Eve of Warefare Read Online Free PDF Page A

boxes? Why go through the trouble of getting the minutia of our cover story right, then use you as—” Eve lost her train of thought when she spotted the man lying atop the bed.
    Alec made a low noise. “What are you doing here?”
    “You are working for me,” Zaphiel said, remaining in his reclined position with his head propped in one hand. He was such a large man that the California king-sized mattress seemed too small for him. “It is in my interests to ensure you both have the best chance for success.”
    “We know how to hunt.”
    Zaphiel straightened and swung his long legs over the side of the bed. “But you cannot hide without assistance.”
    Eve’s brows went up. In the time it took for her to blink, the cherub had shifted to a position directly in front of them. He grabbed her arm and Alec’s. A rush of sensation flooded her body, centring on the Mark that lay beneath his palm.
    Alec cursed in a foreign language and shoved Zaphiel back into the bed. The cherub sprawled across the mattress on his back, chuckling.
    Eve dropped to the floor on her knees, gasping and dizzy. She felt numb everywhere, as if she’d been shot up all over with Novocain. “Oh man . . .”
    “Angel.” Alec crouched beside her, setting one hand over hers on the floor. His fingers were shaking, which horrified her. Nothing fazed Cain of Infamy.
    Lifting her head, she met his gaze. “W – what the hell was that?”
    “I think . . . we’re mortal.”
    Eve sat at the oblong wooden table in her new dining room and glared at the innocent-looking cherub sitting across from her. The rapacious gleam in his eyes set her teeth on edge. She noticed that his irises seemed less blue than before, like dull glass. Everything around her seemed muted, less vibrant and alive.
    “This is a seriously stupid plan,” she argued, accepting the glass of water Alec handed to her. “Are you trying to get us killed?”
    “Of course not.”
    “How are we supposed to defend ourselves without our super senses?”
    “Super senses?” He shot Alec a mocking look. “Your mentor-ship is unique.”
    Alec’s voice came tight with strain. “Mortality wasn’t part of our deal.”
    “Deal?” Eve glanced over her shoulder at him. His answering look was hotter than she’d seen it in a long time and it took her breath away. “What deal?”
    “Cain wants a demotion,” Zaphiel explained.
    Alec silenced anything she might have said with a firm grip on her shoulder. “We can talk about that later,” he murmured.
    She sat stunned, knowing he wanted a demotion because of her. Because he couldn’t love her while he was an archangel.
    Zaphiel’s smile was smug. “When I explained the situation, he agreed to step aside.”
    “He did?” She didn’t know how to feel about that.
    You don’t know how you feel about anything , Reed snapped. You need to get your head on straight about Cain. You have to choose, Eve.
    “I can still hear him,” she said, looking back at the cherub.
    Alec growled. “Yeah . . . me, too. What the fuck? You take away the benefits and still leave us with him in our heads?”
    The three of them were connected in a singular way – Reed Abel to her and her to Alec. For other Marks, the mental connection to their mentors was severed when they connected to their mal’akh handlers. Alec’s ascension to archangel had screwed that up for her, making her brain the brothers’ closest connection since childhood.
    Zaphiel shrugged. “Raguel insisted that he be able to reach you both. Aside from that caveat, I have provided the perfect opportunity for Eve to make the decision Abel demands of her. As a mortal, Cain no longer has the restrictions imposed on archangels. He loves you again.”
    “For now,” she snapped, her fingertips flexing over the polished wood surface of the table. She noted that her freckles were back, as well as the scar on her knuckles that she’d gotten as a kid. The Mark took care of such blemishes, so the sight