The man lifted his gaze to hers, green spreading through the violet of his irises, and his silvery eyebrows furrowed. His cracked lips parted and he looked so filled with despair and suffering that for a moment she forgot what he had done to her and tried to do to Asmodeus.
She edged a step closer and Remus came to her, nudging her back, away from the man. Liora petted the big black hellhound to reassure him, rested her cheek against his thick neck, and then wrapped her arm around him for support. She moved forwards again, closing in on the cage, Remus acting as her crutch once again.
The man’s eyes turned violet and he snarled as he launched himself at the bars, rattling the cage. He smashed his fists against them one moment and clawed at her through them the next, growling and glaring at her, his aura filled with darkness and infinite rage.
Romulus bared his black fangs and growled.
The man swiped at her again and then collapsed, leaning against the bars with his forehead pressed hard against one of them. He breathed heavily and muttered things to himself, things that sounded sinister and she didn’t understand. A demon language.
His shoulders shook and he laughed, and then his face screwed up and he curled clawed fingers around the bars and looked at her with eyes flooded with fear and sorrow. She could feel the emotions emanating from him. They were strong, violent, clashing with each other and driving him between fury and despair.
His gaze flickered beyond her, towards the end of the beach where the others were, and flashed violet again. He snarled and grasped the bars, pulling and straining in an attempt to bend them, desperation etched on his face.
She didn’t need to look to see who had the focus of his attention and his rage.
Asmodeus.
He still wanted to kill him.
Why?
Liora leaned on Remus and studied the man in the cage. A lost soul. She wanted to hate him but couldn’t help feeling sorry for him.
His eyes darted back and he stared at her. A familiar sensation went through her and she frowned at him.
“You were the one watching me,” she whispered, not expecting him to respond. Whatever had happened to him, he was beyond speech right now, lost in his emotions and his pain, drowning in despair.
She wanted to be angry with him, both for what he had tried to do to Asmodeus and what he had done to her. He had kidnapped her from this island. He had handed her over to the Devil. He had almost killed her.
She wanted it, but she found herself pitying him as she watched him talking to himself and shaking all over, feverish and delirious.
His eyes went back to Asmodeus and he attacked the cage again, clawing the air in his direction, snarling and growling.
Romulus growled back at him and he quieted again, shrinking back into the cage, as far as he could get from the hellhound. The man huddled into the corner there, his arms wrapped around his knees.
Liora released Remus and kneeled in the sand a few feet from the cage and the man, keeping herself beyond his reach.
He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, his irises jade again but shot through with black and purple.
“Did Asmodeus have anything to do with your condition?” she said, not believing he would understand her in his current state, but needing to ask him anyway.
“Die!” The man hurled himself at the cage and shot his arms between the bars, clawing at her.
Wind blasted against her and Asmodeus was beside her. He drew his leg back and she saw his intention to kick the cage.
“No,” Liora snapped and held her arm out, stopping him from striking the man.
He lowered his leg, turned to her, and held his hand out for her to take. She slipped hers into it and he pulled her into his arms, holding her close to him. Liora allowed herself a few seconds in which she pressed her ear to his chest, listened to his heart beating strong, and savoured how good it felt to be in his arms again.
She pushed her hands against his chest to make him release her and he frowned down at her, tightening his grip at the same time.
Liora looked up into his golden eyes and resisted her desire to brush her fingers through the wild black lengths of his hair, feeling its softness beneath their tips, and step back into the shelter of his embrace.
She couldn’t. She had to ask him something and she knew that when she did, the gentle caring man before her would disappear and he would distance himself. She could understand why even as she didn’t want him to do it. He would want to protect himself. He would think she was out to hurt him.
She wasn’t but she had to know.
“Asmodeus… did you have anything to do with this man’s suffering?”
His eyes turned cold, his anger rising in them and in his power on her senses. She swallowed hard and held her ground, refusing to let his icy glare or his feelings scare her away from finding out why this man had been following her, why he had handed her to the Devil, and why he wanted to kill Asmodeus.
Something told her they were all connected to something Asmodeus had done to him.
He wanted revenge.
Asmodeus released her and stepped back, placing a small distance between them that felt vast, frigid, and impassable.
He shifted his cruel gaze to the man. “Nevar is addicted to Euphoria and in withdrawal.”
Euphoria. She had heard of it a few years ago, during research she had been conducting on a small group of demons in London. It was the name for a drink made of alcohol and a drop of demon toxin. When combined with a demon’s blood and given to a mortal, it would give the mortal a serious high in which they had zero inhibitions, and would also give the demon control over them, a free pass to do whatever they wanted with the drugged mortal.
This man before her wasn’t mortal though.
“He’s an angel, isn’t he?” Liora looked down at him. “He doesn’t look like an angel should… Euphoria isn’t responsible for his darkness and appearance, or all of his suffering.”
He locked his pale green eyes on her and Asmodeus growled. The man snarled back, purple obliterating the green in his irises again.
Nevar.
