Reaver (46 page)

plan to destroy Lucifer. Only a Watcher could replace it, and only with a very powerful angel’s help.

So… you have your baby back—
oof
!”

Harvester broke off as Limos tackled her in a huge hug. “Thank you, thank you… oh my god, thank

you!” Limos hit Reaver next, throwing herself into his arms and squeezing the breath out of him. Arik

got the final embrace, knocking him off his feet so the two of them tumbled onto the couch in a tangle

of limbs, laughter, and kisses.

“I think it’s time for us to go,” Harvester murmured.

“Hell, no!” Limos popped up, but she didn’t release Arik. “We’ll call my brothers and all our

friends and have a big fucking party.”

“Maybe,” Reaver suggested, as he turned to Harvester and took her hand, “we could make it a

mating ceremony, too.”

Harvester inhaled sharply. “I… ah…”

Ah, damn. Reaver might be a gazillion years old, but he hadn’t learned a thing about females in all

that time, had he?

“Wait,” he blurted. “Don’t say anything. Hear me out.” He sucked in a bracing breath and went for

it. “I remember me. And you. I remember
us
.” Closing his eyes, he took himself back in time, to a

place where he and Verrine had shared their first kiss. “I wanted you, but I wasn’t ready for you. I was

young, impulsive. Full of piss and vinegar and way too much power.” Metatron had been right to seal

his abilities. Reaver had been irresponsible and indestructible, and eventually, he’d have become

corrupted by his own arrogance.

He opened his eyes and caught Limos and Arik trying to make a silent getaway. “No,” he said.

“Stay. You should hear this, too.”

Arik looked like he wanted to get the hell out of there, like he’d walked in on something intimate he

shouldn’t see or hear, but Limos perked up.

“I remember being with Lilith and how stupid I felt later when I learned she was a succubus. My

pride wouldn’t let me let it go.” He took Harvester’s hand. “I neglected you and our friendship for

decades. While you were out scouring the globe for my children, I was too self-absorbed to notice how

busy you were.” His heart pounded as the worst time of his life rolled through his head in a wave of

fresh images. “Heaven was abuzz about these three men and a woman who were marshaling armies of

humans together to destroy demons. It was the biggest thing to happen since Satan’s rebellion. When I

learned that those four people were my children and that you knew all along…”

“I know.” Her nails dug into his palms. “You don’t have to say anything more.”

“I do,” he insisted. “I do and you know it.” He blew out a breath, ready to spill the rest, even if it

cost him the female he loved. “I hated you. I hated you more than I hated Lilith.”

But even though he’d been out of his mind with rage, the thought of killing her hadn’t occurred to

him. On some level, he’d still wanted her, even if he’d also wanted to hurt her the way she’d hurt him.

“So I told you I’d forgiven you, and I seduced you.” Crushing pain compressed his chest, the weight

of a lifetime of shame.

Heavenly sunlight shone down into Verrine’s frilly, open-air bedroom, warming Yenrieth’s back as

he panted through an orgasm he’d tried to hold back. Verrine had screamed or moaned through at

least three, which had been the plan. His climax had not been in the plan, and his anger scorched his

throat with every breath.

The instant it was over, he rolled off her, leaving her in a messy sprawl on her bed. He dressed

while she watched him with drowsy eyes. When she sat up and discovered the blood on the sheets, she

scrambled to hide it, and her embarrassment.

“What’s the matter?” he asked. “Ashamed?”

“No.” She wrapped a blanket around her naked body. “Of course not.”

Ice filled the hole she’d drilled in his heart with her lies. “You should be.”

She blinked, her emerald eyes shifting from drowsy to confused. “W-what?”

“Virginity isn’t something to be given over lightly.”

“You think I did this lightly?” She tugged the blanket more securely around her, as if the cold in his

body was radiating outward. Maybe it was. “I’ve wanted you for decades. I saved myself for you.”

“You shouldn’t have.” He leaned in close, taking pleasure in how quickly she paled. “I despise

you.” Snarling, he ripped the blanket away and left her exposed and vulnerable, the way she’d left him

when she’d admitted to knowing about his children. “You took my sons and daughter away from me, so

I took something from you.”

Her mouth worked silently. “I—I… Yenrieth, we’ve been over this. I thought you understood. I did it

for you.”

“You did it for me? You kept my children away from me for decades to what? To help me?” His

voice was at a low roar now, and all around him, the building trembled. “They grew up without me!

Limos was raised in hell, Reseph was raised by a wench who is undeserving of raising a puppy, let

alone a child, and Ares was beaten until he lost all compassion.
Because of you
.”

Tears spilled down her cheeks as she grabbed for him, but he stepped aside, unable to bear her

touch. Just looking at her was hard enough. “Please… you have to understand—”

“Understand?” he bellowed. “Understand this, Verrine. I’ve fucked demons who were less

disgusting than you.”

The memory knocked Reaver back a step, made him wobble, and Harvester caught him. She’d

always caught him. He’d just been too much of an asshole to realize it.

“I’m sorry, Verrine,” he whispered. He knew it was Harvester in front of him and not the innocent

young angel she used to be. But he’d never apologized to that trusting angel. And after what he’d just

remembered, he knew no apology would be enough. “I’m so sorry. You didn’t deserve that. Yenrieth

was a dick. I was a dick. I don’t deserve you, and if you can’t accept my apology, I understand. But I’ll

never stop trying to make it up to you.”

