Page 10 of Angel's Vengeance

Tung’s eyes grew stormy with pewter flames, and the banked fury of the prime sentinel caused Rhode to take a step back until he had no choice but to plop onto the nearest hard surface that would support him.“Listen well,Axtar.”

Rhode gritted his teeth.“Don’t call me that.”

“Then give me a reason to call you otherwise, because right now, you have not earned any right to keep your own name or head, let alone make demands of me.You attacked one of your own, one ofmysentinels, your own goddamn brother, anddamaged our hostess’s property.”

Rhode snapped to his feet and shrugged off Titan when he tried to urge him back down.“He’s not my brother!”Rhode raged, no longer able to quell the fire or keep from screaming what his heart had longed to rail into the world.“Iam not your brother,” he said, pounding his chest.“I am a seraph.Wasa seraph.We are different as much as we are the same, and you of all beings know you cannot be forced into a mold by sheer will or association alone.Or should we ask Tamara her thoughts on the subject?”

Every single voice in the room was snuffed into silence.Shouts collapsed into shattered sighs of disappointment, while other words were choked off by sucked-in breaths.

Tamara, or Tammy, was Tungsten’s soul bond and twin sister to Titan’s soul bond, Rose.Like Rhode, she too had been abducted by charmers, but that was where the similarities in their experiences ended, for unlike Rhode’s eternal imprisonment, she had been rescued after six months.

He, on the other hand, well ...

Only he knew what parts of him had truly made it out alive, which was why the blow he’d just dealt was the kind reserved only if you wanted to make damn certain there were no bridges left to burn.

Tammy’s relationship with Tung had been one of intense turmoil, with each one fighting against fate to secure their own form of self-preservation.

As Rhode had been told, it had been a miserable time for the prime sentinel, as well as the others.

And he’d just ripped open that bag and poured it all out for everyone to get a fresh view of, spoiled parts and all.

Including the curious woman who still sat silently at the far table, professing not to only be a demon charmer but the offspring of the very one who could claim credit for innumerable suffering souls, the least of which, though still living, crowded out the restaurant’s small dining room.

Tungsten bared his teeth, giving Rhode a raw glimpse of the quiet rage that had the best chance to match his.

Good.Parts of him, the portions that had grown in bulk without cause or direction, screamed for a fight, for anything to tear into so they might feast on something else’s suffering for a change.

As Rhode stared at the prime sentinel, the leader of the Empyrean’s eternal guards, for the first time, he wondered ...

Would the angel truly do it?Would Tung take that next step?Mages knew Rhode had given him every reason to do so, even as his gaze traced the lines of the one angel who everyone thought truly had boundless patience.

But did that theory extend to what Rhode had become?And why the hell did he wish to test it so?

Rhode sank into the prime sentinel’s stare and searched for the answers hidden in the swirling depths of eyes that once held such compassion and understanding.Figured it was about time he chased that away, too.

A cascading crash resounded through the back hallway.“Fuck him, and fuck this.I’m done!”Chrome swept an arm out wide, and another rack of drinking glasses met their end in shards at the angel’s feet.

Brass stepped in before the others and swept a fuming Molly out the front door right as Bronze and Steel managed to muscle Chrome into the back hallway that led out to the alley.

Through the cages of their arms, his former intelligence master found Rhode and shouted, “We’re done.You hear me?Whatever’s going on in your head can fucking spin itself out on its own.No one needs this shit, Rhode.Not me, not Drea, and sure as hell not the rest of us.Got that?No one needsyou!So have a nice goddamn life, ‘cause I’m done having you take up such a huge part of mine.”

Both doors slammed shut, simultaneously sealing him in with the consequences of his actions.

The heavy silence that pressed in around them moved through the air like sludge through a sewer, and some quiet part of Rhode knew that he’d never breathe freely ever again.It wasn’t that he expected Chrome to behave in such a way, but ...well, whatwasthe expectation, exactly?How did one tell their oldest friend that the past was nothing more than a collection of memories for those lucky enough to still recall them?And luck had never cast its favor on Rhode for all the years he’d begged for it.Screamed for it.

No, what few memories he had were nothing short of sensory imprints, but they were more than enough to put even night terrors to shame.

At least night terrors ended eventually.

Rhode whirled away from Tung and slammed his fist into the wall, pulverizing a patch of decorative hand-pressed lavender that had been caged into something against its will.“Dammit!”But when his forehead settled against the cool surface of the drywall, the relief, like always, was promptly wicked away.

“For what it’s worth, I’m Neela, not athing.”

Shit.He’d forgotten about her.The demon.Wonderful.

But for the first time since Rhode had decided to leap off a building, he wasn’t entirely ungrateful for the others’ presence.Well, those who’d stuck around, anyway.

Tungsten, ever the damn diplomat, would soon take over.Any moment, the prime sentinel would ask Iron and Titan to seize the woman, then they’d finally be able to have that little conversation with her that Tung had alluded to earlier, one that would involve no shortage of cross-examination and angel fire.

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