by Leia Stone
“Show me da money first,” he slurred.
I whipped out the chunk of cash and waved it before him. Greedy yellow eyes tracked it all the way back to my pocket, and I knew I had him.
With a growl, he lowered the shotgun and looked left and right down the street, before letting me inside.
By now I was starting to sweat from the daggers shredding my skin. Freaking demon energy was like acid that slowly and invisibly ate away at us. I was hoping this guy would be quick. Stepping into the entryway, I looked around the place, immediately recognizing that this wasn’t the regular Demon City shithole half the population had. This guy had expensive stuff lying around, and his floors were travertine, polished recently. He made a good living doing what he did.
“State your terms,” the demon spat, ripping off the lid of the brandy, and chugging a third of the bottle while the shotgun rested at his side.
My chest puffed out as I leaned forward. “I need you to go down to Hell and look for my fiancée. Lucifer took her. You don’t need to get her out, just tell me if she’s alive and where she is.”
I held my breath. Demons had more connections than we did down there. If anyone could get the inside word, it would be one of their own people.
Brandy sprayed from his lips. “Are you furcking shattin' me?” His words were slurring more and more, and I was afraid he’d get too shitfaced to do the job properly.
“I’m serious,” was all I said, I didn’t have the energy to say any more. This place was killing me.
Throaty laughter erupted from him as he gaped at me. “The Dark Prince took your girl, and you think I’m going to go against him and feed you information? Ohh, you better have brought a lot of money.”
A small measure of relief poured through me. “I did.” I shoved all my cash at him and watched as he counted each bill slowly.
“That’s it?” A frown pulled at his mouth as he went to hand me back the money.
No. No. No.
“And a motorcycle! It’s right outside the city.”
He shrugged. “I already got a bike. I need cash or…” He rubbed his jaw, appraising my physique. His yellowed gaze ran from my arms to my chest, down to my legs.
“Or…?” I was afraid to ask, but I was desperate.
Please don’t say male stripper.
“Or I need a fighter. My friends and I run a lil fighting ring on Friday nights. It starts in a half hour.”
In a half hour I’d be in so much pain I’d barely be able to walk. But it would take me that long to get over to Angel City to recharge and get back here.
“How many fights?” It would be suicide to do more than one. I wouldn’t have the strength without a recharge or healing from Noah, and I wouldn’t bring my best friend into this.
“Jus' one. You win the fight and I win ten grand. That, plus what you have here, is about enough to pay my fee for the job you want.”
I reached out and took the brandy from him. “Okay, but no more drinking. I want you going in to look for my girl tonight. Semi sober.”
Growling, he reluctantly nodded. “Fine.”
A shaky breath made its way out of me, and I glanced down at the liquor.
This was my last shot. My final attempt at getting to Brielle, before I entertained the dark thought that had been pulling at me since she left.
Lifting it, I took a giant swig from the bottle, and then met the yellowed gaze of the demon. The liquor burned all the way down my throat before hitting my belly, and pooling out with warmth. I took another swig for good measure. This fight was going to hurt. I might as well numb the pain now.
“We’re not that different you and me,” the demon observed.
I swallowed hard, dropping my head in shame.
He was right.
I was lost, and the only thing that felt right was her.
God help me.
Chapter Five
I was a sweating, a slightly tipsy idiot about to go into a fight when I already felt like I’d been run over by a train. My opponent was a big-ass dude who looked to be some kind of demon-human hybrid. I’d heard whispers of these kinds of creatures, but I’d never actually saw one up close. Rumor was that the demons … bred … with human women, right around the time of the fall, before the archangels outlawed it. Now there were a smattering of half-human, half-demon creatures running around. They were called Legions.
Freakiest part? I heard that Legions aged twice as rapidly as a human until the age of about twenty. At that time they ceased aging and were frozen in a twenty-year-old body forever. It was creepy, and reminded me of vampires. So this twenty-year-old dude before me might have only walked on this earth for about ten or twelve years.
Michael had told me all about them, told me to have compassion for them as they had no choice. But the way this guy was sharpening his blade and looking at me like I was dinner, made it hard to find my compassion. If a demon were caught breeding with a human now, the archangels killed them swiftly. Yet, I wondered how much the demons listened, though. Were there more Legions in hiding? That would make an interesting change in the war.
“Let’s do this!” the big oaf roared, swinging his blade around like a maniac.
This guy clearly wasn’t bred from one of the smarter demons, like an Abrus. The way his bat-like wings hung off his back, I was guessing he was part Grimlock.
It felt like someone had taken a razor blade and shaved off the first two layers of my skin. I needed to end this fight quickly, and get the hell out of here and recharge.
“Is he a Legion?” I turned to the Mugwort demon, Gaf, who was counting the money everyone had given him to hold.
About fifty demons had showed up in this back alley for the fight. If they wanted to, they could jump me, killing me right here. I was hoping that fear of retaliation from the archangels would keep them at bay.
“I’m too sober for this shit,” Gaf snipped, before pushing me into the “ring,” avoiding my question.
I stumbled forward and the crowd went wild.
Dick.
