As if he could. A hell prince being saved by a seraph. Crap! He’d never live it down if any of his fellow hell princes discovered that.
“And anyway.” She marched off again, lithe legs eating up the ground, rounded hips swinging. “I have you, and you’re as much protection as an archangel.” Glancing over her shoulder, she gave him a full body once over. “Maybe even more so, considering the location.”
“Even without my powers?” Nothing could dent her optimism. He didn’t know why he was trying. It wasn’t making her any less distracting, and he felt like a big, bad-tempered bully.
“Oh, Wrath.” She chuckled. “You’d be formidable as a human. You don’t need your powers to be big, bad, and scary.”
He wanted to ask her how big, bad, and scary but that seemed a little needy, so he shut his pie hole and dropped into place behind her. And the uninterrupted view of what he had to concede was one spectacular ass. How had he never noticed her ass before? Possibly because whenever he’d seen her, she’d been with Ramiel. And when he and Ramiel were around each other, admiring the scenery took a low priority.
They walked in silence for a long while. Around them, the jungle began to thin, more space between trees and less vegetation. Harsh sunlight pierced the leafy canopy and picked out red lights in her dark hair.
“If Ramiel was so concerned about me, why didn’t he come himself?”
“He’s very busy.” Her shoulders tensed. “He has to deal with the seals breaking.”
“And how’s he going to do that sitting in heaven?” It irked him that Ramiel had her loyalty and her affection. That glittery glob of angelic goop treated her like an amenity.
“I don’t ask all those questions.” She kept her head facing forward, but the inflexible muscles of her back suggested his line of questioning was getting to her.
“So, you just do what he asks, when he asks?” Not even his dumbest demons gave him that kind of blind obedience.
“Ramiel relies on me.”
And he’d bet she never let good old Ramiel down. He decided to give her honesty feature a little workout. “Word has it you’re in love with him.”
Her shoulders jerked. “Word has it right.”
His laughter died in his throat. It bothered him that she thought she was in love with Ramiel. Although she was annoying the creak out of his fighting leathers, Haziel was a good angel. Not one of those stuck-up butt plugs, but a basically kind and warm being. How that insufferable sphincter had managed to inspire such feelings in Haziel baffled him. “Why?”
Heaving a massive sigh, she stopped and faced him. “You know I have to answer you honestly.”
He was counting on that, and he waited.
Her green eyes softened and gleamed. “Ramiel is courageous and good. He always puts his duty before his personal needs and takes wonderful care of his host. He’s generous and kind and always—”
“He’s using you.” He’d had to damn well ask, hadn’t he? The topic made him uncomfortable, so he switched it. “What’s the plan when we get to Ava’s demesne?”
And perhaps now might be a good time to mention that his welcome might be less than warm in that corner of hell. Then again, he didn’t have any ridiculous honesty thing to deal with, and she hadn’t asked. He would be on his way to Lucifer’s if Haziel hadn’t inserted herself into his mission.
“Not much of a plan.” She resumed walking again. “I thought we’d ask her what condition her seal was in, and if she’d seen Lucifer.
“I wouldn’t ask Ava about Lucifer.” He smirked. “Not if you want to keep your head. They have history.”
She stopped and looked around her, consulted her map, and then with a nod, set off again. “Bad feelings?”
“You could say that.” Those had been a few good days when Ava had hunted hell with the sole intention of ripping his twin’s balls off. Good thing Lucifer hadn’t asked him to hide him, because Wrath would have delivered him to Ava with a ribbon around his neck.
Haziel frowned at him. “I thought you were the one who had the disastrous affair with Avarice.”
He stopped in his tracks. Where the fuck was she getting all this information on him? “Who told you that?”
Waving her hand, she said, “Oh, everyone knows about that and how angry she was when you ended it over Rosabella.”
Ava had spent a few scary weeks hunting for his balls as well. “Everyone knows this?”
“Mostly.” She shrugged. “Of course, we didn’t know that Rosabella had birthed a child. I’m glad we didn’t know that.”
“Why?” Fatherly protective instinct rose in him, and with it, his rage. Power tingled over his shoulder blades, as if his wings were about ready to reappear. Wings would be great right now and would cut down on a lot of this walking.
“Ramiel doesn’t like Nephilim,” she said so softly, it took him a moment to decipher her meaning.
“If Ramiel touches her, I’ll rip his pussy white wings off and shove them up his ass.”
“He won’t hurt her.” Haziel didn’t look so sure of that.
“You don’t know that.”
“No.” She chewed on her lush bottom lip. “He does seem to have very set opinions about Nephilim.” She peered at him. “I understand why you kept her hidden.”
“And now she might be the one being that can repair the seals.” He took great satisfaction in pointing out that wee factoid.
“But she didn’t repair yours.” Haziel stopped and studied the landscape around them.
“No, but she improved it.” His smugness vaporized. “It seems like we are going to need power from all three realms for a full repair.”
“And such a being does not exist.” She pointed to their left. “Ava’s demesne starts just over that line of hills, doesn’t it?”
“Yes.” He gestured to the path they were on. “We’re going to want to stay on this path if we don’t want to stray into Lucifer’s demesne. If he is behind Eddie’s disappearance, he will have set wards to warn him if I cross into his territory.”
