Jegudiel (Deadly Virtues 2)

“Saint Peter’s cross,” Noa whispered, then closed her eyes and traced the rough skin with her fingertips, searching for a familiar pattern. Her pulse thudded in her neck as her fingers found, underneath the inked wings-and-sword design, an upturned cross. She opened her eyes. “He wears the mark,” Noa said breathlessly and looked up at Dinah, who was regarding her Coven sister as if she were insane. Noa’s eyes widened. “He wears the Brethren’s heretic mark, just like us.”

Dinah looked at the man’s chest, and Noa saw her swallow in shock. Dinah quickly composed herself. “We have to leave, Noa. It’s too risky to have been here this long.”

Dinah got to her feet and took hold of the ledger they had found hidden in a safe behind a picture in the priest’s room. She placed it into a folded-up shoulder bag she had brought with her just in case they found anything of worth. And worthy it was. If they’d retrieved what they thought they had, they had just discovered a small section of the Holy Grail when it came to hunting these Brethren pricks. “We need to get this back to the tunnels. We need to make sure it’s kept safe. When they realize it’s gone, there’ll be hell to pay.”

Noa got to her feet, but they were as heavy as lead when she tried to go to the door. She cast her head back toward the man on the floor. He was huge. Tall and broad and stacked with taut muscles. But that collar, that scarred neck, that upturned cross on his chest …

“No,” Dinah said. “We can’t take him.” Noa looked at her sister, but the words slid off her as if she were made of Teflon. “He’s a fucking psycho, Noa. Did you see what he did to us? What he did to the priest? Do you remember that he tried to choke you the fuck out? And on top of all that, he wears what looks like an electric collar. A grown-ass man wearing a collar. I mean, what the fuck?”

“Get his arms,” Noa said, ignoring Dinah’s rant and reaching into her waist belt. She removed a needle that was filled with a drug that would keep him knocked out cold. Dinah shook her head in frustration, but when Noa glared at her, she cursed under her breath then grabbed his arms, slinging the bag containing the large ledger over her shoulder. Noa injected the drug into his arm, then stowed the empty needle in the pouch attached to her holster. She moved to his legs.

“We have a cage back home,” Noa said, feeling the disapproval that pulsed off Dinah. “I’ll keep him in there.”

“He’ll fucking kill us when he wakes,” Dinah said.

Noa stilled, and she stared at her sister until Dinah looked up at her. “He has the mark. He came to kill a Brethren priest, Dinah.” She let those words hang in the air between them until it grew heavy with their importance. “He’s like us.”

Dinah raised an eyebrow. “He’s far from being like us.”

“Is he?” Noa felt that dark stirring within her, that part of her she had fought hard to repress, worked hard to overcome.

Dinah sighed, and sympathy filled her face. Noa didn’t want to see it. “Help me move him to the van,” Noa said. “I’m taking him back with us. I want to speak to him. I want to know where he came from, who he is. I want to know why he has the brand and why he came for the priest. And why he wears that collar.”

Dinah focused on his neck. “A collar. He wears a fucking collar. Like a dog. And this one is fancy too. It’s electrical or some shit. High grade.”

“He’s not the first person we’ve seen with a collar though, is he?” A stab of pain cut right through Noa’s heart, rendering her breathless.

“Noa …” Dinah said softly, all tension dropping from her tone.

Noa cleared her throat and looked anywhere but at her sister. She focused on the man’s face again. Dark hair, blue eyes. Even drenched in blood, he was beautiful. He looked around the Coven’s general age, maybe a little older. “Let’s move him. He won’t be a danger to any of the others. I’ll make sure of it.” Noa lifted her head to face Dinah. “Let’s go.”

Dinah lifted the man’s arms off the ground, and they carried him unsteadily down the stairs and out into the van. Naomi’s and Beth’s eyes widened when Noa and Dinah reached the van’s back door.

“Who is that?” Beth asked, voice slightly high-pitched as she stared at the big, bloodied body. But she shifted on the bench seat to make room for Noa and Dinah as they hoisted his half-naked form into the van and laid it out on the floor.