Spinning quickly, I faced the Legion, who was grinning at me with murderous eyes. Gaf hadn’t given me a weapon, and I hadn’t brought one to Demon City for fear of being discovered as a Fallen Army soldier, so I was going to have to get creative.
Reaching out, I ripped a liquor bottle from a demon in the crowd and smashed it on the concrete, creating a quick weapon out of it. Again the demon crowd roared their approval. The Legion didn’t have horns like a Grimlock would, but his skin looked thick and leathery, so I was guessing cutting through it would be tough.
God, I should have brought my blade.
Or not come at all.
I shoved that traitorous thought deep down, and erupted from where I stood. I’d been given no rules for this fight, so I was guessing it ended only in death, until I was told otherwise. The giant oaf just stood there waiting for me to attack, which made me think he was either stupid or he knew what he was doing. When I got a few feet from him, he burst forward, slashing out with his sword like a maniac. I pivoted away, immediately recognizing his scrappy street-fighting technique, and chucked the glass bottle I was holding right at his face.
My intention wasn’t to cause any devastating harm, not with that thick skin; I was planning to steal his weapon. The second the bottle flew at him, he shut his eyes, scrunching up his face as I suspected he would. As he recoiled to brace for the hit, I lunged forward, yanking the sword from his relaxed grasp.
Demon cries went up around me, but I remained focused.
Win the fight. Get more information about Brielle.
Shea had said she was still alive. I had to know. I had to try everything within my power to get to her.
The bottle I’d thrown cut a large gash over his eye. Dark crimson fluid streamed down his face, obscuring his view, and I chose that as my time to strike. With a lunge, I lashed out with the sword, which was actually very heavy, and nicked his gut. He was a big guy, towering a foot over me, and beefy
, so it would take more than a small cut to take him down.
Lunging for him had brought me into his proximity, and he used that to swipe out with his ginormous arms. A crash to the side of my head caused pain to explode in my temple and then I was falling. It would put me at risk, but I didn’t see any other way than to use my wings. The moment I hit the ground, sharp pain exploded in my already aching body, but I didn’t linger there. This big dude could crush me. I held the sword tightly and let my wings erupt from my back, giving two strong flaps to pull me up to his height.
Everyone let out a collective gasp, and even the Legion looked shocked. My body felt like it was on fire. They said the demon energy here was a tenth of what it was in Hell. If this was barely tolerable for me, then Hell would surely kill me, as Raphael promised.
I couldn’t stay here much longer. With a battle cry, I flew forward, and struck the Legion in the gut with my sword, shoving it to the hilt.
I had this fight. This asshole was going down now. I was getting my information on Brielle.
Rearing back, I readied for another stab, when the dude’s hands came out and grabbed my wrist. Red hot fire erupted out of his palms and licked up my arms. I gasped, trying to wrench out of his grasp, but his grip was too strong. In a panic I called forth my healing magic, pushing and guiding it to my arms. A golden glow rose up off my skin and the fire lessened, but still burned.
Fire magic.
Fuck.
I needed to get out of his grasp quickly. His abdomen was bleeding freely and he would hopefully die with one more stick to the gut. Or submit.
Against everything I’d ever been taught, or thought to be okay in a fight, I rammed my knee into his groin, racking him right in the nuts.
His grip immediately left me; a groan ripped from his throat and he curled into a ball. I felt actual sympathetic pain in my own nuts just watching him. Using my healing magic, I put the fire out on my arms, which were welted and glistening. I couldn’t imagine being in one more ounce of pain. I’d pass out for sure.
I held my sword over the Legion’s throat, as he groaned and bled out on the ground.
“Submit or die.”
“The fight ends only in death!” Gaf called over my shoulder.
It was against everything within me to kill a man when he was this weak. Normally, I would arrest him or walk away, leaving him to his fate, but I needed that information on Brielle. I needed it like I needed air.
Show the Legions compassion, Michael had once told me.
Turning my head, I shoved my blade down into his throat, ending his life. The crowd erupted into wild applause.
What had I become?
It hit me then that the old Lincoln was truly gone. Even if Brielle was alive, and I got her back, she wouldn’t be returning to the same man.
He was dead.
Chapter Six
I gave Gaf all the information I could on Brielle, where she might be, and what had happened to her. Then I watched him disappear into a portal. He told me to be back in exactly two hours. After that, I fled his apartment and made it back to the border wall, barely able to flap my wings and get over it. The fire injury and demon energy had weakened me considerably. After collapsing onto a nearby park bench on the border of the two cities, I did a healing on myself and waited. A dozen times I wanted to call Noah, or Shea, and tell them where I was and what I was doing. I wanted their support if this man told me Brielle was dead, or that he couldn’t find anything on her. But I also didn’t want them to stop me from going through with my final last-ditch effort plan.
At some point I must have passed out, but I’d set my phone alarm for an hour and forty-five minutes. When I awoke, my alarm was going off and it was pitch black—near 1AM. Standing up, I swayed a little. I felt better but was still very weak. Wasting no time in clearing the wall, I ran the entire way to the Mugwort demon's house. My bike rental had been stolen. When I got to his doorstep I was weak, out of breath and in pain once more.
