Page 18 of Reapers Don’t Ride

Chapter

Six

Vampires are supposed to be tough, and I was the toughest of them all, but the flight was so fast and so dizzying that I passed out and didn’t come to until we were on a ship’s deck in the middle of a dark, undulating sea. Gavriel was sitting on the deck, a lamp beside him, eating with a great deal of focus, while I lay on a pile of tarps next to him, my shoulders covered by his tuxedo jacket. I was still handcuffed and wearing the ridiculous silver gown.

I slowly sat up, still slightly dizzy. “Where are we?”

“An angelic vessel. I can’t fly over the entire ocean without resting while carrying extra weight. Not that you aren’t a delightfully light burden that it is my pleasure to hold.”

I should have scoffed at his words or hissed at him, but instead, I just reveled in him saying that he liked holding me. I shouldn’t like it, but I did. I cleared my throat and tugged on my cuffs. “Are you going to keep me tied up forever?”

“You’re on an angelic vessel. It’s best if you stayed secured, for your own safety.”

I looked around in the shadows but didn’t see anyone. They were there, though. Watching. If I threatened Gavriel, they would finish me. I shrugged and shifted so I was sitting more comfortably in the ridiculous dress. “We left the trunk at the hotel.”

“I’ve already sent for it. Do you think that the Vampire King gave us anything useful after he stole your will? I was very strongly tempted to kill him for that. If the team leader hadn’t specifically told me not to kill him…”

I put my hands together on his arm. Cuffs were so awkward. “I also want to kill him. Song’s Lament? That’s the where, right? I know a place by that name. At least the bar is called Lament, and it’s in Song, the undercity of Singsong.”

His brows rose. “I’ve never heard of it.”

“Bar might be too generous a term. It’s a very seedy establishment run by a gang of outcasts from various guilds and races. I had to kill someone there once. It would be a good place for Tralcon to find new supporters.”

“Excellent work.”

“Yes, well, it’s not somewhere an angel and a vampire can go and ask questions. Murdering someone is in and out, but waiting around until we can make contact…”

“Actually, it’s exactly where an angel and a vampire would go if they were together in defiance of the rest of the world.”

I stared at him, absently tugging on my cuffs to see how readily they would give. “Defiance? What does the world care if a vampire took an angel for feeding?” The idea of taking his blood was more tempting than ever.

He gave me a slight smile, which made him far too handsome. “Not feeding, but for romance.”

I stared at him while my undead heart panged. “Romance? I don’t understand.”

He looked down at his fork before stabbing a potato. “People run away together all the time.”

“There’s nothing illegal about angels and vampires marrying. Why run away?” Was he actually suggesting that we marry? Surely he had more sense than that. And yet…

He gave me a sharp smile with a hint of mischief. “Because I helped you get away from the angels after you tried to kill one of them, betraying my own.”

I squinted at his beautiful face, eyes alight with mischief. No, he was not talking about marrying me. Why did that hurt? Probably a flashback to my human spinsterhood. “You’ve got a wild imagination. I thought angels didn’t do well lying for a cover.”

“Some angels have difficulty lying. I’m not one of them. It’s the streak of goblin blood. I have a friend who is very into the drama. He’d love to help us play the part.”

I was supposed to play the part of lover with an angel? That didn’t sound like a disaster waiting to happen. “You think that this gang would take us in, help us, if it seemed like we were running away from the angels? Sounds risky. The outcasts might pretend to take us in and then slit our throats while we were sleeping.” Or I’d bite his throat while he was sleeping close to me.

He shrugged his strong, beautiful shoulders. “It’s possible.”

“But the Vampire King might mean an entirely different Song’s Lament. And what about the Cupid? Isn’t that a small, pudgy angel?”

His eyes tightened. “Cupid is a kind of angel, but there’s nothing small about Lorien.”

“Lorien? You think you know this angel?”

“There are several angels who have fallen from the ranks of respectability to a less wholesome situation.” He glanced down, sadness reflected in his posture.

“You know this angel personally? Then we can track him without using the sketchy cover of being runaway lovers.” I regretted saying lovers the moment the word was out of my mouth.