Versus

by Nick Freo

  “I’m sensing that bad choices make your ring go black,” Cara said, twirling her hair around her finger.

  “Or exciting, adventurous decisions,” Lilah countered, tossing the pan into the sink.

  “I don’t think either of those is right.” I twisted the ring on my finger. “The third time it changed was when I was with Cara last night. This morning, it was a lighter shade of gray. It was almost the same shade as when I first put it on. This makes me think that it indicates my alignment. When I’m closer to the demon side, it becomes darker. When I’m closer to the angel side, it becomes lighter. This gray shade that it is now—it makes me think that I must be close to neutral now.”

  “You do have more of an old baby powder smell at the moment,” Lilah said. “That usually reminds me of angels and old grandmas, but mixed with your scent and demonflesh, it’s not too bad.”

  Cara’s forehead furrowed. “I don’t smell baby powder on him at all.”

  Lilah took a couple of steps over to Cara and sniffed her. “Oh. Never mind, Kyle. It’s just Cara. Thank Belial, I thought I was getting too accustomed to that angel stink.”

  “Excuse me?” Cara blurted, her hand ripping away from her hair. “I stink? You’re a demon. You smell like sulfur that’s been trapped in a wolverine’s intestine after it consumed—”

  “That’s enough,” I cut in. “So, you both agree I’m equally aligned with both sides now?”

  Cara nodded. She had broken off a few strands of her hair during the rant. She twisted it around her finger as she glowered at Lilah as if she were strangling the demon with it.

  “Yeah,” Lilah said. “I don’t get a sense that your time with Cara pulled you over into the ass-kissing side. You’re safe.”

  I took another cruller out of the bag. I bit into it as Lilah grabbed the bag from me. She took the eclair, shoving half of it in her mouth before she began chewing. Apparently, she hadn’t been lying when she said she didn’t have a gag reflex.

  “Cara, the witch coven treated you impartially because you’re an angel, right?” I asked. She nodded, her body slowly relaxing.

  “Yes. Since that hotel seemed to be an angel sanctuary, it’s possible they would have treated me better if I hadn’t been in the company of a demon.”

  “But I was also more demon-aligned than angel-aligned at the time.” I watched Lilah finish the eclair, sliding each of her fingers into her mouth and sucking them clean. “Now that I’m more neutral, do you think they’d be more receptive of me?”

  Cara perked up. “You’re absolutely right. They won’t see you as a threat now. With the two of us, they could see us as allies.”

  “Did you two fuck yourselves straight into stupidity?” Lilah asked. She tore the cruller from me, tossing it back into the paper bag. “Or just into memory impairment? Kyle just barely mentioned Serena Foster’s name, and they tried to beat him to death. Considering what we heard from Stephos, Serena is wanted dead by someone in the Celestial Court. You know who fucks with the Celestial Court? Nobody smart. You know what kind of people the Celestial Court wants dead? People who should be dead. And if that coven is involved with Serena Foster, then they could be in some kind of conspiracy against the Celestial Court. The Court will annihilate them. They’ll make the Salem witch trials look like a birthday party.”

  “When you were talking about Stephos and the Celestial Court before, you sounded skeptical,” I said. “I thought that you were saying that Stephos was misinformed or delusional.”

  “I said that I didn’t see why the Celestial Court would care about Serena,” she said. She threw the paper bag onto the counter. “I just meant that I didn’t see the motive behind it but it’s not my job to know motives. My job is to protect you. And before you go doubting Stephos and those demons you’re prejudiced against, I’ll remind you that he saved your life when the Dead Man was ready to kill you. What have the angels done for you? I’ll tell you: they tried to kill you.”

  “I’m not doubting anybody.” I reached toward her, but she smacked my hand away. “Lilah, I just know I need to talk to Serena. It sounds like she’s at that hotel and part of that coven. I’m willing to take the risk by going there. You aren’t shying away from a fight, are you?”