She had heard that name before. Amelia had mentioned him when they had first come to the island. She had told the others not to trust Asmodeus because of something he had done to Nevar. Liora stared at the male in the cage and knew that Asmodeus was responsible for his plight even when she didn’t want to believe it.
Liora turned back to Asmodeus and squared her shoulders.
“I will not ask again. Did you do this to him?”
Asmodeus averted his gaze and it was all the answer she needed.
“Why?” she said softly, her shoulders slumping, and her eyes wandered back to the man in the cage. An angel with terrible evil within him, far stronger than what she had felt in Asmodeus when they had first met. He was lost to it, revelling in the darkness within even as it tormented him.
“I have no reason. No excuse,” Asmodeus said and she felt his gaze return to her, and knew he wanted her to look at him with forgiveness and understanding. She couldn’t right now. He had done something terrible to this man and it had resulted in her being pulled into his vendetta and into danger. Asmodeus heaved a sigh. “I only gave the darkness within him a push. He was already different to others. He would have become this sooner or later.”
Liora turned on him. “You can’t know that. There’s darkness and light in all of us and many maintain the balance. Why did you do it?”
Asmodeus tipped his head back and jammed his hands into the pockets of his long black linen trousers, the action causing the muscles of his bare torso to tighten and distract her for a second. She shoved her desire to the back of her mind, bringing her focus back to what Asmodeus had done to the man in the cage. Nevar.
“I wanted to use Nevar to shake Heaven. He refused my orders and fought me.”
“You forced Nevar’s darkness to take hold of him, condemning him to suffer as the evil within him grew, because you wanted to shake Heaven?�
� She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
She took a step backwards, away from him, and he dropped his gaze and reached for her, a pleading look flittering across his face before he got the better of himself and scowled at her. She didn’t want to hurt him, but she was finding it hard to take in what he had done and overcome it.
Asmodeus lowered his hand to his side.
“It was a selfish and cruel thing you did… and I can’t blame this man for wanting vengeance.” Liora turned her back on him and crouched near the cage, eye-level with Nevar. The man watched her closely, a flicker of wariness in his eyes, as if he expected her to lash out at him. “Look at what you’ve done to this soul, Asmodeus. Are you proud of yourself?”
She glanced over her shoulder at him.
Asmodeus stared at Nevar.
“No.” He looked away again, gazing at the ocean to his left.
Liora reached towards the bars.
“Do not do that!” Asmodeus was beside her in a heartbeat, grabbing her shoulder and pulling her back.
She shrugged free and ignored him, bravely reaching through the bars with her right hand. She laid her palm on Nevar’s damp pale cheek, feeling him trembling and how fiercely the fever gripped him. Nevar lowered his head and closed his eyes.
Liora sighed.
“Are you pleased with your work, Asmodeus?” she whispered and stroked Nevar’s cheek, focusing on her fingertips and her magic, letting it flow from her and into him. She couldn’t heal him, not when his suffering stemmed from an addiction, but she could soothe his fever and hopefully take away his deliriousness. “You destroyed this man and made him into a monster.”
Liora looked up at Asmodeus where he stood over her, pain shining in his eyes, combining with the fear she could feel growing within his power, flowing around her.
“I never believed you capable of such cruelty and evil, but perhaps the others are right and there is no good in you.” Liora felt horrible the moment the words left her lips because she knew there was more good in him now than when they had met, and she knew he was trying to be good and grasp how people behaved in her world.
Asmodeus’s eyes verged on red, a warning of the anger and hurt she could feel rising within him like a tide. Tears lined his lashes and he gritted his teeth, his jaw muscles tensing in response, and his nostrils flared.
“There is… I swear it, Liora,” he bit out and clenched his fists at his sides. “Do not listen to them. I did this… but I was a different man. You changed me. If I could undo what I have done… I would.”
Liora took her hand away from Nevar’s face, stood and took a step towards Asmodeus.
His expression turned wild and dangerous, and he spread his enormous black-feathered wings, blocking her way.
“I will not let you leave me.” He ground the words out, his voice thick with pain and emotion but dark with anger and commanding too. She wanted to tell him that she hadn’t intended to leave him. She had only been coming to him to soothe his pain. He didn’t give her a chance to speak. He grabbed her shoulders and held her tightly, his claws pressing into her bare skin. “I have done my best to be good for you. I want to be good… but there is evil in me. It is the way I was created.”
She knew that.
“I admit that I am shocked by what you’ve done to Nevar,” she said and his grip on her arms tightened, the darkness she could feel in him growing and beginning to obliterate the good. She wasn’t out to hurt him and wasn’t going to say anything that would make him feel wretched. She only wanted to make him feel better. “But I have also seen the realm you have spent thousands of years in and met the man who is your master, and therefore I know that your behaviour is the result of your upbringing.”
He tried to pull away but she grabbed his wrists and held him fast.
“You’ve lacked friends, Asmodeus… exposure to good things and seeing how people in this world act, and how we interact with each other. Your world is nothing like mine. What you did while down there was what is acceptable and normal in that place.”
Asmodeus closed his eyes and whispered, “But not acceptable and normal in this place… not acceptable to you.”
