The Devil in Disguise

by Maya Daniels

  “You didn’t do anything to regret.” Keeping my voice casual, I glance at Raphael.

  He is sitting across from me on the floor, pushing the last couple of bites he has left around his plate. I don’t need to hear it to know how he is feeling. The expression on his face and the shattered look in his yellow eyes tells me everything. He is disturbed because of the way they made him feel in the trap. I felt the same when I thought I’d have to fight Michael. Standing against anything to do with Heaven didn’t sit well with me. I think something inside me died that day in the Sanctuary when Michael told me I shouldn’t have been alive. I kept my life, yes, but something fundamental changed inside of me that night.

  “I know, Helena.” Raphael smiles sadly. “It doesn’t mean that what is happening is not bothering me a great deal. This should not have happened…none of it.”

  “Funny you say that.” At his raised eyebrow, I shake my head, “I was telling Eric that we act like we have a choice in things, yet no matter what happens, it seems like the choices have been made for us a long time ago. Whoever is pulling the strings had this all planned out to the smallest detail.” Raphael turns his full attention on me at that. “I told him that I will not play their games anymore. I have a theory, but it might be just grasping for straws at this point.”

  We are talking quietly, all of us sitting in a group at one corner of the room. Even Eric turns his brooding intent gaze on me when I speak those words. I can feel their eyes like a weight on my chest. Should I keep my mouth shut or voice my thoughts and get all of us killed with my assumptions? Regardless that I’ve had a few lucky guesses, I can’t be sure that I’m right. As always, Eric can feel me faltering through the bond, and he comes to sit next to me.

  “Tell us what is going on through that pretty head of yours, Hel.” Eric still feels closed off, but he takes my hand between two of his. “None of us are your responsibility. We are all capable of making up our own minds and either agreeing or disagreeing with your ideas. As things stand right now, we are backed into a corner. Something has to be done.” A buzz of agreements comes from all of them, but I still hesitate. I have too many souls on my conscious already, how many more can I take before I lose myself completely?

  “Eric is right.” Raphael nods slowly. “With Michael and Lucifer missing, the portals are not stable and are opening left and right, sometimes at random. The realms are merging and barely perceptive, but you can feel the rips in the fabric of life if you pay close enough attention.” The fallen, Colt and Eric all nod at that, my stomach tightening at the solemn look on their faces. “It might’ve started with Mammon being his usual self, but this…this is past anything he could’ve planned or expected. He was being a pawn like the rest of us, although I’m not sure he knows it yet.”

  “I’m a big guy, Hel.” George clenches his jaw, acting like he is not side-eyeing everyone warily. “I can make up my mind on what to do. But I need to do something. Running and hiding is not helping anyone, it’s just delaying the day we all meet our end. We were born for this…” His hands are white knuckled in his lap. “You, too, because I don’t give a shit what any of them say. You are a hunter, Hel, and one of the best damn hunters Heaven has ever seen, whether they want to admit it or not.” He glares at Raphael, daring him to say something, but the Archangel simply nods, and tears prickle my eyes. “We are hunters, and it is our duty to protect humankind. From demons, yes, but angels too, especially if they are a threat. These jinns that are wreaking chaos are not even on the list of things I will hesitate to kill.”

  “They have enough of my blood to open tons of portals everywhere. In this very building, they took enough to last them a lifetime, if you remember.” Raphael closes his eyes, and Eric growls low in his chest, but I didn’t say that to remind them of my misery. “The jinn don’t just have Michael and Lucifer.” Blowing out a breath through puffed out cheeks, I pull my hand away from Eric and, spearing my fingers in my hair, I yank on it to clear the swirling thoughts. “My parents are missing too, from what we know. That’s what I don’t understand. Are they just collecting the most powerful entities? And if that’s the case, why are Beelzebub, Leviathan, and Raphael still here? Why is Mammon running around unchecked and Lilith is not getting involved? Didn’t you say you fought Gabriel in Heaven?” I stab a finger at Raphael. The more I talk, the more I feel like screaming in frustration. “Everything seems random, and it doesn’t make any sense.”