  “Do you really think that trying to lure me by bringing up violence will work?” She scowled. “I’ll come with you to the hotel, but it’s not because of your mind games. I just don’t want you to keel over because someone got you and have people blaming the bacon instead.”

  She smacked me in the chest before she started heading toward the door.

  “Lilah, you need to put more clothes on than an apron,” I said.

  “Nah.”

  I turned to Cara. She shook her head.

  “I don’t smell like baby powder,” she muttered, standing up.

  I yanked off my jacket and found Lilah at the mansion’s entrance, yanking her knee-high boots on. Cara followed behind me, grabbing her black cashmere coat from a hook near the door. I draped my jacket over Lilah’s shoulders as she stood up.

  “We don’t all have to be enemies,” I said. Lilah glanced back at Cara before looking back at me.

  “You can’t change ancient history,” she said. “Just like you can’t force a group of angel-aligned witches to not murder you.”

  I kissed her cheek. She didn’t move away from me, but, for once, her mind didn’t seem to be consumed with the idea of seducing me. Her expression was serious, like she was focused on survival.

  And that worried me.

  Chapter 16

  Lilah stood in the middle of the entrance of the hotel, wearing my jacket. It was long enough to cover her ass, but it wasn’t much better than the shirt she had been wearing before. She gestured around her.

  “Before, they couldn’t stop staring at us. Now they fuck off to somewhere else? Did they become cowards after they saw what we did to their buddies?”

  Cara ran her hands down her cashmere coat. “Kyle, if you want them to be receptive of you, we can’t bring Lilah. They’ve made it clear that they don’t like demons.”

  “Lilah is more powerful than me when it comes to magic. If we need to attack, we’ll need her.”

  “She also has a habit of going off half-cocked.”

  Lilah snorted. “I only ever get off with a full cock, thank you very much.”

  Cara glowered at me. “You think that coven is going to take it well that she’s back? I’m willing to bet they’ll tolerate you once they see that you’ve come closer to the angel side. I wouldn’t bet a penny that they’ll welcome her. She’s a demon, she attacked the angel guards, and she doesn’t know when to keep her mouth shut.”

  I turned away from her, stalling for time. I hadn’t paid much attention to the architecture or decoration of the hotel before because the employees had triggered my fight or flight response, but looking at it now, it had a modern feel without being too calculating. Most of the decorations and furniture were white, but the decorations represented various animals—hedgehogs, owls, foxes, and rabbits—and the furniture appeared cozy. And empty.

  I looked around again.

  “Where is everybody?” I asked. Lilah shrugged, leaning against the front desk.

  “If I had to guess? Taking a smoke break. Me and my buddies always used to take smoke breaks together while we worked at this human joint. It drove my boss crazy, but it would be too hard to replace all of us, so we just kept doing it until he fired us for lighting a firework in the kitchen. The man had no sense of spontaneity.”

  “You’re unbelievable,” Cara said. “Do you ever feel any shame or regret? Somebody could have gotten hurt. You’re an—”

  “Both of you, shut up,” I said. “I mean it—where is everybody? When we came in and when we left last time, this area was filled with employees. There’s no one here, no employees, no guests. Where is everybody?”

  Lilah stood up straight, looking around. Cara checked the north and southwest hallway. She returned to the entra
nce, shaking her head.

  “Well,” Lilah said, clapping her hands together. “Let’s burn it all to the ground while they’re not here.”

  “What is your problem?” Cara snapped.

  “Angels. I thought I was being pretty clear on that. I’ll be more explicit next time.”

  “Cara, do you still have the keycard to the elevator?” I asked. She shook her head.

  “It was in the other clothes I was wearing. This dress doesn’t have pockets.”

  I walked over to the front desk. I lifted myself up and over it, sliding down onto the other side. There were a lot of computers, printers, and small machines, but I didn’t see an elevator keycard.

  Lilah strode over to the other side of the desk and watched me. “Stumped?”

  “Why?” I asked, spreading the papers to see if there was anything between them. Nothing. “Do you know where the elevator keycard is? Do you have a brilliant plan?”