Liora sighed. “No. I would never do the things you’ve done, but then I didn’t grow up in Hell. If I had, I probably would have done terrible things too, without thinking there was anything wrong with it… and without remorse.”
“I do regret what I did to Nevar,” he snapped and twisted his hands in hers, coming to hold her wrists as if he feared she would try to pull away from him now. “I am sorry that I did such a thing to him. You are right and it was cruel and wrong. I can see that now.”
Nevar snorted and Asmodeus growled at him, baring his fangs.
Liora felt for Asmodeus because she knew it was true. He shouldn’t have any good in him but there was some, and she could still see it, and she could see in his eyes and hear in his voice that he was sorry for what he had done. He regretted it now and wouldn’t do such a terrible thing again. It was hard for him to go against his nature but he was trying to do just that so he could be a better man.
She sighed. Her heart ached for him as she thought about everything they had been through. Asmodeus had struggled throughout it all, fighting his instincts and battling to overcome the darkness within his soul, doing his best to learn quickly about her world and how things worked here, and to accept others into his life, all so he could be a good man for her.
All so she would love him.
He didn’t need to change for that to happen. She loved him with every fibre of her being, every drop of blood in her body and every ounce of her soul.
“Liora?” Asmodeus whispered, his eyebrows furrowing. He dropped his gaze to her arms, released her and hastily brushed his fingers over her skin, over the points where his claws had dug into her. Remorse filled his eyes. “I did not mean to harm you.”
Liora caught his right wrist and shifted her hand to his, capturing it and holding it, stopping him from fussing over a few cuts that had barely stung. If anyone was hurting, it was Asmodeus, and it was because of her.
She raised her other hand to his face and cupped his jaw, and he instantly leaned into her touch, closing his eyes and sighing out his breath.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” she whispered and he looked down at her, a beautiful flicker of relief in his eyes that spoke to her heart and made her want to kiss him.
Nevar growled and Asmodeus cast him a black look. Liora turned her head, looked over her shoulder at Nevar, and then shifted to face him.
His eyes were half-purple and narrowed on Asmodeus. He bared his fangs and curled long black clawed fingers around the bars of his prison.
“We must be able to do something for him. What does he need?” She pitied the angel as he muttered things to himself, his skin paling, the effect of her magic already fading and letting the fever take hold of him again.
Asmodeus came up beside her, his right wing tickling the backs of her legs. “He needs Euphoria.”
“That won’t break his addiction though.” It would only make it worse, giving it a new, firmer grip on him.
Asmodeus stared at the angel for long, tense minutes in which Nevar growled at him, constantly flashing fangs, his steady gaze turning purple and filling with dark, violent thoughts that she could almost hear. He still wanted to kill Asmodeus.
Asmodeus would want to kill him in return if she told him what she had realised, that he was the one who had been watching her and who had taken her from him, delivering her to the Devil. She glanced up at Asmodeus, studying his noble profile. He was beautiful when lost in thought, seeking an answer that would please her.
His amber gaze slid to her and his expression softened, affection filling it and warming her. She liked it when he looked at her like that, as if she was his whole world and the only thing that mattered to him.
“It is possible he could wean himself off on normal, non-demon blood.” Asmodeus didn’t sound particularly sure but at l
east he had found a potential solution to Nevar’s terrible addiction.
“How did you awaken the darkness within him?” she said and he frowned at his feet. “I won’t be angry with you.”
“I formed a contract between us, forcibly. I spilled his blood and gave him mine, mingling them in a wound I had placed on his chest.”
Liora gazed down at Nevar. He had looked wild in the crystal room, verging on demonic, with his arms and legs covered in black skin. He had fangs like Asmodeus now. She glanced up at Asmodeus.
“Did the contract change his appearance?”
He nodded. “As the darkness within him took hold and the contract between us strengthened, his appearance altered.”
“Altered to mirror his master’s?” She held his gaze and he didn’t look away. He nodded again but it was smaller this time, speaking of the wariness she could see in his eyes. He didn’t want her to question him about this, but she needed to know. She wanted to know all of Asmodeus. The good and the bad. The angelic and the demonic. “So… there is a side of you like this?”
“My true appearance is closer to the Devil’s… I am darkness incarnate, as he is. I…” He raised his right hand with his palm facing upwards and stared at it. It began to change, his black claws growing thicker and longer, sharper. The darkness bled from them onto his skin, turning it to the colour of night, and crept up his fingers and over his hand to his wrist. Like Nevar’s hands were. Asmodeus closed his eyes and lowered his head. “I do not want you to see me like that… ever.”
“Why not?” Liora moved closer to him and touched his black hand, marvelling at how rough his claws were beneath her touch but how smooth his skin was. She had expected it to be as rough as the basalt of Hell.
“Because you would think me a monster too.” He took his hand away and she caught it before he could completely withdraw, holding it gently in both of hers.
She had called Nevar a monster. It was understandable that Asmodeus would think she would view him as the same if she saw what he had called his true appearance.
“You would think me evil.” He slipped his hand free of hers and turned his face to one side, away from her.
Her Wicked Angel Page 34