Page 5 of Viper

She usually made such ‘house calls’ four or five times a year, and it was usually wraiths responsible for the possessions. Considering they weren’t difficult for incantors to kill, you would think they would give up their human victim voluntarily. Weirdly, though, they rarely did.

He will come for you.

Ella felt her brow crease as the words drifted through her mind. They meant nothing. The wraith had simply been messing with her—she knew that. Knew it well. As did her demon. So why did something about that phrase make her skin chill?

She was late.

Viper clenched his hand around his beer bottle, the pads of his fingertips tingling with both unease and a restless anticipation.

The redhead at a corner table—one who resembledhisredhead—checked her phone, but she didn’t seem concerned. Maybe Mia had received a heads-up that there was some kind of delay.

The sisters were close. Best friends, really. They had little rituals; things they routinely did together. Like come to this particular pool hall every Friday.

‘Ella’ was his woman’s name in this life. It had taken him quite some time to find her.Toolong.

Many things had delayed his locating her. He’d only had two clues that would aid him. One, she’d again be a demon. Two, her date of birth would be roughly nine months after the very day that her life as Everleigh had ended.

It didn’t help his search that, due to demons being exclusive and secretive, lairs didn’t have accessible birth records. Also, demons weren’t rare creatures, they existed all over the globe—that was a whole lot of ground to check out.

The timelines of the various realms were out of sync. Just returning home to the upper realm for a brief rest from searching for her had sometimes meant that months had passed when he returned to Earth to continue that search. At other times, it was only mere minutes.

Making it even harder, the six traitorous bastards he’d once considered ‘family’ had laid a false trail that—in his anger anddesperation to find her—he’d been naïve enough to follow. They’d sure goneallout to keep him away from her so that he wouldn’t choose to ‘doom himself’. Their words.

On first seeing Ella here in Vegas, he’d known it was her. She had the same mannerisms and personal style. Even the same graceful, confident walk.

Aslipinto her mind as she’d slept had been enough for him to confirm it. Her brain might be physically different, but the psychicfeelof her was the same.

It had taken him twenty-eight fucking years, but he’d found her. He’d fallen, along with thirteen angels who’d been part of his branch in the upper realm’s army; men he called brothers now that they’d formed a motorcycle club. And Viper was finally so very close to what he wanted most.

Not that he’d done anything about it yet. He’d had to hold off.

Viper had known that those in the upper realm wouldn’t easily accept that he’d fallen. He’d known that they’d try to persuade him to return and, more, that they’d try having him executed when he refused.

He’d also known they’d assume that he’d fallen because he’d managed to track down his woman. They would have taken her; would have outright destroyed her soul to get him in line. So, to keep their attention away from her, Viper had kept his distance from Ella over the past several months. He’d made it look to celestials as though his decision to fall had had nothing to do with her; that Vegas was a random choice of location on his part.

He’d butchered every slayer that the upper realm had sent, all the while focusing on getting his club settled, establishing their presence in Vegas, and forming necessary alliances with demons to get one foot in Ella’s world.

Viper had also spent a lot of that time observing his quarry from afar. At first, it had been strange to see his woman in a whole other body answering to a whole other name. But at thispoint, after several months of watching her, he’d gotten used to it; had even ceased refering to her as Everleigh in his mind.

In fact, he considered the situation similar to how he’d dropped his old identity after falling. Theybothnow had new names, new circumstances, new families.

Before, she’d been a reaper. Now she was an incantor.

Before, he’d been an archangel. Now he was something … other.

Neither of them wereexactlyas they were before. But it meant they could start fresh as Ella and Viper. Meant they could get it right this time.

They weren’t so different than before that it would affect how well they ‘fit’. Small elements of a person’s character would vary with each life, but never their core nature.

He’d watched her closely so he could learn her patterns, familial situation, power-level, personal details, etc.

Basically, he’d discovered and filed away every aspect of her life to identify the easiest way to infiltrate it.

He’d already moved some pawns around, placing himself on the periphery of her world. Example: he’d recently bought this very pool hall that she frequented, and now he came here every Friday. Each time, he chose a table that was just a little closer to where she and Mia routinely sat.

Essentially, he’d set himself up to step fully into her life—something he’d soon do.

The coast was now mostly clear. The attempts to execute him had ceased. Celestials sometimes came to pass on messages from the Uppers, but there were no shows of violence. However, a new issue had cropped up. Once he’d resolved it, he could focus on Ella.

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