The Demon's Song by Kendra Leigh Castle Page A

them.
    “Maybe I’m not as strong as your kind, but at least I have a soul.”
    The barb hit its mark. There was a burst of black rage, just for an instant, in the
     depths of Gadreel’s eyes. Before she could react, Phenex had placed himself in front
     of her, shoving her behind him as he tensed for a fight. But the first blow never
     came. Gadreel had gotten it under control almost as quickly as it had begun to slip,
     though his bitterness lingered in his voice.
    “Touché,” he said, and gave her a mocking little bow when she peered around Phenex’s
     arm at him, chafing at the way Phenex tried to shove her back. “Just remember, my
     little sharp-tongued primate, that a soul isn’t everything. And now, before your protector
     threatens to shove any more kitchen implements in places they don’t belong…”
    She blinked, and Gadreel was gone without another word, without a sound.

Chapter Nine
    Phenex didn’t move a muscle.
    Sofia stepped carefully around so that she faced him. He looked lost, she thought.
     Lost, and very distant. She wanted desperately to know the missing pieces of Gadreel’s
     story, but asking would gain her nothing right now. Instead, she filed away what she’d
     learned and tried to pull him back to the here and now. For reasons Sofia didn’t care
     to examine too closely, she seemed to want his company this morning. And though his
     serious expression didn’t detract at all from his looks, she preferred his smile.
    “So...your friend is kind of an asshole,” Sofia said.
    His laugh, a soft huff of breath, was less than she’d hoped for. But it was a start.
    “Yeah, he really is, most of the time. But for future reference,” Phenex replied without
     meeting her eyes, “the one thing you don’t want to give a fallen angel a hard time
     about is his lack of a soul. It’s kind of a sore subject.”
    Sofia’s stomach sank.
    “You really don’t have a soul? That was just a shot in the dark.” She didn’t care
     about having offended Gadreel, but Phenex hadn’t done anything to deserve it. His
     voice was cool when he answered her, his gaze still directed away.
    “No. Angels weren’t given them. And demons haven’t figured out a way to steal them.
     So…either way we’re pretty much screwed.”
    She couldn’t imagine. Just as she couldn’t imagine Phenex, with his overwhelming presence,
     simply ceasing to exist one day. Unsettled by the thought, she tried to defend herself.
     “He treated me like…well, like a talking monkey that could double as a sex toy. It
     pissed me off.”
    Phenex’s lips twitched as his eyes finally shifted to meet hers again. “You’d be surprised
     at how many women go for it.”
    She wrinkled her nose, relieved at the humor in his voice. “Not really. He’s so beautiful
     that they probably don’t hear a word he says.”
    “You did.”
    “Only because I find men who look like they spend more time on their hair than I do
     off-putting.”
    Now he did laugh, a warm, rich sound that flowed over Sofia in a rush. It was a beautiful
     surprise. Even knowing him for so short a time, she got the impression that most of
     his amusement was of the cynical, jaded variety.
    “It’s true. He preens. And he hogs the bathroom. You get used to it,” Phenex said.
    Sofia smiled, though it faltered a little as she asked the question she couldn’t get
     out of her head. “So I know you told me you were a fallen angel last night, but...you
     were really in Hell? As in, an actual place full of flames and demons and”—she gestured,
     looking for the right words—“you know. Eternal punishment. Evil. And even demons wanted to kill you?”
    Phenex sighed, shoved a hand through his hair, looked at the ceiling, and then finally
     back at her. “Yes, it’s a real place. And Gadreel was telling the truth, for once.
     Each of us was marked for death. We Fallen had gotten...complacent, I guess you could
     say. Eternity is a long time. The underworld