Encounter with the Devil

by Maya Daniels

  “Hel, this is Leviathan.”

  Her head very slowly turns my way, and I take a full step away from her. It was a big mistake placing me in a perfect range. Her eyes narrow to slits, and before I realize what she is doing, she executes an ideal round kick, slamming her boot in my jaw. My head snaps back, my body following the strength of the hit, sending me flying into the wall. When I hit the ground on my hands and knees, I hear Lucifer, Leviathan, and Beelzebub laugh. I’m surprised Colt hasn’t joined them.

  The bastards.

  Helena

  I’m so angry at Eric at this moment that I’m finding it hard not to just stab him in the chest and keep going until I have no energy left to lift my arm. Not because he hid from someone that apparently had no intention of harming him, but only because it gets on my nerves that he is tightlipped about everything.

  I can tell he is dealing with something internal, this damn place making him act almost depressed and brooding, and I get that. God knows I haven’t talked about all my triggers and issues with him, either. What gets me so angry with him the longer he stays quiet is that it feels like he doesn’t trust me. Or sees me as an outsider in this unusual duo we created. While I look at things as us against them, his behavior says him against everything, including me.

  This needs to stop. Like, now.

  “I deserved that.” Lifting up, he dusts off his knees.

  “No shit you deserved it.” Clutching the dagger, I glare at him. “I’m trying very hard not to stab you right now.”

  Watching him fidget and look anywhere else but at me, I don’t notice the dragon moving until a puff of hot, stinking breath ruffles my hair. Jumping away from it, my hand slashes the air by reflex, and the dagger slides through rough scales like they were butter, leaving scratches on my knuckles. I get tackled to the side, my hip and shoulder hitting the unforgiving ground and shooting a sharp pain that rattles my teeth just as a blast of fire bursts in the spot I was occupying a second ago. An earsplitting roar follows the flames leaving me deaf to anything else but the blood pounding in my ears.

  “Holy shit!” I can’t hear myself, but Eric flinches, which tells me I must’ve shouted the words right in his ear. His limbs are tangled with mine on the ground.

  Shoving my shoulder in his chest, I roll us around so that I’m on top of him. His fingers are wrapped around my wrist, keeping my hand still holding the dagger away. I can’t hear a thing, so I sit straddling Eric’s chest, watching Lucifer and Beelzebub talk animatedly to the dragon. Leviathan’s head is swiveling angrily, black blood dripping from his snout to the reddish dust at his feet. That’s one nasty gash I made at the center of his nose, splitting the scales right between the two large nostrils that keep flaring from his fury.

  My heart is still jackhammering in my chest, slowing down slowly with each stroke of Eric’s hands on my thighs. Panting, I look down at him, no doubt my eyes wide enough to look like they’re about to pop out of their sockets. I watch his lips move to form the word breathe, so I follow the advice. Sounds trickle to my ears, getting louder with each word spoken.

  “Shift.” The distorted voice of Lucifer turns my head his way.

  Red light bursts around the dragon, searing my retinas. Blinking hurts while hot tears run unchecked down my cheeks, splattering over Eric’s chest. When I’m finally able to squint without wanting to cry out in pain, I see a man crouched on the ground where the dragon used to be.

  I’m struck dumb for few seconds when a head full of thick blond hair lifts up and another too perfect to be human face turns my way. Glacial blue eyes pierce my gaze, the intensity of the look enough to make me jerk back like it’s a physical blow. There is no sight from the open gash the dragon had. High cheekbones stretch his alabaster skin, a little crooked nose that must’ve been broken too many times to stay like that on a fallen angel, sitting above firmly pressed lips. His square jaw is covered in stubble, adding to the wild look his mussed hair is giving off. Bare-chested in only leather pants, he is crouched like a feline ready to pounce and devour the mouse. Me being the mouse in this case. Muscles ripple under his skin like someone is holding him back from attacking me. There is nothing human in this person. At least all the angels I’ve met so far, fallen or not, mimicked human expressions or speech. Not Leviathan. He is all wild beast.

  Untamed.

