Page 111 of Viper

“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 aThat 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 notesstill 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 toyou. 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 Azraelhad 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.

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