  I told Raphael, George, Cass, Maddison, and Eric, since he was unconscious for some of it, everything that happened. Eric filled Maddison in on what she missed while we were dealing with the jinn impersonating her as well. So now it’s in the open that they are sitting with the daughter of Satan himself, but none of them has left so far. I guess that’s a good thing. George’s speech about me being a hunter was for that reason, I think. I’m grateful to him, but it still doesn’t make me feel better. I’ve worked myself up into a frenzy, and the ground shudders under us.

  “Hel, breathe.” Eric grabs my face between his palms, forcing me to focus on him. “Tell me what you are thinking. What do you think you should do?” He is back in his human form and the dark green of his eyes pulls me back from the anger and panic.

  “She is much stronger than when I last saw her,” Maddison says, speaking for the first time since she told us to eat when the food was brought over. “It takes a long time to develop dormant or suppressed powers.”

  “That’s another thing, too.” Pulling out my dagger, I twirl it in my hand. “Ever since I got the weapon, things started developing faster. Why on earth did a jinn give me this?”

  “Because they don’t want you dead.” We all look at Maddison when she drops the bomb. “What? Are you all daft? I don’t think even Satanael and Zadkiel knew what she was going to become. You, Helena, were given the weapon because they needed your powers to manifest. I’m not sure they knew how fast that will happen, maybe they thought they’ll have you in their clutches by then. Whatever the jinn are planning, you are the key to it. A patient zero if you will.”

  “And now they have a carbon copy of me walking the streets.” My heart is thumping so hard against my ribs, it’s painful.

  “You are not helping.” Eric snarls at Maddison, pulling me into his lap.

  On the bright side, it looks like he doesn’t remember that he is upset with me for risking my life to save Leviathan. Her face when she gives me a satisfied, pointed look tells me that was her intention. Even in my panic, I can’t stop my lips from twitching at how smart the woman is. It’s little unnerving to think she can be a worse enemy than the jinn if she decides she wants to rule the realms.

  Wiggling a little to get more comfortable in Eric’s arms, I soak up his nearness. Surrounded by his body and scent, I am more centered and less freaked out. Running my hands over his muscled arms, I lean my head on his shoulder, trying to find the courage I need so I can say what is in my head. But I don’t look at any of them, instead focusing on the floor.

  “I keep thinking about every time I have been in the presence of a jinn pretending they are someone I know.” Closing my eyes, I recall all instances, shivering involuntarily. “Out of all of them, the time when Eric was hurt is nagging at me the most.” Eric stiffens, but I kiss his neck to show him I don’t mean it the way he thinks. “Not because my mate was hurt, although that is a large part of it. The energy that they emit in order to trick us into believing they are who we actually see was off. I didn’t think about it at the time, but Colt pointed it out. Leviathan confirmed it when he joined us before we had to fight Mammon and his horde to get out of Hell. They mimic what they think we are aware of. In the case of Lucifer, the jinn was bursting with seductive power, thinking that is how I felt it the first time I saw Eric’s father. It was not, because Lucifer’s powers were like I’ve touched a live wire when I met him. Same with Leviathan, the dragon hurt Eric but didn’t make me feel like my body was burning and my skin was melting off my bones.”

  “Wha
t are you saying, Helena?” Maddison looks like she is trying to read my mind, her gaze so intent I can only glance at her and close my eyes again.

  “I think they’ve been studying us for a while, way before any of this actually started. Not just our powers, or our physical appearance, but us. Watching and learning so they can replace us with one of themselves for whatever agenda they are trying to achieve. And then their plans got twerked. Now they seem like they are running out of time, and they are making mistakes. Or, so I think.”

  “Twerked how?” I tilt my head at Raphael’s question so I can see him.

