snorted.
Those f.u.c.king Greshams. Worst taste in men possible. Family curse or something.
"I know what you think about gay people," Abram said. "Levi told me. You and Seth both, the way you treated him in high school."
He thought this was about being gay?
Sure, it was gross and weird, but it would have been gross and weird for Summer to be with Levi, too. Levi was a huge a.s.swipe. Rylie"s oldest adversary. The grossness of being gay was vastly eclipsed by the general grossness of Levi.
"I don"t care about the gay...thing," Abel said. Whatever the h.e.l.l he was supposed to call it. "I care about the fact that it"s Levi. Why him?"
Abram shrugged. "I don"t know. Just how it worked out."
For some reason, that answer made way too much sense.
Why had Abel wanted to be with Rylie, his brother"s girlfriend? Some scrawny blond werewolf girl?
Just how it worked out.
Instead of responding, Abel walked over and offered Levi a hand. He was still bleeding from his nose, which wasn"t likely to heal any time soon, considering Abel was Alpha and all.
Levi looked suspiciously at Abel"s hand.
"Take it," Abel said. He did. Abel pulled him to his feet. Miraculously, he resisted the urge to punch Levi in the face again, even though he deserved it. "You"re just with him to p.i.s.s me off, aren"t you?"
Levi glared. "It"s a bonus. But that"s not the only reason."
"Don"t provoke him," Abram said, elbowing his boyfriend. His boyfriend, for f.u.c.k"s sake. He hesitated, and then said, "Thanks, Abel."
Abel grunted and turned to go to the window.
He felt a hand on his arm. When he turned around, Abram gave him a half-hug-one of those manly gestures with the brief pat on the back.
"G.o.ddammit," Abel said, and he gave Abram a real hug, one with both arms and werewolf strength. Still brief. It was the only way he knew to say that he loved Abram just like he loved Summer, even if Abram was Seth"s son, and he wanted to be better for them. For their sakes, for Rylie"s sake, maybe even for his sake.
It was the last chance they had for that. The gates to Eden were open, and the end had come.
They didn"t have enough time to leave regrets between them.
"They"re coming," Ariane announced softly.
She was right. When the wind picked up again, Abel could smell demons approaching. He peered through the smoke outside to see darkness swirling over the mountains, rushing toward them.
Guess it was time to run.
"You said you know a path through the sinkholes," Abel said, even as he reached out to the spirit wolves. They appeared around him. They"d been there the entire time-he thought they would probably always be with him now-but they waited until he wanted them to show. Nice thing, too. It was a little unsettling being followed everywhere by ghosts.
Ariane grabbed her bag off the floor and slung it over her shoulder. "Across the bridge. This way."
She raced across the temple, feet ringing against the blue-tiled floor. The building was ringed by white pillars, its walls painted with murals of angels working at looms.
Levi and Abram followed. Abel hung back, watching the army approach.
It looked like Belphegor had sent the whole thing for them. There had to be hundreds of demons swirling toward the temple, skimming over the trees.
Abel felt the wolves" excitement around him. They were ready for the fight.
He turned to race after his companions, but they"d stopped on the bridge just outside the doors.
"Merde," Ariane said.
Another segment of the army blocked the only path out of the temple. The same Fate that had attacked James in the library was at their lead-the pale woman who looked like Elise. She still bore the wounds of the wolf spirits who had torn into her. Ichor caked her arms and throat.
She looked p.i.s.sed.
"Get her," Abel said, and the wolves leaped from behind him.
They attacked her again. He could feel their anger, their excitement. He felt her fists and feet strike them. Every blow ached deep in his gut.
He dragged Abram back from the bridge as they ripped into her, and the others followed, jumping into the temple.
There was nowhere else to run. That bridge was the only way out.
The bridge, or the gateway to Eden.
"What are you waiting for?" Levi asked, standing on the edge of the portal.
"We can"t go into Eden," Abram said, balking when Levi took his arm.
"You want to stay here and die?"
It didn"t sound like a great alternative.
"Fine," Abel said. "Let"s go."
The vision of the garden shimmered. It shifted.
Before they could jump through the gateway to Eden, the light changed, coalescing into the image of a doorway. Not one of the grand arches built by angels, but an entirely normal-looking door, like the kind that Abel had on his cottage back at the sanctuary-a.s.suming the sanctuary still even existed.
Someone knocked on the other side of it. Three sharp raps, like a pizza delivery guy asking for attention.
Abram reached for the doork.n.o.b.
"What are you doing?" Abel asked. "That seems like a really bad G.o.dd.a.m.n idea."
"Who would want out of Eden?" Abram asked.
"Belphegor. Belphegor would want out of Eden to kill us."
"If he knows we"re here, he doesn"t need to make a door."
Abram twisted the handle. The door opened.
A little girl stood on the other side with her hand uplifted like she was going to knock again. Her brunette curls were a wild tangle surrounding her round face. A brush of freckles dotted her nose.
Ariane made a sound very much like a sob. "Marion?"
She collapsed to her knees, enveloping the little girl in her arms.
Abram was staring, jaw dropped, but it was Levi who spoke. "A kid? In Eden? Did I miss something?"
Ariane was too distracted to respond. She began babbling to the girl-her daughter?-in rapid French, and the girl responded in kind. Abel didn"t understand a word of it. All he knew about French was "baguette" and maybe "cervesa," although he wasn"t sure that was actually the right language.
The wolves projected alarm toward him.
She"s strong. We"re losing ground.
It was a warning. The Fate was going to break through and enter the temple.
"We need to go," Abel said, striding past Ariane toward the gate.
A small hand grabbed the knee of his jeans. Marion was trying to stop him. She spoke in French and Ariane quickly translated. "She says we shouldn"t go into Eden. She has a trick, and she wants to show it to us now."
"We don"t have time for some kid"s games," Abel growled.
But Marion walked up to the wall of the temple, lifted her hand, and knocked again, this time on one of the murals.
Light flared from her fist.
A door appeared in the wall, very much like the door to Eden. With a smile, the girl opened it. On the other side, there was a long, dark tunnel of black stone.
A tunnel that looked an awful lot like h.e.l.l.
"Some trick," Abel said.
Victorious shouts rose from outside. Abel felt the spirits retreating, rushing back to him.
Run, whispered the wolves.
Now there was nothing between them and the Fate"s army but about fifty feet and a narrow, open archway.
Seemed like they didn"t have a choice to be picky about escape routes.