Eleventh Grave in Moonlight (Charley Davidson #11)(68)

“Not at all,” he said, keeping his gaze trained on the biggest threat in the room which, sadly, was not me. “You arrived before he died. No laws have been broken.”

“What?” I stepped forward, incensed and ready to throttle him. But I stopped short and took him in.

Angels had the most incredible inhuman eyes. They shimmered with the lights of the universe. Their eyes were proof that Reyes was part angelic being. The way they glistened even in the lowest of light. The way they saw straight into one’s soul. The way they knew way more than they let on.

Reyes had been created from the energy of a god and the fires of hell, but part of him was angel. True, that part was fallen angel, but angel nonetheless.

And just like Reyes, they could be the most frustrating things this side of eternity.

“I thought I couldn’t heal at all. Isn’t that what you said?”

“You may heal on occasion. Many of the gifted in this world do.”

I folded my arms, annoyed. “Yeah, I hear doctors do it all the time.”

“There are laws, reaper. However, you did not break any this night.”

“What laws? Remember, this whole gig came with a serious lack of instruction manuals.”

He finally spared me a glance. “You are a conundrum. We’ve had only one reaper live as long as you have. And she was a hermit with no other abilities than what your reaper status entails. You, on the other hand, require special … mandates.”

“So, I can heal people? Because I thought if I healed anyone or stopped Ubie’s untimely demise, I’d send heaven into an uproar.”

He let his gaze wander over me as though trying to place my species.

“Not that it would be the first time. Heaven seems insanely easy to uproar these days.”

“You can heal,” he said at last, “only very occasionally and only—and mark these words, reaper—only if the soul has not already been freed. Only if it has not left the vessel and entered our Father’s kingdom. That is the most sacred law.”

“So, that’s the biggie?”

“Yes.”

“And if I break it?”

“You will be cast from this dimension for all eternity.”

“Oh. Well, that doesn’t seem too difficult to follow. I can’t heal dead people, which, why would I? They’re dead.”

He tilted his head to the side, but his attention snapped back to Reyes when the devil’s spawn—in the literal sense—took a miniscule step forward. He’d been itching to get to Michael for a while now. I could feel the desire tug at him. Urge him forward.

I glared and shook my head. He ignored me.

“And no curing cancer,” Michael continued.

“I didn’t.”

He tore his gaze off Reyes again and gave me a knowing grin. “You thought about it.”

“Yeah? Well, I’ve thought about breaking your neck, too. Does that count?”

“No,” he said, one corner of his mouth tilting heavenward.

“Wait a minute. Is that why your henchmen have been tailing me?”

His gaze grew curious. “Henchmen?”

“Are they following me because I threatened to cure cancer?” Then something else hit me. I sat in a chair when I realized what Michael had said. What he’d really said. “You were going to cast me from this plane if I healed my uncle, but you didn’t. Because … because he wasn’t dead yet? Because we’d stopped them from killing him?”

He nodded.

“So, then, he was really going to die here. We stopped Grant Guerin from killing him, so this was … and I was going to—”

“—find him too late,” he finished for me.

I looked at Uncle Bob, my heart breaking at the mere thought of losing him, but he didn’t seem upset in the least. Then again, he was still in a state of awe. Angels did that.

“You knew,” I said to him. “You knew you wouldn’t make it out of here alive.”

He finally focused on the conversation. Bit down. Lifted one shoulder in a helpless shrug. “I had a strong suspicion.”

“Uncle Bob. How can you just…?” At a loss for words again, I took him in.

He bore the mark. It was unfair, especially given the circumstances. His cause had been noble. The sentence unjust. I raised my hand and then raised my brows in question to Michael.

He nodded and waited, so I waved my hand and unmarked my favorite uncle.

Then I turned to Michael. “Why can I mark and unmark?”

“You are reaper. It is your domain.”

“So, I ask you again, why are your henchmen following me?”

“They are not.”

“Dude, they’re everywhere. Don’t even try to tell me they’re not following me, because … oh,” I said when I realized how amazingly arrogant I sounded. “They aren’t following me, are they?”

“They are following the god Rey’azikeen.”

Right. That actually made a lot of sense.

Reyes stayed deathly still, but he let slip the barest hint of surprise on his perfect face, a reaction so minute that if I’d blinked I would have missed it.

“Now that Reyes knows he’s a god,” I said, “he’s more of a threat? Is that it?”