  “Hector.” A lump as big as a tennis ball forms in my throat, and I have to clear it twice. “I’m not sure what he knew or how I just know with everything in me that the reason he went looking for Eric specifically was because of it.”

  All of them burst into a heated conversation, spitting insults and arguing that the Order is power hungry and working against the reason it was created in the first place. My hunter friends get vocal, defending what we as hunters stand for. All of it is a distant buzz because Maddison is watching me like she finally sees me for the first time. I look back, not hiding from her penetrating stare. It’s like she enters my mind and my body with ghostly fingers, poking and prodding without being invasive. I would’ve let her even if she was. Raphael and Eric were right. We are backed into a corner, and we either find a way out, or we are all screwed.

  Everyone is now gathered around us.

  “Silence!” Maddison didn’t even raise her voice, but everyone snaps their mouth shut like someone presses the mute button on a remote control. “Go on.” She nods at me.

  Pursing my lips, I deflate like a popped balloon. I’m going to say my peace and they’ll either laugh and call me crazy, or they’ll think I’m narcissistic and leave my self-centered ass to deal with everything on my own. You are backed into a corner, Hel. You can do this, and you have Eric, I tell myself sternly because no matter what I know, I can always count on monster boy. He will stick by me through thick and thin, just like I would do for him. There is no doubt in my mind on that. He kisses the top of my head in encouragement, and the steady beat of his heart under my cheek is enough for me to speak.

  “I thought it all started when the rogue demon raked its nails on my arm, taking my blood. Knowing what I know now, it started before that. Hector looked for Eric, hiring him to kill me before any of that happened. I think it was first because he knew something was coming, and second because he hoped that Eric would not be able to do it. I can’t say for certain, even after Hector told us it was his plan all along.” The entire room is deathly silent, prickling my nerves, but I push through my discomfort. “The feeling I have inside me, the one I call GPS for lack of a better word, started getting stronger and more persistent a month or two before Hector spoke to Eric. I never said anything, but the man who raised me knew me better than I know myself. I have no doubt he was aware something was up. So, he took matters into his own hands in hopes to protect me. As much as I want to be angry and hate him for what he did, that’s one thing that Hector has always done. He has protected me to the best of his ability.” Twisting my fingers in my lap, I look at all the faces around me. “I think that his actions are what pushed the jinn to start acting in a rush. Things were getting worse, yes, but not at this alarming rate. That night I met Eric is when, out of nowhere, Michael showed up at the Order wanting to kill me. It’s just too much of a coincidence for me to not see it as a turning point. Because my parents were already missing at that time. I have no doubt jinn were planted in the Order, and at the same time others were out making deals with Mammon. The only thing missing was the human realm, and I think they want me so they’ll have control of all three. I just have no idea how they are planning to use me.”

  You can hear a pin drop.

  “I will eat their face!” Narsi bursts into a hiss from behind me, and I almost jump out of my skin.

  Eric swats the Trowe like a pesky fly and my sidekick bumps into the feet of those standing around us. If he didn’t scare the crap out of me, I would’ve felt sorry for him. The creepy creature has the worst timing ever for everything he does. It’s almost as if he is doing it on purpose.

  “I agree,” Raphael and Maddison say at the same time, and Leviathan snarls at the Archangel.

  My eyebrows hit my hairline at the aggressive reaction from the fallen. It’s not like Raphael argued with her. Maybe we are all just strung up tight and acting like everyone is against us. Oh, wait, they are.

  “It makes a weird kind of sense,” George says reluctantly, Cass nodding her head next to him like she can’t stop it from moving.

  If anyone understands what I was trying to say about Hector, it’s my team. They grew up around the man as well, and they know how collected, kind, and protective he is. Hiring a hit on my head notwithstanding.

  “We still have no plan on how to deal with this.” Colt pushes the words angrily through clenched teeth.

  “What? You don’t like it when others are fucking with your life, brother?” Eric mocks him from behind me, and I elbow him in the gut.