  “Well…” she drawled. “We could try burning the door down. It might end up burning the whole hotel down, but we’d be killing two birds with one stone.”

  I shook my head. I looked down. There were white papers covering a white desk next to white laptops, white pens, and large white flower pot shaped like a dove. Even the flowers were white.

  “Hey, Cara,” Lilah called. “What are these flowers called?”

  Cara walked up to the front desk. “Is this going to turn into a sex joke?”

  “I mean, it will turn into a sex joke if they’re called Angel’s twat.” Lilah snapped her fingers. “That’s it. Angel’s trumpets. I was thinking of the wrong sex organs.”

  “I didn’t expect you to know about flowers, Lilah,” I said.

  “I don’t. I know about poisons and these things will kill you. It can also make you hallucinate, but it won’t be as fun as MDMA. In fact, it will suck.”

  The flower pot’s wings had small circles of blue drawn on them—almost like what happened when Cara or I were using our healing powers. I touched the wing. The blue circles streaked toward the front of the vase. The beak opened. I looked inside it. Nothing.

  “The keycards must be in the vase somehow,” I said. “Maybe I have to use healing powers to get it to open. If—”

  Lilah grabbed the vase and dropped it. The ceramic shattered on the floor. I looked over the edge of the front desk. Six keycards had spread out on the porcelain floor. She picked it up.

  “Ta-da,” she said. I jumped back over the front desk, taking it from her.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  “You were the one who knew it was in the vase.” She leaned up against me, her hand sliding down my thigh. “Sexy and smart.”

  “I just saw the blue circles, and it reminded me of angel healing powers,” I said.

  She shrugged. “Sexy and incredibly lucky.”

  “I don’t think I’d categorize what’s happened to me as lucky.”

  She smacked my ass. “Just sexy then. Let’s go. I’m ready to scorch this place.”

  “What about the broken ceramic?” Cara asked as Lilah and I walked toward the elevator.

  “You can clean it up if you want,” Lilah said, pressing the elevator button. “We’ll be busy talking to the coven and torturing them into giving us answers.”

  “There’s not going to be any torture,” I said. The elevator doors opened.

  “We’ll talk about it in the elevator.”

  “I’m not leaving you two alone,” Cara said, following us inside the elevator.

  I stood in the center of the elevator again while Cara took the left side and Lilah took the right side. I showed the eye the keycard. It beeped three times before staggering downward.

  -1, -2, -3, -4, -5.

  “I’m gonna be bummed if everyone ditched this hotel just because we gave them a great fight,” Lilah said, leaning against the elevator wall. “Imagine if the apocalypse does happen and the angels just hide the whole time. It’s going to be such a letdown. They’re such sore losers.”

  -6, -7, -8, -9, -10.

  “You set them on fire,” Cara snapped.

  -11, -12, -13, -14.

  “I could have done a lot more,” Lilah shrugged. “I’m a demon, remember? Torture is our thing.”

  I closed my eyes, flexing my hand. One side of me wanted to test my strength, to see how far I could push my hellfire powers. The other half of me knew that being power-hungry only led to pain and death.

  The elevator jerked to a stop. I took a deep breath as the doors opened.

  The scent of rusting iron swept into the elevator. On the thirtieth underground floor, red seemed to pulse from the hallway walls. Several seconds passed by before I realized it was ripples and spatters of blood, distorting how the hallway appeared. On the floor in front of us, an arm stretched toward the elevator. Just an arm. The rest of the body was sitting up against a wall, the angel guard’s eyes blankly staring at his comrade, who had three long slices in his chest and an empty eye socket. Farther down the hall, the next closest body was covered in blood. His scalp sat on his lap. In the distance, there was another body with his decapitated head near his feet.

  Cara covered her mouth. Lilah grabbed my arm.

  “We need to be careful,” she said. “For all we know, one of these guards is faking their death.”

  “They’re dead, Lilah,” I said. She gritted her teeth.

  “We still need to be careful. I’ll mock angels all day, but they’re notoriously good at military strategy.”

