Tied With a Bow

happened? Did he get tired of you already?” Gadreel asked.
    “There’s a divot in the bridge of your nose. I guess that means I broke it,” she said.
    “You did. It’ll take about thirty minutes to heal. When I break yours, though, about four weeks.”
    “Gadreel.”
    The demon spun, skinning her toes over the concrete. He whipped her in front of him and thrust the tip of a dagger against her throat. Familiar dread washed over her.
    Nathaniel closed the distance between the three of them until Gadreel pricked her skin.
    “Close enough, or I’ll open a window from her windpipe to her spine.”
    Kate grimaced, but she clenched her teeth. “I’ve had this dream so many times before,” she said.
    Gadreel said, “Too bad for you, this time isn’t a dream.”
    “Too bad for you, too. The part coming up is where he kills you.”
    Gadreel levered his forearm across her throat, choking off her air.
    “Does this one belong to you, Nathaniel? Or can I have her?”
    Nathaniel’s eyes were deadly cold. “If you kill her, you have nothing with which to bargain.”
    The pressure on her throat eased. “There’s only one bargain that interests me. You give me back my ring, I go free, and you hunt me no more.”
    “You can have the ring and a day’s head start, but you’re damned, Gadreel. Whenever you’re on earth, an archangel will hunt you.”
    “Then Kate is very unlucky. If she’d never met you, I’m sure she would have lived a nice long life.” Gadreel ripped the robe down, exposing her chest. She tried to free herself, but Gadreel nicked her shoulder in warning.
    “Everything you do, I will visit back on you tenfold,” Nathaniel said.
    Gadreel laughed, and he bent his head and bit her shoulder hard enough to break the skin. She screamed, the pain like fire burning through her flesh.
    A dagger flew through the air and stabbed into Gadreel’s arm. Gadreel shouted and yanked it out, dropping it without ever giving her enough room to break free.
    “Nice throw, but see how you grimace, Nathaniel?” Gadreel licked Kate’s blood from his lips. “You don’t have a taste for torture. In two thousand years, each time we fight, it’s been a clean kill every time. And I rise again. And again. And again. I have an easy way into the world now. We’ll go on and on, you and I. But Kate will be gone. And you’ll have nothing to do all year but wait for me and visit her grave.”
    Nathaniel eyes didn’t meet hers.
    “Or I could let her go, and we could keep this just between us.”
    “I’m listening,” Nathaniel said.
    “Her life for your pain.”
    “Go on,” Nathaniel said.
    “You submit to me for twenty-four hours. I can do anything I want, short of taking your wings. After, they’ll take your soul out of your broken body and put it in a new one. When you get back, the battle resumes. No matter if you kill me later, Kate is free to live her life. No demon will ever touch her or even try to entice a human to kill her. Hell will forget she exists.”
    The memories of Nathaniel being tortured flooded her mind. If Gadreel killed her now, her own death would be quick. The thought of Gadreel being able to do anything he wanted to Nathaniel curdled her stomach.
    “No,” Kate said.
    “Quiet,” Gadreel sneered, twisting her finger.
    She screamed, then fought past the pain. “Nathaniel, no. If he kills me, the angels will come for me. It’s nice in Heaven, isn’t it?” she asked, trembling all over.
    “Are you going to let her sacrifice her life for you?” Gadreel crooned. “I got to kill both of your sisters. Your brother. Your mother and father. Are you going to let me cut short the life of your girlfriend, too? I must admit it would be nice to have the whole set. I eventually hope to add you to it. What do you say? Her life for your pain? Or shall I slit her throat?”
    “Let her go.”
    “No!” she screamed.
    “Your promise that you’ll submit for one day?”
    “Yes,” Nathaniel said.
    Her head spun, and she fought to free herself, to pummel Gadreel. The demon pushed her away without a glance.
    Gadreel laughed at Nathaniel. “Beautiful angel boy, I promise to make you regret your choice. Let’s go.”
    “I can’t fly. My wings aren’t ready,” Nathaniel said.
    Gadreel grinned. “Well then, we’ll start the fun here until the firefighters make their way up and interrupt us. I want you naked and on your knees.” Gadreel’s eyes shone blood red in the moonlight. He was in the