Gabriel nodded. He was an intelligent man; that much Noa could see. Gabriel glanced at Maria. Maria surprised Noa by straightening her shoulders and lifting her chin. “You know that this is our path.” Maria looked at Noa and Dinah. “The Coven were placed into our lives for a higher reason. We have both agreed what for. It must be to defeat Brethren evil.”
A second later, Gabriel nodded. He got up from the table and moved to a table full of liquor at the side of the room. “Would anyone like a glass?”
“Let me help.” Noa rose to her feet. Gabriel watched her approach with careful eyes, but she sidled up next to him and laid out four glasses on the bar. Gabriel took the decanter of brandy and began to pour. When the last drop had been dealt and he placed the decanter back down, Noa put her hand on his arm. Gabriel appeared startled at her touch, but she forced a small smile and said, “I just want to say thank you, for inviting us here. And for giving us a safe home.”
Gabriel paused for a second, but then smiled at her in return. “It’s my pleasure. To find others like us …” He shook his head, his blond curls falling over his blue eyes. “I can’t express what it means.” He sighed, and when he spoke, his voice was laced with emotion. “I thought we were alone.” Noa felt a flicker of that pain in her chest, but when she pictured Diel, trapped and confused in his metal hell in her mind’s eye, it faded to vapor.
Leaning forward, Noa embraced Gabriel. He stiffened in her arms, but slowly relaxed as she said, “You are most certainly not alone.” Noa pulled back, and before anyone in the room could see, she tucked the keyring she had swiped from Gabriel’s pocket into her own.
Gabriel tapped her on the arm, then held out two brandy glasses for her. “Do you mind?”
“Not at all.” Noa took her and Dinah’s glasses back to the table. Dinah’s dark gaze was on Noa as she approached, and it was brimming with suspicion. Noa handed Dinah one glass, then downed the liquid in her own. Her eyes rolled as the intoxicating burn traveled down her esophagus. When she opened her eyes, Dinah was still watching her. Noa smiled wide at her best friend, and she saw Dinah’s eyes narrow.
Gabriel sat back down at the desk. “Dinah, we have another property on the grounds. A few miles from this manor. I was thinking we could have a look today, to see if it’s suitable for the rescued children. It needs some heavy renovations, but if the space is good, it might be suitable to give to the children as a safe place.”
“That’d be great,” Dinah said.
Gabriel drank his brandy. Noa felt someone watching her. As she looked up, her gaze crashed into Maria’s. Maria’s face was angelic. A small smile tugged on Maria’s mouth. Then she sipped at her brandy. Maria sat perfectly straight, just as the Brethren had made Noa and her sisters sit in the Circle.
The years of monastic training were as obvious on Maria as a bell tower on a church. Yet Noa found herself intrigued by the petite nun. Noa sensed the deep-rooted corruption in Raphael, the sexual sadism he clearly craved—the red ring around Maria’s neck showed her that much. But what intrigued her more about the woman was that she was clearly in love with him. And she let him play out his fucked-up fantasies on her perfectly disciplined body.
There was more to the timid long-haired nun than she revealed.
“Do you and your brothers train?” Noa heard Dinah ask Gabriel. She turned her attention back to the Fallen’s leader.
Gabriel nodded. “Every day. It’s part of our daily routine. We have a gym. Exercise helps them keep focused, keep disciplined. Helps them keep our brotherhood’s covenant.”
“Then tomorrow,” Dinah said. “Tomorrow we’ll start training together. We need to be a unit—the Fallen and Coven—before we plan any kind of attack on the Brethren together.”
Gabriel glanced at Maria, then shook his head. “I agree with the idea in principle, but I can’t put you and your sisters in that kind of danger.”
A cold laugh fell from Noa’s mouth. All eyes were on her. “Danger.” She rose from the seat and moved to refill her brandy. She downed another glass, the heat in her stomach only fueling her excitement for her violent date with Diel tonight. She turned, with a third glass full, to see that Gabriel, Maria and Dinah were still watching her. “You’re considerate, Gabriel. But your men are a haphazard group of murderers at best. They pose no danger to me and my sisters.”
Noa’s gaze drifted to the oil painting behind Gabriel’s head. It was of an older man who shared some similar facial features with Gabriel and his brother, Michael. The Fallen had ended up in a government-protected home, with more money than they could spend in several lifetimes, yet they did not know the true strengths of their gifts. Because their respective ways of killing were gifts—devil-created or not, that was of little consequence.