  “Really guys, now is so not the time for the two of you to go at it. Let’s come up with a plan, and after that, you two can try to kill each other.” Glaring at both of them, I pick up the dagger, waving it around. “Or I can stab you both, which might be faster.”

  “Now you know why I like her.” Beelzebub slaps Raphael on the shoulder so hard he almost topples on the floor.

  “Anyway…” Raising my voice to shut them up because I’m not Maddison and they don’t take me as seriously, I continue. “What I’m saying is, I think Hector twerked their plans and the jinn felt the need to move faster. That’s why we are seeing all the discrepancies and can keep up with them somewhat. But, even knowing what we know, they are always one step ahead. I think that’s because they anticipate everything we do since we all act and react as expected. If we want to get a handle on the situation, we must act unpredictably. Or unlike ourselves. However you want to put it.”

  “Okay, what do we do?” George is first to jump on my crazy plan train.

  “Hey!” Lifting both hands up, one still holding the dagger, makes everyone flinch back. Twisting my mouth, I put it in my lap, intentionally slow, and all the men glare at me. I ignore them. “That’s all I got as far as plans go. I’m not a strategic mastermind here. Give me a target, and I’ll kick its ass, I can’t come up with detailed instructions on what we should do. I’m a spur of the moment kinda girl.”

  “For a start, we have Lauren detained and ready for questioning.” Maddison lifts up, straightening invisible wrinkles on her expensive clothing while the rest of us look like shipwreck victims.

  At least we ate, and no one is trying to kill us here. There is always a silver lining if you look hard enough.

  “I’ll question her.” Just the sound of Eric’s voice can tell a deaf person why he shouldn’t be the one doing any questioning.

  “I think I can handle it, cousin.” Sarcasm is dripping like molasses from Maddison.

  I want to be like her when I grow up. I might have a girl crush watching her with admiration as she swings her hips, leaving the room like a Queen after gracing the peasants with her presence. Why can’t I shut them up like she does? Is it a power of hers that does that? Because if it is, I want it! I see the fallen, the Archangel, George, and Colt watching me suspiciously, and I grin at them. Okay, I bare my teeth, but it does the trick, making their eyes turn to slits. I don’t have to see Eric’s face to know it’s the same, I can feel him at the back of my head.

  “Whatever it is that you are thinking, she-devil, don’t do it,” Colt says, obviously on team testosterone.

  “I’m not thinking anything.” Blinking innocently at him doesn’t make any of them change their facial expression.

  They watch me for a long moment, but eventually turn and start talking to each other. All humor leaves me, and I slump back in Eric’s arms. I seriously expec
ted them to call me crazy when I tell them what’s been going through my head. Everything feels farfetched and based on guesses, but after saying it out loud, it only firms up my belief. I recall meeting Lauren earlier as well. We’ve never spoken directly and kept away from each other. Also, she’s only seen me at times when I was freaked out because my world fell apart. Acting unlike my usual self made her believe I’m my doppelganger. Can it really be that simple?

  “If Maddison gets good intel on the jinn, I think I want to infiltrate their group.” A squeak is ripped from me when Eric’s arms tighten painfully around me. “Just hear me out, please.”

  “Let her speak, Shadow.” Beelzebub scowls at Eric.

  “Last time you said that, my mate was on Leviathan’s back, fighting off a horde of jinn,” Eric snarls.

  “Well, technically it was one jinn,” I add helpfully, making Leviathan snort and shake his head. “What? It was only one. And you are welcome.”

  “The only people the jinn are impersonating without being missing is you and Maddison.” Eric grinds through a clenched jaw. “You are not going, and that is final.”

  “Unless you want me dead, I don’t see what else we can do, Eric.” Raphael’s mouth moves, surely readying himself to add something that will not help me, so I keep talking. “I’m tired of running, fighting, and always looking over my shoulder. If we are to do something unpredictable, I can’t think of anything more drastic than that. They’ll never think I’m crazy enough to just waltz in between them.”