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Pedersen. He should have known his job.”
    “He had grown too attached to her. But in fact I didn’t kill him. She did.”
    Another silence. “Interesting,” Raziel said eventually. “Did he deserve it?”
    “Ten times over. He trained her well—so well, she outsmarted him. She will serve.” He said the words reluctantly. He had agreed to this—he’d had no choice—and in the end he’d seen the wisdom of it. But part of him was still fighting.
    “You look tired,” Azazel said. He was the closest friend Michael had among the Fallen. The former Alpha, he had returned a few years ago with his wife, Rachel, who had powers even she didn’t know about. They would need her, as well as his own unwilling bride, in the upcoming fight. They would need everyone they could muster.
    “I am tired,” he admitted.
    “Walk with me.” It wasn’t a request, but it was what Michael needed, and Azazel knew it. They started down the pebbled beach, slowly leavingRaziel behind. The sound of the surf soothed him, the sough of the wind and the gulls that wheeled and cried overhead. The ocean, the place of healing, the place of origin. Humankind had first come from the water. He had no idea where his kind had come from, and there’d been no one to answer his questions. Uriel, guardian of heaven, would spin any lie that served his purpose, and the Supreme Being was gone. Once he’d given free will to the humans he’d simply stepped back, leaving his most trusted archangel in charge.
    Unfortunately, that archangel had been Uriel, not Gabriel, Raphael, or even himself. That unwise choice had echoed through the millennia, bringing plague and disaster upon humankind. Uriel had to be stopped, before he destroyed the world completely.
    Azazel broke their comfortable silence. “She’s very pretty.”
    “Is she?”
    “You know she is. Don’t play the fool, Michael, it doesn’t become you. This vision of Martha’s came for a reason, and it was to help our cause, not hinder it. If I can feel the power of attraction between you two, then you certainly can’t be unaware of it.”
    He didn’t bother denying it. “It’s an unpleasant fact of life, I admit it. She . . . calls to me. I have no intention of doing anything about it. This will be a marriage in name only. Anything else would only complicate matters.”
    Azazel shook his head. “I don’t think that’s what the vision meant.”
    “That’s the thing about visions—you can interpret them any way you wish. I prefer to think her presence and her joining to me are all that is necessary. After that is done, she will simply be one of the soldiers.”
    “You need her blood.”
    “I’m not taking it. You know that—I won’t take blood from a mate. The Supreme Being may have cursed us to be blood-eaters, but I can refuse to give in. I will make do with what Allie can provide.”
    Azazel frowned. “You know as well as I that her blood is weaker. The Source is for the Fallen who haven’t mated. Even if you don’t bed her, you will still have mated the goddess, and her blood will bring you back to full strength.”
    “No.” It was his only weapon against the forces that had molded him into an instrument of justice and terror, wielder of the flaming sword, smiter of enemies who’d done so little to deserve their punishment. No, he refused to let them play with him any longer. He would take no blood but from the wrist of the Source, and all of them be damned.
    They were already damned.
    “You can’t fight it forever,” Azazel said. “Sooner or later you will have to accept that the Fallen are doomed to be blood-eaters. If it’s a test of wills between you and the Supreme Power, do you really think you have a chance of winning?”
    Michael looked out at the sea. “You fought your prophecy,” he said. “You almost killed your wife, you were so determined to prove it wrong.”
    Azazel flushed. “Indeed. I don’t recommend it. Women have long memories. In the end the