Read Rebel for Free Online

you’ve enjoyed the pleasures of the flesh. I’d be more than happy to oblige.”
    I knew he was trying to shock me. “I don’t think so.” I sounded calmer than I felt, turning away from him.
    I should have been able to reach the door before he did—I was much closer. But he was there ahead of me, smiling down at me, genuinely amused. “Don’t look so shocked, sweet Mary. I was only asking. I’m certain I’ll find someone else who’s interested if you’re not.”
    “Martha!” I snapped, giving in to his goading. “And you’re not going to find anyone in Sheol. I told you, everyone here is bonded.”
    “And you think that would stop me?” His voice was very gentle.
    I didn’t move. I understood instinctively that he would let me pass if I simply asked him. I looked up at him, into his wicked, beautiful face, and wondered if this was what sin truly was. Seductive, almost irresistible, calling an otherwise sane woman to do things she’d never, ever consider doing, simply by smiling at her. I had no doubt at all that he could manage to seduce whomever he wanted if he set his mind to it. Who could say no to such a soft, sensual lure?
    I let the feelings suffuse me for no more than a nanosecond, and then I stepped back. “You never answered Raziel’s question,” I said, and if my voice sounded tense, I didn’t care. “Why are you here?”
    He stared at me for a long, speculative moment. “I’m not sure. It could be to seduce you, sweet one.”
    “Then you may as well leave now, because you’re doomed to failure.”
    “Why?”
    His simple question surprised me. “I beg your pardon?”
    “I asked you why. Why am I doomed to failure, when I can feel the heat from your body, hear the blood rushing beneath your skin, can practically smell your arousal? Why?”
    I had never hit anyone in my life outside of battle. I hated violence, yet I wanted to slap that tauntingsmile from his mouth, slap him so hard my hand ached from it.
    “I think you’re deluded.” My voice was glacial. “But in the end, I don’t really care why you’re here. If you don’t want to tell anyone the truth, that’s your business, as long as you leave me alone. Now, if you’ll get out of my way, I have things to do.”
    “So you keep saying.” With that he moved, no longer standing between me and the door, and I hid my relief. “Feel free to change your mind.”
    I admit it. I gave in to temptation for the first time in what felt like years. “When hell freezes over.”
    He glanced around him, a faint, distant expression in his eyes. “Darling girl, it already has.”

CHAPTER
FIVE
    C AIN STARED AT THE DOOR AND realized he was smiling. Sweet, pretty Martha the seer was a firecracker underneath her demure exterior. He’d sensed it almost immediately, and it hadn’t taken much prodding to get her to lash out. She’d be more guarded in the future, but he had absolutely no doubt he’d be able to break her down. He never failed when he put his mind to something.
    He turned, surveyed the bland room, and sighed. He hated it here, and always had. This was a world of penance for those cursed, and he had never been one to wallow in regret. Life was a banquet of riches to be tasted and even squandered, yet the Fallen locked themselves away in a kind of purgatory.
    Not he. He would have thought nothing could possibly make him return, but he was back, all right.And when he left, if Sheol was still standing, it would never be the same.
    He felt the shadow pass by the French doors off the main room, but he didn’t turn to look. Only one man would come after him this quickly, only one man that big, and it increased his reputation as being eerily prescient if he greeted him without turning.
    The door opened and his visitor stepped inside, surprisingly quiet for such a large man. “Metatron,” Cain said in a cool voice. “You’re quicker than I expected.” He turned to face the big man. “I hope no one saw you come.”
    The angel