What if he’d found out she was dead? What if he found out she was alive but he didn’t know where she was? I felt like I was going to explode with anticipation. I couldn’t handle any concrete proof that Brielle was no longer alive. It would ruin me.
God have mercy on me, I prayed.
Taking two deep breaths, I knocked on the door.
It took a few moments, but finally the handle turned and the door creaked open. When I saw Gaf, sweaty and pale, holding the necklace Brielle was wearing the night she was taken, my legs gave out from under me.
The Mugwort demon looked down at me. “Come on, boy. I just risked my life for this thing. Get your ass inside.”
My heart was knocking against my chest like a hammer. I thought for sure I was about to go into cardiac arrest.
Her necklace. The silver wing. It was hers. There was even a blonde hair tied around the clasp.
If she was dead, I would lose my shit. I should have brought Noah with me.
I didn’t trust myself to walk, so I crawled into his entryway and snatched the necklace from his outstretched hands. The cold metal made everything feel so real. Brielle wore this, and he’d just returned with it from Hell several months after her disappearance.
“Tell me,” I croaked.
The demon took a long swig from his liquor bottle, sitting down on the floor across from me.
“My buddy got this from a trader. Trader said it fell off the girl as they were transporting her body across Hell.”
My throat pinched shut as dizziness fell over me. “Body?”
Gaf nodded. “Trader said she could have been dead or just unconscious. It was hard to tell.”
No. No. No. No.
Brielle.
“Where did they take her … body?” I could barely say the word.
He shrugged. “The Dark Prince was seen with her briefly before they went underground. No one knows or will say where.”
Underground? In Hell?
“You gotta go back,” I begged. “I’ll bring more money. Tell me where underground. Where I might find her body.”
The Mugwort stood, shaking his head. “I’ve already risked too much. Look, I’m sorry for your loss. If you ever want to enter more fights, we could make a lot of money together. Otherwise our business here is done.”
Done.
Would I ever be done looking for her? How could I?
I stood. “I’ll pay—”
“No amount of money is worth the Devil’s wrath! OUT!” He yanked the door open. Reaching down, he gripped me by the armpit and shoved me outside. My foot caught the lip of the stairs and I tumbled, hitting my hip hard on the ground. Gaf slammed the door and locked it, leaving me to lie on the wet concrete alone. It was raining again. It always rained here.
In that moment, the darkness I had kept at bay since Brielle was taken consumed my soul. It was time for my last-resort plan. The one thing that could guarantee I would be able to search for Brielle endlessly in Hell.
I was going to have to take my own life, in an effort to save hers.
This was why I didn’t ask Shea or Noah to come with me. They wouldn’t understand. It killed me not to be able to search for her down there. My Celestial body couldn’t survive in Hell but my soul could. Lucifer was once an angel and he was living down there. If I ended my life right now, my soul would go to Hell and then I’d be able to help free her, or at least get word to Shea that she was dead and return her body. We might not be able to be together, but saving her, or at least getting concrete proof that he killed her, would be worth it.
Pulling myself up from the ground, I stalked towards Angel City with purpose. My time on Earth had come to a close. I couldn’t do anything more for Brielle here, that much was clear.
I reached the wall in record time, extending my wings and launching over it. I didn’t care anymore about getting caught. I didn’t care about anything. The cold silver necklace in my hand told me everything I needed to know. The hollow pain in my chest started to throb then as the r
eality hit me. This was the only way my soul could be at peace.
I picked up a broken piece of steel near my motorcycle and walked behind a tree that grew at the edge of a park. It was the middle of the night, deserted. This was probably best. I didn’t want Noah or anyone who loved me to find my body. I just wanted this to be quick. I wanted to shed my human form and be free to search for her for eternity. I wouldn’t stop until I had answers.
The first cut hurt the worst. My body rebelled, tensing up, but I kept at it. Being a Celestial, I regenerated quickly, but not if I kept reopening the wound. My regenerative properties were in my blood, so if I lost enough blood, theoretically I would be gone from this Earth. I was also still healing from the Legion burns, and the energy in Demon City, so my capability to restore myself was weakened. I started to feel lightheaded. Looking down to see the crimson life force all over my lap, I felt a pang of regret. Brielle wouldn’t want this for me. But I was so lost, so tired of carrying this guilt.
I should have saved her. I should have never let him take her.
Finally, I felt too weak to keep sitting upright, so I slumped over on the grass. My body felt cold and light, as if I were made of air. Breathing became hard and I knew I was close to departing.
I’m coming, Brielle.
Suddenly, a bright golden light flared before me. The light they always showed in movies of people who were dying, it was real. It felt warm, and loving. Reaching out for it, I readied my soul to leave this body.
“It’s not your time, son.” Raphael’s strong and familiar voice cut through the cold dark night.
Suddenly, his strong hands wrapped around my bleeding wrists, and a buzzing warmth filled me. Golden light flared out like a bomb had gone off, and I had to close my eyes for risk of going blind. My dizziness eased, and clarity returned to my mind quickly.
He was healing me.
“No … you can’t,” I mumbled, trying to fight him. “You won’t be able to go home.”