“I forgive you.” Harvester’s voice cracked. “And I should have told you about your children.”

“No.” He shook his head. “No, you were right not to. We can play the what-if game for a century,

but what it comes down to is that we can’t know what would have happened if you had. But I can

almost guarantee that it wouldn’t have been anything good. You did what you thought was right, and

that’s all that matters. You were right. I was wrong. So very wrong.”

“So,” she said, in a voice that was as shaky as his emotions, “you’re saying you remember

everything, and you’re still sorry, and you still want to have a mating ceremony?”

With all his heart. “If you’ll have me. Someday when you’re ready.
If
you’re ready. I’ll always be

here for you. I’ll wait as long as it takes.” He locked his eyes with hers. “You were
always
the one.”

For several agonizing moments, Harvester said nothing, and Reaver began to sweat. He might be

one of the most powerful beings in existence, but all the power in the universe wouldn’t make

Harvester budge if she didn’t want to do something. Like mate him.

Finally, Harvester lifted her chin in that muley way that drove him mad. “I’m not getting mated in

any absurd formal angel ceremony.”

He suppressed a smile. “I’m fine with that.”

She sniffed. “And I won’t wear a ridiculous gown.”

“Agreed.” She’d be about as comfortable in a gown as a nun would be in a brothel.

Harvester, who had always loved torturing him, wound her long hair around her finger and made a

long production out of studying the seashell paintings on the walls.

“Harvester…” At his growl she smiled, and then she was on him, throwing her arms around his neck

and hanging on for dear life.

“I hope you know what you’re getting into,” she murmured in his ear. “I love you, Reaver, but if

you piss me off, remember that I can chain you with your own bones.”

Damn, that was sexy. Oh, at the time when she’d actually done that to him, it had hurt like hell. But

he loved that her shiny new halo hadn’t crushed her horns.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “But you should keep in mind that with

my new powers I can fuck you until you pass out, and I don’t even have to be in the same room.”

To prove his point, he sent a stroke of sensation between her legs. All he had to do was think about

what he wanted to do, and she’d feel it as if he were there with his hands, his tongue, his cock. He

imagined licking her from her clit to her core before thrusting his tongue deep, and she had to bite into

his shoulder to keep from crying out.

“That,” she breathed, “was evil. Do it again.”

He laughed. “Later. I promise.”

They pulled apart, their secret smiles and her passion-glazed eyes sure to give them away, but

Limos and Arik were too busy texting—presumably their brothers, sisters, and in-laws.

“Yay!” Limos tossed aside her phone and called for one of her servants to bring Champagne. “You

know, Harvester, I kind of hated you before. You were such a bitch.” Limos wasn’t exactly known for

her tact. She looked down at her belly, her expression steeped in contemplation. “But I know what it’s

like to live in Sheoul. I know what it does to you. And I know that if it hadn’t been for you, I wouldn’t

have been able to get out of my betrothal with Satan.” She looked up, her eyes glistening with happy

tears. “So even if you hadn’t given me my baby, I’d still welcome you to the family.”

Harvester gave Limos a hug—brief and awkward, but Reaver had a feeling it was the first time

she’d initiated an embrace since she’d been a young angel.

“Thank you, Limos.” Stepping back, Harvester cleared her throat of an emotional hitch and glanced

down at Limos’s newly restored baby bump. “Do you want to know? Boy or girl?”

Limos and Arik exchanged glances, and then they both shook their heads.

“We’ll wait. You can taunt me for the next few months.”

Harvester snorted. “You really do know me.”

Limos scanned Harvester from head to toe as if deciding how true Harvester’s observation was.

“It’s going to be weird having you be our Heavenly Watcher after centuries of being our Sheoulic

one.”

“Speaking of your Sheoulic Watcher,” Reaver said, taking Harvester’s hand, “you should probably

know that Revenant is my evil twin brother.”

“
What?
” The question came as a chorus from Arik, Harvester, and Limos.

“Yeah. Long story. I’ll tell you all over margaritas.” Reaver grinned. “Let’s get this party started.”

Thirty-Five

The sunset ceremony, performed by Idess on the beach outside Limos’s house, was perfect. Harvester

had never been into “girly wedding dresses and crap,” so she wore a slinky black and white—the white

part at Limos’s insistence—sundress with stiletto-heeled black boots that Reaver wanted her to wear

later.

“Just the boots,” he’d whispered into her ear.

“What about the garter,” she whispered back, and he’d groaned. “That can stay.”

And just for him, she’d worn skimpy hot pink panties under the dress. He was going to eat them off

of her.

Now the Horsemen and their families were partying into the night with the Underworld General

crew. Hellhounds patrolled the perimeter, although Cara’s hound, Hal, and Thanatos and Regan’s

son’s pup, Cujo, were in the center of the action and creating trouble, as usual. Currently, Cujo was

playing keep away with the pit-roasted pig’s head while Hal chased after, knocking over people,

tables, and chairs.

The Horsemen had all taken an opportunity to welcome Harvester to the family—even Thanatos,

who had more reason than any of them to harbor a grudge. Reaver suspected it would be a while

before he trusted Harvester completely, but she was okay with that.

Reaver watched her from the deck, where he’d come to check on Tavin. Earlier, Harvester had

confirmed Blaspheme’s theory that the symbol was an ancient fallen angel assassination curse, and