  Lilah stepped out of the elevator. She tried to avoid the blood, but it streamed across the hallway like tributaries. I followed carefully behind her, matching her movements, so I could keep my eyes up. I wasn’t going to let anything else surprise me.

  “What do you think happened here?” Cara murmured.

  “I bet the coven decided they no longer trusted the guards,” Lilah said. “Were you paying attention when they talked to you? They were willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. That doesn’t mean that they trusted you.”

  Cara was silent for several seconds, but I couldn’t risk looking backward. I watched every guard we came close to, but they were all mutilated to the point that it would have been impossible for them to survive for more than a few minutes.

  “Did I do this?” Cara asked, the slightest tremble in her voice. “Did they see me with a demon and decide angels weren’t trustworthy?”

  “No.” I continued moving forward. We were approaching a large metal door. “If this is the coven’s fault, we’ll deal with them soon enough.”

  The metal door had the angel trumpets carved into it, one of them curving outward to form a handle. Lilah pulled on it. It didn’t budge.

  “I don’t think I can drop this one on the floor and break it,” Lilah said.

  I pressed my palm against the angel trumpets. I concentrated on what it felt like to use my angel healing powers. Instead of seeing inside a body, I saw the inside of the door—all of the mechanics, the nuts, and bolts—and they all began to move. The sound of metal scraping against metal filled the hallway. The image of the inside of the door began to fade. I took a step back, and the door started rising up.

  The smell of acrid iron worsened and blood pulsed in my vision again. I didn’t need to count the bodies to know there were seven of them, and they were all women.

  “Motherfucker,” Lilah muttered. After I took a few breaths, I smelled a sweet, smoky incense. They must have been in the process of doing some kind of ritual.

  “They’re all naked,” Cara whispered. “Why?”

  I grimaced. There were burn marks on various sections of the walls and some of the bodies had melted or deformed skin caused by deep burns. It wasn’t looking good. It was looking downright shitty.

  Cara burst forward, shoving Lilah. “This wasn’t the witches at all. It was your sociopathic demon buddies!”

  Lilah’s eyes were wide. Her hand gestured to her left, but there was nothing there. “I…I don’t understand this.” />
  “It’s easy. Demons are evil, selfish bastards,” Cara snarled. “Just look at yourself in the mirror.”

  Lilah shook her head. “This violates all celestial protocol. Demons aren’t this brutal, except in war. We’ve thrived on earth because we can act like humans do. We wouldn’t…we’re not—”

  “Remorseless murderers?” Cara was nearly shrieking. “Because all these dead witches and angels would like to have a word with you—and when I say that, I mean they’d like to, but they can’t because they were murdered by degenerate demons.”

  “We’re not degenerates. If we were this bad, I would have killed you—”

  “Stop,” I cut in. Lilah made a sound of disbelief.

  “Come on, Kyle. I may be a bitch, but if you think I’d ever do anything like this, then you can go straight to Heaven and prostrate for those self-righteous assholes.”

  “I wasn’t interrupting over that.” I indicated to the southeast corner. “Something’s over there.”

  The room wasn’t well-lit. While the hallway was steel with several lights, this room appeared like an underground mine. There were a few lights, but the corners were mostly shadows. And one of the shadows flickered.

  Lilah molded a flame in her palm. I grabbed her wrist and shook my head at her. I took a couple of steps toward the corner. The shadows shed away from the movement. A woman with red hair, her naked body pale in a pool of blood, was staring at me as her fingers barely wavered. It looked like her wrist was broken.

  I kneeled beside her. She gave me a weak smile. The blood poured out of two wounds near her abdomen. I set my hand above it, the blood slippery and warm against my palm. I focused on the chill and arctic blue orbs. The arctic blue orbs hovered above my hand. As the orbs began to sink down into her body, a surge of heat slammed in my chest. The wounds remained open. I looked up at Cara. She kneeled down beside me.

  “You may have a neutral alignment, but it’s possible that being half aligned to demons is still too much to heal a pure heavenly-aligned witch.”