  “You can stop staring at my mate,” Eric speaks, and I’m happy that my hearing is back to normal even when my eyes still feel dry, and my eyelids are like sandpaper every time I blink. “You asked for it, there was no need to get in her face like that while she was distracted.”

  “What he said.” Pushing off Eric, I get on my feet, pulling him along with me. “Everyone needs to stay out of my personal bubble. We saw what happens when I get startled.” Not mentioning that I need to stop being so jumpy, I frown at the still crouching fallen. “What’s wrong with him?”

  “I will hold him frozen until he calms down,” Lucifer snaps at his buddy.

  “We are getting off track here. I can feel them getting closer.” Beelzebub turns his back on all of us and walks up to the closed iron gates. Stopping a couple of feet in front of them, he looks over his shoulder. How he manages to do that with a neck as thick as my thigh, I have no idea. “Can we do this first? We can try to kill each other later.”

  Grateful for the break in tension around us, I hurry to join him. “I’m with him.” I can feel Eric following close behind me, the heat of his body warming my back. “What are we doing exactly?” When I stop next to Beelzebub, I mumble the question so the other two jerks don’t hear. I’m hoping he will say we face whoever is coming because I’m brimming with pent-up aggression, itching for a fight.

  “You do nothing.” His lips twitch at the corners when he looks down at me. “The three of us will place wards. No one will cross these gates unless we want them here.”

  “No one?” Craning my neck to keep eye contact, I show my skepticism. “Not even Mammon?”

  “Not even Mammon can breach wards placed by the three of us together.” I grin at him, and he chuckles. “I like her.” Beelzebub looks over my head at Eric.

  “She has that effect on people.” The humor is evident in Eric’s voice.

  “That does not sound as comforting as you may think.” Murmuring under my breath, I do my best not to smile when Beelzebub throws his head back and laughs.

  Ignoring the amused look Lucifer is throwing my way, I square my shoulders and walk like I own the place.

  Now that is a disturbing thought.

  Backing away, Eric and I join Colt, who has been brooding mutely near the front doors of Lucifer’s home the entire time. I can feel him tracking my movements, but ignoring him is better than arguing pointlessly. It’s obvious he and Eric have some old wounds they need to deal with. I have no intention of getting in the middle of that. Staying alive and dealing with my own problems takes priority.

  Leviathan and Lucifer must’ve come to an agreement. Both of them join Beelzebub at the gates, albeit walking stiffly, like the sticks up their asses are rubbing them wrong. I watch fascinated as they spread away from each other, each of them facing away from the other two. When their hands lift to the sides like they are trying to embrace the realm by thought alone, thickness saturates the atmosphere around us. The air flowing through my nostrils is trickling sluggishly like molasses. Parting my lips, I drag in gulps of oxygen, not daring to blink in case I miss something. Beelzebub’s words echo in my head. ”No one will cross these gates unless we want them here.” Uneasiness crawls like spiders up my spine. How about leaving? Can I leave this place after they have the wards up?

  Always anticipating my mental state, Eric twines his fingers with mine. The reassuring squeeze he gives me doesn’t help put away my troubling thoughts, but it’s something at least. Returning the gesture, I keep watching the three fallen work. Power blasts from all of them, circling around the area like a sentient being. Expecting it to close around us like a dome, I’m startled w
hen I feel the prodding of invisible fingers in my head and chest. Even my butt cheeks clench at the intrusive feeling, alarms blaring inside me telling me to get the hell out of there.

  “It’s the wards, Hel. I promise I won’t let anyone hurt you. If you believe nothing else from me after everything I’ve done, believe that.” Eric calms my fight or flight instinct enough to keep me rooted to the spot.

  “It’s not that I don’t believe you, Eric.” Giving him a side-eye, I keep facing forward. “All this is getting a bit too much to deal with all at once. And you doing everything you said you won’t do is not helping at all.”

