Darkness Unmasked (Dark Angels 5)

“Obviously, she has no desire for anyone to see what goes on in this house,” Azriel said.

“Maybe it’s not so much what goes on, but with whom.”

That someone wasn’t Lucian. The clothes upstairs hadn’t been his size, nor, as far as I knew, his style.

For a change, Azriel made no comment on Lucian and simply said, “Did not Stane have a miniature camera device that proved useful once before?”

“He did.” Said device had been made to resemble a bug, and we’d used it in an attempt to get information on a man we suspected of being not only a Razan, but perhaps involved with our sorcerer. Unfortunately, he, like many other of our leads, had turned out to be a dead end—in this case, literally. “I’m not sure if he managed to retrieve it, though.”

“You can ask.”

“True.” I glanced at my watch and sighed. “But I’d better get back to work right now. I have to do Ilianna’s shift, as she and Mirri are off celebrating their anniversary.”

He raised an eyebrow as he took my hand and tugged me toward him. “An anniversary is something that should be celebrated?”

“Always.” My gaze searched his. “I’m gathering reapers have no desire for such frivolity?”

“There is no need for it.”

“Why not? I mean, it’s not like you’re incapable of emotion, and you do live in family units, so the concept of being with someone long term isn’t an alien one.”

“No.” He hesitated. “Reapers do not view or feel emotions in the same manner as humans do. It is more about the harmony of energy than it is emotion.”

“So a life mate—”

“Caomh,” he corrected.

I made a face at him. “A Caomh is someone who is in perfect harmony with you energy-wise?”

“Yes. It is rare, which is why reapers tend to live in very large family units.”

“Meaning parents, grandparents, etcetera?”

“Yes. Ready?”

I nodded. “So, what about your family? Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

The only answer I got was the surge of energy as he swept us from Lauren’s mansion to the shadowed and minute-by-comparison confines of my office above the café. I blinked, caught my balance, then stepped back and said, “Well?”

“I have both. I do not see them.”

Was that an edge to his voice? I frowned. “Why not?”

“I am a dark angel.”

My confusion deepened. “So?”

He half shrugged and turned away, moving with easy grace to the sofa on the other side of the room. But red-tinged blue fire flickered down Valdis’s sides—a sure sign Azriel was not as calm as he appeared. “Being a hunter is a punishment rather than a glory.”

I moved around the desk and sat down. “But with the first gate down and the other two threatened, it’s you guys who are holding everything together, not the supposedly more prestigious soul guides.”

“They do not see it that way.”

I stared at him for a moment, seeing the bitterness beneath the mask. “They don’t, or you don’t?”

A cool smile touched his lips. “Does it matter?”

“They’re your family, Azriel—”