Vengeance: The Niteclif Evolutions, Book 3 by Denise Tompkins

business?” he demanded.
    “No, but we need to talk about what’s really going on here. I don’t ever want this to come between us, Hellion, and it feels like it’s still there, hanging on to you like some wraith.”
    He turned to me very slowly, and he couldn’t have turned any paler than if I’d kneed him in the balls.  
    “What did you just say?” His voice was little more than a whisper.
    “Which part?”
    He moved to lean his ass against one of the bathroom counters, scrubbing his hands over his face. Without a word, he reached out, took my hand and led me back into the bedroom, folded the covers back and gestured for me to get in.  
    “You’ve threatened to walk out on me twice tonight, so you first.”
    “Stubborn wench,” he muttered, but climbed in.
    “Bull-headed Irishman,” I countered and accepted his help up into the tall bed.
    “I suppose we’re both right then.”
    “Har, har.”  
    Hellion shifted pillows around until we were propped up side by side and he took my hand in his, lacing our fingers together with care. He used his free hand to better settle the covers around us. When he began to straighten the duvet, I nearly popped a major vein.
    “Enough. Jeez, Hellion.” I flipped the covers back and scrambled to my knees to face him. “What did I say that freaked you out so bad?”
    “Sit,” he commanded.
    “Would you like me to speak too? Woof.”
    “Damn it all to hell, Maddy! Give me a bit of a handout, would you?” He yanked his hair off his face and reaching for one of the seemingly hundreds of leather thongs that he was forever taking off and setting down around the house. He moved as if punishing himself, tying it back tightly as he answered my question. “What I said earlier is true. I’m not afraid of Micah. But I’m afraid of what he represents. You need to understand something about the Nephilim, Maddy.”
    “What are Nephilim?”
    “They were all angels in Shamayim, and they were thrown, or thrust, out for some indiscretion. They truly can’t say. To declare to others what should only be confessed to Yahweh is called asur , or forbidden.” He shifted to face me, so solemn.  
    Kissing him gently seemed the only answer I could provide, so I did.
    He rewarded me with a fleeting smile. “When Nephilim are thrust out of Shamayim for whatever indiscretion they commit, and I understand it must be significant, they’re sent to Earth to live among mortals and earn their forgiveness and redemption in order to be allowed to return. As immortals, they can be stuck here as long as is necessary to appease Yahweh. That’s nearly all that’s known about them, whether you search religious texts, formal mythology or urban fantasy.  
    “Nephilim are the most secretive of all the supernatural creatures on this plane of existence. They don’t participate in the world’s High Councils, they don’t interact with other immortals and, to the best of my knowledge, they don’t reach out to form relationships with other supes.” He gave me a second small smile. “You might catch them with a woman now and again, but even that’s rare.”
    I settled back and knelt beside him, my nakedness forgotten. “So what’s so scary about this secretive group? Do they have special abilities or heightened senses that pose a threat? I don’t get what freaked you out so bad.”
    Small lines of tension had formed around Hellion’s eyes, made all the deeper by the shadows cast from the lamplight. I reached out to smooth them, but he moved his head, shaking it slightly. “That night…” He paused, closing his eyes and taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly before continuing. “That night, a member of the Nephilim opened the door to the room. He assessed the situation and decided to leave me.”
    “He left you there?” Ignoring the discomfort, I twisted to face him.  
    “You don’t remember Agares’s initial threat to me? That he would peel the flesh from me in strips if I