  “I know.” I can feel the tension in his body. “Saying I’m sorry won’t cut it. I should give you more credit and let you decide. Even if it means you’ll never look at me the same. Even if it means ill have a mate that wants nothing to do with me. It will kill me, but I promise I will give you that choice.” Shaking his head, he chuckles bitterly. “Everything I thought I buried and left behind is coming to bite me in the ass so fast my head is spinning.”

  “Look.” Holding back my words, I point beyond the iron gates.

  A cloud of darkness shows on the horizon, closing in fast. No, not a cloud. My brain numbs when I see the sea of demons approaching us at speed. Their numbers blot out the bright silvery light of the pregnant moon hanging so low in the starless sky I can reach out and touch it. A feeling of dread overrides every other emotion I have, pushing Eric’s words to the back of my mind for a later date.

  They won’t have enough time to stop them.

  Looking at the three fallen, I can see clearly their arms trembling slightly, tightening my gut. The power keeps swirling, seeming more interested in me than saving our asses from whatever is coming for our heads. Colt bolts out of his spot to join the others, similar shadows like I’ve seen Eric have flowing from his hands. When Eric hesitates, I release his hand, urging him to do something. Anything really, as long as we survive this night. He joins the rest, leaving me quaking in my boots.

  “Come on, come on…” repeating it like a mantra, the dagger almost slips from my sweaty palm.

  Guilt eats a hole in my stomach that I’m standing here feeling useless while leaving others to keep me safe. It’s not something I’m used to feeling. It’s always been me facing whatever danger lurks in the shadows so I can protect everyone else. Even recklessly, some may say. But here I am. Standing in Lucifer’s front yard, waiting on him and two other fallen angels to keep me alive. The Heaven’s hunter relying on Hell’s help to keep breathing. The irony of it tastes bitter on my tongue. This is all wrong. It should’ve been Archangels protecting me instead of wanting me dead. How did I find myself in this alternate universe where nothing makes sense anymore? I can’t dwell on that for long thankfully.

  We are running out of time.

  I can distinguish the twisted, snarling faces of the demons charging us, foam gathering at the corners of their mouths and dripping down their chins. They are so close now that we’ll be face to face within minutes. The quiet that surrounds us gets broken by the singing sound of metal leaving a sheath. Goosebumps cover my whole body, adrenaline pumping through my veins in sync with the galloping of my heart. The ground shaking violently makes me stumble, blinking away the sweat running in rivulets down my face.

  They are too close.

  A broad sword glints, reflecting the light of the moon on its blade, pulling my attention to it. The demon gripping the weapon grins menacingly, swinging his arm back, releasing it in the air. Everything around me moves in slow motion, the whooshing sound of the flipping blade in the air becoming part of me. I can almost feel the wind through which it flies like it’s touching my skin. Following its path, I finally see the target that it’s aiming for. The target that it’s going to hit right in the center of the chest.

  Eric.

  “NO!”

  The scream that is ripped from the bottom of my soul spreads around us with so much intensity it sends everyone, including the men trying to keep us alive, on their knees. The demons running at full speed trip and tumble all over each other, creating mountains of tangled limbs as roars of anger and pain join my voice. Heat that I’m sure will burn me alive blasts from my body like a nuclear bomb going off, bathing everything I see in hues of gold and red. I feel the consciousness leaving me, and I fight it with everything I am.

  If I’m going to die here in the pits of Hell, I will die standing, looking my murderer in the eye. No matter what I do and how much I want that to be true, darkness crawls at the corners of my eyes. My vision tunnels and the silvery light of the moon gets smaller and smaller until just a pinprick of it is left, taunting me.

  And then I feel it.

  Like a snapping rubber band, the power that was aimlessly swirling around us snaps closed. The twirling sword in the air hits it at full speed, disintegrating to ash on contact, leaving deathly silence in its wake. It takes the pinprick of light with it, and I collapse on the ground.

  Eric

  “I can try to heal her.” For the fiftieth time, my father offers the same thing.

  “No, she won’t like that, and unless she specifically agrees on anything, I’m not making decisions for her again.”

  She’s been sleeping for two days now. The pads of my fingers stay pressed on her wrist, feeling the pulse of her vein the entire time. I can hear her heartbeat as loud as my own, but it makes me feel calmer when I’m touching her.

