A Touch Menacing by Leah Clifford Page B

can do what needs to be done.”
    “Prove it,” Raphael said, standing up. “We know you have the location of the death breather. Why have you not ended her? Her destruction would benefit many.”
    “I will go, but it’s possible she and her crew have already gone into hiding.” Gabe bit the inside of his cheek.
    Michael sent a thought screaming through his mind. You’re in such danger, Gabriel. You must satisfy them with a Sider.
    “I . . .”
    Give them what they want! Michael insisted.
    Gabe racked his brain, frantic. He had to give them something. “There’s a coffee shop,” he said, shame burning through him even as the words blurted out. He couldn’t stop. “She goes there sometimes. It’d be a good place to check.” And then, casual enough to sound like an afterthought, he added, “A Sider works behind the counter. He’s high-ranking and might have information.”
    But Gabe hoped Zach wouldn’t. And that Zach would forgive him.

CHAPTER 4

    G abriel’s sudden presence startled a group of pigeons when he appeared in the abandoned building the Bound had chosen as their gathering place. He dropped to his knees, exhausted from the effort, not of traveling, but of resisting what he’d promised to do, every muscle in his body stretched tight from holding back.
    The room he’d materialized in was far from the other Bound angels. He knew it seemed suspicious that he didn’t freely seek out their company, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to care. So they watched him with sidelong glances, untrusting. They were right to do so.
    After a moment, he got to his feet.
    He came out of the room into the core of the building. Natural light streamed in from the glass atrium of the ceiling. Beautiful railings lined an open center; balconies on each side led off to rooms on the nine floors rising above him. Aside from peeling paint and a few broken panes of glass, upon first glance, the place seemed entirely livable. How could anything so beautiful be forgotten, he wondered.
    Gabe heard movement. He pictured himself several stories up. A second later, he felt the balcony beneath his feet.
    Four days ago, one of the more derelict rooms on this level had received a strange renovation. Most of the floor had collapsed through. The door to the room below it had been nailed shut, and barbed wire fencing secured over the windows, effectively making it a pit accessible only from above. The next day, a waiflike boy had been inside, dirty and shivering. A Sider. Please, he’d called up when Gabe had come to the threshold. Please help me.
    The boy’s pleas haunted him. Gabe had done nothing, left without a word. He couldn’t save all the Siders, not if he wanted freedom enough to help his friends. Besides a quick phone call to Kristen and another to Madeline, he hadn’t dared communicate with any of the Siders since the night he’d gotten back. Today, being near Eden and warning Jarrod had been an enormous risk. If he’d been seen by the Bound or if he hadn’t been able to resist the vow he’d made . . . Any other Sider could be hurt, tortured even, but Eden and Sullivan could be killed. Please listen, Jarrod, he thought. Make her leave the apartment. Eden could be stubborn, but he knew she was sick and scared.
    Now, it was Gabe who felt scared. Earlier this morning, Michael had requested he be present at a council meeting for the first time since he’d become Bound again. The invitation had spurred him on to warn Eden, tell her what she needed to know about Az. Gabe didn’t know if he’d be able to get back to her. The meeting could end with him punished. Or worse.
    Other Bound wandered through the building, looking lost and uncertain. For some, it had been centuries since they’d felt earth under their feet. Taxi horns unnerved them. Their noses wrinkled in disgust at the heavy scent of bus exhaust. To his left was the council room, reserved for higher-ranking Bound, the place where decisions were made. As he