  When she sealed the wards like nothing I’ve ever seen before, she collapsed on the ground, pale and lifeless like a corpse and I almost turned feral. Colt reached her first, standing closer to where she was before I was able to get to her. I’m not sure what exactly happened, remembering only bits and pieces of his body going limp and my claws being wrapped around his throat. The rest of them stayed away, lingering at a safe distance while my father watched me warily. The fact that my wings were unfurled, stretched out like a shield around Helena with me crouching and snarling next to her might have something to do with it.

  I haven’t seen my brother after Beelzebub carried him away, nor have I asked about him. He should know better than to touch my mate. If he didn’t, I’m sure he does now. We have always snapped at each other’s ankles like rabid dogs, but this is different. Whatever he’s been festering on, it’s between him and me, and he should leave Helena out of it.

  “If nothing else, I might bring her around. She should’ve been up by now.” My father keeps pushing, unaware of my dark thoughts. Or because of them. I wouldn’t put it past him.

  “She will come around when she is ready.” Squeezing the words through clenched teeth, I flare my nostrils, sucking a breath in to calm the rage down. “She expended too much power, and it needs time to replenish itself.”

  “She did it because she thought your life was in danger.” Moving away from the threshold where he was leaning a shoulder on the doorframe, he comes closer to the bed where Helena has been unmoving for too long.

  Saying nothing, I keep my focus on the rise and fall of her chest. My entire existence is centered on that movement. Heaven and Hell be damned. Shadows sneak up from my hands, caressing my mate's skin, willing her to open her eyes. It does no good, but I keep trying. I like to believe she wouldn’t mind me sharing my energy with her.

  “Colt recovered.” Pushing his hands in the pockets of his pressed pants, my father is not deterred by my animosity towards him. “In case you were wondering.”

  “I wasn’t.”

  The silence stretches between us. My skin itches, the rage spreading like an entity inside me as it looks for an outlet. The longer Helena stays sleeping, the more the fear fuels it, leading me to a breaking point. Not even Michael having her hidden pushed me this close to the edge.

  “Your wings are back.” And here it is. The reason he keeps circling me like a vulture for two days. It must chip at his pride that his punishment was thwarted.

  “You can have them back”—Finally meeting his gaze, I can’t stop the
tired sigh—“if you just let me see to my mate in peace.”

  Eyebrows pulled low over his eyes, he watches me silently for a moment, as if taken aback by my comment. “I hold no hatred for you, Eric, nor was my punishment meant as such. I meant what I said to the girl, I have made mistakes when it comes to you.”

  “Can we not have this conversation now?” My temples develop a heartbeat of their own. “I was perfectly content without the wings. I’m willing to part with them again, as soon as I can take my mate out of here. It’ll give you another decoration for the walls that surround you, to fill in the emptiness of this tomb you call home.”

  “I don’t regret many things, as is my nature.” Pressing the bridge of his nose, he stands like that long enough that I want to roar from the top of my lungs and tell him to get out of the room. “The way I handled things with you might be the only regret I have. Still”—Turning to me, his eyes flash with quicksilver—“I need to know how you got them back.”

  “I don’t know.” Forcing myself not to stiffen, my voice sounds bored.

  “I know it has something to do with the girl; it’s the only explanation.” His focus stays on me like a hawk. “The how’s and whys are something that can mean a turning point in all this mess Mammon got us in. Before it’s too late.” The last part is murmured, so I’m not even sure he meant to say it out loud.

  “I said, I don’t know.” The words are barely audible pushed through a clenched jaw. “They showed up before I knew she existed.”

  “You lie!” Malice is apparent when he hisses at me.

  “Prove it!” answering in kind, I grin at him like a fiend.

  “I can do that easily.” Glancing pointedly at Helena, he straightens up. “I have all the time now that we are all stuck here together.”

  “If you do anything to her”—Releasing my mate’s hand, I lift to my full height, facing him—“you will see how well you have taught me to be exactly like you. Neither you nor I will survive that little tumble.”